Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-11-21
Whole Number 1898.

dreams he claims the sole preogatiVe OF
| delivering to the Saints the will of the
great Head of the Church. Having es-
tablished the power he secured suprem-
acY which it was sacrilege to deny and
death TO dispute It will be one of the
marVels Ofthe future historians that an
untutOred man actually succeeced, in the
nineteenth century, in building up spir-
itual and TEMPORAL dominion more alb
solute over his people than that of the
Mlkado ever had in Japan.
When we come to analyze the secret
OF this mans power, it will be found
manifold. Taking up the half developed
scheme of religious delusion published
oY Joseph Smith, he expanded and
rengthened it by successive pretened Di-
". VINE revelations; he found a church ready
" ~ ns hand he left it an organized &C.
cieSlasucaI State. To the artful theocracy
Vi S.iiItn' ne added infallIbIlity, personi-
ned IN himself Sincerely believing that
the burdens OF liberty were greater than
society can now bear, he devised a cnn-
ming system of politics by which men
might preserve the shadow of RepnbIi.
canism in Republic their will and Iib-
erty he held in his own hand. They had
the ballot; he had all the rest. Having
established theocracy which, through
all its speciOus windings and pretenses,
finally centred in himself, he addressed
himself to the temporal prosperity of his
Zion. He has been too shrewd not to
know that he was insecure in his palace
so long as his people were discOntented
and poor. With consumale skill, he or
ganized industries that seemed impossible
IN the wilderness where the Latter Day
Saints had fixed their abode His ambi-
ton was to erect state that should he
absolutely Independent of every part of
the Republic of which Deseret was an
unwilling member. His removal from the
territorial GoVernorship circumscribed his
sphere of action but the scheme has
been faithfully carried out, so far as his
people are concerned. They have ac-
quired the art OF subsisting upon their
own resources with facility that mu st
always be considered one of the marVels
of the age. Repeated on a grandeur
scale, it might make a mighty nation of
a feeble people. The Mormons produce
their leather, cloths, breadstufs, building
materials, wearing apparel, and printed
books, while other States of the Republic
were vet content with bartering the crude
products of the soil for the manufactures
that Deseret furnished for herself All the
of life were amply supplied in
this phenomenal imperio tn inlperiunT
and Brigham Young, by his own frugal
example and an abstemiouS manner of
life which no anchorite could have criti-
cised, has inculcated that temperance,
economy, and cOntentment with hOmely
fare that the position and resources of
the community made necessary. 1t is
true that Young has been aided by wise
counselors but it cannot be denied that
his powerful personality has perVaded
the counsels of Church and State, sway
ed the entire mass of priesthood and peo-
pie, regulated the social and domestic
polity from the building of a railroad to
the fashioning of the women's head-gear,
and has been felt in every township and
household in the Mormon community.
1t is not enough to say that this man
rules his debased and ignorant people,by
sheer force of blind superstition, OF
which be was head and fountain. His
shrewd common sense, his strong will,
and his tremendous energy has carried
him through difficulties that would have
defeated less capable men.
For nearly quarter of century Brig I
ham Young has set at naught the power
of the Government Of the United States
In 1848 the Mormons jHR&er his leader
ship, established themselves ct Great
Salt Lake City. So long as they held
their original religious dogma, all was
well but when they set up and ooeyed
the Divine command to prstiee polygamy
they invited criticism and attack. To
this day, however, they have dehed the
laws of tthe land and evaded all attempts
to crush cut the hateful heresy to which
they clung. Armies were sent against
them, prOelamations were Illuminated,
and legal statutes were passed for the
overthrow of pOlygamv. With perse-
Verance worthy ofthe Saints whom they
profess to initiate. they have adhered to
their own devices until the law and the
ordinary course of morality seemed BAL
fed. This result has beea generally al
tributed to Brigham Youngss aRmlnlstra-
tive powers. If that theory be correct,
a great change IS impending over Nor
monism, for the life of its high priest can
not, in the ordinary course of nature, last
nuch LONGER