Smith, the founder of Mormonism, "was born at Sharon, Windsor County, Vt., Dec. 23, 1805; and killed at Carthage, Ill., June 27, 1844. At the age of ten, he moved with his parents to Palmyra, Wayne County, N.Y." He grew up idle, dissolute, and ignorant. "In 1833, upwards of sixty of the most respectable citizens of Wayne County testified that the Smith family were of immoral, false, and fraudulent character, and that Joseph was the worst of them." His pretended discovery of the plates in the earth "in a hill near Manchester, Ontario County," from which the Book of Mormon was translated, was acknowledged by himself to be false. The three witnesses whom he had induced to perjure themselves to certify to the appearance of the Angel Moroni, and the delivery of the miraculous book, afterward quarrelled with him, and denounced him as an impostor. Ample internal evidence condemns the Book of Mormon as a poorly-concealed and low fiction. It was written as an historical novel by Solomon Spalding, a graduate of Dartmouth College; and copied by Sidney Rigdon, a man employed in a printing-office in Pittsburg, where Spalding left it for examination. The testimony of those who had seen and heard it read in part or in whole, and especially that of Spalding's wife after his death, is conclusive upon this point. The manuscript was returned to her and produced after the Book of Mormon was published. She says, "I am sure that nothing would grieve my husband more, were he living, than the use which has been made of his work." The air of antiquity which was thrown about the composition doubtless suggested the idea of converting it to the purposes of delusion. Thus, an historical romance, with the addition of a few pious expressions and extracts from the Sacred Scriptures, has been construed into a new Bible, and palmed off upon a company of poor deluded fanatics as divine.

From this book, Smith and his family began to preach a new religion. Foolish, idle, and easily-deluded people gathered about him; and at Manchester, N.Y., April 6, 1830,

"the Church of the Latter-day Saints" was formed. Revelations soon began to be announced, pretended miracles were asserted, and the fatal delusion began to spread.

Under the direction of their leader, this rabble of vile enthusiasts settled in Kirtland, O.; where their frauds upon neighboring communities so excited the indignation of the people, that they drove them from their midst as an insupportable nuisance. They fled to Missouri, where many outrages were committed. They were driven from Jackson County and from Clay County, and at length located at Far West. Further exposures of their iniquitous and treasonable plans were made, under oath, by Thomas B. March, president of "the twelve apostles," and Orson Hyde, another of their apostles. Their organized band of avenging Danites, and their bold threats of a war of extermination against their opposers, brought them into violent collision with the people of Missouri. The governor called out the militia. Smith and Rigdon were arrested and imprisoned under charge of "treason, murder, and felony;" but Smith escaped from jail, and Rigdon was released by writ of habeas corpus. The Mormons agreed to leave the State, and, to the number of thousands, moved on to Commerce, Ill.; and Smith, by pretended revelation, ordered the people to build there the city of Nauvoo. Land had been presented to him by Dr. Isaac Gallard; and the prophet, by the sale of lots, realized a fortune estimated at over a million of dollars.

Indulged by a vicious and extraordinary charter granted by the Legislature of Illinois, Smith was now a man of importance. He was mayor of Nauvoo, first president of the Church, and commander-in-chief of the Nauvoo Legion, with the rank of lieutenant-general. A hotel was erected in which Smith and his family should have place "from generation to generation for ever and ever." "A revelation" now pronounced Smith "seer, translator, prophet, apostle of Jesus Christ, and elder of the Church;" and profanely said, “The church shall give heed to all his words and commandments

which he shall give unto you; for his word shall ye receive as if from my own mouth, in all patience and faith." *

Thus did this vile, blasphemous deceiver rise to the position of absolute power; and under its shield, and with pretended revelations, he commenced, more boldly than before, to gather about him deluded women, and give authority to the licentious doctrine of polygamy. His criminal practices became unendurable to many of his own followers. They denounced and prosecuted him, and, by the sworn testimony of insulted virtuous women, fixed upon him and his leading supporters the crimes which destroy society, and bring upon guilty offenders the wrath of God. The heads of the church, fearing the violence of the storm which was gathering, published a denial of the doctrines of polygamy; but no such mendacity could blind the eyes of personal witnesses of their persistent efforts to give to general prostitution the protection of municipal law in the name of religion.

This arch-criminal and his leading disciples refused to obey the law, until they were persuaded that it was useless, and submitted to be imprisoned. One form of illegal violence had given pretext for another: the mob assaulted the jail; and the two Smiths, Joseph and Hiram, were shot dead.

Brigham Young, an uncultivated but shrewd and powerful man, born at Whitingham, Vt., June 1, 1801, and who had joined the Mormons at Kirtland in 1832, soon appeared with sufficient native force to put down all rivals, and assume the supreme power, which, at the moment of death, had fallen from the arch-deceiver Smith. Henceforward this one daring, unscrupulous mind becomes the organizer of this grand system of concentrated abominations.

Brigham Young was too shrewd to attempt the development of this scheme of iniquity in the midst of civilization, and very easily invented the "revelations," which led the reckless outlaws beyond the Rocky Mountains, on to the great American plateau stretching westward to the Sierra

*See Appleton's American Cyclopædia, article "Mormons."

Nevadas. This region of vast solitudes, but capable of successful cultivation, and of sustaining a very large population, was a fitting place for the planting of this now formidable colony of corruption. Young reached the region of the Great Salt Lake, July 24, 1847; and the great body of the Mormons, in the fall of 1848. Here they have built a city and a vast temple. From this point they have sent out their missionaries to different parts of the world, and especially to Great Britain, whence they have brought large numbers of men and very much larger numbers of women to be the victims of their gross deceptions and base passions. Here they have openly avowed the system of polygamy, and glory in the number and comeliness of the abused and sacrificed females who crowd their harems. Here they show a pretended obedience to civil rulers, but organize treason, and, for the present, defy the Government. From this point they extend their towns and labors, cultivating new fields, and consorting at pleasure with hostile Indians in their savage assaults upon helpless emigrants. Well may the scathing denunciations of our Saviour to the scribes and Pharisees be addressed to them: "Woe unto you, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and, when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves."

It is unnecessary to trace this great iniquity farther. It is sufficient to say that it must go on until it is fully developed and has spent its force! Government has no right forcibly to prevent religious delusion as such; but it has full power to suppress outlawry, prevent conspiracy against its own sovereignty, and protect its citizens in their rights among the vagrants who brand them as "Gentiles," and persecute them for the exercise of the purest forms of Christian worship. How long this desired discipline may be delayed, we may not know; but mutual jealousies and angry recriminations amongst themselves, the rising self-respect of the Government, and the hardly restrained indignation of the

American people, indicate that the time for retribution, or submission to the laws of the land, draws nigh.

In the mean time, there is the least possible apology for charging this monstrous, morbid growth upon true republicanism, as it has for a long time depended mainly for maintaining and increasing its population upon its annual throngs of proselytes from the subjects of monarchies in England or on the continent of Europe. It is useless to attempt a reference of this or any other form of private or social vice to any method of civil government. It is simply and only a development of natural depravity. God's answer to this shameless effrontery, as to the great Mohammedan apostasy, is quietly coming to the ears of men, and will soon be audible in the solemn announcements of retributive justice.

CORRUPTION IN RELIGION AND POLITICS.

It cannot be claimed that in America more than elsewhere the sacred name of religion has never been misapplied, nor that the Church has been in all cases preserved from dangerous error. Men bring to the consideration of religious as well as other questions darkened intellects and depraved hearts. A common tendency to substitute perverted human reason for divine omniscience and revelation in matters of faith appears in rationalistic infidelity alike in Germany, England, and America. No matter where or in what form it appears, this sceptical spirit seeks the satisfaction of felt religious want without the new birth and a life of self-denial. The churches of the United States in com mon with Christendom have felt the paralyzing effects of unbelief and of the spirit of a naturalistic philosophy, which alike deny to the thirsty soul the pure waters of life, and fail to realize in time the true hope of immortality. Just in proportion as this pride of intellect has predominated over simple faith in the Bible and in the Christ of history, religion has revealed weakness instead of vitality and power.