The City of the Mormons E-Book

Rev. Henry Caswall

• Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Seitenzahl: 119

Beschreibung

Reverend Henry Caswall published The City of the Mormons in 1842 in which he describes his journey in which he spent time among the Mormons. Caswalls account provides an important overview of the religious history of the United States in the 19th century. This edition of The City of Mormons includes a table of contents.

Leseprobe

The City of Mormons

PREFACE

THE following narrative, the result of a few weeks’ leisure on shipboard, is again presented to the public, with a deep sense, on the Author’s part, of the iniquity of an imposture, which, under the name of religion, is spreading extensively in America and in Great Britain. Mormonism needs but to be seen in its true light to be hated; and if the following pages, consisting almost exclusively of the personal testimony of the Author, should assist in awakening indignation against a cruel delusion and a preposterous heresy, he will consider himself amply rewarded.

Since the first edition of this work was issued from the press, the Author has met with the following remarkable prediction of Dr. Southey. This prediction, it must be recollected, was published in March, 1829, fourteen months previous to the appearance of the Book of Mormon, and while the American Mohammed was busily engaged in his pretended translation of the “Reformed Egyptian” characters inscribed on the golden plates.

“America is in more danger from religious fanaticism. The government there, not thinking it necessary to provide religious instruction for the people in any of the new States, the prevalence of superstition, and that, perhaps, IN SOME WILD AND TERRIBLE SHAPE, may be looked for as one likely consequence of this great and portentous omission. AN OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN might find dupes and followers as readily as the All-friend Jemima; and the next Aaron Burr who seeks to carve a kingdom for himself out of the overgrown territories of the Union, may discover that FANATICISM IS THE MOST EFFECTIVE WEAPON WITH WHICH AMBITION CAN ARM ITSELF, that the way for both is prepared by that immorality which the want of religion naturally and necessarily induces, and that CAMP-MEETINGS may be very well directed to forward the designs of a MILITARY PROPHET. Were there ANOTHER MOHAMMED to arise, there is no part of the world where he would find more scope, or fairer opportunity, than in that part of the Anglo-American Union into which the older States continually discharge the restless part of their population, leaving Laws and Gospel to overtake it if they can; for in the march of modern colonization both are left behind,"—Southey’s Colloquies, vol. ii. p. 42, 1829.

For a history of the false prophet and his sect, the reader is referred to “The Prophet of the Nineteenth Century, or Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Mormons, or Latter-day Saints,” published by Messrs. Rivington, 1843.

Kensington, January 30th, 1843.

THREE DAYS AT NAUVOO

The Temple at Nauvoo

THE rise of a new religion exhibits human nature in an uncommon aspect, and therefore affords a highly interesting subject of examination to the thoughtful observer. Although every religion of modern origin must now be regarded as a wicked imposture, it is painfully instructive, on the one hand, to watch the demeanor of the successful founders of a spiritual dominion; and, on the other hand, to notice the conduct of those who rejoice in the supposed advantages of their novel “revelations.” It will then be found that, in the present age, neither enthusiasm, nor even outward morality, are essential to the character of a Prophet, and that men may believe themselves surrounded by the full blaze of prophecy and miracle, while they remain alike loose in principle, and profligate in practice.

Nor is the growth of a new religion a subject merely of curiosity. In a historical point of view it is worthy of all the light which careful investigation can bestow. The cause of truth imperatively demands that the progress of error should be diligently noted. How gladly should we receive the testimony of one who had been a witness of the early growth of the religion of Mahomet! How highly should we esteem an authentic account of the process by which the corrupt Christian of the seventh century was gradually alienated from the faith of his fathers, and induced to accept as divine the “revelations” of the Arabian impostor!

To give such a testimony, to describe such a process, is the object of the following narrative. In Western America, amid countless forms of schism, a new religion has arisen, as if in punishment for the divisions of professed Christians. Like Mahometanism, it possesses many features in common with the religion of Christ. It admits the inspiration of the Old and New Testaments, it even acknowledges, in a certain sense, the Trinity, the Atonement and Divinity of the Messiah. But it has rejected and denounced that Church which Christ erected upon the foundation of Apostles and Prophets, and has substituted a system of mock Catholicity in its stead. It has introduced a new book as a depository of the revelations of God, which in practice has almost superseded the sacred Scriptures. It teaches men to regard a profane and ignorant impostor as a special prophet of the Almighty, and to consider themselves as Saints while in the practice of impiety. It robs them of their honesty, no less than of their substance and finally sends them, beneath a shade of deep spiritual darkness, into the presence of that God of truth whose holy faith they have denied.

At the first preaching of Mormonism, sensible and religious persons, both in Europe and in America, rather ridiculed than seriously opposed it. They imagined it to be an absurd delusion, which would shortly overturn itself. But system and discipline, analogous to those of Rome, have been brought to its aid. What was at first crude and undigested, has been gradually reduced to comparative definiteness and proportion. At the present moment Mormonism numbers, probably, a hundred thousand adherents, a large portion of whom are natives of Christian and enlightened England.

The immediate cause of my visit to Nauvoo was the following. Early in April, 1842, business took me to St. Louis, a city of thirty thousand inhabitants, situated on the western bank of the Mississippi, and six miles distant from Kemper College, the most western institution of the American Church. Curiosity led me to the river’s side, where about forty steam-boats were busily engaged in receiving or discharging their various cargoes. Here a ponderous consignment of lead had arrived from Galena, four hundred miles to the north, and the crew were piling it upon the shore in regular and well-constructed layers. There a quantity of ploughs, scythes, and other agricultural implements, crowded the decks of a steamer which had just finished a westward voyage of fourteen hundred miles from Pittsburg. In another place, a vessel that had descended the rapid current of the Missouri for many hundred miles in an easterly direction, was landing pork and other produce of the fertile West; while farther down a large steam-boat from New Orleans, crowded with passengers from the South, having completed her voyage of twelve hundred miles, was blowing off the steam from her high pressure engines with a noise like thunder.

Desiring to know something respecting the passengers in the last boat, I proceeded on board; and as soon as the stoppage of the steam permitted me to be heard, I inquired of the clerk of the boat how many persons he had brought from New Orleans. Plenty of live stock,” was his reply, “plenty of live stock; we have three hundred English emigrants, all on their way to join Joe Smith, the prophet at Nauvoo.” I walked into that portion of the vessel appropriated to the poorer class of travellers, and here I beheld my unfortunate countrymen crowded together in a most comfortless manner. I addressed myself to some of them, and found that they were from the neighbourhood of Preston in Lancashire. They were decent-looking people, and by no means of the lowest class. I took the liberty of questioning them respecting their plans, and found that they were indeed the dupes of the missionaries of the false prophet. I begged them to be on their guard, and suggested to them the importance of not committing themselves and their property to a person who had long. been known in that country as a deceiver. They were, however, bent upon completing the journey which they had designed, and although they civilly listened to my statements, they professed to be guided in reference to Mormonism by that perverted precept of Scripture; “Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.”

From this moment I determined to visit the stronghold of the new religion, and to obtain, if possible, an interview with the prophet himself. Accordingly, on Friday evening, April 15th, I embarked on board the fine steamer “Republic,” bound, as her advertisement assured me, “for Galena, Dubuque, and Prairie du Chien.” I had laid aside my clerical apparel, and had assumed a dress in which there was little probability of my being recognized as a “minister of the Gentiles.” In order to test the scholarship of the prophet, I had further provided myself with an ancient Greek manuscript of the Psalter written upon parchment, and probably about six hundred years old. Shortly after six o’clock our paddles were in motion, and we were stemming the rapid current of the “Father of waters,” while the booming of our high-pressure engine re-echoed from the buildings and the woods along the shore. [When the Mississippi is at is lowest stage, the depth of water at St. Louis is four feet; when full the depth is twenty-nine feet. The width of the river is three quarters of a mile; the average velocity four miles an hour; the average descent of the stream six inches per mile.] The passengers were principally emigrants from the eastern states, on their way to the new settlements in Iowa and Wisconsin. Those in the cabin were so numerous, that our long supper-table was three times replenished at our evening meal; while a still greater number crowded the apartments of the deck passengers. During the night we passed the confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi, and in the morning we were pushing our way through the comparatively clear waters, and along the woody banks of the Upper Mississippi. Occasionally we passed a small village, and two or three times during the day we landed at some rising town; but generally the scene was one in which nature enjoyed undisturbed repose. The river was high from frequent rains in the upper country, and its surface was about one foot lower than the top of the verdant banks. Our cabin windows were frequently brushed by the branches and clustering foliage of the cotton-wood trees; the sugar-maple and the sycamore were putting forth their early leaves at a short distance in the background, and one dense mass of heavy timber covered the picturesque bluffs to their very summit. The day was pleasant, and I sat almost constantly upon the highest or “hurricane” deck, enjoying a fine prospect of the noble river and its shores. During the following night we continued our ascending course, and early on Sunday morning we were at the foot of the “Des Moines Rapids,” with Illinois on the right hand, and Iowa on the left. The rapids prevent the passage of steam-boats during the greater part of the year, on account of the shallowness of the water and the strength of the current. As the river was now full, we experienced no difficulty, and slowly made our way against a stream running perhaps seven miles an hour. The Mississippi is here about a mile and a half in width, and forms a beautiful curve. On the western side were a number of new houses with gardens neatly fenced, and occupied, I was told, by Mormon emigrants who had recently arrived. Farther onward the bluffs of Iowa rose boldly from the water’s edge, while on the Illinois or eastern side, as the steamer gradually came round the curve, the Mormon city opened upon my view. At length, Nauvoo in all its “latter-day glory” lay before me. The landing-place being difficult of access from the rapidity of the current, the steamer took me to Montrose immediately opposite, and touching for a moment, while I stepped on shore, in the next moment was again ploughing the descending waters.

Here I was in Iowa, two hundred and thirty miles from St. Louis, fifteen hundred miles from the mouth of the majestic river before me, and two thousand miles west of New York by the ordinary course of travel. It was nine o’clock on Sunday morning; the sun was shining brightly, as usual in this region, and a strong breeze had raised a moderate swell on the face of the stream. No ferryman was to be found, and for a few minutes it was a problem how I should cross to Nauvoo. The problem was soon solved by the appearance of a long and narrow canoe, hewed from the trunk of a tree, and lying close to the bank. In this doubtful looking craft, thirteen Mormons on their way to the meeting in Nauvoo, proceeded to take their seats. At my request they accommodated me with a place, and shortly afterwards pushed from the shore, and put their paddles in motion. They worked their way with some difficulty, until they reached two islands near the middle of the river. Between these there was no swell, and little wind; but the current ran against us through a narrow passage with the rapidity of a mill-race. Here I thought we should be effectually baffled, and more than once the canoe seemed to yield to the stream. At length the stout sinews of the Mormons prevailed, and we were again in open water. After labouring hard for more than half an hour we safely landed at Nauvoo.