1860-06-22-New York Herald-Fresh Arrival of Mormons for Utah

Fresh Arrival of Mormons for Utah

New York Herald, 22 June 1860, pp. 6-7

Fresh Arrival of Mormons for Utah.—The packet ship Wm. Tapscott, which arrived at this port from Liverpool on Saturday, brought no less than eight hundred Mormons as passengers, who were landed at Castle Garde on Wednesday, preparatory to starting for Utah to recruit the dominions of Brigham Young. These people are a hardy, healthy and industrious looking body, just the class of men and women to add strength to any working community, and assist in perpetuating their peculiar race. Within the past six weeks upwards of a thousand Mormons have landed here from Europe, on their way to Salt Lake, all of them partaking of the same vigorous appearance as these just arrived. While this immigration continues it is useless to expect to pull down Mormon rule in Utah, or abolish that odious part of its system, polygamy, either by the force of armies or by the enactment of laws. Persecution seems to agree with Mormonism as well as it has always done with other religious communities. It thrives upon it.

The only remedy for the evils of Mormonism is to send the great civilizer, the railroad, right through the heart of it from the Atlantic to the Pacific. By infusing a large Gentile element into the Mormon region,and thus affording the female portion of the community who may be tired of the polygamic system an opportunity to break their bonds and leave, the objectionable practice may be diminished, and the strength of the community be broken. No other measures can avail much to this end. The railroad is the only great polygamy annihilator.