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Show 124 , EARLY HISTORY OF THE MORMONS. events and motivate which led to their planting suctrft settlement inx the midst of a barren wilderness, may not be without interest. N The City of the Great Salt Lake, the capital of the settlement, was founded in 1847, by & religious community of people known among us by the name of Mormons, but who style themselves the " Latter- day Saints of the Church of Jesus Christ." It is situated in lat. 40° 46' north, and long. 112° & west, at the foot of the western slope of the. Wahsatch Mountains, an extensive, - chain of ' lofty hills, forming a portipn of the eastern, boundary 6f what is known in our. g& ography as the " Great/ Basin." , - » The origin of this new religious, sect in our country, is . well known, and therefore it irill only be necessary to advert to it very, briefly., It was first organized in 1830, under the auspices of Joseph Smith, the founder; and, after - a temporary residence in Kirtland, Ohio, was removed to Jackson county, Missouri^ where by divine revelation << the saints" were directed to build a magnificent temple, the pattern of which ijras to be revealed from - on high. Th ® corner- stone of thirf edifice was laid, but the . builders % ere eventually driven from the State by an armed' mob. They next removed to IHiaois, where, upon the bank of:, the* Mississippi; they, built, a flourishing city, which-. they called Naavoo* 5Jhey lived here until 1844, when they became- obnoxious to the inhabitants ojf that State also,. and were finally attacked by an enraged multitude,, and their prophet, Joseph Smith, and his brother Hyrum, murdered in the jail of Carthage.- During the year 1845, these persecutions continued; and threats of • greatcfr outrages being held out, th£ Mormons found their situation no longer tolerable within the boundaries of that State, and at length, in a solemn council, determined to abandon' their homes in. their qty of Nauvoo, and to seek, in the Wilds of vthe Western wilderness, a spot remote from the habitations. of men, where, secure from lawless violence, they might worship according to the rjtes < rf the new reK- , gion they had Introduced. Into the particular causes which led* to thq expulsion of the Mormon? from Missouri and Illinois it is not the province of tkisTeport . to inquire. The factp have long been before the country, and its judgment has beta passed upon them; but the results of. the persecutions to which they were subjected have been as curious as they were wholly unlooked- for. The Mormons having resolved to emigrate, preparations for the journey were immediately oommenced, by hastily, arid at much , |