Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1859-09-03

NNAoAnNh ahhiii1 hJltg lOi OJdlluk Iuit ONtf
his prncipalty in the new earth," that he
knows to be at hand 1 think he might
far better devote few years to pondering
Christ's saying to this effect, "He who
would be least in the kingdom of Heaven,
the same shall abe greatest"
l was undeceved with regard to the
Book of Mormon. 1 had understood that
it is now virtually discarded, or at least
neglected, by the Church in its services and
minstrations But Elder Pratt gave us a
synopsis Of its contents and treated it
throughout as Of equal authority and i'm
portonce with the Old and New Testaments.
lie did not read from it, however, but from
Malachi, and quoted text after text from
the Prophets, which he cited as predictions
of the writing aud the discovery of this
book.
The congregation consisted at either SER
vice of some fifteen hundred to two thou
sand persons-more in the morning than in
the afternoon. A large majority of them
(not including the Elders aud chief men,
of whom dozen or so were present) were
evidently of European birth | think q
majority of the males were past the merd-
ian of life. All gave earnest heed to the
exercises throughout in fact, l have sell
dom seen a more devout and intent assem-
blage. had been told that the Mormons
were remarkably ignorant, superstitious
and brutalized but the aspect of these
congregations did not sustain that assertion.
Very few rural congregations would exhibit
more heads eVincing decided ability and
| doubt whether any assemblsgs SO largely
European 10 its composition would make
better appearance. Not that Europeans
are less intellectual or comely than Ameri-
cans but our immigrants are mainly of
the poorer classes and poverty, privation,
and rugged toll plow hard, forbidding lines
in the human countenance elsewhere than
in Utah. Brigham Young was not present
at either services.
Do l regard the great body 'of these
Mormons as knaves and hypocrites As
suredly not. | do not believe there was
ever a religion whereof the great mass of
the adherents were not honest and sincere
Hypocrites and knaves there are IN all
Sects it is quite possible that some of the
magnates of the Mormon Church regard
this so-called religion with all others) as
a contrivance for the ensavement and feec-
ing of the many and the aggrandizement of
the few but cannot believe that a sect
so considerable and so vigorous as the Nor
mon was ever founded in conscious impos-
ture or built up on any basis than that of
earnest conviction If the protector and
two or three of bis chief confederates were
knaves, the great body of their followers
were dupes
Nor do accept the current GENTLE pre-
sumption that the Mormons are an organ
lied banditt-a horde of robbers and as
Sasins. Thieves and murderers mainly
haunt the purlieus of great cities or hide
in caverns and forests adjacent to the great
routes Of travel. But when the Mormon
leaders decided to set up their Zion in these
parched mountain wales and canons, the
said valleys were utterly secluded and re-
mote from all Gentle approach-away
from any mail-route or channel of emigra-
ton. That the MormonS wished to es-
cape Gentle control, scrutiny, iurispru-
dence, is evident that they meant to a.
buSe their inaccessibility, to the detriment
and plunder of wayfarers, is not credible.
Do |, then, discredit the tales of Nor
mon outrage and crime-of the murder of
the Parishes, the Mountain Meadow mas
sacre, &C., -wherewith the general'ear
has recently been shocked 2 No. do not.
Some of these may have been fabricated
by Gentle malice-others are doubtless ex-
aggerated-but there is some basis of truth
for the current Gentle conviction that
MOrmOnS hare robbed, MANNED, and eren kill
ed persons IN this Territory, Wader circam-
stances achich should subject the perpetrators
10 cOaadign punishment but Mat Mormon
aoitaeSSeS, grand jWrOrS petit Jurors and mag
iStrateS determinedty screen the guilty deep
ly regret the necessity of believing this
but the facts are incontestable. That
large party of emigrants-not less than
eighty-from Arkansas to California, were
foully massacred at Mountain Meadows in
September, 1857, more Immediately by In
dians, but under the direct inspiration and
direction of the Mormon settlers in that vi
cinity--to whom, and not to the savages,
the emigrants had surrendered, after a
siege, on the strength of assurances that
their lives at least should be spared-is es-
tablished by evidence that cannot Il think)
be invalidated-the evidence of conscience
smitteA partakers in the crime both Indian
and ex-Mormon, and of children of the
slaughtered emigrants, who were spared as
too young to be dangerous even as witness
es, and of whom the great majority have
been sent down to the States as unable to
give testimony but two boys are retained
here as witnesses, who distinctly remember
that their parents surrendered to white
men at best did not attempt to prevent
their perfdious massacre. These children,
moreover, were all found in the possession
Of MOrmons-not one of them In the hands
of Indians and, though the Mormons say
they ransomed them from the hands of In
dians, the children deny it, saying that they
never lived with nor were in the keeping of
savages and the Indians bear concurrent
testimony. So in the Parish case The
family had been Mormons, but had aposta-
tized-& undertook to return to the States;
they were warned that they would be kill
ed if they persisted in that resolution they
did persist, and were killed. OF course,
nobody will ever be convicted of their mur-
der but those who warned them of the
s. trbiob fboxr lsf