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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f59c80f --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #51096 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51096) diff --git a/old/51096-h.zip b/old/51096-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 1f1470e..0000000 --- a/old/51096-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/51096-h/51096-h.htm b/old/51096-h/51096-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 729dc79..0000000 --- a/old/51096-h/51096-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2704 +0,0 @@ - -<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> -<html> -<head> - -<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> - -<title> -The Project Gutenberg E-text of The Mormons: A Discourse Delivered Before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, by Thomas L. 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Kane - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Mormons - A Discourse Delivered Before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania - -Author: Thomas L. Kane - -Release Date: January 31, 2016 [EBook #51096] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MORMONS *** - - - - -Produced by the Mormon Texts Project -(http://mormontextsproject.org), with thanks to Villate -Brown McKitrick for proofreading. - - - - - - -</pre> - - - -<h1>THE MORMONS. -<small><small><small> -<br><br>A</small></small> -<br>DISCOURSE -<br><small><small>DELIVERED BEFORE</small></small> -<br>THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY -<br><small><small>OF</small></small> -<br>PENNSYLVANIA: -<br><small><small>MARCH 26, 1850.</small></small> -</small></h1> -<p class="centered"><br>BY THOMAS L. KANE. -</p> - - -<p class="centered"><br>PHILADELPHIA: -<br>KING & BAIRD, PRINTERS, SANSOM STREET. -<br>1850. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="DISCOURSE"></a>DISCOURSE. -</h2> -<p>A few years ago, ascending the Upper Mississippi in the Autumn, when -its waters were low, I was compelled to travel by land past the region -of the Rapids. My road lay through the Half-Breed Tract, a fine section -of Iowa, which the unsettled state of its land-titles had appropriated -as a sanctuary for coiners, horse thieves, and other outlaws. I had -left my steamer at Keokuk, at the foot of the Lower Fall, to hire a -carriage, and to contend for some fragments of a dirty meal with the -swarming flies, the only scavengers of the locality. From this place -to where the deep water of the river returns, my eye wearied to see -everywhere sordid, vagabond and idle settlers; and a country marred, -without being improved, by their careless hands. -</p> -<p>I was descending the last hillside upon my journey, when a landscape in -delightful contrast broke upon my view. Half encircled by a bend of the -river, a beautiful city lay glittering in the fresh morning sun; its -bright new dwellings, set in cool green gardens, ranging up around a -stately dome-shaped hill, which was crowned by a noble marble edifice, -whose high tapering spire was radiant with white and gold. The city -appeared to cover several miles; and beyond it, in the back ground, -there rolled off a fair country, chequered by the careful lines of -fruitful husbandry. The unmistakable marks of industry, enterprise and -educated wealth, everywhere, made the scene one of singular and most -striking beauty. -</p> -<p>It was a natural impulse to visit this inviting region. I procured a -skiff, and rowing across the river, landed at the chief wharf of the -city. No one met me there. I looked, and saw no one. I could hear no -one move; though the quiet everywhere was such that I heard the flies -buzz, and the water-ripples break against the shallow of the beach. I -walked through the solitary streets. The town lay as in a dream, under -some deadening spell of loneliness, from which I almost feared to wake -it. For plainly it had not slept long. There was no grass growing up in -the paved ways. Rains had not entirely washed away the prints of dusty -footsteps. -</p> -<p>Yet I went about unchecked. I went into empty workshops, ropewalks and -smithies. The spinner's wheel was idle; the carpenter had gone from his -work-bench and shavings, his unfinished sash and casing. Fresh bark -was in the tanner's vat, and the fresh-chopped lightwood stood piled -against the baker's oven. The blacksmith's shop was cold; but his coal -heap and ladling pool and crooked water horn were all there, as if he -had just gone off for a holiday. No work people anywhere looked to know -my errand. If I went into the gardens, clinking the wicket-latch loudly -after me, to pull the marygolds, heart's-ease and lady-slippers, and -draw a drink with the water sodden well-bucket and its noisy chain; -or, knocking off with my stick the tall heavy-headed dahlias and -sunflowers, hunted over the beds for cucumbers and love-apples,—no -one called out to me from any opened window, or dog sprang forward to -bark an alarm. I could have supposed the people hidden in the houses, -but the doors were unfastened; and when at last I timidly entered them, -I found dead ashes white upon the hearths, and had to tread a tiptoe, -as if walking down the aisle of a country church, to avoid rousing -irreverent echoes from the naked floors. -</p> -<p>On the outskirts of the town was the city graveyard. But there was no -record of Plague there, nor did it in anywise differ much from other -Protestant American cemeteries. Some of the mounds were not long -sodded; some of the stones were newly set, their dates recent, and -their black inscriptions glossy in the mason's hardly dried lettering -ink. Beyond the graveyard, out in the fields, I saw, in one spot -hard-by where the fruited boughs of a young orchard had been roughly -torn down, the still smouldering embers of a barbecue fire, that had -been constructed of rails from the fencing round it. It was the latest -sign of life there. Fields upon fields of heavy-headed yellow grain lay -rotting ungathered upon the ground. No one was at hand to take in their -rich harvest. As far as the eye could reach, they stretched away—they, -sleeping too in the hazy air of Autumn. -</p> -<p>Only two portions of the city seemed to suggest the import of this -mysterious solitude. On the southern suburb, the houses looking out -upon the country showed, by their splintered woodwork and walls -battered to the foundation, that they had lately been the mark of a -destructive cannonade. And in and around the splendid Temple, which -had been the chief object of my admiration, armed men were barracked, -surrounded by their stacks of musketry and pieces of heavy ordnance. -These challenged me to render an account of myself, and why I had had -the temerity to cross the water without a written permit from a leader -of their band. -</p> -<p>Though these men were generally more or less under the influence of -ardent spirits; after I had explained myself as a passing stranger, -they seemed anxious to gain my good opinion. They told me the story of -the Dead City: that it had been a notable manufacturing and commercial -mart, sheltering over 20,000 persons; that they had waged war with -its inhabitants for several years, and had been finally successful -only a few days before my visit, in an action fought in front of the -ruined suburb; after which, they had driven them forth at the point -of the sword. The defence, they said, had been obstinate, but gave -way on the third day's bombardment. They boasted greatly of their -prowess, especially in this Battle, as they called it; but I discovered -they were not of one mind as to certain of the exploits that had -distinguished it; one of which, as I remember, was, that they had slain -a father and his son, a boy of fifteen, not long residents of the fated -city, whom they admitted to have borne a character without reproach. -</p> -<p>They also conducted me inside the massive sculptured walls of the -curious Temple, in which they said the banished inhabitants were -accustomed to celebrate the mystic rites of an unhallowed worship. They -particularly pointed out to me certain features of the building, which, -having been the peculiar objects of a former superstitious regard, they -had as matter of duty sedulously defiled and defaced. The reputed sites -of certain shrines they had thus particularly noticed, and various -sheltered chambers, in one of which was a deep well, constructed they -believed with a dreadful design. Beside these, they led me to see a -large and deep chiselled marble vase or basin, supported upon twelve -oxen, also of marble, and of the size of life, of which they told some -romantic stories. They said, the deluded persons, most of whom were -immigrants from a great distance, believed their Deity countenanced -their reception here of a baptism of regeneration, as proxies for -whomsoever they held in warm affection in the countries from which -they had come: That here parents "went into the water" for their lost -children, children for their parents, widows for their spouses, and -young persons for their lovers: That thus the Great Vase came to be for -them associated with all dear and distant memories, and was therefore -the object, of all others in the building, to which they attached the -greatest degree of idolatrous affection. On this account, the victors -had so diligently desecrated it, as to render the apartment in which it -was contained too noisome to abide in. -</p> -<p>They permitted me also to ascend into the steeple, to see where it had -been lightning-struck on the Sabbath before; and to look out, East and -South, on wasted farms like those I had seen near the City, extending -till they were lost in the distance. Here, in the face of the pure day, -close to the scar of the Divine wrath left by the thunderbolt, were -fragments of food, cruises of liquor and broken drinking vessels, with -a bass drum and a steam-boat signal bell, of which I afterwards learned -the use with pain. -</p> -<p>It was after nightfall, when I was ready to cross the river on my -return. The wind had freshened since the sunset; and the water beating -roughly into my little boat, I headed higher up the stream than the -point I had left in the morning, and landed where a faint glimmering -light invited me to steer. -</p> -<p>Here, among the dock and rushes, sheltered only by the darkness, -without roof between them and the sky, I came upon a crowd of several -hundred human creatures, whom my movements roused from uneasy slumber -upon the ground. -</p> -<p>Passing these on my way to the light, I found it came from a tallow -candle in a paper funnel-shade, such as is used by street venders of -apples and pea-nuts, and which flaring and guttering away in the bleak -air oft the water, shone flickeringly on the emaciated features of -a man in the last stage of a bilious remittent fever. They had done -their best for him. Over his head was something like a tent, made of a -sheet or two, and he rested on a but partially ripped open old straw -mattress, with a hair sofa cushion under his head for a pillow. His -gaping jaw and glazing eye told how short a time he would monopolize -these luxuries; though a seemingly bewildered and excited person, who -might have been his wife, seemed to find hope in occasionally forcing -him to swallow awkwardly measured sips of the tepid river water from -a burned and battered bitter smelling tin coffee-pot. Those who -knew better had furnished the apothecary he needed—a toothless old -bald-head, whose manner had the repulsive dullness of a familiar with -death scenes. He, so long as I remained, mumbled in his patient's ear a -monotonous and melancholy prayer, between the pauses of which I heard -the hiccup and sobbing of two little girls, who were sitting up on a -piece of drift wood outside. -</p> -<p>Dreadful, indeed, was the suffering of these forsaken beings. Cowed -and cramped by cold and sunburn, alternating as each weary day and -night dragged on, they were, almost all of them, the crippled victims -of disease. They were there because they had no homes, nor hospital -nor poor-house nor friends to offer them any. They could not satisfy -the feeble cravings of their sick: they had not bread to quiet the -fractious hunger cries of their children. Mothers and babes, daughters -and grandparents, all of them alike, were bivouacked in tatters, -wanting even covering to comfort those whom the sick shiver of fever -was searching to the marrow. -</p> -<p>These were Mormons, famishing, in Lee county, Iowa, in the fourth week -of the month of September, in the year of our Lord 1846. The city,—it -was Nauvoo, Illinois. The Mormons were the owners of that city, and -the smiling country round. And those who had stopped their ploughs, -who had silenced their hammers, their axes, their shuttles and their -workshop wheels; those who had put out their fires, who had eaten their -food, spoiled their orchards, and trampled under foot their thousands -of acres of unharvested bread; these,—were the keepers of their -dwellings, the carousers in their Temple,—whose drunken riot insulted -the ears of their dying. -</p> -<p>I think it was as I turned from the wretched night-watch of which I -have spoken, that I first listened to the sounds of revel of a party of -the guard within the city. Above the distant hum of the voices of many, -occasionally rose distinct the loud oath-tainted exclamation, and the -falsely intonated scrap of vulgar song;—but lest this requiem should -go unheeded, every now and then, when their boisterous orgies strove to -attain a sort of ecstatic climax, a cruel spirit of insulting frolic -carried some of them up into the high belfry of the Temple steeple, and -there, with the wicked childishness of inebriates, they whooped, and -shrieked, and beat the drum that I had seen, and rang in charivaric -unison their loud-tongued steam-boat bell. -</p> -<p>They were, all told, not more than six hundred and forty persons who -were thus lying on the river flats. But the Mormons in Nauvoo and its -dependencies had been numbered the year before at over twenty thousand. -Where were they? They had last been seen, carrying in mournful trains -their sick and wounded, halt and blind, to disappear behind the western -horizon, pursuing the phantom of another home. Hardly anything else was -known of them: and people asked with curiosity, What had been their -fate—what their fortunes? -</p> -<p>I purpose making these questions the subject of my Lecture. Since the -expulsion of the Mormons, to the present date, I have been intimately -conversant with the details of their history. But I shall invite your -attention most particularly to an account of what happened to them -during their first year in the Wilderness; because at this time more -than any other, being lost to public view, they were the subjects of -fable and misconception. Happily, it was during this period I myself -moved with them; and earned, at dear price, as some among you are -aware, my right to speak with authority of them and their character, -their trials, achievements and intentions. -</p> -<p>The party encountered by me at the river shore were the last of the -Mormons that left the city. They had all of them engaged the year -before, that they would vacate their homes, and seek some other place -of refuge. It had been the condition of a truce between them and their -assailants; and as an earnest of their good faith, the chief elders and -some others of obnoxious standing, with their families, were to set out -for the West in the Spring of 1846. It had been stipulated in return, -that the rest of the Mormons might remain behind in the peaceful -enjoyment of their Illinois abode, until their leaders, with their -exploring party, could with all diligence select for them a new place -of settlement beyond the Rocky Mountains, in California, or elsewhere, -and until they had opportunity to dispose to the best advantage of the -property which they were then to leave. -</p> -<p>Some renewed symptoms of hostile feeling had, however, determined -the pioneer party to begin their work before the Spring. It was, of -course, anticipated that this would be a perilous service; but it was -regarded as a matter of self-denying duty. The ardor and emulation of -many, particularly the devout and the young, were stimulated by the -difficulties it involved; and the ranks of the party were therefore -filled up with volunteers from among the most effective and responsible -members of the sect. They began their march in midwinter; and by the -beginning of February, nearly all of them were on the road, many of -their wagons having crossed the Mississippi on the ice. -</p> -<p>Under the most favoring circumstances, an expedition of this sort, -undertaken at such a season of the year, could scarcely fail to be -disastrous. <a name="fnAtxt"></a><a href="#fnA"><sup>[A]</sup></a> But the pioneer company had to set out in haste, -and were very imperfectly supplied with necessaries. The cold was -intense. They moved in the teeth of keen-edged northwest winds, such -as sweep down the Iowa peninsula from the ice-bound regions of the -timber-shaded Slave Lake and Lake of the Woods: on the Bald Prairie -there, nothing above the dead grass breaks their free course over the -hard rolled hills. Even along the scattered water courses, where they -broke the thick ice to give their cattle drink, the annual autumn fires -had left little wood of value. The party, therefore, often wanted -for good camp fires, the first luxury of all travellers; but to men -insufficiently furnished with tents and other appliances of shelter, -almost an essential to life. After days of fatigue, their nights were -often passed in restless efforts to save themselves from freezing. -Their stock of food also proved inadequate; and as their systems became -impoverished, their suffering from cold increased. -</p> -<p>Sickened with catarrhal affections, manacled by the fetters of -dreadfully acute rheumatisms, some contrived for a-while to get over -the shortening day's march, and drag along some others. But the sign of -an impaired circulation soon began to show itself in the liability of -all to be dreadfully frost-bitten. The hardiest and strongest became -helplessly crippled. About the same time, the strength of their beasts -of draught began to fail. The small supply of provender they could -carry with them had given out. The winter-bleached prairie straw proved -devoid of nourishment; and they could only keep them from starving -by seeking for the browse, as it is called, or green bark and tender -buds and branches, of the cotton-wood and other stinted growths of the -hollows. -</p> -<p>To return to Nauvoo was apparently the only escape; but this would -have been to give occasion for fresh mistrust, and so to bring new -trouble to those they had left there behind them. They resolved at -least to hold their ground, and to advance as they might, were it only -by limping through the deep snows a few slow miles a day. They found a -sort of comfort in comparing themselves to the Exiles of Siberia, <a name="fnBtxt"></a><a href="#fnB"><sup>[B]</sup></a> -and sought cheerfulness in earnest prayings for the Spring,—longed for -as morning by the tossing sick. -</p> -<p>The Spring came at last. It overtook them in the Sac and Fox country, -still on the naked prairie, not yet half way over the trail they were -following between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. But it brought -its own share of troubles with it. The months with which it opened -proved nearly as trying as the worst of winter. -</p> -<p>The snow and sleet and rain, which fell as it appeared to them without -intermission, made the road over the rich prairie soil as impassable -as one vast bog of heavy black mud. Sometimes they would fasten the -horses and oxen of four or five wagons to one, and attempt to get ahead -in this way, taking turns; but at the close of a day of hard toil for -themselves and their cattle, they would find themselves a quarter -or half a mile from the place they left in the morning. The heavy -rains raised all the water-courses: the most trifling streams were -impassable. Wood fit for bridging was often not to be had, and in such -cases the only resource was to halt for the freshets to subside,—a -matter in the case of the headwaters of the Chariton, for instance, of -over three weeks' delay. -</p> -<p>These were dreary waitings upon Providence. The most spirited and -sturdy murmured most at their forced inactivity. And even the women, -whose heroic spirits had been proof against the lowest thermometric -fall, confessed their tempers fluctuated with the ceaseless variations -of the barometer. They complained, too, that the health of their -children suffered more. It was the fact, that the open winds of March -and April brought with them more mortal sickness than the sharpest -freezing weather. -</p> -<p>The frequent burials made the hardiest sicken. On the soldier's march, -it is a matter of discipline, that after the rattle of musketry over -his comrade's grave, he shall tramp it to the music of some careless -tune in a lively quick-step. But, in the Mormon camp, the companion who -lay ill and gave up the ghost within view of all, all saw as he lay -stretched a corpse, and all attended to his last resting-place. It was -a sorrow then, too, of itself to simple-hearted people, the deficient -pomps of their imperfect style of funeral. The general hopefulness of -human,—including Mormon—nature, was well illustrated by the fact, -that the most provident were found unfurnished with undertaker's -articles; so that bereaved affection was driven to the most melancholy -makeshifts. -</p> -<p>The best expedient generally was to cut down a log of some eight or -nine feet long, and slitting it longitudinally, strip off its dark bark -in two half cylinders. These, placed around the body of the deceased, -and bound firmly together with withes made of the alburnum, formed a -rough sort of tubular coffin, which surviving relatives and friends, -with a little show of black crape, could follow with its enclosure to -the hole, or bit of ditch, dug to receive it in the wet ground of the -prairie. They grieved to lower it down so poorly clad, and in such an -unheeded grave. It was hard,—was it right?—thus hurriedly to plunge -it in one of the undistinguishable waves of the great land sea, and -leave it behind them there, under the cold north rain, abandoned, to -be forgotten? They had no tombstones, nor could they find rock to pile -the monumental cairn. So, when they had filled up the grave, and over -it prayed a Miserere prayer, and tried to sing a hopeful psalm, their -last office was to seek out landmarks, or call in the surveyor to help -them determine the bearings of valley bends, headlands, or forks and -angles of constant streams, by which its position should in the future -be remembered and recognized. The name of the beloved person, his age, -the date of his death, and these marks were all registered with care. -His party was then ready to move on. Such graves mark all the line of -the first years of Mormon travel,—dispiriting milestones to failing -stragglers in the rear. -</p> -<p>It is an error to estimate largely the number of Mormons dead of -starvation, strictly speaking. Want developed disease, and made -them sink under fatigue, and maladies that would otherwise have -proved trifling. But only those died of it outright, who fell in -out-of-the-way places that the hand of brotherhood could not reach. -Among the rest no such thing as plenty was known, while any went an -hungered. If but a part of a group was supplied with provision, the -only result was that the whole went on the half or quarter ration, -according to the sufficiency that there was among them: and this so -ungrudgingly and contentedly, that till some crisis of trial to their -strength, they were themselves unaware that their health was sinking, -and their vital force impaired. -</p> -<p>Hale young men gave up their own provided food and shelter to the -old and helpless, and walked their way back to parts of the frontier -states, chiefly Missouri and Iowa, where they were not recognized, and -hired themselves out for wages, to purchase more. Others were sent -there, to exchange for meal and flour, or wheat and corn, the table and -bed furniture, and other last resources of personal property which a -few had still retained. -</p> -<p>In a kindred spirit of fraternal forecast, others laid out great farms -in the wilds, and planted in them the grain saved for their own bread; -that there might be harvests for those who should follow them. Two of -these, in the Sac and Fox country and beyond it, Garden Grove and Mount -Pisgah, included within their fences about two miles of land a-piece, -carefully planted in grain, with a hamlet of comfortable log cabins in -the neighbourhood of each. -</p> -<p>Through all this the pioneers found redeeming comfort in the thought, -that their own suffering was the price of immunity to their friends at -home. But the arrival of spring proved this a delusion. Before the warm -weather had made the earth dry enough for easy travel, messengers came -in from Nauvoo to overtake the party with fear-exaggerated tales of -outrage, and to urge the chief men to hurry back to the city that they -might give counsel and assistance there. The enemy had only waited till -the emigrants were supposed to be gone on their road too far to return -to interfere with them, and then renewed their aggressions. -</p> -<p>The Mormons outside Nauvoo were indeed hard pressed; but inside the -city they maintained themselves very well for two or three months -longer. -</p> -<p>Strange to say, the chief part of this respite was devoted to -completing the structure of their quaintly devised but beautiful -Temple. Since the dispersion of Jewry, probably, history affords us -no parallel to the attachment of the Mormons for this edifice. Every -architectural element, every most fantastic emblem it embodied, was -associated, for them, with some cherished feature of their religion. -Its erection had been enjoined upon them as a most sacred duty: they -were proud of the honor it conferred upon their city, when it grew -up in its splendour to become the chief object of the admiration of -strangers upon the Upper Mississippi. Besides, they had built it as a -labor of love; they could count up to half a million the value of their -tithings and free-will offerings laid upon it. Hardly a Mormon woman -had not given up to it some trinket or pin-money: the poorest Mormon -man had at least served the tenth part of his year on its walls; and -the coarsest artisan could turn to it with something of the ennobling -attachment of an artist for his fair creation. Therefore, though their -enemies drove on them ruthlessly, they succeeded in parrying the last -sword-thrust, till they had completed even the gilding of the angel -and trumpet on the summit of its lofty spire. As a closing work, they -placed on the entablature of the front, like a baptismal mark on the -forehead, -</p> -<p class="centered">THE HOUSE OF THE LORD: -<br>BUILT BY THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS. -<br>HOLINESS TO THE LORD! -</p> -<p>Then, at high noon, under the bright sunshine of May, the next only -after its completion, they consecrated it to divine service. There was -a carefully studied ceremonial for the occasion. It was said the high -elders of the sect travelled furtively from the Camp of Israel in the -Wilderness; and throwing off ingenious disguises, appeared in their own -robes of holy office, to give it splendour. -</p> -<p>For that one day the Temple stood resplendent in all its typical -glories of sun, moon and stars, and other abounding figured and -lettered signs, hieroglyphs and symbols: but that day only. The sacred -rites of consecration ended, the work of removing the sacrosancta -proceeded with the rapidity of magic. It went on through the night; -and when the morning of the next day dawned, all the ornaments and -furniture, everything that could provoke a sneer, had been carried off; -and except some fixtures that would not bear removal, the building was -dismantled to the bare walls. -</p> -<p>It was this day saw the departure of the last elders, and the largest -band that moved in one company together. The people of Iowa have told -me, that from morning to night they passed westward like an endless -procession. They did not seem greatly out of heart, they said; but, at -the top of every hill before they disappeared, were to be seen looking -back, like banished Moors, on their abandoned homes, and the far-seen -Temple and its glittering spire. -</p> -<p>After this consecration, which was construed to indicate an insincerity -on the part of the Mormons as to their stipulated departure, or -at least a hope of return, their foes set upon them with renewed -bitterness. As many fled as were at all prepared; but by the very fact -of their so decreasing the already diminished forces of the city's -defenders, they encouraged the enemy to greater boldness. It soon -became apparent that nothing short of an immediate emigration could -save the remnant. -</p> -<p>From this time onward the energies of those already on the road were -engrossed by the duty of providing for the fugitives who came crowding -in after them. At a last general meeting of the sect in Nauvoo, there -had been passed an unanimous resolve that they would sustain one -another, whatever their circumstances, upon the march; and this, though -made in view of no such appalling exigency, they now with one accord -set themselves together to carry out. -</p> -<p>Here begins the touching period of Mormon history; on which but that -it is for me a hackneyed subject, I should be glad to dwell, were it -only for the proof it has afforded of the strictly material value to -communities of an active common faith, and its happy illustrations of -the power of the spirit of Christian fraternity to relieve the deepest -of human suffering. I may assume that it has already fully claimed the -public sympathy. -</p> -<p>Delayed thus by their own wants, and by their exertions to provide for -the wants of others, it was not till the month of June that the advance -of the emigrant companies arrived at the Missouri. -</p> -<p>This body I remember I had to join there, ascending the river for the -purpose from Fort Leavenworth, which was at that time our frontier -post. The fort was the interesting rendezvous of the Army of the West, -and the head-quarters of its gallant chief, Stephen F. Kearney, whose -guest and friend I account it my honor to have been. Many as were the -reports daily received at the garrison from all portions of the Indian -territory, it was a significant fact, how little authentic intelligence -was to be obtained concerning the Mormons. Even the region in which -they were to be sought after, was a question not attempted to be -designated with accuracy, except by what are very well called in the -West,—Mormon stories; none of which bore any sifting. One of these -averred, that a party of Mormons in spangled crimson robes of office, -headed by one in black velvet and silver, had been teaching a Jewish -pow-wow to the medicine men of the Sauks and Foxes. Another averred -that they were going about in buffalo robe short frocks, imitative of -the costume of Saint John, preaching baptism and the instance of the -kingdom of heaven among the Ioways. To believe one report, ammunition -and whiskey had been received by Indian braves at the hands of an elder -with a flowing white beard, who spoke Indian, he alleged, because -he had the gift of tongues:—this, as far North as the country of -the Yanketon Sioux. According to another yet, which professed to be -derived officially from at least one Indian sub-agent, the Mormons -had distributed the scarlet uniforms of H. B. M.'s servants among the -Pottawatamies, and had carried into their country twelve pieces of -brass cannon, which were counted by a traveller as they were rafted -across the East Fork of Grand River, one of the northern tributaries of -the Missouri. The narrators of these pleasant stories were at variance -as to the position of the Mormons, by a couple of hundred leagues; but -they harmonized in the warning, that to seek certain of the leading -camps would be to meet the treatment of a spy. -</p> -<p>Almost at the outset of my journey from Fort Leavenworth, while yet -upon the edge of the Indian border, I had the good fortune to fall in -with a couple of thin-necked sallow persons, in patchwork pantaloons, -conducting Northward wagon-loads of Indian corn, which they had -obtained, according to their own account, in barter from a squatter for -some silver spoons and a feather bed. Their character was disclosed -by their eager request of a bite from my wallet; in default of which, -after a somewhat superfluous scriptural grace, they made an imperfect -lunch before me off the softer of their corn ears, eating the grains as -horses do, from the cob. I took their advice to follow up the Missouri; -somewhere not far from which, in the Pottawatamie country, they were -sure I would encounter one of their advancing companies. -</p> -<p>I had bad weather on the road. Excessive heats, varied only by repeated -drenching thunder squalls, knocked up my horse, my only travelling -companion; and otherwise added to the ordinary hardships of a kind of -life to which I was as yet little accustomed. I suffered a sense of -discomfort, therefore, amounting to physical nostalgia, and was, in -fact, wearied to death of the staring silence of the prairie, before I -came upon the objects of my search. -</p> -<p>They were collected a little distance above the Pottawatamie Agency. -The hills of the "High Prairie" crowding in upon the river at this -point, and overhanging it, appear of an unusual and commanding -elevation. They are called the Council Bluffs; a name given them with -another meaning, but well illustrated by the picturesque Congress of -their high and mighty summits. To the south of them, a rich alluvial -flat of considerable width follows down the Missouri, some eight miles, -to where it is lost from view at a turn, which forms the site of the -Indian town of Point aux Poules. Across the river from this spot the -hills recur again, but are skirted at their base by as much low ground -as suffices for a landing. -</p> -<p>This landing, and the large flat or bottom on the east side of the -river, were crowded with covered carts and wagons; and each one of the -Council Bluff hills opposite was crowned with its own great camp, gay -with bright white canvas, and alive with the busy stir of swarming -occupants. In the clear blue morning air, the smoke streamed up from -more than a thousand cooking fires. Countless roads and bypaths -checkered all manner of geometric figures on the hillsides. Herd boys -were dozing upon the slopes; sheep and horses, cows and oxen, were -feeding around them, and other herds in the luxuriant meadow of the -then swollen river. From a single point I counted four thousand head of -cattle in view at one time. As I approached the camps, it seemed to me -the children there were to prove still more numerous. Along a little -creek I had to cross were women in greater force than blanchisseuses -upon the Seine, washing and rinsing all manner of white muslins, red -flannels and particolored calicoes, and hanging them to bleach upon -a greater area of grass and bushes than we can display in all our -Washington Square. -</p> -<p>Hastening by these, I saluted a group of noisy boys, whose purely -vernacular cries had for me an invincible home-savoring attraction. It -was one of them, a bright faced lad, who, hurrying on his jacket and -trousers, fresh from bathing in the creek, first assured me I was at -my right destination. He was a mere child; but he told me of his own -accord where I had best go seek my welcome, and took my horse's bridle -to help me pass a morass, the bridge over which he alleged to be unsafe. -</p> -<p>There was something joyous for me in my free rambles about this vast -body of pilgrims. I could range the wild country wherever I listed, -under safeguard of their moving host. Not only in the main camps was -all stir and life, but in every direction, it seemed to me, I could -follow 'Mormon Roads,' and find them beaten hard and even dusty by -the tread and wear of the cattle and vehicles of emigrants laboring -over them. By day, I would overtake and pass, one after another, what -amounted to an army train of them; and at night, if I encamped at -the places where the timber and running water were found together, I -was almost sure to be within call of some camp or other, or at least -within sight of its watch-fires. Wherever I was compelled to tarry, -I was certain to find shelter and hospitality, scant, indeed, but -never stinted, and always honest and kind. After a recent unavoidable -association with the border inhabitants of Western Missouri and Iowa, -the vile scum which our own society, to apply the words of an admirable -gentleman and eminent divine, <a name="fnCtxt"></a><a href="#fnC"><sup>[C]</sup></a> "like the great ocean washes upon -its frontier shores," I can scarcely describe the gratification I -felt in associating again with persons who were almost all of Eastern -American origin,—persons of refined and cleanly habits and decent -language,—and in observing their peculiar and interesting mode of -life;—while every day seemed to bring with it its own especial -incident, fruitful in the illustration of habits and character. -</p> -<p>It was during the period of which I have just spoken, that the Mormon -battalion of 520 men was recruited and marched for the Pacific Coast. -</p> -<p>At the commencement of the Mexican war, the President considered it -desirable to march a body of reliable infantry to California at as -early a period as practicable, and the known hardihood and habits of -discipline of the Mormons were supposed peculiarly to fit them for -this service. As California was supposed also to be their ultimate -destination, the long march might cost them less than other citizens. -They were accordingly invited to furnish a battalion of volunteers -early in the month of July. -</p> -<p>The call could hardly have been more inconveniently timed. The young, -and those who could best have been spared, were then away from the -main body, either with pioneer companies in the van, or, their faith -unannounced, seeking work and food about the northwestern settlements, -to support them till the return of the season for commencing -emigration. The force was therefore to be recruited from among fathers -of families, and others whose presence it was most desirable to retain. -</p> -<p>There were some, too, who could not view the invitation without -jealousy. They had twice been persuaded by (State) Government -authorities in Illinois and Missouri, to give up their arms on some -special appeals to their patriotic confidence, and had then been left -to the malice of their enemies. And now they were asked, in the midst -of the Indian country, to surrender over five hundred of their best men -for a war march of thousands of miles to California, without the hope -of return till after the conquest of that country. Could they view such -a proposition with favor? -</p> -<p>But the feeling of country triumphed. The Union had never wronged them: -"You shall have your battalion at once, if it has to be a class of our -elders," said one, himself a ruling elder. A central 'mass meeting' -for Council, some harangues at the more remotely scattered camps, an -American flag brought out from the storehouse of things rescued, and -hoisted to the top of a tree mast—and, in three days, the force was -reported, mustered, organized and ready to march. -</p> -<p>There was no sentimental affectation at their leave-taking. The -afternoon before was appropriated to a farewell ball; and a more -merry dancing rout I have never seen, though the company went without -refreshments, and their ball-room was of the most primitive. It was the -custom, whenever the larger camps rested for a few days together, to -make great arbors, or Boweries, as they called them, of poles and brush -and wattling, as places of shelter for their meetings of devotion or -conference. In one of these, where the ground had been trodden firm and -hard by the worshippers of the popular Father Taylor's precinct, was -gathered now the mirth and beauty of the Mormon Israel. -</p> -<p>If anything told the Mormons had been bred to other lives, it was the -appearance of the women, as they assembled here. Before their flight, -they had sold their watches and trinkets as the most available resource -for raising ready money; and hence, like their partners, who wore -waistcoats cut with useless watch pockets, they, although their ears -were pierced and bore the loop-marks of rejected pendants, were without -earrings, finger-rings, chains or brooches. Except such ornaments, -however, they lacked nothing most becoming the attire of decorous -maidens. The neatly darned white stocking, and clean bright petticoat, -the artistically clear-starched collar and chemisette, the something -faded, only because too well washed, lawn or gingham gown, that fitted -modishly to the waist of its pretty wearer,—these, if any of them -spoke of poverty, spoke of a poverty that had known its better days. -</p> -<p>With the rest, attended the elders of the church within call, including -nearly all the chiefs of the High Council, with their wives and -children. They, the gravest and most trouble-worn, seemed the most -anxious of any to be first to throw off the burden of heavy thoughts. -Their leading off the dancing in a great double cotillion was the -signal bade the festivity commence. To the canto of debonair violins, -the cheer of horns, the jingle of sleigh-bells, and the jovial snoring -of the tambourine, they did dance! None of your minuets or other -mortuary processions of gentles in etiquette, tight shoes, and pinching -gloves, but the spirited and scientific displays of our venerated and -merry grandparents, who were not above following the fiddle to the -Fox-Chase Inn or Gardens of Gray's Ferry. French fours, Copenhagen -jigs, Virginia reels, and the like forgotten figures, executed with -the spirit of people too happy to be slow, or bashful or constrained. -Light hearts, lithe figures and light feet, had it their own way from -an early hour till after the sun had dipped behind the sharp sky line -of the Omaha hills. Silence was then called, and a well cultivated -mezzo-soprano voice, belonging to a young lady with fair face and dark -eyes, gave with quartette accompaniment a little song, the notes of -which I have been unsuccessful in repeated efforts to obtain since,—a -version of the text, touching to all earthly wanderers: -</p> -<blockquote> -<p class="poetry"> "By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept."<br> - "We wept when we remembered Zion."<br> -</p></blockquote> -<p>There was danger of some expression of feeling when the song was over, -for it had begun to draw tears; but breaking the quiet with his hard -voice, an Elder asked the blessing of Heaven on all who, with purity -of heart and brotherhood of spirit, had mingled in that society, and -then, all dispersed, hastening to cover from the falling dews. All, I -remember, but some splendid Indians, who in cardinal scarlet blankets -and feathered leggings, had been making foreground figures for the -dancing rings, like those in Mr. West's picture of our Philadelphia -Treaty, and staring their inability to comprehend the wonderful -performances. These loitered to the last, as if unwilling to seek their -abject homes. -</p> -<p>Well as I knew the peculiar fondness of the Mormons for music, their -orchestra in service on this occasion astonished me by its numbers -and fine drill. The story was, that an eloquent Mormon missionary had -converted its members in a body at an English town, a stronghold of -the sect, and that they took up their trumpets, trombones, drums and -hautboys together, and followed him to America. -</p> -<p>When the refugees from Nauvoo were hastening to part with their -table-ware, jewelry, and almost every other fragment of metal wealth -they possessed that was not iron, they had never a thought of giving -up the instruments of this favorite band. And when the battalion was -enlisted, though high inducements were offered some of the performers -to accompany it, they all refused. Their fortunes went with the Camp -of the Tabernacle. They had led the Farewell Service in the Nauvoo -Temple. Their office now was to guide the monster choruses and Sunday -hymns; and like the trumpets of silver made of a whole piece 'for the -calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps,' to knoll -the people in to church. Some of their wind instruments, indeed, were -uncommonly full and pure toned, and in that clear dry air could be -heard to a great distance. It had the strangest effect in the world, -to listen to their sweet music winding over the uninhabited country. -Something in the style of a Moravian death-tune blown at day-break, but -altogether unique. It might be when you were hunting a ford over the -Great Platte, the dreariest of all wild rivers, perplexed among the -far-reaching sand bars and curlew shallows of its shifting bed:—the -wind rising would bring you the first faint thought of a melody; and, -as you listened, borne down upon the gust that swept past you a cloud -of the dry sifted sands, you recognized it—perhaps a home-loved theme -of Henry Proch or Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn Bartholdy, away there in the -Indian Marches! -</p> -<p>The battalion gone, the host again moved on. The tents which had -gathered on the hill summits, like white birds hesitating to venture -on the long flight over the river, were struck one after another, and -the dwellers in them and their wagons and their cattle hastened down -to cross it at a ferry in the valley, which they made ply night and -day. A little beyond the landing they formed their companies, and made -their preparations for the last and longest stage of their journey. It -was a more serious matter to cross the mountains then than now, that -the thirst of our people for the gold of California has made the region -between them and their desire such literally trodden ground. -</p> -<p>Thanks to this wonderful movement, I may dismiss an effort to describe -the incidents of emigrant life upon the Plains, presuming that you have -been made more than familiar with them already, by the many repeated -descriptions of which they have been the subject. The desert march, the -ford, the quicksand, the Indian battle, the bison chase, the prairie -fire:—the adventures of the Mormons comprised every variety of these -varieties; but I could not hope to invest them with the interest -of novelty. The character of their every-day life, its routine and -conduct, alone offered any exclusive or marked peculiarity. Their -romantic devotional observances, and their admirable concert of purpose -and action, met the eye at once. After these, the stranger was most -struck perhaps by the strict order of march, the unconfused closing up -to meet attack, the skilful securing of the cattle upon the halt, the -system with which the watches were set at night to guard them and the -lines of corral—with other similar circumstances indicative of the -maintenance of a high state of discipline. Every ten of their wagons -was under the care of a captain. This captain of ten, as they termed -him, obeyed a captain of fifty; who, in turn, obeyed his captain of a -hundred, or directly a member of what they call the High Council of -the Church. All these were responsible and determined men, approved of -by the people for their courage, discretion and experience. So well -recognized were the results of this organization, that bands of hostile -Indians have passed by comparative small parties of Mormons, to attack -much larger, but less compact bodies of other emigrants. -</p> -<p>The most striking feature, however, of the Mormon emigration, was -undoubtedly their formation of the Tabernacle Camps and temporary -Stakes, or Settlements, which renewed in the sleeping solitudes -everywhere along their road, the cheering signs of intelligent and -hopeful life. -</p> -<p>I will make this remark plainer by describing to you one of these -camps, with the daily routine of its inhabitants. I select at random, -for my purpose, a large camp upon the delta between the Nebraska and -Missouri, in the territory disputed between the Omaha, and Otto and -Missouria Indians. It remained pitched here for nearly two months, -during which period I resided in it. -</p> -<p>It was situated near the Petit Papillon, or Little Butterfly River, and -upon some finely rounded hills that encircle a favorite cool spring. -On each of these a square was marked out; and the wagons as they -arrived took their positions along its four sides in double rows, so -as to leave a roomy street or passageway between them. The tents were -disposed also in rows, at intervals between the wagons. The cattle were -folded in high-fenced yards outside. The quadrangle inside was left -vacant for the sake of ventilation, and the streets, covered in with -leafy arbor work and kept scrupulously clean, formed a shaded cloister -walk. This was the place of exercise for slowly recovering invalids, -the day-home of the infants, and the evening promenade of all. -</p> -<p>From the first formation of the camp, all its inhabitants were -constantly and laboriously occupied. Many of them were highly educated -mechanics, and seemed only to need a day's anticipated rest to engage -them at the forge, loom, or turning lathe, upon some needed chore of -work. A Mormon gunsmith is the inventor of the excellent repeating -rifle, that loads by slides instead of cylinders; and one of the -neatest finished fire-arms I have ever seen was of this kind, wrought -from scraps of old iron, and inlaid with the silver of a couple of half -dollars, under a hot July sun, in a spot where the average height of -the grass was above the workman's shoulders. I have seen a cobbler, -after the halt of his party on the march, hunting along the river bank -for a lap-stone in the twilight, that he might finish a famous boot -sole by the camp fire; and I have had a piece of cloth, the wool of -which was sheared, and dyed, and spun, and woven, during a progress of -over three hundred miles. -</p> -<p>Their more interesting occupations, however, were those growing out -of their peculiar circumstances and position. The chiefs were seldom -without some curious affair on hand to settle with the restless -Indians; while the immense labor and responsibility of the conduct of -their unwieldy moving army, and the commissariat of its hundreds of -famishing poor, also devolved upon them. They had good men they called -Bishops, whose special office it was to look up the cases of extremest -suffering: and their relief parties were out night and day to scour -over every trail. -</p> -<p>At this time, say two months before the final expulsion from Nauvoo, -there were already, along three hundred miles of the road between -that city and our Papillon Camp, over two thousand emigrating -wagons, besides a large number of nondescript turn-outs, the motley -make-shifts of poverty; from the unsuitably heavy cart that lumbered on -mysteriously with its sick driver hidden under its counterpane cover, -to the crazy two-wheeled trundle, such as our own poor employ for the -conveyance of their slop barrels, this pulled along it may be by a -little dry dugged heifer, and rigged up only to drag some such light -weight as a baby, a sack of meal, or a pack of clothes and bedding. -</p> -<p>Some of them were in distress from losses upon the way. A strong trait -of the Mormons was their kindness to their brute dependents, and -particularly to their beasts of draught. They gave them the holiday of -the Sabbath whenever it came round: I believe they would have washed -them with old wine, after the example of the emigrant Carthaginians, -had they had any. Still, in the Slave-coast heats, under which the -animals had to move, they sometimes foundered. Sometimes, too, they -strayed off in the night, or were mired in morasses;—or oftener were -stolen by Indians, who found market covert for such plunder among -the horse-thief whites of the frontier. But the great mass of these -pilgrims of the desert was made up of poor folks, who had fled in -destitution from Nauvoo, and been refused a resting place by the people -of Iowa. -</p> -<p>It is difficult fully to understand the state of helplessness in which -some of these would arrive, after accomplishing a journey of such -extent, under circumstances of so much privation and peril. The fact -was, they seemed to believe that all their trouble would be at an end -if they could only come up with their comrades at the Great Camps. -For this they calculated their resources, among which their power of -endurance was by much the largest and most reliable item, and they were -not disappointed if they arrived with these utterly exhausted. -</p> -<p>I remember a signal instance of this at the Papillon Camp. -</p> -<p>It was that of a joyous hearted clever fellow, whose songs and fiddle -tunes were the life and delight of Nauvoo in its merry days. I forget -his story, and how exactly, it fell about, that after a Mormon's full -peck of troubles, he started after us with his wife and little ones -from some 'lying down place' in the Indian country, where he had -contended with an attack of a serious malady. He was just convalescent, -and the fatigue of marching on foot again with a child on his back, -speedily brought on a relapse. But his anxiety to reach a place where -he could expect to meet friends with shelter and food, was such that -he only pressed on the harder. Probably for more than a week of the -dog-star weather, he laboured on under a high fever, walking every day -till he was entirely exhausted. -</p> -<p>His limbs failed him then; but his courage holding out, he got into his -covered cart on top of its freight of baggage, and made them drive him -on, while he lay down. They could hardly believe how ill he was, he -talked on so cheerfully—"I'm nothing on earth ailing but home-sick: -I'm cured the very minute I get to camp and see the brethren." -</p> -<p>Not being able thus to watch his course, he lost his way, and had to -regain it through a wretched tract of Low Meadow Prairie, where there -were no trees to break the noon, nor water but what was ague-sweet or -brackish. By the time he got back to the trail of the High Prairie, he -was, in his own phrase, 'pretty far gone.' Yet he was resolute in his -purpose as ever, and to a party he fell in with, avowed his intention -to be cured at the camp, 'and no where else.' He even jested with them, -comparing his jolting couch to a summer cot in a white washed cockloft. -"But I'll make them take me down," he said, "and give me a dip in the -river when I get there. All I care for is to see the brethren." -</p> -<p>His determined bearing rallied the spirit of his travelling household, -and they kept on their way till he was within a few hours journey of -the camp. He entered on his last day's journey with the energy of -increased hope. -</p> -<p>I remember that day well. For in the evening I mounted a tired horse -to go a short errand, and in mere pity had to turn back before I had -walked him a couple of hundred yards. Nothing seemed to draw life -from the languid air but the clouds of gnats and stinging midges; and -long after sundown it was so hot that the sheep lay on their stomachs -panting, and the cattle strove to lap wind like hard fagged hunting -dogs. In camp, I had spent the day in watching the invalids and the -rest hunting the shade under the wagon bodies, and veering about them, -like the shadows round the sun-dial. I know I thought myself wretched -enough, to be of their company. -</p> -<p>Poor Merryman had all that heat to bear, with the mere pretence of an -awning to screen out the sun from his close muslin cockloft. -</p> -<p>He did not fail till somewhere hard upon noon. He then began to grow -restless to know accurately the distance travelled. He made them give -him water, too, much more frequently; and when they stopped for this -purpose, asked a number of obscure questions. A little after this he -discovered himself that a film had come over his eyes. He confessed -that this was discouraging; but said with stubborn resignation, that -if denied to see the brethren, he still should hear the sound of their -voices. -</p> -<p>After this, which was when he was hardly three miles from our camp, he -lay very quiet, as if husbanding his strength; but when he had made, as -is thought, a full mile further, being interrogated by the woman that -was driving, whether she should stop, he answered her, as she avers, -"No, no; go on!" -</p> -<p>The anecdote ends badly. They brought him in dead, I think about five -o'clock of the afternoon. He had on his clean clothes; as he had -dressed himself in the morning, looking forward to his arrival. -</p> -<p>Beside the common duty of guiding and assisting these unfortunates, the -companies in the van united in providing the highway for the entire -body of emigrants. The Mormons have laid out for themselves a road -through the Indian Territory, over four hundred leagues in length, -with substantial, well-built bridges, fit for the passage of heavy -artillery, over all the streams, except a few great rivers where they -have established permanent ferries. The nearest unfinished bridging -to the Papillon Camp, was that of the Corne a Cerf, or Elkhorn, a -tributary of the Platte, distant maybe a couple of hours' march. Here, -in what seemed to be an incredibly short space of time, there rose the -seven great piers and abutments of a bridge, such as might challenge -honors for the entire public spirited population of lower Virginia. The -party detailed to the task worked in the broiling sun, in water beyond -depth, and up to their necks, as if engaged in the perpetration of some -pointed and delightful practical joke. The chief sport lay in floating -along with the logs, cut from the overhanging timber up the stream, -guiding them till they reached their destination, and then plunging -them under water in the precise spot where they were to be secured. -This the laughing engineers would execute with the agility of happy -diving ducks. -</p> -<p>Our nearest ferry was that over the Missouri. Nearly opposite Pull -Point, or Point aux Poules, a trading post of the American Fur Company, -and village of the Pottawatamies, they had gained a favorable crossing -by making a deep cut for the road through the steep right bank. And -here, without intermission, their flat-bottomed scows plied, crowded -with the wagons and cows and sheep and children and furniture of the -emigrants, who, in waiting their turn, made the woods around smoke with -their crowding camp fires. But no such good fortune as a gratuitous -passage awaited the heavy cattle, of whom, with the others, no less -than 30,000 were at this time on their way westward: these were made to -earn it by swimming. -</p> -<p>A heavy freshet had at this time swollen the river to a width, as I -should judge, of something like a mile and a half, and dashed past -its fierce current, rushing, gurgling, and eddying, as if thrown from -a mill race, or scriptural fountain of the deep. Its aspect did not -invite the oxen to their duty, and the labor was to force them to -it. They were gathered in little troops upon the shore, and driven -forward till they lost their footing. As they turned their heads to -return, they encountered the combined opposition of a clamorous crowd -of bystanders, vieing with each other in the pungent administration of -inhospitable affront. Then rose their hubbub; their geeing and woing -and hawing, their yelling and yelping and screaming, their hooting and -hissing and pelting. The rearmost steers would hesitate to brave such -a rebuff; halting, they would impede the return of the outermost; they -all would waver; wavering for a moment, the current would sweep them -together downward. At this juncture, a fearless youngster, climbing -upon some brave bull in the front rank, would urge him boldly forth -into the stream: the rest then surely followed; a few moments saw them -struggling in mid current; a few more, and they were safely landed -on the opposite shore. The driver's was the sought after post of -honor here; and sometimes, when repeated failures have urged them to -emulation, I have seen the youths, in stepping from back to back of the -struggling monsters, or swimming in among their battling hoofs, display -feats of address and hardihood, that would have made Franconi's or the -Madrid bull-ring vibrate with bravos of applause. But in the hours -after hours that I have watched this sport at the ferry side, I never -heard an oath or the language of quarrel, or knew it provoke the least -sign of ill feeling. -</p> -<p>After the sorrowful word was given out to halt, and make preparations -for winter, a chief labor became the making hay; and with every day -dawn brigades of mowers would take up the march to their positions in -chosen meadows—a prettier sight than a charge of cavalry—as they laid -their swarths, whole companies of scythes abreast. Before this time the -manliest, as well as most general daily labor, was the herding of the -cattle; the only wealth of the Mormons, and more and more cherished by -them, with the increasing pastoral character of their lives. A camp -could not be pitched in any spot without soon exhausting the freshness -of the pasture around it; and it became an ever recurring task to guide -the cattle, in unbroken droves, to the nearest places where it was -still fresh and fattening. Sometimes it was necessary to go farther, -to distant ranges which were known as feeding grounds of the Buffalo. -About these there were sure to prowl parties of thievish Indians; -and each drove therefore had its escort of mounted men and boys, who -learned self-reliance and heroism while on night guard alone, among -the silent hills. But generally the cattle were driven from the camp -at the dawn of morning, and brought back thousands together in the -evening, to be picketed in the great corral or enclosure, where beeves, -bulls, cows, and oxen, with the horses, mules, hogs, calves, sheep and -human beings, could all look together upon the red watch fires, with -the feeling of security, when aroused by the Indian stampede, or the -howlings of the prairie wolves at moonrise. -</p> -<p>When they set about building their winter houses, too, the Mormons went -into quite considerable timbering operations, and performed desperate -feats of carpentry. They did not come, ornamental gentlemen or raw -apprentices, to extemporise new versions of Robinson Crusoe. It was a -comfort to notice the readiness with which they turned their hands to -wood craft; some of them, though I believe these had generally been -bred carpenters, wheelwrights, or more particularly boat builders, -quite outdoing the most notable voyageurs in the use of the axe. One -of these would fell a tree, strip off its bark, cut and split up the -trunk in piles of plank, scantling, or shingles; make posts, and pins, -and pales—everything wanted almost, of the branches; and treat his -toil from first to last with more sportive flourish than a school-boy -whittling his shingle. -</p> -<p>Inside the camp, the chief labors were assigned to the women. From the -moment, when after the halt, the lines had been laid, the spring wells -dug out, and the ovens and fire-places built, though the men still -assumed to set the guards and enforce the regulations of Police, the -Empire of the Tented Town was with the better sex. They were the chief -comforters of the severest sufferers, the kind nurses who gave them in -their sickness, those dear attentions, with which pauperism is hardly -poor, and which the greatest wealth often fails to buy. And they were a -nation of wonderful managers. They could hardly be called housewives in -etymological strictness, but it was plain that they had once been such, -and most distinguished ones. Their art availed them in their changed -affairs. With almost their entire culinary material limited to the milk -of their cows, some store of meal or flour, and a very few condiments, -they brought their thousand and one receipts into play with a success -that outdid for their families, the miracle of the Hebrew widow's -cruise. They learned to make butter on a march, by the dashing of the -wagon, and so nicely to calculate the working of barm in the jolting -heats, that as soon after the halt as an oven could be dug in the hill -side and heated, their well kneaded loaf was ready for baking, and -produced good leavened bread for supper. I have no doubt the appetizing -zest, their humble lore succeeded in imparting to diet which was both -simple and meagre, availed materially for the health as well as the -comfort of the people. -</p> -<p>But the first duty of the Mormon women was, through all change of -place and fortune, to keep alive the altar fire of home. Whatever -their manifold labors for the day, it was their effort to complete -them against the sacred hour of evening fall. For by that time all -the out-workers, scouts, ferrymen or bridgemen, roadmakers, herdsmen -or haymakers, had finished their tasks and come in to their rest. -And before the last smoke of the supper fire curled up reddening in -the glow of sunset, a hundred chimes of cattle bells announced their -looked-for approach across the open hills, and the women went out to -meet them at the camp gates, and with their children in their laps sat -by them at the cherished Family meal, and talked over the events of the -well-spent day. -</p> -<p>But every day closed as every day began, with an invocation of the -Divine favour; without which, indeed, no Mormon seemed to dare to lay -him down to rest. With the first shining of the stars, laughter and -loud talking hushed, the neighbor went his way, you heard the last hymn -sung, and then the thousand-voiced murmur of prayer was heard like -babbling water falling down the hills. -</p> -<p>There was no austerity, however, about the religion of Mormonism. Their -fasting and penance, it is no jest to say, was altogether involuntary. -They made no merit of that. They kept the Sabbath with considerable -strictness: they were too close copyists of the wanderers of Israel in -other respects not to have learned, like them, the value of this most -admirable of the Egypto-Mosaic institutions. But the rest of the week, -their religion was independent of ritual observance. They had the sort -of strong stomached faith that is still found embalmed in sheltered -spots of Catholic Italy and Spain, with the spirit of the believing -or Dark Ages. It was altogether too strongly felt, to be dependent on -intellectual ingenuity or careful caution of the ridiculous. It mixed -itself up fearlessly with the common transactions of their every-day -life, and only to give them liveliness and color. -</p> -<p>If any passages of life bear better than others a double -interpretation, they are the adventures of travel, and of the field. -What old persons call discomforts and discouraging mishaps, are the -very elements to the young and sanguine, of what they are willing to -term fun. The Mormons took the young and hopeful side. They could make -sport and frolic of their trials, and often turn right sharp suffering -into right round laughter against themselves. I certainly heard more -jests and Joe Millers while in this Papillon Camp, than I am likely to -hear in all the remainder of my days. -</p> -<p>This, too, was at a time of serious affliction. Beside the ordinary -suffering from insufficient food and shelter, distressing and mortal -sickness, exacerbated, if not originated by these causes, was generally -prevalent. -</p> -<p>In the camp nearest us on the West, which was that of the bridging -party near the Corne, the number of its inhabitants being small enough -to invite computation, I found, as early as the 31st of July, that 37 -per cent. of its inhabitants were down with the Fever and a sort of -strange scorbutic disease, frequently fatal, which they named the Black -Canker. The camps to the East of us, which were all on the eastern side -of the Missouri, were yet worse fated. -</p> -<p>The climate of the entire upper 'Misery Bottom,' as they term it, is, -during a considerable part of Summer and Autumn singularly pestiferous. -Its rich soil, which is to a depth far beyond the reach of the plough -as fat as the earth of kitchen garden, or compost-heap, is annually the -force-bed of a vegetation as rank as that of the Tropics. To render -its fatal fertility the greater, it is everywhere freely watered by -springs and creeks and larger streams, that flow into it from both -sides. In the season of drought, when the Sun enters Virgo, these dry -down till they run impure as open sewers, exposing to the day foul -broad flats, mere quagmires of black dirt, stretching along for miles, -unvaried, except by the limbs of half buried carrion tree trunks, or -by occasional yellow pools of what the children call frog spawn; all -together steaming up thick vapours redolent of the savour of death. -</p> -<p>The same is the habit of the Great River. In the beginning of August, -its shores hardly could contain the millions of forest logs, and tens -of billions of gallons of turbid water, that came rushing down together -from its mountain head-gates. But before the month was out, the freshet -had all passed by; the river diminished one half, threaded feebly -southward through the centre of the Valley, and the mud of its channel, -baked and creased, made a wide tile pavement between the choking crowd -of reeds and sedgy grasses and wet stalked weeds, and growths of marsh -meadow flowers, the garden homes at this tainted season of venom-crazy -snakes, and the fresher ooze by the water's edge, which stank in the -sun like a naked muscle shoal. -</p> -<p>Then the plague raged. I have no means of ascertaining the mortality -of the Indians who inhabited the Bottom. In 1845, the year previous, -which was not more unhealthy, they lost one-ninth of their number in -about two months. The Mormons were scourged severely. The exceeding -mortality among some of them, was no doubt in the main attributable to -the low state to which their systems had been brought by long continued -endurance of want and hardship. It is to be remembered also, that they -were the first turners up of the prairie sod, and that this of itself -made them liable to the sickness of new countries. It was where their -agricultural operations had been most considerable, and in situations -on the left bank of the river, where the prevalent south-west winds -wafted to them the miasmata of its shores, that disease was most rife. -<a name="fnDtxt"></a><a href="#fnD"><sup>[D]</sup></a> -</p> -<p>In some of these, the fever prevailed to such an extent that hardly any -escaped it. They let their cows go unmilked. They wanted for voices to -raise the Psalm of Sundays. The few who were able to keep their feet, -went about among the tents and wagons with food and water, like nurses -through the wards of an Infirmary. Here at one time the digging got -behind hand: burials were slow; and you might see women sit in the -open tents keeping the flies off their dead children, sometime after -decomposition had set in. -</p> -<p>In our own camp for a part of August and September, things wore an -unpleasant aspect enough. <a name="fnEtxt"></a><a href="#fnE"><sup>[E]</sup></a> Its situation was one much praised for -its comparative salubrity; but perhaps on this account, the number of -cases of Fever among us was increased by the hurrying arrival from -other localities, of parties in whom the virus leaven of disease was -fermented by forced travel. -</p> -<p>But I am excused sufficiently the attempt to get up for your -entertainment here any circumstantial picture of horrors, by the -fact, that at the most interesting season, I was incapacitated for -nice observation by an attack of Fever—mine was what they call the -Congestive—that it required the utmost use of all my faculties to -recover from. I still kept my tent in the camp line; but, for as much -as a month, had very small notion of what went on among my neighbors. -I recollect overhearing a lamentation over some dear baby, that its -mother no doubt thought the destroying angel should have been specially -instructed to spare. I wish too for my own sake, I could forget, how -imperfectly one day I mourned the decease of a poor saint, who by -clamor rendered his vicinity troublesome. He no doubt endured great -pain; for he groaned shockingly till death came to his relief. He -interfered with my own hard gained slumbers, and—I was glad when Death -did relieve him. -</p> -<p>Before my attack, I was fond of conversing with an amiable old man, I -think English born, who having then recently buried his only daughter -and grandson, used to be seen sitting out before his tent, resting his -sorrowful forehead on his hands, joined over a smooth white oak staff. -I missed him when I got about again; probably he had been my moaning -neighbor. -</p> -<p>So, too, having been much exercised in my dreams at this time, by the -vision of dismal processions, such as might have been formed by the -union in line of all the forlornest and ugliest of the struggling -fugitives from Nauvoo, I happen to recall as I write, that I had some -knowledge somewhere of one of our new comers, for whom the nightmare -revived and repeated without intermission the torment of his trying -journey. As he lay, feeding life with long drawn breaths, he muttered: -"Where's next water? Team—give out! Hot, hot—God, it's hot: Stop the -wagon—stop the wagon—stop, stop the wagon!" They woke him;—to his -own content—but I believe returning sleep ever renewed his distressing -visions, till the sounder slumber came on from which no earthly hand or -voice could rouse him; into which I hope he did not carry them. -</p> -<p>In a half dreamy way, I remember, or I think I remember, a crowd of -phantoms like these. I recall but one fact, however, going far in -proof of a considerable mortality. Earlier in the season, while going -westward with the intention of passing the Rocky Mountains that summer, -I had opened with the assistance of Mormon spades and shovels, a large -mound on a commanding elevation, the tomb of a warrior of the ancient -race; and continuing on my way, had left a deep trench excavated -entirely through it. Returning fever-struck to the Papillon Camp, I -found it planted close by this spot. It was just forming as I arrived; -the first wagon, if I mistake not, having but a day or two before -halted into place. My first airing upon my convalescence took me to -the mound, which, probably to save digging, had been re-adapted to its -original purpose. In this brief interval, they had filled the trench -with bodies, and furrowed the ground with graves around it, like the -ploughing of a field. -</p> -<p>The lengthened sojourn of the Mormons in this insalubrious region was -imposed upon them by circumstances which I must now advert to. -</p> -<p>Though the season was late, when they first crossed the Missouri, some -of them moved forward with great hopefulness, full of the notion of -viewing and choosing their new homes that year. But the van had only -reached Grand Island and the Pawnee villages, when they were overtaken -by more ill news from Nauvoo. Before the summer closed, their enemies -set upon the last remnant of those who were left behind in Illinois. -They were a few lingerers, who could not be persuaded but there might -yet be time for them to gather up their worldly goods before removing, -some weakly mothers and their infants, a few delicate young girls, and -many cripples and bereaved and sick people. These had remained under -shelter, according to the Mormon statement at least, by virtue of an -express covenant in their behalf. If there was such a covenant, it was -broken. A vindictive war was waged upon them, from which the weakest -fled in scattered parties, leaving the rest to make a reluctant and -almost ludicrously unavailing defence, till the 17th day of September, -when 1,625 troops entered Nauvoo, and drove all forth who had not -retreated before that time. -</p> -<p>Like the wounded birds of a flock fired into toward nightfall, they -came straggling on with faltering steps, many of them without bag or -baggage, beast or barrow, <a name="fnFtxt"></a><a href="#fnF"><sup>[F]</sup></a> all asking shelter or burial, and forcing -a fresh repartition of the already divided rations of their friends. It -was plain now, that every energy must be taxed to prevent the entire -expedition from perishing. Further emigration for the time was out of -the question, and the whole people prepared themselves for encountering -another winter on the prairie. -</p> -<p>Happily for the main body, they found themselves at this juncture among -Indians, who were amicably disposed. The lands on both sides of the -Missouri in particular, were owned by the Pottawatamies and Omahas, two -tribes whom unjust treatment by our United States, had the effect of -rendering most auspiciously hospitable to strangers whom they regarded -as persecuted like themselves. -</p> -<p>The Pottawatamies on the eastern side, are a nation from whom the -United States bought some years ago a number of hundred thousand acres -of the finest lands they have ever brought into market. Whatever the -bargain was, the sellers were not content with it; the people saying, -their leaders were cheated, made drunk, bribed, and all manner of -naughty things besides. No doubt this was quite as much of a libel -on the fair fame of this particular Indian treaty, as such stories -generally are; for the land to which the tribe was removed in pursuance -of it, was admirably adapted to enforce habits of civilized thrift. It -was smooth prairie, wanting in timber, and of course in game; and the -humane and philanthropic might rejoice therefore that necessity would -soon indoctrinate its inhabitants into the practice of agriculture. -An impracticable few, who may have thought these advantages more than -compensated by the insalubrity of their allotted resting place, fled -to the extreme wilds, where they could find deer and woods, and rocks -and running water, and where I believe they are roaming to this day. -The remainder, being what the political vocabulary designates on such -occasions as Friendly Indians, were driven—marched is the word—galley -slaves are marched thus to Barcelona and Toulon—marched from the -Mississippi to the Missouri, and planted there. Discontented and -unhappy, they had hardly begun to form an attachment for this new soil, -when they were persuaded to exchange it for their present Fever Patch -upon the Kaw or Kansas River. They were under this second sentence of -transportation when the Mormons arrived among them. -</p> -<p>They were pleased with the Mormons. They would have been pleased with -any whites who would not cheat them, nor sell them whiskey, nor whip -them for their poor gipsey habits, nor bear themselves indecently -toward their women, many of whom among the Pottawatamies, especially -those of nearly unmixed French descent, are singularly comely, and -some of them educated. But all Indians have something like a sentiment -of reverence for the insane, and admire those who sacrifice, without -apparent motive, their worldly welfare to the triumph of an idea. They -understand the meaning of what they call a great vow, and think it the -duty of the right-minded to lighten the votary's penance under it. To -this feeling they united the sympathy of fellow-sufferers for those who -could talk to them of their own Illinois, and tell the story how from -it they also had been ruthlessly expelled. -</p> -<p>Their hospitality was sincere, almost delicate. Fanny Le Clerc, the -spoiled child of the great brave, Pied Riche, interpreter of the -Nation, would have the pale face Miss Devine learn duets with her -to the guitar; and the daughter of substantial Joseph La Framboise, -the interpreter of the United States,—she died of the fever that -summer,—welcomed all the nicest young Mormon Kitties and Lizzies, and -Jennies and Susans, to a coffee feast at her father's house, which was -probably the best cabin in the river village. They made the Mormons at -home, there and elsewhere. Upon all their lands they formally gave them -leave to tarry just so long as should suit their own good pleasure. -</p> -<p>The affair, of course, furnished material for a solemn council. Under -the auspices of an officer of the United States, their chiefs were -summoned, in the form befitting great occasions, to meet in the dirty -yard of one Mr. P. A. Sarpy's log trading house, at their village. -They came in grand toilet, moving in their fantastic attire with so -much aplomb and genteel measure, that the stranger found it difficult -not to believe them high born gentlemen, attending a costumed ball. -Their aristocratically thin legs, of which they displayed fully the -usual Indian proportion, aided this illusion. There is something too -at all times very Mock-Indian in the theatrical French millinery tie -of the Pottawatamie turban; while it is next to impossible for a sober -white man, at first sight, to believe that the red, green, black, blue -and yellow cosmetics, with which he sees such grave personages so -variously dotted, diapered, cancelled and arabesqued, are worn by them -in any mood but one of the deepest and most desperate quizzing. From -the time of their first squat upon the ground, to the final breaking -up of the council circle, they sustained their characters with equal -self-possession and address. -</p> -<p>I will not take it upon myself to describe their order of ceremonies; -indeed, I ought not, since I have never been able to view the habits -and customs of our aborigines in any other light than that of a -reluctant and sorrowful subject of jest. Besides, in this instance, the -displays of pow wow and eloquence were both probably moderated, by the -conduct of the entire transaction on temperance principles. I therefore -content myself with observing, generally, that the proceedings were -such as every way became the grandeur of the parties interested, and -the magnitude of the interests involved. When the Red Men had indulged -to satiety in tobacco smoke from their peace pipes, and in what they -love still better, their peculiar metaphoric rhodomontade, which, -beginning with the celestial bodies, and coursing downwards over the -grandest sublunary objects, always managed to alight at last on their -Grand Father Polk, and the tenderness for him of his affectionate -colored children; all the solemn funny fellows present who played -the part of Chiefs, signed formal articles of convention with their -unpronounceable names. -</p> -<p>The renowned chief, Pied Riche—he was surnamed Le Clerc on account of -his remarkable scholarship,—then rose, and said: -</p> -<p>"My Mormon Brethren, -</p> -<p>"The Pottawatamie came sad and tired into this unhealthy Missouri -Bottom, not many years back, when he was taken from his beautiful -country beyond the Mississippi, which had abundant game and timber and -clear water everywhere. Now you are driven away, the same, from your -lodges and lands there, and the graves of your people. So we have both -suffered. We must help one another, and the Great Spirit will help us -both. You are now free to cut and use all the wood you may wish. You -can make all your improvements, and live on any part of our actual land -not occupied by us. Because one suffers, and does not deserve it, is no -reason he shall suffer always: I say. We may live to see all right yet. -However, if we do not, our children will.—Bon Jour." -</p> -<p>And thus ended the pageant. I give this speech as a morsel of real -Indian. It was recited to me after the Treaty by the Pottawatamie -orator in French, which language he spoke with elegance. Bon Jour is -the French, Indian and English Hail and Farewell of the Pottawatamies. -</p> -<p>The other entertainers of the Mormons at this time, the Omahas, or -Mahaws, are one of the minor tribes of the Grand Prairie. Their Great -Father, the United States, has found it inconvenient to protect so -remote a dependency against the overpowering league of the Dahcotahs -or Sioux, and has judged it dangerous at the same time to allow them -to protect themselves by entering into a confederation with others. -Under the pressure of this paternal embarrassment and restraint, -it has therefore happened most naturally, that this tribe, once a -powerful and valued ally of ours, has been reduced to a band of little -more than a hundred families; and these, a few years more, will -entirely extinguish. When I was among them, they were so ill-fed, that -their protruding high cheek bones gave them the air of a tribe of -consumptives. The buffalo had left them, and no good ranges lay within -several hundred miles reach. Hardly any other game found cover on their -land. What little there was, they were short of ammunition to kill. -Their annuity from the United States was trifling. They made next to -nothing at thieving. They had planted some corn in their awkward Indian -fashion, but through fear of ambush dared not venture out to harvest -it. A chief resource for them, the winter previous, had been the -spoliation of their neighbors, the Prairie Field Mice. -</p> -<p>These interesting little people, more industrious and thrifty than -the Mahaws, garner up in the neat little cellars of their underground -homes, the small seeds or beans of the wood pea vine, which are black -and hard, but quite nutritious. Gathering them one by one, a single -Mouse will thus collect as much as half a pint, which before the cold -weather sets in, he piles away in a dry and frost proof excavation, -cleverly thatched and covered in. The Omaha animal, who, like enough, -may have idled during all the season the Mouse was amassing his -toilsome treasure, finds this subterranean granary to give out a -certain peculiar cavernous vibration when briskly tapped upon above the -ground. He wanders about, therefore, striking with a wand in hopeful -spots: and as soon as he hears the hollow sound he knows, unearths the -little retired capitalist along with his winter's hope. Mouse wakes up -from his nap to starve, and Mahaw swallows several relishing mouthfuls. -</p> -<p>But the Mouse has his avenger in the powerful Sioux, who wages against -his wretched red brother an almost bootless, but exterminating warfare. -He robs him of his poor human peltry. One of my friends was offered for -sale a Sioux scalp of Omaha, "with grey hair nearly as long as a white -horse's tail." -</p> -<p>The pauper Omahas were ready to solicit as a favor the residence of -white protectors among them. The Mormons harvested and stored away for -them their crops of maize; with all their own poverty, they spared them -food enough besides, from time to time, to save them from absolutely -starving; and their entrenched camp to the north of the Omaha villages, -served as a sort of breakwater between them and the destroying rush of -the Sioux. -</p> -<p>This was the Head Quarters of the Mormon Camps of Israel. The miles of -rich prairie enclosed and sowed with the grain they could contrive to -spare, and the houses, stacks, and cattle shelters, had the seeming -of an entire county, with its people and improvements transplanted -there unbroken. On a pretty plateau overlooking the river, they built -more than seven hundred houses in a single town, neatly laid out with -highways and byways, and fortified with breast-work, stockade and -block houses. It had too its place of worship, "Tabernacle of the -Congregation," and various large workshops, and mills and factories -provided with water power. -</p> -<p>They had no camp or settlement of equal size in the Pottawatamie -country. There was less to apprehend here from Indian invasion; and the -people scattered themselves therefore along the rivers and streams, -and in the timber groves, wherever they found inviting localities for -farming operations. In this way many of them acquired what have since -proved to be valuable pre-emption rights. -</p> -<p>Upon the Pottawatamie lands, scattered through the border regions of -Missouri and Iowa, in the Sauk and Fox country, a few among the Ioways, -among the Poncahs in a great company upon the banks of the L'Eau qui -Coule, or Running Water River, and at the Omaha winter quarters;—the -Mormons sustained themselves through the heavy winter of 1846-1847. It -was the severest of their trials. And if I aimed at rhetorical effect, -I would be bound to offer you a minute narrative of its progress, as -a sort of climax to my history. But I have, I think, given you enough -of the Mormons' sorrows. We are all of us content to sympathise with a -certain extent of suffering; but very few can bear the recurring yet -scarcely varied narrative of another's distress without something of -impatience. The world is full of griefs, and we cannot afford to expend -too large a share of our charity, or even our commiseration in a single -quarter. -</p> -<p>This winter was the turning point of the Mormon fortunes. Those who -lived through it were spared to witness the gradual return of better -times. And they now liken it to the passing of a dreary night, since -which they have watched the coming of a steadily brightening day. -</p> -<p>Before the grass growth of 1847, a body of one hundred and forty-three -picked men, with seventy wagons, drawn by their best horses, left the -Omaha quarters, under the command of the members of the High Council -who had wintered there. They carried with them little but seed and -farming implements, their aim being to plant spring crops at their -ultimate destination. They relied on their rifles to give them food, -but rarely left their road in search of game. They made long daily -marches, and moved with as much rapidity as possible. -</p> -<p>Against the season when ordinary emigration passes the Missouri, they -were already through the South Pass; and a couple of short day's travel -beyond it, entered upon the more arduous portion of their journey. It -lay in earnest through the Rocky Mountains. They turned Fremont's Peak, -Long's Peak, the Twins, and other King summits, but had to force their -way over other mountains of the rugged Utah Range, sometimes following -the stony bed of torrents, the head waters of some of the mightiest -rivers of our continent, and sometimes literally cutting their road -through heavy and ragged timber. They arrived at the grand basin of the -Great Salt Lake, much exhausted, but without losing a man, and in time -to plant for a partial autumn harvest. -</p> -<p>Another party started after these pioneers, from the Omaha winter -quarters, in the summer. They had 566 wagons, and carried large -quantities of grain, which they were able to put in the ground before -it froze. -</p> -<p>The same season also these were joined by a part of the Battalion and -other members of the Church, who came eastward from California and the -Sandwich Islands. Together, they fortified themselves strongly with -sunbrick wall and blockhouses, and living safely through the winter, -were able to tend crops that yielded ample provision for the ensuing -year. -</p> -<p>In 1848, nearly all the remaining members of the Church left the -Missouri country in a succession of powerful bands, invigorated and -enriched by their abundant harvests there; and that year saw fully -established their Commonwealth of the New Covenant, the future State of -DESERET. -</p> -<p>I may not undertake to describe to you in a single lecture the -Geography of Deseret, and its Great Basin. Were I to consider the face -of the country, its military position, or its climate and its natural -productions; each head, I am confident, would claim more time than -you have now to spare me. For Deseret is emphatically a New Country; -new in its own characteristic features, newer still in its bringing -together within its limits the most inconsistent peculiarities of -other countries. I cannot aptly compare it to any. Descend from the -mountains, where you have the scenery and climate of Switzerland, to -seek the sky of your choice among the many climates of Italy, and -you may find, welling out of the same hills, the Freezing Springs of -Mexico and the Hot Springs of Iceland, both together coursing their way -to the Salt Sea of Palestine in the plain below. The pages of Malte -Brun provide me with a less truthful parallel to it than those which -describe the happy Valley of Rasselas or the Continent of Balnibarbi. -</p> -<p>Let me then press on with my history, during the few minutes that -remain for me. -</p> -<p>Only two events have occurred to menace seriously the establishment at -Deseret: the first threatened to destroy its crops, the other to break -it up altogether. -</p> -<p>The shores of the Salt Lake are infested by a sort of insect pest, -which claims a vile resemblance to the locust of the Syrian Dead Sea. -Wingless, dumpy, black, swollen-headed, with bulging eyes in cases like -goggles, mounted upon legs of steel wire and clock-spring, and with a -general personal appearance that justified the Mormons in comparing him -to a cross of the spider on the buffalo, the Deseret cricket comes down -from the mountains at a certain season of the year, in voracious and -desolating myriads. It was just at this season, that the first crops of -the new settlers were in the full glory of their youthful green. The -assailants could not be repulsed. The Mormons, after their fashion, -prayed and fought, and fought and prayed, but to no purpose. The "Black -Philistines" mowed their way even with the ground, leaving it as if -touched with an acid or burnt by fire. -</p> -<p>But an unlooked for ally came to the rescue. Vast armies of bright -birds, before strangers to the valley, hastened across the lake from -some unknown quarter, and gorged themselves upon the well fatted enemy. -They were snow white, with little heads and clear dark eyes, and little -feet, and long wings, that arched in flight "like an angel's." At first -the Mormons thought they were new enemies to plague them; but when -they found them hostile only to the locusts, they were careful not to -molest them in their friendly office, and to this end declared a heavy -fine against all who should kill or annoy them with firearms. The gulls -soon grew to be tame as the poultry, and the delighted little children -learned to call them their pigeons. They disappeared every evening -beyond the lake; but, returning with sunrise, continued their welcome -visitings till the crickets were all exterminated. -</p> -<p>This curious incident recurred the following year, with this variation, -that in 1849, the gulls came earlier and saved the wheat crops from all -harm whatever. -</p> -<p>A severer trial than the visit of the cricket-locusts threatened -Deseret in the discovery of the gold of California. It was due to a -party of the Mormon battalion recruited on the Missouri, who on their -way home, found employment at New Helvetia. They were digging a mill -race there, and threw up the gold dust with their shovels. You all -know the crazy fever that broke out as soon as this was announced. It -infected every one through California. Where the gold was discovered, -at Sutter's and around, the standing grain was left uncut; whites, -Indians, and mustees, all set them to gathering gold, every other labor -forsaken, as if the first comers could rob the casket of all that it -contained. The disbanded soldiers came to the valley; they showed their -poor companions pieces of the yellow treasure they had gained; and the -cry was raised: "To California—To the Gold of Ophir, our brethren have -discovered! To California!" -</p> -<p>Some of you have perhaps come across the half ironic instruction of the -heads of the Church, to the faithful outside the Valley: -</p> -<p>"THE TRUE USE OF GOLD is for paving streets, covering houses, and -making culinary dishes; and, when the Saints shall have preached the -Gospel, raised grain, and built up cities enough, the Lord will open up -the way for a supply of gold to the perfect satisfaction of His People. -Until then, let them not be over-anxious, for the treasures of the -earth are in the Lord's storehouse, and he will open the doors thereof -when and where he pleases."—II. Gen. Epistle, 14. -</p> -<p>The enlightened virtue of their rulers saved the people and the -fortunes of Deseret. A few only went away—and they were asked in -kindness never to return. The rest remained to be healthy and happy, to -"raise grain and build up cities." -</p> -<p>The history of the Mormons has ever since been the unbroken record of -the most wonderful prosperity. It has looked, as though the elements -of fortune, obedient to a law of natural re-action, were struggling to -compensate to them their undue share of suffering. They may be pardoned -for deeming it miraculous. But, in truth, the economist accounts for -it all, who explains to us the speedy recuperation of cities, laid -in ruin by flood, fire and earthquake. During its years of trial, -Mormon labor has subsisted on insufficient capital, and under many -trials—but it has subsisted, and survives them now, as intelligent and -powerful as ever it was at Nauvoo; with this difference, that it has -in the meantime been educated to habits of unmatched thrift, energy -and endurance, and has been transplanted to a situation where it is -in every respect more productive. Moreover, during all the period of -their journey, while some have gained by practice in handicraft, and -the experience of repeated essays at their various halting-places, -the minds of all have been busy framing designs and planning the -improvements they have since found opportunity to execute. -</p> -<p>The territory of the Mormons is unequalled as a stock-raising country. -The finest pastures of Lombardy are not more estimable than those on -the east side of the Utah Lake and Jordan River. We find here that -cereal anomaly, the Bunch grass. In May, when the other grasses push, -this fine plant dries upon its stalk, and becomes a light yellow straw, -full of flavor and nourishment. It continues thus, through what are -the dry months of the climate, till January, and then starts with a -vigorous growth, like that of our own winter wheat in April, which -keeps on till the return of another May. Whether as straw or grass, -the cattle fatten on it the year round. The numerous little dells -and sheltered spots that are found in the mountains, are excellent -sheep-walks; it is said that the wool which is grown upon them is of an -unusually fine pile and soft texture. Hogs fatten on a succulent bulb -or tuber, called the Seacoe, or Seegose Root, which I hope will soon -be naturalized with us. It is highly esteemed as a table vegetable by -Mormons and Indians, and I remark that they are cultivating it with -interest at the French Garden of Plants. The emigrant poultry have -taken the best of care of each other, only needing liberty to provide -themselves with every other blessing. -</p> -<p>The Mormons have also been singularly happy in their Indian relations. -They have not made the common mistake of supposing savages insensible -to courtesy of demeanor; but, being taught by their religion to regard -them all as decayed brethren, have always treated the silly wicked -souls with kind-hearted civility. Though their outlay for tobacco, -wampum and vermillion has been of the very smallest, yet they have -never failed to purchase what goodwill they have wanted. -</p> -<p>Hence, it happens, that in their Land of Promise, they are on the -best of terms with all the Canaanites and Hittites, and Hivites, and -Amorites, and Girgashites, and Perizzites, and Jebusites, within its -borders; while they "maintain their cherished relations of amity with -the rest of mankind," who, in their case, include a sort of latest -remnant of the primaeval primates, called the Root Diggers. The -Diggers, who in stature, strength and general personal appearance, may -be likened to a society of old negro women, are only to be dreaded for -their exceeding ugliness. The tribes that rob and murder in war, and -otherwise live more like white men, are however numerous all around -them. -</p> -<p>Fortunately, upon their marauding expeditions, and in matters that -affect their freebooting relations generally, they all obey the great -war chief of the tribe called the Utahs, in the heart of whose proper -territory the Mormon settlements are comprehended. -</p> -<p>If accounts are true, the Utahs are brave fellows. They differ -obviously from the deceased nations, to whose estates we have taken it -upon ourselves to administer. They ride strong, well-limbed Spanish -horses, not ponies; bear well cut rifles, not shot-guns, across their -saddle-bows, and are not without some idea of military discipline. They -carry their forays far into the Mexican States, laying the inhabitants -under contribution, and taking captive persons of condition, whom they -hold to ransom. They are, as yet at least, little given to drink; some -of them manifest considerable desire to acquire useful knowledge; and -they are attached to their own infidel notions of religion, making -long journeys to the ancient cities of the Colorado, to worship among -the ruined temples there. The Soldan of these red Paynims, too, their -great war chief, is not without his knightly graces. According to some -of the Mormons, he is the paragon of Indians. His name, translated to -diminish its excellence as an exercise in Prosody, is Walker. He is a -fine figure of a man, in the prime of life. He excels in various manly -exercises, is a crack shot, a rough rider, and a great judge of horse -flesh. -</p> -<p>He is besides very clever, in our sense of the word. He is a peculiarly -eloquent master of the graceful alphabet of pantomime, which stranger -tribes employ to communicate with one another. He has picked up some -English, and is familiar with Spanish and several Indian tongues. He -rather affects the fine gentleman. When it is his pleasure to extend -his riding excursions into Mexico, to inflict or threaten outrage, -or to receive the instalments of his black mail salary, he will take -offence if the poor people there fail to kill their fattest beeves, -and adopt other measures to show him obsequious and distinguished -attention. He has more than one black-eyed mistress there, according -to his own account, to whom he makes love in her own language. His -dress is a full suit of the richest broadcloth, generally brown, cut in -European fashion, with a shining beaver hat, and fine cambric shirt. -To these, he adds his own gaudy Indian trimmings, and in this way -contrives, they say, to look superbly, when he rides at the head of his -troop, whose richly caparisoned horses, with their embroidered saddles -and harness, shine and tinkle as they prance under their weight of gay -metal ornaments. -</p> -<p>With all his wild cat fierceness, Walker is perfectly velvet-pawed -to the Mormons. There is a queer story about his being influenced in -their favor, by a dream. It is the fact, that from the first, he has -received the Mormon exiles into his kingdom, with a generosity, that in -its limited sphere, transcends that of the Grand Monarch to the English -Jacobites. He rejoices to give them the information they want about the -character of the country under his rule, advises with them as to the -advantages of particular localities, and wherever they choose to make -their settlements, guarantees them personal safety and immunity from -depredation. -</p> -<p>From the first, therefore, the Mormons have had little or nothing to do -in Deseret, but attend to their mechanical and strictly agricultural -pursuits. They have made several successful settlements; the farthest -North, at what they term Brownsville, is about forty miles, and the -farthest South, in a valley called the Sanpeech, 200 miles, from that -first formed. A duplicate of the Lake Tiberias, or Genesareth, empties -its waters into the innocent Dead Sea of Deseret, by a fine river, to -which the Mormons have given the name—it was impossible to give it any -other—of the Western Jordan. -</p> -<p>It was on the right bank of this stream, at a choice spot upon a rich -table land traversed by a great company of exhaustless streams falling -from the highlands, that the Pioneer band of Mormons, coming out of the -mountains in the night, pitched their first camp in the Valley, and -consecrated the ground. Curiously enough, this very spot proved the -most favorable site for their chief settlement, and after exploring -the whole country, they have founded on it their city of the New -Hierusalem. Its houses are spread to command as much as possible the -farms, which are laid out in Wards or Cantons, with a common fence to -each Ward. The farms in wheat already cover a space, greater than the -District of Columbia, over all of which they have completed the canals, -and other arrangements for bountiful irrigation, after the manner of -the cultivators of the East. The houses are distributed over an area -nearly as great as the City of New York. -</p> -<p>They have little thought as yet of luxury in their public buildings. -But they will soon have nearly completed a large common public -store-house and granary, and a great sized public bath-house. One of -the many wonderful thermal springs of the valley, a white sulphur water -of the temperature of 102 Fahrenheit, with a head "the thickness of a -man's body," they have already brought into the town for this purpose; -and all have learned the habit of indulging in it. They have besides -a yellow brick meeting-house, 100 feet by 60, in which they gather on -Sundays and in the week-day evenings. But this is only a temporary -structure. They have reserved a summit level in the heart of the city, -for the site of a Temple far superior to that of Nauvoo, which, in the -days of their future wealth and power, is to be the landmark of the -Basin and goal of future pilgrims. -</p> -<p>They mean to seek no other resting-place. After pitching camps enough -to exhaust many times over the chapter of names in 33d Numbers, they -have at last come to their Promised Land, and, "behold, it is a good -land and large, and flowing with milk and honey:" and here again for -them, as at Nauvoo, the forge smokes and the anvil rings, and whirring -wheels go round; again has returned the merry sport of childhood, and -the evening quiet of old age, and again dear house-pet flowers bloom in -garden plots round happy homes. -</p> -<p>It is to these homes, in the heart of our American Alps, like the holy -people of the Grand Saint Bernard, they hold out their welcome to the -passing traveller. Some of you have probably seen in the St. Louis -papers, the repeated votes of thanks to them of companies of emigrants -to California. These are often reduced to great straights after passing -Fort Laramie, and turn aside to seek the Salt Lake Colony in pitiable -plights of fatigue and destitution. The road, after leaving the Oregon -trace, is one of increasing difficulty, and when the last mountain has -been crossed, passes along the bottom of a deep Canyon, whose scenery -is of an almost terrific gloom. It is a defile that I trust no Mormon -Martin Hofer of this Western Tyrol will be called to consecrate to -liberty with blood. At every turn the overhanging cliffs threaten to -break down upon the little torrent river that has worn its way at their -base. Indeed, the narrow ravine is so serrated by this stream, that -the road crosses it from one side to the other, something like forty -times in the last five miles. At the end of the ravine, the emigrant -comes abruptly out of the dark pass into the lighted valley on an even -bench or terrace of its upper table land. No wonder if he loses his -self-control here. A ravishing panoramic landscape opens out below -him, blue, and green, and gold, and pearl; a great sea with hilly -islands, rivers, a lake, and broad sheets of grassy plain, all set, as -in a silver chased cup, within mountains whose peaks of perpetual snow -are burnished by a dazzling sun. It is less these, however, than the -foreground of old-country farms, with their stacks and thatchings and -stock, and the central city, smoking from its chimneys and swarming -with working inhabitants, that tries the men of fatigue broken nerves. -The 'Californeys' scream, they sing, they give three cheers, and do not -count them, a few have prayed; more swear, some fall on their faces and -cry outright. News arrived a few days since from a poor townsman of -ours, a journeyman saddler, that used to work up Market street beyond -Broad, by name Gillian, who sought the valley, his cattle given out, -and himself broken down and half heart-broken:—The recluse Mormons -fed and housed him and his party, and he made his way through to the -gold diggings with restored health and strength. To Gillian's credit -for manhood, should perhaps be cited his own allegation, that he first -whistled through his fingers various popular nocturnal, street, circus, -and theatre calls; but it is certain that, when my tidings speak of -him, which was when he was afterwards hospitably entreated by a Mormon, -whom he knew ten years ago as one of our Chester County farmers, he was -completely dissolved into something not far from the hysterics, and -wept on till the tears ran down his dusty beard. -</p> -<p>Several hundred emigrants, in more or less distress, received -gratuitous assistance last year from the Mormons. -</p> -<p>Their community must go on thriving. They are to be the chief workers -and contractors upon "Whitney's Railroad," or whatever scheme is to -unite the Atlantic and Pacific by way of the South Pass; and their -valley must be its central station. They have already raised a -"Perpetual Fund" for "the final fulfilment of the covenant made by the -Saints in the Temple at Nauvoo," which "is not to cease till all the -poor are brought to the valley." All the poor still lingering behind, -will be brought there: so at an early period will the fifty thousand -communicants, the Church already numbers in Great Britain, with all -the other "increase among the Gentiles." Their place of rendezvous -will be upon what were formerly the Pottawatamie lands. The interests -of this Stake have been admirably cared for. It now comprises the -thriving counties of "Fremont" and "Pottawatamie," in which the -Mormons still number a majority of the inhabitants. Their chief town -is growing rapidly, already boasting over three thousand inhabitants, -with nineteen large merchants' stores, the mail lines and five regular -steam packets running to it, and other western evidences of prosperity; -besides a fine Music Hall and public buildings, and the printing -establishment of a very ably edited newspaper, "The Frontier Guardian." -</p> -<p>It is probably the best station on the Missouri for commencing -the overland journey to Oregon and California; as travellers can -follow directly from it the Mormon road, which, in addition to other -advantages, proves to be more salubrious than those to the south of -it. Large numbers are expected to arrive at this point from England -during the present spring, on their way to the Salt Lake. They will -repay their welcome; for every working person gained to the hive of -their "Honey State" counts as added wealth. So far, the Mormons write -in congratulation, that they have not among them "a single loafer rich -or poor, idle gentleman or lazy vagabond." They are no Communists; but -their experience has taught them the gain of joint stock to capital, -and combination to labor,—perhaps something more, for I remark they -have recently made arrangements to "classify their mechanics," which -is probably a step in the right direction. They will be successful -manufacturers, for their vigorous land-locked industry cannot be -tampered with by protection. They have no gold—they have not hunted -for it; but they have found wealth of other valuable minerals; rock -salt enough to do the curing of the world,—"We'll salt the Union for -you," they write, "if you can't preserve it in any other way,"—perhaps -coal, excellent ores of iron everywhere. They are near enough, however, -to the Californian Sierra, to be the chief quartermasters of its -miners; and they will dig their own gold in their unlimited fields -of admirably fertile land. I should only invite your incredulity, -and the disgust of the Horticultural Society, by giving you certain -measurements of mammoth beets, turnips, pumpkins, and garden -vegetables, in my possession. In that country where stock thrives care -free, where a poor man's 32 potatoes saved can return him 18 bushels, -and 2 1/2 bushels of wheat sown yield 350 bushels in a season; or where -an average crop of wheat on irrigated lands is 50 bushels to the acre; -the farmer's part is hardly to be despised. Certainly it will not be -under a continuance of the present prices current of the region,—wheat -at $4 the bushel, and flour $12 the hundred, with a ready market. -</p> -<p>The recent letters from Deseret interest me in one thing more. They are -eloquent in describing the anniversary of the Pioneers' arrival in the -Valley. It was the 24th of July, and they have ordained that that day -shall be commemorated in future, like our 21st of December, as their -Forefather's Day. The noble Walker attended as an invited guest, with -two hundred of his best dressed mounted cavaliers, who stacked their -guns and took up their places at the ceremonies and banquet, with the -quiet precision of soldiers marched to mass. The Great Band was there -too, that had helped their humble hymns through all the wanderings of -the Wilderness. Through the many trying marches of 1846, through the -fierce winter ordeal that followed, and the long journey after over -plain and mountain, it had gone unbroken, without the loss of any of -its members. As they set out from England, and as they set out from -Illinois, so they all came into the valley together, and together -sounded the first glad notes of triumph when the Salt Lake City was -founded. It was their right to lead the psalm of praise. Anthem, song -and dance, all the innocent and thankful frolic of the day owed them -its chief zest. "They never were in finer key." The people felt their -sorrows ended. FAR WEST, their old settlement in Missouri, and NAUVOO; -with their wealth and ease, like "Pithom and Ramses, treasure cities -built for Pharaoh," went awhile forgotten. Less than four years had -restored them every comfort that they needed. Their entertainment, -the contribution of all, I have no doubt was really sumptuous. It was -spread on broad buffet tables about 1400 feet in length, at which they -took their seats by turns, while they kept them heaped with ornamented -delicacies. "Butter of kine, and milk, with fat of lambs, with the -fat of kidneys of wheat;" "and the cucumbers, and the melons, and the -leeks, and the onions, and the garlic, and the remembered fish which -we did eat in Egypt freely"—they seem unable to dilate with too much -pride upon the show it made. -</p> -<p>"To behold the tables," says one, that I quote from literally: -</p> -<p>"To behold them filling the Bowery and all adjoining grounds, loaded -with all luxuries of the fields and gardens and nearly all the -varieties that any vegetable market in the world could produce, and -to see the seats around those tables filled and refilled by a people -who had been deprived of those luxuries for years by the cruel hand of -oppression, and freely offering seats to every stranger within their -borders; and this, too, in the Valley of the Mountains, over a thousand -miles from civilization, where, two years before, naught was to be -found save the wild root of the prairie and the mountain cricket; was -a theme of unbounded thanksgiving and praise to the Giver of all Good, -as the dawning of a day when the Children of the Kingdom can sit under -their own vines and fig-trees, and inhabit their own houses, having -none to make them afraid. May the time be hastened when the scattered -Israel may partake of such like banquets from the gardens of Joseph!" -<a name="fnGtxt"></a><a href="#fnG"><sup>[G]</sup></a> -</p> -<p>I have gone over the work I assigned myself when I accepted your -Committee's invitation, as fully as I could do without trespassing too -largely upon your courteous patience. But I should do wrong to conclude -my lecture without declaring in succinct and definite terms, the -opinions I have formed and entertain of the Mormon people. The libels, -of which they have been made the subject, make this a simple act of -justice. Perhaps, too, my opinion, even with those who know me as you -do, will better answer its end following after the narrative I have -given. -</p> -<p>I have spoken to you of a people; whose industry had made them -rich, and gathered around them all the comforts, and not a few of -the luxuries of refined life; expelled by lawless force into the -Wilderness; seeking an untried home far away from the scenes which -their previous life had endeared to them; moving onward, destitute, -hunger-sickened, and sinking with disease; bearing along with them -their wives and children, the aged, and the poor, and the decrepit; -renewing daily on their march, the offices of devotion, the ties of -family and friendship, and charity; sharing necessities, and braving -dangers together, cheerful in the midst of want and trial, and -persevering until they triumphed. I have told, or tried to tell you, of -men, who when menaced by famine, and in the midst of pestilence, with -every energy taxed by the urgency of the hour, were building roads and -bridges, laying out villages, and planting cornfields, for the stranger -who might come after them, their kinsman only by a common humanity, -and peradventure a common suffering,—of men, who have renewed their -prosperity in the homes they have founded in the desert,—and who, -in their new built city, walled round by mountains like a fortress, -are extending pious hospitalities to the destitute emigrants from our -frontier lines,—of men who, far removed from the restraints of law, -obeyed it from choice, or found in the recesses of their religion, -something not inconsistent with human laws, but far more controlling; -and who are now soliciting from the government of the United States, -not indemnity,—for the appeal would be hopeless, and they know it—not -protection, for they now have no need of it,—but that identity of -political institutions and that community of laws with the rest of us, -which was confessedly their birthright when they were driven beyond our -borders. -</p> -<p>I said I would give you the opinion I formed of the Mormons: you may -deduce it for yourselves from these facts. But I will add that I have -not yet heard the single charge against them as a Community, against -their habitual purity of life, their integrity of dealing, their -toleration of religious differences in opinion, their regard for the -laws, or their devotion to the constitutional government under which -we live, that I do not from my own observation, or the testimony of -others, know to be unfounded. -</p> -<p class="centered">THE END. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="POSTSCRIPTTOTHESECONDEDITION"></a>POSTSCRIPT TO THE SECOND EDITION. -</h2> -<p>I have been annoyed by comments this hastily written discourse has -elicited. Well meaning friends have even invited me to tone down its -remarks in favor of the Mormons, for the purpose of securing them a -readier acceptance.—I can only make them more express. The Truth must -take care of itself. I not only meant to deny that the Mormons in any -wise fall below our own standard of morals, but I would be distinctly -understood to ascribe to those of their number with whom I associated -in the West, a general correctness of deportment, and purity of -character above the average of ordinary communities. -</p> -<p>The furthest I can go toward qualifying my testimony, will be to name -the causes, to which, as a believer in Nature's compensations, I have -myself credited this undue morality. -</p> -<p>It was partly attributable perhaps to their forced abstemiousness; -the diet of the most fortunate Mormons having been for long continued -periods very spare, and composed almost wholly of vegetable food, with -few condiments, and no intoxicating liquors. Some influence should -be referred also to their custom of early and equal marriages, these -not being regulated by the prudential considerations which embarrass -opulent communities; something more to the supervision which was -incidental to their nomadic life, and the habits it encouraged of -disciplined, but grateful industry. -</p> -<p>The chief cause, however, was probably found in this fact. The Mormons -as I saw them, though a majority, were but a portion of the Church -as it flourished in Illinois. When the persecution triumphed there, -and no alternative remained for the steadfast in the faith but the -flight out of Egypt into the Wilderness, as it was termed, all their -fair weather friends forsook them. Priests and elders, scribes and -preachers deserted by whole councils at a time; each talented knave, -of whose craft they had been victims, finding his own pretext for -abandoning them, without surrendering the money-bag of which he was -the holder. One of these, for instance, bore with him so considerable -a congregation that he was able to found quite a thriving community -in Northern Wisconsin, which I believe he afterwards transplanted -entire to an island in one of the Lakes. Other speculator-heresiarchs -folded for themselves credulous sheep all through the Western Country. -One Rigdon not long since had a Cure of them in our own State. Quite -recently, an abandoned clergyman, who shortly before the Exod was -excommunicated for his improper conduct, has presented a memorial to -Congress, in which he charges the Mormons with very much more than he -himself appears to have been guilty of. This abusive person, a former -intimate of the Major General James Arlington Bennet, lately on trial -at New York, in company with a One Eyed Mr. Thompson of that city, is -also the only surviving brother of the Prophet Smith, founder of the -Sect, and as such, still claims to be its sole true President, and -genuine Arch High Priest. -</p> -<p>So the Mormons have been, as it were, broken and screened by calamity. -Their designing leaders have left them to seek fairer fortunes -elsewhere. Those that remain of the old rock are the masses, always -honest in the main and sincere even in delusion; and their guides -are a few tried and trusty men, little initiated in the plotting -of synagogues, and more noted for services rendered than bounties -received. They are the men whom I saw on the prairie trail, sharing -sorrow with the sorrowful, and poverty with the poor;—the chief of -them all, a man of rare natural endowment, to whose masterly guidance -they are mainly indebted for their present prosperity, driving his own -ox-team and carrying his sick child in his arms. <a name="fnHtxt"></a><a href="#fnH"><sup>[H]</sup></a> The fact explains -itself, that those only were willing to undertake their fearful -pilgrimage of penance, whom a sense of conscientious duty made willing -to give up the world for their religion. The Mormons I knew, were all, -as far as I could judge, partakers of the sacraments, persons of prayer -and faith; and their contentment, their temperance, their heroism, -their strivings after the golden age of Christian brotherhood, were -but the manifestations of their ever present and engrossing devotional -feeling. -</p> -<p>I am asked to explain or justify the Mormon Creed:—I will have nothing -to do with it. It is enough for me to say, that it does not manifest -itself externally by the Pythian ravings or Eleusinian hocus pocus -of new religions, nor the pageantry or mumming of those sometime -established; that its communicants cultivate no mysteries or double -faiths; and that I certainly think they are to be believed in their own -exposition of it. They have two books, that are for sale in the shops, -called The Book of Mormon and The Book of Doctrine and Covenants, -which profess to contain the entire body of their faith. The latter -harmless work has its special chapters on Marriage, and on the Right of -Property, Religious Toleration, and the Union of Church and State. <a name="fnItxt"></a><a href="#fnI"><sup>[I]</sup></a> -I am not called upon to investigate this subject, so long as any person -of a jealous orthodoxy can constitute himself as good an inquisitor, by -investing somewhere about one dollar and fifty cents. -</p> -<p>Nor shall I go out of my way to discuss the question of the former -character of the Mormons. What they were in Illinois, or what some of -their predecessors were there, it will not be difficult for those to -learn who are curious after the truth: the Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, -who as Presiding Judge of the Circuit in which they lived was often -called upon to dismiss idle charges against them, is now at Washington, -an honored member of the Senate of the United States. His personal -testimony I am assured has always vindicated his judicial action. -</p> -<p>Some good people who believe the Mormons traduced, ask me how they -are to account for the great prevalence of these charges before the -expulsion. Interest, and feeling founded on it, is the answer. The -value of the property of which the Mormons were dispossessed in -Missouri and Illinois is currently estimated at over Twenty Millions -of Dollars: an adequate consideration certainly for a good deal -of misrepresentation on the part of those who were endeavoring to -appropriate it to themselves. -</p> -<p>A motive sufficiently analogous explains the active circulation of -new calumnies within the last half year. Instead of being broken up -forever, as not more than five years ago their foes supposed with -reason, their Congregation is gathering in increased numbers, and -their application to be admitted as a State into the Union announces -their probable restoration to power and influence, and is a cause -of corresponding disquiet to the possessors of the properties in -Illinois and Missouri from which they have been expelled. These are -now the busiest Mormon slanderers. I speak of them with reluctance. -They are, the best of them, but interested persons, who circulate -calumnies at hearsay, calumnies which began with the original enemies -of the Mormons, the felons, that charged with unchastity the wretched -women they had ravished—with riot the men whose brothers they had -murdered—with community of Property those whom themselves had robbed, -whose houses and homes they fired over their heads on the lands from -which they drove them. Such wretches lie with the brutal strength of -Crime. And the Mormons are far away, and their few friends here are -nearly all in humble life, and those public men in the West whose duty -it was to do them justice, consent to render themselves parties to the -guilt of their constituents by their interested silence. -</p> -<p>At all events, was there not something about their religion made their -neighbors unable to live with them?—Undoubtedly the industrious -chevaliers of the Half Breed Tract, and other like precious neighbors -of the Mormons, have in one sense proved this to be the case: perhaps, -in the course of their wolf and lamb quarrel, they may have even -said so, and before they finally devoured the offenders, complained -seriously of the insulting proximity of their good roads, good -schools, temperance and moral reform and musical associations, and -their good laws not enacted only, but enforced. I understand this to -be essentially the ground of complaint of the same marauders against -the Swedish Quaker Colony, they have lately broken up in Henry County, -above Nauvoo. -</p> -<p>With other neighbors the Mormons have no trouble. We have had large -numbers of them in Philadelphia, and elsewhere to the East, for now -nearly twenty years past, whose good citizenship is no subject of -discussion with those who have daily business dealings with them. In -England too, they number nearly twice as many adult members as the -Baptists in Pennsylvania. Once indeed, when their religion was first -preached in that country—it was at the very time their earliest trial -before Lynch J., in Missouri, was pending—a charge was laid against -them in a manufacturing borough there, that they had made away with -an Elizabeth, or Betsey Martin, one of their new converts; and the -beginning of a mob entered upon its examination. But to her British -Majesty's Government, which holds the old fashioned notions of law -and order, it mattered as little if it were the case of Betty Martin -a Mormon, as of Betty Martin the Cyprian: a commonplace Government -Magistrate decided there should be no mob, and a commonplace legal -investigation decided the charge was groundless. The Mormons have -therefore been free to preach and sing and pray in the United Kingdom -to this hour; and I remark that Evangelic sectaries of my own -persuasion there, do battle with them in print on the same terms as -with Millerites, Wesleyans, or Seventh, or Every Day Baptists. -</p> -<p>It is observed to me with a vile meaning, that I have said little about -the Mormon women. I have scarcely alluded to them, because my memories -of them are such that I cannot think of their character as a theme for -discussion. In one word, it was eminently that which for Americans -dignifies the names of mother, wife, and sister. Of the self-denying -generosity which went to ennoble the whole people in my eyes, I -witnessed among them the brightest illustrations. I have seen the ideal -Charity of the statue gallery surpassed by the young Mormon mother, who -shared with the stranger's orphan the breast of milk of her own child. -</p> -<p>Can charges, which are so commonly and so circumstantially laid, be -without any foundation at all?—I know it. Upon my return from the -Prairie, I met through the settlements scandalous stories against the -President of the Sect, which dated of the precise period when I myself -was best acquainted with his self-denying and blameless life. I had -an experience no less satisfactory with regard to other falsehoods, -some of them the most extravagant and most widely believed. During -the sickness I have referred to, I was nursed by a dear lady, well -connected in New York and New Jersey, whom I sufficiently name to -many, by stating that she was the first cousin of one of our most -respected citizens, whose conduct as chief Magistrate of Philadelphia -in an excited time won for him our general esteem. In her exile, she -found her severest suffering in the belief that her friends in the -States looked upon her as irreclaimably outcast. It was one of the -first duties I performed on my return, to enlighten them as to her true -position, and the character of her exemplary husband; and the knowledge -of this fact arrived in time, I believe, to be of comfort to her before -she sank under the privation and hardship of the march her frame was -too delicate to endure. -</p> -<p>15 July, 1850. -</p> -<p class="right">THOMAS L. KANE. -</p> - - -<h3>Footnotes: -</h3> -<p><a name="fnA"></a><a href="#fnAtxt">A</a>: Nine children were born the first night the women camped out. "Sugar -Creek," Feb. 5. -</p> -<p><a name="fnB"></a><a href="#fnBtxt">B</a>: One of the company having a copy of Mme. Cottin's Elizabeth, it was -so sought after that some read it from the wagons by moonlight. They -were materially sustained, too, by the practice of psalmody, "keeping -up the Songs of Zion, and passing along Doxologies from front to rear, -when the breath froze on their eyelashes." -</p> -<p><a name="fnC"></a><a href="#fnCtxt">C</a>: Rev. Dr. Morton, of Philadelphia. -</p> -<p><a name="fnD"></a><a href="#fnDtxt">D</a>: It is certain that there is no sickness among the present -inhabitants of this region comparable to that of 1846. -</p> -<p><a name="fnE"></a><a href="#fnEtxt">E</a>: This camp was moved by the beginning of October to winter quarters -on the river, where also, there was considerable sickness before the -cold weather. I am furnished with something over 600 as the number of -burials in the graveyard there. -</p> -<p><a name="fnF"></a><a href="#fnFtxt">F</a>: I knew of an orphan boy, for instance, who came on by himself at -this time a foot, starting with no other provision than his trowser's -pocket full of biscuit, given him from a steamboat on the Mississippi. -</p> -<p><a name="fnG"></a><a href="#fnGtxt">G</a>: Letter of the Presidency, Great Salt Lake City, Oct. 12, 1849. -</p> -<p><a name="fnH"></a><a href="#fnHtxt">H</a>: This was BRIGHAM YOUNG, the choice of the Mormons for Governor -of Deseret. As this man, together with HEBER C. KIMBALL and WILLARD -RICHARDS, nominees of the same people for the offices of Lieutenant -Governor and Secretary, have been singled out as the objects of libel, -it is right I should state that I knew them intimately. I found Mr. -Kimball a man of singular generosity and purity of character, and Dr. -Richards a genial gentleman and pleasant scholar of the most varied -attainments: The integrity of all three altogether above question. T. -L. K. -</p> -<p><a name="fnI"></a><a href="#fnItxt">I</a>: It may be well, however, to quote from two of these. -</p> -<h3>SECTION CIX.—ON MARRIAGE. -</h3> -<p>Marriage should be celebrated with prayer and thanksgiving; and at the -solemnization, the persons to be married standing together, the man on -the right, and the woman on the left, shall be addressed by the person -officiating, as he shall be directed by the Holy Spirit; and if there -shall be no legal objections, he shall say, calling each by their -names: You both mutually agree to be each other's companion, husband -and wife; observing the legal rights belonging to this condition; -that is, keeping yourself wholly for each other, and from all others, -during your lives. And when they shall have answered "yes," he shall -pronounce them "Husband and wife in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, -and by virtue of the laws of the country, and authority vested in -him:" saying, "May God add his blessing, and keep you to fulfil your -covenants from henceforth and forever. Amen." -</p> -<p>The clerk of every church should keep a record of all marriages -solemnized in his branch. -</p> -<p>All legal contracts of marriages made before a person is baptised into -this church should be held sacred and fulfilled. Inasmuch as this -Church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication and -polygamy, we declare that we believe, that one man should have one -wife, and one woman but one husband, except in cases of death, when -either is at liberty to marry again. It is not right to persuade a -woman to be baptized contrary to the will of her husband, neither is it -lawful to influence her to leave her husband. All children are bound -by law to obey their parents; and to influence them to embrace any -religious faith, or be baptized, or leave their parents without their -consent, is unlawful and unjust. We believe that husband, parents, and -masters, who exercise control over their wives, children, and servants, -and prevent them from embracing the truth, will have to answer for that -sin. -</p> -<h3>SECTION CX.—ON GOVERNMENTS AND LAWS IN GENERAL. -</h3> -<p>We believe that governments were instituted of God, for the benefit -of man, and that he holds men accountable for their acts in relation -to them, either in making laws or administering them for the good and -safety of Society. We believe that no government can exist in peace, -except such laws are framed, and held inviolate, as will secure to each -individual the FREE exercise of CONSCIENCE, the RIGHT and control of -PROPERTY, and the protection of life. -</p> -<p>We do not believe it just to mingle religious influence with civil -government; whereby one religious society is fostered, and another -proscribed in its spiritual privileges, and the individual rights of -its members as citizens denied. We do not believe that any religious -society has authority to try men on the right of property or life, to -take from them this world's goods, or put them in jeopardy either of -life or limb, neither to inflict any physical punishment upon them: -they can only excommunicate them from their society, and withdraw from -their fellowship. -</p> -<p>We believe that religion is instituted of God, and that men are -amenable to him, and to him only, for the exercise of it, unless -their religious opinions prompt them to infringe upon the rights and -liberties of others. We do not believe that human law has a right to -interfere in prescribing rules of worship to bind the consciences of -men, nor dictate forms for public or private devotion. We believe -that the civil magistrate should restrain crime, but never control -conscience; should punish guilt, but never suppress the liberty of the -soul. -</p> -<p>THE BOOK OF DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS.—Edition printed by John Taylor, at -Nauvoo, Illinois, 1844; pp. 440—443. -</p> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mormons, by Thomas L. 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Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - - - -</pre> - -</body> -</html> - diff --git a/old/51096-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/51096-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 65cab93..0000000 --- a/old/51096-h/images/cover.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/51096.txt b/old/51096.txt deleted file mode 100644 index b17bff4..0000000 --- a/old/51096.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2643 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mormons, by Thomas L. Kane - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Mormons - A Discourse Delivered Before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania - -Author: Thomas L. Kane - -Release Date: January 31, 2016 [EBook #51096] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MORMONS *** - - - - -Produced by the Mormon Texts Project -(http://mormontextsproject.org), with thanks to Villate -Brown McKitrick for proofreading. - - - - - - - -THE MORMONS. - -A - -DISCOURSE - -DELIVERED BEFORE - -THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY - -OF - -PENNSYLVANIA: - -MARCH 26, 1850. - -BY THOMAS L. KANE. - - -PHILADELPHIA: - -KING & BAIRD, PRINTERS, SANSOM STREET. - -1850. - - - -DISCOURSE. - -A few years ago, ascending the Upper Mississippi in the Autumn, when -its waters were low, I was compelled to travel by land past the region -of the Rapids. My road lay through the Half-Breed Tract, a fine section -of Iowa, which the unsettled state of its land-titles had appropriated -as a sanctuary for coiners, horse thieves, and other outlaws. I had -left my steamer at Keokuk, at the foot of the Lower Fall, to hire a -carriage, and to contend for some fragments of a dirty meal with the -swarming flies, the only scavengers of the locality. From this place -to where the deep water of the river returns, my eye wearied to see -everywhere sordid, vagabond and idle settlers; and a country marred, -without being improved, by their careless hands. - -I was descending the last hillside upon my journey, when a landscape in -delightful contrast broke upon my view. Half encircled by a bend of the -river, a beautiful city lay glittering in the fresh morning sun; its -bright new dwellings, set in cool green gardens, ranging up around a -stately dome-shaped hill, which was crowned by a noble marble edifice, -whose high tapering spire was radiant with white and gold. The city -appeared to cover several miles; and beyond it, in the back ground, -there rolled off a fair country, chequered by the careful lines of -fruitful husbandry. The unmistakable marks of industry, enterprise and -educated wealth, everywhere, made the scene one of singular and most -striking beauty. - -It was a natural impulse to visit this inviting region. I procured a -skiff, and rowing across the river, landed at the chief wharf of the -city. No one met me there. I looked, and saw no one. I could hear no -one move; though the quiet everywhere was such that I heard the flies -buzz, and the water-ripples break against the shallow of the beach. I -walked through the solitary streets. The town lay as in a dream, under -some deadening spell of loneliness, from which I almost feared to wake -it. For plainly it had not slept long. There was no grass growing up in -the paved ways. Rains had not entirely washed away the prints of dusty -footsteps. - -Yet I went about unchecked. I went into empty workshops, ropewalks and -smithies. The spinner's wheel was idle; the carpenter had gone from his -work-bench and shavings, his unfinished sash and casing. Fresh bark -was in the tanner's vat, and the fresh-chopped lightwood stood piled -against the baker's oven. The blacksmith's shop was cold; but his coal -heap and ladling pool and crooked water horn were all there, as if he -had just gone off for a holiday. No work people anywhere looked to know -my errand. If I went into the gardens, clinking the wicket-latch loudly -after me, to pull the marygolds, heart's-ease and lady-slippers, and -draw a drink with the water sodden well-bucket and its noisy chain; -or, knocking off with my stick the tall heavy-headed dahlias and -sunflowers, hunted over the beds for cucumbers and love-apples,--no -one called out to me from any opened window, or dog sprang forward to -bark an alarm. I could have supposed the people hidden in the houses, -but the doors were unfastened; and when at last I timidly entered them, -I found dead ashes white upon the hearths, and had to tread a tiptoe, -as if walking down the aisle of a country church, to avoid rousing -irreverent echoes from the naked floors. - -On the outskirts of the town was the city graveyard. But there was no -record of Plague there, nor did it in anywise differ much from other -Protestant American cemeteries. Some of the mounds were not long -sodded; some of the stones were newly set, their dates recent, and -their black inscriptions glossy in the mason's hardly dried lettering -ink. Beyond the graveyard, out in the fields, I saw, in one spot -hard-by where the fruited boughs of a young orchard had been roughly -torn down, the still smouldering embers of a barbecue fire, that had -been constructed of rails from the fencing round it. It was the latest -sign of life there. Fields upon fields of heavy-headed yellow grain lay -rotting ungathered upon the ground. No one was at hand to take in their -rich harvest. As far as the eye could reach, they stretched away--they, -sleeping too in the hazy air of Autumn. - -Only two portions of the city seemed to suggest the import of this -mysterious solitude. On the southern suburb, the houses looking out -upon the country showed, by their splintered woodwork and walls -battered to the foundation, that they had lately been the mark of a -destructive cannonade. And in and around the splendid Temple, which -had been the chief object of my admiration, armed men were barracked, -surrounded by their stacks of musketry and pieces of heavy ordnance. -These challenged me to render an account of myself, and why I had had -the temerity to cross the water without a written permit from a leader -of their band. - -Though these men were generally more or less under the influence of -ardent spirits; after I had explained myself as a passing stranger, -they seemed anxious to gain my good opinion. They told me the story of -the Dead City: that it had been a notable manufacturing and commercial -mart, sheltering over 20,000 persons; that they had waged war with -its inhabitants for several years, and had been finally successful -only a few days before my visit, in an action fought in front of the -ruined suburb; after which, they had driven them forth at the point -of the sword. The defence, they said, had been obstinate, but gave -way on the third day's bombardment. They boasted greatly of their -prowess, especially in this Battle, as they called it; but I discovered -they were not of one mind as to certain of the exploits that had -distinguished it; one of which, as I remember, was, that they had slain -a father and his son, a boy of fifteen, not long residents of the fated -city, whom they admitted to have borne a character without reproach. - -They also conducted me inside the massive sculptured walls of the -curious Temple, in which they said the banished inhabitants were -accustomed to celebrate the mystic rites of an unhallowed worship. They -particularly pointed out to me certain features of the building, which, -having been the peculiar objects of a former superstitious regard, they -had as matter of duty sedulously defiled and defaced. The reputed sites -of certain shrines they had thus particularly noticed, and various -sheltered chambers, in one of which was a deep well, constructed they -believed with a dreadful design. Beside these, they led me to see a -large and deep chiselled marble vase or basin, supported upon twelve -oxen, also of marble, and of the size of life, of which they told some -romantic stories. They said, the deluded persons, most of whom were -immigrants from a great distance, believed their Deity countenanced -their reception here of a baptism of regeneration, as proxies for -whomsoever they held in warm affection in the countries from which -they had come: That here parents "went into the water" for their lost -children, children for their parents, widows for their spouses, and -young persons for their lovers: That thus the Great Vase came to be for -them associated with all dear and distant memories, and was therefore -the object, of all others in the building, to which they attached the -greatest degree of idolatrous affection. On this account, the victors -had so diligently desecrated it, as to render the apartment in which it -was contained too noisome to abide in. - -They permitted me also to ascend into the steeple, to see where it had -been lightning-struck on the Sabbath before; and to look out, East and -South, on wasted farms like those I had seen near the City, extending -till they were lost in the distance. Here, in the face of the pure day, -close to the scar of the Divine wrath left by the thunderbolt, were -fragments of food, cruises of liquor and broken drinking vessels, with -a bass drum and a steam-boat signal bell, of which I afterwards learned -the use with pain. - -It was after nightfall, when I was ready to cross the river on my -return. The wind had freshened since the sunset; and the water beating -roughly into my little boat, I headed higher up the stream than the -point I had left in the morning, and landed where a faint glimmering -light invited me to steer. - -Here, among the dock and rushes, sheltered only by the darkness, -without roof between them and the sky, I came upon a crowd of several -hundred human creatures, whom my movements roused from uneasy slumber -upon the ground. - -Passing these on my way to the light, I found it came from a tallow -candle in a paper funnel-shade, such as is used by street venders of -apples and pea-nuts, and which flaring and guttering away in the bleak -air oft the water, shone flickeringly on the emaciated features of -a man in the last stage of a bilious remittent fever. They had done -their best for him. Over his head was something like a tent, made of a -sheet or two, and he rested on a but partially ripped open old straw -mattress, with a hair sofa cushion under his head for a pillow. His -gaping jaw and glazing eye told how short a time he would monopolize -these luxuries; though a seemingly bewildered and excited person, who -might have been his wife, seemed to find hope in occasionally forcing -him to swallow awkwardly measured sips of the tepid river water from -a burned and battered bitter smelling tin coffee-pot. Those who -knew better had furnished the apothecary he needed--a toothless old -bald-head, whose manner had the repulsive dullness of a familiar with -death scenes. He, so long as I remained, mumbled in his patient's ear a -monotonous and melancholy prayer, between the pauses of which I heard -the hiccup and sobbing of two little girls, who were sitting up on a -piece of drift wood outside. - -Dreadful, indeed, was the suffering of these forsaken beings. Cowed -and cramped by cold and sunburn, alternating as each weary day and -night dragged on, they were, almost all of them, the crippled victims -of disease. They were there because they had no homes, nor hospital -nor poor-house nor friends to offer them any. They could not satisfy -the feeble cravings of their sick: they had not bread to quiet the -fractious hunger cries of their children. Mothers and babes, daughters -and grandparents, all of them alike, were bivouacked in tatters, -wanting even covering to comfort those whom the sick shiver of fever -was searching to the marrow. - -These were Mormons, famishing, in Lee county, Iowa, in the fourth week -of the month of September, in the year of our Lord 1846. The city,--it -was Nauvoo, Illinois. The Mormons were the owners of that city, and -the smiling country round. And those who had stopped their ploughs, -who had silenced their hammers, their axes, their shuttles and their -workshop wheels; those who had put out their fires, who had eaten their -food, spoiled their orchards, and trampled under foot their thousands -of acres of unharvested bread; these,--were the keepers of their -dwellings, the carousers in their Temple,--whose drunken riot insulted -the ears of their dying. - -I think it was as I turned from the wretched night-watch of which I -have spoken, that I first listened to the sounds of revel of a party of -the guard within the city. Above the distant hum of the voices of many, -occasionally rose distinct the loud oath-tainted exclamation, and the -falsely intonated scrap of vulgar song;--but lest this requiem should -go unheeded, every now and then, when their boisterous orgies strove to -attain a sort of ecstatic climax, a cruel spirit of insulting frolic -carried some of them up into the high belfry of the Temple steeple, and -there, with the wicked childishness of inebriates, they whooped, and -shrieked, and beat the drum that I had seen, and rang in charivaric -unison their loud-tongued steam-boat bell. - -They were, all told, not more than six hundred and forty persons who -were thus lying on the river flats. But the Mormons in Nauvoo and its -dependencies had been numbered the year before at over twenty thousand. -Where were they? They had last been seen, carrying in mournful trains -their sick and wounded, halt and blind, to disappear behind the western -horizon, pursuing the phantom of another home. Hardly anything else was -known of them: and people asked with curiosity, What had been their -fate--what their fortunes? - -I purpose making these questions the subject of my Lecture. Since the -expulsion of the Mormons, to the present date, I have been intimately -conversant with the details of their history. But I shall invite your -attention most particularly to an account of what happened to them -during their first year in the Wilderness; because at this time more -than any other, being lost to public view, they were the subjects of -fable and misconception. Happily, it was during this period I myself -moved with them; and earned, at dear price, as some among you are -aware, my right to speak with authority of them and their character, -their trials, achievements and intentions. - -The party encountered by me at the river shore were the last of the -Mormons that left the city. They had all of them engaged the year -before, that they would vacate their homes, and seek some other place -of refuge. It had been the condition of a truce between them and their -assailants; and as an earnest of their good faith, the chief elders and -some others of obnoxious standing, with their families, were to set out -for the West in the Spring of 1846. It had been stipulated in return, -that the rest of the Mormons might remain behind in the peaceful -enjoyment of their Illinois abode, until their leaders, with their -exploring party, could with all diligence select for them a new place -of settlement beyond the Rocky Mountains, in California, or elsewhere, -and until they had opportunity to dispose to the best advantage of the -property which they were then to leave. - -Some renewed symptoms of hostile feeling had, however, determined -the pioneer party to begin their work before the Spring. It was, of -course, anticipated that this would be a perilous service; but it was -regarded as a matter of self-denying duty. The ardor and emulation of -many, particularly the devout and the young, were stimulated by the -difficulties it involved; and the ranks of the party were therefore -filled up with volunteers from among the most effective and responsible -members of the sect. They began their march in midwinter; and by the -beginning of February, nearly all of them were on the road, many of -their wagons having crossed the Mississippi on the ice. - -Under the most favoring circumstances, an expedition of this sort, -undertaken at such a season of the year, could scarcely fail to be -disastrous. [A] But the pioneer company had to set out in haste, -and were very imperfectly supplied with necessaries. The cold was -intense. They moved in the teeth of keen-edged northwest winds, such -as sweep down the Iowa peninsula from the ice-bound regions of the -timber-shaded Slave Lake and Lake of the Woods: on the Bald Prairie -there, nothing above the dead grass breaks their free course over the -hard rolled hills. Even along the scattered water courses, where they -broke the thick ice to give their cattle drink, the annual autumn fires -had left little wood of value. The party, therefore, often wanted -for good camp fires, the first luxury of all travellers; but to men -insufficiently furnished with tents and other appliances of shelter, -almost an essential to life. After days of fatigue, their nights were -often passed in restless efforts to save themselves from freezing. -Their stock of food also proved inadequate; and as their systems became -impoverished, their suffering from cold increased. - -Sickened with catarrhal affections, manacled by the fetters of -dreadfully acute rheumatisms, some contrived for a-while to get over -the shortening day's march, and drag along some others. But the sign of -an impaired circulation soon began to show itself in the liability of -all to be dreadfully frost-bitten. The hardiest and strongest became -helplessly crippled. About the same time, the strength of their beasts -of draught began to fail. The small supply of provender they could -carry with them had given out. The winter-bleached prairie straw proved -devoid of nourishment; and they could only keep them from starving -by seeking for the browse, as it is called, or green bark and tender -buds and branches, of the cotton-wood and other stinted growths of the -hollows. - -To return to Nauvoo was apparently the only escape; but this would -have been to give occasion for fresh mistrust, and so to bring new -trouble to those they had left there behind them. They resolved at -least to hold their ground, and to advance as they might, were it only -by limping through the deep snows a few slow miles a day. They found a -sort of comfort in comparing themselves to the Exiles of Siberia, [B] -and sought cheerfulness in earnest prayings for the Spring,--longed for -as morning by the tossing sick. - -The Spring came at last. It overtook them in the Sac and Fox country, -still on the naked prairie, not yet half way over the trail they were -following between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. But it brought -its own share of troubles with it. The months with which it opened -proved nearly as trying as the worst of winter. - -The snow and sleet and rain, which fell as it appeared to them without -intermission, made the road over the rich prairie soil as impassable -as one vast bog of heavy black mud. Sometimes they would fasten the -horses and oxen of four or five wagons to one, and attempt to get ahead -in this way, taking turns; but at the close of a day of hard toil for -themselves and their cattle, they would find themselves a quarter -or half a mile from the place they left in the morning. The heavy -rains raised all the water-courses: the most trifling streams were -impassable. Wood fit for bridging was often not to be had, and in such -cases the only resource was to halt for the freshets to subside,--a -matter in the case of the headwaters of the Chariton, for instance, of -over three weeks' delay. - -These were dreary waitings upon Providence. The most spirited and -sturdy murmured most at their forced inactivity. And even the women, -whose heroic spirits had been proof against the lowest thermometric -fall, confessed their tempers fluctuated with the ceaseless variations -of the barometer. They complained, too, that the health of their -children suffered more. It was the fact, that the open winds of March -and April brought with them more mortal sickness than the sharpest -freezing weather. - -The frequent burials made the hardiest sicken. On the soldier's march, -it is a matter of discipline, that after the rattle of musketry over -his comrade's grave, he shall tramp it to the music of some careless -tune in a lively quick-step. But, in the Mormon camp, the companion who -lay ill and gave up the ghost within view of all, all saw as he lay -stretched a corpse, and all attended to his last resting-place. It was -a sorrow then, too, of itself to simple-hearted people, the deficient -pomps of their imperfect style of funeral. The general hopefulness of -human,--including Mormon--nature, was well illustrated by the fact, -that the most provident were found unfurnished with undertaker's -articles; so that bereaved affection was driven to the most melancholy -makeshifts. - -The best expedient generally was to cut down a log of some eight or -nine feet long, and slitting it longitudinally, strip off its dark bark -in two half cylinders. These, placed around the body of the deceased, -and bound firmly together with withes made of the alburnum, formed a -rough sort of tubular coffin, which surviving relatives and friends, -with a little show of black crape, could follow with its enclosure to -the hole, or bit of ditch, dug to receive it in the wet ground of the -prairie. They grieved to lower it down so poorly clad, and in such an -unheeded grave. It was hard,--was it right?--thus hurriedly to plunge -it in one of the undistinguishable waves of the great land sea, and -leave it behind them there, under the cold north rain, abandoned, to -be forgotten? They had no tombstones, nor could they find rock to pile -the monumental cairn. So, when they had filled up the grave, and over -it prayed a Miserere prayer, and tried to sing a hopeful psalm, their -last office was to seek out landmarks, or call in the surveyor to help -them determine the bearings of valley bends, headlands, or forks and -angles of constant streams, by which its position should in the future -be remembered and recognized. The name of the beloved person, his age, -the date of his death, and these marks were all registered with care. -His party was then ready to move on. Such graves mark all the line of -the first years of Mormon travel,--dispiriting milestones to failing -stragglers in the rear. - -It is an error to estimate largely the number of Mormons dead of -starvation, strictly speaking. Want developed disease, and made -them sink under fatigue, and maladies that would otherwise have -proved trifling. But only those died of it outright, who fell in -out-of-the-way places that the hand of brotherhood could not reach. -Among the rest no such thing as plenty was known, while any went an -hungered. If but a part of a group was supplied with provision, the -only result was that the whole went on the half or quarter ration, -according to the sufficiency that there was among them: and this so -ungrudgingly and contentedly, that till some crisis of trial to their -strength, they were themselves unaware that their health was sinking, -and their vital force impaired. - -Hale young men gave up their own provided food and shelter to the -old and helpless, and walked their way back to parts of the frontier -states, chiefly Missouri and Iowa, where they were not recognized, and -hired themselves out for wages, to purchase more. Others were sent -there, to exchange for meal and flour, or wheat and corn, the table and -bed furniture, and other last resources of personal property which a -few had still retained. - -In a kindred spirit of fraternal forecast, others laid out great farms -in the wilds, and planted in them the grain saved for their own bread; -that there might be harvests for those who should follow them. Two of -these, in the Sac and Fox country and beyond it, Garden Grove and Mount -Pisgah, included within their fences about two miles of land a-piece, -carefully planted in grain, with a hamlet of comfortable log cabins in -the neighbourhood of each. - -Through all this the pioneers found redeeming comfort in the thought, -that their own suffering was the price of immunity to their friends at -home. But the arrival of spring proved this a delusion. Before the warm -weather had made the earth dry enough for easy travel, messengers came -in from Nauvoo to overtake the party with fear-exaggerated tales of -outrage, and to urge the chief men to hurry back to the city that they -might give counsel and assistance there. The enemy had only waited till -the emigrants were supposed to be gone on their road too far to return -to interfere with them, and then renewed their aggressions. - -The Mormons outside Nauvoo were indeed hard pressed; but inside the -city they maintained themselves very well for two or three months -longer. - -Strange to say, the chief part of this respite was devoted to -completing the structure of their quaintly devised but beautiful -Temple. Since the dispersion of Jewry, probably, history affords us -no parallel to the attachment of the Mormons for this edifice. Every -architectural element, every most fantastic emblem it embodied, was -associated, for them, with some cherished feature of their religion. -Its erection had been enjoined upon them as a most sacred duty: they -were proud of the honor it conferred upon their city, when it grew -up in its splendour to become the chief object of the admiration of -strangers upon the Upper Mississippi. Besides, they had built it as a -labor of love; they could count up to half a million the value of their -tithings and free-will offerings laid upon it. Hardly a Mormon woman -had not given up to it some trinket or pin-money: the poorest Mormon -man had at least served the tenth part of his year on its walls; and -the coarsest artisan could turn to it with something of the ennobling -attachment of an artist for his fair creation. Therefore, though their -enemies drove on them ruthlessly, they succeeded in parrying the last -sword-thrust, till they had completed even the gilding of the angel -and trumpet on the summit of its lofty spire. As a closing work, they -placed on the entablature of the front, like a baptismal mark on the -forehead, - - THE HOUSE OF THE LORD: - - BUILT BY THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS. - - HOLINESS TO THE LORD! - -Then, at high noon, under the bright sunshine of May, the next only -after its completion, they consecrated it to divine service. There was -a carefully studied ceremonial for the occasion. It was said the high -elders of the sect travelled furtively from the Camp of Israel in the -Wilderness; and throwing off ingenious disguises, appeared in their own -robes of holy office, to give it splendour. - -For that one day the Temple stood resplendent in all its typical -glories of sun, moon and stars, and other abounding figured and -lettered signs, hieroglyphs and symbols: but that day only. The sacred -rites of consecration ended, the work of removing the sacrosancta -proceeded with the rapidity of magic. It went on through the night; -and when the morning of the next day dawned, all the ornaments and -furniture, everything that could provoke a sneer, had been carried off; -and except some fixtures that would not bear removal, the building was -dismantled to the bare walls. - -It was this day saw the departure of the last elders, and the largest -band that moved in one company together. The people of Iowa have told -me, that from morning to night they passed westward like an endless -procession. They did not seem greatly out of heart, they said; but, at -the top of every hill before they disappeared, were to be seen looking -back, like banished Moors, on their abandoned homes, and the far-seen -Temple and its glittering spire. - -After this consecration, which was construed to indicate an insincerity -on the part of the Mormons as to their stipulated departure, or -at least a hope of return, their foes set upon them with renewed -bitterness. As many fled as were at all prepared; but by the very fact -of their so decreasing the already diminished forces of the city's -defenders, they encouraged the enemy to greater boldness. It soon -became apparent that nothing short of an immediate emigration could -save the remnant. - -From this time onward the energies of those already on the road were -engrossed by the duty of providing for the fugitives who came crowding -in after them. At a last general meeting of the sect in Nauvoo, there -had been passed an unanimous resolve that they would sustain one -another, whatever their circumstances, upon the march; and this, though -made in view of no such appalling exigency, they now with one accord -set themselves together to carry out. - -Here begins the touching period of Mormon history; on which but that -it is for me a hackneyed subject, I should be glad to dwell, were it -only for the proof it has afforded of the strictly material value to -communities of an active common faith, and its happy illustrations of -the power of the spirit of Christian fraternity to relieve the deepest -of human suffering. I may assume that it has already fully claimed the -public sympathy. - -Delayed thus by their own wants, and by their exertions to provide for -the wants of others, it was not till the month of June that the advance -of the emigrant companies arrived at the Missouri. - -This body I remember I had to join there, ascending the river for the -purpose from Fort Leavenworth, which was at that time our frontier -post. The fort was the interesting rendezvous of the Army of the West, -and the head-quarters of its gallant chief, Stephen F. Kearney, whose -guest and friend I account it my honor to have been. Many as were the -reports daily received at the garrison from all portions of the Indian -territory, it was a significant fact, how little authentic intelligence -was to be obtained concerning the Mormons. Even the region in which -they were to be sought after, was a question not attempted to be -designated with accuracy, except by what are very well called in the -West,--Mormon stories; none of which bore any sifting. One of these -averred, that a party of Mormons in spangled crimson robes of office, -headed by one in black velvet and silver, had been teaching a Jewish -pow-wow to the medicine men of the Sauks and Foxes. Another averred -that they were going about in buffalo robe short frocks, imitative of -the costume of Saint John, preaching baptism and the instance of the -kingdom of heaven among the Ioways. To believe one report, ammunition -and whiskey had been received by Indian braves at the hands of an elder -with a flowing white beard, who spoke Indian, he alleged, because -he had the gift of tongues:--this, as far North as the country of -the Yanketon Sioux. According to another yet, which professed to be -derived officially from at least one Indian sub-agent, the Mormons -had distributed the scarlet uniforms of H. B. M.'s servants among the -Pottawatamies, and had carried into their country twelve pieces of -brass cannon, which were counted by a traveller as they were rafted -across the East Fork of Grand River, one of the northern tributaries of -the Missouri. The narrators of these pleasant stories were at variance -as to the position of the Mormons, by a couple of hundred leagues; but -they harmonized in the warning, that to seek certain of the leading -camps would be to meet the treatment of a spy. - -Almost at the outset of my journey from Fort Leavenworth, while yet -upon the edge of the Indian border, I had the good fortune to fall in -with a couple of thin-necked sallow persons, in patchwork pantaloons, -conducting Northward wagon-loads of Indian corn, which they had -obtained, according to their own account, in barter from a squatter for -some silver spoons and a feather bed. Their character was disclosed -by their eager request of a bite from my wallet; in default of which, -after a somewhat superfluous scriptural grace, they made an imperfect -lunch before me off the softer of their corn ears, eating the grains as -horses do, from the cob. I took their advice to follow up the Missouri; -somewhere not far from which, in the Pottawatamie country, they were -sure I would encounter one of their advancing companies. - -I had bad weather on the road. Excessive heats, varied only by repeated -drenching thunder squalls, knocked up my horse, my only travelling -companion; and otherwise added to the ordinary hardships of a kind of -life to which I was as yet little accustomed. I suffered a sense of -discomfort, therefore, amounting to physical nostalgia, and was, in -fact, wearied to death of the staring silence of the prairie, before I -came upon the objects of my search. - -They were collected a little distance above the Pottawatamie Agency. -The hills of the "High Prairie" crowding in upon the river at this -point, and overhanging it, appear of an unusual and commanding -elevation. They are called the Council Bluffs; a name given them with -another meaning, but well illustrated by the picturesque Congress of -their high and mighty summits. To the south of them, a rich alluvial -flat of considerable width follows down the Missouri, some eight miles, -to where it is lost from view at a turn, which forms the site of the -Indian town of Point aux Poules. Across the river from this spot the -hills recur again, but are skirted at their base by as much low ground -as suffices for a landing. - -This landing, and the large flat or bottom on the east side of the -river, were crowded with covered carts and wagons; and each one of the -Council Bluff hills opposite was crowned with its own great camp, gay -with bright white canvas, and alive with the busy stir of swarming -occupants. In the clear blue morning air, the smoke streamed up from -more than a thousand cooking fires. Countless roads and bypaths -checkered all manner of geometric figures on the hillsides. Herd boys -were dozing upon the slopes; sheep and horses, cows and oxen, were -feeding around them, and other herds in the luxuriant meadow of the -then swollen river. From a single point I counted four thousand head of -cattle in view at one time. As I approached the camps, it seemed to me -the children there were to prove still more numerous. Along a little -creek I had to cross were women in greater force than blanchisseuses -upon the Seine, washing and rinsing all manner of white muslins, red -flannels and particolored calicoes, and hanging them to bleach upon -a greater area of grass and bushes than we can display in all our -Washington Square. - -Hastening by these, I saluted a group of noisy boys, whose purely -vernacular cries had for me an invincible home-savoring attraction. It -was one of them, a bright faced lad, who, hurrying on his jacket and -trousers, fresh from bathing in the creek, first assured me I was at -my right destination. He was a mere child; but he told me of his own -accord where I had best go seek my welcome, and took my horse's bridle -to help me pass a morass, the bridge over which he alleged to be unsafe. - -There was something joyous for me in my free rambles about this vast -body of pilgrims. I could range the wild country wherever I listed, -under safeguard of their moving host. Not only in the main camps was -all stir and life, but in every direction, it seemed to me, I could -follow 'Mormon Roads,' and find them beaten hard and even dusty by -the tread and wear of the cattle and vehicles of emigrants laboring -over them. By day, I would overtake and pass, one after another, what -amounted to an army train of them; and at night, if I encamped at -the places where the timber and running water were found together, I -was almost sure to be within call of some camp or other, or at least -within sight of its watch-fires. Wherever I was compelled to tarry, -I was certain to find shelter and hospitality, scant, indeed, but -never stinted, and always honest and kind. After a recent unavoidable -association with the border inhabitants of Western Missouri and Iowa, -the vile scum which our own society, to apply the words of an admirable -gentleman and eminent divine, [C] "like the great ocean washes upon -its frontier shores," I can scarcely describe the gratification I -felt in associating again with persons who were almost all of Eastern -American origin,--persons of refined and cleanly habits and decent -language,--and in observing their peculiar and interesting mode of -life;--while every day seemed to bring with it its own especial -incident, fruitful in the illustration of habits and character. - -It was during the period of which I have just spoken, that the Mormon -battalion of 520 men was recruited and marched for the Pacific Coast. - -At the commencement of the Mexican war, the President considered it -desirable to march a body of reliable infantry to California at as -early a period as practicable, and the known hardihood and habits of -discipline of the Mormons were supposed peculiarly to fit them for -this service. As California was supposed also to be their ultimate -destination, the long march might cost them less than other citizens. -They were accordingly invited to furnish a battalion of volunteers -early in the month of July. - -The call could hardly have been more inconveniently timed. The young, -and those who could best have been spared, were then away from the -main body, either with pioneer companies in the van, or, their faith -unannounced, seeking work and food about the northwestern settlements, -to support them till the return of the season for commencing -emigration. The force was therefore to be recruited from among fathers -of families, and others whose presence it was most desirable to retain. - -There were some, too, who could not view the invitation without -jealousy. They had twice been persuaded by (State) Government -authorities in Illinois and Missouri, to give up their arms on some -special appeals to their patriotic confidence, and had then been left -to the malice of their enemies. And now they were asked, in the midst -of the Indian country, to surrender over five hundred of their best men -for a war march of thousands of miles to California, without the hope -of return till after the conquest of that country. Could they view such -a proposition with favor? - -But the feeling of country triumphed. The Union had never wronged them: -"You shall have your battalion at once, if it has to be a class of our -elders," said one, himself a ruling elder. A central 'mass meeting' -for Council, some harangues at the more remotely scattered camps, an -American flag brought out from the storehouse of things rescued, and -hoisted to the top of a tree mast--and, in three days, the force was -reported, mustered, organized and ready to march. - -There was no sentimental affectation at their leave-taking. The -afternoon before was appropriated to a farewell ball; and a more -merry dancing rout I have never seen, though the company went without -refreshments, and their ball-room was of the most primitive. It was the -custom, whenever the larger camps rested for a few days together, to -make great arbors, or Boweries, as they called them, of poles and brush -and wattling, as places of shelter for their meetings of devotion or -conference. In one of these, where the ground had been trodden firm and -hard by the worshippers of the popular Father Taylor's precinct, was -gathered now the mirth and beauty of the Mormon Israel. - -If anything told the Mormons had been bred to other lives, it was the -appearance of the women, as they assembled here. Before their flight, -they had sold their watches and trinkets as the most available resource -for raising ready money; and hence, like their partners, who wore -waistcoats cut with useless watch pockets, they, although their ears -were pierced and bore the loop-marks of rejected pendants, were without -earrings, finger-rings, chains or brooches. Except such ornaments, -however, they lacked nothing most becoming the attire of decorous -maidens. The neatly darned white stocking, and clean bright petticoat, -the artistically clear-starched collar and chemisette, the something -faded, only because too well washed, lawn or gingham gown, that fitted -modishly to the waist of its pretty wearer,--these, if any of them -spoke of poverty, spoke of a poverty that had known its better days. - -With the rest, attended the elders of the church within call, including -nearly all the chiefs of the High Council, with their wives and -children. They, the gravest and most trouble-worn, seemed the most -anxious of any to be first to throw off the burden of heavy thoughts. -Their leading off the dancing in a great double cotillion was the -signal bade the festivity commence. To the canto of debonair violins, -the cheer of horns, the jingle of sleigh-bells, and the jovial snoring -of the tambourine, they did dance! None of your minuets or other -mortuary processions of gentles in etiquette, tight shoes, and pinching -gloves, but the spirited and scientific displays of our venerated and -merry grandparents, who were not above following the fiddle to the -Fox-Chase Inn or Gardens of Gray's Ferry. French fours, Copenhagen -jigs, Virginia reels, and the like forgotten figures, executed with -the spirit of people too happy to be slow, or bashful or constrained. -Light hearts, lithe figures and light feet, had it their own way from -an early hour till after the sun had dipped behind the sharp sky line -of the Omaha hills. Silence was then called, and a well cultivated -mezzo-soprano voice, belonging to a young lady with fair face and dark -eyes, gave with quartette accompaniment a little song, the notes of -which I have been unsuccessful in repeated efforts to obtain since,--a -version of the text, touching to all earthly wanderers: - - "By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept." - "We wept when we remembered Zion." - - -There was danger of some expression of feeling when the song was over, -for it had begun to draw tears; but breaking the quiet with his hard -voice, an Elder asked the blessing of Heaven on all who, with purity -of heart and brotherhood of spirit, had mingled in that society, and -then, all dispersed, hastening to cover from the falling dews. All, I -remember, but some splendid Indians, who in cardinal scarlet blankets -and feathered leggings, had been making foreground figures for the -dancing rings, like those in Mr. West's picture of our Philadelphia -Treaty, and staring their inability to comprehend the wonderful -performances. These loitered to the last, as if unwilling to seek their -abject homes. - -Well as I knew the peculiar fondness of the Mormons for music, their -orchestra in service on this occasion astonished me by its numbers -and fine drill. The story was, that an eloquent Mormon missionary had -converted its members in a body at an English town, a stronghold of -the sect, and that they took up their trumpets, trombones, drums and -hautboys together, and followed him to America. - -When the refugees from Nauvoo were hastening to part with their -table-ware, jewelry, and almost every other fragment of metal wealth -they possessed that was not iron, they had never a thought of giving -up the instruments of this favorite band. And when the battalion was -enlisted, though high inducements were offered some of the performers -to accompany it, they all refused. Their fortunes went with the Camp -of the Tabernacle. They had led the Farewell Service in the Nauvoo -Temple. Their office now was to guide the monster choruses and Sunday -hymns; and like the trumpets of silver made of a whole piece 'for the -calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps,' to knoll -the people in to church. Some of their wind instruments, indeed, were -uncommonly full and pure toned, and in that clear dry air could be -heard to a great distance. It had the strangest effect in the world, -to listen to their sweet music winding over the uninhabited country. -Something in the style of a Moravian death-tune blown at day-break, but -altogether unique. It might be when you were hunting a ford over the -Great Platte, the dreariest of all wild rivers, perplexed among the -far-reaching sand bars and curlew shallows of its shifting bed:--the -wind rising would bring you the first faint thought of a melody; and, -as you listened, borne down upon the gust that swept past you a cloud -of the dry sifted sands, you recognized it--perhaps a home-loved theme -of Henry Proch or Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn Bartholdy, away there in the -Indian Marches! - -The battalion gone, the host again moved on. The tents which had -gathered on the hill summits, like white birds hesitating to venture -on the long flight over the river, were struck one after another, and -the dwellers in them and their wagons and their cattle hastened down -to cross it at a ferry in the valley, which they made ply night and -day. A little beyond the landing they formed their companies, and made -their preparations for the last and longest stage of their journey. It -was a more serious matter to cross the mountains then than now, that -the thirst of our people for the gold of California has made the region -between them and their desire such literally trodden ground. - -Thanks to this wonderful movement, I may dismiss an effort to describe -the incidents of emigrant life upon the Plains, presuming that you have -been made more than familiar with them already, by the many repeated -descriptions of which they have been the subject. The desert march, the -ford, the quicksand, the Indian battle, the bison chase, the prairie -fire:--the adventures of the Mormons comprised every variety of these -varieties; but I could not hope to invest them with the interest -of novelty. The character of their every-day life, its routine and -conduct, alone offered any exclusive or marked peculiarity. Their -romantic devotional observances, and their admirable concert of purpose -and action, met the eye at once. After these, the stranger was most -struck perhaps by the strict order of march, the unconfused closing up -to meet attack, the skilful securing of the cattle upon the halt, the -system with which the watches were set at night to guard them and the -lines of corral--with other similar circumstances indicative of the -maintenance of a high state of discipline. Every ten of their wagons -was under the care of a captain. This captain of ten, as they termed -him, obeyed a captain of fifty; who, in turn, obeyed his captain of a -hundred, or directly a member of what they call the High Council of -the Church. All these were responsible and determined men, approved of -by the people for their courage, discretion and experience. So well -recognized were the results of this organization, that bands of hostile -Indians have passed by comparative small parties of Mormons, to attack -much larger, but less compact bodies of other emigrants. - -The most striking feature, however, of the Mormon emigration, was -undoubtedly their formation of the Tabernacle Camps and temporary -Stakes, or Settlements, which renewed in the sleeping solitudes -everywhere along their road, the cheering signs of intelligent and -hopeful life. - -I will make this remark plainer by describing to you one of these -camps, with the daily routine of its inhabitants. I select at random, -for my purpose, a large camp upon the delta between the Nebraska and -Missouri, in the territory disputed between the Omaha, and Otto and -Missouria Indians. It remained pitched here for nearly two months, -during which period I resided in it. - -It was situated near the Petit Papillon, or Little Butterfly River, and -upon some finely rounded hills that encircle a favorite cool spring. -On each of these a square was marked out; and the wagons as they -arrived took their positions along its four sides in double rows, so -as to leave a roomy street or passageway between them. The tents were -disposed also in rows, at intervals between the wagons. The cattle were -folded in high-fenced yards outside. The quadrangle inside was left -vacant for the sake of ventilation, and the streets, covered in with -leafy arbor work and kept scrupulously clean, formed a shaded cloister -walk. This was the place of exercise for slowly recovering invalids, -the day-home of the infants, and the evening promenade of all. - -From the first formation of the camp, all its inhabitants were -constantly and laboriously occupied. Many of them were highly educated -mechanics, and seemed only to need a day's anticipated rest to engage -them at the forge, loom, or turning lathe, upon some needed chore of -work. A Mormon gunsmith is the inventor of the excellent repeating -rifle, that loads by slides instead of cylinders; and one of the -neatest finished fire-arms I have ever seen was of this kind, wrought -from scraps of old iron, and inlaid with the silver of a couple of half -dollars, under a hot July sun, in a spot where the average height of -the grass was above the workman's shoulders. I have seen a cobbler, -after the halt of his party on the march, hunting along the river bank -for a lap-stone in the twilight, that he might finish a famous boot -sole by the camp fire; and I have had a piece of cloth, the wool of -which was sheared, and dyed, and spun, and woven, during a progress of -over three hundred miles. - -Their more interesting occupations, however, were those growing out -of their peculiar circumstances and position. The chiefs were seldom -without some curious affair on hand to settle with the restless -Indians; while the immense labor and responsibility of the conduct of -their unwieldy moving army, and the commissariat of its hundreds of -famishing poor, also devolved upon them. They had good men they called -Bishops, whose special office it was to look up the cases of extremest -suffering: and their relief parties were out night and day to scour -over every trail. - -At this time, say two months before the final expulsion from Nauvoo, -there were already, along three hundred miles of the road between -that city and our Papillon Camp, over two thousand emigrating -wagons, besides a large number of nondescript turn-outs, the motley -make-shifts of poverty; from the unsuitably heavy cart that lumbered on -mysteriously with its sick driver hidden under its counterpane cover, -to the crazy two-wheeled trundle, such as our own poor employ for the -conveyance of their slop barrels, this pulled along it may be by a -little dry dugged heifer, and rigged up only to drag some such light -weight as a baby, a sack of meal, or a pack of clothes and bedding. - -Some of them were in distress from losses upon the way. A strong trait -of the Mormons was their kindness to their brute dependents, and -particularly to their beasts of draught. They gave them the holiday of -the Sabbath whenever it came round: I believe they would have washed -them with old wine, after the example of the emigrant Carthaginians, -had they had any. Still, in the Slave-coast heats, under which the -animals had to move, they sometimes foundered. Sometimes, too, they -strayed off in the night, or were mired in morasses;--or oftener were -stolen by Indians, who found market covert for such plunder among -the horse-thief whites of the frontier. But the great mass of these -pilgrims of the desert was made up of poor folks, who had fled in -destitution from Nauvoo, and been refused a resting place by the people -of Iowa. - -It is difficult fully to understand the state of helplessness in which -some of these would arrive, after accomplishing a journey of such -extent, under circumstances of so much privation and peril. The fact -was, they seemed to believe that all their trouble would be at an end -if they could only come up with their comrades at the Great Camps. -For this they calculated their resources, among which their power of -endurance was by much the largest and most reliable item, and they were -not disappointed if they arrived with these utterly exhausted. - -I remember a signal instance of this at the Papillon Camp. - -It was that of a joyous hearted clever fellow, whose songs and fiddle -tunes were the life and delight of Nauvoo in its merry days. I forget -his story, and how exactly, it fell about, that after a Mormon's full -peck of troubles, he started after us with his wife and little ones -from some 'lying down place' in the Indian country, where he had -contended with an attack of a serious malady. He was just convalescent, -and the fatigue of marching on foot again with a child on his back, -speedily brought on a relapse. But his anxiety to reach a place where -he could expect to meet friends with shelter and food, was such that -he only pressed on the harder. Probably for more than a week of the -dog-star weather, he laboured on under a high fever, walking every day -till he was entirely exhausted. - -His limbs failed him then; but his courage holding out, he got into his -covered cart on top of its freight of baggage, and made them drive him -on, while he lay down. They could hardly believe how ill he was, he -talked on so cheerfully--"I'm nothing on earth ailing but home-sick: -I'm cured the very minute I get to camp and see the brethren." - -Not being able thus to watch his course, he lost his way, and had to -regain it through a wretched tract of Low Meadow Prairie, where there -were no trees to break the noon, nor water but what was ague-sweet or -brackish. By the time he got back to the trail of the High Prairie, he -was, in his own phrase, 'pretty far gone.' Yet he was resolute in his -purpose as ever, and to a party he fell in with, avowed his intention -to be cured at the camp, 'and no where else.' He even jested with them, -comparing his jolting couch to a summer cot in a white washed cockloft. -"But I'll make them take me down," he said, "and give me a dip in the -river when I get there. All I care for is to see the brethren." - -His determined bearing rallied the spirit of his travelling household, -and they kept on their way till he was within a few hours journey of -the camp. He entered on his last day's journey with the energy of -increased hope. - -I remember that day well. For in the evening I mounted a tired horse -to go a short errand, and in mere pity had to turn back before I had -walked him a couple of hundred yards. Nothing seemed to draw life -from the languid air but the clouds of gnats and stinging midges; and -long after sundown it was so hot that the sheep lay on their stomachs -panting, and the cattle strove to lap wind like hard fagged hunting -dogs. In camp, I had spent the day in watching the invalids and the -rest hunting the shade under the wagon bodies, and veering about them, -like the shadows round the sun-dial. I know I thought myself wretched -enough, to be of their company. - -Poor Merryman had all that heat to bear, with the mere pretence of an -awning to screen out the sun from his close muslin cockloft. - -He did not fail till somewhere hard upon noon. He then began to grow -restless to know accurately the distance travelled. He made them give -him water, too, much more frequently; and when they stopped for this -purpose, asked a number of obscure questions. A little after this he -discovered himself that a film had come over his eyes. He confessed -that this was discouraging; but said with stubborn resignation, that -if denied to see the brethren, he still should hear the sound of their -voices. - -After this, which was when he was hardly three miles from our camp, he -lay very quiet, as if husbanding his strength; but when he had made, as -is thought, a full mile further, being interrogated by the woman that -was driving, whether she should stop, he answered her, as she avers, -"No, no; go on!" - -The anecdote ends badly. They brought him in dead, I think about five -o'clock of the afternoon. He had on his clean clothes; as he had -dressed himself in the morning, looking forward to his arrival. - -Beside the common duty of guiding and assisting these unfortunates, the -companies in the van united in providing the highway for the entire -body of emigrants. The Mormons have laid out for themselves a road -through the Indian Territory, over four hundred leagues in length, -with substantial, well-built bridges, fit for the passage of heavy -artillery, over all the streams, except a few great rivers where they -have established permanent ferries. The nearest unfinished bridging -to the Papillon Camp, was that of the Corne a Cerf, or Elkhorn, a -tributary of the Platte, distant maybe a couple of hours' march. Here, -in what seemed to be an incredibly short space of time, there rose the -seven great piers and abutments of a bridge, such as might challenge -honors for the entire public spirited population of lower Virginia. The -party detailed to the task worked in the broiling sun, in water beyond -depth, and up to their necks, as if engaged in the perpetration of some -pointed and delightful practical joke. The chief sport lay in floating -along with the logs, cut from the overhanging timber up the stream, -guiding them till they reached their destination, and then plunging -them under water in the precise spot where they were to be secured. -This the laughing engineers would execute with the agility of happy -diving ducks. - -Our nearest ferry was that over the Missouri. Nearly opposite Pull -Point, or Point aux Poules, a trading post of the American Fur Company, -and village of the Pottawatamies, they had gained a favorable crossing -by making a deep cut for the road through the steep right bank. And -here, without intermission, their flat-bottomed scows plied, crowded -with the wagons and cows and sheep and children and furniture of the -emigrants, who, in waiting their turn, made the woods around smoke with -their crowding camp fires. But no such good fortune as a gratuitous -passage awaited the heavy cattle, of whom, with the others, no less -than 30,000 were at this time on their way westward: these were made to -earn it by swimming. - -A heavy freshet had at this time swollen the river to a width, as I -should judge, of something like a mile and a half, and dashed past -its fierce current, rushing, gurgling, and eddying, as if thrown from -a mill race, or scriptural fountain of the deep. Its aspect did not -invite the oxen to their duty, and the labor was to force them to -it. They were gathered in little troops upon the shore, and driven -forward till they lost their footing. As they turned their heads to -return, they encountered the combined opposition of a clamorous crowd -of bystanders, vieing with each other in the pungent administration of -inhospitable affront. Then rose their hubbub; their geeing and woing -and hawing, their yelling and yelping and screaming, their hooting and -hissing and pelting. The rearmost steers would hesitate to brave such -a rebuff; halting, they would impede the return of the outermost; they -all would waver; wavering for a moment, the current would sweep them -together downward. At this juncture, a fearless youngster, climbing -upon some brave bull in the front rank, would urge him boldly forth -into the stream: the rest then surely followed; a few moments saw them -struggling in mid current; a few more, and they were safely landed -on the opposite shore. The driver's was the sought after post of -honor here; and sometimes, when repeated failures have urged them to -emulation, I have seen the youths, in stepping from back to back of the -struggling monsters, or swimming in among their battling hoofs, display -feats of address and hardihood, that would have made Franconi's or the -Madrid bull-ring vibrate with bravos of applause. But in the hours -after hours that I have watched this sport at the ferry side, I never -heard an oath or the language of quarrel, or knew it provoke the least -sign of ill feeling. - -After the sorrowful word was given out to halt, and make preparations -for winter, a chief labor became the making hay; and with every day -dawn brigades of mowers would take up the march to their positions in -chosen meadows--a prettier sight than a charge of cavalry--as they laid -their swarths, whole companies of scythes abreast. Before this time the -manliest, as well as most general daily labor, was the herding of the -cattle; the only wealth of the Mormons, and more and more cherished by -them, with the increasing pastoral character of their lives. A camp -could not be pitched in any spot without soon exhausting the freshness -of the pasture around it; and it became an ever recurring task to guide -the cattle, in unbroken droves, to the nearest places where it was -still fresh and fattening. Sometimes it was necessary to go farther, -to distant ranges which were known as feeding grounds of the Buffalo. -About these there were sure to prowl parties of thievish Indians; -and each drove therefore had its escort of mounted men and boys, who -learned self-reliance and heroism while on night guard alone, among -the silent hills. But generally the cattle were driven from the camp -at the dawn of morning, and brought back thousands together in the -evening, to be picketed in the great corral or enclosure, where beeves, -bulls, cows, and oxen, with the horses, mules, hogs, calves, sheep and -human beings, could all look together upon the red watch fires, with -the feeling of security, when aroused by the Indian stampede, or the -howlings of the prairie wolves at moonrise. - -When they set about building their winter houses, too, the Mormons went -into quite considerable timbering operations, and performed desperate -feats of carpentry. They did not come, ornamental gentlemen or raw -apprentices, to extemporise new versions of Robinson Crusoe. It was a -comfort to notice the readiness with which they turned their hands to -wood craft; some of them, though I believe these had generally been -bred carpenters, wheelwrights, or more particularly boat builders, -quite outdoing the most notable voyageurs in the use of the axe. One -of these would fell a tree, strip off its bark, cut and split up the -trunk in piles of plank, scantling, or shingles; make posts, and pins, -and pales--everything wanted almost, of the branches; and treat his -toil from first to last with more sportive flourish than a school-boy -whittling his shingle. - -Inside the camp, the chief labors were assigned to the women. From the -moment, when after the halt, the lines had been laid, the spring wells -dug out, and the ovens and fire-places built, though the men still -assumed to set the guards and enforce the regulations of Police, the -Empire of the Tented Town was with the better sex. They were the chief -comforters of the severest sufferers, the kind nurses who gave them in -their sickness, those dear attentions, with which pauperism is hardly -poor, and which the greatest wealth often fails to buy. And they were a -nation of wonderful managers. They could hardly be called housewives in -etymological strictness, but it was plain that they had once been such, -and most distinguished ones. Their art availed them in their changed -affairs. With almost their entire culinary material limited to the milk -of their cows, some store of meal or flour, and a very few condiments, -they brought their thousand and one receipts into play with a success -that outdid for their families, the miracle of the Hebrew widow's -cruise. They learned to make butter on a march, by the dashing of the -wagon, and so nicely to calculate the working of barm in the jolting -heats, that as soon after the halt as an oven could be dug in the hill -side and heated, their well kneaded loaf was ready for baking, and -produced good leavened bread for supper. I have no doubt the appetizing -zest, their humble lore succeeded in imparting to diet which was both -simple and meagre, availed materially for the health as well as the -comfort of the people. - -But the first duty of the Mormon women was, through all change of -place and fortune, to keep alive the altar fire of home. Whatever -their manifold labors for the day, it was their effort to complete -them against the sacred hour of evening fall. For by that time all -the out-workers, scouts, ferrymen or bridgemen, roadmakers, herdsmen -or haymakers, had finished their tasks and come in to their rest. -And before the last smoke of the supper fire curled up reddening in -the glow of sunset, a hundred chimes of cattle bells announced their -looked-for approach across the open hills, and the women went out to -meet them at the camp gates, and with their children in their laps sat -by them at the cherished Family meal, and talked over the events of the -well-spent day. - -But every day closed as every day began, with an invocation of the -Divine favour; without which, indeed, no Mormon seemed to dare to lay -him down to rest. With the first shining of the stars, laughter and -loud talking hushed, the neighbor went his way, you heard the last hymn -sung, and then the thousand-voiced murmur of prayer was heard like -babbling water falling down the hills. - -There was no austerity, however, about the religion of Mormonism. Their -fasting and penance, it is no jest to say, was altogether involuntary. -They made no merit of that. They kept the Sabbath with considerable -strictness: they were too close copyists of the wanderers of Israel in -other respects not to have learned, like them, the value of this most -admirable of the Egypto-Mosaic institutions. But the rest of the week, -their religion was independent of ritual observance. They had the sort -of strong stomached faith that is still found embalmed in sheltered -spots of Catholic Italy and Spain, with the spirit of the believing -or Dark Ages. It was altogether too strongly felt, to be dependent on -intellectual ingenuity or careful caution of the ridiculous. It mixed -itself up fearlessly with the common transactions of their every-day -life, and only to give them liveliness and color. - -If any passages of life bear better than others a double -interpretation, they are the adventures of travel, and of the field. -What old persons call discomforts and discouraging mishaps, are the -very elements to the young and sanguine, of what they are willing to -term fun. The Mormons took the young and hopeful side. They could make -sport and frolic of their trials, and often turn right sharp suffering -into right round laughter against themselves. I certainly heard more -jests and Joe Millers while in this Papillon Camp, than I am likely to -hear in all the remainder of my days. - -This, too, was at a time of serious affliction. Beside the ordinary -suffering from insufficient food and shelter, distressing and mortal -sickness, exacerbated, if not originated by these causes, was generally -prevalent. - -In the camp nearest us on the West, which was that of the bridging -party near the Corne, the number of its inhabitants being small enough -to invite computation, I found, as early as the 31st of July, that 37 -per cent. of its inhabitants were down with the Fever and a sort of -strange scorbutic disease, frequently fatal, which they named the Black -Canker. The camps to the East of us, which were all on the eastern side -of the Missouri, were yet worse fated. - -The climate of the entire upper 'Misery Bottom,' as they term it, is, -during a considerable part of Summer and Autumn singularly pestiferous. -Its rich soil, which is to a depth far beyond the reach of the plough -as fat as the earth of kitchen garden, or compost-heap, is annually the -force-bed of a vegetation as rank as that of the Tropics. To render -its fatal fertility the greater, it is everywhere freely watered by -springs and creeks and larger streams, that flow into it from both -sides. In the season of drought, when the Sun enters Virgo, these dry -down till they run impure as open sewers, exposing to the day foul -broad flats, mere quagmires of black dirt, stretching along for miles, -unvaried, except by the limbs of half buried carrion tree trunks, or -by occasional yellow pools of what the children call frog spawn; all -together steaming up thick vapours redolent of the savour of death. - -The same is the habit of the Great River. In the beginning of August, -its shores hardly could contain the millions of forest logs, and tens -of billions of gallons of turbid water, that came rushing down together -from its mountain head-gates. But before the month was out, the freshet -had all passed by; the river diminished one half, threaded feebly -southward through the centre of the Valley, and the mud of its channel, -baked and creased, made a wide tile pavement between the choking crowd -of reeds and sedgy grasses and wet stalked weeds, and growths of marsh -meadow flowers, the garden homes at this tainted season of venom-crazy -snakes, and the fresher ooze by the water's edge, which stank in the -sun like a naked muscle shoal. - -Then the plague raged. I have no means of ascertaining the mortality -of the Indians who inhabited the Bottom. In 1845, the year previous, -which was not more unhealthy, they lost one-ninth of their number in -about two months. The Mormons were scourged severely. The exceeding -mortality among some of them, was no doubt in the main attributable to -the low state to which their systems had been brought by long continued -endurance of want and hardship. It is to be remembered also, that they -were the first turners up of the prairie sod, and that this of itself -made them liable to the sickness of new countries. It was where their -agricultural operations had been most considerable, and in situations -on the left bank of the river, where the prevalent south-west winds -wafted to them the miasmata of its shores, that disease was most rife. -[D] - -In some of these, the fever prevailed to such an extent that hardly any -escaped it. They let their cows go unmilked. They wanted for voices to -raise the Psalm of Sundays. The few who were able to keep their feet, -went about among the tents and wagons with food and water, like nurses -through the wards of an Infirmary. Here at one time the digging got -behind hand: burials were slow; and you might see women sit in the -open tents keeping the flies off their dead children, sometime after -decomposition had set in. - -In our own camp for a part of August and September, things wore an -unpleasant aspect enough. [E] Its situation was one much praised for -its comparative salubrity; but perhaps on this account, the number of -cases of Fever among us was increased by the hurrying arrival from -other localities, of parties in whom the virus leaven of disease was -fermented by forced travel. - -But I am excused sufficiently the attempt to get up for your -entertainment here any circumstantial picture of horrors, by the -fact, that at the most interesting season, I was incapacitated for -nice observation by an attack of Fever--mine was what they call the -Congestive--that it required the utmost use of all my faculties to -recover from. I still kept my tent in the camp line; but, for as much -as a month, had very small notion of what went on among my neighbors. -I recollect overhearing a lamentation over some dear baby, that its -mother no doubt thought the destroying angel should have been specially -instructed to spare. I wish too for my own sake, I could forget, how -imperfectly one day I mourned the decease of a poor saint, who by -clamor rendered his vicinity troublesome. He no doubt endured great -pain; for he groaned shockingly till death came to his relief. He -interfered with my own hard gained slumbers, and--I was glad when Death -did relieve him. - -Before my attack, I was fond of conversing with an amiable old man, I -think English born, who having then recently buried his only daughter -and grandson, used to be seen sitting out before his tent, resting his -sorrowful forehead on his hands, joined over a smooth white oak staff. -I missed him when I got about again; probably he had been my moaning -neighbor. - -So, too, having been much exercised in my dreams at this time, by the -vision of dismal processions, such as might have been formed by the -union in line of all the forlornest and ugliest of the struggling -fugitives from Nauvoo, I happen to recall as I write, that I had some -knowledge somewhere of one of our new comers, for whom the nightmare -revived and repeated without intermission the torment of his trying -journey. As he lay, feeding life with long drawn breaths, he muttered: -"Where's next water? Team--give out! Hot, hot--God, it's hot: Stop the -wagon--stop the wagon--stop, stop the wagon!" They woke him;--to his -own content--but I believe returning sleep ever renewed his distressing -visions, till the sounder slumber came on from which no earthly hand or -voice could rouse him; into which I hope he did not carry them. - -In a half dreamy way, I remember, or I think I remember, a crowd of -phantoms like these. I recall but one fact, however, going far in -proof of a considerable mortality. Earlier in the season, while going -westward with the intention of passing the Rocky Mountains that summer, -I had opened with the assistance of Mormon spades and shovels, a large -mound on a commanding elevation, the tomb of a warrior of the ancient -race; and continuing on my way, had left a deep trench excavated -entirely through it. Returning fever-struck to the Papillon Camp, I -found it planted close by this spot. It was just forming as I arrived; -the first wagon, if I mistake not, having but a day or two before -halted into place. My first airing upon my convalescence took me to -the mound, which, probably to save digging, had been re-adapted to its -original purpose. In this brief interval, they had filled the trench -with bodies, and furrowed the ground with graves around it, like the -ploughing of a field. - -The lengthened sojourn of the Mormons in this insalubrious region was -imposed upon them by circumstances which I must now advert to. - -Though the season was late, when they first crossed the Missouri, some -of them moved forward with great hopefulness, full of the notion of -viewing and choosing their new homes that year. But the van had only -reached Grand Island and the Pawnee villages, when they were overtaken -by more ill news from Nauvoo. Before the summer closed, their enemies -set upon the last remnant of those who were left behind in Illinois. -They were a few lingerers, who could not be persuaded but there might -yet be time for them to gather up their worldly goods before removing, -some weakly mothers and their infants, a few delicate young girls, and -many cripples and bereaved and sick people. These had remained under -shelter, according to the Mormon statement at least, by virtue of an -express covenant in their behalf. If there was such a covenant, it was -broken. A vindictive war was waged upon them, from which the weakest -fled in scattered parties, leaving the rest to make a reluctant and -almost ludicrously unavailing defence, till the 17th day of September, -when 1,625 troops entered Nauvoo, and drove all forth who had not -retreated before that time. - -Like the wounded birds of a flock fired into toward nightfall, they -came straggling on with faltering steps, many of them without bag or -baggage, beast or barrow, [F] all asking shelter or burial, and forcing -a fresh repartition of the already divided rations of their friends. It -was plain now, that every energy must be taxed to prevent the entire -expedition from perishing. Further emigration for the time was out of -the question, and the whole people prepared themselves for encountering -another winter on the prairie. - -Happily for the main body, they found themselves at this juncture among -Indians, who were amicably disposed. The lands on both sides of the -Missouri in particular, were owned by the Pottawatamies and Omahas, two -tribes whom unjust treatment by our United States, had the effect of -rendering most auspiciously hospitable to strangers whom they regarded -as persecuted like themselves. - -The Pottawatamies on the eastern side, are a nation from whom the -United States bought some years ago a number of hundred thousand acres -of the finest lands they have ever brought into market. Whatever the -bargain was, the sellers were not content with it; the people saying, -their leaders were cheated, made drunk, bribed, and all manner of -naughty things besides. No doubt this was quite as much of a libel -on the fair fame of this particular Indian treaty, as such stories -generally are; for the land to which the tribe was removed in pursuance -of it, was admirably adapted to enforce habits of civilized thrift. It -was smooth prairie, wanting in timber, and of course in game; and the -humane and philanthropic might rejoice therefore that necessity would -soon indoctrinate its inhabitants into the practice of agriculture. -An impracticable few, who may have thought these advantages more than -compensated by the insalubrity of their allotted resting place, fled -to the extreme wilds, where they could find deer and woods, and rocks -and running water, and where I believe they are roaming to this day. -The remainder, being what the political vocabulary designates on such -occasions as Friendly Indians, were driven--marched is the word--galley -slaves are marched thus to Barcelona and Toulon--marched from the -Mississippi to the Missouri, and planted there. Discontented and -unhappy, they had hardly begun to form an attachment for this new soil, -when they were persuaded to exchange it for their present Fever Patch -upon the Kaw or Kansas River. They were under this second sentence of -transportation when the Mormons arrived among them. - -They were pleased with the Mormons. They would have been pleased with -any whites who would not cheat them, nor sell them whiskey, nor whip -them for their poor gipsey habits, nor bear themselves indecently -toward their women, many of whom among the Pottawatamies, especially -those of nearly unmixed French descent, are singularly comely, and -some of them educated. But all Indians have something like a sentiment -of reverence for the insane, and admire those who sacrifice, without -apparent motive, their worldly welfare to the triumph of an idea. They -understand the meaning of what they call a great vow, and think it the -duty of the right-minded to lighten the votary's penance under it. To -this feeling they united the sympathy of fellow-sufferers for those who -could talk to them of their own Illinois, and tell the story how from -it they also had been ruthlessly expelled. - -Their hospitality was sincere, almost delicate. Fanny Le Clerc, the -spoiled child of the great brave, Pied Riche, interpreter of the -Nation, would have the pale face Miss Devine learn duets with her -to the guitar; and the daughter of substantial Joseph La Framboise, -the interpreter of the United States,--she died of the fever that -summer,--welcomed all the nicest young Mormon Kitties and Lizzies, and -Jennies and Susans, to a coffee feast at her father's house, which was -probably the best cabin in the river village. They made the Mormons at -home, there and elsewhere. Upon all their lands they formally gave them -leave to tarry just so long as should suit their own good pleasure. - -The affair, of course, furnished material for a solemn council. Under -the auspices of an officer of the United States, their chiefs were -summoned, in the form befitting great occasions, to meet in the dirty -yard of one Mr. P. A. Sarpy's log trading house, at their village. -They came in grand toilet, moving in their fantastic attire with so -much aplomb and genteel measure, that the stranger found it difficult -not to believe them high born gentlemen, attending a costumed ball. -Their aristocratically thin legs, of which they displayed fully the -usual Indian proportion, aided this illusion. There is something too -at all times very Mock-Indian in the theatrical French millinery tie -of the Pottawatamie turban; while it is next to impossible for a sober -white man, at first sight, to believe that the red, green, black, blue -and yellow cosmetics, with which he sees such grave personages so -variously dotted, diapered, cancelled and arabesqued, are worn by them -in any mood but one of the deepest and most desperate quizzing. From -the time of their first squat upon the ground, to the final breaking -up of the council circle, they sustained their characters with equal -self-possession and address. - -I will not take it upon myself to describe their order of ceremonies; -indeed, I ought not, since I have never been able to view the habits -and customs of our aborigines in any other light than that of a -reluctant and sorrowful subject of jest. Besides, in this instance, the -displays of pow wow and eloquence were both probably moderated, by the -conduct of the entire transaction on temperance principles. I therefore -content myself with observing, generally, that the proceedings were -such as every way became the grandeur of the parties interested, and -the magnitude of the interests involved. When the Red Men had indulged -to satiety in tobacco smoke from their peace pipes, and in what they -love still better, their peculiar metaphoric rhodomontade, which, -beginning with the celestial bodies, and coursing downwards over the -grandest sublunary objects, always managed to alight at last on their -Grand Father Polk, and the tenderness for him of his affectionate -colored children; all the solemn funny fellows present who played -the part of Chiefs, signed formal articles of convention with their -unpronounceable names. - -The renowned chief, Pied Riche--he was surnamed Le Clerc on account of -his remarkable scholarship,--then rose, and said: - -"My Mormon Brethren, - -"The Pottawatamie came sad and tired into this unhealthy Missouri -Bottom, not many years back, when he was taken from his beautiful -country beyond the Mississippi, which had abundant game and timber and -clear water everywhere. Now you are driven away, the same, from your -lodges and lands there, and the graves of your people. So we have both -suffered. We must help one another, and the Great Spirit will help us -both. You are now free to cut and use all the wood you may wish. You -can make all your improvements, and live on any part of our actual land -not occupied by us. Because one suffers, and does not deserve it, is no -reason he shall suffer always: I say. We may live to see all right yet. -However, if we do not, our children will.--Bon Jour." - -And thus ended the pageant. I give this speech as a morsel of real -Indian. It was recited to me after the Treaty by the Pottawatamie -orator in French, which language he spoke with elegance. Bon Jour is -the French, Indian and English Hail and Farewell of the Pottawatamies. - -The other entertainers of the Mormons at this time, the Omahas, or -Mahaws, are one of the minor tribes of the Grand Prairie. Their Great -Father, the United States, has found it inconvenient to protect so -remote a dependency against the overpowering league of the Dahcotahs -or Sioux, and has judged it dangerous at the same time to allow them -to protect themselves by entering into a confederation with others. -Under the pressure of this paternal embarrassment and restraint, -it has therefore happened most naturally, that this tribe, once a -powerful and valued ally of ours, has been reduced to a band of little -more than a hundred families; and these, a few years more, will -entirely extinguish. When I was among them, they were so ill-fed, that -their protruding high cheek bones gave them the air of a tribe of -consumptives. The buffalo had left them, and no good ranges lay within -several hundred miles reach. Hardly any other game found cover on their -land. What little there was, they were short of ammunition to kill. -Their annuity from the United States was trifling. They made next to -nothing at thieving. They had planted some corn in their awkward Indian -fashion, but through fear of ambush dared not venture out to harvest -it. A chief resource for them, the winter previous, had been the -spoliation of their neighbors, the Prairie Field Mice. - -These interesting little people, more industrious and thrifty than -the Mahaws, garner up in the neat little cellars of their underground -homes, the small seeds or beans of the wood pea vine, which are black -and hard, but quite nutritious. Gathering them one by one, a single -Mouse will thus collect as much as half a pint, which before the cold -weather sets in, he piles away in a dry and frost proof excavation, -cleverly thatched and covered in. The Omaha animal, who, like enough, -may have idled during all the season the Mouse was amassing his -toilsome treasure, finds this subterranean granary to give out a -certain peculiar cavernous vibration when briskly tapped upon above the -ground. He wanders about, therefore, striking with a wand in hopeful -spots: and as soon as he hears the hollow sound he knows, unearths the -little retired capitalist along with his winter's hope. Mouse wakes up -from his nap to starve, and Mahaw swallows several relishing mouthfuls. - -But the Mouse has his avenger in the powerful Sioux, who wages against -his wretched red brother an almost bootless, but exterminating warfare. -He robs him of his poor human peltry. One of my friends was offered for -sale a Sioux scalp of Omaha, "with grey hair nearly as long as a white -horse's tail." - -The pauper Omahas were ready to solicit as a favor the residence of -white protectors among them. The Mormons harvested and stored away for -them their crops of maize; with all their own poverty, they spared them -food enough besides, from time to time, to save them from absolutely -starving; and their entrenched camp to the north of the Omaha villages, -served as a sort of breakwater between them and the destroying rush of -the Sioux. - -This was the Head Quarters of the Mormon Camps of Israel. The miles of -rich prairie enclosed and sowed with the grain they could contrive to -spare, and the houses, stacks, and cattle shelters, had the seeming -of an entire county, with its people and improvements transplanted -there unbroken. On a pretty plateau overlooking the river, they built -more than seven hundred houses in a single town, neatly laid out with -highways and byways, and fortified with breast-work, stockade and -block houses. It had too its place of worship, "Tabernacle of the -Congregation," and various large workshops, and mills and factories -provided with water power. - -They had no camp or settlement of equal size in the Pottawatamie -country. There was less to apprehend here from Indian invasion; and the -people scattered themselves therefore along the rivers and streams, -and in the timber groves, wherever they found inviting localities for -farming operations. In this way many of them acquired what have since -proved to be valuable pre-emption rights. - -Upon the Pottawatamie lands, scattered through the border regions of -Missouri and Iowa, in the Sauk and Fox country, a few among the Ioways, -among the Poncahs in a great company upon the banks of the L'Eau qui -Coule, or Running Water River, and at the Omaha winter quarters;--the -Mormons sustained themselves through the heavy winter of 1846-1847. It -was the severest of their trials. And if I aimed at rhetorical effect, -I would be bound to offer you a minute narrative of its progress, as -a sort of climax to my history. But I have, I think, given you enough -of the Mormons' sorrows. We are all of us content to sympathise with a -certain extent of suffering; but very few can bear the recurring yet -scarcely varied narrative of another's distress without something of -impatience. The world is full of griefs, and we cannot afford to expend -too large a share of our charity, or even our commiseration in a single -quarter. - -This winter was the turning point of the Mormon fortunes. Those who -lived through it were spared to witness the gradual return of better -times. And they now liken it to the passing of a dreary night, since -which they have watched the coming of a steadily brightening day. - -Before the grass growth of 1847, a body of one hundred and forty-three -picked men, with seventy wagons, drawn by their best horses, left the -Omaha quarters, under the command of the members of the High Council -who had wintered there. They carried with them little but seed and -farming implements, their aim being to plant spring crops at their -ultimate destination. They relied on their rifles to give them food, -but rarely left their road in search of game. They made long daily -marches, and moved with as much rapidity as possible. - -Against the season when ordinary emigration passes the Missouri, they -were already through the South Pass; and a couple of short day's travel -beyond it, entered upon the more arduous portion of their journey. It -lay in earnest through the Rocky Mountains. They turned Fremont's Peak, -Long's Peak, the Twins, and other King summits, but had to force their -way over other mountains of the rugged Utah Range, sometimes following -the stony bed of torrents, the head waters of some of the mightiest -rivers of our continent, and sometimes literally cutting their road -through heavy and ragged timber. They arrived at the grand basin of the -Great Salt Lake, much exhausted, but without losing a man, and in time -to plant for a partial autumn harvest. - -Another party started after these pioneers, from the Omaha winter -quarters, in the summer. They had 566 wagons, and carried large -quantities of grain, which they were able to put in the ground before -it froze. - -The same season also these were joined by a part of the Battalion and -other members of the Church, who came eastward from California and the -Sandwich Islands. Together, they fortified themselves strongly with -sunbrick wall and blockhouses, and living safely through the winter, -were able to tend crops that yielded ample provision for the ensuing -year. - -In 1848, nearly all the remaining members of the Church left the -Missouri country in a succession of powerful bands, invigorated and -enriched by their abundant harvests there; and that year saw fully -established their Commonwealth of the New Covenant, the future State of -DESERET. - -I may not undertake to describe to you in a single lecture the -Geography of Deseret, and its Great Basin. Were I to consider the face -of the country, its military position, or its climate and its natural -productions; each head, I am confident, would claim more time than -you have now to spare me. For Deseret is emphatically a New Country; -new in its own characteristic features, newer still in its bringing -together within its limits the most inconsistent peculiarities of -other countries. I cannot aptly compare it to any. Descend from the -mountains, where you have the scenery and climate of Switzerland, to -seek the sky of your choice among the many climates of Italy, and -you may find, welling out of the same hills, the Freezing Springs of -Mexico and the Hot Springs of Iceland, both together coursing their way -to the Salt Sea of Palestine in the plain below. The pages of Malte -Brun provide me with a less truthful parallel to it than those which -describe the happy Valley of Rasselas or the Continent of Balnibarbi. - -Let me then press on with my history, during the few minutes that -remain for me. - -Only two events have occurred to menace seriously the establishment at -Deseret: the first threatened to destroy its crops, the other to break -it up altogether. - -The shores of the Salt Lake are infested by a sort of insect pest, -which claims a vile resemblance to the locust of the Syrian Dead Sea. -Wingless, dumpy, black, swollen-headed, with bulging eyes in cases like -goggles, mounted upon legs of steel wire and clock-spring, and with a -general personal appearance that justified the Mormons in comparing him -to a cross of the spider on the buffalo, the Deseret cricket comes down -from the mountains at a certain season of the year, in voracious and -desolating myriads. It was just at this season, that the first crops of -the new settlers were in the full glory of their youthful green. The -assailants could not be repulsed. The Mormons, after their fashion, -prayed and fought, and fought and prayed, but to no purpose. The "Black -Philistines" mowed their way even with the ground, leaving it as if -touched with an acid or burnt by fire. - -But an unlooked for ally came to the rescue. Vast armies of bright -birds, before strangers to the valley, hastened across the lake from -some unknown quarter, and gorged themselves upon the well fatted enemy. -They were snow white, with little heads and clear dark eyes, and little -feet, and long wings, that arched in flight "like an angel's." At first -the Mormons thought they were new enemies to plague them; but when -they found them hostile only to the locusts, they were careful not to -molest them in their friendly office, and to this end declared a heavy -fine against all who should kill or annoy them with firearms. The gulls -soon grew to be tame as the poultry, and the delighted little children -learned to call them their pigeons. They disappeared every evening -beyond the lake; but, returning with sunrise, continued their welcome -visitings till the crickets were all exterminated. - -This curious incident recurred the following year, with this variation, -that in 1849, the gulls came earlier and saved the wheat crops from all -harm whatever. - -A severer trial than the visit of the cricket-locusts threatened -Deseret in the discovery of the gold of California. It was due to a -party of the Mormon battalion recruited on the Missouri, who on their -way home, found employment at New Helvetia. They were digging a mill -race there, and threw up the gold dust with their shovels. You all -know the crazy fever that broke out as soon as this was announced. It -infected every one through California. Where the gold was discovered, -at Sutter's and around, the standing grain was left uncut; whites, -Indians, and mustees, all set them to gathering gold, every other labor -forsaken, as if the first comers could rob the casket of all that it -contained. The disbanded soldiers came to the valley; they showed their -poor companions pieces of the yellow treasure they had gained; and the -cry was raised: "To California--To the Gold of Ophir, our brethren have -discovered! To California!" - -Some of you have perhaps come across the half ironic instruction of the -heads of the Church, to the faithful outside the Valley: - -"THE TRUE USE OF GOLD is for paving streets, covering houses, and -making culinary dishes; and, when the Saints shall have preached the -Gospel, raised grain, and built up cities enough, the Lord will open up -the way for a supply of gold to the perfect satisfaction of His People. -Until then, let them not be over-anxious, for the treasures of the -earth are in the Lord's storehouse, and he will open the doors thereof -when and where he pleases."--II. Gen. Epistle, 14. - -The enlightened virtue of their rulers saved the people and the -fortunes of Deseret. A few only went away--and they were asked in -kindness never to return. The rest remained to be healthy and happy, to -"raise grain and build up cities." - -The history of the Mormons has ever since been the unbroken record of -the most wonderful prosperity. It has looked, as though the elements -of fortune, obedient to a law of natural re-action, were struggling to -compensate to them their undue share of suffering. They may be pardoned -for deeming it miraculous. But, in truth, the economist accounts for -it all, who explains to us the speedy recuperation of cities, laid -in ruin by flood, fire and earthquake. During its years of trial, -Mormon labor has subsisted on insufficient capital, and under many -trials--but it has subsisted, and survives them now, as intelligent and -powerful as ever it was at Nauvoo; with this difference, that it has -in the meantime been educated to habits of unmatched thrift, energy -and endurance, and has been transplanted to a situation where it is -in every respect more productive. Moreover, during all the period of -their journey, while some have gained by practice in handicraft, and -the experience of repeated essays at their various halting-places, -the minds of all have been busy framing designs and planning the -improvements they have since found opportunity to execute. - -The territory of the Mormons is unequalled as a stock-raising country. -The finest pastures of Lombardy are not more estimable than those on -the east side of the Utah Lake and Jordan River. We find here that -cereal anomaly, the Bunch grass. In May, when the other grasses push, -this fine plant dries upon its stalk, and becomes a light yellow straw, -full of flavor and nourishment. It continues thus, through what are -the dry months of the climate, till January, and then starts with a -vigorous growth, like that of our own winter wheat in April, which -keeps on till the return of another May. Whether as straw or grass, -the cattle fatten on it the year round. The numerous little dells -and sheltered spots that are found in the mountains, are excellent -sheep-walks; it is said that the wool which is grown upon them is of an -unusually fine pile and soft texture. Hogs fatten on a succulent bulb -or tuber, called the Seacoe, or Seegose Root, which I hope will soon -be naturalized with us. It is highly esteemed as a table vegetable by -Mormons and Indians, and I remark that they are cultivating it with -interest at the French Garden of Plants. The emigrant poultry have -taken the best of care of each other, only needing liberty to provide -themselves with every other blessing. - -The Mormons have also been singularly happy in their Indian relations. -They have not made the common mistake of supposing savages insensible -to courtesy of demeanor; but, being taught by their religion to regard -them all as decayed brethren, have always treated the silly wicked -souls with kind-hearted civility. Though their outlay for tobacco, -wampum and vermillion has been of the very smallest, yet they have -never failed to purchase what goodwill they have wanted. - -Hence, it happens, that in their Land of Promise, they are on the -best of terms with all the Canaanites and Hittites, and Hivites, and -Amorites, and Girgashites, and Perizzites, and Jebusites, within its -borders; while they "maintain their cherished relations of amity with -the rest of mankind," who, in their case, include a sort of latest -remnant of the primaeval primates, called the Root Diggers. The -Diggers, who in stature, strength and general personal appearance, may -be likened to a society of old negro women, are only to be dreaded for -their exceeding ugliness. The tribes that rob and murder in war, and -otherwise live more like white men, are however numerous all around -them. - -Fortunately, upon their marauding expeditions, and in matters that -affect their freebooting relations generally, they all obey the great -war chief of the tribe called the Utahs, in the heart of whose proper -territory the Mormon settlements are comprehended. - -If accounts are true, the Utahs are brave fellows. They differ -obviously from the deceased nations, to whose estates we have taken it -upon ourselves to administer. They ride strong, well-limbed Spanish -horses, not ponies; bear well cut rifles, not shot-guns, across their -saddle-bows, and are not without some idea of military discipline. They -carry their forays far into the Mexican States, laying the inhabitants -under contribution, and taking captive persons of condition, whom they -hold to ransom. They are, as yet at least, little given to drink; some -of them manifest considerable desire to acquire useful knowledge; and -they are attached to their own infidel notions of religion, making -long journeys to the ancient cities of the Colorado, to worship among -the ruined temples there. The Soldan of these red Paynims, too, their -great war chief, is not without his knightly graces. According to some -of the Mormons, he is the paragon of Indians. His name, translated to -diminish its excellence as an exercise in Prosody, is Walker. He is a -fine figure of a man, in the prime of life. He excels in various manly -exercises, is a crack shot, a rough rider, and a great judge of horse -flesh. - -He is besides very clever, in our sense of the word. He is a peculiarly -eloquent master of the graceful alphabet of pantomime, which stranger -tribes employ to communicate with one another. He has picked up some -English, and is familiar with Spanish and several Indian tongues. He -rather affects the fine gentleman. When it is his pleasure to extend -his riding excursions into Mexico, to inflict or threaten outrage, -or to receive the instalments of his black mail salary, he will take -offence if the poor people there fail to kill their fattest beeves, -and adopt other measures to show him obsequious and distinguished -attention. He has more than one black-eyed mistress there, according -to his own account, to whom he makes love in her own language. His -dress is a full suit of the richest broadcloth, generally brown, cut in -European fashion, with a shining beaver hat, and fine cambric shirt. -To these, he adds his own gaudy Indian trimmings, and in this way -contrives, they say, to look superbly, when he rides at the head of his -troop, whose richly caparisoned horses, with their embroidered saddles -and harness, shine and tinkle as they prance under their weight of gay -metal ornaments. - -With all his wild cat fierceness, Walker is perfectly velvet-pawed -to the Mormons. There is a queer story about his being influenced in -their favor, by a dream. It is the fact, that from the first, he has -received the Mormon exiles into his kingdom, with a generosity, that in -its limited sphere, transcends that of the Grand Monarch to the English -Jacobites. He rejoices to give them the information they want about the -character of the country under his rule, advises with them as to the -advantages of particular localities, and wherever they choose to make -their settlements, guarantees them personal safety and immunity from -depredation. - -From the first, therefore, the Mormons have had little or nothing to do -in Deseret, but attend to their mechanical and strictly agricultural -pursuits. They have made several successful settlements; the farthest -North, at what they term Brownsville, is about forty miles, and the -farthest South, in a valley called the Sanpeech, 200 miles, from that -first formed. A duplicate of the Lake Tiberias, or Genesareth, empties -its waters into the innocent Dead Sea of Deseret, by a fine river, to -which the Mormons have given the name--it was impossible to give it any -other--of the Western Jordan. - -It was on the right bank of this stream, at a choice spot upon a rich -table land traversed by a great company of exhaustless streams falling -from the highlands, that the Pioneer band of Mormons, coming out of the -mountains in the night, pitched their first camp in the Valley, and -consecrated the ground. Curiously enough, this very spot proved the -most favorable site for their chief settlement, and after exploring -the whole country, they have founded on it their city of the New -Hierusalem. Its houses are spread to command as much as possible the -farms, which are laid out in Wards or Cantons, with a common fence to -each Ward. The farms in wheat already cover a space, greater than the -District of Columbia, over all of which they have completed the canals, -and other arrangements for bountiful irrigation, after the manner of -the cultivators of the East. The houses are distributed over an area -nearly as great as the City of New York. - -They have little thought as yet of luxury in their public buildings. -But they will soon have nearly completed a large common public -store-house and granary, and a great sized public bath-house. One of -the many wonderful thermal springs of the valley, a white sulphur water -of the temperature of 102 Fahrenheit, with a head "the thickness of a -man's body," they have already brought into the town for this purpose; -and all have learned the habit of indulging in it. They have besides -a yellow brick meeting-house, 100 feet by 60, in which they gather on -Sundays and in the week-day evenings. But this is only a temporary -structure. They have reserved a summit level in the heart of the city, -for the site of a Temple far superior to that of Nauvoo, which, in the -days of their future wealth and power, is to be the landmark of the -Basin and goal of future pilgrims. - -They mean to seek no other resting-place. After pitching camps enough -to exhaust many times over the chapter of names in 33d Numbers, they -have at last come to their Promised Land, and, "behold, it is a good -land and large, and flowing with milk and honey:" and here again for -them, as at Nauvoo, the forge smokes and the anvil rings, and whirring -wheels go round; again has returned the merry sport of childhood, and -the evening quiet of old age, and again dear house-pet flowers bloom in -garden plots round happy homes. - -It is to these homes, in the heart of our American Alps, like the holy -people of the Grand Saint Bernard, they hold out their welcome to the -passing traveller. Some of you have probably seen in the St. Louis -papers, the repeated votes of thanks to them of companies of emigrants -to California. These are often reduced to great straights after passing -Fort Laramie, and turn aside to seek the Salt Lake Colony in pitiable -plights of fatigue and destitution. The road, after leaving the Oregon -trace, is one of increasing difficulty, and when the last mountain has -been crossed, passes along the bottom of a deep Canyon, whose scenery -is of an almost terrific gloom. It is a defile that I trust no Mormon -Martin Hofer of this Western Tyrol will be called to consecrate to -liberty with blood. At every turn the overhanging cliffs threaten to -break down upon the little torrent river that has worn its way at their -base. Indeed, the narrow ravine is so serrated by this stream, that -the road crosses it from one side to the other, something like forty -times in the last five miles. At the end of the ravine, the emigrant -comes abruptly out of the dark pass into the lighted valley on an even -bench or terrace of its upper table land. No wonder if he loses his -self-control here. A ravishing panoramic landscape opens out below -him, blue, and green, and gold, and pearl; a great sea with hilly -islands, rivers, a lake, and broad sheets of grassy plain, all set, as -in a silver chased cup, within mountains whose peaks of perpetual snow -are burnished by a dazzling sun. It is less these, however, than the -foreground of old-country farms, with their stacks and thatchings and -stock, and the central city, smoking from its chimneys and swarming -with working inhabitants, that tries the men of fatigue broken nerves. -The 'Californeys' scream, they sing, they give three cheers, and do not -count them, a few have prayed; more swear, some fall on their faces and -cry outright. News arrived a few days since from a poor townsman of -ours, a journeyman saddler, that used to work up Market street beyond -Broad, by name Gillian, who sought the valley, his cattle given out, -and himself broken down and half heart-broken:--The recluse Mormons -fed and housed him and his party, and he made his way through to the -gold diggings with restored health and strength. To Gillian's credit -for manhood, should perhaps be cited his own allegation, that he first -whistled through his fingers various popular nocturnal, street, circus, -and theatre calls; but it is certain that, when my tidings speak of -him, which was when he was afterwards hospitably entreated by a Mormon, -whom he knew ten years ago as one of our Chester County farmers, he was -completely dissolved into something not far from the hysterics, and -wept on till the tears ran down his dusty beard. - -Several hundred emigrants, in more or less distress, received -gratuitous assistance last year from the Mormons. - -Their community must go on thriving. They are to be the chief workers -and contractors upon "Whitney's Railroad," or whatever scheme is to -unite the Atlantic and Pacific by way of the South Pass; and their -valley must be its central station. They have already raised a -"Perpetual Fund" for "the final fulfilment of the covenant made by the -Saints in the Temple at Nauvoo," which "is not to cease till all the -poor are brought to the valley." All the poor still lingering behind, -will be brought there: so at an early period will the fifty thousand -communicants, the Church already numbers in Great Britain, with all -the other "increase among the Gentiles." Their place of rendezvous -will be upon what were formerly the Pottawatamie lands. The interests -of this Stake have been admirably cared for. It now comprises the -thriving counties of "Fremont" and "Pottawatamie," in which the -Mormons still number a majority of the inhabitants. Their chief town -is growing rapidly, already boasting over three thousand inhabitants, -with nineteen large merchants' stores, the mail lines and five regular -steam packets running to it, and other western evidences of prosperity; -besides a fine Music Hall and public buildings, and the printing -establishment of a very ably edited newspaper, "The Frontier Guardian." - -It is probably the best station on the Missouri for commencing -the overland journey to Oregon and California; as travellers can -follow directly from it the Mormon road, which, in addition to other -advantages, proves to be more salubrious than those to the south of -it. Large numbers are expected to arrive at this point from England -during the present spring, on their way to the Salt Lake. They will -repay their welcome; for every working person gained to the hive of -their "Honey State" counts as added wealth. So far, the Mormons write -in congratulation, that they have not among them "a single loafer rich -or poor, idle gentleman or lazy vagabond." They are no Communists; but -their experience has taught them the gain of joint stock to capital, -and combination to labor,--perhaps something more, for I remark they -have recently made arrangements to "classify their mechanics," which -is probably a step in the right direction. They will be successful -manufacturers, for their vigorous land-locked industry cannot be -tampered with by protection. They have no gold--they have not hunted -for it; but they have found wealth of other valuable minerals; rock -salt enough to do the curing of the world,--"We'll salt the Union for -you," they write, "if you can't preserve it in any other way,"--perhaps -coal, excellent ores of iron everywhere. They are near enough, however, -to the Californian Sierra, to be the chief quartermasters of its -miners; and they will dig their own gold in their unlimited fields -of admirably fertile land. I should only invite your incredulity, -and the disgust of the Horticultural Society, by giving you certain -measurements of mammoth beets, turnips, pumpkins, and garden -vegetables, in my possession. In that country where stock thrives care -free, where a poor man's 32 potatoes saved can return him 18 bushels, -and 2 1/2 bushels of wheat sown yield 350 bushels in a season; or where -an average crop of wheat on irrigated lands is 50 bushels to the acre; -the farmer's part is hardly to be despised. Certainly it will not be -under a continuance of the present prices current of the region,--wheat -at $4 the bushel, and flour $12 the hundred, with a ready market. - -The recent letters from Deseret interest me in one thing more. They are -eloquent in describing the anniversary of the Pioneers' arrival in the -Valley. It was the 24th of July, and they have ordained that that day -shall be commemorated in future, like our 21st of December, as their -Forefather's Day. The noble Walker attended as an invited guest, with -two hundred of his best dressed mounted cavaliers, who stacked their -guns and took up their places at the ceremonies and banquet, with the -quiet precision of soldiers marched to mass. The Great Band was there -too, that had helped their humble hymns through all the wanderings of -the Wilderness. Through the many trying marches of 1846, through the -fierce winter ordeal that followed, and the long journey after over -plain and mountain, it had gone unbroken, without the loss of any of -its members. As they set out from England, and as they set out from -Illinois, so they all came into the valley together, and together -sounded the first glad notes of triumph when the Salt Lake City was -founded. It was their right to lead the psalm of praise. Anthem, song -and dance, all the innocent and thankful frolic of the day owed them -its chief zest. "They never were in finer key." The people felt their -sorrows ended. FAR WEST, their old settlement in Missouri, and NAUVOO; -with their wealth and ease, like "Pithom and Ramses, treasure cities -built for Pharaoh," went awhile forgotten. Less than four years had -restored them every comfort that they needed. Their entertainment, -the contribution of all, I have no doubt was really sumptuous. It was -spread on broad buffet tables about 1400 feet in length, at which they -took their seats by turns, while they kept them heaped with ornamented -delicacies. "Butter of kine, and milk, with fat of lambs, with the -fat of kidneys of wheat;" "and the cucumbers, and the melons, and the -leeks, and the onions, and the garlic, and the remembered fish which -we did eat in Egypt freely"--they seem unable to dilate with too much -pride upon the show it made. - -"To behold the tables," says one, that I quote from literally: - -"To behold them filling the Bowery and all adjoining grounds, loaded -with all luxuries of the fields and gardens and nearly all the -varieties that any vegetable market in the world could produce, and -to see the seats around those tables filled and refilled by a people -who had been deprived of those luxuries for years by the cruel hand of -oppression, and freely offering seats to every stranger within their -borders; and this, too, in the Valley of the Mountains, over a thousand -miles from civilization, where, two years before, naught was to be -found save the wild root of the prairie and the mountain cricket; was -a theme of unbounded thanksgiving and praise to the Giver of all Good, -as the dawning of a day when the Children of the Kingdom can sit under -their own vines and fig-trees, and inhabit their own houses, having -none to make them afraid. May the time be hastened when the scattered -Israel may partake of such like banquets from the gardens of Joseph!" -[G] - -I have gone over the work I assigned myself when I accepted your -Committee's invitation, as fully as I could do without trespassing too -largely upon your courteous patience. But I should do wrong to conclude -my lecture without declaring in succinct and definite terms, the -opinions I have formed and entertain of the Mormon people. The libels, -of which they have been made the subject, make this a simple act of -justice. Perhaps, too, my opinion, even with those who know me as you -do, will better answer its end following after the narrative I have -given. - -I have spoken to you of a people; whose industry had made them -rich, and gathered around them all the comforts, and not a few of -the luxuries of refined life; expelled by lawless force into the -Wilderness; seeking an untried home far away from the scenes which -their previous life had endeared to them; moving onward, destitute, -hunger-sickened, and sinking with disease; bearing along with them -their wives and children, the aged, and the poor, and the decrepit; -renewing daily on their march, the offices of devotion, the ties of -family and friendship, and charity; sharing necessities, and braving -dangers together, cheerful in the midst of want and trial, and -persevering until they triumphed. I have told, or tried to tell you, of -men, who when menaced by famine, and in the midst of pestilence, with -every energy taxed by the urgency of the hour, were building roads and -bridges, laying out villages, and planting cornfields, for the stranger -who might come after them, their kinsman only by a common humanity, -and peradventure a common suffering,--of men, who have renewed their -prosperity in the homes they have founded in the desert,--and who, -in their new built city, walled round by mountains like a fortress, -are extending pious hospitalities to the destitute emigrants from our -frontier lines,--of men who, far removed from the restraints of law, -obeyed it from choice, or found in the recesses of their religion, -something not inconsistent with human laws, but far more controlling; -and who are now soliciting from the government of the United States, -not indemnity,--for the appeal would be hopeless, and they know it--not -protection, for they now have no need of it,--but that identity of -political institutions and that community of laws with the rest of us, -which was confessedly their birthright when they were driven beyond our -borders. - -I said I would give you the opinion I formed of the Mormons: you may -deduce it for yourselves from these facts. But I will add that I have -not yet heard the single charge against them as a Community, against -their habitual purity of life, their integrity of dealing, their -toleration of religious differences in opinion, their regard for the -laws, or their devotion to the constitutional government under which -we live, that I do not from my own observation, or the testimony of -others, know to be unfounded. - - THE END. - - - -POSTSCRIPT TO THE SECOND EDITION. - -I have been annoyed by comments this hastily written discourse has -elicited. Well meaning friends have even invited me to tone down its -remarks in favor of the Mormons, for the purpose of securing them a -readier acceptance.--I can only make them more express. The Truth must -take care of itself. I not only meant to deny that the Mormons in any -wise fall below our own standard of morals, but I would be distinctly -understood to ascribe to those of their number with whom I associated -in the West, a general correctness of deportment, and purity of -character above the average of ordinary communities. - -The furthest I can go toward qualifying my testimony, will be to name -the causes, to which, as a believer in Nature's compensations, I have -myself credited this undue morality. - -It was partly attributable perhaps to their forced abstemiousness; -the diet of the most fortunate Mormons having been for long continued -periods very spare, and composed almost wholly of vegetable food, with -few condiments, and no intoxicating liquors. Some influence should -be referred also to their custom of early and equal marriages, these -not being regulated by the prudential considerations which embarrass -opulent communities; something more to the supervision which was -incidental to their nomadic life, and the habits it encouraged of -disciplined, but grateful industry. - -The chief cause, however, was probably found in this fact. The Mormons -as I saw them, though a majority, were but a portion of the Church -as it flourished in Illinois. When the persecution triumphed there, -and no alternative remained for the steadfast in the faith but the -flight out of Egypt into the Wilderness, as it was termed, all their -fair weather friends forsook them. Priests and elders, scribes and -preachers deserted by whole councils at a time; each talented knave, -of whose craft they had been victims, finding his own pretext for -abandoning them, without surrendering the money-bag of which he was -the holder. One of these, for instance, bore with him so considerable -a congregation that he was able to found quite a thriving community -in Northern Wisconsin, which I believe he afterwards transplanted -entire to an island in one of the Lakes. Other speculator-heresiarchs -folded for themselves credulous sheep all through the Western Country. -One Rigdon not long since had a Cure of them in our own State. Quite -recently, an abandoned clergyman, who shortly before the Exod was -excommunicated for his improper conduct, has presented a memorial to -Congress, in which he charges the Mormons with very much more than he -himself appears to have been guilty of. This abusive person, a former -intimate of the Major General James Arlington Bennet, lately on trial -at New York, in company with a One Eyed Mr. Thompson of that city, is -also the only surviving brother of the Prophet Smith, founder of the -Sect, and as such, still claims to be its sole true President, and -genuine Arch High Priest. - -So the Mormons have been, as it were, broken and screened by calamity. -Their designing leaders have left them to seek fairer fortunes -elsewhere. Those that remain of the old rock are the masses, always -honest in the main and sincere even in delusion; and their guides -are a few tried and trusty men, little initiated in the plotting -of synagogues, and more noted for services rendered than bounties -received. They are the men whom I saw on the prairie trail, sharing -sorrow with the sorrowful, and poverty with the poor;--the chief of -them all, a man of rare natural endowment, to whose masterly guidance -they are mainly indebted for their present prosperity, driving his own -ox-team and carrying his sick child in his arms. [H] The fact explains -itself, that those only were willing to undertake their fearful -pilgrimage of penance, whom a sense of conscientious duty made willing -to give up the world for their religion. The Mormons I knew, were all, -as far as I could judge, partakers of the sacraments, persons of prayer -and faith; and their contentment, their temperance, their heroism, -their strivings after the golden age of Christian brotherhood, were -but the manifestations of their ever present and engrossing devotional -feeling. - -I am asked to explain or justify the Mormon Creed:--I will have nothing -to do with it. It is enough for me to say, that it does not manifest -itself externally by the Pythian ravings or Eleusinian hocus pocus -of new religions, nor the pageantry or mumming of those sometime -established; that its communicants cultivate no mysteries or double -faiths; and that I certainly think they are to be believed in their own -exposition of it. They have two books, that are for sale in the shops, -called The Book of Mormon and The Book of Doctrine and Covenants, -which profess to contain the entire body of their faith. The latter -harmless work has its special chapters on Marriage, and on the Right of -Property, Religious Toleration, and the Union of Church and State. [I] -I am not called upon to investigate this subject, so long as any person -of a jealous orthodoxy can constitute himself as good an inquisitor, by -investing somewhere about one dollar and fifty cents. - -Nor shall I go out of my way to discuss the question of the former -character of the Mormons. What they were in Illinois, or what some of -their predecessors were there, it will not be difficult for those to -learn who are curious after the truth: the Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, -who as Presiding Judge of the Circuit in which they lived was often -called upon to dismiss idle charges against them, is now at Washington, -an honored member of the Senate of the United States. His personal -testimony I am assured has always vindicated his judicial action. - -Some good people who believe the Mormons traduced, ask me how they -are to account for the great prevalence of these charges before the -expulsion. Interest, and feeling founded on it, is the answer. The -value of the property of which the Mormons were dispossessed in -Missouri and Illinois is currently estimated at over Twenty Millions -of Dollars: an adequate consideration certainly for a good deal -of misrepresentation on the part of those who were endeavoring to -appropriate it to themselves. - -A motive sufficiently analogous explains the active circulation of -new calumnies within the last half year. Instead of being broken up -forever, as not more than five years ago their foes supposed with -reason, their Congregation is gathering in increased numbers, and -their application to be admitted as a State into the Union announces -their probable restoration to power and influence, and is a cause -of corresponding disquiet to the possessors of the properties in -Illinois and Missouri from which they have been expelled. These are -now the busiest Mormon slanderers. I speak of them with reluctance. -They are, the best of them, but interested persons, who circulate -calumnies at hearsay, calumnies which began with the original enemies -of the Mormons, the felons, that charged with unchastity the wretched -women they had ravished--with riot the men whose brothers they had -murdered--with community of Property those whom themselves had robbed, -whose houses and homes they fired over their heads on the lands from -which they drove them. Such wretches lie with the brutal strength of -Crime. And the Mormons are far away, and their few friends here are -nearly all in humble life, and those public men in the West whose duty -it was to do them justice, consent to render themselves parties to the -guilt of their constituents by their interested silence. - -At all events, was there not something about their religion made their -neighbors unable to live with them?--Undoubtedly the industrious -chevaliers of the Half Breed Tract, and other like precious neighbors -of the Mormons, have in one sense proved this to be the case: perhaps, -in the course of their wolf and lamb quarrel, they may have even -said so, and before they finally devoured the offenders, complained -seriously of the insulting proximity of their good roads, good -schools, temperance and moral reform and musical associations, and -their good laws not enacted only, but enforced. I understand this to -be essentially the ground of complaint of the same marauders against -the Swedish Quaker Colony, they have lately broken up in Henry County, -above Nauvoo. - -With other neighbors the Mormons have no trouble. We have had large -numbers of them in Philadelphia, and elsewhere to the East, for now -nearly twenty years past, whose good citizenship is no subject of -discussion with those who have daily business dealings with them. In -England too, they number nearly twice as many adult members as the -Baptists in Pennsylvania. Once indeed, when their religion was first -preached in that country--it was at the very time their earliest trial -before Lynch J., in Missouri, was pending--a charge was laid against -them in a manufacturing borough there, that they had made away with -an Elizabeth, or Betsey Martin, one of their new converts; and the -beginning of a mob entered upon its examination. But to her British -Majesty's Government, which holds the old fashioned notions of law -and order, it mattered as little if it were the case of Betty Martin -a Mormon, as of Betty Martin the Cyprian: a commonplace Government -Magistrate decided there should be no mob, and a commonplace legal -investigation decided the charge was groundless. The Mormons have -therefore been free to preach and sing and pray in the United Kingdom -to this hour; and I remark that Evangelic sectaries of my own -persuasion there, do battle with them in print on the same terms as -with Millerites, Wesleyans, or Seventh, or Every Day Baptists. - -It is observed to me with a vile meaning, that I have said little about -the Mormon women. I have scarcely alluded to them, because my memories -of them are such that I cannot think of their character as a theme for -discussion. In one word, it was eminently that which for Americans -dignifies the names of mother, wife, and sister. Of the self-denying -generosity which went to ennoble the whole people in my eyes, I -witnessed among them the brightest illustrations. I have seen the ideal -Charity of the statue gallery surpassed by the young Mormon mother, who -shared with the stranger's orphan the breast of milk of her own child. - -Can charges, which are so commonly and so circumstantially laid, be -without any foundation at all?--I know it. Upon my return from the -Prairie, I met through the settlements scandalous stories against the -President of the Sect, which dated of the precise period when I myself -was best acquainted with his self-denying and blameless life. I had -an experience no less satisfactory with regard to other falsehoods, -some of them the most extravagant and most widely believed. During -the sickness I have referred to, I was nursed by a dear lady, well -connected in New York and New Jersey, whom I sufficiently name to -many, by stating that she was the first cousin of one of our most -respected citizens, whose conduct as chief Magistrate of Philadelphia -in an excited time won for him our general esteem. In her exile, she -found her severest suffering in the belief that her friends in the -States looked upon her as irreclaimably outcast. It was one of the -first duties I performed on my return, to enlighten them as to her true -position, and the character of her exemplary husband; and the knowledge -of this fact arrived in time, I believe, to be of comfort to her before -she sank under the privation and hardship of the march her frame was -too delicate to endure. - -15 July, 1850. - - THOMAS L. KANE. - - - -Footnotes: - -A: Nine children were born the first night the women camped out. "Sugar -Creek," Feb. 5. - -B: One of the company having a copy of Mme. Cottin's Elizabeth, it was -so sought after that some read it from the wagons by moonlight. They -were materially sustained, too, by the practice of psalmody, "keeping -up the Songs of Zion, and passing along Doxologies from front to rear, -when the breath froze on their eyelashes." - -C: Rev. Dr. Morton, of Philadelphia. - -D: It is certain that there is no sickness among the present -inhabitants of this region comparable to that of 1846. - -E: This camp was moved by the beginning of October to winter quarters -on the river, where also, there was considerable sickness before the -cold weather. I am furnished with something over 600 as the number of -burials in the graveyard there. - -F: I knew of an orphan boy, for instance, who came on by himself at -this time a foot, starting with no other provision than his trowser's -pocket full of biscuit, given him from a steamboat on the Mississippi. - -G: Letter of the Presidency, Great Salt Lake City, Oct. 12, 1849. - -H: This was BRIGHAM YOUNG, the choice of the Mormons for Governor -of Deseret. As this man, together with HEBER C. KIMBALL and WILLARD -RICHARDS, nominees of the same people for the offices of Lieutenant -Governor and Secretary, have been singled out as the objects of libel, -it is right I should state that I knew them intimately. I found Mr. -Kimball a man of singular generosity and purity of character, and Dr. -Richards a genial gentleman and pleasant scholar of the most varied -attainments: The integrity of all three altogether above question. T. -L. K. - -I: It may be well, however, to quote from two of these. - -SECTION CIX.--ON MARRIAGE. - -Marriage should be celebrated with prayer and thanksgiving; and at the -solemnization, the persons to be married standing together, the man on -the right, and the woman on the left, shall be addressed by the person -officiating, as he shall be directed by the Holy Spirit; and if there -shall be no legal objections, he shall say, calling each by their -names: You both mutually agree to be each other's companion, husband -and wife; observing the legal rights belonging to this condition; -that is, keeping yourself wholly for each other, and from all others, -during your lives. And when they shall have answered "yes," he shall -pronounce them "Husband and wife in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, -and by virtue of the laws of the country, and authority vested in -him:" saying, "May God add his blessing, and keep you to fulfil your -covenants from henceforth and forever. Amen." - -The clerk of every church should keep a record of all marriages -solemnized in his branch. - -All legal contracts of marriages made before a person is baptised into -this church should be held sacred and fulfilled. Inasmuch as this -Church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication and -polygamy, we declare that we believe, that one man should have one -wife, and one woman but one husband, except in cases of death, when -either is at liberty to marry again. It is not right to persuade a -woman to be baptized contrary to the will of her husband, neither is it -lawful to influence her to leave her husband. All children are bound -by law to obey their parents; and to influence them to embrace any -religious faith, or be baptized, or leave their parents without their -consent, is unlawful and unjust. We believe that husband, parents, and -masters, who exercise control over their wives, children, and servants, -and prevent them from embracing the truth, will have to answer for that -sin. - -SECTION CX.--ON GOVERNMENTS AND LAWS IN GENERAL. - -We believe that governments were instituted of God, for the benefit -of man, and that he holds men accountable for their acts in relation -to them, either in making laws or administering them for the good and -safety of Society. We believe that no government can exist in peace, -except such laws are framed, and held inviolate, as will secure to each -individual the FREE exercise of CONSCIENCE, the RIGHT and control of -PROPERTY, and the protection of life. - -We do not believe it just to mingle religious influence with civil -government; whereby one religious society is fostered, and another -proscribed in its spiritual privileges, and the individual rights of -its members as citizens denied. We do not believe that any religious -society has authority to try men on the right of property or life, to -take from them this world's goods, or put them in jeopardy either of -life or limb, neither to inflict any physical punishment upon them: -they can only excommunicate them from their society, and withdraw from -their fellowship. - -We believe that religion is instituted of God, and that men are -amenable to him, and to him only, for the exercise of it, unless -their religious opinions prompt them to infringe upon the rights and -liberties of others. We do not believe that human law has a right to -interfere in prescribing rules of worship to bind the consciences of -men, nor dictate forms for public or private devotion. We believe -that the civil magistrate should restrain crime, but never control -conscience; should punish guilt, but never suppress the liberty of the -soul. - -THE BOOK OF DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS.--Edition printed by John Taylor, at -Nauvoo, Illinois, 1844; pp. 440--443. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mormons, by Thomas L. 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