HISTORY OF MORMONISM
ONE of the most striking features in the history of modern fanaticism, is unquestion-ably the progress of Mormonism in the United States. That an uneducated youth, without the recommendation of decent mo-rality, and in fact notorious only for a va-grant and dissolute life, should create and excite a new and revolutionary movement in the religious world, and be able to ope-rate on the public mind by means of the most absurd pretenses to the divine and prophetic character, and that too in an age and amongst a people who boast of their general intelligence, is a paradox scarcely to be accounted for on any known laws of the human mind. It is our intention, in this and subsequent articles, to give a brief, and, so far as practicible, correct sketch of the history of this infatuated people, during the period of their residence in the State of Illinois. For years prior to their emigration almost wilderness country in the west of Missouri, where, however popular they may have been on their first arrival, they soon rendered themselves obnoxious by setting up the most arrogant pretensions to divine favor and protection, and the advocacy of the most dangerous and disorganizing social doctrines. Smith, their dictator and proph-et, assumed to act from divine appointment. It was pretended that his mission was of both a spiritual and temporal character. He was to radically and essentially change all the features of divine worship, and her-ald the millennial reign of Christ on earth. In addition to this, so far as could be ascer-tained from his vague and rather obscure prophetic teachings, he was to establish a temporal kingdom, in which the saints were to reign, and crush the unbeliev-ing world beneath their vigorous rule.-It was claimed that the foundations of this kingdom were laid at Independence, an in-considerable village on the Missouri river. From this nucleus, it was to e extended by a series of supernatural incidents and bril-liant conquests, more miraculous, complete, and dazzling that the rapid march of the Moslem prophet under his crescent banner. For the accomplishment of his purpose and the establishment of his dynasty, he was to concentrate all the savage tribes of the far West, and animate them to revenge the wrongs they had received at the hands of the white men. The terrible Comanche, the Bedouin of the American desert; the Sacs and Foxes, still smarting under the defeat of their celebrated chieftain, Black Hawk; the Pawnees, the Omahaws, and all the wild tribes of the deep valleys and lofty crags of the Rocky Mountains, were to hear the voice of the Prophet, submit to his teachings and to give their untamed barbarian energies and employ the tactics of their destructive warfare to the establishment of Mormon supremacy.
It cannot be pretended that these bold assumptions of the Prophet were the insane rantings of stupid fanaticism, intended only for the amusement and edification of his su-perstitious and fanciful followers. The whole policy of the Prophet plainly indicated that his dreams of conquest and future empire….lted not so much from his fanaticism, as ….a lofty , earnest, and determined ambi-tion. For the purpose of advocating these…y views, he employed and sent amongst …various tribes on the skirts of his settle-ment, his most cunning emissaries, for the wed purpose of winning them over to …intended coalition. The Book of Mor-mon, which is a pretended history of the …oborigines of the country, from …ch it is claimed that the modern tribes …descended, was the principal means …by the Mormon missionaries to effect…conversion of the savages. From the pages of this blundering fiction, the red man was taught of his elevated origin; of an ancestry which had peopled a vast conti-nent, and established a civilization even superior to that of their European enemies. From the pages of this book, they were pointed to immense cities, which far sur-passed the most populous and magnificent of modern times, and which had long since decayed and passed away, leaving dis-tinct traces of their ruins behind. The heart of the modem savage was animated, and his sanguinary nature was excited and aroused by graphic details of terrific battles fought; of cities desolated; of countries laid waste, and whole tribes exterminated by ruthless and indiscriminate warfare. Whilst their admiration was enlisted by the heroic virtues of an ancestry which had perished from the earth, their own feeble and helpless condition was depicted in strong and glowing terms by the cunning missionary of the new faith. They were pointed to the European race, which had driven them from their fairest possessions, as the cause of their degradation. They were confidently promised a speedy restora-tion of all their rights, and a return to all the grandeur and power of their ancient ancestry, should they but rally and fight under the Prophet's banner. By such means as these, all the wild tribes who had suffered wrong from the usurpations of the white race were to be united under the lead-ership of Smith, and, emerging from the shades of their wilderness homes, were to pour their vengeful and desolating legions on the possessions of their enemies; and where the arts of civilization marked the conquest of the white man over the wilder-ness, was the savage to re-light his council fires, and dance his war dance amid sombre desolation and ruin.
The pioneer settlers of Missouri had en-countered much from the hostility of their Indian neighbors. In fact, they had main-tained the occupancy of their new homes as much by the terrors of the rifle as the force of law. It was consequently with considerable alarm that they learned that the emigrant Mormons, who had been re-ceived with true hospitality amongst them, were plotting with their avowed enemies……..lar that they should immediately remon-strate with decision and warmth against a course tending to inflame the untamed pas-sions of the savge and increase his natural hostility. But the remonstrance was re-cieved with contempt by the misguided fa-natics, which they neither cared to conceal or disguise. The Missourians were informed in substance, that the Mormons mnst live up to their elevated destiny; that their course, however revolutionary it might be, was marked out for them by divine appoint-ment; and that if the omnipotent Ruler of the universe intended through their in-strumentality to restore the aborigines of the country to their primitive rights, their were bound to obey, regardless of what re-sults might follow their action.
Whatever may be the faults of the Western pioneer, a tendency to fanaticism or superstition is not one of them. They would have treated the insane ravings of the Prophet with passive indifference, had it not been for his continued and repeated attempts to excite against them the wrath of the red man. Although they viewed Smith as an imposter, however false, absurd, or stupid, might conduce to its own fulfillment in the hands of desperate and misguided fanatics. It is not, therefore, wonderful that they were excited and alarmed by the acts of the Mormons in tampering with their savage enemies. Interview succeeded interview with the fanatics, for the purpose without any satisfactory results. The Mor-mons assumed a still more lofty and threat-ening attitude, and their language became still more irritating, until the Missourians, provoked beyond endurance, collected their forces, declared war against the Prophet, and, after a number of skirmishes between the parties, in which several lives were lost, and the property of the Mormons was to tally destroyed, they were finally with "strong hand" expelled from the State.
Smith, by this unfortunate termination of his settlement in Missouri, had lost years in the accomplishment of his purpose; yet his bad fortune never caused him to despair. Visions of future empire and greatness still animated his heart, and prepared him for more bold, determined, and desperate effort in the future. The land from which he had just been expelled under circumstances so humiliating to his ambition, he still claimed as his own; and if he was compelled by un-toward events to retrace his footsteps east-ward, it was only to recruit his exhausted resources, to rally and consolidate his in-creasing followers, preparatory to a more extended system of colonization in the far West.
With these views he landed at Quincy, in the State of Illinois, some time during the autumn of 1830. He was then much reduced in circumstances. Instead of the robust and ambitious fanatic, threatening Missouri and the world with divine ven-geance he was meek with endurance, gaunt and haggard with famine; a ragged desti-tute outcast of society, begging a subsis-tence at the hand of charity. The Prophet, together with his famished followers, many of whom were sick with the hardships and exposures they had encountered, were re-ceived with sincere and unaffected hospital ity by the people of Quincy, who, with ex-alted and praiseworthy benevolence and lib-eral and, administered to all their necessi-ties. Whilst the famished and suffering Morons were fed without charge by the benevolence of strangers, who had but heard of the strange sect of religionists, and of their persecutions for conscience' sake, these strangers listened with sympathy to the stories of their wrongs, and as they listen-ed they became indignant at the recital of those scenes of violence which the persecu-ted Mormons had suffered, for no other reason than their peculiarities of their faith, and die unaffected and gracious piety of their deportment. The people and the press of Illinois were loud in their denunciation of the people of Missouri for the violence they had manifested towards the Mormons.
The Prophet and his followers remained at Quincy but a short time, during which they received many letters from various portions of the State, inviting them to make a permanent settlement. Smith concluded, after some deliberation, that the most desi-rable locality for the establishment of his head-quarters was at the head of the Des Moines rapids of the Mississippi river, in the county of Hancock, then in an utmost wil-derness state. He accordingly visited that place and was received with great kindness and consideration by the few persons who then resided there. This point had for a few years past been the property of a small junto of operators in real estate, who had been laboring to build up a city by devices and expedients known exclusively to that interesting class of speculators. This ob-ject they found no difficulty to accomplish—on paper. Splendid lithographed plots of the flashing city of "Commerce" (for so was his child of ingenious speculation….. had been exhibited by the most….agents, n all….thep…were point….ches, hotel,….ings, all ….mos tapproved and gracef…of architecture. Yet, in Western phraseology, it was "no go." Eastern capitalists had been already too sorely bitten by the adroit cunning of Wes-tern sharpers, in numerous speculations of like character, to deal any further in paper cities; consequently, notwithstanding the standing the handsome and imposing ap-pearance of its public buildings, Commerce lots remained dull and inactive on the hands of their owners.
It was not strange that Smith should be received with the utmost kindness by these speculators, who would no doubt have ex-tended the same welcome to Lucifer, scented with all the fumes of his brimstone kingdom if his majesty would have taken upon him-self the responsibility of building up the emoryo city. To facilitate business, one or two of those speculators went so far as to unite with the Mormon church, and subse-quently won some notoriety in the annals of fanaticism. Smith was struck with the extreme beauty of the situation, and, the terns being easy, managed to purchase large tracts of the most fertile alluvial bot-tom lands, which for the present was to be the seat of the Mormon dynasty, and on which, as with the wand of enchantment, he was to cause a populous city suddenly to spring from the silent bosom of the earth. The locality was most admirable and pic-turesque. The Mississippi swept its mag-niicent flood of transparent waters in a vast curve, around its north-western and south-ern limits. On the east, by easy and grad-ual ascent, rose the bluff, to the height of some hundred feet, and crowned at that tine by a forest of sturdy oaks, invaluable to the settler for fuel and building purposes. Stretching to the east, the forest disappear-ed and an expansive prairie of untold fer-tility and beauty, as yet in its primitive Wilderness state, invited the culture of the emigrant, and promised a rich reward to its toil. It was just what the destitute Mormons required. They could erect tem-porary dwellings by their own labor, and secure a subsistence by agricultural pursuits.
The Prophet immediately brought his family, and the fugitives that accompanied him, to the site of new city, which he called Nauvoo, meaning, in the fanciful lan-guage of Mormonism, "a city of rest." No sooner had Smith taken possession of his new home, and before the first log cabin had been erected to shelter the saints, than he issued a general proclamation to all his followed to assemble themselves at their new city of rest." This call was responded to with all the zeal of fanaticism. The ex-hausted and care-worn follower of the Prophet, driven and persecuted by the hos-tile and avenging citizens of Missouri, bent their feeble and worn-out footsteps to the land of promise. The devotees of the new religion farther east, many of whom were persons of substantial means, heard the summons of the Prophet, and, full of hope and promise, Collected their household goods together and hastened on their jour-ney, to unite with the congregation of the faithful. The gaunt, famine stricken ope-ratives of the manufacturing districts of England, many of whom had been seduced into the ranks of Mormonism by exaggera-ted statements of the influence, prosperity and prospective greatness of the new sect, heard the voice of the Prophet as the voice of God, and with precipitate haste embraced the opportunity to expatriate themselves from the prison-house of their servitude.
Population flowed into the city. The residents of the county, who had long wit-nessed the abortive attempts to build up the city of Commerce, beheld with astonishment the life, activity, and enterprise of the fanat-ics. Buildings of every description, from the rude shed to the spacious and commo-dious dwelling, were completed with unex-ampled rapidity. Never in the history of the West, unprecedented for its wonderful growth, did any place, even the most flour-ishing, progress in improvement and increase in population as did Nauvoo. Through the enterprise of the Mormon, the wild prairie was tamed, and reduced to cultivation; spa-cious improvements and productive farms appeared, where only a year before the wild grass waved its exuberant and massive greenness to the invigorating prairie breeze. This beautiful region, which enterprise and cunning had tried to make available, in two short years boasted a population of ten thou-sand souls, and was still advancing with un-exampled strides. The industry and energy of the Mormons won the approbation and applause of all who visited them. In the meantime, the most important and useful public improvements were contemplated. The Des Moines rapids, which had always been a serious obstacle to the successful navigation of the Upper Mississippi, were to be improved by private enterprize, in such a manner that a vast hydraulic power, of incalculable utility, was to be secured, and the city of Saints was destined to rank in and importance with the great manufacturing towns of Europe. Voluntary associations, for encouragement of agri-culture, for the improvement of the me-chanic arts, for the advancement of their commercial interests, and the dissemination of general intelligence, were established.
The Mormons now numbered a majority in the county of Hancock, it was not singular that aspirants to political distinction should pay court to their Prophet, who had undisputed and absolute control of all their votes. Many of these candidates for political favor were not ashamed of the bas-est sycophancy and meanness in their inter-course with the Prophet, which they exer-ted for the accomplishment of their ambi-tious purposes. The egregious vanity of Smith was inflamed by the grossest flattery. Candidates for the State Legislature prom-ised every thing for the advancement of the Prophet and his people; and the one who could stoop to the basest servility had the greatest reason to hope for success. The members elect went into the Legislature under direct pledges to Smith to carry out certain measures which he conceived neces-sary for his protection and future prosperity.
The Prophet asked for the incorporation of his new city, and forthwith his obsequi-ous representatives prepared a charter, and by their influence procured its passage, granting to the municipality of Nauvoo privileges and authority which in a great measure placed the Mormons beyond the control of all legal tribunals. A sort of anomalous judiciary, which was a munici-pal court, was created by this act of incor-poration, which virtually ousted all other courts of jurisdiction in causes where Mor-mons were parties. Jurisdiction of writs of habeas corpus had been confined by statute to judges by the Circuit and Supreme Courts. But this important right was now vested in the municipality of Nauvoo, and threatened by its arbitrary and extensive operation, to wrest every culprit from the custody of the law.
Since the first organization of his church, Smith had suffered much from the wayward-ness and persecutions of the Gentile world, whilst his unorganized and unarmed follow-ers were inadequate to his protection. His experience in Ohio and Missouri had proven to him that the supremacy of the law was nothing but idle cant when the Mormons were concerned. He could more readily depend on the zeal of his followers than the strong arm of the law, which had never yet proven strong enough to vindicate his rights. For the purpose of self-protection, he now asked a complete and thorough organization of his followers into an independent military force; and, strange as it may appear, this unreasonable request was granted; and the celebrated Nauvoo Legion, ever afterwards conspicuous in Mormon history, and which became the terror and scourge of the adja-cent country, sprang into existence at the bidding of the Legislature, with chartered rights even beyond the expectations of the aspiring Prophet. And as if this organi-zation was not of itself sufficient, a large portion of public arms, embracing several pieces of artillery, was placed at the dispo-sal of this body of military. Other charters of great importance, though less dangerous tendency, were freely granted by this sub-servient Legislature.
Smith was now rapidly becoming a per-sonage of great importance. The haggard countenance and attenuated figure of the outcast and persecuted Missourian, would scarcely have been recognized in the jovial face and athletic person of General Smith; for the Prophet had been called to the com-mand of his legion, with the rank of lieu-tenant general. He was the founder of a new and highly prosperous city. He was the prophet, dictator, and king of ten thou-sand devoted followers, who were clustered around his standard and awaited his com-mands. He had the absolute control of a large and formidable volunteer force, whose hearts palpitated in unison with his own. He was no longer a wandering fugitive, sub-sisting on the cold charity of the commu-nity, but on the contrary, was the centre of patronage and power. Legislators were made and unmade at his bidding; and sages who aspired to a seat in the legislative councils of the nation, were not ashamed to pay court to the Prophet, and succumb to his dictation for his influence and support.
After organizations were effected under his various charters, Smith determined to construct a temple, to be dedicated to the celebration of the religious rites of Mormon-ism, which was to surpass in originality, grandeur and design, and the harmony of its proportions, all other edifices in Christ-endom. To enlist his people in this vast enterprise, the Prophet declared that he had received a revelation on the subject, authorizing and directing the construction of the sacred edifice, and communicating the plan of its architecture. For the ac-complishment of this design, Smith adopted the ancient Jewish system of tithing. Ev-ery devotee of the faith was required, under heavy penalties, to contribute one tenth of his means, and the destitute and unfortu-nate, who had no property, were compelled to devote one tenth of their labor on the rising edifice. In addition to these re-sources, every portion of America, and ma-ny countries of Europe, were visited by the agents of the Prophet, whose business it was to solicit means to build the temple of the Lord. The material used in the building of the walls of the sacred edifice was white limestone, which admitted a fine polish, and which was found in great abundance in the adjacent river bluffs, and was excavated with comparatively little labor by the de-termined and energetic fanatics. The ne-cessary lumber was cut and sawed out of the pine forests of the distant North, by Mormon labor.
Every thing, as yet, had gone smoothly in the intercourse between the Mormons and their neighbors. But, as the polished and strong walls of the temple, under the skill, direction, and enterprise of fanaticism, rose gradually from their solid foundations, in their massive strength resembling more an unassailable fortress than a sanctuary devo-ted to the sacred rites of religion, a feeling of suspicion and distrust was engendered towards Smith and his followers, which soon increased to settled and deadly hostil-ity, on the part of the citizens of the county. They now began to reflect on the difficulties which had always attended the wanderings of the fanatic imposter. They now began to enquire why it was, that in Western New-York, where the Prophet first propa-gated his new faith, and first organized into a church his followers, on by the virtuous of all religions, and, by the force of public sentiment alone, without any appeal to violence, was banished from the State; and why it was that in Northern Ohio, where he sought to concentrate his followers and effect a permanent settlement, that he was compelled to fly on account of the hostility of his neighbors and their ap-peal to violence; and why it was that the people of Missouri had manifested such deadly hatred towards the Mormons, and visited them with such sanguinary ven-geance. And, with the inquiry, the con-clusion began to force itself on the minds of all candid persons that the Mormons themselves had occasioned all their difficul-ties; that their religion was incompatible with social order, opposed to the genius and institutions of all just governments, and in its very nature a treasonable conspiracy against American institutions; and with the conclusion come the reflection that, by their partiality and encouragement, they had breathed into the almost extinct spirit of fanaticism, new life and vigor ; that they had raised the Prophet from a condition of insignificance, and exalted him to one of power and prospective greatness. They had surrounded him with the protection of char-tered rights, which had ina measure been placed him beyond the jurisdiction of legal tribu-nals; through their zeal on his behalf, a formidable military force nhad been created, and the very bayonets which bristled in their hands, and the ordnance which thun-dered at their public rejoicings, were the gift of their foolish munificence.
If Joe Smith, with a handful of his weak, inefficient, and despised followers, by a threatening and defiant attitude, could alarm and agitate all Missouri, what were the peo-ple of Illinois to expect from him, when a well organized military force waited on the Prophet, and executed his commands?
Another election was approaching, and it was thought important and desirable by all good citizens, who were alarmed by the growth of fanaticism, to associate themselves together, irrespective of party predilections or issues, for the purpose of opposing an undivided front to the increasing power of the obnoxious sect. It is due to this band-ed opposition to the Mormons to say, that anti-Mormons were not in any way disposed to abridge their rights of conscience, or in any way interfere with the free exercise of the absurd rites of the Mormon religion. It was only intended to keep in check the political tendency of their faith, and, if pos-sible, prevent the interests of the county from perishing under their corrupt and ab-surd rule. For tins purpose, an anti-Mor-mon meeting was called, which was largely attended by the old citizens of the county. This meeting had duties to discharge; one to pass resolutions of censure against the Mormons, the other to nominate a full anti- Mormon county ticket; by which the sub-servient tools of Mormonism were to be de-feated. The first duty of the convention was readily accomplished. The Mormons were attacked and abused in a long string, of most bitter resolutions, which were pas-sed with the greatest unanimity. But the apportionment of the offices amongst a crowd of aspirants was a task of more del-icacy and difficulty than had been antici-pated. It was desirable that every one should be satisfied, and this could hardly be expected, as a number of zealous claiments appeared for every office. Not-withstanding there appeared some dissen-sion and dissatisfaction on the part of many members of the convention, yet there was too much zeal to abandon the projected organization. The nominations were ac-cordingly made; but when the meeting was called upon for its final and unanimous rat-ification of the nominations which had been passed upon, some of the most zealous and influential members of the organization bolted . outright, and retired, muttering the most unequivocal threats against the suc-cess of the ticket.
Amongst the disaffected was a certain Mr. O., a superannuated Calvinistic Baptist preacher of the old school, noted for igno-rance and bigotry, and for his determined opposition to the cause of education. His piety was of that doubtful character which hungered and thirsted after office, more than after righteousness.
Another of the worthies who bolted the action of the convention was a Mr. D., a lawyer of limited attainments and ordinary talents, a politician in his small way, and an oracle on all subjects in the drinking-shops which he haunted.
Immediately after these gentle men with-drew from the convention, they deserted to the enemy. They informed the Prophet that they had come over to him on account of the intolerant and proscriptive policy of the anti-Mormons, and that they were wil-ling to avow allegiance to Smith, and make themselves generally useful in the advancement of his interests, if they could only be returned to the Legislature. It was finally agreed that the lawyer should be the candidate for the State Senate, and that the preacher, in conjunction with Wm. Smith, a younger brother of the Prophet, should represent him in the lower branch of the Legislature. Smith, by virtue of revela-tion, which he pretended to have received, commanded his followers to vote en masse for these candidates of his choice. This command of the Prophet was obeyed to the letter, and it resulted in the defeat of the anti-Mormon candidates by a consider-able majority.
However much depressed and discouraged the anti-Mormons may have been, by rea-son of their bad success, it was now too late for them to abandon the contest which they had commenced with Mormonism. The sect was daily increasing in numbers, and the attitude of the Prophet was daily becoming more threat-ening and alarming. The unparalleled growth of fanaticism, unless speedily check-ed, would soon control their destiny.
Smith boasted that the number of his followers already exceeded three hundred thousand; and his avowed policy was to centralize his numerical force at Nauvoo. The population of the State at that time did not much, if any, exceed six hundred thousand, which was nearly equally divided between the Whig and Democratic parties, the Democracy being in the ascendant by a few thousand votes only. It was not im-probable that, at no very distant period, if the Prophet continued to concentrate his followers at Nauvoo, his power would be-come formidable to the State, as it was now to the county. The Mormon vote, even at this period, was almost equal to the difference between Whig and Demo-cratic parties, and was an object of great importance to the aspirant to office, inas-much as it was never divided, but always thrown en masse, according to the Prophet’s directions. Nor was this vote Whig, Dem-ocratic, or Free Soil in its predilictions; it was an independent power, always in the market, ready to be sold to the highest bid-der. Demagogues of all parties, and of every possible shade of political belief, crowded like famished carrion-crows to the City of the Saints, for the purpose of bar-tering for the Mormon vote.
In view of this state of facts, the defeat which the anti-Mormons had just sustained, so far from causing them to abandon their opposition to the Mormons as hopeless, only inspired them with more determined energy and hostility, and incited them to ef-fect a more perfect organization, to success-fully meet all coming contests with their triumphant rivals.
(To be continued.)
