On taking possession of the site of their new city by the Great Salt Lake, the elders at once set about organising a regular government, at the head of which they placed their prophet Brigham Young ; and as soon as what they deemed a sufficient number of their followers had arrived, and their territory had become by cession from Mexico a part of the [Jolted States, they elected the usual state offieere, and applied to the federal government to be admitted into the Union as a sovereign state under the name of the State of Deseret. But CooFresa refused their application, and remanded the state back to a temtorial condition, entitling it Utah. Brigham Young was however appointed or continued as governor; and the community, though nominally under the laws of the Union, remained virtually inde pendent, and governed by the maxima of the Mormon leaders. Vo'ithhi the last year or two however Young has been superseded by the president, who has appointed a 'Gentile governor, and the federal government has assumed a more direct control.
The religious opiniooa of the Mormons do not properly belong to Geography. Here however, as Utah is their appointed Zion, and as they are almost its only inhabitants, wo may just state that the Mormons profess to be a separate people, living under a patriarchal dispensation, with prophets, elders, and apostles, who have the rule in temporal as well as religious matters; their doctrines being embodied in the ' Book of Mormon' and the 'Book of Doctrine and Covenants,' revealed to their first prophet, Joseph Smith ; that they look for a literal gathering of Israel in this western land; and that here Christ will reignpersonally for a millenium, when the earth will be restored to its isalcal glory. The practice of polygamy, which has drawn
upon them so much obloquy, has not been, we believe, admitted ; but there Is little doubt that it has been allowed. at least to their leaders, and some of their more ardent advocates defend it by reference to the practice of the ancient Jewish patriarchs. That such • system could possibly grow up into such magnitude in these times is sufficiently startling; but that It can long maintain itself if not subjected to persecution is inconceivable.
As we did not notice Neuter° under Ism:rots, we may add to what we have said of it above, that it stands on the Mississippi, 125 miles N.N.W. from Springfield ; and that after the departure of the Mormons, Nauvoo became the seat of • colony of French commun. late, or Icarian., under the direction of IL Cabot, who were however far from successful. Of its present state we have no trustworthy particulars; its population has dwindled down to a very insignificant number. The great Mormon temple of Nauvoo was, in October 1848, set on fire by an inceudiary and destroyed.
(Capt. Howard Stansbury, Topographical Engineers, U.S. Army, Expedition to the Volley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah ; Fremont, Report of Expedition to the Rocky Mountains ; Lieut. J. W. Gunnison, The Mormons, etc.; Statistical View of the United Slates; Seventh Census of the United Stales; Gate-Men of the United States, &o.)