USA > Utah > History of Utah > Part 55
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Next morning-the 24th-the stars and stripes were unfurled from the summits of two of the loftiest peaks surrounding the encampment; also from the tops of two of the tallest trees. Prayer was offered, the choir sang, the cannon roared, the bands played and the military performed their evolutions. A feature of the parade was the drill of the juvenile rifle company, the "Hope of Israel," who acquitted themselves in an admirable manner, and to the astonishment of all beholders. The people, having received brief general instructions from their leaders to govern them in the day's proceedings, now set about amusing themselves, each in the way that best suited him. Dancing, boating, picnicing, playing games, climbing the hills or strolling and resting under the trees,-these and other innocent enjoyments were indulged in with the utmost freedom. Every heart was happy and every face wreathed in joyous smiles. There was no drunkenness, and no drinking, save from nature's fountains, and sobriety, modesty and decorum heightened every pleasure and shed a halo of happiness over all.
And these were the people who were charged with being in a state of rebellion against the United States government ; who, having exalted the Stars and Stripes, their country's flag, to the top- most pinnacles of freedom's mountains, were now celebrating beneath its sacred folds the anniversary of their arrival behind these ramparts of liberty ten years before; all unaware of the fact, soon to burst upon them like a thunder-clap from a clear sky, that an army was even then marching against them to put down an alleged insurrection.
About noon, while the festivity and enjoyment were at their height, four men, three of them dusty and travel-stained, to a degree
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betokening more than a brief journey from the valley below, rode into camp and immediately sought the presence of Governor Young. These three were Abraham O. Smoot, Judson Stoddard and Orrin Porter Rockwell, whom we left at Fort Laramie on the evening of the 18th of July, and who had reached Salt Lake City on the evening of the 23rd, having traveled the distance between those points-over five hundred miles-in five days and three hours. Their companion was Judge Elias Smith, postmaster of Salt Lake City, to whom they had reported on their arrival the refusal of the postmaster at Independence to deliver to the agents of the Y. X. Company the Utah mails.
Brigham Young, on receiving the news, startling though not terrifying, that a United States army was approaching the Territory, coolly called a council of the leading Elders present, and in a few words laid the subject before them. There was no excitement. The mass of the people were not even informed of the matter until they had assembled for evening prayers. General Wells, at the Governor's request, then addressed them, detailing in brief the tidings received from the States, and giving instructions as to the order in which they should leave the camp-ground next morning. They were dismissed with the General's benediction. Some retired to their tents and wagons to solemnly meditate upon what they had heard, while others, the major part, engaged in the dance and concluding festivities of the celebration. Songs were sung-Messrs. Poulter, Dunbar, McAllister and Maiben, being the principal vocalists-and in spite of what would have been to most people tidings of gloom, filling their hearts with fear and apprehension, not a soul seemed daunted, and mirth and merriment reigned supreme. At day-break on the 25th the camp-ground began to be vacated, and before another sun had set the people had all returned to their homes.
Great men are always greatest on great occasions. Such occa- sions serve to demonstrate their greatness. But great occasions, like all divine dispensations, must be waited for. They are not to be
SHIPLER. PHOTO.
Lake Martha, Cottonwood Canyon.
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manufactured nor anticipated. They come unbidden, and can neither be hastened nor hindered by human artifice. They are the cannon- balls and thunder-bolts of Deity, and are never fired before their time. Small men try to create occasions, or to convert little ones into large ones, for purposes of self-interest and ostentation. But they invariably fail, as all must who attempt to force nature and anticipate divinity. They never hit the nail squarely on the head. They are always before or behind time, and are rendered ridiculous to the wise by their efforts to magnify what is essentially trivial, while at the same time they ignore what is truly great, and prove themselves unequal to the exigencies of momentous events and magnificent opportunities. The great man knows better than to attempt such things ; or rather it never occurs to him to commit such follies. He is genuine to the heart's core. He is wise above his fellows. He never essays what he knows to be futile. He seeks not his own interest. He does nothing for show. He never tries to create occasions, nor to inflate insignificance into consequence. He does not even seek occasion, but waits for it, taking his cue from the prompter fate, or from his fellow actor, necessity. When the great occasion comes, he is ready for it, and rises to meet it like the man that he is.
It was so with Brigham Young. He had not sought the supreme moment, the great occasion which had now slipped like a grain of sand or drop of water in Time's hour-glass, from the fountain of divine purpose to the reservoir of human destiny. But neither did he flinch nor falter, now that it had fallen. He did what any great man, similarly situated, might have done. He rose to the occasion, met it face to face, and, as usual in such cases, came off conqueror.
"Liars," said he, "have reported that this people have committed treason, and upon their misrepresentations the President has ordered out troops to assist in officering this Territory. If those officers are like many who have previously been sent here,-and we have reason to believe that they are, or they would not come where they know they are not wanted,-they are poor, broken-down political hacks, not fit
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for the civilized society whence they came, and so they are dragooned upon us for officers. I feel that I won't bear such treatment, * for we are just as free as the mountain air. * This people are free; they are not in bondage to any government on God's foot-stool. We have transgressed no law, neither do we intend to do so; but as for any nation coming to destroy this people, God Almighty being my helper, it shall not be."
It has doubtless been noted by the reader that the avowed purpose of the Government in sending troops to Utah was to give the new civil officials a posse comitatus to secure and maintain for them the offices to which they had been appointed, and not, as the Mormons maintained, to make war upon the people, destroy or drive them from their homes. This was indeed the Government's claim, and we are constrained to allow that that claim, on the part of some of its representatives, was sincere. But it is none the less true that throughout the nation at that time a sentiment prevailed and found expression in the newspapers and upon the lips of many public men, to the effect that the real object of the expedition was to take posses- sion of the cities of the Saints, kill their men, confiscate their wives and daughters, delivering them to the soldiers as a spoil, and supersed- ing the Mormon by a Gentile population, forever end the problem of polygamy, and put a quietus upon the spiritual and temporal aims and prospects of this "kingdom of God on earth." Such a senti- ment, atrocious as it was, found utterance both in Europe and America, and was echoed from the ribald lips of soldiers and camp- followers on their march to Utah. It was such a sentiment that caused the New York Herald to say, after the first swell of excitement had subsided and public reason had begun to reassert itself in rela- tion to Utah affairs :
Some of our cotemporaries have been publishing long letters dated from Utah, and containing heart-rending accounts of the sufferings inflicted on poor, helpless women, by the brutality of the Mormon leaders. It is perhaps as well that the public should know that these letters are made up on this side of the Mississippi, and we have no doubt do more credit to the imagination than to the memory of their writers. No journal has a correspondent in Utah at the present time. It reflects some credit on the ingenuity of our
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cotemporaries to have bethought themselves of getting up an excitement about Utah just as Kansas died out.
Of the facts of the case in Utah, it is very difficult to form a reliable judgment, simply because our most reliable authorities, such as Judge Drummond, now in Washington, are tainted with a suspicion of interested motives. * * *
There is no authority in the Constitution to justify an interference by Congress or the Federal Government with such an institution as polygamy in a Territory. It is as clearly without the pale of Congressional or executive regulation as slavery ; if Congress may not pass a law to govern the one, it may not pass a law to govern the other ; if the President cannot interfere to drive slavery out of Kansas, neither can he assume to drive polygamy out of Utah. Marriage, a civil contract, is essentially subject to the control of local, munic- ipal, or civil laws; the Federal Government has nothing to do with it, and Congress can make no laws defining its nature, altering its effect, or prescribing penalties for breaches of its obligations committed by people residing within a Territory of the United States.
Those, therefore, who assumed that Mr. Buchanan was going to carry fire and sword among the Mormons because they were polygamists, and to put down polygamy by force of arms, gave the President very little credit for judgment or knowledge of the instrument under which he holds his powers.
When Brigham Young expressed himself as quoted, however, the reaction had not come; the fickle weather vane of public opinion had not yet turned. "On to Utah" was the popular slogan, and "war and extermination" the all but openly avowed purpose of the expedition then moving westward. It was because he was aware of this that Brigham Young spoke as he did. Though indignant at having been misrepresented at Washington, tried, condemned and officially executed without a hearing, and disgusted at the thought of more men like Judge Drummond being "dragooned upon" him and his people as officers, these considerations alone would never have induced Brigham Young to take up arms and resist the installation of his successor as Governor of Utah. He knew that if deprived of his secular authority, he could still be the spiritual governor of his people, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; and that was more to him than a mere civil office; yes, more than to have been President of the United States, or to have sat clothed in purple, crowned and sceptred upon the throne of the Cæsars. It was the coming of the troops that he objected to; it was the army, and the army alone that he opposed, whatever construction may be put upon his heated words
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in relation to the civil officials. It was to prevent possible and even probable spoliation and massacre, by a prejudiced and reckless military force, some of whom, backed by press, pulpit and public opinion, were boasting as they marched of their blood-thirsty and libidinous designs, that Brigham Young opposed their entry into Salt Lake Valley. It mattered not to him what claim was made in relation to their coming. It was with stubborn facts that he had to deal. He had seen what armies of anti-Mormon zealots, political and religious crusaders, could and would do. He had had some experience with military posses, and knew the acts of which they were capable. He had no more confidence in General Harney and his troops than he would have had in General Lucas and his militia, or in Colonel Brockman and his regulators, had they again entered the field against the Saints. He did not propose to witness, if he could prevent it, a repetition of the horrors of Far West and Nauvoo. He would not quietly submit, either to be treacherously murdered, as was Joseph Smith after meekly surrendering himself, or to see an armed force, steeped in prejudice and hatred, and sustained by the sentiment of hostility then prevalent throughout the nation, turned loose to work its will upon a disarmed and helpless community. He determined to resist the army as long as possible, hoping meanwhile that the Government would see its error, or at least order an investigation, upon which the troops would be withdrawn before an actual collision had taken place. If that failed he was resolved to utterly lay waste the land, to have his people set fire to their cities, and retreating en masse into the mountains or the southern wilder- ness, leave a second Moscow blazing before the eyes of a victorious yet vanquished foe. As the Russians retreated before Napoleon, as the Gauls burnt their country before Cæsar, the Saints were deter- mined, if pushed to the extremity, to apply the torch to their houses, farms and fields, the beautiful homes created by their industry, and converting the oasis into a desert, for their enemies to divide amongst them if they desired, to start upon another exodus-God alone knew whither-in quest of the priceless boons of peace and
C. A. SAVAGE, PHOTO.
Lake Blanche, Cottonwood Canyon.
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freedom. Said Brigham Young in his discourses to his people at this period,-discourses from which we have already quoted :
"We have borne enough of their oppression and abuse, and we will not bear any more of it. I am not going to permit troops here for the protection of the priests and the rabble in
* their efforts to drive us from the land we possess.
They say that the coming of their army is legal, and I say that it is not. They who say it are morally rotten. Come on with your thousands of illegally ordered troops, and I promise you in the name of Israel's God that they shall melt away as the snow before a July sun. You might as well tell me that you can make hell into a powder house as to tell me that they intend to keep an army here and have peace ! * I have told you that if there is any man or woman who is not willing to destroy everything of their property that would be of use to an enemy if left, I would advise them to leave the Territory. When the time comes to burn and lay waste our improvements, if any man attempts to shield his he will be treated as a traitor.
Now the faint-hearted can go in peace; but should that time come they must not interfere. Before I will again suffer as I have in times gone by, there shall not one building, nor one foot of lumber, nor a fence, nor a tree, nor a particle of grass or hay that will burn, be left in reach of our enemies. I am sworn, if driven to extremity, to utterly lay waste this land in the name of Israel's God. and our enemies shall find it as barren as when we came here."
Reader, this was not bombast nor idle boasting. Brigham Young would have kept his word had the expected provocation been given. Fortunately there was a happier issue in store.
The Army for Utah, or the main portion of it, had now left Fort Leavenworth. The first detachment, consisting of eight companies of the Tenth regiment, and the entire Fifth regiment, all infantry, started on the 18th of July; Colonel E. B. Alexander being in immedi- ate command. Several weeks later the two remaining companies of the Tenth regiment followed, not having arrived at the fort in time to
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accompany the main body. The lesser detachment was under Colonel C. F. Smith. The artillery-Phelps' and Reno's batteries- went with the infantry. The cavalry, comprising six companies of the Second Dragoons, under Colonel Philip St. George Cooke-com- mander of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War-left Fort Leavenworth on the 16th of September. Along with Colonel Cooke's detachment went Governor Alfred Cumming, Utah's new executive, and other lately appointed Federal officials for the Territory. The supply trains and beef cattle for the army had been upon the plains since June or July. The expedition was magnificently equipped, its commanding officer having been given carte blanche by the General- in-chief in the matter of expenditures. So lavish had Government been in this regard, and so prompt and eager the contractors in furnishing supplies, that before the "Utah war" was over, it had cost the United States treasury upwards of twenty million dollars. No wonder it was called "the contractors' war." They were the only ones who profited by it .*
The command of the expedition was first given, as shown, to Brevet-Brigadier-General W. S. Harney, the commanding officer at Fort Leavenworth. He was an able soldier and an experienced Indian fighter, to which fact he doubtless owed his selection as the officer best able to conduct a campaign among the mountains. From one of his exploits against the Indians, he had been dubbed-either justly or unjustly-"the squaw-killer." He was evidently a man of will and energy, whatever else was thought of him. Said he, on being told that the Mormons would oppose his entry into Salt Lake Valley: "I am ordered there, and I will winter in the Valley or in hell." Why the latter place was named as the only alternative, was probably best known to the General himself. Just before he started,
* " The Utah war was an ill-advised measure on the part of the general government.
* * (It) cost several hundred lives, and at least $15,000,000, at a time in the nation's history when men and money could least be spared, and accomplished practically nothing, save that it exposed the President and his cabinet to much well- deserved ridicule."-II. II. Bancroft.
.
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however, the Kansas troubles, which for some years had been vexing the nation, revived, and Harney was relieved of the command of the expedition and ordered to remain and operate for the restoration of peace in that distracted Territory. Thus, instead of wintering among the Mormons in Salt Lake Valley, General Harney spent that season among the "border ruffians" of "bleeding Kansas." Per- haps many will think that after all he made good his word, to "winter in the Valley or"-elsewhere.
Harney's successor as commander of the Utah Expedition was Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston, of the Second Cavalry, then stationed at Washington. He received his appointment on the 29th of August, and forthwith repaired to Fort Leavenworth to assume command. From that point he set out for the west on the 17th of September, one day after Colonel Cooke's departure. He was accompanied by his staff and a detachment of forty dragoons. Colonel Johnston, staff and escort traveled in light spring wagons in order to insure speedy transit. Thus started upon his last campaign in the service of his country, the brave and brilliant Albert Sidney Johnston. Returning from Utah, he accepted a generalship in the Confederate army, confronted General Grant at Shiloh, and fell at the very crisis of that terrible battle which, but for his death, many have thought would probably have been won for the South.
Meantime, at the suggestion of General Harney to the Command- er-in-chief, Captain Stewart Van Vliet, Assistant Quarter-Master of the United States Army, had preceded the expedition to Utah, to ascertain whether forage and fuel could be purchased for the troops, and to look out an eligible site for the establishment of a military post within the Territory. Captain Van Vliet arrived at Salt Lake City on the 8th of September. He was kindly received by Governor Young and the Mormon leaders, but was given to understand that the people of Utah regarded the coming army as an enemy; that they would not supply it with forage and fuel, and that the troops would not be permitted to enter Salt Lake Valley. After a reception
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at the Social Hall, where Captain Van Vliet was presented to many prominent citizens, several interviews took place in Governor Young's private office. The substance of these interviews is here given.
Governor Young .- "We do not want to fight the United States, but if they drive us to it, we will do the best we can: and I will tell you, as the Lord lives we shall come off conquerors. God has set up His kingdom on the earth and it will never fall. We shall do all we can to avert a collision, but if they drive us to it God will over- throw them. If they would let us alone and say to the mobs: 'Now you may go and kill the Mormons if you can, but we will have noth- ing to do with it,' that is all we would ask of them. But for the Government to array the army against us is too despicable and damnable a thing for any honorable nation to do. The United States are sending their armies here to simply hold us still until a mob can come and butcher us, as has been done before. We are the supporters of the Constitution of the United States, and we love that Constitution, and respect the laws of the United States; but it is by the corrupt administration of those laws that we are made to suffer. Most of the government officers who have been sent here have taken no interest in us, but on the contrary have tried many times to destroy us."
Captain Van Vliet :- "That is the case with most men sent to the Territories. They receive their offices as a political reward, or as a stepping-stone to the senatorship; but they have no interest in common with the people. You have been lied about the worst of any people I ever saw. The greatest hold that the government now has upon you is in the accusation that you have burned the United States records."
Governor Young :- " I deny that any books of the United States have been burned. All I ask of any man is, that he tell the truth about us, pay his debts and not steal, and then he will be welcome to come or go as he likes. I have broken no law, and under the present state of affairs I will not suffer myself to be taken by any United States officer, to be killed as they killed Joseph."
C. R. SAVAGE, PHOTO.
Mountain Torrent, Cottonwood Canyon.
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Captain Van Vliet :- "I do not think it is the intention of the Government to arrest you, but to install a new governor in the Territory."
Governor Young :- "I believe you tell the truth-that you believe this-but you do not know their intentions as well as I do. If the Government persists in sending an army to destroy us, in the name of the Lord we shall conquer them. If they dare to force the issue I shall not hold the Indians by the wrist any longer for white men to shoot at them. If the issue comes you may tell the Government to stop all emigration across this continent, for the Indians will kill all who attempt it. And if an army succeeds in penetrating this valley tell the Government to see that it has forage and provisions in store, for they will find here only a charred and barren waste.
Captain Van Vliet :- " If our Government pushes this matter to the extent of making war upon you, I will withdraw from the army ; for I will not have a hand in shedding the blood of American citizens."
Governor Young :- "We shall trust in God. Congress has promptly sent investigating committees to Kansas and other places, as occasion has required; but upon the merest rumor it has sent two thousand armed soldiers to destroy the people of Utah, without investigating the subject at all."
Captain Van Vliet :- "The Government may yet send an inves- tigating committee to Utah, and consider it good policy before they get through."
Governor Young :- "I believe God has sent you here and that good will grow out of it. I was glad when I heard you were coming."
Captain Van Vliet :- "I am anxious to get back to Washington as soon as I can. I have heard officially that General Harney has been recalled to Kansas to officiate as Governor. I shall stop the train on Ham's Fork on my own responsibility."
Governor Young :- "If we can keep the peace for this winter
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I do think there will be something turn up that may save the shed- ding of blood."
The foregoing report is made up from conversations that took place between Governor Young and Captain Van Vliet on the 12th and 13th of September. It is condensed from the private journal of President Wilford Woodruff, who was present at the time and tran- scribed his notes into his diary, according to custom, directly after the event. One day before the date first given and three days after Captain Van Vliet's arrival at Salt Lake City, occurred the Mountain Meadows massacre, the most horrible, most deplorable event in the his- tory of Utah; an event only comparable, in Mormon annals, to the massacre at Haun's Mill, Missouri, of which and other like tragedies it may fairly be considered a direct though distant result. We propose, in another chapter, to detail the facts relating to the Mount- ain Meadows massacre. We merely wish now to call attention to the fact that this terrible event took place at a point over three hundred miles south and west of Salt Lake City, when the intervening country was but sparsely settled, and long before railways and telegraph wires had entered Utah. At the time of Captain Van Vliet's visit the news of the massacre had not reached the city, and was utterly unknown to the Mormon leaders. Moreover, as is plainly evident, such a crime. as the Mountain Meadows massacre, unjustly attributed by many to the Mormon Church, was not only contrary to Brigham Young's whole nature, which abhorred bloodshed, but directly at variance with his policy at that particular period. "If we can keep the peace for this winter," said he to Van Vliet, "I do think there will be some- thing turn up that may save the shedding of blood." Other expres- sions in the Young-Van Vliet interview, as well as events of later occurrence, to which we will yet refer, all point to the fact that the terrible affair at Mountain Meadows was the thing of all things most undesired, and when heard of most deplored by Brigham Young and the Mormon people. That massacre was not only a crime against the Arkansas emigrants, but a crime against Utah, against the Latter- day Saints, who have borne for years the odium of a deed for which
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