Drinking each angel-melody till every silvery tone
Awakes within my throbbing breast an answer to its own;
Be it a sigh, the sound of song, or laughter soft and low,
My heart vibrates to every strain as the sweet numbers

flow.

|sult of knavery and credulity, that at most would
be confined to a few dupes, soon to pass away
among the forgotten and unimportant events of
the day. But a different fate appears to await
the Mormous, or as they call themselves the Lat-
ter-day Saints. The sects that are perpetually
branching off from the different christian churches,

They come upon the evening when on the balmy air
The vesper bell is pealing-"Lo! 'tis the hour of prayer."
And from the pale stars bending, they softly whisper-profess only modificatious of the same creed, and
"Come!

while they assert uo visible supernatural interposition in their own exclusive behalf, acknowledge in all essentials the leading principles of the Christian dispensation, and adore the same holy author of a common religion. Their secessions owe their origiu either to questions of church government, which are of expedience, and concerning

Of dark night-dews descending upon some loved one's which views may be taken widely different, yet

Many of our readers will recollect the very entertaining and well written "History of the Mormons," published in the Messenger for November, 1848, in which the crimes and follies of that remarkable people were so powerfully summed up by one who had been himself an eyewitness of many of them. The following paper, which comes to us from a highly intelligent gentleman of our State, will appear in somewhat lively contrast with the “History," but as it has direct reference to a recent treatise on the subject and embodies some further information with regard to the followers of the Prophet, since their removal to California, we do not hesitate to give it to our reuders, feeling satisfied that they will read it with interest.-[Ed. Mess.

equally correct, or to subtle doctrinal refinements,
that are generally of such a nature as to elude
the distinct apprehension of the understanding,
and may be termed the metaphysics of religion;
each other, they all concur in extending the light
and however hostile these sects may be towards
and blessing of the Gospel and doing the will of
their master. But the Mormons are isolated.
Separated from every other class of christians,
(for they acknowledge the Saviour,) they have
their own prophet and martyrs, their miracles,
and the Holy Book sent from Heaven, to dictate
their faith and to prescribe their duties. Nor have
they been wanting in persecutions, so necessary
to support the pretensions of a new faith to a
divine origin.

It is not our purpose to enter into an examination of their tenets or claims to sanctity, but to call the attention of our readers to the highly interesting pamphlet whose title is at the head of our article.

The celebrated Mormon temple at Nauvoo, was, and though shorn of its splendor, still is, the admiration of all who navigate the beautiful waters of the Upper Mississippi. Seated on an eminence whose base is washed by the clear broad river, its white columus shine, as if of Parian marble, and the elegance of its form and proportious, give it, at a little distance, the appearance of an edifice raised by Grecian art in its happiest days. Here they had hoped to found the seat of that Empire which was to exIn the present condition of Christendom an is the centre, a true faith and social institutions, tend over the vast and fertile regions of which it attempt to establish a new religion by a prophet, more as they fancied in accordance with equal elaiming for himself a divine commission and the rights and conducive to the perfectibility of man power of performing miracles, and sustaining his than had ever before been conceived. But these authority by the production of a Revelation, dreams were soon dispelled. They found it immiraculously preserved and disclosed, at the first possible to live in harmony with the rough popuglance might be considered an absurdity, the relation that surrounded them. Faults, there prob"THE MORMONS. A Discourse delivered before the His-ably were on both sides, and it is vain to inquire torical Society of Pennsylvania, March 26th, 1850, by who were the aggressors. Opposed in habits, manTHOMAS L. KANE. Philadelphia: 1850. ners, modes of life and religion, it is no wonder

that violent animosities soon existed between | gone from his work-bench and shavings, his unthem. In that unsettled state of society where finished sash and casing. Fresh bark was in the arm of the law is always feeble, a kind of the tanner's vat, and the fresh-chopped lightwood border warfare was kept up, accompanied by smith's shop was cold; but his coal heap and stood piled against the baker's oven. The blackrobberies and murders, which would have led to ladling pool and crooked water horn were all the complete subjugation or extermination of the there, as if he had just gone off for a holiday. weaker party. The Mormons being outnum- No work people anywhere looked to know my bered and pursued with unrelenting ferocity, errand. If I went into the gardens, clinking the their prophet Joseph, better known as Joe Smith, wicket-latch loudly after me, to pull the marywas placed by the civil authorities, for protec-drink with the water sodden well-bucket and its golds, heart's-ease and lady-slippers, and draw a tion, as the version is, in the jail of Carthage, in noisy chain; or, knocking off with my stick the Hancock County, where on the 27th June, 1847, tall heavy-headed dahlias and sunflowers, hunted he and his brother were murdered by a brutal mob. A truce was made with their persecutors and a reasonable time was to be allowed them for choosing a resting-place in the distant West, and for disposing of their property before they migrated to their new domicil. The greater part had proceeded on their journey in the spring of 1846, leaving a few to close their concerns at Nauvoo, when the people of Illinois became impatient of delay and doubtful if the Mormons were sincere in their intention to remove. Excited by renewed acts of violence on both sides, an organized mob made a regular attack on them with artillery, and after killing numbers, forever expelled the survivors from their holy seat. These acts of slaughter and oppression had just been perpetrated when the writer of the address, in September, 1846, first visited the scene which he describes in the following passage:

over the beds for cucumbers and love-apples.— no one called out to me from any opened window, or dog sprang forward to bark an alarm. houses, but the doors were unfastened; and when I could have supposed the people hidden in the at last I timidly entered them, I found dead ashes white uron the hearths, and had to tread a tiptoe, as if walking down the aisle of a country church, to avoid rousing irreverent echoes from the naked floors.

"On the outskirts of the town was the city grave-yard. But there was no record of Plague there, nor did it in anywise differ much from other Protestant American cemeteries. Some of the mounds were not long sodded: some of the stones were newly set, their dates recent, and their black inscriptious glossy in the mason's hardly dried lettering ink. Beyond the graveyard, out in the fields, I saw. in one spot hard-by where the fruited boughs of a young orchard had been roughly torn down, the still smouldering embers of a barbecue fire, that had been constructed of rails from the fencing around it. It was the latest sign of life there. Fields upon fields of heavy-headed yellow grain lay rotting ungathered upon the ground. No one was at hand to take in their rich harvest. As far as the eye could reach, they stretched away—they, sleeping too in the hazy air of Autumn.

"I was descending the last hillside upon my journey, when a landscape in delightful contrast broke upon my view. Half encircled by a beud of the river a beautiful city lay glittering in the fresh morning sun; its bright new dwellings, set in cool green gardens, ranging up around a stately dome-shaped hill, which was crowned by a noble "Only two portions of the city seemed to sugmarble edifice, whose high tapering spire was ra- gest the import of this mysterious solitude. On diant with white and gold. The city appeared the southern suburb, the houses looking out upou to cover several miles; and beyond it, in the the country showed, by their splintered woodback ground, there rolled off a fair country, che-work and walls battered to the foundation, that quered by the careful lines of fruitful husbandry. they had lately been the mark of a destructive The unmistakeable marks of industry, enterprise cannonade. And in and around the splendid and educated wealth, everywhere, made the Temple, which had been the chief object of my scene one of singular and most striking beauty. admiration, armed men were barracked, sur"It was a natural impulse to visit this inviting region. I procured a skiff and rowing across the river, landed at the chief wharf of the city. No one met me there. I looked, and saw no one. I could hear no one move; though the quiet everywhere was such that I heard the flies buzz, Though these men were generally more or and the water-ripples break against the shallow less under the influence of ardent spirits; after I of the beach. I walked through the solitary had explained myself as a passing stranger, they streets. The town lay as in a dream, under seemed anxious to gain my good opinion. They some deadening spell of loneliness, from which told me the story of the Dead City that it had I almost feared to wake it. For plainly it had not slept long. There was no grass growing up in the paved ways. Rains had not entirely washed away the prints of dusty footsteps.

rounded by their stacks of musketry aud pieces of heavy ordnance. These challenged me to render an account of myself, and why I had had the temerity to cross the water without a written permit from a leader of their band.

been a notable manufacturing and commercial mart, sheltering over 20,000 persons; that they had waged war with its inhabitants for several years, and had been finally successful only a few days "Yet I went about unchecked. I went into before my visit, in an action fought in front of empty workshops, ropewalks and smithies. The the ruined suburb; after which, they had driven spinner's wheel was idle; the carpenter had them forth at the point of the sword. The

defence, they said, had been obstinate, but gave fuit, in terms that make the deepest impression, way on the third day's bombardment. They and enchain the attention of the reader. His acboasted greatly of their prowess, especially in count of the sufferings and privations they enthis Battle, as they called it; but I discovered

they were not of one mind as to certain of the dured is often too painful to dwell on, but whatever exploits that had distinguished it; one of which, they were subjected to-whether the visitation of as I remember, was, that they had slain a father pestilence or want, cold or heat or hunger-paand his son, a boy of fifteen, not long residents tience, active benevolence, and cheerfulness of of the fated city, whom they admitted to have temper never deserted them. They moved with borne a character without reproach."

order and discipline; and though the loss of life He enters the temple and among other objects was great, it was diminished by the admiraof their veneration is shown "a large and deeply ble regulations under which their march was chiselled marble vase or basin supported upon conducted. They often remained, to recover twelve oxen, also of marble and of the size of from the lassitude of travel, for several weeks at life, of which they told various romantic stories." the same encampment. The following is a deAfter viewing the wonders of the place, he asscription of one of their stations and of the occends the river a short distance and there dis-cupations of the sojourners:

camp upon the delta between the Nebraska and Missouri, in the territory disputed between the Omaha, and Otto and Missouria Indians. It remained pitched here for nearly two months, during which period I resided in it.

covers, in a state of extreme wretchedness and "I select at random, for my purpose, a large destitution, with disease and death for their companions, the starving Mormons who had just been driven from their city. They numbered a little more than six hundred, the remains of twenty thousand that were at Nauvoo and its dependencies the previous year. Of that host the greater part had journeyed westward and those who lingered behind were giving proofs of their enthusiastic devotion to the soil and building of which they knew they must soon be dispossessed.

"It was situated near the Petit Papillon, or Little Butterfly River, and upon some finely rounded hills that encircle a favorite cool spring. On each of these a square was marked out; and the wagons as they arrived took their positions along its four sides in double rows, so as to leave a roomy street or passage-way between them. "Strange to say, the chief part of this respite The tents were disposed also in rows, at interwas devoted to completing the structure of their vals between the wagons. The cattle were folded quaintly devised but beautiful Temple. Since in high-fenced yards outside. The quadrangle the dispersion of Jewry, probably, history affords inside was left vacant for the sake of ventilation, us no parallel to the attachment of the Mormons and the streets, covered in with leafy arbor work for this edifice. Every architectural element, and kept scrupulously clean, formed a shaded every most fantastic emblem it embodied, was cloister walk. This was the place of exercise associated, for them, with some cherished feature for slowly recovering invalids, the day-home of of their religion. Its erection had been enjoined the infants, and the evening promenade of all. upon them as a most sacred duty: they were "From the first formation of the camp, all its proud of the honor it conferred upon their city, inhabitants were constantly and laboriously ocwhen it grew up in its splendour to become the cupied. Many of them were highly educated chief object of the admiration of strangers upon mechanics, and seemed only to need a day's anthe Upper Mississippi. Besides, they had built it ticipated rest to engage them at the forge, loom, as a labor of love; they could count up to half a or turning lathe, upon some needed chore of work. million the value of their tithings and free-will A Mormon guusmith is the inventor of the exofferings laid upon it. Hardly a Morman woman cellent repeating rifle, that loads by slides instead had not given up to it some trinket or pin-money: of cylinders; and one of the neatest finished firethe poorest Mormon man had at least served the arms I have ever seen was of this kind, wrought tenth part of his year on its walls; and the from scraps of old iron, and inlaid with the silver coarsest artisan could turn to it with something of a couple of half dollars, under a hot July sun, of the ennobling attachment of an artist for his in a spot where the average height of the grass fair creation. Therefore, though their enemies was above the workman's shoulders. I have seen drove on them ruthlessly, they succeeded in par- a cobbler, after the halt of his party on the march, rying the last sword thrust, till they had com- hunting along the river bank for a lap-stone in pleted even the gilding of the angel and trumpet the twilight, that he might finish a famous boot on the summit of its lofty spire. As a closing work, they placed on the entablature of the front, like a baptismal mark on the forehead,

THE HOUSE OF THE LORD:

Built by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.

sole by the camp fire; and I have had a piece of cloth, the wool of which was sheared, and dyed, and spun, and woven, during a progress of over three hundred miles.

"Their more interesting occupations, however, were those growing out of their peculiar circumstances and position. The chiefs were seldom without some curious affair on hand to settle with HOLINESS TO THE LORD!" the restless Indians; while the immense labor Their Exodus is described by the author, an eye and responsibility of the conduct of their unwitness of what he relates, et quorum pars magna' wieldy moving army, and the commissariat of its

hundreds of famishing poor, also devolved upon | 500 miles in diameter and four or five thousand them. They had good men they called Bishops, feet above the level of the sea, shut in by mounwhose special office it was to look up the cases tains aud having no outlet to either ocean. From of extremest suffering: and their relief parties its great features of lofty mountains and narrow were out night and day to scour over every trail." valleys, it seems destined to be a pastoral counAmusement, frolic and fun, often succeeded try. The shores of the lake are incrusted, and misery, and the monotony of a journey over the its waters, in which no living thing exists, are plains was, on one occasion, relieved by this ad- saturated with salt. All the streams, and some of them are considerable rivers, converge to the venture, at the crossing of the Missouri. They Lake. Whether the surplus waters pass off by had come with their cattle, amounting to thirty thousand head, to the banks, when they found evaporation, or by subterranean channels, has not the river swollen by raius. The people were to been ascertained. Late reports state that great pass over in boats; not so their herds. whirlpools have been discovered, which are supposed to be connected with hidden drains. Here "They were gathered in little troops upon the the Mormons have a fair field for testing their shore, and driven forward till they lost their foot- institutions. Too powerful to be molested by ing. As they turned their heads to return, they any intruders, divided from California by the barencountered the combined opposition of a clam-rier of the Sierra Nivada, and from the eastern orous crowd of bystanders, vieing with each settlements, by the chain of the Rocky Mounother in the pungent administration of inhospi-tains and a wide desert, they have advanced in table affront. Then rose their hubbub; their

geeing and woing and hawing, their yelling and the improvement of their country with a rapidity yelping and screaming, their hooting and hissing hardly equalled by any of our early western popand pelting. The rearmost steers would hesi- ulation. Prosperity has crowned their labors, tate to brave such a rebuff; halting they would and that prosperity has fallen on worthy heads. impede the return of the outermost; they all Every arrival from the plains brings information would waver; wavering for a moment, the current would sweep them together downward. At of some new act of their benevolence, and every this juncture, a fearless youngster, climbing upon votary of Mammon, whose wanderings have led some brave bull in the front rank, would urge him him to their abodes, invokes blessings on the boldly forth into the stream: the rest then surely Mormons. While we are writing, our eyes fall followed; a few moments saw them struggling on an extract from the Deseret News, containing in mid current; a few more, and they were safely the part of a letter from Capt. Stansbury, who landed on the opposite shore. The driver's was

the sought after post of honor here; and some- was engaged in a topographical survey of the times, when repeated failures have urged them great basin. It was said he had been opposed by to emulation, I have seen the youths, in stepping the Mormons in his expedition, which he posifrom back to back of the struggling monsters, or tively denies, and after expressing his gratitude swimming in among their battling hoofs, display for the courtesy with which he had been treated feats of address and hardihood, that would have

made Franconi's or the Madrid bull-ring vibrate by the President and citizens, he uses the followwith bravos of applause. But in the hours after ing language:

hours that I have watched this sport at the ferry

side, I never heard an oath or the language of "Every facility has been studiously afforded quarrel, or knew it provoke the least sign of illus for the prosecution of our duties; instruments feeling."

"They could make sport and frolic of their trials, and often turn right sharp suffering into right round laughter against themselves. I certainly heard more jests and Joe Millers while in this Papillon Camp, than I am likely to hear in all the remainder of my days."

of science frankly and gratuitously loaned, and the able and faithful assistance obtained, from their commencement here, of a gentleman, well known as a fearless advocate of your doctrines, and a prominent and influential member of your community. I have deemed it not improper to say thus much, to counteract an erroneous imThe author had his full share of suffering.pression against a people, already burthened Attacked by the congestive fever, he was weeks with too much undeserved reproach." almost in a state of unconsciousness, and paid dearly for his love of adventure, by the pains of sickness and the consequent evil of an impaired constitution.

In the course of the year 1848, they had nearly all assembled at their great settlement in the basin of the Salt Lake. This country had been explored by Fremont four years earlier. He described it as forming almost a complete circle

The same intelligence informs us, that a tax of fifty per cent had been imposed on the sale of spirituous liquors. Buildings they were erecting with unremitting labor; their crops were abundant; their harvest of wheat commenced the 1st of July; and in the enjoyment of plenty, they were pleased to minister to the wants of the needy emigrants. The following is from an address

from their President, in the true spirit of philan- as antiquated superstitions, imitating the descenthropy and Christian charity

dants of the early settlers of the city of brotherly love, in casting off the garb of a peculiar sect, or

"We have been driven here; we have made like the Spartans under the laws of Lycurgus, two crops, and there are hundreds of emigrants continue for ages a separate people, it is imposnow coming here destitute. I say to you, Latter-sible to predict. day Saints, let no man go hungry from your Little is said by Mr. Kane concerning the Mordoors; divide with them and trust in God for mon creed. The absurdity of the charges of more; and those who have a manly spirit will communism and polygamy are refuted by an apgive us their blessings. I say, treat every man peal to their Book of Doctrine. Of the vile and kindly, and especially if there is any prospect of obscene libels that seem borrowed from the hishelping them on their journey. Emigrants don't tory of the Anabaptists at Munster, in the 16th let your spirits be worn down; and shame be century, he expresses his abhorrence and explains to the door where a man has to go away hungry." the motives of the libellers. He closes his address in these words:

By conforming to such principles they have turned the current of public opinion in their favor.

46

I said I would give you the opinion I formed They have completely lived down the calumnies of the Mormons: you may deduce it for yourwith which they were assailed. Acting the part selves from these facts. But I will add that I of the Good Samaritan, they have proved that have not yet heard the single charge against them whatever illusions may deceive their imagina- as a Community, against their habitual purity of tions, their faith, or what is better, their practice, so far as charity is concerned, is all right.

life, their integrity of dealing, their toleration of religious differences in opinion, their regard for the laws, or their devotion to the constitutional government under which we live, that I do not from my own observation, or the testimony of others, know to be unfounded."

With extended cultivation, and the added comforts of life from successful toil, their numbers are increasing, and have been augmented during the present year by a large immigration from abroad, chiefly from England and Wales. In a land where four or five years ago the foot of the It is now too late in the day to consider the adventurous trapper had seldom made its print, Mormons the contemptible slaves of a degrading there is now a thriving community with all the superstition. They are to take their seats with arts and elegancies of a polished society. The our legislators in the national councils. Be their census, of which the returns are soon to be laid hallucinations what they may, let them have our before the public, will show their people more indulgence, and be full credit given to their virnumerous than the inhabitants of some of the tues. In this practical, utilitarian age of ours, States. Their trials seem now at an end, and let us remember that phrenology, mesmerism, they are pursuing their course with prosperous Barnum and Jenny Lind are flourishing among gales. The late Act of Congress has enabled us, and the follies of the wisest claim toleration. them to give to their regulations the sanction of Judge of the tree by its fruit, and reflect if the law. The readiness with which they furnished most odious vice can produce results that, in the a brigade for the Mexican war, attested their ordinary routine of life, spring only from unweatriotism; and the President of the United States ried industry and perpetual self-denial. has wisely conferred on the Mormou chief, Brigham Young, the commission of Governor of Utah.

pa

pass,

We

Every one who wishes to possess an enlarged knowledge of the state of his country, must desire to learn the truth concerning the much-slandered What is to be their destiny, is concealed under Mormons, and every lover of justice will be the clouds of the future, which even conjecture pleased to see false accusations repelled. To cannot penetrate. The railroad to the Pacific such we commend Mr. Kane's address. will probably ascend the valley of the Nebraska, had selected more passages for quotation, but all cross the Rocky Mountains at the South who take an interest in the subject should get the and then divide, one branch going to the waters pamphlet. The general reader will be carried of the Columbia, and the other reaching the Si-along by the incidents of the narrative, and the erra Nivada, after traversing the Great Basin. animation of the style; the curious will be gratiThis vast national undertaking, which is loudly fied by an account of the manners of a singular called for by the popular voice, must soon be people; and the honest man will rejoice that the commenced, and the Mormons will be among public mind is disabused, and his calumniated the chief laborers and contractors. Whether fellow-citizens relieved from the load of obloquy after a larger intercourse with mankind they will by which they have been oppressed. abandon their notions, and suffer them to become