THE BEAVER ISLAND KINGDOM.
From the Detroit Daily Advertiser.
We publish below certain documents throwing light upon the nature of the circumstances which led to the arrest of His Majesty, Jas. J. Strang, the political head of the Beaver Island Settlement, of Mormons, which we are impelled to do in consequence of some misapprehension which exists in the public mind in regard to that circumstance, which misapprehension instead of being elucidated by the press, has been befogged and misrepresented.
First in order, we publish the original complaint, being one among many of the same nature, which seemed to draw the attention of the Department of State to the moral condition of the settlement, and the proceedings of Strang and his associates. It emanates from a respectable Magistrate at Mackinaw, and was designed to reach the appropriate source of remedy, although the writer seems not very clear in his own mind as to who that may be. Here it is:
MACKINAW, April 9th, 1851
His Honor the President and authorities of the U. States: SIR: On the 11th day of March I started from this place to go to Beaver Island, the Mormon settlement, on the ice, on business—to carry the United States mail. After arriving at St. Helena, I found that Mr. Gould had arrived from that place with the United States mail, where I waited until his return back from Mackinaw, on his return to the Beaver Island. When he, (Mr. Gould,) informed me that it would not be safe for me to go to the said Beaver Island, as they had determined to kill me as soon as I had even made my appearance in that neighborhood. On arriving at Garden Island, about three miles from said Beaver Island, we were informed that King Jas. J. Strang, the Mormon Prophet, sent a gang of some eight or ten men, to Hog Island, to intercept and rob the mail. That they after staying on Hog Island two nights, and the ice breaking up soon, they returned to Beaver Island without seeing the mail. Not being allowed to go near said Beaver Island at the peril of my life, I made arrangements with Mr. Gould to take myself and wife to Mackinaw with his dog train.—After starting and going some six or eight miles, we were overtaken by two Indians, who were sent post haste after us, to inform us that James J. Strang had sent fifteen or twenty men after us, all armed with revolvers and bowie knives, to intercept and rob the United States mail, and to kill whoever should be found with said mail, and especially myself; after being so informed, we returned immediately back to Garden Island. On our way back we met five persons that had been sent from the Island by Mr. McKinley, the deputy post master, to our rescue. When arriving within a few rods from the house from which we started in the morning, there were some fifteen persons marched out in regular file, under the command of Gen. George Miller, the commanding officer of King James J. Strang's army, and come to the halt and front face. Seeing them come to a halt within a few rods of us, I turned and run back to where we had left the Indians, and the robbers following me on a run, and the four persons that the post master had sent to our assistance, were come to a stand.—When they, the Mormon robbers, thus seeing us in a body, also came to a stand. Peain, the acting chief of the Beaver Island Indians, went forward and met the said band of robbers, and informed that they must leave and go home and mind their business, or they would take care of them. When they were marched off, by their General, George Miller.
The next day the most of the Indians met together and went over to said Beaver Island Harbor. On board of the steamer Lexington, where King James J. Strang has been staying the most of the winter, and making it his head quarters, a few days afterwards, at the request of the deputy post master, P. M'Kinley, and the people, the Indians and people of said Beaver Island, went again on board of saip steamer Lexington and had another long talk with said Mormon prophet, King James J. Strang and his Privy Council. They, the said Mormons, having been stealing the past winter, everything they could lay their hands on, and having stolen large quantities of fish, that were left on the fishing grounds by the fishermen, going in gangs of fifteen or twenty, in a body with hand-sleds, and one time with a horse sleigh—being gone three days at a time. His Highness, King James J. Strang the Mormon prophet, has issued his orders, and has organized several bands of his people, to go out through the nation to burn cities and villages, to steal and plunder every thing they can lay their hands on, and especially to plunder all, and as many guns and ammunition as they possibly can —that they are all armed to the teeth with revolvers and Bowie knives, and with orders from said Strang to kill and slay every person that may come in their way—that they are all loaded down with counterfeit money—as one man said that he had fourteen hundred dollars in the roll he had in his hands—that they had made and dug a cave, on said Island where they have been making the past winter and season, counterfeit coins of the United States, and that they have large quantities on hand ready for use. They say in their paper that the United States Congress, or the Legislature of this State, Michigan, has no control over that place, and calls Strang their King—defying all laws—both of this State and the United States, and call the sheriff, when acting in his office, a mob, and threatening him of his life, if he attempts to serve any process on any of their people.
The sheriff has taken some fifteen or twenty of the people under James J. Strang, and is expected here in Mackinaw with them, in one or two days, and if it is possible I wish you would be here on the examination, which will probably last six or eight days. Owing to the Mormon difficulties, we have no legal county officers, which will make it very difficult for us to proceed through with our trials.
Please come immediately and do what you can for us. Yours, &c. ERI JAMES MOORE,
Justice of the Peace.
The result of this, and other similar applications to the Government, was a letter of instruction from the Secretary of State, to Hon. Geo. C. Bates, U. S. Dis. Atty. for Michigan, drawing his attention to the nature and contents of the above complaint, and seting forth that there was reason to believe that Strang and his associates had been guilty of the violations of the Laws,
1st—Of the United States in cutting Government timber.
2d—By counterfeiting the coin of the United States.
3d—By obstructing the United States mail.
