New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-03-08
WHITED REPULCHKEs.
Misc Anna Dickinson on Mormonlsun-
Salt LaAe as She Saw It Desradati0A.
shame and Murder.
From the St. Louis Republican,


Shame and Murder.
| From the St. Louis Republican,
| Miss Anna Dickinson delivered her lee
ture on White Sepulchres," last night, at
the Mercantile Library Hall. The spacious
hall was crowded to its fullest extent Miss
d ickinson was introduced by Mrs. Francis
Minor and was honored with a reception,
which must have been very gratifying to-
her. In the course Of her effort she said:
sSee Naples and die" So ran the OLD
proverb; the new one is See Salt Lake
City, and live" 1t was on the close OF .
lovely day of June last summer that she
first saw this city OF the saints. A great
stretch of lovely plain, beyond it an inland
sea of sapphire, all about it range after range
of stately mountains glowing through the
marvelOusly clear air-masses OF amber and
purple and gold; whilst over all ranged, dia-
mond bright, the eternal walls of snow; in
the midst OF such surroundings, the fair and
wonderful things of Gods hanaiwork, lies
this whited sepnlchre! Fair, indeed, to the
eye-pleasant to the traveller. He knoweth
not that the dead are there, and that their
inhabitants are In the depth of hell! Wide,
clean, cool streets, a dash of the mountain
stream flowing through the principal ave-
nue., with riyulets running from it through
the smaller streets, Il r the irrigation of the
alkaline soil; houses-poor, dauby huts,
most of them-charming in the wilderness
Of greenness that surrounds them; bushes
and trees laden with flowers and heavy with
fruit; coolness, order, and quiet. Drinking,
no doubt, yet no drunkenness visible and
no licensed drinking saloons; an outward de-
cency preserved; as safe for women 70 walk
unattended at night as at noon of fday-which
is vastly more than can be said of some
more reputable cities nearer home daughter
and cheers; GOODNESS, order, quiet-too
quiet-quiet in fact, since stagnant pool is
H>al En
most absolute tyranny, most unmitigated
despotism upon which the sun shines to-
day. Utah - Mormonism i Brigham
Young; his is the magnetism that binds
| them fast-this one man, who possesses that
rarest of commodities, brains. and that in
| fnitely rarer faculty, the knowledge how to-
use them. The head of the church and the
head of the state, absolute in power who
has a revelation from God whenever Ills
| faithful followers are inclined to complain or
| rebel-hs is the seer, prophet, and inspired
| head Of the church, whose last revelation
| was to take one.ftth of the profits of his fol-
| lowers for the year.
The territory and city are dstricted, and
at the head of each district is one of this
| mans tools; in each district there is kept
| a book in which the name of every inhab-
| liant is recorded, and strict supervision is
kept over them, which is principally Of service
at election times, when the name of only one
| candidate, that Of Brigham Young, is pre-
sented. and one word, ''for" or against"
| II discomfort grows into open rebellion, men
are pursued unto death. Man after man,
| scores and hundreds at one time, as in the
| Mountain Meadow massacre, have died in
| no sense by the visitation of God! Not an
| emgrant train passed through it dared to
give shelter to man or woman fseing from
| this spiritual and temporal despotism, but
has found its number curtailed ere
- No.. IAr 4r
territory. It is almost impossible
for loyal citizen of the republic
to gain foothold there. A. D. Robinson
ventured to take from her house a Mormon
! girl, and make her his honorable wife, and
| he was murdered on the street. The United
States authorities took no note of it; the
Mormon authorities took no note of it; his
| own comrades investigated the case, and it
proved that this deed, like Others, was done
I at tue command of those in authority. His
| body WAS carried out to the hill, and his
| comrades wrote over bis grave what was
written over scores and hundreds of graves
in the Territory: "Asssssinated by Nor
mons. Vengeance is mine. l will repay,
saith the Lord" Brigham Young's power
is simply absolute; that of any crowned
| head of Europe does not equal it. He has
| Il few bundred intelligent tools who, with a
| few exceptions, are Americans; the
| mass of the people, l20 0O0 in the Ter
! 1itory and $4,000 in Salt Lake, are in no
| sense Americans; they are Swedes, Danes,
Swiss, Germans, French, two-thirds of them
| English and Welsh-of the lowest, i1iterate,
| agricultural peasant class Of Europe. 1t is
believed that the women far outnumber the
| men; it is a mistake; they are about even.
The theory of polygany is universally &C
. cepted, believed i'll, sworn by, and Ia, in
Of this peculiar edifce; the practice of it is
in great many cases impossible. by
their fruits ye shall know them." What are
they, Coolness order, quiet, an outward
decency, wonderful patience and marvel
Gus industry in overcoming obstacles.
fanatical devotion to their leader and their
faith, no free schools, no common schools,
no general school systematic only basis
whereon such structure as this can be
reared is that Of utter and abject ignorance.
Wheressever one meets those people, the
first thing that strikes one is the simple and
stolld countenances everywhere; sad, not
stupid; 10 homes! How III any right sense
of the word can there be any homes or any
home spirit in place where a person who
loves is laughed at as a fool and sentiment
alist by men and women who herd together
as beasts? Into that city she went, and
saw the end of the pitiful and loathsome
chapter. She went into house after house,
snd women would enter the room, be intro
duced as "my wifen and ''my wife, and sit
come into the presence of q master. One Of
these women said to her, II have dozen
children-buried six" Another would say,
II have had tcn-buried eight
The record of mortality, wherever this dis
gustlng system of polSgamy prevails, is
frightlul among the little ones. AS she
looked upon the pale, stunted creatures
left, she said, 'Would that these were in
their graves" She saw them running.
wild, ignorant, uncultured little animals on
the streets; she saw thousands of ignorant,
innocent-faced young girls growing to wo-
manhood, and so growing, approaching q
life OF sin, degradation and shame; she
heard on all sides coarseness, vulgarity, in
decency and obscenity dressed in the garb
Of piety and covered with the cloak of
religion. Seeing and hearing, and compre-
hending all this, such an awful sense of
degradation and despair took possession of
her as woman, that she covered up her
face, and cried, MY God let me die" and
then she bethought her, mo, no; that would
be towards prayer; let ME live and work;
there is need of me.n
Need indeed! Portraying, wildly and
vigorously, the inefficiency of the Iegisla-
ton and supineness of the government in
relation to polygamy and the suppression of
crimes growing out of the upholding of the
Infamous system, the open and avowed sup
port it has received from members of the
House of Representatives. and Others in po-
sitlon in the country who had visited Salt
Lake, iDstancing one honorable exception.
that of Vice-President Colfax-and mourn
ing over the humiliation caused by the
respectable reception of the president OF
Mormons, who had in his name forty-three
women as wives, and whom she styled q