The Kanzas news., 1858-05-15
From the Cincinnati Commercial.
The War against the Mormons.

From the Cincinnati Commercial.
The War against the Mormons.
In proportion as the interest which has
hitherto attached to the doings of the Ad-
mlnistla:ion and its party in Kanzas is pass
ing away, the attention of the public is be-
coming aroused to more perfect sense of
the folly and iniquity of the course pursued
by the Executive towards Utah and It's in
habitants. It should require very strong
case Of organized rebellion against consti-
tuted authority to justify forcible invasion
on the part of the government of section
OF the national territory with view to de-
stroy, damage or Cypress any portion of its
inhabitants; and yet, IN this instance, if
there has been any act of>insubordination
more than perhaps some little individual
turbulence, it has been of character too
unimportant to have gained any hold upon
the public mind. We really do not know
what is the pretence upon which the Nor
mon war is founded. So far as we have
been able to learn, a marsbal's posse and a
court of ordinary powers could have righted
ali the wrongs that have been committed
against the peace and dignity of the Union
with scarcely dollars cost to the treasury,
and yet millions have been expended, the
only effect of which, so far, has been to
demonstrate the utter incapacity of Mr.. Bu-
chanan's administration to do aught but
disgrace itself in the eyes of the people and
the world in whatever it undertakes.
The army of the United States was sent
TO Kanzas to oppress the citizens of that
Territory, and aid to divest them of their
native rights as citizens of this Republic.
This was so palpaply true that its withdraw
al became a matter of necessity. To cover
up the memory of this iniquity, a war
against the Mormons was determined upon;
and then commenced a series of acts of
which it is difficult to say whether they
were most distinguished by their injustice,
their disregard to the public interest, or the
total want of the ability manifested by their
authors to accomplish that which they had
undertaken.
A military force too large for a posse to
enforce the laws, and too small for the con-
quest of the Territory against the power of
its inhabitants, is sent so late in the season
that it is forced TO winter in the mountains,
where it is exposed to be cut off, loses its
material, munitions and animals, is reduced
nearly to starvation, and probably owes its
existence during long and dreary winter
to the clemency of those whom it was sent
to exterminate. In the spring a secret COM
missioner is sent without public character
of any kind to assure the Mormons that
nothing is intended and in the meantime,
at vast expense, the material of large
army is collected and urged forward as rap
idly as possible, under circumstances ad-
hitting of no other construction than that
war is determined upon. The next thing
we have is that, at time so late that in all
probability bloodshed cannot be prevented,
peace commissioners have been appointed,
and messengers sent forward to announce
the approach; and thus, while the moneys
of the people are poured out like water, one
blunder is piled upon another. To-day the
Administration is for peace, tomorrow for
war. Now it assures the Mormons that
nothing is intended, and then it urges for
ward its troops, with no other order than
for determination.
What are we to think of this? Do the
people of the United States really desire that
the horrors of war shall be visited upon the
inhabitants of Utah We cannot believe it
and yet it is difficult to understand the
apathy with which the preparations are
viewed, or the silence of the good touching
that which looks to some like great nation
al crime. It may be that the Mormons have
acted imprudently. Within comparatively
few years they have undergone frightful
prosecutions, and it is no new thing for the
prosecuted to remember their grievances and
grow vindictive in the recollection. But
had they been twenty times as wrong and in
judicious as even by the most exaggerated
accounts they have. even then they would
have been far outstripped by the enormous
folly, and the still more enormous wicked
ness of the Administration in its dealings
with them.