History of Salt Lake City, Part 12

Author: Tullidge, Edward Wheelock
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Salt Lake City, Star printing company
Number of Pages: 1194

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9. That we fix upon Saturday, the 5th day of April next, for the adjust- ment and final dissolving of the General Assembly of the State of Deseret.

H. C. KIMBALL, President of the Council.

J. M. GRANT, Speaker of the House.

" T. BULLOCK, Clerk."

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

Governor Young issued a proclamation on July Ist, 1851, calling the elec- tion for the first Monday in the following August, when it was accordingly held, August 4th, and the Territorial Legislature of Utah duly created by the people.

The first session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah, was convened in pursuance of the proclamation of the Governor, on the 22d day of September, A. D. 1851 ; and continued by adjournments to the 18th day of Feb- ruary, A. D. 1852. This was succeeded by a special session, called by proclama- tion of the Governor, and convened the day following, continuing until the 6th day of March, A. D. 1852.

BRIGHAM YOUNG, Governor.

MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL:

Great Salt Lake County .- Willard Richards (President), Heber C. Kimball, Daniel H. Wells, Orson Spencer, Ezra T. Benson (resigned September 24th, 1851), Orson Pratt (elected November 15th, 1851), Jedediah M. Grant (re- signed September 23d, 1851), Edward Hunter (elected November 15th, 1851).

Davis County .- John S. Fullmer.

Weber County .- Lorin Farr, Charles R. Dana.

Utah County .- Alexander Williams, Aaron Jonhson.

San Pete County .- Isaac Morley.

Iron County .- George A. Smith.

MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

Great Salt Lake County .- William W. Phelps (Speaker), Daniel Spencer, Albert P. Rockwood, Nathaniel H. Felt, David Fullmer, Edwin D. Woolley, Phinehas Richards, Joseph Young, Henry G. Sherwood, Wilford Woodruff, Ben- jamin F. Johnson, Hosea Stout, Willard Snow (resigned September 24th, 1851), John Brown (elected November 15, 1851).

Davis County .- Andrew J. Lamereaux, John Stoker, Gideon Brownell. Weber County .- David B. Dille, James Brown, James G. Browning. Utah County .- David Evans, William Miller, Levi W. Hancock.

San Pete County .- Charles Shumway.

Iron County .- Elisha H. Groves, George Brimhall (elected November 15, 1851).

Tooele County,-John Rowberry.

The first printed volume of laws of Utah Territory, had the following title page :

" Acts, Resolutions, and Memorials, passed by the First Annual, and Special Sessions, of the Legislative Assembly, of the Territory of Utah, begun and held at Great Salt Lake City, on the 22d day of September, A. D. 1851. Also the Constitution of the United States, and the Act organizing the Territory of Utah. Published by Authority of the Legislative Assembly. G. S. L. City, U. T. 1852. Brigham H. Young, Printer."

To this was appended a certificate of authenticity, signed by " Willard Rich- ards, Secretary pro tem., appointed by the Governor."

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

At its opening session the members passed the following

" Joint Resolution Legalizing the Laws of the Provisional Government of the State of Deseret :

" Resolved, by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah : That the laws heretofore passed by the Provisional Government of the State of Des- eret, and which do not conflict with the Organic Act of said Territory be, and the same are hereby declared to be legal, and in full force and virtue, and shall so remain until superseded by the action of the Legislative Assembly of the Ter- ritory of Utah.

"Approved October 4, 1851."

This Resolution preserved the original charter of Great Salt Lake City.

The second Resolution, passed on the same day, transferred the political capital from Great Salt Lake City to "Pauvan Valley," where the City of Fillmore was afterwards founded, and Millard County organized and named in honor of the President of the United States, who had so cordially recognized the right of the people of Utah to local self-government and the choice of their own officers.

Severe strictures, however, were passed upon President Fillmore by a por- tion of the American press, for appointing Brigham Young Governor of Utah, which called forth the following correspondence between the President and Col- onel Thomas L. Kane :

" WASHINGTON, July 4, 1851.

" My Dear Sir :- I have just cut the enclosed slip from the Buffalo Courier. It brings serious charges against Brigham Young, Governor of Utah, and falsely charges that I knew them to be true. You will recollect that I relied much upon you for the moral character and standing of Mr. Young. You knew him, and had known him in Utah. You are a democrat, but I doubt not will truly state whether these charges against the moral character of Governor Young are true.

" Please return the article with your letter.

" Not recollecting your given name, I shall address this letter to you as the son of Judge Kane.

" I am, in great haste, truly yours, " Mr. Kane, Philadelphia."

MILLARD FILLMORE.

" PHILADELPHIA, July 11th, 1851.

" My Dear Sir :- I have no wish to evade the responsibility of having vouched for the character of Mr. Brigham Young of Utah, and his fitness for the station he now occupies. I reiterate without reserve, the statement of his excel- lent capacity, energy and integrity, which I made you prior to his appointment. I am willing to say I volunteered to communicate to you the facts by which I was convinced of his patriotism, and devotion to the interests of the Union. I made no qualification when I assured you of his irreproachable moral character, because I was able to speak of this from my own intimate personal knowledge.

" If any show or shadow of evidence can be adduced in support of the

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

charges of your anonymous assailant, the next mail from Utah shall bring you their complete and circumstantial refutation. Meanwhile I am ready to offer this assurance for publication in any form you care to indicate, and challenge contra- diction from any respectable authority.

" I am, Sir, with high respect and esteem, your most obedient servant, " THOMAS L. KANE.

" The President."

Captain Stansbury, in his official report to the government, giving his views and testimony relative to Brigham Young, both as the leader of the Mormon people and the Governor of Utah, said :

" Upon the personal character of the leader of this singular people, it mnay not, perhaps, be proper for me to comment in a communication like the present. I may, nevertheless, be pardoned for saying, that to me, President Young ap- peared to be a man of clear, sound sense, fully alive to the responsibilities of the station he occupies, sincerely devoted to the good name of the people over whom he presides, sensitively jealous of the least attempt to under-value or misrepresent them, and indefatigable in devising ways and means for their moral, mental, and physical elevation. He appeared to possess the unlimited personal and official confidence of his people; while both he and his councilors, forming the Presi- dency of the Church, seem to have but one object in view, the prosperity and peace of the society over which they preside.

" Upon the action of the Executive in the appointmnt of the officers within the newly created Territory, it does not become me to offer other than a very diffident opinion, Yet the opportunities of information to which allusion has already been made, may perhaps justify me in presenting the result of my own observations upon this subject. With all due deference, then, I feel constrained to say, that in my opinion the appointment of the President of the Mormon Church, and the head of the Mormon community, in preference to any other person, to the high office of Governor of the Territory, independent of its politi- cal bearings, with which I have nothing to do, was a measure dictated alike by justice and by sound policy. Intimately connected with them from their exodus from Illinois, this man has indeed been their Moses, leading them through the wilderness to a remote and unknown land, where they have since set up their tabernacle, and where they are now building their temple, Resolute in danger, firm and sagacious in council, prompt and energetic in emergency, and enthusi- astically devoted to the honor of his people, he had won their unlimited confi- dence, esteem and veneration, and held an unrivaled place in their hearts. Upon the establishment of the provisional government, he had been unanimously chosen as their highest civil magistrate, and even before his appointment by the President, he combined in his own person the triple character of confidential ad- viser, temporal ruler, and prophet of God. Intimately acquainted with their character, capacities, wants, and weaknesses ; identified now with their prosper- ity, as he had formerly shared to the full in their adversities and sorrows; honored, trusted,-the whole wealth of the community placed in his hands, for the advancement both of the spiritual and temporal interest of the infant settle-

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

ment, he was, surely, of all others, the man best fitted to preside, under the aus- pices of the general government, over a colony of which he may justly be said to have been the founder. No other man could have so entirely secured the confi- dence of the people ; and the selection by the Executive of the man of their choice, besides being highly gratifying to them, is recognized as an assurance that they shall hereafter receive at the hands of the general government that justice and consideration to which they are entitled. Their confident hope now is that, no longer fugitives and outlaws, but dwelling beneath the broad shadow of the national ægis, they will be subject no more to the violence and outrage which drove them to seek a secure habitation in this far distant wilderness.

" As to the imputations that have been made against the personal character of the Governor, I feel confident they are without foundation. Whatever opinion may be entertained of his pretensions to the character of an inspired prophet, or of his views and practice of polygamy, his personal reputation I believe to be above reproach. Certain it is that the most entire confidence is felt in his in- tegrity, personal, official, and pecuniary, on the part of those to whom a long and intimate association, and in the most trying emergencies, have afforded every possible opportunity of formimg a just and accurate judgment of his true character.

"From all I saw and heard, I am firmly of the opinion that the appointment of any other man to the office of governor would have been regarded by the whole people, not only as a sanction, but as in some sort a renewal, on the part of the General Government, of that series of persecutions to which they have already been subjected, and would have operated to create distrust and suspicion in minds prepared to hail with joy the admission of the new Territory to the protection of the supreme government."

Very pertinent to the closing paragraph of this testimony of Captain Stans- bury is the following passage of an epistle of the Presidency of the Mormon Church announcing to " the Saints abroad " the event of the organization of the Territory of Utah :

" We anticipate no convulsive revolutionary feeling or movement, by the citizens of Deseret in the anticipated change of governmental affairs ; but an easy and quiet transition from State to Territory, like weary travellers descending a hill near by their way side home.

" As a people, we know how to appreciate, most sensibly, the hand of friend- ship which has been extended towards our infant State, by the General Govern- ment. Coming to this place as did the citizens of Deseret, without the means of subsistence, except the labor of their hands, in a wilderness country, surrounded by savages, whose inroads have given occasion for many tedious and expensive expeditions ; the relief afforded by our mother land, through the medium of the approaching territorial organization, will be duly estimated ; and from henceforth, we would fondly hope the most friendly feelings may be warmly cherished between the various States and Territories of this great nation, whose constitutional charter is not to be excelled."

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

CHAPTER X.

ARRIVAL OF THE FEDERAL JUDGES. FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE UNITED STATES OFFICIALS BEFORE THE CITIZENS AT A SPECIAL CONFERENCE. JUDGE BROCCHUS ASSAULTS THE COMMUNITY. PUBLIC INDIGNATION. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN JUDGE BROCCHUS AND GOVERNOR YOUNG. THE "RUNAWAY" JUDGES AND SECRETARY. DANIEL WEBSTER, SECRE- TARY OF STATE, SUSTAINS GOVERNOR YOUNG AND REMOVES THE OF- FENDING OFFICIALS. FIRST UNITED STATES COURT. THE NEW FEDEREL OFFICERS. ARRIVAL OF COLONEL STEPTOE. RE-APPOINTMENT OF OF BRIGHAM YOUNG. JUDGE SHAVER FOUND DEAD. JUDGES DRUM- MOND AND STILES.

In July, 1851, four of the Federal officers arrived in Great Salt Lake City, and waited upon his Excellency Governor Young. They were Lemuel G. Brande- bury, Chief Justice, and Perry E. Brocchus and Zerubbabel Snow, Associate Jus- tices of the Supreme Court of the Territory, and B. D. Harris, the Secretary. Governor Brigham Young, United States Attorney Seth M. Blair, and United States Marshal Joseph L. Heywood were all residents of Great Salt Lake City.

At this time there had not been any session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory under the Organic Law. The newly arrived Federal officers en- quired the reason why the legislature had not been organized, upon which they were informed that there were no mails from the States during the winter season, and that the official news of the passage of the Act did not reach this city till March, of that year. Soon after their arrival Governor Young issued a proclamation, as provided in Section 16 of the Organic Law, defining the judicial districts of the Territory, and assigning the judges to their respective districts. His other proc- lamation, calling for an election in August, brought the Legislature into existence, and the two branches of the Territorial Government were thus duly established. Early in the following September, a special conference of the Mormon Church was held in Great Salt Lake City, one of the purposes of which was to send a block of Utah marble or granite as the Territorial contribution to the Washington Monument at the Capital. It was the first time that the Federal officers had found the opportunity to appear in a body before the assembled citizens, as the representatives of the United States, since the organization of the Territory. An excellent occasion surely was this, in the design of the leaders of the community, who called that special conference, and there can be no doubt that harmony and good will were sought to be encouraged between the Federal officers and the people. Chief Justice Brandebury, Secretary Harris and Associate Justice Brocchus were honored with an invitation to sit on the platform with the leaders of the commu- nity. This association of Mormon and Gentile on the stand was very fitting on such an occasion, considering that Governor Brigham Young, Associate Justice Zerubbabel Snow, United States Attorney Seth M. Blair, and United States Mar-

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

shall Joseph L. Heywood, though Mormons, were also their Federal colleagues. But it seems that one of their number-Associate Justice Brocchus-had chosen this as a fitting time to correct and rebuke the community relative to their pecu- liar religious and social institutions. The following correspondence, which subse- quently took place between Governor Young and Judge Brocchus is most impor- tant and relevant to the entire history of this city and territory, as it is the com- mencement of that long controversy which has existed between the people of Utah and the Federal Judges, and in which, in the latter period, Congress and the Governors of the Territory have also taken an active part :

B. YOUNG TO P. E. BROCCHUS.

" GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 19, 1851.

Dear Sir .- Ever wishing to promote the peace, love and harmony of the people, and to cultivate the spirit of charity and benevolence to all, and especially towards strangers, I propose, and respectfully invite your honor, to meet our public assembly at the Bowery. on Sunday morning next, at 10 A. M., and ad- dress the same people that you addressed on the 8th inst., at our General Con- ference; and if your honor shall then and there explain, satisfy, or apologize to the satisfaction of the ladies who heard your address on the 8th, so that those feelings of kindness that you so dearly prized in your address can be reciprocated by them, I shall esteem it a duty and a pleasure to make every apology and satis- faction for my observations which you as a gentleman can claim or desire at my hands.

"Should your honor please to accept of this kind and benevolent invitation, please answer by the bearer, that public notice may be given, and widely ex- tended, that the house may be full. And believe me, sir, most sincerely and respectfully, your friend and servant,

BRIGHAM YOUNG.

" Hon. P. E. Brocchus, Asste. Justice.'

"P. S .- Be assured that no gentleman will be permitted to make any reply to your address on that occasion.

B. Y."

P. E. BROCCHUS TO GOVERNOR YOUNG.

" GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 19, 1851.

Dear Sir :- Your note of this date is before me. While I fully concur in, and cordially reciprocate, the sentiments expressed in the preface of your letter, I must be excused from the acceptance of your respectful invitation, to address a public assembly at the Bowery to-morrow morning.

" If, at the proper time, the privilege of explaining had been allowed me, I should, promptly and gladly, have relieved myself from any erroneous impressions that my auditors might have derived from the substance or tone of my remarks. But, as that privilege was denied me, at the peril of having my hair pulled, or my throat cut, I must be permitted to decline appearing again in public on the subject.

" I will take occasion here to say, that my speech, in all its parts, was the result of deliberation and care-not proceeding from a heated imagination, or a

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

maddened impulse, as seems to have been a general impression. I intended to say what I did say ; but, in so doing, I did not design to offer indignity and in- sult to my audience.

" My sole design, in the branch of my remarks which seems to be the source ot offence, was to vindicate the Government of the United States from those feelings of, prejudice and that spirit of defection which seemed to pervade the public sentiment. That duty I attempted to perform in a manner faithful to the government of which I am a citizen, and to which I owe a patriotic allegiance. without unjustly causing a chord to vibrate painfully in the bosom of my hearers. Such a duty, I trust, I shall ever be ready to discharge with the fidelity that be- longs to a true American citizen-with firmness, with boldness, with dignity- always observing a due respect towards other parties, whether assailants or neutrals.

" It was not my intention to insult, or offer disrespect to my audience; and farthest possible was it from my design, to excite a painful or unpleasant emotion in the hearts of the ladies who honored me with their presence and their respect- ful attention on the occasion.

"In conclusion, I will remark that, at the time of the delivery of my speech, I did not conceive that it contained anything deserving the censure of a just- minded person. My subsequent reflections have fully confirined me in that im- pression.

"I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

PERRY E. BROCCHUS.

" To His Excellency Brigham Young."

BRIGHAM YOUNG TO P. E. BROCCHUS.

" GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 20, 1851.

Dear Sir :- The perusal of your note of the 19th inst. has been the source of some sober reflections in my mind, which I beg leave to communicate in the same freedom with which my soul has been inspired in the contemplation.

With a war of words on party politics, factions, religious schisms, current controversy of creeds, policy of clans, or State clipper cliques, I have nothing to do ; but when the eternal principles of truth are falsified, and light is turned into darkness by mystification of language or a false delineation of facts, so that the just indignation of the true, virtuous, upright citizens of the commonwealth is aroused into vigilance for the dear-bought liberties of themselves and fathers, and that spirit of intolerance and persecution, which has driven this people time and time again from their peaceful homes, manifests itself in the flippancy of rhetoric for female insult and desecration, it is time that I forbear to hold my peace, lest the thundering anathemas of nations born and unborn should rest upon my head when the marrow of my bones shall be illy prepared to sustain the threatened blow.

" It has been said that a wise man foreseeth evil, and hideth himself. The evil of your course I foresee, and I shall hide myself-not by attempting to screen my conduct, or the conduct of this people from the gaze of an assembled universe, but by exposing some of your movements, designs, plans, and purposes,

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

so that the injury which you have designed for this people may fall upon your own head, unless you shall.choose to accept the proffered boon-the friendship which I extended to you yesterday-by inviting you to make satisfaction to the ladies of this valley, who felt themselves insulted and abused by your address on the 8th inst., and which you have declined to do in your note, to which this is a reply.

"In your note, you remark-' If, at the proper time, the privilege of ex- plaining had been allowed me, I should promptly and gladly have relieved my- self from any erroneous impressions that my auditors might have derived from the substance and tone of my remarks ; but, as that privilege was denied me, at the peril of having my hair pulled, or my throat cu I must be permitted to de- cline appearing again in public on the subject.'

"Sir, when was the ' proper time' to which you refer? Was it when you had exhausted the patience of your audience on the 8th, after having given a personal challenge to any who would accept ? Was it a proper time to challenge for single combat, before a general assembly of the people, convened especially for religious worship?

" How could you then have 'promptly and gladly relieved yourself from any erroneous impression your auditors might have derived from the substance and tone of your remarks' when you knew not from what source your auditors derived those impressions ? And was it your boasted privilege, your proper time to fire and ' fight your battles o'er again,' as quick as you had given a challenge, with- out waiting to see if any one accepted it? If so, who would you have been likely to hit-ladies or gentlemen ?

"It was true, sir, what I said, at the close of your speech, and I repeat it here, that my expressions may not be mistaken-I said in reference to your speech, ' Judge Brocchus is either profoundly ignorant-or wilfully wicked-one of the two. There are several gentlemen who would be very glad to prove the state- ments that have been made about Judge Brocchus, and which he has attempted to repel ; but I will hear nothing more on either side at this Conference.'

And why did I say it? To quell the excitement which your remarks had caused in that audience ; not to give or accept a challenge, but to prevent any one (of which there were many present wishing the opportunity,) and every one from accepting your challenge, and thereby bringing down upon your head the indig- nation of an outraged people, in the midst of a Conference convened for relig- ious instruction and business, and which, had your remarks continued, must have continued the excitement, until there would have been danger "of pulling of hair and cutting of throats," perhaps, on both sides, if parties had proved equal-for there are points in human actions and events, beyond which men and women can- not be controlled. Starvation will revolutionize any people, and lead them to acts of atrocity that human power cannot control ; and will not a mother's feelings, in view of her murdered offspring, her bleeding husband, and her dying sire, by hands of mobocratic violence, and especially when tantalized to the highest pitch by those who stand, or ought to stand, or sit, with dignity on the judgment seat, and impart justice alike to all?

" Sir, what confidence can this persecuted, murdered, outcast people have in

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

your decisions from the Bench, after you have tantalized their feelings from the stand, by informing them there is yet hope in their case, if they will apply to Missouri and Illinois. I ask you, sir, if you did not know, when you were thus making your plea, that this people have plead with the authorities of those States, which are doomed to irretrievable ruin by their own acts, from their lowest magis- trate to their highest judge, and from their halls of legislature to their governors, times, and times, and times again, until they, with force of arms, have driven us from their midst, and utterly refused the possibility of the cries of murdered inno- cence from reaching their polluted ears? I ask, sir, did you know this? If not, you were profoundly ignorant ; you were possessed of ignorance not to be toler- ated in children of ten years, in these United States. But, on the other hand, if you were in possession of the facts, you were wilfully wicked in presuming to tan- talize, and rouse in anger dire, those feelings of frail humanity on one hand, and offended justice on the other, which it is our object to bury in forgetfulness, and leave the issue to the decision of a just God.

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History of Salt Lake City, Part 12

Author: Tullidge, Edward Wheelock Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Salt Lake City, Star printing company Number of Pages: 1194

Author: Tullidge, Edward Wheelock
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Salt Lake City, Star printing company
Number of Pages: 1194