OCR Text |
Show NOT WELL INFORMED. Tho St. Liuia Globe haa boon lately devoting considerable Bpaco to the dU-ouHfiion dU-ouHfiion of Utah affairs, principally Mormon; and wo make a brief quotation quota-tion from ono of the artiolea o4 & il-luatratioo il-luatratioo of bow poorly iul'urmcd many leading jourti&lUta are on wcbtern mat-tors, mat-tors, and particularly in Mormon history. his-tory. Diticuatiing "Mormon polygamy" that over fruitful thome and the imaginary exodus to Arizona, the Globe aaye: One oftho mirffortunos of tho Mormons Mor-mons was that they located at a place through whioh a railroad to the IV oiQo uiuat pan?. At tho time of the settlement of Salt Lake no one Ouuld have ibreseen the result. Yet tho result was foreseen at the time of the settlement; foreseen and publicly declared; and still more, when the Mormons wore making their terrible terri-ble and now historical march across tha "Great American Dosert" to this inland Basin, they endeavored to God s route for a Pacific railroad, being so uocessful in their efforts that the present Union Pacific road passes for hundreds of miles along tho very routo tracked by thcra more than a quartor of a century ago. This, an BOiiuasntance with Mormon history, and wit i their publications, would enable gentlemen, who discuss these subjects, to hotter understand. It is a oommon error to imagine tho Mormons ovor sought isolation, or seek it now; or that they ovor were opposed to the building of railroads, or did not desire railroad communication. It is usual now, with a certain elass, to allege al-lege that "tha Mormons aocopt the situation," as a justification for tho frequent Attacks on the old settlors of this volley, whon tho present onorgy with which railroading is prosecuted in Utah is pointed out. Tho proof is at hand. By referring to tho statutes of iJtah, published 1855, wo find that the second momorial to oongroes adopted by the Utah legislature and approved March li, was"for tho establishment of a weekly mail routo from tho Missouri Mis-souri rivor to Great Suit Lake oity:" Communication with tho cast desired. Tho ninth memorial, approved January Jan-uary 111, 1S53, was "for n oleotric telegraph i rom tho Missouij river o California," .which became an accomplished fact aomo ten ycarb later : lustantanooui communication wantod with east and west. Tho tontb memorial, approved the same. day as the ninth, asked "for tho oonstruotion of a military road from tho north ot tho Platto, or Nebraska, river to Sacramento, Sac-ramento, California:" More oommuni-oaiion oommuni-oaiion sought. Tho thirteenth memorial, memo-rial, also approved January. 21, 1853, prays for "congress to establish a wookly mail from Groat, SaltJLake oity to San Diego," California: Western mail oommuuioation desired. While the fourteenth memorial, approved Jan. 14, 185 l,is "in rciaciuu to cno ra-" ra-" utmr railway," in whioh tho me- moralists say, "Our main objoot in this memorial is to give our candid views on what wo deom tho best route for tho location of tho first line of railroad rail-road from tho Missouri river to the Pacifio ocean;" and urge on ooDgrcss the importance of constructing suoh a great national work. The reading of this memorial shows that moro than twonty years ago theMormons, without any subsidy sub-sidy for performing surveying duty,had actually made a preliminary survey of the routo for a Pacifio railroad, starting at Council Bluffs, and carrying it west oftho Sierra Nevada mountains. Do these faots, hero given, furnish evidences of a desire for isolation, an opposition to railroads, or a lack of foresight in looating settlements whore a future Pacifio railroad was to pass? It may be interesting to the St. Louis Globe to know that a quarter of a oeu-tury oeu-tury ago President Brigham Young publicly proclaimed that tho Mormons had settled on tho ;highway of tbe world; and tho results to-day verify Mb words. These few historical reminiscences reminis-cences may bo worth remembering by thoso who assume a knowledge of Utah history which they do not possess. |