History of Salt Lake City, Part 51

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

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The organization of Z. C. M. I., was at length effected in the winter of 1868-69. It consisted of a president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer and seven directors. Brigham Young was very properly chosen president ; J. M. Bernhisel, vice-president ; Wm. Clayton, Secretary and D. O. Calder, treasurer ; George A. Smith, William Jennings, G. Q. Cannon, William H. Hooper, H. S. Eldredge, H. W. Lawrence, and H. B. Clawson, directors; H. B. Clawson, superintendent.

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Several changes, however, were soon made in the Board and officers of the Institution. Thomas G. Webber succeeded William Clayton as the secretary, Thomas Williams was elected at the same time treasurer. Henry W. Lawrence retired from the Institution and sold his interest in it to Horace S. Eldredge.

The policy which had been wisely and considerately pursued in purchasing the stock of existing firms, or receiving them as investments at just rates, shielded from embarassment those who would otherwise have inevitably suffered from the inau- guration and prestige of the Z. C. M. I.

Simultaneously with the framing of the parent institution, local organizations were formed in all the settlements of the Territory ; each feeling itself in duty bound to sustain the one central depot and to make their purchases from it. The people, with great unanimity, became shareholders in their respective local co-op. atives, and also in the parent institution ; so that they might enjoy the profits of their own investment and purchases. Thus, almost in a day, was effected a great re-construction of the commercial relations and methods of an entire community which fitted the purposes of the times and preserved the temporal unity of the Mormon people as well as erecting for them a mighty financial bulwark.

CHAPTER XLIV.

POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE TO UTAH OF THE ELECTION OF GRANT AND COL- FAX. THE " FATHERS OF THE CHURCH " SPEAK TO THE NATION ON THE SUBJECT OF ABOLISHING POLYGAMY. COLFAX'S DISAPPOINTMENT AND IRE. A DELEGATION OF CHICAGO MERCHANTS VISIT SALT LAKE ON THE COMPLETION OF THE U. P. R. R; ALSO DISTINGUISHED STATESMEN. BRIGHAM YOUNG'S FAMOUS CONVERSATION WITH SENATOR TRUMBULL. COUNCIL OF THE CHICAGO MERCHANTS, STATESMEN AND UTAH GEN- TILES HELD AT THE HOUSE OF J. R. WALKER. TRUMBULL RELATES THE CONVERSATION WITH BRIGHAM. A GENERAL WAR TALK. THE SECOND VISIT OF COLFAX TO SALT LAKE CITY.

We return to the general history.

The election of U. S. Grant to the presidency of the United States, and of Schuyler Colfax to the vice-presidency, signified to Utah, a persistent policy on the part of the Government to grapple with Utah affairs. Originally, as we have seen, in the letters of Mr. Bowles, from Salt Lake City, the programme was in- tended to be comparatively mild and tolerant toward the Mormon people, though firm and decisive, and the base of operations a solid ground for the Mormon people to reconstruct themselves upon, under the direction of the Government. It is most probable that Mr. Colfax had forecast a settlement of the difficult Mormon problem through the coalition of himself and Brigham Young, the one

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representing the government and will of United States, and the other the Mor- mon Church as a party to a compromise. This seems to have been the meaning of those passages referring to Mr. Colfax's " suggestion " " that he had hoped the prophets of the church would have a new revelation on the subject, which should put a stop to the practice ; " adding " that as the people of Missouri and Maryland, without waiting for the action of the general Government against slavery, themselves believing it to be wrong and an impediment to their prosperity, had taken measures to abolish it, so he hoped that the people of the Mormon Church would move for the abandonment of polygamy, and thus all objection to the admission of Utah as a State be taken away : but that until it was, no such admission was possible, and that the Government could not continue to look indifferently upon the enlargement of so offensive a practice. And not only what Mr. Young said, but his whole manner left with us the impression that, if public opinion and the Govern- ment united vigorously, but at the same time discreetly, to press the question, there would be found some way to acquiesce in the demand, and change the practice of the present fathers of the Church."

Speaker Colfax-politician though he was-may well be pardoned for enter- taining for awhile the pretty plan, suggested in the above, for the solution of the Mormon problem. On his part, with the presidency of the United States in his prospect, or at least the vice-presidency, and with the powerful Republican party, then in its giant strength, at his back, he could doubtless have kept his part of the compact had it been made. Utah would have become a State-a Republican State, held in vassalage by the very Mormon vote itself to the party which had created it ; polygamy would have been abolished by a new revelation, which of course to Mr. Colfax simply meant the will and say-so of Brigham Young, and the Mormon Church would soon have become defunct in every sense of its past ex- istence. The accomplishment of this project would have been a great triumph in Mr. Colfax's life, scarcely less than would have been his election to the Presidential Chair. As President of the United States he would have been but one among many ; as solver of the Mormon problem he would have stood alone in American history. Already since the Mormons left " the borders of civilization " in 1846, up to the date of the first Colfax visit, five Presidents of the United States had held the Mormon community in their hands. Mr. Polk had designed to occupy California for the nation, by the Mormon community, two years before the dis- covery of gold threw the nation on to the Pacific Coast as from a tidal wave ; Mr. Filmore had, in the popular mind, clothed the Mormon Church in the habil- aments of a Territory and endowed Brigham Young with gubernatorial power and prestige ; Mr. Pierce, much to the disgust of both political friends, and foes who would gladly have seen Utah dismantled, re-appointed Brigham Young; Mr. Buchanan had the Utah war forced upon him, first by the action of his prede- cessors, and finally by the will and pleasure of both political parties; Mr. Lincoln had sent word "if Brigham Young and the Mormons will let me alone I will let them alone;" but in the consummation of the whole to Mr. Colfax was to be given the triumph of dismantling the Mormon Church, by a new revelation from herself, and the transformation of an Israelitish commonwealth into a Gentile or apostate State. The plan was well conceived from a politician's point of view,

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and in a worldly sense there was much statesmanship in it. But Brigham Young and the Apostles understood it, much better than Mr. Colfax and his friends- both as touching the policy of the compromise, the new revelation and the con- sequences that would overtake their church. It is an old Mormon adage, which we quote, not apply-" When God and the Devil strike hands, the kingdom of God is no more."

The " fathers of the Church" hastened to correct the mistakes of Mr. Col- fax and his friends relative to their being any possibility of a compromise on their part and rebuked them for giving out to the world that a new revelation might soon be expected through them, abandoning polygamy. Mr. Bowles in his sup- plementary papers calls attention to this apostolic utterance. He wrote :

" My readers may be interested to know the reply of the Mormons to my letters on the subject of polygamy. The Deseret News, the official organ of the church, had such a reply in August, 1865, from which I quote :

"As a people we view every revelation from the Lord as sacred. Polygamy was none of our seeking. It came to us from Heaven, and we recognized in it, and still do, the voice of Him whose right it is not only to teach us but to dictate and teach all men, for in his hand is the breath of the nostrils, the life and exis- tence of the proudest, most exalted, most learned or puissant of the children of men. It is extremely difficult, nay utterly impossible, for those who have not been blessed with the gift of the Holy Ghost, to enter into our feelings, thoughts and faith in these matters. They talk of revelation given, and of receiving counter revelation to forbid what has been commanded, as if man was the sole author, originator and designer of them. Granted that they do not believe the revela- tions we have received come from God ; granted they do not believe in God at all-if they so desire-do they wish to brand a whole people with the foul stigma of hypocrisy, who, from their leaders to the last converts that have made the dreary journey to these mountain wilds for their faith, have proved their honesty of pur- pose and deep sincerity of faith by the most sublime sacrifices? Either that is the issue of their reasoning, or they imagine that we serve the most accommodat- ing Deity ever dreamed of in the wildest vagaries of the most savage polytheist. Either they imagine we believe man concocts and devises the revelations which we receive, or that we serve a God who will oblige us at any time by giving revela- tions to suit our changing fancies, or the dictation of men who have declared the canon of revelation full, sealed up the heavens as brass, and utterly repudiated the affairs of the Almighty in the affairs of men; by the first of these suppo- sitions we would be gross hypocrites ; by the other gross idiots.

" Know gentlemen of the press, and all whom it may concern, that though a repugnance to this doctrine may be expressed by one in a thousand of the people whom you call ' Mormons,' he is not one, nor recognized as such by that com- munity of which he may be called a member. If one revelation is untrue, all are untrue ; if one was revealed by God, all have their origin in the same Divine source."

This now is the true utterance of the Church, whether it pleases or displeases the State. This is the voice of Brigham Young and his fellow apostles as " proph- ets, seers, and revelators," and not as a party indulging over " strawberries " and 8

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the dinner table, in "the freest and frankest" conversation "ever known " be- tween the Church and the State over the subject of the sacred oracles and the fit- ness of their speech to the times and conformity to the wishes and suggestions of the State. No church, with a priesthood and the oracles, could faithfully answer differently to the answer which this one gave through the Deseret News. The Catholic Church in its last four hundred years of controversy with the State, to say nothing of the early days of the church under the Roman emporers, is proof that no such church can compromise with the State, or renounce anything that constitutes its type.

When once the mistake came home to Mr. Colfax, through the apostolic re- buke of the Deseret News, he, perhaps, also clearly saw, and too keenly felt, the humility of the State, occupying a false position in the presence of the Church. He had been self-deceived,-undoubtedly he thought imposed upon by Brigham Young-but really led away by the plausibility of his plan to solve the polygamic difficulty, by inducing the " fathers of the Church " to compromise with the govern- ment for a State, with amnesty for all the past, and recognition of existing family relations up to a certain date.

It is fairly due to Mr. Colfax to believe that his policy of settlement was con- ceived in the spirit of generosity and consideration, towards the Mormon people at least, and that the glowing speeches, made very much as a tribute to them, by himself and companions, were thoroughly genuine, but it is also certain that Mr. Colfax was, with the sequel, both disappointed and chagrined. From that time, there was no man in America more indisposed to compromise with the Mormon Church than he-not even the Apostle John Taylor, with whom Mr. Colfax dis- cussed the Utah-Mormon question after he became Vice-President. It was in this stern spirit of uncompromise that Mr. Colfax made his second visit to Salt Lake City in October, 1869.

In the beginning of July, 1869, a delegation of Chicago merchants, seeking the trade of the West, with several distinguished American statesmen, arrived in Salt Lake City. It was by far the most important body of representative men of the Nation and its commerce that had visited the West; and their advent to our city, at that juncture, had a potent influence in the affairs of our Territory, not only in its commerce, but in the subsequent congressional legislation. The party consisted of the following persons-statesmen, bankers, merchants, etc.

Hon. L. Trumbull, U. S. Senator for Illinois ; General R. J. Ogelsby, ex- governor of Illinois ; Hon. N. B. Judd, M. C .; Hon. J. V. Arnold ; Hon. W. S. Hinkley ; Rev. Clinton Looke, D. D .; J. Medill, editor of the Chicago Tri- bune ; J. M. Richards, president of the Chicago Board of Trade ; Messrs. J. L. Hancock, O. S. Hough, J. V. Farwell, J. H. Bowen, F. D. Gray, W. T. Allen, A. Cowles ,G. M. Kimbark, E. W. Blatchford, G. S. Bowen, C. G. Hammond, O. Lunt, T. Dent, C. G. Wicker, B. F. Haddock, S. Wait, E. V. Robbins, J. A. Ellison, C. Tobey, J. R. Nichols, E. F. Hollister, E. G. Keith, C. Gossage. J. Stockton, D. W. Whittle, Mr. Mead, O. L. Grant, (brother of President E. G. Squires, and others.

Headed by Col. James H. Bowen, to whom great credit was due for the efficient manner in which everything connected with the excursion had been managed ; the

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Delegation called on President Young, at 11 o'clock A. M., July 10th, 1869. Col. Bowen, surrounded by the members of the party, delivered the following address :

" President Brigham Young: We call upon you this morning as members of a representative commercial party from the city of Chicago, who are en route upon a visit to San Francisco, the purpose of which is to facilitate commercial re- lations with localities made tributary by the completion of the Union and Central Pacific railroads.

" Esteeming the Territory of Utah one of the important localities, we have come to its capital to greet you and those engaged in commercial transactions in your midst, and to invite co-operation in our efforts.

" We also come to congratulate you upon the auspicious and speedy com- pletion of the great national highway, that binds together the distant extremes of our country, that relieves the people of their long and profound isolation and places them and their products within a few days of steam locomotion of the great markets of the Union, thereby increasing the value of their labor and re- ducing the cost of their goods, and adding immensely to their wealth and their comforts, and placing them within easy reach of all the social as well as material enjoyments of life.

" In passing swiftly through the far famed Echo and Weber canyons, we were deeply awed and grandly impressed with the majesty of the scenery and filled with wonder at the herculean task accomplished in the building of the railway through and over such seemingly insurmountable obstacles of nature in so incredibly short a space of time. A considerable share of the credit and honor of this achive- ment properly belongs to you and your people, who rendered hearty, efficient and timely aid to the company charged with the completion of this gigantic national highway, and we hope you will live long to enjoy the fruits of these beneficial labors. You will have further cause of congratulation when the branch road is completed which shall connect the capital of Utah with the main line, which work we are glad to learn is rapidly progressing towards completion.

"We have examined and scrutinized your wonderful development and the utili- zation of the barren nature which surrounded you in your early occupation of the valley. It demonstrates what can be reached by skillful industry and well di- rected energy, and is worthy of high commendation.

" Allow me the pleasure of introducing to you the members of our party, collectively and individually."

President Young replied :

" Col. J. H. Bowen, chairman of the representative commercial party of the city of Chicago, and gentlemen: I will briefly say in behalf of my friends here, and on my own part, gentlemen, you are each and all welcome ; we are pleased to see you ; we sincerely hope you are well and enjoying yourselves and that your excursion to the West will be productive of much benefit to all concerned.

" We congratulate you on the energy displayed by the commercial men of Chicago in advancing the business interests of the West, and we accept this as an index of more abundant success in the future. We are with you, heart and hand, in all that promotes the public good.

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" We thank you for your congratulation and duly appreciate the high estimate which you hold of our labors. It is true we are the pioneers of this Western civ .. ilization, and that we have to some extent assisted in the development of the re- sources of the great West. It is true that we have built over 300 miles of the great Pacific Railroad, an enterprise for which, by the way, we memorialized Congress in 1852 ; but this of the past. Our labors are before the world, they speak for themselves. Our aim is to press onward, diligently to perform the part allotted to us in the great drama of life, and, having ever in view the glory of God and our country, the rights of man, and social independence, strive for the maintenance of those glorious principles which compose our Federal Constitution."

Col. Bowen then introduced the gentlemen of the party, and a general and very agreeable conversation of upwards of an hour ensued.

This call upon ex-Governor Young, as the founder of Salt Lake City, and the pomp and formality of the interview, gave a very proper initial to the busi- ness and purposes of the delegation ; but their council on Utah affairs was held at the residence of Mr. J. R. Walker. There the delegation met representative Gentiles of the city, Federal officials, military men, and non-Mormon merchants, among whom were the Walker Brothers, Colonel Kahn, John Chislett, General P. Edward Connor, Major Charles H. Hempstead, Judges Hawley and Strickland, O. J. Hollister, R. H. Robertson, Major Overton, and Captain Thomas H. Bates. Designedly marked was the absence of Chief Justice Wilson, and Secretary Mann, whose fair standing with the Mormon people rendered them altogether un- fitted for this very pronounced non- Mormon assembly. The meeting was a sort or informal national council, held on the spot, over Utah affairs, and it meanc the determination of capacious special legislation, such as was quickly thereafter developed in the Cullom Bill. General Connor and Major Hempstead were there to give to the distinguished visitors emphatic views of the Mormon leaders, con- sonant with the early relations between the City and Camp Douglas, when its guns were planted on the city and its provost guard paraded our streets; the Federal officers were there to ask for special legislation, the removal of Chief Justice Wil- son and Secretary Mann, and the appointment of such men as were soon after- wards sent by President Grant, in the persons of Governor Shaffer and Judge McKean, all aiming to make the Federal power absolute in the control of the af- fairs of the Territory ; and the non-Mormon merchants were there to represent to the Chicago merchants the commercial crisis of that period, in which, to use the phrase of the time, they were "left out in the cold." by the establishing of Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution.

The two large rooms of Mr. Walker's residence were filled. Over forty per- sons were present. The munificent host had abundantly suppled his distinguished guests with champagne. Colfax and his friends, on their first visit to our city, fell upon strawberry beds, and discussed social problems with Brigham and the apostles over the dinner table, where the blessing was surely asked and " peace " and the " good Spirit " invoked. But this meeting was belligerent. Champagne was better suited to its purposes than either strawberries or blessings. The spirit of war was invoked rather than the " good spirit of peace." There was, they say, that day " the fullest and freest expression that had ever occurred in Utah," all of course

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with a strong, decided anti-Mormon animus and aim. "Everybody gave vent ;" " war talk ran around ;" Senator Trumbull related to the company that famous conversation between him and President Young, in which the latter had said to the effect that, if the Federal officers didn't behave themselves, he would have them ridden out of the city ; and from this meeting the report of that conversa- tion between Senator Trumbull and President Young ran throughout the United States ; and gave to Vice-President Colfax the advantage to push General Grant almost to the verge of actual war against Mormon Utah. Such was the bearing of that counsel held at the house of Mr. J. R. Walker, over Utah affairs, in July, 1 869.

The telegrams from San Francisco brought news that on the return of the Vice-President from the " Golden State " he would tarry for several days in Salt Lake City.

At a meeting of the City Council, held at the City Hall, October Ist, 1869, Aldermen Clinton, Richards and Pyper, committee, presented the following pre- amble and resolution, which were unanimously adopted :

"Whereas, His Excellency Schuyler Colfax, Vice-President of the United States, and party, are about to visit our city on their way returning from Califor- nia to the East, and being desirous to contribute to their pleasure by extending to them a cordial welcome ;

" Therefore, be it resolved by the City Council of Salt Lake City, that the hospitalities of said city be tendered to the Vice-President and party, during their stay, as a feeble but hearty demonstration of our sympathies with a great Nation, who have by their suffrages, conferred upon him such eminence in their political existence, and that appropriate committees be appointed to carry this resolution into effect."

In pursuance of the foregoing, Alderman S. W. Richards and Councilor Theodore McKean were appointed a committee on behalf of the Council to meet said party, with suitable coaches at Uintah Station and accompany them to the city.

Mayor D. H. Wells, Hon. W. H. Hooper, Alderman J. Clinton and Mar- shal J. D. T. McAllister were appointed a committee of reception, on arriving at the Townsend House, in this city, where ample arrangements would be made for entertainment during their stay.

On the 3rd of October, the delegation from the City Council met the Colfax party at Uintah Station, from which point the party was escorted to the city, where they arrived in the afternoon, and were received by the reception committee, headed by Mayor Wells and Hon. W. H. Hooper, who was at that time our Dele- gate to Congress. The hospitalities of the city was tendered to "the distin- guished visitors," who, however, declined on the ground that the party was travel- ing in a strictly private capacity ; and having spent a brief, but seemingly cordial interview with the representatives of the city, the Vice-President excused himself and party on account of fatigue, etc., of the journey.

It was understood, however, by this time, that the vice-President entertained a deep and abiding resentment towards the Mormon leaders, and an utter indis-

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position for further intercourse with the " fathers," either of the Church or the city. Mr. Stenhouse, in his book, thus notes the cause of the offense :

" Mr. Colfax politely refused to accept the proffered courtesies of the city. Brigham was reported to have uttered abusive language in the Tabernacle towards the Government and Congress, and to have charged the President and vice-Presi- dent with being drunkards and gamblers. One of the aldermen who waited up- on Mr. Colfax, to tender him the hospitalities of the city, could only say that ' he did not hear Brigham say so.' The weakness of the denial confirmed the infor- mation obtained from so many sources that the Prophet had really said so, and Mr. Colfax followed his own programme during his stay."

CHAPTER XLV.

THE VICE-PRESIDENT ARRANGING FOR WAR ON THE SAINTS. HE IS LET INTO THE SECRET OF THE PROJECTED GODBEITE SCHISM AND ENCOURAGES IT. HIS QUESTION-" WILL BRIGHAM YOUNG FIGHT?" OUTBURST OF THE SCHISM. THE NEW YORK HERALD SENDS ON A SPECIAL AGENT WITH IN- STRUCTIONS TO SUPPORT THE SECEDERS.

There can be no doubt that Vice-President Colfax came up to Utah this time with a war programme very nearly perfected in his mind. His deep chagrin at the indignity which he believed Brigham Young had put upon the Government and himself, had made him the uncompromising enemy of the apostolic head of Mormondom, and the institutions and rule that seemed to derive life from his po- tent administration and his supreme will. Colfax, in fact, had resolved on the entire overthrow of Brigham Young and the domination of the Mormon hierarchy over Utah. He had unquestionably represented to President Grant that Mor- mondom was nothing less than a standing Rebeldom, which, ever and anon, hurled defiance or insult in the face of the general Government, and that Brigham

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History of Salt Lake City, Part 51

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