In March, 1851, the two houses of the legislature of Deseret, sitting
together, adopted resolutions "cheerfully and cordially" accepting the
law providing a territorial government for Utah, and tendering Union
Square in Salt Lake City as a site for the government buildings. The
first territorial election was held on August 4, and the legislative
assembly then elected held its first meeting on September 22. An act was
at once passed continuing in force the laws passed by the legislature of
Deseret (an unauthorized body) not in conflict with the territorial
law, and locating the capital in the Pauvan Valley, where the town
was afterward named Fillmore* and the county Millard, in honor of the
President.
* Only one session of the legislature was held at Fillmore
(December, 1855). The lawmakers afterward met there, but only to adjourn
to Salt Lake City.
The federal law, establishing the territory, provided that the governor,
secretary, chief justice and two associate justices of the Supreme
Court, the attorney general, or state's attorney, and marshal should be
appointed by the President of the United States. President Fillmore on
September 22, 1850, filled these places as follows: governor, Brigham
Young; secretary, B. D. Harris of Vermont; chief justice, Joseph
Buffington of Pennsylvania; associate justices, Perry E. Brocchus and
Zerubbabel Snow; attorney general, Seth M. Blair of Utah; marshal, J.
L. Heywood of Utah, Young, Snow, Blair, and Heywood being Mormons. L. G.
Brandebury was later appointed chief justice, Mr. Buffington declining
that office.
The selection of Brigham Young as governor made him, in addition to
his church offices, ex-officio commander-in-chief of the militia and
superintendent of Indian affairs, the latter giving him a salary of
$1000 a year in addition to his salary of $1500 as governor. Had the
character of the Mormon church government been understood by President
Fillmore, it does not seem possible that he would, by Young's
appointment, have so completely united the civil and religious authority
of the territory in one man; or, if he had had any comprehension of
Young's personal characteristics, it is fair to conclude that the
appointment would not have been made.
The voice which the President listened to in the matter was that of that
adroit Mormon agent, Colonel Thomas L. Kane. Kane's part in the business
came out after these appointments were announced, and after the Buffalo
(New York) Courier had printed a communication attacking Young's
character on the ground of his record both in Illinois and Utah.
President Fillmore sent these charges to Kane (on July 4, 1851) with a
letter in which he said, "You will recollect that I relied much upon you
for the moral character of Mr. Young," and asking him to "truly state
whether these charges against the moral character of Governor Young are
true." Kane sent two letters in reply, dated July 11. In a short open
one he said: "I reiterate without reserve the statement of his
excellent capacity, energy, and integrity, which I made you prior to the
appointment. I am willing to say that I VOLUNTEERED to communicate to
you the facts by which I was convinced of his patriotism and devotion
to 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."
The second letter, marked "personal," went into these matters much more
in detail. It declared that the tax levied by Young on non-Mormons who
sold goods in Salt Lake City was a liquor tax, creditable to Mormon
temperance principles. Had the President consulted the report of the
debate on Babbitt's admission as a Delegate, he would have discovered
that this was falsehood number one. The charges against Young while in
Illinois, including counterfeiting, Kane swept aside as "a mere rehash
of old libels," and he cited the Battalion as an illustration of Mormon
patriotism. The extent to which he could go in falsifying in Young's
behalf is illustrated, however, most pointedly in what he had to say
regarding the charge of polygamy: "The remaining charge connects itself
with that unmixed outrage, the spiritual wife story; which was fastened
on the Mormons by a poor ribald scamp whom, though the sole surviving
brother and representative of their Jo. Smith, they were literally
forced to excommunicate for licentiousness, and who therefore revenged
himself by editing confessions and disclosures of savor to please
the public that peruses novels in yellow paper covers."* In regard to
William Smith, the fact was that he opposed polygamy both before and
after his expulsion from the church. Kane's stay among the Mormons on
the Missouri must have acquainted him with the practically open practice
of polygamy at that time. His entire correspondence with Fillmore stamps
him as a man whose word could be accepted on no subject. It would have
been well if President Buchanan had availed himself of the existence of
these letters. Fillmore stated in later years that at that time neither
he nor the Senate knew that polygamy was an accepted Mormon doctrine.
* For correspondence in full, see Millennial Star, Vol. XIII, pp.
341-344.
Young took the oath of office as governor in February, 1851. The
non-Mormon federal officers arrived in June and July following, and
with them came Babbitt, bringing $20,000 which had been appropriated by
Congress for a state-house, and J. M. Bernhisel, the first territorial
Delegate to Congress, with a library purchased by him in the East for
which Congress had provided. The arrival of the Gentile officers gave
a speedy opportunity to test the temper of the church in regard to any
interference with, or even discussion of, their "peculiar" institutions
or Young's authority.
Their first welcome was cordial, with balls and dinners at the Bath
House at the Hot Springs at which, for their special benefit, says a
local historian, was served "champagne wine from the grocery," with
home-brewed porter and ale for the rest. When Judge Brocchus reached
Salt Lake City, his two non-Mormon associates had been there long enough
to form an opinion of the Mormon population and of the aims of the
leading church officers. They soon concluded that "no man else could
govern them against Brigham Young's influence, without a military
force,"* and they heard many expressions, public and private, indicating
the contempt in which the federal government was held. The anniversary
of the arrival of the pioneers, July 24, was always celebrated with much
ceremony, and that year the principal addresses were made by "General"
D. H. Wells and Brigham Young. Some of the new officers occupied seats
on the platform. Wells attacked the government for "requiring" the
Battalion to enlist. Young paid especial attention to President Taylor,
who had recently died, and whose course toward the Mormons did not
please them, closing this part of his remarks with the declaration, "but
Zachary Taylor is dead and in hell, and I am glad of it," adding, "and
I prophesy in the name of Jesus Christ, by the power of the priesthood
that's upon me, that any President of the United States who lifts his
finger against this people, shall die an untimely death, and go to
hell."
* Report of the three officers to President Fillmore, Ex. Doc.
No. 25, 1st Session, 32d Congress.
Judge Brocchus had been commissioned by the Washington Monument
Association to ask the people of the territory for a block of stone
for that structure, and, on signifying a desire to make known his
commission, he was invited to do so at the General Conference to be
held on September 7 and 8. The judge thought that, with the life of
Washington as a text, he could read these people a lesson on their duty
toward the government, and could correct some of the impressions under
which they rested. The idea itself only showed how little he understood
anything pertaining to Mormonism.
There was no newspaper in Salt Lake City in that time, and for a report
of the judge's address and of Brigham Young's reply, we must rely on the
report of the three federal officers to President Fillmore, on a letter
from Judge Brocchus printed in the East, and on three letters on the
subject addressed to the New York Herald (one of which that journal
printed, and all of which the author published in a pamphlet entitled
"The Truth for the Mormons",) by J. M. Grant, first mayor of Salt Lake
City, major general of the Legion, and Speaker of the house in the
Deseret legislature.
Judge Brocchus spoke for two hours. He began with expressions of
sympathy for the sufferings of the Mormons in Missouri and Illinois,
and then referred to the unfriendliness of the people toward the federal
government, pointing out what he considered its injustice, and alluding
pointedly to Brigham Young's remarks about President Taylor. He defended
the President's memory, and told his audience that, "if they could not
offer a block of marble for the Washington Monument in a feeling of full
fellowship with the people of the United States, as brethren and fellow
citizens, they had better not offer it at all, but leave it unquarried
in the bosom of its native mountain." The officers' report to President
Fillmore says that the address "was entirely free from any allusions,
even the most remote, to the peculiar religion of the community, or to
any of their domestic or social customs." Even if the Mormons had so
construed it, the rebuke of their lack of patriotism would have aroused
their resentment, and Bernhisel, in a letter to President Fillmore,
characterized it as "a wanton insult."
But the judge did make, according to other reports, what was construed
as an uncomplimentary reference to polygamy, and this stirred the church
into a tumult of anger and indignation. According to Mormon accounts,*
the judge, addressing the ladies, said: "I have a commission from the
Washington Monument Association, to ask of you a block of marble, as
a test of your citizenship and loyalty to the government of the United
States. But in order to do it acceptably you must become virtuous, and
teach your daughters to become virtuous, or your offering had better
remain in the bosom of your native mountains."
* The report of what follows, including Young's address, is taken
from Grant's pamphlet...
Mild as this language may seem, no Mormon audience, since the marrying
of more wives than one had been sanctioned by the church, had ever
listened to anything like it. To permit even this interference with
their "religious belief" was entirely foreign to Young's purpose, and he
took the floor in a towering rage to reply. "Are you a judge," he asked,
"and can't even talk like a lawyer or a politician?" George Washington
was first in war, but he was first in peace, too, and Young could handle
a sword as well as Washington. "But you [addressing the judge] standing
there, white and shaking now at the howls which you have stirred up
yourself--you are a coward.... Old General Taylor, what was he?* A mere
soldier with regular army buttons on; no better to go at the head of
brave troops than a dozen I could pick out between here and Laramie." He
concluded thus:--
* In a discourse on June 19, 1853, Young said that he never heard
of his alleged expression about General Taylor until Judge Brocchus made
use of it, but he added: "When he made the statement there, I surely
bore testimony to the truth of it. But until then I do not know that it
ever came into my mind whether Taylor was in hell or not, any more
than it did that any other wicked man was there," etc.--Journal of
Discourses, Vol. 1, p. 185.
"What you have been afraid to intimate about our morals I will not
stoop to notice, except to make my particular personal request to every
brother and husband present not to give you back what such impudence
deserves. You talk of things you have on hearsay since your coming among
us. I'll talk of hearsay then--the hearsay that you are discontented,
and will go home, because we cannot make it worth your while to stay.
What it would satisfy you to get out of us I think it would be hard to
tell; but I am sure that it is more than you'll get. If you or any one
else is such a baby-calf, we must sugar your soap to coax you to wash
yourself of Saturday nights. Go home to your mammy straight away, and
the sooner the better."
This was the language addressed by the governor of the territory and the
head of the church, to one of the Supreme Court judges appointed by the
President of the United States!
Young alluded to his reference to the judge's personal safety in a
discourse on June 19, 1853, in which, speaking of the judge's remarks,
he said: "They [the Mormons] bore the insult like saints of God. It is
true, as it was said in the report of these affairs, if I had crooked my
little finger, he would have been used up, but I did not bend it. If
I had, the sisters alone felt indignant enough to have chopped him in
pieces." A little later, in the same discourse, he added: "Every man
that comes to impose on this people, no matter by whom they are sent, or
who they are that are sent, lay the axe at the root of the tree to kill
themselves. I will do as I said I would last conference. Apostates, or
men who never made any profession of religion, had better be careful how
they come here, lest I should bend my little finger."*
* Journal of Discourses, Vol. I, p. 187.
If the records of the Mormon church had included acts as well as words,
how many times would we find that Young's little finger was bent to a
purpose?
Bold as he was, Young seems to have felt that he had gone too far in his
abuse of Judge Brocchus, and on September 19 he addressed a note to him,
inviting him to attend a public meeting in the bowery the next Sunday
morning, "to explain, satisfy, or apologize to the satisfaction of the
ladies who heard your address on the 8th," a postscript assuring the
judge that "no gentleman will be permitted to make any reply." The judge
in polite terms declined this offer, saying that he had been, at the
proper time, denied a chance to explain, "at the peril of having my
hair pulled or my throat cut." He added that his speech was deliberately
prepared, that his sole design was "to vindicate the government of
the United States from those feelings of prejudice and that spirit of
defection which seemed to pervade the public sentiment," and that he
had had no intention to offer insult or disrespect to his audience. This
called out, the next day, a very long reply from Young, of which the
following is a paragraph: "With a war of words on party politics,
factions, religious schisms, current controversy of creeds, policy
of clans or state clipper cliques, I have nothing to do; but when the
eternal principles of truth are falsified, and light is turned into
darkness by mystification of language or a false delineation of facts,
so that the just indignation of the true, virtuous, upright citizens of
the commonwealth is aroused into vigilance for the dear-bought
liberties of themselves and fathers, and that spirit of intolerance and
persecution which has driven this people time and time again from their
peaceful homes, manifests itself in the flippancy of rhetoric for female
insult and desecration, it is time that I forbear to hold my peace, lest
the thundering anathemas of nations, born and unborn, should rest upon
my head, when the marrow of my bones shall be ill prepared to sustain
the threatened blow."*
* For correspondence in full, see Tullidge's "History of Salt
Lake City," pp. 86--91.
Judge Brocchus wrote to a friend in the East, on September 20: "How it
will end, I do not know. I have just learned that I have been denounced,
together with the government and officers, in the bowery again to-day by
Governor Young. I hope I shall get off safely. God only knows. I am in
the power of a desperate and murderous sect."
The non-Mormon federal officers now announced their determination to
abandon their places and return to the East. Young foresaw that so
radical a course would give his conduct a wide advertisement, and
attract to him an unpleasant notoriety. He, therefore, called on the
offended judges personally, and urged them to remain.* Being assured
that they would not reconsider their determination, and that Secretary
Harris would take with him the $24,000 appropriated for the pay and
mileage of the territorial legislature, Young, on September 18, issued a
proclamation declaring the result of the election of August 4, which
he had neglected to do, and convening the legislature in session on
September 22. "So solicitous was the governor that the secretary and
other non-Mormon officers should be kept in ignorance of this step,"
says the report of the latter to President Fillmore, "that on the 19th,
two days after the date of a personal notice sent to members, he most
positively and emphatically denied, as communicated to the secretary,
that any such notice had been issued."
* Young to the President, House Doc. No. 25, 1st Session, 32d
Congress.
As soon as the legislature met, it passed resolutions directing the
United States marshal to take possession of all papers and property
(including money) in the hands of Secretary Harris, and to arrest him
and lock him up if he offered any resistance. On receipt of a copy of
this resolution, Secretary Harris sent a reply, giving several reasons
for refusing to hand over the money appropriated for the legislature,
among them the failure of the governor to have a census taken before the
election, as provided by the territorial act, the defective character
of the governor's proclamation ordering the election, allowing aliens to
vote, and the governor's failure to declare the result of the election,
his delayed proclamation being pronounced "worthless for all legal
purposes."
On September 28 the three non-Mormon officers took their departure,
carrying with them to Washington the disputed money, which was turned
over to the proper officer.*
* Tullidge, in his "History of Salt Lake City," says: "Under the
censure of the great statesman, Daniel Webster, and with ex-Vice
President Dallas and Colonel Kane using their potent influence against
them, and also Stephen A. Douglas, Brandebury, Brocchus, and Harris were
forced to retire." As these officers left the territory of their own
accord, and contrary to Brigham Young's urgent protest, this statement
only furnishes another instance of the Mormon plan to attack the
reputation of any one whom they could not control. The three officers
were criticized by some Eastern newspapers for leaving their post
through fear of bodily injury, but Congress voted to pay their salaries.
All the correspondence concerning the failure of this first attempt to
establish non-Mormon federal officers in Utah was given to Congress in
a message from President Fillmore, dated January 9, 1852. The returned
officers made a report which set forth the autocratic attitude of the
Mormon church, the open practice of polygamy,* and the non-enforcement
of the laws, not even murderers being punished. Of one of the
allegations of murder set forth,--that a man from Ithaca, New York,
named James Munroe, was murdered on his way to Salt Lake City by a
member of the church, his body brought to the city and buried without
an inquest, the murderer walking the streets undisturbed, H. H. Bancroft
says, "There is no proof of this statement."** On the contrary, Mayor
Grant in his "Truth for the Mormons" acknowledges it, and gives the
details of the murder, justifying it on the ground of provocation,
alleging that while Egan, the murderer, was absent in California,
Munroe, "from his youth up a member of the church, Egan's friend too,
therefore a traitor," seduced Egan's wife.
* J. D. Grant, following the example of Colonel Kane, had the
effrontery to say of the charge of polygamy, in one of his letters to
the New York Herald: "I pronounce it false.... Suppose I should admit it
at once? Whose business is it? Does the constitution forbid it?"
** "History of Utah," p. 460, note.
Young, in a statement to the President, defended his acts and the acts
of the territorial legislature, and attacked the character and motives
of the federal officers. The legislature soon after petitioned President
Fillmore to fill the vacancies by appointing men "who are, indeed,
residents amongst us."