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"The kingdom of God consists in correct principles; and it mattereth not what a man's religious faith is, whether he be a Presbyterian, or à Methodist, or a Baptist, or a Latter-Day Saint or 'Mormon,' or a Campbellite, or a Catholic, or Episcopalian, or Mahometan, or even Pagan, or anything else. If he will bow the knee, and with his tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ, and will support good and wholesome laws for the regulation of society, we hail him as a brother, and will stand by him as he stands by us in these things; for every man's religious faith is a matter between his own soul and his God alone. But if he shall deny the Jesus, if he shall curse God, if he shall indulge in debauchery and drunkenness and crime, if he shall lie and swear and steal, if he shall take the name of the great God in vain, and commit all manner of abominations, he shall have no place in our midst; for we have long sought to find a people that will work righteousness, that will distribute justice equally, that will acknowledge God in all their ways, that will regard those sacred laws and ordinances which are recorded in that sacred book called the Bible, which we verily believe, and which we proclaim to the ends of the earth.

"We ask no pre-eminence, we want no pre-eminence; but where God has us, there we will stand, and that is, to be one with our brethren; and our brethren are those that keep the commandments of God, that do the will of our Father who is in heaven; and by them we stand, and with them we will dwell in time and in eternity.

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Come, then, ye Saints of Latter Day, and all ye great and small, wise and foolish, rich and poor, noble and ignoble, exalted and persecuted, rulers and ruled of the earth, who love virtue and hate vice, and help us to do this work which the Lord hath required at our hands; and inasmuch as the glory of the latter house shall exceed that of the former, your reward shall be an hundredfold, and your rest shall be glorious. Our universal motto is, 'Peace with God, and good will to all men.'"'

For the first twelvemonth of their residence in the Salt Lake Valley, as has already been described by Colonel Kane, the Mormons had sufficient to occupy themselves in clearing their farms, and in establishing their relations with their new neighbours, the Utah Indians. Their next care was to organize themselves, not only as a religious community, but as a State claiming admission into the American Union. For this purpose a constitution was drawn up and promulgated.

The preamble, which is as follows, shows the geographical position and limits of the proposed Mormon State :

66 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE NEW STATE OF DESERET. "Whereas a large number of the Citizens of the United States, before and since the treaty of peace with the Republic of Mexico, emigrated to and settled in that portion of the territory of the United States lying west of the Rocky Mountains, and in the great interior basin of Upper California; and

"Whereas, by reason of said treaty, all civil organization originating from the Republic of Mexico became abrogated; and

"Whereas, the Congress of the United States has failed to provide a form of civil government for the territory so acquired, or any portion thereof; and "Whereas civil government and laws are necessary for the security, peace, and prosperity of society; and

"Whereas, it is a fundamental principle in all the Republican governments, that all political power is inherent in the people; and governments instituted for their protection, security, and benefit, should emanate from the same— Therefore, your Committee beg leave to recommend the adoption of the following constitution, until the Congress of the United States shall otherwise

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1 provide for the government of the territory hereinafter named and described.

"We, the people, grateful to the Supreme Being for the blessings hitherto enjoyed, and feeling our dependence on Him for a continuation of those blessings, do ordain and establish a free and independent government, by the name of the State of Deseret; including all the territory of the United States within the following boundaries, to wit:-commencing at the 33rd degree of north latitude, where it crosses the 108th degree of longitude, west of Greenwich; thence running south and west to the northern boundary of Mexico; thence west to, and down the main channel of the Gila River, on the northern line of Mexico, and on the northern boundary of Lower California to the Pacific Ocean; thence along the coast north-westerly to 118 degrees 30 minutes of west longitude; thence north to where said line intersects the dividing ridge of the Sierra Nevada mountains; thence north along the summit of the Sierra Nevada mountains to the dividing range of mountains that separates the waters flowing into the Columbia River-from the waters running into the Great Basin; thence easterly, along the dividing range of mountains that separates said waters flowing into the Columbia River on the north from the waters flowing into the Great Basin on the south, to the summit of the Wind River chain of mountains; thence south-east and south, by the dividing range of mountains that separate the waters flowing into the Gulf of Mexico from the waters flowing into the Gulf of California; to the place of beginning, as set forth in a map drawn by Charles Preuss, and published by order of the Senate of the United States, in 1848," &c.

It appears, however, that the general Government of the United States has not seen fit to accord to the Mormons the exact boundaries which they desire-that it ignores the name of Deseret, and prefers that of Utah-and is anxious to deprive the Mormons of the coast line claimed in this document, and to shut them up in the table-land among the mountains. Accordingly, in the first section of the bill passed by Congress we find it enacted that the new territory is "bounded on the west by the State of California; on the north by the territory of Oregon; and on the east and south by the dividing ridge which separates the waters flowing into the Great Basin from those flowing into the Colorada River and the Gulf of California."

By the same bill, a territorial government for Utah was appointed; and in October, 1850, the President of the United States, with the advice and consent of the Senate, nominated Mr. Brigham Young to be its Governor, and six other persons to the subordinate offices of Secretary, Chief Justice, Associate Justice, Attorney-General, and States-Marshal. Out of these seven, four are members of the Mormon Church.

"The spot on which the Mormons are now settled," says the Cincinnatti Atlas, "is, geographically, one of the most interesting in the Western World. There is no other just like it, that we recollect, on the globe. Look at the map a little east of the Great Salt Lake,

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and just south of the South-west Pass, and you will see in the northeast corner of California the summit level of the waters which flow on the North American continent. It must be four thousand feet,

perhaps more, above the level of the Atlantic. In this sequestered corner, in a vale hidden among mountains and lakes, are the Mormons; and there rise the mighty rivers, than which no continent has greater. Within a stone's throw almost of one another lie the head springs of the Sweetwater and Green Rivers. The former flows into the Platte River; that into the Missouri, and that into the Mississippi, and that into the Gulf of Mexico, and becomes a part of the Gulf Stream, laving the shores of distant lands. The latter, the Green River, flows into the Colorado, the Colorado into the Gulf of California, and is mingled with the Pacific. The one flows more than two thousand five hundred miles, the other more than one thousand five hundred. These flow into tropical regions. Just north of the same spot are the head streams of Snake River, which flows into the Columbia, near latitude 46°, after a course of one thousand miles. Just south are the sources of the Rio Grande, which, after winding one thousand seven hundred miles, finds the Gulf of Mexico. It is a remarkable point in the earth's surface where the Mormons are; and, locked in by mountains and lakes, they will probably remain, and constitute a new and peculiar colony."

After having drawn up a constitution, declaring Deseret a free and not a slave State, and trusting to the chances of politics and political parties to fix their exact boundaries, the next thing to be accomplished by their leaders was to gather their people together. Before a "territory" under the protection of the United States Government can claim admission into the Union as a State, its population must amount to sixty thousand; and to bring their, number to this point has been the great work in which the Mormon leaders have been incessantly occupied since 1848.

Several emissaries or "Apostles" of the sect were despatched to Europe at the commencement of 1850, to "gather" the European Saints to the New Zion. Not the least remarkable circumstances in Mormon history are the faith and zeal of their missionaries. They start without money, or, as they express it, "without purse and scrip," and trust to Providence for their subsistence, feeling assured that "He who provideth for the sparrows will provide for them." Some have proceeded to Germany, to Italy, to France, to Norway, and to Russia, in total ignorance of the languages of those countries, but trusting to pick up by the way sufficient knowledge to answer their purpose. Little success, however, has attended them upon the Continent. The strongholds of the sect are in England, Wales, and Scotland; fully thirty thousand people in Great Britain are members of their Church, and there is not a considerable town in which they have not a congregation.

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At the Mormon conferences held throughout the British Isles, in June, 1850, the number of Mormons in England and Scotland was reported at 27,863,-of whom there were in London, 2,529; in Manchester, 2,787; in Liverpool, 1,018; in Glasgow, 1,846; in Sheffield, 1,929 ; in Edinburgh, 1,331; in Birmingham, 1,909; and in Wales, 4,342. The report of June, 1851, showed a still further increase; and detailed some particulars of the growth of the sect, which we present in the words of that document:

"In 1837, one year before the Saints reached Nauvoo, Elders K. C. Kimball and Orson Hyde, together with several others, landed at Liverpool, friendless and destitute. They separated, and went forth preaching into the towns on either side. Preston first heard and obeyed the principles of truth. In eight months, seven hundred members met in conference in that town, rejoicing in the power and privilege of the Gospel. In a very short time, several counties, among which were Yorkshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, Stafford, Gloucester, Worcester, and Hereford, had heard and received the servants of God. Thus the Church increased; so that, in 1840, after three years' labour, the general conference reported 3,626 members, and 383 in the priesthood, making in all 4,019 Saints. But such triumphant success was not confined to England. Scotland enjoyed a portion; and Ireland was also made to rejoice; and Wales testified by her thousands how the Church had progressed in that province. In Scotland, the bloodcemented pyramid of bigotry and superstition had been triumphantly attacked, although sustained by the proverbial wariness of the Scotch. The conference established in Edinburgh, notwithstanding that hundreds had removed and hundreds more emigrated, still represented more than 1,500 members. Glasgow was also proclaimed, and over 2,063 members were now revelling in the enjoyment of the spirit of truth. In 1851, more than 3,530 had obeyed the mandates of Heaven, and thousands had besides emigrated to the gathering place of the Saints. As to Ireland, it was not until 1850 that Dublin had heard the principles of truth; he was, however, glad to say that a small branch had been established in that city. In Wales, their success was still more great and glorious. In 1851, the number of Saints in the principality was 4,848, including officers. The statistics of January last showed there were, altogether, in the United Kingdom, 42 conferences, 602 branches, 22 seventies, 12 high priests, 1,761 elders, 1,590 priests, 1,226 teachers, 682 deacons, and 25,454 members, making a total of 30,747 Saints. During the last fourteen years, more than 50,000 had been baptized in England, of which nearly 17,000 had emigrated from her shores to Zion."

We gather from other sources that for the two years prior to the

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