Utah while secretary of the territory, five years after their
removal to the Great Salt Lake valley, B. G. Ferris wrote, "The
real miracle [of their success] consists in so large a body of
men and women, in a civilized land, and in the nineteenth
century, being brought under, governed, and controlled by such
gross religious imposture. "This statement presents, in concise
form, the general view of the surprising features of the success
of the Mormon leaders, in forming, augmenting, and keeping
together their flock; but it is a mistaken view. To accept it
would be to concede that, in a highly civilized nation like ours,
and in so late a century, the acceptance of religious beliefs
which, to the nonbelievers, seem gross superstitions, is so
unusual that it may be classed with the miraculous. Investigation
easily disproves this.

It is true that the effrontery which has characterized Mormonism
from the start has been most daring. Its founder, a lad of low
birth, very limited education, and uncertain morals; its
beginnings so near burlesque that they drew down upon its
originators the scoff of their neighbors,--the organization
increased its membership as it was driven from one state to
another, building up at last in an untried wilderness a
population that has steadily augmented its wealth and numbers;
doggedly defending its right to practise its peculiar beliefs and
obey only the officers of the church, even when its course in
this respect has brought it in conflict with the government of
the United States. Professing only a desire to be let alone, it
promulgated in polygamy a doctrine that was in conflict with the
moral sentiment of the Christian world, making its practice not
only a privilege, but a part of the religious duty of its