We have already related how the adventurous La Salle, when endeavouring to establish a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi, mistook his reckoning, and entered the bay of Matagorda instead. This gave the French nation a claim to Texas. The fort built by the unfortunate La Salle was soon demolished by the Indians, and the Spaniards from their neighbouring Mexico disputed also the French right of possession, they claiming the whole of this coast as a portion of their own territory.

The first permanent settlement of the whites in Texas was by the Spaniards, in 1684, when, under San Antonio de Bexar, the fort of that name was established. In 1719 also a colony settled there from the Canary Isles. Various missionary stations and military posts were also established at different places, so that the Spaniards became the assured possessors of the country, with an increasing population. The missionary stations, unlike the simple log-huts and chapels of the early French jesuits, were massive fortresses of stone, the churches decorated with images of saints and paintings, and surmounted by enormous towers. The ruins of several of these vast erections still remain in various parts of Texas, and produce a very striking effect, especially in a country where the traces of civilised life are so scanty. The Spanish population of Texas was, however, inconsiderable at the time of the Mexican revolution in 1810, owing to the incursions of the savage Comanches and other Indian tribes, and to the police regulations of the Spanish government. As regards the relative positions and feelings of the Mexican government and that of the United States, we will give a few remarks from an American writer.^[82] “The Mexican authorities were not so desirous of occupying Texas as of keeping her a desolate waste; that she might present an impassable barrier between themselves and their Anglo-American neighbours. The cause of this is not of difficult solution, and is derived from the old mother-country. At the time when Mexico was first colonised, Spain was at the head of the Roman Catholic countries, and all heretics were held in abhorrence by her, and exterminated by the inquisition and the sword. The changes which knowledge and general enlightenment have produced in the Protestant world universally, and even in the Catholic when it has been forced into closer contact with progressive opinion, have not reached Mexico, which has been shut up as it were, and which has jealously retained all her native aversions, prejudices and jealousies. Besides which, Mexico as a colony belonged less to the Spanish nation than to the Spanish kings, and was governed by their viceroys, regardless of the well-being of the people, merely as an estate to produce a revenue. No possible rivalry with the mother-country was permitted; meanwhile the mines were industriously worked, no commerce was permitted to the Mexicans, nor might they rear the silkworm or plant the olive or the vine.

“When, however, the English colonies asserted and established their own independence, Spain, fearing a similar revolt in her own colony, somewhat relaxed her laws regarding their trade with foreign nations, but only under severe restrictions and enormous duties, so that the freedom on the one hand might be nullified by the restrictions on the other. Very little change took place in Mexico.

“At length, in 1810, when the Spanish nation fell under the arm of Napoleon, the Mexicans revolted. But the people were not united, and after a war of eight years the Royalist party prevailed. A second revolution took place in 1821, under Iturbide, when the Mexicans succeeded in throwing off the Spanish yoke. Iturbide proclaimed himself king, and the people, wishing for a republic, deposed him; he was banished, and returning was executed. A new leader arose in the person of Santa Anna, under whose auspices Mexico was divided into States, with each a legislature, and over the whole a general government with a federal constitution similar to that of the United States. But Santa Anna was not a second Washington; the constitution became subverted, and he the military tyrant of the country.”

Having given this brief sketch of the condition and government of Mexico, we now return to Texas. When, in 1803, the United States purchased Louisiana from France, the disputed claim to Texas became transferred to them, and in 1819, when Florida was granted to them by Spain, they ceded to that country their claims to Texas as a portion of Mexico. But although they had resigned their claim to Texas, the United States could not resist their natural impulse at extension and colonisation, and, in 1821, favoured by the Mexican authorities, who hoped that the bold and determined Anglo-American settler would be a good defence against the hostile Comanches, the first attempt at the colonisation of Texas was successfully made. The intended leader of this movement was Moses Austen, of Durham, in Connecticut, who obtained a grant of land from the Mexican authorities for the settlement of a colony between the rivers Brazas and Colorado. Death prevented Moses Austen from carrying out his plans, which, however, were fully and most successfully executed by his son, Steven F. Austen. The success of Austen’s colony soon alarmed the Mexican authorities; and well it might, for these sturdy republicans once planted there would soon take such firm root as to displace any other possessor. Nor was it long before evidences of their intentions were apparent. In 1827, a movement was attempted by the settlers of Nacogdoches to throw off the Mexican yoke and to establish a republic under the name of Fredonia. The attempt was unsuccessful, but the Mexican authorities were alarmed, more especially as soon after some overtures were made on the part of the United States government to purchase Texas.

In 1833, there were about 10,000 American settlers in Texas; and at that time dissatisfaction and discontent were prevailing largely among them. The Spanish Mexicans of the province carried against them every measure in the government, and when Steven Austen was sent to the city of Mexico to petition for redress, he was first neglected, and then thrown into a dungeon. In 1835 Austen was once more in Texas. The usurpations of Santa Anna had in the meantime increased the public discontent, and the Texians generally prepared to throw off the yoke of his despotism. Adventurers from the American states hastened to take part in the approaching contest, which sooner or later was sure to be advantageous to their nation. A provisional government was appointed, and Samuel Houston placed at the head of the army in Texas.

In December the Texian forces, under General Burleton, besieged the strong fortress of Alamo and the city of Bexar, which was garrisoned by General Cos and 1,300 Spaniards and Mexicans. In a few days the fortress was taken, and the Mexicans obtained permission to retire; so that within a very short time not a single Mexican soldier remained east of the Rio Grande.

Santa Anna, who understood too well the spirit of the people, no sooner saw the stronghold of Bezar taken by a party whose purposes were so adverse to his own, than he entered Texas in person, and with 4,000 men invested Goliad and Bezar, which had unfortunately been left in the hands of a very inadequate force. The attack commenced and continued for several days, the fortress of the Alamo in Bezar being defended by its little band with a courage, says Samuel Goodrich, worthy of Leonidas and his Spartans. After having held out for a considerable time they sustained a general assault on the night of the 6th of May. They fought until Travis, their commander, fell, and seven only of the garrison were left when the place was taken, and the little remnant was torn to pieces. Two human beings only were left, a woman and a negro servant. Among those who fell on this terrible occasion was the celebrated David Crockett of Tennessee, a man well known from the eccentricity of his mind and the independence of his character; he was found surrounded by a heap of dead whom he had slain.

Colonel Fanning, who commanded at Goliad, by direction of the Texian authorities evacuated this place on the 17th of March, but had scarcely reached the open country when they were surrounded by the Mexicans with a troop of Indian allies. They defended themselves all day, and killed a great number of the enemy; during the night, however, the Mexicans being reinforced, they were obliged to surrender, on condition of being treated as prisoners of war: good faith, however, was unknown to Santa Anna, and no sooner were they in his power than he ordered them to be drawn out and shot. Four hundred men were thus murdered in cold blood; one of the soldiers saying to his fellows, when the inhuman order was given, “They are going to shoot us; let us face about and not be shot in the back.” This bloody tragedy, which stamped the name of Santa Anna with infamy, took place on the 27th of March, 1836.

These direful tidings aroused, at the same time, the American hatred and sympathy. After this they would not permit Texas to remain in the hands of so cruel and false an enemy.

Santa Anna, encouraged by his victory and confident of success, pursued the Texian army, now under the command of General Houston, as far as San Jacinto, where Houston resolved to risk a battle, although his force was less than 1,000 and the enemy double his number. This was on the 21st of April. The Texians commenced the attack, rushing furiously forward to within half-rifle distance, with the ominous battle-cry of “Remember the Alamo!” The fury with which they assailed the enemy was irresistible, and in less than half an hour they were masters of the camp, the whole Mexican army being killed, wounded, or prisoners. The following day Santa Anna himself was taken, without arms and in disguise.

The plausibility of this artful leader induced his captors to believe him favourable to the independence of Texas. At his request he was sent to the United States, and had an interview with President Jackson, whom he succeeded also in winning, and by whom he was permitted to return to Mexico. No sooner in Mexico than he disclaimed his late proceedings and again commenced war on Texas. In the meantime the United States, England and France recognised the independence of that country. But her struggle was not at an end; and gaining strength by the contest, the Texians, in 1841, assisted by a body of American adventurers, proceeded to take possession of Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, lying on the eastern side of the Rio Grande. This attempt was unsuccessful, but it opened, as it were, a door into New Mexico, and the American foot being once planted there, as elsewhere, was but the forerunner of possession.

In 1844 Texas made application to be received into the American Union. Great discussion followed; both President Jackson and his successor, Van Buren, opposed it, on the ground of the existing peaceful relations with Mexico, but the great body of the American people were favourable to it. The question of annexation was made the great test question of the following election, and James Polk and George M. Dallas owed their elections to its support. Accordingly, on the 4th of March, 1844, they were inaugurated, and Texas already in February had been admitted into the Union. The annexation of Texas was of course resented by Mexico, her minister at Washington declaring it to be “the most unfair act ever recorded in history.”

The conditions of annexation required from the authorities and people of Texas were as follows: 1st. That all questions of boundary should be settled by the United States; 2nd. That Texas should give up her harbours, magazines, etc., but retain her funds and her debts, and, until their discharge, her unappropriated lands; 3rd. That additional new states, not exceeding four, might be formed with slavery if south of lat. 36½°, but if north, without.

The annexation of Texas led to war with Mexico. In July an armed force under Colonel Zachery Taylor, was sent out to protect the new territory against the threatened invasion of Mexico, besides which negotiations were opened for the adjustment of the quarrel, the United States being desirous of purchasing a peaceful boundary on the Rio Grande and the cession of California.

Whilst these negotiations were pending with but little hope of a successful termination, a difficulty arose between the United States and England respecting the northern boundary of Oregon. The brief history of this north-western state is as follows. In the spring of 1792, Captain Robert Gray, of Boston, discovered a river to which he gave the name of his vessel, the Columbia. This was the first knowledge which the Americans had of this river. In 1804–5, Messrs. Lewis and Clarke, under the commission of the American government, explored this river from its mouth to its source. After the year 1808, the country was occupied by various fur companies. These are the circumstances upon which the United States based her claims to the territory as far as 54° 40′. But English merchants being settled in the country, England also asserted her claim, and a discussion of rights and claims ensued, which became so hot on both sides as even to threaten war between the two countries. Fortunately, however, the question was amicably adjusted by the treaty of 1846, by which the 49th degree became the frontier of the United States to the north, Vancouver’s Island was wholly relinquished to the British, to whom also the right of navigation in the Columbia was conceded.

War with Mexico continued through the whole of 1846–47, and in May of the following year, left the Americans in quiet possession of the northern provinces of Mexico proper, a vast and important territory including New Mexico, Utah, and California. The incidents of the war were of an adventurous and romantic character. The wonderfully varied and tropical character of the country, and the wild and guerilla kind of warfare amid scenes rendered memorable in the old chivalrous days of Spanish glory and enterprise, gave an extraordinary charm to a war which perhaps cannot be justified on strict principles of Christian morality. Young adventurers flocked to the armies of Generals Wool, Kearney, and Taylor, impatient to take part in a enterprise which was dangerous and exciting in the highest degree. It is said that when the news of the imminent danger of the army on the Rio Grande reached the United States, that everywhere young men hastened westward to defend their brethren, fight the Mexicans, and push forward for the Halls of the Montezumas; and that Prescott’s work, the “History of the Conquest of Mexico,” being just then published and universally read, greatly increased the enthusiasm.

In April, 1847, Peubla, the second city in Mexico, was taken by the Americans under General Scott, and in the following September, the grand city of Mexico itself. “Three hours before noon,” says Mrs. Willard, who seems to have the strongest sympathy with this war, “General Scott made his entrance, with escort of cavalry and flourish of trumpets, into the conquered city of the Aztecs. The troops for four-and-twenty hours now suffered from the anarchy of Mexico more than her prowess had been able to inflict. Two thousand convicts let loose from the prisons attacked them from the house-tops, at the same time entering houses and committing robberies. The Mexicans assisting, these fellows were quelled by the morning of the 15th.

“General Scott gave to his army, on the day of their entrance into Mexico, memorable orders concerning their discipline and behaviour. After directing that companies and regiments be kept together, he says, ‘Let there be no disorders, no straggling, no drunkenness. Marauders shall be punished by court-martial. All the rules so honourably observed by the glorious army in Peubla must be observed here. The honour of our country, the honour of our army, call for the best behaviour from all. The valiant must, to win the approbation of God and their country, be sober, orderly, and merciful. His noble brethren in arms will not be deaf to this hasty appeal from their commander and friend.’

“On the 16th, he called the army to return public and private thanks to God for victory; and on the 19th, for the better preservation of order and suppression of crime, he proclaimed martial law. Thus protected by the American army, the citizens of Mexico were more secure from violence, and from the fear of robbery and murder, than they had ever been under their own flag.”

Nor does this statement appear to be overdrawn. An English writer^[83] on Mexico, who was in the country the two years following the war, dates the commencement of an improvement in this degraded people from the American invasion. “Nothing,” says he, “could exceed the jealous suspicions with which the Mexicans formerly regarded other nations, more particularly perhaps the people of the United States. The hatred and rancour with which the very name of American was mentioned while hostilities were in progress, were immeasurable. But at the present time kindly feelings are being fostered with a large proportion which will lead to happy results for both countries.

“In respect of the broad principles of commerce, productions and restrictions, the intercourse of Mexico with other nations has at present led to but few salutary results. Exclusiveness and shortsighted suspicion still remain the governing features of their commercial policy; liberality, innovation, and improvement, being carefully guarded against. Foreign productions of importance are excluded as ruinous, and the country is effectually protected against honourable traffic, though left open to the lawless proceedings of swindlers and smugglers of every grade.

“When the Americans marched upon the interior of the country,” after gaining every battle on the outskirts, said an intelligent Mexican, who had been seized upon by the American army and compelled to serve as a guide, “the most horrible ideas of their cruelty and rapacity were set afloat. As they drew near the capital, we were given to understand that there was no torture nor disgrace to which they would not subject the inhabitants, if they conquered us. The priests made themselves particularly busy in influencing the minds of the people in every part of the city against them, and members of the secular clergy went from house to house of the wealthier classes, to arouse their zeal against the invaders, and to procure sums of money for the benefit of the cause. It was generally believed that our enemies were neither more nor less than a kind of monsters, permitted by heaven to visit us as a judgment upon our crimes and neglect of the holy church.

“‘For my own part such a dreadful idea of our enemies had taken possession of me, that I could neither eat nor sleep; I was like one bereft of his senses; every avenue of my mind seemed closed but that of fear. Sleeping or waking, I was haunted by the image of our invaders, and I was in the act of making a precipitate retreat at the moment I was surrounded by several hostile soldiers. But, above all, was a popular horror associated with the American generals. The people were taught to believe them the most atrocious impersonations of cruelty and rapacity which it was possible to imagine. It was reported that they had sworn to hang every Mexican who should fall into their hands, and that they had approached the capital with the most malicious determination to wreak their vengeance upon it.’ The Mexican prisoner related, therefore, that when he found himself in the hands of such dreaded foes he was in momentary expectation of being shot or hanged, and could not at first understand why his execution was delayed. Still more was he astonished when he beheld the American generals themselves. Instead of fierce tyrants with bloodthirsty visages, as he had been taught to regard them, he beheld, he said, two agreeable-looking, fair men, with paternal countenances and amiable manners. General Scott made a good impression; but General Taylor attracted by his unassuming dignity and awed by his firmness.

“‘I am sure,’ continued this narrator, ‘that many of my countrymen have a great respect for the people of the United States; they have reason for it. Their officers were kind instead of cruel to us; they spared our houses and our property; they were just to our storekeepers. Indeed, in many respects, our city has had cause to regret the period when they went away.’ The cruelties of the Mexicans in this struggle were of the most unsparing character; every American or Texian who was captured was killed in some ruthless manner, their dead and mangled bodies being left to be recognised by their friends. It was their practice,” says Mr. Mason, “to extort by the most brutal threats and unlicensed conduct, the money and property of individuals unfortunate enough to be in their vicinity, or failing this to outrage their families, or sacrifice them to their mean revenge. They exhibited the utmost baseness and duplicity in all attempts at compromise and interchange of prisoners; and they stripped and plundered the bodies of the American dead left on the field of battle, burning and disfiguring them in the most brutal manner.

“The generosity of the American general shines in happy contrast with these deeds of their enemies. A large party of wounded Mexicans were left in the hospital totally unprovided for on the retreat of Santa Anna’s army from Buena Vista, where the Americans gained a signal victory in February, 1847, and which in fact made them masters of the northern provinces of Mexico Proper. In the disastrous flight which followed this defeat, hundreds of the wounded were left by the wayside to be drowned by the waters, even before death, and numbers who had escaped unscathed in the battle, perished on the march in the agonies of thirst and hunger. On General Taylor becoming acquainted with the fact, he despatched such medical assistance as he could spare, together with between thirty and forty mules laden with provisions, to their assistance. This, it is said, being only one instance out of many that might be recorded to the credit of the Americans.” And no more than what is right; for the Americans, though chargeable with an aggressive spirit in many cases, with a greed of territory and a lust of colonisation, like their old Anglo-Norman ancestors, were yet Christians, and it is by this Christianity alone, which the conqueror must never forego, that the citizens of the United States will in process of time extend themselves over the whole of the western hemisphere.

We have heard above the testimony of a Mexican to the character of the American invaders. And as regards the moral state of Mexico, we will give an average statement of the amount of crime for one year in the city of Mexico, the population of which is but little above 130,000:

Besides which, about 900 dead bodies are found in the streets and suburbs annually, the cause of which is never known and rarely inquired into. In the above list of crimes is found vitriol throwing, which probably is new to some of our readers, but is so common in Mexico, as the above author assures us, that its appalling evidences are frequently visible in the streets; and not only among the lower classes, but among the wealthy, who have fallen victims to the demoniac vengeance of these ignorant and brutal people.

The taking of Mexico was the crisis of the war. But though the enemy’s capital was in the hands of the Americans, they made use of their conquest for no other purpose than to establish peace. In vain Santa Anna endeavoured to carry on the war; his power was gone for the present, and in October, being abandoned by his troops, he once more became a fugitive. In the following February a treaty was laid before congress, and on the 29th of May, the treaty being signed between the two nations, peace was declared to the American army in Mexico.

The stipulations of the treaty were, that Mexico should be evacuated within three months, prisoners on each side released, and Mexican captures made by the Indians within the limits of the United States were to be restored. These limits, as they affect Mexico, begin at the mouth of the Rio Grande, and proceed thence along the deepest channel of that river to the southern boundary of New Mexico. From thence to the Pacific they follow the river Gela and the southern boundary of Upper California. The United States might, however, navigate the Colorado below the entrance of its affluent the Gela. If it were found practicable and judged expedient to construct a canal, road, or railway along the Gela, both nations were to unite in its construction and afterwards to participate in its advantages. The navigation of the river to be obstructed by neither nation. Mexican citizens within the limits of the relinquished territories of New Mexico and Upper California to be allowed a year to make their selection whether they would continue Mexican citizens and remove their property, for which every facility was to be furnished, or whether they would remain and become citizens of the United States. The United States stipulated to restrain the incursions of all the Indian tribes within its limits against the Mexicans, and to return all Mexican captives hereafter made by the Indians. In consideration of territory gained, the United States government agreed to pay to Mexico 15,000,000 dollars, and also to assume her debts to American citizens to the amount of 3,500,000 more. Three millions were paid down to Mexico at once, congress having the preceding winter placed that sum in the hands of the president in anticipation of this arrangement.

Thus was the contest ended, to the incalculable advantage of America, and of Mexico likewise, though her benefit will lie in the nearer proximity of a more enlightened government, free institutions, and an advancing people.

The territory of Wisconsin was admitted into the American Union as a state, in May, 1850.

A vast extent of country, as we have already said, fell into the hands of the United States government, in consequence of its Mexican conquests. An important portion of this was Utah, so called from the tribe of Indians inhabiting it, and which was formed into a territorial government as early as 1850. But this remarkable country, with its vast mountain chains, its deserts, its affluent valleys, and its great Salt Lake, together with its extraordinary people, the Mormons, deserve more than a mere summary mention. The Rocky Mountains on the east and the Sierra Nevada on the west, form the boundaries of Utah; besides these, two lofty chains intersect the country from north-east to south-west. The Great Basin, a considerable portion of which is sandy desert, is an elevated valley, composing the western portion of Utah; it is in circuit about 12,000 miles, and lies about 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. The great valley of the Colorado, on the east, although not fully explored, is said to be wonderfully fertile, abounding in wood, and admirably fitted for the purposes of agriculture. Its northern portion, and the whole district of the Great Salt Lake, are full of natural beauties, and abundantly repay cultivation.

The Great Salt Lake is perhaps the most singular feature of Utah. Its form is irregular, in extent it is about seventy miles, and contains many islands. It is extremely salty, and so shallow as not to be available for the purposes of navigation. Its western banks, intersected by rivulets impregnated with salt and sulphur, are totally devoid of vegetation, excepting such small shrubs as spring up among the glittering saline particles, and here the mirage frequently displays its fantastic show, as in the deserts of the East. Fresh water and green turf are unknown through an extent of one hundred miles, while a coating of solid salt incrusts the earth, upon which the mules pass as upon ice. This lake never freezes. The river Utah, or the Jordan as it is called by the Mormons, is a small river of fresh water which unites Lake Utah to the Great Salt Lake. Lake Utah, thirty-five miles long, receives the waters of a great number of fresh-water streams which descend from the mountains, and keep the waters of this lesser lake fresh, although on its southern limits a considerable vein of salt has been found imbedded in the clay.

These lakes are about 4,000 feet above the level of the sea.

Lake Utah, as well as the rivers which flow into it, abounds with excellent fish, which with the chase furnish a subsistence to the Indians of this district.^[84]

Into this singular region, with its snow-capped mountains, its elevated valleys, its sandy deserts, and salt and sulphurous waters, came, in the year 1848, a people whose social and religious system forms as singular an anomaly in the midst of modern civilisation as the country itself which they chose amid the more ordinary aspects of nature. These, as is well known, are the Mormons.

The commencement of this sect was only eighteen years previous to the great emigration westward, and has become an historical event. Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, a man of low origin, a native of Palmyra in the state of New York, pretended to have found written plates of gold, which he also pretended to translate by miraculous inspiration, and gave forth as the book of Mormon, representing himself to be a great prophet of the latter day, a new Moses or Mahomet. The character of Smith appears from his youth upwards to have been that of a religious enthusiast, if not impostor. When only fourteen, during one of those periods of religious excitement called revivals, he declared that he had been favoured with a heavenly vision, in which two angelic personages freed him from the power of the Enemy and forbade him to join himself to any Christian sect. As he approached manhood he pretended to a knowledge of the occult sciences, and used the divining rod in the discovery of gold, at which period he was known as “Joe the Money-Digger.” The greatest treasure, however, which came into his hand, whether by occult knowledge or by angelic revelation, was, he said, the Book of Mormon, though no one ever saw the golden plates on which he asserted that it was written. As regards this so-called Book of Mormon, it is now generally supposed to have been the production of one Solomon Spalding, a Presbyterian minister, who, after various unsuccesses, wrote a tedious work of fiction on the History of the North American Indians, as the descendants of the patriarch Joseph, from the reign of Zedekiah to the fifth century of the Christian era, and which purported to have been buried by Mormon, its original compiler. This work, which never found a publisher, some years after its author’s death fell by some means into the hands of Sidney Higdon, an associate of Smith’s. The Book of Mormon was published, and Joe Smith was impudently announced by it to be a second Prophet and Saviour of mankind, who should establish a great Zion in America. Ill-founded and absurd as his pretensions were, he soon obtained an immense influence over the ignorant, not only in America but in England, and his sect increased not by hundreds but thousands. The principles of this sect are as yet but imperfectly understood. If, however, they are to be inferred from their bible, they will be found based on Christianity, whatever extravagances and impurities they may have engrafted upon it. This book is said to contain, in the first place, the whole of the Christian Bible, to which are added the writings of later prophets, of whom Meroni and Mormon are asserted to be the last. These give a more definite prophecy of Christ, but still adhere to the details of his life as related by the Evangelists, but in no instances propound any new religious doctrines or theory. The sect asserts, however, that Joe Smith, being directly descended from these later prophets, not only inherited their divine gifts, but was endowed with the spiritual privilege of divine communication, which he had the power of imparting to others; and that by means of these divine and miraculous gifts he and his followers are brought into closer communication with Christ than any other body of Christians.

While we must believe that these high pretensions of Joe Smith’s are delusions if not imposture of the most daring kind, it is still an interesting question what was the secret of the wonderful influence which he possessed over such thousands in the present age, and by which he was able not only to form them into a vast organised society, but even after his death to leave them so firmly knit together that no sign of dissolution appears amongst them. No doubt, however, but that Joe Smith was an extraordinary man, however unprincipled, gifted with a measure of that far-seeing power which assumes to be prophetic, and possessed of that subtle influence which subdues to its dominion the minds of all who are brought within its sphere, besides which he had great knowledge of human nature, and framed his government upon a hierarchical basis so as to enslave the multitude to a powerful priesthood. As regards the prophetic gifts of their first leader, the Mormons declare that Joe Smith distinctly foretold the time and manner of his own death, so that when it occurred the sect, instead of being disheartened and broken up, only regarded it as the accomplishment of a divine ordination, as a testimony to the truth of their faith, and other men of a like spirit with Smith took his place.

The Mormons, in the year 1838, established themselves and built a temple at Kirtland in Ohio; they then removed into Michigan, afterwards into Missouri, whence they were expelled on the charge of an attempt to assassinate the governor. From Missouri they removed into Illinois, whence they were again driven out by the inhabitants. In this last state, however, they remained long enough to found a city called Nauvoo, in which they built, upon the fine slope of a hill, a vast and magnificent temple in a barbaric style of architecture, according as they asserted, to directions laid down in the book of Mormon, the effect, however, of which was extremely imposing. Mormonism was now flourishing. The wealth and population of the community increased greatly. Smith was not only Prophet and High Priest but Mayor of Nauvoo, and even, it is said, offered himself as candidate for the Presidentship of the Union. At Nauvoo also it was that the grossest feature of Mormonism first revealed itself—Smith pretended that he had received a revelation allowing him to have many wives. This and other things roused the public indignation, and Joe Smith and his brother, on the charge of having been concerned in robbery and murder, were lodged in prison at the town of Carthage; and while in prison were themselves murdered by a band of a hundred men who forcibly entered in disguise for that purpose. Although this outrage was as great as that for which the Mormon leader was incarcerated, the public indignation continued to be so unabating against them, that the following year they sold all their possessions in Illinois, deserted their city and temple, and again, like the children of Israel of old, commenced their wanderings in the wilderness, their chosen head and prophet on the death of Smith being Brigham Young, the son of an Eastern States’ farmer. After a long and arduous march of 3,000 miles, amid difficulties and dangers and the endurance of many sufferings, and having crossed the Rocky Mountains they reached the Great Salt Lake, on the fertile shores of which they settled down as in a land of Goshen. Here a great prosperity has again commenced for them; their numbers increase annually, and even so early as 1846 they were able to furnish 500 volunteers for the Mexican war.

At the present time the Mormons number about 30,000. They are building a vast city, twelve miles in circumference, the houses of which are of brick, and their new temple, on a scale still more magnificent than the former, is of stone, the plan it is said having been revealed to Brigham Young in a miraculous vision. About 13,000 inhabitants reside in the city, the remainder having established themselves on the banks of the Jordan, which river, as we have said, connects Lake Utah with the Great Salt Lake. They have already commenced the cultivation of the soil, which is found to produce seventy-five bushels of wheat per acre, and which is favourable to the growth of the potato, though the climate is too severe for the Indian corn. Rain is rare in the country, and irrigation is therefore indispensable. They have erected corn and saw-mills on the streams of water which descend from the mountains, wood being abundant for this purpose, besides which they have iron-works and coal-mines, and various factories. They have dug canals and built bridges. They have established regular mails with San Francisco on the Pacific and New York on the Atlantic. Public baths, supplied from the hot springs of that volcanic region are erected in the city, and they have founded also a university, where lectures on the sciences, conformable to Mormon views, are delivered. The climate is extremely salubrious.

The Mormon government is a hierarchy; and the one great doctrine which is impressed upon the people is submission in all things to the priesthood; but all sects and opinions are tolerated amongst them. If all is true which is said of their social life, morality amongst them is at a very low ebb. Nevertheless, accounts are so contrary, that Miss Bremer, for instance, states on what she considered good authority, “that the habits and organisation of the community were according to the Christian moral code, and extremely severe.” Whatever it may be however, whether it ministers to the evil or the good in human nature, there seems to be a very popular element in Mormonism, for it reckons about 100,000 members within its pale, both in Europe and America, and those in Europe seem to be rapidly removing themselves to this New Jerusalem on the banks of the Great Salt Lake. One cause of their success, doubtless, is the wonderful system of organisation which prevails amongst them. They do not undertake the task of establishing their settlements according to the usually independent mode of individual and ordinary squatters, but all is the result of organised industry, and the result astonishes all. Captain Stansbury, in his Survey of Utah, thus describes the mode which they adopt for the founding of a new town. “An expedition is sent out to explore the country, with a view to the selection of the best site. An elder of the church is then appointed to preside over the band designated to make the first improvement. This company is composed partly of volunteers and partly of such as are selected by the Presidency, due regard being had to a proper intermixture of mechanical artizans, to render the expedition independent of all without.” And still further to illustrate this system, we will extract a letter given by the author of a very comprehensive article on Mormonism in the “Edinburgh Review,” and to which we are already indebted. “In company of upwards of 100 wagons I was sent on a mission with G. A. Smith, one of the Twelve, to Iron County, 270 miles south of Salt Lake, in the depth of winter, to form a settlement in the valley of Little Salt Lake, now Parowan, as a preparatory step to the manufacturing of iron. After some difficulty in getting through the snow, we arrived safe and sound in the valley. After looking out a location, we formed our wagons into two parallel lines, some seventy paces apart; we then took the boxes from the wheels and planted them about a couple of paces from each other, so securing ourselves that we could not easily be taken advantage of by any unknown foe. This done, we next ran a road up the ravine, opening it to a distance of some eight miles, bridging the creek in some five or six places, making the timber and poles, of which there is an immense quantity, of easy access. We next built a large meeting-house, two stories high, of large pine-trees, all neatly joined together. We next built a square fort with a commodious cattle-yard inside the enclosure. The houses were some of hewn logs, others of dried bricks, all neat and comfortable. We next inclosed a field, five by three miles square, with a good ditch and pole-fence. We dug canals and water-ditches to the distance of thirty or forty miles. One canal to turn the water of another creek upon the field for irrigating purposes, was seven miles long. We built a saw-mill and grist-mill the same season. I have not time to tell you half the labours we performed in one season. Suffice it to say, that when the governor came along in the spring, he pronounced it the greatest work done in the mountains by the same amount of men.”

This system of judicious organisation, by which his proper place is appointed to every man, has been carried throughout the Mormon movements, and much of their success may be attributed to this cause. The march from Missouri to the Great Salt Lake was conducted on this system. Captain Kane, who was an eye-witness, describes 3,000 persons, among whom were many women and children, journeying across an unknown and wilderness country with all the discipline of a veteran army. “Every ten of their wagons was under the care of a captain; this captain of ten obeyed a captain of fifty; who in his turn obeyed a member of the High Council of the Church.”

The great route to the western states of Oregon and California by the South Pass, runs about sixty miles north of this city of the Mormons, and one still nearer may be taken. The inhabitants supply the travellers with fresh mules, oxen, and provisions for the journey. The road of Independence west of the Rocky Mountains is good, and the number of travellers which frequent it immense. The Mormons have established ferry-boats on the Platte and Green Rivers.^[85]

Such is the history and the present position of the Mormon settlement of Utah. Already in 1850 they petitioned congress for admission into the Union, under the designation of the State of Deseret, a name taken from their Book of Mormon, but as yet they rank only as a territorial government.