The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-08-27
TALK BETWEEN HORACE GREELEY AND
The Editor ofthe Tribune has been cross -examin-
ing the Mormon prophet, and thus reports the

result:
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, JulyI3, 1859.
My friend, DR.. Bernhisel, M. c., took me this
afternoon, by appointment, to meet Brigham
Young, the President of the Mormon Church, who
had expressed a willingness to receive me at P. NJ.
We were very cordially welcomed at the door by
the President, who led us into the second-story
parlor of the largest of his houses Che has three]
where % was introduced to Heber C. Kimball, Gen
ens' Gen Ferguson, Albert Darlington, Elias
smith, and several other leading men in the Church
Win Two Iull grown sons of the President Presi-
| dent Young avowed his willingness to respond to
all pertinent inquiries, the conversation proceeded
| substantially follows
II. Gam to regard Mormonism (so-called\ az
anew religion, or as simply new development of
! Christianity?
B. Y.-We hold that there can be no true Chris
| tian Church without priesthood directly commits
| stoned by and in immediate communication with
| the Son of God and Saviour of mankind. Such
church is that of the LatterDay Saints, called by
their enemies MormOns; we know no other that
| even pretends to have present and direct revela-
| tions of Gods will.
| ID. Citizen am to understand that you regard
all other churches protesting to be Christian as the
Church of Rome regards all churches not in COM
munion with itseif-as schismatic, heretical, and
| out of the way of salvation?
| b. 1.-1es, substantially.
ID. G.-Apart from this, in what respect do your
doctrines differ essentially from those of our Orho-
| dox Protestant Churches-the Baptist or Method
| ist, for example?
| B. Y.-We hold the doctrines of Christianity, as
| revealed in the Old and New Testaments-also in
| the Book of Mormon, which teaches the same car
! dinal truths, and those only.
H. G.-Do you believe in the doctrine of the
| Trinity?
| b. 1.-We do but not exactly as it is held by
| other churches. We believe in the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost, as equal but not identi-
cal-not as one person being We believe in all
| the Bible teaches on this subject.
I'll. G.-Do you believe in a personal devil--a
distinct, conscious, spiritual being, whose nature
and acts are essentially malignant and evil?
B. G.-We do.
H. G.-Do you hold the doctrine of Eternal Pun
ishment?
B. Y.-We do; though perhaps not exactly as
other churches do. We believe it as the Bible
teaches it.
H. G.-I understand that you regard Baptism by
immersion essential
B. Y.-We do.
H. H G.-Do you practice Infant Baptism?
II. G.-Do you make removal to these valleys
obligatory on your converts?
B. 1.-They would consider themselves greatly
aggrlyed if they were not invited hither. We hold
to such gathering together of Gods People as
the Bible toretells, and that this is the place. and
now is the time appointed for its consummation.
ID. G-Ihe predictions to which you refer have
usually, | think, been understood to indicate
Jerusalem Cor Judea) as the place of such gath
ering.
B. Y.-Yes, for the Jews-not for others.
H. G.-What is the position of your Church with
respect to Slavery?
b. Y.-We consider it of Divine institution, and
not to be abolished until the curse pronounced on
Ham shall have been removed from his descend
ants.
H. Care any slaves now held in this Terri
tory?
b. Y.-There are.
Il. G.-Do your Territorial laws uphold slavery2
B. 1.-Those laws printed-you can read
for yourself If slaves are brought here by those
who owned them in the States, we do not favor
their escape from the service of those owners.
ii. Gam to infer that Utah, if admitted as
q m m mlar Offh fha ITpin h.,
State?
B. Y.-No; she will be a free State Slavery
here would prove useless and improbable. | re-
gard it generally as a curse to the masters | my
self hire many laborers and pay them fair wages; ]
could not afford to own them. | can do better
than subject myself to obligation to feed and
clothe their families to provide and for them
IN sickness and health. Utah is not adapted to
slave labor.
III. G.-Let me now be enlightened with regard
more especially to your Church polity; under
stand that you require each member to pay over
onetenth OF all he produces or earns to the Church.
b. l.-Ihat is a requirement of our iath. There
Is no compulsion as to the payment. Each member
acts in the premises according to his pleasure under
the dictates of his own conscience.
ii. G.-What is done with the proceeds of this
tthing?
b. Y.-Part of is devoted to building temples
and other places of Worship part to helping the
poor and needy converts on their way to this coun-
try; and the largest portion to the support of the
poor among the Saints.
III. G.-ls none of it paid to Bishops and other
dignitaries of the Church?
Is. 1.-Not one penny. No Bishop, no Elder,
no Deacon, or other church officers receives any
compensation for his official services. A Bishop
Is often required to put his hand in his pocket
ana provide theretrom for the poor of his charges
but he never receives anything for his services.
II. G.-HOw, then do your ministers live?
D. l.-By the labor OF their own hands, like the
lirst Apostles Every Bishop, every Elder, may be
daily seen at work in the field or the shop like his
neghbors every minister of the Church has his pro-
per calling, by which be the bread of his
NY; he who cannot or will not do the Church's
work for nothing is not wanted in her service; even
ourlawyers (pointing to Gen. Ferguson and another
present, who theregular lawyers of the Church,
are paid nothing for their services; ! am the only
person in the Church who has not a regular calling
apart from the Churchs service and: never re-
celVed one tarthing from her treasury; if | obtain
anything from the tithing- house, | am charged
with and pay for it, just any one else would;
the clerks in the tihng-store are paid like other
clerks bat no one is paid for any service per-
tanning to the ministry We think man who can
not make his living aside from the Ministry of
Christ unsuited to that office. | am called rich
and consider myself worth $3.50, 900; but dollar
oil 1t was ever paid me by the Church for any
services as minister of the Everlasting Gospel.
lost nearly all | had when We were broken up in
Missouri and driven from that State; ! was nearly
stripped again when Joseph Smith murdered
ana we were driven from Illinois; but nothing was
ever made up to me by the Church, nor by any one.
pelieVe Know how to acquire property, and how
to take of it.
ii. G.-Can you give me any rational explana-
ton OF the aversion and hatred with which your
people are generally regarded by those among
whom they have lived and with whom they have
been brought directly in contact?
b. 4.-No other explanation than is afforded by
the crucfxion of Christ and the kindred treatment
OF GODS minister's prophets and saints in all ages
H. G.-l know that sect is always decried
and traduced-that it is hardly deemed respect
able to belong to one-that the Baptists, Quakers
Methodlsts, Universalists, &C., have each in their
turn been regarded in the infancy Of their sect as
the ottscouring of the earth; yet cannot remember
that either OF them were ever generally represent
ed and regarded by the older sects of their early
days as thieves, robbers, murderers.
Is. 1.-lf you will consult the cOtemporary jew
ish accounts of the life and acts of Jesus Christ
you will find that he and his disciples were accused
OF every abominabe deed and purpose-robbery
and murder included Such a work is still extant
and may be found by those who seek it.
H. G.-What do you say of the so-caled Dan
ties, or Destroying Angles, belonging TO your
Church
B. Y.-What do you say? know of no such
band, no such persons or organization. | hear of
them only in the sanders of our enemies.
Ii. G.-With regard, then, to the grave ques-
ton on which your doctrines and practices
avowedly at war with those of the Christian world
that of the plurality of wives-is the system of
your Church acceptable to the majority of its
women?
B. Y.-They could not be more averse to it than
was when it was first revealed to the Divine
will. | think they generally accept it as do,
the will of God.
II. Glow general is polygamy among you?
b. VI could not say. Some of those present
heads of the Church have each but one wife;
Others have more; each determines what is his in
divdual duty
H. G.-What is the largest number of wives be-
longing to any one man?
B. VI have fifteen; | know no one who has
more; but some of those sealed to me are old la
dies whom regard rather as mothers than wives,
but whom | have taken home to cherish and sup
port
H. G.-Does not the Apostle Paul saw that a
bship should be F'the husband of one wife?''
B. Y.-So we hold. We do not regard anv but
married man fitted for the office of bishop.
But the Apostle does not forbid bishop having
more wives than one.
II. G.-Does not Christ say that he who puts
away his wife, or marries one whom another has
put away, commits adultery?
B. Yves; and hold that no man should ever
put away a wife except for adultery-not always
even for that. Such is my individual view of the
matter. / do not say that wives have never been
put away in our Church, but that l do not approve
of the practice.
II. Glow do you regard what is commonly
termed the Christian Sabbath
B. 1.-As divinely appointed day of rest. We
enjoin all to rest from secular labor on that day
We would have man enslaved to the Sabbath
but we enjoin all to respect and enjoy it.
Such is, nearly | can recollect, the sub
stance of nearly two hours conversation, wherein
much was said incidentally that would not be worth
reporting, even if cond remember and reproduce