History of Salt Lake City, Part 148

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

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I had not been long here before it became apparent to me that my feelings toward the people of the United States and the feelings of the people here were not quite harmonious. I had been at all times well treated by the people of the United States, and for that reason my feelings were very kind; my treatment from my brethren had also been good, and I was kindly disposed toward them. This brought me into an entire new field of action, that of reconciliation. Governor Young, pur- suant to the authority conferred by the organic law, divided the Territory into judicial districts, and assigned the judges to their districts. An election was held and the members of the Legislative Assembly elected. . Thus things seemingly were moving on quietly until about the beginning of September, when an eruption was made by Judge Brocchus in a meeting held in the Old Bowery. [See Chapter X.] This circumstance produced a break in the officers. Judges Brandebury and Brocchus and Secretary Harris determined to leave. Secretary Harris concluded to take with him the money appropriated by Congress to pay the expenses of the Legislative Assembly. I tried to make peace, but failed. Governor Young, by proclamation, convened the Legislative Assembly. I was sent for and administered to the members the oath of office. Soon thereafter a resolution was passed and approved authorizing certain persons to seize the money appropriated by Congress in the hands of Harris and retain it to pay the legislative expenses. This being done Harris filed a bill in chancery in the supreme court against these persons, praying for an injunction.

At this time no law had been passed defining the time and place of the sitting of the Su- preme Court, but Judges Brandebury and Brocchus determined to hold a session of the Supreme Court, and I was sent for to attend, which I did. There was a difference of opinion in the mem- bers of the court. I held that this court could not thus be legally held ; that the Supreme Court had not original jurisdiction in chancery, and that the bill ought to have been filed in the district court of the district in which Judge Brandebury was the judge. But I was overruled and the in- junction granted. This ended that conflict. No further proceeding was had in the case. Harris left the Territory and took with him the money. The Legislative Assembly proceeded with their business.

On the 4th of October an act was passed by the Legislative Assembly and approved by the Governor, authorizing and directing me to hold district court in each of the three districts of the Territory. This caused me, at the appointed time, to examine each act of Governor Young to see

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if his proceedings were all legal. I arrived at the conclusion that they were, and that my duty was to hold courts as required by this act. These proceedings, and my judgment thereon, were re- ported by Governor Young and myself to Daniel Webster, Secretary of State, Governor Young's proceedings and my proceedings were approved by the Department of State. The action of the two judges and the Secretary who left the Territory were disapproved.

The first session of the court under this act was held in Salt Lake City. [For a full account of the judicial history of the Territory under Judge Snow see chapters X. and XVI.] Two cases occurred in the courts, which in my judgment ought to be noticed. The first was the United States against Howard Egan. Egan was indicted for the murder of James Monroe in this Territory after the Organic law took effect and before any law had been passed authorizing the courts to punish for acts done or omitted. The alleged canse of the murder was an alleged adultery by Monroe with Egan's wife, There was no law of the United States applicable to the case.

In this case I held that no act done or omitted by a person could be punished by the courts except such act or omissions had first been prescribed by statute. In other words, there was no common law offenses in this Territory. Egan was acquitted.

The second was the case of a boy about thirteen years old who, after the act of this Territory on the subject of crimes took effect, killed another boy about his own age. He was indicted in my first court held in Ircn County, in June, 1852. On his being arraigned I found there was not im- partial jurors enough in that district to obtain an impartial jury to try him so I changed the place of trial from that district to this. On the trial there was no suitable person th attend to his defense ; but still I appointed the best person I could get. A trial was held and the boy convicted.

I, after a minute examination of the indictment and the testimony given in the trial, called on Governor Young privately and informed him that in my judgment the indictment was insufficient in low to justify a sentence of death, and farther, that the boy was so young and the counsel indiffer- ent, that every reasonable effort should be made in his behalf. In this conference it was agreed between us that I should sentence the boy to be put to death and set the time of execution off about six months. That he should be detained in confinement till a day or two before the time set for ex- ecution, when Governor Young was to grant hini a pardon of his crime. This was done. I men- tion this in justice to myself, Governor Young and the people here, for the reason that when John- ston's army was sent here there was among other evil charges against Governor Young that he par- doned murderers. It is within my knowledge that this was the only case to which such a charge could apply. There was then no penitentiary or other prison in the Territory in which to confine him if a conditional pardon had been granted. What was done in this case was the only thing which could have been done except the execution of this boy. In September, 1854. my term of office expired, and Mr. George Stiles was appointed to fill my place.

Here we must end the autobiographic form of Judge Snow's sketch, and briefly summarise the subsequent periods of his life.

At the expiration of his judgeship he went into the mercantile business for about two years, when he was sent by the Church on a mission to Australia. He was gone two years and a half, and returned late in December, 1858. In January, 1859, he was elected probate judge of Cedar County which office he occupied for three years, In 1862 he was elected by the Legislative As- sembly probate judge of Utah County, which position he filled for three years. In the spring of 1855 he was appointed prosecuting attorney of Salt Lake County by Judge Elias Smith ; and in the August election of 1876 he was elected by the people to the same office, and was continued by by re-elections until the August election of 1884. He has also been attorney-general of the Terri- tory. Having previously been assistant of Attorney-General Albert Carrington, in 1869 Judge Snow was elected attorney-general by the Legislature, and in 1874 he was re-elected to that office, which he occupied until the passage of the Poland Bill abolished the office. During the time be- tween 1865 and 1876 he also acted as city attorney, by appointment of the city council.

While occupying the office of attorney to the city, a conflict grew up between the city and the liquor dealers. This was produced by the internal revenue act of Congress, under which liquor dealers were required to take out license, not as now, to pay a special tax. This act did not specially name Territories but did name States. The Liquor dealers took out license under the act of Congress, claiming that they had a right to deal in liquors in a Territory without complying with Territorial laws or city ordinances. The question was brought before Chief Justice Titus. Judge Snow argued and won the case : Titus decided for the city. This was one of the most im- portant cases to the city on the l'quor question. The famous Englebrecht case, in 1871, was another

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of a similar kind Judge Snow also managed that. It was sent to the Supreme Court of the United States, and the decision, which was given in April, 1872, broke down the indictments of about seventy cases of the McKean regime, including those of Brigham Young and Daniel H. Wells.

In 1869 the Legislature verbally requested Judge Snow to assist it in getting up a law author- izing private corporations to incorporate in certain cases ; this he did, and at their next session he aided in getting up the civil practice act. In 1876 he aideil in the revision of the criminal code and presented the present act of criminal procedure, which was passed in 1878. In the same session he aided in revising the law on the subject of wills and of succession; also the act of procedure in the probate courts ; and during this time he aided in getting up the law of conveyancing of real estate In fine it may be said that from the beginning, in the judicial procedure of the Territory, of the county and the city, Judge Z. Snow's legal work is everywhere to be found; and it is worthy of note that he is one of the original U. S. judges appointed at the organization of the Territory. His name, as connected with Utah, is decidedly historical.

DANIEL SPENCER.

In the history of Salt Lake City no name better deserves honor and perpetuation than that of Daniel Spencer, an upright " Judge in Israel," and a man of exceeding purity of life. It was un- der his administration, as " president of the Stake," that Salt Lake City grew up previous to its in- corporation under the Territorial government. The following is a brief sketch of himself and family.

Daniel Spencer, the son of Daniel Spencer and Chloe Wilson, was born at the town of West Stockbridge, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, July 20th, 1794. Orson Spencer,, a learned and dis- tinguished Baptist mininister, afterwards an elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the first chancellor of the University of Deseret, and one of the early presidents of the British mission, wasa brother of President Daniel Spencer.

The American branch of the Spencers came from a good English stock and was identified with the Puritan emigration to this country at an early period. The Hon. John C. Spencer, of New York, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States in 1843-4, was connected with the family of Daniel Spencer. Orson Spencer was on visiting terms with the Secretary, and during his presi- dency of the Church in Great Britain he assisted hus distinguished relative in searching the Her- aldry office to trace the family in their connections.

Tracing the immediate line of the Spencers, who have made a distinguished mark in the Church and among the Representative men of Utah, we find them in character noted for their love of independence and justice. The father of the subject of this memoir took up arms at the com- mencement of the Revolutionary war for the inalienable rights of man and the independence of the American nation. He volunteered at the age of sixteen and remained through the entire struggle; he was in General Washington's body guard and witnessed the surrender of Lord Corn- wallis at Yorktown.

There were of the branch of the family of this veteran of the Revolution, whose name was also Daniel, seven sons besides daughters. The second son was Daniel, the subject of this sketch, and Orson and Hyrum were two of his younger brothers, who came into the Church of Latter- day Saints, following their natural leader and elder. Hyrum was a good and true man, well known for his integrity among the Nauvoo Saints. He was in effect a martyr to the cause he had espoused. About the time of the exodus from Nauvoo he and his nephew (Claudius) drove away a herd of cattle from their pursuers, the mob. They rode on in their flight through the night un- til Hyrum fell exhausted, and in the morning he was beyond all mortal pursuit. Orson Spen- cer, the other hrother, has a first class historical name in the Church, as distinguished as that of its apostles.

Daniel, before he reached the age of twenty-one, bought his time out from his father, and made a manly and true American push into the great world to establish his character and social pos-

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ition in life. At that period a new commercial intercourse was opening between New England and the Southern States. The sagacious and enterprising youth, who afterwards so distinguished himself for a quarter of a century as the chief justice of the Mormons, even then weighed in the balances of his mind the commercial situations of his country, and started into the Southern States. There he opened the way for five of his brothers, in the State of Georgia and also in North and South Carolina. For himself he established a flourishing mercantile house at Savannah, which he followed for thirteen years. As an example of the extent of his mercantile transactions in the South, his son has informed the writer that the business of his father while at Savannah, some days reached the magnitude of a hundred thousand dollars.

Daniel not only opened the way in the Southern States for five of his brothers, but with them gave to his brother Orson a collegiate training, bearing chiefly the expenses of that classical edu- cation for which Orson is so celebrated in our Church as a theologian and a highly accomplished author. It is well known that Orson was lame and his elder brother educated him for the pulpit instead of the counting house, and while his brothers were pursuing the calling of merchants in the South, he was rising to the sphere of an influential clergyman in the Baptist Church in Massa- chusetts.

At the close of his commercial career in the South Daniel Spencer returned to his native place West Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He was then about thirty-five years of age, in the very prime of manhood. After his return he married Sophronia, daughter of General Pomeroy. 'The family of his bride was of the old Puritan stock, high in social rank and respected by all for their moral worth and representative character. Some of the branches of her family are to-day figuring largely in the affairs of the nation, and are in high repute in the best circles of the land. Of this union came Claudius Spencer, and he was their only issue.

On his return to his native place, Daniel established a large mercantile house. He also be- came the proprietor of a first class hotel, and engaged largely in farming operations. Iİis business was very prosperous and all his commercial relationship at that period most happy. Besides his more personal and extensive business concerns, he also became connected with a mercantile house in partnership with the Messrs. Boyingtons, celebrated marble dealers. So much trusted by the firm was he that the whole supervision of the firm fell upon his shoulders. Among his townsmen he was universally respected, and he enjoyed the unbounded confidence of the people in all the region around, just as he ever did after he became a member of the Church of Latter-day Saints, by all who knew him, whether followers of his profession or disbelievers in the Mormon mission. At least every one who knew him believed in Daniel Spencer.

We now come to the period when Daniel Spencer became connected with the Mormon Church, of which he has been acknowledged by all-and by none more cordially than by Brigham Young -to be one of the leaders of its representative men. It was in January, 1840. Until this date no elder of the Mormon Church had preached in his native town. Our late esteemed citizen, John Van Cott, however, belonged to the same region, and already his relatives, the P'ratts, had been laboring to impress Van Cott with the Mormon faith. But Daniel Spencer, up to this date, had no relation- ship whatever with the people with whom himself and his brother Orson afterwards became s ) prominently identified, in all their destiny, establishing for themselves among that people historical names.

At this time Daniel Spencer belonged to no sect of religionists, but sustained in the community the name of a man marked for character and moral worth. It was, however, his custom to give free quarters to preachers of all denominations. The Mormon elder came ; his coming created an epoch in Daniel Spencer's life. Through his influence the Presbyterian meeting house was ob- tained for the Mormon elder to preach his gospel, and the meeting was attended by the elite of the town.

At the close of the service the elder asked the assembly if there was any one present who would give him " a night's lodging and a meal of victuals in the name of Jesus." For several niin- utes a dead silence reigned in the congregation. None present seemed desirous to peril their char- acter or taint their respectability by taking home a Mormon elder. At length Daniel Spencer, in the old Puritan spirit and the proud independence so characteristic of the true American gentle- man, rose up, stepped into the aisle, and broke the silence : "I will entertain you, sir. for human- ity's sake," said our noble, departed brother, in answer to the appeal of the brother to be taken into some benevolent house for Jesus' sake.

Daniel took the poor elder, not to his public hotel, as was his wont with the preachers gener- ally who needed hospitality, but he took him to his own house, a fine family mansion, and the next

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morning he clothed him from head to foot with a good suit of broad cloth from the shelves of his store. But how stood he at that time regarding the mission of the Prophet of this new dispensation opened in America ? He stood a firm, conscientious unbeliever, and would not hear anything from the preacher concerning Mormonism. He was prejudiced against his doctrines. He did not for a moment believe that Jesus had anything to do with the matter, and he took no merit to him- self for winning his title to that blessed plaudit from the Lord, promised to such as he : " When I was ahungered ye fed me; naked, and ye clothed me; a stranger and ye took me in." He merely felt his duty to his fellows, and manifested that spirit of kindness and gentleness which so abundantly marked his life. Daniel Spenger loved his fellow man.

The elder continued to preach the new and strange gospel, and brought upon himself much persecution. This produced upon the mind of Daniel Spencer an extraordinary effect. Seeing the bitter malevolence from the preachers and the best of professing Christians, and being nat- urally a philosopher and a judge, he resolved to investigate the cause of this enmity and unchris- tianlike manifestation. The result came. It was as strongly marked as his conduet during the investigation. For two weeks he elosed his establishment, refused to do business with any one, and shut himself up to study ; and there alone with his God he weighed in the balances of his elear head and conscientious heart the divine message, and found it not wanting. One day, when his son was with him in his study, he suddenly burst into a flood of tears, and exclaimed : "My God, the thing is true, and as an honest man I must embrace it ; but it will cost me all I have got on earth !" He had weighed the consequences, but his conscientious mind com- pelled him to assume the responsibility and take up the cross. He saw that he must, in the eyes of friends and townsmen, fall from the social pinnacle on which he then stood to that of a despised people. But he stepped out like a man-like himself.

At mid-day, about three months after the poor Mormon elder came into the town of West Stockbridge, Daniel Spencer having issued a public notice to his townsmen that he should be bap- tized at noon on a certain day, took him by the arm and, not ashamed, walked through the town taking the route of the main street to the waters of baptism, followed by hundreds of his towns- men to the river's bank. It was quite a procession to witness the wonderful event, for thus it seemed in the eyes of his friends and fellow-townsmen. The profoundest respect and quiet were mani- fested by the vast concourse of witnesses. but also the profoundest astonishment. It was nothing wonderful that a despised Mormon elder should believe in Joseph Smith, but it was a matter of astonishment that a man of Daniel Spencer's social standing and character should receive the mission of the Prophet and the divinity of the Book of Mormon.

On the same day of his baptism, which was in April, 1840, he was confirmed into the Church by James Burnham, who officiated in the two initiatory ordinances; and, in the same month, he was ordained to the office of a priest.

The conversion and conduct of Daniel Spencer carried a deep and weighty conviction among many good families in the region around, which, in a few months, resulted in the establishment of a flourishing branch of the Church. This branch which he was the chief instrument in founding. and over which he presided, has contributed its full quota of respectable citizens to Nauvoo and Utah. John Van Cott, the man so long identified in the history of the Scandinavian mission, and a representative man also came from that region.

About the period of Daniel Spencer's connection with the Mormon Church, the partners in the firm to which he belonged, took the benefit of the bankrupt law, which resulted in his financial depression. He then gave himself much to the ministry, and soon after brought into the Church his brother Orson. He continued for two years laboring in the ministry in that region, and then (1842) he removed to Nauvoo. He had scarcely arrived in the city of the Saints, when he was ap- pointed on a mission to Canada. On his return, he was elected a member of the Nauvoo city council ; but soon afterwards was sent on a mission to the Indian nation. From the hardships of that mission he never recovered to the day of his death. The next year, he was sent on a mission to Massachusetts, returned and was elected mayor of Nauvoo.

So high was the Prophet Joseph's estimate of his character and justice that he said of him, "Daniel Spencer is the wisest man in Nauvoo."

At the time twelve men were selected by Joseph Smith to explore the Rocky Mountains, with the view of the Saints locating there, Daniel Spencer was called as one of them, but the exploring expedition was interrupted by the martyrdom of the Prophet.

At the time of the great exodus from Nauvoo in 1846, Daniel started among the first of the Pioneers to the Rocky Mountains. IIe was a captain of fifty. But the leading companies finding

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that the journey could not be accomplished that year, and the news of the extermination of the remnant from Nauvoo reaching the President, Brigham departed from his first intentions and the Saints went into Winter Quarters. When the city was organized-then known as Winter Quarters but now as the city of Florence-Daniel Spencer was chosen to act as a bishop of one of the wards. He spent a large amount of his means in his benevolent administration to the suffering and dying of the sorely tried and afflicted " Camp of Israel." It was at the period when the dreadful plague struck the camps of the Saints just following their flight from Nauvoo.

In the spring of 1847, when the Pioneers, under President Young, took the lead of the main body of the Church, Daniel was appointed President of two companies of fifties to follow in the Pioneer van. There was considerable emulation between most of the captains of the com- panies, that year, to see who sholud reach the terminus of the journey first. A distinguished captain one day passing Daniel's company, which was encamped for the day recruiting the strength of both man and beast, with good-natured sarcasm asked Brother Spencer if he had any message for the Pioneers. He answered significantly, "Tell them I am coming, if you see them first." Then turning to the camp he said, "Sisters, take plenty of time to wash, bake, rest, and go picking berries, and we will get to the terminus first and come back and help Brother Parley in, tor we shall have it to do." This turned out to be the case ; and Daniel Spencer's company was the first of the Winter Quarters' emigration that followed the Pioneers into the Great Basin.

To help the organization of the Pioneer company, he had, at Winter Quarters, outfitted three men with provisions, clothing, seed grain, farming implements, team and wagon, and the first winter after the arrival he fed twenty-six souls. In the organization of the high council of the stake, he was appointed a member ; and soon afterwards was elected its president, which position he filled up to his death. He was a member of the Legislature for years, and for some time sat in the Senate of the Provisional Government of the State of Deseret, and acted in connection with those who framed its constitution. He was appointed on a mission to England; and filled the place of first coun- selor to Franklin D. Richards. He arrived in England just at the important period of the publica- tion of the revelation on polygamy, and by his wisdom very much sustained the Church. Having honorably fulfilled his mission to Europe he returned to his native land in 1856.

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History of Salt Lake City, Part 148

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