History of Salt Lake City, Part 32

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

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' Who can believe it !- the cause is rather odd -- Men hate each other for the love of God !'

"You are aware that all the outrages in the country, heretofore, have been caused by men who are enemies to the inhabitants of this Territory-who have passed through our borders and recklessly shot at and otherwise abused the Indians.

"Experience shows that Indians, like Congressmen and Government officials, have their price."

Mr. William G. Mills, writing to the same person, who at that time was a special attache of the New York Herald on Utah affairs, said :

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" The officials and others among the troops are employing their influence and means to bribe the Indians to steal the cattle, and horses, and mules from the settlers here ; and already some have succeeded in stealing, and have mas sacred several persons in the outer settlements. The cattle will be conveyed to the army. One poor fox skin from an Indian will be paid for with a quantity of powder, lead, caps, blankets, and shirts-more than a hundred times its value- in order to buy over the rude savages to rob from and murder those who have hitherto fed and clothed them. This is done whenever an Indian visits them. It is not, of course, bribing or buying the Indian-it is only paying for the fox or buckskin; and significant nods, winks, and signs accompanying the gift are easily interpreted, and robbery and murder are the result. Dr. Hurt, the Indian agent, who decamped from the Indian farm, to create an excitement in his favor, in pretence for personal safety-'The wicked fleeth when none pursueth '-has collected a band of Indians in Uintah Valley, among whom is the murderer Tintic, and placed himself as their chief at their head, to make an attack on the southern settlements, and promising not only blankets, powder, etc., but a share of the pillage, as the reward of their nefarious acts. Murder in the north is to be responded to by murder of quiet and peaceable citizens in the south. Every mule and horse that the Indians steal is blamed on the Mormons, though the lat- ter may be a hundred miles from the scene of action. A good supply of whisky is furnished to the Indians by the officers and others, and they seem to enjoy themselves well together. Drinking among the troops was carried on to excess during the winter, which was calculated to excite their bitterest feelings and to enter in every scheme to annoy and kill the citizens. White men and murderous Indians are ' hail fellows well met.'

"The Indians, by the presence of the troops, are emboldened to annoy the various settlements, because the Mormons would rather not fight. In Tooele County-the most westerly in the Territory-those Indians who were hitherto friendly have become excited by the conversations and bribes of the army, and have stolen about one hundred and fifty head of cattle and sixty horses, and fired upon the men who were guarding. At Salmon River settlement, two hundred and fifty head of cattle were stolen about the 4th of March, and several Mormons killed and scalped, and again attacked subsequently. It is expected that Dr. Hurt and his tribe will make an attack soon upon the southern settlements; but the people are prepared for every emergency, and will repulse them.

"The war chiefs of several tribes of Indians, during the time of the excite- ment last fall and winter, applied personally to Governor Young for his advice and permission to go out with their tribes and 'use up' the soldiers, which they deemed themselves amply capable to do; but he, in every instance, told them to keep away from the army and show no bad feelings whatever, and requested them to avoid killing the white men. I have seen the chiefs exhibit sanguine feelings in relation to killing the soldiers, but entirely softened down by the counsel and expressions of Governor Young. He wrote to Ben Simons, the Delaware Indian, chief of the Weberites, in reply to a letter, to stand in a neutral position, neither take part with the Mormons nor the soldiers, in the event of a collision, and has

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always endeavored to suppress that bloodthirsty spirit of the treacherous red men."

The action of the judges, in suspending altogether the administration of justice, and by semi-proclamation turning loose upon society the desperadoes, produced such a condition of things, compared with which the history of Great Salt Lake City was stainless before the onset of the Buchanan Expedition.

Mr. Stenhouse in his Rocky Mountain Saints has painted the dark picture of those times thus outlined and colored :

"With such a large body of troops there were, as usual, numerous camp- followers plying their petit industries, gambling, thieving, and drinking. Gen- eral Johnston, with strict surveillance and severe military punishment, had been able to control them on the march and at Camp Scott; but when they found in the valleys of the Saints a wider and safer field for operations, they gave rein to their vilest passions, and a worse set of vagabonds never afflicted any com- munity with their presence than did the followers of Johnston's army the inhabi- tants of the chief city of Zion. Quite a number of young Mormons-and some not so young-became as reckless and daring as any of the imported Gentiles, and life and property for a time were very insecure in Salt Lake City.

" The programme of the police authorities seemed to be to give the desper- adoes the largest liberty, so that they might, in their drunken carousals, ' kill off each other,' and what they left undone invisible hands readily accomplished. During the summer and fall of 1859 there was a murder committed in Salt Lake City almost every week, and very rarely were the criminals brought to justice.

"The Mormon leaders taught the people to attend to their fields and work- shops, keep out of ' Whisky Street,' and let ' civilization' take its course. They had plenty of hard work to engage their attention, and no money, so that the business street was seldom visited by them, and they saw little of what was trans- piring in their midst. The Church weekly paper took pride in reporting, as it occurred, 'another man for breakfast,' and with that ' the people of God' were satisfied that 'the good work was rolling on.' Israel would one day be free from his oppressors.

" The rioting and killing that were traceable occupied little more than pass- ing attention, but the midnight work of invisible hands created a sensation of terror in the minds of all who were inimical to the priesthood. The Valley Tan, notwithstanding its true boldness, felt the danger of the hour, and in one of its doleful wails ejaculated : 'How long, oh ! how long are scenes like this to con- tinue ? It would seem as if the insatiable demon and enemy of man must himself be gorged with the flow of human blood in our midst.'

* ' No man's life is secure as long as the scenes of violence and bloodshed, which have been of such frequent occurrence among us for months past, continue to be repeated, and the perpetrators escape unpunished or not detected.'

" The bloody work continued, and finally terminated with the murder of Brewer and Joaquin Johnston, two intimate friends, who were shot at the same instant as they were walking home together. The author well remembers seeing

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very early the next morning the marshal of the city and the chief of police who gravely informed him of the 'sad news'-' Johnston and Brewer had quarreled, and killed each other!' This story was feeble enough, but no one cared to ques- tion it : the people had got used to the record of scenes of blood.

" In the ' swift destruction' that fell upon the desperadoes, there was no miti- gation of punishment on account of faith or family relationship, and very respect- able Mormon families had to mourn the untimely end of boys who, before the entrance of the army, gave promise of lives of usefulness and honor. All the bad and desperate Mormons were not brought to judgment, but the pretext alone was wanting for carrying more extensively into execution the general programme. Resistance to an officer, or the slightest attempt to escape from custody, was eagerly seized, when wanted, as the justification of closing a disreputable career, and in more than one case of this legal shooting, there is much doubt if even the trivial excuse was waited for. The Salt Lake police then earned the reputa- tion of affording every desperate prisoner the opportunity of escape, and, if embraced, the officer's ready revolver brought the fugitive to a 'halt,' and saved the country the expenses of a trial and his subsequent boarding in the peniten- tiary. A coroner's inquest and cemetery expenses were comparatively light.

" With the troops themselves there was no collision. The Governor had requested General Johnston to withhold furlough from the soldiers, and few of them ever had the opportunity of visiting the City of the Saints. With some officers there had been, in the city, slight difficulties, which were, however, easily settled. Only one serious affair occurred, ending in the death of Sergeant Pike. This person was charged with violently assaulting a young Mormon and cracking his skull with a musket. During the Sergeant's trial in Salt Lake City, while on the public street at noon, passing to his hotel, a young man shot him down, and shortly afterward he died. The young man, with the aid of others, escaped, and was never arrested. There was great excitement at Camp Floyd, but the Ser- geant's comrades were too far away to retaliate.

" From the time of the arrival of the troops in the valley, Brigham was per- sonally very cautious, and never exposed himself to attack. For a long time he absented himself from the public assemblies, kept an armed door-keeper at the entrance of his residences, and by night was protected by an armed guard of the faithful. Every ward in the city took its turn in watching over the Prophet, and the floors of his offices were nightly covered with a guard, armed and equipped, and ready at a moment's notice to repulse the imaginary foe.

" During the day, when Brigham ventured beyond the outer walls of his premises, half a dozen friends always accompanied him wherever he went. It is pleasing to add that no one ever so much as said to him an unbecoming word."

In this condition of society, and the antagonistic complication of affairs existing between the Governor and General Johnston and the Judges, is to be found the exact historical exposition why the Mountain Meadow Massacre was not brought to judgment and avenged years before the execution of John D. Lee.

Ex-Governor Young has often, yet most senselessly been reproved and held guilty for not causing an investigation of the tragedy in question, and bringing

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its executors to justice immediately after the bloody deed was done. One of the , questions and its answer from the deposition of Brigham Young, taken at the trial of Lee, bears directly upon this point :

"Q. Why did you not as Governor institute proceedings forthwith to investigate the massacre and bring the guilty authors to justice ?

"A. Because another Governor had been appointed by the President of the United States, and was then on the way here to take my place, and I did not know how soon he might arrive ; and because the United States Judges were not in the Territory. Soon after Governor Cumming arrived I asked him to take Judge Cradlebaugh, who belonged to the Southern District, with him, and I would accompany them with sufficient aid to investigate the matter and bring the offenders to justice."

But the action of the Judges, at the very onset, made it impossible for ex- Governor Young or Governor Cumming to move far in the matter. Though Brigham Young had been Justice personified, had he proceeded he must have walked into the death-trap set for him.

The following editorial excerpt from the New York Tribune, July 3rd, 1858, describes the case of Governor Cumming before the entrance of the troops, which was more abundantly illustrated afterwards :

" The latest accounts from Utah present the affairs of that Territory in rather a queer light. All the correspondents of the newspapers who write from Camp Scott most zealously contend that Governor Cumming, in representing the Mor- mons as having submitted to his authority, has either been grossly deceived him- self, or else is seeking to deceive the Government and the country. Possibly, as to this matter, the good people of Camp Scott, civil and military, judge the Mormons a little too much by themselves. If the disposition to obey the Gov- ernor and to second and sustain him in the exercise of his office is not greater within the valley than it seems to be at Camp Scott and Fort Bridger, the extent of the Governor's authority is certainly limited enough. Whether or not Brig- ham Young and his people have combined together, while seeming to acknowl. edge Cumming as Governor-in fact to set aside and override his authority, at least it is very certain that such a combination exists in full force at Camp Scott, with Mr. Chief Justice Eckles at its head. Perhaps there is something in the air of Utah that stimulates to treason, rebellion, and resistance to authority. Whether that be so or not, the authority of Cumming as Governor seems just now quite as much in danger from the Chief Justice, the civil officers, and the army sent to Utah at such an expense to place him and sustain him in the Gov- ernor's chair, as from those whose anticipated opposition to his authority led to such costly preparations to uphold it. In fact, it would seem that, on the question of due respect to Cumming's gubernatorial authority, the people inside the valley and those out of it had completely changed ground. The resistance to Governor Cumming is not now on the part of Brigham Young and the Mormons generally, but on the part of Chief Justice Eckels, Marshal Dotson, General Johnston, the camp, and the camp-followers.

" In this resistance to the authority of Governor Cumming and combination to reduce him, if possible, to a cipher, the recently arrived Peace Comm is-

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sioners, according to all accounts, have joined, actuated possibly by a feeling of jealousy that they should have been anticipated by Governor Cumming and the work of pacification taken out of their hands. Nor, if we are to believe the letters from the camp, do these gentlemen confine themselves merely to thwart- ing the policy of Governor Cumming and nullifying his authority as Governor. They go, indeed, much further than that. The President's proclamation, of which they are the bearers, does not meet their approbation, or appear to them adapted to the exigencies of the case. They harmonize completely, we are told, with Judge Eckles and General Johnston, and not content with upsetting and overriding the Governor, are resolved to upset and override the President too. The proclamation is, therefore, to be construed-by the help, we suppose, of that profound jurist, Judge Eckles-in conformity to their ideas. In other words, it is to be nullified and set aside.

" We have heard a great deal heretofore about the danger of personal vio- lence and loss of property to which the Gentiles in the Territory of Utah have been exposed on the part of the Mormons. At present, the danger seems to be entirely the other way. Nothing can exceed the rancorous and even ferocious feelings against the Mormons with which the army at Camp Scott appears to be penetrated. They regard themselves as engaged not so much in a public service as in the prosecution of a private quarrel. They regard the Mormons as having subjected them to all the hard service of this campaign-as having kept them en- camped all winter on short rations amid the mountains-as having derided, ma- ligned, and insulted them; and even the very common soldiers are represented as having put on an air of offended dignity at the idea that the Peace Commis- sioners had arrived to snatch their intended victims from their revengeful grasp. This state of feeling on the part of the soldiers affords an abundant justification for Governor Cumming's objections to their entry into the valley and for the dread and horror with which the Mormons regard their presence there. If it be decmed proper or necessary to station troops in Utah, they ought to be some fresh corps, and not a body of men filled with such hatred and prejudice. Let some of the troops now on their march across the plains be employed in this ser- vice, and the force now collecting under General Johnson be sent in some other direction. That officer, however, would seem bent upon entering the valley, in spite of the remonstrances of Governor Cumming, whose authority over the troops he denies, with the very object, it would seem, of driving the Mormons to destroy their houses and to prevent them from gathering their crops, thus subject- ing thousands of women and children to the danger of starvation."

The Peace Commissioners, however, in the sequel accomplished their mis- sion, but the breach between Governor Cumming and General Johnston and the Judges, extended, as we have seen, to the impeachment of his course and a demand from Camp Floyd for his removal.

But his inability to investigate and bring to justice the authors of the Moun- tain Meadow Massacre, during his term of office, is known to have been a thorn in Governor Cumming's side. After him no Governor could be specially held

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responsible; and thus justice tarried long, impeded at the onset by the Judges themselves, which is the unmistakable import of Attorney-General Black's rebuke to them.

CHAPTER XXVII.

AFTER THE UTAH WAR. CELEBRATION OF THE FOURTH OF JULY. BENEFITS OF CAMP FLOYD TO THE COMMUNITY. TRADE WITH THE CAMP. THE PONY EXPRESS. THE BULK OF THE TROOPS MARCH FOR NEW MEXICO AND ARIZONA. JOHNSTON LEAVES FOR WASHINGTON. THE DEPARTURE OF GOVERNOR CUMMING. THE REMNANT OF THE ARMY ORDERED TO

THE STATES. SALES OF CAMP FLOYD. GOODS WORTH FOUR MILLION DOLLARS SOLD FOR ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND. DESTRUCTION OF ARMS AND AMMUNITION. LINCOLN'S NEW APPOINTMENTS FOR UTAH. COM- PLETION OF THE TELEGRAPH LINE. £ FIRST MESSAGE FROM EX-GOV- ERNOR YOUNG-"UTAH HAS NOT SECEDED." THE GOVERNOR TO PRESI- DENT LINCOLN AND HIS RESPONSE. UTAH'S MANIFESTO ON THE CIVIL WAR.

Soon after the attempt of the military, instigated by the Judges, to arrest Brigham Young, the Lieut .- General of the Utah militia issued the following :

"SPECIAL ORDER NO. 2. " HEADQUARTERS NAUVOO LEGION,

Adjutant-General's Office, G. S. L. City, July Ist, 1859.

" Monday, the 4th, will be the eighty-third anniversary of the birth of American freedom. It is the duty of every American citizen to commemorate the great event; not in a boisterous revelry, but with hearts full of gratitude to Almighty God the Great Father of our rights.

" The Lieutenant-General directs for the celebration in the city as follows :

" Ist .- At sunrise a salute of thirteen guns will be fired, commencing near the residence of His Excellency the Governor, to be answered from a point on South Temple Street, near the residence of President Brigham Young.

" The national flag will be hoisted at the signal from the first gun, simul- taneously at the residences of Governor Cumming and President Young, at the office of the Territorial Secretary, and the residence of the United States At- torney. Captain Pitt's band will be stationed at sunrise opposite the residence of Governor Cumming, and Captain Ballo's band opposite the residence of President Young.

"At the hoisting of the flags the bands will play the 'Star Spangled Banner.'

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" 2d .- After the morning salute the guns will be parked at the Court House till noon, when a salute of 33 guns will be fired.

" 3d .- At sunset a salute of five guns, in honor of the Territories, will be fired, and the flags lowered.

" 4th .- For the above service Lieutenant Atwood and two platoons of artillery will be detailed. Two six-pounder iron guns will be used for the salutes. Also a first lieutenant and two platoons of the Ist cavalry will be de- tailed as a guard, and continue on guard through the day. The whole detach- ment will be dismissed after the sunset salute.

" 5th .- Col. J. C. Little, of the General's staff, will perform the duties of marshal of the day, with permission to select such deputies as he may require to assist him. The Declaration of Independence will be read by him from the steps of the Court House at noon.

" 6th .- The bands and the services to be performed by them will be under the direction of Col. Duzette.

" By order of

Lieut .- Gen. DANIEL H. WELLS. Adjt .- Gen. JAMES FERGUSON."

When the danger of conflict between Camp Floyd and Salt Lake City was passed, the citizens began to realize many material benefits from the camp.

The famine of 1855-6 had impoverished the Territory in its agricultural re- sources ; the handcart emigration had brought to the country several thousand poor people, destitute, after their terrible journey, of even the barest clothing, whereas in former years the "Independent Companies," and the "Ten-pound ox-team companies," had brought moderate, and in some cases rich and plentiful supplies, which had lasted the emigrants several years before they were entirely exhausted. But now for a long while the common sources of supplies had been stopped ; and commerce with the east had been suspended by the expedition it- self. The Gentile merchants had broken up their houses at the approach of the army, and General Johnston on his joining his army issued orders that no trains of merchandise bound for Great Salt Lake City should be allowed to pass his lines.

Thus the community had become utterly destitute of almost everything necessary to their social comfort. The people were poorly clad, and rarely. ever saw anything on their tables but what was prepared from flour, corn, beet- molasses, and the vegetables and fruits of their gardens. They were alike desti- tute of implements of industry, and horses, mules, and wagons for their agricul- tural operations. Utah was truly very poor at that period ; indeed, never so poor since the Californian emigrants poured into Great Salt Lake City in 1849.

The presence of the army soon changed the condition of the community. It was not to be expected that the leaders of the Church would from the Taber- nacle encourage much intercourse between the camp and the citizens, but quite a number of the self-reliant men, who have since represented the business and com- merce of the Territory, sought directly the intercourse of trade with the camp, while the more cautious furnished these middle men with the native supplies of

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the country, by which the trade was sustained. In this way money was gathered in freely by the Gentiles and the bold Mormon traders, and the people generally were thus indirectly clothed and supplied with the delicacies of tea, coffee and sugar, in return for the produce of the field, the dairy and the chicken-coop.

It was at Camp Floyd, indeed, where the principal Utah merchants and business men of the second decade of our history may be said to have laid the foundation of their fortunes, among whom were the Walker Brothers. Nor should it be made to appear that this commerce with Camp Floyd marked the rising of an apostate wave in Utah society. It signified simply the desire of each to better his own condition and that of society at large. And thus commercial intercourse and mutual benefits softened the feelings of hostility between the citizens and the soldiers, and the Utah Expedition became transformed into a great blessing to Utah, and especially to the Mormon community. A passage here, from the New York Herald's Utah special correspondent, of the novelties of the Camp Floyd trade, must be quoted for its striking illustration :

"Among the rascalities of those times, contracts were awarded to certain political hucksters at Washington for an enormous quantity of flour to be supplied at $28.40 per 100 pounds, which in the course of time was furnished by the Prophet at $6 in the City of the Saints. That contractor also managed to get an order from the Secretary of War for the specie at Camp Floyd, failing which he was to be paid in mules, and of these he had his choice, at figures ranging from $100 to $150 each. Great bands of these animals were driven to California, and sold on the Pacific at nearly six times their Camp Floyd prices. With such and many other flagrant facts, it is not surprising that the Prophet and the Apostles designated Mr. Buchanan's expedition to Utah in 1857, 'The Contractors' War!'"'

The experiment of the Pony Express from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean was made in the spring of 1860. The Deseret News of date April IIth, made note: "The first Pony Express from the west left Sacramento City at 12 m., on the night of the 3rd instant, and arrived in this city at 11:45 of the 7th, inside of the prospectus time. The express from the east left St. Joseph, Missouri, at 6:30 on the evening of the 3d, and arrived in this city at 6:25 on the evening of the 9th. This brings us within six days' communication from the frontier and seven from Washington-a result which we Utonians, ac- customed to receive news three months after date, can well appreciate."

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History of Salt Lake City, Part 32

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