In June, 1865, a distinguished party from the East visited Salt Lake
City, and their visit was not without public significance. It included
Schuyler Colfax, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Lieutenant
Governor Bross of Illinois, Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield
(Massachusetts) Republican, and A. D. Richardson of the staff of the New
York Tribune. Crossing the continent was still effected by stage-coach
at that time, and the Mormon capital had never been visited by civilians
so well known and so influential. Mr. Colfax had stated publicly that
President Lincoln, a short time before his death, had asked him to
make a thorough investigation of territorial matters, and his visit
was regarded as semiofficial. The city council formally tendered to
the visitors the hospitality of the city, and Mr. Bowles wrote that the
Speaker's reception "was excessive if not oppressive."
In an interview between Colfax and Young, during which the subject of
polygamy was brought up by the latter, he asked what the government
intended to do with it, now that the slavery question was out of the
way. Mr. Colfax replied with the expression of a hope that the prophets
of the church would have a new "revelation" which would end the
practice, pointing out an example in the course of Missouri and Maryland
in abolishing slavery, without waiting for action by the federal
government. "Mr. Young," says Bowles, "responded quietly and frankly
that he should readily welcome such a revelation; that polygamy was
not in the original book of the Mormons; that it was not an essential
practice in the church, but only a privilege and a duty, under special
command of God."*
* "Across the Continent," p. 111.
It is worth while to note Mr. Bowles's summing up of his observations
of Mormondom during this visit. "The result," he wrote, "of the whole
experience has been to increase my appreciation of the value of
their material progress and development to the nation; to evoke
congratulations to them and to the country for the wealth they have
created, and the order, frugality, morality (sic), and industry they
have organized in this remote spot in our continent; to excite wonder at
the perfection of their church system, the extent of its ramifications,
the sweep of its influence, and to enlarge my respect for the personal
sincerity and character of many of the leaders in the organization."*
These were the expressions of a leading journalist, thought worthy to be
printed later in book form, on a church system and church officers about
which he had gathered his information during a few hours' visit, and
concerning which he was so fundamentally ignorant that he called their
Bible--whose title is, "Book of Mormon"--"book of the Mormons!" It
is reasonably certain that he had never read Smith's "revelations,"
doubtful if he was acquainted with even the framework of the Mormon
Bible, and probable that he was wholly ignorant of the history of their
recent "Reformation." Many a profound opinion of Mormonism has been
founded on as little opportunity for accurate knowledge.**
* "Across the Continent," p. 106.
** As another illustration of the value of observations by such
transient students may be cited the following, from Sir Charles
Wentworth Dilke's "Greater Britain," Vol. I, p. 148: "Brigham's deeds
have been those of a sincere man. His bitterest opponents cannot dispute
the fact that, in 1844, when Nauvoo was about to be deserted owing to
attacks by a ruffianly mob, Brigham Young rushed to the front and took
command. To be a Mormon leader was then to be the leader of an outcast
people, with a price set on his head, in a Missouri country in which
almost every man who was not a Mormon was by profession an assassin."
The Eastern visitors soon learned, however, how little intention the
Mormon leaders had to be cajoled out of polygamy. Before Mr. Bowles's
book was published, he had to add a supplement, in which he explained
that "since our visit to Utah in June, the leaders among the Mormons
have repudiated their professions of loyalty to the government, and
denied any disposition to yield the issue of polygamy." Tullidge sneers
at Colfax "for entertaining for a while the pretty plan" of having the
Mormons give up polygamy as the Missourians did slavery. The Deseret
News, soon after the Colfax party left the territory, expressed the
real Mormon view on this subject, saying: "As a people we view every
revelation from the Lord as sacred. Polygamy was none of our seeking. It
came to us from Heaven, and we recognized it, and still do, the voice of
Him whose right it is not only to teach us, but to dictate and teach
all men.... They [Gentiles] talk of revelations given, and of receiving
counter revelations to forbid what has been commanded, as if man was the
sole author, originator, and designer of them.... Do they wish to
brand a whole people with the foul stigma of hypocrisy, who, from their
leaders to the last converts that have made the dreary journey to these
mountain wilds for their faith, have proved their honesty of purpose and
deep sincerity of faith by the most sublime sacrifices? Either that is
the issue of their reasoning, or they imagine that we serve and worship
the most accommodating Deity ever dreamed of in the wildest vagaries of
the most savage polytheist."
This was a perfectly consistent statement of the Mormon position, a
simple elaboration of Young's declaration that, to give up belief in
Smith as a prophet, and in his "revelations," would be to give up
their faith. Just as truly, any later "revelation," repealing the one
concerning polygamy, must be either a pretence or a temporary expedient,
in orthodox Mormon eyes. The Mormons date the active crusade of the
government against polygamy from the return of the Colfax party to
the East, holding that this question did not enter into the early
differences between them and the government.*
* Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 358.
In the year following Colfax's visit, there occurred in Utah two murders
which attracted wide notice, and which called attention once more to the
insecurity of the life of any man against whom the finger of the church
was crooked. The first victim was O. N. Brassfield, a non-Mormon, who
had the temerity to marry, on March 20, 1866, the second polygamous
wife of a Mormon while the husband was in Europe on a mission. As he was
entering his house in Salt Lake City, on the third day of the following
month, he was shot dead. An order that had been given to disband the
volunteer troops still remaining in the territory was countermanded
from Washington, and General Sherman, then commander of that department,
telegraphed to Young that he hoped to hear of no more murders of
Gentiles in Utah, intimating that, if he did, it would be easy to
reenlist some of the recently discharged volunteers and march them
through the territory.
The second victim was Dr. J. King Robinson, a young man who had come
to Utah as assistant surgeon of the California volunteers, married the
daughter of a Mormon whose widow and daughters had left the church, and
taken possession of the land on which were some well-known warm
springs, with the intention of establishing there a sanitarium. The
city authorities at once set up a claim to the warm springs property,
a building Dr. Robinson had erected there was burned, and, as he became
aggressive in asserting his legal rights, he was called out one night,
ostensibly to set a broken leg, knocked down, and shot dead. The
audacity of this crime startled even the Mormons, and the opinion
has been expressed that nothing more serious than a beating had been
intended. There was an inquest before a city alderman, at which some
non-Mormon lawyers and judges Titus and McCurdy were asked to assist.
The chief feature of this hearing was the summing up by Ex-Governor J.
B. Weller, of California, in which he denounced such murders, asked if
there was not an organized influence which prevented the punishment
of their perpetrators, and confessed that the prosecution had not been
permitted "to lift the veil, and show the perpetrators of this horrible
murder." *
* Text in "Rocky Mountain Saints," Appendix I.
General W. B. Hazen, in his report of February, 1867, said of these
victims: "There is no doubt of their murder from Mormon church
influences, although I do not believe by direct command. Principles
are taught in their churches which would lead to such murders. I have
earnestly to recommend that a list be made of the Mormon leaders,
according to their importance, excepting Brigham Young, and that the
President of the United States require the commanding officer at Camp
Douglas to arrest and send to the state's prison at Jefferson City, Mo.,
beginning at the head of the list, man for man hereafter killed as
these men were, to be held until the real perpetrators of the deed,
with evidence for their conviction, be given up. I believe Young for the
present necessary for us there"*
* Mis. House Doc. No. 75, 2d Session, 39th Congress.
Had this policy been adopted, Mormon prisoners would soon have started
East, for very soon afterward three other murders of the same character
occurred, although the victims were not so prominent.* Chief Justice
Titus incurred the hatred of the Mormons by determined, if futile,
efforts to bring offenders in such cases to justice, and to show their
feeling they sent him a nightgown ten feet long, at the hands of a
negro.
* See note 70, p. 628, Bancroft's "History of Utah." When, in
July, 1869, a delegation from Illinois, that included Senator Trumbull,
Governor Oglesby, Editor Medill of the Chicago Tribune, and many
members of the Chicago Board of Trade, visited Salt Lake City, they were
welcomed by and affiliated with the Gentile element;* and when, in the
following October, Vice President Colfax paid a second visit to the
city, he declined the courtesies tendered to him by the city officers.**
He made an address from the portico of the Townsend House, of which
polygamy was the principle feature, and was soon afterward drawn into a
newspaper discussion of the subject with John Taylor.
* In an interview between Young and Senator Trumbull during this
visit (reported in the Alta California), the following conversation took
place:--"Young--We can take care of ourselves. Cumming was good enough
in his way, for you know he was simply Governor of the Territory, while
I was and am Governor of the people."
"Senator Trumbull--Mr. Young, may I say to the President that you intend
to observe the laws under the constitution?"
"Young-Well-yes--we intend to."
"Senator Trumbull--But may I say to him that you will do so?"
"Young--Yes, yes; so far as the laws are just, certainly."
** "Mr. Colfax politely refused to accept the proffered
courtesies of the city. Brigham was reported to have uttered abusive
language in the Tabernacle towards the Government and Congress, and to
have charged the President and Vice President with being drunkards.
One of the Aldermen who waited upon Mr. Colfax to tender to him the
hospitality of the city could only say that he did not hear Brigham say
so."--"Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 638.