The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1885-04-16

families, and are baptized for each indi-
vidual named therein, men for men, and
women for women. Mrs. Prescendia
Kimball Tone of the wives of Heber G.
Kimball) and her sister, Mrs. lima ID.
Huntington Young Ca spouse of Brig
hams have been immersed for fifteen
hundred Of their relatives. members of the
Huntington family, with which, because
or the distinguished ancestresS of these
ladies', Lady Huntington. we are all famil-
lar. Mormon feels aninterest in anyone
outside his church, or in any individuallong
since dead, he may be baptized for him, or
she for her, as the case may be. Thus
George Washington, Mary Queen of Scots,
and all tile luminaries Of history. are, or
may be made, good Mormons.
There are certain tenets in the Mormon
creed which christians may heartily en-
dorse, and if they would only give up their
polygamy, they might live in peace on the
broad soil Of America. But they have
been so warred against upon this one
point, that now polygamy and Mormonlsm
have grown to be interchangeable terms.
| think they would willingly. gladly, die
for it. 1t is their stern fanaticism, under
the mandates of despotic church, that
makes them a national danger. Kindly
upright men, who have given their con-
sciences into the church's keeping are
metamorphosed into such blood thirsty
fanatics as were ever the Thugs at the
bidding of their fakirs. The doctrine of
blood -atonement, and all the rest OF their
stern ritual, in which they think they are
fulfilling every jot and little OF the Mosaic
law. seems incomprehensible as the creed
of the benevolent and hospitable people
we met III Mormondom, Mormon coloni-
cation should be stopped. In few years
they may hold the balance OF political
power in Idaho, Arizona and possibly
Colorado A pest spot should be quaran-
tined, and these Mormons should be re-
turned to Utah whence they came as colo
nists. And were such a measure within
the bounds Of possibility, we would advocate
the speedy and effectual suppression OF
immigration from other lands of recruits
for Mormonism. If we can shut out
Chinese and paupers, the constitution
should be sufficiently elastic to exclude
emigrants for Utah. Unsupported by ac-
cessions from without, we think plural
marriage would die a natural death. The
younger generation has not suffered for
the principle, as its fathers did they do
not like to feel that they are growing up
under BAN they do not want to be diff
ferent from all the rest of the civilized
world. But those who make the Mormons
martyrs, only strengthen their cause. Two
things should be remembered in their
favor;
|. When they came to Utah they were
striving to leave the United States, and
did not think they were liable to the re-
strictions of American citizenship, as
Utah then belonged to Mexico. So it is
not quite as if they were premeditated
breakers in this republic.
II. Though their polygamy is the al
legged ground of proceedings against them,
they were prosecuted in Illinois and Mis-
souri, before Joseph Smith ever received
his revelation on plural marriage.
When l look over the beautiful Utah
valley, am inclined to fear that some OF
these Jealous anti-MormOns are actuated
by the same motives which impel the
miners and ranchmen, who are positive
that the Indians ought to leave every fer
tile or mineral-bearing reservation. In
fact, the christian population OF Salt Lake
seems morbid on the Mormon question. 1t
fills its horizon. And wholesale, irration-
al and indiscriminate abuse like that con-
stantly vented by the Salt Lake Tribune
upon the Mormons, never helped any
cause yet The land Of the Deseret was
reclaimed by the Mormons from the des-
ert, and having made it blossom like the
rose, theirs is the prior claim to the homes
wrested from the wilderness. The sooner
they are constrained by legal means to obey
the laws of the land in which they live,
the better. But any illegal violence, like
that recently perpetrated upon Mormon
missionaries in Tennessee, gives Mormon
ism lease Of life longer by fifty years.
To conclude in the words of the New \ ork
independent "a strong anti Mormon paper
If anything more were necessary to
make the better class of people regret the
recent murder of Mormon Elders in Ken
lucky, it would be found in the fact that
such things deepen the determination OF
the Mormons to adhere to their religion.
Only those who have come into personal
contact with them can realize what a
power in the support Of their zeal is the
remembrance of the prosecutions through
which their early leaders passed. In Jack
son county, Missouri, and at Nauyoo, IL
linois, they were attacked in their homes
and were shot down like wild beasts.
When it is said that the Mormons would
not he molested if they would give up
polygamy. they answer that those early
prosecutions all took place before they
adopted this doctrine. The fact is, that
the mobs which attacked the first Nor
mons were made up, in great part, OF the
same low element that mobS the Salvation
Army, coarse rabble that, like a bull
dog, is ready to attack anything new AS
one hears Mormon tell the story how the
fathers of his people were driven out from
| the older states. till no course remained
| for them but to march across thousands OF
| miles of desert to establish new home, il
the nearer is not beguiled into sympathiz
| ing with the sufferers, he sees how the
I truly romantic story Of those early days
can ''fire the Mormon heart, SO that
many young man who, for its own sake
would care nothing for his Mormon Greco
will be ready TO fight desperately for it il
his Indignation at the prosecutions heape(
upon his fathers. And the story Of these
Kentucky victims will be only another
narrative to make the younger class o.
Mormons swear anew their fealty to su
perstition Mormonism cannot be over
thrown by such measures. That course
has been fully tried time and again, an(
the false religion has only become stronge
under it. NJ. V. ID.
Eczema.