“This people”—a term reiterated at Great Salt Lake City usque ad nauseam—declares its belief “in being subject to kings, queen, presidents, rulers, and magistrates; in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.” They are not backward in open acts of loyalty—I beg America’s pardon—of adhesion to the Union, such as supplying stones for the Washington Monument and soldiers for the Mexican War. But they make scant pretension of patriotism. They regard the States pretty much as the States regarded England after the War of Independence, and hate them as the Mexican Criollo does the Gachupin—very much also for the same reason. Theirs is a deep and abiding resentment, which time will strengthen, not efface: the deeds of Missouri and Illinois will bear fruit for many and many a generation. The federal government, they say, has, so far from protecting their lives and property, left them to be burned out and driven away by the hands of a mob, far more cruel than the “red-coated minions” of poor King George; that Generals Harney and Johnston were only seeking the opportunity to act Burgoyne and Cornwallis. But, more galling still to human nature, whether of saint or sinner, they are despised, “treated, in fact, as nobodies”—and that last of insults who can bear? Their petitions to become a sovereign state have been unanswered and ignored. They have been served with “small-fry” politicians and “one-horse” officials: hitherto the phrase has been, “Any thing is good enough for Utah!” They return the treatment in kind.
“The Old Independence,” the “glorious” 4th of July, ’76, is treated with silent contempt: its honors are transferred to the 24th of July, the local NEW INDEPENDENCE DAY.Independence Day of their annus mirabilis 1847, when the weary pioneers, preceding a multitude, which, like the Pilgrim fathers of New England, left country and home for conscience’ sake, and, led by Captain John Brown, whose unerring rifle saved them from starvation when the Indians had stampeded their horses, arrived in the wild waste of valley. Their form of government, which I can describe only as a democratic despotism with a leaven of the true Mosaic theocracy, enables them to despise a political system in which they say—quoting Hamilton—that “every vital interest of the state is merged in the all-absorbing question of ‘who shall be the next president.’” There is only one “Yankee gridiron” in the town, and that is a private concern. I do not remember ever seeing a liberty-pole, that emblem of a tyrant majority, which has been bowed to from New York to the Rhine.[137] A favorite toast on public occasions is, “We can rock the cradle of Liberty without Uncle Sam to help us,” and so forth. These sentiments show how the wind sets. In two generations hence—perhaps New Zion has a prophet-making air—the Mormons in their present position will, on their own ground, be more than a match for the Atlantic, and, combined with the Chinese, will be dangerous to the Pacific States.
[137] The first liberty-pole was erected on the open space between the Court-house and Broadway, New York. It is a long flag-staff, often of several pieces, like the “mast of some tall ammiral,” surmounted by a liberty-cap, that Phrygian or Mithridatic coiffure with which the Goddess of Liberty is supposed to disfigure herself. With a peculiar inconsequence, “the whole is” said to be “an allusion to Gesler’s cap which Tell refused to do homage to, leading to the freedom of Switzerland.”—Bartlett. The French soon made of their peuplier a peuple lié. The Americans, curious to say, still believe in it.
The Mormons, if they are any thing in secular politics, are Democrats. It has not been judged advisable to cast off the last rags of popular government, but, as will presently appear, theocracy is not much disguised by them. Although not of the black or extreme category, they instinctively feel that polygamy and slavery are sister institutions, claiming that sort of kindness which arises from fellow-feeling, and that Congress can not attack one without infringing upon the other. Here, perhaps, they may be mistaken, for nations, like individuals, however warmly and affectionately they love their own peculiar follies and prejudices, sins and crimes, are not the less, indeed perhaps they are rather more, disposed to abominate the follies and prejudices, the sins and crimes of others. The establishment of slavery, however, though here it serves a humanitarian rather than a private end, necessarily draws the Mormons and the Southern States together. Yet the Saints preferred as President the late Mr. Senator Douglas, a Northern Democrat, to his Southern rival, Mr. Breckinridge. They looked with apprehension of the rise to power of the Republican party, which, had not a weightier matter fallen into their hands, was pledged to do them a harm. I can not but think that absolute independence is and will be, until attained, the principal end and aim of Mormon haute politique, and when the disruption of the Great Republic shall have become a fait accompli, that Deserét will arise a free, sovereign, and independent state.
Should this event ever happen, it will make the regions about Great Salt Lake as exclusive as Northern China or Eastern Tibet. The obsolete rigors of the sanguinary Mosaic code will be renewed in the middle of the nineteenth century, while the statute-crime “bigamy” and unlimited polygamy will be legalized. Stripes, or, at best, fine and imprisonment, will punish fornication, and the penalty of adultery will be death by lapidation or beheading. As it is, even under the shadow of the federal laws, the self-convicted breaker of the seventh commandment will, it is said, offer up his life in expiation of his crime to the Prophet, who, under present circumstances, dismisses him with a penance that may end in the death which he has legally incurred. The offenses against chastity, morality,MORALS. and decency are exceptionally severe.[138] The penalty attached to betting of any kind is a fine not exceeding $300, or imprisonment not exceeding six months. ARDENT SPIRITS.The importation of spirituous liquors is already burdened with an octroi of half its price, raising cognac and whisky to $12 and $8 per gallon. If the state could make her own laws, she would banish “poteen,” hunt down the stills, and impose a prohibitory duty upon every thing stronger than Lager-bier.[139]
[138] Sec. 32 (of an “Act in relation to Crimes and Punishment”). Every person who commits the crime of adultery shall be punished by imprisonment not exceeding twenty years, and not less than three years; or by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and not less than three hundred dollars; or by both fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court. And when the crime is committed between parties any one of whom is married, both are guilty of adultery, and shall be punished accordingly. No prosecution for adultery can be commenced but on the complaint of the husband or wife.
Sec. 33. If any man or woman, not being married to each other, lewdly and lasciviously associate and cohabit together; or if any man or woman, married or unmarried, is guilty of open and gross lewdness, and designedly make any open and indecent, or obscene exposure of his or her person, or of the person of another, every such person so offending shall be punished by imprisonment not exceeding ten years, and not less than six months, and fine not more than one thousand dollars, and not less than one hundred dollars, or both, at the discretion of the court.
Sec. 34. If any person keep a house of ill-fame, resorted to for the purpose of prostitution or lewdness, he shall be punished by imprisonment not exceeding ten years, and not less than one year, or by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or both fine and imprisonment. And any person who, after being once convicted of such offense, is again convicted of the like offense, shall be punished not more than double the above specified penalties.
Sec. 35. If any person inveigle or entice any female, before reputed virtuous, to a house of ill-fame, or knowingly conceal, aid, or abet in concealing such female so deluded or enticed, for the purpose of prostitution or lewdness, he shall be punished by imprisonment not more than fifteen years, nor less than five years.
Sec. 36. If any person without lawful authority willfully dig up, disinter, remove, or carry any human body, or the remains thereof, from its place of interment, or aid or assist in so doing, or willfully receive, conceal, or dispose of any such human body, or the remains thereof; or if any person willfully or unnecessarily, and in an improper manner, indecently exposes those remains, or abandons any human body, or the remains thereof, in any public place, or in any river, stream, pond, or other place, every such offender shall be punished by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or by both fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court.