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IER 24.. 1808.IISALT LAKE CITY LETTER.Correspondence Cincinnati Commercial.!*)lriiDtiLriuf.1.00108e18alt Lake City, U. T., December 15, 1868.Last week I merely alluded to a sect of recusant Mormons, called the Morrlsltes, but their history presents so many points or ousious interest, and illustrates so clearly the mixed civil, ecclesiastical and military Government in operation here, that I set it forth at some length. Joseph Morris was a native of Manchester, England, and came here among the early converts. Like thousands of others he thought that thepure truth delivered by Joseph Smith had beencorrupted, and conceived the design of effectinga grand reformation in the church. Accordingto his own aooount, while engaged in reflectionOn the subject, he was one day in the pasturesbeyond Jordan, when he was favored with aglorious vision, and by oommand of Christ, Enos,(son of Seth,) John the Baptist, and the archangelMichael, who* constitute the triune mission ofMormonism, appeared and endowed him withthe holy priesthood, as the true successor of Joseph Smith.On announcing his mission, he was at once an object of interest to all persons at South Weber, bis residence, some thirty miles north of this city, and in a short time had converted to his views Bishop Cook, of Weber settlement, his brother, John Cook, and several others. Meanwhile, he continued to reoeive voluminous revelations, and, under the supposed influence of the Holy Spirit, composed two letters directed to Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, which 1 e brought to this city and delivered in person. Brigham treated the matter lightly at first, but it soon grew so serious that John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff, both apostles, were sent to Weber to investigate the matter. They called a ohurch meeting, in executive session, on the 11th of February, 1861, when Taylor rose and demanded Whether there was a mail in that ward who claimed to be a prophet, and, if so, whether ho had any followers! To the consternation of4 T v* 4 /wit rv \ i f ft n a 'IT A f A /y 1 i * v~w l Atl U II’ 1 f 1 J 1 i / \ T \simply as the proper punishment due to one who bad “set himself up to teach heresy in Zion and oppose the Lord’s anointed.” During the entire battle two Brighnmiteayind ten Morrisites were killed and a very large number wounded.Ninety-three of the Morrisites were at once arraigned before Judge Kinney, but there was so much popular excitement, and as it was probable more would die of their wounds, he proceeded to place them all under bonds of SI,500 each for their appearance in April, 1863. Only five of them would sign the bond; lew of the rest could speak English, and those who could protested against the entire proceedings, and announced their determination “to lie in jail till the Devil’s thousand years were out,” before they would even by implication confess that they were treated legally.But, as the five .signers still owned considerable property, Judge Kiunev ruled that, as in a sort of community, they could bind all the rest, as their representatives. When the April term (1863) came on, twenty of them, were out of the Territory, and one was dead, put most of the rest appeared. Kinney said thit “their absence made no difference; he was glid to see ^hat so many had appearedand proceeded to enter a flue of one hundred dollars each against the present, dead and absent. In Addition, several leaders were put on trial, and sentenced to the penitentiary for from five to fifteen years each. All were pardoned, soon after, by Governor Harding. The bonds of those absent were declared forfeited by the Clerk, and judgment and execution issued against those resident intftah to collect the penalty. Abraham Taylor, ate, had his property in thisr.i.X)X)X)y8e-iti-tho Brighamites seventeen persons, with Bishop Cook at their hfead, arose and avowed their belief that “Joseph Morris was sent of God, and was the true priestly successor of Joseph South.” It is to be noted that the Morrisites never denied the right of Brigham to be first president by eleotion, and temporal head of the church; but they claimed that he was “neither a prophet, nor the eon of a prophet.”A violent discussion followed, in which an old man named Watts said that the Morrisites ought to be cut. off under the chin and laid-rrrttxr 4 t.hfl Vhliull 9f f AT* W h W* h h A WJL1 fifArnlv !*A-prominent Morrisltecity, worth three thousand dollars,' levied upon and put up for sale. He applied to’ Judge Waite, who found, on. examination, that the records of the court showed no judgment against the delinquents, which fact he represented to Judge Kinney, and applied for an injunction against the officer. The application was refused byJudge Kinney, who stated that, “if there was no judgment, he could render one, as the Court had not -permanently adjourned, but only to meet again on bin oicn motion.” Taylor’shomestead was nut up at once and' soldto one Joseph A. Johnson, Clerk of Judge Kinney’s Court, for $200, and the family literally forced into the street. They remained a few days in the street in front of the house, then took refuge at Camp Douglas. Is it any wonder that Kinney is cursed on all sides as the meanest “jack Mormon” ever sent from Washington. He afterward joined the Mormons and represented them in Congress, hut now lives somewhere in the States. These lines are written in the faint hope that the expiring embers of decency in his heart may be blown into something likelife, or judicial honor. The Morrisites were now4f8.6.X)0)0X)X)0X)MlfcO• •'X)IX)0000rfcititK-ie:ereinisit7,h-y,e-midy00000000V6inn-57ie*TalIs.MX)00awaV in the bush,” for which ho was sternly re buked by Bishop Cook. After the customary “admonition” by Taylor and Woodruff, all the adherents of Morris were formally excommunicated, and “delivered over to the buffetings of Satan for a thousand years.” Morris established his church by baptizing five persons in the Weber River on the 6th of April, 1861, exactly thir-ty-oue years from the first baptism by Joseph Smith. Converts flocked rapidly from all parts of the Territory, and the new sect soon numbered three hundred. It never exceeded five hundred. Morris employed two scribes to take down his revealed gospel, and his followers now have six manuscript volumes of them, each containing about twice as much readily; matter as one number of the Commercial.The spring review of 1862 of the Nauvoo Legioncame on, and the Morrisites refused to drill, for which several of them were arrested and fined $60 and $i80 each. Other troubles arose between them and the surrounding Mormons, about which there is great couflftt of testimony. I have the story from those of the Morrisites now at Camp Douglas, from various Brighamites, and from official papers and testimony left by Judges Waite, Drake and Titus. The sect occupied a portion of the Weber Valley, with their town made in a sort of encampment in a circular hollow, below whioh was their cultivated land. They had all things in common, and every new oonvert divided his surplus property among the needy, while their common cow-herd was attended by a detailed herder among the mountain hollows. Mrs. Adams, an intelligent Mormon ladv, then a resident on the Weber, telis me they took a large number of cattle from their neighbors, and committed other depredations; whioh the Morrisites deny, saying that they only retaliated where they had been robbed. At length one Jones seized a load of flour belonging to the Morrisites at a mill near Salt Lake, and detained it and the two boys m charge, as he alleged, In satisfaction for injuries done him.The Morrisites sent out a strong posse, retook; the load, and brought Jones and two Confederates as prisoners to their oamp. Meanwhile, the Sheriff had appeared, and purposed to arrest all those who could not, or would not pay the fines assessed for refusal to drill, but he was refused admission to the settlement. Com-completely broken up. Some started on foot to the States and perished by the way; others joined emigrant trains to California; their women and children were treated as outcasts, and the men often shot at when they ventured out. A few days ago one of them, an old man, called at my room, who hadjtwn slugs lodged between the ribs of his right side, by a Danite. After General Connor arrived with two regiments of California volunteers, and established Camp Douglas, thoy gathered there; and in May, 1863,the General sent eighty families of them, including over 200 persons, to Soda Springs, Idaho, where they now have a flourishing settlement. Abraham Taylor, one of their leaders, remained at Camp Douglas, and in 1866. by Major Chas. H. Hempstead, his attorney, filed a bill praying for restitution of his property, of which bill a copy lies before me. It was filed in tliq United States District Court. Judge Titus presiding, and, after tw*o years of delay and chicanery by the Mormon lawyers, and some of the hardest swearing that ever “reeked to heaven,” at the last term (October, 1868.) a decree w as made iuhis favor by Judge Wilson, giving him posses-f»sion of his old homestead, with rents for five years. Judge of the popular ideas here from the fact that three-fourths of the people lookedupon this decree as a gross outrage on a Utah citizen by a United States Judge, and a severeact of “persecution.”Taken all in ail, the Morrisites deserved a better fate. True; their religion was a wild compound of materialism, spiritism, diabolism and deism run mad, but their code was far better than that of the Brighamites.They forbade polygamy, but if one joined them having more wives than one, they did not require him to put them away uuless at their request, which was generally only wheu they could have another husband^at ouce. This mayread queer to Eastern people, but it is quite an improvement on Mormon polygamy. They for-npbade the shedding of blood for “violation of100;ooXX)ngXX)mfyirtitheilfhew-000282988015787000893986re-7386503205478178505o0ar)n-itsfieof-nt;68ix-re-Salt Lake County, attempted to serve them, but returned to the city unsuccessful. The NauvooLegion was at once ordered out, with several cannon, and placed under Burton’s command. Ou their vrby they were joined by reinforcements from Aysden, KaysvUle and Farmington, till early on the morning of June 13, 1862, they arrived before the Morrislte camp, with a thousand well-armed men, and five pieces of artillery. They captured the Morrisites’ cow-herd, killing such as they desired for beef, and sent the boys attending it into the camp, with Burton’s proclamation, calling for suireuder. Theoamp, or fort, consisted of a few houses made of willows, woven together and plastered, and covered wagons, surrounded by some rude fortifications. Morris called his men together, when they received another note to remove the women and ohiklren# as tiring would begin in one hour. In about twenty minutes a caunou was fired, of which the ball entered the fort, killing two women, and carryiug away the jaw of a young woman, who afterw’ard died.The Morrisites at once flew to arms and the battle began. The cannon and long-rauge rifles of the Brighamites completely raked tne fort, to which the Movnsites could only reply with tlieir ducking-guus and a few' Spanish seopeetes, which inflicted on*y slight w’ouuds. The cannon, too, were often loaded with small balls, which tore down the wicker-work and pierced the sandy hillocks, woundiug the women and children who had taken refuge behind them. Still these deluded people would not surrender, and for three days, fighting with the desperate energy of religious fanaticism, continued the unequal battle. At Intervals, during that time, they often called on Morris to intercede witn the Lord for their deliverance, to which he made reply: “If the Lord will, we shall be delivered and our enemies destroyed; but let us do our duty.” On the eveu-sanctifled oaths,” or any other religious offense. They believed iu a succession of worlds, “from matter unformed and void even to the planet Kolob, bright residence of Eloheini, the Eternal Father,” and that men would ascend these stages of worlds through successive degrees of perfection. But they are gone, like the Strangites, the Gladdenites, the Josephites, like every sect that has attempted to make head against Brigham; he has crusliod them all with an iron hand. BEADLE.U. S. A. Post Hospital, Fort Randall. ) Dakota Territory. December 16, 1868. iTo the Editor of the Commercial: vIn the Chicago Times, of the 8tli instant, Inoticed an article on the “Automaton Piano,’represented to havo been invented by a Frenchman, M. Spelss, an electro-musical instrument, exhibited at the Technological Society, lu Paris.Recently several countrymen of our own. a* wTell as foreigners, have presented themselves before the public, claiming the distinguished honor of beiug the inventors of this extraordinary kind of music, which will undoubtedly yet be the means of affording us musioofthe sweetest and most complete kind ever heard by human ears.With regard to the invention of electro-music, I claim to have been the first originator, and published the details of my invention before ti.e breaking out of the war of the rebellion. My present impression is that, several years previous to the war, from Springfield, Ohio, I contributed to your paper my first article on this -subject, giving all the details of my three elee-mg of the third day some oue raised a white flag; wheu Morris saw* it, he said: “Your faith1h gone and the Lord has forsaken us. I can now do nothing more.”They threw dowui their arms and the legionmarched In. Amid the wildest confusion tlio men aud womeu werSeparated, and the former placed under guard. Few of the women couldspeak English, and all expected nothiug but destruction. Burton shot Moms, his Lieutenant,terd-hehe . ace,eu«Q»1-ib-healf•LiontoCRnt 3e, of i at he heisheaedkeit,atBanks, and two women, after the arms were given up, while the soldiers plundered the houses, took ail the watches jewelry aud money, and destroyed all they could not carry away. Here, too, there is great conflict of testimony. Some of the boys who were with the Brighamite forces say that Morris ordered his men to take their arms and fight again, for whioh he was shot. Still others say that Banks wns only slightly wounded, and called for water, when a cup was handed him by the Biighamite surgeon; that he drank of It and expired in a few minutes. The Morrisites are confident he would have recovered if he had not beeu poisoned. The following affidavit, selected from a large number, will give most clearly the Morrislte version of the affair:tro-musical inventions. They were as follows;1. Eiectro-iuaguetism applied to individual key instruments iu order to make the touch and action of the note sjtrietly simultaneous; as the touch, so will bo the music.2. To connect electrically any number of key musical instruments, of oue or more cities, together, aud have them played on by one performer simultaneously.3. The automaton key instruments, or the musieomBter, attached to instruments. These can be so connected in automatic concert music as to bring thouaauds of notes into one expression, c.The details of these inventions were published in many of the papers of this and’ European countries, iu the first year of the war, such as the Loudon Times, Godey’s Ladies’ Book, Nashville Union, aud others.Through tho war I was too much engaged with my professional duties to give it further attention, but at the close of the war I again resumed the subject, and lectured several times on it. Since my appointment as Post Surgeon here, I have carefully revised the subject, aud shall take the opportunity of reading it before several societies, iu the spring of next year.Yours, respectfully.G. P. HACKENBERG, Post Surgeon.“United States of America, Territory of Utah, so. “Alexander Dow, of said Territory, being duly sworn,savs:“la the apriug of 1861 I joined the Morrisites, and was when Jclad surrendered, a white flag was flying, and the armslcresentoteph Morris was killed. The Morrtsiteswere all grounded and guarded by a large number of the posse.‘Robert Q. Burton and Judson L. Stoddard rode inamong the Morrisites. Burton was much excited, and said: Where is the man? I don't know him/ Stoddardreplied, ‘That’s him,’ pointing to Morris. Burton rode his horse upon Morris and commanded him to give himself up in the name of the Lord. Morris replied, ‘No; never, never/ Morris said he wanted to speak to the people. Burton said, Be d—d quick about it.’ Morris said, ‘Brethren, I have taught you true princi-[From the New York Sun, December 22.] ^Commodore Vanderbilt** Linst Exploit.The astute shopkeeper who, marie $10,(XX) one morning before breakfast, simply by marku/g upthe prices of the goods he had on hand, has beeu thrown completely into the shade by Commodore Vanderbilt and his fellow Directors of the New York Central Railroad Company. At a secret session held last Saturday night they agreed to call the capital of the company $43,000,000, instead of $25,000,000, aud the public seems to believe that the operation has really added to the value of the road. The shares, wfiiich sold on Saturday at 133, sold yesterday morning at 165, and probably w outd have gone higher but for apprehensions of legal proceedings to prevent the consummation of the scheme. Judge Barnard, some time since, enjoined the Directors from watering the capital, and though they have not technically violated the injunction, they have substantially done the thing they were foi-bidde# to do. If the road can really earn dividends on $43,000,000, it is all right to water thestock; but, if it can not, as it has not for year*, the Directors have beeu guilty of a piece of 6tock-jobbery which Ought to be defeated in the courts.‘But the most entertaining feature of the Commodore's achievement is the remorseless seven-
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Cincinnati Commercial
Cincinnati, Ohio, US
Thu, Dec 24, 1868
Page 7
Full Page
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University O.
USA 09 Feb 2020
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