More Mormon Mischief…

“The papers of the Mississippi States overflow with accounts of the tide of Mormon immigration. The debased creatures are pouring into Utah from every part of the world, and the necessity for the recent prompt action of the Administration in regard to the evil was imminent. According to the N. Y. Times, the disgusting fanatics have been driven from Cincinnati, and, several hundred strong, are now en route for the bestial Zion. Twenty-five hundred are expected to leave Cleveland this summer. Eight hundred more recently passed through Peru, (Ill.) Three hundred passed Rock Island. In fact, Brigham Young will soon be in a position to contend with a very respectable force, should one be sent out to bring him to a sense of reason. But the Times understands that the government is noiselessly concentrating a large body of well-trained troops on the frontier. It is collecting an enormous stock of provisions put up in the French style, in very small bulk, so as to supply an army for some time with rations without leaving it dependent, at any time, upon the resources of the country where they may be billetted — for hostile Indians know how to harrass fatigued men. Mormons know how to poison, as well as murder, armed “Gentiles,” and Utah is proverbial at certain seasons for producing much larger crops of grasshoppers than cereals. The Times anticipates, therefore, a great explosion before long in Mormondom, in which our venerated Uncle Samuel will probably take an active part, and the “saints” be made to atone for stopping the wheels of federal justice, burning the archives of the U. S. Court, and compelling the officers of the general government to adopt Falstaff’s principle in regard to discretion as “the better part of valor.” The struggle, since it must come, cannot come too soon. Brigham Young must be taught a lesson of obedience to the laws and the constituted authorities. If not, the evil will only grow with time and tolerance, until its very magnitude may make it a subject of necessary compromise instead of extirpation.”

Daily Alta California – Vol. 9, no. 177 (San Francisco, CA: Daily Alta California Newspaper, 7 July 1857), 1. Emphasis Added.