The Saints Still Hostile

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THE SAINTS STILL HOSTILE.

All the recent news from the Territory of Utah tends to confirm us in the conviction that the Mormon trouble¹ is just as far from a settlement as ever, and that the costly military measures of the Administration, so much vaunted by its organs, have in their results, so far, been practically useless.

Mr. Simonton,² the clever and wide-awake Utah correspondent of the N.Y. Times, writing from Salt Lake City under date of July 3d, gives an interesting description of an interview with the renowned Brigham himself, from the details of which may be gathered a pretty fair idea of the feelings of settled hostility which the Mormons and their Patron Saint entertain toward our Government. For instance, look at the animus of this paragraph:

In reply to his question whether the people of Utah ought not to be relieved of unworthy officials, I replied, of course, in the affirmative, reminding him, however, that if the President did not think them unworthy, the Constitution made him the sole judge and arbiter—and that if he failed to redress such grievances, it was the part of good citizens who love the Constitution to leave the Executive to his responsibility to the people in the only method pointed out by that instrument. Brigham rejoined, excitedly, that if the President would not redress their grievances, they would redress them for themselves—an expression which contains the very essence of all the sedition and treason to repress which the army was sent out here, as every candid reader must see.

Brigham also employed other language which, taken in connection with the above, has a decidedly belligerent aspect. He laughed at the idea that the polygamic system formed any part of the causes which had produced the ill-will against his people, and called it “the grossest humbug.” He charged us of the great Eastern cities with being as much polygamists as the Saints—“the only difference being,” said the Prophet, “that you treat your women like brutes, and we treat them like human beings.” Brigham doubtless referred to the sin and shame of prostitution in the United States, and must have had a prophetic vision of the Pete Dawson case.

But it is plain that we are crying “peace, peace!” in regard to this Mormon matter, when there is no peace. The letter goes on to say:

The whole tone of Brigham Young and other leaders indicates that they do not anticipate a continuance of the present peace. They constantly intimate that they will not obey the law, although they cover the expression in milder terms. Said one of the people to me, and honest, simple man, who knows only what his leaders tell him, "any man who attempts to serve a writ upon any of this people will be shot!" This is only a little clearer and bolder expression of the sentiments which the leaders imply and intimate by inuendo,—asseverating all the time their devotion to the Union and Constitution.

The Saints are undoubtedly a slippery set to deal with. Their leaders are cunning and hypocritical, and their dupes follow them like a flock of sheep. The whole of the fanatical set are imbued with a holy horror of our Gentile Government, and the idea that they can be easily managed by any halfway measures is fallacious in the extreme. They will continue, we fear, to be a thorn in the side of more than one future Administration, besides being a heavy bill of expense upon the country.

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