In order to assist this he joins them in his new faith. In
admitting the Indians to be the "right, though guilty," descendants of
the sacred tribes, he flatters them with an acknowledgment of their
antiquity, the only point on which a white can captivate and even blind
the shrewd though untutored man of the wilds.
In explanation of the plans and proceedings of Joe Smith and the
Mormons, it may not be amiss to make some remarks upon the locality
which he has designed as the seat of his empire and dominion, and where
he has already established his followers, as the destined instruments of
his ambition.
According to the Mormon prophets, the whole region of country between
the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghanies was, at a period of about
thirteen hundred years ago, densely peopled by nations descended from a
Jewish family, who emigrated from Jerusalem in the time of the prophet
Jeremiah, some six or seven hundred years before Christ; immense cities
were founded, and sumptuous edifices reared, and the whole land
overspread with the results of a high and extensive civilization.
The Book of Mormon speaks of cities with stupendous stone walls, and of
battles, in which hundreds of thousands were slain. The land afterwards
became a waste and howling wilderness, traversed by a few straggling
bands or tribes of savages, descended from a branch of the aforesaid
Jewish family, who, in consequence, of their wickedness, had their
complexion changed from white to red; but the emigrants from Europe and
their descendants, having filled the land, and God having been pleased
to grant a revelation by which is made known the true history of the
past in America, and the events which are about to take place, he has
also commanded the Saints of the Latter Day to assemble themselves
together there, and occupy the land which was once held by the members
of the true church.
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