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put in operation, the Mormons themselves being governed entirely by the Head of the Church. A territorial government was established in 1850, and in October of that year the President of the United States appointed Brigham Young governor.

The Mormons are now making strenuous efforts to increase the popu

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alation of their teeritory. To this end they have sent emmissaries abroad to invite the Saints to the new Zion, and a sum exceeding a quarter of a million of dollars have been provided, for the purpose of defraying the expenses of poor pilgrims thither. The pens of Orson Pratt (who established a monthly publication called The Seer, at Washington City) their great expounder, and others, are busy in the promulgation of their peculiar views, and in encomiums upon the beauty of the country, the peacefulnes and purity of society, and the general happiness of the people of Deserét.

In Great Britain their converts are very numerous, amounting at the present time to not less than 30,000. In the three kingdoms of England, Wales, and Scotland, they had, in 1851, 12 high priests, 1761 elders, 1590 priests, 1226 teachers, and 682 deacons. Since 1838 more than 50,000 converts have been baptized in Great Britain, of whom about 17,000 have joined their brethren in America. A large portion of them land at New Orleans, and others go around Cape Horn to California, and thence to Deserét. They have missionaries in every quarter of the globe-even the Celestials of China have heard their preaching, and the sect numbers

at the present time, not far from 200,000 souls! Should permanent pros perity attend the commonwealth of Deserét, the great bulk of these converts will doubtless be gathered there. What will be the result of the consolidation of such a people, one in interest and faith, in the heart of our continent, whose acknowledged head is supreme in all things, spiritual, temporal, social, and political, is a question worthy of the profound attention of statesmen and political economists.

The country inhabited by the Mormons is one of the most remarkable on the face of the globe. It consists in a series of extensive valleys and rocky margins, spread out in an immense basin, surrounded by rugged mountains, out of which no waters flow. It is midway between the States on the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean, perfectly isolated from habitable regions, and embracing a demain "covering sixteen degrees of longitude in the Utah latitudes." On the east are the sterile spurs of the Rocky Mountains, stretching down to the vast plains traversed by the Platte river; on the west, extending nearly a thousand miles to the Pacific, are arid salt deserts, broken by barren mountains; and north and south are immense mountain districts, unsusceptible to habitation by

man.

According to Kane, Stansbury, Gunnison and others who have visited that region, the Great Basin is more than four thousand feet above the ocean, between the Nevada and Wahsatch ranges. The Great Salt Lake is on the eastern side of an interior basin five hundred miles in diameter; and its southeastern shore, where the Mormons have settled, is the most fertile portion of the whole region. The country along the Jordan from Utah Lake to the Great Salt Lake is very beautiful, and the numerous streams which gush from the hill sides are cold, fresh, and sparkling.* The valleys afford perennial pasturage, and by early irrigation they are made to yield abundant crops. Sixty to seventy bushels of wheat to the acre is an average yield, and potatoes and Indian corn grow luxuriantly. It is estimated that the Great Valley is capable of giving sustenance, from each square mile, to four thousand persons, and that the territory of Leserét will maintain, with ease, a million of inhabitants. Wild game abounds in the mountains, and the streams are filled with excellent fish; the climate is delightful at all seasons of the year, and "breathing is a real luxury."

Southward, over the rim of the basin, is a fine cotton-growing region into which the Mormons are penetrating. The vast hills and mountain slopes present the finest pasturage in the world for sheep, alpacas and goats. The water power of the whole mountain region is immense. Iron minds everywhere abound; and in the Green River Basin are inexhaustible beds of coal. In these great natural resources and defenses, possessed by a people of such indomitable energy and perseverance as the Mormons, we see the vital elements of a powerful mountain

* Lieutenant Gunnison says of the Great Salt Lake: "The water is perfectly saturated with salt, and so dense that persons float, cork-like, on its waves, o! stand suspended with ease, with the shoulders exposed above the surface." Th Alormons, etc., p. 18.

aation, in the heart of our continent, and in the direct pathway from the Atlantic to the Pacific States, that may yet play a most important part, for good or evil, in the destinies of our country and of the world.

The Mormons hold to the Sacrament of Baptism, but teach that it is not only efficacious in the salvation of the recipient, but that a person may be baptized for the unregenerated dead that a man may become a savior for a friend already in the spirit-world. They profess to adhere to primitive forms of church government and have the several orders of officers. The efficacy of Confirmation, or laying on of hands for the impartation of the Holy Ghost, is taught, but this, like other rites, is variously interpreted by different teachers. In all their ministrations, the Mormon teachers are liberal latitudinarians. Like the Epicureans, they teach the enjoyment of all the pleasures of this life. Their church worship is opened and closed by the performance of lively airs by a band of music; the revered elders join in the dances, feastings, and sports of the people, and the whole College of Apostles are what pleasure-loving folk would call "jolly fellows." The bosom of the church of Latter Day Saints offers the joys of a Mussulman's Paradise to its children.

Polygamy has doubtless been practiced by the chief men of the Church, ever since the revelation on that subject to Sidney Rigdon, at Nauvoo. It was given the soft appellation of "spiritual wife doctrine," and they sought to give the impression that its practice betook of the purity of Platonic love. But the world would not believe it, although the inspired Prophet himself declared it. They still asserted the purity of the relation, even after they had founded their isolated city in the wilderness; but intelligent Gentiles, when visiting them, discovered the materiality of the doctrine. "I was not aware before," says a recent writer, "that polygamy was sanctioned by their creed, beyond a species of ethereal Platonism which accorded to its especial Saints chosen partners called spiritual wives; but I now found that these, contrary to one's ordinary notions of Spiritualism, gave birth to cherubs and unfledged angels." No longer able to conceal the fact from the world, they now openly avow and defend the practice of polygamy. They even give it the sanction of a religious duty as a means of greater happiness in the future world. They teach that no woman can attain to celestial glory without a husband to introduce her into paradise; nor can a man arrive at full perfection without at least one wife; and the greater the number he is able to take with him, the higher will be his seat in the celestial city! In a recent number of The Seer, Pratt, the great expounder of their doctrines, boldly advocates this practice, at the same time explaining the various guards which they profess are thrown around the "peculiar institution" to prevent immoral results. Polygamy is now openly practiced in the Great Salt Lake City, and the dignitaries of the church have each as many wives as they are able to support. It is said that President Young, the Sovereign Pontiff, has at least thirty wives in his household! Yet we must not unfairly withhold the acknowledgment that, as a people, they practice many social virtues. They are temperate, industrious, frugal, and honest. They are kind and hospitable to strangers; and many a half-starved aud weary emigrant on his way to Cali

fornia, has had reason to bless the Mormons for their charity The surface of society there exhibits the aspect of the highest degree of public and private virtue and sound morality. But the poison is at work secretly; and not many years will elapse before its effects will be seen on the surface of the body politic.

To the mind of the Christian, the religious character of the Mormons offers a dark picture. To the American patriot, the philanthropist, and the Christian philosopher, the political and social aspect of the sect awakens fearful apprehensions concerning the future. The Mormons are, ostensibly, loyal to the federal constitution, and profess great purity in their social relations. Will their loyalty survive the day of sufficient power to avenge the wrongs they have suffered, provoked or not, at the hands of American citizens? Is their allegiance to the Head of their Church as Supreme Pontiff-"prophet, priest, and king," spiritual and temporal-insignificant and without meaning? Will polygamy, now openly avowed and practiced, be productive of no social evils, which may menace the stability of public virtue and the best interests of society? These are questions of vast importance, and command our most serious attention. The fire of persecution is quenched, we hope, forever. The puissance of public opinion, formed on the basis of public virtue and supported by public law, must enter the lists as champion of social purity and uncorrupt republicanism. The sooner the trumpet of the herald is heard the better. The sect is rapidly increasing in numbers, power and influence. They really assume political, social, and religious independence of all the world. They will not tolerate public officers among them who are not of their faith. They enact laws, regulate commerce, coin money, and do all other things which an independent state claims a right to do. Asserting their saintship par excellence, and consequently the whole earth as their patrimony, they look for universal dominion, temporal and spiritual. The Great Salt Lake Citythe New Jerusalem is to be the central capital where the glory of the earth is to be displayed.

PRAIRIE AND MOUNTAIN REGIONS EXPLORED.

One of the most magnificent conceptions connected with the whole history of our country and of humanity, in the present age, is the gradual and inevitable diffusion of a civilized population throughout the vast domains of the West, until they even reach the far distant shores of the Pacific. Whatever instrumentalities may aid in the accomplishment of this glorious result, deserve the commendation and praise of every patriot; and few Americans can boast of possessing a greater, probably none as great, a share in the promotion of this benificent result, as Col. Frémont. For several years previous to 1843, the tide of emigration continued to spread like a slow but mighty flood, farther and farther ovel those boundless domains; but many dangers and difficulties harassed the

daring adventurer, as he thus labored heroically to plant the standard o civilization in the midst of those pimeval solitudes. In 1842, a thousand of these bold pioneers started from the confines of Missouri, and traversed the vast plain which intervened between them and the foot or the Rocky Mountains. They then crossed that mighty barrier, after enduring extraordinary privations and perils, and spread themselves out over the verdant slope which descended toward the calm billows and the unvexed shores of the Pacific. The American Congress at this period were singularly averse to taking any measures which would protect these settlers, both from the Indians, and from the other hardships incident to their adventurous life. The British Hudson Bay Company were then the implacable foes of every American colonist; and they constantly incited the Indians to the most infamous outrages upon them. At length, through the exertions of Mr. Benton, the matter of the Western territories, and the remoter domains of the United States, was brought before Congress in 1842. Considerable opposition then existed in the minds even of distinguished and enlightened statesmen, against any expenditure of time or money, in the promotion of the security and welfare of those vast tracts. It was thought that the time for action had not yet arrived, and that the outlay would not be remunerative. But through the more enlightened exertions of the great statesman of Missouri, a propitious change was effected. A bill was introduced by Mr. Linn, a senator from Missouri, whose purpose was to protect and ncourage emigration to those remote regions which lay in the valley of the Oregon, and around the mouth of the Columbia River. The consequence of this movement was, that soon the emigration vastly increased. Colonies were planted throughout Oregon, composed of hardy and industrious settlers; and the foundations were then laid, broad and deep, upon which a mighty empire will hereafter be erected, which will constitute a prominent portion of the prodigious family of empires which, in the progress of time, will occupy and adorn this whole continent. But the chief promotive cause of that very emigration, was the first expedition of Frémont to the Rocky Mountains, which was undertaken in the summer of 1842. His purpose was to establish the feasibility and safety of an overland communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific States. The comprehensive plan of this expedition comprised the whole of those western territories which lie between the Missouri and the Pacific; and the execution of his plan embraced the exploration of the Rocky Mountains, on one of whose highest peaks, that of the Wind River, thirteen thousand feet above the level of the ocean, it was his good fortune afterward to plant the standard of his country.

Before his appointment to this memorable expedition, Lieut. Frémont had become impressed with the important and valuable resuits which such a venture would produce. He made application to Col. Abert, Chief of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, for permission to visit the frontier lying beyond the Mississippi. No sooner was the permission granted, than his views and aspirations enlarged; and taking back the order to Col. Abert, he had it so altered as to include the Rocky Mountains, and to specify the South Pass as the point to which his

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