The Rocky Mountain Saints/Chapter 42

The social position of many of the Mormons was much improved by the entrance of the army into the Valley. However much they were prepared to fight the troops before they saw them, there were few indeed who did not afterwards thank a kind Providence for their arrival. The people had been utterly destitute of almost everything necessary to their social comfort. They were poorly clad, and rarely ever saw anything upon their tables but what was prepared from flour, corn, beet-molasses, and the vegetables and fruits of their little gardens. They were alike destitute of implements of industry, and horses, mules, and wagons for their agricultural operations. Utah was truly very poor.

The presence of the army soon changed the condition of those who were bold enough to seek directly the intercourse of trade with the Gentiles, and the more timid, who were afraid to be known as having themselves any dealings with the camp, in course of time found out ways of supplying those who dared to risk the anathemas of the Tabernacle. In this way money was gathered in freely by the Gentiles and the bold Mormon traders, and the people generally were thus indirectly clothed, and supplied with the delicacies of tea, coffee, and sugar, in ​return for the produce of the field, the dairy, and the chickencoop.

It was a certain indication of "apostacy" for any of the people to deal with the camp; but as the heavens have always been very complaisant towards "Brother Brigham," he was not held to such strict accountability. It has been argued in defence of some of his dealings which eventually came to light, that if he had utterly refused to supply the camp with flour, the Govvernment might have charged him with hostility! While the Tithing-office clerks, who had the handling of the flour, found it necessary for the preservation of their own confidence in the Prophet to adopt this convenient philosophy, the "Chief" himself has never deemed it expedient to make any allusion to the circumstance. He, however, was kind enough not to parade the transaction before the eyes of the people, and the wagons which took the wheat of the people's contributions from the Church Tithing-office, were not necessarily employed in the blaze of noonday!

Among the rascalities of those times, contracts were awarded to certain "political hucksters" at Washington for an enormous quantity of flour to be supplied at $28.40 per 100 lbs., which, in course of time, was furnished by the Prophet at $6 in the City of the Saints. That contractor also managed to get an order from the Secretary of War for the specie at Camp Floyd, failing which he was to be paid in mules, and of these he had his choice, at figures ranging from $100 to $150 each. Great bands of these animals were driven to California, and sold on the Pacific at nearly six times their Camp Floyd prices. With such and many other more flagrant facts, it is not surprising that the Prophet and the apostles designated Mr. Buchanan's expedition to Utah, in 1857, "a Contractors' War!"

But the army was the Republican entering wedge to Theocracy, and the isolation of the prophets. Men of sober thought and of resolute purpose saw clearly enough that, however well adapted might be the revelations of Mount Sinai to the wandering Israelites in Zin, the prohibitive teachings of Brigham Young were a compound of folly and duplicity. ​They burst the chains that bound them to the Prophet's chariot, and began that struggle for freedom in Utah that has eventuated in the present freedom of the press and the platform.

Unable to throw off at once allegiance to the priesthood, some merchants lightened the oppressive weight by compounding with the Prophet, and paying grudgingly a tithe of all their income to the Church. Foremost, and nearly alone, as pioneers in the grand work of personal freedom in Utah were the Messrs. Walker Brothers and Mr. John Chislett, the latter of whom, in the hand-cart expedition, has already been presented in these pages, and the former will be spoken of at greater length in a future chapter.

With such a large body of troops there were, as usual, numerous camp-followers plying their petit industries, gambling, thieving, and drinking. General Johnston, with strict surveillance and severe military punishment, had been able to control them on the march and at Camp Scott; but when they found in the valleys of the Saints a wider and safer field for operations, they gave rein to their vilest passions, and a worse set of vagabonds never afflicted any community with their presence than did the followers of Johnston's army the inhabitants of the chief city of Zion. Quite a number of young Mormons—and some not so young—became as reckless and daring as any of the imported Gentiles, and life and property for a time were very insecure in Salt Lake City.

The programme of the police authorities seemed to be to give the desperadoes the largest liberty, so that they might, in their drunken carousals, "kill off each other," and what they left undone invisible hands readily accomplished. During the summer and fall of 1859 there was a murder committed in Salt Lake City almost every week, and very rarely were the criminals brought to justice.

The Mormon leaders taught the people to attend to their fields and work-shops, keep out of "Whiskey Street," and let "Civilization"^[1] take its course. They had plenty of hard ​work to engage their attention, and no money, so that the business street was seldom visited by them, and they saw little of what was transpiring in their midst. The Church weekly paper took pride in reporting, as it occurred, "another man for breakfast," and with that "the people of God" were satisfied that "the good work was rolling on." Israel would one day be free from his oppressors.

The rioting and killing that were traceable occupied little more than passing attention, but the midnight work of invisible hands created a sensation of terror in the minds of all who were inimical to the priesthood. The Valley Tan, notwithstanding its true boldness, felt the danger of the hour, and in one of its doleful wails ejaculated: "How long, oh! how long are scenes like this to continue? . . . . It would seem as if the insatiable demon and enemy of man must himself be gorged with the flow of human blood in our midst." . . . . . "No man's life is secure as long as the scenes of violence and bloodshed, which have been of such frequent occurrence among us for months past, continue to be repeated, and the perpetrators escape unpunished or not detected."

The bloody work continued, and finally terminated with the murder of Brewer and Joaquin Johnston,^[2] two intimate friends, who were shot at the same instant as they were walking home together. The Author well remembers seeing very early the next morning the marshal of the city and the chief of police, who gravely informed him of the "sad news."—"Johnston and Brewer had quarrelled, and killed each other!" This story was feeble enough, but no one cared to question it the people had got used to the record of scenes of blood.

In the "swift destruction" that fell upon the desperadoes, there was no mitigation of punishment on account of faith or family relationship, and very respectable Mormon families had ​to mourn the untimely end of boys who, before the entrance of the army, gave promise of lives of usefulness and honour. All the bad and desperate Mormons were not brought to judgment, but the pretext alone was wanting for carrying more extensively into execution the general programme. Resistance to an officer, or the slightest attempt to escape from custody, was eagerly seized, when wanted, as the justification of closing a disreputable career, and in more than one case of this legal shooting, there is much doubt if even the trivial excuse was waited for. The Salt Lake police then earned the reputation of affording every desperate prisoner the opportunity of escape, and, if embraced, the officer's ready revolver brought the fugitive to a "halt," and saved the county the expenses of a trial and his subsequent boarding in the penitentiary. A coroner's inquest and cemetery expenses were comparatively light.

With the troops themselves there was no collision. The Governor had requested General Johnston to withhold furlough from the soldiers, and few of them ever had the opportunity of visiting the City of the Saints. With some officers there had been, in the city, slight difficulties, which were, however, easily settled. Only one serious affair occurred, ending in the death of Sergeant Pike. This person was charged with violently assaulting a young Mormon and cracking his skull with a musket. During the sergeant's trial in Salt Lake City, while on the public street at noon, passing to his hotel, a young man shot him down, and shortly afterward he died. The young man, with the aid of others, escaped, and was never arrested. There was great excitement at Camp Floyd, but the sergeant's comrades were too far away to retaliate.

From the time of the arrival of the troops in the valley, Brigham was personally very cautious, and never exposed himself to attack. For a long time he absented himself rom the public assemblies, kept an armed door-keeper at the entrance of his residences, and by night was protected by an armed guard of the faithful. Every ward in the city took its turn in watching over the Prophet, and the floor of his offices was nightly covered with a guard, armed and equipped, and ready at a moment's notice to repulse the imaginary foe.

During the day, when Brigham ventured beyond the outer ​walls of his premises, half a dozen friends always accompanied him wherever he went. It is pleasing to add that no one ever so much as said to him an unbecoming word.

But there was soon to be a change in Zion.

In Congress the political excitement over slavery was rapidly travelling to a culmination. The news from the East was cheering to the Prophet's soul, and he felt assured of the early departure of the troops. The horizon began to lighten up.

The experiment of the Pony Express from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean had been undertaken just in time to make early news a necessity. From the East the constant rumours of secession were too good for the pony to be permitted to pass by without its rider dropping a duplicate of the despatches which he was conveying for the Pacific press.

"The Lord " was again to be seen. He was about to comfort Zion, and to exchange her mourning for joy. What a wonderful buoyancy there is in human nature, and how readily it asserts itself after a long season of depression! The Tabernacle was again to be blessed with the presence of the Prophet, and the Saints were to rejoice in the fullest freedom. Sitting under vines and fig-trees and none daring to make them afraid, was no longer a prophecy which awaited a distant realization. The happy time was at their doors, and Uncle Sam was to be visited with the wrath of the Almighty, and the words of the Prophet Joseph were now to be fulfilled. Joseph, long years before, had had a remarkable revelation, which all the Saints believed, and the time of its accomplishment was at hand:

REVELATION GIVEN DECEMBER 25, 1882.

"Verily thus saith the Lord, concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls. The days will come that war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at that place; for behold the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon other nations in order to defend themselves against other nations; and thus war shall be poured out upon all nations. And it shall come to pass, after many days, slaves shall rise up against their masters, who shall be marshalled and disciplined for war. And it shall come to pass, also, that ​the remnants who are left of the land will marshal themselves, and shall become exceeding angry, and shall vex the Gentiles with a sore vexation; and thus with the sword, and by bloodshed, the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn; and with famine and plague and earthquakes, and the thunder of heaven and the fierce and vivid lightning also, shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath and indignation and chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the consummation decreed hath made a full end of all nations; that the cry of the Saints, and of the blood of the Saints, shall cease to come up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, from the earth, to be avenged of their enemies. Wherefore stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen."

At a conference held in Nauvoo, April 6, 1843—the year preceding the Prophet's death—he reiterated the prediction:

"I prophecy in the name of the Lord God, that the commencement of the difficulties which will cause much bloodshed, previous to the coming of the Son of Man, will be in South Carolina (it probably may arise through the slave question); this a voice declared to me, while I was praying earnestly on the subject, December 25, 1832."

When the reader takes into consideration the Alabama arbitration at Geneva, and the peaceable adjustment of Britain's difficulties with the United States, the hasty fulfilment may not be very evident of that part of the prediction which states that Great Britain is to "call upon other nations in order to defend themselves against other nations; and thus war shall be poured out upon all nations." Equally obscure and improbable is the prediction of the time when the "remnant" [Indians] "who are left of the land will marshal themselves and become exceeding angry, and shall vex the Gentiles with a sore vexation."

The Saints at the outbreak of the war, however, saw none of these difficulties; they were filled with joy, resulting from the fact that South Carolina had flung to the breeze the Palmetto flag and "fired the first gun." Joseph was now worthy of national recognition as a prophet, and the horizon of the Saints was radiant with glory.

The Federal troops at Camp Floyd were ordered to the Potomac. That movement brought great joy to "Israel."

The expedition to Utah had cost the treasury at least fourteen millions of dollars. An enormous quantity of munitions ​of war had been accumulated at Camp Floyd. It was impossible to re-transport this back again to the States, and with the settled fear that the Mormons could not be entrusted with the means of successful rebellion, the order was given to destroy the best equipped military post ever established in the West.^[3]

Before the evacuation and the destruction of arms, public sales were announced of provisions and army stores of every kind. The Mormon people who had religious scruples about visiting the camp stayed at home; but those who went made fortunes. Brigham had his agents there and bought enormously for a mere song.

Mr. H. B. Clawson, Brigham's son-in-law and agent, during the sale became familiarly acquainted with quarter-master Col. H. G. Crossman and other officers. The army now, instead of being threatening and a terror to the Saints, as had been predicted, was to them and their prophet a source of wealth and prosperity. It was, therefore, very proper for Mr. Clawson to extend to the officers a courteous invitation to visit President Young before their departure from the Territory. They politely accepted, and seized the opportunity to present to the Prophet the flag-staff which had borne aloft the national banner at Camp Floyd. It was afterwards transplanted to the brow of the hill on the east of Brigham's mansion, and, singularly enough, that flag-staff on which were hoisted the "stars and stripes" to rally the troops that had come to overthrow "the kingdom," was subsequently used to assemble the Mormons for the defence of Brigham against the Californian volunteers, who for months were expected to arrest him.

After the sales were over, the arms and amunition were taken to a distance and piled up in pyramids; long trains of powder were then properly arranged, and at a given signal the fusee was touched, and away up in the air went the missiles of death that had been prepared to trouble the "Saints of the Most High." Could the faithful do other than rejoice and ​see in the ruin and desolation that covered the military reserve the workings of a kind Providence that over-ruled all things for their good?

Several pieces of ordnance that could not be exploded were consigned to deep wells; but the bishop of that region, with the aid of the faithful, brought them from their watery graves and gave them a glorious resurrection. They now do excellent service on the Fourth and twenty-fourth of July, when the city rejoices in the National birthday, and in the greater day of the arrival of the pioneers in the Great Basin of the Mountains.

In the early autumn of 1861 the troops marched from Zion, and thus ended the military expedition of "King James" Buchanan against the Prophet Brigham.