Smyrna times., 1877-09-05
Bringham Young Dead.

Bringham Young, the great Mormon
Priest, died in his palace in Salt Lake City,
Utah. last week, of cholera morbus. Says
the New York Tribune:
The death of Bringham Young closes
the story of a 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 Latter Day |
Saints, all his revelations and ordinances,
all his wealth and power, could not save
him. lie died just as any man who was
not an apostle and a prophet might have
died, Just as any poor and weak impostOr,
who had never made millions by lying,
might have died. Rich and 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, will be set down under the ignomin-
ious head of obtaining money 'under false
pretences." Even his dupes will find out
nothing but cunning, clever old rascal,
and no prophet at all, and they will
wonder how he could have left them with
out so much as a parting wink, to show
that he had enjoyed the joke. His most
ignorant and credulous followers will not be
long in learning that his revelations"
were but the revelations Of a selfish and
despotic heart, and that his church was only
limited corporation for his unlimited ag-
grandizement. However this may be,
there is an end to the revelations; there
will be no more wives sealed to him, no
more bishops on whom he shall lay his
hands. He has been called to his account
like any other poor sinner, saint though he
was. And if 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 before he went, let it be re-
membered that justice is used to being
cheated, and would hardly believe her un-
accustomed eyes if she should get the best
Of bargain. Let it be remembered, too,
that the prophet has gone with his bloody
hands beyond our jurisdiction.
Sham as he was, he made big figure in
the world. He was Yankee Mohammed,
an American autocrat. He founded a
kingdom within republic, and welded
power such as no civilized king enjoys.
He established a religion of licentiousness
in contempt of all written and unwritten
law, and defied not only the statutes but
the armies of the United States. He ac-
quired such absolute control of the minds
and bodies of his disciples that he ac-
cumulated 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 better start. Brigham
Young's native powers alone secured him
kingdom and a flock and a fortune. He
inherited nothing. He was born, poor and
obscure, in a New England village; HI
died, at nearly four-score, rich and un
repentant pagan. But even this teacher o
false faith, who was grasping and tyran
nical where other teachers of new faith
have often been sincere enough to be un
selfish, was Of practical service to tn
country in which he lived, but with whicl
he refused to have anything to do II
built up large and prosperous communit
in a region that was before desert, ant
developed the resources Of a broad terri
tory. He was the greatest Of American
pioneers. While he believed that he ha
got beyond the reach of civilization, he ha
only quickened its westward march.
But it is with the people, and not wit
their leader, that we are chiefly concerne
now. What will become of the Mormo
Church, now that there is no longer an
great Mormon? For if there is any one {
and ready to take Brigham Young's plac
he has not shown himself, The mant
seems to fall TO the ground. Young ha
obsorbed the Mormon Church. 1t was
part of him, and it cannot long survive hi
in its present proportions. 1t was b
courage and skill that saved the Church
its infancy from dangers that threatene
its life. 1t was his indomitable will en-
endless resources that buoyed it up throug
the horrors of the migration to Utah.
was his practical sagacity that chose Il
place for the new settlement, organize
and developed its industries, and made b