History of Salt Lake City, Part 57

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

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" Mrs. Bathsheba W. Smith said she felt pleased to be engaged in the great work before them, and was heart and hand with her sisters. She never felt better in her life, yet never felt more her own weakness, in view of the greater responsi- bilities which now rested upon them, nor ever felt so much the necessity of wis- dom and light ; but she was determined to do her best. She believed that woman was coming up in the world. She encouraged her sisters with the faith that there was nothing required of them in the duties of life that they could not perform.

"Mrs. Prescinda Kimball said: I feel comforted and blessed this day. I am glad to be numbered in moving forward this reform ; feel to exercise double diligence and try to accomplish what is required at our hands. We must all put our shoul- der to the wheel and go ahead. I am glad to see our daughters elevated with man, and the time come when our votes will assist our leaders, and redeem our- selves. Let us be humble, and triumph will be ours. The day is approaching when woman shall be redeemed from the curse placed upon Eve, and I have often

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thought that our daughters who are in polygamy will be the first redeemed. Then let us keep the commandents and attain to a fulness, and always bear in mind that our children born in the priesthood will be saviors on Mount Zion.

"Mrs. Zina D. Young said she was glad to look upon such an assemblage of bright and happy faces, and was gratified to be numbered with the spirits who had taken tabernacles in this dispensation, and to know that we are associated with kings and priests of God; thought we do not realize our privileges. Be meek and humble and do not move one step aside, but gain power over ourselves. Angels will visit the earth, but are we, as handmaids of the Lord, prepared to meet them ? We live in the day that has been looked down to with great anxiety since the morn of creation.

" Mrs. M. T. Smoot said : ' We are engaged in a great work, and the prin- ciples that we have embraced are life and salvation unto us. Many principles are advanced on which we are slow to act. There are many more to be advanced. Woman's rights have been spoken of. I have never had any desire for more rights than I have. I have considered politics aside from the sphere of woman ; but, as things progress, I feel it is right that we should vote though the path may be fraught with difficulty.'

" Mrs. Wilmarth East said she would bear testimony to what had been said. She had found by experience that ' obedience is better than sacrifice.' I desire to be on the safe side and sustain those above us; but I cannot agree with Sister Smoot in regard to woman's rights. I have never felt that woman had her priv- ileges. I always wanted a voice in the politics of the nation, as well as to rear a family. I was much impressed when I read the poem composed by Mrs. Emily Woodmansee-' Who Cares to Win a Woman's Thought.' There is a bright day coming ; but we need more wisdom and humility than ever before. My sisters, I am glad to be associated with you-those who have borne the heat and burden of the day, and ask God to pour blessings on your head.

" Eliza R. Snow; in closing, observed, that there was a business item she wished to lay before the meeting, and suggested that Sister Bathsheba W. Smith be appointed on a mission to preach retrenchment all through the South, and woman's rights if she wished.

" The suggestion was acted upon, and the meeting adjourned with singing ' Redeemer of Israel,' and benediction by Mrs. M. N. Hyde."

The municipal election in Salt Lake City, which occured but two days after the approval of the bill in question, presented, as we have seen, the first political issue in our city, from any organized opposition party ; but the new voting ele- ment placed in the hands of the People's party by the passage of this bill was not brought largely into requisition. Only a few of the " sisters " claimed the honor of voting on the occasion. The first of these was Miss Seraph Young, a niece of President Young.

But probably the most remarkable woman's rights demonstration of the age, was that of the women of Utah, in their great mass meetings, held throughout the Territory, in all its principal cities and settlements, in January of 1870 relative to the Cullom bill.

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On the 13th of January, 1870, " notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather, the old tabernacle," says the Deseret News, " was densely packed with ladies of all ages, and, as that building will comfortably seat five thousand per- sons, there could not have been fewer than between five and six thousand present on the occasion."

It was announced in the programme that there were to be none present but ladies. Several reporters of the press, however, obtained admittance, among whom was Colonel Finley Anderson, special correspondent of the New York Herald.

The meeting was opened with a very impressive prayer from Mrs. Zina D. Young ; and then, on motion of Miss Eliza R. Snow, Mrs. Sarah M. Kimball was elected president. Mrs. Lydia Alder was chosen secretary, and Mrs. M. T. Smoot, Mrs. M. N. Hyde, Isabella Horn, Mary Leaver, Priscilla Staines and Rachel Grant, were appointed a committee to draft resolutions. This was done with executive dispatch ; for many present had for years been leaders of women's organizations. The president arose and addressed a few pithy remarks to the vast assemblage. She said :

" We are to speak in relation to the government and institutions under which we live. She would ask, have we transgressed any law of the United States ? [Loud ' no' from the audience. ] Then why are we here to-day ? We have been driven from place to place, and wherefore ? Simply for believing and practicing the counsels of God, as contained in the gospel of heaven. The object of this meeting is to consider the justice of a bill now before the Congress of the United States. We are not here to advocate woman's rights, but man's rights. The bill in question would not only deprive our fathers, husbands and brothers of enjoy- ing the privileges bequeathed to citizens of the United States, but it would deprive us, as women, of the privilege of selecting our husbands ; and against this we unqualifiedly protest."

During the absence of the committee on resolutions speeches were delivered and then the committee on resolutions reported the following :

" Resolved, That we, the ladies of Salt Lake City, in mass-meeting assembled, do manifest our indignation, and protest against the bill before Congress, known as ' the Cullom bill,' also the one known as ' the Cragin bill,' and all similar bills, expressions and manifestoes.

" Resolved, That we consider the above named bills foul blots on our national escutcheon-absurd documents-atrocious insults to the honorable executive of the United States Government, and malicious attempts to subvert the rights of civil and religious liberty.

" Resolved, That we do hold sacred the constitution bequeathed us by our forefathers, and ignore, with laudable womanly jealousy, every act of those men to whom the responsibilities of government have been entrusted, which is calculated to destroy its efficiency.

" Resolved, That we unitedly exercise every moral power and every right which we inherit as the daughters of American citizens, to prevent the passage of such bills, knowing that they would inevitably cast a stigma on our republican

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government by jeopardizing the liberty and lives of its most loyal and peaceful citizens.

" Resolved, That, in our candid opinion, the presentation of the aforesaid bills indicates a manifest degeneracy of the great men of our nation ; and their adoption would presage a speedy downfall and ultimate extinction of the glorious pedestal of freedom, protection, and equal rights, established by our noble ancestors.

" Resolved, That we acknowledge the institutions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the only reliable safeguard of female virtue and in- nocence ; and the only sure protection against the fearful sin of prostitution, and its attendant evils, now prevalent abroad, and as such, we are and shall be united with our brethren in sustaining them against each and every encroachment.

" Resolved, That we consider the originators of the aforesaid bills disloyal to the constitution, and unworthy of any position of trust in any office which in- volves the interests of our nation.

" Resolved, That, in case the bills in question should pass both Houses of Congress, and become a law, by which we shall be disfranchised as a Territory, we, the ladies of Salt Lake City, shall exert all our power and influence to aid in the support of our own State government."

These resolutions were greeted with loud cheers from nearly six thousand women, and carried unanimously.

CHAPTER XLIX.

BRIEF REVIEW OF UTAH IN CONGRESS, FROM ITS ORGANIZATION TO THE PAS- SAGE OF THE CULLOM BILL. GREAT SPEECH OF DELEGATE HOOPER IN CONGRESS AGAINST THE BILL, IN WHICH HE REVIEWS THE COLONIZING WORK OF THE MORMONS IN THE WEST, AND JUSTIFIES HIS POLYGA- MOUS CONSTITUENTS.

In the exhibition of these wonderful mass meetings of fifty thousand organ- ized Mormon women held throughout the Territory, to preserve their sacred institutions, the reader has a marked example typical of the Mormon people ; but we must now give a more regular review of the Congressional subject relative to Utah.

Utah can scarcely be said to have possessed any political or congressional history until the period of the Utah war. Previously her condition and career had been almost entirely primitive and patriarchal. The Hon. John M. Bernhisel, dele- gate from Utah through this period, had served his constituents faithfully ; but no feature of that service stands out so prominent as to require special mention. The

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general history, up to this time, may therefore be considered as including the con- gressional.

The " Mormon war," of course, had somewhat interrupted the relations be- tween Utah and the nation. In the eyes of the American public, Utah had been in rebellion ; although, as we have seen, the controversy had been amicably set- tled, and the Mormons had been pardoned of all their political offences.

It was under this aspect of affairs that William H. Hooper was elected dele- gate to Congress, from Utah, in August, 1859. His position was a delicate one, his task arduous, and the case he had to handle certainly a very peculiar and com- plex case, looking at it from whatever point of view. Notwithstanding his constitu- ents held that they were in the right in the late controversy which had nearly come to bloodshed, and notwithstanding their affirmation that they had stood up- on their constitutional ground, and had merely resisted, by a practical but a justi- fiable protest, an unconstitutional invasion of the rights of American citizens, delegate Hooper well knew that the general public took another view of the case. But the great advantage which Hooper possessed, and which enabled him to master the situation, was in his thorough appreciation of the views and shapings of both sides. Therefore, while the delegate was prepared to stand by his people, in the defence of all their constitutional rights, and to ward off any new difficulty, he was equally ready to " see eye to eye " with members of Congress. This was the exact reason why Brigham Young sent him ; indeed, one of Brigham's greatest gifts is manifested in his choice of the fittest instruments for the work and the times.

Fortunately, also, when Hooper went to Congress as delegate in 1859, the members were disposed to humor the Mormon view of the Utah expedition and troubles, and he in turn humored them most politicly.

As we have seen, the public, and especially journalists and Congressmen, were only too willing to treat the Utah war as Buchanan's affair, and wipe the hands of the nation clean of it. With this feeling came the good-natured inclination to let the Mormons have all they asked for, if they only asked in reason. And Con- gress had a Utah delegate of a most sagacious, practical turn of mind, who under- stood his points too well to ask for more than was certain to be granted, content- ing himself, in the rest, in working up a good feeling towards his constituents.

Delegate Hooper settled everything he touched. There were two sessions of the Utah Legislature unrecognized and unpaid; Governor Young's accounts against the U. S. Treasury were unsettled ; and the expenses of the Indian war of 1850, were still due to the Territory. All this the energetic and influential dele- gate brought to a settlement. Besides this financial triumph, a bill which passed the House, for the suppression of polygamy, never became a law, and the thirty- sixth Congress ended, leaving Utah affairs comparatively tranquil.

Notwithstanding that in the thirty-sixth Congress, Utah had met a very fair adjustment, and that it was indeed the only one in which Utah, up to this date, had risen to anything like political importance in the nation, the Hon. John M. Bernhisel was returned to the thirty-seventh Congress. This may have been intended as a recognition of the past service of that gentleman, before his final retirement from public life, but it is evident that he was not

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so well fitted for the post as Delegate Hooper. Dr. Bernhisel was originally rather a professional than a political character,-something of a Mormon elder in Congress, representing a religious people ; whereas, Hooper was a successful merchant, and full of political sagacities. It is true the latter might not have been able to have prevented the passage of the anti-polygamic bill of 1862, but he certainly would have rallied a host of political friends against it. Without wast- ing his strength to show the "unconstitutionality " of the bill, he would have adopted the more practical line of argument that the bill must, from its very na- ture, remain inoperative for years, thus giving, tacitly, a license for the continua- tion of polygamy. This has been abundantly recognized by members of Congress since. The bill of 1862 has been considered by them to be as great a nuisance as polygamy itself. Surely Hooper would have foreshadowed the difficulties of special legislation, in such a delicate matter as the marriage question of an entire com- . munity. Moreover, in 1862, the whole responsibility of the abolition of thousands of plural marriages rested entirely with Congress, there having been no primary agitation of the matter by the people of Utah themselves. But the thirty-seventh Congress, in its innocence, passed that bill, committing almost as great a blunder as did Buchanan in the case of the Utah war.

The Hon. John M. Burnhisel returned to his constituents, and the Hon. John F. Kinney was elected to succeed him. For a number of years, Judge Kinney had been Chief Justice of Utah, but he had been just removed by Lincoln, it is said, for too faithfully serving the Mormons. Be that as the reader may please to consider, the Mormons were grateful, and resolved that the Chief Justice should not go from them in disgrace. They accordingly elected him to represent them in the thirty-eighth Congress; and so the Chief Justice, instead of returning to his friends in the East, under a cloud, went to Washington in triumph, to take his seat in the Congress of the United States.

Judge Kinney was a brilliant man, and he soon won golden opinions from both constituents and strangers, by his eloquent efforts in Congress.

But he was not essentially identified with the destiny of Utah, although a constant friend of the people, and it became evident that the congressional career of a Gentile, representing a purely Mormon constituency, must tend more to his political advancement than to their potency. He might have built a pinnacle on their political destiny; they could build nothing on his political fame. They had the example of Judge Douglas before them-" the Mormon-made Senator"-who in his career nearly reached the Presidency of the United States, yet who recom- mended to Congress the expediency of cutting the " loathsome ulcer out"-the " ulcer " being the people who, in his rise to fame, had done so much to uplift him. In justice, however, it should be said that Judge Kinney served his con- stituents well and faithfully.

With the return of Hon. W. H. Hooper to the thirty-ninth Congress, the prestige of home delegates was restored. His influence was greater than ever, both at home and in Washington. The very change for a time from Mormon to Gentile had enhanced that influence, and illustrated the eminent consistency of a man who was politically in harmony with Congress, yet in destiny one with the Mormon people, representing them as their delegate. We are ever impressed

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with that law which is described as the " eternal fitness of things ; " so Congress could better understand and respect William H. Hooper maintaining the integrity of the Mormon commonwealth, and reconciling it with the rights of the American citizen, than it could the representation of Utah in those days, by a Gentile dele- gate. Hooper had by far the greatest influence in Congress ; his earnestness in controversy was respected by his congressional colleagues, even when they were resolutely bent on an anti-Mormon policy ; and the very fact that he was a well- known monogamist only rendered his defence of the religious rights of his poly- gamic constituents more truly American in spirit.

During the thirty-ninth and fortieth Congresses, to the commencement of Grant's administration, 1869, nothing very formidable was proposed or carried out against the founders of Utah. Bills were introduced by Mr. Ashley, then chairman of the Territorial Committee, and others, looking to the disintegration of the Territory ; but only a passive recognition was given those measures by Congress. Gentile delegations also went to Washington from Utah urging legis- lation against the Mormons; but Congress was busy with the great question of " reconstruction," and the impeachment of President Johnson, and thus Utah, a minor question, was overlooked.

The pasive action of Congress towards Utah, coupled with the wholesome legislation of the Johnson period, among which was the establishment of the pres- ent land system, the enlargement of the postal service, and a partial recognition of local self-government, warranted the hope that a brighter day was dawning for the Territory, inasmuch as the delegate was consulted in the choice of Federal officers who were not objectionable to the people.

But, with the commencement of Grant's administration, a new warfare was opened, and early in the first session under his Presidency, the Cullom bill was introduced in the House. Its monstrosity was such that scarcely a section did not propose measures in violation of the most sacred provisions of the Constitu- tion. It is understood that this bill was framed in Utah. It was like a resume of the Cragin bill; and Senator Cragin at once adopted it as his protege. He could well afford this, for it was a more perfected anti-Mormon measure than his own, bristling with formidable points of special legislation against " Polygamic Theocracy," wherever touched. General Cullom fathered the bill in the House ; Senator Cragin introduced it in the Senate. The Cullom bill was published and reviewed by nearly all the journals in the country. From the standpoint of news- paper criticism, it was very difficult to tell exactly what was its moral character. There was, however, a pretty general confession that it was an infamous bill; yet, with a strange consistency, it was quite as candidly confessed that it was not nearly bad enough to satisfy the popular desire.

Sargent, Axtell and Fitch spoke against the bill. The Hon. Thomas Fitch's speech was one of the most powerful efforts of oratory that Congress has had the privilege of listening to in these latter days. Not, however, from the bill itself did Mr. Fitch conjure the effectiveness of his speech, but over the prospect of the blood and the millions of money which it must cost the nation to enforce its pro- visions. Fitch's speech created so much sensation in the House that General Cullom himself proposed the temporary recommittal of the bill.

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The Cullom bill not only stirred the entire nation to a desire for special leg- islation against the Mormons, but also Mormondom to its very centre.

The crowning moment came. Delegate Hooper was on the floor of the House with his plea for religious liberty, which we quote from the Congressional Record. He said :

" MR. SPEAKER .- I wish to make a few remarks concerning the extraordinary bill now under consideration. While so doing, I crave the attention of the House, for I am here, not alone as one of the people sought to be cruelly oppressed ; not only as the delegate representing Utah ; but as an American citizen, to utter my solemn protest against the passage of a bill that aims to violate our dearest rights and is fraught with evil to the Republic itself.

" I do not propose to occupy the time of the House by dwelling at length upon the vast contributions of the people of Utah to the wealth of the nation. There is no member in the House who does not recollect in his schoolboy days the vast region of the Rocky Mountains characterized in the geographies as the · Great American Desert.' 'There' said those veracious text books, 'was a vast region wherein no man could live. There were springs and streams, upon the banks of which could be seen the bleaching bones of animals and of men, poisoned from drinking of the deadly waters.' Around the borders of the vast desert, and in its few habitable parts, roamed the painted savages, only less cruel and remorseless than the desert itself.

" In the midst of this inhospitable waste to-day dwell an agricultural, pastoral, and self-sustaining people, numbering 120,000 souls. Everywhere can be seen the fruits of energetic and persistent industry. The surrounding mining Terri- tories of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Arizona and Neveda, in their infancy, were fed and fostered from the surplus stores of the Mormon people. The develop- ment of the resources of these mining Territories was alone rendered possible by the existence at their doors of an agricultural people, who supplied them with the chief necessities of life at a price scarcely above that demanded in the old and populous States. The early immigrants to California paused on their weary jour- ney in the redeemed wastes of Utah, to recruit their strength, and that of their animals, and California is to day richer by thousands of lives and millions of treasure, for the existence of this half-way house to El Dorado.

" To the people of Utah, therefore, is to be attributed no inconsiderable part in the production of the vast mineral wealth which has poured into the coffers of the nation from our mining States and Territories.

" This, however, is but a tithe of our contributions to the nation's wealth. By actual experiment we have demonstrated the practicability of redeeming these desert wastes. When the Pacific slope and its boundless resources shall have been developed ; when beyond the Rocky Mountains 40,000,000 of people shall do homage to our flag, the millions of dwellers in Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Colorado and Montana, enriched by the products of their redeemed and fertilized deserts, shall point to the valley of Great Salt Lake as their examplar, and accord to the sturdy toilers of that land due honor, in that they inaugurated the system and demonstrated its possible results. These results are the offering of Utah to the nation.

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" When Robert Fulton's first steamboat moved from New York to Albany, so far as concerned the value of the vessel, he had made scarce a perceptible addition to our merchant marine ; but the principle, the practicability of which he then de- monstrated, was priceless, and enriched the nation more than if she had received the gift of the vessel, built from and loaded with solid gold.

" I will not, Mr. Speaker, tresspass upon the time of the House by more than thus briefly adverting to the claims of Utah to the gratitude and fostering care of the American people.

" For the first time in the history of the United States, by the introduction of the bill under consideration, a well defined and positive effort is made to turn the great law-making power of the nation into a moral channel and to legislate for the consciences of the people.

" Here, for the first time, is a proposition to punish a citizen for his religious belief and unbelief. We have before us a statute book designating crime. To restrain criminal acts, and to punish the offender, has heretofore been the province of the law, and in it we have the support of the accused himself. No man comes to the bar for trial with the plea that the charge upon which he is arraigned consti- tutes no offence, His plea is ' Not guilty.' He cannot pass beyond and behind the established conclusions of humanity. But this bill reaches beyond that code into the questionable world of morals-the debatable land of religious beliefs; and, first creating the offense, seeks with malignant fury of partisan prejudice and sectarian hate to measure out the punishment.

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History of Salt Lake City, Part 57

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