THE MORMONS. -- A California Emigrant has a letter in the last Carrolton Gazette, recounting his trials and tribulations on a journey across the Continent. He was taken sick at Salt Lake, and was compelled to remain there for a time. -- He had an excellent opportunity for observing the manners and customs of the Mormons, and reiterates the charge of polyhamy which has so often been alleged against them. He says:

While at the Mormon city, I wrote something about the place and people, but not the whole truth; for I had learned too well with whom I had to deal, to trust in a letter, what might cost me my life.

I had supposed them to be a simple, credulous people, more sinned against than sinning, and led by men only superior to themselves in folly; -- and this was, perhaps, their original character; but they have become corrupt as the Devil could wish, and their leaders are more fit for hell than Elijah was for heaven the day of his translation. They hold in open contempt and derision, the laws of their country; and their children, when they arrive at a certain age, are sworn to bear eternal enmity to our government; and to hold themselves in readiness to retake their heritage, as they style it, in Illinois and Missouri. Polygamy is not only tolerated, but encouraged -- Brigham Young, their spiritual head and lawgiver, has 24 mives with him. One of them was stoned to death by his order, while we were in the Valley. H. C. Kimbal has 8 wives with him. Pratt has 7, one of his having run off with an emigrant. Gen. Rich, with whom I boarded, had 5 with him; and all have more in the states yet, I am told.

Mormons may deny this, and many other enormities; but I, and every other person who spent any time there, know it to be true. They profess to have no law, but that of Righteousness, which they so interpret, as to give full scope to the basest passions that disgrace human nature.


Notes: (forthcoming)

==> The Tri-Weekly Jacksonville Journal asks why it was right to allow pay to the Delegate from New Mexico and not from Utah? Because the Delegate from New Mexico was a duly qualified representative from a Territory regularly organised -- while Babbitt was sent on as a Representative from the State of Deseret, and there was no such territory as Utah organised, when he was admitted to a seat. -- Babbitt at best, is a shallow demagogue, who, we have long been of the opinion, has attatched himself to the Mormon community for the most selfish and mercenary purposes. He in company with the celebrated Backenstos, on one occasion, represented that people in the legislature from Hancock, and in that capacity was a mere instrument in the hands of the corrupt politicians who then controlled the State. He has always been considered a go-between, a negotiator between the locofoco leaders of Illinois and Iowa and the Mormons. Our contemporary of the Journal must certainly be aware of the fact, that Babbitt on a recent occasion, left Washington post haste for Iowam for the purpose, if possible, of influencing the Mormons to vote the locofoco ticket, but it would seem that he is losing his influence with the Mormons, as he did not succeed in his mission. The question is, who supplied the money for this trip to Iowa and with which to bribe the Mormons, as Babbitt boasted he had the means with him to do? He did not furnish them out of his own pocket, for he is not one of that sort; and it is shrewdly suspected that he had a guaranty before he left Washington, that mileage and a per diem should be voted him in consideration that he should go on a mission to the Mormons of Iowa. We do not think, therefore, that his services, even to the Mormons, was worth the price the House paid for them.


Notes: (forthcoming)

HOW IT WORKS TO HAVE MANY WIVES. -- (In these days of free discussion, we are all interested to see how polygamy answers. -- The editor of a Wisconsin paper gives an account of a visit paid him by one of the Mormons. He says:)

"Mr. Mills lived a year with Mr. Cheeseman, who had three wives -- one old and two young ones: all have separate beds; the yoinger have one child each, and the oldest has four or five. Mr. Cheeseman has had two more wives, but one bolted and the other poisoned herself. Mr. Mills says it is generally supposed that a family composed of a plurality of wives, live peacefully and happily, but that it causes bickerings, heartburnings, and continual strife. He says there is a division of sentiment among them in regard to the practice, the women advocating it as strongly as the men; that a year ago they were equally divided in regard to it, but that the tide of public sentiment is setting strongly against it, that this change of sentiment against polygamy is owing to discussion, and the practical developments of the system. He thinks that it might be defended from the Old Testament, but that strict morality forbids it -- that it makes men tyrants and women brutes, and that very few of the saints practice it.


Notes: (forthcoming)

SCHISM AMONG THE MORMONS. -- It appears that the Mormons of Beaver Island under the leadership of Strang have been excluded, anathematized and excommunicated by the main body of the Saints. Their heresy consists in using phosphorus and calling it the Holy Ghost.


Notes: (forthcoming)

==> Strang, the Mormon prophet, and King of Beaver Island, Lake Michigan, has been apprehended by the U. S. authorities, for counterfeiting and trespassing upon the Public Lands.


Notes: (forthcoming)

==> A. W. Babbitt, the delegate in Congress from Utah, recently left the frontier for Salt Lake. He appeared pretty well supplied with wivesa, as he had no less than six in his company. So says a correspondent of a Wisconsin paper. He is too great a scamp for even the Mormons, as they recently expelled him from their church.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Mormons at the Old Tricks

We subjoin a statement, published in the Oregon Spectator of June 12, by a Rev. Mr. Goodall, who among others, had the misfortune to spend the winter at Salt Lake:

The number of our company is 103; of them 48 are men, of them 49 are men, 19 women, and the rest children, included in 10 families. Being compelled to winter among the Mormons, it gave us an opportunity of becoming acquainted with their manners and customs. Concubinage, polygamy, and incest, are common among them. -- It is not at all uncommon for a man to take for his wives a mother and a daughter at the same time. Polygamy is publicly advocated by the leaders. Brigham Young, according to the testimony of the Mormons themselves, has over 80 wives.

Between 600 and 1000 persons, immigrants, wintered in the Salt Lake valley -- most of them were bound for California. They all suffered more or less of injustice and wrongs from the Mormons. The liberty of speech was denied them. Their lives were threatened by the heads of the church, if they said aught against the religion or practices of the Mormons. The most unjust measures were resorted to to rob the immigrants of their money. One man ventured to say "that if a man in the States had as many wives as Young, he would be called a wicked man," was immediately arrested and fined $50 and costs.

To cap the climax, an unjust and cruel tax was imposed upon them. After they had left their settelement, they were followed 60 miles from their city by the State Marshal, with power to assess their property and collect tax at the same time -- authorized to seize their teams if the tax was not promptly paid. This tax was 2 per cent. on every kind of property they possessed -- even to the beds -- valued at the prices put upon such property in Salt Lake valley. The immigrants had to pay from $15, up to as high as $50 and $60 each. This, considering the circumstances in which they were placed, they felt severely.

The Mormons are opposed to the Government of the United States -- speak against it publicly and privately, and predict its overthrow.


Notes: (forthcoming)

From the Correspondence of the Mo. Republican.

Later from Utah Territory -- Cause of the
Withdrawal of the U. S. Officers.

Independence, October 31, 1851.    

On yesterday afternoon, the Salt Lake Mail reached here, arriving at Fort Laramie on the 16th inst. The party in charge met with no detention this trip, other than that arising from a slight snow storm. The roads were in fine condition. Grass and water are plenty.

Messrs. Richard Phelps, Foster and Boyer were passengers through -- the two latter from Fort Laramie, and Phelps from Salt Lake.

It seems that the Mormons are at their old game -- creating difficulties with those who try to be friends and neighbors. B. D. Harris, Secretary; L. J. Brandenburg, Chief Justice; P. E. Brochus, Associate Judge; H. R. Day, Indian Agent, Gillam and Young, have all left the Territory, and will be here by the 4th or 5th of next month. Cogswell and Young, and one or two others, will not be in quite so soon -- they have been compelled to leave the Valley on account of the seditious sentiments of Gov. Brigham Young, and other leaders of the Mormon church. -- On every occasion those men have been denouncing our government before the officers, and especially at their religious gatherings, in such a manner as to make every one unpleasant who was not connected with them -- asserting, among other things, "that Congress is a pack of corrupt swindlers" -- that "our government stinks in the nostrils of Jehovah," &c., &c. Church and State are so much merged in one, that justice on any occasion, cannot be rendered, and any one unconnected with the church is unsafe either as to life or property.

The $20,000 appropriated by Congress for public buildings has been taken to pay off the debts of the church, and only a short time before the merchants and Judges left, Brigham Young called together, secretly, the Legislature, and passed resolutions and issued orders for the seizure of twenty-four thousand dollars more from the hands of Harris -- Harris persisted in retaining it, and only by the using of an injunction by the Supreme Court, was he able to do so, and get away with the money. In consequence of this last act of theirs, matters were brought to a crisis, and each and all left -- the merchants without their property, and the Judges and officers to resign their places. I think, now, all must begin to see that trouble springs from the Mormons, and not others.

Nothing of great interest transpired on the road with the mail party...


Notes: (forthcoming)

==> According to a census taken by themselves, there are 18,000 Mormons at the settlement on Salt Lake. They are engaged in constructing a line of railroad to the Mountain, eight miles long, for the purpose of transferring materials necessary for their great Temple.


Notes: (forthcoming)

ANOTHER VERSION. -- The Washington correspondent of the Courier and Enquirer says:

Dr. Bernhisel, delegate from Utah, arrived here on Thursday last. He evinces much feeling at the reports here prevalent to the disadvantage of Gov. Young and the Mormon community. He denies that there is truth in any of them. The letter published in the Washington Union, and extensively circulated through other prints, which attributes to Gov. Young the most gross and vulgar denunciation of the government, is said to have been written by a judicial officer of Utah. DR. Bernhisel says Gov. Young never used on any occasion such language as that Gen. Taylor was dead and gone to ____. The speech in which he is charged with having perpetrated this scandalous indecency, was made on the 24th July at some celebration. The Dr. says he was present and heard all that was passed, and not only was nothing said disrespectful to the memory of Gen. Taylor or the Government of the United States, but Gov. Young habitually and always expressed himself perfectly satisfied with the course of General Taylor's administration towards the Mormons, and declared that he was deeply sensible of President Fillmore's kindness towards himself and his people. The delegate states also, that when he left the territory everything was perfectly quiet.


Notes: (forthcoming)

==> In the Frontier Guardian we find the minutes of the General conference of Mormons, at Salt Lake City. They contain the following account of Judge Broachus' speech before them. It differs very materially from the Judge's statement:

Monday, September 5th, 10 A. M.    

Conference called to order by President Young; singing; prayer by Elder Joseph Young, and singing.

President Young then introduced the Hon. Perry E. Broachus, Judge of the Supreme Court for Utah Territory; who thanked the people of the Territory for their hospitality and kindness in attending him in his sickness, when he was a stranger. He bore testimony of the peacefulness of the inhabitants, their fellowship, peace and love, one towards another, their submission to the tribunals of their own choice, and prayed God to grant that the time may soon come, that all United States may may soon have such tribunals as are in the Territory, and that it always would bring peace to the heart of those who had to be judged. He expressed his indignation and abhorrence of the scenes which transpired in driving the Latter-day Saints from Missouri and Illinois.

He then presented a description of the monument intended to be built to the memory of General Washington, and finished his discourse by saying that he should always remember with deep gratitude, and respect, his interview with the Latter-day Saints in their mountain city.

He was followed in his remarks by President Young, and the congregation was dismissed with benediction by Elder Wilford Woodruff.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Fight with the Mormons -- Six Men
Dangerously Wounded

(The Strangites -- under construction)

Notes: (forthcoming)

Ford's History of Illinois.

The New York correspondent of the Alton Courier makes the following notice of the above forth-coming work, now being published...

... From a cursory glance over portions of the manuscript, I can bear testimony to its fidelity in speaking of both men and measures, and the ability that its pages display. When treating of the great public measures, or marked events of the State, he speaks of those who participated in one or the other with firmness and great plainness, allowing his party prejuduces or partialities to have no controlling influence over him, in detailing facts and circumstances as they transpired under his own observation....

And that part of the work devoted to the rise, progress and fall of Mormonism in your State, is marked by a fidelity of accurate detail that will leave it without any equal up to the present time. Some public men, who have played parts in the historical drama of Illinois during the first quarter of a century of her existence as a State, may have reason for differing with me in the estimate I place upon this forthcoming work; but the great body of your citizens, and especially the early settlers of Illinois, and their survivors, will rejoice at its appearance, and will have cause for holding in respect the memory of the late Thomas Ford. I might add there are no chapters of the work that will be read with more interest than those which cover the period of his administration as Executive of Illinois.


Notes: (forthcoming)

BOTH CHEEKS. -- That passage of the new Testament wherein it is recommended that if thy adversary smite thee upon one cheek, turn unto him also the other also, was expounded by Joe Smith the Mormon founder, to mean just this: a man may strike you at first under a mistake, or without intending any harm, and you ought not to strike back immediately, but turn the other cheek, and give him an opportunity to explain, or if he is in earnest, to repeat the offence. However, you need not turn a third time, but if a man strikes you twice, then [go] into him like a thousand of brick.


Note: If the above account truly represented the doctrine of Joseph Smith, Jr., it appears that he did not understand the Middle Eastern cultural context of Jesus' teaching -- in which strikers would normally use the backs of their hand for an initial assault, but then have to use the palms of their hands in repeating the act (when striking the opposite side of the victim's face). Such a continuation of an assault would likely expose the assailant as either an unjust person or a hypocrite -- since the palm of the hand was generally used only to strike errant family members. However, see also Smith's Aug. 6, 1833 "revelation" on this same topic: "if men will smite you, or your families, once, and ye bear it patiently... But if he trespass against thee the fourth time thou shalt not forgive him... and if he [does not repent] I, the Lord, will avenge thee of thine enemy an hundred-fold."

A MORMON IN LIMBO. -- Bill Smith, the Mormon prophet, and brother of Joe Smith, the renowned founder of the Mormon Church, which is becoming so noted, we might say throughout the civilized world -- is now closely confined in the jail at this place. He being indicted, gave bail for his appearance at the last Circuit Court, but, having got some presentiment -- and we think it would hardly require any supernatural power to give it to him -- that the case rather favored the side of the people, he vacated these parts. But owing to some disarrangement in the Mormon underground railroad, or the adroitness of the person in pursuit, he was brought to a halt at St. Louis, and marched back to Dixon. He had started, we are told, for Salt Lake City. "Jordan is a hard road to travel." -- Dixon Telegraph.


Note: This same report from the Dixon Telegraph was also reprinted in the Quincy Daily Herald of May 13, 1854.

Mormons For Buchanan.

The Mormon of Saturday last rallies the forces of Joe Smith and polygamy against the People's candidate for the Presidency in the following terms:

"Many of the States are going to be very evenly balanced, and notwithstanding their noise and gasconade, Mormonism can yet control several thousand votes in a number of States of this Union, and we say to our friends, keep your weather-eye open, you may hear from us again. If we do anything, we want deeds, not words.

"We cannot, at any rate, vote for our enemies, and although the bayonets and pistols these fools talk about are all in their brains, yet if these whelps are not stopped [in] their howling, we will give them a pill to swallow that will be difficult of digestion next November."

The enemies whom the Mormons are thus called on to resist, are the Republican party, who have honestly declared against their institution of polygamy; and the friends they are to favor are the Border Ruffians, whose doctrine of Squatter Sovreignty involves the approval and legalization of that institution. How many votes can thus be brought up against [the Republican candidate] Fremont, we have no means of knowing precisely, but fancy that there cannot be more than 500 of them. How many intelligent citizens will be induced to give their suffrages to Buchanan by the knowledge that his cause is that of the polygamists of Salt Lake City, remains to be seen. -- N. Y. Tribune.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Crescent City Oracle. -- Such is the title of a small, but decidedly spicy sheet just started at Crescent City, Iowa, a new town some twenty miles from Council Bluffs. It is printed by L. O. Littlefield, who, we believe printed Joe Smith's paper, at Nauvoo, and more recently, The Bugle, at Council Bluffs.


Notes: (forthcoming)

(From the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser.)

The Mormon Leaders.

Both Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball are New Yorkers. Brigham lived near the line dividing Ontario and Monroe counties, in the town of Victor, at the time he became a Mormon. He had always manifested a proclivity to religious fanaticism, or rather he was a lazy rapscallion, good for nothing except to howl at a camp meeting. He lived in a log shanty, with a dilapidated, patient, suffering wife, surrounded by a host of tow headed children. Occasionally he made up a lot of axe-helves and traded them off for sugar and tea; in other fits of industry he would do a day's work in the hay-field for a neighbor, hoe the potatoes in his own little patch, or pound clothes for his wife on a washing day. But his special mission was to go camp-meetings and revivals, where he managed to get his daily bread out of the more wealthy brethren, in consideration of the unction with which he shouted "ga-lo-rah!" On such occasions Brigham took no thought of the morrow, but cheerfully putting on his old wool hat, would leave his family without flour in the barrel or wood at the door, and telling his wife that the "Lord would provide," he would put off for a week's absence. Poor Mrs. Brigham managed by borrowing from her neighbors with the small hope of paying, chopped the wood herself, with an old sun-bonnet -- Navarino style -- went to the spring for water, thoroughly convinced that her lot was not of the easiest, and that her husband was, to use a western expression, an "ornary cuss;" in which sentiment all who knew him joined. People were getting very tired of Brigham when Mormonism turned up. He was just the man for the religion and the religion seemed expressly adapted to him. He became an exhorter, held neighborhood meetings, ranted and howled his doctrines into the minds of others as weak as himself, and finally went West, with the rest of them, where he has developed his powers until the poor, miserable rustic loafer is Governor of a Territory and the chief prophet of a great religious sect. He has just the mixture of shrewdness and folly which is required for success in fanaticism or quackery. A wiser man could not hold his place. A man must be half fool and half knave to be a successful quack.

Heber C. Kimball was a man of more respectability. He was a born fanatic, and if he was not a Mormon would be something else just like it. In his church -- he was a Baptist originally -- he was one of those pestilent fellows who want resolutions passed at church meetings withholding fellowship from somebody else, and insist on having a political codicil added to the Bible. We believe he had some property. He has much more talent than Brigham Young, but is inferior to him in the elements of quackery. He has very respectable relatives now living in the part of Monroe county from which he started.


Note: For a contemporary account of Brigham Young's baptism into Mormonism, see the Apr. 14, 1832 issue of the Rochester Liberal Advocate.

(From the Lexington Express, Sept. 26..)

From the Plains.

Our young and adventurous friend, Capt. C. Ben Russell, arrived at home, in this city on Tuesday last, after an absence of some three months, during which time he has visited Salt Lake City, and the intermediate points.

He tells us that the Cheyenne Indian depredations are unabated, and that they are daily growing more daring. When he left SDalt Lake, the Mormons had fortified Fort Bridger, and say they will defend that fort against the passage of United States troops; and that they will whip out all the United States troops that can be sent against them, &c., which means that they will run the very first time our troops are brought to a stand against them. But the spirit of Mormonism is of decidedly a hostile character, and will require chastisement, before being reduced to subordination and a decent respect to law....


Notes: (forthcoming)

An Object of Mormon Vengeance.

We find the following letter in the Cincinnati Commercial:

Eds. Com. -- It will be remembered by many of your readers that Parley P. Pratt (one of the twelve apostles of the Salt Lake Mormon Church,) was killed by Mr. McLain [sic] after he had taken the wife of McLain unto himself. The children of Mr. and Mrs. McLain were secretly taken away from the guardianship of their grandparents, (the father and mother of Mrs. McLain,) for the purpose of taking them to Utah. To prevent these children from being carried off to Utah, I communicated a knowledge of the facts in my possession to their grandfather. I neither expected or advocated the killing of Pratt, but I have obtained indisputable evidence that the Danites of Brigham Young's church have decreed that I shall share in the fate of P. P. Pratt.

The public, and more especially the constituted authorities of this city, therefore, understand where they may find the guilty party, in case they succeed in their malicious and murderous designs. I can, however, look back with delight on the part that I performed for the deliverence of these children from Salt Lake degradation, altho' I know that it may cost my life, unless the publication of these facts prevents it. -- If I am sacrificed for this act, I shall die a martyr's death, for I never sought the life of Parley P. Pratt, and I detest the wicked practices of Salt Lake Mormonism, inasmuch as I am a believer in those principles which were formerly called Mormonism, and which the Salt Lake leaders have abandoned.

ISAAC SHEEN.    

Notes: (forthcoming)

Mormonism.

The troubles in Utah are not yet at an end. The formidable army sent out by Mr. Buchanan, at an enormous expense, to subdue Brigham Young and his followers, does not seem to have met with much success. -- The lastest news from this land of pollution and polygamy, represents the affairs of that Territory as wearing a very threatening aspect, and seems clearly to argue the impossibility of the federal courts administering justice. Judge Cradlebaugh, on the occasion of discharging the grand and traverse juries, charged the Mormons with obstructing the affairs of the court, and suppressing testimony, and refusing to make provisions for the confinement and maintenance of the prisoners. Owing to the excited state of popular feeling, about 10,000 men moved from Camp Floyd, and encamped near Provo. Gov. Cumming issued a proclamation, taking ground with the Mormon sentiment. It is not stated whether he demanded the withdrawal of the troops from Provo, but his action laid him open to the charge of complicity with the Mormon theocracy. -- Much bad feeling exists between the troops and the Mormons, though the former, stationed at Provo, behaved with much forebearance. A collision is imminent.

When Congress reasserts her power to legislate for the Territories, and passes stringent laws against the crime of polygamy, and sees that they are rigidly executed, Mormonism will soon cease to disgrace the country. Of course, we can expect no such legislation of those Democrats who hold that the people of a Territory have a right to make and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way. If the evil is to be removed, it must be done by another class of men, who hold to a different doctrine.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Gen. Singleton and Judge Higbee.

Quincy, Aug. 24, 1864.    

Editors Whig and Republican: --

Being in this city on business, your daily paper of day before yesterday fell under my notice, in which I observed an extract taken from the Springfield correspondence of the Chicago Tribune, purporting to give some charges which he says Gen. Singleton made against Judge Higbee of Pike county, in a speech madse by the General at Springfield on the 18th inst., to the effect that he was at one time a Mormon, and the editor of a Mormon paper at Nauvoo, which at length became so dirty and contemptible that Joe Smith threw it into the Mississippi; and that he hung around the Legislature till he got it to pass a docket-fee bill, and then went home, became a candidate for Judge, and was elected.

As Judge Higbee is an immediate neighbor of mine, and as I have been intimately acquainted with him for many years past, I deem it a privilege, as well as my duty, to pronounce each of these charges wholly and utterly false. And without determining who is the author of these charges, would say no one knows -- or ought to know -- better than Gen. Singleton himself, that they are without any foundation in fact.

The character of Judge Higbee is too well known throughout the State to be injured by such calumnies... An elder brother of Judge Higbee, Francis M. Higbee, now deceased, was once connected with a paper in Nauvoo, but it was not, as falsely charged, a "Mormon paper," but it was an Anti-Mormon paper, devoted to the purpose of exposing the corruptions and heresies of Mormonism. So bold and successful was it in uncovering Joe Smith's wicked purposes that he (smith) being Mayor, called the city council together and procured an ordinance declaring the press a nuisance, and had it thrown into the river; which act did more to arouse the indignation of the people against the Mormons at Nauvoo than any other. Judge Higbee did not have anything to do with the paper whatever....

Very respectfully, &c.,
                SCOTT WIKE.

Notes: (forthcoming)

OLD LANDMARK. -- ...the old building on the northeast corner of Hampshire and Sixth streets was being pulled down... this house was built in the year 1835 or 1836 by Archibald Williams... It was next used as a dwelling by a man named Leach, and after him it was rented by the celebrated Joe Smith, the Mormon Prophet and founder of the Mormon religion, who had his father and mother reside in it, about the winter this sect was driven from Missouri, when most of them took refuge in Quincy. This building then was the great thesaurus of the sacred relics, trophies and curiosities of the Latter Day Saints, among which, they alleged, was the embalmed remains or mummy of the great Pharaoh who oppressed Israel and "knew not Joseph," and also pretended to have his mummified queen. This museum of curiosities was exhibited to visitors for pay, and "old mother Smith," as she was called, took great pains to expatiate on the relations these articles had to the salvation of true believers. At that time there was but one building east of this on the north side of Hampshire street... Carter & Walker's wagon shop...


Note: See also Henry Asbury's 1882 book, Reminiscences of Quincy, Illinois. On page 153 of his history, Asbury says that the Joseph Smith, Sr. and his wife rented a portion of a house on the northeast corner of Hampshire and Sixth -- and that they "set up a museum of curiosities, consisting mainly of several mummies from Eqypt."