The Mormons are a religious sect originally located in Utah and the Territories and States in its neighbourhood. The sect was founded by Joseph Smith, of Sharon, Vermont, and Palmyra, New York, the first organized conference being held on June the 1st, 1830, at Fayette, New York. The distinguishing features of their belief are polygamy, materialism and baptism for the remission of sins. The Mormons first settled in Missouri, but were expelled thence, probably because of their anti-slavery sentiments. In 1839. they settled at Nauvoo, Illinois. In 1844 an Illinois mob killed the leader Smith. Emigrating again, by 1848 they were settled at Salt Lake City. Brigham Young, the president, was appointed Governor of Utah Territory in 1850 by President Fillmore, but he turned out to be wholly in sympathy with the Mormons, and resisted the Federal troops in 1857. For many years after the American Government experienced many difficulties in regulating the relations of the Mormons and Christians in Salt Lake City. In 1883 the Edmunds Act disfranchised polygamists. Research Mormons
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