Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1877-09-19
DEATH OF THE PROPHET

venture necessary, VIII DO quickly
written.-C Chicago Times.
DEATH OF THE PROPHET.
CAREER or THE MAHOMET or
AMERICA.
How he led the Latter.day Saints TO Utah
aud Established Theocratic state.
APPEARANCE AND HABITS OF THE MAN
SALT LAKE Cry, August 29-Brig.
ham Young died at p. IN. today.
Brigham Young was born at Whit
tingham, Vermont, June |, 1901. In
1881 he Joined tho Mormons at Kirk.
land, Ohio and soon became influential
by his shrewdness and energy, He
was one of the twelve disciples sent
ont to make converts in 1895, and on
the death Of Joe Smith in June, 1874,
he was chosen high president and
prophet. With most of the sect he
abandoned Nauvoo early in 1916 per.
suading his followers that Salt Lake
City valley was the promised land, and
founded there in July, 1877, Salt Lake
City In the spring of 1s49, having
greatly increased by emigration, they
founded a State called Deseret, but
Congress organized it as the territory
OF Utah, and Young was United States
Governor from 1850 TO 1854. The
Mormons having deficd the federal
government, President Buchanan in
1857 sent force of $500 men, under
Albert Sidney johnson, TO enforce It's
authority, and in 1858 a compromise
was effected. Brigham had twelve
actual wives, besides many who had
been "sealed to him" as his spiritual
wives. As the head of the Mormon
church, he was long de fdcto Governor
Of the Territory, and was semi-annual-
ly elected President. Many OF the
crueltics practiced upon emigrants
have been laid to his charge, and it is
the common belief that he was the in
stigator of the Mountain Meadows
massacre, for completely in which
Bishop Lee was recently shot. The
shrewdness with which he has man
aged the affairs of the Mormon church
have been remarkable.1 .H
The Philadelphia Tines, in alluding
to the death of the great Mormon lead.
err says;
The oft-quotcd proverb that tells us
to "speak nothing but good Of the
dead" is, to our thinking most i'm
moral. II we are to speak well Of a
man whose life has been o tissue of
crime, because he is dead, thon one Of
the supports of virtue is withdrawn.
1t is false and wasby piece OF scnti-
mentalism 10 refuse to draw the true
lesson Of a mans life, because that life
isclosed. On the contrary, is is our
duty to use every noble life as a slim
ulus and example; every wicked one
as warning. The life Of Brigham
Young has been one Of imposture, de-
ccit, selfish greed, tyranny, lust and
crime; and Il is indeed, a public mis-
fortune that he should have died calm.
ly in his bed leaving the outraged law
unavenged, his ill.gotten wealth and
power unimpaired, and even his pro
phetic imposturcs and saintship unex.
posed. Every instance of successful
villainy persisted in to the last, and
dying rich, honored and worshiped by
the world, or any considerable portion
of it, furnishes inducement for others to
enter upon such lives. Boss Tweed
lying in prison is health giving spec
tacle; Louis Napoleon dying in exile
is warning against usurpation Brig
ham Young, dying rich, honored, iull
of years, and worshipcd as q saint, is
as bad lesson as well could be. That
he had vast abilities none can deny
He not only had practical worldly
wisdom, the craft Of money getting
and the low cunning Of the impostor,
but he had large sagacity, foresight
and prudence, an immense hold upon
the minds and affections Of his people.
He used all these rare qualities, to cs-
tablish over the people Of his faith
and government, the most bcnumbing
despotism that the world has seen for
centuries. 1t is upon him that the
moral responsibility Of the Mountain.
Meadow massacre rests. Bishop Lee,
who was shot, was more Immediately
concerned in the execution Of hidoous
butchcry; but Brigham Young knew
of it, and protected tho murderers af.
ter the crime. not only protected
them from punishment by law, bat he
retained them as bishops Of his church.
He ought to have been tried by the
laws Of the United States for murder.
He was worse than an accessory be.
fore and after the fact, II was he who
made the crime possible. He had In.
spired the fierce, narrow and bloody
fanaticism which led the Mormon
butchers In the name Of religion to
strcw the meadows with slaughtered
men and women. When shi.Ba-
zouks do this, il seems the wild and
brutal ferocity Of balfcivilized mon
and halfcivilized creed but Brig
ham Young's people were Europeans
and Americans; ii Is impossible to be-
lieve that he was deluded by his own
preteutioDs as a prophet or saint. He
was rank impostor, selfish, grusping,
tyrannizing over the souls and bodies
OF his victims, degrading their minds
with his superstition, their consciences
with bis crimes, their bodies with bis
lusts. Tho great tragedy of tho death
of Brigham Young is the void II will
leave In the lives Of those who bellev
ed in him. Doubtless they mourn him
now as loss irrcparable. TO them,
perhaps, he seemed divine, holy, the
representative Of God on earth His
powerful hand alone has held tho Mor
mon colony together In the midst oi
the dangers and difficulties that sur
rounded II, Now they are doomed to
SEQ II tumble into wreck and dissolu-
tion. Tho young man, brigham
Young's son, who is to succeed him,
cannot WELD the sceptre that his ih-