NEW INFLUENCES IN UTAH.
A FREE PRESS IN BRIGHAM'S DOMINION.
SEEDS OP DISRUPTION IN THE MORMON CAMP.—
POWER OF THE PRESS—THE PRACTICES OF
BRIGHAM.
SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 15.—Poor Brigham! His apostles and prophets at last realize that the latter-days are full of evil, and hardly know what to do with themselves. A free-spoken bishop remarked, yesterday, that "he had for years looked for this—it was a long lane that had no turning. "There are thousands like him throughout the Territory, but they dare not side with the movement of progress. It is no easy matter for men with numerous wives and many children to settle the question of duty in their own minds. With years and ripe experience they have outgrown what was obligatory when they first associated with Mormonism. What con-fiding enthusiasm suggested them to accept "to build up the Kingdom" was well enough, while they believed that the world was fast hastening to its final break-up, that they were the Church taken into the wilderness to escape the general calamities that were to overtake "Babylon the Great," and that Brigham Young's prediction that the North and South should never cease this warfare till they had desolated the land, laid waste their cities, rent in twain the Constitution, and there was safety nowhere but in Zion. That the women of the Gentiles would rush to Utah and beg the brethren to give them protection and the honor of their names; that many who would not fight against their neighbors would have to flee to the mountains for safety, and that even the Saints who lingered back in the States, hugging the flesh-pots, would be so terribly shaken with fear for the calamities that were coming upon the Repub-lic, that they would be glad to make their way to "the mountains of Israel!" What a solemn denial do the facts of to-day give to the picture that was thus painted for the confiding Saints to look upon. The records of Brigham Young's life do not convict him of knavery. There are many facts in his history that speak of un-compromising sincerity. He is the victim of a free inter-pretation of tradition in his work, recognizing no brain but his own, following no path but that of his own tracing, and only accountable to his own judgment. As a contribution to history his life has been valuable, and the longer that he is spared to the world, the more pos-terity will be benefited, for in this remarkable man fa-naticism will be seriously wounded where before it was strongest.
The best means to an end are not always employed in revolutions, but, thus far, the Utah reformers have been particularly successful. A distinguished attorney, who has been many years in the Territory, said, on a recent public occasion, that, looking back upon the course of the revolution, it seemed to have been wonder- fully prudent in the adaptation of means. The revolu-tionists have trusted in the might of the pen. A Hoe press has done what no army, with Congress to back it, could achieve. Brigham laughed at "Buchanan's troops," and defied Congress interference. The people were then united. Never a public or private prayer was offered without claiming for the Mormon leader the choicest of Heaven's blessings, that he might "be the wisest man in the world," and that before him "all enemies should perish." Those prayers molded the thoughts, feelings, and affections of the people to the point desired. He was Heaven's representative—the world was his enemy. No bayonets could fight that in-fluence ; but the reformers brought faith to fight faith. They admitted all that was traceable to their Great Mas-ter, through Joseph their first prophet, and through Brigham also, and then gently led the way from the in-duction of Heaven's partiality for Utah and the Mor-mons to the fact that "God was everywhere." The pen has shaken everything, and the traditional stories of early Mormonism are openly questioned and arraigned at the bar of reason and evidence.
Personally, Brigham is a great mimic and satirist. He thoroughly comprehends the keenness of satire, and, when disposed, uses it unsparingly. When the reform commenced, the son of an apostle published at the office of the Church paper a bitter comic sheet under the sug-gestive title of Keep-a-pitching-in. Provocative of re-taliation, as all such efforts are, the Church comic pro-duced an opposition paper called Diogenes, and the old philosopher's lantern is now throwing its luminous rays into every private hiding-place. Diogenes is startingly bold, and no one and nothing is spared. Brigham is handled with freedom and felicity, and the institutions played with and exposed. The reformers disown any interest in it, but all the same enjoy the benefits of the fight.
Diogenes is fiercely sarcastic on Utah's claim for ad-mission into the Union, and boldly tells one man who is charged with having been one of the leaders in that dreadful Mountain Meadow massacre that his throat is not safe. Two bills have recently been introduced into the Senate and the House for the admission of Utah into the Union as a State. The bills seem different at this distance, but they are probably the same, or so akin to each other that they have the same parentage. Tom Fitch of Nevada got Senator Wilson to introduce the bill into the Chamber, and Fitch's neighbor, Sargent of Cali-fornia, has now presented the other to the House. Every sensible person here protests against the bill being con-sidered at all, even though the abandonment of polygamy is ostensibly contemplated. One of the provisions of the bill is "that the election of officers for the proposed new State shall be in accordance with the present election laws of Utah. This would require the numbering and marking of the votes as at present practiced." Surely Congress is not to be led into this terrible wrong. We cannot think that the assembled wisdom of the nation will be so indifferent to progress. Great as would be the satisfaction at seeing polygamy ended, it would only be a snare. Brigham Young would soon take it up again, under the claim that the State was sovereign, and could regulate its own internal affairs. The priesthood hold that in all such things the end justifies the means.
Congress need not trouble about polygamy. Protect the people in the freedom of the ballot-box, make every device by which the voter's ballot is known a penal offense, and polygamy will soon disappear. There is not one girl in a hundred to-day who will accept a polygamous husband. The institution is exploded by the weight of its self-created misery. When Joseph Smith first taught the doctrine of polygamy to the Mormons there was a great deal of the affinity feeling creeping into the Church. A change of marital relations was no un-common thing in those days, and it was for a time diffi-cult for some men to know whether their wives were their own or belonged to some one else. It is not long since one of the apostles discovered that the partner of his first joys had been the wife of another man for 20 years! But there is little love in Brigham's polygamy. It is duty that he teaches. The sentiment of affection in matrimony is folly to him. In his language, "the women have all got to be married and the men have got to marry them." A young man was jilted by a young lady. He complained to Brigham, but he saw no reason for dis-satisfaction. "She has a sister—probably you could get her for a wife." There was nothing that Brigham could see to prevent one sister doing as well as another.
THE SAINTS THROWN OUT OF COURT.
IMPORTANT DECISIONS BY JUDGE JAMES B.
M'KEAN—POLYGAMISTS NOT ENTITLED TO
NATURALIZATION—TERRITORIAL LAND
GRANTS OF NO VALUE.
SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 20.—Two important decisions lately rendered by Chief-Justice James B. McKean of the Third District Court, nearly affecting Mormon rights to property and to citizenship, have just been published, and copies have been forwarded to you. One of your correspondents, writing from here a few months ago, mentioned that these two cases were pend-ing and would doubtless be decided at the January term. It was not difficult to understand, from former rulings of Judge McKean, that the decision in the natu-ralization case would be adverse to Mormon interests, for the facts were identically the same, "only," as we say in the West, "more so." In September last the Judge decreed in the cases of Sandberg and Horsley, polyg-amists in principle and perspective, though having only one wife each at the time, that they could not become citizens of the United States, because their expressed readiness to become polygamists established that they were not men of good moral character fit to become citizens. He has now decided, on the applications of Richard Douglass, Ralph Douglass, and William Kay, each a practicing polygamist, that they are not men of moral character, and not entitled to naturalization. These men committed polygamy prior to the time that Utah became a Territory, and they set up in defense that they had violated no law of Congress. Judge McKean ruled that in violating the marital laws of any other country under which they may have lived before coming to this they had committed crime which debarred them from becoming citizens of the United States. This decision is in consonance with the previous one and no sane man questions its justice or that it can be sustained in law.
The decision as published contains a strong hint to Brigham Young and his followers, which naturally creates much excitement here. But it has been expected for some time; indeed, ever since it became apparent that the Federal judges here were no longer under Mormon influence as under former Administrations. The con-cluding paragraph of the decision on the naturaliza-tion application just alluded to reads thus:
It is quite time that certain men in this community who mislead the people, who prate about their loyalty to the Constitution while they denounce every law that opposes their lusts, had learned that “the jurisdiction of a nation, within its own territory, is exclusive and abso-lute. It is susceptible of no limitation not imposed by itself." (The Exchange agt. McFaddon, 7 Cranch, 116.) Let them make up their minds that this nation will enforce in Utah the same laws that are en-forced everywhere else in the civilized world. Let those men who have been ignorantly or willingly misled into bigamy, make provision for the support of their illegitimate children and the mothers of those children, and then let them cease to cohabit with their concubines. After they shall have done and persisted in such "works meet for repentance," there will be time enough for them to apply for American citizenship on the ground that they are men "of good moral character, attached to the prin-ciples of the Constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same." Whatever the present applicants for natural-ization may have supposed in regard to the law prior to 1862, they now know that the law condemns their conduct. If they have any desire ever again to be-come the law-abiding men which the court presumes they once were, let them at once begim to obey the laws.—laws in harmony with the principles and practices of all civilized nations; let them no longer listen to the pre-cepts, no longer imitate the examples of false teachers, who would have them believe that the man who turns away from the wife of his youth, and takes to his bed and board and bosom one or more young concubines, does a deed of piety—a deed, however, which reminds civilized men of the filial piety which prevails among certain African tribes, where children rid themselves of their aged parents by knocking them on the head with a club.
The second decision is not less important though hardly as sensational in its effects. The Gentile miners have lately invaded Utah in great numbers (see the fol-lowing letter, ED. TRIBUNE), and have "preempted" and are working mines claimed by Mormons under grants from the Territorial Legislature. One of these is a silver mine in the Little Cottonwood Canon claimed by James E. Lyon, but worked by several miners from the West who squatted thereon. Lyon sued for an injunction to restrain them from working it, alleging prior discovery; but Judge McKean has refused the injunction on several grounds not necessary to mention, but which establish that territorial grants of public lands will not hold good, so that Mormondom cannot hope to secure its monopoly in this territory. This decision closes with this signifi-cant paragraph:
Though the Territory of Utah lies contiguous to the great mining districts of other States and Territories, and though for more than 20 years it has had a consider-able population, its valuable mines are but just begin-ning to be developed. It will not be surprising if many cases of contested titles shall arise. The law powers of the Courts are available to all, and so are their equity powers; but the latter should be exercised, in the grant-ing of injunctions, with extraordinary prudence. Of course these decisions will have a great effect on the Saints. They put a stop to their increase of political power from immigration, while they greatly curtail their influence as monopolists of the best land and richest mines of the district.
THE MINES IN MORMONDOM.
STAMPEDE OF GENTILE MINERS TO THE VICINITY
OF SALT LAKE CITY—ARGENTIFEROUS GA-
LENA—EXTRAORDINARY SHIPMENTS OF ORE
—WILL THE MINERS DISORGANIZE THE MOR-
MONS NEW RAILROADS IN UTAH.
CORINNE, Utah Territory, March 1.—Utah has not heretofore figured largely in mining statis-tics, but from recent developments in the vicinity of Salt Lake City, it seems probable that estimates of her mineral resources must be immensely ad-vanced. Trustworthy information in such matters is not easily obtained, for the reason, on the one hand, that those who are directly or indirectly interested in dis-coveries magnify and distort the details for speculative purposes; while, on the other hand, those who are es-tablished in neighboring and rival mining localities decry and belittle them with equal earnestness. The Gentiles in and about Salt Lake City are, for example, talking of mountains of silver ore of unheard-of rich-ness ; while the people of Denver warn miners against leaving "good, certain, and remunerative diggings in Colorado for the uncertainty of a lode among the moun-tains of Utah."
The California Volunteers who came to Utah under Gen. Connor, in 1862, discovered ores of the precious metals in Rush Valley, 40 miles west of Salt Lake City; at Brigham Canon, 25 miles south-west; on the heads of the Cottonwood Creeks, 25 miles south-east, and at Meadow Valley and Pahranagat, from 300 to 400 miles south. Gen. Connor and others did considerable work in Rush Valley, but, owing chiefly to the want of cheap transportation, with little profit. Under the stimulus imparted to mining, or rather to "prospecting" enter-prise by the completion of the Pacific Railroad, work has been resumed in all of these dis-tricts, and "prospecting" has been extended over a large part of the entire Territory, resulting in the organization of some twenty mining districts, generally adjacent to the agricultural settlements of Utah, and extending from Arizona to Montana. In a recent report upon the subject, the following districts have been described, the list showing their general distance and direction from Salt Lake City: Mountain Lake District (Little Cottonwood Cañon), 25 miles, south-east; West Mountain District (Bingham Cañon), 25 miles, south-west; Stockton District (East Cañon), 50 miles, south-west; Tintic Valley District, 75 miles, south-west; Sevier District, 200 miles, south; Meadow Valley District, 250 miles, south-west—(both the latter in the Mount Nebo region); Star District, 200 miles, west-by-south. In each of these districts there are several mines which are actively worked, and fresh discoveries are constantly making.
About a year ago miners from the White Pine District made their way south-eastward to the confines of Utah, discovered the great value of the Meadow Valley mines, claimed them by virtue of discovery, renamed the dis-trict and the lodes, and now the district is shipping silver bullion to New-York through Wells. Fargo & Co., at the rate of $200,000, coin, per month. The mines which are working in the districts are said to present many of the characteristics of permanent veins. The principal has five or six openings on it, worked to a depth of 180 feet; the mineral varying in width from four to six feet. The district is very imperfectly supplied with milling facilities, yet it is probably producing silver at the rate of $250,000 a month, about one-fifth of which still finds its outlet through White Pine to Elcho in spite of the improved facilities of communication lately es-tablished between Meadow Valley and Salt Lake City. A recent clean-up from seven and one-half days' run of an eight-stamp mill amounted to $18,000. About 20,000 tuns of ore are piled up on the mine dumps waiting its turn at the mills.
At the head of the Little Cottonwood some rich ore was mined, and a good deal of money wasted between 1864 and 1868. For 1869-70 a certain shaft in that locality, following a small seam of ore, at the depth of 100 feet or so, began to lose itself in an immense bed of ar-gentiferous galena, worth $200 per tun, gross, from which 4,000 to 5,000 tuns have been taken, during the past eight months, and shipped, chiefly to Liverpool, for reduction. The present workings in this mine are said by the initiated to expose 38,000 tuns of ore, with no apparent signs of exhaustion. It costs $70 a tun to reduce this ore to coin or bank notes, viz., for mining, $3 50; sacking, $5; hauling to depot of U. C. Railroad in Salt Lake City, $10; transportation to Liverpool, $33 75; charges there for reducing, &c., $16, coin.
A one-fourth interest in the Emma mine, in Little Cot-tonwood Cañon, was recently sold for $140,000. Persons from San Francisco proposed to purchase the whole, but they seem to have thought that the showing made by the mine did not warrant the payment of the price asked, viz., $1,200,000 gold. At least they did not buy. The quality of the ores found in Little Cotton-wood and Meadow Valley districts have created great excitement about the Utah mines. The Territory has been gradually filling up with "prospectors" for half a year, and men are flocking to Salt Lake City from all parts of the country, at a rate which, by May, will give an increase of at least 50,000 to the population of the vicinity. It is estimated that over 75 car-loads of ore are shipped from Utah every day, of which the greater part is mined in Little Cottonwood Cañon, at a point about 25 miles from the city in which Brigham Young lives. The highest grade of ore as yet taken out returned 80.4 ounces of lead and 262.4 ounces of silver, equal to $339 30 a tun. Gold, as well as silver, has been found in com-bination with lead and other base metals in Utah; but nine-tenths of the mineral veins yet discovered have been of silver-bearing lead. In describing the great mine in Little Cottonwood Cañon, the expression "lake of mineral" is used as if with reference to its original forma-tion, and surveys have as yet failed to define its extent, but it is believed to be vast.
Ores have been found in entirely new districts which yielded more than $600 per tun net. But not enough mining has been done to determine very definitely the nature of the mines, whether they are lodes or deposits. Going south, the mines seem to partake more of the nature of true veins, and the ores are better adapted to milling, having but little galena in them. Little ore has yet come forward, however, which could be milled. It has to be smelted, and a good deal of it, by reason of the presence of antimony, sulphur, arsenic, zinc, &c., must be roasted and freed from these substances before it can be reduced successfully. Half a dozen rough and inexpensive blast furnaces, easily repaired, have been erected at different points to supply this want. The sandstone, fire-clay, &c., for furnace lining, are found in Utah, and those engaged in the business claim to have mastered it, so that they can extract all the valuable metal, practically, at a cost of about $20 per tun. Some 25 lots of 20 car loads, or 400,000 pounds each, of argentiferous galena have been shipped hence by the Pacific Railroad to New-York during the past Winter, for conveyance to Liverpool. A great many new mines are opening, and the shipment of ores will increase very rapidly after the country roads become passable again.
A railroad southward from Salt Lake City is projected—70 miles to be built this year—which will leave many mining districts but a few miles to the right and left. At this point (Corrine) on the Pacific Railroad, at the head of Salt Lake navigation, a steamer of 500 tuns bur-den is building, which is designed to ply between here and Black Rock, on the southern beach of the lake, whence a railroad is projected southward through the heart of the Rush Valley, East Cañon, Camp Floyd, Tintie, Sevier, and Star districts, to Meadow Valley, na-ture having provided a favorable depression in the moun-tains, seemingly for this purpose.
Few of the multitudes who are "stampeding" in the direction in which new discoveries are reported will meet with any better success than at other places. We want no more adventurers to rush here. We want ex-perienced "prospectors" to find the mineral, and capital and skill to extract the metal. Everybody may rest assured that it requires the most vigilant exercise of the qualities which insure success in general business to achieve it in mining the precious metals. Utah, is very well supplied with labor, its agri-culture is established on every stream, its manufacturing energies have been stimulated, and it has enough capital engaged in trade. Now, if the West can send us all her idle "prospectors," and the East loan us capital to ex-tend our railroads, mine and smelt our ores, both of the base and precious metals, we shall increase in population, in wealth, comfort, and importance in a manner unprecedented in the history of the Rocky Mountain communities. The fate of poly gam v appears, however, to be involved in the further develop-ment of this great mineral region about Salt Lake City. The influx of adventurous miners is becoming so large that the domestic relations of the "Saints" will be likely to be seriously interfered with. The miners will want wives, and the Mormons certainly have wives to spare.
19th Century Mormon Article Newspaper Index
