Part 69 (1/2)

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 t.i.tus 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. c.u.mming 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 const.i.tution?”

”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.

CHAPTER XX. -- GENTILE IRRUPTION AND MORMON SCHISM

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 pa.s.sage 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 acc.u.mulation 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 h.e.l.l all the time, and raising devils to keep it going.

They brought their h.e.l.l 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 dest.i.tute 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-mola.s.ses, and the vegetables and fruits of their gardens.... It was at Camp Floyd, indeed, where the princ.i.p.al 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 t.i.the for the expenditure of which no account was rendered. One year, when asked for their t.i.the, 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 t.i.the 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 a.s.sa.s.sination 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.