New York daily tribune no. 5456

              LATER FROM UTAH.
From Our Special Correspondent. 
GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, U. T., Sept. 15,1858. 
No one can reside long in this community without becoming well acquainted with the biographies of many of the people by whom he is surrounded. There appears to be hardly a Mormon family, some part of whose history is not scandalous; and, in very many instances, the fact of scandal attaching itself in the States, was the cause of the conversion of the family to Mormonism, and its removal to this valley. There is more clannish feeling, I believe, among the Mormons than among any other sect in Christendom. They are bound together no less by realizing that they are religious pariahs on earth, than by believing that they shall be kings and queens in heaven. Hence there is a disposition among them to be blind to one another's domestic scandals, and guard the knowledge of them from the Gentile world. But, among those who are disaffected with the church, a disposition directly the contrary prevails, and their mouths are full of all manner of scandalous stories about their brethren, anyone of which, put on paper, would be secure of a place among the yellow-covered literature of eastern cities. Since we have entered the valley, some of these domestic histories have been revealed in the courts, and one of the most singular of all was disclosed at the beginning of the week, in a case of habeas corpus, before Judge Sinclair. 
In 1846 a man named Almeiron Grow was a practitioner of medicine in Uniontown, Union Co., Ky. About that time his wife became a prostitute. He procured a divorce from her, and his two children were of course adjudged to his custody. He soon removed with them to Southern Illinois, where, after a while, he began to study law, and was admitted to the bar of that State in January, 1855. He had been regarded there as a crackbrained person—a reputation which the fact of his running for Congress in the IXth District of that State did not dispel. After entering the bar, he started with his children across the plains to California. On reaching Salt Lake City, he avowed himself a Mormon, and was welcomed into the church, for legal acquirements are scarce among the Saints, and he combined the practice of law with the art of dentistry. His first legal service to the brethren was in drawing the papers of sale Fort Bridger to Lewis Robinson, the Mormon Quartermaster-General, which old Maj. Bridger was compelled by threats and violence to sign. His second exploit was of such a character that he was expelled from the Bar by Judge Kinney, against whom he immediately brought a suit, laying his damages at $20,000. The Church itself became at the same time mistrustful of Bro. Almeiron, and he had great difficulty in procuring a wife. At last he succeeded, and was married at 4 o'clock one afternoon; but, on going to his wife's house to tea, her relatives drove him off, and would not allow him access to her. In his perplexity he removed to Fillmore, where Brigham kindly allowed another young woman to be "sealed" to him. Soon afterward, however, he was sent by Brigham on a mission to England, on the principle that those people who are least fit to act decently at home are best fit to preach the Mormon gospel abroad. What was the success of his mission I do not know. He obeyed the summons to return, issued last year to all missionaries in foreign parts, and was taken prisoner in November, by the army, on Green River, suspicion that he was a Mormon being first excited by the fact that he wore a black beaver hat—an object not often seen at this distance from the frontier. A diary, which was found in his pocket, showed that he had walked the whole distance—more than 1,000 miles—from Council Bluffs, alone. Brigham shortly afterward complimented Gen. Johnston upon the acquisition, "inasmuch as it saved him the trouble and expense of paying Bro. Almeiron's board." Elder Grow proving of no use to anybody but himself, and rations being short in camp, the General at last released him and sent him into the city with Gov. Cumming's proclamation. Here he passed the Winter, as devout a Mormon as need be, although somewhat embarrassed by the circumstance that during his absence his wife had been "sealed" to somebody else, in pursuance of the principle that absence in case of Mormon marriages is equivalent to death, and that no man has a right to refrain from imparting the additional "glory" to himself and his wife which each successive child "raised to the Lord" confers. Bro. Grow seems to have been infatuated with this woman, and she in self-defense, procured a divorce from him in the Probate Court, on April 15, 1858. The custody of the daughter by the first marriage was given by the Court to her step-mother, and the father concurred with her in placing it in the charge of Amos M. Musser, one of the clerks of Brigham Young. In his regret for the loss of his wife, Grow soon after upbraided the brethren publicly, charging them with alienating her affections, seducing her, etc., the result of which proceeding on his part was that he was compelled to sign a paper asking forgiveness for his language. He soon departed to California, and returned to the valley only a few days ago. On his return he instituted most vigorous measures to regain possession of his daughter, "fearing," as he writes in a letter on file among the papers in the case, “that my little girl, now 13 years, old, will "soon be 'sealed' to some polygamist, as many "have been even as young as she." He sued out a writ of habeas corpus, the return to which contested his claim to the possession of the child on the ground that he was insane. It was attempted to be shown in evidence by prominent Mormons that he continually declared himself a candidate for the Presidency; that on his return from California he walked more than 300 miles, saying that he was exploring a route for the Pacific Railroad, to recommend in his first message to Congress; that while practicing dentistry in this city, customers being scarce and shy of his manipulation, he pulled every tooth out of his own head in order to establish his professional skill; that he repeatedly cropped his head so close that it would have been hard to catch hold of a single hair with a pair of tweezers, and once insisted on serving his wife in the same manner; that he one day put all his wife's silks and ribbons into a carpet sack and threw them into the fire, in order, he said, to wean her from wordly vanities, &c. The Judge withheld a final decision on the case until October, constituting the child, in the mean while, a ward of the Court. During the cross-examination of the defendant's witnesses many ludicrous scenes occurred. In one instance, Elder Jesse C. Little, the City Marshal, had been giving his testimony with great virulence against Mr. Grow, when he was taken aback by the following series of questions: 
Q. Did I understand you to say that you have considered Mr. Grow insane ever since you heard him declare himself a candidate for the Presidency? A. Yes, Sir; from that moment on. 
Q. Do you consider that a man who declares himself a candidate for the Presidency, is necessarily insane? A. Yes, Sir; I do. 
Q. Did you consider Joseph Smith insane when he declared himself a candidate for the Presidency in 1844? 
Anybody who has ever heard the question "who killed Christ?" flung at a group of Jews, may imagine the effect produced by the inquiry respecting the Prophet Joseph. Half a dozen Mormons sprang to their feet at once, all of them desirous to protest against the question, but all also so choked with anger that it was half a minute before they could utter a word. 
The most pitiable of the whole case was the production on the second day of the trial, of a letter from Mr. Grow to Brigham Young, in which he expressed his willingness to drop the suit and abandon his daughter to virtual prostitution in this community, in consideration of the restoration of his priesthood and the promise of a wife. He wrote: 
" I am not particular about taking my children to California. If I could have my priesthood restored and my children, with permission for me to marry, I would be willing to go again to Fillmore and reside.
" I will say to you that while in California I did some work. I made an appointment on Putah Creek, about sixteen miles from Sacramento, and delivered an address to the people upon Mormonism, preached the first principles of the Gospel, urged an entire consecration of property and life to the church. After the meeting I baptized some fifteen persons and confirmed them members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Previously, however, I was re-baptized myself and ordained an Elder by Bro. Lowell, a re-turning missionary from the Sandwich Islands. I organized a branch, appointed a President, and instructed them to come to Utah this Fall as soon as possible. I feel that I did a good work. 
" I think that I could live at Fillmore and support my family. If you think this suggestion merits any consideration from you, please let me know. I know that my heart is honest, but I am human and have my weaknesses, but cannot be forced, not even into celestial glory, but would rather exercise my own free will. I want my priesthood, my children, and a wife, and would then be willing to sacrifice myself to save you, if need be." 
Judge Eckels started on his journey to the States to-day. Before he left, the following correspondence passed between him and the Gentile civilians resident in the city: 
GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, U. T., Sept. 11, 1858. 
The Hon. D. R. ECKELS, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Utah Territory. 
DEAR SIR: The undersigned have heard that you are about to leave the Territory on a journey to the States, whither you are called by private business. While they envy you the satisfaction which you will feel in rejoining your family and friends in a moral and civilized community, they regret that your services will be withdrawn from the Territory during the coming Winter. That regret, however, is lessened by their belief that your presence at Washington will do much to remove misapprehensions which seem to prevail there, and to cause measures to be taken for the better security of the persons and property of loyal citizens of the United States who are resident in this community. 
They will be gratified to have an opportunity before you leave, to express to you their sentiments of personal regard, and accordingly they request that you favor them with your presence at a dinner in this city, on whatever day during the coming week you may be pleased to designate. 
JOHN HARTNETT, GARLAND HURT, CHARLES E. SINCLAIR, CHAS. MAURICE SMITH, ALBERT G. BROWNE, jr., PETER K. DOTSON, SAMUEL G. GILBERT, ABEL GILBERT, THOS. S. WILLIAMS, DAVID A. BURR, C. L. CRAIG, WILLIAM GERRISH, JOHN D. RADFORD, H. F. MORRELL, W. J. MCCORMICK, R. H. DYER, CHARLES MOGO, L. M. STUART, KIRK ANDERSON, EDWARD BARR, WM. H. ROGERS, A. B. MILLER, F. H. BURR, C A. PERRY, R. HEREFORD, WILLIAW SLOAN, JOHN W. POWELL, E. H. PERRY, B. F. FICKLIN, JACOB FORNEY, H. CABOT, A. V. BROOKIE, JOHN B. COOPER. 
It is noticeable that this invitation is signed by every civil officer in the Territory, except the Governor. The Judge returned the following answer: 
GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, U. T., Sept. 13, 1858. 
GENTLEMEN: I have received your note of the 11th, requesting me to meet you at a dinner before my departure from the Territory. I thank you for the expression of kind feeling which accompanied the invitation, and shall welcome as cordially as yourselves every opportunity of the expression of our mutual regard. The social relations into which we have been forced by the events of the last twelve-month, are such that it is impossible that we should not have formed close friendships which will be more durable than the state of affairs in which they had their origin. But my arrangements have been made for starting on the l5th, and that fact alone would prevent an acceptance, were there not other reasons to induce me to decline an invitation to any gathering involving publicity. In the assurance and desire of rejoining you, after a brief interval, I am, with great regard, yours respectfully, 
D. R. ECKELS. 
To Dr. GARLAND HURT, CH. MAURICE SMITH, esq., and others. 
GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, U. T., 
SEPT. 18, 1858. 
We are obliged to the conductors of The Deseret News. In the last number of that paper there are articles which will show you clearly the spirit that is rankling in this community. It is to be borne in mind that The News is the property of the Church, and its avowed official organ—and no such articles as those I quote would ever have been printed without having previously been submitted to Brigham Young, and approved by him. The charge of tampering with the mail is absurd as well as villainous, and nobody here, Mormon or Gentile, really believes it. It is a deliberate lie, thrown out to catch what credit it can. Even during last Autumn and Winter, when the mails were detained in camp, not a single letter addressed to Brigham Young, or any other Mormon, was examined. They were all filed carefully away, and delivered when the postmaster entered this city in June. In the mean while, however, letters which came to Salt Lake City via California, addressed to Gentiles, were opened and examined. One notable case, in which the fact is indisputable, was that of a parcel of letters addressed to Lieut. Swaine, the Quartermaster of the 10th Infantry, which Col. Kane brought from the Valley to the camp in March. They had all been opened by steaming the gum on the self-sealing envelopes. In June, shortly after I arrived at the city, I had an opportunity of examining the letters transferred to Mr. Morrell by Elias Smith, the Mormon Postmaster. Several of them bore unmistakable signs of having been opened. In two cases in which the letters were sealed with wax, one end of the envelope was slit and afterward gummed together. But with regard to Mormon depradations on the mail there is no need to go beyond the case of the commission of the present Postmaster, Mr. Morrell. Five successive copies of that commission were mailed to him from Washington, not one of which was ever delivered to him at this city. At last, nearly two years after the date of his appointment, he was obliged to take a journey to Washington, in order to obtain official evidence of his right to the office, and he received there a copy of the commission, which he now holds, it being the sixth which had been issued. 
With regard to the fights and gambling, as I wrote last week, the Mormons have the whole matter in their own control. They have a strong police, a Mayor's court, and a prosecuting attorney, and yet they do nothing to check such abuses except to rail at them as the results of Christian civilization. They know very well that there is not a Gentile gentleman in the city who does not desire the abatement of the nuisances. The truth is that the Mormons are pleased at their existence. They have passed a municipal liquor license law, and have licensed the rowdiest grogshop in the city for $10 per month, because it is kept by a Mormon in a building under the control of the church, while they demand of a Gentile German the payment of $900 per year for a license for a lager-beer saloon, that Gentile having built a brewery below the city, at a cost of several thousands of dollars. Last evening a secret meeting of church dignitaries was held in the Council Hall of the Seventies, close in my neighborhood, at which the brethren were exchanging their sentiments concerning the state of affairs. 
Brigham Young has made representations to Gov. Cumming that two Mormon women have been abused in the city of Payson by the Pah-Utah Indians belonging to Pet-tete-nete's band. In consequence the Governor has officially requested Dr. Hurt to cause an investigation to be made for the offenders, and the Doctor, who was here, started southward last evening for the purpose, 
A report which reached the city at the beginning of the week, concerning the death of a man and a boy, between the Sevier River and Fillmore, has caused much talk even among the Mormons. On Sunday, the 5th, there was a storm along the Wahsatch range, and the mountain ridges, in the neighborhood of this city, were covered with snow. The Mormons say that the man, whose name was Hunter, and the boy, froze to death that night; but such a thing is impossible. From having recently traversed that road twice, I know that there is no place in the vicinity in which they are said to have died, where shelter among cedars could not have been gained by a short walk. These people were on their way to Salt Lake City from the neighborhood of the Mountain Meadows, where the massacre of emigrants took place last September. 
Mr. Kirk Anderson's press has not yet arrived, and he intends to send out a mule team to take it from the ox-train, in which it is freighted, and bring it rapidly to the city. 
Dr. Forney, the Superintendent, and Mr. Dodge, Agent of Indian Affairs, have followed the troops toward the Humboldt. 
From The Deseret News, Sept. 15. 
Are the citizens of Utah entitled to a fair hearing in defense of the charges brought against them, and is not the denial of such a hearing an act of injustice? 
Trial before condemnation is awarded to the most depraved criminal even in countries that lay no claim to liberal thought and principle, and where tyranny is the national code. 
We are often told that the treatment of Utah has been similar to that of all other Territories of the United States. It is true that the President has made the appointment of officers for other Territories as he has for Utah. But there ends the parallel. From elsewhere remonstrances, petitions, complaints have been received with respect, heard and canvassed and treated with parental solicitude. Vigilance Committees, squatter riots, political insurrections, have met with calm investigation, pacific concessions, absolution and multiplied favors. 
With us the routine, if not quite so considerate, has been, we confess, much more simple and summary: accusation, condemnation, invasion and extermination; else a quiet, uncomplaining, slavish submission to outrage and wrong. 
This may all be very good in its way to those who have not blushed under the humiliation. Fashion may have made it proper, very proper, to weep over the wounds of one Territory while they strike their poisoned stiletto into the heart of another. 
The argument, hitherto, appears to have been sufficient that Utah was peopled with nothing but religious fanatics in order to draw from the purse and malice of the nation the materials for a crusade. We are not content to sanction longer the perpetuity of that poor apology for political imposition. We are American citizens and claim the franchise. The Constitution has denied to all departments, ministerial, judicial, or legislative, the right to interfere with the religious sentiments, however peculiar, of all citizens. To them is committed, by the people's sanction, the control of the general temporal interests of the nation. To the Almighty alone is reserved the scepter of the conscience. 
This is all admitted and yet the one great unchanging preface to every charge against us has been and still is "religious fanaticism.” Our petitions were prompted by bigotry. Our complaints were the grumblings of an ungodly altar. And the idea never seems to have suggested itself that Utah was really peopled by citizens of the United States ever ready to defend by word and deed the flag and honor of their country; that while the "land we live in was purchased by the United States," it was paid for by our sweat and blood, and that the deserts that surround it bear on them the immortal records of our unswerving and patriotic devotion. 
People of the United States, we are your fellow-citizens, and claim with you fair play in the national arena. We are not so guilty that we choose darkness rather than light, or shun a close examination of all the charges brought against us. We covet investigation. We have sought it for years. What apology has ever been offered for its refusal? What excuse can be made now? It is very late, to be sure, but the golden bowl, though full, is not yet overflown. The silver cord, though haply on its extreme tension, is not yet broken. There are fair reasons to set aside the verdict already pronounced and give us an impartial trial. 
The calm quietude that for eleven years had pervaded our mountain home and made the wilderness a paradise, has at length yeilded the ground for a while to the more acceptable rantings of civilization; and a fair opportunity is now offered to contrast the barbarity of Utah in its secluded gentleness, with the fashionable revelings of her moralizers. 
It can no longer be argued that a reign of fanatical terror prevents the opportunity for an impartial investigation. A proudly accoutred garrison presents the brazen arguments of its artillery in defense of an appointed committee. Two thousand bayonets protect the evidence; while four gallant squadrons are ready to scour the Territory in search of the fearful testimony. 
In calm submission to the ungodly desecration of our peaceful homes in the desert, we demand and await the investigation to follow, which should have preceded our condemnation. 
We do not thrust away nor scorn the pardon of our Chief Executive. We accept the amnesty, but deny the guilt. We are at peace, good, honest, heartfelt peace with the nation, but is it just that our reputation should unscrupulously be buried with the hatchet? 
We deny the charges collectively and singlely upon which the crusades against us have been grounded. We acknowledge not a single act or thought that was treacherous to the sacred principles of American liberty. 
In the darkest epochs of our sad history the evidences of our patriotism are found emblazoned in full and indelible characters. Defenseless and suffering have we abandoned our household treasures, when our country called for our strength, and the highways of the nation bear the tracks of our weary marches as we bore her flag in triumph through the territory of her enemies. 
To OUR FRIENDS ABROAD.—Through circumstances at present useless to mention, and conduct probably unknown to us, since June last but few letters have been received by persons holding important positions in our community; and many of the letters then received were in a bad condition when we saw them. While our postal facilities from here to Missouri remain as they have for more than a year past, we do not feel justified in committing any important business communications to the care of that mail, nor have we done so. 
Whether letters and other mail matter will anymore certainly reach their destination, if forwarded to us by Panama and California, remains to be learned; but, for the present, we carefully avoid committing letters to either route, and would commend that course to our friends abroad, in all matters of the least importance, until the mails are more reliable. 
We can let the mails alone and avail ourselves of other channels for communication, while present abuses exist, which will not be treasonable. 
If postal affairs throughout the Union can not be managed any better than they are, it is time to abolish the present system and leave the transmission of letters, papers, drafts, &c., to untrameled individual competition and enterprise, that all may rejoice and profit in being rid of a Department which rests like an incubus upon this great Republic. 
PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION (!).—Since the introduction of civilization (!) within our borders, it is so singular and so new to us, especially to those who have been reared in the mountains, that it is a wonder that our citizens have not previously understood enough to petition to have an army sent here, and for the introduction of gamblers, whoremasters, and every variety of rowdies, that we might not have been deemed so unfashionable, unpopular, and behind the times. But for the gratification of all lovers of modern civilization (!), we are now enabled to chronicle evidences of its unquestioned progress in this far-off and hitherto-benighted region. 
For want of space we omit the details of rapidly increasing profanity and drunkenness, of the progress of gambling, whoredoms, &c., and for the present merely note the fights as yet more prominent. A short time past two colored gentleman quarreled in the streets; one was stabbed and the other shot dead by his antagonist. On the 9th inst., (a date, by the by, which was enlivened by five other fights between newly arrived citizens) Longford M. Peel and Oliver H. Rucker from Fort Leavenworth, met and fought with pistols, in Miller, Russell & Co.' s store, Peel killing Rucker, and himself receiving three wounds, from which it is not yet knowu whether he will recover. 
As there is a fair prospect for a weekly crop of the thrilling and exciting incidents so common in the world, it is but fair to presume that news from this isolated portion of our country will no longer be quoted as 'unimportant.'