History of Salt Lake City, Part 52

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

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Young had been at the head and front of it for a quarter of a century. To be convinced, with a man like Grant, was to resolve to conquer " Polygamic The- ocracy " by a Federal rule in Utah as iron-heeled as that placed upon any of the rebel States of the South. The method generally approved by the country at that time was to work up the action by the most summary Congressional legislation, and to consummate it by military force. Hence, at that moment, the entire country looked upon another Mormon war as imminent, for an internal revolution had not been dreamt of then by the Government, or thought possible by any out- side observer. It was under such an aspect of affairs that the Colfax party made its second visit to Utah ; and his coming practically meant a warning to the Mor- mon people, or a proclamation of the war intentions of the Government, just as they chose.

Jacke

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HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

The arrival of the Vice-President found the Jew and Gentile merchants in consternation over co-operation. The Federal officers were in despair of ever be- ing able to grapple with the problem, without military invasion of the situa- tion, and the whole Gentile population saw themselves about to be more than ever " left out in the cold." Even the Walker Brothers were almost inclined to end their long controversy with the Church and leave Utah to her fate. But Colfax sought to rekindle the smouldering fire of a radical Gentile antagonism and pledged to the opposition the support of the Government to all intents and purposes.

Just at this crisis, it was deemed prudent, by certain of the confidants, to entrust the Vice-President with the secret that a number of influential Elders who were capable of controlling the commercial issue of the times, and able to affect Mormondom by the local press, were actually on the eve of revolution. This was better, even, than Mr. Colfax could have hoped to arrange by his visit and official encouragement ; but, at first, he seemed more desirous to see these Mormon Pro- testants enlist in a crusade inaugurated by the Government, than that they should occupy the situation by a reform movement. A " Utah Expedition," sent by General Grant, would be thorough in its work and speedy in its cure. On the other hand a Protestant reform movement would be conservative, peaceful and necessarily slow in its issues.

The Vice-President put himself in communication with the heretics. Mr. Stenhouse was honored with a long drive and a confidential chat with him, be- fore his departure from the city of the Saints.

" Will Brigham Young fight ?" enquired Mr. Colfax, bringing the question home to the issue that he most desired.

" For God's sake, Mr. Colfax !" exclaimed Stenhouse, " keep the United States off. If the Government interferes and sends troops, you will spoil the opportunity, and drive the thousands back into the arms of Brigham Young, who are ready to rebel against the ' one-man power.' Leave the Mormon elders alone to solve their own problems. We can do it; the Government cannot. If you give us another Mormon war, we shall heal up the breach, go back in full fellow- ship with the church and stand by the brethren. What else could we do? Our families, friends and life-companions are all with the Mormon people. Mr. Col- fax, take my word for it, the Mormons will fight the United States, if driven to it in defense of their faith, as conscientious religionists always have fought. The Mormons are naturally a loyal people. They only need to be broken off from the influence of Brigham Young. Depend upon it, Mr. Colfax, the Government had better let us alone with this business, simply giving its protection to the 'New Movement men.'""

These were substantially the pleadings of Mr. Stenhouse to the significant question of Vice-President Colfax-" Will Brigham Young fight ?"

Mr. S. related to me the conversation between himself and the Vice-Presi- dent on the same day of this fortunate ride and timely discussion of the Utah question. Stenhouse's replies will show the tenor of the Vice-President's own remarks, without my presuming to reproduce him from memory. His capital

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words, however-" Will Brigham Young fight?" were driven like a nail into the minds of the elders who were just about to commence their schism.

Nor was the conversation between Mr. Stenhouse and the Vice-President upon the Mormon question and the crisis of the hour, unsupported by similiar views and utterances, to members of the Government and to Federal officials, by the men who were undertaking to revolutionize Utah and her institutions. They be- lieved that they could affect Mormondom to its centre for good, or at least bring over a large class of influential elders into a Protestant movement with a very respectable following.

In briefly reviewing the events of those times Mr Stenhouse himself has said : " The Vice-President and his friends were made acquainted with the forthcoming opposition from members of the Church, and took much interest in the ' Move- ment,' believing as they did that the one man power and the infallibility of the priesthood had seen their day."

As the " New Movement" was fostered by the United States Government, and became the nucleus of the "Liberal Party" of Utah, it is historically proper to give it a circumstantial narrative. In coupling the " New Movement" with the visit of Vice-President Colfax to our City, Mr. Stenhouse says :

"Another and unlooked-for phase of Mormon experience was soon to de- mand public attention. Two elders were trying to establish a literary paper-The Utah Magasine-the proprietors were W. S. Godbe and E. L. T. Harrison ; the latter was the editor. Elder Harrison had essayed once before, with his friend Edward W. Tullidge, to make literature a profession among the Saints, and had established the Peep O' Day ; but they met with insurmountable difficulties, and the paper stopped. The Magazine, with even Mr. Godbe's willing hand and ready purse to support it, realized that the effort to establish a purely literary paper in Utah was premature. The career of the Magazine was fast hastening to a close, and by way of rest and recreation, the editor accompanied the merchant to New York. * *

" Away from Utah, and traveling over the Plains, the old rumbling stage coach afforded the two friends, as every traveler in those days experienced, an ex- cellent opportunity for reflection. On their way, they compared notes respecting the situation of things at home, and spoke frankly together of their doubts and difficulties with the faith. They discovered, clearly enough that they were -- in the language of the orthodox-' on the road to apostasy,' yet in their feelings they did not want to leave Mormonism or Utah. A struggle began in their minds.

" One proposition followed another, and scheme after scheme was the subject of discussion, but not one of those schemes or propositions, when examined, seemed desirable ; they were in terrible mental anguish. Arrived in New York and comfortable in their hotel, in the evening they concluded to pray for guidance. They wanted light, either to have their doubts removed and their faith in Mor- monism confirmed, or yet again to have the light of their own intellects increased that they might be able to follow unwaveringly their convictions. In this state of mind the two elders assert that they had an extraordinary spiritualistic experience. *

"They returned to Utah, and to a very small circle of friends confided what

(L.). Haniton

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has here been only very briefly related, and their story was listened to. Elder Eli B. Kelsey, a Mormon of twenty-seven years standing, and who was also a presi- dent of Seventies, was the intimate friend of Mr. Godbe, and Edward W. Tul- lidge another 'Seventy,' was the bosom friend of Mr. Harrison. Elder Henry W. Lawrence, a wealthy merchant, a bishop's counsellor, and a gentleman of the highest integrity, was early informed in confidence of this "New Movement," and gave to his friend, Mr. Godbe, valuable material support. The Magazine, that had before this been hastening to an end, took a new lease of life, and be came a brilliant, well-conducted paper."

During the absence of the merchant Godbe and Elder Harrison, in the fall of 1868, the co-operative institution had been projected ; and it is quite a curious fact, seeing it afterwards antagonized the policies of President Young, that the Utah Magizine, which had been left in the charge of Tullidge, had for several weeks vigorously and enthusiastically sustained the co-operative movement ; this, however, was fairly paralled by the other fact that Henry W. Lawrence was one of the first pillars of Z. C. M. I.

The organization was effected in the beginning of 1869, with a president, vice- president, and five directors. Brigham Young, president, Delegate Hooper, vice-president, George A. Smith, George Q. Cannon, Horace Eldredge, Wm. Jennings and Henry W. Lawrence, directors ; Wm. Clayton, secretary ; H. B. Clawson, superintendent.

At the very time when this organization was formed, the " New Movement" had already been resolved upon ; so that though Henry W. Lawrence put $30,000 into the Z. C. M. I. and became one of its directors, he was, to so express the historical complexity, a " New Movement " leader. The force of circumstances in those times, compelled the members of the " New Movement." to wait for the development of events which depended upon the action of President Young him- self. There was nearly a total suspension. The very times hung on the man. He had been the " Man of Destiny " to Utah, and was still.

During this period of suspension, there was abundance of opportunity for pause and reconsideration. There was a year's intellectual incubation before the " Movement " opened.

Having by their preliminary action provoked their excommunication from the Church, the Godbeite leaders, on Sunday, December 19, 1869, commenced public meetings in Salt Lake City, opening in the Thirteenth Ward Assembly Rooms, which was granted to them by President Young himself, on the applica- tion of Messrs. Godbe and Lawrence, through Bishop Woolley.

Immediately on the opening of the Movement, E. W. Tullidge wrote offici- ally for his party to the New York Herald. The design was to impress upon the public mind the fact that an important Mormon schism had begun ; that it would be vigorously prosecuted ; that it would infuse Mormondom with new ideas, har- monious with the age, and that in time a peaceful revolution would be wrought out by the Mormons themselves, resulting in the very condition of things which the country desired to see in Utah. The New York Herald took similar views and urged them upon the American public by strong timely editorials on the Utah question. Nearly all the journals in the country followed in the wake, proclaim-

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ing "a great Mormon schism," and declaring the wisdom of "letting the Mor- mons alone to solve their own problem."

Of such importance did the events, which were at that crisis occuring in Salt Lake City seem to the American public, that, immediately on the receipt of 'Tul- lidge's letter, the New York Herald despatched one of its chief special correspon - dents-Colonel Findley Anderson-formerly its principal correspondent in Europe. Colonel Anderson's brother was also the private and confidential secre- tary of young James Gordon Bennett. The reason of Bennett's sending so im- portant a " special " to Salt Lake City was that the New York Herald might have on the spot one trusted to fully represent the leading journal of the country, while through its editorial columns it gave advice and impulse to the Government and the public touching Utah affairs in that crisis. Colonel Anderson was instructed to support the New Movement leaders, as well as to report their doings, and the in- fluence of their action in Mormon society. The Harpers also, and George W. Curtis, indeed the whole staff of the Harpers, manifested an extraordinary interest in this "reformation in Utah," as the " Utah Schism" was styled in Harper's Weekly and Monthly ; while the Springfield (Mass.) Republican petted the New Movement with a paternal spirit. Mr. Bowles' forecasting seemed to be at that moment fully realized. The New York Tribune was the only one of the great papers of the country that did not seem quite satisfied with the New Movement, and this was because the Tribune feared it lacked sufficient revolutionary force and determination to break up the "powerful Mormon hierarchy of Brigham Young." It was to Mr. Greeley and Whitelaw Reid merely another Mormon Church. The philosophers of the New York Tribune were not so far seeing and knowing as the Utah Gentiles, who were about to make this " other " Mor- mon Church the nucleus of an anti-Mormon political party.

On the part of the Government, from the onset, it gave countenance and favor to the Godbeite rebellion, and would have supported it by its military arm, had the opportunity occurred ; but this very movement against the parent Church, composed of apostate Mormon elders and leading Salt Lake merchants, prevented the interposition of the military arm, and greatly changed and modified the orig- inal intentions of the Government, as inspired by Vice-President Colfax, and de- termined by President Grant.

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CHAPTER XLVI.

FAMOUS DISCUSSION BETWEEN VICE-PRESIDENT COLFAX AND APOSTLE JOHN TAYLOR. SPEECH OF THE VICE-PRESIDENT AT SALT LAKE CITY. APOSTLE TAYLOR'S REPLY AND ANSWER TO THE COLFAX LETTER.

The review of Mormon affairs as made between Vice-President Colfax and Apostle John Taylor, afterward President of the Mormon Church, may properly be embodied as a representative chapter of this history ; as the utterances of Pres- ident Taylor very closely apply to the aspect of Utah's case at the present time, 1885. The review opens with Mr. Colfax's speech delivered on the portico of the Townsend House, Salt Lake City, October 5th, 1869 :

" Fellow Citizens :- I come hither in response to your call to thank the band from Camp Douglas for the serenade with which they have honored me, and to tender my obligations to the thousands before me, for having come from their homes and places of business ' to speed the parting guest.'

" As I stand before you, to-night, my thoughts go back to the first view I ever had of Salt Lake City, four years ago last June. After traveling with my companions, Gov. Bross and Mr. Bowles, who are with me again, and Mr. Rich- ardson, whose absence we have all regretted, over arid plains, and alkali valleys, and barren mountains, day after day, our stage coach emerged from a canyon one morning, and we looked down upon your city, covering miles in its area, with its gardens, green with fruit trees and shrubbery, and the Jordan, flashing in the sun beyond. And when, after stopping at Camp Douglas, which overlooks your city, to salute the flag of our country, and honor the officers and soldiers who keep watch and ward over it at this distant post, we drove down with your common council to the city, and saw its wide streets, and the streams which irrigate your gardens, rippling down all of them in their pebbly beds, I felt indeed that you had a right to regard it as a Palmyra in the desert. Returning now, with my family and friends, from a long journey on the Pacific coast, extending north to where the Columbia river tears its way through the mighty range which bars the way for all other rivers from the British to the Mexican line, we came to your city by the stage route from the railroad, through the fertile region that lines your lake shore, and find it as beautiful and attractive in its affluence of fruits and flowers as when we first visited it.

" I am gratified too, that our present visit occurred at the same time with your Territorial Fair, enabling us to witness your advance in the various branches of industry. I was specially interested in the hours I spent there, yesterday, with some of your leading citizens, in your cotton manufactures from the cotton you

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raise in Southern Utah, your woolen manufactures, the silk manufacture you have recently inaugurated, your leather and harness, the porcelain, which was new to me, your furniture, your paintings, and pictures, the fancy work of the ladies, and the fruits and vegetables which tell their own story of the fertility of your soil. I rejoice over every indication of progress and self-reliance in all parts of the Union, and hope you may realize, by further development, how wise and bene- ficial such advancement is to communities like yours, remote from the more thickly settled portions of the Republic.

" I have enjoyed the opportunity, also, of visiting your Tabernacle, erected since I was here before, the largest building in which religious services are held on the continent, and of listening to your organ, constructed here, which, in its mammoth size, its volume of sound, and sweetness of tone, would compare favor- ably with any in the largest cities in the Union. Nor did I feel any the less inter- est on my present, than on my former visit, in listening to your leading men in their places of worship, as they expounded and defended their faith and practice, because that faith and practice differed so widely from my own. Believing in free speech, as all of us should, I listened attentively, respectfully, and courteously, to what failed to convince my mind, and you will doubtless hear me with equal patience, while I tell you frankly wherein we differ.

" But first let me say that I have no strictures to utter as to your creed on any really religious question. Our land is a land of civil and religious liberty, and the faith of every man is a matter between himself and God alone. You have as much right to worship the Creator through a president and twelve apostles of your church organization as I have through the ministers and elders and creed of mine. And this right I would defend for you with as much zeal as the right of every other denomination throughout the land. But our country is governed by law, and no assumed revelation justifies any one in trampling on the law. If it did, every wrong-doer would use that argument to protect himself in his obedience to it. The Constitution declares, in the most emphatic language, that that instrument and the laws made in conformity thereto, shall be the supreme law of the land. Whether liked or disliked, they bind the forty millions of people who are subject to that supreme law. If any one condemns them as unconstitutional, the courts of the United States are open, before which they can test the question. But, till they are decided to be in conflict with the Constitution, they are binding upon you in Utah as they are on me in the District of Columbia, or on the citizens of Idaho and Montana. Let me refer now to the law of 1862, against which you especially complain, and which you denounce Congress for enacting. It is obeyed in the other Territories of the United States, or if disobeyed its violation is punished. It is not obeyed here, and though you often speak of the persecutions to which you were subject in the earlier years of your church, you cannot but acknowledge that the conduct of the government and the people of the United States towards you, in your later years, has been one of toleration, which you could not have realized in any other of the civilized nations of the world.

"I do not concede that the institution you have established here, and which is condemned by the law, is a question of religion. But to you who do claim it as such, I reply, that the law you denounce, only re-enacts the original prohibitions

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of your own Book of Mormon, on its 118th page,* and your Book of Doctrine and Covenants, in its chapter on marriage ; and these are the inspired records, as you claim them, on which your church was organized.

" The Book of Mormon, on the same page, speaks twice of the conduct of David and Solomon, as 'a grosser crime,' and those who follow their practice as ' waxing in iniquity.' The Book of Doctrine and Covenants is the discipline and creed of your church ; and in its chapter on marriage, it declares, that as the Mormon church has been charged with the crimes of fornication and polygamy, it is avowed as the law of the church, that a man shall have but one wife, and a woman but one husband, till death shall part them.

"I know you claim that a subsequent revelation annulled all this; but I use these citations to show you that the Congressional law, which you denounce, only enacted what was the original and publicly proclaimed and printed creed on which your church was founded. And yet, while you assume that this later revela- tion gives you the right to turn your back on your old faith and disobey the law, you would not yourselves tolerate others in assuming rights for themselves under revelations they might claim to have received, or under religions they might pro- fess. The Hindoos claim, as part of their religion, the right to burn widows with the dead bodies of their husbands. If they were to attempt it here, as their re- ligion, you would prevent it by force. If a new revelation were to be proclaimed here, that the strong men should have the right to take the wives of the weaker men, that the learned men should take the wives of the unlearned, that the rich men should take the wives of the poor, that those who were powerful and influen- tial should have the right to command the labor and the services of the humbler, as their bond-slaves, you would spurn it, and would rely upon the law and the power of the United States to protect you.

" But you argue that it is a restraint on individual freedom ; and that it con- cerns only yourselves. Yet you justify these restraints on individual freedom in everything else. Let me prove this to you. If a man came here and sought to es- tablish a liquor saloon on Temple street without license, you would justify your common council, which is your municipal congress, in suppressing it by force, and punishing the offender besides. Another one comes here and says that he will pursue his legitimate avocation of bone boiling on a lot in the heart of your city. You would expect your council to prevent it, and why? Because you believe it would be offensive to society and to the people around him. And still another says, that as an American citizen he will establish a powder mill on a lot he has purchased, next door to this hotel, where we have been so hospitably entertained. You would demand that this should be prevented, because it was obnoxious to the best interests of the community. I might use other illustrations as to personal conduct which you would insist should be restrained, although it fettered personal freedom, and the wrong-doer might say only concerned himself. But I have ad-

#The Book of Mormon denounces David and Solomon for having " many wives and concubines which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord." "Wherefore I, the Lord God, will not suffer that this people shall do like unto them of old. Wherefore, my brethren, hear me and harken to the word of the Lord; for there shall not any man among you have save but one wife, and concubines he shall have none, for I, the Lord, delighteth in the chastity of women."

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duced sufficient to justify Congress in an enactment they deemed wise for the whole people for whom they legislated. And I need not go further to adduce other arguments as to the elevation of woman ; for my purpose has been in these remarks, to indicate the right of Congress to pass the law and to insist on obe- dience to it.

" One thing I must allude to, personal to myself. The papers have published a discourse delivered last April by your highest ecclesiastical authority, which stated that the President and Vice-President of the United States were both gam- blers and drunkards. (Voices in the crowd, ' He did not say so.') I had not heard before that it was denied, but I am glad to hear the denial now. Whether denied or not, however, I did not intend to answer railing with railing, nor per- sonal attack with invective. I only wished to state publicly in this city, where the charge is said to have been made, that it was utterly untrue as to President Grant, and as to myself, that I never gambled to the value of a farthing, and have been a total abstinence man all the years of my manhood. However I may differ on political questions or others from any portion of my countrymen, no one has ever truthfully assailed my character. I have valued a good character far more than a political reputation or official honors, and wish to preserve it unspotted while life shall last.

" A few words more and I must conclude. When our party visited you four years ago, we all believed that, under wise counsels, your city might become the great city of the interior. But you must allow me to say that you do not seem to have improved these opportunities as you might have done. What you should do to develop the advantages your position gives you, seems obvious. You should en - courage, and not discourage competition in trade. You should welcome, and not repel, investments from abroad. You should discourage every effort to drive capi- tal from your midst. You should rejoice at the opening of every new store, or factory, or machine shop, by whomsoever conducted. You should seek to widen the area of country dependent on your city for supplies. You should realize that wealth will come to you only by development, by unfettered competition, by in- creased capital.

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History of Salt Lake City, Part 52

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