UTAH.
The Deseret News contains no reports of the pro-ceedings of the Legislature, or of the movements of the Mormon soldiers, or of the condition of the United States troops. These subjects are too important to be overlooked, and must have been intentionally excluded for the purpose of suppressing information.
The News does not publish so many sermons now as it did a couple of months ago, and those published are more moderate in their tone, and contain fewer allu-sions to political affairs.
MEMORIALS.—At a mass meeting held, in accord-ance with call, at the Tabernacle, in Great Salt Lake City, on the 16th January, two memorials were adopted—one addressed to the President, and the other to Congress. The memorial to the President contains the following paragraphs:
"That army is now upon our borders. Say they, 'our mission is peace; we come to establish the laws.' Is the business of an army peace? What laws have we broken? Not the laws of the United States, nor of this Territory; we dare proof to the contrary. If they come to establish the common law of Great Britain, or the by-laws of Bedlam, we have law enough without, and their presence is unnecessary. If they come to crush out from our bosoms that noble feeling—Ameri-can independence, hallowed by our father's blood, and bequeathed to us as a sacred boon—the task is greater than they can perform. Your army will not be per-mitted to enter our valleys. We wish for peace, but we will sacrifice all the fruits of our labors, rather than surrender our domestic peace and inalienable rights.
"Although it has been provided, and wisely so, that a majority of suffrages shall elect the President of this nation, does it follow that they have a right to require that President to oppress the minority? In fact, we are thoroughly convinced that majorities have no right which is not shared with minorities; and we submit that, under the Constitution and laws of the United States, no man has authority to demand aught which will interfere with the rights of another. Yet, if we go beyond popularity, where can we find a single reason for the present demonstrations against Utah?
"And now, Sir, at your hands we demand that justice which has ever been denied us. Pay us those just dues which have been so long and illegally with-held, and appoint good men to rule us, who have dis-cernment to perceive our wants, and sufficient judg-ment to promote our welfare; withdraw your army, grant us our rights, and receive the heartfelt gratitude of a whole people.
"Continue the injustice of your present course, and your grave will be pointed out as that of the man who broke the noblest of national compacts—your name be consigned to future generations with lasting infamy."
The memorial to Congress gives a brief history of the various Mormon settlements. It relates how they collected in Jackson County, Missouri, and were driv-en away by a mob, despoiled of their property, beaten, tarred and feathered; how they went to Clay County, in the same State, and were treated in the same man-ner; how they went to Nauvoo, built a large and flourishing city, and were driven away from there after their Prophet had been murdered; and how they had, after enduring great hardships, settled in Utah, hoping to be secure from further persecution. The memorial closes thus:
"Gentlemen, what have we done, that we should be singled out to bear the sins of the nation, or endure the outburstings of your mad, unholy, inhuman and fratricidal wrath? Have we abused and imprisoned United States officers, as in California and Ohio? Have we repudiated United States laws and passed counter laws, as in Michigan, Ohio, Maine, Massachu-setts, and other States and Territories? Have we had Vigilance Committees as in California, Iowa, and elsewhere, or barnburners, as in New-York? Have we had disunion meetings, such as are now becoming popular over the Union, or underground railroads, as in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and other States? Have we sent out filibusters, as in California, Florida and New-York, or made a Sevastopol of our Territory, as Kansas? Have we practised Lynch law, as many of our accusers, or have our Legislative halls been stained with blood and become the scenes of riot, as in Congress? Have we gone to California, or to New-Mexico—to Oregon, Washington, Kansas, Nebraska, or Minnesota, to interfere with the political, civil, or religious rights of those States and Territories? Gen-tlemen, answer us, whose rights have we infringed upon—who have we deprived of the rights of 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?’
"There has been more crime, outrage, and murder in one week in California, than in the ten years that we have sojourned here; and the same would apply to New Orleans, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and many other Southern and Western cities.
"If we are guilty, why not prove it? If we are not, why persecute us? Have we as American citizens no rights? The only crime that we can acknowledge ourselves guilty of is that of permitting such abandon-ed characters as many of the Government appointees to remain among us, who were so degraded and lost to all self-respect as to disgrace themselves in the eyes of all respectable persons, to dishonor the Government that sent them, and to calumniate and abuse us.
"We have not broken any law, nor violated the Constitution of the United States, and we have done as much in reclaiming lands, making roads, building cities, introducing manufactures, and adding to the wealth of the country, as any other people. We have settled and improved new counties in several parts of Missouri; we enhanced the value of property in and around Nauvoo from five to one thousand fold; we made several settlements in Iowa; we built the first grist-mill in Nebraska, and printed the first newspaper in California. We have turned a vast desert into a fruitful field, and offered facilities for emigration across the continent they could not and did not have without us—affording them ample supplies in the desert. In Iowa we made a new road and built bridges for three hundred and fifty miles; we surveyed and made roads for hundreds of miles in the West, some of which were through hitherto impassable canons. We have peopled a vast desert, and opened an extensive trade; we found the first gold, and opened the first mines in California. Our armies were foremost in subduing California, and in defense of our Government. In our various improvements you have followed us from city to city, from State to State, and fattened upon our labors, and we are determined that we will endure it no longer.
"We have neither had trouble in our midst, nor in-terfered with the rights of our neighbors abroad, and we are proud to state that we have had, and continue to have, more peace and tranquillity than has existed in any other State or Territory in the United States. Then, since we have peace at home, and have not in-terfered with the rights of individuals, Territories, States, or the United States, why should you, who are placed as the guardians of the people's rights, seek to rob us of ours—seek to make us unhappy, and by armed force, under pretext of law, force upon us civil discord? You would send men among us who, to say the least, have no affinity with us, and who, if we judge by the past, would, instead of promoting peace and harmony, occupy themselves in scattering discord, disunion and strife, and in vilifying and calumniating us. And what can be our opinion of men who will accept office against the known and expressed wish of the people, and who will so degrade themselves as to be sustained by bayonets and dragoons?
"Our choice for Governor is Brigham Young, and that choice is unanimous. Have nearly a hundred thousand American citizens no right of franchise? Must they be dragooned into servile obeisance to the will of their servants? How and when were we cut off from having a voice in the selection of those who are to rule us? We used to vote in other places; where, when and by what authority are we disfran-chised? Have we not cause for complaint? When you reject our Governor, you reject us. You treated with contempt the petition of our Legislature; when you did that, you treated us with contempt, for they were neither elected by stump speeches, cabals, nor log-rolling; they are the unanimous choice of the peo-ple who send them. Shall we tamely submit to such high-handed aggressions upon our rights, and become the mean, servile dogs of a tyrannical Administration? We declare, in the face of high Heaven, God being our helper, we will not.
" We call upon you to reconsider your acts, to mete out to us even-handed justice; to withdraw your army, restore our mails, execute justice upon our op-pressors, and give us our constitutional rights. We ask no more; but that, in the name of God, we will have, He being our helper. Act, then, the part of the representatives of a great and mighty nation; seek to promote peace, union and happiness throughout the land, and do not, in your fury, light a torch that may raze to the foundation the fair fabric of our glorious Union.
"We come not to you with smooth speech, or honeyed words; we have not learned to cringe beneath the lash of tyranny, nor to basely lick the feet of pub-lic servants who undertake to oppress us. We ap-proach you as your equals, and frankly, openly and above-board ask for our rights. We will not tamely submit to be abused, as we have been hitherto. We approach you not as a clique, a cabal, or a miserable faction; our voice is the united voice of nearly one hundred thousand Americans, laboring under the most unprecedented cruelty, outrage and wrongs, and our cry is, Give us our constitutional rights, let us enjoy our liberty in peace, and let even-handed justice be administered throughout the land, for we will no longer wear your cursed yoke of unconstitutional re-quirements."
MORE MASS MEETINGS.—A mass meeting, held at Lake City, Utah County, adopted a series of resolu-tions approving the course of Brigham Young. The following is one of the resolutions:
Resolved, That we know most assuredly that the course taken by his Excellency toward the mob now on our borders, reported to be the United States troops has been merciful, knowing as he did their avowed object to bring misery and death upon an inno-cent and unoffending people; and that we further know that, had it not been for the confidence reposed in his wise counsels by the people of this Territory, and for his restraining influence, the justly outraged feelings of the whole community would have been manifested in a manner that would have effectually put a stop to the progress of the invaders in the early part of their movements toward our mountain home, and that they have abundant reason to thank Gov. Young that they have not been sent from their present hell to a lower one, by the shortest possi-ble route.
A mass meeting, held at Alpine City, in the same county, on Jan. 18, adopted similar resolutions. Here is one of them:
Resolved, That we will uphold and sustain them [the Legisla-ture] with our utmost abilities, and, if required, our lives, in car-rying out the constitutional measures they may adopt to sustain his Excellency Gov. Young, in preserving to the people of this Territory life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and our inalienable constitutional rights, guaranteed unto us as American citizens.
A mass meeting, held at Freedom, Davis County, on Jan. 26, adopted the following resolution, among others:
Resolved, That he [Young] is the man of our choice, and that we will continue to sustain him in resisting all aggressions upon our constitutional rights and privileges as citizens of the United States.
WAR SONG.—The News of Jan. 27 has a war song, of which the following is the first verse:
Who in all Deseret's afraid
Of Uncle Sam, and a' that?
His wond'rous power, his great parade
Of soldiers, arms, and a' that;
And a' that, and a' that,
His wisdom, wealth, and a' that;
'Gainst Mormon right he long may fight,
And yet be fooled, for a' that
HISTORY OF JOE SMITH.—The history of Joe Smith, which has been publishing in The News for years, was finished in the issue of Jan. 20.
