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ed their lands and improvements. That it had no such incentive in Jackson county, is evident from the fact that a proposition was fairly made to purchase their property at double its value. The Mormons having rejected this proposition, and being finally compelled to remove under adverse circumstances, it is quite probable that selfish men took advantage of the emergency, in many cases, to buy out their titles at a cheap rate. Such things would happen in any community, and we can not suppose that a Western border population are any more free from unconscientious and grasping spirits than more refined societies. There is probably more foundation for the charge in the break-up at Nauvoo. Cases of individual wrong will always occur in civil commotions. Marauders will always be found, hovering, like carrion crows, around a field of battle, or a besieged city, watching their opportunity for plunder; but it would be short-sighted enough to believe that the war was instigated by them. These occurrences, however much to be regretted, are not to divert our attention from the original causes of the trouble, and these are to be found in the Mormon system itself -in its arrogant religious pretensions, its reeking licentiousness, and its general license to plunder the goods, and trample upon the rights of all "Gentile" communities with which it may happen to be in contact; and the authors and upholders of the imposture must be held accountable, as well for its remote and collateral, as its immediate consequences. It is not for them to complain that, in making war upon the social morality, and the civil and religious institutions of the country, they have not only lost the battle, but come out of the contest with diminished resources.

CHAPTER IX.

HISTORY CONTINUED.

Battalion for Mexican War.-Mormons arrive at Salt Lake.-Character of the Mormon Exode.-" Crickets."-General Address to the Saints. "Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company," and "Public Works."-State of Deseret.-Territory organized.-Ceremonies on breaking Ground for the Temple.

THE fugitive Mormons established themselves at two different points in the Indian country, and, after a season of much privation and suffering, their affairs began to brighten. The Indians were friendly, their own industry and perseverance worthy of all commendation, the land was fertile, and their crops abundant.

It was during the fore part of their sojourn in this region that a Mormon regiment was recruited into the United States service for the Mexican war. This, like many other matters connected with the Saints, has been made the subject of much contradictory remark. They are fond of referring to it as a requisition made upon them by the government to test their loyalty, and their ready response to it is cited as strong evidence of their patriotic devotion to the country; and as this regiment was on its march to California at the period when the remaining Saints were driven from Nauvoo, it offered an opportunity for comment not to be neglected. In an address to the Saints in all parts of the world, Brigham Young certainly makes a strong point on this subject. After taking a retrospect of the

sufferings and persecutions of the Mormons, he says: "And, hard as it was to write it, it must forever remain a truth on the page of history, that, while the flower of Israel's camp were sustaining the wing of the American eagle by their influence and arms in a foreign country, their brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, and children were driven by mob violence from a free and independent state of the same national republic, and were compelled to flee from the fire, the sword, the musket, and the cannon's mouth, as from the demon of death."

Some of the Mormon seceders represent that they intended to excite an Indian war, and furnished the men to lull suspicion, knowing that active service would in the end make them a well-disciplined corps. But it is not probable there was any settled purpose of the kind. Nor is it to be presumed that they felt much attachment to a country which they had over and over again doomed to destruction, and against which they habitually indulged in bitter complaints and denunciations. According to William Smith, the prophet Joseph's brother, the leaders intended to establish an independent government beyond the Rocky Mountains; and as the Great Salt Lake Valley, to which they were journeying, was at the time Mexican territory, there would seem to be good evidence to that effect. Their professions of loyalty and patriotism must therefore be received with many grains of allowance. Colonel Kane says: "At the commencement of the Mexican war, the President considered it desirable to march a body of reliable infantry to California at as early a period as practicable, and the known hardihood and habits of

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