direct command of God; that the Government was at war with the Almighty in the abolition of one and disapproval of the other; and that the mass of the people of the United States were scoundrels who deserved death, and would soon be visited with all the plagues of the Apocalypse. And these people did not seem to be aware that they were insane. They argued earnestly and swore fluently in defense of their religion, quoted the Bible voluminously in favor of slavery and concubinage, and declaimed about the Prince of Peace, the way of salvation, and control of passion, till they were black in the face with anger. At the autumn conference that year Brigham pronounced the fiat—"No trade with outsiders;" and at a wave of his hand all the commercial relations of 75,000 people were changed in a day; a dozen mercantile firms had their business destroyed, and were driven from the country. Some of them could not even dispose of their stock on hand, and were forced into bankruptcy. That autumn I visited one settlement, near Salt Lake City, where a cane-mill was run night and day on custom-work. A year afterward I passed that way again; the cane-mill was resting in idleness, and the people hauling their cane miles away to another settlement. The owner of the mill had apostatized; the word from the Tabernacle had gone forth, "Drop him!" and for the first, and I hope the last, time in my life I got sight of that unique theological phenomenon—an apostate cane-mill.
Whether the moral condition was then tolerably good or very bad cannot be determined satisfactorily. There was such a dead calm upon the surface of society, and such a singular reticence among all classes, that only the most atrocious cases ever came to light—often those were not known or suspected until some of the parties had apostatized. No account was ever given in the Mormon papers of any crimes committed in the remote settlements, and so complete was the surveillance of the secret police that a case of seduction was almost immediately discovered and settled by having the parties married at once, a previous marriage of the man being no hinderance. Of two strangers visiting the Territory, one would say: "These are the most orderly, law-abiding, and happy people on earth;" the other: "There is neither liberty nor law—neither honest, earnest thought nor vigorous happiness; there is a centralized despotism, and Brigham Young is king." Possibly some idea of the moral tone may be gained by noting the prominent characters chosen for the offices, and presumably representing the priesthood and people. John D. Lee, as well known then as now as the wholesale murderer of Mountain Meadows, only a few months after that awful crime came to represent Iron County in the Legislature, received the encomiums due a faithful public servant, and went home with a young wife, "sealed" to him by Brigham Young. His colleague in murder, Isaac C. Haight, was also his colleague in the Legislature, and was in like manner rewarded with a young wife. Both these men continued high in office in the
