While we must believe that these high pretensions of Joe Smith’s are delusions if not imposture of the most daring kind, it is still an interesting question what was the secret of the wonderful influence which he possessed over such thousands in the present age, and by which he was able not only to form them into a vast organised society, but even after his death to leave them so firmly knit together that no sign of dissolution appears amongst them. No doubt, however, but that Joe Smith was an extraordinary man, however unprincipled, gifted with a measure of that far-seeing power which assumes to be prophetic, and possessed of that subtle influence which subdues to its dominion the minds of all who are brought within its sphere, besides which he had great knowledge of human nature, and framed his government upon a hierarchical basis so as to enslave the multitude to a powerful priesthood. As regards the prophetic gifts of their first leader, the Mormons declare that Joe Smith distinctly foretold the time and manner of his own death, so that when it occurred the sect, instead of being disheartened and broken up, only regarded it as the accomplishment of a divine ordination, as a testimony to the truth of their faith, and other men of a like spirit with Smith took his place.
The Mormons, in the year 1838, established themselves and built a temple at Kirtland in Ohio; they then removed into Michigan, afterwards into Missouri, whence they were expelled on the charge of an attempt to assassinate the governor. From Missouri they removed into Illinois, whence they were again driven out by the inhabitants. In this last state, however, they remained long enough to found a city called Nauvoo, in which they built, upon the fine slope of a hill, a vast and magnificent temple in a barbaric style of architecture, according as they asserted, to directions laid down in the book of Mormon, the effect, however, of which was extremely imposing. Mormonism was now flourishing. The wealth and population of the community increased greatly. Smith was not only Prophet and High Priest but Mayor of Nauvoo, and even, it is said, offered himself as candidate for the Presidentship of the Union. At Nauvoo also it was that the grossest feature of Mormonism first revealed itself—Smith pretended that he had received a revelation allowing him to have many wives. This and other things roused the public indignation, and Joe Smith and his brother, on the charge of having been concerned in robbery and murder, were lodged in prison at the town of Carthage; and while in prison were themselves murdered by a band of a hundred men who forcibly entered in disguise for that purpose. Although this outrage was as great as that for which the Mormon leader was incarcerated, the public indignation continued to be so unabating against them, that the following year they sold all their possessions in Illinois, deserted their city and temple, and again, like the children of Israel of old, commenced their wanderings in the wilderness, their chosen head and prophet on the death of Smith being Brigham Young, the son of an Eastern States’ farmer. After a long and arduous march of 3,000 miles, amid difficulties and dangers and the endurance of many sufferings, and having crossed the Rocky Mountains they reached the Great Salt Lake, on the fertile shores of which they settled down as in a land of Goshen. Here a great prosperity has again commenced for them; their numbers increase annually, and even so early as 1846 they were able to furnish 500 volunteers for the Mexican war.
At the present time the Mormons number about 30,000. They are building a vast city, twelve miles in circumference, the houses of which are of brick, and their new temple, on a scale still more magnificent than the former, is of stone, the plan it is said having been revealed to Brigham Young in a miraculous vision. About 13,000 inhabitants reside in the city, the remainder having established themselves on the banks of the Jordan, which river, as we have said, connects Lake Utah with the Great Salt Lake. They have already commenced the cultivation of the soil, which is found to produce seventy-five bushels of wheat per acre, and which is favourable to the growth of the potato, though the climate is too severe for the Indian corn. Rain is rare in the country, and irrigation is therefore indispensable. They have erected corn and saw-mills on the streams of water which descend from the mountains, wood being abundant for this purpose, besides which they have iron-works and coal-mines, and various factories. They have dug canals and built bridges. They have established regular mails with San Francisco on the Pacific and New York on the Atlantic. Public baths, supplied from the hot springs of that volcanic region are erected in the city, and they have founded also a university, where lectures on the sciences, conformable to Mormon views, are delivered. The climate is extremely salubrious.
The Mormon government is a hierarchy; and the one great doctrine which is impressed upon the people is submission in all things to the priesthood; but all sects and opinions are tolerated amongst them. If all is true which is said of their social life, morality amongst them is at a very low ebb. Nevertheless, accounts are so contrary, that Miss Bremer, for instance, states on what she considered good authority, “that the habits and organisation of the community were according to the Christian moral code, and extremely severe.” Whatever it may be however, whether it ministers to the evil or the good in human nature, there seems to be a very popular element in Mormonism, for it reckons about 100,000 members within its pale, both in Europe and America, and those in Europe seem to be rapidly removing themselves to this New Jerusalem on the banks of the Great Salt Lake. One cause of their success, doubtless, is the wonderful system of organisation which prevails amongst them. They do not undertake the task of establishing their settlements according to the usually independent mode of individual and ordinary squatters, but all is the result of organised industry, and the result astonishes all. Captain Stansbury, in his Survey of Utah, thus describes the mode which they adopt for the founding of a new town. “An expedition is sent out to explore the country, with a view to the selection of the best site. An elder of the church is then appointed to preside over the band designated to make the first improvement. This company is composed partly of volunteers and partly of such as are selected by the Presidency, due regard being had to a proper intermixture of mechanical artizans, to render the expedition independent of all without.” And still further to illustrate this system, we will extract a letter given by the author of a very comprehensive article on Mormonism in the “Edinburgh Review,” and to which we are already indebted. “In company of upwards of 100 wagons I was sent on a mission with G. A. Smith, one of the Twelve, to Iron County, 270 miles south of Salt Lake, in the depth of winter, to form a settlement in the valley of Little Salt Lake, now Parowan, as a preparatory step to the manufacturing of iron. After some difficulty in getting through the snow, we arrived safe and sound in the valley. After looking out a location, we formed our wagons into two parallel lines, some seventy paces apart; we then took the boxes from the wheels and planted them about a couple of paces from each other, so securing ourselves that we could not easily be taken advantage of by any unknown foe. This done, we next ran a road up the ravine, opening it to a distance of some eight miles, bridging the creek in some five or six places, making the timber and poles, of which there is an immense quantity, of easy access. We next built a large meeting-house, two stories high, of large pine-trees, all neatly joined together. We next built a square fort with a commodious cattle-yard inside the enclosure. The houses were some of hewn logs, others of dried bricks, all neat and comfortable. We next inclosed a field, five by three miles square, with a good ditch and pole-fence. We dug canals and water-ditches to the distance of thirty or forty miles. One canal to turn the water of another creek upon the field for irrigating purposes, was seven miles long. We built a saw-mill and grist-mill the same season. I have not time to tell you half the labours we performed in one season. Suffice it to say, that when the governor came along in the spring, he pronounced it the greatest work done in the mountains by the same amount of men.”
This system of judicious organisation, by which his proper place is appointed to every man, has been carried throughout the Mormon movements, and much of their success may be attributed to this cause. The march from Missouri to the Great Salt Lake was conducted on this system. Captain Kane, who was an eye-witness, describes 3,000 persons, among whom were many women and children, journeying across an unknown and wilderness country with all the discipline of a veteran army. “Every ten of their wagons was under the care of a captain; this captain of ten obeyed a captain of fifty; who in his turn obeyed a member of the High Council of the Church.”
The great route to the western states of Oregon and California by the South Pass, runs about sixty miles north of this city of the Mormons, and one still nearer may be taken. The inhabitants supply the travellers with fresh mules, oxen, and provisions for the journey. The road of Independence west of the Rocky Mountains is good, and the number of travellers which frequent it immense. The Mormons have established ferry-boats on the Platte and Green Rivers.[[85]]
Such is the history and the present position of the Mormon settlement of Utah. Already in 1850 they petitioned congress for admission into the Union, under the designation of the State of Deseret, a name taken from their Book of Mormon, but as yet they rank only as a territorial government.
CHAPTER XXIII.
CALIFORNIA—STATISTICAL REVIEW OF THE UNITED STATES.
The American state of California, a portion of the Mexican Upper California, came, as we have already said, into the possession of the United States through their Mexican conquests, and, as the event has proved, has supplied an important epoch not only in the history of the United States, but of the world itself.
The first discoverer of Upper California was Sir Francis Drake, in the year 1579, when, having doubled Cape Horn, he coasted the Pacific shore in the vain hope of discovering a passage to the Atlantic Ocean, and took possession of the country, to which he gave the name of New Albion, in the name of his sovereign, Queen Elizabeth. This discovery, however, not being followed up by colonisation, the English lost the right of possession, which was claimed by the Spaniards as a portion of the conquests of Cortez, which were prior to the discovery of Sir Francis Drake.