Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1867-07-20
ASHTABULA, OHIO, SATURDAY, JULY 2O 1867.

allon. heard four Mormon sermons
on Sunday-two by fools and two by
knaves. The one, for instance, who de
clared that he had seen Joseph Smith
perfectly personated in Brigham Young,
when he thrust Rigdon out and assumed
the Presidency himself, even to broken
front tooth was simply lunatic. In the
course of his sermon he gave the partic-
ulars of his conversion. He prayed to
the Lord that if he would appear in per-
son to him he would believe, and the
Lord appeared to him, and he thenceforth
became saint. He was followed by one
OF the shrewdest of the Elders, who ar
gued with some plausibility that the ori-
glnal Church ofChrist had strayed and
broken into descendant branches, and
that 1t had been founded again by Smith
and Young, and was separate from the
world and united in its great work. In
the afternoon we had an incoherent and
tsenseess harangue from Cdcknev, but
Brigham Young pulled him down by the
coat tail in short. time, and took the
pulpit himself His speech would read
away in the east like the foolish ebulE-
tion of coneeited blackguard, but new
er were remarks more timely or better
adapted to the people he addressed. He
argued for twenty minutes that not one
person in forty knew how to take care
of himselfiu either temporal or spiritual
matters; that all must have leaders ex-
perienced in spiritual and temporal af
fairs that they must live submissively
to those who are competent to lead them
or be cut off with the wicked. He COM
planned of the selfsEness of some of the
saints. Said he ''People l brought here
| from scrfdom, who couldn't own chick
en- before they came, and who were glad
to take spade from me to get a crust of
bread, now have lands, and houses, and
cattle, and greenbaeks, and carriages,
and they want to dictate to me; they
want to sap the foundations of zion; but
| will not be dictated to. l am called
of the Lord, and it IS mine to teach and
yours to obey. l say what / please; l
put up this pulpit with the crimson COW
ering, and paid for it myself, expressly
to 90 into it and say what l please. l
will take it away if like and stand on
declared in one way as well as another"
And thus he rambled, but always with
evident method. After pleading for uni
.ty, he told the young ladies of the church
that they had no capacity for taking care
of themselves and their honor, and that
the church, with its ceremonies and COW
enants, was their only safety. He closed
by demanding that gentiles and apostates
be Stunned in all dealings, even although
it costs more to purchase of a saint
"Y on may answer" said he, "that is none
of my id business" Perhaps it is not
Just now, but the time Will soon come
when it Will be my business to testify
respecting this people, and | pledge You
that those who disobey this command
shall not enter into the straight gate. |
will not speak hard ofyou if you do not
stop wasting your dollars with gentiles
and apostates, nor will ] thing hard of
you, but l will say in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, let the righteous be
saved, and the wicked go their way to
everlasting punishment" | saw poor
infatuated Mormons shudder at this ter
rible anathema from what they supposed
to be an inspired oracle of God, and the
fear of his malediction is one of the strong
est clements of cohesiveness with the de-
luded masses of his followers. In the
foregoing quotations | have given his
language almost literally, and preserved
the sentiments faithfully, without the
least establishment. ......-..
Brigham Young is the supreme tempo
raj as well as spiritual head of the church
and he is no more responsible to his fel-
lows in temporal than III spiritual mat
ters. The church property is all in his
name in fee, the titles are received by
him, and he accounts to no one, nor will
he tolerate inquiry as to his expenditures.
A prominent Mormon merchant here,
whose titles amounted to very large
sum of money, demanded statement OF
the receipts and disbursements, and he
was cut off from the saints here and the
saints in Heaven When it is considered
that all Mormons are required to give
to the church one-tenth of all they raise
in kind, and one-tenth Of all they make
in any business, the magnitude of the
fund intrusted to Young without cues
ton or check of any sort is startling
First of all he supplies his harem and nu-
merous progeny then he builds the
tabernacle and temple; then mills, thea
tres, factories, &C., all in his own name,
receives the proceeds ostensibly for the
church, and no one dares to question his
Judgment or demand a balance sheet
His annual income now cannot be less
than half million dollars. The hum
bic, deluded followers believe that 1t is
wisely and faithfully expended but do
not the licentious leaders know better !!
! There are palpable signs Of dissolution
in the Mormon church. The Josephites
(the followers of Smith) pronounce .po-
lygamy a sin, and they claim to be the
true Mormon church and entitled to the
church property. When Brigham was
South this Spring he had to cut offsev-
eral hundred members for heresy because
they adhered to Smith, and over 100 wa
gons ofemigrants are now in the noun
tains on their way east to escape his fear-
full vengeance The Morrisites are an
other class of dissenters, and have no tel
lowship with the Salt Lake church. Ihey
denounce polygamy and are constantly
receiving acquisitions to their numbers.
They havea strong settlement IN Utah,
at Soda Springs, under the very shadow
of the Prophet Every sermon l heard
from the Mormons betrayed nervous fear
rs to divisions, some appealed, some un-
c11I .b, Ju4xy Of cubn1icSion and RriC-