134 BKIGHAM YOUNG — TREATMENT OF EMIGRANTS. 



that to me, President Young appeared to be a man of clear, sound 

 sense, fully alive to the responsibilities of the station he occupies, 

 sincerely devoted to the good name and interests of the people over 

 which he presides, sensitively jealous of the least attempt to under- 

 value or misrepresent them, and indefatigable in devising ways and 

 means for their moral, mental, and physical elevation. He ap- 

 peared to possess the unlimited personal and official confidence of 

 his people ; while both he and his two counsellors, forming the pre- 

 sidency of the church, seemed to have but one object in view, 

 the prosperity and peace of the society over which they pre- 

 sided. 



In their dealings with the crowds of emigrants that passed 

 through their city, the Mormons were ever fair and upright, taking 

 no advantage of the necessitous condition of many, if not most of 

 them. They sold them such provisions as they could spare, at 

 moderate prices, and such as they themselves paid in their dealings 

 with each other. In the whole of our intercourse with them, 

 which lasted rather more than -a year, I cannot refer to a single 

 instance of fraud or extortion to which any of the party was sub- 

 jected; and I strongly incline to the opinion that the charges that 

 have been preferred against them in this respect, arose either 

 from interested misrepresentation or erroneous information. I 

 certainly never experienced any thing like it in my own case, nor 

 did I witness or hear of any instance of it in the case of others, 

 while I resided among them. Too many that passed through their 

 settlement were disposed to disregard their claim to the land they 

 occupied, to ridicule the municipal regulations of their city, and to 

 trespass wantonly upon their rights. Such offenders were promptly 

 arrested by the authorities, made to pay a severe fine, and in some 

 instances were imprisoned or made to labour on the public works ; 

 a punishment richly merited, and which would have been inflicted 

 upon them in any civilized community. In short, these people 

 presented the appearance of a quiet, orderly, industrious, and 

 well-organized society, as much so as one would meet with in any 

 city of the Union, having the rights of personal property as per- 

 fectly defined and as religiously respected as with om-selves ; 

 nothing being farther from their faith or practice than the spirit 

 of communism^ which has been most erroneously supposed to pre- 

 vail among them. The main peculiarity of the people consists in 

 their religious tenets, the form and extent of their church govern- 



