The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1867-05-14
Salt Lake City and Mormonism


Salt Lake is the natural m, tropolis of "A
great scope Of country, embracing all
Utah and portions of Nevada, Idaho,
Montana and Colorado Already it con
tains eighteen thousand people. and bids
lar to continue, AS at present, the largest
| city between st. Louis AMI San Francisco.
The overland telegraph connects it with
the Atlantic and the Pacific mail coaches
ply daily to the Missouri River on the
east, and California on the west, TO Mon
tana on the north, to Idaho and the Col.
umbia River on the north.west. The
hotel is unusually crowded with guests,
and the streets, all watered by little rils
on each side, are thronged with the wag.
ons OF emigrnnts and farmers, with women
and children, saints and sinners, miners
and Indians. Some Of the trading houses
do an immense business. Last year, Il
single merchant paid one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars for hauling his
goods from Missouri River
There are two daily newspapers. THE
Ncdette," representing the Gentle popu.
laiion, and Fl'he Telegraph" in the
interest of the Mormons "Tne Weekly
Desert sNews" - almost as old as
the city-is the organ of the Mormon
Church. In territorial population of
sixty-five thousand, all are NIormons,
except three or four bundled, who reside
chiefly in Salt Lake City. These dis.
senters are known as "Gcnties," while
the MormUns style themselves, par ercel-
Ce"ce, the Saints, and classify all outsiders
as Sinners.
Camp Douglas is beautifully located, on
a high plateau, two miles from the city
which its artillery commands. Its estab
llshment AS garrisoncd post of the Uni
ted States army has been potent
restraint upon the dcspotc power of the
Mormon Church, as it affords protection
to all men and women who abandon that
faith. Many recanting Saints, chiefly
wives dissatisfied with polygamy, have
here sought the shelter of the national
flag, and been sent from the territory.
under military escort.
There is now a fourishing Gentle
Church and Sabbath. School in the city.
libera'ly supported by genli!es of every
denomination; who, like all minorities,
are very compact, and remain united by
the common bond of antipathy to Nor
mon rule. Even Jews, who are quite
numerous, contribute to this Church, and
IN excited moments talk earnestly about
"cs Shentiles !" for it is strange feature
OF this strange community that all the
Saints are Sinners and all the Jews are
Gentiles
Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon
Church, was a native of Vermont, who
claimed that the Book of Mormon, the
Bible of the Laiter-day Saints, buried in
the earth, was pointed out to him by the
Angel Maroni; that, upon digging it up,
he found 1t written upon metallic plates
in mysterious characters, which special
revelation from God enabled him to trans
late. Claiming to be the production of
several writers, it is about as large MS the
Old Testament, Of which it is a weak, in
coherent and vapid imitation. Several
hundred of its verses are stolen, with very
slight alteration, from the New Testa-
ment, which, according to Mormon
chronology, was written hundreds of years
later than their own inspired volume
Slngularly enough, it contains many de.
nunciation of Polygamy but consistency
is Jewel rarely found in the casket of
the Latter.day Saints. Smith possessed