The fact that leading Mormons were found to vindicate the people, notwithstanding the degraded condition which such language implies, and openly to oppose Young's measures in a public meeting, is a hopeful one, and of deep significance.
In pursuance of the same policy of segregation of the
faithful, and preparatory to the accomplishment of his ambitious schemes, Young has established a system of militia training and reviews, confined exclusively to Mormons. This system he sedulously fosters and maintains, commanding the Mormon militia as Governor of the State of Deseret.
On the 2d of November, 1865, such a review was held on the plains of Salt Lake Valley, near the Jordan River. On that occasion Governor Durkee, who had lately arrived in the Territory as the successor of the lamented Doty, visited the Mormon troops and marched in a procession headed by Brigham Young. The Organic Act of Utah makes the Governor the Commander-in-Chief of the Militia, and it would seem to have been more consonant with the spirit of that provision, and more conservative of the dignity of his position, to have headed the procession, or if not permitted to do so, to have dispersed it as an illegal assemblage.
General Connor, who has lately returned to Salt Lake from a brilliant Indian campaign, is the military commander of the Department of Utah. He does not look with favor upon the marshalling of military forces composed exclusively of Mormons, and considers such gatherings but little better than displays of rebels in arms. The progress of events will soon determine whether the military organization of the Mormon militia is conducive to loyalty and good order, or to anarchy and rebellion.
Notwithstanding these attempts to organize and nationalize his followers, there are, within the dominions of Brigham Young, and among the masses of his adherents, various conflicting elements, furnishing hopeful indications to the statesman and the lover of his country. It may reasonably be expected that Young will soon appear to the deluded people in his true character; not as a branch of the Divinity, but as a selfish, corrupt, ambitious, and very dangerous man.
To this end, every attempt to enlighten and disabuse them, should be encouraged, and such changes in the Organic Act should be made as may be necessary to protect the rights of
gentiles resident in the Territory. The extraordinary jurisdiction now exercised by the Probate Courts should be taken away and limited to the District Courts. The Governor should not only be authorized, but required to take the leadership and control of the militia of the Territory. The laws of Congress against polygamy should be rigidly enforced. Mormon postmasters and other Mormon federal officers should be removed. These and kindred measures should be adopted and enforced, until the authority of the Federal Government shall be fully vindicated and acknowledged.
Among the agencies already at work to accomplish this desirable end, and to redeem Utah from her enthralment, may be mentioned the discovery of mines of precious metals, and the large influx of miners,—the preaching not only of a purer Mormon faith, under the auspices of Joseph Smith Jr., but the promulgation of the Gospel itself, and of the principles of Christianity in their purity, by Rev. Norman McLeod, a Congregational minister of great boldness and talent, who is now firmly established in the Territory,—the extended and controlling influence of the "Union Vedette," a daily and weekly paper published at Salt Lake City, and edited with an ability which is but a synonym for immense moral, intellectual, and political power,—and above all, the military administration of General Connor, who, by the discreet but firm hand with which he has held a check upon the movements of unprincipled church leaders, by the establishment and support of the journal just mentioned, and by the encouragement given to gentiles and disaffected Mormons, has done more to undermine and overthrow the whole system of Mormonism than all other influences combined!
Much is to be expected from the discovery of valuable mines of gold, silver, and copper, in various localities in Utah. Already mining camps have been established, mining companies formed, and villages and settlements of miners are springing up in different directions. In Rush Valley, west of the Oquirrh, or West Mountain, about forty miles southwest