The Rocky Mountain Saints/Chapter 35

In his moments of calm reflection, Judge Brocchus may have concluded that his zeal against polygamy had outstripped his prudence. The Government took that view of it, and quietly "dropped" the "runaway judges and secretary." Judges Reed and Shaver, with Secretary Ferris, soon replaced Brandebury, Brocchus, and Harris. Brigham was triumphant.

The new appointees, as might be expected, received a cordial welcome. The judges reciprocated, but the secretary shared the sentiments of his predecessor. The judges delivered some favourable speeches and wrote some friendly letters, but the secretary soon after published a book expressing sentiments the very antipodes of those uttered by his Federal associates. Thenceforth Brigham's policy was to array the Federal officers against each other, and in doing so he has been singularly successful.

The successors of the "runaway" officials held brief tenure of power. Judge Reed returned to New York on a visit, and there died. Judge Shaver, apparently in good health at night, was found the next morning dead in his bed. Secretary Ferris, after a short residence, went to California. Though Judge Shaver had spoken very kindly of the Mormons, and was exceedingly "social" with "the brethren," his sudden death furnished gossips with the story of his being poisoned on account of some supposed difficulty with Brigham. The Author has never seen any ground for such a suspicion.^[1] The judge ​was buried with processional honours, and a discourse by one of the apostles embalmed his memory in the history of the Church.

Chief-Justice John F. Kinney, Associate Justices George P. Stiles and W. W. Drummond, and Secretary Almon W. Babbitt, were the third "batch" of officials. Judge Kinney has a very important history, and appears frequently in this work. Judge Stiles had been reared in Mormonism, but was inharmonious with the priesthood. Judge Drummond turned out a perfect Mephistopheles to the Saints. Secretary Babbitt was a full-fledged Mormon.

At this period of Utah history the Government at Washington was seemingly very kindly disposed towards the Saints, as all but two of the Federal offices were held by Mormons; but the political thermometer at Washington is always very variable.

The report of the "runaway" officials, though it accomplished nothing for themselves, stirred up the nation respecting polygamy, and what was regarded as defiance of Government. Up to the time of this report, the Church had made no public acknowledgment of polygamy as a principle of the faith. It could now no longer be concealed, and Brigham announced that he was ready to publish the revelation.

The avowal of polygamy was for a time a grave subject at Washington; but that was a question only of morals, and Congress is slow to legislate on morality. The reported speech, "Old Zachary is in hell, and I am glad of it," charged to Brigham, stirred up the political animus at the seat of government a vast deal more, and in course of time Brigham's removal from the governorship was resolved upon.

In a Tabernacle address, June 19, 1853, Brigham denied being the author of the statement about President Taylor, and said that he had only endorsed the statement of some one else: "I simply bore testimony to the truth of it."^[2] In his denial he manifests an evasiveness that does not improve the subject.

Brigham was, however, secure as Governor. His words, "I am and will be Governor, and no power can hinder it," were ​very galling to those who sought his removal. But behind that boldness there appeared in the published sermon a shrewd proviso to fall back upon in case his removal should be accomplished: "Until the Lord Almighty says, 'Brigham, you need not be Governor any longer!'"

In 1854, Lieutenant-Colonel E. J. Steptoe, with about three hundred of his regiment, arrived in the Territory on their way to California. Much kind attention was paid to the colonel and his officers; social parties were frequent, and very pleasant relations existed.

Early in December, President Pierce tendered to the colonel the appointment of Governor of Utah; but before the next returning monthly mail, a memorial to his Excellency, headed by Chief-Justice Kinney, was signed, requesting Brigham's reappointment as Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs. The colonel's name followed that of Kinney, and the names of the officers of the regiment—three Mormons—Judge Shaver and District-Attorney Hollman.

A very romantic story is told by Mrs. C. V. Waite, in her book, in which Brigham is charged with using two sisters of easy virtue to enveigle the colonel into an unpleasant position, by which, in the language of the Tabernacle, "the Lord put a hook in the colonel's' nose." But, without that incentive to leave the Saints, the colonel doubtless preferred the profession of arms to the honour of being Governor over a handful of poor people in a desert so far removed from the rest of mankind, and after receiving such demonstrative kindness from the Mormons, could not well afford to accept an appointment which would have ousted his chief host against the wishes of the people. It is said that the colonel's letter of appointment was not hastily delivered after it reached Salt Lake City, and between the arrival of the mail that should have brought the appointment and the arrival of the mail at which the letter of appointment was delivered, dancing parties were given that secured the kind feeling of the colonel and his officers. "The Lord" had not yet concluded, "Brigham, you need not be Governor any longer," and so, in 1855, he was reappointed by President Franklin Pierce.

In the organic act of the Territory it is provided that "the ​governor, secretary, chief justice and associate justices, attorney and marshal, shall be nominated, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appointed by the President of the United States." In the list of first Federal appointments the last two important offices—those of United States attorney and United States marshal—were filled by two Mormons, Messrs. Seth M. Blair and Joseph L. Heywood. With the appointment of a Gentile to the office of United States marshal as successor of Mr. Heywood, the question of jurisdiction was forced upon the attention of the court, and very singularly the most important question that has agitated Utah during twenty years was first entertained before a Federal judge who had himself been many years a Mormon.

The Territorial Legislature had created a Territorial marshal, and now a conflict was inevitable between him and the marshal appointed by the United States. The United States marshal claimed that he was the executive officer of the United States courts, whether the business before the court was federal or territorial; the Mormon marshal claimed that he was the officer of the United States court while it was occupied with territorial business. It was of little consequence to any one whether the fees of the court should pass into the pocket of a United States marshal or a territorial marshal; but it was a matter of great importance to every one which of these two officials should empanel the juries and enforce the writs of the court.

Judge Stiles favoured the claim of the United States marshal, and brought a storm of wrath about his head. Had he been purely a Gentile judge, he would have fared better, but being a renegade Mormon, and defying the priesthood that he once obeyed, there was no indignity too great to offer him. Some Mormon lawyers entered the court while the question was pending, and, led by the best lawyer among them, insulted and threatened the judge with personal violence unless he ruled as they demanded. On account of these intimidations he hastily adjourned his court.^[3]

​Some of the "good brethren" had now their attention directed to the renegade judge, and while he was absent from his office they gathered up the records of the United States District Courts, placed them in safe keeping, and afterwards made a fire of books and papers found in his office. On his return, when he saw the fire, he very naturally concluded, as his office was ransacked, that all the books, records, and papers were destroyed. That insane and foolish outrage created a great sensation throughout the States adverse to the Saints.

Consistently with their programme, and possessing a great country in which "Israel could increase and multiply and become a great people," the leaders were continually calling upon the Saints to "spread abroad the curtains of Zion," and as soon as it was safe to venture in advance of a settlement already made, the survey of another was immediately commenced.

North and south of Salt Lake the Mormon colonists had only the Indians to contend with, and by judiciously avoiding any conflict with the red men they experienced comparatively little trouble. But when the colonists pushed forward to the western frontier of the Territory they there met with the adventurous miner, and peace was thenceforth very doubtful.

In 1854, the western mission was given to about seventy ​families, who were directed to go out to Carson Valley-about seven hundred miles—under the supervision of Orson Hyde, the president of the apostles. Soon after that, the Legislature of Utah organized the whole of that district under the name of Carson county, appointing at the same time elder Hyde as probate judge.

It soon became evident that the Gentiles would resist all Mormon law wherever there was a hope of success. It was difficult for the miners to comprehend how the Mormons could legitimately exercise any authority over them. They had only heard of the Mormons as a religious community, and when the apostolic probate judge had assessments to make, or the officers of his court had decrees to enforce, it seemed to the "honest miner" a huge joke, or unbearable tyranny.

Besides the occupation of the country by the mining population, enterprising men found that it was well adapted for cattle grazing and farming. Families soon settled there, and the population was about equally composed of Gentiles and Mormons. The Gentiles snapped their fingers at the Mormon lawgivers, and an anti-Mormon organization was soon established. The apostle-judge had rendered some decision that required enforcement. The officer of the court called for a posse to assist him, and the parties immediately arranged themselves for battle, and "for two weeks," says the Hon. James M. Crane, "their armies camped nearly in sight of each other, without coming to a direct battle." "The Lord," ever watchful over his Saints, revealed to "brother Orson" that it was necessary to call off the brethren, and thus this bloodless war for the moment ended.

This Mormon experience in western colonization differed little in spirit and principle from that which previously existed in Missouri and Illinois. There is an instinctive feeling of dislike to civil rule being administered by any one claiming ecclesiastical authority.

The anti-Mormons appealed to Congress, and asked that the eastern boundary of California might be extended still further east, so that the settlers in Carson Valley might find themselves under the jurisdiction of citizens like themselves. In this memorial they alleged all sorts of bad things against the ​Mormon rulers, and particularly objected to the probate judge taking into their midst "one of his spiritual wives for whom he claims recognition, which the ladies petitioning indignantly refuse."

Congress discountenanced the suggestion that the boundaries of the Golden State should be extended, but sympathized with the Gentile population, and expressed an opinion that "some measure of wider scope is necessary to effect a radical cure of the moral and political pestilence which makes Utah the scandal of the American people."

Associate-Justice W. W. Drummond, it is asserted by the Mormons, brought with him to the Territory "a lady companion," while his wife and family were left in Illinois. After the notice of his arrival in the Mormon paper had been published, some relatives of Mrs. Drummond paid a visit to the judge's "companion," and, unfortunately for the judge, the "lady" from St. Louis did not answer to the description of the wife in Oquawkee. The discovery did not long remain a secret. The "lady" travelled with his Honour wherever he held court, and on some occasions she sat beside him on the bench.

Plurality of wives was to the Mormons a part of their religion openly acknowledged to all the world. Drummond's plurality was the outrage of a respectable wife' of excellent reputation for the indulgence of a common prostitute, and the whole of his conduct was a gross insult to the Government which he represented, and the people among whom he was sent to administer law. For any contempt that the Mormons exhibited towards such a man, there is no need of apology.

In the spring of 1857, Drummond went to Carson Valley to hold court in the place of Judge Stiles, who repaired to the seat of Government to make affidavit of the breaking up of his court and the destruction of the records of the District Courts.

As soon as Drummond reached the Pacific coast he made a fierce attack upon the Mormons in the papers of San Francisco. His exposure—much of it false, and much of it exaggerated—added to the affidavit of Judge Stiles in Washington, aroused Congress to demand immediate action.

​The attack upon Judge Stiles in a public court of the United States, and the subsequent outrage in his office, would be inexplicable to the reader had it transpired outside of Utah. To the people of that Territory it presented no such difficulty, for it occurred during that fearful period of fanaticism designated "The Reformation," of which an exposé is given in the succeeding chapter.

At no period of the history of Utah has there been a perfect entente cordiale between the representatives of the Government there. Some one among the Federal officers has always been found who could either be "managed" or held in submission by the threat of exposure of personal history, and in such a case the Scripture sentiment is reversed, and he who is not against us is for us. Among those friendly, the sympathy may at times have been honest; but the adhesion to the priesthood and the services rendered to the Territory by the greater number of such officials were evidently for the attainment of a personal purpose.

Few Federal appointments have been made at Washington for Utah that some representative of the Church did not essay in some way to control, and where kindness was unappreciated and a determination evinced from the beginning by a Federal officer to keep clear from all entangling alliances, that man's history and pedigree were exceedingly useful and sure to be reached. He was a "dangerous man," and if anything could be discovered about him, from the hanging of his great-grandfather down to some recent peccadillo of his own, the pigeonhole of his alphabetical letter was soon a repository of "useful information."

The fourth of July, and the anniversary of the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in Salt Lake Valley [July 24], have been useful institutions for ascertaining the sentiments of newly-appointed officials. What wonderful and varied developments have been made!

If the new officers arrived during the latter months of the year, "the parties" at the Social Hall furnished excellent opportunities for polite "complimentary" invitations, to which the kindly-disposed Federals failed not to respond, especially if the gentleman were a "bachelor," with "his family in the ​States," or had some pending divorce on his mind. To be introduced by "President" Brigham Young to the assembled Saints as "The Honourable —— Blackstone;" "The Honourable —— Scratchitorum of State;" "Colonel —— commanding the U. S. A., at Camp ——;" "Major ——, Superintendent of Indian Affairs," was an honour to be blushingly acknowledged and indelibly imprinted upon the soul's remembrance. To all this public attention add a personal introduction to Mrs. A— Young; and of necessity to the other half dozen, Mrs. B—, Mrs. C—, Mrs. D—, Mrs. E—, Mrs. F—, and Mrs. G— Young; and the bewildered Federal was in a fair way to realize that he was "an object of interest" and a personage of some importance. Conducting himself with the usual gallantry of good society, there were at least these seven cotillions to be gone through with first, and when there was added to these the partnership in the dance of downy cheeks in the rosy bloom of maidenhood, that Federal was ready to swear that "the Mormons were the best people upon the earth." To rivet his devotion he is invited to the right hand of the Prophet at "the first supper table" where he hears the humble invocation upon the food, and learns that it is all due to the Lord's favour to His peculiar people in the mountains. The heart of the newly-arrived Federal is softened, and he pledges eternal friendship to the Patriarch.

To the inspiration of such attentions may be attributed the numerous letters which have been hastily written from Utah "to America," recounting the industry, the sobriety of the people, the salubrity of the climate, the bushels of wheat to the acre, the peace that reigned in Zion, the delicious fruit, the Prophet's youthful appearance, and a denial of the unfounded extravagances that have always been in circulation against the Mormons! In the fruit season that Federal could tell of the early delicacies of the plant, the vine, and the tree, before the market had offered them to the public. His utterances and his compliments were reported, and the columns of his home newspaper were watched and culled, and the first inspirations from the Territory were carefully republished for the edification of the Saints in the mountains. Should after-experience change his first impressions, or from one cause or ​another should his friendship chill, he was rendered powerless to act without submitting himself to the charge of inconsistency, and few men of that class have the courage to avow an error or to retrace a foolish step.

With as unjustifiable haste, other Federal officers have betrayed unmanly hostility to the Mormons, before they well knew with what they had to deal. They were ready to consign the leaders to the penitentiary, or to the nethermost regions of the bottomless pit, and were never slow to express openly the pleasure it would afford them to expedite in an official way the travels of apostles, prophets, and bishops to either destination.

One Federal chief-justice went so far in his devotion to Zion as to accept baptismal initiation into the Church. He was afterwards ordained a high priest, and was sent to Congress as delegate. His successor on the bench was as much opposed to the priesthood as he had been subservient to it, and while the delegate was operating in favour of the Church at Washington, the new chief-justice was as diligent in Utah on the opposite side, and in his antipathy denounced everything Mormon. In his view, Nature herself had stamped her curse upon the land. The very peaches were "unnatural and bastard," while all know that that fruit in Utah is unsurpassed in luscious richness.

To such varied individual proclivities—from fawning and servile abasement, to the manifestation of violent antipathies—Utah owes much of the unreliableness of its history; but beneath all, and the cause of all these exhibitions, was the true difficulty—the "irrepressible conflict" between theocracy and republicanism.

The Federal officer who had nothing to ask for, saw in his government and the statutes of the nation the highest development of civilization and human liberty, and he could but seek their supremacy, and demand that they should be respected and obeyed. As naturally, Brigham Young was sincere in circumventing, by every possible means, the assertion of any human will to govern the Saints, in endeavouring to evade every Congressional statute, and prostrating the national representation at the feet of the Priesthood to accomplish the triumph of "the kingdom."

​The other Federal officers, outside of the judiciary, have generally been "let alone"—collision in the exercise of their several duties was not inevitable. A Superintendent of Indians could distribute blankets and flour; a Surveyor-General could drive stakes, run lines, and make maps without hurting any one's interest or any one's inclinations; a Governor could make up his mind to "do nothing," and a Secretary could promptly pay the legislators their per diem and mileage without asking questions about the comforts or troubles of a patriarch's life. All this had been done, and the "elect of the Lord" and the representatives of republicanism have walked together and danced together with perfect unity, but when either of these officials has "taken sides" with the hostile judiciary and given them "aid and comfort," the enchantment of the circle has been rudely broken.

An Indian Superintendent once drifted into hostility, and, among other things, exposed the "Mountain-Meadows massacre." He had quietly misappropriated Indian property, and his delinquencies were proclaimed "upon the house-tops." Two Superintendents succeeded him, who were both kindly disposed towards the Church leaders. They may not, perhaps, have stolen more abundantly, for they were judicious. They became wealthy, however, but against them nought was ever insinuated.

In a fit of discontent, an Indian interpreter, a Mormon, dictated a statement of the peculations of one of these friendly Superintendents, made due affidavits of the facts, affixed his name to the document, and all was ready for exposure. By some legerdemain the document disappeared, and the interpreter suddenly lost all recollection of the facts. On leaving Utah, that Superintendent was further honoured by his government, and in return for the kindness shown him in Utah he laboured for Zion at Washington.

Another Federal officer recently there was in perfect ecstacies over Zion. His wife and he travelled frequently with Brigham Young, in his annual visits to the settlements, and shared with the apostles, prophets, and bishops a place on the platform in the public assemblies. In his admiration, as he witnessed Brigham's equipage and followers on a visiting tour ​north, he ejaculated to the Author: "Brigham has the best thing in America!" That judgment was well founded. In return for all the favours of which that Federal official was the recipient, the revenue office was conducted by Mormon assistants and clerks.

Two secretaries, and, in course of time, both acting-governors, were vastly more serviceable than if they had been members of the Quorum of Apostles.

The ostensible "friendship" of these Federal officials has done a great wrong to the people of Utah. It has clothed the tongues of the priesthood with what they have claimed as impartial testimony from gentlemen outside of the Church, and the mass of the people, who knew not the why and the wherefore, very naturally accepted such testimony as a corroboration of their faith and of the rightful course of their leaders, and as naturally prejudiced them against the men who had dared to tell them unpleasant facts. Whoever else, has been deceived by such testimony, there is no reason for concluding that either the ruling priesthood or the officials themselves were among that number. Brigham's enmity against the Government is too deeply rooted for him ever to have trusted one of its representatives beyond what he wanted the public to be told, and it has been easily discernible in private intercourse with these officials, that their services were nicely balanced as quid pro quo. Every one of them has discovered; sooner or later, that Brigham was their Richelieu.

These few pliant officials have more successfully covered up the wrongs committed in Utah—have done more to shield the guilty and to deceive the public than all their other Federal associates have ever been able to do in telling the truth, enforcing the execution of law, bringing crime to light, and reaching the guilty with punishment.

Concealment encouraged fanaticism, and crimes were committed which would never have been attempted had the vigilance of the law been a certainty. Had the wrongs and murders in Utah been dealt with promptly at the time of their occurrence, it would have been to the honour of the Territory to-day that the violation of law had never gone unpunished, and that terrible fanaticism, which struck terror into the souls ​of all who witnessed its influence, would have been suppressed in its infancy.

The social position of the Mormons during all this time was as trying as their political and judicial controversy and wire-pulling were bewildering. The wealth that was left in Great Salt Lake City by the passing emigration to the goldmines of California was only temporary. Many of the inhabitants of the Territory soon became very poor. The crops had failed in 1854, and famine stared them in the face, and in some of the settlements the winters had been very severe, and the cattle ranging in the valleys died in great numbers.

All this, of course, was calculated to weaken many in the faith who had supposed that the heavens were specially propitious to Zion, and the priesthood added to the bitterness of privation the assertion that "the Lord" was punishing the Saints for their unfaithfulness. Without a hope outside of Mormonism, they took their chastisement humbly, prayed more and worked harder.

The best provided families in Utah, throughout the winter of 1855–6, had to "ration" their families to the smallest amount of bread-stuffs per day, in order to subsist until the following harvest. The condition of the poor was appalling.^[4]