History of Salt Lake City, Part 55

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

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" The archæologist, the antiquarian, and the traveller need not then have gone to Herculaneum, to Pompeii, to Egypt or Yucatan, in search of ruins or deserted cities; they could have found a deserted temple, forsaken family altars, desolate hearth stones and homes, a deserted city much easier: the time, the nineteenth century ; the place, the United States of America ; the State, Illinois, and the city, Nauvoo.

" While fleeing, as fugitives, from 'the United States, and in Indian ter- ritory, a requisition was made by the Government for 500 men to assist in con- quering Mexico, the very nation to whose Territory we were fleeing in our exile ; we supplied the demand and though despoiled and expatriated, were the principal agents in planting the United States flag in Upper California.

" I again quote :

""' In September, 1850, Congress organized Utah Territory, and President Fillmore appointed Brigham Young (who at Smith's death had become President of the Church) as Governor. The next next year the Federal judges were com- pelled by Brigham Young's threats of violence to flee from the Territory, and the laws of the United States were openly defied. Col. Steptoe was commissioned Governor in place of Young. but after wintering with a battalion of soldiers at Salt Lake, he resigned, not deeming it safe or prudent to accept.'

" So far from this being the case, Col. Steptoe was on the best of terms with our community, and previous to his appointment as Governor, a number of our prominent Gentile citizens, judges, Col. Steptoe and some of his officers signed a petition to the President praying for the continuance of President Young in office. He continues : 'In February, 1856, a mob of armed Mormons, instigated by sermons from the heads of the Church, broke into the United States court room and at the point of the bowie knife compelled Judge Drummond to adjourn his court sine die ; " (this is a sheer fabrication, there never was such an occurrence in Utah) ' and very soon all the United States officers, except the Indian Agent, were compelled to flee from the Territory.' Now this same amiable and perse- cuted Judge Drummond brought with him a courtezan from Washington, whom he introduced as his wife, and had her with him on the bench. The following will show the mistake in regard to Col. Steptoe and others :

" To His Excellency Franklin Pierce,

President of the United States :

"' Your petitioners would respectfully represent that, Whereas, Governor Brigham Young possesses the entire confidence of the people of this Territory, without distinction of party or sect, and from personal acquaintance and social intercourse, we find him to be a firm supporter of the Constitution and laws of

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the United States, and a tried pillar of Republican institutions; and having re- peatedly listened to his remarks, in private as well as in public assemblies, do know he is a warm friend and able supporter of Constitutional liberty, the rumors published in the States, to the contrary, notwithstanding ; and having canvassed to our satisfaction, his doings as Governor and Superintendent of Indian affairs, and also the distribution of appropriations for public buildings for the Territory, we do most cordially and cheerfully represent that the same has been expended to the best interest of the nation; and whereas, his appointment would better sub- serve the Territorial interest than the appointment of any other man,

" ' We therefore take great pleasure in recommending him to your favorable consideration, and do earnestly request his appointment as Governor, and Super- intendent of Indian affairs for this Territory.

"' Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, December 30th, 1854. J. F. Kinney, Chief Justice Supreme Court ; Leonidas Shaver, Assistant Justice ; E. J. Steptoe, Lt. Col. U. S. Army ; John F. Reynolds, Bvt. Maj .; Rufus Ingales, Capt .; Sylvester Mowry, La Chett, L. Livingston, John C. Chandler, Robert O. Tyler, Benj. Allston, Lieutenants; Chas. A. Perry, Wm. G. Rankin, Horace R. Kirby, Medical Staff; U. S. A. Henry, C. Branch, C. C. Branham, C. J. Bipne, Lucian L. Bedell, Wm. Mac, J. M. Hochaday and other strangers.'

" There was really no more cause for an army then than there is now, and there is no more reason now, in reality, than there was then, and the bills of Messrs. Cragin and Cullom are only a series of the same infamies that we have before experienced, and are designed, as all unbiassed men know, to create a dif- ficulty and collision, aided by the clamor of speculators and contractors, who have of course, a very disinterested desire to relieve their venerated uncle by thrusting their patriotic hands into his pockets.

"I am sorry to be under the painful necessity of repudiating Mr. Colfax's history. It is said that ' corporations have no souls,' and nations are not prover- bially conscientious about their nomenclature or records. Diplomacy generally finds language suited to its objects. When the British nation granted to the East India Company their stupendous monopoly, that company subjugated and brought really into serfdom about one hundred millions of human beings ; and compelled many to raise poison (opium) instead of bread. History . calls that 'trade and commerce.' After the Chinese had made a law making the introduction of opium contraband, in defiance of this law they sent cargoes of the tabooed article and

illicitly introduced their poison. The Chinese, unwilling to be poisoned, confis- cated and destroyed these contraband goods. History calls it a casus belli, and when the Chinese, unwilling to be coerced, resisted the British force, that nation slaughtered vast hordes of them, because they had the power ; history calls it war. When they forced them to pay millions of dollars for the trouble they had in killing them, history calls it indemnification for the expenses of the war. When President Polk wanted to possess himself of the then Mexican Territory of Upper California, he sent General Taylor, with an army of occupation, into disputed Mexican territory, well knowing that an honorable nation would resent it as an insult, and that would be considered a casus belli and afford a pretext for mak- ing war upon the weak nation, and possessing ourselves of the coveted Territory ;

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history calls it conquest and reprisals. It is true that we acted more honorably than Great Britain in awarding some compensation. President Buchanan, goaded by the Republicans, wished to show them that in regard to the Mormons he dared out-Herod Herod, by fitting up an army to make war upon the Mormons ; but it was necessary to have a pretext. It would not have been popular to destroy a whole community in cold blood, so he sent out a few miserable minions and rene- gadoes for the purpose of provoking a collision. These men not only acted in- famously here, but published false statements throughout the United States, and every kind of infamy -- as is now being done by just such characters-was laid at the door of the Mormons. They said, among other things, that we had burned the U. S. records. These statements were afterwards denied by Governor Cum- mning. Mr. Buchanan had another object in view, and Mr. J. B. Floyd, Secretary ot War, had also his axe to grind, and the whole combined was considered a grand coup d'etat. It is hardly necessary to inform Mr. Colfax that this army, under pretence of subjugating the Mormons, was intended to coerce the people of Kansas to his views, and that they were not detained, as stated by Mr. Colfax's history, which said : " the troops, necessarily moving slowly, were overtaken by the snows in November, and wintered at Bridger.' I need not inform Mr. Col- fax that another part of this grand tableau originated in the desire of Secretary Floyd to scatter the U. S. forces and arms, preparatory to the Confederate rebel- lion. Such is history and such are facts.

" We were well informed as to the object of the coming of the army, we had men in all of the camps, and knew what was intended. There was a continual boast among the men and officers, even before they left the Missouri river, of what they would do with the Mormons. The houses were picked out that certain per- sons were to inhabit ; farms, property and women were to be distributed. ' Beauty and booty,' were their watchword. We were to have another grand Nor- man conquest, and our houses, gardens, orchards, vineyards, fields, wives and daughters were to be the spoils. Instead of this Mr. Buchanan kept them too long about Kansas ; the Lord put a hook in their jaws, and instead of reveling in sacked towns and cities and glutting their libidinous and riotous desires in ravish- ing, destroying and laying waste, they knawed dead mules' legs at Bridger, ren- dered palatable by the ice, frost and snow of a mountain winter, seasoned by the pestiferous exhalations of hecatombe of dead animals, the debris of a ruined army, at a cost to the nation of about forty millions. We had reason to say then ' the Lord reigns, let the earth be glad.' Oh, how wicked it was for President Young to resist an army like the above, prostituted by the guardians of a free and enlightened republic to the capacity of buccaneers and brigands !

" In the spring rumors prevailed of an intended advance of the army. Pre- ferring compromise to conflict, we left Salt Lake City and the northern part of the Territory en masse and prepared ourselves, for what we then considered a coming conflict. After first preparing combustible materials and leaving a suffi- cient number of men in every settlement to destroy everything ; had we been driven to it we should have made such a conflagration as never was witnessed in the U. S. Every house would have been burned and leveled to the ground, every barn, grain and hay stack, every meeting house, court house and store demolished;

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every fruit tree and shrub would have been cut down ; every fence burned and the country would have been left a howling wilderness as we found it. We were de- termined that if we could not enjoy our homes in peace, that never again should our enemies revel in our possessions.

" I now come to Mr. Colfax's next heading, ' their polygamy : '

" As this is simply a rehash of his former arguments, without answering mine, I beg to be excused inserting his very lengthy quotation, as this article is already long. In regard to our tolerations of all religions, Mr. C. entertains very singular ideas. We do invite men of almost all persuasions to preach to us in our tab- ernacles, but we are not so latitudinarian in our principles as to furnish meeting houses for all ; we never considered this a part of the programme. Meeting houses are generally closed against us everywhere, and men are advised not to go and hear us ; we open ours, and say to our congregation go and hear them, but we do not engage to furnish all. Neither is the following statement correct : ' About the same time he (Mr. Taylor) was writing it, Godbe and others were being expelled from the Church for disbelieving the infallibility of Brigham Young.' No person, as I before stated, was ever expelled from the Church for doubting the infallibility of President Young ; it is but just to say that President Young, himself disclaims It. Mr. C. again repeats his argument in relation to the suttee, or burning of widows in India, and after giving a very elaborate and correct account of its sup- pression by English authority says :-

"' Wherever English power is recognized there this so-called religious rite is now sternly forbid denand prevented. England with united voice said stop ! and India obeyed.'

" To present Mr. Colfax's argument fairly, it stands thus : The burning of Hindoo widows was considered a religious rite, by the Hindoos. The British were horrified at the practice and suppressed it. The Mormons believe polygamy to be a religious rite. The American nation consider it a scandal and that they ought to put it down. Without entering into all the details, I think the above a fair statement of the question. He says ' the claim that religions faith commanded it was powerless, and it went down, as a relic of barbarism.' He says: 'History tells us what a civilized nation, akin to ours, actually did, where they had the power.' I wish to treat this argument with candor, although I do not look upon the British nation as a fit example for us ; it was not so thought in the time of the Revolution. I hope we would not follow them in charging their cannon with Sepoys, and shooting them off in this same India. I am glad, also, to find that

our Administration views and acts upon the question of neutrality more honorably than our trans-Atlantic cousins. But to the point. The British suppressed the suttee in India, and therefore we must be equally moral and suppress polygamy in the United States. Hold ! not so fast ; let us state facts as they are and remove the dust. The British suppressed the suttee, but tolerated eighty-three millions of polygamists in India. The suppression of the suttee and that of polygamy are two very different things. If the British are indeed to be our examplars, Con- gress had better wait until polygamy is suppressed in India. But it is absurd to compare the suttee to polygamy ; one is murder and the destruction of life, the other is national economy and the increase and perpetuation of life. Suttee ranks

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truly with Infanticide, both of which are destructive of human life. Polygamy is salvation compared with either, and tends even more than monogamy to increase and perpetuate the human race.

" I have now waded through Mr. Colfax's charges and have proven the falsity of his assertions and the tergiversation of his historical data. I will not say his but his adopted history; for it is but fair to say that he disclaims vouching for its accuracy.

" Permit me here again to assert my right as a public teacher, to address my- self to Congress and the nation, and to call their attention to something that is more demoralizing, debasing, and destructive than polygamy. As an offset to my former remarks on these things, we are referred to our mortality of infants as " ex- ceeding any thing else known."

" Mr. Colfax is certainly in error here. In France, according to late statisti- cal reports on la mort d'enfants, they were rated at from fifty to eighty per cent. of the whole under one year old. The following is from the Salt Lake City sex- ton's report for 1869 :

"' Total interments during the year, 484; deducting persons brought from the country places for interment, and transients, 93 ; leaving the mortality of this city, 391.

Jos. E. TAYLOR, Sexton.

""' Having been often asked the question: Whether the death-rate was not considerably greater among polygamic families than monogamic, I will answer : Of the 292 children buried from Salt Lake City last year (1869), 64 were children of polygamists ; while 228 were children of nionogamists; and further, that out of this number, there was not even one case of infanticide.

Respectfully,

Jos. E. TAYLOR.

" We had a sickly season last year among children ; but when it is considered that we have twice as many children as any other place, in proportion to the number of inhabitants, the death-rate is very low, especially among polygamists-

" But supposing it was true, ' the argumentum ad hominum,' which Mr. Col- fax says he ' might use,' would scarcely be an argumentum ad judicum; for if all the children in Salt Lake City or Utah died, it would certainly not do away with that horrible crime, infanticide. Would Mr. Colfax say that because a great num- ber of children in Utah, who were children of polygamists, died, that, therefore, infanticide in the United States is justifiable? and that the acts of Madame Res- telle and her pupils were right and proper? I know he would not, his ideas are more pure, generous and exalted. Mr. Colfax says of us, ' I do not charge infant murder, of course." Now I do charge that infant murder prevails to an alarming extent in the United States. The following will show how near right I am. Ex- tract from a book entitled, Serpents in a Dove's Nest, by Rev. John Todd, D. D. Boston. Lee and Shepherd.

" Under the head of 'Fashionable Murder," we read the following :

""" By the advertisements of almost every paper, city and village in the land, offering medicines to be effectual 'from whatever causes' it is needed ; by the

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shameless and notorious great establishments, fitted up and advertised as places where any woman may resort to effect the end desired, and which now number in the city of New York alone over four hundred, advertised and abundantly patron- ized, houses devoted to the work of abortionating ; by the confession of hundreds of women made to physicians, who have been injured by the process ; and by the almost constant and unblushing applications made to the profession from 'women in all classes of society, married and unmarried, rich and poor and otherwise, good, bad or indifferent,' to aid them in the thing-do we know of the frequency of this crime ?" (p. 4 and 5.) 'I would not advise any one to challenge further disclosures, else we can show that France, with all her atheism, that Paris, with all her license, is not as guilty, in this respect, as is staid New England at the present hour. Facts can be adduced that will make the ears tingle ; but we don't want to divulge them ; but we do want the womanhood of our day to understand that the thing can be no longer concealed ; that commonness of fashion cannot do away with its awful guilt ; it is deliberate and cold-blooded murder.' (p. 13, 14.)

" These facts are corroborated by Dr. Story in a book, entitled, Why Not. Lee and Shepherd, Boston. By the New York Medical Journal, September, 1866, by the Boston Commonwealth, Springfield, (Mass. ) Worcester Palladium, North- ampton Free Press, Salem Observer, and, as stated above, 'by the advertisements of almost every paper, city and village in the land.' I have statistics before me now, from a physician, stating the amount of prostitution, fœticide and infanti- cide in Chicago; but bad as Chicago is represented to be, these statements are so enormous and revolting that I cannot believe them. Neither is the statement made by some of the papers, in regard to Mr. Colfax's association with the Richardson case, reliable. Men in his position have their enemies, and it is not credible that a gentleman holding such strong prejudice about, what he considers, the immor- ality of the Mormons, and whose moral ideas, in relation to virtue and chastity, are so pure, could lend himself as an accomplice to the very worst and most re- volting phase of Free Loveism. And I would here solicit the aid of Mr. Colfax, with his superior intelligence, his brilliant talents and honorable position, to help stop the blighting, withering curse of prostitution, fœticide and infanticide.

" I call upon philosophers and philanthropists to stop it ; know ye not that the transgression of every law of nature brings its own punishment, and that as noble a race of men as ever existed on the earth are becoming emasculated and destroyed by it ? I call upon physicians to stop it ; you are the guardians of the people's health, and justice requires that you should use all your endeavors to stop the demoralization and destruction of our race. I call upon ministers of the gos- pel to stop it ; know ye not the wail of murdered infants is ascending into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth and that the whole nation is hastening to destruction whilst you are singing lullaby songs to murderers and murderesses ? I call upon statesmen to stop it ; know ye not that the statisticians inform us that our original stock is running out, and that in consequence of this crime we are being sup- planted by foreigners, and that the enemies of the negro race are already exulting in the hope of their speedy extinction, by copying your vices. I call upon the fair daughters of America and their abettors their husbands and paramours to pause in their career of crime; you came of an honorable and pure stock, your

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fathers, mothers and grandmothers' hands were not stained with the blood of in- nocence ; they could press their pillows in peace, without the fear of a visit from the shades of their wailing offspring. I call upon municipal and State authorities and especially upon Congress to stop this withering, cursing and damning blight. I call upon all honorable men and women to use their influence to stop this grow- ing evil. I conjure you by the love of God, by the ties of consanguinity, by a respect for our race and a love for our nation, by the moans of murdered infants and the fear of an avenging retribution, help stop this cursed evil !

" In the province of Gazaret, Hindostan, parents have been in the habit of destroying infant children as soon as born ; and at the festival held at Gunga Ser- goor, children were sacrificed to the Ganges from time immemorial ; both of these the British nation suppressed. Shall we practice crimes in civilized and Christian America, that England will not allow heathens to perform, but put them down by the strong arm of the law? You indeed tell us that these things are " banned by you, banned by the law, banned by morality and public opinion ; " your bans are but a mockery and a fraud, as are your New England temperance laws ; your law reaches one in a thousand who is so unfortunate as to be publicly exposed. These crimes, of which I write, run riot in the land, a withering, cursing blight. The affected purity of the nation is a myth ; like the whited walls and painted sepul- chers, of which Jesus spake, " within there is nothing but rottenness and dead men's bones." Who, and what is banned by you? What power is there in your interdiction over the thirty thousand prostitutes and mistresses of New York and their amiable pimps and paramours ? What of the thousands in the city of broth- erly love, in Boston, in your large eastern, northern and southern cities? What of Washington ? What of your four hundred murder establishments in New York and your New England operations in the same line ? You are virtuous are you ? God deliver us from such virtue. It may be well to talk about your purity and bans to those who are ignorant ; it is too bare-faced for the informed. I say, as I said before, why don't you stop this damning, cursed evil? I am reminded of the Shakesperian spouter who cried, ' I can call spirits from the vasty deep !' 'So can I,' said his hearer, ' but they won't come !' Now we do control these horrid vices and crimes, do you want to force them upon us? Such things are

"' A blot that will remain a blot in spite Of all that grave apologists may write ; And, though a bishop try to cleanse the stain, He rubs and scours the crimson spot in vain.'

" We have now a Territory out of debt ; our cities, counties and towns are out of debt. We have no gambling, no drunkenness, no prostitution, fœticide nor infanticide. We maintain our wives and children, and we have made the ' desert to blossom as the rose.' We are at peace with ourselves and with all the world. Whom have we injured ? Why can we not be let alone ?

" What are we offered by you in your proposed legislation ? for it is well for us to count the cost. First-confiscation of property, our lands, houses, gardens, fields, vineyards, and orchards, legislated away by men who have no property, car- petbaggers, pettifoggers, adventurers, robbers, for you offer by your bills a pre- mium for fraud and robbery. The first robs us of our property and leaves us

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the privilege, though despoiled, of retaining our honor, and of worshipping God according to the dictates of our own conscience. We have been robbed before ; this we could stand again. Now for the second-the great privilege which you offer by obedience : Loss of honor and self respect ; a renunciation of God and our religion ; the prostitution of our wives and children to a level with your civ- ilization ; to be cursed with your debauchery ; to be forced to countenance infanticide in our midst, and have your professional artists advertise their dens of murder among us ; to swarm, as you do, with pimps and harlots and their para- mours ; to have gambling, drunkenness, whoredom, and all the pestiferous effects of debauchery ; to be involved in debt and crime, forced upon us; to despise ourselves, to be despised by our wives, children and friends, and to be despised and cursed of God, in time and in eternity. This you offer us and your religion to boot. It is true you tell us you will ' ban it' but your bans are a myth ; you would open the flood gates of crime and debauchery, infanticide, drunkenness and gambling, and practically tie them up with a strand of a spider's web. You can- not stop these ; if you would you have not the power. We have, and prefer purity, honor, and a clear conscience, and our motto to-day is, as it ever has been, and I hope ever will be ' the Kingdom of God or nothing.'

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History of Salt Lake City, Part 55

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