The Mormons, having lost all hopes of safety by isolation, now seek it in the reverse: mail communication with the Eastern and Western States is their present hobby: they look forward to markets for their produce, and to a greater facility and economy of importing. They have dreamed of a water-line to the East by means of the Missouri head-waters, which are said to be navigable for 350-400 miles, and to the West by the tributaries of the Snake River, that afford 400. Shortly after the foundation of Great Salt Lake City, they proceeded to establish, under the ecclesiastical title “Stakes of Zion in the Wilderness,” settlements and outposts, echelonned in skeleton, afterward to be filled in, from Temple Block along the southern line to San Diego. The importance of connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific by a shorter route than the 24,000 miles of navigation round Cape Horn, has produced first a monthly, then a weekly, and lastly a daily mail, and has opened up a route from the Holy City to Carson Valley. So far from opposing the Pacific Railroad, the local Legislature petitioned for it in 1849, and believe that it would increase the value of their property tenfold. But as equal parts of Mormon and Gentile never could dwell together in amity, extensive communication would probably result in causing the Saints to sell out, and once more to betake themselves to their “wilderness work” in Sonora, or in other half-settled portions of Northern Mexico. This view of the question is taken by the federal authorities, who would willingly, if they could, confer upon the petitioners the fatal boon.

The Mormon pioneers, 143 in number, when sent westward under several of the apostles to seek for settlements, fixed upon the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. The advance colony of 4000 souls, expelled from Nauvoo on the Mississippi, and headed by “Brigham the Seer,” arrived there on the 24th of July, 1847, the anniversary of which is their 4th of July—Independence Day. Before the end of the first week a tract of land was ditched, plowed, and planted with potatoes. City-Creek Kanyon was dammed for irrigation; an area of forty acres was fortified after the old New England fashion by facing log houses inward, and by a palisade of timber hauled from the ravines; the city was laid out upon the spot where they first rested, the most eligible site in the Valley, and prayers, with solemn ceremonies, consecrated the land.

Early in 1849, the Mormons, irritated by the contemptuous silence of the federal government, assembled themselves in Convention, and, with the boldness engendered by a perfect faith, duly erected themselves into a free, sovereign, and independent people, with a vast extent of country.[162] CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF DESERÉT.Disdaining to remain in statu pupillari, they dispensed with a long political minority, and rushed into the conclave of republics like California, whose sons are fond of comparing her to Minerva issuing full-grown from the cranium of Jupiter into the society of Olympus. Roused by this liberty, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, on the 9th of September, 1850, sheared the self-constituted republic of its fair proportions, and reduced it to the infant condition of New Mexico, with the usual proviso in the organic act that when qualified for admission as states they shall become slave or free, as their respective Constitutions may prescribe. At present one of the principal Mormon grievances is that, although their country can, by virtue of population, claim admission into the Union, which has lately been overrun with a mushroom growth, like Michigan, Minnesota, and Oregon, their prayers are not only rejected, but even their petitions remain unnoticed. The cause is, I believe, polygamy, which, until the statute law is altered, would not and could not be tolerated, either in America or in England. To the admission of other Territories, Kansas, for instance, the slavery question was the obstacle. The pro party will admit none who will not support the South, and vice versâ. Perhaps it is well so, otherwise the old and civilized states would soon find themselves swamped by batches of peers in rapidly succeeding creations.

The Mormons have another complaint, touching the tenure of their land. The United States have determined that the Indian title has not been extinguished. The Saints declare that no tribe of aborigines could prove a claim to the country, otherwise they were ready to purchase it in perpetuity by pay, presents, and provisions, besides establishing the usual reservations. Moreover, the federal government has departed from the usual course. The law directs that the land, when set off into townships, six miles square with subdivisions,[163] must be sold at auction to the highest bidder. The Mormons represent that although a survey of considerable tracts has been completed by a federal official, they are left to be mere squatters that can be ejected like an Irish tenantry, because the government, knowing their ability and readiness to pay the recognized pre-emption price ($1 25 per acre), fear lest those now in possession should become lawful owners and permanent proprietors of the soil.[164] Polygamy is here again to blame.

The Mormon settlements resemble those of the French in Canada and elsewhere rather than the English in Australia, the Dutch at the Cape, or the American squatters on the Western frontier. They eschew solitude, and cluster together round the Church and the succedaneum for the priest. In establishing these “stakes” they proceed methodically. A tentative expedition, sent out to select the point presenting the greatest facilities for settlements, is followed by a volunteer band of Saints, composed of farmers, mechanics, and artisans, headed by an apostle, president, elder, or some other dignitary. The foundations are laid with long ceremonies. The fort or block-house is first built, and when the people are lodged the work of agriculture begins. The cities of Utah Territory are somewhat like the “towns” of Cornwall. At present there are three long lines of these juvenile settlements established as caravanserais in the several oases. The first is along the Humboldt River to Carson Valley; the second is by the southern route, viâ Fillmore; and the third is betwixt the two, along “Egan’s Route,” the present mail line.

COUNTIES IN UTAH TERRITORY.The counties, originally 5, increased in 1855 to 12, are now (1860) 19 in number, viz.:

1. Great Salt Lake County: the chief town is Great Salt Lake City; the sub-settlements are the Sugar-House, 4 miles S. of Temple Block—the invariable point de départ; Mill Creek, 7 miles; Great Cotton-wood, 8-9 miles; West Jordan, Jordan Mills, Herriman, and Union, or Little Cotton-wood Creek, 12 miles; Drapersville, 20-21 miles S.; all small villages, with good farming lands.

2. Utah County: the chief town is Provo or Provaux, on the Timpanogos River, 45 miles; David City, on Dry Creek, 28 miles; Lake City, on American Fork, 32 miles S.; Lehi City, 35 miles S.; Lone City, 37 miles S.; Pleasant Grove or Battle Creek, 41 miles S.; Springville or Hobble Creek, 53-54 miles; Palmyra, a small place east of the Lake, and north of Spanish Fork, 59-60 miles; Spanish-Fork City, 61 miles S.; Pondtown, 64 miles S.; Payson City, on both banks of the Peet-Neet Creek, 64-65 miles S.; and Santa Quin, 74 miles S.

3. Davis County: chief town Farmington; others, Stoker, Centreville, 12·50 miles N., and Kaysville, 22 miles N.

4. Weber County: chief town Ogden City, on both sides of Ogden River, 40 miles E.; also North Ogden.

5. Iron County: chief town Parovan, so called from the Pavant Indians; built on Centre Creek, 255 miles S. of Great Salt Lake City, and 96 miles from Fillmore, and incorporated in 1851. Also Cedar City, near Little Salt Lake, 275 miles S.; St. Joseph’s Springs and Vegas de Santa Clara, 200 miles from Cedar City. The Aztecs, as their rock inscriptions prove, once extended to Little Salt Lake Valley.

6. Tooele County: chief town Tooele City, 32 miles W.; also “Eastern Tooele City,” 26 miles W.; Grantsville, 27 miles W.; Richville and Cedar Valley, 40 miles W.

7. San Pete Valley County and City, 131 miles, laid out by the presidency in 1849, and incorporated in 1850; Fort Ephraim, 130 miles; Manti City, 140 miles, on the southern declivity of Mount Nebo. Aztecan pictographs have been found upon the cliffs in San Pete Valley.

8. Juab County: chief town Salt Creek, in a valley separated from Utah Valley by a ridge, on which runs Summit Creek.

9. Box-Elder County and City, 60 miles N.; also Willow Creek and Brigham’s City.

COAL.10. Washington County: chief town Fort Harmony, on Ash Creek, 291 miles S., and 20 miles N. of Rio Virgen.[165]

11. Millard County: chief town, which is also the capital of Utah Territory, Fillmore, in N. lat. 38° 58′ 40″, in a central position, 152 miles S. of Great Salt Lake City, 600 miles E. of San Francisco, and 1200 miles W. of St. Louis. The sum of $20,000 was expended upon public buildings, but the barrenness of the soil has reduced the population from 100 to a dozen families.

12. Green River County: Fort Supply.

13. Cedar County: chief town Cedar City. It is built upon an old Aztecan foundation, rich in pottery and other remains.

14. Malad County: chief town Fort Malad, properly so called from its slow, brackish, and nauseous river.

15. Cache County, the granary of Mormonland, and the most fertile spot in the Great Basin; well settled and much valued: chief town Cache Valley, 80 miles N.

16. Beaver County: chief town Beaver Creek, 220 miles S.

17. Shambip County: Rich Valley and Deep Creek.

18. Salt Lake Islands.

19. St. Mary’s County: west of Shambip City, extending to the Humboldt River; chief settlement, Deep Creek.

I found it impossible to arrive at a true estimate of the population. Like the earlier English numberings of the people, which originated in bitter political controversies—the charge of unfairness was brought as late as 1831 against the enumerators in Ireland—the census is a purely party measure. The Mormons, desiring to show the 100,000 persons which entitle them to claim admission as a state into the Union, are naturally disposed to exaggerate their numbers; they are, of course, accused of “cooking up” schedules, of counting cattle as souls, and of making every woman a mother in esse as in posse. On the other hand, the anti-Mormons are as naturally inclined to underestimate: moreover, as the “census marshals” receive but three halfpence per head, they are by no means disposed to pay a shilling for the trouble of ransacking every ranch and kanyon where the people repair for grazing and other purposes. The nearest approach to truth will probably be met by assuming the two opposite extremes, and by “splitting the difference.”

POPULATION OF UTAH TERRITORY.In 1849 Mr. Kelly estimated the Mormons to be “about 5000 inhabitants in the town, and 7000 more in the settlements.” In 1850 the seventh official census of the United States numbered the inhabitants of Utah Territory at 11,354 free + 26 slaves = 11,380 souls. In 1853 the Saints were reckoned at 25,000 by the Gentiles, and 30,000 to 35,000 by Mr. O. Pratt, in the “Seer.” In 1854 Dr. S. W. Richards estimated the number at “probably from 40,000 to 50,000” in the United States, and in Great Britain at 29,797. In 1856 the Mormon census gave 76,335 souls. I subjoin a synopsis of the official papers.[166] In 1858 the Peace Commissioners sent to Utah Territory reported that the Saints did not exceed 40,000 to 50,000 souls, half of them foreigners, and that they could bring 7000 men, of whom 1000 were valuable for cavalry, into the field. In 1859 M. Remy made the number of Saints in Utah Territory, not including Nevada, 80,000 souls, and the total in the world 186,000. The last official census, in 1860, was taken under peculiar disadvantages. General Burr, of the firm of Hockaday and Burr, was appointed to that duty by Mr. Dotson, the anti-Mormon federal marshal. But as the choice excited loud murmurs, the task was committed to a clerk in the general’s store, and deputies for the rest of the Territory were similarly chosen. The consequence is that the Gentile marshal’s census of 1860 offers a number of 40,266 free + 29 slaves = a total of 40,295 souls; while the Mormons assert their Territory to contain from 90,000 to 100,000, and the world to hold from 300,000 to 400,000 Saints. Their rise is remarkable, even if we take the statistics of the enemy, which show nearly a quadrupling of the population in ten years, while Great Britain creeps on at a rate of about ten per cent.: a similar increase will in the ninth census of 1870 give in round numbers 160,000 persons. Utah Territory now ranks second in the eight minor states: New Mexico (93,541) and District of Columbia (75,076) take precedence of it, and it is followed by Colorado (34,197), Nebraska (28,842), Washington (11,578), Nevada (6857), and Dakotah (4839).

I have vainly attempted to discover the proportion of native Anglo-Americans to the foreign-born. The late Mr. Stephen A. Douglas, who was supposed to know and to befriend the Saints, asserted it to be one to ten. This will not hold good if applied to the authorities, and if it fails at the head it will be inapplicable to the baser part of the body politic, for the American in Mormondom is the prophet, president, apostle, bishop, or other high dignitary who leavens the lump of ignorance and superstition kneaded together in the old countries. Of the thirteen members of the Upper House, there were, in 1860, ten Americans, two English, and one Irishman: of the officers, viz., secretary and his assistant, sergeant-at-arms, messenger, fireman, and chaplain, four were Americans, one English, and one Irishman. The members of the Lower House, twenty-six in number, consisted of twenty-four Americans and two Englishmen, including the speaker, Mr. John Taylor: of its six officers, four were Americans, one English, and one Scotchman. Both houses were thus distributed:

The Mormon emigration is without exception the most interesting feature in their scheme. There is an evident selection of species in the supply: a man must be superior to many in “grit” and energy who voluntarily leaves his native land. As regards the national classification of the converts, it may be observed that the supply depends upon the freedom of religious discussion at home. Great Britain supplies five times more than all the rest of the world, excepting Denmark. France must be proselytized through the Channel Islands, and there are few converts of the Latin race, which speaks a strange language, and is too much attached to the soil for extensive colonization. Sweden sends forth few (67)—a fine of twenty-six rix-dollars has there been imposed upon all who harbor, let rooms to, or hold to service a Mormon; Denmark supplies many (502), because the Constitution of 1849 guaranteed to her religious liberty; Switzerland is, after a fashion, Republican; Germany gives the fewest. Propagandism has not yet been thoroughly organized east of Father Rhine; moreover, the Teuton, whose faith is mostly subordinate to his fancy, finds superior inducements to settle while passing through the Eastern States. All the “diverts” long retain their motherlandish characteristics, and, associating together, are often unable to understand the English sermon at the Tabernacle. The work of proselytizing is slow in the United States; the analytic Anglo-American prefers the rôle of knave to that of fool, besides un saint n’est pas honoré dans son pays, upon the principle that no man is a hero to his valet. At Great Salt Lake City I saw neither Kanaka, Hindoo, nor Chinese; these “exotics” have probably withered out since the days of M. Remy; only one negro met my sight, and though a few Yutas, principally Weber River, were seen in the streets, none of them had Mormonized.

MORMON EMIGRATION.Emigration in Mormondom, like El Hajj in El Islam, is the fulfillment of a divine command. As soon as the Saints could afford it, they established, under the direction of the First Presidency, a fund for importing poor converts, appointed a committee for purchasing transports, and established in Europe and elsewhere agents, who collected $5000 in the first, and $20,000 in the second year. In September, 1850, a committee of three officers was appointed to transact the business of the poor fund, and an ordinance was passed incorporating the “Perpetual Emigration Fund Company,” consisting of thirteen members, including the First President. The Saint whose passage is thus defrayed works out his debt in the public ateliers of the Tithing Office Department, under the superintendence of the Third President; he is supplied with food from the “Deserét Store,” and receives half the value of his labor, besides which a tithe of his time and toil is free. The anti-Mormons declare that by this means the faces of the poor are ground: I doubt that so far-seeing a people as the Mormons would attempt so suicidal a policy.

According to the late agent at Liverpool, and publisher of the “Millennial Star,” Dr. S. W. Richards (Select Committee on Emigrant Ships, 1854, No. 12, p. 8), the Mormon emigration, under its authorized agent and passenger-broker, is better regulated than under the provisions of the Passengers’ Act; the sexes are berthed apart, and many home comforts are provided for the emigrants. In 1854 it was estimated not to exceed 3000 souls per annum, and of 2600 the English were 1430, 250 Welsh, 200 Scotch, and about a score of Irish, making a total of 1900 Britons to 700 from the Continent. The classes preferred by the Fund are agriculturists and mechanics—the latter being at a premium—moral, industrious, and educated people, “qualified to increase and enhance the interest of the community they go among.” From Liverpool, whence all the emigration proceeds, to New Orleans, the passage-money varied from £3 12s. 6d. to £4, and from New Orleans to Great Salt Lake City £20 each. Of late years that line has been abandoned as unhealthy: the route now lies by rail through New York and Chicago to Florence, on the Missouri River. The emigration season is January, February, and March, and the passage can be made at the quickest in twenty-two days.

MORMON EMIGRATION.I now proceed to figures, which are given in full detail, and can easily be verified by a reference to Liverpool. The official reports are subjoined, because they speak well for Mormon accuracy.[167] From 1840-54 they reckon 17,195 souls, and from 1854-55, 4716 souls; the total in fifteen years (1840-55) being 21,911. From 1855-56 they number 4395 souls, and from the 1st of July, 1857, to the 30th of June, 1860, they count 2433, making for the five subsequent years (1855-60) a total of 6828. Thus, in the twenty years between 1840-60, they show a grand total of 28,739 immigrants. They expect for the present year an emigration of 1500 to 2000 souls from the British Isles, independent of some hundreds from the Scandinavian, Swiss, and other missions. Already 200 teams have been dispatched from Great Salt Lake City to assist with transport and provisions the poor emigrants from Florence. The Holy Land of the West would soon be populous were it not for two obstacles: first, the expense and difficulty of the outward journey; secondly, the facility of emigration to the gold regions of Pike’s Peak and the silver mines of the Nevada.

MEETING ROOMS.The London Conference has seventeen places of worship, and numbers a little over 2000 men, scattered throughout Great Britain. In these isles there is a general Presidency of the Church, assisted by a counselor: these preside over the pastors or presidents of districts, ten in number, who also, assisted by counselors in their turn, direct and counsel the presidents of the twenty-four Conferences, while these superintend the presidents of the 400 branches. The total of members in the whole European mission is not less than 40,000. I subjoin a list of the various places—kindly furnished to me by an influential Saint—which the Mormons have selected for worship in London.[168]