The Story of the Mormons:

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CHAPTER XVI. RIVALRIES OVER THE SUCCESSION: The Claim of the
Prophet's Eldest Son--Trouble caused by the Prophet's Widow--The
Reorganized Church--Strang's Church in Wisconsin--Lyman Wight's
Colony in Texas

CHAPTER XVII. BRIGHAM YOUNG: His Early Years--His Initiation into
the Mormon Church--Fidelity to the Prophet--Embarrassments of his
Position as Head of the Church--His View about Revelations--Plan
for Home Mission Work--His Election as President

CHAPTER XVIII. RENEWED TROUBLE FOR THE MORMONS: More Charges of
Stealing--Significant Admission by Young--Business Plight of
Nauvoo--More Politics--Defiant Attitude of Mormon Leaders--An
Editor's View of Legal Rights--Stories about the Danites--Brother
William on Brigham Young--The "Burnings"--Sheriff Backenstos's
Proclamations--Lieutenant Worrell's Murder--Mormon Retaliation--
Appointment of the Douglas-Hardin Commission

CHAPTER XIX. THE EXPULSION OF THE MORMONS: General Hardin's
Proclamation--County Meetings of Non-Mormons--Their Ultimatum--
The Commission's Negotiations--Non-Mormon Convention at
Carthage--The Agreement for the Mormon Evacuation

CHAPTER XX. THE EVACUATION OF NAUVOO: Major Warren as a Peace
Preserver--The Mormons' Disposition of their Property--Departure
of the Leaders hastened by Indictments--Arrival of New Citizens--
Continued Hostility of the Non-Mormons--"The Last Mormon War"--
Panic in Nauvoo--Plan for a March on the Mormon City--Fruitless
Negotiations for a Compromise--The Advance against the City--The
Battle and its Results--Terms of Peace--The Final Evacuation
CHAPTER XXI. NAUVOO AFTER THE EXODUS: Arrival of Governor Ford--
The Final Work on the Temple--The "Endowment" Ceremony and Oath--
Futile Efforts to sell the Temple--Its Destruction by Fire and
Wind--The Nauvoo of To-day

BOOK V. THE MIGRATION TO UTAH

CHAPTER I. PREPARATIONS FOR THE LONG MARCH: Uncertainty of their
Destination--Explanations to the People--Disposition of Real and
Personal Property--Collection of Draft Animals--Activity in Wagon
and Tent Making--The Old Charge of Counterfeiting--Pecuniary
Sacrifices of the Mormons in Illinois

CHAPTER II. FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE MISSOURI: The First
Crossings of the River--Camp Arrangements--Sufferings from the
Cold--The Story of the Westward March--Motley Make-up of the
Procession--Expedients for obtaining Supplies--Terrible
Sufferings of the Expelled Remnant--Privations at Mt. Pisgah

CHAPTER III. THE MORMON BATTALION: Extravagant Claims Regarding
it Disproved--General Kearney's Invitation--Source of the Initial
Suggestion--How the Mormons profited by the Organization--The
March to California--Colonel Thomas L. Kane's Visit to the
Missouri--His Intimate Relations with the Mormon Church

CHAPTER IV. THE CAMPS ON THE MISSOURI: Friendly Welcome of the
Mormons by the Indians--The Site of Winter Quarters--Busy Scenes
on the River Bank--Sickness and Death--The Building of a
Temporary City

CHAPTER V. THE PIONEER TRIP ACROSS THE PLAINS: Early Views of the
Unexplored West--The First White Visitors to that Country--
Organization of the Pioneer Mormon Band--Rules observed on the
March--Successful Buffalo Hunting--An Indian Alarm--Dearth of
Forage--Post-offices of the Plains--A Profitable Ferry

CHAPTER VI. FROM THE ROCKIES TO SALT LAKE VALLEY: No Definite
Stopping-place in View--Advice received on the Way--The Mormon
Expedition to California by Way of Cape Horn--Brannan's Fall from
Grace--Westward from Green River--Advance Explorers through a
Canon--First View of Great Salt Lake Valley--Irrigation and Crop
Planting begun

CHAPTER VII. THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES: Their Leaders and Make-up
--Young's Return Trip--Last Days on the Missouri--Scheme for a
Permanent Settlement in Iowa--Westward March of Large Companies

BOOK VI. IN UTAH

CHAPTER I. THE FOUNDING OF SALT LAKE CITY: Utah's First White
Explorers--First Mormon Services in the Valley--Young's View of
the Right to the Land--The First Buildings--Laying out the
City--Early Crop Disappointment--Discomforts of the First
Winter-- Primitive Dwelling-places--The Visitation of
Crickets--Glowing Accounts sent to England

CHAPTER II. PROGRESS OF THE SETTLEMENT: Schools and Manufactures
--How the City appeared in 1849--Sufferings during the Winter of
1908--Immigration checked by the Lack of Food--Aid supplied by
the California Goldseekers--Danger of a Mormon Exodus--Young's
Rebuke to his Gold-seeking Followers--The Crop Failure of 1855
and the Famine of the Following Winter--The Tabernacle and Temple

CHAPTER III. THE FOREIGN IMMIGRATION TO UTAH: The Commercial
joint Stock Company Scandal--Deceptive Statements made to Foreign
Converts--John Taylor's Address to the Saints in Great Britain--
Petition to Queen Victoria--Mormon Duplicity illustrated--Young's
Advice to Emigrants--Glowing Pictures of Salt Lake Valley--The
Perpetual Emigrating Fund--Details of the Emigration System

CHAPTER IV. THE HAND-CART TRAGEDY: Young's Scheme for Economy--
His Responsibility for the Hand-cart Experiment--Details of the
Arrangement--Delays at Iowa City--Unheeded Warnings--Privations
by the Way--Early Lack of Provisions--Suffering caused by
Insufficient Clothing--Deaths of the Old and Infirm--Horrors of
the Camps in the Mountains--Frozen Corpses found at Daybreak--
Sufferings of a Party at Devil's Gate--Young's Attempt to shift
the Responsibility

CHAPTER V. EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY: The Aim at Independence--
First Local Government--Adoption of a Constitution for the State
of Deseret--Babbitt's Application for Admission as a Delegate--
Memorial opposing his Claim--His Rejection--The Territorial
Government

CHAPTER VI. BRIGHAM YOUNG'S DESPOTISM: Causes that contributed to
its Success--Helplessness of the New-comers from Europe--
Influence of Superstition--Young's Treatment of the Gladdenites--
His Appropriation of Property Laws passed by the Mormon
Legislature--Bishops as Ward Magistrates--A Mormon Currency and
Alphabet--What Emigrants to California learned about Mormon
Justice

CHAPTER VII. THE "REFORMATION": Young's Disclosures about the
Character of his Flock--The Stealing from One Another--The Threat
about "Laying Judgment to the Line"--Plain Declarations about the
taking of Human Lives--First Steps of the "Reformation"--An
Inquisition and Catechism--An Embarrassing Confession--Warning to
those who would leave the Valley

CHAPTER VIII. SOME CHURCH-INSPIRED MURDERS: The Story of the
Parrishes--Carrying out of a Cold-blooded Plot--Judge
Cradlebaugh's Effort to convict the Murderers--The Tragedy of the
Aikin Party--The Story of Frederick Loba's Escape

CHAPTER IX. BLOOD ATONEMENT: Early Intimations concerning it--
Jedediah M. Grant's Explanation of Human Sacrifices--Brigham
Young's Definition of "Laying Judgment to the Line"--Two of the
Sacrifices described--"The Affair at San Pete"

CHAPTER X. TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT: Brigham Young the First
Governor--Colonel Kane's Part in his Appointment--Kane's False
Statements to President Fillmore--Welcome to the Non-Mormon
Officers--Their Early Information about Young's
Influence--Pioneer Anniversary Speeches--Judge Brocchus's Offence
to the Mormons-- Young's Threatening and Abusive Reply--The
Judge's Alarm about his Personal Safety--Return of the Non-Mormon
Federal Officers to Washington--Young's Defence

CHAPTER XI. MORMON TREATMENT OF FEDERAL OFFICERS: A Territorial
Election Law--Why Colonel Steptoe declined the Governorship--
Young's Assertion of his Authority--His Reappointment--Two Bad
Judicial Appointments--Judge Stiles's Trouble about the
Marshals-- Burning of his Books and Papers--How Judge Drummond's
Attempt at Independence was foiled--The Mormon View of Land
Titles--Hostile Attitude toward the Government Surveyors--Reports
of the Indian Agents

CHAPTER XII. THE MORMON "WAR": What the Federal Authorities had
learned about Mormonism--Declaration of the Republican National
Convention of 1856--Striking Speech by Stephen A. Douglas--
Alfred Cumming appointed Governor with a New Set of Judges--
Statement in the President's Message--Employment of a Military
Force--The Kimball Mail Contract--Organization of the Troops--
General Harney's Letter of Instruction--Threats against the
Advancing Foe--Mobilization of the Nauvoo Legion--Captain Van
Vliet's Mission to Salt Lake City--Young's Defiance of the
Government--His Proclamation to the Citizens of Utah--"General"
Wells's Order to his Officers--Capture and Burning of a
Government Train--Colonel Alexander's Futile March--Colonel
Johnston's Advance from Fort Laramie--Harrowing Experience of
Lieutenant Colonel Cooke's Command

CHAPTER XIII. THE MORMON PURPOSE: Correspondence between Colonel
Alexander and Brigham Young--Illustration of Young's Vituperative
Powers--John Taylor's Threat--Incendiary Teachings in Salt Lake
City--A Warning to Saints who would Desert--The Army's Winter
Camp --Proclamation by Governor Cumming--Judge Eckles's
Court--Futile Preparations at Washington

CHAPTER XIV. COLONEL KANE'S MISSION: His Wily Proposition to
President Buchanan--His Credentials from the President--Arrival
in California under an Assumed Name--Visit to Camp Scott--General
Johnston ignored--Reasons why both the Government and the Mormons
desired Peace--Kane's Success with Governor Cumming--The
Governor's Departure for Salt Lake City--Deceptions practiced on
him in Echo Canon--His Reception in the City--Playing into Mormon
Hands--The Governor's Introduction to the People--Exodus of
Mormons begun

CHAPTER XV. THE PEACE COMMISSION: President Buchanan's
Volte-face--A Proclamation of Pardon--Instructions to Two Peace
Commissioners--Chagrin of the Military--Governor Cumming's
Misrepresentations--Conferences between the Commissioners and
Young--Brother Dunbar's Singing of "Zion"--Young's Method of
Surrender--Judge Eckles on Plural Marriages--The Terms made with
the Mormons--March of the Federal Troops to the Deserted City--
Return of the Mormons to their Homes

CHAPTER XVI. THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE: Circumstances
Indicative of Mormon Official Responsibility--The Make-up of the
Arkansas Party--Motives for Mormon Hostility to them--Parley P.
Pratt's Shooting in Arkansas--Refusal of Food Supplies to the
Party after leaving Salt Lake City--Their Plight before they were
attacked--Successful Measures for Defence--Disarrangement of the
Mormon Plans--John D. Lee's Treacherous Mission--Pitiless
Slaughter of Men, Women, and Children--Testimony given at Lee's
Trial--The Plundering of the Dead--Lee's Account of the Planning
of the Massacre--Responsibility of High Church Officers--Lee's
Report to Brigham Young and Brigham's Instructions to him--The
Disclosures by "Argus"--Lee's Execution and Last Words

CHAPTER XVII. AFTER THE "WAR": Judge Cradlebaugh's Attempts to
enforce the Law--Investigation of the Mountain Meadows Massacre--
Governor Cumming's Objections to the Use of Troops to assist the
Court--A Washington Decision in Favor of Young's Authority--The
Story of a Counterfeit Plate--Five Thousand Men under Arms to
protect Young from Arrest--Sudden Departure of Cumming--Governor
Dawson's Brief Term--His Shocking Treatment at Mormon Hands--
Governor Harding's Administration--The Morrisite Tragedy

CHAPTER XVIII. ATTITUDE OF THE MORMONS DURING THE SOUTHERN
REBELLION: Press and Pulpit Utterances--Arrival of Colonel
Connor's Force--His March through Salt Lake City to Camp Douglas
--Governor Harding's Plain Message to the Legislature--Mormon
Retaliation--The Governor and Two Judges requested to leave the
Territory--Their Spirited Replies--How Young escaped Arrest by
Colonel Connor's Force--Another Yielding to Mormon Power at
Washington

CHAPTER XIX. EASTERN VISITORS To SALT LAKE CITY: Schuyler
Colfax's Interviews with Young--Samuel Bowles's Praise of the
Mormons and his Speedy Correction of his Views--Repudiation of
Colfax's Plan to drop Polygamy--Two more Utah Murders--Colfax's
Second Visit

CHAPTER XX. GENTILE IRRUPTION AND MORMON SCHISM: Young's Jealousy
of Gentile Merchants--Organization of the Zion Cooperative
Mercantile Institution--Inception of the "New Movement"--Its
Leaders and Objects--The Peep o' Day and the Utah Magazine--
Articles that aroused Young's Hostility--Visit of the Prophet's
Sons to Salt Lake City--Trial and Excommunication of Godbe and
Harrison--Results of the "New Movement".

CHAPTER XXI. THE LAST YEARS OF BRIGHAM YOUNG: New Governors--
Shaffer's Rebuke to the Nauvoo Legion--Conflict with the New
Judges--Brigham Young and Others indicted--Young's Temporary
Imprisonment--A Supreme Court Decision in Favor of the Mormon
Marshal and Attorney--Outside Influences affecting Utah Affairs--
Grant's Special Message to Congress--Failure of the Frelinghuysen
Bill in the House--Signing of the Poland Bill--Ann Eliza Young's
Suit for Divorce--The Later Governors

CHAPTER XXII. BRIGHAM YOUNG'S DEATH: His Character--Explanation
of his Dictatorial Power--Exaggerated Views of his Executive
Ability--Overestimations by Contemporaries--Young's Wealth and
how he acquired it--His Revenue from Divorces--Unrestrained
Control of the Church Property--His Will--Suit against his
Executors--List of his Wives--His Houses in Salt Lake City

CHAPTER XXIII. SOCIAL ASPECTS OF POLYGAMY: Varied Provisions for
Plural Wives--Home Accommodations of the Leaders--Horace
Greeley's Observation about Woman's Place in Utah--Meaus of
overcoming Female Jealousy--Young and Grant on the Unhappiness of
Mormon Wives--Acceptance of Fanatical Teachings by Women--Kimball
on a Fair Division of the Converts--Church Influence in Behalf of
Plural Marriages--A Prussian Convert's Dilemma--President
Cleveland on the Evils of Polygamy

CHAPTER XXIV. THE FIGHT AGAINST POLYGAMY: First Measures
introduced in Congress--The Act of 1862--The Cullom Bill of 1869
--Its Failure in the Senate--The United States Supreme Court
Decision regarding Polygamy--Conviction of John Miles--Appeal of
Women of Salt Lake City to Mrs. Hayes and the Women of the United
States--President Hayes's Drastic Recommendation to Congress--
Recommendations of Presidents Garfield and Arthur--Passage of the
Edmunds Bill--Its Provisions--The Edmunds-Tucker Amendment--
Appointment of the Utah Commission--Determined Opposition of the
Mormon Church--Placing their Flags at Half Mast--Convictions
under the New Law--Leaders in Hiding or in Exile--Mormon Honors
for those who took their Punishment--Congress asked to
disfranchise All Polygamists--The Mormon Church brought to Bay--
Woodruff's Famous Proclamation--How it was explained to the
Church--The Roberts Case and the Vetoed Act of 1901--How
Statehood came

CHAPTER XXV. THE MORMONISM OF TO-DAY: Future Place of the Church
in American History--Main Points of the Mormon Political Policy--
Unbroken Power of the Priesthood--Fidelity of the Younger
Members--Extension of the Membership over Adjoining
States--Mission Work at Home and Abroad--Decreased Foreign
Membership--Effect of False Promises to Converts--The Settlements
in Canada and Mexico --Polygamy still a Living Doctrine--Reasons
for its Hold on the Church--Its Appeal to the Female
Members--Importance of a Federal Constitutional Amendment
forbidding Polygamous Marriages--Scope of the Mormon Political
Ambition

THE STORY OF THE MORMONS

BOOK I. THE MORMON ORIGIN

CHAPTER I. FACILITY OF HUMAN BELIEF

Summing up his observations of the Mormons as he found them in
Utah while secretary of the territory, five years after their
removal to the Great Salt Lake valley, B. G. Ferris wrote, "The
real miracle [of their success] consists in so large a body of
men and women, in a civilized land, and in the nineteenth
century, being brought under, governed, and controlled by such
gross religious imposture. "This statement presents, in concise
form, the general view of the surprising features of the success
of the Mormon leaders, in forming, augmenting, and keeping
together their flock; but it is a mistaken view. To accept it
would be to concede that, in a highly civilized nation like ours,
and in so late a century, the acceptance of religious beliefs
which, to the nonbelievers, seem gross superstitions, is so
unusual that it may be classed with the miraculous. Investigation
easily disproves this.

It is true that the effrontery which has characterized Mormonism
from the start has been most daring. Its founder, a lad of low
birth, very limited education, and uncertain morals; its
beginnings so near burlesque that they drew down upon its
originators the scoff of their neighbors,--the organization
increased its membership as it was driven from one state to
another, building up at last in an untried wilderness a
population that has steadily augmented its wealth and numbers;
doggedly defending its right to practise its peculiar beliefs and
obey only the officers of the church, even when its course in
this respect has brought it in conflict with the government of
the United States. Professing only a desire to be let alone, it
promulgated in polygamy a doctrine that was in conflict with the
moral sentiment of the Christian world, making its practice not
only a privilege, but a part of the religious duty of its
members. When, in recent years, Congress legislated against this
practice, the church fought for its peculiar institution to the
last, its leading members accepting exile and imprisonment; and
only the certainty of continued exclusion from the rights of
citizenship, and the hopelessness of securing the long-desired
prize of statehood for Utah, finally induced the church to bow to
the inevitable, and to announce a form of release for its members
from the duty of marrying more wives than one. Aside from this
concession, the Mormon church is to-day as autocratic in its hold
on its members, as aggressive in its proselyting, and as earnest
in maintaining its individual religious and political power, as
it has been in any previous time in its history.

In its material aspects we must concede to the Mormon church
organization a remarkable success; to Joseph Smith, Jr., a
leadership which would brook no rival; to Brigham Young the
maintenance of an autocratic authority which enabled him to hold
together and enlarge his church far beyond the limits that would
have been deemed possible when they set out across the plains
with all their possessions in their wagons. But it is no more
surprising that the Mormons succeeded in establishing their
church in the United States than it would have been if they had
been equally successful in South America; no more surprising that
this success should have been won in the nineteenth century than
it would have been to record it in the twelfth.

In studying questions of this kind, we are, in the first place,
entirely too apt to ignore the fact that man, while comparatively
a "superior being," is in simple fact one species of the animals
that are found upon the earth; and that, as a species, he has
traits which distinguish him characteristically just as certain
well-known traits characterize those animals that we designate as
"lower." If a traveller from the Sun should print his
observations of the inhabitants of the different planets, he
would have to say of those of the Earth something like this: "One
of Man's leading traits is what is known as belief. He is a
credulous creature, and is especially susceptible to appeals to
his credulity in regard to matters affecting his existence after
death." Whatever explanation we may accept of the origin of the
conception by this animal of his soul-existence, and of the
evolution of shadowy beliefs into religious systems, we must
concede that Man is possessed of a tendency to worship something,
--a recognition, at least, of a higher power with which it
behooves him to be on friendly terms,--and so long as the
absolute correctness of any one belief or doctrine cannot be
actually proved to him, he is constantly ready to inquire into,
and perhaps give credence to, new doctrines that are presented
for his consideration. The acceptance by Man of novelties in the
way of religions is a characteristic that has marked his species
ever since its record has been preserved. According to Max
Matter, "every religion began simply as a matter of reason, and
from this drifted into a superstition"; that is, into what
non-believers in the new doctrine characterize as a superstition.
Whenever one of these driftings has found a lodgement, there has
been planted a new sect. There has never been a year in the
Christian era when there have not been believers ready to accept
any doctrine offered to them in the name of religion. As
Shakespeare expresses it, in the words of Bassanio:--

"In religion, What damned error but some sober brow Will bless
it, and approve it with a text, Hiding the grossness with fair
ornament?"

In glancing at the cause of this unchanged susceptibility to
religious credulity--unchanged while the world has been making
such strides in the acquisition of exact information--we may find
a summing up of the situation in Macaulay's blunt declaration
that "natural theology is not a progressive science; a Christian
of the fifth century with a Bible is on a par with a Christian of
the nineteenth century with a Bible. The "orthodox" believer in
that Bible can only seek a better understanding of it by studying
it himself and accepting the deductions of other students.
Nothing, as the centuries have passed, has been added to his
definite knowledge of his God or his own future existence. When,
therefore, some one, like a Swedenborg or a Joseph Smith, appears
with an announcement of an addition to the information on this
subject, obtained by direct revelation from on high, he supplies
one of the greatest desiderata that man is conscious of, and we
ought, perhaps, to wonder that his followers are not so numerous,
but so few. Progress in medical science would no longer permit
any body like the College of the Physicians of London to
recognize curative value in the skull of a person who had met
with a violent death, as it did in the seventeenth century; but
the physician of the seventeenth century with a pharmacopoeia was
not "on a par with" a physician of the nineteenth century with a
pharmacopoeia.

Nor has man changed in his mental susceptibilities as the
centuries have advanced. It is a failure to recognize this fact
which leads observers like Ferris to find it so marvellous that a
belief like Mormonism should succeed in the nineteenth century.
Draper's studies of man's intellectual development led him to
declare that "man has ever been the same in his modes of thought
and motives of action, "and to assert his purpose to" judge past
occurrences in the same way as those of our own time."* So
Macaulay refused to accept the doctrine that "the world is
constantly becoming more and more enlightened, "asserting that
"the human mind, instead of marching, merely marks time. "Nothing
offers stronger confirmation of the correctness of these views
than the history of religious beliefs, and the teachings
connected therewith since the death of Christ.

* "Intellectual Development of Europe," Vol. II, Chap. 3.

The chain of these beliefs and teachings--including in the list
only those which offer the boldest challenge to a sane man's
credulity--is uninterrupted down to our own day. A few of them
may be mentioned by way of illustration. In one century we find
Spanish priests demanding the suppression of the opera on the
ground that this form of entertainment caused a drought, and a
Pope issuing a bull against men and women having sexual
intercourse with fiends. In another, we find an English tailor,
unsuccessfully, allotting endless torments to all who would not
accept his declaration that God was only six feet in height, at
the same time that George Fox, who was successful in establishing
the Quaker sect, denounced as unchristian adoration of Janus and
Woden, any mention of a month as January or a day as Wednesday.
Luther, the Protestant pioneer, believed that he had personal
conferences with the devil; Wesley, the founder of Methodism,
declared that "the giving up of (belief) in witchcraft is, in
effect, giving up the Bible. "Education and mental training have
had no influence in shaping the declarations of the leaders of
new religious sects.* The learned scientist, Swedenborg, told of
seeing the Virgin Mary dressed in blue satin, and of spirits
wearing hats, just as confidently as the ignorant Joseph Smith,
Jr., described his angel as "a tall, slim, well-built, handsome
man, with a bright pillar upon his head."

* "The splendid gifts which make a seer are usually found among
those whom society calls 'common or unclean.' These brutish
beings are the chosen vessels in whom God has poured the elixirs
which amaze humanity. Such beings have furnished the prophets,
the St. Peters, the hermits of history." BALZAC, in "Cousin
Pons."

The readiness with which even believers so strictly taught as are
the Jews can be led astray by the announcement of a new teacher
divinely inspired, is illustrated in the stories of their many
false Messiahs. One illustration of this--from the pen of
Zangwill --may be given:--