Litchfield enquirer., 1869-10-07

civil, and used no questionable language m all his conversation, but seemed to think there was nothing wrong or even coarse and vulgar in tbe use of such ex- pressions as Brigham is given to in his passionate moments. Indeed he could not be brought to admit that Brigham Young could by any possibility do wrong. To him. Brigham was prophet,priest and king, without stain or sin, infallible, perfect. He oommuned with, God more closely than 1 Moses ever did, and the revelations he re- celyed were mora direct. more binding and more authoritative than any the prophets had ever received or the apostles listened to. Either this man was wonderful hyp- ocrite' and pretender, practising his hy. pocrisy end imposture on me just to keep
 his hand in. or he really did believe in
 Bingham Young aRd the Mormon church
 with such simplicity and faith as I never saw any where before. Revelation seemed to him as comprehensible as conversation, and the theocratic idea as simple as the plan of town meeting. What Brigham Young or any of the "apostles' said had been " revealed to them, was above law, divine. Their utterances came to him with divine sanction, their directions were to
 him the tables of the law, their commun ings with the Creator, facts as indisputa.
 ble as the simplest truths of existence.
 This, he said, speaking of polygamy.
 ''is the command given us by God We cannot disobey it. It makes no difference
 what human laws are enacted to prevent It. We obey all statute laws that do not conflict with our ideas of duty, but this is 9 pure question of conscience, and all the powers of the government cannot drive us out of 1t. All that we ask of government IS freedom of conscience, and that we DiU have; for God is on our side, and we can not be put down." -
 There was cool and settled defiance in
 his language, but no setting together of the teeth, and nothing in his tone to indi- Cate any thing more than utter confidence m the truth and justice of his cause. He was talking right along in straightfor- ward way, and his tone and manner were i full of faith in God, and without, so far as
 l could discover, tinge of unfrien dliness
 or hostility to the government. He was
 one of those men whose conscience is a
 right angle, in the corner of which he sat
 serene and braced himself; contented and
 harmless if let alone, but a bristling por- cnpine if you undertake to move him.
 With all his queer stories about the garden of Eden and the building of the Ark-the
 whereabouts of the lost tribes-the ssNorth Country, north of the north pole"-the
 special revelations, to Brigham and, the
 apostles-the healing of the sick by the
 laying on of hands-and all that sort of
 thlng-he would pass in an ordinary com
 munity for healthy lunatic. Here, where they count up believers in the same delu-
 sion by thousands, it won't do to so define commence Dy snuJJlng up tue Iew III Jne
 territory who believe that God did reveal himself to Abraham and Moses in the old times, and does not now talk with Brig ham Young and the unctuous apostles whose portraits grace the office of his mai
 esty. The Mormons are not lunatics, sim ply because they are in the majority. Joe Smith was crazy when he had no follow CTS. As soon as his church got started, and
 his disciples were numbered by hundreds
 that ceased. People stopped laughing at his insanity. and tackled him as an impos-
 tor. Well, folly. knavery, or insanity, ,and
 the poor fellow died for it, and no higher
 testimony of mans sincerity is ever de-
 manded than simple martyrdom. Do you know, am very much inclined to believe
 that the giving up by this man, Joe Smith,
 of property and reputation and life for his belief, is the secret of this whole business. The delusion would have disappeared if let alone. But the founder of it died for 1t and vent into history as a martyr. ''Ihe blood of the martyrs is the 4seed of this church. as well as of others and all of these uneasy. restless souls who pin the1r faith and all their hopes on the truth Of Mormonism, look over all tue outs Tn the system. and all it's inconsistencies and pa- tent falsehoods, to the simple fact that the founders of this faith sealed their belief in
 their own blood. You observe, this in all their talk, that the proudest thing in their whole history, and the one they dwell up- on with the most satisfaction, is the story of their prosecutions and their sacrifices.
 Whichever way you look at them-from
 whatever point of view you study them, and whatever may be the result of your in vestigations-they are still a wonderful people. If the leaders and prophets and apostles are all knaves, then the church and the community are wonder of sue cessful knavery and harmonious, carefully constructed imposture. If they are all fools or lunatics, they are no less wonder. Put them up as you will, they are "queer lot" 1 Meantime, while was talking with the elder, others of the party were listening to the other side of the story, from gentle man who had held federal office Tn the territory and had seen the church in its practical workings. Heiwas as fierce and sweeping in his denunciations as the elder was enthusiastic and fulsome in praise of everything in ithe church and territory. Perhaps one got as near the truth as the other. Both stories I reckon need consid- l erable toning down. I give you what l,heard just as it came to me and you may take it for what it is worth. Being here l simply as traveller curious about the hab- it's and customs, practices and belief of this strange people, I have not thought il best to take much stock on oneside or the other. |the hotel, I got in conversation with. a Gentle citizen, who, in laughing. good | natnred way, gave me his view of Mormon fam. x His talk abounded in peculiarities oi lsneech and diaiect common among miners. and there was no lack of cuss2 words and slang in it, but,he seemed hearty, rough. snoken. good-natured fellow, and F got nnite interested in his discourse. He. had laid the Mormons under some obligations to him at ohe time by defending two or three of the elders from 2 mob ln one oi the mining towns in an adjoining terrlto' " and they had treated him m conse nnence with more consideration than they ba5 other gentiles. But he spoke .his 5a -~.., e-oolv ahout them. and they