earth would open and swallow me where I stood.”
When Lee entered the camp all the people, men, women, and children, gathered around him, some delighted over the hope of deliverance, while others showed distrust of his intentions. Their position was so strong that they felt some hesitation in abandoning it, and Lee says that, if their ammunition had not been so nearly exhausted, they would never have surrendered. But their hesitation was soon overcome, and the carrying out of the plot proceeded.
All their arms, the wounded, and the smallest children were placed in the two wagons. As soon as these were loaded, a messenger from Higbee, named McFarland, rode up with a message that everything should be hastened, as he feared he could not hold back the Indians. The wagons were then started at once toward Cedar City, Lee and the two drivers accompanying them, and the others of the party set out on foot for the place where the Mormon troops were awaiting them, some two hundred yards distant. First went McFarland on horseback, then the women and larger children, and then the men. When, in this order, they came to the place where the Mormons were stationed, the men of the party cheered the latter as their deliverers.
As the wagons passed out of sight over an elevation, the march of the rest of the party was resumed. The women and larger children walked ahead, then came the men in single file, an armed Mormon walking by the side of each Arkansan. This gave the appearance of the best possible protection. When they had advanced far enough to bring the women and children into the midst of a company of Indians concealed in a growth of cedars, the agreed signal the words, “Do your duty”–was given. As these words were spoken, each Mormon turned and shot the Arkansan who was walking by his side, and Indians and other Mormons attacked the women and children who were walking ahead, while Lee and his two companions killed the wounded and the older of the children who were in the wagons.
The work of killing the men was performed so effectually that only two or three of them escaped, and these were overtaken and killed soon after.* Indeed, only the nervousness natural to men who were assigned to perform so horrible a task could prevent the murderers from shooting dead the unarmed men walking by their sides. With the women and children it was different. Instead of being shot down without warning, they first heard the shots that killed their only protectors, and then beheld the Indians rushing on them with their usual whoops, brandishing tomahawks, knives, and guns. There were cries for mercy, mothers’ pleas for children’s lives, and maidens’ appeals to manly honor; but all in vain. It was not necessary to use firearms; indeed, they would have endangered the assailants themselves. The tomahawk and the knife sufficed, and in the space of a few moments every woman and older child was a corpse.
* This is Judge Cradlebaugh’s and Lee’s statement. Lee said he could have given the details of their pursuit and capture if he had had time. An affidavit by James Lynch, who accompanied Superintendent Forney to the Meadows on his first trip there in March 1859 (printed in Sen. Doc. No. 42), says that one of the three, who was not killed on the spot, “was followed by five Mormons who through promises of safety, etc., prevailed upon him to return to Mountain Meadows, where they inhumanly butchered him, laughing at and disregarding his loud and repeated cries for mercy, as witnessed and described by Ira Hatch, one of the five. The object of killing this man was to leave no witness competent to give testimony in a court of justice but God.”
When Lee and the men in charge of the two wagons heard the firing, they halted at once, as this was the signal agreed on for them to perform their part. McMurdy’s wagon, containing the sick and wounded and the little children, was in advance, Knight’s, with a few passengers and the weapons, following. We have three accounts of what happened when the signal was given, Lee’s own, and the testimony of the other two at Lee’s trial. Lee says that McMurdy at once went up to Knight’s wagon, and, raising his rifle and saying, ” O Lord my God, receive their spirits; it is for Thy Kingdom I do this,” fired, killing two men with the first shot. Lee admits that he intended to do his part of the killing, but says that in his excitement his pistol went off prematurely and narrowly escaped wounding McMurdy; that Knight then shot one man, and with the butt of his gun brained a little boy who had run up to him, and that the Indians then came up and finished killing all the sick and wounded. McMurdy testified that Lee killed the first person in his wagon–a woman–and also shot two or three others. When asked if he himself killed any one that day, McMurdy replied, “I believe I am not upon trial. I don’t wish to answer.” Knight testified that he saw Lee strike down a woman with his gun or a club, denying that he himself took any part in the slaughter: Nephi Johnson, another witness at Lee’s second trial, testified that he saw Lee and an Indian pull a man out of one of the wagons, and he thought Lee cut the man’s throat. The only persons spared in this whole company were seventeen children, varying in age from two months to seven years. They were given to Mormon families in southern Utah–“sold out,” says Forney in his report, “to different persons in Cedar City, Harmony, and Painter Creek. Bills are now in my possession from different individuals asking payment from the government. I cannot condescend to become the medium of even transmitting such claims to the department.” The government directed Forney in 1858 to collect these children, and he did so. Congress in 1859 appropriated $10,000 to defray the expense of returning them to their friends in Arkansas, and on June 27 of that year fifteen of them (two boys being retained as government witnesses) set out for the East from Salt Lake City in charge of a company of United States dragoons and five women attendants. Judge Cradlebaugh quotes one of these children, a boy less than nine years old, as saying in his presence, when they were brought to Salt Lake City, “Oh, I wish I was a man. I know what I would do. I would shoot John D. Lee. I saw him shoot my mother.”
The total number in the Arkansas party is not exactly known. The victims numbered more than 120. Jacob Hamblin testified at the Lee trial that, the following spring, he and his man buried “120 odd” skulls, counting them as they gathered them up.
A few young women, in the confusion of the Indian attack, concealed themselves, but they were soon found. Hamblin testified at Lee’s second trial that Lee, in a long conversation with him, soon after the massacre, told him that, when he rejoined the Mormon troops, an Indian chief brought to him two girls from thirteen to fifteen years old, whom he had found hiding in a thicket, and asked what should be done with them, as they were pretty and he wanted to save them. Lee replied that “according to the orders he had, they were too old and too big to let go.”
Then by Lee’s direction the chief shot one of them, and Lee threw the other down and cut her throat. Hamblin said that an Indian boy conducted him to the place where the girls’ bodies lay, a long way from the rest, up a ravine, unburied and with their throats cut. One of the little children saved from the massacre was taken home by Hamblin, and she said the murdered girls were her sisters. Richard F. Burton, who visited Utah in 1860, mentions, as one of the current stories in connection with the massacre, that, when a girl of sixteen knelt before one of the Mormons and prayed for mercy, he led her into the thicket, violated her, and then cut her throat.*
* “City of the Saints,” p. 412.
As soon as the slaughter was completed the plundering began. Beside their wagons, horses, and cattle,* they had a great deal of other valuable property, the whole being estimated by Judge Cradlebaugh at from $60,000 to $70,000. When Lee got back to the main party, the searching of the bodies of the men for valuables began. “I did hold the hat awhile,” he confesses, “but I got so sick that I had to give it to some other person.” He says there were more than five hundred head of cattle, a large number of which the Indians killed or drove away, while Klingensmith, Haight, and Higbee, leaders in the enterprise, drove others to Salt Lake City and sold them. The horses and mules were divided in the same way. The Indians (and probably their white comrades) had made quick work with the effects of the women. Their bodies, young and old, were stripped naked, and left, objects of the ribald jests of their murderers. Lee says that in one place he counted the bodies of ten children less than sixteen years old.
* Superintendent Forney, in his report of March, 1859, said: “Facts in my possession warrant me in estimating that there was distributed a few days after the massacre, among the leading church dignitaries, $30,000 worth of property. It is presumable they also had some money.”
When the Mormons had finished rifling the dead, all were called together and admonished by their chiefs to keep the massacre a secret from the whole world, not even letting their wives know of it, and all took the most solemn oath to stand by one another and declare that the killing was the work of Indians. Most of the party camped that night on the Meadows, but Lee and Higbee passed the night at Jacob Hamblin’s ranch.
In the morning the Mormons went back to bury the dead. All these lay naked, “making the scene,” says Lee, “one of the most loathsome and ghastly that can be imagined.” The bodies were piled up in heaps in little depressions, and a pretence was made of covering them with dirt; but the ground was hard and their murderers had few tools, and as a consequence the wild beasts soon unearthed them, and the next spring the bones were scattered over the surface.
This work finished, the party, who had been joined during the night by Colonel Dame, Judge Lewis, Isaac C. Haight, and others of influence, held another council, at which God was thanked for delivering their enemies into their hands; another oath of secrecy was taken, and all voted that any person who divulged the story of the massacre should suffer death, but that Brigham Young should be informed of it. It was also voted, according to Lee, that Bishop Klingensmith should take charge of the plunder for the benefit of the church.
The story of this slaughter, to this point, except in minor particulars noted, is undisputed. No Mormon now denies that the emigrants were killed, or that Mormons participated largely in the slaughter. What the church authorities have sought to establish has been their own ignorance of it in advance, and their condemnation of it later. In examining this question we have, to assist us, the knowledge of the kind of government that Young had established over his people–his practical power of life and death; the fact that the Arkansans were passing south from Salt Lake City, and that their movements had been known to Young from the start and their treatment been subject to his direction; the failure of Young to make any effort to have the murderers punished, when a “crook of his finger” would have given them up to justice; the coincidence of the massacre with Young’s threat to Captain Van Vliet, uttered on September 9, “If the issue continues, you may tell the government to stop all emigration across the continent, for the Indians will kill all who attempt it”; Young’s failure to mention this “Indian outrage” in his report as superintendent of Indian affairs, and the silence of the Mormon press on the subject.* If we accept Lee’s plausible theory that, at his second trial, the church gave him up as a sop to justice, and loosened the tongues of witnesses against him, this makes that part of the testimony in confirmation of Lee’s statement, elicited from them, all the stronger.
* H. H. Bancroft, in his “Utah,” as usual, defends the Mormon church against the charge of responsibility for the massacre, and calls Judge Cradlebaugh’s charge to the grand jury a slur that the evidence did not excuse.
Let us recall that Lee himself had been an active member of the church for nearly forty years, following it from Missouri to Utah, travelling penniless as a missionary at the bidding of his superiors, becoming a polygamist before he left Nauvoo, accepting in Utah the view that “Brigham spoke by direction of the God of heaven,” and saying, as he stood by his coffin looking into the rifles of his executioners, “I believe in the Gospel that was taught in its purity by Joseph Smith in former days.” How much Young trusted him is seen in the fact that, by Young’s direction, he located the southern towns of Provo, Fillmore, Parowan, etc., was appointed captain of militia at Cedar City, was president of civil affairs at Harmony, probate judge of the county (before and after the massacre), a delegate to the convention which framed the constitution of the State of Deseret, a member of the territorial legislature (after the massacre), and “Indian farmer” of the district including the Meadows when the massacre occurred.
Lee’s account of the steps leading up to the massacre and of what followed is, in brief, that, about ten days before it occurred, General George A. Smith, one of the Twelve, called on him at Washington City, and, in the course of their conversation, asked, “Suppose an emigrant train should come along through this southern country, making threats against our people and bragging of the part they took in helping kill our prophet, what do you think the brethren would do with them?” Lee replied: “You know the brethren are now under the influence of the ‘Reformation,’ and are still red-hot for the Gospel. The brethren believe the government wishes to destroy them. I really believe that any train of emigrants that may come through here will be attacked and probably all destroyed. Unless emigrants have a pass from Brigham Young or some one in authority, they will certainly never get safely through this country.” Smith said that Major Haight had given him the same assurance. It was Lee’s belief that Smith had been sent south in advance of the emigrants to prepare for what followed.
Two days before the first attack on the camp, Lee was summoned to Cedar City by Isaac Haight, president of that Stake, second only to Colonel Dame in church authority in southern Utah, and a lieutenant colonel in the militia under Dame. To make their conference perfectly secret, they took some blankets and passed the night in an old iron works. There Haight told Lee a long story about Captain Fancher’s party, charging them with abusing the Mormons, burning fences, poisoning water, threatening to kill Brigham Young and all the apostles, etc. He said that unless preventive measures were taken, the whole Mormon population were likely to be butchered by troops which these people would bring back from California. Lee says that he believed all this. He was also told that, at a council held that day, it had been decided to arm the Indians and “have them give the emigrants a brush, and, if they killed part or all, so much the better.” When asked who authorized this, Haight replied, “It is the will of all in authority,” and Lee was told that he was to carry out the order. The intention then was to have the Indians do the killing without any white assistance. On his way home Lee met a large body of Indians who said they were ordered by Haight, Higbee, and Bishop Klingensmith, to kill and rob the emigrants, and wanted Lee to lead them. He told them to camp near the emigrants and wait for him; but they made the attack, as described, early Monday morning, without capturing the camp, and drove the whites into an intrenchment from which they could not dislodge them. Hence the change of plan.
During the early part of the operations, Lee says, a messenger had been sent to Brigham Young for orders. On Thursday evening two or three wagon loads of Mormons, all armed, arrived at Lee’s camp in the Meadows, the party including Major Higbee of the Iron Militia, Bishop Klingensmith, and many members of the High Council. When all were assembled, Major Higbee reported that Haight’s orders were that “all the emigrants must be put out of the way”; that they had no pass (Young could have given them one); that they were really a part of Johnston’s army, and, if allowed to proceed to California, they would bring destruction on all the settlements in Utah. All knelt in prayer, after which Higbee gave Lee a paper ordering the destruction of all who could talk. After further prayers, Higbee said to Lee, “Brother Lee, I am ordered by President Haight to inform you that you shall receive a crown of celestial glory for your faithfulness, and your eternal joy shall be complete.” Lee says that he was “much shaken” by this offer, because of his complete faith in the power of the priesthood to fulfil such promises. The outcome of the conference was the adoption of the plan of treachery that was so successfully carried out on Friday morning. The council had lasted so long that the party merely had time for breakfast before Bateman set out for the camp with his white flag.*
* Bishop Klingensmith, one of the indicted, in whose case the district attorney entered a nolle prosequi in order that he might be a witness at Lee’s first trial, said in his testimony: “Coming home the day following their [emigrants’] departure from Cedar City, met Ira Allen four miles beyond the place where they had spoken to Lee. Allen said, ‘The die is cast, the doom of the emigrants is sealed.'” (This was in reference to a meeting in Parowan, when the destruction of the emigrants had been decided on.) He said John D. Lee had received orders from headquarters at Parowan to take men and go, and Joel White would be wanted to go to Pinto Creek and revoke the order to suffer the emigrants to pass. The third day after, Haight came to McFarland’s house and told witness and others that orders had come in from camp last night. Things hadn’t gone along as had been expected, and reenforcements were wanted. Haight then went to Parowan to get instructions, and received orders from Dame to decoy the emigrants out and spare nothing but the small children who could not tell the tale.” In an affidavit made by this Bishop in April, 1871, he said: “I do not know whether said ‘headquarters’ meant the spiritual headquarters at Parowan, or the headquarters of the commander-in-chief at Salt Lake City.” (Affidavit in full in “Rocky Mountain Saints,” p. 439.)
Several days after the massacre, Haight told Lee that the messenger sent to Young for instructions had returned with orders to let the emigrants pass in safety, and that he (Haight) had countermanded the order for the massacre, but his messenger “did not go to the Meadows at all.” All parties were evidently beginning to realize the seriousness of their crime. Lee was then directed by the council to go to Young with a verbal report, Haight again promising him a celestial reward if he would implicate more of the brethren than necessary in his talk with Young.* On reaching Salt Lake City, Lee gave Young the full particulars of the massacre, step by step. Young remarked, “Isaac [Haight] has sent me word that, if they had killed every man, woman, and child in the outfit, there would not have been a drop of innocent blood shed by the brethren; for they were a set of murderers, robbers, and thieves.”
* “At that time I believed everything he said, and I fully expected to receive the celestial reward that he promised me. But now [after his conviction] I say, ‘Damn all such celestial rewards as I am to get for what I did on that fatal day.” “Mormonism Unveiled,” p. 251.
When the tale was finished, Young said: “This is the most unfortunate affair that ever befell the church. I am afraid of treachery among the brethren who were there. If any one tells this thing so that it will become public, it will work us great injury. I want you to understand now that you are NEVER to tell this again, not even to Heber C. Kimball. IT MUST be kept a secret among ourselves. When you get home, I want you to sit down and write a long letter, and give me an account of the affair, charging it to the Indians. You sign the letter as farmer to the Indians, and direct it to me as Indian agent. I can then make use of such a letter to keep off all damaging and troublesome inquirers.” Lee did so, and his letter was put in evidence at his trial.
Lee says that Young then dismissed him for the day, directing him to call again the next morning, and that Young then said to him: “I have made that matter a subject of prayer. I went right to God with it, and asked him to take the horrid vision from my sight if it was a righteous thing that my people had done in killing those people at the Mountain Meadows. God answered me, and at once the vision was removed. I have evidence from God that he has overruled it all for good, and the action was a righteous one and well intended.”*
* For Lee’s account of his interview with Young, see ” Mormonism Unveiled,” pp. 252-254.
When Lee was in Salt Lake City as a member of the constitutional convention, the next winter, Young treated him, at his house and elsewhere, with all the friendliness of old. No one conversant with the extent of Young’s authority will doubt the correctness of Lee’s statement that “if Brigham Young had wanted one man or fifty men or five hundred men arrested, all he would have had to do would be to say so, and they would have been arrested instantly. There was no escape for them if he ordered their arrest. Every man who knows anything of affairs in Utah at that time knows this is so.”
At the second trial of Lee a deposition by Brigham Young was read, Young pleading ill health as an excuse for not taking the stand. He admitted that “counsel and advice were given to the citizens not to sell grain to the emigrants for their stock,” but asserted that this did not include food for the parties themselves. He also admitted that Lee called on him and began telling the story of the massacre, but asserted that he directed him to stop, as he did not want his feelings harrowed up with a recital of these details. He gave as an excuse for not bringing the guilty to justice, or at least making an investigation, the fact that a new governor was on his way, and he did not know how soon he would arrive. As Young himself was keeping this governor out by armed force, and declaring that he alone should fill that place, the value of his excuse can be easily estimated. Hamblin, at Lee’s trial, testified that he told Brigham Young and George A. Smith “everything I could” about the massacre, and that Young said to him, “As soon as we can get a court of justice we will ferret this thing out, but till then don’t say anything about it.”
Both Knight and McMurphy testified that they took their teams to Mountain Meadows under compulsion. Nephi Johnson, another participant, when asked whether he acted under compulsion, replied, “I didn’t consider it safe for me to object,” and when compelled to answer the question whether any person had ever been injured for not obeying such orders, he replied, “Yes, sir, they had.”
Some letters published in the Corinne (Utah) Reporter, in the early seventies, signed “Argus,” directly accused Young of responsibility for this massacre. Stenhouse discovered that the author had been for thirty years a Mormon, a high priest in the church, a holder of responsible civil positions in the territory, and he assured Stenhouse that “before a federal court of justice, where he could be protected, he was prepared to give the evidence of all that he asserted.” “Argus” declared that when the Arkansans set out southward from the Jordan, a courier preceded them carrying Young’s orders for non-intercourse; that they were directed to go around Parowan because it was feared that the military preparations at that place, Colonel Dame’s headquarters, might arouse their suspicion; and he points out that the troops who killed the emigrants were called out and prepared for field operations, just as the territorial law directed, and were subject to the orders of Young, their commander-in-chief.
Not until the so-called Poland Bill of 1874 became a law was any one connected with the Mountain Meadows Massacre even indicted. Then the grand jury, under direction of Judge Boreman, of the Second Judicial District of Utah, found indictments against Lee, Dame, Haight, Higbee, Klingensmith, and others. Lee, who had remained hidden for some years in the canon of the Colorado,* was reported to be in south Utah at the time, and Deputy United States Marshal Stokes, to whom the warrant for his arrest was given, set out to find him. Stokes was told that Lee had gone back to his hiding-place, but one of his assistants located the accused in the town of Panguitch, and there they found him concealed in a log pen near a house. His trial began at Beaver, on July 12, 1875. The first jury to try his case disagreed, after being out three days, eight Mormons and the Gentile foreman voting for acquittal, and three Gentiles for conviction. The second trial, which took place at Beaver, in September, 1876, resulted in a verdict of “guilty of murder in the first degree.” Beadle says of the interest which the church then took in his conviction: “Daniel H. Wells went to Beaver, furnished some new evidence, coached the witnesses, attended to the spiritual wants of the jury, and Lee was convicted. He could not raise the money ($1000) necessary to appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, although he solicited it by subscription from wealthy leading Mormons for several days under guard.”**
* Inman’s “Great Salt Lake Trail,” p. 141
** “Polygamy,” p. 507.
Criminals in Utah convicted of a capital crime were shot, and this was Lee’s fate. It was decided that the execution should take place at the scene of the massacre, and there the sentence of the court was carried out on March 23, 1877. The coffin was made of rough pine boards after the arrival of the prisoner, and while he sat looking at the workmen a short distance away. When all the arrangements were completed, the marshal read the order of the court and gave Lee an opportunity to speak. A photographer being ready to take a picture of the scene, Lee asked that a copy of the photograph be given to each of three of his wives, naming them. He then stood up, having been seated on his coffin, and spoke quietly for some time. He said that he was sacrificed to satisfy the feelings of others; that he died “a true believer in the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” but did not believe everything then taught by Brigham Young. He asserted that he “did nothing designedly wrong in this unfortunate affair,” but did everything in his power to save the emigrants. Five executioners then stepped forward, and, when their rifles exploded, Lee fell dead on his coffin.
Major (afterward General) Carlton, returning from California in 1859, where he had escorted a paymaster, passed through Mountain Meadows, and, finding many bones of the victims still scattered around, gathered them, and erected over them a cairn of stones, on one of which he had engraved the words: “Here lie the bones of 120 men, women, and children from Arkansas, murdered on the 10th day of September, 1857.” In the centre of the cairn was placed a beam, some fifteen feet high, with a cross-tree, on which was painted: “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and I will repay it.” It was said that this was removed by order of Brigham Young.*
* “Humiliating as it is to confess, in the 42d Congress there were gentlemen to be found in the committees of the House and in the Senate who were bold enough to declare their opposition to all investigation. One who had a national reputation during the war, from Bunker Hill to New Orleans, was not ashamed to say to those who sought the legislation that was necessary to make investigation possible, that it was ‘too late.'” “Rocky Mountain Saints,” p. 456.
CHAPTER XVII. AFTER THE “WAR”
With the return of the people to their homes, the peaceful avocations of life in Utah were resumed. The federal judges received assignments to their districts, and the other federal officers took possession of their offices. Chief Justice Eckles selected as his place of residence Camp Floyd, as General Johnston’s camp was named; Judge Sinclair’s district included Salt Lake City, and Judge Cradlebaugh’s the southern part of the state.
Judge Cradlebaugh, who conceived it to be a judge’s duty to see that crime was punished, took steps at once to secure indictments in connection with the notorious murders committed during the “Reformation,” and we have seen in a former chapter with what poor results. He also personally visited the Mountain Meadows, talked with whites and Indians cognizant with the massacre, and, on affidavits sworn to before him, issued warrants for the arrest of Haight, Higbee, Lee, and thirty-four others as participants therein. In order to hold court with any prospect of a practical result, a posse of soldiers was absolutely necessary, even for the protection of witnesses; but Governor Cumming, true to the reputation he had secured as a Mormon ally, declared that he saw no necessity for such use of federal troops, and requested their removal from Provo, where the court was in session; and when the judge refused to grant his request, he issued a proclamation in which he stated that the presence of the military had a tendency “to disturb the peace and subvert the ends of justice.” Before this dispute had proceeded farther, General Johnston received an order from Secretary Floyd, approved by Attorney General Black, directing that in future he should instruct his troops to act as a posse comitatus only on the written application of Governor Cumming. Thus did the church win one of its first victories after the reestablishment of “peace.”
An incident in Salt Lake City at this time might have brought about a renewal of the conflict between federal and Mormon forces. The engraver of a plate with which to print counterfeit government drafts, when arrested, turned state’s evidence and pointed out that the printing of the counterfeits had been done over the “Deseret Store” in Salt Lake City, which was on Young’s premises. United States Marshal Dotson secured the plate, and with it others, belonging to Young, on which Deseret currency had been printed. This seemed to bring the matter so close to Young that officers from Camp Floyd called on Governor Cumming to secure his cooperation in arresting Young should that step be decided on. The governor refused with indignation to be a party to what he called “creeping through walls,” that is, what he considered a roundabout way to secure Young’s arrest; and, when it became rumored in the city that General Johnston would use his troops without the governor’s cooperation Cumming directed Wells, the commander of the Nauvoo Legion, who had so recently been in rebellion against the government, to hold his militia in readiness for orders. Wells is quoted by Bancroft as saying that he told Cumming, “We would not let them [the soldiers] come; that if they did come, they would never get out alive if we could help it.”* The decision of the Washington authorities in favor of Governor Cumming as against the federal judges once more restored “peace.” The only sufferer from this incident was Marshal Dotson, against whom Young, in his probate court, obtained a judgment of $2600 for injury to the Deseret currency plates, and a house belonging to Dotson, renting for $500 year, was sold to satisfy this judgment, and bought in by an agent of Young.
* “History of Utah,” p. 573, note.
To complete the story of this forgery, it may be added that Brewer, the engraver who turned state’s evidence, was shot down in Main Street, Salt Lake City, one evening, in company with J. Johnson, a gambler who had threatened to shoot a Mormon editor. A man who was a boy at the time gave J. H. Beadle the particulars of this double murder as he received it from the person who lighted a brazier to give the assassin a sure aim.* The coroner’s jury the next day found that the men shot one another!
* “Polygamy,” p. 192.
Soon all public attention throughout the country was centred in the coming conflict in the Southern states. In May, 1860, the troops at Camp Floyd departed for New Mexico and Arizona, only a small guard being left under command of Colonel Cooke. In May, 1861, Governor Cumming left Salt Lake City for the east so quietly that most of the people there did not hear of his departure until they read it in the local newspapers. He soon after appeared in Washington, and after some delay obtained a pass which permitted his passage through the Confederate lines. When the Southern rebellion became a certainty, Colonel Cooke and his force were ordered to march to the East in the autumn, after selling vast quantities of stores in Camp Floyd, and destroying the supplies and ammunition which they could not take away. Such a slaughter of prices as then occurred was, perhaps, without precedent. It was estimated that goods costing $4,000,000 brought only $l00,000. Young had preached non-intercourse with the Gentile merchants who followed the army, but he could not lose so great an opportunity as this, when, for instance, flour costing $28.40 per sack sold for 52 cents, and he invested $4,000. “For years after,” says Stenhouse, “the ‘regulation blue pants’ were more familiar to the eye, in the Mormon settlements, than the Valley Tan Quaker gray.”
When Governor Cumming left the territory, the secretary, Francis H. Wooton, became acting governor. He made himself very offensive to the administration at Washington, and President Lincoln appointed Frank Fuller, of New Hampshire, secretary of the territory in his place, and Mr. Fuller proceeded at once to Salt Lake City, where he became acting governor. Later in the year the other federal offices in Utah were filled by the appointment of John W. Dawson, of Indiana, as governor, John F. Kinney as chief justice, and R. P. Flenniken and J. R. Crosby as associate justices.
The selection of Dawson as governor was something more than a political mistake. He was the editor and publisher of a party newspaper at Fort Wayne, Indiana, a man of bad morals, and a meddler in politics, who gave the Republican managers in his state a great deal of trouble. The undoubted fact seems to be that he was sent out to Utah on the recommendation of Indiana politicians of high rank, who wanted to get rid of him, and who gave no attention whatever to the requirements of his office. Arriving at his post early in December, 1861, the new governor incurred the ill will of the Mormons almost immediately by vetoing a bill for a state convention passed by the territorial legislature, and a memorial to Congress in favor of the admission of the territory as a state (which Acting Governor Fuller approved). They were very glad, therefore, to take advantage of any mistake he might make; and he almost at once gave them their opportunity, by making improper advances to a woman whom he had employed to do some work. She, as Dawson expressed it to one of his colleagues, “was fool enough to tell of it,” and Dawson, learning immediately that the Mormons meditated a severe vengeance, at once made preparations for his departure.
The Deseret News of January 1, 1862, in an editorial on the departure of the governor, said that for eight or ten days he had been confined to his room and reported insane; that, when he left, he took with him his physician and four guards, “to each of whom, as reported last evening, $100 is promised in the event that they guard him faithfully, and prevent his being killed or becoming qualified for the office of chamberlain in the King’s palace, till he shall have arrived at and passed the eastern boundary of the territory.” After indicating that he had committed an offence against a lady which, under the common law, if enforced, “would have caused him to have bitten the dust,” the News added: “Why he selected the individuals named for his bodyguard no one with whom we have conversed has been able to determine. That they will do him justice, and see him safely out of the territory, there can be no doubt.”
The hints thus plainly given were carried out. Beadle’s account says, “He was waylaid in Weber Canon, and received shocking and almost emasculating injuries from three Mormon lads.”* Stenhouse says: “He was dreadfully maltreated by some Mormon rowdies who assumed, ‘for the fun of the thing,’ to be the avengers of an alleged insult. Governor Dawson had been betrayed into an offence, and his punishment was heavy.”** Mrs. Waite says that the Mormons laid a trap for the governor, as they had done for Steptoe; but the evidence indicates that, in Dawson’s case, the victim was himself to blame for the opportunity he gave.
* “Polygamy,” p. 195.
** “Rocky Mountain Saints,” p. 592.
Stenhouse says that the Mormon authorities were very angry because of the aggravated character of the punishment dealt out to the governor, as they simply wanted him sent away disgraced, and that they had all his assailants shot. This is practically confirmed by the Mormon historian Whitney, who says that one of the assailants was a relative of the woman insulted, and the others “merely drunken desperadoes and robbers who,” he explains, “were soon afterward arrested for their cowardly and brutal assault upon the fleeing official. One of them, Lot Huntington, was shot by Deputy Sheriff O. P. Rockwell [so often Young’s instrument in such cases] on January 26, in Rush Valley, while attempting to escape from the officers, and two others, John P. Smith and Moroni Clawson, were killed during a similar attempt next day by the police of Salt Lake City. Their confederates were tried and duly punished.”*
* “History of Utah,” Vol. II, p. 38.
The departure of Governor Dawson left the executive office again in charge of Secretary Fuller. Early in 1862 the Indians threatened the overland mail route, and Fuller, having received instruction from Montgomery Blair to keep the route open at all hazards, called for thirty men to serve for thirty days. These were supplied by the Mormons. In the following April, the Indian troubles continuing, Governor Fuller, Chief Justice Kinney, and officers of the Overland Mail and Pacific Telegraph Companies united in a letter to Secretary Stanton asking that Superintendent of Indian Affairs Doty be authorized to raise a regiment of mounted rangers in the territory, with officers appointed by him, to keep open communication. These petitioners, observes Tullidge, “had overrated the federal power in Utah, as embodied in themselves, for such a service, when they overlooked ex-Governor Young” and others.* Young had no intention of permitting any kind of a federal force to supplant his Legion. He at once telegraphed to the Utah Delegate in Washington that the Utah militia (alias Nauvoo Legion) were competent to furnish the necessary protection. As a result of this presentation of the matter, Adjutant General L. L. Thomas, on April 28, addressed a reply to the petition for protection, not to any of the federal officers in Utah, but to “Mr. Brigham Young,” saying, ” By express direction of the President of the United States you are hereby authorized to raise, arm, and equip one company of cavalry for ninety days’ service.”* The order for carrying out these instructions was placed by the head of the Nauvoo Legion, “General” Wells–who ordered the burning of the government trains in 1857–in the hands of Major Lot Smith, who carried out that order!
* Tullidge’s “History of Salt Lake City,” p. 252.
** Vol. II, Series 3, p. 27, War of the Rebellion, official records.
Judges Flenniken and Crosby took their departure from the territory a month later than Dawson, and Thomas J. Drake of Michigan and Charles B. Waite of Illinois* were named as their successors, and on March 31 Stephen S. Harding of Milan, Indiana, a lawyer, was appointed governor. The new officers arrived in July.
* After leaving Utah Judge Waite was appointed district attorney for Idaho, was elected to Congress, and published “A History of the Christian Religion,” and other books. His wife, author of “The Mormon Prophet,” was a graduate of Oberlin College and of the Union College of Law in Chicago, a member of the Illinois bar, founder of the Chicago Law Times, and manager of the publishing firm of C. W. Waite & Co.
At this time the Mormons were again seeking admission for the State of Deseret. They had had a constitution prepared for submission to Congress, had nominated Young for governor and Kimball for lieutenant governor, and the legislature, in advance, had chosen W. H. Hooper and George Q. Cannon the United States senators. But Utah was not then admitted, while, on the other hand, an anti-polygamy bill (to be described later) was passed, and signed by President Lincoln on July 2.
During the month preceding the arrival of Governor Harding, another tragedy had been enacted in the territory. Among the church members was a Welshman named Joseph Morris, who became possessed of the belief (which, as we have seen, had afflicted brethren from time to time) that he was the recipient of “revelations.” One of these “revelations” having directed him to warn Young that he was wandering from the right course, he did this in person, and received a rebuke so emphatic that it quite overcame him. He betook himself, therefore, to a place called Kington Fort, on the Weber River, thirty-five miles north of Salt Lake City, and there he found believers in his prophetic gifts in the local Bishop, and quite a settlement of men and women, almost all foreigners. Young’s refusal to satisfy the demand for published “revelations” gave some standing to a fanatic like Morris, who professed to supply that long-felt want, and he was so prolific in his gift that three clerks were required to write down what was revealed to him. Among his announcements were the date of the coming of Christ and the necessity of “consecrating” their property in a common fund. Having made a mistake in the date selected for Christ’s appearance, the usual apostates sprang up, and, when they took their departure, they claimed the right to carry with them their share of the common effects. In the dispute that ensued, the apostates seized some Morrisite grain on the way to mill, and the Morrisites captured some apostates, and took them prisoners to Kington Fort.
Out of these troubles came the issue of a writ by Judge Kinney for the release of the prisoners, the defiance of this writ by the Morrisites, and a successful appeal to the governor for the use of the militia to enable the marshal to enforce the writ. On the morning of June 13 the Morrisites discovered an armed force, in command of General R. T. Burton, the marshal’s chief deputy, on the mountain that overlooked their settlement, and received from Burton an order to surrender in thirty minutes. Morris announced a “revelation,” declaring that the Lord would not allow his people to be destroyed. When the thirty minutes had expired, without further warning the Mormon force fired on the Morrisites with a cannon, killing two women outright, and sending the others to cover. But the devotees were not weak-hearted. For three days they kept up a defence, and it was not until their ammunition was exhausted that they raised a white flag. When Burton rode into their settlement and demanded Morris’s surrender, that fanatic replied, “Never.” Burton at once shot him dead, and then badly wounded John Banks, an English convert and a preacher of eloquence, who had joined Morris after rebelling against Young’s despotism. Banks died “suddenly” that evening. Burton finished his work by shooting two women, one of whom dared to condemn his shooting of Morris and Banks, and the other for coming up to him crying.*
* For accounts of this slaughter, see “Rocky Mountain Saints,” pp. 593-606, and Beadle’s “Life in Utah,” pp. 413-420.
The bodies of Morris and Banks were carried to Salt Lake City and exhibited there. No one–President of the church or federal officer–took any steps at that time to bring their murderers to justice. Sixteen years later District Attorney Van Zile tried Burton for this massacre, but the verdict was acquittal, as it has been in all these famous cases except that of John D. Lee. Ninety-three Morrisites, few of whom could speak English, were arraigned before Judge Kinney and placed under bonds. In the following March seven of the Morrisites were convicted of killing members of the posse, and sentenced by Judge Kinney to imprisonment for from five to fifteen years each, while sixty-six others were fined $100 each for resisting the posse. Governor Harding immediately pardoned ail the accused, in response to a numerously signed petition. Beadle says that Bishop Wooley advised the governor to be careful about granting these pardons, as “our people feel it would be an outrage, and if it is done, they might proceed to violence”; but that Bill Hickman, the Danite captain, rode thirty miles to sign the petition, saying that he was “one Mormon who was not afraid to sign.” The grand jury that had indicted the Morrisites made a presentment to Judge Kinney, in which they said, “We present his Excellency Stephen S. Harding, governor of Utah, as we would an unsafe bridge over a dangerous stream, jeopardizing the lives of all those who pass over it; or as we would a pestiferous cesspool in our district, breathing disease and death.” And the chief justice assured this jury that they addressed him “in no spirit of malice,” and asked them to accept his thanks “for your cooperation in the support of my efforts to maintain and enforce the law.” It is to the credit of the powers at Washington that this judge was soon afterward removed.*
* Even the Mormon historian has only this to say on this subject: “Of the relative merit or demerit of the action of the United States and territorial authorities concerned in the Morrisite affair the historian does not presume to touch, further than to present the record itself and its significance.”–Tullidge, “History of Salt Lake City,” p. 320.
CHAPTER XVIII. Attitude of the Mormons During the Southern Rebellion
The attitude of the Mormons toward the government at the outbreak of hostilities with the Southern states was distinctly disloyal. The Deseret News of January 2, 1861, said, “The indications are that the breach which has been effected between the North and South will continue to widen, and that two or more nations will be formed out of the fragmentary portions of the once glorious republic.” The Mormons in England had before that been told in the Millennial Star (January 28, 1860) that “the Union is now virtually destroyed.” The sermons in Salt Lake City were of the same character. “General” Wells told the people on April 6, 1861, that the general government was responsible for their expulsion from Missouri and Illinois, adding: “So far as we are concerned, we should have been better without a government than such a one. I do not think there is a more corrupt government upon the face of the earth.”* Brigham Young on the same day said: “Our present President, what is his strength? It is like a rope of sand, or like a rope made of water. He is as weak as water…. I feel disgraced in having been born under a government that has so little power, disposition and influence for truth and right. Shame, shame on the rulers of this nation. I feel myself disgraced to hail such men as my countrymen.”**
* Journal of Discourses, Vol. VIII, pp. 373-374.
** Ibid., Vol. IX, p. 4.
Elder G. A. Smith, on the same occasion, railing against the non- Mormon clergy, said, “Mr. Lincoln now is put into power by that priestly influence; and the presumption is, should he not find his hands full by the secession of the Southern States, the spirit of priestly craft would force him, in spite of his good wishes and intentions, to put to death, if it was in his power, every man that believes in the divine mission of Joseph Smith.”* On August 31, 1862, Young quoted Smith’s prediction of a rebellion beginning in South Carolina, and declared that “the nation that has slain the prophet of God will be broken in pieces like a potter’s vessel,” boasting that the Mormon government in Utah was “the best earthly government that was ever framed by man.”
* Journal of Discourses, Vol. IX, p. 18.
Tullidge, discussing in 1876 the attitude of the Mormon church toward the South, said:–
“With the exception of the slavery question and the policy of secession, the South stood upon the same ground that Utah had stood upon just previously…. And here we reach the heart of the Mormon policy and aims. Secession is not in it. Their issues are all inside the Union. The Mormon prophecy is that that people are destined to save the Union and preserve the constitution…. The North, which had just risen to power through the triumph of the Republican party, occupied the exact position toward the South that Buchanan’s administration had held toward Utah. And the salient points of resemblance between the two cases were so striking that Utah and the South became radically associated in the Chicago platform that brought the Republican party into office. Slavery and polygamy–these ‘twin relics of barbarism’– were made the two chief planks of the party platform. Yet neither of these were the real ground of the contest. It continues still, and some of the soundest men of the times believe that it will be ultimately referred in a revolution so general that nearly every man in America will become involved in the action…. The Mormon view of the great national controversy, then, is that the Southern States should have done precisely what Utah did, and placed themselves on the defensive ground of their rights and institutions as old as the Union. Had they placed themselves under the political leadership of Brigham Young, they would have triumphed, for their cause was fundamentally right; their secession alone was the national crime.”**
** Tullidge’s “Life of Brigham Young,” Chap. 24.
Knowledge of the spirit which animated the Saints induced the Secretary of War to place them under military supervision, and in May, 1862, the Third California Infantry and a part of the Second California Cavalry were ordered to Utah. The commander of this force was Colonel P. E. Connor, who had a fine record in the Mexican War, and who was among the first, at the outbreak of the Rebellion, to tender his services to the government in California, where he was then engaged in business. On assuming command of the military district of Utah, which included Utah and Nevada, Colonel Connor issued an order directing commanders of posts, camps, and detachments to arrest and imprison, until they took the oath of allegiance, “all persons who from this date shall be guilty of uttering treasonable sentiments against the government,” adding, “Traitors shall not utter treasonable sentiments in this district with impunity, but must seek some more genial soil, or receive the punishment they so richly deserve.”
When Connor’s force arrived at Fort Crittenden (the Camp Floyd of General Johnston), the Mormons supposed that it would make its camp there. Persons having a pecuniary interest in the reoccupation of the old site, where they wanted to sell to the government the buildings they had bought for a song, tried hard to induce Colonel Connor to accept their view, even warning him of armed Mormon opposition to his passage through Salt Lake City. But he was not a man to be thus deterred. Among the rumors that reached him was one that Bill Hickman, the Danite chief, was offering to bet $500 in Salt Lake City that the colonel could not cross the river Jordan. Colonel Connor is said to have sent back the reply that he “would cross the river Jordan if hell yawned below him.”
On Saturday, October 18, Connor marched twenty miles toward the Mormon capital, and the next day crossed the Jordan at 2 P.M., without finding a person in sight on the eastern shore. The command, knowing that the Nauvoo Legion outnumbered them vastly, and ignorant of the real intention of the Mormon leaders, advanced with every preparation to meet resistance. They were, as an accompanying correspondent expressed it, “six hundred miles of sand from reinforcements.” The conciliatory policy of so many federal officers in Utah would have induced Colonel Connor to march quietly around the city, and select some place for his camp where it would not offend Mormon eyes. What he did do was to halt his command when the city was two miles distant, form his column with an advance guard of cavalry and a light battery, the infantry and commissary wagons coming next, and in this order, to the bewilderment of the Mormon authorities, march into the principal street, with his two bands playing, to Emigrants’ Square, and so to Governor Harding’s residence.
The only United States flag displayed on any building that day was the governor’s. The sidewalks were packed with men, women, and children, but not a cheer was heard. In front of the governor’s residence the battalion was formed in two lines, and the governor, standing in the buggy in which he had ridden out to meet them, addressed them, saying that their mission was one of peace and security, and urging them to maintain the strictest discipline. The troops, Colonel Connor leading, gave three cheers for the country and the flag, and three for Governor Harding, and then took up their march to the slope at the base of Wahsatch Mountain, where the Camp Douglas of to-day is situated. This camp was in sight of the Mormon city, and Young’s residence was in range of its guns. Thus did Brigham’s will bend before the quiet determination of a government officer who respected his government’s dignity.
But the Mormon spirit was to be still further tested. On December 8 Governor Harding read his first message to the territorial legislature. It began with a tribute to the industry and enterprise of the people; spoke of the progress of the war, and of the application of the territory for statehood, and in this connection said, “I am sorry to say that since my sojourn amongst you I have heard no sentiments, either publicly or privately expressed, that would lead me to believe that much sympathy is felt by any considerable number of your people in favor of the government of the United States, now struggling for its very existence.” He declared that the demand for statehood should not be entertained unless it was “clearly shown that there is a sufficient population” and “that the people are loyal to the federal government and the laws.” He recommended the taking of a correct census to settle the question of population. All these utterances were gall and wormwood to a body of Mormon lawmakers, but worse was to come. Congress having passed an act “to prevent and punish the practice of polygamy in the territories,” the governor naturally considered it his duty to call attention to the matter. Prevising that he desired to do so “in no offensive manner or unkind spirit,” he pointed out that the practice was founded on no territorial law, resting merely on custom; and laid, down the principle that “no community can happily exist with an institution so important as that of marriage wanting in all those qualities that make it homogeneal with institutions and laws of neighboring civilized countries having the same spirit.” He spoke of the marriage of a mother and her daughter to the same man as “no less a marvel in morals than in matters of taste,” and warned them against following the recommendation of high church authorities that the federal law be disregarded. This message, according to the Mormon historian, was “an insult offered to their representatives.”*
* Tullidge’s “History of Salt Lake City,” p. 305.
These representatives resented the “insult ” by making no reference in the journal to the reading of the message, and by failing to have it printed. When this was made known in Washington, the Senate, on January 16, 1863, called for a report by the Committee on Territories concerning the suppression of the message, and they got one from its chairman, Benjamin Wade, pointing out that Utah Territory was in the control of “a sort of Jewish theocracy,” affording “the first exhibition, within the limits of the United States, of a church ruling the state,” and declaring that the governor’s message contained “nothing that should give offence to any legislature willing to be governed by the laws of morality,” closing with a recommendation that the message be printed by Congress. The territorial legislature adjourned on January 16 without sending to Governor Harding for his approval a single appropriation bill, and the next day the so-called legislature of the State of Deseret met and received a message from the state governor, Brigham Young.
Next the new federal judges came under Mormon displeasure. We have seen the conflict of jurisdiction existing between the federal and the so-called probate courts and their officers. Judge Waite perceived the difficulties thus caused as soon as he entered upon his duties, and he sent to Washington an act giving the United States marshal authority to select juries for the federal courts, taking from the probate courts jurisdiction in civil actions, and leaving them a limited criminal jurisdiction subject to appeal to the federal court, and providing for a reorganization of the militia under the federal governor. Bernhisel and Hooper sent home immediate notice of the arrival of this bill in Washington.
Now, indeed, it was time for Brigham to “bend his finger.” If a governor could openly criticise polygamy, and a judge seek to undermine Young’s legal and military authority, without a protest, his days of power were certainly drawing to a close. Accordingly, a big mass-meeting was held in Salt Lake City on March 3, 1863, “for the purpose of investigating certain acts of several of the United States officials in the territory.” Speeches were made by John Taylor and Young, in which the governor and judges were denounced.* A committee was appointed to ask the governor and two judges to resign and leave the territory, and a petition was signed requesting President Lincoln to remove them, the first reason stated being that “they are strenuously endeavoring to create mischief, and stir up strife between the people of the territory and the troops in Camp Douglas.” The meeting then adjourned, the band playing the “Marseillaise.”
* Reported in Mrs. Waite’s “Mormon Prophet,” pp. 98-102.
The committee, consisting of John Taylor, J. Clinton, and Orson Pratt, called on the governor and the judges the next morning, and met with a flat refusal to pay any attention to the mandate of the meeting. “You may go back and tell your constituents,” said Governor Harding, “that I will not resign my office, and will not leave this territory, until it shall please the President to recall me. I will not be driven away. I may be in danger in staying, but my purpose is fixed.” Judge Drake told the committee that he had a right to ask Congress to pass or amend any law, and that it was a special insult for him, a citizen, to be asked by Taylor, a foreigner, to leave any part of the Republic. “Go back to Brigham Young, your master,” said he, “that embodiment of sin, shame, and disgust, and tell him that I neither fear him, nor love him, nor hate him–that I utterly despise him. Tell him, whose tools and tricksters you are, that I did not come here by his permission, and that I will not go away at his desire nor by his direction…. A horse thief or a murderer has, when arrested, a right to speak in court; and, unless in such capacity or under such circumstances, don’t you even dare to speak to me again.” Judge Waite simply declined to resign because to do so would imply “either that I was sensible of having done something wrong, or that I was afraid to remain at my post and perform my duty.”**
* Text of replies in Mrs. Waite’s “Mormon Prophet,” pp. 107-109.
As soon as the action of the Mormon mass-meeting became known at Camp Douglas, all the commissioned officers there signed a counter petition to President Lincoln, “as an act of duty we owe our government,” declaring that the charge of inciting trouble between the people and the troops was “a base and unqualified falsehood,” that the accused officers had been “true and faithful to the government,” and that there was no good reason for their removal.
Excitement in Salt Lake City now ran high. Young, in a violent harangue in the Tabernacle on March 8, after declaring his loyalty to the government, said, “Is there anything that could be asked that we would not do? Yes. Let the present administration ask us for a thousand men, or even five hundred, and I’d see them d–d first, and then they could not have them. What do you think of that?’ (Loud cries of ‘Good, Good,’ and great applause.)”*
* Correspondence of the Chicago Tribune.
Young expected arrest, and had a signal arranged by which the citizens would rush to his support if this was attempted. A false alarm of this kind was given on March 9, and in an hour two thousand armed men were assembled around his house.* Steptoe, who in an earlier year had declined the governorship of the territory and petitioned for Young’s reappointment, took credit for what followed in an article in the Overland Monthly for December, 1896. Being at Salt Lake City at the time, he suggested to Wells and other leaders that they charge Young with the crime of polygamy before one of the magistrates, and have him arraigned and admitted to bail, in order to place him beyond the reach of the military officers. The affidavit was sworn to before the compliant Chief Justice Kinney by Young’s private secretary, was served by the territorial marshal, and Young was released in $5000 bail. Colonel Connor was informed of this arrest before he arrived in the city, and retraced his steps; the citizens dispersed to their homes; the grand jury found no indictment against Young, and in due time he was discharged from his recognizance.
* “On the inside of the high walls surrounding Brigham’s premises scaffolding was hastily erected in order to enable the militia to fire down upon the passing volunteers. The houses on the route which occupied a commanding position where an attack could be made upon the troops were taken possession of, and the small cannon brought out.”–“Rocky Mountain Saints,” p. 604.
“In the meantime,” says a Mormon chronicler, “our ‘outside’ friends in this city telegraphed to those interested in the mail* and telegraph lines that they must work for the removal of the troops, Governor Harding, and Judges Waite and Drake, otherwise there would be ‘difficulty,’ and the mail and telegraph lines would be destroyed. Their moneyed interest has given them great energy in our behalf.”** This “work” told Governor Harding was removed, leaving the territory on June 11 and, as proof that this was due to “work” and not to his own incapacity, he was made Chief Justice of Colorado Territory.*** With him were displaced Chief Justice Kinney and Secretary Fuller.**** Judges Waite and Drake wrote to the President that it would take the support of five thousand men to make the federal courts in Utah effective. Waite resigned in the summer of 1863. Drake remained, but his court did practically no business.
* The first Pony Express left Sacramento and St. Joseph, Missouri, on April 3, 1860. Major General M. B. Hazen in an official letter dated February, 1807 (House Misc. Doc. No. 75, 2d Session, 39th Congress), said: “Ben Holiday I believe to be the only outsider acceptable to those people, and to benefit himself I believe he would throw the whole weight of his influence in favor of Mormonism. By the terms of his contract to carry the mails from the Missouri to Utah, all papers and pamphlets for the newsdealers, not directed to subscribers, are thrown out. It looks very much like a scheme to keep light out of that country, nowhere so much needed.”
** D. O. Calder’s letter to George Q. Cannon, March 13, 1863, in Millennial Star.
*** “Every attempt was made to seduce him from the path of duty, not omitting the same appliances which had been brought to bear upon Steptoe and Dawson, but all in vain.”–“The Mormon Prophet,” p. 109.
**** Whitney, the Mormon historian, says that while the President was convinced that Harding was not the right man for the place, “he doubtless believed that there was more or less truth in the charges of ‘subserviency’ to Young made by local anti-Mormons against Chief Justice Kinney and Secretary Fuller. He therefore removed them as well.”–“History of Utah,” Vol. II, p. 103.
Lincoln’s policy, as he expressed it then, was, “I will let the Mormons alone if they will let me alone.”* He had war enough on his hands without seeking any diversion in Utah. J. D. Doty, the superintendent of Indian affairs, succeeded Harding as governor, Amos Reed of Wisconsin became secretary, and John Titus of Philadelphia chief justice.
* Young’s letter to Cannon, “History of Salt Lake City,” p. 325.
Affairs in Utah now became more quiet. General Connor (he was made a brigadier general for his service in the Bear River Indian campaign in 1862-1863) yielded nothing to Mormon threats or demands. A periodical called the Union Vidette, published by his force, appeared in November, 1863, and in it was printed a circular over his name, expressing belief in the existence of rich veins of gold, silver, copper, and other metals in the territory, and promising the fullest protection to miners and prospectors; and the beginning of the mining interests there dated from the picking up of a piece of ore by a lady member of the camp while attending a picnic party. Although the Mormons had discouraged mining as calculated to cause a rush of non-Mormon residents, they did not show any special resentment to the general’s policy in this respect. With the increasing evidence that the Union cause would triumph, the church turned its face toward the federal government. We find, accordingly, a union of Mormons and Camp Douglas soldiers in the celebration of Union victories on March 4, 1865, with a procession and speeches, and, when General Connor left to assume command of the Department of the Platte, a ball in his honor was given in Salt Lake City; and at the time of Lincoln’s assassination church and government officers joined in services in the Tabernacle, and the city was draped in mourning.
CHAPTER XIX. Eastern Visitors To Salt Lake City–Unpunished Murderers
In June, 1865, a distinguished party from the East visited Salt Lake City, and their visit was not without public significance. It included Schuyler Colfax, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Lieutenant Governor Bross of Illinois, Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, and A. D. Richardson of the staff of the New York Tribune. Crossing the continent was still effected by stage-coach at that time, and the Mormon capital had never been visited by civilians so well known and so influential. Mr. Colfax had stated publicly that President Lincoln, a short time before his death, had asked him to make a thorough investigation of territorial matters, and his visit was regarded as semiofficial. The city council formally tendered to the visitors the hospitality of the city, and Mr. Bowles wrote that the Speaker’s reception “was excessive if not oppressive.”
In an interview between Colfax and Young, during which the subject of polygamy was brought up by the latter, he asked what the government intended to do with it, now that the slavery question was out of the way. Mr. Colfax replied with the expression of a hope that the prophets of the church would have a new “revelation” which would end the practice, pointing out an example in the course of Missouri and Maryland in abolishing slavery, without waiting for action by the federal government. “Mr. Young,” says Bowles, “responded quietly and frankly that he should readily welcome such a revelation; that polygamy was not in the original book of the Mormons; that it was not an essential practice in the church, but only a privilege and a duty, under special command of God.”*
* “Across the Continent,” p. 111.
It is worth while to note Mr. Bowles’s summing up of his observations of Mormondom during this visit. “The result,” he wrote, “of the whole experience has been to increase my appreciation of the value of their material progress and development to the nation; to evoke congratulations to them and to the country for the wealth they have created, and the order, frugality, morality (sic), and industry they have organized in this remote spot in our continent; to excite wonder at the perfection of their church system, the extent of its ramifications, the sweep of its influence, and to enlarge my respect for the personal sincerity and character of many of the leaders in the organization.”* These were the expressions of a leading journalist, thought worthy to be printed later in book form, on a church system and church officers about which he had gathered his information during a few hours’ visit, and concerning which he was so fundamentally ignorant that he called their Bible–whose title is, “Book of Mormon”–“book of the Mormons!” It is reasonably certain that he had never read Smith’s “revelations,” doubtful if he was acquainted with even the framework of the Mormon Bible, and probable that he was wholly ignorant of the history of their recent “Reformation.” Many a profound opinion of Mormonism has been founded on as little opportunity for accurate knowledge.**
* “Across the Continent,” p. 106.
** As another illustration of the value of observations by such transient students may be cited the following, from Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke’s “Greater Britain,” Vol. I, p. 148: “Brigham’s deeds have been those of a sincere man. His bitterest opponents cannot dispute the fact that, in 1844, when Nauvoo was about to be deserted owing to attacks by a ruffianly mob, Brigham Young rushed to the front and took command. To be a Mormon leader was then to be the leader of an outcast people, with a price set on his head, in a Missouri country in which almost every man who was not a Mormon was by profession an assassin.”
The Eastern visitors soon learned, however, how little intention the Mormon leaders had to be cajoled out of polygamy. Before Mr. Bowles’s book was published, he had to add a supplement, in which he explained that “since our visit to Utah in June, the leaders among the Mormons have repudiated their professions of loyalty to the government, and denied any disposition to yield the issue of polygamy.” Tullidge sneers at Colfax “for entertaining for a while the pretty plan” of having the Mormons give up polygamy as the Missourians did slavery. The Deseret News, soon after the Colfax party left the territory, expressed the real Mormon view on this subject, saying: “As a people we view every revelation from the Lord as sacred. Polygamy was none of our seeking. It came to us from Heaven, and we recognized it, and still do, the voice of Him whose right it is not only to teach us, but to dictate and teach all men . . . . They [Gentiles] talk of revelations given, and of receiving counter revelations to forbid what has been commanded, as if man was the sole author, originator, and designer of them . . . . Do they wish to brand a whole people with the foul stigma of hypocrisy, who, from their leaders to the last converts that have made the dreary journey to these mountain wilds for their faith, have proved their honesty of purpose and deep sincerity of faith by the most sublime sacrifices? Either that is the issue of their reasoning, or they imagine that we serve and worship the most accommodating Deity ever dreamed of in the wildest vagaries of the most savage polytheist.”
This was a perfectly consistent statement of the Mormon position, a simple elaboration of Young’s declaration that, to give up belief in Smith as a prophet, and in his “revelations,” would be to give up their faith. Just as truly, any later “revelation,” repealing the one concerning polygamy, must be either a pretence or a temporary expedient, in orthodox Mormon eyes. The Mormons date the active crusade of the government against polygamy from the return of the Colfax party to the East, holding that this question did not enter into the early differences between them and the government.*
* Tullidge’s “History of Salt Lake City,” p. 358.
In the year following Colfax’s visit, there occurred in Utah two murders which attracted wide notice, and which called attention once more to the insecurity of the life of any man against whom the finger of the church was crooked. The first victim was O. N. Brassfield, a non-Mormon, who had the temerity to marry, on March 20, 1866, the second polygamous wife of a Mormon while the husband was in Europe on a mission. As he was entering his house in Salt Lake City, on the third day of the following month, he was shot dead. An order that had been given to disband the volunteer troops still remaining in the territory was countermanded from Washington, and General Sherman, then commander of that department, telegraphed to Young that he hoped to hear of no more murders of Gentiles in Utah, intimating that, if he did, it would be easy to reenlist some of the recently discharged volunteers and march them through the territory.
The second victim was Dr. J. King Robinson, a young man who had come to Utah as assistant surgeon of the California volunteers, married the daughter of a Mormon whose widow and daughters had left the church, and taken possession of the land on which were some well-known warm springs, with the intention of establishing there a sanitarium. The city authorities at once set up a claim to the warm springs property, a building Dr. Robinson had erected there was burned, and, as he became aggressive in asserting his legal rights, he was called out one night, ostensibly to set a broken leg, knocked down, and shot dead. The audacity of this crime startled even the Mormons, and the opinion has been expressed that nothing more serious than a beating had been intended. There was an inquest before a city alderman, at which some non-Mormon lawyers and judges Titus and McCurdy were asked to assist. The chief feature of this hearing was the summing up by Ex-Governor J. B. Weller, of California, in which he denounced such murders, asked if there was not an organized influence which prevented the punishment of their perpetrators, and confessed that the prosecution had not been permitted “to lift the veil, and show the perpetrators of this horrible murder.” *
* Text in “Rocky Mountain Saints,” Appendix I.
General W. B. Hazen, in his report of February, 1867, said of these victims: *There is no doubt of their murder from Mormon church influences, although I do not believe by direct command. Principles are taught in their churches which would lead to such murders. I have earnestly to recommend that a list be made of the Mormon leaders, according to their importance, excepting Brigham Young, and that the President of the United States require the commanding officer at Camp Douglas to arrest and send to the state’s prison at Jefferson City, Mo., beginning at the head of the list, man for man hereafter killed as these men were, to be held until the real perpetrators of the deed, with evidence for their conviction, be given up. I believe Young for the present necessary for us there” *
* Mis. House Doc. No. 75, 2d Session, 39th Congress.
Had this policy been adopted, Mormon prisoners would soon have started East, for very soon afterward three other murders of the same character occurred, although the victims were not so prominent.* Chief Justice Titus incurred the hatred of the Mormons by determined, if futile, efforts to bring offenders in such cases to justice, and to show their feeling they sent him a nightgown ten feet long, at the hands of a negro.
* See note 70, p. 628, Bancroft’s “History of Utah.” When, in July, 1869, a delegation from Illinois, that included Senator Trumbull, Governor Oglesby, Editor Medill of the Chicago Tribune, and many members of the Chicago Board of Trade, visited Salt Lake City, they were welcomed by and affiliated with the Gentile element;* and when, in the following October, Vice President Colfax paid a second visit to the city, he declined the courtesies tendered to him by the city officers.** He made an address from the portico of the Townsend House, of which polygamy was the principle feature, and was soon afterward drawn into a newspaper discussion of the subject with John Taylor.
* In an interview between Young and Senator Trumbull during this visit (reported in the Alta California), the following conversation took place:–“Young–We can take care of ourselves. Cumming was good enough in his way, for you know he was simply Governor of the Territory, while I was and am Governor of the people.”
“Senator Trumbull–Mr. Young, may I say to the President that you intend to observe the laws under the constitution?”
“Young-Well-yes–we intend to.”
“Senator Trumbull–But may I say to him that you will do so?”
“Young–Yes, yes; so far as the laws are just, certainly.”
** “Mr. Colfax politely refused to accept the proffered courtesies of the city. Brigham was reported to have uttered abusive language in the Tabernacle towards the Government and Congress, and to have charged the President and Vice President with being drunkards. One of the Aldermen who waited upon Mr. Colfax to tender to him the hospitality of the city could only say that he did not hear Brigham say so.”–“Rocky Mountain Saints,” p. 638.
CHAPTER XX. Gentile Irruption And Mormon Schism
The end of the complete seclusion of the Mormon settlement in Utah from the rest of the country–complete except so far as it was interrupted by the passage through the territory of the California emigration–dates from the establishment of Camp Floyd, and the breaking up of that camp and the disposal of its accumulation of supplies, which gave the first big impetus to mercantile traffic in Utah.* Young was ever jealous of the mercantile power, so openly jealous that, as Tullidge puts it, “to become a merchant was to antagonize the church and her policies, so that it was almost illegitimate for Mormon men of enterprising character to enter into mercantile pursuits.” This policy naturally increased the business of non-Mormons who established themselves in the city, and their prosperity directed the attention of the church authorities to them, and the pulpit orators hurled anathemas at those who traded with them. Thus Young, in a discourse, on March 28, 1858, urging the people to use home-made material, said: “Let the calicoes lie on the shelves and rot. I would rather build buildings every day and burn them down at night, than have traders here communing with our enemies outside, and keeping up a hell all the time, and raising devils to keep it going. They brought their hell with them. We can have enough of our own without their help.”** A system of espionage, by means of the city police, was kept on the stores of non-Mormons, until it required courage for a Mormon to make a purchase in one of these establishments. To trade with an apostate Mormon was, of course, a still greater offence.
* “The community had become utterly destitute of almost everything necessary to their social comfort. The people were poorly clad, and rarely ever saw anything on their tables but what was prepared from flour, corn, beet-molasses, and the vegetables and fruits of their gardens. . . . It was at Camp Floyd, indeed, where the principal Utah merchants and business men of the second decade of our history may be said to have laid the foundation of their fortunes, among whom were the Walker Brothers.”–Tullidge, “History of Salt Lake City,” pp. 246-247.
** Journal of Discourses, Vol. VII, p. 45.
Among the mercantile houses that became strong after the establishment of Camp Floyd was that of Walker Brothers. There were four of them, Englishmen, who had come over with their mother, and shared in the privations of the early Utah settlement. Possessed of practical business talent and independence of thought, they rebelled against Young’s dictatorial rule and the varied trammels by which their business was restricted. Without openly apostatizing, they insisted on a measure of independence. One manifestation of this was a refusal to contribute one-tenth of their income as a tithe for the expenditure of which no account was rendered. One year, when asked for their tithe, they gave the Bishop of their ward a check for $500 as “a contribution to the poor.” When this form of contribution was reported to Young, he refused to accept it, and sent the brothers word that he would cut them off from the church unless they paid their tithe in the regular way. Their reply was to tear up the check and defy Young.
The natural result followed. Brigham and his lieutenants waged an open war on these merchants, denouncing them in the Tabernacle, and keeping policemen before their doors. The Walkers, on their part, kept on offering good wares at reasonable prices, and thus retained the custom of as many Mormons as dared trade with them openly, or could slip in undiscovered. Even the expedient of placing a sign bearing an “all-seeing eye” and the words “Holiness to the Lord” over every Mormon trader’s door did not steer away from other doors the Mormon customers who delighted in bargains. But the church power was too great for any one firm to fight. Not only was a business man’s capital in danger in those times, when the church was opposed to him, but his life was not safe. Stenhouse draws this picture of the condition of affairs in 1866:–“After the assassination of Dr. Robinson, fears of violence were not unnatural, and many men who had never before carried arms buckled on their revolvers. Highly respectable men in Salt Lake City forsook the sidewalks after dusk, and, as they repaired to their residences, traversed the middle of the public street, carrying their revolvers in their hands.
With such a feeling of uneasiness, nearly all the non-Mormon merchants joined in a letter to Brigham Young, offering, if the church would purchase their goods and estates at twentyfive per cent less than their valuation, they would leave the Territory. Brigham answered them cavalierly that he had not asked them to come into the Territory, did not ask them to leave it, and that they might stay as long as they pleased.
“It was clear that Brigham felt himself master of the situation, and the merchants had to bide their time, and await the coming change that was anticipated from the completion of the Pacific Railroad. As the great iron way approached the mountains, and every day gave greater evidence of its being finished at a much earlier period than was at first anticipated, the hope of what it would accomplish nerved the discontented to struggle with the passing day.” *
* “Rocky Mountain Saints,” p. 625.
The Mormon historian incorporates these two last paragraphs in his book, and says: “Here is at once described the Gentile and apostate view of the situation in those times, and, confined as it is to the salient point, no lengthy special argument in favor of President Young’s policies could more clearly justify his mercantile cooperative movement. IT WAS THE MOMENT OF LIFE OR DEATH TO THE TEMPORAL POWER OF THE CHURCH . . . . The organization of Z. C. M. I. at that crisis saved the temporal supremacy of the Mormon commonwealth.”* It was to meet outside competition with a force which would be invincible that Young conceived the idea of Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution, which was incorporated in 1869, with Young as president. In carrying out this idea no opposing interest, whether inside the church or out of it, received the slightest consideration. “The universal dominance of the head of the church is admitted,” says Tullidge, “and in 1868, before the opening of the Utah mines and the existence of a mixed population, there was no commercial escape from the necessities of a combination.”**
* Tullidge’s “History of Salt Lake City,” p. 385.
** Cooperation is as much a cardinal and essential doctrine of the Mormon church as baptism for the remission of sin.”–Tullidge, “History of Salt Lake City.”
Young is said to have received the idea of the big Cooperative enterprise from a small trader who asked permission to establish a mercantile system on the Cooperative plan, of moderate dimensions, throughout the territory. He gave it definite shape at a meeting of merchants in October, 1868, which was followed by
a circular explaining the scheme to the people. A preamble asserted “the impolicy of leaving the trade and commerce of this territory to be conducted by strangers.” The constitution of the concern provided for a capital of $3,000,000 in $100 shares. Young’s original idea was to have all the merchants pool their stocks, those who found no places in the new establishment to go into some other business,–farming for instance,– renting their stores as they could. Of course this meant financial ruin to the unprovided for, and the opposition was strong. But Young was not to be turned from the object he had in view. One man told Stenhouse that when he reported to Young that a certain merchant would be ruined by the scheme, and would not only be unable to pay his debts, but would lose his homestead, Young’s reply was that the man had no business to get into debt, and that “if he loses his property it serves him right.” Tullidge, in an article in Harpers Magazine for September, 1871 (written when he was at odds with Young), said, “The Mormon merchants were publicly told that all who refused to join the cooperation should be left out in the cold; and against the two most popular of them the Lion of the Lord roared, ‘If Henry Lawrence don’t mind what’s he’s about I’ll send him on a mission, and W. S. Godbe I’ll cut off from the church.”‘
After the organization of the concern in 1869 some of the leading Mormon merchants in Salt Lake City sold their goods to it on favorable terms, knowing that the prices of their stock would go down when the opening of the railroad lowered freight rates. The Z. C. M. I. was started as a wholesale and retail concern, and Young recommended that ward stores be opened throughout the city which should buy their goods of the Institution. Local cooperative stores were also organized throughout the territory, each of which was under pressure to make its purchases of the central concern. Branches were afterward established at Ogden, at Logan, and at Soda Springs, Idaho, and a large business was built up and is still continued.* The effect of this new competition on the non-Mormon establishments was, of course, very serious. Walker Brothers’ sales, for instance, dropped $5000 or $6000 a month, and only the opportunity to divert their capital profitably to mining saved them and others from immediate ruin.
Bancroft says that in 1883 the total sales of the Institution exceeded $4,000,000, and a half yearly dividend of five per cent was paid in October of that year, and there was a reserve fund of about $125,000; he placed the sales of the Ogden branch, in 1883, at about $800,000, and of the Logan branch at about $600,000. The thirty-second annual statement of the Institution, dated April 5,1901, contains the following figures: Capital stock, $1,077,144.89; reserve, $362,898.95; undivided profits, $179,042.88; cash receipts, February 1 to December 31, 1900, $3,457,624.44, sales for the same period, $3,489.571 .84. The branch houses named is this report are at Ogden City and Provo, Utah, and at Idaho Falls, Idaho.
But at this time an influence was preparing to make itself felt in Utah which was a more powerful opponent of Brigham Young’s authority than any he had yet encountered. This influence took shape in what was known as the “New Movement,” and also as “The Reformation.” Its original leaders were W. S. Godbe and E. L. T. Harrison. Godbe was an Englishman, who saw a good deal of the world as a sailor, embraced the Mormon faith in his own country when seventeen years of age, and walked most of the way from New York to Salt Lake City in 1851. He became prominent in the Mormon capital as a merchant, making the trip over the plains twenty-four times between 1851 and 1859. Harrison was an architect by profession, a classical scholar, and a writer of no mean ability.
With these men were soon associated Eli B. Kelsey, a leading elder in the Mormon church, a president of Seventies, and a prominent worker in the English missions; H. W. Lawrence, a wealthy merchant who was a Bishop’s counsellor; Amasa M. Lyman, who had been one of the Twelve Apostles and was acknowledged to be one of the most eloquent preachers in the church; W. H. Sherman, a prominent elder and a man of literary ability, who many years later went back to the church; T. B. H. Stenhouse, a Scotchman by birth, who was converted to Mormonism in 1846, and took a prominent part in missionary work in Europe, for three years holding the position of president of the Swiss and Italian missions; he emigrated to this country with his wife and children in 1855, practically penniless, and supported himself for a time in New York City as a newspaper writer; in Salt Lake City he married a second wife by Young’s direction, and one of his daughters by his first wife married Brigham’s eldest son. Stenhouse did not win the confidence of either Mormons or non-Mormons in the course of his career, but his book, “The Rocky Mountain Saints,” contains much valuable information. Active with these men in the “New Movement” was Edward W. Tullidge, an elder and one of the Seventy, and a man of great literary ability. In later years Tullidge, while not openly associating himself with the Mormon church, wrote the “History of Salt Lake City” which the church accepts, a “Life of Brigham Young,” which could not have been more fulsome if written by the most devout Mormon, and a “Life of Joseph the Prophet,” which is a valueless expurgated edition of Joseph’s autobiography which ran through the Millennial Star.
The “New Movement” was assisted by the advent of non-Mormons to the territory, by Young’s arbitrary methods in starting his cooperative scheme, by the approaching completion of the Pacific Railroad, and, in a measure, by the organization of the Reorganized Church under the leadership of the prophet Joseph Smith’s eldest son. Two elders of that church, who went to Salt Lake City in 1863, were refused permission to preach in the Tabernacle, but did effective work by house-to-house visitations, and there were said to be more than three hundred of the “Josephites,” as they were called, in Salt Lake City in 1864.*
* “Persecution followed, as they claimed; and in early summer about one-half of the Josephites in Salt Lake City started eastward, so great being the excitement that General Connor ordered a strong escort to accompany them as far as Greene River. To those who remained, protection was also afforded by the authorities.”–Bancroft, “History of Utah,” p. 645.
Harrison and Tullidge had begun the publication of a magazine called the Peep o’ Day at Camp Douglas, but it was a financial failure. Then Godbe and Harrison started the Utah Magazine, of which Harrison was editor. This, too, was only a drain on their purses. Accordingly, some time in the year 1868, giving it over to the care of Tullidge, they set out on a trip to New York by stage. Both were in doubt on many points regarding their church; both were of that mental make-up which is susceptible to “revelations” and “callings”; by the time they reached New York they realized that they were “on the road to apostasy.”
Long discussions of the situation took place between them, and the outcome was characteristic of men who had been influenced by such teachings as those of the Mormons. Kneeling down in their room, they prayed earnestly, and as they did so “a voice spoke to them.” For three weeks, while Godbe transacted his mercantile business, his friend prepared questions on religion and philosophy, “and in the evening, by appointment, ‘a band of spirits’ came to them and held converse with them, as friends would speak with friends. One by one the questions prepared by Mr. Harrison were read, and Mr. Godbe and Mr. Harrison, with pencil and paper, took down the answers as they heard them given by the spirits.”* The instruction which they thus received was Delphic in its clearness–that which was true in Mormonism should be preserved and the rest should be rejected.
* “Rocky Mountain Saints,” p. 631.
When they returned to Utah they took Elder Eli B. Kelsey, Elder H. W. Lawrence, a man of wealth, and Stenhouse into their confidence, and it was decided to wage open warfare on Young’s despotism, using the Utah Magazine as their mouthpiece. Without attacking Young personally, or the fundamental Mormon beliefs, the magazine disputed Young’s doctrine that the world . was degenerating to ruin, held up the really “great characters” the world has known, that Young might be contrasted with them, and discussed the probabilities of honest errors in religious beliefs. When the Mormon leaders read in the magazine such doctrine as that, “There is one false error which possesses the minds of some in this, that God Almighty intended the priesthood to do our thinking,” they realized that they had a contest on their hands. Young got into trouble with the laboring men at this time. He had contracts for building a part of the Pacific Railroad, which were sublet at a profit. An attempt by him to bring about a reduction of wages gave the magazine an opportunity to plead the laborers’ cause which it gladly embraced.*
* Harpers Magazine, Vol. XLIII, p. 605.
In the summer of 1869 Alexander and David Hyrum Smith, sons of the prophet, visited Salt Lake City in the interest of the Reorganized Church. Many of Young’s followers still looked on the sons of the prophet as their father’s rightful successor to the leadership of the Church, as Young at Nauvoo had promised that Joseph III should be. But these sons now found that, even to be acknowledged as members of Brigham’s fold, they must accept baptism at the hands of one of his elders, and acknowledge the “revelation” concerning polygamy as coming from God. They had not come with that intent. But they called on Young and discussed with him the injection of polygamy into the church doctrines. Young finally told them that they possessed, not the spirit of their father, but of their mother Emma, whom Young characterized as “a liar, yes, the damnedest liar that lived,” declaring that she tried to poison the prophet * He refused to them the use of the Tabernacle, but they spoke in private houses and, through the influence of the Walker brothers, secured Independence Hall. The Brighamites, using a son of Hyrum Smith as their mouthpiece,** took pains that a goodly number of polygamists should attend the Independence Hall meetings, and interruptions of the speakers turned the gatherings into something like personal wrangles.
* For Alexander Smith’s report, see True Latter-Day Saints’ Herald, Vol. XVI, pp. 85-86.
** Hyrum’s widow went to Salt lake City, and died there in September, 1852, at the house of H. C. Kimball, who had taken care of her.
The presence of the prophet’s sons gave the leaders of “The Reformation” an opportunity to aim a thrust at what was then generally understood to be one of Brigham Young’s ambitions, namely, the handing down of the Presidency of the church to his oldest son; and an article in their magazine presented the matter in this light: “If we know the true feeling of our brethren, it is that they never intend Joseph Smith’s nor any other man’s son to preside over them, simply because of their sonship. The principle of heirship has cursed the world for ages, and with our brethren we expect to fight it till, with every other relic of tyranny, it is trodden under foot.” Young accepted this challenge, and at once ordered Harrison and two other elders in affiliation with him to depart on missions. They disobeyed the order.
Godbe and Harrison told their friends in Utah that they had learned from the spirits who visited them in New York that the release of the people of the territory from the despotism of the church could come only through the development of the mines. So determined was the opposition of Young’s priesthood to this development that its open advocacy in the magazine was the cause of more serious discussion than that given to any of the other subjects treated. As “The Reformation” did not then embrace more than a dozen members, the courage necessary to defy the church on such a question was not to be belittled. Just at that time came the visit of the Illinois party and of Vice President Colfax, and the latter was made acquainted with their plans and gave them encouragement. Ten days later the magazine, in an article on “The True Development of the Territory,” openly advised paying more attention to mining. Young immediately called together the “School of the Prophets.” This was an organization instituted in Utah, with the professed object of discussing doctrinal questions, having the “revelations” of the prophet elucidated by his colleagues, etc. It was not open to all church members, the “scholars” attending by invitation, and it soon became an organization under Young’s direction which took cognizance of the secular doings of the people, exercising an espionage over them. The school is no longer maintained. Before this school Young denounced the “Reformers” in his most scathing terms, going so far as to intimate that his rule was itself in danger. Consequently the leaders of the “New Movement” were notified to appear before the High Council for a hearing.
When this hearing occurred, Young managed that Godbe and Harrison should be the only persons on trial. Both of them defied him to his face, denying his “right to dictate to them in all things spiritual and temporal,”–this was the question put to them,–and protesting against his rule. They also read a set of resolutions giving an outline of their intended movements. They were at once excommunicated, and the only elder, Eli B. Kelsey, who voted against this action was immediately punished in the same way. Kelsey was not granted even the perfunctory hearing that was customarily allowed in such cases, and he was “turned over to the devil,” instead of being consigned by the usual formula “to the buffetings of Satan.”
But this did not silence the “Reformers.” Their lives were considered in danger by their acquaintances, and the assassination of the most prominent of them was anticipated;* but they went straight ahead on the lines they had proclaimed. Their first public meetings were held on Sunday, December 19, 1869. The knowledge of the fact that they claimed to act by direct and recent revelation gave them no small advantage with a people whose belief rested on such manifestations of the divine will, and they had crowded audiences. The services were continued every Sunday, and on the evening of one week day; the magazine went on with its work, and they were the founders of the Salt Lake Tribune which later, as a secular journal, has led the Gentile press in Utah.
* “In August my husband sent a respectful and kindly letter to the Bishop of our ward, stating that he had no faith in Brigham’s claim to an Infallible Priesthood; and that he considered that he ought to be cut off from the church. I added a postscript stating that I wished to share my husband’s fate. A little after ten o’clock, on the Saturday night succeeding our withdrawal from the church, we were returning home together . . . when we suddenly saw four men come out from under some trees at a little distance from us . . . . As soon as they approached, they seized hold of my husband’s arms, one on each side, and held him firmly, thus rendering him almost powerless. They were all masked . . . . In an instant I saw them raise their arms, as if taking aim, and for one brief second I thought that our end had surely come, and that we, like so many obnoxious persons before us, were about to be murdered for the great sin of apostasy. This I firmly believe would have been my husband’s fate if I had not chanced to be with him or had I run away . . . . The wretches, although otherwise well armed, were not holding revolvers in their hands as I at first supposed. They were furnished with huge garden syringes, charged with the most disgusting filth. My hair, bonnet, face, clothes, person–every inch of my body, every shred I wore–were in an instant saturated, and my husband and myself stood there reeking from head to foot. The villains, when they had perpetrated this disgusting and brutal outrage, turned and fled.”–Mrs. Stenhouse, “Tell it All,” pp. 578-581.
But the attempt to establish a reformed Mormonism did not succeed, and the organization gradually disappeared. One of the surviving leaders said to me (in October, 1901): “My parents had believed in Mormonism, and I believed in the Mormon prophet and the doctrines set forth in his revelations. We hoped to purify the Mormon church, eradicating evils that had annexed themselves to it in later years. But our study of the question showed us that the Mormon faith rested on no substantial basis, and we became believers in transcendentalism.” Mr. Godbe and Mr. Lawrence still reside in Utah. The former has made and lost more than one fortune in the mines. The Mormon historian Whitney says of the leaders in this attempted reform: “These men were all reputable and respected members of the community. Naught against their morality or general uprightness of character was known or advanced.”* Stenhouse, writing three years before Young’s death, said:–
* Whitney’s “History of Utah,” Vol. II, p. 332.
“But for the boldness of the Reformers, Utah to-day would not have been what it is. Inspired by their example, the people who have listened to them disregarded the teachings of the priesthood against trading with or purchasing of the Gentiles. The spell was broken, and, as in all such like experience, the other extreme was for a time threatened. Walker Brothers regained their lost trade . . . . Reference could be made to elders, some of whom had to steal away from Utah, for fear of violent hands being laid upon them had their intended departure been made known, who are to-day wealthy and respected gentlemen in the highest walks of life, both in the United States and in Europe.”
** For accounts of “The Reformation” by leaders in it, see Chap. 53 of Stenhouse’s “Rocky Mountain Saints,” and Tullidge’s article, Harper’s Magazine, Vol. XLIII, p. 602.
CHAPTER XXI. The Last Years Of Brigham Young
Governor Doty died in June, 1865, without coming in open conflict with Young, and was succeeded by Charles Durkee, a native of Vermont, but appointed from Wisconsin, which state he had represented in the United States Senate. He resigned in 1869, and was succeeded by J. Wilson Shaffer of Illinois, appointed by President Grant at the request of Secretary of War Rawlins, who, in a visit to the territory in 1868, concluded that its welfare required a governor who would assert his authority. Secretary S. A. Mann, as acting governor, had, just before Shaffer’s arrival, signed a female suffrage bill passed by the territorial legislature. This gave offence to the new governor, and Mann was at once succeeded by Professor V. H. Vaughn of the University of Alabama, and Chief Justice C. C. Wilson (who had succeeded Titus) by James B. McKean. The latter was a native of Rensselaer County, New York; had been county judge of Saratoga County from 1854 to 1858, a member of the 36th and 37th Congresses, and colonel of the 72nd New York Volunteers.
Governor Shaffer’s first important act was to issue a proclamation forbidding all drills and gatherings of the militia of the territory (which meant the Nauvoo Legion), except by the order of himself or the United States marshal. Wells, signing himself “Lieutenant General,” sent the governor a written request for the suspension of this order. The governor, in reply, reminded Wells that the only “Lieutenant General” recognized by law was then Philip H. Sheridan, and declined to assist him in a course which “would aid you and your turbulent associates to further convince your followers that you and your associates are more powerful than the federal government.” Thus practically disappeared this famous Mormon military organization.
Governor Shaffer was ill when he reached Utah, and he died a few days after his reply to Wells was written, Secretary Vaughn succeeding him until the arrival of G. A. Black, the new secretary, who then became acting governor pending the arrival of George L. Woods, an ex-governor of Oregon, who was next appointed to the executive office.
As soon as the new federal judges, who were men of high personal character, took their seats, they decided that the United States marshal, and not the territorial marshal, was the proper person to impanel the juries in the federal courts, and that the attorney general appointed by the President under the Territorial Act, and not the one elected under that act, should prosecute indictments found in the federal courts. The chief justice also filled a vacancy in the office of federal attorney. The territorial legislature of 1870, accordingly, made no appropriation for the expenses of the courts; and the chief justice, in dismissing the grand and petit juries on this account, explained to them that he had heard one of the high priesthood question the right of Congress even to pass the Territorial Act.
In September, 1871, the United States marshal summoned a grand jury from nine counties (twenty-three jurors and seventeen talesmen) of whom only seven were Mormons. All the latter, examined on their voir dire, declared that they believed that polygamy was a revelation to the church, and that they would obey
the revelation rather than the law, and all were successfully challenged. This grand jury, early in October, found indictments against Brigham Young, “General” Wells, G. Q. Cannon, and others under a territorial statute directed against lewdness and improper cohabitation. This action caused intense excitement in the Mormon capital. Prosecutor Baskin was quoted as saying that