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Peculiar as their polity appears, it has proved
remarkably successful in the development of their church and community,
notwithstanding stern hostility and widespread disapproval. They present
an impressive example of shrewdness, thrift, and administrative skill,
resulting in great material prosperity. Besides their separate books,
they accept the Bible as authoritative, and many of their doctrines and
rites resemble those common to the Christian sects. More than anything
else, their teaching and their practice of polygamy have brought them
into collision with "Gentiles" and with the United States Government.
The first Mormon settlement was at Kirtland, Ohio, the next was in
Missouri. From those States they were expelled, and in 1840 they founded
Nauvoo in Illinois. Their later experience, up to their permanent
establishment in Utah, is recounted in the following narrative of the
hardships endured and surmounted by this extraordinary people. But it
should be added that the cause of the exodus was not, as is generally
supposed, religious persecution.


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