, 1877-02-02

for the admission Of that Territory
into the Union as State a brief ret
respect Of the character of its orig
inal settlers, and Of their faith may
not be without interest to our read
ers. In the history and religion of
the Mormon church and people there
is much that is good and much that
is bad. The story of the discovery
of the brazen tablets that disappeared
under the translation of Joseph Smith
and the account of their finding, are
the fables of an artful mind, and on
ly calculated to impress the ignorant
and the superstitious. The history
of Moroni and the lost tribes of Is
rael is the clumsy fiction of a young
gentleman from Ohio, who wrote
harmless tale to beguile the hours of
an invalid, little dreaming that bigot-
ry would use his manuscript to found
upon it the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints. How from among
the uneducated poor of New York
was formed the nucleus of a congre.
cation to follow the new prophet
into the West; how superstition con-
tributed to swell their numbers, till
at Nauvoo, Illinois, was laid the
foundations of temple in which to
celebrate the mysteries of the new
faith; how the disciples we're punish
ed for stealing horses and robbing
hen-roosts, rendering them martyrs;
how Joseph Smith was inhumanly
murdered, and how the blood of the
martyrs became the seed of the
church-is all told in the story of
their first prophet. The emigration
from Illinois and Missouri to find
new home in some distant land be-
yond the reach of civilization and
persecution, was conducted under
the inspiration of Brigham Young,
upon whose shoulders the mantle of
prophecy had fallen. He saw be-
yond the Rocky mountains a land
o. fertility and beauty, unused and
unoccupied-a place for carrying out
the experiment of his religion and
for the foundation of colony that
might expand into a State.
The periIous adventures of these
bold and hardy Mormon pioneers as
they went forth to seek the promised
land and the resoluteness with which
they endured the privations Of a toll
some march, form romantic chapter
Of our American civilization. Two
events have disturbed the dream of
the Moses who lead them into the
wilderness. The revelation of the
doctrine of polygamy, which has
proved to be mistake because of
the happening Of the other event,
the discovery Of gold in California
4
ultimating in the surrounding of the
Mormons with a large Gentle popu-
lation to whose civilization the doc.
trine of pOlygamy is antagonistic.
Without this feature Mormonism
would have made a better fight
against its enemies; with it it is lit
enlly an Ishmaslite in the desert
is hand is against every one, and
every ones against it. The other in
1uences Of the church might not
compare unfavorably with many an
older faith. That the Mormons are
an industrious. orderly and in their
,sn,s = religious people. viii Be con-
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ouninriabls i.rn hoa... thising
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