{"product_id":"2940012893697","title":"The Mormons","description":"Scanned, proofed and corrected from the original edition for your reading pleasure.  It is also searchable and contains hyper-links to chapters. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e***\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn excerpt from:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER I\u003cbr\u003eLooking Back\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVirgin Utah—Fremont And Whitman—A Cloud In The East—The Mormon Hegira—Isolation—Mountain Meadows Massacre.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne looks back through the years when Utah lay undisturbed by the fretting, pushing life of to-day. Her mountains were sleeping in quiet. Her valleys, decked in their floral robes, were smiling back to the heavens. The wealth of soil and mine were untouched because unknown. The Middle West was then the Far West. Our nation was clinging to the Atlantic coast, and slowly creeping toward the sunset. Steam and electric power were waiting the coming Fulton and Morse.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUtah was here, virgin, untouched. God was piling his treasures of snow on these lofty summits and in the deep canyons. He had cleft these mountains with the living streams of water, that like cords of silver bound their heights to the lakes below. He was tending the flowers of mountain and valley, making life possible for the Red Man and his prey. God was here. These vast solitudes were in his keeping. He knew what was coming, and was \"making everything beautiful in its time.\" The starlit nights came and went as the years swung by. There were no such stars as those that gleamed in the Utah sky. The altitude and clear atmosphere gave Utah nights a singular glory in those far-away times. Later came the trappers and hunters to disturb the Indian's quiet possession. They were a sort of go-between-white-men in Indian garb, with Indian life and habit. By their superior cunning they managed to keep the peace, and by their art in traffic enriched themselves. The untutored savages were no match for the shrewd manoeuvres of the trading trappers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the forties two important events occurred—important for our country and for Utah. The Government employed Captain John Charles Fremont to explore the territory west of the Missouri River to the Pacific. He opened the way into Utah, and spent some time investigating the region of the Great Salt Lake. He passed on thence over the Sierras, reaching the coast near the mouth of the Columbia River. He had pierced the continent, so that light must inevitably break through. The other event was the heroic achievement of Dr. Marcus Whitman, by which his colonization scheme secured to our national domain the northwestern territory of Oregon and Washington.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the mean time a storm cloud had been gathering in the East. It had quietly moved out from New York State to Kirtland, Ohio. Thence it passed on to Missouri in the form of an organized hierarchy whose head claimed authority over all men and all civil government. The antagonism of this ecclesiastical organization, the Mormon Church, resulted in its departure from the State, and its settlement at Nauvoo, Illinois. Here were repeated again the experiences passed through in Missouri. This led the Mormon people to seek a home beyond the jurisdiction of the United States. In the accomplishment of this feat Brigham Young led a few thousand Mormons into this beautiful region, then in the domain of Mexico, but destined on the close of the Mexican War to be a part of United States territory.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Mormon Hegira landed that ecclesiastical power in conditions most favorable for the genius of its development. Here was a region easily made fruitful by a people without resources. Here was isolation from the claims of government, and from the demands of better social and religious conditions. The man of iron will, of organizing power, with boundless ambition for himself, fired by a consuming and subtle selfishness, and uncurbed covetousness, found himself in most favorable conditions to achieve all that he could desire. Removed from the interference of the outside world, from every touch of truth and righteousness, Brigham Young had time to lay his plans with none to contradict or criticise. There was ample time to crystallize his system of self-aggrandizement and subjugation of the people. He lost no time in riveting the chains that his predecessor had forged. The superstitious and fanatical people willingly surrendered themselves to his power. They even vied with each other in their effort to make that surrender the most abject possible.","brand":"Leila's Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47181093699824,"sku":"2940012893697","price":1.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012893697_p0.jpg?v=1763573966","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012893697","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}