The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1872-10-03
Mormon Imm grants-Their Peculiar
Relig Gus Views.


The Mormons who arrived in the
steamship Minnesota number 400, and
include English, Swedes, Danes, some
Germans, a few Irish and Scotch, and an
occasional Frenchman. They have much
the same appearance as ordinary emf
grants; ere poorly dressed, and have
little property. A few days notice was
given in England that a company of
Mormons would sail, which accounts for
the unusually large number on board
the Minnesota, which left Liverpool
Sept. 4. All of them depart for Utah
Immediately. They express much i'm
patience to reach that promised land,
and to be about their fathers business.
An intelligent looking man told re-
porter that he had been for moro than
80 years believer in the faith he con-
scientiously believed it to be the work
of God. The Mormons were strangely
misrepresented every day; were Nor
monism all that it is often represented
to be, the speaker would leave it in q
moment, but its enemies were very Bit
ter against it. The Mormons were quite
numerous in the Old World, but widely
scattered. They believed that America
was the destined country given to their
forefathers, and that there the saints
were to be delivered in the last days
from the plaques and pestilence let loose
on the nations, as all the prophets had
foretold. They believed that Christ
would come before the present genera
ton had passed away. This must be
the case, continued the emigrant, if the
Scriptures could be depended upon, for
it had been said that the generation
which witnessed the Jews gathering to
the Holy Land should not pass away
till the Savior had appeared and the
Jews were now Hocking there in great
numbers. Jerusalem must be built up
on its old ruins and in the same way
would Zion be built up on this continent
in Utah. The speaker believed that
Joseph Smith was great apostle, and
had revelations and visits from angels
His people held to the apostolic Gospel
Faith, repentance, baptism, and the lay
ing on of handsfor the gift of the Holy
Ghost, were the foundation principles of
their religion. Polygamy he believed
to be instituted and approved by the
Creator. 1t was sanctioned and prac-
ticed by the patriarchs. Although it
was not sanctioned by the New Testa-
ment, yet a recent revelation to Joseph
Smith had shown conclusively that it
had the Divine sanction at the present
day. Polygamy, however, could only
be practiced in one place: that was
Utah; elsewhere it was sin. The
elders, he said, went about preaching
without purse or scrip. They never had
a salary, but trusted that God would
raise up friends to feed and clothe them.
Another of the new arrivals said al
though he liked the religion and could
conscientiously perform his religious
duties, he would not persuade any one
else to attempt it. He thought it the
only trLe religion, and it was gaining
ground rapidly. Still another thought
polygamy ian integral part of tie sal
vation of the human family" Christ
would soon appear, but first there was a
great work to be done. The persecution
and abuse which Mormonism received
helped far more than it hindered the
cause. Polygamy, a part and parcel of
the religion, was thoroughly believed i'll
by young and old, rich and poor, man
and woman. Another founded his be-
lief in the justice and right of polygamy
on the fact that the proportion OF women
to men in the world was as five to one,
a statement which he actually believed.
He thought Joseph Smith one of the
greatest men that ever lived, and that
Smiths mantle had fallen on Brigham
Young.