Capt. John W. Phelps, late a captain of ar-tillery in the army of the United States, who was with that portion stationed in Utah, pre-pared a lecture on Mormonism. From a re-port in the Boston Bee we extract the follow ing:
He first alluded to the singularity of its ori-gin [Mormonism]—puritanical, rigid Vermont—and remarked that the extreme of austerity was often followed by its opposite, as was the case in this instance, Joe Smith and Brigham Young having come from that State. Mor-monism, he said, might be described in two words—religion and money-getting. In the prosecution of these two objects, they were the most remarkable people the world had ever seen. In a more particular account of the Mormons in Utah, he said that of late years their accessions were principally from the North of Europe. Missionaries travel in those countries, setting forth the attractions of the Mormon life, its abolition of social distinctions, its equality of political property, &c., and thus many are induced to emigrate. When once in Utah, they are stripped of all they have, and find themselves the victims of one of the worst outrages ever perpetrated. To return, such is the distance from civilization, is impossible. The young women are compelled to marry of-ten at 12, and enter the harem, there to lose all that is pure and good and noble in the sex. From this there is no escape. The tyranny which directs the whole sum of infamy under the name of Mormonism compels it. The so-called administration of justice is a mere farce. The Church is superior to the State; and the caprices and passions of those in au-thority superior to either. The lecturer spoke of the Mormons in Utah as "the most depraved race the world ever saw. If a Redeemer was ever needed, it is for this people." They are totally unfit for self-government; as much so as the convicts of our State prisons. Their whole object is to degrade human nature. The number of Mormons in Utah is 30,000. They live in open rebellion to the government of the United States. The lecturer found fault with government because it did not, when the object could be so easily brought about, crush out this spirit of rebellion, and compel them into decency.
19th Century Mormon Article Newspaper Index
