--- title: Times and Seasons description: Issues of 1845 to 1846. authors: - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints editors: - Ebenezer Robinson - Don Carlos Smith - Smith, Joseph, Jr. - Taylor, John collections: - periodicals tags: - newspaper - times-and-seasons - nauvoo - nineteenth-century periodical: Times and Seasons volume: 6 number: 18 published: 1845-12-01 publisher: E. Robinson and D. C. Smith; later John Taylor publisher_place: Commerce and Nauvoo, Illinois language: en type: article reference: "“The Mormons,” *Times and Seasons* 6, no. 18 (December 1, 1845): 1052." printed_title: THE MORMONS. source: url: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1845-12-01_6_18 transcription: Text from the Centerplace.org transcription (https://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v6n18.htm), with its page breaks; this Internet Archive scan is the reference copy (its OCR was used only as a witness for OCR repair) identifier: per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1845-12-01_6_18 start_page: 1052 end_page: 1052 curator_note: A Mormon newspaper published by the church in Nauvoo; included for historical study. Inclusion does not imply endorsement. rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1845 (Nauvoo, Illinois); published before 1931, so public domain in the United States source: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1845-12-01_6_18 publication_year: 1845 --- # The Mormons William Smith, brother of Joe Smith, the Mormon prophet, states that it is their design to set up an independent government somewhere in the neighborhood of the Rocky mountains, or near California. That the plan has been maturing for a long time, and that, in fact, with hate in their hearts, skillfully kept up by the Mormon leaders, whose pockets are to be enriched by their toil, the mass of the Mormons will be alike purged of American feeling, and shut out by a barrier of mountains and church restrictions from any other than Mormon freedom. That the design of Brigham Young and the twelve is to build up a sacerdotal tyranny, the spirit of which will be more repugnant to the spread of republican principles than could possibly be the rule of Europe. These are William Smith's views, He is opposed to the plan of organization and its leaders. We find the following in the Mormon paper, which speaks a bitter. and in some respects, we apprehend, a true spirit in reference to their wrongs. We could not believe that in a government of laws, any sect, no matter what their faith might be, would ever have been driven out of the land vi et armis. The Mormon paper says: "We owe the United States nothing. We go out by force, as exiles from freedom. The government and people owe us millions for the destruction of life and property in Missouri and in Illinois. The blood of our best men will preserve it till God comes out of his hiding place, and gives this nation a hotter place than he did Sodom and Gomorrah. "When they cease to spoil, they shall be spoiled," for the Lord hath spoken it." They will become formidable enemies to the United States, either in California or Oregon; and government should look to this matter in season. We entirely concur with the Sun in the belief that "our government should look to this matter in season." With angry and fanatical feelings such as the Mormons would carry with them, our own citizens would find them troublesome customers, let the tide of emigration be diverted to Oregon or to California. We understand that the number of Mormons is already estimated at 57,000.-Union. The United States will hardly be justified in the eyes of the nations, in amending the constitution, so as to prevent the Mormons from living in the confines of Democracy, or emigrating to a region without. From the Washington Union of Saturday night.