Show THE mam kew york sun sunday nov 10 it is the etory of utah and of the cormons mormons which ia recounted in alie twenty fiert volume of the oj uit pacific states by ilowe pan croft near york F M derby the plan of this book differs from that of ita companion volume it i involves not only an account of the early dilatory of the territory now called utah by the spaniards aid 0 the exploration of it by travellers trav ellers and trappers bat also inasmuch as the community ultimately established there was a pur theo racy of the foundation and vicissitudes of the mormon eeck the latter purpose compels the author to devote more than two hundred pages to a description of alie rise ot asni in the middle aad western states and of the persecutions to which its adherents were subjected before their immigration to salt late city in the composition of the narrative mr bancroft bai endeavored to exhibit complete impartiality relying in the text largely upon the statements of the mormon them and in foot notes presenting the comments of their chitica and opponents it is this record of the earlier and comparatively neglected yeara of mormonism to in the present notice we would particularly direct attention we will only premise that the name butali is derived from the collective appellation of the indian tribes inhabiting the region in which the followers of joesph smith were to eventually find an asylum joseph smith the founder 0 the I 1 sect organized under the name of tha church of jesus christ of latter day saint was born in sharon windsor county vt dec when he was 10 years old his father who was a poor farmer moved with his family to palmyra wayne coulty N Y and four years afterward tok up his abode some six miles south at man checter ontario county there was much religious excitement at the time in this region whose included baptists methodists and pres byte rians it was in the woods near his fathers farm that young joseph in 1820 beheld a vision and received the charge to join none of the sects that he saw around him three ears later he had another in which an angel appeared to him and told him that the lord hada great work for him to do that bis name should be known to all people and that of him should be spoken both gad and evil the angel told him further of ft book written on plates of gold and containing an account of the early in habitants hab tants of the american continent and of the gospel delivered to them by christ lie said that deposited with those platea etwo stones sometimes described as large crystals which being set in silver rims re a hufe pair of spectacles according to the angel these stones fastened to a breast plate constituted the arim and Thum mim and the possession and use of them constituted a rendered possible pos sibe the tans lalioo of the characters engraved on the gold plates in the place indicated the gold and fiher rimmed crystals are alleged to have been found but in a vision joseph was ordered not to remove them until four years had elapsed it was not consequently until 1827 that he is said to have talen possession of the plates and to leave began the translation of the hook of mormon chosa tenor is summarized by mr bancroft as follows following the confusion of tongues at the towar of babel tha peoples of the earth were scattered abroad one colony being led across the ocean by the lord to america fifteen hun epars after or COO years before christ they were destroyed for their wickedness of the original number was jred among whose descendants was the prophet aher who was their historian ether lived to witness the extinction of hia nation and under divine d he deposited his history in a locality where it was found by a mccond colony israelites of the tribe of joseph who came from jerusalem about the time of alie destruction of he first colony namely COO eara before christ thos was america rep ogled the second colony occupied the site of the first multiplied and became rich and in time divided into t 0 nations the Nep hites and the BO called from respective founders nephi and laman the former advanced in civilization but the lapsed into eatn and were the immediate progeny tors of the american ab originals the Nep hites ero the beloved of alio lord to them were given visions and angels visits to them the christ appeared alter his resurrection at palestine with gifts of gospel and prophecy it was indeed the golden age of a favored people but in time of lemp abrea or four centuries after christ they fell and were destroyed by tho wicked Lama alie greatest prophet of the Nep hites in the period of their declension was mormon heir historian who after having completed lis abridgment of the records ol 01 hia nation commuted commit ed to liia eon moroni and he that it not fall in the hands of the Lima deposited it in the hill of cumorah near manchester NW york where it was found by smith to the actual existence of tha plates on which this history ii alleged to have baen inscribed the cormons mormons pro dace in addition to joseph smith three special witnesses namely oliver cowdery auvid whitmer and martin II arria to whom the original are said to have been shown by an angel of those tho first two described by smith himself aa murderers at heart and as having consciences seared with a hot iron the third he wrote that there are who have white akios as well as black ones such as marlin harris the cormons mormons also brine forward echt corroborative wit nestra who testify that the plates nera shown to them by joseph smith that they handled them with their hands and saw the characters engrav en thereon it ia however to bo noticed that each of clat wit nedesca belong to the families of smith orah T w a II 11 r is bv tte wa one of i he hr e nl i f witco as 8 who furnished h needed to printing cop ci of alie of mormon so far we have followers follo werl the account given by the cormons mormons themselves and reproduced in the text of alia volume cow before us in a footo oe bow ever mr bancroft outlines oat lines the theory ot the origin of alie mormon bible which is now commonly accepted by according to this theory the author of alie book atas one solomon a clergyman and graduate of yale college i ho about eltred elt led la ashtabula county ohio the mounds and earth fortia for actions niah which the neighborhood abounds attracted his attention and led him to believe that the american continent aa peopled by a colony of he proceeded to compose in scriptural language a fictitious history of the building race ft inch he belt behind him in manuscript on liis death in in some v ay not very explained this manuscript is supposed to leave fallen in the hands of who made it the bais of ft pretended revelation and a new religion it vaa in april 1330 that the church of latter day saints wai organized under the statutes of the state oi new ark joseph smith described as an acisla of jenoa christ wai made alie cirit elder by this church it be remembered the old and new testaments were accepted in their entirety certain alleged corruptions corrupt ions and interpolations being however excepted aal the book of mormon was a the koran was by meds followers regarded as a later and appl menal revelation at the first conference heU inJure of the year mentioned the church had thirty members notwithstanding the to which smith was from the outset subjected be began to make converts among the earliest of theae was one sidney rigdon a jack of all trades but by preference a strolling preacher whose comrade alexander campbell it is interesting to recall founded atie sect of the to which president garfield belonged from new york the of the mormon church was armster red to kirtland ohio aad misson anes bent forward tl missouri founded in that state a colony to which they gave the name of zion and which flourished for somo yeara in 1839 however the cormons mormons were edlo leave missouri and took retona on the east bank of the mississippi in illinois there they huilt nauvoo the so called city or city of joseph which beara the end of 18 to contained some fifteen thousand souls including convert from europe and canala aa w ell as from every part of the united states although this city was destined to ha short lived it contained a temple of white limestone which cost tl and which measured feet in length by 83 in breadth and 03 height the aliouse of jo epli w hichi was at once a private dwelling and hotel had a frontage on two street of feet eich and was caid to have cost under lie charter of nauvoo the state wai virtually superseded within the of the colony the cormons mormons having their oft n courts and theia own militia or in what was termed the nauvoo algion of the of nauvoo it was said by a gentile observer they are a wonderfully enterprising ter people peace and harmony reign in the city A drunkard ia scarcely ever seen neither axa any profane oath strike the ear in the or ginal creed of alie latter day church there aa no sanction of polygamy during the first ten years after the organization of mormonism we hear nothing about this sion from the practices of civilized landa but in nauvoo as early as 1841 joseph begin 0 take annta himself plural wives and his example was followed by bome of liis adherents finally in 1843 there came to joseph a revelation the last of which there is any record formally authorizing polygamy for years however this revelation w as confined to a few and it not promulgate i until after the great exodus when t e cormons mormons had become in utah tle fact eliat polygamy acs countenanced by alie leaders of the new church leaked oat and greatly the hostility with which the nauvoo settlement mas regarded by its gentile neighbors this hostility culminated in june 1844 in the assassination of joseph smith and his brother hyrum who bad been taken to the town ot carthage by alie state authorities on a civil charge that joseph smith was a remarkable man seems to mr bancroft incontestable how v ell bo waa qualified for the B ork he undertook is shown by the fact that h made scores of thousands believe in him and in his teachings had ho not po physical and mental aptitude for the prose lating function he must have failed for hie days wera full of trouble we read that his people were often pet alent his eldera quarrelsome hia ablest followers cautious and matious while alie world scoffed and the neighbors used violence his high priests ftera continually asking him tor prophecies and it they were not fulfilled at once and to die letter they stood ready to apostatize many did apostatize many behaved disgracefully and brought reproach rep and comity upon the cause moreover joseph was constantly in tear tor hia life yet though hy no means desirous of death in moments of lie often faced danger with apparent to alio results it is not generally known that brigham young who joseph smith ent of tho mormon apostles apo atles was four years older having been born in 1801 like hia predecessor he was a native of ver moat the son of a poor farmer he received but little education having been obliged to earn liia own livelihood an early age he had been by turns farmer carpenter joiner bouso painter and glazier hen in 1832 he became a concert to mormonism and was made an elder henceforward he was smiths most devoted follower more than once shielding him from treachery or persecution at the own life lie had been cent upon a to in 1840 and although he bad returned to the unite 1 states bome time before 1814 he was not in illinois Illi at the time ot alie prophets lie waa chloeen by an overwhelming majority over sidney hidden the principal contestant unas be who in as directed the migration of the cormons mormons rom to ufah and hed a new zion by the shores of the great salt lake we find the mans character sketched in an app eci alive way by mr bancroft on page young abnot sams like kig don but something more than oratory was needed 0 o obtain c atrol of the cormons mormons at the crais of history 0 O we are told Brigha tn found in possession it waa alie combi naton of anal atiee which in all areat men in all of men intellectual torce mental superiority united with personal and physique enough to give eight to will and opinion WB assuredly a geat man if by greatness we mean one who ia superior to others in strength and skill moral intellectual or physical the secret of this mans power a power that wilbina wit bina few years mide itself felt throughout world was this lie was a sincere mati crihan he waa one who first im bowd himself ue was not a hypocrite knave in lie ordinary sense of the term hs was not though he has been a thousand times called both it he was a bad man he was still a great man and the evil that he did was done with honest purposes he possessed great administrative ability be was farseeing far seeing with a leen insight into human nature and a thorough knowledge of the good and evil of men rt their virtues and frailties ills sup errity was dative but he da ly and hourly g ew more powerful what becala of nauvoo which once contained twenty thousand in habitant 1 after the mormon exodus this question is answered on page the temple as destroyed by fire and tempest and all the wood wok consumed while the roa was utilized for miles around as foundations of houses for doorsteps and other purposes A french company coming in bacr bought the store arora elioso ill possession and built wine vaults foundations of buildings were broken up and acue once surrounded by carefully bended flower gardens pillaged of all that waa valuable were abandoned by their ruthless destroyers destro yera in 1 68 the formed the most important pirt of the population of nauvoo they lived in a long aily row of buildings buil dinga tho architect oe which and of alie hause was a cobbler in the house built for alie groht pro ht aad hia family dwelt in 1851 ibe widow his mother and other relatives alie pioneer band it emigrants under reached the n te of salt lake city in ahe summer of 1846 by the close of 1843 boroc mor mons had ed ilia long and difficult journey from their so called winter quarters Omaha to utah in 1850 according to the united states the population of the territory ana 0 whom rather more than half were re identa 0 the city in 1852 the number of cormons mormons waa at upward of and by the gentiles at how prosperous the community bad become at the end of five carets indicated by ilia tact that the country being canvassed to ascertain how many inmate a poorhouse would ha ve only ano were foai d this in 8 where he fod of the indians had been roasted cricket the grounds on which the abor ams on e established in their new i home openly advocated a plurality of wives are c elated by air bancroft on page polygamy as a tenet of tle mormon church in based upon scripture acsa tiple and if this bo unlawful it says all ia unlawful christian hold up the aa exemplars in their eacret instruction and yet denounce in these a practice christ condemns while in polygamy god blesa them and their polygamous eceil baying never a word about their plural wives polygamy waa common in asia at the time of the apostles apost lea yet cone ot them preached against it nor does john tho revelator mention it writing to the seven churches in the days 0 justin martyr the Jefts preached polygamy it ia true that the emperor about A D promulgated a law against polygamy but it waa repealed sixty years later as the christian part of the civilized world regarded the prat ca with abhorrence the prophet joseph inquired 0 the lord as to what he should do and the lord answered commanding him to restore all things the practice of loly gamy among the rest tha inferior order of wifehood however known in the scriptures as concubinage is not to the mormon church by the marriage covenant all women cohabiting with a mm ara made sand all children ara legitimate it ia unquestionably tree that the question between polygamy and monogamy is one tor civilization to determine and |