THE

HISTORY OF THE SAINTS.

REASONS FOR JOINING THE MORMONS.

Ir is, of course, necessary for me to give some explanation of the reasons which led me to join the Mormons, and of my motives for remaining so long in connection with them. I am happy to have it in my power to do this easily and satisfactorily.

I find that it is almost universally the opinion of those who have heard of me in the eastern part of the United States, that I united myself to the Mormons from a conviction of the truth of their doctrines, and that I was, at least for some time, a convert to their pretended religion. This, however, is a very gross error. I never believed in them or their doctrines. This is, and indeed was, from the first, well known to my friends and acquaintances in the western country, who were well aware of my reasons for connecting myself with the Prophet; which reasons I will now proceed to state.

My attention had been long turned towards the movements and designs of the Mormons, with whom I had become pretty well acquainted, years before, in the state of Ohio; and after the formation of their establishment at Nauvoo, in 1839, the facts and reports respecting them, which I continually heard, led me to suspect, and, indeed, believe, that their leaders had formed, and were preparing to execute, a daring and colossal scheme of rebellion and usurpation throughout the North-Western States of the Union. It was to me evident that temporal, as well as spiritual, empire was the aim and expectation of the Prophet and

his cabinet. The documents that will hereafter be introduced, will clearly show the existence of a vast and deeplaid scheme, upon their part, for conquering the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri, and of erecting upon the ruin of their present governments a despotic military and religious empire, the head of which, as emperor and pope, was to be Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the Lord, and his ministers and viceroys, the apostles, highpriests, elders, and bishops, of the Mormon church.

The fruition of this hopeful project would, of course, have been preceded by plunder, devastation, and bloo shed, and by all the countless horrors which invariably accompany civil war. American citizens could not be expected to stand quietly by, and suffer their governments to be overthrown, their religion subverted, their wives and children converted into instruments for a despot's lust and ambition, and their property forcibly appropriated to the use and furtherance of a base imposture. The Mormons would, of course, meet with resistance as soon as their intentions became evident; and so great was already their power, and so rapidly did their numbers increase, that the most frightful consequences might naturally be expected to ensue, from an armed collision between them and the citizens who still remained faithful to the God and the laws of their fathers.

These reflections continually occurred to me, as I observed the proceedings of the Mormons, and, at length, determined me to make an attempt to detect and expose the movers and machinery of the plot.

I perceived that it would be useless to undertake this by open opposition. So great and complete was the control that the Prophet had established over the souls of his followers, that very little of his vile proceedings could be made known from the confessions or testimony of his subordinates. Even if one or two did testify to any particular acts of wickedness, such were the address and influence of Smith, that he would, without difficulty, bring forward any required number of witnesses, who would perjure themselves in direct contradiction of his adversaries.

It at length occurred to me that the surest and speediest way to overthrow the Impostor, and expose his iniquity to

the world, would be to profess myself a convert to his doctrines, and join him at the seat of his dominion. I felt confident that from my standing in society, and the offices I held under the state of Illinois, I should be received by the Mormons with open arms; and that the course I was resolved to pursue would enable me to get behind the curtain, and behold, at my leisure, the secret wires of the fabric, and likewise those who moved them.

I was quite aware of the danger I ran, should I be suspected or detected by the Mormons; and I also anticipated the probability of being received by many of my fellowcitizens with disbelief and obloquy, when the time came to throw off the mask, and proclaim to the world the discoveries I felt certain I should make. But none of these things deterred me. Impelled by a determination to save my country and my countrymen from the evils which menaced them through the machinations of the Prophet, I was rendered insensible to the risk I incurred. There was, it was evident, no other way of thwarting the Impostor and his myrmidons, and the plan I proposed to myself could not possibly, so far as I could foresee, fail of complete success.

I found in history a distinguished example of a somewhat parallel case, that in which Napoleon, for the furtherance of the views of the French government upon Egypt and the East, had nominally adopted the Moslem creed. The following is the passage in his Life to which I refer :

"Buonaparte entertained the strange idea of persuading the Moslems that he himself pertained in some sort to their religion, being an envoy of the Deity, sent on earth, not to take away, but to confirm and complete, the doctrines of the Koran, and the mission of Mahomet. He used, in executing this purpose, the inflated language of the East, the more easily that it corresponded, in its allegorical and amplified style, with his own natural tone of composition; and he hesitated not to join in the external ceremonial of the Mahommedan religion, that his actions might seem to confirm his words. The French general celebrated the feast of the Prophet, as it recurred, with some Sheik of eminence, and joined in the litanies and worship enjoined by the Koran. He affected, too, the language of an inspired follower of the faith of Mecca, of which the following is a curious example:

On entering the sepulchral chamber in the pyramid of Cheops, Glory be to Allah,' said Buonaparte; there is no God but God,

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and Mahommed is his prophet;'-a confession of faith which is in itself a declaration of Islamism.

"Thou hast spoken like the most learned of the prophets,' said the Mufti, who accompanied him.

"I can command a car of fire to descend from heaven,' continued the French general, and I can guide and direct its course upon earth.'

"Thou art the great chief to whom Mahommed gives power and victory,' said the Mufti.

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Napoleon closed the conversation with this not very pertinent Oriental proverb-The bread which the wicked seizes upon by force, shall be turned to dust in his mouth.'"-Life of Napoleon Buonaparte, Vol. I., p. 416.

The motives which led Napoleon to profess Mohammedanism were undoubtedly a desire to advance the interests of his country, and to facilitate the operations of the army he commanded. But, if these motives justified him in the course he pursued, how much more had I to justify me in a similar line of conduct! His temporary profession of a false religion was by no means absolutely necessary under the circumstances; while, as I before observed, mine was indispensable to the end I had in view. And how much superior was my object to his! He merely wished to promote the ambitious views of his government; I, on the contrary, was endeavoring to save my country from the most dreadful evils-civil war, despotism, and the establishment of a false and persecuting religion.

"But how," inquires some cautious reader, 66 were you, as an honest man, justified in taking such a course? What confidence can I place in your statements, when I know, by your own confession, that you have once played the part of a hypocrite?"

These suspicions are very natural, and from the first I expected to incur them; but I think that a very little consideration of the extraordinary nature of my case will convince any candid person of the propriety, and indeed necessity, of the course of action I pursued.

Suppose for a moment, my dear reader, that you were located on our western frontier, in the vicinity of a large, powerful, and increasing tribe of savage Indians. Suppose it is apparent, from their movements, that they intend evil to the whites, your countrymen; that they are meditating murder, plunder, and devastation, and all the horrors

Suppose that by

that invariably attend an Indian war. going to them, and professing to be their friend, you knew that you would be received by them freely, and admitted into their councils, and could, by the intelligence you would thus gain, be enabled to frustrate their plans, and avert from your country the evils and dangers which these savages would otherwise bring upon it. Would you for a moment scruple to make such pretensions? especially if, as in the case of the Mormons, there were no other possible way to do what the safety of the west demanded, -viz., expose the imposture.

The fact that in joining the Mormons I was obliged to make a pretence of belief in their religion does not alter the case. That pretence was unavoidable in the part I was acting, and it should not be condemned like hypocrisy towards a Christian church. For so absurd are the doctrines of the Mormons that I regard them with no more reverence than I would the worship of Manitou or the Great Spirit of the Indians, and feel no more compunction at joining in the former than in the latter, to serve the same useful purpose.

I was perfectly satisfied, even before the Mormons went from Ohio, that it was the intention of Joe Smith and those who possessed his confidence, to destroy the sacred institutions of Christianity, and substitute, instead of its powerful restraints upon the unholy passions of the human heart, a frightfully-corrupt system, that would enable them to give free course to their lust, ambition, and cruelty — a system than which, one more abominable the arch-enemy of mankind himself could not have invented. Persons unacquainted with the subject can scarcely imagine the baseness and turpitude of Mormon principles, and the horrid practices to which these principles give rise. When they learn how habitually the Mormons sacrifice to their brutal propensities the virtue and happiness of young and innocent females, how they cruelly persecute those who refuse to join them, and how they murder those who attempt to expose them, they will look with indulgence upon almost any means employed to thwart their villanous designs and detect and disclose their infamy.

There was

-I repeat it—no possible way for me to ex