History of Utah, Part 34

Author: Whitney, Orson Ferguson
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Salt Lake City, Cannon
Number of Pages: 1026

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During 1848 various improvements for the public benefit were planned and effected in Salt Lake Valley and the vicinity. Roads were constructed in divers directions, and bridges thrown across the Jordan River and several of the mountain streams. A bath house was also erected at the Warm Springs. To defray the expense of some of these improvements the roadmaster-Daniel Spencer- was authorized to levy a poll and property tax; the rate of the latter being one per cent. Most of the assessments were paid in labor on the roads. In October a Council House was projected, to be built by donation, or labor-tithing. Daniel H. Wells was appointed to super- intend its construction. Grist-mills and saw-mills had been and were being erected on City Creek, Mill Creek and other streams, water being the motive power used. Some of this machinery had

* " Nearly every man was dressed in skins."-Heber C. Kimball.

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come with the first immigration and was in operation during the following spring and summer. More machinery for milling, and some for carding; also printing presses, type, and other materials of "the art preservative," were brought in the immigration of 1848. Among the pioneer mill-builders may be mentioned Charles Crismon, Isaac Chase, John Neff, Samuel Thompson, Archibald and Robert Gardner.

During the autumn the city lots were given out to the settlers, and when all had been distributed, others were laid out in exten- sions to the original plat, and allotted in like manner. A vast field of eight thousand acres was surveyed south of and bordering upon the city, plotted in five and ten-acre fields and distributed by lot to the people. Each man was to help build a fence around the "Big Field," and construct a canal along the east side for irrigating purposes. These lands were not sold, but given, as in the first instance when the Apostles selected their "inheritances." But a small fee was required from each holder to pay the surveyor.

Before winter set in, some of the people began leaving the fort and moving out upon their city lots. Most of them, however, remained in the stockade until spring. They then took their houses with them-such of the domiciles as were portable-and set them down, according to rule, in or near the centers of their lots. Thus as the city grew the fort began to disappear, and soon there was little left of it but a few adobe walls to show where once it stood.

The lack of a circulating medium among the settlers had long been felt. The inconvenience of buying wheat with corn, and paying for pigs in chickens, is apparent. The advent of gold-dust, much of which was brought by the Battalion men and others from California, had put an end to much of this embarrassment, and yet bags of gold-dust were not the most convenient money in the world. To obviate the trouble, pending the procuring of a stamp wherewith to coin some of the precious metal now becoming so abundant, a paper currency was issued in January, 1849. The first bill-one dollar- bore the signatures of Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball and

Charles crismon

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Thomas Bullock. The first type-setting in Salt Lake Valley-by Brigham Young and Thomas Bullock-was for this primitive Utah currency. Some months later $2.50, $5, $10 and $20 gold pieces were coined in a mint temporarily established by the Mormons. These coins, which were improvised purely for local use, bore no resemblance to the Government coins. They were of unalloyed, virgin gold, and as fast as they were superseded by legal money were disposed of as bullion to the Federal mints .*

The winter of 1848-9, unlike its predecessor, was uncommonly severe. Heavy snows and violent winds prevailed, and the weather. from the 1st of December until late in February, was extremely cold. The coldest day was the 5th of February, when the mercury fell to 33º F. below zero. An inventory of breadstuffs taken early that month showed about three-fourths of a pound per day for each soul in the Valley, until the beginning of July. The pressure of the famine was severely felt, but the community generally shared alike, and extreme suffering was thus prevented. The earth that season yielded abundantly, and the famine again was staid.

Early in February the Church authorities resumed the task of perfecting the ecclesiastical organization. In December fellowship had been withdrawn from Apostle Lyman Wight and Bishop George Miller, who had previously separated from the Church, refusing to longer follow its destinies.+ Four vacancies now existed in the council of the Twelve. They were filled on February 12th, 1849, by

* The veteran jeweler, J. M. Barlow, senior, of Salt Lake City, contributes this : " The first dies, consisting of a $2.50, a $5 and a $20 piece, were made by John Kay and an old blacksmith, but were very crude. At the request of Governor Young I had made in my office by Dougal Brown, a set of dies for 85 pieces, and for a number of years (until Governor Cumming ordered its discontinuance) 1 refined the gold and coined it into money. If 1 do say so myself, it was as perfect a piece of money as ever came from any mint. I also made the first and only solid silver spoons ever made in Utah, and the silver cups now in use in the administration of the sacrament at the Tabernacle."

+ During November, 1848, at far-off Kanesville, Oliver Cowdery came back into the Church, to die in the Mormon faith a few months later, but never to reach the Rocky Mountains.

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the calling and ordination of Charles C. Rich, Lorenzo Snow, Erastus Snow and Franklin D. Richards to the Apostleship. On the 13th of that month a more permanent Stake organization was effected, as follows: Daniel Spencer, President; David Fullmer and Willard Snow, first and second Counselors. The members of the High Council were Isaac Morley, Phinehas Richards, Shadrach Roundy, Henry G. Sherwood, Titus Billings, Eleazer Miller, John Vance, Levi Jackman, Ira Eldredge, Elisha H. Groves, William W. Mayor and Edwin D. Woolley.

Next day-the 14th-Great Salt Lake City was divided into nineteen ecclesiastical wards. The following named were the Bishops: First Ward, Peter McCue; Second, John Lowry; Third, Christopher Williams, Fourth, Benjamin Brown; Fifth, Thomas Winters; Sixth, William Hickenlooper; Seventh, William G. Perkins; Eight, Addison Everett; Ninth, Seth Taft; Tenth, David Pettigrew; Eleventh, John Lytle; Twelfth, Benjamin Covey; Thirteenth, Edward Hunter; Fourteenth, John Murdock, senior; Fifteenth, Abraham O. Smoot; Sixteenth, Shadrach Roundy; Seventeenth, Joseph L. Heywood; Eighteenth, Presiding Bishop Whitney; Nineteenth, James Hendricks. Each of these wards comprised, as far as practi- cable, three blocks square; the enumeration beginning at the south- east corner of the city, where the First Ward lies, and running west. to the city limit, where the Fifth Ward ends. The enumeration then continued on the next tier of blocks from west to east, then back again, and so on until all the wards were formed.

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CHAPTER XXI.

1849.

BEGINNING OF UTAH'S POLITICAL HISTORY-THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF DESERET-UTAH VALLEY SETTLED-THE UTE INDIANS-SOWIETTE AND WALKARA-THE GOLD-HUNTERS- "WINTER MORMONS"-DESERET APPLIES FOR STATEHOOD-FIRST CELEBRATION OF PIONEER DAY-THE STANSBURY EXPEDITION-THE PERPETUAL EMIGRATING FUND-THE FIRST MISSIONARIES SENT FROM THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS-WHY BRIGHAM YOUNG DISCOURAGED MINING-THE GREAT SALT LAKE VALLEY CARRYING COMPANY-SANPETE AND TOOELE VALLEYS SETTLED.

TAH'S political history begins with the opening of the spring of 1849. Up to that time the mode of government in Salt Lake Valley was purely an ecclesiastical regime. True, the community had its secular officials, authorized to levy and collect taxes and perform various functions of a civil character. It also had its peace officers,* and its primitive methods of administering justice.

But these officers, as a rule, were chosen by the people at their conferences or other religious meetings, presided over by Apostles or Elders, and were virtually Church appointments. The nominations were usually made from the "stand," by some dignitary of the Priesthood, and sustained by the congregation, if acceptable, with uplifted hands.+ Such appointments, therefore, though secular in character, could not be called political .¿ In fact there were no politics in the community, except as they existed in the breasts of those who had retained their former principles and predilections, and brought them into the wilderness, as they had brought their country's flag and their love for American institutions.

* John Van Cott was Marshal, and John Nebeker Assistant Marshal.

+ The right hand is used for voting in Mormon religious meetings.

¿ In those days culprits were tried by the Bishops' Courts and the High Council.

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But the Mormons knew that this condition of affairs must soon change; that their isolation in these mountain-tops could not long continue. They had foreseen, or their Prophet had, at Nauvoo, the "manifest destiny" of the American Republic to possess the Pacific slope. They knew, with all the world, how the war with Mexico must end. They had even helped their country to conquer the region which they now inhabited. Their main purpose in moving west,-next to getting beyond the reach of their enemies and securing religious freedom,-was evidently to found an American State. Isolation they sought and desired, but only a temporary isolation. More than that they could not reasonably expeci. Leaving out the question of their Americanism,-their love of native land and their loyalty to the Constitution,-the mission of the Latter-day Saints is and has ever been to the Gentiles, and not from them. They wished to found a State for the Union. They wished to govern that State,-at least so long as they remained in the majority. And certainly it was their right to do so, according to the genius of American institutions.

There were some, no doubt, who thought, in the beginning of the exodus and afterwards, that it was not the destiny of the Mormon people to be again identified with the American nation. But these were individual views, and not the views of authority. Such men as Senator Douglas, James Arlington Bennett and Governor Ford, who had virtually advised the Mormon leaders to set up an independent government in the west, were largely responsible for such notions. Joseph Smith and Brigham Young had both declared, -the former in the very face of a contemplated exodus to the Rocky Mountains, the latter after that exodus had begun,-that it was the destiny of the Latter-day Saints to preserve the Constitution and rescue the starry flag at a time when traitors and tyrants would be tearing them to tatters and trampling them in the mire. The Saints, it may be added, are not yet converted from this view. That time, they believe, is at hand,-approaching on the wings of the wind.

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Then why, if this be true, did the Mormons not found their State forthwith, and set up a political, in lieu of an ecclesiastical government in these mountains? Why did eighteen months elapse, after they entered Salt Lake Valley, before they took steps to align themselves as a commonwealth with the other parts of the Federal Union ? In their failure to more promptly act in this matter, many have professed to see, some perhaps sincerely, a sign of Mormon disloyalty,-a reluctance on the part of the Saints to return to the sheltering aegis of Columbia and the Constitution. To such as have honestly taken this view,-but not to those who have merely used it as a catch-phrase and political cudgel against the Mormons, -some explanation is probably due. That explanation is easily given.

The Mormon pioneers entered Salt Lake Valley late in July, 1847. Their first care, though the planting season was virtually past, and it had not been demonstrated that the soil in this locality would bring forth cereals and vegetables, was to put in crops, trust- ing in Providence for a harvest, lest famine with fierce maw should overtake them. Their next duty, almost as pressing, was to place roofs above their heads, lest the frosts of the coming winter might prove to them perpetual. What time had they for politics? They hardly had time to pray,-to kneel upon the desert as their pilgrim ancestors had knelt on Plymouth Rock, and thank God for bringing them to another home. What time had they for political conven- tions, even had it been proper at that stage to have held them ? But would it have been proper ? Up to February, 1848, when the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, Utah was still Mexican soil, con- quered by but not yet ceded to the United States. Political action at such a time, on the part of the pioneers, would certainly have been premature.

But, it may be argued, the Mormons did not organize politically until over a year after the signing of the treaty which made Utah a part of the Federal domain. True, but it should be remembered that in those days news did not travel, as now, by railway and electric

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wire. Ox and mule teams carried the mail between the Missouri River and the Great Basin. Indeed, in 1849 there was no overland mail service at all, excepting such as might be furnished, at irregular intervals, by emigrants and other travelers crossing and re-crossing the great plains. Sometimes-usually during the winter-six months would elapse and no tidings of the outside world would reach the settlers of these mountain solitudes. Probably this was the case when the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed. Besides, at that time and for several months afterward, the majority of the Mormon leaders, including their master spirit, Brigham Young, were away, preparing on the far-off frontier to bring the main body of their homeless people to the mountains. In the absence of their leaders, whom they looked to for advice, and expected to take the initiative in all important movements of a public character, the settlers of Salt Lake Valley were busy fighting crickets, building houses, exploring and colonizing,-determining, in short, the question of actual sub- sistence.

The absent leaders returned in the autumn of 1848, with between two and three thousand souls to be fed and sheltered through that famine winter. Preparations for its approach having been made, and the Church "set in order" for the better care of the people temporally and spiritually, those leaders were ready for polit- ical work, and that winter the project of Utah's statehood was born.

The Mormons did not call their proposed state Utah, however. There was nothing particularly attractive in that title-the name of a nation of savages, some of them, though not all, among the most degraded of the red-skinned race." They styled it, instead, Deseret,

* Lieutenant J. W. Gunnison, in his work entitled " The Mormons," says of the Utalı Indians : " This tribe consists of several bands under different chieftains, united by a com- mon language and affinities, as well as by numerous inter-marriages. They range over a large region of country, extending from California to New Mexico. They are a supersti- * tious race and have many cruel customs. Some tribes are reputed good warriors.

" The different tribes of the Utahs are frequently at war with each other, and they have an eternal national war with the Shoshones. The Mormon settlements partially

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meaning the honey bee, *- an appropriate emblem of their own untiring industry.

A call for a convention to consider the political needs of the community was issued early in 1849. It was addressed to "all the citizens of that portion of Upper California lying east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains." The convention assembled at Salt Lake City early in March. It was then and there decided to petition Congress for a Territorial form of government, and to organize, pending Con- gressional action upon the petition, a provisional government.+ A committee was appointed to draft and report a constitution for the temporary State of Deseret. This committee consisted of Albert Carrington, Joseph L. Heywood, William W. Phelps, David Fullmer, John S. Fullmer, Charles C. Rich, John Taylor, Parley P. Pratt, John M. Bernhisel and Erastus Snow. The convention continued its deliberations on the 8th, 9th and 10th of March, and adopted the constitution reported by the committee. Its caption and preamble were as follows:

CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF DESERET.

PREAMBLE .- Whereas a large number of the citizens of the United States, before and since the treaty of peace with the Republic of Mexico, emigrated to, and settled in that por- tion of the territory of the United States lying west of the Rocky Mountains, and in the great interior Basin of Upper California ; and

Whereas, by reason of said treaty, all civil organization originating from the Republic of Mexico became abrogated ; and

Whereas the Congress of the United States has failed to provide a form of civil gov- ernment for the territory so acquired, or any portion thereof; and

Whereas civil government and laws are necessary for the security, peace, and pros- perity of society ; and

interpose between the two great tribes, exerting an influence upon both and ensuring them a controlling power ultimately. * * * * * *

" The Snakes or Shoshones, estimated at several thousands, are on the north. The Crows are to the north-east. * * *

" The Sioux tribe is on the east of the basin ; the Oglallahs or Cheyennes, to the south-east, and the universal Utahs to the south."

* Book of Mormon-Ether, chapter II, par. 3.

+ The application of Deseret for admission into the Union as a State was made sev- eral months later.

26-VOL. 1.

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Whereas it is a fundamental principle in all republican governments that all political power is inherent in the people, and governments instituted for their protection, security, and benefit should emanate from the same ;

Therefore your committee beg leave to recommend the adoption of the following CONSTITUTION until the Congress of the United States shall otherwise provide for the gov- ernment of the territory hereinafter named and described by admitting us into the Union. WE, THE PEOPLE, grateful to the SUPREME BEING for the blessings hitherto enjoyed, and feel- ing our dependence on Him for a continuation of those blessings, DO ORDAIN AND ESTABLISH A FREE AND INDEPENDENT GOVERNMENT, by the name of the STATE OF DESERET, including all the territory of the United States within the following boundaries, to wit : commencing at the 33º of north latitude, where it crosses the 108º of longitude west of Greenwich ; thence running south and west to the boundary of Mexico ; thence west to and down the main channel of the Gila River (or the northern line of Mexico), and on the northern boundary of Lower California to the Pacific Ocean ; thence along the coast north-westerly to the 118° 30' of west longitude ; thence north to where said line intersects the dividing ridge of the Sierra Nevada mountains ; thence north along the summit of the Sierra Nevada mountains to the dividing range of mountains that separate the waters flowing into the Columbia from the waters running into the Great Basin; thence easterly along the dividing range of mountains that separate said waters flowing into the Columbia River on the north, from the waters flowing into the Great Basin on the south, to the summit of the Wind River chain of mountains ; thence southeast and south by the dividing range of mountains that separate the waters flowing into the Gulf of Mexico from the waters flow- ing into the Gulf of California, to the place of beginning, as set forth in a map drawn by Charles Preuss, and published by order of the Senate of the United States in 1848.

The Constitution provided that the seat of government should be at Salt Lake City, and that its powers should be divided into three branches-the legislative, the executive and the judicial. The Leg- islature was to consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives, both elected by the people. It was to hold annual sessions, the initial one on the first Monday in July, 1849, and thereafter on the first Monday in December. Special sessions were also provided for. Elections for members of the House of Representatives were to be held biennially. These members were to be at least twenty-five years of age, free white male citizens of the United States, residents of the State for one year preceding their election, and of the district or county thirty days preceding. Senators were to be elected for four years. Except as to age-they must be at least thirty years old-the qualifications required of them were the same as those of the Repre- sentatives. Each house was to elect its own officers, and each officer

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and member of the Legislative Assembly must take oath or affirmation to support the Constitution of the United States, and that of the State of Deseret, prior to entering upon the discharge of his official duties.

The executive power was vested in a Governor, a Lieutenant- Governor, a Secretary of State, an Auditor and a Treasurer. The Governor was to be elected for four years, his qualifications, powers and duties being similar to those of the Governors of other States. He had authority to call special sessions of the Legislative Assembly, and possessed the usual power of veto over its acts. The Lieutenant- Governor, who was also elected for four years, was ex officio president of the Senate.

The judiciary consisted of a Supreme Court, with such other inferior tribunals as might be established by the Legislature. That body, by a joint vote, was to elect a chief justice and two associate justices, to hold office for four years. It was afterwards decided to have these judges elected by the people. The qualifications of voters at the first election were that they should be free, white male resi- dents of the State, over the age of twenty-one.

A State militia comprising all males between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, not exempt from military duty, was to be forthwith organized, armed, equipped and trained. The age regulation was subsequently changed; for when the militia was organized there was a company of juvenile rifles, composed of youths under eighteen, and another company called "Silver Greys," made up of men over fifty years of age.

The election of officers for the Provisional Government of the State of Deseret took place at Salt Lake City on Monday, March 12th, 1849. The following ticket was elected: Brigham Young, Governor ; Willard Richards, Secretary; Newel K. Whitney, Treasurer; Heber C. Kimball, Chief Justice; John Taylor and N. K. Whitney, Associate Justices; Daniel H. Wells, Attorney-General; Horace S. Eldredge, Marshal; Albert Carrington, Assessor and Collector ; Joseph L. Hey- wood, Surveyor of Highways. At the same time the Bishops of the several wards were elected magistrates.

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The militia was next organized, under the direction of General Charles C. Rich and Daniel H. Wells, a committee on military affairs. They began to organize it in March, and in May reported the com- pletion of their labors. This did not mean that the full organization was at once perfected. The old name of "Nauvoo Legion," endeared to so many of those who were now re-enrolled, was retained as the title of the militia of the State of Deseret.

Its chief officers were, Daniel H. Wells, Major-General, and Jede- diah M. Grant and Horace S. Eldredge, Brigadier-Generals. In Gen- eral Grant's cohort, which was composed of cavalry, John S. Fullmer was Colonel of the first regiment, Willard Snow, Major of the first battalion, and George D. Grant, Captain of the first company, first battalion. In the second cohort,-the infantry,-commanded by Brigadier-General Eldredge, John Scott was Colonel of the first regiment, Andrew Lytle Major of the first battalion, and Jesse P. Harmon captain of the first company, first battalion. Two companies comprised the artillery. The first company organized was Captain George D. Grant's. These were picked men, termed "life-guards,". or "minute men." It was their duty to protect Salt Lake City and its environs from Indian depredations. Captain Harmon's company were the "Silver Greys," before mentioned.

The militia also had the following general officers: James Fer- guson, Adjutant-General; Hiram B. Clawson, Aide-de-camp; Lewis Robison, Quarter-master-General ; Albert P. Rockwood, Commissary- General ; Ezra G. Williams, Surgeon-General; Ezra T. Benson and Wilford Woodruff, Chaplains; Edward P. Duzette, Chief of Music; and Ephraim Hanks and Lot Smith, Color-bearers-General. These officers, from the Adjutant-General to the Chief of Music, held the rank of Colonel, but the last two ranked as captains. Subsequently military districts were organized in the several counties created by the Legislature .***

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History of Utah, Part 34

Author: Whitney, Orson Ferguson Publication date: 1892 Publisher: Salt Lake City, Cannon Number of Pages: 1026

Author: Whitney, Orson Ferguson
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Salt Lake City, Cannon
Number of Pages: 1026