ed their lands and improvements. That it had no such incentive in Jackson county, is evident from the fact that a proposition was fairly made to purchase their property at double its value. The Mormons having rejected this proposition, and being finally compelled to remove under adverse circumstances, it is quite probable that selfish men took advantage of the emergency, in many cases, to buy out their titles at a cheap rate. Such things would happen in any community, and we can not suppose that a Western border population are any more free from unconscientious and grasping spirits than more refined societies. There is probably more foundation for the charge in the break-up at Nauvoo. Cases of individual wrong will always occur in civil commotions. Marauders will always be found, hovering, like carrion crows, around a field of battle, or a besieged city, watching their opportunity for plunder; but it would be short-sighted enough to believe that the war was instigated by them. These occurrences, however much to be regretted, are not to divert our attention from the original causes of the trouble, and these are to be found in the Mormon system itself—in its arrogant religious pretensions, its reeking licentiousness, and its general license to plunder the goods, and trample upon the rights of all "Gentile" communities with which it may happen to be in contact; and the authors and upholders of the imposture must be held accountable, as well for its remote and collateral, as its immediate consequences. It is not for them to complain that, in making war upon the social morality, and the civil and religious institutions of the country, they have not only lost the battle, but come out of the contest with diminished resources.
