History of Utah, Part 43

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

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One potent factor in the discomfiture and defeat of Judge Brocchus and his coadjutors was a series of letters that appeared,- one in the New York Herald, and all in a pamphlet circulated throughout the east,-over the signature of Jedediah M. Grant, Mayor of Salt Lake City. Mayor Grant, who was a member of the Utah Legislature, had been authorized by Governor Young and the General Assembly on the 1st of October to repair to the City of Washington, as an agent of the citizens of Utah, to confer and co-operate with Delegate Bernhisel in his official duties at the capital. In other words he was sent east for the especial purpose of spiking the guns which the Mormon leader foresaw would be turned against him and his people by the absconding Judges and Secretary. Mayor Grant did his work most effectively; not in the way that the gentlemanly and diplomatic Delegate, Dr. Bernhisel, would have done it, but in a manner peculiar to brave, brusque Jedediah M. Grant; a man as devoid of fear as he was of policy or scholastic culture. Quick-witted, vigorous and incisive, he in conjunction with Colonel Thomas L. Kane, whom he visited at Philadelphia, produced the letters referred to, in which the runaway officials were roundly scored and ridiculed, and their anti-Utah efforts pretty well counteracted. It was the polygamy clause of their own report, however, which dug their official graves and erected the tomb-stone over their political remains.

Colonel Kane, it seems, had previously done the Mormon leader a good turn-which was but one of many such-both before and after his appointment as Governor of Utah. The appended

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correspondence between President Fillmore and Colonel Kane will show in what way the service to which we refer was rendered :

WASHINGTON, July 4, 1851.

MY DEAR SIR :- 1 have just cut the enclosed slip from the Buffalo Courier. It brings serious charges against Brigham Young, Governor of Utah, and falsely charges that I knew them to be true. You will recollect that I relied much upon you for the moral character and standing of Mr. Young. You knew him, and had known him in Utah. You are a democrat, but I doubt not will truly state whether these charges against the moral character of Governor Young are true.

Please return the article with your letter.

Not recollecting your given name, I shall address this letter to you as the son of Judge Kane.

I am, in great haste, truly yours, MILLARD FILLMORE.

Mr. Kane, Philadelphia.

PHILADELPHIA, July 11th, 1851.

MY DEAR SIR :- I have no wish to evade the responsibility of having vouched for the character of Mr. Brigham Young of Utah, and his fitness for the station he now occupies. I reiterate without reserve, the statement of his excellent capacity, energy and integrity, which I made you prior to his appointment. I am willing to say I volunteered to com - municate to you the facts by which I was convinced of his patriotism, and devotion to the interests of the Union. I made no qualification when I assured you of his irreproachable moral character, because I was able to speak of this from my own intimate personal knowledge.

If any show or shadow of evidence can be adduced in support of the charges of your anonymous assailant, the next mail from Utah shall [bring you their complete and circumstantial refutation. Meanwhile I am ready to offer this assurance for publication in any form you care to indicate, and challenge contradiction from any respectable authority.

I am, Sir, with high respect and'esteem, your most obedient servant,

THOMAS L. KANE.

The President.

Utah's first Legislative Assembly convened, as stated, on the 22nd of September, 1851. Its members were as follows:

COUNCIL.

Salt Lake County .- Heber C. Kimball, Willard Richards, Dainel H. Wells, Jedediah M. Grant, Ezra T. Benson, Orson Spencer.

Davis County .- John S. Fullmer.

Weber County .- Lorin Farr, Charles R. Dana.

Utah County .- Alexander Williams, Aaron Johnson.

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Sanpete County .- Isaac Morley.

Iron County .- George A. Smith.

HOUSE.

Salt Lake County .- Wilford Woodruff, David Fullmer, Daniel Spencer, Willard Snow, William W. Phelps, Albert P. Rockwood, Nathaniel H. Felt, Edwin D. Woolley, Phinehas Richards, Joseph Young, Henry G. Sherwood, Benjamin F. Johnson, Hosea Stout.

Davis County .- Andrew L. Lamereaux, John Stoker, William Kay.

Weber County .- James Brown, David B. Dille, James G. Browning.

Tooele County .- John Rowberry.

Utah County .- David Evans, William Milier, Levi W. Hancock. Sanpete County .- Charles Shumway.

Iron County .- Elisha H. Groves .*

The Legislature organized by electing Willard Richards Presi- dent of the Council, and William W. Phelps, Speaker of the House of Representatives. Howard Coray was Secretary of the Council, and James Cragan Sergeant-at-arms. In the House, Albert Carring- ton was Clerk, and William H. Kimball Sergeant-at-arms. Brigham H. Young was public printer.

One of the first acts of the Assembly, after the departure of the runaway Judges and Secretary, was to memorialize the Government at Washington in relation to appointments to fill the places thus deserted. The memorial asked that the new appointees be residents of the Territory, and that they be selected as soon as possible. Pending the action of the President and Senate in this matter

* Of the Councilors, Ezra T. Benson and Jedediah M. Grant resigned late in Septem- ber to go east, and Orson Pratt and Edward Hunter were elected November 15th to fill their places. Of the Representatives Willard Snow also resigned about the same time as Councilors Benson and Grant, and John Brown succeeded him on November 15th. The same day George Brimhall was elected a member of the House, from Iron County, making the number of Representatives twenty-six, as required by the Organic Act.

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Willard Richards on the 15th of October was appointed by Governor Young Secretary of Utah pro tem.

A joint resolution was passed by the Legislature on the 4th of October, declaring of full force and effect the laws made by the Provisional Assembly of Deseret, such as did not conflict with the act of Congress creating the Territory. This measure preserved the several city charters, and the charter of the Deseret University, previously granted by the Provisional Government. It also confirmed the act incorporating the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

To meet, in a measure, the emergency which had arisen through the unceremonious departure of the two Federal Judges, their associate, Judge Snow, was authorized by the Legislature to hold courts in all the judicial districts. The First District was made to comprise Salt Lake, Davis, Weber, Tooele and Utah counties, and those parts of the Territory lying north, east and west of said counties. The Second District consisted of Millard and Sanpete counties, with all parts lying south of the south line of latitude of Utah County, and north of the south line of latitude of Millard County, within Utah, and the Third District of Iron County and all districts [of country lying south of the south line of latitude of Millard County, within the Territory .*

The law authorizing Judge Snow to serve in all the judicial districts, required him to reside in the first, and hold court therein as follows: On the first Monday in January and July lat Salt Lake City; on the first Monday of April at Ogden, and the first Monday of October-excepting in 1851, when the October court should be held at Salt Lake City-at Provo. Manti and Fillmore, in the Second District, were to have their courts respectively on the first Monday in November and May, and Parowan, in the Third District, on the first Monday in June. Each session was to be kept open at least one

* Millard County had just been created by the Legislature, being named, as stated, for President Millard Fillmore.

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week, and might adjourn to any other place in the district, if the business of the court should so require. These provisions were to remain in force until the President and Senate of the United States, who were duly informed of all that was done, should supply a full bench of the Supreme Court of Utah, after which Judge Snow was to serve only in the First District.

Judge Snow held the first United States District Court at Salt Lake City. He examined and passed upon the proceedings of the Governor in calling the Legislative Assembly; holding them to be legal though somewhat informal. His decision was duly reported to the Department of State, and sustained by the Secretary, Daniel Webster. Webster also sanctioned Governor Young's appointment of a temporary Secretary for the Territory, and the bills signed by Mr. Richards, as well as his salary for services in that capacity, were allowed and paid.

At the October Term of the District Court occurred the trial of Howard Egan for the killing of James Monroe, the seducer of Egan's wife. This was the first murder trial in Utah .* The homicide occurred on or near Silver Creek, eastern Utah, in September, 1851. Monroe, after his crime, had gone to the frontier and was returning west with a train of merchandise for John and Enoch Reese, when he met his death. Egan, who had been absent in California, returning and receiving his wife's penitent confession, resolved to kill the destroyer of his household peace. Accordingly, he went out to meet Monroe, confronted him, and shot him dead.

Judge Brocchus and his colleagues, in their report to the Government, after leaving the Territory, charged that James Monroe, a citizen of Utica, New York, while on his way to Salt Lake City, was murdered by a Mormon, and that the murderer was not arrested. This of course had reference to the Egan-Monroe homicide, the trial in which case took place during the month following the tragedy.

* The first criminal trial by jury occurred in January, 1851. Several persons en route for California were convicted of stealing and imprisoned, but after partly serving out their terms they were pardoned by the Governor and went on their way.

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HISTORY OF UTAH.

Howard Egan was one of the original Utah pioneers. James Monroe, though formerly of Utica, New York, was at this time a resident of Utah, and had been a Mormon.

The prosecution of the case, before Associate Justice Snow, was conducted by the United States Attorney, Seth M. Blair. The defendant was represented by Hon. George A. Smith and William W. Phelps, Esq. The following selections from Apostle Smith's address to the jury are valuable as showing the view taken by the Mormons of the crime of seduction and its proper punishment:

I am not prepared to refer to authorities on legal points, as I would have been had not the trial been so hasty ; but as it is, I shall present my arguments upon a plain, simple principle of reasoning. Not being acquainted with the dead languages, I shall simply talk the common mountain English, without references to anything that may be technical. All I want is simply truth and justice. This defendant asks not his life, if he deserves to die ; but if he has done nothing but an act of justice, he wishes that justice awarded to him.

It was admitted on the part of the prosecution, that James Monroe, who is alleged in this indictment to have been killed by Howard Egan, had seduced Egan's wife; that he had come into this place in the absence of her husband, and had seduced his family, in consequence of which, an illegitimate child had been brought into the world; and the disgrace which must arise from such a transaction in his family, had fallen on the head of the defendant. This was admitted by the prosecution.

In England, when a man seduces the wife or relative of another, the injured enters a civil suit for damages, which may perhaps cost him five hundred pounds, to get his case through ; and, as a matter of course, if he unfortunately belongs to the toiling million, he may get twenty pounds as damages. In this case, character is not estimated, neither reputation, but the number of pounds, shillings, and pence alone bear the sway, which is common in courts of all old and rotten governments.

In taking this point into consideration, l argue that in this Territory it is a principle of mountain common law, that no man can seduce the wife of another without endanger- ing his own life. * * What is natural justice with this people ? Does a civil suit for damages answer the purpose, not with an isolated individual, but with this whole community ? No! it does not ! The principle, the only one that beats and throbs through the heart of the entire inhabitants of this Territory, is simply this : The man who seduces his neighbor's wife must die, and her nearest relative must kill him ! * *

* *

If Howard Egan did kill James Monroe, it was in accordance with the established principles of justice known in these mountains. That the people of this Territory would have regarded him as accessory to the crime of that creature, had he not done it, is also

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a plain case. Every man knew the style of old Israel, that the nearest relation would be at his heels to fulfill the requirements of justice.

I come before you, not for the pence of that gentleman, the defendant, but to plead for the honor and rights of this whole people, and the defendant in particular; and, gentlemen of the jury, with the limited knowledge I have of law, were I a juryman, I would lie in the jury-room until the worms should draw me through the key-hole, before I would give in my verdict to hang a man for doing an act of justice, for the neglect of which he would have been damned in the eyes of this whole community.

At the conclusion of the addresses Judge Snow charged the jury and after due deliberation they returned a verdict of "not guilty."

It was about this time that a board of commissioners, appointed by Governor Young under authority of the Legislature, left Salt Lake City for Pauvan Valley-Millard County-to select a site for the proposed capital of the Territory. The Legislature, by resolution, had previously located the seat of government within that county, but the exact spot had not yet been determined. The commissioners were Orson Pratt, Albert Carrington, Jesse W. Fox, William C. Staines and Joseph L. Robinson. Governor Young, Hon. Heber C. Kimball, Hon. George A. Smith and others went also, to assist in the selection. They directed their course to Chalk Creek, in Pauvan Valley, to which place Anson Call, of Davis County, and later one of the founders of Parowan, had been directed by President Young to lead a colony. Chalk Creek was about one hundred and fifty miles south of Salt Lake City. There, on the 29th of October, a site was selected for the capital and a city laid out. . That city, as previously ordered by the Legislature, was named Fillmore .*

Box Elder County had been settled in March of this year by Simeon Carter and others, and in September Joseph L. Heywood and a few families had begun a settlement on the present site of Nephi, Juab County.

A colony organized at Payson, Utah County, and led by Amasa

* Millard County was chosen' as the place for the capital owing to its central geo- graphic location, but was afterwards abandoned for that purpose as the bulk of the pop- ulation was contained in the northern counties.

pombaltaires

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HISTORY OF UTAH.

M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich, had started late in March for southern California, and had reached their destination in June. This colony numbered about five hundred souls. Their purpose was to found an outfitting post, similar to Kanesville, to facilitate Mormon emigration from the west. In September they purchased the ranch of San Bernardino, containing one hundred thousand acres of land, situated about fifty miles east of Los Angeles, and seventy miles from the Bay of San Pedro. They there founded a settlement and named it San Bernardino.

By this time Colonel John Reese and others were at Genoa, the nucleus of Carson County, then in this Territory, but now in the State of Nevada. The late Hampden S. Beatie, a well known citizen of Utah, was one of the pioneers of Carson County.

During the winter of 1851-2 preparations were made for the opening of a Territorial Library, Congress having appropriated five thousand dollars for that purpose, and a judicious selection of books having been made in the east and forwarded to Utah by Delegate Bernhisel. In February the library was opened in the Council House at Salt Lake City, William C. Staines being the Territorial Librarian.

Acts were now passed by the Legislature, -which, but for brief periods of adjournment, had been in session since the previous September,-providing for the complete organization of the various counties and relating to the judiciary in general. Probate Judges were elected by the Legislature and commissioned by the Governor, as follows:

Salt Lake County,-Elias Smith.

Weber County,-Isaac Clark.

Davis County,-Joseph Holbrook. Utah County,-Preston Thomas.

Tooele County,-Alfred Lee. Juab County,-George H. Bradley.

Sanpete County,-George Peacock. Millard County,-Anson Call. Iron County,-Chapman Duncan.

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HISTORY OF UTAH.

Besides the powers usually possessed by probate courts,-the settlement of estates of decedents, the guardianship of minors, etc., -these courts were invested with general civil, criminal and chancery jurisdiction; a measure deemed expedient by the Legislature at the time, but out of which grew a controversy between the district and probate courts, which was finally settled by Congressional enactment .* The act giving general jurisdiction to the probate courts received the Governor's signature on the 4th of February, three days prior to the appointment of the probate judges named.

Another bone of contention, which Congress removed at the same time that it did the other, was an act approved March 3rd, 1852, creating the offices of Territorial Marshal, Attorney-General and District Attorneys. By this law it was made the duty of the Territorial Marshal or his deputies to execute all orders or processes of the Supreme or District courts in all cases arising under the laws of the Territory, and the duty of the Attorney-General or District Attorneys to attend to all legal business on the part of the Territory, before the courts, where the Territory was interested. The original incumbents of these offices were: James Ferguson, Territorial Attorney; Horace S. Eldredge, Marshal; Andrew S. Siler, District Attorney, Second District; James Lewis, District Attorney, Third District. The United States having already appointed a Marshal and a District Attorney for Utah, it may readily be seen how further conflict of authority might and did result.

The action of the Legislature in bestowing such unusual powers upon the probate courts,-virtually giving them concurrent jurisdiction with the district courts,-was deemed imperative at the time owing to the absence of two of the three Federal Judges from the Territory; thus throwing too great a burden upon Judge Snow, who, since October, 1851, had been serving, according to direction, in all the districts. It was also clearly within the powers granted to the Legislature by the organic act, a fact admitted by Congress when it

* The Poland Law, passed June 23, 1874.

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HISTORY OF UTAH.

confirmed in the Poland Law the decisions and decrees of the probate courts of Utah in all their adjudications. The creation of the offices of Territorial Marshal, Attorney-General and District Attorneys, to attend to the Territory's legal business, was partly due to the fact that the Comptroller of the United States Treasury, Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, had informed the Legislature, through Judge Snow, that the general government would only defray the expenses attendant upon the settlement of United States business in the courts, and that the Territory must assume the cost of its own.

Owing to the controversy which soon arose, the Legislature contemplated, as early as 1852-3, amending its laws so as to limit the jurisdiction of the probate courts and abolish the Territorial offices in question. But on account of the continued practice of some of the Federal Judges, of absenting themselves for long periods from the Territory, thus leaving litigants without recourse to their tribunals, matters were permitted to remain in statu quo. The controversy between the rival courts and officials was continued for over twenty years, when it was finally settled by the Poland Law.

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HISTORY OF UTAH.

CHAPTER XXIV.

1852-1853.

A GREAT PACIFIC RAILWAY WANTED -- THE GOVERNOR AND LEGISLATURE OF UTAH PETITION CONGRESS FOR ITS CONSTRUCTION-CELESTIAL MARRIAGE PROCLAIMED TO THE WORLD AS A MORMON DOCTRINE-ORSON PRATT PREACHES THE FIRST SERMON ON POLYGAMY-HIS MISSION TO WASHINGTON-"THE SEER"-UTAH'S OFFERING TO THE WASHINGTON MONU- MENT-GOVERNOR YOUNG ON MANUAL TRAINING AND HOME INDUSTRIES-HIS VIEWS OF SLAVERY-FERAMORZ LITTLE AND THE MAIL SERVICE-THE PIONEER MERCHANTS OF UTAH 4 - DRAMATIC BEGINNINGS-THE SALT LAKE TEMPLE BEGUN-ARRIVAL OF THE NEW FEDERAL OFFICIALS.

TEMPORARY isolation, we have maintained, was all that Brigham Young and his people expected to secure in settling in the Great Basin behind the bulwarks of the Rocky Mountains. It has become so fashionable, however, to believe otherwise; to think and even say that the Mormons were chagrined at finding themselves, so soon after leaving American soil, again within the boundaries of the great and growing Republic, that an unsupported assertion to the contrary would probably gain little credence.

But the proofs of the fact are abundant. Like Falstaff's reasons, they are "as plenty as blackberries," if one will but stop at the bush of history long enough to pick them. In that event it will be found that these proofs, unlike those reasons, are sound and genuine.

It has already been shown that the Mormon people, in the very midst of their persecutions in Illinois, had no desire to migrate beyond the bounds of the Union. They came out of the United States because they were compelled to come; having first petitioned in vain the president of the nation and the governors of the several commonwealths for an asylum of peace and safety within their borders. It was to get beyond the reach of mobocracy and

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threatened massacre that they passed reluctantly over the borders of the Union into Mexico. It was temporary, not permanent isolation that they sought, when, instead of being allured by the brighter worldly prospects that beaconed from the Pacific Coast, they decided to settle in a desert land and colonize the shores of America's dead sea. The chagrin they felt was when they found themselves, by act of Congress, more completely isolated than they desired,-hemmed in between two mighty walls, two great mountain ranges,-having no open communication with the Pacific or with the world at large.

It has also been shown that the Mormon Pioneers, while crossing the plains in the spring of 1847, traversed for hundreds of miles a route subsequently selected as a portion of the road-bed of the Union Pacific Railway. But they did more. They actually marked out, or their leader did, the route over which it was foreseen that a great national railroad from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast would some day most likely pass. Says George A. Smith, in a letter written many years later to the New York Evening Post: "I crossed the plains with Brigham Young on his pioneer journey in 1847. We were looking for a railroad route as well as a wagon road, and in company with him I made many a detour from the wagon road to find passes where a railroad could be constructed through the mountains. We then expected that ten or fifteen years would be sufficient to complete the road."

This portion of Apostle Smith's letter was in answer to a statement contained in a certain book sent him by the editor of the Post to review. That statement was as follows: "The former policy of this people (the Mormons) was seclusive, and consequently strongly opposed to all railroad enterprises; but when inevitable fate pushed the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines across the continent, directly through their Territory. they wisely concluded to make the innovation profitable, as it was unavoidable."

Having partly answered this statement, as above, Apostle Smith next referred to an event which took place in Utah in the spring of 1852. Of that event we will now speak.

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On the 3rd of March of that year, nearly seventeen years before "inevitable fate" succeeded in pushing the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railway lines across the continent to their welding-point at Promontory, the following memorial was addressed to Congress by the Governor and Legislature of Utah :

MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NATIONAL CENTRAL RAILROAD TO THE PACIFIC COAST. APPROVED MARCH 3, 1852.

To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, in Congress assembled:

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History of Utah, Part 43

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