THE MORMONS.
Nothing of very great note occurred in the county of Jackson, after the
cyclone of 1826, until the year 1830, when five Mormon elders made their
appearance in the county and commenced preaching, stating to their
audiences that they were chosen by the priesthood which had been
organized by the prophet Joseph Smith, who had met an angel and received
a revelation from God, who had also revealed to him and his adherents
the whereabouts of a book written upon golden plates and deposited in
the earth. This book was found in a hill called Cumorah, at Manchester,
in the State of New York. They selected a place near Independence,
Jackson County, Mo., in the early part of the year 1831, which they
named Temple Lot, a beautiful spot of ground on a high eminence. They
there stuck down their Jacob's staff, as they called it, and said: "This
spot is the center of the earth. This is the place where the Garden of
Eden, in which Adam and Eve resided, was located, and we are sent here
according to the directions of the angel that appeared to our prophet,
Joseph Smith, and told him this is the spot of ground on which the New
Jerusalem is to be built, and, when finished, Christ Jesus is to make
his reappearance and dwell in this city of New Jerusalem with the saints
for a thousand years, at the end of which time there will be a new deal
with reference to the nations of the earth, and the final wind-up of the
career of the human family." They claimed to have all the spiritual
gifts and understanding of the works of the Almighty that belonged to
the Apostles who were chosen by Christ when on his mission to this
earth. They claim the gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues or
languages spoken in an unknown tongue. In their silent meetings, the one
who had received the gift of an unknown tongue knew nothing of its
interpretation whatever, but after some silence some one in the audience
would rise and claim to have the gift of interpretation, and would
interpret what the brother or sister had previously spoken. They also
claimed to have the gift of healing by anointing the sick with oil and
laying on of hands, and some claimed that they could raise the dead; in
fact, they laid claim to every gift that belonged to the Apostolic day
or age. They established their headquarters at Independence, where some
of their leading elders were located. There they set up a printing
office, the first that was established within 150 miles of Independence,
and commenced printing their church literature, which was very
distasteful to the members and leaders of other religious denominations,
the community being composed of Methodists, Baptists of two different
orders, Presbyterians of two different orders, and Catholics, and a
denomination calling themselves Christians. In that day and age it was
regarded as blasphemous or sacrilegious for any one to claim that they
had met angels and received from them new revelations, and the religious
portion of the community, especially, was very much incensed and aroused
at the audacity of any person claiming such interviews from the
invisible world. Of course the Mormon elders denounced the elders and
preachers of the other denominations above mentioned, and said they were
the blind leading the blind, and that they would all go into the ditch
together. An elder by the name of Rigdon preached in the court house one
Sunday in 1832, in which he said that he had been to the third heaven,
and had talked face to face with God Almighty. The preachers in the
community the next day went en masse to call upon him. He repeated what
he had said the day before, telling them they had not the truth, and
were the blind leading the blind.
The conduct of the Mormons for the three years that they remained there
was that of good citizens, beyond their tantalizing talks to outsiders.
They, of course, were clannish, traded together, worked together, and
carried with them a melancholy look that one acquainted with them could
tell a Mormon when he met him by the look upon his face almost as well
as if he had been of different color. They claimed that God had given
them that locality, and whoever joined the Mormons, and helped prepare
for the next coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, would be accepted and all
right; but if they did not go into the fold of the Latter Day Saints,
that it was only a matter of time when they would be crushed out, for
that was the promised land and they had come to possess it. The Lord had
sent them there and would protect them against any odds in the way of
numbers. Finally the citizens, and particularly the religious portion of
them, made up their minds that it was wrong to allow them to be printing
their literature and preaching, as it might have a bad effect upon the
rising generation; and on the 4th of July, 1833, there was quite a
gathering of the citizens, and a mob was formed to tear down their
printing office. While the mob was forming, many of the elders stood and
looked on, predicting that the first man who touched the building would
be paralyzed and fall dead upon the ground. The mob, however, paid no
attention to their predictions and prayers for God to come and slay
them, but with one accord seized hold of the implements necessary to
destroy the house, and within the quickest time imaginable had it torn
to the ground, and scattered their type and literature to the four
winds. This, of course, created an intense feeling of anger on the part
of the Mormons against the citizens. At this time there were but a few
hundred Mormons in the county against many times their number of other
citizens. I presume there was not exceeding 600 Mormons in the county.
Immediately after they tore down the printing office they sent to the
store of Elder Partridge and Mr. Allen, who was also an elder in the
church, and took them by force to the public square, stripped them to
their waists, and poured on them a sufficient amount of tar to cover
their bodies well, and then took feathers and rubbed them well into the
tar, making the two elders look like a fright. One of their names being
Partridge, many began to whistle like a cock partridge, in derision.
Now, be it remembered that the people who were doing this were not what
is termed "rabble" of a community, but many among them were respectable
citizens and law-abiding in every other respect, but who actually
thought they were doing God's service to destroy, if possible, and
obliterate Mormonism. In all my experience I never saw a more
law-abiding people than those who lived where this occurred. There is
nothing, however, that they could have done that would have proved more
effectual in building up and strengthening the faith of the people so
treated as this and similar performances proved to do. For if there is
anything under the sun that will strengthen people in their beliefs or
faith, no matter whether it is error or truth, if they have adopted it
as true, it is to abuse and punish them for their avowed belief in
whatever they espouse as religion or politics.
A few months after the tearing down of the building, a dozen or two
Mormons made their appearance one day on the county road west of the Big
Blue and not far from the premises of Moses G. Wilson. Wilson's boy rode
out to drive up the milk cows in the morning, and saw this group of
Mormons and had some conversation with them, and they used some very
violent language to the boy. He went back and told his father, and it
happened that there were several of the neighbors in at the time, as he
kept a little county store; and in those days men generally carried
their guns with them, in case they should have a chance to shoot a deer
or turkey as they went from one neighbor's to another. It so happened
that several of them had their guns with them; those who did not picked
up a club of some kind, and they all followed the boy, who showed them
where they were. When they got in close proximity to where the Mormons
were grouped, seeing the men approaching with guns, the Mormons opened
fire upon them, and the Gentiles, as they were called by the Mormons,
returned the fire. There was a lawyer on the Gentile side by the name of
Brazeel, who was shot dead; another man by the name of Lindsay was shot
in the jaw and was thought to be fatally wounded, but recovered.
Wilson's boy was also shot in the body, but not fatally. There were only
one or two Mormons killed. Of course, after this occurrence, it aroused
an intense feeling of hate and revenge in the citizens, and the Mormons
would not have been so bold had it not been for their elders claiming
that under all circumstances and at all times they would be sustained by
the Almighty's power, and that a few of them would be able to put their
enemies to flight. The available Mormon men then formed themselves into
an organization for fighting the battles of the Lord, and started to
Independence, about ten miles away, to take possession of the town. On
their way, and when they were within about a mile of Independence, they
marched with all the faith and fervor imaginable for fanatics to
possess, encouraging each other with the words, "God will be with us and
deliver our enemies into our hands." At this point they met a gentleman
whom I well knew, by the name of Rube Collins, a citizen of the place,
who was leaving the town in a gallop to go home and get more help to
defend the town from the Mormon invasion. He shouted out as he passed
them, "You are a d--d set of fools to go there now; there are armed men
enough there to exterminate you in a minute." They were acquainted with
Collins, and supposed he had told them the truth; however, at that time
they could have taken the town had they pressed on, but his words
intimidated them somewhat, and they filed off from the big road and hid
themselves in the brush until they could hold a council, and I presume
pray for light to be guided by. During this time there were runners
going in all directions, notifying the citizens that the Mormons were
coming to the town to take it, and every citizen, as soon as he could
run bullets and fill his powder horn with powder, gathered his gun and
made for the town; and in a few hours men enough had gathered to
exterminate them had they approached. In their council that they held
they decided not to approach until they sent spies ahead to see whether
Collins had told them the truth or not. They supposed he had, from the
fact that they found the public square almost covered with men, and
others arriving every minute. As quickly as the citizens had organized
themselves into companies (my father, Benjamin Majors, being captain of
one of them), they then sent a message by two or three citizens to the
Mormons, where they were still secreted in the paw-paw brush, and told
them that if they did not come and surrender immediately, the whole
party that was waiting for them in the town would come out and
exterminate them. This message sent terror to their hearts, with all
their claims that God would go before them and fight their battles for
them. After holding another council they decided the best thing they
could do was to go and surrender themselves to their enemies, which
they did. I never saw a more pale-faced, terror-stricken set of men
banded together than these seventy-five Mormons, for it was all the
officers could do to keep the citizens from shooting them down, even
when they were surrendering. However, they succeeded in keeping the men
quiet, and no one was hurt. They stacked all their arms around a big
white-oak stump that was perhaps four feet in diameter, and at that time
was standing in the public square. Afterward the guns were put in the
jail house for safe keeping, and were eaten up with rust, and never to
my knowledge delivered to them. They then stipulated that every man,
woman, and child should leave the county within three weeks. This was a
tremendous hardship upon the Mormons, as it was late in the fall, and
there were no markets for their crops or anything else that they had.
The quickest way to get out of the county was to cross the river into
Clay, as the river was the line between the two counties. They had to
leave their homes, their crops, and in fact every visible thing they had
to live upon. Many of their houses were burned, their fences thrown
down, and the neighbors' stock would go in and eat and destroy the crop.
[Illustration: NATURE'S TABERNACLE.]
It has been claimed by people who were highly colored in their prejudice
against the Mormons that they were bad citizens; that they stole
whatever they could get their hands on and were not law-abiding. This is
not true with reference to their citizenship in Jackson County, where
they got their first kick, and as severe a one as they ever received, if
not the most severe. There was not an officer among them, all the
offices of the county being in the hands of their enemies, and if one
had stolen a chicken he could and would have been brought to grief for
doing so; but it is my opinion there is nothing in the county records
to show where a Mormon was ever charged with any misdemeanor in the way
of violation of the laws for the protection of property. The cause of
all this trouble was solely from the claim that they had a new
revelation direct from the Almighty, making them the chosen instruments
to go forward, let it please or displease whom it might, to build the
New Jerusalem on the spot above referred to, Temple Lot. And, as above
stated, whoever did not join in this must sooner or later give way to
those who would.
I met a Presbyterian preacher, Rev. Mr. McNice, in Salt Lake City a
number of years ago at the dinner table of a mutual friend, Doctor
Douglas. It was on the Sabbath after hearing him preach a very bitter
sermon against the Mormons, denouncing their doctrines and doings in a
severe manner, and while we were at the dinner table, the subject of the
Mormons came up, and I told him that I was thoroughly versed in their
first troubles in Missouri, and he asked me what the trouble was. I told
him frankly that it grew out of the fact that they claimed to have seen
an angel, and to have received a new revelation from God which was not
in accord with the religious denominations that existed in the community
at that time. He hooted at the idea and told me he had read the history
of their troubles there, and that they were bad citizens with reference
to being outlaws, thieves, etc., who would pick up their neighbors'
property and the like. He insisted that he had read their history, and
showed a disposition to discredit my statements. I then told him _I_ was
history, and knew as much about it as any living man could know, and
that there were no charges of that kind against them; they were
industrious, hard-working people, and worked for whatever they wanted to
live upon, obtaining it by their industry, and not by stealing it from
their neighbors. He then scouted at the idea that people would receive
such treatment as they did merely because they claimed to have seen
angels and talked with God and claimed to have a new revelation. I then
referred him to the fact that fifty or sixty years previous to that time
the public mind in America lacked a great deal of being so tolerant as
it was at the time of our conversation; that not more than one hundred
years ago some of the American people were so superstitious that they
could burn witches at the stake and drag Quakers through the streets of
Boston on their backs, with a jack hitched to their heels; that the
Mormons to-day could go to Jackson County, Mo., and preach the same
doctrines that they did then, and the result would be that they would be
laughed at instead of mobbed as they were sixty years ago.
I was sitting in a cabin with my father's miller, a Mr. Newman, a
Mormon, at the time of this trouble. Mr. Newman's mother-in-law, who
lived with him, was named Bentley; she had a son in the company that
surrendered at Independence, and who walked six miles that evening and
came home. The young man walked in and looked as sad as death, and when
asked what the news was he stood there and related what had taken place
that day at the surrender. They all sat in breathless silence and
listened to the story, and when he was through with his statement and
said the Mormons had agreed to leave the county within three weeks, the
old lady, who sat by the table sewing, raised her hand and brought it
down upon the table with a tremendous thud, and said:
"So sure as this is a world there _will be_ a New Jerusalem built."
I relate this little incident to show that even after they had met with
such a galling defeat how zealous even the old women were with reference
to their future success. But it is my opinion that the more often a
fanatic is kicked and abused, the stronger is his faith in his cause,
for then they would take up the Scriptures and read the sentences
expressed by Christ:
"But before all these they shall lay their hands on you and persecute
you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons, being brought
before kings and rulers for my name's sake." "But take heed to
yourselves, for they shall deliver you up to councils, and in the
synagogues ye shall be beaten; and ye shall be brought before rulers and
kings for my sake for a testimony against them."
From such passages they have always drawn the greatest consolation, and
one would ask one another, "Where are the people the blessed Lord had
reference to?" Another brother, with all the sanctity and confidence
imaginable for a fanatic to feel, would answer, "Well, brother, if you
do not find them among the Latter Day Saints you can not find them upon
the face of this green earth, for we have suffered all the abuses the
blessed Lord refers to in the Scripture you have just quoted."
I have said before that the Mormons all crossed the Missouri into Clay
County, where they wintered in tents and log cabins hastily thrown
together, and lived on mast, corn, and meat that they would procure from
the citizens for whom they worked in clearing ground and splitting
rails, and other work of a like character.
In the spring they were determined to return to their homes, although
they were so badly destroyed, and claimed again as before that God would
vindicate them and put to flight their enemies. The people of Jackson
County, however, watched for their return, and gathered, at the
appointed time, in a large body, on the opposite side of the river to
where the Mormons, were expected to congregate and cross back into the
county. Their spies came to the river, and seeing camps of the citizens,
who had gathered to the number of four or five hundred strong (I being
one of the number) to prevent their crossing, then changed their
purpose and sent some of their leading men to locate in some other part
of the State, for the time being, with the full understanding, however,
that at the Lord's appointed time they would all be returned to Jackson
County, and complete their mission in building the city of the New
Jerusalem. The delegation they sent out selected Davis and Colwell
counties as the portion of the State where they would make their
temporary rally until they became strong enough for the Lord to restore
them to their former location.
During that spring the citizens of Jackson County, feeling that there
had been, in many cases, great outrages perpetrated upon the Mormons,
held a public meeting at Independence and appointed five commissioners,
whose duty it was to meet some of the leading elders of the Mormons at
Liberty, the seat of Clay County, and make some reparation for the
damages that had been done to their property the fall before in Jackson
County. They met, but failed to agree, as the elders asked more and
perhaps wanted to retain the titles they had to the lands, as they
thought it would be sacrilege to part with them, for that was the chosen
spot for the New Jerusalem. During the time that elapsed between the
commissioners crossing the river in the morning and returning in the
evening, the ferryman (Bradbury), whom I have often met, a man with a
very large and finely developed physique, a great swimmer, was supposed
to be bribed by the Mormons to bore large auger-holes through the
gunwales of his flatboat just at the water's edge. The boat having a
floor in it some inches above the bottom, there could be no detection of
the flow of the water until it was sufficiently deep to cover the inner
floor. The commissioners went upon the boat with their horses, and had
not proceeded very far from the shore until they found the water coming
up in the second floor and the boat rapidly sinking. This, of course,
produced great consternation, for the river was very high and turbulent.
Bradbury, the owner of the ferry, said to his two men:
"Boys, we will jump off and swim back to the shore."
As above stated, he was a great swimmer, and had been known to swim the
Missouri upon his back several times not long before this occurred. When
the water rose in the boat so that it was necessary for the
commissioners to leave it, three of them caught hold of their horses'
tails, after throwing off as much clothing as they could before the boat
went down with them. The other two men who could swim attempted to swim
alone, but the current was so turbulent that they were overcome and were
drowned. Those who hung on to the tails of their horses were brought
safely to shore. One of the men drowned was a neighbor of my father's
and as fine a gentleman and good fellow as ever lived. His name was
David Lynch.
I remember well their names, and was well acquainted with two of the men
who were pulled through by their horses, S. Noland and Sam C. Owens, the
foremost merchant of the county, a man who stood high in every sense,
and of marked ability.
This occurrence put the quietus on any further attempt to try to settle
for the damages done the Mormons when driven from the county, for it
caused in the whole population the most intense feeling against them,
and they never were remunerated.
When Bradbury jumped off the boat he swam for the shore, but was
afterward found dead, with one of his hands grasping the root of a
cottonwood tree, so there was no opportunity for trying him for the
crime, or finding out how it was brought about. It was supposed that he
was bribed, as no one knew of any enmity he had against the
commissioners.
The town the Mormons started, which they selected for their home in
Paris County, they called Far West. This was the first experience that
the people of Western Missouri had with the emigrants of the Eastern or
New England States. Brigham Young, who afterward became the leader of
the Mormons, was from Vermont, and many others composing the early
pioneers of the Mormon church were from the New England States; some,
however, from Ohio and Illinois, as well as some proselytes from
Missouri. Up to the time of their appearance in Western Missouri the
entire population was from some one of the four States--Virginia, North
Carolina, Tennessee, or Kentucky.
It has been claimed by some that one of the causes of the
dissatisfaction was that the Mormons were Abolitionists. This, however,
played no part in the bitter feeling that grew up between them and their
neighbors, for at the time of their coming to Jackson County there were
but very few slaves, the people generally being poor farmers who lived
from the labor of their own hands and that of their families. And then,
when the Mormons were driven entirely from Missouri to Illinois, which
was a free State, they soon got into difficulty with their neighbors
there, as they had done in Missouri. It is claimed now, universally, by
the people of this country that polygamy, or the plurality-wife system,
is the only objection that good citizens can have to Mormonism. This was
not the cause of their difficulties or their trouble in Illinois and
Missouri, as they had never, up to the time they left Nauvoo, Ill.,
proclaimed polygamy as being a church institution. And as I have
previously stated, it was their clannishness, as is natural for a church
to do, more or less, only they carried it to a greater degree than other
denominations. Also the new doctrine they were preaching, stating that
they were the only and chosen people of God, and that they had the key
of St. Peter, which was lost during the dark ages and was revealed
again to Joseph Smith, their prophet; that the Lord would stand by them
and enable them to prevail in their undertakings as against any array of
opposition, no matter how much greater the numbers might be than their
own.
They built up the city of Far West, of several thousand people, and
while there increased very rapidly, having missionaries in many parts of
the country preaching their doctrine. As quickly as an individual would
accept their faith, they would at once rally to the headquarters, and in
the course of a few years they had put a great deal of the prairie lands
into cultivation and increased their numbers until they were so
formidable that when they began to be odious to their neighbors by
showing a hostile attitude toward any power that might interfere with
them, they got into trouble much in the same way as they did in Jackson
County.
A party of Gentiles and Mormons met at a point called Horn's Mill, and
became involved in a quarrel, when there were some killed on both sides.
This created such a feeling in the community that both Mormons and
Gentiles felt insecure, living neighbors to each other as they were, and
the trouble went on until it culminated in the Governor, Lilburn W.
Boggs, calling out a portion of the militia of the State and ordering
them to Far West, the Mormon center. The Mormons were drilling
continuously, and increasing their facilities for fighting, when the
militia reached the place designated, and organizing, placed themselves
in battle array. The Mormons were also drawn up in long lines, and for a
short time it looked as if a bloody battle was unavoidable, but before
any engagement occurred the Mormons again surrendered. They then agreed
to leave the State of Missouri, and in April, 1839, the last of the band
left Far West, moved across the Mississippi into Illinois, where they
afterward located and built the city of Nauvoo, but with no better
results with the people in the free State than they experienced in
Missouri. This shows that slavery had nothing to do with the hard
feelings and prejudice they aroused in every community in which they
lived.
The Mormons' new village was named Nauvoo, which means Peaceful Rest.
While there, having increased to fifteen thousand souls, they built a
temple to the Lord, which was, perhaps, the finest building that had
ever been erected in the State up to that time. During the year 1844,
trouble arose between them and the Gentiles, to suppress which the
militia was called out, and in June of that year a writ was sworn out
for the arrest of the Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith. His brother Hiram
and Elder Taylor, who, after Brigham Young's death, became president of
the church, accompanied him to Carthage, Ill., where he went to give
himself up. Arriving at Carthage, all three were put in jail, where a
mob succeeded in killing the two brothers and seriously wounding Taylor,
who carried some of the bullets in his body during the remainder of his
life. On the death of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young was chosen by the
church as its prophet, president, and leader.
After three severe experiences in establishing settlements in Missouri
and Illinois, they determined in their councils to emigrate farther west
and start a colony which would be composed of Latter Day Saints, where
they would be entirely distinct and separate from any antagonizing
elements. At that time Salt Lake Valley, being under Spanish dominion
and a thousand miles from any white settlement, was ultimately chosen as
the spot best suited for their purpose.
After leaving Nauvoo, Ill., they went to Council Bluffs, Iowa (called
by them Kaneville), traveling through the State of Iowa, and undergoing
the greatest hardships and sufferings any people were ever called upon
to endure, being without money, some of them without the proper means of
transportation, destitute of almost all the necessities of life, and a
great many sick on account of exposure to the elements. Arriving at the
place above named, on the Missouri River, they went into winter
quarters, and the next spring planted and raised crops in that vicinity,
the greater number of the emigrants remaining there for the next two
years.
In the spring of 1847, at the time war was being carried on between the
United States and Mexico, Brigham Young started west with a band of from
seventy to seventy-five pioneers, having, I believe, an impression that
in Salt Lake Valley might be found the Mecca of their hopes. They
arrived in Salt Lake Valley on the 21st day of July of that year.
Previous to this, in 1846, at the call of the President for troops for
the Mexican War, Brigham Young raised a regiment of a thousand
volunteers to go to Mexico, under a stipulation with the United States
Government that, when the war was over, the survivors should receive
their discharges in California. This agreement was made in view of the
fact that they had already resolved to go west into Spanish territory.
The treaty of peace between the United States and Old Mexico, at the
close of the war, resulted in the Government of Mexico giving up to the
United States all the territory possessed by it lying north of the
present boundary line between the two countries, so that, after all the
exertions the Mormons had made to effect a settlement on Spanish
territory, in less than a year they found themselves still in the United
States, where they have ever since remained, having built cities and
towns on the colonizing plan in every available portion of the
Territory of Utah, and having quite a number of colonies in other
Territories, with one at present established in Mexico, as I have lately
been informed.
I have met in later years and become familiarly acquainted with many of
the leading spirits of the Mormon church, and have had large business
transactions with Brigham Young and many other prominent Mormons, among
whom were Captain Hooper, General Eldridge, Ferrimore Little, William
Jennings, John Sharp, Lew Hills, Gen. Daniel H. Wells, Wilford Woodruff
(now president of the Mormon church), Joseph Smith, and George Q.
Cannon, and a fairer, more upright set of gentlemen I never met.
I have heard all the leading elders of the Mormon Church preach,
including Brigham Young, Heber Kimball, George Q. Cannon, George A.
Smith (the historian), John Taylor, Orson Pratt, and Elder Woodruff, who
is now president of the church.
Orson Pratt was the ablest expounder of the Scriptures, particularly of
the prophecies, in the Mormon church. He was the man chosen by Brigham
Young and his counselors to discuss the subject of polygamy, from a
Bible standpoint, with the Rev. John P. Newman, who was at that time
pastor of one of the Methodist churches in Washington, D. C. I, among
many other Gentiles, was present and heard the discussion, which took
place in the Mormon Tabernacle.
President Young, as he was invariably called by his own people, was the
boldest, most outspoken man I ever saw in the pulpit. I remember hearing
him one Sabbath day when he was preaching in the Tabernacle, which seats
13,000 people, and on that day was packed to its full capacity,
there being probably one hundred and fifty or more strangers
present--excursionists from the East on their way to California, who had
stopped over Sunday to visit the Mormon church, and listen to the
immense organ and singers, but whose greatest desire was to hear Brigham
Young expound the Mormon doctrine. These strangers were given the most
prominent seats by the ushers, and this is the only church in which I
remember strangers having precedent over the regular church members in
being seated. When Brigham Young was well along in his discussion, it
occurred to him that the strangers present would want to know the size
of his family, as that was a question often asked by visitors, so he
ceased his discourse and said: "I suppose the strangers present would
like to know how many wives and children I have," and then proceeded to
say he had sixteen wives and forty-five living children, having lost
eight or ten children, I believe. He then proceeded to finish his
discourse.
I was present on another occasion when he was preaching to a very large
congregation, and he said to them:
"Brethren, we have thieves, scoundrels, perjurers, and villains in our
church, but the day will come when the tares will be separated from the
wheat and burned up with unquenchable fire; if this were not so,
however, we could not claim to be the church of Jesus Christ, for he
said that the kingdom of God was like a great net, which, being cast
into the sea, brought all manner of fishes to the shore." He was the
only preacher I ever heard make such remarks to his own people, and
recognize the church as being the true one because of the tares that
grew among the wheat.
The Mormon church taught regeneration through baptism by immersion. In
the commencement of their service a chapter from either the Old or New
Testament was generally read, and during the discourse frequent
reference was made to the Book of Mormon and to Joseph Smith, their
prophet.
President Young was one of the smartest men, if not the ablest man, it
was ever my fortune to meet. He was a man well posted on all subjects
relating to the business interests of the country, and especially to his
own people. His bishops and himself settled all manner of difficulties
arising out of business or church matters without the assistance of
courts, and he always insisted that every difficulty should be settled
by arbitration of the members of the community in which the disputants
lived.
In the ten years I lived in Salt Lake City, which was from 1869 to 1879,
I never heard any talk among the Mormons about the gift of speaking the
unknown tongue, or the interpretation thereof, as they claimed to have
in Missouri. They, however, claimed to possess all the gifts of the
Apostolic age and, as I have stated in another place, the keys of St.
Peter. They believed in church authority, as do the Catholics, and in a
personal God; they differ widely, however, from their Catholic brethren
when they come to the marriage relation, the Mormons believing their
bishops and elders should each have many wives, the Catholics, on the
other hand, denying marriage to their priests.
Mormon communities, like all others, are made up of those who are
reliable and those who are not--in other words, the good and the bad.
Polygamy, which was practiced among them for more than a quarter of a
century, they claimed upon scriptural authority was practiced in the
Apostolic days. Let that be as it may, perhaps there never was a time in
the march of civilization when to adopt such a practice would have been
in more direct opposition to the moral sense of the civilized world than
the present one of the nineteenth century.
In by-gone days, when the people depended upon their own and home
productions for their living, the larger a man's family, with every one
a worker, the easier it was for him to get along. Not so now, however,
but it is just the reverse.
The Mormons believed that church and state should be one, and that the
laws of God should be the laws of the land; therefore many of them
persisted in practicing polygamy after Congress passed laws prohibiting
it, preferring, as they said, to practice the higher law in disobedience
to the laws made by men, and many of them have gone, singing and
dancing, to the penitentiary, consigned there by the courts for
violating the statutes because of their belief.