The Rocky Mountain Saints/Chapter 34
- THE CIVIL HISTORY OF UTAH.
- The "State of Deseret" created
- The Crickets destroy the Crops
- A Miracle performed
- Great Privations of the Mormons
- Territorial Government extended over Utah
- Trouble with the Federal Officers.
The troubles of the Saints in Jackson county, Missouri—if Joseph's revelations are accepted as divine communications—conveyed to "the Lord" and his Saints valuable experience in human affairs. The last revelation affecting that "Zion" illustrated clearly two simple propositions: First, that if the Saints purchased all the land in Jackson county, there would be no land left for the Gentiles to purchase. Secondly, that as the Gentiles had always troubled the Mormons while they were living among them, if there were no Gentiles among these the Saints would not be troubled. This logic was not lost upon Brigham, and henceforth the policy of the Church was to occupy all the available lands in the county just as fast as they could do so.
What is now Davis and Weber counties, directly north of Salt Lake City, was taken possession of by the Mormons in the spring of 1848. Miles Goodyier, an Indian trader, at that time occupied the land on which is now built the city of Ogden, where the Union and Pacific Railroads form their junction; and from this trader, Captain James Brown, of the Mormon Battalion, purchased his shanties and a Mexican grant of land, and got him out of the way of "the kingdom." Tooele county, about forty miles to the west of Salt Lake City, and Utah county, about the same distance to the south, were taken possession of in the spring of 1849.
Up to this time there was no United States civil government in the country.
When the Mormons arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, in July, 1847, the Territory belonged to Mexico; but by the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, in March, 1848, it was passed over to the United States with New Mexico and the whole of Upper California. This was unforeseen and undesirable to the Mormon leaders, for they could have dictated terms to Mexico and have worked out better the theocratic problem with the relics of the Montezumas, than with the Anglo-Saxon descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers.
The United States government was slow in extending its political jurisdiction over the newly-acquired domain, and this furnished the apostles and prophets an opportunity of creating "a provisional independent government" for themselves.
A convention of citizens was held in Great Salt Lake City on the 5th of March, 1849, at which (on the 18th) the following constitution was adopted:
"We, the people, grateful to the Supreme Being for the blessings hitherto enjoyed, and feeling our dependence on Him for a continuation of those blessings, Do ordain and establish a free and independent Government by the name of the State of Deseret, including all the territory of the United States within the following boundaries, to wit: commencing at the 33° of north latitude, where it crosses the 108° of longitude, west of Greenwich; thence running south and west to the boundary of Mexico; thence west to and down the main channel of the Gila river (or the northern line of Mexico), and on the northern boundary of Lower California to the Pacific Ocean; thence along the coast northwesterly to the 118° 30' of west longitude; thence north to where said line intersects the dividing ridge of the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the dividing range of mountains that separates the waters flowing into the Columbia river from the waters running into the great Basin on the south, to the summit of the Wind River chain of mountains; thence southeast and south by the dividing range of mountains that separates the waters flowing into the Gulf of Mexico from the waters flowing into the Gulf of California, to the place of beginning as set forth in a map drawn by Charles Preuss and published by order of the Senate of the United States in 1848."
A glance at the map of North America will furnish some idea of the modest aspirations of the convention. Within the boundaries of that "State of Deseret" there was room enough to hold half of the monarchies of Europe.
Brigham Young was elected Governor of the new State, and, with the other officers elected, swore fidelity to the Constitution of the United States. The legislative Assembly met in July, elected Almon W. Babbitt delegate to Congress, and sent him immediately to Washington with the constitution and a memorial praying for the admission of "Deseret" into the Union.
Though rejoicing in their deliverance from Gentile mobs, and happy in the prospect of future greatness, the Saints were not yet free from the cares and anxieties of life. Their situation in the "fat valleys of Ephraim" was for some years precarious. Their first crops were abundant and timely, but those of the following year caused them great anxiety. At one time myriads of crickets attacked their fields of grain, till it seemed that all would be utterly destroyed; but "the Lord" sent flocks of gulls from the islands of the lake to devour the destroyers. The gulls came in the early dawn of morning and feasted upon the crickets all day. When full, they disgorged them and began again their repast, and repeated their experience in eating till night closed upon their labours. The Mormons very naturally claim that the coming of the gulls was a great miracle in their behalf. Of course the sceptical might have something to say about who sent the crickets; but gratitude for any kind providence is better encouraged than contemned.[1]
The crops that escaped the ravages of the crickets exhibited in their abundance that the virgin soil of the valleys was very rich. Oats were reported to do better than in the States;[2] wheat yielded commonly sixty bushels to the acre; and other grains and vegetables were equally well reported in the first year.
"One of the elders states that he had sown eleven pounds of California wheat, on the 14th of April, and from that reaped twenty-two bushels in the latter part of July. From half a bushel of common English wheat, on an acre and a half of land, he reaped over twenty bushels, and one grain of seven-eared wheat produced seventy-two ears. Barley that was sowed ripened and was reaped and carried off, the land irrigated and produced from the roots a fresh crop four times the quantity of the first crop. Oats that were sown produced a good crop, were cut down and cleared, the roots again sprang up, and produced another beautiful crop. Peas, first plant, a good crop ripened, gathered, then planted the same peas, yielded another crop and again a third crop is now growing. Beet-seed planted this spring produced beets as thick as my leg, which went to seed and yielded a great quantity. Cabbage seed planted this spring produced seed again."
To this flattering story of the productiveness of the country, elder Thomas Bullock, Brigham's clerk, adds: "Above all they report that Mother Sessions [une accoucheuse] has had a harvest of 248 little cherubs since living in the valley. Many cases of twins. In a row of seven houses joining each other, eight births in one week." His soul bounding with gratitude, "brother Thomas" exclaims:
"Oh, ye hungry souls, rejoice and shout for joy! Praise the Lord, and give thanks! Oh, ye barren; ye who have been bereft of your children, praise the Lord. The place is found where you can rear your tender offspring like olive branches round your tables, where they can have plenty to be fed and clothed withal; where your souls can be lifted up unto the Lord God of Hosts, for his mercies endure for ever. The place is found where the Saints can rear another temple to the Great Jehovah; hear his word, and from whence his laws may go forth to the ends of the earth. Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna to God and the Lamb for ever. Amen."
However much the foreign Saints may already have rejoiced in the Latter-day faith, such a letter was worth a hundred sermons and epistles upon emigration. The Author well remembers how it caught the toiling, struggling, poor Saints of Britain, and the delicate comfort extended to the spinsters was not unappreciated. Many a downcast mourning soul drank consolation and sang with joy—"To the West, to the West, to the land of the free!"
The large increase of emigrants in 1848, together with the destruction of the crops by the grasshoppers, rendered provisions very scarce in the spring of 1849. The inventory of provisions showed that there was only three-quarters of a pound of breadstuffs per day for each person up to the 5th of July. The people were put upon rations, and much suffering ensued. Many of them went out with the Indians and dug small native roots, and ate them with anything they could get. It is related that some, in their destitution, even took the hides of animals with which they had covered the roofs of their houses, and cut them up and cooked them for their use.
"The desert to which they had come was as cheerless as their past history. From cruel foes they had fled to as unfeeling a wilderness. Renewed difficulties demanded a renewed effort from Brigham. Everything depended on him. Starvation and nakedness stared in the gloomy faces of the desponding people. Murmurs and complaints were uttered. He quelled everything; scolded, pleaded, threatened, prophesied, and subdued them. With a restless but resistless energy he set them to work, and worked himself as their example. He directed their labours, controlled their domestic affairs, preached at them, to them, for them. He told foolish anecdotes to make them laugh, encouraged their dancing to make them merry, got up theatrical performances to distract their minds, and made them work hard, certain of rendering them contented by-and-by. Feared with a stronger fear, venerated with a more rational veneration, but not loved with the same clinging tenderness that the people still felt for Joseph Smith, Brigham swayed them at his will. They learned to dread his iron hand, and were daunted by his iron heart."[3]
The harvest of 1849 was fortunately abundant, and all was saved.
In August of that year Captain Howard Stansbury, of the United States army topographical engineers, with his assistants, arrived in the valley for the purpose of making a government survey.
Throughout the winter of 1849-50 the Indians south of Salt Lake became very troublesome, stealing cattle, and finally firing upon the settlers. Brigham preferred peace to war with them thought that it was cheaper to feed than to fight them, and pursued a conciliatory policy. But the red man required experience. As Governor of the State of Deseret, Brigham called out the militia, entrusted it to Gen. Daniel H. Wells, who, accompanied by a lieutenant of Capt. Stansbury's command, and a hundred of "the brethren," went after the Indians. The Mormons drove the red-skins out from the banks of the Timpanogos on to Utah lake, which was then frozen, and there killed about thirty and took over twice that number prisoners. The whites lost one man, and six wounded. This fight and the disposition of the prisoners[4] struck the Indians with terror, and their braves sued for peace.
Another change was in store for the Saints.
Three of the Battalion Mormons, upon being discharged from the United States service in California, found occupation with Thomas Marshall, of gold-discovery notoriety, and while working for him, digging Capt. Sutter's mill-race, these three "brethren" claim to have found the gold. The glory of this event is, therefore, appropriated by the Saints, and forms part of the buncombe speeches on all great occasions, when the virtues and worth of the Saints are exhibited.
The immense emigration across the plains in 1850 brought large quantities of clothing, dry-goods, and general merchandise into Great Salt Lake City. Many of the immigrants had loaded up with heavy stocks of goods, mechanics' tools, and general machinery, expecting to find a ready sale for them in the new Eldorado. Most of them had splendid outfits, and everything necessary to support themselves in a new country., Some parties, who had left the States late, had travelled fast and passed the other immigrants on the way, brought the report that steamers had sailed from New York loaded with passengers and merchandise for California, and that the new coun try would be flooded with both.
With such a report ringing in their ears, there was now no time to lose, and everything was to be sacrificed to expedite the journey. When they arrived in Salt Lake Valley, the Mormons obtained almost everything they wanted in exchange for grain and vegetables. Stories are related of the frantic haste with which many of the emigrants would part with wagons, cattle, and goods, for a horse or mule outfit to carry them to California. The Saints were thus suddenly prosperous, and several of the predictions of the leaders were, in this manner, claimed to be fulfilled.
In the midst of their distress in the wilderness, when leaving civilization and commerce behind, and, to all human appearance, going into a desert where the Gentiles would not follow them, Heber C. Kimball had predicted to the Saints that they "would yet buy goods as cheap in the mountains as they could in New York city." Brigham had told them that in five years "they would be better off than ever they were before," and thus the unlooked-for rush to California fulfilled the prediction, and "the people acknowledged the accomplishment of that divine inspiration." At the same time one of Joseph's predictions had its fulfilment. When the Kirtland Safety Society Bank burst in 1838, its notes were not worth the clean paper. Joseph predicted that "they would yet be as good as gold." When the Battalion gold discoverers returned to the valley, they deposited with the Church leaders large quantities of gold-dust, and, with that as a basis, the Kirtland notes were for a little time put into circulation as a convenience, "on a par with gold," and in that way the prediction was fulfilled. Had the bundles of the Kirtland Safety Society notes still in Ohio been convertible and "good as gold," the holders of that paper would have seen the prediction and its fulfilment more clearly. A momentary convenience of exchange between Brother Smith and Brother Jones in Salt Lake valley (for momentary and very limited it certainly was) being the fulfilment of a prediction, requires an "eye of faith" to see.
The Congress of the United States ignored the "State of Deseret;" and on the 9th of September, 1850, extended over the country occupied by the Mormons the Territorial organization of Utah within the following limits: "bounded on the west by the State of California, on the north by the Territory of Oregon, on the east by the summits of the Rocky Mountains, and on the south by the 37th parallel of north latitude," with the proviso that Congress should be at liberty, when it might be deemed "convenient and proper," to cut it up into two or more Territories, or to attach any portion of it to any other State or Territory. On the 28th of that month, his Excellency Millard Fillmore, President of the United States, appointed, "with the advice and consent of the Senate," Brigham Young, of Deseret, Governor; B. D. Harris, of Vermont, Secretary; Joseph Buffington, of Pennsylvania, Chief Justice; Perry E. Brocchus, of Alabama, Zerubbabel Snow, of Ohio, Associate Justices; Seth M. Blair, of Deseret, U. S. Attorney; and Joseph L. Heywood, of Deseret, U. S. Marshal.
Mr. Buffington declined serving as chief-justice, and Lemuel G. Brandebury was appointed in his stead.
Snow, Blair, and Heywood were Mormons, and, with Brigham added, it gave the majority of the Federal offices to the Saints, for which the name of President Fillmore is held in high esteem. At once the political capital of Utah—a hundred and fifty miles south of Salt Lake City—was designated Fillmore, and the county Millard. It is due to this statesman to add, that the charge which has been frequently made against him, of appointing Brigham Young governor "while he knew that he had eight wives," is very unfair. President Fillmore appointed Brigham on the recommendation of Col. Thomas L. Kane, and upon the assurance of that gentleman that the I charges against Brigham Young's Christian morality were unfounded. Col. Kane was long enough among the Mormons, and familiar enough with them on their journey between Nauvoo and Council Bluffs, to have learned that polygamy was a fact in Mormonism, unless the Mormons designedly kept him in ignorance, and deceived him. The larger number of the "eight wives" complained of were sealed to Brigham on the banks of the Missouri. Probably, Col. Kane did not personally know polygamy to be a fact, and certainly neither President Fillmore nor the Senate knew it.[5]
On the 3rd of February, 1851, Brigham Young took the oath of office, and was formally acknowledged governor of Utah. He preferred Deseret under "the Lord," but with the characteristic instinct of his nature—the love of rule—rather than see a Gentile appointed governor of Utah, he himself accepted that office under Congress. On the 25th of March he issued a special message to the general assembly of the State of Deseret, notifying them of the action of Congress. On the 5th of April, 1852, Deseret merged into Utah officially, but the State organization was continued and exists to-day as much as ever it did. Nominally, the civil authority is Utah: de facto it is Deseret. The Government pays the Territorial legislators their per diem for making the laws of Utah, and hands them their mileage at the end of the session. On the day succeeding the close, Brigham, as governor of Deseret, convenes them as a State legislation: reads his message to them, and some one proposes that the laws of the legislature, of Utah be adopted by the State of Deseret. In this manner, Brigham is continued governor de facto, and hence the tenacity with which the name of "Deseret" is preserved. To give to the State that succeeds the Territory of Utah any other name than "Deseret" would be to throw discredit upon the inspiration that named the provisional Government in 1849. Let but the Federal Congress name it "Deseret"—come when it may into the Union—and Brigham and his worshippers will see, through all the tortuous windings of its history for over a score of years, the finger of God, and the dark deeds of the past will be sanctified in their sight. They will believe that "the Lord" has been with Brigham throughout.
The Gentile Federal officers arrived in July of 1851, and very soon after their arrival concluded that Utah was not the most pleasant place in the world for unbelievers. They attended a special conference of the Church held in September, and were honoured with an invitation to sit on the platform with the prophets. On that occasion the proposition was made to send a block of Utah marble or granite as the Territorial contribution to the Washington monument at the seat of Government. Associate Justice Brocchus made a speech, and before closing it drifted on to polygamy. He spoke irreverently of that institution, going so far as to assure the ladies of its immorality, reproved the leaders for their disrespectful language concerning the Government and their consignment of President Zachary Taylor to the nether regions. This was something new in the Rocky Mountain Zion, and the "Lion of the Lord" was in a moment aroused.
The audience was indignant at Brocchus, and when Brigham let himself loose on to the unfortunate Judge, the people would have torn that Federal functionary into shreds if the Prophet had not restrained them. When Brigham reiterated the situation and locality of the then recently deceased President Taylor, the Judge put in a demurrer, on which "brother Heber" kindly touched his Honour on the shoulder and assured him that he need not doubt the statement, for he would see him when he got there. Heber's witty endorsement of Brigham was anything but reassuring to the Judge.
It was on this occasion that Brigham immortalized the crooking of his little finger. "If," said he, "I had but crooked my little finger, he would have been used up; but I did not bend it. If I had, the sisters alone felt indignant enough to have chopped him in pieces."[6] Since that memorable day he had, not infrequently warned the troublesome of the danger of crooking that finger, and it was no idle threat when he said: "Apostates, or men who never made any profession of religion, had better be careful how they come here, lest I should bend my little finger."[7]
Judge Brocchus, failing to humble himself before "the servants of the Lord," thought that retirement from the Territory would be favoured by the Life Insurance Company, and he, accompanied by Chief Justice Brandebury and Secretary Harris, soon after bade a long farewell to Zion. Miss Eliza R. Snow's clever pen satirized the retreating Federals, in popular verse, and assured them and the world when they left the Saints that:
This, however, was only poetic truth, for Secretary Harris, who was the custodian of the Territorial funds, retired with $24,000, which had been appropriated by Congress for the "per diem" and mileage of the legislature. This was a great annoyance to the Prophet-Governor, and he attempted to restrain the Secretary ; but Mr. Harris stuck to the treasure and returned it to the proper department of the Government. The Federal officers, on their arrival in the Eastern States, published a hastily written statement of the whole occurrence, and very indiscreetly used the expression that "Polygamy monopolized all the women, which made it very inconvenient for the Federal officers to reside there." Loose as people might suppose frontier life to be, no one anticipated that representatives of the Federal Government would thus express themselves. That one sentence annihilated them.
Over the signature of Jedediah M. Grant, Brigham's counsellor, a series of letters was addressed to the New York Herald, under the title of "Truth for the Mormons," in which the Federal officials were turned into ridicule and fiercely handled. The Herald gave the public only one letter; but Grant, nothing daunted, published the whole series in pamphlet form, and scattered them broadcast. The Grant letters, from their forcible and pungent style, attracted the attention of literary men as gems of wit and vigorous English. They were so far superior to the Mormon literature that preceded them, and so much above Jedediah himself, that great credit was given by the Saints to the special inspiration which controlled him. In after years it was really painful to the Author to learn that two of Pennsylvania's honoured sons, already alluded to in this work—one no less than an ex-Vice-President of the United States, and the other enjoying a military title—were the inspiration and authors of the famous letters. What a charm there is in a mild and harmless delusion!
On the departure of the judges and secretary from Utah, Brigham appointed his counsellor, Willard Richards, Secretary of the Territory. Associate Justice Snow, being a Mormon, took no offence, and remained, and the Legislature of the Territory clothed the Probate courts with "both appellate and original jurisdiction," and the Federal judges could thereafter be easily dispensed with. The Saints had really no use for them.
- ↑ An enthusiastic Mormon writer, seeking to place divine interference beyond all doubt, asserted that "there were no gulls in the country before the Mormons went there!" This statement is about as facetious as that of one of the apostles who reported that no harm had befallen the pioneers, "except in two or three instances horses were shot accidentally, or killed by not hearkening to counsel!"
- ↑ P. P. Pratt's letter [August 7, 1848] to Brigham Young, Millennial Star, Vol. X., p. 370.
- ↑ "Mormonism: Its Leaders and Designs," p. 145.
- ↑ It is said that the order was given to "leave neither root nor branch of them," and that it was executed to the very letter. "A party was driven up Table Mountain, but were induced to come down and surrender. They were guarded in camp until the morning, and then ordered to give up their weapons. They refused to do this, and acting in a sullen and hostile manner, were fired upon and nearly all killed immediately. A few broke through the line of sentinels, and endeavoured to escape by crossing the lake on the ice, but were chased down by horsemen, and 'ceased to breathe.' My informant was an actor in the terrible scene."—"Gunnison," p. 147.
- ↑ The Author was so informed by letter from ex-President Fillmore.
- ↑ "Journal of Discourses," p. 186-7.
- ↑ Ib., p. 167.