of God. I do not mean to affirm that Joseph Smith ever reasoned upon this singular defect in our political constitution, and that he brought forward his theocratic doctrine in formal rebuke and opposition to it. There are currents and counter-currents in the opinions of men, the ebb and flow of which may be sufficiently apparent, while their reciprocal influence and inter-action may be wholly concealed. Without taking the shape of a logical statement, the religious sentiment may feel this want of recognition of the Supreme Ruler. If, at a future day, these theocratic pretensions of Mormonism should give trouble to our government, serious persons will scarcely be able to avoid the reflection that somewhat of rebuke, if not of retribution, is intended for practically ignoring the existence and control of Almighty God.
But the impress of the age is most visible in the union of democracy with theocracy; a combination scarcely conceivable, except by minds trained in the political schools of this country. It is very singular that governments the most absolute and despotic are often administered in the most democratic spirit. Strong affinities may exist between rulers and subjects, when the class of the former is continually recruited from the ranks of the latter. In the Mormon scheme, the complexity of its polity and the number of offices open many doors for the admission and elevation of ambitious men: and the absence of hereditary rule prevents that wide interval of rank and intercourse, which obtains in all countries where the government is not elective. The democratic spirit thus pervades a Hierarchy, which, in its essential constitution, is an unlimited despotism. lt is, however, an odd application of the democratic. principle, which could not have been dreamed of, except in this democratic age and country, that by the vote of his peers a man should be designated to the office of a seer; and thenceforward obeyed with absolute submission, as the oracle by which the decrees of Heaven are infallibly conveyed.
4. Mormonism has been already represented as a relapse into the old civilization of Asia, by the re-introduction of Polygamy, and the consequent depression of the softer sex. I should not omit to notice the bold effort to invigorate that stiff, inert civilization, by infusing the spirit of
