And, then, we invite you to look upon the thousands who poured over the Wahsatch Mountains and descended into the fair valley below. What think you of the men who have toiled with unmurmuring bravery for months through dangers of ambush and storm and flood on their westward way? Are these all pretenders and knaves, or the willing dupes of such? Does this theory, or the idea of lust suggested by the doctrine of polygamy (which was not announced until four years afterward, and has never been practised by more than a small fraction of the Mormon population), afford a sufficient explanation of the spirit which animates this multitude to espouse a common cause, to accept obloquy and exile, and to meet the perils of the wilderness in the face of approaching winter? In this stubborn adherence to a common purpose, in this fierce battle with adverse circumstances, in this devotion to wives and children, do we find evidence to warrant the belief that the aged men, the stalwart husbands, and the youth of this great company are moved solely or chiefly by the lowest and basest of aims?
These hundreds of gray-haired women, too, in the passionless calm of old age; these many mothers with patient endurance bearing their part in the struggles of this strange life and caring tenderly for their babes; these young wives adhering to the fortunes of their husbands; the maidens found in so many groups—are these representatives of womankind unreasoning bond-creatures or depraved women whose chief mission is to minister to the caprices and passions of base and brutal men? Is all of this endurance of trial with a devotion approaching heroism the outcome of charlatanism, hypocrisy, and libertinism? He who will answer these questions in the affirmative must be a blind student of nature and human history. No. To account for a movement like that which led 10,000 people into the wilderness, casting themselves upon the future with a wonderful faith and daring, requires an inspiration based upon something deeper and stronger than the altogether grovelling and mercenary motives which suffice to unite the fortunes of those who are only adventurers or knaves? Yes, whatever may be said of the honesty or sincerity of those who moulded the belief of these thousands into its eccentric form, as they enter and take possession of Utah, they present the unmistakable evidences of a faith founded on sincere conviction.
Such was the beginning of the history of Mormonism in Utah, or Deseret, “The Land of the Honey-Bee,” as the Mormons called it. Imposition upon credulity there doubtless was; ambition, charlatanry, and lust, each may be supposed to have had its place; but nothing short of a belief to which men and women gave themselves without reserve could have accomplished the results seen. And only this, taken in connection with the mistaken policy of the Government of the United States, can account for the subsequent marvellous growth of the Mormon organization.
Lands were at once surveyed and placed under careful cultivation, and Salt Lake City was made habitable. Settlements were established in every direction, the soil was subdued and irrigated for cultivation. The people built the city and began the temple and established mills, workshops, and numerous industries under the personal directions of the ever-watchful bishops. Missionary corps were newly organized for foreign lands, and an Immigration Fund established which soon resulted in a swarming influx to Utah from all parts of Europe.
The Mormons have increased in the last thirty years between five and six hundred per cent. The Mormon population of Utah from about 11,000 in 1850 had increased in 1880 to a little over 120,000 out of a total of nearly 144,000. In place of a wilderness we find a vast cultivated domain threaded by highways and railroads. The wild lands of 1846 in 1880 yielded a product in cereals of nearly two million bushels, and in precious metals a value of nearly nine million and a half of dollars.
In the year 1882 the total value of the assessed property of the Territory was $25,579,000. The public schools of the Territory, from the number of thirteen only in 1850, had increased in 1880 to three hundred and ninety, maintained at a cost of more than $200,000.
All these marvellous results have been chiefly due to the enterprise and thrift of a people expelled as outlaws from Illinois, and under the ban of the law during most of their sojourn in Utah.
This, in brief, is the history of the Mormons. And who will say that it is not wonderful and strangely unique? History, indeed, affords few examples of the growth, from such humble foundations, of a fabric based on a religious idea, so important and enduring as that which originated in the supposed revelations made over thirty-five years ago to Joseph Smith, an obscure resident in a country town of Wayne County, N. Y.
Born in 1830 of fanaticism and superstition; cast out from the place of its birth immediately after; driven in contumely from its refuge in Kirtland, O.; buffeted in Missouri, and driven to Illinois; baptized in the blood of the Nauvoo riots, and compelled to fly into the wilderness, and there developing into what it is to-day; with whatever contempt we may regard its origin, with whatever loathing we may look upon its accursed doctrines, it seems to me we are compelled to confess that there is something in the Mormon organization which demands for its adherents, in spite of its abhorrent features, a degree of respect and consideration. They should be given as much respect, at least, as we would give the honest Brahmin, Buddhist, or Mohammedan. Yea, more; for many even of their latest converts have been taken from our Southern and Western States.