RISE OF THE MORMONS.

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Congress a lesson; and the United States now established1 an independent treasury at Washington, with branches, known as sub-treasuries,2 in the chief cities. In this way the government was protected against loss. We owe this excellent system mainly to President Van Buren.

277. Rise of the Mormons; Nauvoo. - Toward the close of Van Buren's presidency, a new religious community, known as Mormons, formed a settlement in Nauvoo, Illinois. Its founder was Joseph Smith of Palmyra, New York. He declared that an angel from heaven had given him a number of golden plates like sheets of tin — on which was written a new scripture called the "Book of Mormon," 115 or the "Golden Bible."

Not long after the new community was formed it was joined by Brigham Young of Vermont-a man as keen-sighted in the things of this world as Smith claimed to be in those of the other.

1 The independent treasury system was, however, not fully and finally established until 1846. During the civil war (1863) a great many new banks were created. These give security (by the deposit of government bonds at Washington) to the United States for the bills they issue; for this reason they are called National Banks. The government has the right to deposit public money (except that received for duties) in these banks, as well as in the treasury.

2 Sub-treasuries: from the Latin word sub, meaning under; hence, subordinate, or smaller treasuries. The chief treasury is in the Treasury Building at Washington; the sub-treasuries are in (1) New York, (2) Philadelphia, (3) Chicago, (4) Boston, (5) St. Louis, (6) Cincinnati, (7) San Francisco, (8) New Orleans (9) Baltimore.

3 Nauvoo on the Mississippi River, north of Quincy, Illinois, and nearly opposite Keokuk, Iowa.

4 Joseph Smith was born in Vermont, but when a boy, went to live at Palmyra, in Western New York. The opponents of Mormonism believe that it can be proved that the so-called Mormon Bible was the work of an ignorant, half-crazed preacher named Solomon Spalding, and that he wrote it as a sort of romance of the early history of America, before the discovery of Columbus. They consider Smith to have been an impostor, a liar, and a scoundrel; though his followers regard him as a prophet, saint, and martyr. The creed given by Smith to the Mormons declares, "We believe the Bible to be the Word of God, as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the Word of God." 5 Mormon: a name derived from that of the alleged writer of the Mormon Bible, a Jew, who, as the Mormons believe, lived in this country about a thousand years before Columbus discovered it.

While in Nauvoo, Smith told his followers that an angel had come to him from heaven to say that in future every good and faithful Mormon would be required to marry as many wives as he could support, and that the larger his family was here the greater would be his glory hereafter.

This strange announcement created a tremendous uproar.

Part of the Mormons accepted it, and part refused. Finally, a riot broke out, and Smith was carried off, thrown into jail, and shot by a mob of enraged Illinois settlers who had no sympathy with the new religion.

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278. Emigration of the Mormons to Utah; what they have accomplished there. Brigham Young now got the control of the community which was largely made up of English emigrants. But the people of Illinois were anything but friendly to the Mormons, and Young decided to move further west. He accordingly crossed the Mississippi (1847), and not long after, set out, with two thousand followers, for Salt Lake, Utah. It was a journey of fifteen hundred miles through the wilderness. The country bordering on the lake was a desert. The hunters of that desolate region predicted that the Mormons would starve. But Young saw what could be done to prevent that. He set his company to work digging ditches to bring water from the mountains; every street in the village had two of these ditches running through the length of it, one on each side. The abundant supply of water soon made the dead, dry soil green with waving crops of wheat and corn. Industry transformed the desert into a garden. Since then the Mormons have prospered and grown strong. The village has become a city, and Utah now has a Mormon population of over a hundred thousand, largely made up of emigrants from Great Britain, Norway, and Sweden.1

1 Appearances now seem to indicate that polygamy, or the custom of having several wives, will cease to exist among the Mormons of the United States. Not only is the national government legislating against it, but the eldest son of the late Brigham Young is himself strongly opposed to the practice. Recently (1890) the President of the Mormon Church has forbidden the marriage of more than one wife.

EMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES.

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279. Emigration to the United States. While the Mormons were getting a foothold in the far West, an immense emigration from Europe to the United States had begun. A regular line of steamships was established between Liverpool and Boston in 1840,1 and, soon after, similar communication was established with New York. By means of these steamers, and of lines of passenger vessels, emigrants now began to pour in at the rate of over three thousand a week; and in the course of the next ten years (1840-1850) nearly two millions had come to settle here or nearly twice as many as had landed in this country during the preceding forty years. Since then the stream of emigrants has never ceased, and the whole number who have thus become American citizens is estimated at sixteen millions.2

280. Summary. This period began with a disastrous panic in trade by which great numbers were ruined; it was followed by the establishment by the government of the independent treasury system; then came the movement of the Mormons to Utah, and vastly increased emigration from Europe to the United States.

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON AND JOHN TYLER.

281. Harrison and Tyler's Administrations (Ninth and Tenth Presidents, One Term, 1841-1845); how Harrison was elected; his Death. - General Harrison,3 "the hero of

1 The first English steamships which came here were the Sirius and the Great Western, both of which arrived in New York on the same day, in the spring of 1838. Sir Samuel Cunard established the first regular line (between Liverpool and Boston) in 1840.

2 The Irish famine in 1845-6, owing to the sudden failure of the potato crop. was one chief cause of this unusual increase of emigration. Of the different nationalities, Ireland sent the greatest number; then Germany (nearly as many as Ireland); then England; and last of all, France and other countries.

8 William Henry Harrison was born in Virginia in 1773. His father, Benjamin Harrison, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. From 1801 to 1813 Harrison was governor of what was then the territory of Indiana. In 1811 he defeated the Indians in a great battle at Tippecanoe, Indiana (see Paragraph

Tippecanoe," was elected President amidst the wildest excitement. The Democrats had carried the day for forty years;1 now their opponents, the Whigs,' were to be victors. Harrison was then living on his farm, in a clearing on the banks of the Ohio. He was popularly known as "the Log-Cabin candidate." The farmers of the West gathered to his support with a will. They had monster out-door meetings, and processions miles long, in which a log-cabin on wheels was always a conspicuous object, with its live coon fastened on the roof, and its barrel of hard cider standing handy by the open door. The enthusiasm increased more and more as election day drew near; the rousing song of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" stirred the blood of every true Whig; and with shouts of exultation, the West triumphed, and the occupant of the Ohio log-cabin entered the White House at Washington.

A month later, President Harrison died, and the joy of his friends was suddenly changed into mourning. Vice-President Tyler, who was practically a Democrat,* now became President;5 and he and the Whig Congress were soon quarrelling over political

225). During the war of 1812 he was appointed a major-general in the regular army, Later, he returned to his farm at North Bend, on the Ohio, near Cincinnati. In 1840 he was elected President (John Tyler of Virginia, Vice-President) by the Whig party, by an immense majority over Van Buren, the Democratic candidate. 1 Since the election of Jefferson in 1800.

2 The Whigs wished (1) to have the government carry on the building of canals, roads, and other internal improvements; (2) to protect manufactures by a high tariff; (3) to re-establish the United States Bank, and part of the Whigs wished to restrict the extension of slavery. The Democrats held that each state should make its own improvements; that free trade was better than protection; an independent treasury, than a United States bank; and that slavery should be left to the people of the different states.

8 This was the beginning of our modern presidential "campaigns," with their bands of music and torchlight processions.

4 Tyler was in most respects a Democrat, though he had acted, to some extent, with the Whigs. The Whigs nominated him to the Vice-Presidency in order to secure Southern votes, and thus make sure of electing Harrison.

5 In case of the death of the President, the Constitution provides that the VicePresident shall succeed him. See the Constitution, page xii, Paragraph 2.

THE DORR REBELLION.

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questions about which there was no chance of their coming to any agreement.

282. The Dorr Rebellion; the Ashburton Treaty; the Anti-Renters. - In Rhode Island, the right to vote was confined to persons holding real estate, and to their eldest sons. Newport, where there were many land-holders, had six representatives in the state legislature, while Providence, with a population nearly three times as great, had only four. The party in favor of reform finally framed a new constitution, and elected (1842) Thomas W. Dorr for governor. The opposite, or state government party, headed by Governor King, denied Dorr's right to hold office. Both sides took up arms, but no blood was spilt, and nobody was hurt even. Dorr was arrested and thrown into prison, but was released a few years later, and lived to see his party successful in the reform they had attempted.

In the summer of 1842, Daniel Webster, representing the United States, and Lord Ashburton, representing Great Britain, settled the question of the boundary between Maine and Canada, by an agreement known as the Ashburton Treaty. The dispute in regard to the true line between the two countries had been very bitter, and threatened to bring on war; for this reason the friendly settlement of the controversy was of the greatest advantage to both England and America.1

In New York, the tenants of the Van Rensselaer family, on the Hudson,2 refused to pay rent for their farms, on the ground that the Revolution had swept away the old Dutch methods of letting land. It became necessary to call out a military force to protect the sheriff in his attempts to collect the rents; finally, a political

1 During the progress of the negotiation of the treaty, Mr. Webster practically settled another question of equal importance, by his formal declaration to Lord Ashburton, that in future the United States would insist that our flag should protect our vessels against the so-called "right of search," on the part of Great Britain; and that any attempt to make such search would be considered by us a reason for war.

2 See Paragraph 63.