The Press. — 1857-05-02 (London, England)

THE MORMONS AND THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. THE latest news from the United States indicates the probability of a speedy collision between the federal authorities and the Mormons. Brigham Young some time singe ordered all the records and papers of the Supreme Court of the territory to be destroyed. They were seized and deliberately burned, with a collection of nine hundred volumes of the United States' laws and reports. Young has also cancelled several decisions of the federal judge, and liberated and promoted convicted felons. As Brigham Young, by some extraordinary compromise of the late Administration, is the duly-appointed governor of the territory of Utah, he draws a salary from the Treasury at Washington in that capacity, and therefore burning the library and archives of the Supreme Court of the federal power becomes en overt act of treason and rebellion. The judge of the Supreme Court, Mr. Drummond, unprotected and a " Gentile," having no force behind him to carry out his decisions, unable to get verdicts, and altogether reduced to a cipher, has resigned, and sent in a formal complaint and description of the state of things generally in the City of the Salt Lake to the AttorneyGeneral of the Union at Washington. The case is, therefore, fairly before the Government. Judge Drummond states that the Mormon chief priest, like the " Old Man of the Mountain," has a sworn band of assassins—the Danites—who commit murder at the command of the Church as a religious duty, inflict bodily mutilations on offending persons as a secondary punishment, seize property, and are generally the " executive" officers of the chief. Suspected parties, or those known to be dangerous to the Church, disappear, especially in leaving the territory ; they are supposed to be murdered by the Indians ; really, the judge says, they are disposed of by order of Brigham Young. Mr. I)rummond's predecessor is declared to have been poisoned, and the late secretary of the territory, Mr. Babbitt, and Captain J. Gunnison, and a party of eight others, Judge Drummond asserts to have been murdered. The newspaper rumours of such things have hitherto been doubted; but they are taking shape and form, and revealing the extraordinary fact that, far in the wilderness, there is a community of 100,000 people governed by an absolute theocracy, with polygamy as the basis of society and assassination a recognised instrument of the religious despotism. The anomalous condition of affairs is, next to the slavery question, the most perplexing domestic sub SAtTIRDAY,  ject now before the Government and people of the United States. Since the day the Mormons made themselves a power in the politics of Illinois, no Administration has possessed the courage to oppose them. Mr. Buthanan and his Cabinet, however, are about to attempt a revolution among the Latter-Dav Saints. It is proposed to send to Utah a military force, officered by persons of character, who have families ; and judges and executive officers of worth and high standing, who have families, are to be appointed in place of Brigham Young. These measures will, it is believed, afford ample protection t,) the territorial functionaries, and at the same time impart an enlightened and purer tone to the morals of the community. The order recently issued front the War Department, withdrawing General Harney from the conduct of the Indian war in Florida and directing him to repair to Fort Leavenworth, there to await special instructions, may perhaps have something to do with the contemplated coup d'etat of the Administration.