[53]. About the time of the invention of Mormonism Robert Owen’s communistic propaganda was making an extraordinary sensation in America. In his “Declaration of Mental Independence” at New Harmony, July 4, 1826, Owen declared that man had up to that hour been the slave of “a trinity of monstrous evils”—Irrational Religion, Property, and Marriage.
[54]. In the “Revelation on Celestial Marriage” Joseph Smith is styled “him who is anointed both as well for time and for all eternity; and that, too, most holy,” and it is added: “I have appointed unto my servant Joseph to hold this power in the last days, and there is never but one on the earth at a time on whom this power and the keys of this priesthood are conferred.” Hence a government by the quorum of apostles, in the Mormon idea, can never be anything but an interregnum. They believe that Heaven will not fail to send them a “prophet, seer, and revelator,” and, as Brigham succeeded Joseph, so they look for some one in the appointed time to succeed Brigham. Uno avulso, non deficit alter.
[55]. To avoid unpleasantness, the “Legislature of Deseret” annually re-enacts en bloc the laws of the territorial legislature of Utah.
[56]. The Mormon Prophet. By Mrs. C. V. Waite. Cambridge. 1866.
[57]. Address by Brigham Young in the Salt Lake City Tabernacle. April 9, 1852, four months before the publication of Joseph’s “Revelation.”
[58]. “You believe that Adam was made of the dust of this earth. This I do not believe. I never did and I never want to, because I have come to understanding and banished from my mind all the baby stories my mother taught me when I was a child” (Sermon by Brigham Young, Oct. 23, 1853).
[59]. Joseph Smith professed to get this version by inspiration.
[60]. They made it over to him as trustee, retaining, however, the use of it. Thus an additional tie was made to keep them true to the faith. Brigham could at any time take away all that they possessed, and if they left the Territory they would have to go penniless.
[61]. See the whole passage in the Popular Science Monthly for November, 1872.
[62]. The site of the fort in New York attacked by Champlain in 1615 has only recently been determined, although a number of leading historians have been discussing it for some years.