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CHAPTER IV.

THE NEW JERUSALEM.

ARRIVAL AT GREAT SALT LAKE CITY.-TAVERN OF THE FEDERAL SUPREME JUDGE.-PRECINCTS OF THE TEMPLE.-MORMON ACTIVITY. -DIVERSITY OF RACES.-FIRST VISIT TO BRIGHAM YOUNG.-KINDNESS IS NEVER LOST.-FEDERAL MAGISTRACY IN UTAH.- SECOND VISIT TO BRIGHAM YOUNG.-HOSPITALITY OF THE SAINTS.--GENTILES.-DOCTORS.-A FRENCHMAN.

            THE holy city of the Mormons, which is for the most part styled Great Salt Lake City, is also called New Jerusalem, Modern Zion, and Deseret (Land of the Bee). Situate in a plain at the foot of the Wahsatch mountains, it is bounded by them and by the river Jordan. The upper part of the city rises slightly, in the form of an amphitheatre, on the slope of a hill. The eye embraces at a glance all its vast extent, without having to rest on any remarkable edifice. The magnificent steeples which are hereafter to pierce the clouds with their aerial spires, have not yet sprung from their foundations. The streets of the city are perpendicular to the course of the Jordan, and

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are intersected at right-angles by an equal number of streets parallel to the course of that river. A mud wall, of no great height or solidity, constructed solely to repel the attacks of the Indians, almost entirely encircles this rising city, to which it serves as a rampart.

            Into this city we made our entry the 25th of September, 1855, at a quarter past three in the afternoon, fifty-eight days after our departure from Sacramento. We entered it by one of the principal streets, and saw to the right and left gardens and orchards, in which the trees, especially the peach, were laden with fruit. The inhabitants took us for the express which brings the monthly mail ; and owing to this mistake, we did not excite public curiosity. We at once directed our steps to the town-hall, where Haws was desirous of asking the Governor to point us out quarters. We did not meet with his Excellency, and, following the directions given us by some of the clerks, we went to the Union Hotel, situate near the northern extremity of the city. A short, fat man, decently attired and of respectable appearance, was smoking a long porcelain pipe before the door of the hotel. It was the proprietor, the Honourable Mr. Kinney, Supreme Judge of the territory of Utah in the name of the Federal Government. He accosted us with easy politeness, and conducted us into his house, in which he allowed us the choice of his best apartments. He even ceded to us his large, private sitting-room. We were offered port-wine

THE NEW JERUSALEM.      191

and American brandy before tea, which was taken at six o'clock. We sent George to lodge at the Deseret Hotel, kept by a Mormon of the name of Townsend. Judge Kinney's house was very large and even handsome for the country. After the desert, it seemed a fairy palace. A young mountain-sheep, which rather resembled a deer than a sheep, sported around us, together with a large bird of the country, which, from its size, recalled to mind the African ostrich, but was at once to be distinguished from it by the length of its beak. The presence of these animals, born in the immense solitudes of Utah, and already so thoroughly domesticated, gave our apartment an original aspect, which was extremely agreeable to us.

            The very day of our arrival, just before nightfall, a party of English Mormons, who were serenaded with great ceremony by the Church band, bivouacked in Union Square where we had put up. These new-comers took up their quarters there in the open air with their waggons, until the authorities could assign them a residence and land. A few Utah Indians wandered about the streets, and seemed to us to be very well looked upon by the inhabitants.

            We received, the same evening, a visit from General Burr, the Surveyor-General of the United States for the territory of Utah, an intelligent, worthy old man. We also received a visit from Dr. Hurt, the Indian Agent, a man of amiable disposition, but unfortunately in very delicate health ; so that we found ourselves from the moment

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of our arrival, in a small but at the same time agreeable and intelligent circle. These federal officers, who did not belong to the religion of Joseph Smith, spoke to us at length on the state of the country, from their point of view, They gave us to understand we should not he long in discovering the internal gangrene which consumes the Mormons of Utah, whose outward life might be tolerably decent, but to know the truth we must peep behind the curtain. They spoke in praise of Brigham Young, the Governor, whom they described to us as a man of so much intelligence, that it was difficult to understand how he could so strangely take advantage of the poor fanatics united under his banner. They added also that many of the Mormons who had arrived from Europe, complained of the despotism of the Church ; and, among other examples, they cited the case of a well-bred Frenchwoman, worthy of respect in every point of view, who had been left entirely destitute by her husband, because her faith in Mormonism had, become shaken by her coming into personal contact with the Saints of Utah. It will be seen in the course of our narrative, that we could not quite coincide with the opinions of the surveyor and the doctor, without incurring the risk of judging a considerable body from a few isolated cases, in themselves by no means conclusive.

            Peter Haws and the two Shoshonès chiefs, whose services had been of great assistance to us during the latter part of our journey, remained a few days with us before

THE NEW JERUSALEM.      193

returning to their distant homes, to which we sent them back after loading them with tokens of our gratitude. It is a fact well worthy of note, that these two Indians not only never asked us for the least recompense for their journey and trouble, but even remained absolutely indifferent to our presents. What a contrast with the savages of Oceania, whom we could never satisfy, and who would remorselessly have allowed us to strip off the clothes from our backs for them !

            The day after our arrival we reconnoitred the city to study its plan. All the streets are a hundred and thirty feet wide, and run from north to south, and from east to west. They are watered on either side by a stream of clear water, ingeniously brought from the neighbouring mountains. A double line of arborescent willows (cotton-wood) adorns each of these streams. The streets cross each other at right-angles, forming squares of houses, or blocks, each side of which measured about six hundred and fifty-seven feet. Each house, at least twenty feet from the street, is surrounded by garden-ground of greater or less extent. This arrangement, besides giving a countryfied aspect to the city, greatly augments its superficies ; hence it is not less than three English miles in diameter. The majority of the houses are built of adobes, generally in a simple style, frequently elegant, and always clean. Some of these dwellings are very large ; among others, Brigham Young's, which is comparatively a palace. This edifice, about ninety-

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eight feet long by forty in width, is built of several kinds of stone, among which we remarked a magnificent granite, brought from the neighbouring mountains at a great expense. The long salient ogives of the windows of the upper story give to the roof which they intersect the appearance of a crenellated diadem, and render this monument a model of Mormon architecture. Thirty sultanas are intended to occupy this harem, which, although far from being finished, has already cost the Mormon pontiff 80,000 dollars, whose personal fortune, arising from his fortunate speculations, is stated to exceed 400,000 dollars. The house actually inhabited by Brigham Young with his seventeen wives, is situate by the side of this palace, and the roof is surmounted by a bee-hive, the emblem, as they say, of the industry and innocence of the inhabitants of Deseret, and probably having allusion to the word deseret itself, which, as we have observed before, means 'land of the bee.' Close by are the offices of the Governor, and the Tithing-office, Not far from the Governor's house is the Court-house, in which the courts of justice hold their sittings. A library, founded by the government at Washington, and constantly increased by donations, is attached to this establishment for public use. A little further on is the Social Hall. We visited the enclosure reserved for the construction of the temple. It is a block of 656 1/2 feet on every side, with a wall round it 11 1/2 feet in height, having three large gates each 58 1/2 feet in width. In the south-west

[Illustration]

LE TEMPLE DE GREAT SALT LAKE CITY

THE NEW JERUSALEM.      195 

angle of this enclosure is the tabernacle, an edifice about 125 1/2 feet in length, by about sixty-four feet wide. It is, properly speaking, only a large house built of stones and adobes, and used for divine service during the construction of the temple. In front of the tabernacle is the Bowery, a species of immense shed covered in with planks and boughs, intended for the accommodation of those of the congregation who cannot find room in that building. At the south-west angle are the foundations of the temple, the length of which will be 150 feet 4 inches, and its width 119 feet inches, with walls 9 feet 9 inches in thickness. This temple, which will be ornamented with six polyhedral steeples, and which, according to the Mormons, is intended by its splendour and the magnificence of its architecture to surpass all the edifices in the world, is being constructed of a beautiful granite, brought with much labour from a neighbouring mountain. The architect of this marvel of monuments is an English Mormon, named T. O. Angell.

            In the office of the President is a plan of the temple, which we were allowed to copy. The Mormons do not say whether God gave the dimensions and proportions of the temple of Zion, even as he gave Joseph Smith those for the temple of Nauvoo. In the north-west angle of this great enclosure, which is called the Temple-block, is the Endowment House, a kind of sanctum sanctorum interdicted to the profane, and where only some privileged Saints may go and receive from the Prophet or

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the Apostles the gifts of the Holy Spirit and ordination. It is there that the initiated receive the sacred tunic, a kind of long white skirt, which protects those who wear it from every danger, and which would infallibly have saved Joseph Smith if, on the day of his assassination, he had not thrown it off lest it might give a handle to the charge of belonging to a secret society which he had to meet. Finally, at the north-east angle of the great enclosure are the workshops and temporary erections connected with the building and wants of the Church. It is there that emigrants who have newly arrived, as well as residents who are without employment, apply for work. There also are the granaries and storehouses of the Mormon Church.

            In surveying the city, we were struck with the cleanliness which everywhere prevailed, and the comfort exhibited in the external appearance and good preservation of the dwellings. We could not refrain from admiring more especially the order, the tranquillity, and industry we encountered on all sides. This on our part was a surprise analogous to that of the hero of Virgil, at the sight of the rise of Carthage :

                                    " Miratur molem Aeneas, magalia quondam:

                                    Miratur portas, strepitumque et strata viarum.

                                    Instant ardentes Tyrii : pars ducere muros,

                                    Molirique arcem, et manibus subvolvere saxa :

                                    Pars optare locum tecto et concludere sulco.

                                    Jura magistratusque legunt, sanctumque senatum."

            The whole of this small nation occupy themselves as

THE NEW JERUSALEM.      197

usefully as the working bees of a hive, perfectly justifying the emblem erected by the President of the Church on the summit of his mansion. The masons were at work building, carpenters squaring timber, gardeners digging or watering, blacksmiths at the forge, reapers getting in their harvest, furriers dressing costly skins, children shelling maize, herdsmen tending their droves, woodcutters returning from the mountain heavily laden with wood, woolcombers carding the fleece, ditchers digging canals for irrigation, tailors, shoemakers, brick-makers, potters, manufacturers of saltpetre and gunpowder, millers, sawyers, gunsmiths making or repairing rifles ; in a word, all descriptions of artisans and workmen of every kind. The idle or unemployed are not to be met with here. Every one, from the lowest of the faithful up to the bishop and even the apostle, is occupied in manual labour. A glance at the Mormons during their work is sufficient to explain how their colony, which did not commence till the end of 1847, is already in such a flourishing and advanced state. And this activity, as admirable as productive, is not, as might be imagined, the result of an organization of labour such as is dreamed of by some European economists. Each works for himself or his family, under the triple incentive of necessity, of his own and the public welfare. The poorest, and they are generally the last comers, enter the establishments of the more wealthy ; or when they cannot otherwise find work, apply to the Church for

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it, which has always some to give them, and pays them in clothing, provisions, and fuel. Neither grog-shops, gaming-houses, nor brothels are to be met with. There are no such resorts among the Mormons. The only places of public assembly are the temple, the schools, the drill-ground, and from time to time the Social Hall, where they have dancing and singing, where theatrical representations are given, and scientific and historical lectures are delivered. There is never any disturbance in the streets, brawling is unknown ; criminal charges also are very rare, and the courts, by the admission of the federal judges, have scarcely anything else to do, but settle disputed debts.

            Although there are neither grog-shops nor dealers in any kind of drinks to be met with, it does not necessarily follow that the Saints refrain from the moderate use of spirituous or fermented liquors. No command compels them to reject certain productions of nature or of art. It is true that Joseph Smith, in a sermon entitled " Word of Wisdom," counsels the true believers to abstain from the use of fermented drinks and tobacco, and recommends such abstinence as a means of arriving at perfection. The more fervent do abstain with this view, but occasionally they make no scruple of the moderate use of drink. Many of them take beer, to make which they cultivate hops in their valleys ; others drink wine when they can get it, and some even indulge in whisky, which they distil from the potato. In the evening their families generally pass their time

THE NEW JERUSALEM.      199

together, conversing, singing, preaching, reading the Bible and sacred works, as well as the periodicals published by their leaders. At night not a woman is to be met with in the streets, which is worthy of remark among people where the number of women exceeds that of men, and where it might be assumed that polygamy would lead to greater freedom of manners. It is a strange spectacle and one full of interest, this society so laborious and so sober, so peaceable and so orderly, when one considers the different elements of which it is composed, and the classes from which it generally springs. There are in Great Salt Lake City, —and we enumerate them according to the numerical importance of the contingent furnished by each nation,— English, Scotch, Canadians, Americans (these are for the most part the original converts of Joseph Smith), Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, Swiss, Poles, Russians, Italians, French, Negroes, Hindoos, and Australians ; we even saw a Chinese there. All these people, bred in different and often adverse faiths, for the most part brought up in the most gross ignorance and dissonant prejudices ; some whose lives, on the whole, have been neither particularly good nor bad ; others, and the far greater number, it may be, living in the habitual indulgence of the most brutal instincts ; all differing from one another, in country, language, customs, laws, nationality, and tastes, have flocked together, and flock together every day, to live more than brothers in perfect harmony, in the centre of the American

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continent, where they form a new nation, independent, compact, and, in fact, as little under the control of the government of the United States which takes them under its protection, as of the firmans of the Grand Turk. There is something in this to induce one to believe in the possibility of a universal fusion, and the future unity of nations into one and the same great commonwealth. Such, indeed, is the hope and the aim, more or less avowed, of this people, which styles itself the privileged posterity of Abraham.

            So much order wrought out of such a chaos reflects great lustre on the ability of the sovereign of the country, Brigham Young. We were not disposed to allow more than a day to elapse without presenting our homage to this personage, more especially as we required his aid to carry out effectually our researches and to obtain the funds we required. We had lost on our journey the portmanteau which contained our letters of credit, and we had arrived at the Salt Lake with an empty purse, our clothes in tatters, and without the least means of establishing our identity. The high price of everything, which prevailed in consequence of the famine caused by the ravages of the locusts, rendered our position even more precarious, for our expenses were excessive ; one may form a notion of them from the keep of our animals, which alone cost us twenty dollars a day. We therefore resolved to procure an introduction to the Governor through Peter Haws, but who, unfortunately, was not regarded by him as in a perfect odour of orthodoxy.

THE NEW JERUSALEM.      201

            Brigham Young is the supreme President of the Church of Latter-day Saints throughout the world. He is the Mormon pope ; he is at the same time, by election of the people, a prophet, " revelator," and seer ; and still more, be was, at the time of our journey, Governor of the territory of Utah, and recognized in that capacity by the President of the United States. He is a man of fifty-four years of age,* fair, of moderate height, stout almost to obesity. He has regular features, a wide forehead, eyes which convey an idea of finesse, and a smiling expression of mouth. His general appearance is that of an honest farmer, and nothing in his manners indicates a man of the higher classes. Of superior intellect, though uneducated, Brigham has given proofs, of remarkable talent and profound ability, in combining the heterogeneous elements of which his people are made up. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church, said of Brigham Young, that " he could eat more eggs, and beget more children, than any man in the State of Illinois." Such a judgment, so pronounced, is alike characteristic of the master and the disciple. Brother Brigham—he is thus styled among the Saints—has a seraglio of seventeen women of various ages, and one of them, whom we saw by chance in his garden, is strikingly beautiful. The number of his children is unknown. In the preceding spring be had nine born to him in one week. Every one extols the solicitude of this model of patriarchs for his numerous progeny. As

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* In 1855

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President of the Church, Brigham unites in his own hands more power than any potentate in the world. He is the autocrat of thought and action, the omnipotent soul of this rising body already so considerable, but which is looked upon by the Americans merely in the light of a phantom evoked by evil passions, and which they hope to lay.

            To this personage we were about to pay a visit in our miner's costume. We found him in his official cabinet, dictating instructions to his secretaries, and at the same time preparing a quid of Virginia tobacco. He occupied an armchair, in which he rather squatted than sat. On his head he wore a broad-brimmed, fawn-coloured felt hat. His coat, of greenish cloth, was of the cut which was called formerly à la Française, but of inordinate amplitude. His stockings, visible below his trousers, were clean and white, and his linen tolerably fair. He continued dictating for half an hour, without appearing to take the least notice of our presence. Then, as soon as he had finished, he exchanged a few words with an Indian who had kissed his hand when he entered. Mr. Haws now presented us to his Excellency. Brigham Young shook hands with us, and then retired into an adjoining apartment, from which he returned in about two minutes with a plug of tobacco, which he gave to the Indian. He then asked us to take a seat, and sat down himself, without taking off his hat. Either on account of our introducer, or on account of our rough costume, which was by no means

THE NEW JERUSALEM.      203

adapted to create a favourable impression, he did not appear to pay attention to us, and did not condescend to favour us with a word. He remained with his head bowed down almost to his knees, as if he durst not look at us. I asked him, after waiting some time, whether he spoke French. He deigned to reply in the negative,* without adding another word. Five minutes after, Mr. Haws informed him that we wished to converse with him privately, and not in the presence of his clerks. He replied, " Very well," and still remained in the same posture. Five minutes more elapsed in silence on both sides. I then requested Mr. Brenchley, speaking to him in French, to try and prevail upon his Excellency to grant us a private audience. His Excellency replied affirmatively by a monosyllable, and again relapsed into silence. At last we ventured to ask him where he would grant us the interview. " In the street," he replied, " because at the present moment I have no private office." We then went out together, and, having explained to him in a few words our position, we begged him to inform us how we could obtain credit on San Francisco. He answered us kindly that the Mormons had dealings with the eastern States only, but

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* Although he is supposed to have received the gift of tongues. at least in the estimation of his disciples, Brigham Young knows and speaks English alone, as he told us himself. It appears that the Mormons understand by the gift of tongues, the faculty of emitting sounds unintelligible to him who utters them, but which one of the inspired can interpret, although he is himself incapable of speaking the jargon which he translates.

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that perhaps the house of Livingston might be able to render us the service we required. He put some questions to us in his turn, concerning ourselves and the nature of our investigations, when suddenly he started off, and made towards a team of oxen which were coming up the street without a teamster. He stopped the animals, and stood still before them until the driver returned to his post. " You allow your oxen to go alone, do you ?" asked his Excellency. " Ah ! how do you do, Brother Brigham ? these oxen, you see, have been disobedient, like myself sometimes." This act on the part of the Governor appeared so natural to us, that it seemed rather the result of habitual good-nature than done for the sake of effect. His Excellency then rejoined us, and shaking hands, left us without another word.

            This interview with the Governor served rather to increase than diminish our difficulties. We learned afterwards that we were looked upon as persons of bad character, sent by the Gentiles to assassinate the leader of the Mormons. It was from no lack of courage that Brigham looked upon us in this light ; for he had so often to baffle felonious attempts, that he was fully justified, from our strange demeanour, our beggarly costume, our inability to prove by any written document the truth of our assertions, —he was, I repeat, fully justified in regarding us as suspicious characters. We had already made up our minds to work, Mr. Brenchley, whose love of turning might

THE NEW JERUSALEM.      205

have stood him in good stead, as a carpenter,* and I as a compositor, in order to earn our subsistence, till such time as we could receive funds from Europe or from California, when we were recognized in the middle of the street by a Mormon missionary, James Lawson, whom we had met in the Sandwich Islands, and to whom Mr. Brenchley had rendered an important service. Kindness is never thrown away ; this old saying was fully borne out in this instance. Lawson, learning our embarrassment and the manner in which we had been received by the Governor, hastened the following morning to present himself at his Excellency's house, to clear up all misapprehensions about our character and intentions. Brigham Young, who much regretted his mistake, excused himself by saying, that he distrusted strangers presented to him by persons who scarcely knew them, which was the case with Haws in respect to us. He begged us to return to his house, at the same time expressing his regret in being unable to visit us at Judge Kinney's ; and to convince us that he was really sorry, sent us a present of nearly all the works which had been written and published by the Mormons, handsomely bound.

            From this moment we were at ease. The house of Livingston, Kinkead, and Co., enlightened respecting us,

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* It is especially when travelling, and when one is thrown upon one's own resources, that we become sensible of the value of Locke's advice, who insisted that every gentleman should be taught some mechanical art.

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consented, through their managing partner, Mr. W. Bell, a Scotch gentleman, as amiable as he was intelligent, to discount our bills on San Francisco; to any amount that we might require, without charging us any commission. This unlimited credit, thus opened to us in a country so difficult of access, was at the same time a mark of confidence, and an act of liberality purely American, which places Brigham Young and Mr. Bell among the number of those benefactors whom Providence has scattered at intervals in our path, and who have acquired our lasting gratitude.

            Judge Kinney, who had been very civil to us before he knew us, redoubled his attentions, and we suddenly found ourselves in this unknown capital surrounded by persons anxious to serve us.

            We soon learned why it was the Governor declined paying us a visit at our hotel. He complained of having been ill used by Judge Kinney, to whom he had given a kind reception on his arrival, and at whose house he had even allowed all his seraglio to be present at a. ball. He reproached him with having on several occasions abused his confidence, and, among others, having in the preceding spring, aided the troops of Colonel Steptoe in carrying off women belonging to the Saints. In this forcible abduction the conduct of the American officers, he said, was considered so abominable, that were they to return to the Salt Lake, war would immediately be declared against them ; or if fresh troops were to come, the inhabitants would hold no

THE NEW JERUSALEM.      207

communication whatever with them, either in the way of social intercourse or trade.* The President moreover charged the Judge with having sanctioned interviews at his house, the doubtful character of which startled Mormon modesty. His Excellency likewise said, he feared to sully his reputation by entering a house which he considered polluted.

            On his first appearance at the Salt Lake, the Supreme Judge Kinney, who was then only an Associate Judge, had contrived to make himself liked by the Mormons ; but soon, forgetting his original policy, which was simply to attend to his own business, he made himself detested, needlessly wounding their fanaticism by his ill-judged attacks ; while, at the same time, by his commercial speculations, he gave them an opening for accusing the federal government of corruption. Accustomed as we are in Europe, to possess magistrates who are the living personification of honour and integrity, we are utterly bewildered, when, on setting foot on American soil, that land represented as the model of perfect government, we see the majestic power of justice placed in venal or degraded hands. This monstrous state of things, which springs from a political organization admirable in other respects, suffices in itself to throw vast discredit on a great nation. With the existing institutions, which do not require that

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* These determinations, which we made known in January, 1856, were verified to the letter in 1858 and 1859.

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the judges should be immovable, and which every four years summon fresh place-hunters to the prey, the evil is without a remedy, and will remain so till a higher moral standard shall have been attained by the majority of the people. The American magistrate, who has but an ephemeral career before him, must, in obedience to the peculiar feeling which animates that nation in the acquisition of gold, be tempted to degrade his office by venality, or to depreciate it by engaging in some business which is considered incompatible with it. This is the alternative to which unfortunately the federal judges at the Salt Lake are reduced. Another evil, not less to be deplored, proceeds from the existing system of appointing men who are not professionally qualified for their duties. It is owing to this vicious organization of the magistracy, that the Honourable Mr. Kinney, once a Protestant minister, Supreme Judge of the territory of Utah, exercises at the same time the vocations of grocer, hotel-keeper, and horse-dealer.

            Another judge, Mr. Drummond, who was also sent out by the federal government, exposes himself by his conduct to the severe censure of the Mormons. Independent of the not over-delicate speculations in which he indulges, he lives openly with a woman whom all the world knows not to be his wife. This magistrate had the boldness to declare in our presence that " money was his god ;" and he added, without shame, that we might note this profession of his faith in our journal.

THE NEW JERUSALEM.      209

            Lastly, a third federal judge, Mr. Styles, brought discredit upon the government of Washington in another way, by becoming a Mormon. Whether this conversion was sincere, or whether it was actuated by ambitious motives, it naturally inspired the inhabitants of the Salt Lake with pride, and served them as a powerful argument in their favour.

            Besides this trio of the federal magistracy of the territory of Utah, there were two other superior functionaries who also represented the federal government at the Salt Lake. The first was Mr. A. Babbitt,* who discharged the duties of Secretary of State. He was an intelligent and amiable man, but unhappily addicted to drinking. The Honourable Mr. Babbitt had married a Saint, a relative of the Prophet ; and although he had nearly apostatized from the Mormon faith; to which be had himself belonged during the life of the founder, he always continued to favour the believers, who had not entirely ceased to regard him as one of themselves. The other was General Burr, of whom we have already spoken, who never missed an opportunity of railing against the Mormons, while they in return accused him of malversation in his capacity of Surveyor-General. It will be seen at the end of the Second Book, that it was on account of the malevolent and slanderous depositions of Messrs. Drummond and Burr, that the federal

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* Mr. Babbitt was unfortunately assassinated by the Indians in 1857, as he was returning from a journey to Washington.

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government decided, in 1857, on adopting rigorous measures against the Mormons.

            The public and private life of these high functionaries was loudly censured by the Saints at the period of our visit. It was easy to foresee that matters could not thus continue, notwithstanding the Mormons were careful not to make the least complaint against them. On the contrary, they rejoiced that the conduct of the envoys from Washington gave just cause of complaint ; and they often cited them as a proof that the Christian communities are rotten, and that they need regeneration by a new religion, meaning, of course, their own.

            A few days after our arrival we responded to the invitation of Brigham Young, and paid him a second visit. We found him in the Government Offices, where he was engaged in fixing some leather straps to apiece of board, the use of which we could not conceive. He uncovered his head in our presence, an act of civility which it is said he considered himself not bound to exercise towards any one. There we met the two Vice-Presidents of the Church, several apostles, the commander-in-chief of the army, the Sacred Historian, the head of the record office, the chief editor of the official journal, and the Grand Patriarch, son of Hyrum Smith the martyr, a young man about twenty years of age. Brigham requested Lawson to present us to all these personages ; then begged us to walk into an inner room, where he joined us almost immediately, and intro-

THE NEW JERUSALEM.      211

duced us to some others among his officials. Afterwards he invited us to enter his bedroom, alleging, by way of excuse, that the reception-rooms were undergoing repairs. He asked us to sit down, and, as there were not chairs for all, Kimball (the vice-pope) and General Wells sat on the bed. His Excellency was seated in a corner of the room, his head still uncovered, and his feet resting on a stool. There was a small bookcase in the room. We commenced the conversation by thanking him for the handsome books which he had sent us. Brigham politely answered, he hoped that men like ourselves would be able to get at the truth. He showed us the Book of Mormons translated into French and printed in Paris. He conversed with us on the geological conformation of Utah, of which he knew but little ; he said that the Salt Lake was the remains of an ancient sea, and that he regretted he could not convert it into fresh water. The works of Stansbury and the travels of Colonel Frémont furnished for some time a subject for conversation, and it was every moment apparent to us that if the Prophet possessed but little scientific knowledge, he made up for it in great intelligence and even cleverness, for he was never at a loss for an answer. Our interview lasted nearly an hour, and Brigham was very friendly disposed ; but although he sought to conceal his embarrassment by engaging manners, we could not avoid noticing it. His familiar friends have since told us that he had not forgotten the mistake he had committed on the oc-

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casion of our first visit, and that, in consequence, he always felt awkward in our presence. Before we left, I asked him whether his missionaries made many proselytes in France. He answered me nearly as possible in these words:--

            "The French are less accessible than other people to religious impressions ; too much imbued with the philosophy of Voltaire, they are indifferent to the truths of religion, and only cultivate the sciences, which they do not in the least understand, because they do not acknowledge that they proceed from God.. When their minds are sufficiently opened to know anything about science, they will discover that the truth is only to be found in the Book of Mormon, and that sooner or later our doctrine will regenerate society."

            These words, remarkable in more respects than one, were uttered without affectation, and with an air of conviction so profound, that we were obliged to admit the good faith of Brigham, contrary to the idea we had entertained on the subject of the Mormon leaders. They corroborate also our subsequent observations, tending to prove that the actual Prophet is neither the associate nor the accomplice of the great juggler Joseph, but that, on the contrary, he is honestly and sincerely the dupe of sacrilegious imposture ; which is equally unfortunate no doubt, but certainly much less contemptible. However deplorable the cause to which Brigham Young has devoted the resources of his genius, the honour of humanity is not disgraced, as far as he is concerned, by fraud, an imputation to which he is not at all

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open ; and every impartial mind, knowing how difficult it is for any one of us to determine what is truth, will class him in the rank of great men, in the rank of those extraordinary men who appear at distant intervals, now to confer upon nations a benefit, now to serve as a scourge.

            The distinguished reception which the pope of the Mormons had given us did not fail to make an impression upon his people. The Saints could not imagine that we had undertaken so long a journey with any other motive than to remove a last scruple before embracing their faith. Fame with its hundred mouths spread in the valleys of the mountains that two important conquests had just been added to the list of conversions. One day even, the report had circulated that one of the twelve apostles had baptized us at sunrise in the hot water spring, situated to the north of the town. We were made much of everywhere ; we were called Brother Brenchley, Brother Remy. This tickled us so mightily that we thought it good fun not to undeceive them. Some talked of making us apostles on the first vacancy, or at least bishops ; others gave out that we were going to finish the temple with our own good money. Every one spoke of giving us parties ; we were invited to dinner and to tea without end. Once the Church musicians came and gave us a serenade ; a Sicilian, named Ballo, conducted the orchestra. They played us La Marseillaise, God save the Queen, Yankee Doodle, Hail Columbia, sacred pieces from Mehul and Mozart, and bits from

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the operas of Meyerbeer and Rossini. The music, we should observe to the credit of the Mormons, was very good, and better than what one meets with in most provincial towns in Europe. A ball, too, was given us, at which every gentleman danced with two ladies at once, an ingenious innovation, and not the only one with which Mormonism aspires to endow society, with a view to its reformation. All the kindness which was showered upon us was certainly sincere, but at the same time we could not avoid seeing in it a bait by which they sought to catch us poor fish, led astray by a longing after the unknown into the waters of these new fishers of men.

            A reception equally flattering was given us by the Gentiles. The Mormons give this appellation to all those who do not share their faith, whatever may be their creeds—Catholics, Protestants, Mohamedans, Buddhists, or Pagans. The number of gentiles was not very considerable in Utah at the period of our journey; it could not exceed a hundred, which is certainly very few for a population of sixty thousand souls, including the twelve thousand residing in the capital, spread over the surface of the Mormon territory. In this handful of gentiles were merchants, doctors, federal officers, and some vagabonds, coming no one knew whence, living no one knew how, mostly at the expense of travellers and the Mormons themselves. During our sojourn at the Salt Lake we were robbed twice, and each time it was found to be by the gentiles. This fact has a

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very great importance in our eyes, because it authorizes an impartial mind to believe that very often persons have laid to the charge of the Mormons crimes committed by the intruders who have crept among them. Nevertheless the Saints acknowledge, with a candour which does them honour, that among their brethren there have been found some unworthy of that appellation, who have on several occasions stolen the cattle of emigrants. This, however, is not owing to the lack of very severe laws; for independently of those which are contained in the criminal code of Utah, Brigham Young advises his people,—and we have heard it with our own ears,—to kill without trial all thieves caught in the fact. It will be perceived that there is a clear incompatibility between this excessive severity and communism, which the Mormons have been accused of practising. Nothing in their organization or in their customs approaches to the latter, as will be found further on in the exposition of their doctrine. If there is seen in their remote establishments a sort of transient association, it is due to the necessity which is imposed on them by the Indians, of living under the shelter of the same walls, under pain of being easily surprised and plundered. But property always remains rigidly personal, and every one receives the fruit of his labour. It would be a great mistake to find evidence of communism in the barter to which they are obliged to have recourse when money is deficient or becomes very scarce. This barter is effected in a very simple manner,

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under the control of a municipal regulation which determines every season the value in money, whether by-weight or by measure, of all their commodities. Thus, during the famine of 1855-1856, a pound of butter, which was valued at a dollar, was given in exchange for a pound of tea, which was worth the same money.

            The gentiles who live at the Salt Lake, are very well aware that the Mormons are not communists, so that their attacks are wide of the mark on this point ; but they represented this new society to us as fatally dangerous for visitors of our class. They repeated again and again to us that such and such individuals, objects of suspicion to the Saints, had suddenly disappeared without leaving the slightest traces. According to their account, we should be constantly on our guard, and for some time we were under the influence of unnecessary. fears ; but ended by being convinced that they were without foundation ; an isolated case not justifying, in our opinion, the accusation against Mormon fanaticism of homicidal practices, which nothing, up to this time, has occurred to prove. We have wandered about night and day in the most populous places, and in the most solitary defiles of the mountains, and we have never experienced the least molestation. Not one of the crimes which were related to us could sustain a close investigation. The Mormons have been calumniated by these accusations as by many others ; happily, if calumny, when it attacks individuals, is ever odious and cowardly,

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when it attacks societies, it is an awkward weapon, a sword with two edges, which, like persecution, produces a contrary effect to what is intended. The doctrine of Joseph Smith has sufficient vulnerable points to afford good scope for censure, without the necessity of resorting to falsehood, in attributing to these poor people crimes which they do not commit, habits they do not possess, and practices to which they are strangers. While reserving to ourselves the right to relate without reserve the evil we were eyewitnesses to, we feel pleasure and yield to a sense of justice in declaring that the Mormons are not wicked nor immoral, as they have often been represented to our too credulous minds. It is even our duty to avow that they have qualities and virtues which recommend them in more ways than one. They are industrious, honest, sober, pious, and it is just to say, since we believe it to be the case, even chaste in their polygamic relations, as will be seen in our Third Book.

            The valuable qualities we have just enumerated will assist us in understanding how it is the Mormons generally enjoy robust health, notwithstanding the privations to which they have to a certain extent been periodically exposed. One sees but few sick in Utah ; so that the want of medical men is little felt. It is, moreover, one of the peculiarities of the Mormon Church to discourage the practice of medicine, and to compel all medical men who embrace the faith to select another career, unless they choose to live on the mustard

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and senna of their own surgeries. An invalid who has recourse to medicine would be suspected of verging on infidelity, and a new baptism alone could efface the pollution. Brother Brigham menaces with celestial wrath those weak enough to employ, in the treatment of diseases, other remedies than olive oil and the herbs of the fields. The power of performing miraculous cures is possessed by the faithful generally, though more especially by those who have received some degree of ordination. We were told of numerous remarkable cures having been effected by the use of oil and prayer, and although we were unable, de visu, to verify a single instance of the kind, we are disposed to believe the testimony of credible and disinterested persons on the subject. Under the mysterious influence of an energetic faith, imagination may work miracles, even among pagans. Brigham Young told us one day, speaking of medicine, that doctors often wrote to him from California and the eastern States, to know if there was any chance of establishing a practice in Utah, announcing that in case there might be, they would have no objection to becoming converts to Mormonism. The Mormon pope, who now despises such impertinence too much to notice it, used at first to reply, that his religion did not seek to purchase adherents.

            The information we procured from the gentiles with regard to the private life of the Mormons, by no means satisfied our curiosity ; it even frequently appeared so contra-

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dictory as to induce us to reject it as absolutely false. To enlighten ourselves more positively on a multitude of things we could not solve by the aid of books, we conceived the idea of inviting to our residence every evening, a number of Saints, selected equally from the enlightened and from the most simple ; all of them men of lively faith and profound conviction. The desire we evinced to be edified on all points induced them to believe that we were already partly converted, and removed all distrust. There was on both sides an equal desire to arrive at the truth, though both, it is more than probable, were animated by an equally strong confidence in their actual convictions. As we never exhibited any bitterness of expression or doggedness in maintaining our views, they were always willing to answer any questions we put to them. We thus passed some very agreeable and very instructive evenings. We certainly came to the conclusion that a blind faith often prevented the most intelligent among them from feeling that which was arbitrary and puerile in their interpretations of the sacred writings, but sometimes also we could not refrain from admiring their good sense and the justice of their observations. If at times we confounded them by passages from Scripture, they extricated themselves from the difficulty by saying that all our versions are incorrect, and that it would be better to refer to the translation of Joseph Smith, which they have not yet published. At other times they met our objections by saying that, as soon as we were baptized, all

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that now appeared obscure and absurd to us would become clear and rational by the light of faith. They maintained that by the effect of baptism and submission to the Church, their minds had experienced a sudden and wonderful change, which had suddenly elevated them to the capacity of acquiring the knowledge of God; enabling them to understand all things by intuition, even those deemed most incomprehensible by the learned. They stated that before their conversion the greater part of them could neither read nor write, but that immediately after their baptism, such a revolution had taken place in their faculties, that they had, learnt in a few days that which they had been unable to acquire in the course of many years. But what most struck us after all was, that they knew the Bible from beginning to end, and pointed out with precision the chapter and verse of their quotations.

            Among the Mormons who gave us the pleasure of seeing them at our evening meetings, we numbered several missionaries, the Great Patriarch, son of Hyrum the martyr, the Apostle Phelps, the elders, and sometimes even the Marshal. One of our most constant visitors was a young man from Havre, named Eugène Henriot. Although there were several other Frenchmen, and even two Frenchwomen, at the Salt Lake, he is the only fellow-countryman I had the good or bad fortune to meet with. Henriot did not appear to be more than twenty years of age ; and was good-looking, amiable young man. He had only been two

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years in the settlement, and had quite recently married an Englishwoman, who seemed devoted to him, and greatly dreaded the time when the Prophet should think fit to give a share of her conjugal happiness to other wives. Henriot had received some education ; he expressed himself equally well in English and in French. One could not avoid admiring his honest and frank character, and at the same time his self-control, so unusual at his age. We never met with a religious faith so ardent as his ; it was a faith capable of moving mountains. He contended that whoever, seriously studies the doctrine of Joseph Smith, will most infallibly be convinced of its Divine origin, and embrace it. He related to us the history of his conversion. His narration, which lasted three hours, was intermingled with visions, revelations, and miracles, which we listened to with extreme pleasure. Moreover it resembled, in most respects, all those which the Saints had related to us respecting their conversions.

            This daily intercourse, and the excellent feeling generally shown us by the Mormons, enabled us to become initiated, during our short stay among them, in the nature of their belief and institutions, with the form of their government, their social habits, and even their projects. Although our position as gentiles did not allow of our being admitted into the privacy of their domestic life, we were however sometimes able, in our familiar chats, to ascertain, unknown to them, some of their secret usages, and here and there

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to raise a corner of the veil they spread before the gaze of the profane.

            But before commencing an account of their doctrine and social condition as we viewed it, we will briefly sketch the history of Mormonism from its origin to the present day.

END OF THE FIRST BOOK.

 

 Jules Remy and Julius Brenchley, A Trip Across Northern Nevada in 1855 [from A Journey to Great-Salt-Lake City vol. 1 (1861)]

Part 1 (Chapter 1 - From Sacramento to Carson Valley);  Part 2 (Chapter 2 - From Carson Valley to Haws's Ranch);  Part 3 (Chapter 3 - From Haws's Ranch to the New Jerusalem);  Part 4 (Chapter 4 - The New Jerusalem)