nts and purposes, the Mormons are proved to be a people more foreign
to the population of the States than the inhabitants of Cuba or Mexico.
Alien in great part by birth, and entirely alien in religion, there
never can occur in the history of the country an instance of a community
harder to govern, with a view to adapt it to harmonious association
with the States on the Atlantic and the Pacific. It is undeniably
demonstrated that it is unsafe to trust it to administer a government in
accordance with republican ideas; for it acknowledges a higher law than
even the human conscience, in the will of a person whom it professes
to believe a vicegerent of Divinity, and in obedience to whom perjury,
robbery, incest, and even murder, may be justifiable,--for his commands
are those of Heaven. It is obvious that it is fruitless to anticipate
fair dealing from a people professing such doctrines; and the result has
shown, that, in transactions with Mormons, even under oath, no one who
does not acknowledge a standard of religious belief similar to their own
can count upon justice any farther than they may think it politic
to accord it. The army is, indeed, placed in a position to suppress
instantaneously another forcible outbreak; but everybody is aware that
there are means of annulling the operation of law quite as effectually
as by an uprising in arms. Recent proceedings in the courts of the
extreme Southern States have caused this fact to be keenly appreciated.
The pirates who sailed the slavers "Echo" and "Wanderer" yet remain to
be punished. So far as South Carolina and Georgia are concerned, the law
declaring the slave-trade piracy is a dead letter; and the sentiment
which prevails toward it in Charleston and Savannah is an imperfect
index of that which is manifested at Salt Lake City toward all national
authority.

The legislation of Utah has been conducted with a view to precisely the
condition of affairs which now exists, and the Territorial statute-book
shows that the transfer of executive power from Brigham Young had long
been anticipated. It is impracticable to adduce, in this place, proof of
the fact _in extenso_; but a brief enumeration of some of the principal
statutes will indicate the character of the entire code. An act exists
incorporating the Mormon Church with power to hold property, both real
and personal, to an indefinite extent, exempt from taxation, coupled
with authority to establish laws and criteria for its