New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-07-22
THE MORMON TROUBLES.

THE MORMON TROUBLES.
Not by any means for the frat time in his
remarkable career. Brigham Young is in diff
culties, and he Is meeting them with his usual
boldness and sagacity. The short and ready
resource of sudi a hierarch Is to excom-
municate his antagonists; and Brigham, we
must allow, excommunicates with all the
promptitude and audaclty of Hildebrand.
lie has already publicly consigned to damna-
ton Hyde, the President OF the Twelve
Apostles, together with Lyman and Pratt. both
of them apostolic gentlemen. There Is grand
schlsm, with Young upon one side. and Joseph
Smith, jr., upon the other-the first the leader
of the Utah Mormons, and the second of the
Western .Mormons, who are not gathered into the
fold. Smith has recently carried the war into
Utah itself, and has had the impudence to make
converts to his side under Brigham Youngs own
nose, ridiculing bis sacred revelations, his doc
trines OF polygamy and blood-atonement, and
his claims to be regarded as the head of the
Church. This has aroused Young to unusual
exertons, nor will he yield an inch
of bis power or his doctrine without
making good Hght for the same. While he
lives, it Is not probable that in Utah his ex-
traordinary hold upon the popular heart will
| be materially diminished. Authority like that
which he possesses is neither to be won nor
lost In day. OF course, there is in Utah, as
everywhere else, the usual proportion Of sneak
ing knaves and Of snuflng hypocrites, of men
who merely like tie coarse sensuality OF the
creed, and Of women who feebly yield To its
intellectual and moral absiirdites to-day as
they would readily accept others tomorrow;
but man cannot govern community almost
absolutely for many years and especially an iso-
lated community, without securing an habitual
Difference. This becomes fixed in the old, and
ia accepted without question by tbe young
and there is no reason why it should not
last for tho lifetime Of its object. Unfortu-
hately prophets are mortal. Brgham's weak
point is that some morning he will DO taken
sick and die. All TN modern prophets, both
men and women, have perceived this mortality
and have guarded against its influence upon
their authority by promising to como back again,
some of them in fifty years, and some of them
century after apparent death. But time wore
on tho defupct failed to keep their word ;
the societies which they left grew smaller and
smaller and some of them have entirely dis
appeared We are not learned in Mormon
theology, but we believe Brigham makes no
promise Of o personal resurrection or speedy
secopd.toming; and il he should do so, the
chahces are that he would not rise according
to appointment. He will depart, and then we
suspect the grand Kilkenny scrimmage will
begin, the Twelve Apostles breaking each
others heads without conjunction, this able
shepherd leading of his share of the sheep,
and the other enterplising pastor proselyting
in his turn, until the Gentle element becomes
predominant in the territory of the Saints, and
Morn6nism hides its diminished head In small
conventicles and thin communities. ~ such
a result we see nothing TO regret. Nobody
in his senses supposes that polygamy
cap ever become per@apent feature Of
American or OK any other civilized So
ciets. Nobody outside the pale believes tbet
there u Anything fresh or important in the
.A+oth4 theology. Nobody Gao reasonably
reekoa tbaf 4 TIlI ever JSfgT6w the faint q
its original inp6stufe II nihy lpger little
aftef lie death d it's great Champion, but we
have meter been able to find In it anything to
save it from ultimate extinction; for we do
not, OF course reckon its judieious social econ
omy as one of it's religious characteristics. A
similar shrewdness and industry have been ex-
hibited by other sects; by the Shakers, the
Rappites, and the Morayians. The Mormons
are entitled TO a certain degree OF credit for
their enterprise, energy, industry, and perse-
veranee; but much as we value these, we have
no desire to see them promoted by the aids oil
ignorance. 6 superstition. and Of priestcIaft.
The very fact that their preachers and writer's
are accustomed to boast Of q period not far
distant when the sect shall possess the world,
shows how little they comprehend the present
intellectual and spiritual advancement OF man
kind. These are not the days of Mohammed,
nor Of Peter the Hermit, and religious
ideas have ceased to be the great
promoters OF political changes and
Of remarkable emigratieps. Even Il Il were