AFFAIRS IN UTAH.
AM INSIDE VIEW OF MATTERS
Interesting Facts About United States Officials.
The Mormons Preparing to Resist the National Authorities.
How Brigham Young Controls Political Affairs.
Correspondence of the New-York Times.
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH TERRITORY,
Wednesday, Oct. 4, 1866.
So many travelers have recently given their Impressions of this region and its inhabitants to the reading public, that I may well be excused from giv-ing mine. At the same time I must say, that the tourist visits few places where more undefined im-pressions and emotions rush upon him than here, as he feels that his feet stand in modern Zion, in the val-ley of Great Salt Lake—the land of the Latter Day Saints—the land of many wives and many children—the land of the vine and varied fruit—the land where the beehive is truly the symbol of industry, that in no other land is surpassed nor equaled—the land of fru-gality and plenty—the land of obedience, temperance and order—the land where Democracy and Republic-anism are not known—the land of the one-man power.
I do not propose to descant upon the various sub-jects named above, in your columns, except, perhaps, the last two items, incidentally. I have been in this Territory about four weeks, and propose to speak of matters I have learned in Utah that appertain to the general welfare. I must, of course, mention that fea-ture peculiar to this Territory, which exists nowhere else in the Christian world—polygamy.
THREE GOVERNMENTS IN UTAH.
There are three governments in Utah, each of which extends over the whole Territory, in form, if not in fact—the Territorial Government, organized by vir-tue of the organic act of Congress; the government of the so-called State of Deseret, of which BRIGHAM YOUNG is Governor; and the government of the Church, of which BRIGHAM YOUNG is First President, the anointed of the Lord, and the supreme head. The Church confines its control, not to things eternal and celestial, but extends to all the relations of life and business; to family affairs, and to the fixing of the price of commodities for sale. Nothing is beneath its care, and nothing is above its power. This Church has larger and more positive powers than were ever claimed by the Church of Rome in the dark ages.
So far as relates to power, it has, by irrevocable re-velation, been placed in the hand of one man, the Lord's anointed. The Territorial Government is a fiction; it is without vitality and power. None but Mormons are sent to the Legislature. If the Governor vetoes laws passed by the Legislature of the State of Deseret can pass them, and Gov. YOUNG gives them his sanction, and they laws for the State, when they failed to be so for the Territory. The laws of the State of Deseret are not published, but kept among the secret archives.
A Territorial Supreme Court was an inconvenient thing, until the ingenuity or inspiration of the anointed, aided by the flexible morality of a Democratic Governor, surmounted the inconvenience, when the shackles of the law fell from every man in the Terri-tory. A court of paramount jurisdiction, called the Probate Court, was established by Territorial legisla-tion, and Congress has never interfered with it. This court and its juries can be trusted, and the Supreme Court is without business.
POLYGAMISTS APPOINTED TO FEDERAL OFFICES.
The kindness of the government to this Territory and its people is proverbial. A long time ago it ap-pointed a Mormon by the name of STOUT District-At-torney. He has never presented himself before the court or before any Judge thereof. If the man had a good excuse for not coming, when he had married a wife, this Mr. STOUT has six good excuses, as he has six wives. He may have thought Judge TITUS might take it into his head to charge the Grand Jury on the act of Congress of 1862 relating to polygamy. He showed his shrewedness by staying away and not appointing a substitute, as the court has no power to appoint a prosecutor in his stead, and, therefore, no criminals can be prosecuted in the Supreme or District Courts of the Territory.
The government has here a Collector of Internal Revenue for the Territory, in the person of a Sir. BURTON, a belligerent Mormon and confidant of BRIG-HAM YOUNG. Under him, (B. Y.,) he holds the fol-lowing offices: Sheriff of Salt Lake County, Assessor and Collector of the County and Territory, Member of the City Council and Adjutant- General of all the forces of the Church and the State of Deseret. All of these offices are of great importance, and comprise more powers than your room will allow for explanation. He has six offices; he has six wives.
Mr. LITTLE, another of BRIGHAM'S confidants, is Assessor of United States Internal Revenue. He is also Counsel of the Board of Bishops, Colonel in BRIGHAM'S army and member of the City Council. He has four offices; he has four wives.
Mr. MCKANE is Assistant Collector under BURTON, holds an office in BRIGHAM'S military system, and has three wives.
Mr. SIMMONS is Assistant Assessor under LITTLE; is an actor in the theatre belonging to the Church or BRIGHAM YOUNG, and has three wives.
All these government officials, including Mr. STOUT, the District Attorney, hold military offices under BRIGHAM YOUNG, and for a long time have been ac-tively engaged in the business of arming and drilling the forces of the Church of Latter Day Saints for the great battle of Armageddon. This force is headed by an Englishman, an enemy of the United States, Gen. Ross. His duty is designated by the title of his office—Drill-Master-General of all the militia of the Church and the State of Deseret.
THE SALT LAKE CITY POSTMASTER.
I now will speak of the most important United States official incumbent in the Territory—the Post-master of Salt Lake City. Mr. STENHOUSE, an Eng-lishman, is the man. He went through the forms of naturalization after his appointment as Postmaster he has prosecuted the first duty of a man in Deseret, raising families. He has but two wives. By the first he has eight children, by the second, one. He took his second wife after he had taken the oath to support the constitution and laws of the United States, and long after the passage of the act of Congress prohibit-ing polygamy. For a long time he denied his second marriage. But after about nine months and the de-claration of the first matrimonial dividend, denial was changed into admission. Such dividends are sometimes stubborn but noisy little things.
HOW THE INTERNAL REVENUE IS COLLECTED
I wish to say something about the collection of in-ternal revenue—that little matter in which most people in the United States take an interest, about these days. Are the revenues fairly assessed and collected in this Territory? I cannot answer; but I can draw an inference and make a guess. The population Utah is estimated by BRIGHAM YOUNG at over 100,000 souls. Prosperity has prevailed during 1864 and 1865, thus far, to an unusual degree. A few Sundays since, one of the preachers in the great Tabernacle here said: "The fact, brethren, is, all of our people are fast becoming rich." He had just returned from a tour through the Territory, and spoke from personal observation. One man, a merchant in this city, last year cleared over $400,000, and all the merchants were correspondingly prosperous. All of this people are compelled to pay into the hand of BRIGHAM YOUNG a tithe of all they earn, grow, make or have. This tithe, in the gross, must be immense. From all the settled parts of the Territory may be seen continually, in the day time, passing through the big gateway in his high and massive wall, wagons loaded with various pro-ducts for the capacious barns and granaries of the "Lord's Anointed." The products of this Territory are too various to be enumerated here; one item this year will be over 100,000 pounds of cot-ton. This tithe received by BRIGHAM YOUNG must be income. Is it assessed properly and the assessment collected? I guess not. The amount assessed for the whole Territory, to be collected, is about $38,000. The Territory of Colorado last year paid into the Treasury of the United States over $100,000, and this year it will pay over $90,000, and these have been years of disaster to Colorado. I obtained these facts from Mr. BROWN, the Collector of that Territory. Colorado is not half as old a Territory as Utah, and no man claims for it a population of over 20,000. I now leave the question to be answered by others as to whether or not the revenue is properly collected in Utah.
BRIGHAM YOUNG VS. A LIQUOR-SELLER.
In one of BRIGHAM'S sermons he said: "The man that sells liquor, and thinks to escape damnation, fools himself." He has, however, changed his senti-ments on this subject, and has determined to save the whole class of liquor-vendors from so hard a fate, by taking the damnation upon himself alone. He has forbidden all to sell, and has opened a bar himself, the only bar in Salt Lake City. He claims and exer-cises the sole right to sell liquor by wholesale or re-tail.
Notwithstanding the risk of being too long, I will say a few things plainly. I know their truth.
PREPARING FOR RESISTANCE TO THE GOVERN-MENT.
This people, under the advice of their leaders, are preparing for resistance, even to war, against any in-terference with what they call their religious faith. They anticipate no interference, except from the United States. The burden of their speeches and sermons everywhere is to arm for the coming con-test. They are arming. BRIGHAM YOUNG has just returned after a tour of four weeks with his military staff and speech-makers. I have carefully perused the letters written from this expedition and published in their paper here, giving accounts of speeches and military drills and reviews. These only confirm what I have heard myself from BRIGHAM YOUNG, HEBER C. KIMBALL and others. War, open or concealed, their voices alike do not dissuade.
Their faith, as appears from all they say, and all they act, is reduced to but one item—polygamy. This is the only thing they talk of fighting for, and it is the only item the leaders care a rush for.
It is my firm belief that in the Spring of 1861 South Carolina was more loyal to the Union than Utah is to-day. The character of the leaders and the followers in both have a striking resemblance. In both the first created and commanded the latter. Utah was the first to go through with the solemn farce of declaring its little self independent of the United States. This was done as long ago as August, 1857, when BRIGHAM YOUNG, in the Tabernacle of Latter Day Saints, in Salt Lake City, rising in the midst of his worshippers, declared, in the name of the Lord of Hosts, that the umbilical cord that united this Territory with the United States was then and there cut, and said amen! and all the congregation said amen! After this was formed the government. of the so-called independent State of Deseret, with BRIGHAM YOUNG as its perpet-ual Governor. This. government has never been sur-rendered. The so-called State of Deseret, as a com-munity, is in open rebellion against the United States; and the people, under the command of their leaders, are in open rebellion against the laws of the United States.
AN EXAMPLE OF BRIGHAM'S DESPOTIC POWER.
In the first paragraph of this letter, I have said that this was the land where Democracy and Republicanism were not known, and that it was the land of the one-man power. I propose to prove the last statement, and by so doing, I prove the former.
During the short stay of Mr. Speaker COLFAX in this city, he received a formal visit from BRIGHAM YOUNG, at the Salt Lake House. While they were sitting together upon the sofa, BRIGHAM asked the following question: "Mr. COLFAX, what kind of a dele-gate did Capt. HOOPER make for us in Congress?" Mr: COLFAX replied, as any man must have answered, that he knew Capt. H. while in Washington; that he was a gentleman, a business man, of courteous manners, attentive to business, and he thought he had been a good delegate for the Territory. Let it be understood that Capt. HOOPER had been appointed by BRIGHAM as a Mis-sionary to Europe, and was making his arrangements to leave. Immediately after Mr. COLFAX'S reply, BRIGHAM put his arm over Mr. HOOPER'S shoulder, and asked him, "Captain, how would you like to go to Congress again?" "Very much," said Capt. HOOPER, "if you think me worthy." "Well, that is all right," said BRIGHAM. This was in the presence of Messrs. COLFAX, RICHARDSON, BROSS and BOWLES. From that moment Capt. HOOPER was looked upon as the suc-cessor of Judge KINNEY, although his name had never been mentioned in that connection before. His elec-tion soon after followed, but merely as a matter of form, the voice of BRIGHAM being the voice of God with the people. Judge KINNEY, the former delegate, had endeavored to get an appropriation of $10,000 for government surveys; this was the weight that pulled him down. BRIGHAM wanted no government surveys of lands the Lord had given to his saints. This blun-der will not be repeated.
There are many other matters very important, and that should be known in the States, but space will not allow a detail of them. A future occasion will be sought, if what has been already written is given to the public. DELPHI.
