The Mormons Demanding an Investigation.
From the St. Louis Republican.
The Mormons claim that they have been tra-duced and slandered—that they have been tried with-out being themselves personally present: and now they propose to invite an investigation into their whole conduct during their residence in Utah. This is, as we understand it, the object of the following commu-nication, which comes to us from one of their num-ber, well accredited and authorized to speak for them. The writer says: "The Mormons call for investiga-tion. In the midst of the loud bellowing storms of slander that have swept over their desert home, calmly, but in clear and earnest tones, is the united voice of that people heard to pierce through the tem-pest, calling for a fair examination of the charges preferred against them. Shall they not be heard? Must the tempest howl on forever, and the tongue of the traducer never be silenced? Thus speaks one of their own party on behalf of his people. That he is sincere and in earnest, is apparent. That his position and assumptions may be fictitious, is true, but at least they are worthy of a passing thought. 'The Mor-mons,' he says, 'demand investigation. From the foundation of our system in the wilds of New-York, through our unprovoked and unaccounted-for perse-cutions in Ohio, Missouri and Illinois, have we called for investigation. Officials, disappointed in their political intrigues, poured forth their accusing venom against us, and we asked to be heard in answer. We have demanded it for years in Utah, and in the capital of our nation, when warlike preparations were going on to bring us to an allegiance from which we never swerved, to punish us for treasons of which we never dreamed and seditions of which we were never guilty. We demanded it when with manly and pa-triotic breasts we stayed the tide of what we con-sidered an unjust invasion which has flooded up to our very borders. We called upon the Commissioners, who came, as we supposed, to adjust all difficulties, to hear us in our defence. They denied all authority, save to present the proclamation and pardon of the President. We accepted the pardon but denied the allegations against us. We abandoned our homes for the sake of peace, that the army, whose advance we had hitherto successfully resisted, might clap their cymbals and pass through our desolate streets in tri-umph.' And now that they have taken up their couchant position almost in the very midst of our set-tlements, while the judicial representatives of our parent Government parade an escort of a hundred roopers through our cities, on the most trivial pre tences: and civilization, with lust and murder in its suite, performs at last its drunken revels in our beloved city, we demand a full, impartial and thorough investi-gation of all charges brought against us. We have been accused of treasons and se-ditions, unheard and unsummoned, found guilty, and if not punished, have to bear the brand of felons. Our leaders have been accused of the exercise of a religious despotism, chaining the hearts and thoughts of the people, and seeking to subvert the holy institutions of our nation. They too have been found guilty, untried, and the sentence of death brandished over them for years. We have petitioned often, and always in vain, for a hearing; and now from the legislative halls of the nation, where we were not permitted to be heard in our own defence; from the Presidential chair whence our petitions have been spurned; from the merciless pulpit, that would close the gates of heaven against the holy incense of crushed and and bleeding hearts: from the venality of speculative suttlers, the bigotry of party, the cruelty of unprincipled ambition, and the bloody verdict of willful ignorance, we appeal to facts, evidence, and constitutional law. At the foot of the throne of the sovereign people of this great Republic, do we petition for a fair investigation. We ask no sympathy; we plead no extenuation; but at the bar of the great National Court—the People—we demand Justice! From the whole Nation we claim a verdict. Are we again denied a hearing, and our petition spurned with contempt from the foot of that sacred throne? Is the bar of national justice to be forever closed against our advocates, and on the evidence alone of our accusers, must the verdict be confirmed against us, and the death penalty pronounced?"
