History of Salt Lake City, Part 3

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

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" You are doubtless somewhat familiar with the history of our expulsion from the State of Missouri, wherein scores of our brethren were massacred. Hundreds died through want and sickness, occasioned by their unparalleled sufferings. Some millions worth of our property was destroyed, and some fifteen thousand souls fled for their lives to the then hospitable and peaceful shores of Illinois : and that the State of Illinois granted to us a liberal charter, for the term of per- petual succession, under whose provision private rights have become invested, and the largest city in the State has grown up, numbering about twenty thousand in- habitants.

" But, sir, the startling attitude recently assumed by the State of Illinois, for- bids us to think that her designs are any less vindictive than those of Missouri. She has already used the military of the State, with the executive at their head, to coerce and surrender up our best men to unparalleled murder, and that too under the most sacred pledges of protection and safety. As a salve for such un- earthly perfidy and guilt, she told us, through her highest executive officers, that the laws should be magnified and the murderers brought to justice ; but the blood of her innocent victims had not been wholly wiped from the floor of the awful arena, ere the Senate of that State rescued one of the indicted actors in that mournful tragedy from the sheriff of Hancock County, and gave him a seat in her hall of legislation ; and all who were indicted by the grand jury of Hancock County for the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, are suffered to roam at large, watching for further prey. 2

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

"To crown the climax of those bloody deeds, the State has repealed those chartered rights, by which we might have lawfully defended ourselves against aggressors. If we defend ourselves hereafter against violence, whether it comes under the shadow of law or otherwise (for we have reason to expect it in both ways), we shall then be charged with treason and suffer the penalty ; and if we continue passive and non-resistant, we must certainly expect to perish, for our enemies have sworn it.

"And here, sir, permit us to state that General Joseph Smith, during his short life, was arraigned at the bar of his country about fifty times, charged with crim- inal offences, but was acquitted every time by his country ; his enemies, or rather his religious opponents, almost invariably being his judges. And we further tes- tify that, as a people, we are law-abiding, peaceable and without crime; and we challenge the world to prove to the contrary ; and while other less cities in Illinois have had special courts instituted to try their criminals, we have been stript of every source of arraigning marauders and murderers who are prowling around to destroy us, except the common magistracy.

" With these facts before you, sir, will you write to us without delay as a father and friend, and advise us what to do. We are members of the same great confederacy. Our fathers, yea, some of us, have fought and bled for our country, and we love her Constitution dearly.

" In the name of Israel's God, and by virtue of multiplied ties of country and kindred, we ask your friendly interposition in our favor. Will it be too much for us to ask you to convene a special session of Congress, and furnish us an asylum, where we can enjoy our rights of conscience and religion unmolested ? Or, will you, in a special message to that body, when convened, recommend a remon- strance against such unhallowed acts of oppression and expatriation as this people have continued to receive from the States of Missouri and Illinois? Or will you favor us by your personal influence and by your official rank ? Or will you ex- press your views concerning what is called the "Great Western Measure " of colonizing the Latter-day Saints in Oregon, the north-western Territory, or some location remote from the States, where the hand of oppression shall not crush every noble principle and extinguish every patriotic feeling ?

"And now, honored sir, having reached out our imploring hands to you, with deep solemnity, we would importune you as a father, a friend, a patriot and the head of a mighty nation, by the Constitution of American liberty, by the blocd of our fathers who have fought for the independence of this republic, by the blood of the martyrs which has been shed in our midst, by the wailings of the widows and orphans, by our murdered fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, wives and children, by the dread of immediate destruction from secret combina- tions now forming for our overthrow, and by every endearing tie that binds man to man and renders life bearable, and that too, for aught we know, for the last time,-that you will lend your immediate aid to quell the violence of mobocracy, and exert your influence to establish us as a people in our civil and religious rights, where we now are, or in some part of the United States, or in some place remote therefrom, where we may colonize in peace and safety as soon as circum- stances will permit.

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

"We sincerely hope that your future prompt measures towards us will be dic- tated by the best feelings that dwell in the bosom of humanity, and the blessings of a grateful people, and many ready to perish, shall come upon you.

"We are, sir, with great respect, your obedient servants,

BRIGHAM YOUNG,

WILLARD RICHARDS,

ORSON SPENCER,

ORSON PRATT,

Committee,

W. W. PHELPS,

A. W. BABBITT, J. M. BERNHISEL,

In behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at Nauvoo, Illinois.

"P.S .- As many of our communications, post-marked at Nauvoo, have failed of their destination, and the mails around us have been intercepted by our enemies, we shall send this to some distant office by the hand of a special mes- senger."

The appeal itself is not a mere attempt at rhetoric. The very inelegance of multiplied ties and sacred objects invoked and crowded upon each other, to touch the hearts of men in power, is truly affecting. There is a tragic burden in the circumstances and urgency of the case. But the prayer was unanswered.

Towards the close of the year 1845, the leaders, in council, resolved to re- move their people at once and seek a second Zion in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. It was too clear that they could no longer dwell among so-called civilized men. They knew that they must soon seek refuge with the children of the forest ; and as for humanity, they must seek it in the breasts of savages, for there was scarcely a smouldering spark of it left for them, either in Missouri or Illinois, nor indeed anywhere within the borders of the United States.

They had now no destiny but in the West. If they tarried longer their blood would fertilize the lands which they had tilled, and their wives and daughters would be ravished within the sanctuary of the homes which their in- dustrious hands had built. Their people were by a thousand ancestral links joined to the Pilgrim Fathers who founded this nation, and with the heroes who won for it independence, and it was as the breaking of their heartstrings to rend them from their fatherland, and send them as exiles into the territory of a for- eign power. But there was no alternative between a Mormon exodus or a Mor- mon massacre.

Sorrowfully, but resolutely, the Saints prepared to leave; trusting in the Providence which had thus far taken them through their darkest days. and multi plied upon their heads compensation for their sorrows. But the anti-Mormons seemed eager for the questionable honor of exterminating them. In September of the year 1845, delegates from nine counties met in convention, at Carthage. over the Mormon troubles, and sent four commissioners : General Hardin, Com- mander of the State Militia ; Senator Douglass; W. B. Warren ; and J. A. Mc- Dougal, to demand the removal of the Mormons to the Rocky Mountains. l'he commissioners held a council with the Twelve Apostles at Nauvoo, and the Mor- mon leaders promptly agreed to remove their people at once, a movement, as we

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY

have seen, which they had been considering for several years. Now were they brought face to face with the issue. The Mormon leaders sought not to evade it; but, with their characteristic Israelitish methods, resolved to grapple with the tremendous undertaking of the exodus of a people.

On that exodus hung, not only the very destiny of the people, but the peace of the State of Illinois. Probably it was a sensible comprehension of this fact that prompted General Hardin to ask of the Twelve Apostles, at the council in question, what guarantee they would give that the Mormons would fulfill their part of the covenant. To this Brigham Young replied, with a strong touch of common-sense severity : "You have our all as the guarantee ; what more can we give beyond the guarantee of our names ?" Senator Douglass observed, " Mr. Young is right." But General Hardin knew that the people of Illinois, and especially the anti-Mormons, would look to him more than to Douglass, who had been styled the Mormon-made senator ; so the commissioners asked for a written covenant, of a nature to relieve themselves of much of the responsibility, and addressed the following :

" NAUVOO, Oct. Ist, 1845.

" To the President and Council of the Church at Nauvoo :

" Having had a free and full conversation with you this day, in reference to your proposed removal from this country, together with the members of your church, we have to request you to submit the facts and intentions stated to us in the said conversations to writing, in order that we may lay them before the Gov- ernor and people of the State. We hope that by so doing it will have a tendency to allay the excitement at present existing in the public mind.

" We have the honor to subscribe ourselves,

Respectfully yours, JOHN J. HARDIN, W. B. WARREN, S. A. DOUGLASS, J. A. MCDOUGAL."

The covenant itself is too precious to be lost to history ; here it is:

" NAUVOO, ILL., Oct. Ist, 1845. "To Gen. J. Hardin, W. B. Warren, S. A. Douglass, and J. A. McDougal :

"Messrs :- In reply to your letter of this date, requesting us ' to submit the facts and intentions stated by us in writing, in order that you may lay them be- fore the Governor and people of the State,' we would refer you to our communi- cation of the 24th ult. to the 'Quincy Committee,' etc., a copy of which is herewith enclosed.

" In addition to this we would say that we had commenced making arrange- ments to remove from the country previous to the recent disturbances; that we have four companies, of one hundred families each, and six more companies now organizing, of the same number each, preparatory to a removal.

"That one thousand families, including the Twelve, the High Council, the trustees and general authorities of the Church, are fully determined to remove in

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

the Spring, independent of the contingencies of selling our property ; and that this company will comprise from five to six thousand souls.

" That the Church, as a body, desire to remove with us, and will, if sales can be effected, so as to raise the necessary means.

"That the organization of the Church we represent is such that there never can exist but one head or presidency at any one time. And all good members wish to be with the organization : and all are determined to remove to some dis- tant point where we shall neither infringe nor be infringed upon, so soon as time and means will permit.

" That we have some hundreds of farms and some two thousand houses for sale in this city and county, and we request all good citizens to assist in the dis- posal of our property.

" That we do not expect to find purchasers for our Temple and other public buildings; but we are willing to rent them to a respectable community who may inhabit the city.

" That we wish it distinctly understood that although we may not find pur- chasers for our property, we will not sacrifice it, nor give it away, or suffer it illegally to be wrested from us.

" That we do not intend to sow any wheat this Fall, and should we all sell, we shall not put in any more crops of any description.

" That as soon as practicable, we will appoint committees for this city, La Harpe, Macedonia, Bear Creek, and all necessary places in the county, to give information to purchasers.

" That if these testimonies are not sufficient to satisfy any people that we are in earnest, we will soon give them a sign that cannot be mistaken-WE WILL. LEAVE THEM.

" In behalf of the council, respectfully yours, etc.,

BRIGHAM YOUNG, President. WILLARD RICHARDS, Clerk."

The covenant satisfied the commissioners, and for a time also satisfied the anti-Mormons.

But their enemies were impatient for the Mormons to be gone. They would not keep even their own conditions of the covenant, much less were they dis- posed to lend a helping hand to lighten the burden of this thrice-afflicted people in their exodus, that their mutual bond might be fulfilled-a bond already sealed with the blood of their Prophet, and of his brother the Patriarch. So the High Council issued a circular to the Church, January 20, 1846, in which they stated the intention of their community to locate " in some good valley in the neigh- borhood of the Rocky Mountains, where they will infringe on no one, and not be likely to be infringed upon." " Here we will make a resting place, " they said, " until we can determine a place for a permanent location. We also further declare, for the satisfaction of some who have concluded that our griev- ances have alienated us from our country, that our patriotism has not been over- come by fire, by sword, by daylight nor by midnight assassination which we have endured, neither have they alienated us from the institutions of our country."

Then came the subject of service on the side of their country, should war

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

break out between it and a foreign country, as was indicated at that time by our growing difficulties with Mexico. The anti- Mormons took advantage of this war prospect, and not satisfied with their act of expulsion, they raised the cry, " The Mormons intend to join the enemy !" This was as cruel as the seething of the kid in its mother's milk, but the High Council answered it with the homely anecdote of the Quaker's characteristic action against the pirates in defence of the ship on which he was a passenger, when he cut away the rope in the hands of the boarder, observing : " If thee wants that piece of rope I will help thee to it." " 'The pirate fell," said the circular, "and a watery grave was his resting place." Their country had been anything but a kind protecting parent to the Saints, but at least, in its hour of need, they would do as much as the conscientious Quaker did in the defence of the ship. There was, too, a grim humor and quiet pathos in the telling, that was more touchingly reproachful than would have been a storm of denunciations. In the same spirit the High Council climaxed their circular thus :

" We agreed to leave the country for the sake of peace, upon the condition that no more persecutions be instituted against us. In good faith we have labored to fulfill this agreement. Governor Ford has also done his duty to further our wishes in this respect, but there are some who are unwilling that we should have an existence anywhere ; but our destinies are in the hands of God, and so are also theirs."

Early in February, 1846, the Mormons began to cross the Mississippi in flat b. ats, old lighters, and a number of skiffs, forming, says the President's Journal, " quite a fleet," which was at work night and day under the direction of the police, commanded by their captain, Hosea Stout. Several days later the Miss- issippi froze over, and the companies continued the crossing on the ice.

On the 15th of the same month, Brigham Young, with his family, accom- panied by Willard Richards and family, and George A. Smith, also crossed the Mississippi from Nauvoo, and proceeded to the " Camps of Israel," as they were styled by the Saints, which waited on the west side of the river, a few miles on the way, for the coming of their leaders. These were to form the vanguard of the migrating Saints, who were to follow from the various States where they were located, or had organized themselves into flourishing branches and conferences ; and soon after this period also began to pour across the Atlantic that tide of em- igration from Europe which has since since swelled to the number of over one hundred thousand souls.

As yet the " Camps of Israel" were unorganized, awaiting the coming of the President, on Sugar Creek, which he and his companions reached at dusk. The next day he was busy organizing the company, and on the following, which was February 17th, at 9:50 A. M., the brethren of the camp had assembled near the bridge, to receive their initiatory instructions, and take the word of command from their leader, who ended his first day's orders to the congregation with a real touch of the law-giver's method. He said, " We will have no laws we cannot keep, but we will have order in the camp. If any want to live in peace when we have left this place, they must toe the mark." He then called upon all who

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

wanted to go with the camp to raise their right hands. "All hands flew up at the bidding," says the record.

After the dismissal of the congregation, the President took several of the Twelve with him half a mile up a valley east of the camp and held a council. A letter was read from Mr. Samuel Brannan, of New York, with a copy of a curi- ous agreement between him and a Mr. A. G. Benson, which had been sent west, under cover, for the authorities to sign.

To make clear to the reader a story, which now belongs to our national his- tory, in connection with the first settling of California, it must be observed that Brannan, once known as one of the millionaires of the Golden State, had been the editor of The Prophet, published at New York. He seems to have been one of those sagacious men who saw in Mormonism the means to their own ends. At the date of the exodus he was in the charge of a company of Saints, bound for the Pacific Coast, in the ship Brooklyn. They took all necessary outfit for the first settlers of a new country, including a printing press, upon which was after- wards struck off the first regular newspaper of California. This company was, also, the earliest company of American emigrants that arrived in the bay of San Francisco, and really the pioneer emigration of American citizens to the Golden State, for Fremont's volunteers cannot be considered in that character. Indeed, it is not a little singular that the Mormons were not only the pioneers of Utah, but also the pioneers of California, the builders of the first houses, the starters of the first papers, and, what has contributed so much to the growth of the Pacific Slope, the men who discovered the gold, under Mr. Marshal, the foreman of Sut- ter's mills. These facts, however, the people of California seem somewhat to hide in the histories of their State.

Relative to the sailing of this company, Samuel Brannan had written to the Mormon authorities. Ex-Postmaster Amos Kendall, and the said Benson, who seems to have been Kendall's agent, with others of political influence, represented to Brannan that, unless the leaders of the Church signed an agreement with them, to which the President of the United States, he said, was a "silent party," the government would not permit the Mormons to proceed on their journey westward. This agreement required the pioneers " to transfer to A. G. Benson & Co., and to their heirs and assigns, the odd numbers of all 'the lands and town lots they may acquire in the country where they may settle." In case they refused to sign the agreement the President, it was said, would issue a proclamation, setting forth that it was the intention of the Mormons to take sides with either Mexico or Great Britain against the United States, and order them to be disarmed and dis- persed. Both the letter and contract are very characteristic, and the worldly- minded man's poor imitation of the earnest religionist has probably often since amused Mr. Brannan himself. In his letter he said :

" I declare to all that you are not going to California, but Oregon, and that my information is official. Kendall has also learned that we have chartered the ship Brooklyn, and that Mormons are going out in her; and, it is thought, she will be searched for arms, and, if found, they will be taken from us; and if not, an order will be sent to Commodore Stockton on the Pacific to search our vessel before we land. Kendall will be in the city next Thursday again, and then an

THE HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

effort will be made to bring about a reconciliation. I will make you acquainted with the result before I leave."

The "reconciliation" between the Government and the Mormons, as the reader will duly appreciate, was to be effected by a division of the spoils among the political chiefs, including, if Brannan and Kendall are to be relied on, the President of the United States. The following letter of fourteen days later date is too rich and graphic to be lost to the public :

"NEW YORK, January 26, 1846.

" Dear Brother Young:

" I haste to lay before your honorable body the result of my movements since I wrote you last, which was from this city, stating some of my discoveries, in rela- tion to the contemplated movements of the General Government in opposition to our removal.

" I had an interview with Amos Kendall, in company with Mr. Benson. which resulted in a compromise, the conditions of which you will learn by read- ing the contract between them and us, which I shall forward by this mail. I shall also leave a copy of the same with Elder Appleby, who was present when it was signed. Kendall is now our friend, and will use his influence in our behalf, in connection with twenty-five of the most prominent demagogues in the country. You will be permitted to pass out of the States unmolested. Their counsel is to go well armed, but keep them well secreted from the rabble.

" I shall select the most suitable spot on the Bay of San Francisco for the location of a commercial city. When I sail, which will be next Saturday, at one o'clock, I shall hoist a flag with ' Oregon' on it.

" Immediately on the reception of this letter, you must write to Mr. A. G. Benson, and let him know whether you are willing to coincide with the contract I have made for our deliverance. I am aware it is a covenant with death, but we know that God is able to break it, and will do it. The Children of Israel, in their escape from Egypt, had to make covenants for their safety, and leave it for God to break them; and the Prophet has said, 'As it was then, so shall it be in the last days.' And I have been led by a remarkable train of circumstances to say, amen ; and I feel and hope you will do the same.

" Mr. Benson thinks the Twelve should leave and get out of the country first, and avoid being arrested, if it is a possible thing ; but if you are arrested, you will find a staunch friend in him; and you will find friends, and that a host, to deliver you from their hands. If any of you are arrested, don't be tried west of the Alleghany Mountains; in the East you will find friends that you little think of.

" It is the prayer of the Saints in the East night and day for your safety, and it is mine first in the morning and the last in the evening.

" I must now bring my letter to a close. Mr. Benson's address is No. 39 South Street ; and the sooner you can give him answer the better it will be for us. He will spend one month in Washington to sustain you, and he will do it, no mistake. But everything must be kept silent as death on our part, names of parties in particular.

"I now commit this sheet to the post, praying that Israel's God may pre-

durchmith

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vent it from falling into the hands of wicked men. You will hear from me again on the day of sailing, if it is the Lord's will, amen.

" Your's truly, a friend and brother in God's kingdom.

S. BRANNAN."

The contract in question was signed by Samuel Brannan and A. G. Benson, and witnessed by W. I. Appleby. To it is this postscript :

" This is only a copy of the original, which I have filled out. It is no gam- mon, but will be carried through, if you say, amen. It was drawn up by Ken- dall's own hand ; but no person must be known but Mr. Benson."

The following simple minute, in Brigham Young's private journal, is a fine set-off to these documents :

"Samuel Brannan urged upon the council the signing of the document. The council considered the subject, and concluded that as our trust was in God, and that, as we looked to him for protection, we would not sign any such unjust and oppressive agreement. This was a plan of political demagogues to rob the Latter-day Saints of millions, and compel them to submit to it by threats of Federal bayonets."

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History of Salt Lake City, Part 3

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