The Story of the Mormons:

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* Journal of Discourses, Vol. VII, pp. 48-53.

Tullidge, whose works, it must be remembered, were submitted to
church revision, in his "Life of Brigham Young" thus defines the
Mormon view of the political mission of the head of the church:
"He is simply an apostle of a republican nationality, manifold
in its genius; or, in popular words, he is the chief apostle of
state rights by divine appointment. He has the mission, he
affirms, and has been endowed with inspiration to preach the
gospel of a true democracy to the nation, as well as the gospel
for the remission of sins, and he believes the United States
will ultimately need his ministration in both respects . . . .
They form not, therefore, a rival power as against the Union, but
an apostolic ministry to it, and their political gospel is state
rights and self-government. This is political Mormonism in a
nutshell."*

* p. 244.

Tullidge further says in his "History of Salt Lake City" (writing
in 1886): "The Mormons from the first have existed as a society,
not as a sect. They have combined the two elements of
organization--the social and the religious. They are now a new
society power in the world, and an entirety in themselves. They
are indeed the only religious community in Christendom of modern
birth."*

* p. 387.

Some of the closest observers of the Mormons in their earlier
days took them very seriously. Thus Josiah Quincy, after
visiting Joseph Smith at Nauvoo, wrote that it was "by no means
impossible" that the answer to the question, "What historical
American of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful
influence upon the destiny of his countrymen," would not be,
"Joseph Smith." Governor Ford of Illinois, who had to do
officially with the Mormons during most of their stay in that
state, afterward wrote concerning them: "The Christian world,
which has hitherto regarded Mormonism with silent contempt,
unhappily may yet have cause to fear its rapid increase. Modern
society is full of material for such a religion . . . . It is to
be feared that, in the course of a century, some gifted man like
Paul, some splendid orator who will be able by his eloquence to
attract crowds of the thousands who are ever ready to hear and be

carried away by the sounding brass and tinkling cymbal of
sparkling oratory, may command a hearing, may succeed in
breathing a new life into this modern Mohammedanism, and make
the name of the martyred Joseph ring as loud, and stir the souls
of men as much, as the mighty name of Christ itself."*

* Ford, "History of Illinois," p. 359.

The close observers of Mormonism in Utah, who recognize its aims,
but think that its days of greatest power are over, found this
opinion on the fact that the church makes practically no
converts among the neighboring Gentiles; and that the increasing
mining and other business interests are gradually attracting a
population of non-Mormons which the church can no longer offset
by converts brought in from the East and from foreign lands.
Special stress is laid on the future restriction on Mormon
immigration that will be found in the lack of further government
land which may be offered to immigrants, and in the discouraging
stories sent home by immigrants who have been induced to move to
Utah by the false representations of the missionaries.
Unquestionably, if the Mormon church remains stationary as
regards wealth and membership, it will be overshadowed by its
surroundings. What it depends on to maintain its present status
and to increase its power is the loyal devotion of the body of
its adherents, and its skill in increasing their number in the
states which now surround Utah, and eventually in other states.