CHAPTER IV.
First Week at Great Salt Lake City.—Preliminaries.
Before entering upon the subject of the Mormons I would fain offer to the reader a few words of warning. During my twenty-four days at head-quarters, ample opportunities of surface observation were afforded me. I saw, as will presently appear, specimens of every class, from the Head of the Church down to the field-hand, and, being a stranger in the land, could ask questions and receive replies upon subjects which would have been forbidden to an American of the States, more especially to an official. But there is in Mormondom, as in all other exclusive faiths, whether Jewish, Hindoo, or other, an inner life into which I can not flatter myself or deceive the reader with the idea of my having penetrated. At the same time, it is only fair to state that no Gentile, even the unprejudiced, who are raræ aves, however long he may live or intimately he may be connected with Mormons, can expect to see any thing but the superficies. The writings of the Faithful are necessarily wholly presumed. And, finally, the accounts of Life in the City of the Saints published by anti-Mormons and apostates are venomous, and, as their serious discrepancies prove, thoroughly untrustworthy. I may therefore still hope, by recounting honestly and truthfully as lies in my power what I heard, and felt, and saw, and by allowing readers to draw their own conclusions, to take new ground.
The Mormons have been represented, and are generally believed to be, an intolerant race; I found the reverse far nearer the fact. The best proof of this is that there is hardly one anti-Mormon publication, however untruthful, violent, or scandalous, which I did not find in Great Salt Lake City.[1] The extent of the sub-
- ↑ A list of works published upon the subject of Mormonism may not be uninteresting. They admit of a triple division—the Gentile, the anti-Mormon, and the Mormon.
Of the Gentiles, by which I understand the comparatively unprejudiced observer, the principal are,
1. The Exploration and Survey of the Great Salt Lake by Captain Stansbury, who followed up Colonel Frémont's flying survey in 1849, or two years before the Mormons had settled in the basin, and found the young colony about 2—3 years old. Anti-Mormons find fault with Captain Stansbury for expending upon their adversaries too much of the milk of human kindness.
2. The Mormons or Latter-Day Saints, by Lieutenant J. W. Gunnison, of the U. S. Topographical Engineers. This officer was second in command of the exploration under Captain Stansbury, and has recorded, in unpretending style and with great impartiality, his opinions concerning the "rise and progress, peculiar doctrines, personal conditions and prospects" of the Mormons, "derived from personal observation." Like his commanding officer, Lieutenant Gunnison is accused of having favored the New
