Benjamin M. Palmer

“ If it shall succeed, by its immense moral power, in moulding and casting to its own shape and form that stubborn civilization of past centuries, which it now touches so closely, it will discover a life which the history of four thousand years denies of every other government—and republicanism will come forth, amidst the acclamations of the world, to receive the chaplet of triumph, which shall forever adarn her brow. ”

“ No religious movement, for example, was ever more earnest than the Reformation in the sixteenth century, and no movement was ever more marked by the grimaces of fanaticism, or travestied by the vagaries of enthusiasts. With this principle in view, it may not be risking much to say, that no age since that of the Apostles, could have given birth to such an imposture, marked by so much of missionary zeal, as the age which is most remarkable for the propagation of the Christian faith over the earth. Mormonism, in its propagandism, is truly an exponent of this age of Christian missions. ”

“ In these efforts to suborn and corrupt science into a lying witness for their religion, we see a visible impress of the age upon the system. Here then is Mormonism under a double set of influences: the one setting it to spin and hum, like a boy’s top, forever on the same spot ”

“ Joseph Smith did not, it is true, cast his eye beyond the borders of civilization; which is shown from the tenacity with which the sect clung to their early settlements in Missouri and Illinois. But in every location, the same social organization is preserved; and perhaps a more skilful and refined species of communism was never projected. The rock upon which socialism usually splits, is the entire denial of individual property. The destruction of this great principle of cohesion disintegrates society, and causes it speedily to fall apart. ”

“ Mormonism, on the contrary, is an open apostacy from the highest type of civilization to that which is most beastly—a rejection of the most spiritual religion in favor of that which is most gross and material—a bold step, taken backward, in defiance of all the lessons of history, and in the face of a people the most intelligent and free upon the globe. ”

“ As the souls begotten of God had originally the choice to remain as they were, or to take a material body, and ascend by obedience to greater glory and power; so, if they fail in the first probation, the soul takes a lower tabernacle, pays the forfeit for its offences, and retraces its steps to celestial glory. It is needless to show how this doctrine takes possession of the sympathies of the soul, at that moment when the rupture of earthly ties causes the heart to bleed, and the remembrance of the dead is a holy exercise of the soul. ”

“ In Mormonism, we discover at least three influences which made Asiatic civilization so inert and uniform. The first of these is the degradation of woman; for degraded she is, the moment she sinks from the side of man as his friend and equal, and takes the veil of seclusion in the harem of a master, the minister of his pleasures. Mormonism stamps the brand of social inferiority upon her, by merging her, even in the estimation of the Deity, in the person of her husband, and giving her no other consideration save (to use their own cant lan language.) ”

“ Enough has been said to show that Mormonism, not content with the transcendentalisms of its own age, has adopted all the strange dreams of the mystics in pastages. We have the ancient Hindoo myth respecting God and the universe, almost literally re-produced; the gnostic theory of emanations is given us in the generation of human souls; the Pythagorean dogma of transmigration is presented almost without modification; while the sympathy of living and departed spirits, and the attendance of one upon the other, is but the wild notion which underlies the spirit-rappings of the present day. ”

“ The State must be entirely merged into the Church, the magistracy destroyed, the validity of human laws denied; and wholly mistaking the nature of spiritual liberty, they made it to consist in the possession of an inward spirit, wholly irresponsible to civil tribunals. The climax of fanaticism was reached, when they assumed to be the vicegerents of the Deity, and mistook their own lawless desires for “the inspiration of the Almighty.”
The doctrine of a Theocracy is nothing new in the history of opinions. ”

“ Drawing into precedent the exterminating wars of Israel with the devoted inhabitants of Canaan, “there is no God but Allah” was transformed from the peaceful symbol of religious devotees into the battle-cry of an armed soldiery. Before his death, nearly all the tribes of Arabia had sent embassies of allegiance to the conqueror of Mecca, and idolatry had given place to the deism of the Koran. The Caliphs who succeeded to the enterprise were men born to empire, possessed of rare courage, and inspired with the patience and self-denial which belong to religious zeal. ”

“ The fundamental postulate, for example, of the Fifth-Monarchy men in the 17th century, that God is the true Governor of nations, and the best administration is that which most perfectly conforms with the Divine will, is one of the most unquestionable and sublime truths ever enunciated. But no sooner did they attempt to apply this doctrine to actual life, and to realize the abstract idea in some concrete form, than the grossest fanaticism disclosed itself. ”

“ But since the sixth century, no original impostor had arisen, claiming immediate inspiration from God, and establishing a new dispensation of truth. To make this novelty more startling, it was reserved for this age, and for this country, to give birth to the new Prophet: an age advanced beyond all others in the natural sciences, by which imposture may be detected; and a country having the most thoroughly practical population upon the globe. ”

“ Mormonism, for example, has borrowed from Christianity its aggressive feature, and sends its missionaries likewise to gather prosclytes from all parts of the earth. Christianity is the first system of religion that sought to propagate itself by the labors of evangelists travelling or residing in foreign countries. Judaism was a stationary system. Planted in the centre of the old world, its light gleamed far and wide into the surrounding darkness. ”

“ For ages her melancholy doom was either to toil as a drudge for an insolent master, or, what was scarcely less repugnant to her nature, to be the passive instrument of his pleasures. During that middle age which marks the transition to modern civilization, she was sported as a toy ”

“ Further, if the Deity was generated, it does not shock us to learn that human souls were not made, but begotten; and that by the same obedience and faith, they too will advance to higher perfection, and at least possess the same dominion, property, power and glory, now enjoyed by the Deity, whose dominion will be proportionally increased: all which sounds very much like the developement theory of a certain modern meta-physico-religious school, only a little run mad. ”

“ The woman walks hand in hand with her lawful spouse, the sole mistress of his heart, sharing his sorrow and his joy; they breast together the fortunes of life, and even in death are still united in the affectionate remembrance of grateful descendants. Mormonism impudently strives to reproduce the Asiatic type of civilization. It scoffs at the deference which the Christian world pays to the female sex, and stigmatizes it as “Gentile gallantry;” it teaches that no woman can gain admission into the Heavenly Kingdom, but through the introduction of her husband ”

“ The claims of Smith are vastly more extravagant, and development is represented as the peculiar glory of the latter-day Church. He did not, like his Arabian prototype, prudently seal the prophetic roll at his own death; but left the sacred gift as the perpetual inheritance of the saints. “New revelation,” says Orson Pratt, one of the Mormon Apostles, “is the very life and soul of the religion of Heaven,” and without it “there is an end to the very existence of the Church of Christ on earth; there is an end to salvation in the celestial kingdom.” ”

“ The most prominent feature of Judaism, the Priesthood of Aaron, is transferred to this new dispensation, and is curiously coupled with the higher priesthood of Melchisedek. It is distinctly held that a priesthood is essential to the being of a Church; and one writer distinctly implies that upon the completion of their temple, animal sacrifices are to be renewed for the daily sins of the people. Tithes are paid, as of old—the proselyte giving one tenth of his entire substance, and ever after a tithe of his labor, time and income, accumulating a fund for the advancement of public interests. ”

“ The spirit of adventure, which once clad the knight errant in his steel armor, now pushes the emigrant forth to drive his plough through the broad acres of waste territory which every where on this continent invite his entrance. The tide of emigration continually pouring from the older settlements, soon peoples the wilderness, which begins to blossom under the husbandman. ”

“ But whether the spiritual-wife system is a new revelation, or whether it was one of the esoteric doctrines from the beginning, it is now avowed and defended as an integral part of the scheme. No feature of this new dispensation appears so curious or adventurous, as this attempt to disturb and to change the organic law upon which all society with us is constructed. If there be one exponent of Christian civilization, it is the position of woman in the domestic and social circle. ”

“ Without taking the shape of a logical statement, the religious sentiment may feel this want of recognition of the Supreme Ruler. If, at a future day, these theocratic pretensions of Mormonism should give trouble to our government, serious persons will scarcely be able to avoid the reflection that somewhat of rebuke, if not of retribution, is intended for practically ignoring the existence and control of Almighty God.
But the impress of the age is most visible in the union of democracy with theocracy ”

“ A new feature of the system is the institution of a Parents’ school for heads of families; so that at no point in life is education necessarily arrested. Even here, however, the fanaticism of the sect breaks forth. Scientific revelations from Heaven are to be enjoyed, no less than religious: and by this means, as complete a revolution is to be accomplished in the one kingdom as in the other. ”

“ Our country is certainly entering upon one of the grandest experiments it has ever been called to undertake, and is passing through the severest crisis it has ever been made to know. We cannot fail to observe the singular coincidence, that while a bold attempt is made by Anglo-Saxons themselves to reproduce the old civilization of Asia, and while a community has actually been founded upon that basis, a strong and copious tide of really Asiatic population has been pouring into our California territory. ”

“ Guizot on this point, “is doled out to each, but no one is permitted to help himself,—immobility is the character of its moral life; and to this condition are fallen most of the populations of Asia, in which theocratic government restrains the advance of man.” In Mormonism, this influence is rendered more intense by its claim of progressive revelation. Not content with crowning itself with the awful majesty of a Divine origin, it asserts the high gift of perpetual intercourse with the Deity. ”

“ It is possible that the heart of the Ishmaelite may have softened towards the children of Abraham, as both recognised in their flesh the seal of an early brotherhood. The Jews too, whom the wild freedom of Arabia had nourished into consequence, were the great confessors of that sublime truth which now filled the reason and the fancy of the reformer. Judaism thus unquestionably furnished the ground-doctrine of the Koran, and gave to Islamism its rallying cry. Mohammed displayed great wisdom in restricting his doctrinal articles within so narrow a compass. ”

“ It may not surprise us that this upstart religion, excommunicating the whole Christian church in one sweeping anathema, and superseding her canonical writings with its own tripping inspiration, should suffer violence and persecution. ”

“ We may, in the sequel, perhaps, find in these very circumstances, which excite our wonder, the elements from which to work out the solution of this great social and religious problem.— But at the first glance, it strikes one with astonishment that in the middle of the nineteenth century, and in this enlightened, Christian land, so clumsy an imposture should be attempted and succeed. That an obscure and illiterate man, without position or character even in his own humble circle, should make the stupendous claim of inspiration from God ”

“ The liberal course of education which they are projecting cannot but open the eyes of the inquiring to the extravagance of their superstitions: and the effort to corrupt science, and to push their frauds into the kingdom of nature, must tumble the whole crazy enterprize to the ground. The weakening, too, of family ties, is in reality drawing away the very foundations and under-pinning of social order. ”

“ America, on the contrary, gains her empire by emigration and colonization. New Siates form with a swelling population, and at once take on a republican government, assimilated to the great model which is before them, and very soon are incorporated into the same. The strength of this moral influence cannot be measured, as it moulds all the communities which organize over the entire continent. ”

“ What institution could Satan himself devise, a surer nursery of crime, than a numerous house-hold, whose members are not held together by ties of natural affection, but rather estranged by the most fierce and consuming jealousies known to the human heart? ‘Then consider the heterogeneous character of the population swarming to this great western hive, from the dark lanes, and crowded factories, and filthy collieries of the old world,—the sewerage and drainings of European population. ”

“ With all the avenues of private judgement and personal discovery of truth thus effectually closed, the miserable victims of this pious fraud, “obedientia fracti animi et abjecti et arbitrio carentis suo,” yield in passive submission to the assumptions of a crafty Priesthood, or to the stronger will of a single tyrant. ”