IMPORTANT NEWS FROM UTAH.
It is stated that important official despatches lately received from Utah by the government at Washington, warrant the belief that Brigham Young, the leader of the Mormons and the great high priest of the "Latter Day Saints" so called, has fled from Utah, to save his neck from his in-furiated victims. According to the reports, Brig- ham had become so bare-faced and shameless in his impositions and so tyrannical and exacting in his orders, that his deluded followers could sub-mit no longer. The last slumbering spark of jus-tice and desire for right was awakened, and the prophet left to save himself from the fury of an excited and maddened populace. We trust that the rumor will prove true. We hope that Young has fled before the gathering storm. It will save the government the trouble of hanging him, which however necessary and justifiable, would still be an extremely unpleasant job.
It is a sad commentary that such a large num- ber of worthy and respectable people could have been gammoned by such a besotted old humbug as Young. The disclosures that have been made as to the territory show a most corrupt state of the public morals— a condition probably never equalled on this side of the Atlantic at least— and a system of swindling and the vile frauds committed upon the Mormon people that appal and confound the stoutest heart. All laws, human anddivine, that in good governments are considered so essential to the welfare and prosperity of a State, have been set aside and made to give place to the Mormon code. Debauchery, licentiousness and social vil- lainies have become the rule and not the exception. Young, with his sixty or seventy wives, has liter- ally reeked with all manner of corruptions. The territorial laws of the United States have been subordinated to the Mormon law ; no justice could be dispensed by the Courts ; Young was in fact the Judge, Jury and Governor, who acquitted the guilty or hung the innocent to suit his own whim and caprice. Tithes have been demanded of the Mormons by Young, to the amount of one- tenth of their possessions and earnings, ostensibly for the church but in reality for his own pocket. He has become rich out of the hard earned money of his simple- minded followers and has ruled them with a rod of iron. No despot ever subjected his people to severer rules or more outrageous exac- tions. But if the late accounts are to be be- lieved, he carried his iniquitous game too far. His acts became so flagrant as to open the eyes of his victims. There is nothing so terri- ble as the wrath of a people who have come to un- derstand the frauds that have been practiced upon them. The storm may be long in gathering, but its fury is terrible when it breaks. All history attests that the most infuriated people are those who have been oppressed and have escaped from their thraldom. The sense of the wrongs that they have suffered comes over them, and re- venge for the long list of injuries they have en- dured, becomes a controlling influence. We could wish no worse fate for Brigham Young, scoundrel that he is, than that he should be given up to the "tender mercies" of his followers from whose eyes the scales have fallen. We could ask nothing more than that they should mete justice out to their high priest and leader with the same meas- ure he has meted it out to them.
From our knowledge of the Mormon people, we believe that the great masses of them are quiet, inoffensive and simple minded. Their simplicity and gullability have been their great misfortune. They have fallen into the snare set for them by the dishonest and designing. They have easily fallen victims to the persuasions and plausible, oily tongues of the evil disposed. Like the unfortu- nate believers in Millerism, Spiritualism and the countless other isms of the day, they have been af- fected with a monomania, a mental hallucination, which can only be removed by healthful and judi- cious moral training. There has always been one trait in the Mormon character that has won our admiration, and to it as much if not more than to all things else, may be attributed the great success of the elders in proselyting. We refer to their self-denial, their persistence of purpose, and the earnestness with which they have defended their faith. Whether in Missouri, Illinois or far away by the Great Salt Lake, they have at all times shown a martyrs devotion to the cause they had espoused. Mistaken as was their zeal, yet it could not lose its effect. It has ever been the strong point in their character and has invested them with a peculiar interest. Talking the right direction and relieved of the ras- cally influence of their leaders, we consider them an important people to any country. But as they have been living for the past few years, they are a disgrace and a blot upon the fair name of the country.
No community where licentiousness runs riot, where law is disregarded, and government is vest- ed in the hands of a corrupt and besotted clergy, can ever be prosperous. All free governments, all governments that are worth having, must depend upon the virtue and intelligence of the people. How much of either of these important essentials to national success, are to be found in Utah, is in no way problematical. Virtue is unheard of and intelligence at a sad discount.
But the evil promises to work its own cure. If Young has fled from the territory, let the govern- ment see to it that he is kept away by force even if necessary. We believe that the minds of the Mormon people are tractable and that with pro- per and judicious treatment they will be convert- ed into good and patriotic citizens, and that the future of Utah will be as honorable as her past has been disgraceful.
19th Century Mormon Article Newspaper Index
