The Story of the Mormons, from the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901 Part 68

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 pa.s.sed 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 inst.i.tution so important as that of marriage wanting in all those qualities that make it h.o.m.ogeneal with inst.i.tutions 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 Was.h.i.+ngton, 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 Was.h.i.+ngton 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 Was.h.i.+ngton.

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 ma.s.s-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 pet.i.tion 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 "Ma.r.s.eillaise."

* 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 const.i.tuents," 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 pa.s.s 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 circ.u.mstances, 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 ma.s.s-meeting became known at Camp Douglas, all the commissioned officers there signed a counter pet.i.tion 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 a.s.sembled around his house.* Steptoe, who in an earlier year had declined the governors.h.i.+p of the territory and pet.i.tioned 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 pa.s.sing 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 t.i.tus 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 a.s.sume 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 a.s.sa.s.sination 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 (Ma.s.sachusetts) 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 abolis.h.i.+ng 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 G.o.d."*

* "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 t.i.tle 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 ill.u.s.tration 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 a.s.sa.s.sin."

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 wors.h.i.+p 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. Bra.s.sfield, 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 Was.h.i.+ngton, 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 a.s.sistant 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 establis.h.i.+ng 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 a.s.serting 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 t.i.tus and McCurdy were asked to a.s.sist.

The chief feature of this hearing was the summing up by Ex-Governor J.