New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-08-30
brigham YOUNG.

BRIGHAM YOUNG.
The death of Brigham Young closes the
story of strange career, and opens the last
chapter in the history of a peculiar people.
The priest and politician, despot and pope, is
dead, and all his LatterDay Saints, all his
revelations and ordinances all his wealth and
power, could not save him. He died just as
any man who was not an apostle and
prophet might have died, just as any poor
and weak impostOr, who had never made mil
lions by lying, might have died. Kch ana
great as he was, he was only an impostor, TOO,
who founded religion to do his stealing with,
and who, when the books of the world are
posted, viii be set down under the ignomin-
ious head of obtaining money under false
pretences." Even his dupes vii! find out some
day that their prophet was really nothing bat
a cunning clever old rascal and no prophet
at all. and they Will wonder how he could
have left them without so much as
parting wink, to show that he had enjoyed
the Joke. His most ignorant and credu-
lOus followers will not be long In learning
that his revelations were but the reveal
lions of selfish and despotic heart, and
that his church was only limited corporation
for his unlimited ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. However
this may be, there Is an end to the reYela-
tons; there will be no more wives sealed to
him, no more bishops on whom he shall lay
his hands. He has been called to bis
account like any other poor sinner, saint
though he was. And il any are tempted to
think, with the massacre Of Mountain Meadow
fresh in mind that there was an account here
which ought, perhaps, TO have been settled
/ lat lao
Justice is used to being cheated and would
hardly believe her unaccuatomed eyes Ii she
should get the best Of bargain. Let 1t DE
remembered, too, that the prophet has gone
with his bloody hands beyond our jurisdiction.
Sham as he was. he made big figure III the
world He was a Yankee MOhammcd, an Amer
lean autocrat. ! founded kingdom within
a republic, and welded IA power such as no
civilized king enjoys. lie established religion
of Righteousness in contempt of all written and
unwritten law and defed not only the stat
utes but the armies of the United States. lie
acquired such absolute control of tie minds
and bodies of his disciples that he accumulated
out of the produce of their labor an estate OF
probably several millions. There have been
| leaders and rulers who achieved perhaps an
equal success, but most of them had bet
ter start. Brigham YOung's native powers
alone secured him kingdom and a
flock and q fortune He inherited nothing.
He was born, poor and obscure, in a New-Eng-
land village; he died, at nearly fOur-scOre, a
rich and unrepentant pagan. But even this
teacher of a false faith, who was grasping and
tvrannical where other teachers of new faiths
have often been sincere enough to be unset
/ ...oIs inn 70 fItQ ntrV IN
which he lived, but with which he refused to
have anything to do. He built up large and
prosperous community in region that was be-
fore desert, and developed the resources of
broad territory. He was the greatest of
American pioneers. While he believed that he
had got beyond the reach of civilization, he had
only quickened its westward march.
but it is with the people, and not with their
! leader, that we are chiefly concerned now.
What will become Of the Mormon Church,
now that there is no longer any great Nor
monl For If there is any one fit and ready
/ to take Brigham YOung's place, he has not
shown himself. The mantle seems to fall to
the ground. Young had absorbed the Mormon
/ Church. 1t was a part of him, and it cannot
! long survive him in its present proportions.
/ Il was his courage and skill that saved the
| Church in its infancy from dangers that
threatened Its life. 1t was his indomitable
Will and endless resources that buoyed it M
/ through the horrors of the migration to Utah.
/ 1t was his practical sagacity that chose the
place for the new settlement, organized and
developed its industries and made his
people prosperous. 1t was his craft that
stimulated their fanaticism, and taught
them to look upon him as next to God
He always knew just when to shed blood
But even Brigham Young could not keep his
church intact. A little civilization would leak
in through the bikes which he built about it.
His peculiar institution had already come into
an rrepressibe conflict with the locomotive
and the newspaper, and there could have been
but one issue to the contest But now the end
will be fastened. The master-spirit is gone,