USA > Utah > History of Utah > Part 52
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others have fought them merely to get gain,-it being more popular and profitable to fight than to befriend them. Others still have made war upon them to gratify some private grudge or grievance against certain members of the community. The masses, as usual, have been largely governed in the local controversy by the opinions and actions of their social, political and religious leaders.
As already seen, it has been the practice with both friends and enemies of the Mormon people, to "write up" the local situation and send their reports broad-cast over the country. Instance the favorable books written by Stansbury, Gunnison and others, the unfavorable reports of Brocchus, Brandebury et al, the friendly letters of Judges Reed and Shaver, and the inimical publications of Secretary Ferris and many more. These, believed or disbelieved, according to the predilections and prejudices of the people, have produced at different times and in divers places various results. There is no doubt, however, that the adverse reports respecting Utah and the Mormons have obtained the wider circulation, and that voices raised in their defense have been measurably drowned by the din and clamor of hostile rumor and prejudiced public opinion.
With one or two of these reports, both very much adverse to Utah, and their effect upon the public mind and the policy of the general government toward this Territory at the period of the "Echo Canyon War," our narrative now has immediately to do.
On the 3rd of October, 1856, the following letter was written to His Excellency, James Buchanan, President of the United States :
. INDEPENDENCE, Mo., October 3rd, 1856.
Mr. President :
I feel it incumbent upon me as a personal and political friend, to lay before you some information relative to the present political and social condition of the Territory of Utah, which may be of importance.
There is no disguising the fact, that there is left no vestige of law and order. no protection for life or property; the civil laws of the Territory are overshadowed and neutralized by a so-styled ecclesiastical organization, as despotic, dangerous and damnable as has ever been known to exist in any country, and which is ruining not only those who do not subscribe to their religious code, but is driving the moderate and more orderly of the Mormon community to desperation. Formerly, violence committed upon the rights
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of persons and property was attempted to be justified by some pretext manufactured for the occasion, under color of law as it exists in the country. The victims were usually of that class whose obscurity and want of information necessary to insure proper investiga- tion and redress of their wrongs were sufficient to guarantee to the perpetrators freedom from punishment. Emboldened by the success which attended their first attempts at law- lessness, no pretext or apology seems now to be deemed requisite, nor is any class exempt from outrage; all alike are set upon by the self-constituted theocracy, whose laws, or rather whose conspiracies, are framed in dark corners, promulgated from the stand of tabernacle or church, and executed at midnight or upon the highways by an organized band of bravos and assassins, whose masters compel an outraged community to tolerate in their midst. The result is that a considerable and highly respectable portion of the com- munity, known from the Atlantic to the Pacific, whose enterprise is stimulated by a laudable desire to improve their fortunes by honorable exertions, are left helpless victims to outrage and oppression, liable at any moment to be stripped of their property or deprived of life, without the ability to put themselves under the protection of law, since all the courts that exist there at present are converted into engines and instruments of injustice.
For want of time I am compelled thus to generalize, but particular cases, with all the attendant circumstances, names of parties and localities are not wanting to swell the calendar of crime and outrage to limits that will, when published, startle the conservative people of the States, and create a clamor which will not be readily quelled, and I have no doubt that the time is near at hand, and the elements rapidly combining to bring about a state of affairs which will result in indiscriminate bloodshed, robbery and rapine, and which in a brief space of time will reduce that country to the condition of a howling wilderness.
There are hundreds of good men in the country who have for years endured every privation from the comforts and enjoyments of civilized life, to confront every description of danger for the purpose of improving their fortunes. These men have suffered repeated wrong and injustice, which they have endeavored to repair by renewed exertions, patiently awaiting the correction of outrage by that government which it is their pride to claim citizenship under, and whose protection they have a right to expect; but they now see themselves liable at any moment to be stripped of their hard-earned means, the lives of themselves and their colleagues threatened and taken; ignominy and abuse lieaped upon them day after day, if resented, is followed by murder.
Many of the inhabitants of the Territory possess passions and elements of a character calculated to drive them to extremes, and have the ability to conceive and have the courage to carry out the boldest measures for redress, and I know that they will be at no loss for a leader. When such as these are driven by their wrongs to vindicate, not only their rights as citizens, but their pride of manhood, the question of disparity in numerical force is not considered among their difficulties, and I am satisfied that a recital of their grievances would form an apology, if not sufficient justification, for the violation on their part of the usages of civilized communities.
In addressing you, I have endeavored to discard all feelings arising from my personal annoyances in the Mormon country, but have desired to lay before you the actual condi-
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tion of affairs, and to prevent, if possible, scenes of lawlessness which, I fear, will be inevitable unless speedy and powerful preventives are applied. I have felt free to thus address you, from the fact that some slight requests made of me when 1 last left Washing- ton, on the subject of the affairs of Kansas, justified me in believing that you had confi- dence in my integrity, and that what influence I could exert would not be wanting to terminate the unfortunate difficulties in that Territory; I have the pleasure of assuring you that my efforts were not spared.
With regard to the affairs and proceedings of the probate court, the only existing tri- bunal in the Territory of Utah, there being but one of the three federal judges now in the Territory, I will refer you to its records, and to the evidence of gentlemen whose asser- tions cannot be questioned ; as to the treatment of myself, I will leave that to the repre- sentation of others ; at all events, the object I have in view and the end I wish to accom- plish for the general good, will preclude my wearying you with a recital of them at present.
1 have the honor to be,
Very truly yours, etc., W. M. F. MAGRAW.
This sounds like the plea of an honest man and a patriot; one who merely wished well to his country, and ill to those whom he deemed her enemies. Before passing upon that point, however, the reader should know that Mr. Magraw, the writer of the letter, was an ex-mail contractor who, with his partner, J. M. Hockaday, had been conducting a mail service from Independence, Missouri, to Salt Lake City, under contract with the general government. The service was very unsatisfactory, and a movement was made by many prominent citizens-a movement of which we will soon speak more fully-to inaugurate an improvement in the existing condition. This movement began early in 1856, and in the fall of that year when Hockaday and Magraw's contract had expired, a new contract to carry the mail across the country was awarded by the Government to Mr. Hiram Kimball, a Mormon, residing at Salt Lake City; he having underbid all competitors, including the former contractors. This was one of the "personal annoyances" suffered by Mr. Magraw "in the Mormon country."
Of course such a fact does not prove that that gentleman was not the pure and disinterested patriot that he professed to be. It may serve to explain, however, the spirit of anger which his letter
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breathes, and help the reader to arrive at a just conclusion as to the value of its contents. Not one charge that it contained was ever proven. Nothing but the bald, unsupported assertion as to Mormon treason, tyranny, robbery, murder, etc., ever found its way from Mr. Magraw to President Buchanan. Had it been otherwise the world would have heard of it. There came a time when President Buchanan was particularly desirous, for his own sake, to bring forth his strong reasons for ordering an army to Utah in the spring of 1857. Being requested by Congress, a year later, to present the data which had convinced him that a rebellion existed in this Territory, and formed the basis of his action in sending troops to suppress it, the most that could be adduced was this letter of Mr. Magraw's, and another document, similar in tone, written by Judge W. W. Drummond, of which and its author we will now speak.
Judge Drummond, as the reader is aware, succeeded Judge Shaver as Associate Justice of Utah. He was considerable of such a character as Judge Brocchus, with the odds perhaps in favor of the latter. Like him, Drummond, from the first, seemed bent upon antagonizing the Mormon community. He declared in open court at Fillmore that the laws of the Territory were founded in ignorance, and not content with that, sought to abrogate some of the most important of those laws. Like other Federal officials, he found much fault with the Legislature for investing the probate courts with an extended and unusual jurisdiction,-an act rendered necessary, it will be remembered, by the unceremonious departure from Utah of the Federal Judges in the fall of 1851; also for creating the offices of Territorial Marshal, Attorney-General and District Attorneys. He declared that he would set aside the findings of the probate courts in all cases other than those which he considered lay strictly within their jurisdiction, and denied the authority of the Legislature to clothe the probate courts with powers in excess of those commonly exercised by such tribunals. Associate Justice Stiles, who was an apostate Mormon, sided with Drummond in this matter and became
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in consequence almost as unpopular. On the other hand Chief Justice Kinney held that the Legislature had not exceeded its authority under the organic act in giving the probate courts extended jurisdiction, and emphasized it by confirming their decisions. Judge Shaver was of the same opinion. Congress, also, to whom this act and all other acts of the Legislature had been submitted, had tacitly approved and confirmed it. Nevertheless, had Judge Drummond been a gentleman as well as a critic, and gone about the correction of what he deemed an error of the law-makers in a polite and proper manner, little or no fault would have been found with him in return. But unfortunately he was not a gentleman, and his course, even had it been correct in principle, could not but result in rendering him unpopular.
But his offensive conduct did not end there. Whether, like Brocchus, he accused the Mormons of being unvirtuous, does not appear. Doubtless he thought they were, for he condemned their institution of polygamy. He could not, however, complain, like his prototype, that "polygamy monopolized all the women;" for he had taken care to bring a woman with him from the States-a woman not his wife-with whom he traveled around the Territory, and of whom he showed himself so fond that he would not forego her society even while attending to business. He actually had her sit with him upon the bench while he dispensed law to the "ignorant and un- virtuous" Mormons, and lectured them upon the short-comings of their legislators. This woman, a common courtezan, whom Judge Drummond thus enthroned as a very goddess of justice, he had introduced, on arriving in Utah, as his wife. Subsequently, a relative of the real Mrs. Drummond, residing in Utah, seeing the published notice of that lady's arrival, called to see her and dis- covered the disgraceful truth. Judge Drummond, it was found, had left his wife and family in Illinois, and on his way west had picked up a common prostitute and brought her across the plains. The exposure caused all Utah to ring with his shame. The Mormons thoroughly despised him, and most of the local Gentiles looked upon him with
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contempt .* Drummond faced it all for a season, continuing to consort with his paramour, and evidently quite unabashed at the discovery of his moral degradation. But finally the social ostracism it entailed proved too much for him, and he concluded to resign his office and leave the Territory.
As desperadoes, hunted down, cornered and about to be captured or killed, have been known to arrange their weapons so as to slay or wound as many of their pursuers as possible, so Judge Drummond, in collusion with others, planned that his resignation should injure as much as possible the people of Utah in the eyes of the nation. Perhaps, like blind Samson in the pillared temple of the Philistines, he felt willing to sacrifice himself, if by so doing the Mormons might perish also. It is more than probable, however, that he had no thought of self-sacrifice at all, but hoped rather to forestall further disgrace when the Government should learn of his conduct, and build himself up on the ruins of the people whom he hated.
Accordingly, not long after the Magraw letter was written and sent to Washington,-a letter promising in "glittering generalities" certain startling disclosures in detail regarding the iniquities of the Latter-day Saints,-Judge Drummond, who was evidently Magraw's co-conspirator, set about carrying into effect his part of the program for bringing fire and sword against the peaceful valleys of Utah. Late in 1856, or early in the year following, the Judge went to Carson County to hold court. At least such was his pretense, though not, as soon appeared, his true purpose. In reality he was bidding Utah farewell. Crossing the Sierras and reaching the Pacific coast he was next heard from through the California papers, whose columns he filled with splenetic assaults upon the Mormon people. Proceeding
* Says T. B. H. Stenhouse, an apostate Mormon, in his " Rocky Mountain Saints : " " Plurality of wives was to the Mormons a part of their religion, openly acknowledged to all the world. Drummond's plurality was the outrage of a respectable wife of excellent reputation for the indulgence of a common prostitute, and the whole of his conduct was a gross insult to the Government which he represented, and the people among whom he was sent to administer law. For any contempt the Mormons exhibited towards such a man, there is no need of apology.
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eastward by a southern route, early in the spring he reached New Orleans, and from that point despatched the following letter, enclos- ing his resignation, to the Attorney-General at Washington :
NEW ORLEANS, LA., April 2, 1857.
DEAR SIR: When I started for my home in Illinois, 1 designed reaching Washing- ton before the executive session adjourned, but could not accomplish the long and tedious journey in time ; thence I concluded to come this way, and go up the Mississippi River to Chicago.
You will see that I have made bold charges against the Mormons, which I think I can prove without doubt. You will see by the contents of the enclosed paper, wherein is inserted my resignation, some of the reasons that induced me to resign. I now refer you to Hon. D. W. Burr, Surveyor-General of Utah Territory ; Hon. Garland Hurt, Indian Agent ; also C. L. Craig, Esq .; D. L. Thompson, Esq .; John M. Hockaday, Esq .; John Kerr, Esq., Gentiles of Great Salt Lake City, for proof of the manner in which they have been insulted and abused by the leading Mormons for two years past. I shall see you soon on the subject.
In haste, yours truly, W. W. DRUMMOND.
Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, Attorney - General, etc.
RESIGNATION OF JUDGE DRUMMOND.
March, 30, 1857.
MY DEAR SIR : As I have concluded to resign the office of Justice of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Utah, which position I accepted in A. D. 1854, under the adminis- tration of President Pierce, I deem it due to the public to give some of the reasons why I do so. In the first place, Brigham Young, the Governor of Utah Territory, is the acknow- ledged head of the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," commonly called " Mormons ;" and, as such head, the Mormons look to him, and to him alone, for the law by which they are to be governed : therefore no law of Congress is by them considered binding in any manner.
Secondly. I know that there is a secret oath-bound organization among all the male members of the Church to resist the laws of the country, and to acknowledge no law save the law of the " Holy Priesthood," which comes to the people through Brigham Young direct from God ; he, Young, being the viceregent of God and Prophet, viz: successor of Joseph Smith, who was the founder of this blind and treasonable organization.
Thirdly. I am fully aware that there is a set of men, set apart by special order of the Church, to take both the lives and property of persons who may question the authority of the Church ; the names of whom I will promptly make known at a future time.
Fourthly. That the records, papers, etc., of the Supreme Court have been destroyed by order of the Church, with the direct knowledge and approbation of Governor B. Young, and the Federal officers grossly insulted for presuming to raise a single question about the treasonable act.
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Fifthly. That the Federal officers of the Territory are constantly insulted, harassed, and annoyed by the Mormons, and for these insults there is no redress.
Sixthly. That the Federal officers are daily. compelled to hear the forms of the American Government traduced, the chief executives of the nation, both living and dead, slandered and abused from the masses, as well as from all the leading members . of the Church, in the most vulgar, loathsome, and wicked manner that the evil passions of men can possibly conceive.
Again : That after Moroni Green had been convicted in the District Court before my colleague, Judge Kinney, of an assault with intent to commit murder, and afterwards, on appeal to the Supreme Court, the judgment being affirmed and the said Green being sen- tenced to the penitentiary, Brigham Young gave a full pardon to the said Green before he reached the penitentiary ; also, that the said Governor Young pardoned a man by the name of Baker, who had been tried and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in the penitentiary, for the murder of a dumb boy by the name of White House, the proof showing one of the most aggravated cases of murder that I ever knew being tried ; and to insult the Court and Government officers, this man Young took this pardoned criminal with him, in proper per- son, to church on the next Sabbath after his conviction ; Baker, in the meantime, having received a full pardon from Governor Brigham Young. These two men were Mormons. On the other hand, I charge the Mormons, and Governor Young in particular, with imprisoning five or six young men from Missouri and Iowa, who are now in the peniten- tiary of Utah, without those men having violated any criminal law in America. But they were anti-Mormons-poor, uneducated young men en route for California ; but because they emigrated from Illinois, Iowa, or Missouri, and passed by Great Salt Lake City, they were indicted by a Probate Court, and most brutally and inhumanly dealt with, in addi- tion to being summarily incarcerated in the saintly prison of the Territory of Utah. I also charge Governor Young with constantly interfering with the Federal Courts, directing the grand jury whom to indict and whom to not ; and after the judges charge the grand juries as to their duties, that this man Young invariably has some member of the grand jury advised in advance as to his will in relation to their labors, and that his charge thus given is the only charge known, obeyed, or received by all the grand juries of the Federal Courts of Utah Territory.
Again, sir, after a careful and mature investigation, I have been compelled to come to the conclusion, heart-rending and sickening as it may be, that Captain John W. Gunnison, and his party of eight others, were murdered by the Indians in 1853, under the orders, advice and direction of the Mormons ; that my illustrious and distinguished predecessor, Hon. Leonidas Shaver, came to his death by drinking poisoned liquors, given to him under the order of the leading men of the Mormon Church in Great Salt Lake City ; that the late secretary of the Territory, A. W. Bahhitt, was murdered on the plains by a band of Mor- mon marauders, under the particular and special order of Brigham Young, Heber C. Kim- ball and J. M. Grant, and not by the Indians, as reported by the Mormons themselves, and that they were sent from Salt Lake City for that purpose, and that only ; and as members of the Danite Band they were bound to do the will of Brigham Young as the head of the church, or forfeit their own lives. These reasons, with many others that I might give, which would be too heart-rending to insert in this communication, have induced mne to
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resign the office of justice of the Territory of Utah, and again return to my adopted State of Illinois.
My reason, sir, for making this communication thus public is, that the Democratic party, with which I have always strictly acted, is the party now in power, and, therefore, is the party that should now be held responsible for the treasonable and disgraceful state of affairs that now exists in Utah Territory. I could, sir, if necessary, refer to a cloud of witnesses to attest the reasons I have given, and the charges, bold as they are, against those despots, who rule with an iron hand their hundred thousand souls in Utah, and their two hundred thousand souls out of that notable Territory ; but I shall not do so, for the reason that the lives of such gentlemen as I should designate in Utah and in California, would not be safe for a single day.
In conclusion, sir, I have to say that, in my career as Justice of the Supreme Court of Utah Territory, I have the consolation of knowing that I did my duty, that neither threats nor intimidations drove me from that path. Upon the other hand, I am pained to say that I accomplished little good while there, and that the judiciary is only treated as a farce. The only rule of law by which the infatuated followers of this curious people will be governed, is the law of the Church, and that emanates from Governor Brigham Young, and him alone.
I do believe that, if there was a man put in office as Governor of that Territory, who is not a member of the Church (Mormon), and he supported with a sufficient military aid, much good would result from such a course ; but as the Territory is now governed, and as it has been since the administration of Mr. Fillmore, at which time Young received his appointment as Governor, it is noonday madness and folly to attempt to administer the law in that Territory. The officers are insulted, harassed, and murdered for doing their duty, and not recognizing Brigham Young as the only law-giver and law-maker on earth. Of this every man can bear incontestable evidence who has been willing to accept an appoint- ment in Utah ; and I assure you, sir, that no man would be willing to risk his life and property in that Territory after once trying the sad experiment.
With an earnest desire that the present administration will give due and timely aid to the officers that may be so unfortunate as to accept situations in that Territory, and that the withering curse which now rests upon this nation by virtue of the peculiar and heart- rending institutions of the Territory of Utah, may be speedily removed, to the honor and credit of our happy country, I now remain your obedient servant,
W. W. DRUMMOND, Justice Utah Territory.
Hon. Jeremiah S. Black,
Attorney- General of the United States, Washington, D. C.
The best answer to the only charges in this tirade that needed answering, was the following official communication from Curtis E. Bolton, Esq., deputy clerk of the United States Supreme Court of Utah. Before this document was written, however, President Buchanan had ordered an army to Utah :
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