The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1869-09-29
Norm onisns.

Norm onisns.
1t is now about torty-three years since Jo-
seph Smith began, as he pretended, to receive
those revelations out of which Mormonism mas
grown. The first Mormon church was organ
lze in 1880, at Manchester, n. ID. Id .o'i'
. NTH and his followers considered IL piu
to remove to the West and establsheu chu'on
es at Kirkland, Ohio. Meanwhile converts
were made in great numbers A colony was
also established in jackson County, Missouri.
THOUGH industrious, sober, and orderly, the
prosecutions which they suffered from the
bipots of other sects compelled them to leave
Missouri and establish themselves at Nauvoo,
ILL.,, where they remained till they started for
Utah. Previous to 1S43, polygamy had net
been formally authorized. When this doctrine
was announced, it caused great commotion
which resulted in the Imprisonment of Joseph
Smith and his brother Hyram. In June 1874, a
band of roughs broke into the jail and shot
them. This fate of their leader, though at hrst
dscouraging to the Mormons, was ultimately
favorable to them. 1t gave them a martyr
around whom their sympathies could cluster,
success of the Mormon faith.
Great confusion followed the death of Smith.
The "Council of the Twelve Apostles" unani-
mously elected Brigham Young to succeed
him, and owing to the continued opposition
they encountered, the Saints resolved to en-
igrate far beyond the boundaries ofcivilization.
The Great Salt Lake Valley was the spot chos-
en- for tois purpose, and the main body of the
Saints arrived there in the autumn of 1913,
whittier Brigham had preceded them the year
previous. Work was at once commenced, and
by persevering exertions the wilderness of
Sagebrush which greeted them on their arrival
has been made to blossom as the rose Their
system of irrigation is said to be one of the
most admirable ever devised. The mountain
streams are brought into requisition ard made
to supply both moisture and fertilising matter
to the soil. Whatever else may be said of the
Mormons, it cannot be denied that their indus
trial enterprise and thrift are worthy of nraise.
The Mormon missionaries have been zeal
olsly employed in propagating the faith in va
rlous parts of the United States aud Europe.
aud among the poorer and more ignorant class
es, their labors have been attended with much
success. The fanatcism of their religion has
made converts of some, while the prospect of
material comfort has attracted others The
community at Utah is largely composed of the
coarser elements of society. With such pop
ulation and leader like Brigham Young, a
peculiar state of society has grown up, These
people, adults in body, are childreniin mind
and naturally look up to a superior whose in.
telligence may guide and whose will may con-
troll them. Without development ofcharacter
and therefore without that feeling of personal
independence which accompanies a strongly
marked individuality, they exhibit that crude
and stereotyped sameness of social existence
which is at once the cause and the effect o.
despots m. In parents and children alike i:
visible thatsvacancy of expression which marks
the absence of deep thought and feeling. 1t is
this character, or rather want of character in
the people that has enabled Brigham Young IN
free America and in the nineteenth century tt
throw across the path of empire the anomaly
of an oriental despotism. Jesuitism itself could
not be more absolute in requiring the individu.
al in obedience to authority to surrender the
very sentiments OF the heart and the inclina-
tions of the will.
This state OF society, not less than the prac-
tice of polygsmy, which became general soon
after the emigration to Utah is likely, if con
tinued, to occasion serious embarrassment il
the relations OF Utah to the Union. There arr
indications that polygamy may, in obedience t.
new revelation" be abandoned Even
this prospect be realized, aud much more of il
DC M fba x,-;n
Gus and complicated problem for future states
men. There is no place in our political sys
tenn for community such as Utah DOW is
Nothing could be more antagonstic to tn,
genius Of republicansm than a system who's,
whole machinery, civil, political, religious, ant
industrial, is controlled by single will I'm
der these circumstances an ''irrepr9ssible con.
fict' is inevitable. The Capitalization of Nor.
monism, while it cramps individual develop
ment, gives the system an efficiency almost
beyond its strength, and its policy is proscrip
tive as that of slavery. The Mormon church il
buying up the land in the territory and holds
all it acquires with an iron grasp. Brigham il
determined to root out the few gentiles whit
have settled in his dominions for trade. To eff
fect this object no has established what he CALL
"Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Establish
ment at some branch of which all true Nor.
mons are expected to trade. How effective
THIS arrangement has been, the dispersion o.
gentle traders fully attests
Not less successful has been the attempt tc
evade the laws of the United States. In sew.
eral instances gentiles have been murdered
and it is morally certain that all this was done
with the countenance, or more probably by III
command of the prophet.-Ya SO perfect is the
discipline of his followers that it is impossible
TO detect or to punish the murderers As vet
however, the conflict is only begun. 1t is only
the vanguard of civilization that has been over.
come. When its spreading columns invest
this citadel of absolution on all sides, it will
have to yield AS in the case of slavery the
longer the catastrophe is postponed the greater
and more widespread will be the ruin attend
ing it. For the present it does not appear that
any good result can be accomplished by addi.
tlonal legislation unless it be of difsarent
KIND from any that has been devised in the
past 1t is to moral forces rather that we are
to look for solution of the problem.
Meanwhile let this instance prove warning
against intolerance. If the Mormons had not
oeen molested on account of their religious
views so long as they violated no social duty.
they would probably have remained in the
States, and by their dispersion never have be-
come formidable. Nor is it likely that polyga-
my would ever have become general in the face
OF purer civilization. Now inflamed by per-
secatlon and embroidered by concert they are
not to be SO easily controlled. Intolerance has
overshot its mark. True we have not made
men subject to legal penalties for their relip-
ious views. But social persecution and pro-
scription are quite as effective and are less con-
trolled by responsibility. Let us never forget
that intolerance however manifested, is inexpe-
dent as it certainly is unjust. .t
On THE 22nd of September the Democracy
Of New York in State Convention assembled.
solemnly resolved to demand the abolition of
that "hybrid institution, the Freedmen's
Bureau" and did not find out until after the