USA > Utah > Salt Lake County > Salt Lake > History of Salt Lake City > Part 38
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" I should mention here that in my march from this post no assistance was rendered by the Mormons, who seemed indisposed to divulge any information regarding the Indians, and charged enormous prices for every article furnished my command."
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Accompany the above with an historical note in the Logan Branch records, from which the author himself copied it :
" Jan. 28th, 1863, Colonel Connor passed through Logan with a company of 450 soldiers, and on the 29th he came upon and attacked a band of Indians in a deep ravine through which a small creek runs west of Bear River and twenty miles north of Franklin. The Indians resisted the soldiers and a severe battle ensued which lasted four hours, in which eighteen soldiers were killed and [many] wounded. About 200 Indians were killed and a great many wounded. Colon el Connor captured about 150 Indian ponies, and returned through Logan on Jan. 31. The weather was so intensely cold that scores of his men had their feet and hands frozen. We, the people of Cache Valley, looked upon the movement of Colonel Con- nor as an intervention of the Almighty, as the Indians had been a source of great annoyance to us for a long time, causing us to stand guard over our stock and other property the most of the time since our first settlement."
This historical minute was made early in 1863, just after the battle of Bear River. Notice the striking proof of this in the naming of Connor's rank- " Colonel Connor." He was not yet created Brigadier-General, for fighting that battle, when Secretary Farrell made that minute. Records are invaluable ! This one justifies Cache Valley. A misrepresentation of the Mormon people was made to the War Department, though we are quite as confident that " Colonel Connor" was too honorable to so design his report. The above will show General Con- nor's views of the Mormon people at the date of the writing of his official letter, and of the sympathy of the people of Cache Valley with the Indians. The records of Cache speak of the absolute sympathy of the entire people of Cache with the California Volunteers, and their gratitude to them for redeeming them from Indian depredations.
Col. Martineau, in his most interesting sketch of the military history of Cache Valley, gives the following account of the battle :
"In January, 1863, Col. P. E. Connor, with about 400 United States troops, fought the battle of Bear River, about twelve miles north of Franklin. This action, though more properly belonging to the annals of the United States army, we think should be noticed in this connection, as it had an immense influence in settling Indian affairs in Northern Utah, and especially in Cache County. Indian outrages against settlers and travelers had grown more and more frequent and audacious, until they became unbearable, and Colonel Connor determined to put an end to them. Making forced marches from Camp Douglas to Franklin during an intensely cold winter and through deep snow, his command left Franklin some hours before daylight, and after a march of twelve miles, found the Indians, numbering about 400 warriors, very strongly posted in the deep ravine through which Battle Creek enters Bear River. To attack this natural fortress the troops had to cross an open plain about half a mile in width, in plain view of the In- dians, who were hidden behind the steep banks of the stream. The troops reached Bear River early in the morning of an intensely cold day. The river was full of running ice, but was gallantly forded, many of the mengetting wet: and afterwards having their feet and legs frozen. 9
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"As the troops advanced they met a deadly fire from the Indian rifles ; but without wavering pressed steadily on, and after a bloody contest of some hours, in which the Indians fought with desperation, the survivors, about 100 in number, fled. Pocatello and Saguich, two noted chiefs, escaped, but Bear Hunter was killed while making bullets at a camp fire. When struck he fell forward into the fire and perished miserably. For years he had been as a thorn to the settlers, and his death caused regret in none. A simultaneous attack in front and on both flanks finally routed the Indians, whose dead, as counted by an eye-witness from Franklin, amounted to 368, besides many wounded, who afterwards died. About ninety of the slain were women and children. The troops found their camp well supplied for the winter. They burnt the camp and captured a large number of horses. The troops suffered severely in killed and wounded, besides a great number who had their feet and legs frozen by fording Bear River. The morning after the battle and an intensely cold night, a soldier found a dead squaw lying in the snow, with a little infant still alive, which was trying to draw nourishment from her icy breast. The soldiers, in mercy to the babe, killed it. On their return the troops remained all night in Logan, the citizens furnishing them supper and breakfast, some parties, the writer among the number, entertaining ten or fifteen each. The settlers furnished teams and sleighs to assist them in carrying the dead, wounded and frozen to Camp Douglas. In crossing the mountains be- tween Wellsville and Brigham City the troops experienced great hardships. They toiled and floundered all day through the deep snow, the keen, whirling blasts filling the trail as fast as made, until, worn out, the troops returned to Wellsville. Next day Bishop W. H. Maughan gathered all the men and teams in the place and assisted the troops through the pass to Salt Lake Valley.
" The victory was of immense value to the settlers of Cache County and all the surrounding country. It broke the spirit and power of the Indians and enabled the settlers to occupy new and choice localities hitherto unsafe. Peter Maughan, the presiding bishop of the County, pronounced it an interposition of Providence in behalf of the settlers; the soldiers having done what otherwise the colonists would have had to accomplish with pecuniary loss and sacrifice of lives illy spared in the weak state of the settlements. This was the universal sen- timent of the County. It made the flocks and herds and lives of the people comparatively safe ; for though the survivors were enraged against the people of the County, whom they regarded as in a manner aiding and abetting the troops, they felt themselves too weak to forcibly seek revenge."
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CHAPTER XXXIII.
GREAT MASS MEETING OF THE CITIZENS TO PROTEST AGAINST THE CONDUCT OF GOVERNOR HARDING AND JUDGES WAITE AND DRAKE. THE READ- ING OF HIS MESSAGE TO THE LEGISLATURE. DEEP INDIGNATION OF THE PEOPLE. STIRRING DENUNCIATIONS BY THE LEADERS OF THE PEOPLE. RESOLUTIONS. PETITION TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN FOR THE REMOVAL OF THE GOVERNOR AND JUDGES. A COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO WAIT UPON THEM AND ASK THEIR RESIGNATION IN THE NAME OF THE PEOPLE. THE COMMITTEE'S REPORT.
In the Spring of 1863 there occurred a demonstration of the people of Great Salt Lake City over the conduct of Governor Harding and Judges Waite and Drake. An immense mass meeting was held in the city on the 3rd of March As a prelude to the proceedings Captain Thomas' brass band played " Hail Col- umbia," after which the meeting organized with the Hon. Daniel Spencer, chair- man. Next came a prayer from the chaplain, Joseph Young, for divine guidance in their important business, followed by the band playing the " Star Spangled Banner," after which the Hon. John Taylor arose and briefly stated the object of the meeting. They had met together, he said, for the purpose of investi- gating certain acts of several of the United States officials now in the Territory. It was a mass meeting of the citizens, and he, for one, desired to hear a proper statement of the course of the persons alluded to, so far as that affected the citizens of the Territory, laid before the people, and that such action might be adopted as they thought proper, and as the circumstances demanded.
The time had come for certain documents to be placed before the people and before the country, and on which they could not avoid taking action. Though the Legislature was under no obligation at the opening of the session to publish the Governor's message-as such action on their part was purely compli- mentary-they did at first contemplate doing so, but on reflection, considered that the character of that message was such that they could not with respect to themselves and to the community do so, and many were of opinion that its pub- lication at that time might have subjected his Excellency to the insult which his intemperate language had provoked. Mr. Taylor then gave place to the Hon. Albert Carrington, who read the message from the printed Journals of the Leg- islature.
" Gentlemen of the Council and House of Representatives of the Territory of Utah :
"Since the adjournment of the eleventh annual session of this body, the office of Governor of this Territory has been conferred upon me according to law. On the 7th day of July last I arrived in this city and assumed the duties of my office. I had heard much of the industry and enterprise of the people of
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Utah, but I must admit that my most sanguine expectations were more than real- ized upon my arrival here. A few years since this Territory was only known as a desert. I found it the home of a large and thriving population, who have ac- complished wonders in the short period that it has been settled ; and under the steady progress of labor, protected in its indefensible rights, the whole area em- braced in the Organic Act establishing this Territory must present a spectacle to the people of the United States as satisfactory to them as it is creditable to your- selves.
" The present season has been one of unusual abundance, not only here, but throughout the entire Union; and, notwithstanding civil war has made desolate many of the fairest districts which have ever been the abode of a civilized people ; yet He who has promised 'seed time and harvest,' and ' the rain to fall upon the unjust as well as the just,' has still remembered the whole American people with superabundant mercies. If the harmony of the world has been marred, it has not been through the withholding of His kindness from the nation.
"It is not necessary for me to dwell upon the causes which have superin- duced the unhappy troubles now existing in the States of the American Union. That African slavery, and the unnatural antagonisms which grow out of that re- lation, lie at the foundation, I have no doubt. I am aware that other reasons have been assigned, but such reasons are confined to but very few in comparison to the many who will agree with me in my proposition. That it is the duty of every lover of human liberty and friend of republican institutions on this conti nent to stand by the Government in its present trials is, to my mind, a proposition too clear for argument. Notwithstanding organized treason is still making gigantic efforts to carry out its purpose of the destruction of the Union, yet I am happy in the belief that the rebellion has culminated; that it can never be as strong again as it has been for a few months past. The extremest measures have been resorted to in the rebel States to put the last man in the field for the pur- pose of sustaining the rebel flag ; nevertheless, that flag has been compelled to retreat step by step before the victorious legions of the Union, and still there are millions of men to be called into the field, if it shall hereafter be found that those millions are needed.
"CONSERVATISM OF THE ADMINISTRATION.
" The most conservative advocate of the Union, no matter what his opinions heretofore may have been on the question of slavery, cannot complain of the policy of the Administration of President Lincoln in dealing with this question. While it was known to all men that 4,000,000 of chattel slaves were supplying their rebel masters with means to prosecute their work of ruin to the Govern- ment, and for the overthrow of the Constitution-the joint labors of our common ancestors; yet that same Government, through its civil ministers and military commanders, it must be confessed, hesitated long to strike the rebel interests where its blows could be made to tell with most terrible effect.
"OBJECTS OF THE WAR.
"The present war has not been prosecuted by the Federal Government be-
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cause of any hostility towards the institutions of the Southern States, but to pre- serve the union of the great family of States. The question of emancipation, or no Union, has been thrust upon the President. In meeting that question he has shown a patriotic wisdom worthy the head of a great nation. If the Union could have been preserved and slavery still suffered to remain intact, that institu- tion would never have been disturbed by the American people, but would have been suffered to expand its malign influences in the impoverishment of the soil where it exists, until finally it must have perished by the inexorable law of retri- bution, which, like an avenging Nemesis, is ever following in the track of wrong. But no matter when or how the present difficulties may be settled, slavery is doomed-it must perish, from the very nature of things.
" PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION.
" On the first day of January, proximo, the time given by the President to the slave masters of the rebel States will have expired. If madness shall still rule la their councils and no returning sense of duty or patriotism shall have been awakened in their hearts, and they shall still refuse to return to that allegiance which is their plainest duty, then the President, exercising that power which he holds as commander-in-chief, and which, as a war power, no man, whose opinions are entitled to the least respect, has ever denied, will by proclamation declare the freedom of every slave in the States or districts of States, where such rebellion shall then exist. This new order of things may for a time jostle the commercial interests of not only this country, but of the whole civilized world ; but order and harmony will soon be restored, and our system of Government will still be preserved, with no disturbing element remaining-a beacon-light to the nations, and a refuge to countless millions who will come after us.
"ADMISSION OF THE STATE OF DESERET INTO THE UNION.
" After the adjournment of the last session of this body, in accordance with a joint resolution emanating therefrom, the people of this Territory proceeded to elect delegates to form a Constitution for the State of Deseret ; and after such Constitution was formed and adopted, the people proceeded to elect a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and other officers, amongst which was a representative to Congress ; and also two United States Senators were elected. One of the gen- tlemen elected as a United States Senator proceeded to Washington City and caused to be laid before Congress the object of his mission. He was treated with that courtesy to which a gentleman on so grave a mission should ever be entitled. He was permitted to occupy a seat within the bar of the Senate chamber, and was otherwise received with the kindest consideration. In consequence of the lateness of the session, it could not be expected that more would have been done than was in the premises. The Constitution and other documents were referred to the appropriate committee, where the matter now rests. That the question will be taken up at the approaching session of Congress and acted on in that spirit of fairness that becomes a great and generous nation, I have no doubt.
" I am sorry to say that since my sojourn amongst you I have heard no sen- timents, either publicly or privately expressed, that would lead me to believe that
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much sympathy is felt by any considerable number of your people in favor of the Government of the United States, now struggling for its very existence 'in the valley and shadow' through which it has been called to pass. If I am mistaken in this opinion no one will rejoice more than myself in acknowledging my error. I would, in the name of my bleeding country, that you, as the representatives of public sentiment here, would speedily pass such a resolution as will extort from me, if necessary, a public acknowledgment of my error, if error I have committed.
" I have said this in no unkind spirit; I would much rather learn that the fault has been on my part and not on yours.
" I regret also to say, I have found in conversing with many gentlemen of social and political influence, that because the question of the admission of this Territory into the Union was temporarily postponed, distrust is entertained in re- gard to the friendly disposition of the Federal Government, and expressions have been used amounting to inuendoes at least, as to what the result might be in case the admission should be rejected or postponed. Every such manifestation of spirit on the part of the objectors is, in my opinion, not only unbecoming, but is based on an entire misconception of the rights of the applicant, and the duties of the representatives of the States coniposing the Union.
"The Constitution of the United States provides, in Art. 4, and Sec. 3, ' that new States may be admitted by Congress in this Union,' etc. The question properly arises, when and how are they to be admitted? Not, surely, upon the demand of the people of the Territory seeking to be admitted, but upon the con- sent of Congress. When that consent becomes a right to be demanded, depends on circumstances. It is doubtless the interest and policy of the Federal Govern- ment to admit the Territories belonging to it to the status and condition of States whenever there is a sufficient population to warrant it, and they apply to Con- gress with a Constitution republican in spirit and form.
" But still the Congress has not only the right but it is one of their gravest duties, to see that this great boon is not conferred upon a people unprepared to enter into the great political family on a basis that is unjust to other members of the Union. Amongst the first inquiries is that in relation to the population of the Territory knocking for admission. Is it such as to entitle a State to a mem- ber in the House of Representatives? If such is the case, and the Constitution which has been adopted as the organic law is such as the Constitution of the United States contemplates; if the same has been adopted in good faith, and the people are loyal to the Constitution and the laws, and desire the welfare of the Federal Government, then it becomes not only the duty of the Congress to ad- mit such applicant, but the latter has a right morally and politically to demand such admission. But on the other hand, if it is not clearly shown that there is a sufficient population, that the Constitution is republican in form and spirit, that the same has been adopted in good faith, and that the people are loyal to the Federal Government and to the laws, then the right to make such demand does not exist, nor should the application be entertained after these facts appear.
" The admission of a new State into the Union is, or ought to be, attended with gravest consideration. For instance, suppose the population of the Terri-
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tory is known to fall far short of the number that entitles the present members of the Union to a representation in Congress, should it be thought hard or strange that objections should be made? Is it thought a hardship that the people of the State of New York, comprising 4,000,000, are not willing that their voices should be silenced in the Senate of the United States by 60,000 or 80,000 in one of the Territories? I am aware that precedents may be cited in some few instances, where these reasons have been overlooked and disregarded, but that fact does not affect the question under consideration. The reasons which controlled Congress at the time referred to were never good and sound ones, but we found in the wishes and ambition of political parties, anxious to control the vote in the electoral col- lege, for chief magistrate. If the precedent was a bad one, the sconer it is changed the better for all parties concerned.
"In connection with this subject, I respectfully recommend the propriety of passing an act whereby a correct census may be taken of the population of the Territory. If it shall be found that the population is sufficient to entitle it to one representative in Congress, on the present basis, I shall be most happy in aiding you to the extent of my humble abilities, in forwarding any movements having for their end, the admission of the Territory into the Union as a State.
" POLYGAMY.
" It would be disingenuous if I were not to advert to a question, though seem- ingly it has nothing to do with the premises, is yet one of vast importance to you as a people, and which cannot be ignored-I mean that institution which is not only commended but encouraged by you, and which, to say the least of it, is an anomaly throughout Christendom-I mean polygamy, or, if you please, plural wives. In approaching this delicate subject, I desire to do so in no offensive manner or unkind spirit ; yet the institution, founded upon no written statute of your Territory, but upon custom alone exists. It is a patent fact, and your own public teachers, by speech and pamphlet, on many occasions, have challenged its investigation at the bar of Christendom. I will not on this occasion be drawn into a discussion either of its morality or its Bible authority; I will neither affirm or deny any one of the main proceedings on which it rests. That there is seem- ing authority for its practice in the Old Testament Scripture, cannot be denied.
" But still there were many things authorized in the period of the world when they were written which could not be tolerated now without overturning the whole system of our civilization, based, as it is, on the new and better revelation of the common Savior of us all. While it must be confessed that the practice of polygamy prevailed to a limited extent, yet it should be remembered that it was in that age of the world when the twilight of a semi-barbarism had not yielded to the effulgence of the coming day, and when the glory and fame of the kings of Israel consisted more in the beauty and multitude of their concubines than in the wisdom of their counselors. "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," was once the lex talionis of the great Jewish law-giver. So capital punishment was awarded for Sabbath breaking; and there were many other statutes and cus- toms which at this age of the world, if adopted, would carry us backward into the centuries of barbarism.
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" I lay it down as a sound proposition that no community can happily exist with an institution as important as that of marriage wanting in all those qualities that make it homogeneal with institutions and laws of neighboring civilized communi- ties having the same object. Anomalies in the moral world cannot long exist in a state of mere abeyance; they must form the very nature of things, beconie ag- gressive, or they will soon disappear from the force of conflicting ideas. This proposition is supported by the history of our race, and is so plain that it may be set down as an axiom. If we grant this to be true, we may sum up the conclu- sion of the argument as follows: either the laws and opinions of the community by which you are surrounded must become subordinate to your customs and opinions, or, on the other hand, you must yield to theirs. The conflict is irre- pressible.
" But no matter whether this anomaly shall disappear or remain amongst you, it is your duty at least, to guard it against flagrant abuse. That plurality of wives is tolerated and believed to be right, may not appear so strange. But that a mother and her daughter are allowed to fulfill the duties of wives to the same hus- band, or that a man could be found in all Christendom who could be induced to take upon himself such a relationship, is perhaps no less a marvel in morals than in matters of taste. The bare fact that such practices are tolerated amongst you is sufficient evidence that the human passions, whether excited by religious fa- naticism or otherwise, must be restrained and subject to laws, to which all must yield obedience. No community can long exist without absolute social anarchy unless so important an institution as that of marriage laws is regulated by law. It is the basis of our civilization, and in it the whole question of the descent and distribution of real and personal estate is involved.
" Much to my astonishment, I have not been able to find any laws upon the statutes of this Territory regulating marriage. I earnestly recommend to your early consideration the passage of some law that will meet the exigencies of the people.
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