The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-03-17

communities they ought to enjoy the security and
| the protection of the constitution and laws"
Mr.. Calhouns letter was frank and pointed He
says he should, of course, make no distinction be-
tween citizens of different religious creeds in his
administration, and adds
'But, you refer to the case of Missouri, candor
compels me to repeat what | said to YOU at Wash
ington, that, according to my views the case does
not come within the jurisdiction of the Federal
Government, which is of limited and specifc
powers.
Smith seems to have been particularly dissatisfied
with the polite and guarded note of Mr. CLAY. and
opened upon him perfect torrent of voluble and
elaborate blackguardsm:
''Your whole life, character and conduct, (says
he, echoing the words of Mr. Claw have been
spotted with deeds that cause blush unon the face
of a virtuous patriot, while crime, cowardice Gu
pidity and low cunning, have handed YOU down from
the high tower of statesman to the black hole of
gambler. When, in the renowned city of Wash
ington, tie notorious Henry Clay dropped from the
summit of senator to the sink of a scoundrel to
shoot at the chalk line of Randolph he not only
dlsgracedhis own fame, family and friends, but he
polluted the SdnctUm Sdnctoran of American glory"
&c. &c. NCrape the heavens with weeds of woe
grid the earth with sackcoth and let hell mutter
one melody in commemoration of fallen spendor
The glory pf America has departed, and God will
set faming sword to guard the tree of liberty
while such mint -tithing Herods as Van Buren,
DOSSs, Denton, SalnOun ana Clay, are thrust out
of the realms of virtue, fit subjects for the king
dom of fallen greatnes; roc reproJi, dioJoli r'
The whole letter, which is very long, abounds
with insane rhetoric, morbid metaphor and allitera
ton mad, of which the following extract is
perhaps the richest specimen. 1t is inserted in or
der to do full justice to the literary pretensons of
the prophet, and illustrating the source of that
peculiar style of oratory which so popular at
the Tabernacle in Salt Lake city.
''Why, sir, the condition of the whole earth is
lamentable. Texas breads the teeth and toe-naiIs
of Mexico; Oregon has the rheumatism, brought
on by horrid exposure to the heat and cold of
British and American trappers: Canada has caught
bad cold from extreme fatigue in the patriot war:
South America has the headache, caused by bumps
against the beams of Cathocity and Spanish SOW
reignty; Spain has the gripes from age and inqusi
ton; France trembles and wastes under the effects
of contagious diseases; England groans with the
gout and wriggles with wine: Italy and the German
States pale with the consumption; Prussia, Po-
land and the little contiguous dynasties, duchies
and domains have mumps severely; Russia has the
cramp by lineage; Turkey has the numb palsy;
Africa from the curse of God, has lost the use of
her limbs; China is ruined by the Queens evil and
the rest of Asia fearfully exposed to the smallpox,
the natural way, from British peddlers the islands
of the almost dead with scurvy; the Indians
are blind and lame; and the United States, which
ought to be the good physician with balm from
Giead,' and asylum for the oppressed has
ana Is DOOStlnp up into the council cham
Der of the government, clique of political gamb-
lers, to play for the old clothes and old shoes of
sick world. Away with such self-impOrtant, self
aggrandzing and self-wied demagogues! Their
friendship is colder than polar ice; and their pro-
fessions meaner than the damnation of hell"
His letter to Mr.. Calhoun is equally characters
tic, and abOunds with the same strange mixture of
coarse invective, fulsome rhetoric, and absurdlv
strained diction, with practical common sense and
political shrewdness. The fact is Josephs amazing
success dazzling prosperity and accumulated honors
were beginning to turn his head. Shortly after
writing the letters referred to he entered the field
himself as the Mormon candidate for the Presidency
Of the United States. He issued a long manifesto,
dated February 7th, 1874, containing his views on
political affairs, generally, the principal points of
which were,-the emancipation of the slaves. and
an indemnity to the owners out of the proceeds of
the sale of the public lands,-a national Bank with
branches in each Of the States the directors and
other officers to be elected yearly by the people, and
to receive tirO dollars per day for their services
the largest liberty of annexation and GIlibusterism
extending not only to Texas and Mexico, but to the
British provinces, and the whole western continent,
the abolition of pententaries, and the substitu-
ton of the chain-gang means Of punishment.
This apparently absurd step was no doubt taken
for outside effect. 1t tended vastly to enhance the
importance and dignity of the sect abroad, when
comparatively little attention then given to
American politics and public men, even among the
educated and intelligent, to learn that its founder
and prophet was regularly nominated candidate
for the first office in &he first Republic of the world.
In this empty honor, Smiths career of earthly
glory eliminated storm Of disaster was even
now gathering around him, to which his Missouri
troubles were i'll comparison, but feeble foretaste
The Mormons in Nauvoo, forgetting their sad expe-
rience in jackson county, flushed with success, and
elated with prosperity, had reached pitch of nso-
lence and arrogance that rendered them absolutely
insuferable. The same boastings, of future suprem
acy, were again literally indulged in, and awak-
ened the alarm Of their neghbors and of the people
of Illinois generally. Indeed, they already began
to claim and to establish in practice sort of polit
cal independence. What the Territory of Utah is
now in relation to the Federal Government, such
the municipality Of Nauvoo began to be in relation
to the State of Illinois. They went so far to ig-
more the legal authorities o. the State and torequre
all process to be cOuntersigned by the Mayor of
Nauvoo. Their corporation passed repressive laws,
abridgng the freedom of speech and of the press,
and making it felony to speak dsrespectfully of the
prophet. They had very summary way of dispo
sing of inqusitive Gentiles, whose curiosity might
prove troublesome, by "whittling and whistling
them out of town." They made a sort of Young
Rome out of Nauvoo, by harboring outlaws and fell
ons They were accused, and with reason, of car
rying out their sociastic ideas of property into
practice, in a way which decidedly interfered with
the legal rights of their neighbors They were ac-
cused, and doubt with equal reason, of carrying
counterteting a large scale, and inundating
the country with spurious coin.
These, and many other causes of complaint, soon
aenated the sympathies of the people of the neigh
boring counties, and excited feeling of bitter hos
tility against the Mormons. The principal cause,
however, of the open rupture which broke out,
and which led to the violent death of Smith, and to
the expulsion of his followers from the State, was
the identical institution of Polygamy, which has
been ever since the central fact the characteristic
feature, of the Mormon system.
This charge, it will be remembered was brought
against them in Missouri, and was there indignant
ly denied. 1t was again and more loudly asserted
in Illinois, and was again denied. There is now no
doubt that the charge was equally well founded in
both cases, and that polygamy was secretly prac-
ticed even as far back as 1892 among the favored
few who had been initiated into the penetration of
the Mormon mysteries There is no more damning
evidence of the monstrous dupicity and infamous hy
pocrisy of Smith and his conederates than their oft
repeated and solemn declarations of innocence on this
point. So far from polygamy having been frankly
adopted and defended by them system, it spe-
ciay prohibited in the Book ofMormon, and denOun-
ced by subsequent revelations. The Book of Mormon
expressly censures those who quote the example Of
the Patriarchs license for the system, and even
represents the Almighty as saying that the numer-
Gus wives and concubines of David and Solomon
were an .abon,ination'' in his sight. The same
Book says in so many words (page llS) "Thero
shall not any among you hare SAGE be one rife;
and coneubiaes he shall hare none, &c. Even so late
1885, after the death of Smith, and while by their
own subsequent confession, polygamy was noto
riously practiced, an appendix was added to the
Revelations of Smith, containing this uneauiyoca