History of Salt Lake City, Part 76

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

USA > Utah > Salt Lake County > Salt Lake > History of Salt Lake City > Part 76

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Hons Thomas Fitch, George Q. Cannon and Frank Fuller were elected to proceed to Washington, to act with Delegate Hooper in presenting the constitu- tion to the President of the United States and the two houses of Congress.

The convention adjourned March 2nd, 1872, and immediately thereafter commenced the election by the people of members to the State Legislature.

On the 9th of March, a mass meeting of citizens was held in Salt Lake City, and the following State ticket made up :

For representative to Congress, Frank Fuller ; for State senators from Salt Lake, Tooele, and Summit Counties, Wilford Woodruff, George Q. Cannon, Wm. Jennings and Charles H. Hempstead ; for representatives from Salt Lake County, John Taylor, Brigham Young, Jr., John T. Caine, Thomas P. Akers, A. P. Rockwood and S. A. Mann.

Several days later the following was issued for the purpose of organizing a Republican party in Utah :

"TO THE REPUBLICANS IN UTAH.

" The Republicans residing in the several Territories of the United States, have been invited by the National Republican convention, which is to meet at the city of Philidelphia, on the 5th day of June, 1872, for the purpose of nominating 33

586

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States, to be supported at the election in November.

" The opportunity being thus afforded for the organization of the Republican party in Utah, the undersigned have deemed it advisable to unite in a recommen- dation that a convention be held at the City Hall in Salt Lake City, on Friday evening, April 5th, at half-past seven o'clock, to which convention delegates may be sent from all parts of the Territory, on the basis of representation adopted in the selection of delegates to the late constitutional convention ; the object of the proposed convention being the selection of two delegates to the National Repub- lican convention as before mentioned.

" In calling this convention we extend the invitation to all Republicans and to all citizens who approve of the principle held by the Republican party, and whose views are in consonance with that great national organization.

" The number of delegates to which each county will be entitled, is as follows : Salt Lake County, 19; Tooele, 6; Wasatch, 4; Summit, 3 ; Morgan, 2 ; Sanpete, 7; Cache, 9 ; Sevier and Piute, 2 ; Rich, 1 ; Box Elder, 6; Millard, 4; Beaver, 3; Iron, 4; Washington, 4; Kane, 2; Weber, 8.

"FRANK FULLER, DANIEL H. WELLS, THOMAS FITCH, GEO. E. WHITNEY, F. M. SMITH, WARNER EARLL, JACOB SMITH, S. A. MANN, LEN WINES, WIL- LIAM JENNINGS and many others.

" Salt Lake City, March 15th, 1872."

On the 3d of April, a call for a Democratic convention was made as follows :

" We, the undersigned, invite all citizens of Utah, who adhere to the princi- ples of that grand old party of the people-the Democracy-to assemble in mass convention at the City Hall in Salt Lake City, on Monday, the 8th of April, at 7 o'clock P. M., for the purpose of taking initiatory steps for organization, appoint- ing a Territorial Democratic central committee, and transacting such other busi- ness as may be suggested at the meeting."

This call, led off by Col. Thos. P. Akers and Gen. E. M. Barnum, was signed by nearly one hundred representative names, Mormon and Gentile.

On Friday, April 5th, the State Legislature met to elect Senators to Congress, and, after two good day's work and much sharp balloting, Fitch and Hooper were elected. In the Senate on the eighth ballot Fitch stood 4; General Morrow 4; George (). Cannon, 2. On the ninth, Fitch, 5 ; Morrow, 4, Cannon, I.

The senate having failed to elect, adjourned till 11:55 next day ; and the house adjourned to meet with the senate in joint session, when the before named were elected and a telegram immediately dispatched to them at Washington an- nouncing the result. The great point of the interest in the balloting was that it was, especially in the senate, strictly on party lines, General Morrow, as a demo- ( rat, tying Fitch as a republican.

The Democratic and Republican conventions met pursuant to call, and set carnestly to work with spirit and enthusiasm to organize their several parties on the strict national lines. It is worthy of a special note in our history that this is the only time when a legitimate effort was made in Utah to organize in accord

587

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

with the great political parties of the nation ; but it was frustrated by anti-Mor- mon malice, the majority of Gentiles chosing rather to betray their traditional parties, and coalising as the Liberal party, to keep up their crusade against the Mormon community.

CHAPTER LXVIII.

CHIEF JUSTICE MCKEAN WRITES EDITORIALS FOR THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, SUSTAINING HIS OWN DECISIONS. THE SENIOR EDITOR IMPEACHED, IN CONSEQUENCE, BEFORE A BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND RESIGNS. THE " GENTILE LEAGUE OF UTAH" ORGANIZED TO BREAK UP THE MORMON POWER. ATTEMPTS TO FORCE THE CITY COUNCIL. REVOLUTIONARY MEETING. CALL FOR TROOPS.

During this action of the old citizens, combined with conservative Gentiles, to obtain a State government, the Liberal party had, with an uncompromising persistence, which at times almost reached the pitch of civil war, opposed the State movement by every means in their power. Public meetings were held, not only in Salt Lake City, but in the mining camps, and all the anti-Mormon force rallied and loud threats of revolution made to intimidate the leaders of the State move- ment ; and those threats were directed perhaps more against the conservative Gen - tiles, who were dubbed " Jack Mormons," than against the heads of the Mormon Church. A petition was also gotten up against the admission of Utah to State sovereignty and forwarded to President Grant and Congress. It was signed by about five thousand names; the petition was taken from house to house and women as well as men affixed their names to it. For once the entire anti-Mormon force of the Territory was called into action ; the Godbeites and the Walker party, equally with the fiercest anti-Mormon, took action and signed their names against the State movement. Joseph R. Walker, Henry W. Lawrence and R. N. Baskin undertook a mission to Washington at their own expense for the Liberal party, to counteract the favorable impression which the model constitution of the State of Deseret was certain to create in the minds of many congressmen, and to affirm emphatically to President Grant and statesmen that the Gentiles and seceding Mormons were unanimously opposed to a State, excepting a few Gentile politicians -Fitch and others of his class-whom they denounced in the name of the Gen- tile party in the strongest terms. Undoubtedly this representation of delegates from the Liberal party of the weight of J. R. Walker, Henry W. Lawrence and R. N. Baskin, with a petition bearing five thousand signatures (so it was claimed ) against the State were sufficient, with the temper of President Grant wrought up by Newman and McKean to a war pitch, to prevent the admission of Utah at that

588

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

time, no matter how great its claims to and reasons for State sovereignty. Indeed, it was at the time when President Grant declared to the effect that if Congress did not pass a bill potent enough to overthrow Mormon polygamie theocracy, he would put his troops into Salt Lake City and settle the difficulty by military force.

There were also petitions gotten up in Salt Lake both for and against Mckean; the one for his removal the other for his retention. The one affirmed in substance that Mckean's doings were a disgrace to the department of justice, and that his presence was disturbing to the good order and peace of society, inimical to the prospects of this great mining country, and forbidding to the investment of for- eign and eastern capital ; the other petition affirmed the very reverse. The pe- tition for MeKean was signed by about the same names and number affixed to the petition against the State. Judge Haydon, in the convention, in his opposition had declared that it was " the State versus Mckean," and the Liberal party adopted his words very like as they would have done an inscription on their banners during the fierce anti-Mormon campaign of that year.

The course of Chief Justice McKean, however, had not passed without a re- buke even from the inside of his own party-a rebuke in fact scarcely less severe than the strictures of IIon. Thomas Fitch ; but the affair was kept silent for party interest, and because, on the whole, McKean was looked upon by the gentlemen concerned as a good man at heart, notwithstanding he was " a judge with a mis- sion." The case is as follows, and the statement is made as a necessary explana- tion of certain hidden points in the history of those times.

During the prosecutions against Brigham Young, Daniel H. Wells and others, Judge McKean was permitted by Mr. Oscar G. Sawyer, the then acting editor, to write editorials for the Salt Lake Tribune sustaining his own decisions. Mr. Saw- yer was also at this time the special telegraphic correspondent of the New York Herald, to the staff of which he had been formerly an attache-indeed one of its special correspondents during the war of the rebellion. Any amount of space was at his command in that potent newspaper, which the king of American journalists had made the greatest newsmonger and sensationalist in the world, and no cost for lengthy telegrams was begrudged by the younger Bennett, when the face of the matter bore strong sensational marks, with a seeming importance and authen- ticity. At that time the aspect and probable solution of Utah affairs were deemed by the American public to be of first class news importance. It will be remem- bered by the reader, that in 1870 the managers of the New York Herald had deemed it sufficiently important to their paper to send out one of its principal special correspondents to Salt Lake City and to keep him here at a high salary. with a broad margin for expenses, to employ assistant pens from the Godbeite writers to furnish him with the best news and authentic subjects of the times. Col. Findlay Anderson was in Salt Lake City more than six months, and during that period he not only furnished the New York Herald with a fruitful series of letters, exquisite in their literature and generally acceptable in their spirit, even to the Mormon community ; but he also reported for the New York Herald the dis- cussion between Newman and Pratt. Indeed, during the term of Col. Anderson the New York Herald made quite a mark in the line of Utah news, while the other eastern journals, as a rule, gave but the synopsis, and that, too, it appeared gath . ered from the Herald letters.

589

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

Col. Anderson had left Salt Lake City at the time of the arrests and prose- cution of President Young, Mayor Wells and others, or there would undoubtedly have been a different class of letters and press dispatches sent to the New York Herald from Salt Lake City; and, even had their leaning been strongly on the side of the prosecution and the judge, the news would have been fairly authentic, and its spirit toned with the dignity of a prince of special correspondents.

Oscar G. Sawyer was brought out to Salt Lake by Wm. S. Godbe, at the recom- mendation of T. B. H. Stenhouse, whose penchant for the members of the New York Herald staff may be pardoned, but who as a Utah journalist ought to have perceived the unfitness of a New York Herald Bohemian to take the editor-in-chief- ship of the Mormon Tribune, which at that time was a missionary, Godbeite organ. But Tullidge was in the States writing for the magazines and the New York World, while Sherman had resigned as assistant editor of the Mormon Tribune, and was in the States with Mr. Godbe on commercial business of his own, and at home E. L. T. Harrison was worn out, unable to bear the burden of the paper and " mis- sion " alone. This condition of things led Mr. Godbe to commit the fatal error of sending out Oscar G. Sawyer to take charge of his paper as managing editor, forc- ing Mr. Harrison to retire, as nothing could have induced him to hold a subordi- nate place on the paper which he and his compeers had founded.

This change gave the Mormon Tribune into the hands of James B. Mckean and the prosecution. It soon changed its name to that of the Salt Lake Tribune, which was according to the will of its founders ; but it also, from the moment Saw- yer took the editorial charge, rapidly became a decided anti-Mormon journal.

It was a matter of great importance to Chief Justice Mckean and the U. S. prosecuting attorneys, with such a programme as they had designed to execute in 1871-2, to have the Salt Lake Tribune under their dictatorship and in their service, with the understanding, not only among journalists in the eastern and western States, but in the mind of President Grant and his cabinet, that the Salt Lake Tribune was the organ of the seceding Mormon elders and merchants.

With this explanation be it repeated, Chief Justice James B. McKean was permitted, by the managing editor, Oscar G. Sawyer, to write editorials for the Salt Lake Tribune, sustaining his own decisions; while Sawyer, as shown in his telegrams to the New York Herald, relative to the arrest of Brigham Young and the alarming circumstances of the hour, could communicate the secrets of the grand jury room, and the business marked out by the judge and prosecuting at- torneys for the coming week, his telegrams dated three days before the indict- ments were made known to the Salt Lake public and the arrests effected.

With this power in their hands to create public opinion not only in Salt Lake City, where it would have been comparatively of little consequence, but in the eastern States, and in the sanctum of the White House, the judge and prosecution, who were arraigning " Polygamic theocracy " and trying " a system in the person of Brigham Young," held a most unlawful advantage. Besides the public was betrayed with the Salt Lake news published in the New York Herald, and the Herald also misled ; for Sawyer, as the editor of the Salt Lake Tribune, and forn- erly one of the Herald's attaches, enjoyed something like the trust that had been reposed in Col. Findlay Anderson, as a reporter and expounder of Utah matters.

590

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

Meantime in the Tribune office there was mutiny among the editorial staff. Tullidge had returned from the States and was now the assistant editor, while George W. Crouch, an ex-Mormon Elder of the Godbeite, cast was the local ; and E. L. T. Harrison one of the directors of the paper. They frequently expressed their indignation, and at length, knowing the facts and the serious consequences to the public good, they resolved to force an issue; whereupon a meeting of the board of directors of the paper was called and the editorial staff summoned. There were present, Mr. J. R. Walker, David F. Walker, Henry W. Lawrence, Benjamim Raybould, John Chislett, Oscar G. Sawyer, the then chief editor, George W. Crouch local editor, and Elias L. T. Harrison and Edw. W. Tullidge, the original editors. The meeting was held in the private office (up stairs) of Kimball & Lawrence.

Mr. Harrison stated the case, and in very severe language denounced the course which the managing editor had been taking. He stated the object for which the paper had been started-namely, to maintain the cause of freedom and the rights of all classes, without distinction of Mormon or Gentile ; that it had been specially named Tribune, as explained in its opening issues, to signify its character-" the Tribune of the People; " that it was not the organ of the radi- cals, nor the enemy of the Mormon people, but rather was it designed to protect and defend them. At first it was called the Mormon Tribune, to show its mission in this respect, though since it had changed its name to the Salt Lake Tribune, so that it might more fully represent all classes, yet remain true to its original aims. Mr. Sawyer, he said, had been brought out to Salt Lake City, by Mr. Godbe, with the expectation that he would carry out the design of its founders ; that he, Harri- son, had resigned the editorship, and control of the paper, to give himself a temporary rest, with the said understanding; that Mr. Sawyer, having obtained control had turned the Salt Lake Tribune in a new direction and given it other aims and purposes from those for which it was established ; but above all be im- peached the managing editor on the specific charge of having permitted Judge McKean to write editorials sustaining his own decisions.

All the gentlemen present expressed their views; and in substance, Mr. Saw- yer, smarting under the general censure, told the directors that they were but merchants, and knew nothing about journalism, while he was a trained journalist. In fine, the issue was that Oscar G. Sawyer resigned, and in his valedictory assigned as the cause of his retirement " a journalistic incompatibility " existing between himself and the directors. It was not, however, because of any journalistic in- compatibility between Mr. Sawyer and the directors, but for the reasons herein given. The valedictory was allowed to pass, and the true reasons kept from the public, greatly out of consideration for the Chief Justice himself ; but the direc- tors forthwith published a standing notice at the head of the columns of the Trib- une defining the original character and intentions of the paper.

Sometime after this, a secret society was organized in the city and mining camps, known as the "Gentile League of Utah." Its mission was to break up " Mormon Theocracy," made so famous by McKean's extraordinary official state- ment, that it was on trial in his court, in the person of Brigham Young.

The action of the Chief Justice of Utah was reversed by the Supreme Court

591

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

of the United States. But President Grant sustained him. Until some further legislation from Congress, however, he was powerless as the " missionary judge." His work had to be done by the " G. L. U's," and they did not hesitate to impress on the public mind that they were a semi-military organization.

The radicals, at their public meetings, boldly boasted of this organization and its purposes ; and Judge Haydon prophesied that the streets of Salt Lake City would run with blood.

The associated press agent, and the special of the New York Herald, sent their " blood " despatches broadcast through the land ; a panic was created among capitalists abroad, preventing local investment. It was supposed East that we were on the eve of civil war in Utah. But commercial men and bankers of Salt Lake City published a card to the country counteracting this view. Our greatest conservator of peace, during these radical agitations, was capital. But there can be no doubt that Judge Haydon's prognostications of blood had the form of circumstances deeply lined in the vision.

Again the Tribune was drawn into the radical vortex. The city council chamber had been open to our reporter. An occasion was seized one evening, when President (Councilor) Young was in the council. The next morning's paper, in a flaming heading, proclaimed-" Brigham on the War Path !"

It was the cry the radicals wanted to hear. For this gross misrepresentation, our reporter at the next meeting was expelled from the city council, and sensa- tional despatches flew over the wires east and west.

The " G. L. U's," thought they saw an opportunity to strike a great blow ; so they offered one hundred armed men to go to the city council, the next session, and force admission for the press. The following statement was made by the local editor near the time of the occurrence :

" I, Joseph Salisbury, late associate editor of the Salt Lake Tribune, make the following statement, to-wit :

" That on the evening of the 26th of July, 1872, I attended a meeting of the city council, held in the council chamber, in the city hall, Salt Lake City, and made a report of its proceedings ;

" That on the 30th instant, I attended again, when that honorable body, tak- ing exceptions to my previous report, demanded of me a public recantation on pain of expulsion. This I refused when the vote of the council was passed to that effect ;

"That I was afterwards directed by Mr. Fred. T. Perris, manager of the paper, to attend at the next regular meeting of the council, and report as usual. I said, in answer, that I presumed the council would adopt parliamentary rules and close its doors ; whereupon the manager informed me that General Geo. R. Max- well had promised to be there with 100 men, from the " G. L. U's" and other secret orders to force an entrance and insist on my taking the minutes ;

" That, on the day previous to the meeting, I was in the editor's office writ- ing, when General Maxwell came in and asked me if I was ready to go to the council the following evening. I replied, ' I shall go anyhow.' He intimated that he was ready, and the 'boys' would be there ;

" That I understood the programme to be that, if any hostile demonstration

593

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

were made by the mayor and council, each of them would be immediately covered by a pair of pistols, in the hands of the 100 men present ;

"And furthermore, that, if Brigham Young was present, he would be a special mark ;

" That, for some reason, the project was abandoned ;

" That myself, accompanied by Mr. F. T. Perris and Mr. Abrahams, went to said meeting, when the motion of the preceding council was confirmed and the Tribune men again expelled.

" Signed,

JOSEPH SALISBURY."*

Immediately after this attempt to force an entrance to the city council, the August election for delegate to Congres came off, George Q. Cannon and George R. Maxwell being the contestants.

An out-of-door mass meeting of the Liberals was called, on the evening of the 3rd of August, 1872, to ratify the nomination of the Liberal candidate.

At 8 P. M., the street in front of the Salt Lake Hotel was crowded. On mo- tion, A. S. Gould was elected chairman.

" Mormon Theocracy," as usual, was the subject of attack. This so the Utah radicals was legitimate political warfare. To the Mormon people, however, such ever is a religious warfare ; and, as the multitude were mostly of the Mor- mon faith, as soon as the speakers assailed Mormonism and Brigham Young, they were interrupted with hisses and exclamations.

Speaker after speaker attempted in vain to address the indignant people, for the radical leaders (one of whom was the Rev. Norman McLeod) vied with each other in outraging Mormonism and Brigham Young, while the Mormon people were spoken of as "dupes," "serfs," "the down trodden," and the chair- man's ardent imagination varied these hackneyed names by also repeatedly calling them " geese."

Now came business for the " G. L. U's." They sprang to the front. They were headed by ex-Marshal Orr.

" Follow me ' G. L. U's,' " he cried to his armed troop.

They dashed after him, revolvers in hand, and formed a half circle in front of the stand. Flourishing their weapons, they awed back the people, each waiting eagerly for the command to fire into the crowd.

For the anxious space of five minutes, it was almost certain that Judge Hay-

"NOTE .- The statement of our local editor tells its own story, and is sufficiently suggestive without much comment. It may be added. however, that, learning of this design, } had resolved if the "hun- dred men," or any considerable number, attempted to move towards the city hall in parties, I would. in time to prevent the risk of human life, make a statement of the facts to the mayor. As it was, I asked Mr. Perris-the Tribune manager-to let me go to the Council in behalf of the paper, but the per- mission was refused. The reason was that it was thought the city council, believing in my truthfulness and justice, would allow me to remain, as a member of the press, notwithstanding the expulsion of our paper. Harmony with the city council, or fairness towards its administration, was just what the "liberals" wished to prevent. War, not justice, was their aim. That they did also project the move- ment against the city authorities, as stated by Mr. Salisbury, the very fact that the Tribune manager, oal editor and foreman of the printing establishment were at the city hall to force the presence of the opposition press is very evident, as the newspaper reports and the record of the council will sub- stantiate. "The explanation, too, why the "100 men" were not at their post was, it may be presumed. no fault of the agitators, but simply because certain well known conservative business men did not enthusiastically take the responsibility. Without these influential citizens Maxwell knew that his "100 men" would have been but an armed band of rioters. E. W'. Tullidge, associate editor Tribune, 1872.

593

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

don's prophecy would be fulfilled that night, and the streets of Salt Lake run with blood.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Salt Lake City, Part 76

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