The dangers of the first company's migration were surpassed by
those of parties who subsequently braved the terrors of the
plains. In their enthusiasm to reach the gathering place of
their people, many of the Latter-day Saints set out from Iowa,
where railway facilities had their termination, with hand-carts
only as a means of conveyance. Today there are living in the
smiling vales of Utah, men and women who then as boys and girls
trudged wearily across the prairies, dragging the lumbering carts
that contained their entire provision against starvation and
freezing. Such handcart companies were organized with care; a
limited amount of freight was allowed to each division; milch
cattle and a very few draft-animals, with wagons for conveying
the heavier baggage and to carry the sick, were assigned. The
tale of those dreary marches has never yet been told; the song of
the heroism and sacrifice displayed by these pilgrims for
conscience sake is awaiting a singer worthy the theme. Wading
the streams with carts in tow, or in cases of unfordable streams,
stopping to construct rafts; at times living on reduced rations
of but a few ounces of meal per day; lying down at night with a
prayer in the heart that they wake no more on earth, a prayer
which had its fulfilment in hundreds of cases; the dying heaving
their parting sighs in the arms of loved ones who were soon to
follow, they journeyed on.
The inevitable catastrophes and accidents of travel robbed them
of their substance. Hostile savages stampeded their cattle, or
openly attacked and plundered the trains. But on they went,
never swerving from the course. These later companies needed no
chart nor compass to guide them over the desert; the road was
plain from the marks of former camps, and yet more so from the
graves of friends and loved ones who had started before on the
road to the earthly Zion and found that it led them to the
martyr's entrance to heaven, graves that were marked perhaps but
by a rude inscription cut on a pole or a board. And even these
narrow lodgings had not been left inviolate; the wolves of the
plains had too often succeeded in unearthing and rending the
bodies. Every company thus made the course the plainer; each of
them added to the silent population of the desert; sometimes half
a score were interred at one camp, and of one company over a
fourth were thus left beside the prairie road. Now we traverse
the self-same track in a day and a night, reclining on luxurious
cushions of ease, covering fifty miles while dining in luxury;
and we avert the ennui of the journey by berating the railway
company for lack of speed.
Relief trains were continually on the way between the valley of
the Salt Lake and the Missouri; and the remnants of many a
company were saved from what appeared to be certain destruction
by the opportune arrival of these rescuing parties. Such relief
came from those who were themselves destitute and almost
starving. Brigham Young with a few of the chief officials of the
Church, and aids, returned eastward on such an errand of rescue
within a few weeks after first reaching the valley. The region
to which the early settlers came was in no wise a typical land of
promise; it did not flow spontaneously with milk and honey.
Drought and unseasonable frosts made the first year's farming
experiments but doubtful successes, and in the succeeding spring
the land was visited by the devastating plague of the Rocky
Mountain crickets. They swarmed down in innumerable hordes upon
the fields, destroying the growing crops as they advanced,
devouring all before them, leaving the land a desert in their
track. The people scarcely knew how to withstand the assault of
this new foe; they drove the marauders into trenches there to be
drowned or burned; men, women and every child that could swing a
stick, were called to the ranks in this insect war; and with all
their fighting, the people forgot not to pray for deliverance,
and they fasted, too, for the best of reasons.
And as they watched, and prayed, and worked, they saw approaching
from the north and west a veritable host of winged creatures of
more formidable proportions still; and these bore down upon the
fields as though coming to complete the devastation. But see!
these are of the color that betokens peace; they are the gulls,
white and beautiful, advancing upon the hosts of the black
destroyers. Falling upon the people's foes, they devoured them
by the thousand, and when filled to repletion, disgorged and
feasted again. And they did not stop till the crickets were
destroyed. Again the skeptic will say this was but chance; but
the people accepted that chance as a providential ruling in their
behalf, and reverently did they give thanks.
Today the wanton killing of a gull in Utah is an offense in law;
but stronger than legal proscription, more powerful than fear of
judicial penalties, is the popular sentiment in favor of these
white-winged deliverers. Every year come these graceful
creatures to spend the springtime in the fields and upon the
lakes of Utah; and right well do they feel their welcome, for
they are habitually so tame and fearless that they may almost be
touched by the hand before they take flight.
By the autumn of 1848, five thousand people had already reached
the valley, and the food problem was a most difficult one. The
winter was severe; and famine, stark and inexorable, threw its
dread shadow over the people. There seemed to be an entry in the
book of fate that every possible test of human endurance and
integrity should be applied to this pilgrim band. Without
distinction as to former station, they went out and dug the roots
of weeds, gathered the tenderest of the coarse grass, thistles,
and wild berries, and thus did they subsist; upon such did they
feast with thanksgiving, until a less scanty harvest relieved
their wants.
It was at this time that the gold fever was at its height, a
consequence of the discovery of the precious metal in California,
in which discovery, indeed, certain members of the disbanded
"Mormon" Battalion, working their way eastward, were most
prominent. Some of the "Mormon" settlers, becoming infected with
the malady, hastened westward, but the counsel of the Church
authorities prevailed to keep all but a few at home. These
people had not left the country of their birth or adoption to
seek gold; nor bright jewels of the mine; nor the wealth of seas;
nor the spoils of war; they sought and believed they had found, a
faith's pure shrine. But the gold-seekers hastening westward,
and the successful miners returning eastward, halted at the
"Mormon" settlements and there replenished their supplies,
leaving their gold to enrich the people of the desert.
But of what use is gold in the wilderness! In the old legend a
famishing Arab, finding a well filled bag upon the sand was
thrilled with joy at the thought of dates--his bread; and then
was cast into the depths of despair when he realized that he had
found nothing but a bag of costly pearls. The settlers by the
lake needed horses and wagons, tools, implements of husbandry and
building; and gold was valuable only as it represented a means of
obtaining these. Gold became so plentiful and was withal so
worthless in the desert colony that men refused to take it for
their labor. The yellow metal was collected in buckets and
exported to the States in exchange for the goods so much desired.
Merchandise brought in by caravans of "prairie schooners," was
sold as fast as it could be put out; and strict rules were
enforced allowing but a proportionate amount to each purchaser.
Within a few months after the first settlement of Utah, public
schools were established; and one of the early acts of the
provisional government was to grant a charter to the Deseret
University, now known as the University of Utah.
Up to 1849, Utah had no political history. Settling in a Mexican
province, the contest to determine its future ownership by the
United States then in progress, the people in common with most
pioneer communities established their own form of government.
But in February, 1848, the treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo gave
California to the United States; months passed, however, before
the news of the change reached the west. Early in 1849, a call
had been issued to "all the citizens of that portion of Upper
California lying to the east of the Sierra Nevada mountains" to
meet in convention at Great Salt Lake City; and there a petition
was prepared asking of Congress the rights of self-government;
and pending action, a temporary regime was established, under the
name of the Provisional Government of the State of Deseret.
"Utah" was not the choice of the people as the name of their
state; that word served but to recall the degraded tribes who had
contested the settlement of the valleys. Deseret, a Book of
Mormon name for the honey bee, was more appropriate. The
petition of the people was denied in part, and, in 1850 was
established the territorial form of government in Utah.
Concerning the period of the provisional government, such men as
Gunnison, Stansbury, and other federal officials on duty in the
west, have recorded their praises of the "Mormon" colonists in
official reports. But with the un-American system of territorial
government came troubles.
At first, many of the territorial officials were appointed from
among the settlers themselves; thus, Brigham Young was the first
governor; but strangers, who knew not the people nor their ways,
filled with prejudice from the false reports they had heard, came
from the east to govern the colonists in the desert. Of the
federal appointees thus forced upon the people of Utah, many made
for themselves most unenviable records.
Some of them were broken politicians, professional
office-seekers, with no desire but to secure the greatest
possible gain out of their appointment. With effrontery that
would shock the modesty of a savage, the non-"Mormon" party
adopted and flagrantly displayed the carpet-bag as the badge of
their profession. But not all the officials sent to Utah from
afar were of this type; some of them were honorable and upright
men, and amongst this class the "Mormon" people reckon a number
who, while opposed to their religious tenets, were nevertheless
sincere and honest in the opposition they evinced.
In the early part of 1857, the published libels upon the people
received many serious additions, the principal of which was
promulgated in connection with the resignation of Judge Drummond
of the Utah federal court. In his last letter to the United
States attorney-general, he declared that his life was no longer
safe in Utah, and that he had been compelled to flee from his
bench; but the most serious charge of all was that the people had
destroyed the records of the court, and that they had resented,
with hostile demonstration, his protests; in short, that justice
was dethroned in Utah, and that the people were in a state of
open rebellion.
With mails three months apart, news traveled slowly; but as soon
as word of this infamous charge reached Salt Lake City, the clerk
of the court, Judge Drummond's clerk, sent a letter by express to
the attorney-general, denying under oath the judge's statements,
and attesting the declaration with official seal. The records,
he declared, had been untouched except by official hands, and
from the time of the court's establishment the files had been
safe and were then in his personal keeping. But, before the
clerk's communication had reached its destination, so difficult
is it for stately truth to overtake flitting falsehood, the
mischief had been done. Upon the most prejudiced reports utterly
unfounded in fact, with a carelessness which even his personal
and political friends found no ample means of explaining away,
President Buchanan allowed himself to be persuaded that a
"Mormon" rebellion existed, and ordered an army of over two
thousand men to proceed straightway to Utah to subdue the rebels.
Successors to the governor and other territorial officials were
appointed, among whom there was not a single resident of Utah;
and the military force was charged with the duty of installing
the foreign appointees.
With great dispatch and under cover of secrecy, so that the Utah
rebels might be taken by surprise, the army set out on the march.
Before the troops reached the Rocky Mountains, the sworn
statement from the clerk of the supreme court of Utah denying the
charges made by Judge Drummond became public property; and about
the same time men who had come from Utah to New York direct,
published over their own signatures a declaration that all was
peaceful in and about the settlements of Utah. The public eye
began to twitch, and soon to open wide; the conviction was
growing that someone had blundered. But to retract would be a
plain confession of error; blunders must be covered up.
Let us leave the soldiers on their westward march, and ascertain
how the news of the projected invasion reached the people of
Utah, and what effect the tidings produced. Certain "Mormon"
business agents, operating in Missouri, heard of the hostile
movement. At first they were incredulous, but when the overland
mail carrier from the west delivered his pouch and obtained his
receipt, but was refused the bag of Utah mail with the
postmaster's statement that he had been ordered to hold all mail
for Utah, there seemed no room for doubt. Two of the Utahns
immediately hastened westward.
On the 24th of July, 1857, the people had assembled in
celebration of Pioneer Day. Silver Lake, a mountain gem set
amidst the snows and forests and towering peaks of the
Cottonwoods, had been selected as a fitting site for the
festivities. The Stars and Stripes streamed above the camp;
bands played; choirs sang; there were speeches, and picnics, and
prayers. Experiences were compared as to the journeyings on the
plains; stories were told of the shifts to which the people had
been put by the vicissitudes of famine; but these dread
experiences seemed to them now like a dream of the night; on this
day all were happy. Were they not safe from savage foes both red
and white? There had been peace for a season; and their desert
homes were already smiling in wealth of flower and tree; the
wilderness was blossoming under their feet; their consciences
were void of offense toward their fellows. Yet at that very
hour, all unbeknown to themselves, and without the opportunity of
speaking a word in defense, these people had been convicted of
insurrection and treason.
It was midday and the festivities were at their height, when a
party of men rode into camp and sought an interview with Governor
Young. Three of them had plainly ridden hard and far; they gave
their report;--an armed force of thousands was at that hour
approaching the territory; the boasts of officers and men as to
what they would do when they found themselves in "Mormon" towns
were reported; and these stories called up, in the minds of those
who heard, the dread scenes of Far West and Nauvoo. Had these
colonists of the wilderness not gone far enough to satisfy the
hatred of their fellow-citizens in this republic of liberty?
They had halted between the civilization of the east and that of
the west, they had fled from the country that refused them a
home, and now the nation would eject them from their desert
lodgings.
A council was called and the situation was freely discussed. Had
they not seen, lo, these many times, organized battalions and
companies surpassing fiendish mobs in villainy? The evidence
warranted their conclusion that invasion meant massacre. With
tense calmness the plan of action was decided upon. It was the
general conviction that war was inevitable, and it was decided to
resist to the last. Then, if the army forced its way into the
valleys of Utah on hostile purpose bent, it should find the land
as truly a desert as it was when the pioneers first took
possession. To this effect was the decision:--We have built
cities in the east for our foes to occupy; our very temples have
been desecrated and destroyed by them; but, with the help of
Israel's God, we will prevent them enriching themselves with the
spoils of our labors in these mountain retreats.
There seemed to be no room for doubt that war was about to break
upon them; and with such a prospect, men may be expected to take
every advantage of their situation. Brigham Young was still
governor of Utah, and the militia was subject to his order.
Promptly he proclaimed the territory under martial law, and
forbade any armed body to cross its boundaries. Echo Canyon, the
one promising route of ingress, was fortified. In those defiles
an army might easily be stopped by a few; ammunition stations
were established; provisions were cached; boulders were collected
upon the cliffs beneath which the invaders must pass if they held
to their purpose of forcing an entrance. The people had been
roused to desperation, and force was to be met with force. In
the settlements, combustibles were placed in readiness, and if
the worst came, every "Mormon" house would be reduced to ashes,
every tree would be hewn down.
With an experience of suffering that would have well served a
better cause, this picked detachment of the United States army
made its way to the Green River country; and there, counting well
the cost of proceeding farther, went into camp at Fort Bridger.
Many of the troops had almost perished in the storms, for it was
late in November, and the winter had closed in early. Colonel
Cooke reported to the commandant that half his horses had
perished through cold and lack of food; hundreds of beef cattle
had died; yet the region was so wild and forbidding that scarcely
a wolf ventured there to glut itself upon the carcasses. In
Cooke's own words we read that for thirty miles the road was
blocked with carcasses--and "with abandoned and shattered
property, they mark, perhaps beyond example in history, the steps
of an advancing army with the horrors of a disastrous retreat."
With the army traveled the new federal appointees to offices in
the territory. Cumming, the governor-to-be, issued a
proclamation from his dug-out lodgings, and sent it to Salt Lake
City by courier; he signed it as "Governor of Utah Territory."
This but belittled him, for by the very terms of the Organic Act,
to uphold which was the professed purpose of his coming, he was
not governor until the oath of office had been duly administered
and subscribed. A few days later he went before his
fellow-sufferer Eckles, the appointee for chief justice of Utah,
and took an oath; but why did he swear so recklessly when the one
before whom he swore was no more an official than himself?
The army wintered at a satisfactory distance from Salt Lake City,
and such a winter, according to official reports, the soldiers of
our nation have rarely had to brave. It was soon apparent that
they need fear no "Mormon" attack; orders had been issued to the
territorial militia to take no life except in cases of absolute
necessity; but General Johnston and his staff had more than their
match in battling with the elements. Communications between
Governor Young and the commandant were frequent; safe conduct was
assured any and all officers who chose to enter the city; and if
necessary hostages were to be given; but the governor was
inexorable in his ultimatum that, as an organized body with
hostile purpose, the soldiers should not pass the mountain
gateway. In the meantime, a full account of the situation was
reported by Governor Young to the President of the United States,
and the truth slowly made its way into the eastern press.
President Buchanan tacitly admitted his mistake; but to recall
the troops at that juncture would be to confess humiliating
failure.
A peace commissioner, in the person of Colonel Kane, was
dispatched to Salt Lake City; his coming being made known to
Governor Young, an escort was sent to meet him and conduct him
through the "Mormon" lines. The result of the conference was
that the "Mormon" leaders but reiterated their statement that the
President's appointees would be given safe entry to the city, and
be duly installed in their offices, provided they would enter
without the army. This ultimatum was carried to the federal
camp; and to the open chagrin of the commandant, Governor Cumming
and his fellow appointees moved to Salt Lake City under "Mormon"
escort, after a five months' halt in the wilderness.
I believe that strategy is usually allowed in war, and I am free
to say the "Mormons" availed themselves of this license. At
short intervals in the course of the night-passage through the
canyon, the party was challenged, and the password demanded;
bon-fires were blazing down in the gorges, and the impression was
made that the mountains were full of armed men; whereas the
sentries were members of the escort, who, preceding by short cuts
the main party, continued to challenge and to pass. On their
arrival, the gentlemen were met by the retiring officials, and
were peaceably installed. The new governor called upon the clerk
of the court, and ascertained the truth of the statement that the
records were entirely safe. He promptly reported his conclusions
to General Johnston that there was no further need for the army.
It was decided, however, that the soldiers should be permitted to
march through the city, and straightway the "Mormons" began their
exodus to the south.
Governor Cumming tried in vain to induce the people to remain,
assuring them that the troops would commit no depredations. "Not
so," said Brigham Young, "we have had experience with troops in
the past, Governor Cumming; we have seen our leaders shot down by
the demoralized soldiery; we have seen mothers with babes at
their breasts sent to their last home by the same bullet; we have
witnessed outrages beyond description. You are now Governor of
Utah; we can no longer command the militia for our own defense.
We do not wish to fight, therefore we depart." Leaving a few men
to apply the brand to the combustibles stored in every house, at
the first sign of plunder by the soldiers, the people again
deserted their homes and moved into the desert anew.
But the officers of the army kept their word; the troops were put
into camp forty miles from the settlements, and the settlers
returned. The President's commissioners brought the official
pardon, unsolicited, for all acts committed by the "Mormons" in
opposing the entrance of the army. The people asked what they
had done that needed pardon; they had not robbed, they had not
killed. But a critical analysis of these troublous events
revealed at least one overt act--some "Mormon" scouts had
challenged a supply train; and, being opposed, they had destroyed
some of the wagons and provisions; and for this they accepted the
President's most gracious pardon.