Part 68 (1/2)

But the Mormon spirit was to be still further tested. On December 8 Governor Harding read his first message to the territorial legislature.

It began with a tribute to the industry and enterprise of the people; spoke of the progress of the war, and of the application of the territory for statehood, and in this connection said, ”I am sorry to say that since my sojourn amongst you I have heard no sentiments, either publicly or privately expressed, that would lead me to believe that much sympathy is felt by any considerable number of your people in favor of the government of the United States, now struggling for its very existence.” He declared that the demand for statehood should not be entertained unless it was ”clearly shown that there is a sufficient population” and ”that the people are loyal to the federal government and the laws.” He recommended the taking of a correct census to settle the question of population. All these utterances were gall and wormwood to a body of Mormon lawmakers, but worse was to come. Congress having pa.s.sed an act ”to prevent and punish the practice of polygamy in the territories,” the governor naturally considered it his duty to call attention to the matter. Prevising that he desired to do so ”in no offensive manner or unkind spirit,” he pointed out that the practice was founded on no territorial law, resting merely on custom; and laid, down the principle that ”no community can happily exist with an inst.i.tution so important as that of marriage wanting in all those qualities that make it h.o.m.ogeneal with inst.i.tutions and laws of neighboring civilized countries having the same spirit.” He spoke of the marriage of a mother and her daughter to the same man as ”no less a marvel in morals than in matters of taste,” and warned them against following the recommendation of high church authorities that the federal law be disregarded. This message, according to the Mormon historian, was ”an insult offered to their representatives.”*

* Tullidge's ”History of Salt Lake City,” p. 305.

These representatives resented the ”insult” by making no reference in the journal to the reading of the message, and by failing to have it printed. When this was made known in Was.h.i.+ngton, the Senate, on January 16, 1863, called for a report by the Committee on Territories concerning the suppression of the message, and they got one from its chairman, Benjamin Wade, pointing out that Utah Territory was in the control of ”a sort of Jewish theocracy,” affording ”the first exhibition, within the limits of the United States, of a church ruling the state,” and declaring that the governor's message contained ”nothing that should give offence to any legislature willing to be governed by the laws of morality,” closing with a recommendation that the message be printed by Congress. The territorial legislature adjourned on January 16 without sending to Governor Harding for his approval a single appropriation bill, and the next day the so-called legislature of the State of Deseret met and received a message from the state governor, Brigham Young.

Next the new federal judges came under Mormon displeasure. We have seen the conflict of jurisdiction existing between the federal and the so-called probate courts and their officers. Judge Waite perceived the difficulties thus caused as soon as he entered upon his duties, and he sent to Was.h.i.+ngton an act giving the United States marshal authority to select juries for the federal courts, taking from the probate courts jurisdiction in civil actions, and leaving them a limited criminal jurisdiction subject to appeal to the federal court, and providing for a reorganization of the militia under the federal governor. Bernhisel and Hooper sent home immediate notice of the arrival of this bill in Was.h.i.+ngton.

Now, indeed, it was time for Brigham to ”bend his finger.” If a governor could openly criticise polygamy, and a judge seek to undermine Young's legal and military authority, without a protest, his days of power were certainly drawing to a close. Accordingly, a big ma.s.s-meeting was held in Salt Lake City on March 3, 1863, ”for the purpose of investigating certain acts of several of the United States officials in the territory.” Speeches were made by John Taylor and Young, in which the governor and judges were denounced.* A committee was appointed to ask the governor and two judges to resign and leave the territory, and a pet.i.tion was signed requesting President Lincoln to remove them, the first reason stated being that ”they are strenuously endeavoring to create mischief, and stir up strife between the people of the territory and the troops in Camp Douglas.” The meeting then adjourned, the band playing the ”Ma.r.s.eillaise.”

* Reported in Mrs. Waite's ”Mormon Prophet,” pp. 98-102.

The committee, consisting of John Taylor, J. Clinton, and Orson Pratt, called on the governor and the judges the next morning, and met with a flat refusal to pay any attention to the mandate of the meeting. ”You may go back and tell your const.i.tuents,” said Governor Harding, ”that I will not resign my office, and will not leave this territory, until it shall please the President to recall me. I will not be driven away. I may be in danger in staying, but my purpose is fixed.” Judge Drake told the committee that he had a right to ask Congress to pa.s.s or amend any law, and that it was a special insult for him, a citizen, to be asked by Taylor, a foreigner, to leave any part of the Republic. ”Go back to Brigham Young, your master,” said he, ”that embodiment of sin, shame, and disgust, and tell him that I neither fear him, nor love him, nor hate him--that I utterly despise him. Tell him, whose tools and tricksters you are, that I did not come here by his permission, and that I will not go away at his desire nor by his direction.... A horse thief or a murderer has, when arrested, a right to speak in court; and, unless in such capacity or under such circ.u.mstances, don't you even dare to speak to me again.” Judge Waite simply declined to resign because to do so would imply ”either that I was sensible of having done something wrong, or that I was afraid to remain at my post and perform my duty.”**

* Text of replies in Mrs. Waite's ”Mormon Prophet,” pp. 107-109.

As soon as the action of the Mormon ma.s.s-meeting became known at Camp Douglas, all the commissioned officers there signed a counter pet.i.tion to President Lincoln, ”as an act of duty we owe our government,”

declaring that the charge of inciting trouble between the people and the troops was ”a base and unqualified falsehood,” that the accused officers had been ”true and faithful to the government,” and that there was no good reason for their removal.

Excitement in Salt Lake City now ran high. Young, in a violent harangue in the Tabernacle on March 8, after declaring his loyalty to the government, said, ”Is there anything that could be asked that we would not do? Yes. Let the present administration ask us for a thousand men, or even five hundred, and I'd see them d--d first, and then they could not have them. What do you think of that?' (Loud cries of 'Good, Good,'

and great applause.)”*

* Correspondence of the Chicago Tribune.

Young expected arrest, and had a signal arranged by which the citizens would rush to his support if this was attempted. A false alarm of this kind was given on March 9, and in an hour two thousand armed men were a.s.sembled around his house.* Steptoe, who in an earlier year had declined the governors.h.i.+p of the territory and pet.i.tioned for Young's reappointment, took credit for what followed in an article in the Overland Monthly for December, 1896. Being at Salt Lake City at the time, he suggested to Wells and other leaders that they charge Young with the crime of polygamy before one of the magistrates, and have him arraigned and admitted to bail, in order to place him beyond the reach of the military officers. The affidavit was sworn to before the compliant Chief Justice Kinney by Young's private secretary, was served by the territorial marshal, and Young was released in $5000 bail.

Colonel Connor was informed of this arrest before he arrived in the city, and retraced his steps; the citizens dispersed to their homes; the grand jury found no indictment against Young, and in due time he was discharged from his recognizance.

* ”On the inside of the high walls surrounding Brigham's premises scaffolding was hastily erected in order to enable the militia to fire down upon the pa.s.sing volunteers. The houses on the route which occupied a commanding position where an attack could be made upon the troops were taken possession of, and the small cannon brought out.”--”Rocky Mountain Saints,” p. 604.

”In the meantime,” says a Mormon chronicler, ”our 'outside' friends in this city telegraphed to those interested in the mail* and telegraph lines that they must work for the removal of the troops, Governor Harding, and Judges Waite and Drake, otherwise there would be 'difficulty,' and the mail and telegraph lines would be destroyed. Their moneyed interest has given them great energy in our behalf.”** This ”work” told Governor Harding was removed, leaving the territory on June 11 and, as proof that this was due to ”work” and not to his own incapacity, he was made Chief Justice of Colorado Territory.*** With him were displaced Chief Justice Kinney and Secretary Fuller.**** Judges Waite and Drake wrote to the President that it would take the support of five thousand men to make the federal courts in Utah effective.

Waite resigned in the summer of 1863. Drake remained, but his court did practically no business.

* The first Pony Express left Sacramento and St. Joseph, Missouri, on April 3, 1860. Major General M. B. Hazen in an official letter dated February, 1807 (House Misc. Doc. No. 75, 2d Session, 39th Congress), said: ”Ben Holiday I believe to be the only outsider acceptable to those people, and to benefit himself I believe he would throw the whole weight of his influence in favor of Mormonism. By the terms of his contract to carry the mails from the Missouri to Utah, all papers and pamphlets for the newsdealers, not directed to subscribers, are thrown out. It looks very much like a scheme to keep light out of that country, nowhere so much needed.”

** D. O. Calder's letter to George Q. Cannon, March 13, 1863, in Millennial Star.