Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1867-07-18
THE llORMONS.

Brigham Young is the supreme
temporal as web as spiritual head OF
the church, and he is no more e.
sponsible to his fellows in temporal
than in spiritual matters. The
church property is all in his name In
fee, the tithes are received by him,
and he accounts to no one, nor VIII
he tolerate inquiry as to his eXpen-
ditures. A prominent Mormon mer-
chant here, whose tithes amounted to
a very large sum of money, demand
ed statement of the receipts and dis
bursements, and he was cut off from
the saints here and from 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 with
ont question or check of any sort Is
startling. First of all he supplies
his harem and numerous progeny;
then he builds at the tabernacle and
temple; then mills, theaters, factories,
&c, all in his own name, receives the
proceeds ostensibly for the church,
and no one dares to question his
judgement or demand balance sheet.
His annual income now cannot be less
than half million dollars. The hum
BILE, deluded followers believe that it
is wisely and faithfully expended; but
do not the licentious leaders know
better?
There are palpable signs of disso
luton in the Mormon Church. The
Josephites (the followers of Smith
pronounce polygamy 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 off several hundred
members for heresy because they adj
hered to Smith, and over 100 wagons
OF emigrants are now in the noun
tains on their way east to escape his
fearful vengeance. The Morrisites
are another class of dissenters, and
have no fellowship with the Salt Lake
Church. They denounce polygamy
and are constantly receiving acqui-
sitions to their numbers. They have
strong settlement in Utah, at Soda
Springs, under the very shadow of
the Prophet Every sermon l card
from the Mormons betrayed nervous
fears as to divisions, some appealed,
some unfolded the duty of submits
sion, and Bingham Numbered his
fierce anathemas against the faithless.
Gentle dealings and associations are
forbidden, because Mormonism can
not bear contact with virtue and
truth, nor can its browning crime of
pOlygamy bear contact even with
vice. Virtue and vice are alike its
foes, and equally fatal to its perpe
tuity. Thus is the Mormonism of
Young beset by schisms, periled by
growing intercourse with gentiles,
and soon the Pacific Railroad will
pour thousands of population into
all the fruitful valleys of the West,
and in but few years the distinct
iyeness of this people must fade
away. While the Government has
been shamefully remiss in tolerating
the habitual insolcnt defiance of one
of its soundest laws, 1T seems that
natural causes are fast converging to
the overthrow Of this foulest blot
upon the American name. One gen
tile family of pOlygamists is better
than thousand sermons against
this colossal crime. One happy,
cheerful wife, confident ofthe undivi-
ed affection other husband, is like,;an
angel Of light in the region of des-
pair, and even the deepest seated
superstition gradually yields as they
see the gentle wife worship with
her husband and household gods,
read from their common bible, plead
the atonement OF the same Savior,
and supplicate the same God. Secret
discomfort, positive dissatisfaction,
or open rebellion, have their place
around every fireside, and each year
develops in bolder tones and more
defiant action the restless cancer that
is preying upon the vitals of this
monstrous vice. 1t must soon die
Its own enormity must give it the
grave of q suicide if no other great
causes were tending to its destruo-
ton; but it is blistering shame that
in this noon tide of the nineteenth
century, just laws forbidding this
wholesale prostitution, practiced in
appalling mockery and blasphemy of
all that is pure and holy, stand as
dead letters upon or our national
statute books. With the strong
arm Ofthe Government firmly main
tanning virtue, order, and law-ever
careful to encroach upon no rights of
conscience or freedom of Worship
this wrong would soon hide itself
from the scorn ofsociety, instead of
its present boosted social supremacy,
and linger out its future existence in
shame As an institution it would at
once cease to have habitation or a
name, and this sister of human bon
dage, equally fruitful of treason and
crime, would perish from the fair
land of freedom and Justice.