The end of the complete seclusion of the Mormon settlement in Utah from
the rest of the country--complete except so far as it was interrupted
by the passage through the territory of the California emigration--dates
from the establishment of Camp Floyd, and the breaking up of that camp
and the disposal of its accumulation of supplies, which gave the first
big impetus to mercantile traffic in Utah.* Young was ever jealous of
the mercantile power, so openly jealous that, as Tullidge puts it, "to
become a merchant was to antagonize the church and her policies, so that
it was almost illegitimate for Mormon men of enterprising character to
enter into mercantile pursuits." This policy naturally increased the
business of non-Mormons who established themselves in the city, and
their prosperity directed the attention of the church authorities to
them, and the pulpit orators hurled anathemas at those who traded with
them. Thus Young, in a discourse, on March 28, 1858, urging the people
to use home-made material, said: "Let the calicoes lie on the shelves
and rot. I would rather build buildings every day and burn them down at
night, than have traders here communing with our enemies outside, and
keeping up a hell all the time, and raising devils to keep it going.
They brought their hell with them. We can have enough of our own without
their help."** A system of espionage, by means of the city police,
was kept on the stores of non-Mormons, until it required courage for a
Mormon to make a purchase in one of these establishments. To trade with
an apostate Mormon was, of course, a still greater offence.
* "The community had become utterly destitute of almost
everything necessary to their social comfort. The people were poorly
clad, and rarely ever saw anything on their tables but what was prepared
from flour, corn, beet-molasses, and the vegetables and fruits of their
gardens.... It was at Camp Floyd, indeed, where the principal Utah
merchants and business men of the second decade of our history may be
said to have laid the foundation of their fortunes, among whom were the
Walker Brothers."--Tullidge, "History of Salt Lake City," pp. 246-247.
** Journal of Discourses, Vol. VII, p. 45.
Among the mercantile houses that became strong after the establishment
of Camp Floyd was that of Walker Brothers. There were four of them,
Englishmen, who had come over with their mother, and shared in the
privations of the early Utah settlement. Possessed of practical business
talent and independence of thought, they rebelled against Young's
dictatorial rule and the varied trammels by which their business was
restricted. Without openly apostatizing, they insisted on a measure
of independence. One manifestation of this was a refusal to contribute
one-tenth of their income as a tithe for the expenditure of which no
account was rendered. One year, when asked for their tithe, they gave
the Bishop of their ward a check for $500 as "a contribution to the
poor." When this form of contribution was reported to Young, he refused
to accept it, and sent the brothers word that he would cut them off from
the church unless they paid their tithe in the regular way. Their reply
was to tear up the check and defy Young.
The natural result followed. Brigham and his lieutenants waged an open
war on these merchants, denouncing them in the Tabernacle, and keeping
policemen before their doors. The Walkers, on their part, kept on
offering good wares at reasonable prices, and thus retained the custom
of as many Mormons as dared trade with them openly, or could slip
in undiscovered. Even the expedient of placing a sign bearing an
"all-seeing eye" and the words "Holiness to the Lord" over every Mormon
trader's door did not steer away from other doors the Mormon customers
who delighted in bargains. But the church power was too great for any
one firm to fight. Not only was a business man's capital in danger in
those times, when the church was opposed to him, but his life was
not safe. Stenhouse draws this picture of the condition of affairs in
1866:--"After the assassination of Dr. Robinson, fears of violence were
not unnatural, and many men who had never before carried arms buckled
on their revolvers. Highly respectable men in Salt Lake City forsook
the sidewalks after dusk, and, as they repaired to their residences,
traversed the middle of the public street, carrying their revolvers in
their hands."
With such a feeling of uneasiness, nearly all the non-Mormon merchants
joined in a letter to Brigham Young, offering, if the church would
purchase their goods and estates at twenty-five per cent less than
their valuation, they would leave the Territory. Brigham answered them
cavalierly that he had not asked them to come into the Territory, did
not ask them to leave it, and that they might stay as long as they
pleased.
"It was clear that Brigham felt himself master of the situation, and the
merchants had to bide their time, and await the coming change that was
anticipated from the completion of the Pacific Railroad. As the great
iron way approached the mountains, and every day gave greater evidence
of its being finished at a much earlier period than was at first
anticipated, the hope of what it would accomplish nerved the
discontented to struggle with the passing day." *
* "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 625.
The Mormon historian incorporates these two last paragraphs in his book,
and says: "Here is at once described the Gentile and apostate view of
the situation in those times, and, confined as it is to the salient
point, no lengthy special argument in favor of President Young's
policies could more clearly justify his mercantile cooperative movement.
IT WAS THE MOMENT OF LIFE OR DEATH TO THE TEMPORAL POWER OF THE
CHURCH.... The organization of Z. C. M. I. at that crisis saved the
temporal supremacy of the Mormon commonwealth."* It was to meet outside
competition with a force which would be invincible that Young conceived
the idea of Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution, which was
incorporated in 1869, with Young as president. In carrying out this idea
no opposing interest, whether inside the church or out of it, received
the slightest consideration. "The universal dominance of the head of the
church is admitted," says Tullidge, "and in 1868, before the opening
of the Utah mines and the existence of a mixed population, there was no
commercial escape from the necessities of a combination."**
* Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 385.
** "Cooperation is as much a cardinal and essential doctrine of
the Mormon church as baptism for the remission of sin."--Tullidge,
"History of Salt Lake City."
Young is said to have received the idea of the big Cooperative
enterprise from a small trader who asked permission to establish a
mercantile system on the Cooperative plan, of moderate dimensions,
throughout the territory. He gave it definite shape at a meeting of
merchants in October, 1868, which was followed by
a circular explaining the scheme to the people. A preamble asserted
"the impolicy of leaving the trade and commerce of this territory to be
conducted by strangers." The constitution of the concern provided for a
capital of $3,000,000 in $100 shares. Young's original idea was to have
all the merchants pool their stocks, those who found no places in
the new establishment to go into some other business,--farming for
instance,--renting their stores as they could. Of course this meant
financial ruin to the unprovided for, and the opposition was strong. But
Young was not to be turned from the object he had in view. One man told
Stenhouse that when he reported to Young that a certain merchant would
be ruined by the scheme, and would not only be unable to pay his debts,
but would lose his homestead, Young's reply was that the man had no
business to get into debt, and that "if he loses his property it serves
him right." Tullidge, in an article in Harpers Magazine for September,
1871 (written when he was at odds with Young), said, "The Mormon
merchants were publicly told that all who refused to join the
cooperation should be left out in the cold; and against the two most
popular of them the Lion of the Lord roared, 'If Henry Lawrence don't
mind what's he's about I'll send him on a mission, and W. S. Godbe I'll
cut off from the church."'
After the organization of the concern in 1869 some of the leading Mormon
merchants in Salt Lake City sold their goods to it on favorable terms,
knowing that the prices of their stock would go down when the opening
of the railroad lowered freight rates. The Z. C. M. I. was started as a
wholesale and retail concern, and Young recommended that ward stores
be opened throughout the city which should buy their goods of the
Institution. Local cooperative stores were also organized throughout the
territory, each of which was under pressure to make its purchases of the
central concern. Branches were afterward established at Ogden, at Logan,
and at Soda Springs, Idaho, and a large business was built up and is
still continued.* The effect of this new competition on the non-Mormon
establishments was, of course, very serious. Walker Brothers' sales, for
instance, dropped $5000 or $6000 a month, and only the opportunity to
divert their capital profitably to mining saved them and others from
immediate ruin.
Bancroft says that in 1883 the total sales of the Institution exceeded
$4,000,000, and a half yearly dividend of five per cent was paid in
October of that year, and there was a reserve fund of about $125,000; he
placed the sales of the Ogden branch, in 1883, at about $800,000, and of
the Logan branch at about $600,000. The thirty-second annual statement
of the Institution, dated April 5,1901, contains the following figures:
Capital stock, $1,077,144.89; reserve, $362,898.95; undivided
profits, $179,042.88; cash receipts, February 1 to December 31, 1900,
$3,457,624.44, sales for the same period, $3,489.571.84. The branch
houses named is this report are at Ogden City and Provo, Utah, and at
Idaho Falls, Idaho.
But at this time an influence was preparing to make itself felt in Utah
which was a more powerful opponent of Brigham Young's authority than any
he had yet encountered. This influence took shape in what was known as
the "New Movement," and also as "The Reformation." Its original leaders
were W. S. Godbe and E. L. T. Harrison. Godbe was an Englishman, who saw
a good deal of the world as a sailor, embraced the Mormon faith in his
own country when seventeen years of age, and walked most of the way from
New York to Salt Lake City in 1851. He became prominent in the Mormon
capital as a merchant, making the trip over the plains twenty-four
times between 1851 and 1859. Harrison was an architect by profession, a
classical scholar, and a writer of no mean ability.
With these men were soon associated Eli B. Kelsey, a leading elder in
the Mormon church, a president of Seventies, and a prominent worker
in the English missions; H. W. Lawrence, a wealthy merchant who was
a Bishop's counsellor; Amasa M. Lyman, who had been one of the Twelve
Apostles and was acknowledged to be one of the most eloquent preachers
in the church; W. H. Sherman, a prominent elder and a man of literary
ability, who many years later went back to the church; T. B. H.
Stenhouse, a Scotchman by birth, who was converted to Mormonism in 1846,
and took a prominent part in missionary work in Europe, for three years
holding the position of president of the Swiss and Italian missions;
he emigrated to this country with his wife and children in 1855,
practically penniless, and supported himself for a time in New York City
as a newspaper writer; in Salt Lake City he married a second wife by
Young's direction, and one of his daughters by his first wife married
Brigham's eldest son. Stenhouse did not win the confidence of either
Mormons or non-Mormons in the course of his career, but his book, "The
Rocky Mountain Saints," contains much valuable information. Active with
these men in the "New Movement" was Edward W. Tullidge, an elder and
one of the Seventy, and a man of great literary ability. In later years
Tullidge, while not openly associating himself with the Mormon church,
wrote the "History of Salt Lake City" which the church accepts, a "Life
of Brigham Young," which could not have been more fulsome if written by
the most devout Mormon, and a "Life of Joseph the Prophet," which is a
valueless expurgated edition of Joseph's autobiography which ran through
the Millennial Star.
The "New Movement" was assisted by the advent of non-Mormons to the
territory, by Young's arbitrary methods in starting his cooperative
scheme, by the approaching completion of the Pacific Railroad, and, in
a measure, by the organization of the Reorganized Church under the
leadership of the prophet Joseph Smith's eldest son. Two elders of that
church, who went to Salt Lake City in 1863, were refused permission
to preach in the Tabernacle, but did effective work by house-to-house
visitations, and there were said to be more than three hundred of the
"Josephites," as they were called, in Salt Lake City in 1864.*
* "Persecution followed, as they claimed; and in early summer
about one-half of the Josephites in Salt Lake City started eastward, so
great being the excitement that General Connor ordered a strong escort
to accompany them as far as Greene River. To those who remained,
protection was also afforded by the authorities."--Bancroft, "History of
Utah," p. 645.
Harrison and Tullidge had begun the publication of a magazine called the
Peep o' Day at Camp Douglas, but it was a financial failure. Then Godbe
and Harrison started the Utah Magazine, of which Harrison was editor.
This, too, was only a drain on their purses. Accordingly, some time in
the year 1868, giving it over to the care of Tullidge, they set out on
a trip to New York by stage. Both were in doubt on many points regarding
their church; both were of that mental make-up which is susceptible to
"revelations" and "callings"; by the time they reached New York they
realized that they were "on the road to apostasy."
Long discussions of the situation took place between them, and the
outcome was characteristic of men who had been influenced by such
teachings as those of the Mormons. Kneeling down in their room, they
prayed earnestly, and as they did so "a voice spoke to them." For
three weeks, while Godbe transacted his mercantile business, his friend
prepared questions on religion and philosophy, "and in the evening, by
appointment, 'a band of spirits' came to them and held converse with
them, as friends would speak with friends. One by one the questions
prepared by Mr. Harrison were read, and Mr. Godbe and Mr. Harrison, with
pencil and paper, took down the answers as they heard them given by the
spirits."* The instruction which they thus received was Delphic in its
clearness--that which was true in Mormonism should be preserved and the
rest should be rejected.
* "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 631.
When they returned to Utah they took Elder Eli B. Kelsey, Elder H. W.
Lawrence, a man of wealth, and Stenhouse into their confidence, and it
was decided to wage open warfare on Young's despotism, using the Utah
Magazine as their mouthpiece. Without attacking Young personally, or the
fundamental Mormon beliefs, the magazine disputed Young's doctrine
that the world was degenerating to ruin, held up the really "great
characters" the world has known, that Young might be contrasted with
them, and discussed the probabilities of honest errors in religious
beliefs. When the Mormon leaders read in the magazine such doctrine as
that, "There is one false error which possesses the minds of some in
this, that God Almighty intended the priesthood to do our thinking,"
they realized that they had a contest on their hands. Young got into
trouble with the laboring men at this time. He had contracts for
building a part of the Pacific Railroad, which were sublet at a profit.
An attempt by him to bring about a reduction of wages gave the magazine
an opportunity to plead the laborers' cause which it gladly embraced.*
* Harpers Magazine, Vol. XLIII, p. 605.
In the summer of 1869 Alexander and David Hyrum Smith, sons of the
prophet, visited Salt Lake City in the interest of the Reorganized
Church. Many of Young's followers still looked on the sons of the
prophet as their father's rightful successor to the leadership of the
Church, as Young at Nauvoo had promised that Joseph III should be.
But these sons now found that, even to be acknowledged as members of
Brigham's fold, they must accept baptism at the hands of one of his
elders, and acknowledge the "revelation" concerning polygamy as coming
from God. They had not come with that intent. But they called on
Young and discussed with him the injection of polygamy into the church
doctrines. Young finally told them that they possessed, not the spirit
of their father, but of their mother Emma, whom Young characterized as
"a liar, yes, the damnedest liar that lived," declaring that she tried
to poison the prophet * He refused to them the use of the Tabernacle,
but they spoke in private houses and, through the influence of the
Walker brothers, secured Independence Hall. The Brighamites, using a son
of Hyrum Smith as their mouthpiece,** took pains that a goodly number
of polygamists should attend the Independence Hall meetings, and
interruptions of the speakers turned the gatherings into something like
personal wrangles.
* For Alexander Smith's report, see True Latter-Day Saints'
Herald, Vol. XVI, pp. 85-86.
** Hyrum's widow went to Salt lake City, and died there in
September, 1852, at the house of H. C. Kimball, who had taken care of
her.
The presence of the prophet's sons gave the leaders of "The Reformation"
an opportunity to aim a thrust at what was then generally understood
to be one of Brigham Young's ambitions, namely, the handing down of
the Presidency of the church to his oldest son; and an article in
their magazine presented the matter in this light: "If we know the true
feeling of our brethren, it is that they never intend Joseph Smith's
nor any other man's son to preside over them, simply because of their
sonship. The principle of heirship has cursed the world for ages, and
with our brethren we expect to fight it till, with every other relic of
tyranny, it is trodden under foot." Young accepted this challenge, and
at once ordered Harrison and two other elders in affiliation with him to
depart on missions. They disobeyed the order.
Godbe and Harrison told their friends in Utah that they had learned from
the spirits who visited them in New York that the release of the people
of the territory from the despotism of the church could come only
through the development of the mines. So determined was the opposition
of Young's priesthood to this development that its open advocacy in the
magazine was the cause of more serious discussion than that given to any
of the other subjects treated. As "The Reformation" did not then embrace
more than a dozen members, the courage necessary to defy the church
on such a question was not to be belittled. Just at that time came the
visit of the Illinois party and of Vice President Colfax, and the latter
was made acquainted with their plans and gave them encouragement. Ten
days later the magazine, in an article on "The True Development of
the Territory," openly advised paying more attention to mining. Young
immediately called together the "School of the Prophets." This was an
organization instituted in Utah, with the professed object of discussing
doctrinal questions, having the "revelations" of the prophet elucidated
by his colleagues, etc. It was not open to all church members, the
"scholars" attending by invitation, and it soon became an organization
under Young's direction which took cognizance of the secular doings of
the people, exercising an espionage over them. The school is no longer
maintained. Before this school Young denounced the "Reformers" in his
most scathing terms, going so far as to intimate that his rule was
itself in danger. Consequently the leaders of the "New Movement" were
notified to appear before the High Council for a hearing.
When this hearing occurred, Young managed that Godbe and Harrison should
be the only persons on trial. Both of them defied him to his face,
denying his "right to dictate to them in all things spiritual and
temporal,"--this was the question put to them,--and protesting against
his rule. They also read a set of resolutions giving an outline of
their intended movements. They were at once excommunicated, and the
only elder, Eli B. Kelsey, who voted against this action was immediately
punished in the same way. Kelsey was not granted even the perfunctory
hearing that was customarily allowed in such cases, and he was "turned
over to the devil," instead of being consigned by the usual formula "to
the buffetings of Satan."
But this did not silence the "Reformers." Their lives were considered
in danger by their acquaintances, and the assassination of the most
prominent of them was anticipated;* but they went straight ahead on
the lines they had proclaimed. Their first public meetings were held on
Sunday, December 19, 1869. The knowledge of the fact that they claimed
to act by direct and recent revelation gave them no small advantage with
a people whose belief rested on such manifestations of the divine
will, and they had crowded audiences. The services were continued every
Sunday, and on the evening of one week day; the magazine went on with
its work, and they were the founders of the Salt Lake Tribune which
later, as a secular journal, has led the Gentile press in Utah.
* "In August my husband sent a respectful and kindly letter to
the Bishop of our ward, stating that he had no faith in Brigham's claim
to an Infallible Priesthood; and that he considered that he ought to be
cut off from the church. I added a postscript stating that I wished to
share my husband's fate. A little after ten o'clock, on the Saturday
night succeeding our withdrawal from the church, we were returning home
together.. . when we suddenly saw four men come out from under some
trees at a little distance from us.... As soon as they approached, they
seized hold of my husband's arms, one on each side, and held him firmly,
thus rendering him almost powerless. They were all masked.... In an
instant I saw them raise their arms, as if taking aim, and for one brief
second I thought that our end had surely come, and that we, like so many
obnoxious persons before us, were about to be murdered for the great sin
of apostasy. This I firmly believe would have been my husband's fate
if I had not chanced to be with him or had I run away.... The wretches,
although otherwise well armed, were not holding revolvers in their hands
as I at first supposed. They were furnished with huge garden syringes,
charged with the most disgusting filth. My hair, bonnet, face, clothes,
person--every inch of my body, every shred I wore--were in an instant
saturated, and my husband and myself stood there reeking from head to
foot. The villains, when they had perpetrated this disgusting and brutal
outrage, turned and fled."--Mrs. Stenhouse, "Tell it All," pp. 578-581.
But the attempt to establish a reformed Mormonism did not succeed, and
the organization gradually disappeared. One of the surviving leaders
said to me (in October, 1901): "My parents had believed in Mormonism,
and I believed in the Mormon prophet and the doctrines set forth in his
revelations. We hoped to purify the Mormon church, eradicating evils
that had annexed themselves to it in later years. But our study of the
question showed us that the Mormon faith rested on no substantial
basis, and we became believers in transcendentalism." Mr. Godbe and Mr.
Lawrence still reside in Utah. The former has made and lost more than
one fortune in the mines. The Mormon historian Whitney says of the
leaders in this attempted reform: "These men were all reputable and
respected members of the community. Naught against their morality or
general uprightness of character was known or advanced."* Stenhouse,
writing three years before Young's death, said:--
* Whitney's "History of Utah," Vol. II, p. 332.
"But for the boldness of the Reformers, Utah to-day would not have been
what it is. Inspired by their example, the people who have listened to
them disregarded the teachings of the priesthood against trading with
or purchasing of the Gentiles. The spell was broken, and, as in all such
like experience, the other extreme was for a time threatened. Walker
Brothers regained their lost trade.... Reference could be made to
elders, some of whom had to steal away from Utah, for fear of violent
hands being laid upon them had their intended departure been made known,
who are to-day wealthy and respected gentlemen in the highest walks of
life, both in the United States and in Europe."
** For accounts of "The Reformation" by leaders in it,
see Chap. 53 of Stenhouse's "Rocky Mountain Saints," and Tullidge's
article, Harper's Magazine, Vol. XLIII, p. 602.