MORMONISM IN GENERAL.
In the two previous chapters, I have discussed Utah pretty thoroughly,
touching most of the mooted questions there; and now, to sum up.
Without doubt, it must be said of the people of Utah, that they are an
industrious, frugal, and thrifty race. By their wonderful system of
irrigation, they have converted the desert there into a garden, and
literally made the wilderness, "bloom and blossom as the rose." Their
statistics (1866) showed, that they had already constructed over a
thousand miles of irrigating canals and ditches, watering 150,000 acres
of land, at a cost of nearly $2,000,000. Each family has its own few
acres, and these are cultivated so thoroughly, that the total annual
product is surprising. In Salt Lake City many families almost live on
their acre-and-a-quarter lots, and many of their farms elsewhere do
not exceed forty or fifty acres, with many much smaller. With their
system of careful culture and general double-cropping, one man cannot
well manage over ten or twelve acres per year; nor is more necessary
for an ordinary family, the land proves so bountiful. Fifty and sixty
bushels of wheat per acre, we were told, was not an unusual yield.
So, since leaving the Missouri, we had nowhere seen more comfortable
and apparently well-to-do homes. We must say, they were much superior
to the average homes of our people in Colorado. Evidently, these
Utahans had come there to _stay_, and from the first had "governed
themselves accordingly;" while the Coloradoans, it was plain, were too
many of them, only "birds of passage," like so much of our population
in the West generally. Their towns and villages are well laid out,
and in the main neatly built. In the country, their little farms are
well-fenced or walled, with comfortable adobe houses clustering with
vines and flowers, or surrounded with fruit and shade trees, while
a throng of hay and grain-stacks encircle their barns. So, too, the
Mormons, whatever else may be said of them, are certainly a sober race
of people. Many of them no doubt keep liquor about their premises,
and drink when they choose to; but drunkenness as a vice, or habitual
drinking as a practice, is unknown in Utah, comparatively speaking. So,
too, they allow no gambling there, except "on the sly;" and no houses
of prostitution, unless you regard every "much-married" Mormon's as
such, which it seems hardly fair to do--the women considered. On the
whole, it is safe to say, that the Mormons deserve marked commendation
and praise for what they have accomplished in Utah, in redeeming a
barren wilderness and building up a prosperous community there, and
full credit should be awarded them accordingly. They brag constantly,
and largely, about Great Salt Lake City, and surely they have a right
to. In the essential points of beauty, comfort, cleanliness, and good
order, it has few equals, and perhaps no superiors of its age and size
anywhere, and all things considered is indeed a perfect miracle for
Utah. In the very heart of the great internal basin of the continent,
and the centre of a busy and thriving people, it really seemed to be a
natural metropolis there, and was everywhere talked of as the future
workshop and mart of that region.
On the other hand, it is due to truth to say, that impartial as I
tried to be, the more I studied affairs there, the more Mormonism
impressed me as, in many respects, a huge mass of thorough iniquity.
It did not strike me as a Religion at all, _per se_, and I suspect
there is less of the purely "religious" about it, than any other
ecclesiastical organization on the earth. Their sermons were not so
much theological discourses, as they were sectarian stump-speeches.
The whole Church, "so-called," struck me ordinarily, as a coarse
utilitarianism, not to say rude materialism. Their missionaries
seemed to be sent out, not so much to spread the gospel (even
according to J. Smith and B. Young), as to induce and hasten
immigration to Utah. It is true, they have Bishops and other
subordinate clergy; but their main duty appeared to be to preside
over and direct colonization, rather than to cure souls. They had
indeed their regular dioceses; but these were so arranged as to make
the Bishop the chief man in each town or settlement, and judging by
those we saw these dignitaries were selected rather for their shrewd
business talents, than any special piety or virtue. They were almost
invariably sharp smart Americans, while the great majority of the
Mormons were English, Welsh, Danes, etc., of the very lowest and
poorest classes. In every community, the Bishop's word was law and
gospel, as he claimed to receive "revelations" direct from heaven on
most knotty questions, and he virtually inspired and directed all
its business. Usually he owned the mill, store, and hotel, and he
who controls these three essentials of a new community ordinarily
controls the community itself. Observation shows, that nearly
everybody in a new country becomes mortgaged, sooner or later, to the
miller, store-keeper, or hotel-keeper; and hence as the Bishops are
all three of these in one, their chances for amassing wealth are
simply enormous. The result is, that all or nearly all of the Mormon
Bishops have become immensely rich, while Brigham himself is reported
worth a fabulous amount in his own right, independently of the vast
property he holds, as "Trustee in trust for the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints."[12] Indeed, to sum it up in one word,
the whole institution of Mormonism--polygamy and all--apart from its
theological aspects, impresses you rather as a gigantic organization
for collecting and consolidating a population, and thus settling up a
Territory rapidly, whatever else it may be; and its success, in this
respect, has certainly been notable and great.
As a whole, the Mormons are no doubt a very ignorant, and, therefore,
very bigoted people, and the whole tendency of their pulpit-teachings
is to lawlessness and violence, so far as Gentiles are concerned.
They affect to despise mere intellect and sentiment, and to pride
themselves on being plain-spoken and practical. They will not
"fellowship" with open and avowed Gentiles, if they can avoid it; and
boldly proclaim their hostility to and contempt for the Government
of the United States, as on the Sunday we were at their Tabernacle.
No doubt, if opportunity offered, they would assail or embarrass
it, though now they are more wary and circumspect, than they were
before the South learned a lesson on this score. So, Brigham Young
is governor _de facto_ in Utah, and has been always, no matter who
is governor _de jure_, and will be, while that other "twin relic of
barbarism," polygamy, endures. The evidence on all these points, I
must say, seemed fairly overwhelming, though no more can be given
here. So, too, they believe, or affect to believe, that the United
States dares not touch their "peculiar institution," and brand all
our laws against it as acts of "National wickedness," "Federal
tyranny," invasions of their "sacred rights," etc. It seemed to me,
that we had heard such complaints before; but not from a part of the
country, that led us to respect them greatly, when reiterated there
in Utah. The true test is, what are the results to Humanity, and
how do they affect us as a People? And I am sure, the answer in all
candor must be, a bigoted and seditious race of _men_, a degraded
and inferior class of _women_, an ignorant and degenerate herd of
_children_; and does not the inevitable, and inexorable, logic of
things necessitate just these? If these be the elements of progress
and the seeds of empire, then Utah should be let alone; if otherwise,
then let us lay the strong hand of the Government upon her, and teach
her respect for and obedience to the laws, the same as all other
parts of the Union.
No doubt their poor women are already relapsing into a condition,
that is truly pitiable, as elsewhere intimated, and their tendency
must be rapidly to the worse. Evidently the Saints take care to
seclude them from Gentile gaze, as much as possible; but a more
dreary, homely, pokey set of women, as a whole, were never seen. I
may have been unfortunate, but in all Utah, I did not see a truly
happy and sunny countenance, or noble and serene, on a mature Mormon
woman; nor did I anywhere hear of one, who would fully realize our
old and fond ideal of
"A perfect woman nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, and command;
And yet a spirit--still and bright--
With something of an angel's light!"
But, what else could be expected in a country, where a husband
signifies only the fractional part of a man, and a wife--any number
of women you please? Beyond controversy, their "peculiar institution"
of polygamy _is_ a "relic of barbarism"--yea, verily, a "twin-relic"
to slavery--as the Republican party in 1856-60 had the manliness
and courage to pronounce it. "Peculiar" institutions, of whatever
character, have no business in a republic; they mean inequality,
and inevitably tend to violence and disorder. No doubt, had
Abraham Lincoln lived, when we had finished our first "twin" right
thoroughly, he would have found a way to look well after the other.
We owe this to our mothers and sisters, to our wives and daughters,
"The graces and the loves, that make
The music of the march of life--"
to all of womankind, the broad continent across and the wide world
over; and Congress should take care, that we lend not the sanction
of our flag to this hideous crime, an hour longer than we must. Our
age, so far, has largely honored itself, in honoring and respecting
womankind, and it is too late now to let Christian America barbarize
any portion of herself, with the exploded savagery of pagandom. We
_must_ have freedom of speech and of the press there, security of
person and property--absolute and perfect--the same as in New York or
Massachusetts, or our flag is a lie. We must maintain and execute our
national laws against polygamy, the same as everywhere else, no matter
who opposes, or our government is a sham. And if Mormon juries won't
do this, refusing to indict or convict, and nothing else will do,
so that we have to fall back on the bayonet, why then I see nothing
in Utah so sacred, that we should not give Brighamdom the bayonet,
the same as we did Jeffdom. I believe in the Pacific Railroad, and
hope much from its civilizing and refining influences; I have great
faith in the locomotive and the telegraph; but I also believe, with
Judge ---- in "the moral power of bayonets, when nothing else will
suffice--especially when used on the right side." We have just had to
use them against one "twin-relic," when nothing else would do, in spite
of our Railroads there; now let them charge down upon the other, if
Utah will not obey the laws, and that right speedily. Were Mormonism
merely a religion, as a republic we should be the last to touch it. But
polygamy, its baleful flower and fruit, and the source of all Utah's
woes, is an unmitigated barbarism; an outrage and crime, not only
against woman, but humanity; an organized insult to the Christianity
and civilization of the age; and we Americans, of this generation, owe
it to ourselves and to history, to end it--to stamp it out if need
be--_sans_ ceremony and instanter. Let us not dally with it, as we did
with Southern slavery. Else may God, in his just wrath, break us again
with a rod of iron, or haply dash us in pieces as a potter's vessel.
Let Congress and the President but do their duty in the premises, and
Brigham Young I predict will receive a "new revelation," that will
quickly end the whole trouble. The power is with them, and History will
hold them justly responsible.
FOOTNOTE:
[12] His account in the Bank of England was said to be _fourth_ on
the list, in point of magnitude, and his wealth estimated any where
from $25,000,000 to $50,000,000.