THE MORMONS.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
GREAT SALT LAKE CITY,
UTAH TERRITORY, JULY 10.
Before this reaches London you will have heard that a "peace" has been negotiated and concluded between the Government of the United States and their rebellious citizens of Utah Territory, and that the "war" is at an end. The Government has suc-ceeded in effecting something which they call a peace, but which will prove to be a mere repression of the moral ulcer, to be followed at no distant day by a reaction far worse than the original disease. This I say after three weeks' personal intercourse with the people of Utah, and observation of them-selves and their leaders. Your correspondent left the camp of the army of Utah before the troops advanced upon the city. In passing through Echo Canon—the noted pass wherein we had so often been told that the Mormons would be found in-vincible—I had ample opportunity to examine the defences by which the army were to be turned back and prevented from entering the valley. The canon is about 20 miles long. It is, in fact, a quiet valley, varying from 100 yards to a mile in width, enclosed by steep mountains on either hand, from 1,000 to 2,000 feet high, plentifully watered by fine springs, and drained by Echo Canon creek, a small stream running through the valley bottom. The popular idea of this noted pass—an idea studiously nourished by Mormon authority'—is, that it is a great cleft in the rocks, with inaccessible walls rising perpendicularly from the roadside. Nothing could be further from the fact. The hills are steep, but there is no half-mile on either side where the heights cannot be reached by a path up some transverse canon or ravine. The crests of the elevations are level, and cavalry or artillery, once upon them, would have no difficulty in commanding the entire canon and converting it into a trap for the enemy who should be indiscreet enough to attempt its defence. Military officers who served in Mexico declare that it is not half so easy of defence as was Cerro Gordo or El Molino del Rey, and that it would require three times as many men to defend as to assail it successfully. This point is important, because the Mormons have always maintained the perfect invincibility of Echo Canon, and have relied upon it implicitly as a means of keeping any and all enemies at bay. The works of defence erected in the canon thoroughly sustain everything we had been told in regard to the entire absence of anything like military knowledge or skill among the Mor-mons. With nearly a year to prepare for resistance, they had erected no single work which would have been a spider's web in the way of a light battery posted on the heights. Their principal reliance, evidently, was upon a series of ditches dug and dams thrown up across the canon, by which they expected to flood the valley with the waters of the creek whenever occasion required, and thus pre-vent the passage of the troops, Near the chief of these earthworks the valley is nor more than 200 yards wide. Here, upon the northern side, the mountain does rise in perpen-dicular cliffs of bare rock, broken into short sec-tions by transverse ravines, and jutting out in sharp overhanging points. At every convenient point here, on every accessible slope or available shelf or ledge, the Mormon Militia had laid up breastworks of loose stone, without cement or mortar, pierced for rifles every two or three feet. The utter folly of these defences may be appre-ciated when I say that a strong man in-serting each hand in a loophole, had no diffi-culty in throwing down several yards of the wall at once. The architect of these works evidently ope-rated in the idea that the army must pass directly through the canon upon the old travelled road, powerless to dig a ditch or a drain, or to cut a new path anywhere. He never dreamed that a single mountain howitzer upon the southern rim of the valley would be able to demolish his breastworks almost without pausing in the march, or that flank-ing parties of infantry on either hill would have completely commanded the defences from the rear, and so have driven their rash occupants to the valley below in solid crowded masses, to be raked by grape shot or crushed to death under the feet of cavalry. A more complete or more pitiable abortion of de-fences could not possibly have been devised; and yet even now the Mormon "colonels" and "generals" assure us that their sharpshooters would have picked off the army with their rifles so rapidly that they could have made no visible progress. There is no estimating the fanatical and foolhardy vanity of this strangely deluded people. You will receive various accounts of the "terms" upon which peace was made and the war avoided. The Mormon leaders, fearful of losing their pre-stige, are already circulating the story that the Government of the United States yielded to stipulations of their proposing, and that the Com-missioners agreed to conditions of their exacting. The facts, as I gather them from the Commissioners themselves, from parties present at the conferences, and from a paper under signature of Brigham Young, which they recently obtained from him with some difficulty, are briefly these:—The Peace Commissioners, Messrs. Powell and M'Culloch, upon ob-taining an interview with Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and General Wells, constituting the "First Presidency" of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, laid before them the President's proclamation of pardon, and stated that they had no other busi-ness than to inquire whether the people were ready to accept this act of grace, to receive the Federal authorities, and to obey the constitution and the laws of the Union. The Mormon leaders endea-voured to make conditions; desired to know whether the army would not be kept out of the valley if they received the Federal officers, &c. To all these Inquiries the Commissioners answered, that they had no authority whatever to make any conditions; that the army were under orders to come in, and would do so; and that the President would always insist upon his right to send the army here, in such numbers, at such time, and to stay as long, as he saw fit. After a few speeches from the leaders, in the course of which Commis-sioner Powell had occasion to rebuke Elder Snow for grossly indecent and vulgar language, it was agreed that the Federal officers should be received, and Brigham accepted the tendered pardon, although he Indignantly denied having been guilty of any of the crimes charged in the proclamation, except that of having burned the Government trains last autumn, and running off the cattle belonging to them. The Governor accordingly assumed the duties of his office, issued his proclamation announcing the settlement of the troubles, and directed all the other officers of the Government to proceed to their posts. When we arrived at Salt Lake we found the city almost deserted. Under orders from Brigham the entire population had vacated their homes, and marched to the southern settlements, whether they desired to do so or not. There was not a single woman left in the town, except the wife of Governor Cumming. All the rest had been compelled to leave, the leaders having declared their fixed pur-pose not to let one of them remain here to witness the entrance of the army and be "corrupted and de- moralized" by its officers. The houses were all closed, the window sashes removed, and windows and doors closed up with rough boards. Scarce a human being could be seen upon the streets, for in the entire city there were only two or three hundred men left to guard the property and apply the torch if orders should come to do so. A single restaurant—one in which Brigham is well known to be personally interested—had been fitted up and opened for the reception of the Peace Commissioners and other Gentiles; but even these were compelled to sleep in their ambu-lances for a fortnight, when one or two rooms were obtained, but without furniture, with the exception of a table and chair or two. Even now I am com-pelled to sleep in the open air upon the back porch of the restaurant, where I am endeavouring to write in a cloud of suffocating dust, and in the midst of a crowd of whisky-drinking patriots, whose senseless jargon affords little inspiration. The mass of the people of Great Salt Lake city have been tarrying at Provo, a town about 50 miles south of this point. Thither I went, about 10 days ago, to meet the prophet Brigham and see a fair specimen of his deluded followers. I found the people generally steeped in poverty and distress, the chief exceptions being the priests and higher dignitaries in the theocracy. Those who had abandoned their homes in this valley were distributed in tents, stables, wood-sheds, waggons, bower houses, lodges of willow or straw, holes dug in the ground on side hills, and shanties, living in the greatest discomfort, and ren-dered the more miserable by some unusually heavy showers of rain, which had thoroughly drenched them, their clothing and household goods, exposed as they were without adequate shelter. Of course I called upon Brigham Young, I found him a well-presenced man of 57 years of age, of medium height, of figure rather inclined to corpulency, with sandy complexion, and a vulgar sensual mouth. He was well, but plainly dressed, rather austere in manner, and evidently fully conscious of the necessity of maintaining a sort of royal dignity, becoming a prophet. I should judge him to be shrewd in worldly affairs, a good business manager, a judge of human nature, and capable of adapting it to his will. The cast of his mind, however, is evidently low and vulgar. While shrewd and cunning, quick and ready in the application of what powers of mind he possesses, the prophet is by no means a wise man nor profound; and in discussion with an ordinarily skillful opponent he fails utterly. Neverthe-less, his power over the people is limitless. His nod is law, and the ignorant masses of his followers look upon him as almost a God. I had the pleasure of hearing him deliver a sermon on the Sabbath, in the course of which he quite satis-fied me that I was not mistaken in my estimate of his mental calibre. His discourse was rambling and vulgar, although his manner was popular and forcible. He never rose to the dignity of an argu-ment, but all his positions depended for success upon the blind acceptance of his own dicta. He re-ferred to the army of the United States as ruffians, and then made a lame effort to cover up the blunder he had sense enough to perceive that he had perpe-trated. He spoke of the President of the United States as "an old dotard, whose friends allow that he ought to have been elected 25 years ago, when he had a little sense about him, if ever;" and in urging the "sisters" not to hurry their husbands back to their homes, told them, if it made their heads ache to live in tents, to "go out and get a chip to put on their heads." This specimen is quite sufficient to satisfy and disgust every intelligent reader. Judge what must be the misery of an educated and refined proselyte to Mormonism, who comes here as to a heaven upon earth, and finds the prophet, the vicegerent of God, a man of such vulgarity as the above language marks him.
But Brigham is a model of elegance and refine-ment compared with Heber C. Kimball, the next in the priesthood. He is only a few days older than Brigham, is tall, full formed, with short sandy hair and whiskers, florid complexion, and small, cunning, snake-like black eyes. No one knows with certainty how many wives Brigham has, but Heber pleads guilty to about 40, by whom he has only about 58 living children, having lost half-a-dozen. His reputation as a husband and father is bad, and many are the secretly-whispered tales of his jealous cruelty to his wives, some of whom are younger than his first-born child. He is certainly the most vulgar and blasphemous wretch it has been my misfortune to meet. Excepting the use of the name of God, there is no form of blasphemy which is not familiar to his lips. He assured me that he loved his friends and not his enemies. Being rebuked for this senti-ment by a Gentile bystander, he declared that he followed the Scripture, nevertheless, and prayed for his enemies. This sentiment elicited commend-ation, when Heber continued,—"Yes, I pray they may all go to H—ll and be damned." This, let me assure you, is a fair sample of the style of language employed by this second member of the priesthood, in the pulpit and out of it. Another illustration of his spirit, and I leave Brother Heber. He was asked if he would resent an insult by violence; and he responded, "The Scriptures tell us that if smitten upon one cheek we must turn the other also. Well, I'll do that; but if a man smites me on the other cheek too, let him look out for a —of a lick back!"
The population of these valleys has been greatly over-estimated. I have seen here and at Provo, an acknowledged three-fourths of the entire popu-lation, and 30,000 or 35,000 is the very highest figure which can be honestly given to this people, even estimating them upon the most liberal basis. Of these I do not believe even 5,000 men capable of making passable soldiers could be found; and the utter futility, therefore, of their resisting the United States Government must be apparent. As a class they are very poor. All we have been wont to hear of the fertility of this valley has been grossly exaggerated. There is scarce an acre in the whole territory of Utah that can be cultivated without irrigation. Where this expensive process can be availed of the crops are fine, unless the grasshoppers or crickets cut them off, as they have on several occasions. But the simplest living is difficult to be made here by a poor man, unless he has high posi-tion in the church,—in which event, by some means or other, he seems to prosper and get rich without much labour. The tithings prescribed by the church, and the taxes imposed for territorial and municipal purposes, swallow up just about one-fifth of the poor man's substance, either in labour upon the temple, or in produce of his little farm and in-crease of his stock. Would that the European victims of Mormon proselyting agents could be made to understand how sadly all their anticipations in connexion with this "Zion" are doomed to be disappointed. If they could but know the truth they would never cross the ocean and the wilderness, to find here both a moral and physical desert.
While at Provo I had good opportunity to observe the condition of the female population. As a class the women appear to be discontented and un-happy. Perhaps I should discriminate more care-fully, and say that the old women, whose days of pleasure and worldly hope have passed, seem to be happy, the middle aged keenly sensitive and miser-able, and the young reckless, listless, and hopeless having nothing in anticipation but sensual vassalage, painfully conscious that their natural affections must ever be stifled, and the love they would share alone with a husband be divided with several feminine partners. The women are all meanly clad—many of them having scarcely sufficient to cover their nakedness. This arises not merely from poverty, but from the fact that in consequence of the merchants having been driven away from the valley there have been no fabrics here to be purchased fit for female apparel. A friend of mine, an officer of the army, while passing along a by-road a day or two since, came suddenly upon a party of a dozen or more women, young and old, returning to their homes from the temperary refuge at Provo, on foot, who had evidently taken the by-road to avoid observation. These were almost destitute of upper clothing, and had blankets wrapped about their forms like Indian squaws, to cover their nakedness. At sight of the stranger they fled from the road like frightened deer, conscious of their destitute con-dition and unfitness for the gaze of strangers. This is no fancy picture, but plain matter of fact. The men are excessively jealous, which makes it difficult to get opportunity to converse with the women. I have been able, however, to steal brief interviews with a few of them, two being; "spiritual" wives of polygamous husbands. Slight as was the opportunity to converse with them, they found time to express their secret abhorrence of the whole system, and their earnest desire to be rescued from its degradations.
During my sojourn here I have taken much pains to form a correct judgment of the moral standing of the Mormon community. That they have good qualities is evident to the most casual observer. They certainly are very industrious, and have accomplished an amount of work in the shape of public improvements almost incredible. The whole country occupied by them is intersected by ditches in every direction to carry the water from the moun-tains through their fields. In Great Salt Lake City alone they have erected dwellings for perhaps 12,000 persons. These dwellings are all constructed of well-pressed and sun-dried brick. Though exceed-ingly simple in form, and poorly finished, they have involved an immense amount of labour. The dwellings of Young, Kimball, and many others are superior, and their grounds are enclosed by walls of cobble stone laid in cement, 10 or 12 feet high, from 3 to 5 feet thick at the base, and 12 to 18 inches at the top. The Temple Block—a square of 10 acres—is surrounded by a similar wall, constructed in panels, and handsomely plastered with a hard mastic, of which sharp gravel is a chief ingredient. Within these walls stand the Tabernacle, capable of seating nearly 3,000 persons, the Endowment-house (in which the Masonic mysteries of Mormonism are enacted), and very extensive workshops occupied by operatives in the construction of the Temple. The foundations of the latter building are of the most massive and substantial description. They have only been carried up to the earth's surface, yet have cost over a million of dollars paid out of the tithing-fund. It has evi-dently been the policy of their crafty leader to keep the people always at work, foreseeing that this was the best method to keep them from thinking and thus discovering the gigantic imposture of which they are the victims. Some years ago—I think in 1854—there was a very large immigra-tion into the valley; so large that there was nothing for them to do, and they were in danger of starvation and revolution. What did Brigham? Both his doors and store the tithing-house with arms far its defence? Not so, he suddenly dis-covered that a huge wall, entirely around the city site of six square miles, was necessary to defend the settlement against Indian depredations. The work was ordered at once and was commenced. A deep ditch or moat was dug, and the earth taken there-from mixed with water and straw, and laid up in a wall six feet thick at the base, pierced with loop-holes for musketry. I should estimate that five or six miles of this work were completed, and then abandoned and left to fall into ruin. It had accom-plished its purpose, however; had furnished an ex-cuse for feeding the revolutionary material, and is now acknowledged, openly, to have had no other object than to afford employment.
The mass of the people, too, are honest and con-scientious, paying their debts promptly, observing family worship morning and evening, living quietly and peaceably with each other (with the exception of the jealous differences in the double-wived house-holds), and in all other respects, under ordinary cir-cumstances, living the lives of good citizens and neighbours. To all outward appearance the best order prevails; but it is evident that it is the good order of despotism, a priestly despotism, more thorough and unquestioned than the despotism of Russia, because it controls men through their re-ligious prejudices and superstitious fears. There are some constitutionally bad men among them, who doubtless are the vilest hypocrites, and who have availed themselves of the cloak of religion merely that they may have the better opportunity to gratify their evil propensities of every sort. These do the secret work of robbery and assassination, of which we have indubitable evidence that much has been done in the interest of or to revenge "the church" by order of the leaders. The doc-trine is privately inculcated (so I am as-sured by men and women who have left the church in disgust) that to despoil a Gentile of property and life in revenge for the death of Joseph Smith is a virtue; also that it is kind and Christian like to take the lives of those who have sinned deeply against the church, or who are likely to do so by apostacy and the revelation of the dread secrets of their mystic orders. This is called "saving" a brother or sister—that is to say, it is held that to "spill their blood upon the ground" is an atone-ment for their sins and saves them from perdition. It is difficult to believe that Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, General Wells, and others of the leaders in this church are honest in the avowal of these and other doctrines. They are too intelligent, I cannot doubt, and have seen too much of the behind scenes machinery of the stupendous humbug to be them-selves its victims. But the mass of the people are honestly deluded. They are generally igno-rant, uneducated, and simple minded. They are not hypocrites, but they are fanatics of the most dangerous class; fanatics who would walk to shame and death without a murmur, if so ordered by their spiritual leaders, never dream-ing that destroying human life is murder, or the forcible seizure of property is robbery when done in the interest of the church. To a community like that of London I know it will be difficult to make the full force and truth of these suggestions appa-rent; nevertheless, they describe the facts as they are. Such a state of things could not exist among educated and intelligent men and women; but, when such are deceived into taking up their resi-dence here, they speedily become disgusted, and abandon the church and the country, unless flat-tered into remaining, or induced to do so by avarice, or Rome other equally degrading passion, for persons of refinement often become utterly reckless when they find themselves here in an earthly hell instead of the "Zion" of their earnest hope.
The spirit of apostacy has long been rife among the people; but the fear of the "destroying an-gels" has compelled many to feign acquiescence in the church when secretly watching for an avenue of escape. Even now this is so to some ex-tent with an army within 30 miles of this city. I know of several families here to-day supposed to be full of the faith, who are secretly apostates, and only awaiting opportunity to sell their property before they abandon the country and start for the States. Some 300 families have already started towards Missouri this season, since the approach of the troops; and there are hundreds of others just in this neighbourhood who intend to avail them-selves of the protection of the army to leave soon, when they have gathered their little crops and so ob-tained means to go with. If military posts should be established near all the large Mormon settle-ments, there can be little doubt that the community of Latter-Day Saints will be rapidly reduced in numbers. That the "Saints" and large numbers of "Gentiles" can live in near proximity is impossible. With the army 22 miles away from this city—as it has been until a few days ago—there were, nevertheless, frequent petty collisions, tending to produce exten-sive irritation. Gentiles are pouring into the cities also, intending to trade, or for other purposes. These will resist ecclesiastical authority, and claim the protection of the army in so doing. Brigham has been too long the despot of this region to submit quietly to their defiance of his power. He is un-used even to contradiction, and cannot bear it with equanimity. His "boys," as he calls his satellites, will have a "difficulty" some day with attaches of the army, and the rebellion against civil authority will suddenly become more serious than ever. It is idle to suppose that this deceptive peace can last. It is threatened with disruption every hour. The leaders of the church all betray their fears by their acts, watching every Gentile with suspicion, treating us all with a cold, stiff, cynical sort of politeness, deci-dedly suggestive of genteel throat- cutting. Brigham himself keeps a body-guard of armed men in his own house and in the grounds enclosed by the im-penetrable wall surrounding it. If he expected a continuous peace he would not deem such adjuncts necessary to his safety; yet the Peace Commissioners have fulfilled their mission and started on their re- turn to Washington. The fact is, that the rebels have not been subdued. The mission of the commis-sioners, and the pardon volunteered by the President, instead of appealing to the better feelings of this people, have only fed their already inordinate vanity, satisfied them that the Government fears to deal with them by force, and emboldened rather than humbled the masses. President Buchanan committed a fatal error in sending the pardon in advance of the army and the "Twelve Apostles," as the men have designated a certain battery of a dozen pieces. When the Mormons committed overt acts of treason in burning Government trains General Johnston wrote to the War Department that the Mormon question, hitherto difficult and perplexing, had been now rendered "easy of solu-tion." The old soldier uttered the promptings of sound common- sense. The rebels had taken a step which left no doubt as to their position and pur-poses, and if the President thenceforth had left its solution to the General and his troops he would have taught them effectually the hopelessness of resist-ance to law, and the assured supremacy of civil Government. By the ill-advised pardon the oppor-tunity has been lost. Oppression and crime under priestly domination will be more rife than ever, and a devilish cunning will so clothe these acts in the forms of law administered by Mormon juries that their perpetrators can seldom, if ever, be reached and brought to punishment. Cunning will be employed also to defeat the civil Government in all respects, without giving excuse again for effec-tive military interference. As already suggested, however, it is to be hoped that the presence of a large "Gentile" force will set a process of disinte-gration at work in the community, tending to weaken and ultimately destroy it, with the aid of an independent press, soon to be established here, and an evangelical church, which it is hoped that Christians in more favoured lands will plant among this people, for India presents no field of missionary enterprise half so inviting as do these "Tallies of the Mountains."
Some weeks ago an agent arrived here on behalf of Colonel H. L. Kinney, of Mosquito celebrity, who proposed selling to Brigham and the church 3,000,000 acres of land in the Mosquito territory, claimed to be held by him under the Sheppard and Haley grants. Brigham publicly declares that he has absolutely and emphatically rejected the preposition, that he likes this country well enough, and intends to live and die in these mountains. I do not believe him sincere in this. He is now making strenuous efforts with a view to the admission of Utah into the Union as a State, under the impression that when that is done his Legislature can legalize polygamy and so save this "domestic institution" from sup-pression by the courts. The movement will un-questionably fail, because public sentiment in the United States is too active against polygamy to admit of the admission of Utah into the Union with a people who are in the least inclined to tolerate it, even though they did not; make it a matter of "religion" and "conscientious duty." When this failure becomes a fixed fact Brigham will begin to look for some new "Zion," unless, in the meantime he becomes satisfied that Congress will not inter-fere with polygamy. He long ago declared that Mormonism must have a political phase; and a future empire, with its foreign ambassadors, is a dream frequently foreshadowed already in the addresses delivered before "literary" societies in the valley, where the Queen's English is murdered without remorse. It is every day becom-ing more and more apparent that Mormonism can-not thrive in the midst of a Republic, because the system is patriarchal, and necessarily a Theoc-racy, utterly inconsistent with the Government of the American Union. Brigham, I know, acknow-ledges this, and I have reason to believe that, not-withstanding his positive declarations adverse to Kin-ney's proposition, he is secretly entertaining it, and proposes to send agents there to examine the country and its resources. If the Mormons ever get there, or within the borders of any other weakly State, they will promptly depose the existing Government and establish that of the church.
I have thus given you a general, independent, and, I trust, intelligent, view of the condition of affairs in Utah. I have not lumbered my letter with the repetition of incidents illustrating the Mormon system; they are furnished in abundance by the special correspondents of the New York press, where they have more of interest than with you. The correspondence of the New York Times espe-cially, I have reason, to know, will be found to con-tain many such, from which those who desire may cull ad libitum, in conclusion, I have only to add a warning to Mormon converts in Europe not to be deceived into venturing a journey hither. If they will not believe the evidences furnished by the press, exposing the terrible imposture of Mor-monism, and showing how little it is like the heaven for which zealous proselytes pant, let them at least wait awhile before undertaking the journey hither—until they can learn whether or no they are likely to find "Zion" here when they arrive, or removed to some distant point.
