History of Salt Lake City, Part 31

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

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deputies, with this tremendous authority. Especially does this construction seem erroneous when we reflect that these different officers might make requisitions conflicting with one another, and all of them crossing the path of the Governor.

" Besides, the matter upon which Judge Cradlebaugh's requisition bases itself was one with which the Judge had no sort of official connection. It was the duty the marshal to see that the prisoners were safely kept and forthcoming at the proper time. For aught that appears, the marshal wanted no troops to aid him, and had no desire to see himself displaced by a regiment of soldiers. He made no complaint of weakness, and uttered no call for assistance. Under such cir- cumstances it was a mistake of the Judge to interfere with the business at all.

" But, assuming the legal right of the judge to put the marshal's business into the hands of the army without the marshal's concurrence, and granting also that this might be done by means of a requisition, was there in this case any oc- casion for the exercise of such power ? When we consider how essentially peace- able is the whole spirit of our judicial system, and how exclusively it aims to operate by moral force, or at most by the arm of civil power, it can hardly be denied that the employment of military troops about the courts should be avoided as long as possible. Inter arma silent leges, says the maxim ; and the converse of it ought to be equally true, that inter leges silent arma. The President has not found, either on the face of the requisition or in any other paper received by him, a statement of specific facts strong enough to make the presence of the troops seem necessary. Such necessity ought to have been perfectly plain before the measure was resorted to.

" It is very probable that the Mormon inhabitants of Utah have been guilty of crimes for which they deserve the severest punishment. It is not intended by the Government to let any one escape against whom the proper proofs can be produced. With that view, the district attorney has been instructed to use all possible diligence in bringing criminals of every class and of all degrees to justice. We have the fullest confidence in the vigilance, fidelity and ability of that officer. If you shall be of opinion that his duty is not performed with sufficient energy, your statement to that effect will receive the prompt attention of the President.

" It is very likely that public opinion in the Territory is frequently opposed to the conviction of parties who deserve punishment. It may be that extensive conspiracies are formed there to defeat justice. These are subjects upon which we, at this distance, can affirm or deny nothing. But, supposing your opinion upon them to be correct, every inhabitant of Utah must still be proceeded against in a regular, legal, and constitutional way. At all events, the usual and estab- lished modes of dealing with public offenders must be exhausted before we adopt any others.

" On the whole, the President is very decidedly of opinion-

" I. That the Governor of the Territory alone has power to issue a requisi- tion upon the commanding-general for the whole or part of the army :

" 2. That there was no apparent occasion for the presence of the troops at Provo :

" 3. That if a rescue of the prisoners in custody had been attempted, it

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was the duty of the marshal, and not of the judge, to summon the force which might be necessary to prevent it :

" 4. That the troops ought not to have been sent to Provo without the con- currence of the Governor, nor kept there against his remonstrance :

" 5. That the disregard of these principles and rules of action has been in many ways extremely unfortunate.

"I am, very respectfully, yours, &c.,

J. S. BLACK.

" Hon. J. Cradlebaugh, Hon. C. E. Sinclair, Associate Judges, Supreme Court, Utah."

A great Constitutional pronouncement like the foregoing from a jurist so distinguished as Attorney-General Jeremiah S. Black, given by the direction of the President of the United States, was too authoritative and potent to be set aside. Governor Cumming had clearly won the victory over his rivals, at least in the Constitutional aspects of his position.

The anti-Mormon influence everywhere was now invoked to have Governor Cumming removed, and for a time this was under consideration in the Cabinet. The probabilities were all against the Governor being retained, but a fine stroke of strategy, executed by Col. Thos. L. Kane, recovered his position. Stenhouse, who was present as reporter for the New York Herald, relates the circumstance thus :

"Soon after the return of Col. Kane to the Eastern States, that gentleman was invited to deliver a lecture before the Historical Society of New York upon ' The Situation of Utah.' Though in very feeble health, and unprepared for such a lecture, his devotion to what he no doubt sincerely believed to be the welfare of the Mormons and the honor of the Government, overcame all impediments, and the lecture was delivered. In that audience were two Mormon elders listen- ing eagerly for a sentence that might help "the cause" in the West. By previous arrangement the agent of the Associated Press was to be furnished with a notice of the lecture, and thus a dispatch next morning was read everywhere throughout the Union to the effect that there was a division among the Mormons, that some were eager for strife, others for peace, but that Brigham Young was on the side of peace and order, and was laboring to control his fiery brethren. This was a repetition of a part of the diplomacy of the Tabernacle. Governor Cumming was complimented by the gallant Colonel as a clear-headed, resolute, but prudent executive, and the very man for the trying position.

" Before such an endorsement, sent broadcast over the Republic, coming from the lips of the gentleman who had warded off the effusion of blood, and saved the nation from the expense and horror of a domestic war, the Cabinet of Mr. Buchanan silently bowed, but they were terribly chagrined."

Apostle George Q. Cannon, who was one of the "two Mormon elders" present at the lecture, relates this singular and quite dramatic episode of Utah history with several additional points, which have a national significance. The story is told in an obituary sketch of Thomas L. Kane, with an affectionate simplicity that gives it a special value in the History: 2

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"As I write, another illustration of his forgetfulness of self and his ardent zeal in behalf of Utah comes to my mind. It was during the Buchanan admin- istration. Governor Cumming, who had been sent out by President Buchanan with the army as Governor of the Territory, did not work harmoniously with the army officers. Differences had arisen between them at the time they were in camp during the winter at Ham's Fork and Fort Bridger.

" These differences increased after they came into the valley, and the influ- ence of the army people was used with the administration to have Cumming removed President Buchanan was inclined to yield to the pressure of Albert Sidney Johnston's friends. Johnston at that time was quite an influential per- sonage; in fact influences were being used to prepare the way for him to succeed General Winfield Scott as commander of the army of the United States. + Presi- dent Buchanan made inquiries of some of General Kane's friends as to how the re- moval of Governor Cumming would be received by him. He heard of this, and, though at the time confined to his room with an attack of pleurisy, saw that something must be done to prevent the removal of Governor Cumming, which he viewed at the time as a move that would be unfortunate to Utah. The His- torical Society of New York City-a very influential society-had solicited him to deliver a lecture upon Utah affairs; but he had postponed accepting the offer. He saw that this was the opportune moment to deliver it, and though suffering from severe pain he resolved to go to New York and deliver the lecture. His friends tried to dissuade him from the step, as they felt that he was endangering his life. But he was determined to go, and wrote to the President of the Society, who was pleased to accept the proffer of the lecture. Accompanied by his physi- cian, he traveled from Philadelphia to New York, delivered the lecture, in which he eulogized Governor Cumming, and gave him the praise that was due to him for his conduct after reaching Utah, and the next morning there appeared in all the newspapers of the country, through the associated press, a brief epitome of the lecture, commending Governor Cumming's administration of affairs. It had the effect to turn the scale in Cumming's favor. President Buchanan relinquished the idea of removing him, and he remained Governor until he had served out his full term. I was in the East at the time and familiar with all the circumstances, and I was deeply impressed with the General's conduct on that occasion."

There is to be discerned in these two statements a division growing up in the views and purposes of the members of Buchanan's Cabinet at that critical juncture of our national affairs, which is capitally presented in Mr. Blaine's great book of reminiscences, in which he presents, on the one side, John B. Floyd, Secretary of War with President Buchanan preparing the way for secession; on the other, Gen. Lewis Cass, Secretary of State, and Attorney-General Jeremiah S. Black, taking the alarm both for the Democracy and the Union, and setting their faces against the secession movement, which General Albert Sidney Johnston was fated to represent as one of its chiefest military captains. Mr. Blaine has not intended any reference to Utah, but that which he describes touching a division in the Cabinet, relative to our national affairs, is strangely to be traced at the same moment in the Cabinet over Utah affairs. So far as secession and Secretary Floyd is concerned, the statement of ex-Delegate Cannon suggests a very striking

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parallel to the Blaine reminiscences of the state of Buchanan's Cabinet at that juncture.

The historical pertinence of the case is the more striking from the fact that it was subsequent to the decision of the Attorney-General against the Judges' and General Johnston's action. After the receipt of that dispatch a mass meeting of Gentiles was held at Camp Floyd, on the 23rd of July, at which the Judges and the Indian Agent-Dr. Garland Hurt-were present, and in which they took a prominent part. An address was penned, rehearsing all the crimes charged to the Mormons, asserting that they were as disloyal after the President's pardon as when they were in arms in Echo Canyon, that the President was deceived and badly advised, and had done a great wrong in withdrawing the protection of the military from the courts.

Thus it would seem that there was before the country, emanating from Johnston and his friends, who were seeking to make him commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States, not only a demand for the removal of Governor Cumming, but a virtual impeachment of the Attorney-General as an ill adviser on Utah affairs, for it was undoubtedly Jeremiah S. Black who had given the new impulse to the Buchanan movement, as represented in General Kane and Governor Cumming, and his Constitutional decision had most likely saved Great Salt Lake City from the " baptism of blood," and made valid the President's pardon. But it seems that he would have failed at last, in his revision of the Buchanan policy touching Utah, had not Thomas L. Kane risen from his couch and, in his noble regard for the honor of his country, made valid the proclamation of peace and pardon which had been granted in the august name of the American Republic.

A supplementary page from Mr. Blaine's great book may be given here to illustrate the reorganization of the Buchanan Cabinet, by Judge Black, and the radical change in its policies, so strongly marked both in the affairs of Utah and the greater affairs of the nation; and a bankrupt U. S. Treasury will be very sug- gestive of Secretary Floyd's expenditure of from fourteen to twenty millions of dollars on the Utah Expedition :

" Judge Black entered upon his duties as Secretary of State on the 17th of December-the day on which the disunion convention of South Carolina as- sembled. He found the malign influence of Mr. Buchanan's message fully at work throughout the South. Under its encouragement only three days were re- quired by the convention at Charleston to pass the ordinance of secession, and four days later Governor Pickens issued a proclamation declaring 'South Caro- lina a separate, sovereign, free and independent State, with the right to levy war, conclude peace and negotiate treaties.' From that moment Judge Black's posi- tion towards the Southern leaders was radically changed. They were no longer fellow-Democrats. They were the enemies of the Union to which he was de- voted, they were conspirators against the Government to which he had taken a selemn oath of fidelity and loyalty.

"Judge Black's change, however important to his own fame, would prove comparatively fruitless unless he could influence Mr. Buchanan to break with the men who had been artfully using the power of his Administration to destroy the

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Union. The opportunity and the test came promptly. The new 'sovereign, free and independent' government of South Carolina sent commissioners to Washington to negotiate for the surrender of the national forts and the transfer of the national property within her limits. Mr. Buchanan prepared an answer to their request which was compromising to the honor of the Executive and peril- ous to the integrity of the Union. Judge Black took a decided and irrevocable stand against the President's position. He advised Mr. Buchanan that upon the basis of that fatal concession to the disunion leaders he could not remain in his Cabinet. It was a sharp issue, but was soon adjusted. Mr. Buchanan gave way and permitted Judge Black and his associates, Holt and Stanton, to frame a reply for the Administration.

" Jefferson Davis, Mr. Toombs, Mr. Benjamin, Mr. Slidell, who had been Mr. Buchanan's intimate and confidential advisers, and who had led him to the brink of ruin, found themselves suddenly supplanted, and a new power installed in the White House. Foiled and no longer able to use the National Administra- tion as an instrumentality to destroy the national life, the secession leaders in Con- gress turned upon the President with angry reproaches. In their rage they lost all sense of the respect due to the Chief Magistrate of the nation, and assaulted Mr. Buchanan with coarseness as well as violence. Senator Benjamin spoke of him as 'a senile Executive under the sinister influence of insane counsels.' This exhibition of malignity towards the misguided President afforded to the North the most convincing and satisfactory proof that there had been a change for the better in the plans and purposes of the Administration. They realized that it must be a deep sense of impending danger which could separate Mr. Buchanan from his political associations with the South, and they recognized in his position a significant proof of the desperate determination to which the enemies of the Union had come.

" The stand taken by Judge Black and his loyal associates was in the last days of December, 1860. The reorganization of the Cabinet came as a matter of necessity. Mr. John B. Floyd resigned from the War Department, making loud proclamation that his action was based on the President's refusal to sur- render the national forts in Charleston Harbor to the secession government of South Carolina. This manifesto was not necessary to establish Floyd's treason- able intentions towards the Government ; but, in point of truth, the plea was undoubtedly a pretense, to cover reasons of a more personal character which would at once deprive him of Mr. Buchanan's confidence. There had been irregularities in the War Department tending to compromise Mr. Floyd, for which he was afterwards indicted in the District of Columbia. Mr. Floyd well knew that the first knowledge of these shortcomings would lead to his dismissal from the Cabinet. Whatever Mr. Buchanan's faults as an Executive may have been, his honor in all transactions, both personal and public, was unquestionable, and he was the last man to tolerate the slightest deviation from the path of rigid integrity.

"Mr. Thompson, the Secretary of the Interior, followed Mr. Floyd after a short interval. Mr. Cobb had left the Treasury a few days before General Cass resigned from the Cabinet, and had gone to Georgia to stimulate her laggard

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movements in the scheme of destroying the Government. His successor was Philip Francis Thomas, of Maryland, who entered the Cabinet as a representative of the principles whose announcement had forced General Cass to resign. The change of policy to which the President was now fully committed forced Mr. Thomas to retire after a month's service. He frankly stated that he was unable to agree with the President and his other advisers 'in reference to the condition of things in South Carolina,' and therefore tendered his resignation. Mr. Thomas adhered to the Union and always maintained an upright and honorable char- acter ; but his course at that crisis deprived him subsequently of a seat in the United States Senate, though at a later period he served in the House as Repre- sentative from Maryland.

" Mr. Cobb, Mr. Floyd and Mr. Thompson had all remained in the Cabinet after the Presidential election in November, in full sympathy, and so far as pos- sible in co-operation with the men in the South who were organizing resistance to the authority of the Federal Government. Neither those gentlemen, nor any friend in their behalf, ever ventured to explain how, as sworn officers of the United States, they could remain at their posts consistently with the laws of honor-laws obligatory on them not only as public officials who had taken a solemn oath of fidelity to the Constitution, but also as private gentlemen, whose good faith was pledged anew every hour they remained in control of the depart- ments with whose administration they had been intrusted. Their course is un- favorably contrasted with that of many Southern men (of whom General Lee and the two Johnstons were conspicuous examples), who refused to hold official posi- tions under the national Government a single day after they had determined to take part in the scheme of disunion.

"By the reorganization of the Cabinet the tone of Mr. Buchanan's admin- istration was radically changed. Judge Black had used his influence with the President to secure trustworthy friends of the Union in every department. Edwin M. Stanton, little known at the time to the public, but of high standing in his profession, was appointed Attorney-General soon after Judge Black took charge of the State Department. Judge Black had been associated with Stanton per- sonally and professionally, and was desirous of his aid in the dangerous period through which he was called to serve.

"Joseph Holt, who, since the death of Aaron V. Brown in 1859, had been Postmaster-General, was now appointed Secretary of War, and Horatio King, of Maine, for many years the upright first assistant, was justly promoted to the head of the Post-office Department. Mr. Holt was the only Southern man left in the Cabinet. He was a native of Kentucky, long a resident of Mississippi, always iden- tified with the Democratic party, and affiliated with its extreme southern wing. Without a moment's hesitation he now broke all the associations of a lifetime, and stood by the Union without qualification or condition. His learning, his firmness and his ability were invaluable to Mr. Buchanan in the closing days of his administration.

"General John A. Dix, of New York, was called to the head of the Treasury. He was a man of excellent ability, of wide experience in affairs, of spotless char- acter and a most zealous friend of the Union. He found the Treasury bankrupt,

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the discipline of its officers in the South gone, its orders disregarded in the States which were preparing for secession. He at once imparted spirit and energy into the service, giving to the administration of this department a policy of pronounced loyalty to the Government. No act of his useful and honorable life has been so widely known or will be so long remembered as his dispatch to the Treasury agent at New Orleans to take possession of a revenue cutter whose commander was suspected of disloyalty and of a design to transfer his vessel to the Confederate service. Lord Nelson's memorable order at Trafalgar was not more inspiring to the British Navy than was the order of General Dix to the American people, when, in the gloom of that depressing winter, he telegraphed South his per- emptory words: ' If any man attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot.'

"Thus reconstructed, the Cabinet as a whole was one of recognized power, marked by high personal character, by intellectual training, by experience in affairs, and by aptitude for the public service. There have been Cabinets perhaps more widely known for the possession of great qualities; but, if the history of suc- cessive administrations from the origin of the Government be closely studied, it will be found that the reorganized Cabinet of President Buchanan must take rank as one of exceptional ability."

CHAPTER XXVI.

JUDGE CRADLEBAUGH DISCHARGES THE GRAND JURY AND TURNS SOCIETY OVER TO LAWLESS RULE. THE INDIANS ENCOURAGED TO DEPREDA- TIONS ON THE SETTLEMENTS. A DARK PICTURE OF SALT LAKE SOCIETY. WHY GOVERNOR CUMMING DID NOT INVESTIGATE THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE.

Having failed to obtain the indictment of the leaders of the Mormon Church, the judges resolved that they would close their courts and give society into the hands of the numerous desperadoes with which the Territory now abounded. In discharging the grand jury, Judge Cradlebaugh uttered one of the most remark- able passages to be found in the whole history of criminal jurisprudence :

" If it is expected," he said, "that this court is to be used by this com- munity as a means of protecting it against the peccadilloes of Gentiles and In- dians, unless this community will punish its own murderers, such expectations will not be realized. It will be used for no such purpose. When the people shall come to their reason and manifest a disposition to punish their own high offenders, it will then be time to enforce the law also for their protection. If this

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court cannot bring you to a proper sense of your duty, it can at least turn the savages held in custody loose upon you."

Accordingly Judge Cradlebaugh dismissed the prisoners and adjourned his court " without day."

On his part D. Hurt, the Indian agent, had, both before and after the en- trance of Johnston's troops, spent his official service in inciting hostile Indians to commit depredations upon the Mormon settlements. This, indeed, was the specific charge which Governor Cumming reported to Secretary Cass against Indian Agent Hurt, both as inimical to the peace of the Territory and interrup- tive of his own executive duties representing the Federal Government. Upon this Indian line of the history, George A. Smith, just prior to the entrance of Johnston's troops, writing to T. B. H. Stenhouse, said :

" It has been the policy of Governor Young and our people to keep the In- dians neutral, should a contest ensue. I read in the last papers received from the States loud boasts of having secured the Utah and other Indians as allies against the Mormons. Strange as it may seem to civilized persons, all the reckless and unprincipled Indians of the mountains have been hired, with new guns, blankets, clothing, ammunition, paint, etc., to steal, rob, murder, and do anything else that can be done to destroy the Mormons. Indian agents have sent messengers to all the peaceable Indians to incite them to deeds of rapine and bloodshed. A number of scattering settlements have been attacked, and innocent blood stains the skirts of the present administration, whose agents have procured the murders.

"I am an American, as you well know. I love my country, and hate to see her rulers trample under foot her glorious institutions, and re-enact barbarism more cruel than that inflicted by the King of Great Britain, through the hands of the red men upon the scattered settlements of the colonies, in the war of inde- pendence. We wish ' life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'

" With 3,500 bayonets, rifles, revolvers, and heavy ordnance pointed at us, and within three days' march of our city, 4,500 more en route to reinforce them, carte blanche on the United States treasury, would seem enough to satisfy our most bitter persecutors, without hiring as allies the savage hordes of the deserts and mountains to murder, scalp, roast, and eat their fellow-citizens, because they forsooth differed on the subject of religion.

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History of Salt Lake City, Part 31

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