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CHAPTER XXI.

PRESENT CONDITION AND PROSPECTS.

Co-operation - The "bull's eye" signs - Inherent weakness of the system - Immediate effects on the Gentiles - Final result to the Saints - Founding of Corinne - Its bright prospects - Trip to Sevier - The deserted city - New Silverado - Mines and mining - A new interest in Utah - Rich discoveries - Hindrances - Grant's Administration in Utah - Better men in the Revenue Department - Experience of Dr. J. P. Taggart - More "persecution" - The Judges - The Governor - Congressional Legislation - "Cullom Bill" - Probable effects - Guesses at the future - Another exodus - "Zion," in Sonora.

     EARLY in October, 1868, the writer took up his residence in Salt Lake City, and the latter part of the same month, took editorial control of the SALT LAKE REPORTER, the only Gentile paper in Utah. But the hostility of the Church had become so great, that the trade of Gentiles was ruined, and one by one they were forced to sell out and leave the city. As already noted, the October Conference of 1868, passed a wholesale decree of non-intercourse with resident Gentiles, forbidding any Mormon to buy of, employ or in any way countenance them. The day of assassinations was thought to be past, but Brigham still hoped to keep out the Gentiles and their hated principles by ruining their trade. But as the Gentile merchants generally sold the cheapest, hundreds of the Saints found it impossible to distinguish one store from another, to remedy which difficulty came another "decree" from Brigham, and soon after, over every Mormon store was seen in flaming blue and gold,

"HOLINESS TO THE LORD

(The All-seeing Eye)

ZION'S CO-OPERATIVE MERCANTILE ASSOCIATION."

     This effectually "corralled" the trade for a time, but with that strange fatality observable in men accustomed to having their own way, which in the very nature of things compels them to go further and further, till they at last reach a point beyond popular endurance, Brigham determined that the Mormon firms should yield also, and the entire business of the Territory become co-operative in fact. Measures were taken to establish a store in each ward and settlement, while the entire community combined in a large wholesale establishment with a stated capital of $1,000,000. It was purposed to have an agent constantly residing in the eastern cities, with surplus cash in his safe, to be ready to watch the markets and buy always at the best advantage. In many of the settlements co-operative stores were soon started, and as the people there do whatever the bishops tell them, it was easy to get the scheme in operation. By their religion and habits of unreasoning obedience without a why or wherefore, the Mormons were as well prepared for co-operation as any people could be; and it was reasonable to suppose the new scheme would be almost a perfect success, that two or three years, at least, would be required for it to wear out. But it soon developed an inherent weakness. The Mormon merchants were, of course, no better pleased than the Gentiles to have their business ruined, and there were still a few of the laity who would not "jump as the bell wether jumped," and risk their necks in the operation. The history of co-operative movements shows that where applied to manufacturing purposes they have, in the majority of cases, succeeded; but in merchandizing, nine times out of ten they have failed. And the reason is obvious. In the case of the manufacturers, a few men combine their skill and labor to create wealth; every man knows something of the business, and has an understanding eye on its management: if one can do nothing but drive pegs, he understands that, all that he has to do, and contributes his share to the success of the concern. Every member knows, at a glance, the intrinsic value of the company's articles, ready at a moment's notice to turn salesman, and as their business is all selling and no buying, except procuring the rude materials they have but half the opportunity for mistakes. All these features are lacking to the merchant co-operators. Their business must be done by agents; not one in a hundred of the partners understands the principles involved. Merchandizing requires the unity and controlling energy of one directing mind; one average merchant or two can show a better set of books than a committee of fifty first-class merchants; a debating society cannot centralize its energies. They do not create, they only manipulate wealth; the buying of necessity equals the selling, giving twice the opportunity for mistakes. If there is but one vote to each member, a small aggregate of capital overrules a very large interest; if there is a vote to every share, the small holders are partially disfranchised, and, of course, dissatisfied; dissensions must naturally result, and a thousand men cannot reasonably be expected to have less than a dozen plans, either one of which would be good by itself. And herein the Brighamites showed their strict consistency, by maintaining that the business must be managed by an inspired priesthood, that there must be no dissension or difference of opinion, and that it "was apostasy to dissent" from the business plans of that priesthood; for if such a business ever becomes a success, it must be by direct inspiration from the Almighty, requiring prompt obedience and without question; it must be "yea and amen," without an attempt to piece it out with mere human wisdom. When the Lord condescends to run a "dollar store," we may expect co-operation to be a perfect success., The end is not yet, but enough has transpired to show that co-operation in Utah is not exempt from the usual weaknesses.

     It was on this principle of business management by the priesthood, that the Godbeites first took their stand in opposition to Brigham Young. They maintained that the priesthood should only guide in spiritual matters, while every man should manage his private business to suit himself. To this the First Presidency jointly made reply: "It is our prerogative to dictate to this people in everything, even to the ribbons the women shall wear. It is apostasy to oppose or differ with the plans of the priesthood in temporal matters."

     Of course the immediate effects of the "decree of non-intercourse" were to produce greater bitterness between Saint and Gentile. Legally it was a move which they had a sort of right to make, but it was decidedly against good neighborhood; no particular violence was for a while attempted, and both parties contented themselves with a little quiet cursing. Social ostracism seemed to be complete; the "loyal" Brighamite and the straight-out Gentile seldom met, except in enforced cases, and when they did either sat in sullen silence, or their conversation was a mixture of the "rile" and "knagg," both exasperating and unprofitable. During the winter of 1868-'69 the Gentile residents of Salt Lake City numbered nearly eight hundred, of all ages and sexes, among whom we include that portion of the apostates who fully associated with and were recognized as Gentiles. This estimate I make from an inspection of the subscription list of the Daily Reporter, the roll of membership of the Gentile (Episcopal) Church, the members of St. Mark's Grammar School and Sabbath School, the roll of the Hebrew Benevolent Society, including every Jew in the city, and the membership of the Masonic and Odd Fellow Lodges, besides having been personally acquainted with almost every one of them. Besides these, there were one day with another several hundred transients in the city, consisting of visitors, railroad men temporarily out of employment, teamsters, miners and travelers, stopping from one week to three months. Early in March the number began to decrease rapidly; Gilbert & Sons departed for other points; Ransohoff & Co. sold out to the co-operative institution; Corinne was laid out on the 25th of March, and in two months thereafter received a large accession of Salt Lake men, and by the 1st of June there were probably less than three hundred Gentiles in the city. The arrival of the newly appointed officials, their families and deputies increased the number a little; but the general depression in business has acted upon all, and there is no encouragement for new comers either Saint or Gentile. The Gentile power seems to have consolidated in the northern counties along the railroad, and though the process may be slow will eventually liberalize that section of Mormonism.

     CORINNE stands forth in fame as the first and only Gentile town in Utah; though the progress of the railroad has caused settlements, of a hundred or so each, at Bear River, Wasatch, Echo City, Uintah, and Indian Creek. Corinne is sixty miles north and twelve west of Salt Lake City, occupying the same relative place on Bear River, the other does on the Jordan. It is at the railroad crossing of Bear River, midway between the Wasatch Mountains and the spur known as Promontory, some eight miles from the lake, and in the centre and richest portion of Bear River Valley. The western half of this valley, unoccupied, except by one small village of three hundred Danish Mormons, contains half a million acres of the very finest farming land; of this one-fourth is cultivable without irrigation, and the rest could be made fruitful by moderate watering, while an extensive stock range of the richest kind extends westward and northward. The elevation is 4300 feet above sea-level, 1000 feet less than that of Denver, 2000 less than Cheyenne, 3300 greater than Omaha, surrounded north, east and west by lofty mountain ranges, and on the south by the Great Salt Lake. It is thus the central point of a beautiful valley, fifteen by twenty miles in extent, with a location unsurpassed for natural beauty.

     The City was laid out March 25th, 1869, by Mr. John O'Neill, Engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad; at the first sale of lots by General J. A. Williamson, Land Agent of the Railroad Company, the sales amounted to $21,000, and in a few weeks a flourishing town had sprung up. Corinne is the natural centre of the Rocky Mountains; the most convenient spot on the railroad for a point of departure to Helena and Virginia City, Montana, and the point of supply for Idaho and Northern Utah. Bear River is navigable thence to the lake for steamers of a hundred tons; and Salt Lake and Jordan equally so to within three miles of Salt Lake City. North and east of Corinne, in Utah, is already a resident population of fifteen or twenty thousand, whose natural trading point is at that place; the constant efforts of the Church authorities are directed to preventing that trade from reaching there; but it is already coming, to some extent, and must steadily increase as liberal ideas prevail in that section. Corinne is an anomaly in politics, a government within a government, a little republic in the midst of a theocracy; a free city in the Territory of an absolute monarch. For a few months the town was governed by Councilors chosen without a charter; this organization was allowed to lapse, and the Mormon County authorities were acknowledged; finally, within the last few weeks, the Territorial Legislature granted a regular charter, and the city is now fully organized under it. Corinne has a little of the "wickedness" incident to new railroad towns, but thus far of a remarkably peaceful character; morally she is an exception to railroad towns; the political and religious antipodes of Salt Lake City, she is on her good behavior. A church and school have been successfully established and this gem of the mountains, Queen city of the Lake, has started with a good reputation.

     While sojourning pleasantly at Corinne, last August, rumors reached me of an immense silver district on the Sevier River, two hundred miles south of Salt Lake City. Little was known for a certainty of that region; the spot was far beyond the settlements in the edge of the Indian country, and the route thither lay through the most benighted region of Polygamia. For these and other reasons, I felt that the Sevierites needed a historian. The man was ready and the hour was propitious. Peace had been made the preceding year with the Uintahs, and the route was just safe enough to not quite destroy the spice of a slight danger. Messrs. Salisbury & Gilmer, successors in fame to Wells, Fargo & Co., had just established a triweekly line of coaches to Fillmore, running within a hundred miles of the new Silverado, and on the morning of September 1st, I took a seat in their best "outfit" and was soon rolling southward through the richest portion of Jordan Valley. Twenty-five miles south of the city a spur of the Wasatch juts out from the east, almost joining the West Mountain, leaving a small gap known as the "Narrows," or cañon of the Jordan; here the stage road follows a "dug-way" around the hill, several hundred feet above the river, where there is never two feet to spare between the wheels and a slope almost perpendicular. Thence we descend over a long slope, with a succession of beautiful views, into the valley east of Utah Lake, the Galilee of modern Saints; we pass the flourishing settlements of Lehi, Battle Creek, and American Fork to the city of Provo, second oldest town in the Territory. From there a night stage brought us to Levan or Chicken Creek, a hundred and fifteen miles south of the city, where the main road bears off to the right of Iron Mountain, while to the left, a trail through a high, uninhabited valley, leads to the Sevier, near the head of which are the mines. We were now out of even Mormon civilization, and the remaining ninety-five miles were necessarily divided into two stages, thirty miles to Old Fort Gunnison, now a small Mormon settlement, and sixty-five through the valley formerly settled but deserted during the Indian war. The miners have established an express over this route, making one trip per week, and the driver and myself were soon on the way, traveling for the rest of the day through a region literally alive with small game; jack-rabbits, sage hens, and small fowl were abundant on the high plain, and ducks fairly swarmed about every pond in the lower valleys. We spent the night at Fort Gunnison, a veritable walled town and city of refuge. The place is a square of some thirty acres, surrounded by a stone wall with huge gates on the four sides; within is an awkward collection of dobie and log houses, mud huts, stone stables, "dug-outs," and willow corrals, inhabited by English, Danes, cattle, dogs and fleas, the latter predominating. It may have been that the poor people could do no better on account of Indian troubles, but as I walked about this singular town it seemed to me the place rested under the curse and shadow of a barbaric superstition. The stone walls with houses built against them and towers for sentinels; the dirty children resembling Arabs more than Caucasians; the heavy gates thrown open to receive the "evening herd" of cattle, and the general air of desert life pervading the place seemed so unlike any American scene, that I almost expected to find I was in the midst of that Oriental life from which Mormonism has drawn so many of its features.

     From Gunnison a few hours brought us to the noted Salt Mountain," a series of ridges from which crystallized salt can be cut in immense blocks; around the points rise numerous springs of pure brine, and a little further on, where a stream of pure water gushes out of a rugged canon, is the city of Salina, now completely deserted.

     From this point we traversed an unbroken desert for ten miles, its bare, gray surface unrelieved save by an occasional clump of scant grease-wood or cactus. Beyond this a spur of the mountains runs out nearly to the river, and turning this point we were delighted at sight of Glenn's Cove, a semi-circle of beauty and fertility extending back into an opening in the mountains, containing at least six miles square of land, well watered and fruitful. Moving through the low meadows where the natural grass grew to the height of a man's head, and then over a tract of farm-land, we entered the beautiful town of Glenn City. Situated in such a place, with the water of a dozen mountain springs coursing through the streets, this had evidently been a town of considerable pretensions. The streets were laid off with the cardinal points; the houses were well constructed of lumber, stone and dobies; the gardens had been enclosed with stone walls of extra finish, and the ditches lining the streets paved with that care and beauty which marks the settlements of the better English Mormons; while the cool shade and agreeable rustle of the rows of trees lining the walks, seemed to invite the desert-weary traveler to repose in coolness and comfort. But there were none to enjoy this beauty; tall "pig-weed" and rank wheat-grass filled the streets, the stone walls were broken down and overrun by wild vines, the irrigating ditches in places overflowed and rippled unchecked through front yards and gardens, and the cool winds from the cañons sighed mournfully through the deserted habitations.

     Involuntarily I looked for the cemetery, for it seemed that a plague must have smitten the city; but there was no unusual record of death there. Beyond the city lay untilled fields, with plows in places rusting ill the furrows, and still further deserted ranches and meadows, apparently sleeping in the hazy air of autumn. While the driver rested his team for an hour, I looked through the place, for it almost seemed to me the people were hidden in the houses; but when I entered the largest residence I found the floor broken through and an Indian arrow sticking in the wall. In another well built house, I observed a child's cradle, still unbroken, near the fire-place, and beside it the mildewed remnants of a dress and bonnet and baby's shoes; melancholy traces of the attack and flight, when the fearful mother caught up her child and fled before the avenging arrows of the "Lamanites."

     Fifteen miles further we passed Alma; a town covering thirty acres in a square; enclosed by a massive stone wall, with towers at the corners, arranged with port-holes and sentry posts. But walls and towers were useless without skillful men to man them; the savages drove away the cattle of the settlement in broad day light, and soon after the place was abandoned. The whole number of Black Hawk's band of Mountain Utes, who drove the whites out of this valley, is reported to have been less than five hundred; and though peace had been made with him for a year, the Saints were slow to return.

     At Marysvale, the last town on the route, we found three returned families; and here we left the river and traveled six miles up a gulch to the westward, which brought us to Bullion City and the mines. I spent several days in this strange mountain community, consisting of some two hundred miners isolated from the world, and made a thorough examination of the district. I found an awkward condition of affairs. There are, without doubt, immense quantities of silver ore there; the facilities for working the mines, in the way of timber and water, are unequaled; but there are no placer diggings, all quartz; and the miners were men of limited means who had rushed in from Nevada, each working enough "to hold his two hundred feet," but none able to buy and bring in a quartz-mill. The various leads extend for some miles along both sides of the gulch, "cropping out" in some instances for three or four thousand feet. That there is immense mineral wealth in this district is beyond a doubt; but it is far from transportation, and no bullion returns have yet been made to convince capitalists of its richness, or create a "rush." The Mormons manage to hinder progress there in various ways, and development is slow. But I think it highly probable these will, in time, be among the most valuable mines in the West.

     Gold mining has been successfully established in Bingham Cañon, twenty miles west of Salt Lake City, and in Rush Valley some farther west; within the last few months rich deposits have been discovered, and these places are attracting great attention. Other valuable discoveries have been made in Cottonwood Cañon, and with the opening of the present season the mining interests of Utah become, for the first time, important.

     The accession of General Grant to the Presidency was looked forward to, with great interest by the Gentiles, in the expectation that some reform would be inaugurated in Utah; nor were these hopes entirely without realization.

     The new Administration hastened to remove the officers who had disgraced the Revenue Service for four years, appointing O. J. Hollister, Esq., Collector, and Dr. J. P. Taggart, Assessor, in place of Burton and Chetlaine removed. Of Burton, I have already spoken of Chetlaine it need only be said that he was the personal friend and rather intimate associate of Brigham Young, often accompanying him in his trips about the Territory, and that he made no attempt whatever to assess the Church income. I am of opinion, however, that the serious charges against him in other respects are untrue.

     Chief Justice Wilson had been appointed some time before by President Johnson, and retained his position. The Mormon Associate Justice, Hoge, was succeeded by Hon. O. F. Strickland, who had resided several years in Utah and Montana, and is eminently qualified for the position. The Judge has had great practice in the peculiar technicalities of Mormon law, and enters upon his duties endowed with valuable experience. The veteran, Judge Drake, who had served seven years in Utah, gave place to Hon. C. F. Hawley, of Illinois, as Associate Justice, who has already taken a high position among the few United States officials who have upheld the dignity and maintained the honor of the Government even in Utah.

     The opinion of Associate Justices Strickland and Hawley, lately delivered, dissenting from Chief Justice Wilson, in the case of Howard, Brannigan and La Valle, has attracted great attention in the Territories, and is regarded as an authentic exposition of Federal law in Territorial courts.

     But it was in the Revenue Department that the first collision arose with Brigham. The following extract from the correspondence of an Eastern Journal, exhibits the clearest view of all the facts and deductions therefrom:

     "An attempt has recently been made in Salt Lake City by Dr. Taggart, the new Assessor of Internal Revenue, to assess a tax upon the income of the Mormon Church, which is known to amount to a large sum annually. In this effort he has met with the most determined and persistent opposition from Brigham and his subordinates. Singular as it may seem, the wealthy 'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' has never yet paid the Government tax upon its income. The former Assessor, Chetlaine, was known by the 'Gentiles' of Salt Lake City to be the mere tool of Brigham Young.

     "He accompanied Brigham upon his royal progress through the Territory, and upon one occasion, when attending an evening meeting of the Mormons, accepted an invitation to a seat upon the platform, with the Bishop and his two counselors, known violators of the anti-Polygamy law. When, however, he is removed and a man like Dr. Taggart steps into his position, determined to discharge the duties of his office without fear or favor, the Mormons salute him with howls of rage, and threats of persecution.

     "The first act of Assessor Taggart, upon assuming office, was to assess the Government tax upon the total amount of scrip issued by the Corporation of Salt Lake City, $190,000. The Treasurer of the Corporation had made his returns regularly to the former Assessor each month, with the tax calculated at one-twelfth of one per cent. upon the circulation, as required of bankers, and General Chetlaine accepted them as proper and correct. Section 6, of the Internal Revenue act of March 3, 1865, requires the assessment of 10 per cent. upon the issue of all corporations of cities, &c., the act not recognizing those bodies as legitimate bankers. The tax upon $190,000 at 10 per cent. is $19,000; the tax upon $190,000 at one-twelfth of one per cent. is $158.83, leaving the sum of $18,841.69, of which the Government would be defrauded, did not the present Assessor enforce payment. The profits made upon this issue of $190,000 are really a part of the revenues of the Mormon Church, the members of the Corporation of Salt Lake City being nominated by Brigham, and their election being secured by him under the present anti-republican form of voting in Utah. In the early part of last August, Dr. Taggart forwarded to Brigham Young a set of blanks, at the same time requesting him, as Trustee of the Church, to make a proper return of its income for 1868. Brigham became greatly incensed at this, and at first flatly refused to comply, but sent in reply the following document: 'We, the Government of the United States, do not recognize any such organization as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or any such officer as the Trustee-in Trust of said Church. We, the Government of the United States, have obliterated such church and officer from existence by legislative enactment of July 1st, 1862.' No signature was appended to this. The meaning intended to be conveyed was doubtless this: That the anti-Polygamy act was theoretically intended to wipe the Trustee-in-Trust and 'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' out of existence, although practically it had failed in its object; and therefore the Government could not assess and collect a tax upon the income of that ecclesiastical corporation. This communication from Brigham was treated with the contempt which it deserved - no notice being taken of it. The Assessor declared, however, that, if proper and correct returns were not made within the time limited by law, he should proceed to make the assessment himself from the best information which he could obtain, and should also hand the affair over to the United States District Attorney. Upon the last day allowed by law, Brigham made a return stating the total income of the Church for 1864 to be $440. The return was signed by Brigham Young in his private capacity. The blank oath was filled up and purported to have been sworn to before the Deputy Assessor, a Mormon, though Brigham had been in the habit of having his private income-returns sworn to by one of his clerks, who, he said, knew more about it than he did himself.

     "The papers were immediately turned over to the United States District Attorney, who prepared an elaborate opinion, demonstrating that the Mormon Church corporation was as much liable to have its income taxed as Trinity or any church corporation, subject, of course, to the legal exemptions. The various sources of revenue of the Mormon Church were also clearly and succinctly given. The papers were then forwarded to the Commissioner at Washington to await his opinion and instructions, and there they now remain.

     "The Mormon Church corporation has dealt extensively in the buying and selling of horses and cattle. For years this business has been carried on by its agents but no license was taken out by any of them as cattle brokers until the new Assessor informed them of his intention to prosecute, if they were not immediately obtained. The authorities own and run a distillery and a wholesale and retail liquor store, which are carried on ostensibly in the name of the corporation of Salt Lake City, but really are part of the Church, and the profits all go into the Church treasury. By means of this distillery the Government has been defrauded of thousands of dollars, which should have been paid in the shape of $2 upon every gallon of whiskey manufactured. Brigham gives as the reason for not including the tithing in the income returns that the payment of it is voluntary and optional, and therefore is merely a gift and not taxable. Unfortunately, however, for Brigham, the facts do not bear out his assertion. A few months past a laboring man obtained work on the grade of the Utah Central Railroad, now being built by Brigham. After earning $50 he concluded to leave work, and accordingly asked for his time, which was given to him. Upon arriving in Salt Lake City he hastened to Brigham's office to obtain his money. The clerk hunted over the Church books, and found that the man owed $48 tithing for 1868. That amount was accordingly deducted, and the balance, $2, handed over to him, notwithstanding his earnest protestations that his family were actually in need of the money to purchase food. Non-payment of tithing is visited upon the offending members with all the prosecutions which the resources of the Mormon Church enable it to employ.

     The Mormons estimate the total population of Utah at 130,000 souls. These figures include only the Mormons. Of this number at least 30,000 are required by the rules of the Church and undoubtedly do pay tithing. Averaging their earnings at $500 a year, a low estimate, we have $15,000,000 as the aggregate. This, of course, is not in money exclusively, but in produce. The tithing on this would be $150,000. At least five of the leading Mormon merchants pay a tithing of $10,000 each a year. The income from the whiskey distillery and liquor store cannot fall short of $100,000; the rents and profits of real estate are about $25,000 more, besides other sources of revenue not to be ascertained.

RECAPITULATION.

Tithing from 30,000 people.	$150,000
Five Mormon merchants.	50,000
Church distillery and liquor store.	100,000
Rents and profits of real estate.	25,000
Total.	----------- $325,000
Deduct exemption.	50,000
	----------- $275,000

     "This leaves upward of a quarter of a million of dollars subject to the Government tax, and the probabilities are that the Church income is more than double this amount, as many sources of revenue are not stated. Out of this and other taxes upon the private incomes of the Mormon leaders, the Government has been systematically defrauded year after year, through the connivance of an Assessor who executed his duties in the interests of Brigham Young. The present officer has commenced with a determination to do his whole duty, and it is to be hoped that he will receive the support of the Government in his efforts to collect the public revenues."

     Dr. Taggart proceeded to collect the evidence showing the amount of tithing, and the fact that it was a requirement of Mormon discipline and the great test of standing and fellowship in the Church; and at the present writing, he is in Washington, to lay the whole before the Department. It now begins to look as if Brigham Young would be compelled to pay his income tax, the same as any other speculator. Of course, all this is regarded as c rank persecution" by the Mormons; as is the enforcement of any law which does not happen to suit their convenience.

     It is sufficient comment on the "wonderful industry of the Mormons," of which we have heard so much, to state the plain facts, that there is no other community of a hundred thousand in America but has paid twice as much revenue as Utah; the Territories of Colorado and Montana, with half the population, have each paid nearly twice as much to the Treasury, and added from ten to forty times as much to the national circulation, and, notwithstanding the fearful demoralization of mining camps, have, in the end, produced a better race of men and women.

     General J. Wilson Shaeffer was appointed Governor, to succeed Durkee; he was formerly the Quartermaster in General Butler's department, and is reputed in every respect well qualified for the difficult and delicate position. Thus far, however, he has not shown his administrative talents in Utah, but remains in Washington, awaiting the action of Congress in regard to Utah.

     The history of "Federal relations" in Utah presents a strange mixture of the sad and ludicrous. The first law against polygamy, that of July, 1862, was utterly inoperative, as the Act of Congress failed to provide any means of enforcing it. Two years ago, Senator Cragin introduced a much better bill, providing for all needed reforms in the Judiciary and voting system; but it was "referred and smothered in Committee." Next was Hon. James Ashley's bill, introduced in January, 1869, providing for a division of the Territory, and annexing half or more to Colorado, one-third to Nevada, and a small portion each to Idaho and Wyoming. This would have been the merest political quackery, a virtual backing down on the part of the Government. Nature makes the boundaries of future states in the New West, and this is peculiarly the case with Utah; it is exactly fitted for one State, and has the area and resources for the comfortable support of half a million people. Nevada is already as large as New England, and between it and the habitable valleys of Utah are interposed broad deserts and rugged mountains, forming a ten-fold greater natural boundary than the Mississippi or the Hudson. Equally plain is the natural division between Utah and Colorado, and criminals from Southern Utah, if an attempt were made to execute the law, would have to be dragged eight hundred miles, around three sides of a mountainous parallelogram, to reach the Federal court at Denver. This bill, too, was justifiably "smothered in committee." Last is the bill introduced by Hon. S. M. Cullom, Chairman of the House Committee on Territories, pending before Congress as this work goes to press. It provides for giving the United States Marshal his appropriate power; for restricting the Mormon Probate Courts to Probate and a limited civil jurisdiction as in other Territories; for dividing the Territory anew into Judicial districts, and for the proper support and protection of the Courts; that only citizens of the United States shall serve as jurors, that none who uphold or practice polygamy shall sit on the trial of that crime, and for many other needed reforms. It is reasonably certain this bill will pass both Houses, and, by the time this meets the eye of the reader, become a law.

     The first effect will in all probability be, that the actual polygamists will at once retire from the northern sections and concentrate in the South; below the Utah Lake region the bill could not probably be enforced by the courts, for many years; but the northern section would shortly be relieved of the only class who cause any trouble, for the practical polygamists there do not exceed one in six.

     The writer will not attempt to forecast the future of Mormonism. It is evidently on the decline, and without interference could hardly outlast thirty years; but with its immense local power, could do much harm in that period. On account of this decline, many have argued that the Government should take no further measures to enforce its laws in Utah; but, with due deference to their opinions, this seems to me a very unstatesman-like view of any subject. What would be thought of a court which should decide against punishing a thief or murderer, "because, if left to himself, he will die in twenty or thirty years anyhow!" If a church is at liberty to violate the laws for religion's sake, which an individual may not do; and if the Government has no resource, in this case or any other which may arise in the future, but to wait until time and internal corruption have worn out the criminal organization, it is certainly a novel principle in political ethics.

     The opportune death of Brigham Young would simplify matters somewhat; but there is still a mass of thirty or forty thousand who would stick together under new leaders, and continue the Church for another quarter of a century. Or, in case the Government attempts to enforce its laws and the Mormon Presidency gives the command to move, at least one-third of the people would follow them into Arizona and Sonora; but the really valuable portion would remain in Utah and become first-rate citizens. The Church is constantly planting settlements further south in Arizona; they now control one county in that Territory, and are within three hundred miles of Sonora, which, it is popularly believed among them, would be their destination, if compelled to abandon Utah. The Hierarchy could take at least thirty thousand devoted followers with them, and between the Mexicans, Apaches and Mormons, we should have little to choose.

     The history of all the diverging sects has clearly demonstrated one fact: wherever the Mormons have come in close contact with considerable numbers of Gentiles, it has invariably resulted in a great apostasy, a fight or an exodus. By the usual rule we should expect in Utah, first a little flurry of war, then an exodus of one-third or more if the people, and general apostasy of the rest; and to this conclusion do present indications point.

     Meanwhile, various redeeming agencies are powerfully, though somewhat quietly, at work in Utah, which are of sufficient importance to merit a separate chapter.