USA > Utah > Salt Lake County > Salt Lake > History of Salt Lake City > Part 135
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If there had been any fear in the minds of the leaders in Utah that the European countries had already given up to the Church all their truth-seekers, this superb result must have dealt the fear a lasting blow. It was again the triumph of the zeal which knew no other object than the progress of the new dispensation. When Franklin returned to his treasured home in Zion, on the first day of October, 1863, President Brigham Young met him with these very significant words : " Brother Franklin, welcome home! I am glad to see you. I congratulate you upon your revival of the work in the British mission."
This was the last foreign mission of Apostle Richards ; and his active work in the field had a fitting close. Eight times he had crossed the mighty deep and four eventful periods he had spent in the ministry abroad. His last effort had demonstrated that the soil of humanity in Europe would still produce rich fruits.
Although his ardor as a missionary had not waned, his value as a home counselor had in- creased ; and with the opening of the following year a new epoch was commenced in his career. On the 19th day of February, 1869, he was elected Probate Judge of Weber County ; and from that event Ogden and Weber County may date no small share of the worthy progress which has made them respectively, in importance, the second city and county of Utah.
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HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.
This was a critical hour in the history of that region. The locomotive whistle had sounded the advance ; and the people, so long isolated, must be prepared for the contest of the world. Culti- vated intelligence and cultured experience were needed. And the man whose earnestness and ability had made him the instrument for the resuscitation of the British mission was deemed the fit- ting regenerator.
Accordingly in May, 1859, Franklin D. Richards established his residence in Ogden. In all the intervening years he has been the presiding ecclesiastical authority of the Weber Stake of Zion. Many of his assistant laborers possessed a measure of his own paramount quality of generous loy- alty to the caure ; and these men came readily to his support in the revival work of the home min- istry. But every reader who has so far followed this sketch will readily understand the self abnegation and the zeal of Apostle Franklin in his religious calling in Weber County.
We pass to a brief summary of his social and political labors. When he reached Ogden to at- tend his first term of court, the town had no newspaper ; before a year had passed, he established, and for a time edited, the Ogden Junction, over which he long exercised a guardian care and which practically exists to-day under the name of the Daily Herald. Schools had been all that the people felt they could support, but they were still not up to a high grade ; he wrote, preached, and labored personally-and with his accustomed success, to advance the educational interests of the people. The young people, in many cases, lacked cultured associations and ambition for education and re- finement ; he organized societies which were the heralds, if not the direct progenitors, of the later Mutual Improvement Associations which permeate the Territory-and he originated a plan by which the youth of Weber County might hear, without cost, lectures by the best scientists and most tal- ented orators of Utah. With the advent of the railway came an influx of worldly persons and sen- timent ; he taught his people how to preserve from this rude aggression, their political and moral integrity, and he showed them by precept and example how to make home beautiful and home pleas- ures attractive for the youth.
When he came first to examine the records and the condition of public and private business in the county offices, he found almost a chaos. This state of affairs was due more to community care- lessness than to incapacity of officials. But reform was absolutely necessary ; for public lands were coming into market ; the probate court had general, civil and criminal jurisdiction ; the county was rapidly increasing in wealth and varied population ; and legal ends must be accomplished by legal means which would bear careful scrutiny. He gathered the best help available and proceeded with the good work.
He was Probate and County Judge of Weber County continuously from the Ist day of March, 1869, until the 25th day of September, 1883. During this period of more than 14 years, hundreds of suits for divorces and cases of estates for settlement were brought before him. In no single instance has his decision in these matters been reversed by a higher tribunal. Headjudicated all the land titles in the important city of Ogden and the populous towns of Huntsville, North Ogden, and Plain City. No one of these adjudications has ever been set aside by any court. For the first five years follow- ing his induction into office, his court had original and appellate jurisdiction in all common law and chancery cases ; before him were tried a multitude of civil suits, habeas corpus cases and trials of offenders charged with all crimes from misdemeanor to murder. Not one single judgment or de- cree rendered by him in all this lengthy general judicial service was reversed on appeal. His justice and humanity, united with keen legal sense, made his name proverbial.
In his admistration of county financial affairs he was no less successful, aided by associates of shrewdness and integrity. During his regime the finest Court House in Utah was erected in Ogden ; roads and bridges innumerable were built; the only toll road in the county-extending through the magnificent Ogden canyon, was purchased and made free; taxes were kept low but were collected promptly ; the county was maintained clear of debt ; and during all this period his position carried with it no salary.
But even with such a miss of business at home, he found time to travel and observe throughout the Territory. He had previously been, when in Utah, a member of the successive Legislative As- semblies and Constit itioual Conventions-in which his scholarship, legal lore, and patriotism made him conspicuous. He traveled with President Young to organize nearly all the Stakes of Zion ; and attended the dedication of Temple sites and Temple buildings. After the death of the great Brig- ham, and especially since his own retirement from political life, Franklin has been entirely immersed in the councils and labors of the Church. At the present trying hour, his dictation and advice are in more than usual demand by the entire body of his people.
The passage of the notorious "Edmunds Act" found Franklin D. Richards still the judicial
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head of Weber County. And as his situation at that hour, coupled with subsequent events of histori- cal value brought him into most prominent individual contact with the political provisions of this law and its amendments, the biographer deems this the proper place in which to review the most re- doubtable effort ever made by the minority to gain political ascendancy in Utah Territory.
The object asserted to be attained by the Edmunds Act was three-fold: The punishment of polygamy and bigamy ; the ostensible punishment of unlawful cohabitation, and the disfranchise- ment and disqualification from office of all polygamists, bigamists, and persons practicing unlawful co- habitation. It is to the third branch of this trifoliate object that we now refer.
This was the most important feature in the law, in the estimation of the chief workers in the Liberal party of Utah, and they began very early the effort to secure the supposed vast political ad- vantages of its enforcement. When the President of the United States failed to appoint the com- missioners in time to enable them to prepare for the general election of August, 1882, it became apparent that the then incumbents-almost universally belonging to the People's Party-would find it legally requisite to hold over, at least until the August of 1883, and until their successors could be elected and qualified. In this emergency, the arch-schemers prevailed upon the three Jus- tices of the Supreme Court of the Territory to address a letter to Congress, requesting immediate intervention to prevent anarchy. This supererogatory document was extremely adroit, and it was explained and amplified in personal communications with influential men at Washington. It is given herewith:
" The undersigned Judges of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Utah, respectfully repre- sent: That the Edmunds bill, so called, vacates all registration and election offices in Utah ; that by reason of this, no registration of voters has been made in this Territory this year, which the local law requires to be done in May and revised the first week in June, and none but registered voters can vote ; that by reason of such failure of registration and lack of election officers, the election fixed for the first Monday in August, 1882, cannot be held; that at such election there would have been chosen successors to all the present county officers, and also to the Territorial Auditor and Treasurer as directed by Territorial statutes ; that those successors cannot now be chosen for the reasons given ; that this failure to clect is liable to cause general disturbance and trouble, and es- pecially in view of the well-known fact that many of the present incumbents are understood to be polygamists, and so disqualified under the law above referred to, to hold office. We therefore ask that Congress shall take such measures as will provide for legal successors to all the present incum- bents of office whose successors would have been chosen at the August election, and thereby se- cure the continuance of good order and the regular and undisputed support of organized govern- ment, which otherwise would be seriously jeopardized.
" We have delayed this representation as long as possible, hoping for the advent of the election commissioners, but they have not yet come.
"Dated July 20th, 1882. " JOHN A. HUNTER, Chief Justice; " PHILIP H. EMERSON, Associate Justice; "STEPHEN P. TWIST, Associate Justice; "Supreme Court of Utah."
The dire effects which might have flowed from the hints contained in the letter and the insidi- ous suggestions made personally by the projectors, were measurably obviated by the carnest effort of Utah's friends ; and the following comparatively mild, but thoroughly useless enactment, since known as the "Hoar Amendment," was passed as a rider to an appropriation bill :
" The Governor of the Territory of Utah is hereby authorized to appoint officers of the said Territory, to fill vacancies which may be caused by a failure to elect on the first Monday in August, 1882, in consequence of the provisions of an act entitled 'An Act to amend section 5,352 of the re- vised statutes of the United States, in reference to bigamy, and for other purposes,' approved March 22d, 1882, to hold their offic s until their successors are elected and qualified under the provisions of said Act. Provided, that the term of office of any of said officers shall not exceed eight months "
The difference between the request and the grant mast be apparent to every thoughtful reader. The effort was to obtain an enactment, dispossessing the vast majority of officials holding place un- der the expressed will of the people of Utah, and instate in their stead, by executive appointment or other undemocratic method, some hundreds of persons repugnant to the majority of citizens : while the result was to secure for the Governor merely the right to fill vacancies occasioned by the failure to elect in August, 1882-a most significant difference.
But in pursuance of the original plan, which had not contemplated and could not brook defent.
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this Hoar amendment was assumed as full authority for the project of arbitrary political confiscation ; and the Governor and his advisers appointed persons of their affiliation to nearly all of the Terri- torial, county and precinct offices-aggregating some hundreds,
Among the early and important appointments made was that of James N. Kimball to be Pro- bate Judge of Weber County ; and on the 2d day of October, 1832, he demanded the office from Franklin D. Richards. Being refused he made application to one of the judges, whose name is at- tached to the letter quoted above, for a writ of mandate compelling the relinquishment of the office and its records, powers and emoluments in his behalf. This was the first movement of the kind on the part of the Governor's appointees; and it placed Franklin D. Richards at once in the breach to maintain a defense for himself and all his coadjutors. It had been the desire of many of the ap- pointees and their backers, to organize a general plan of attack all along the line ; but Mr. Kimball desired the honor of leading the van against a fortress which he thought would surely be easily won and might possibly be surrendered without a struggle. The usual method of testing a question of this character, where each party claims to be the legal officer. is by proceeding in quo warranto, un- der which the legal title to the office is first carefully and judicially determined, without the haste characterizing mandamus. When the plaintiff sought the latter remedy, he was reaching for what seemed a conclusive advantage. With courts already committed in his behalf, he assumed that the title was not even in dispute and that the court, under its strangely unnecessary and partisan prejudg- ment, could not fail to grant him a peremptory writ. All the parties interested on either side in the Territory now prepared to await the issue of this particular contest.
Judge Richards had not held the office for personal or family pleasure and profit ; he had been intending to withdraw at the next election ; and there was considerable financial risk and personal annoyance and jeopardy in an attempt to defeat before the courts of Utah, in that excited, ambitious hour, this project to seize his office. If he failed the pecuniary loss would be his own, but the dis- aster would affect the whole Territory ; if he won, the gain would be for the people and for the man whom they would next select for the office. These considerations decided his unselfish mind. His son Franklin S. Richards was engaged as leading counsel for the defense with able associates ; and a vigorous fight began in the First District Court and continued through the Supreme Court of the Territory.
The points raised by the plaintiff were that the term of office of the defendant Franklin D. Richards as Probate Judge, expired on or about the first Monday in August, 1882 ; that he was at that time and during the progress of the suit, a polygamist, and therefore not entitled to hold office ; that plaintiff had been appointed and commissioned to this office by Eli H. Murray, Governor of Utah Territory ; that plaintiff had vainly demanded said office with its records from defendant ; and that plaintiff had no plain, speedy, or adequate remedy at law for the wrongs alleged to be suffered by him; wherefore plaintiff prayed for a writ of mandamus compelling the defendant to deliver to him the office of Probate Judge and the records thereof.
In demurrer, subsequent answer, and later on appeal, the principal points made by the defense were briefly these : Proceedings for writ of mandate could not be maintained to test the disputed title to an office. Plaintiff had filed no bond for the faithful performance of his official duties. The Hoar amendment only authorized the Governor to appoint officers to fill vacancies; but there was not and could not be any vacancy in this case, and therefore the Governor's appointment and com- mission were absolutely worthless, for Franklin D). Richards had been elected under the law and commissioned by the same governor to hold this office "for the term of two years [from the first Monday in August, 1880] and until his successor should be elected and qualified." This latter provision, in case of a failure to elect a successor at the regular period, has been universally held to extend the term of the then incumbent until such time as the legal election could be held-be that space long or short, and such time of "holding over" becomes a part of the legal term itself ; this Hoar amendment did not create vacancies, the language of the enactment having been evidently chosen to prevent that result. If the defendant was a polygamist he could not for that reason be ousted from his office until his status had been judicially determined ; and this had never been done.
Notwithstanding the strong showing made by the defense, every point was ruled against Judge Richards by the District and Supreme Courts of the Territory. Even then the case was not yielded, but was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Judge Richards held the office, maintained the rights of the people, and defended the position of his hundreds of coadjutors in Utah " until his successor was elected and qualified." After the term for which Mr. Kimball was appointed had expired. as no further public good could be achieved by a maintenance of the suit, and as Mr. Richards had no private interests at stake, a
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satisfactory compromise was effected and the matter was forever settled without having been passed upon by the Supreme Tribunal of the land.
Franklin's devotion to duty was ably seconded by the skillful manner in which delay was ob- tained and the advantage possessed by his opponent before the courts was neutralized. In the shrewd management and laborious work connected with this case he had two constant assistants in the persons of two of his sons, Franklin S. and Charles C. Richards, lawyers of understanding and probity, who are now defending the religious rights of the people, with the same vigor exhibited in the political contest of their father.
Thus the offices were retained in the hands of the people, and soon the humiliating discovery was made by the ambitions Liberal politicians that their project of disfranchisement had also failed of its object. It was only after this discovery that the Edmunds Act held no political comfort for the minority here, that the "raid " against the practicers of plural marriage was begun. The historical continuation of this Congressional and Judicial attack upon the people of Utah, is comprised in other articles succeeding this biographical sketch.
The exigencies of printing this volume have made the biography but the tame chronological narration of events in the life of Franklin D. Richards. But at the hour of publication the reviewer seizes a moment in which to give a warmth of truthful coloring to this panorama of a human career.
Franklin Dewey Richards had inherently the qualities fitting him to become an unselfish dis- ciple of a sainted but unpopular prophet. Viewing all his early surroundings and the devotion and steadfastness of his first years, the apostolic destiny of the man is clearly manifest to the eye of the historian. Mark the almost miraculous manner in which he was preserved from becoming a tram- meled student of divinity in a theological seminary, and graduating as an orthodox preacher of a sec- tarian gospel ; observe the glorious, lonely pilgrimage of the boy from a comfortable home across an unknown land into the cruel wilderness already gory with martyr blood ; see him in all the trying hours of those first years of want and wandering, of toil and sickness, marvelously preserved from physical death or religious decay-knowing no other courage than faith in Christ, and seeking no higher reward than to be accounted His most humble instrument. The flint of truth struck fire to his soul ; and his first ministry showed an enthralling desire to kindle the sacred flame in other hearts. Throughout his entire life this wondrous unselfish earnestness in the gospel cause has irra- diated his conduct ; it has impressed thousands of truth-seekers with reverential love; and it has en- abled him to reach converts and gather helpers where a man of less exalted devotion would have failed. All the boasted but shallow learning of a New England theological university might have been vainly expended in an effort to win to the gospel such a ripe scholar and cultured gentleman as Karl G. Maeser, the German professor, and his relatives and associates ; but the fiery zeal and un- taught eloquence of the young Franklin were irresistible. It was so with the aids whom he obtained; for in England the native elders who rallied to the support of his presidency were such men as George Teasdale, Thomas Wallace, William Budge, Joseph Stanford, James Linforth, Thomas Williams, John Jaques, Charles W. Penrose, Edward W. Tullidge, and a score of others who were then or have since become eminent.
The Richards family is noted for the precocity of its members; and Franklin was of too pure a strain to lack this hereditary trait. There is a popular opinion that early bloom of the intellectual powers is followed by early decay; but this Apostle proves that the theory is not universally true, for he was worthily famous at twenty-five years of age, and he has steadily progressed for more than a third of a century. This is no less true of his physical strength than of his inental qualities ; at fif- teen he was delicate, at sixty-five he is robust. The Richards's are also noted for their family pride and family devotion ; the greatness of one is the greatness of all ; the misfortune of one is the mis- fortune of all. They like to have their chief ; and when Willard dicd, they chose, regardless of age, the most eminent among them for his successor.
As an Apostle, Franklin merges into his exalted calling all the ardor of his youthful ministry ; upon the open pages of his apostleship are written the words: "To follow Thee steadfastly and humbly, my Savior."
As a student of law he sought its majesty and avoided its chicanery. This principle he main- tained in expounding the law in his court and to his sons.
As a legislator he was discriminating and sagacious-drawing from a well of thought and knowl- edge, wisdom and equity.
As a Judge, he carried "in the one hand chast'scment-in the other, mercy."
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As a soldier, in his brief experience, he evinced the courageous and patriotic characteristics of his ancestors.
As a scholar, he has outstripped the majority of collegians. Wherever his lot has been cast, books have been his constant companions ; and he has compared their lessons with his own elear ob- servation of men and things ; until to-day, for general information, he is probably the peer of any man in the church.
As a humane and courteous gentleman, he is the delight of his acquaintenances. His polite- ness is not a mask; it springs from tenderness of soul, His kindness shows best and greatest when most needed by the recipient. His is the simple greatness which has to place no cruel guard upon its own dignity, but can stretch down from its shining height to lift into- his pure air the unfortunates of earth. He has never felt the fear that he would sully his own grandeur in the public gaze by giv- ing sympathy and aid to those who are struggling against adversity-no matter whether their fate has been wrought by their own follies or by . innocent misfortune. "There may be among this people, men who are more distinguished, men who are more, exalted -- more self concentrated, men who are greater politicians and orators; but this biographer ventures the assertion that there is not the man who has in his heart more real goodness than has Franklin D. Richards.
But the man has one conspicuous weakness. He is not what the word calls a financier ; for with his opportunities he might have been almost a money king, and yet he is a poor man. He has been lacking in selfishness and in personal aggressiveness; he has been deficient in a desire for per- sonal or family financial aggrandizement, which desire, though very estimable, is somewhat likely to detract from successful labor as a simple, modest proclaimer of the word. Franklin has always been able to manage with ability and integrity such financial affairs of the Church as have come within his purview ; but he has not schemed for himself. Wealth is great and useful. We all ac- knowledge its power, and most of us kneel before it. But, after all, it is refreshing occasionally to encounter a man who would never allow money getting to stand for an instant between him and his whole soul's devotion to the everlasting gospel. With this view, Franklin's great weakness may be deemed to be a monumental virtue,
Here we leave the subject of this sketch. He is more full of industry and vigor than he was thirty years ago, if that be possible ; and before his marked destiny shall have completed its course, he may well expect to see the next century past its infaney and his people sailing in less troubled waters.
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