The Rocky Mountain Saints/Chapter 39
- THE TWO ARMIES.
- The Saints rejoice, and sing their Warlike Songs
- The Federal Troops in Camp Scott
- Brigham sends them a Present of Salt
- "The Lord" is to destroy the Enemies of Zion
- Col. Kane arrives among the Mormons and converts Brigham
- The Prophet concludes that he cannot "whip" the United States
- He proposes Flight
- Means to take Care of Himself
- Col. Kane visits Gov. Cumming and arranges a Basis of Prospective Peace
- He offends Gen. Johnston
- A Duel imminent
- The Mormons flee from their Homes.
While these misfortunes beset the Government troops, the Mormons were the happiest of mortals. The calamities that had befallen their own hand-cart emigrants only the year before were instantly forgotten, and the sufferings and privations of the soldiers were regarded as the immediate and direct judgments of the Almighty against those who would "fight against Zion."
As the snow had closed the passage through the mountain cañons, there was no longer any necessity for "defence," and the brethren returned to the settlements to be greeted with songs of victory. One of the pæans of the time was a "Welcome to the returned warriors of Zion: dedicated to Lieutenant-General Wells and his co-champions in arms," which expresses the view that the enthusiastic took of their situation:
That was the gayest winter ever known in Utah, and dancing and theatrical representations were every where encouraged, while the songs of the Mormon camps, adapted to the popular negro melodies of the day, were brought into the city and were heard in all the assemblies. The Sunday worship was enlivened with the jovial chorus of "Du dah,"[1] and the "sweet singers of Israel" discoursed Mormon patriotic sentiments to the air of "The Red, White, and Blue." To fire the souls of the Saints, one of the brethren, who is now an "apostate," made a most excellent translation of the "Marseillaise Hymn," while another of the elders sang the praises of the "warriors" in verse that has immortalized him among the poets of the Tabernacle. Nor were the sisters wanting in enthusiam. Sister "E——— M———"—a delicate, petite English lady, whose heart would have been moved at the violent death of a spider, aroused with her eloquence "the defenders of Zion" to "gird on for the fight." She was "inspired."
The following verses are illustrative of the warlike enthusiasm to which the preaching of the leading elders had brought the people:
Brother C. W. Penrose, the author of this effusion, at this date had nothing of the mountain bluster and boasting in his disposition. He was a young man of very pleasant manners, a missionary, with a more than average mental cultivation. His poetry only expressed the heart-felt convictions to which the teachings of the priesthood had led him. He fully and unquestioningly believed, as indeed did all the Mormons, what Brigham Young taught. With "the Lord" to fight their battles, the few Saints were a match for the whole world. They knew no fear; they only awaited the word to arise and conquer, and every mile that the United States troops advanced towards their homes, only brought the hoped-for consummation more pleasantly near to their longing souls. Many, doubtless, shared the sentiments of Brigham, and his hatred of all authority outside of himself; but the masses have nothing of blood-thirstiness in their character. As the United States army approached, they saw only the fulfilment of predictions, and naturally longed to be the witnesses of the Lord's power.
From the pen of that same "C. W. P." flowed the sweetest song that the Mormons ever sang. At all great gatherings a little Scotchman with a warbling voice is certain to be invited to sing "O Zion," in which the whole audience, contrary to the usages of the Tabernacle services, burst forth in the chorus. This effusion is sung to the sweet air of "Lily Dale":
No words can express the electrifying influence of this song upon a Mormon audience. As the sound of the last words dies away, an outburst of enthusiasm is certain to follow. If the occasion is a religious ceremony, a loud and long-continued "Amen" is heard like "the voice of many waters." If the occasion is political, the hand-and-heel applause is given with a vim that tells how well the poet has touched the soul of his auditory.
The orators of the Tabernacle waxed bold and spoke of the Government and the army in terms of supreme contempt. With such an inevitable issue before their eyes, the leaders must either have been sincere in their faith that the end of national rule had been reached, or they were most unaccountably foolish in speech. A questioning voice was never heard: there was one current of unvarying boast of independence and victory for Israel, and of defeat and disgrace for the nation.
For years previous, the people had been taught to look forward to the time when "the kingdom" should throw off its allegiance to all earthly power, and now they naturally concluded that "the long-expected blessed day" had arrived, when they beheld on the one side of the mountains the national army advancing to their homes, and on the other side the Prophet with the armies of Israel determined to dispute their entrance into the valleys.
It had been a favourite pulpit expression that "the gates would be let down between the Saints and the rest of the world," and now it was that Brigham announced that he would regard the present as "the set time to favour Zion," and that the will of the Almighty was "that the thread should be cut" between them and the Gentiles when he saw armed men coming to shed his blood and that of his brethren. Heber, who was Brigham's favourite prophet, did not require to wait for the shedding of blood to be assured of the will of the Almighty. He was already fully advised and knew that the Saints and the Gentiles were separated for ever and "never would gybe again."
Men clothed with the inspiration of an "infallible priesthood" must needs be positive in their assertions, and it is only with such a faith that the leaders could demand unquestioning allegiance, and the people render the service of "blind obedience." Yet running all through the defiant speeches of those times, and the wordy assertion of "the Lord's commands," it is easy to discern the expression of stray thoughts which would have told any free-thinking people that the very men who claimed to be the inspired of "the Lord" and His mouth-piece to them, were themselves in grave doubt about the truthfulness of what they uttered, although they exacted unswerving faith and obedience from others. Those who dared to think saw this position clear enough, but to divulge such a discovery was impossible.
Nothing could better illustrate the incompatibility of theocracy with republicanism than the stormy days of "the Utah Rebellion;" and argument is unnecessary to demonstrate that abject slavery is the inevitable condition of a people who accept the despotism of "the one-man-power." Brigham Young, in Utah, in the year of grace 1857, rendered unintentionally by his own example, this service to his generation.
But Heber could see nothing to hurt his faith or to discourage him in the slightest degree. To him everything was perfectly delightful to contemplate. Brigham was to become President of the United States, he was himself to be Vice-President, and Brother Wells the Secretary of the Interior.[2] In the mean time the Saints were "just as sure to go to hell as they live, and I know it, if they consent to dispossess Brother Brigham as our Governor."[3] To avoid such a destination, the Saints very properly, with uplifted hands, voted that the troops should never come through the cañons, and that Brigham should for ever be their Governor! The thoughtful Legislature, too, resolved that the officers appointed for Utah by the National Government should "neither qualify for, or assume and discharge within the limits of this Territory the functions of the offices to which they have been appointed, so long as our Territory is menaced by an invading army."[4] Such was the spirit and such the letter of the teaching of the apostles during the first six months of the Utah war.
With the genial breath of spring and the melting of the snows, one of two things was certain: the Mormons would have to conquer the United States army, or they would have to retreat from their defiant position of resistance.
At Camp Scott, near Fort Bridger, where Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston wintered his troops, the Governor and Federal officers had pitched their tents and entered upon the discharge of their official duties. On the 21st of November, Governor Cumming issued a very temperate proclamation to "the people of Utah Territory," informing them that they were in a state of rebellion, and commanding them to disband. Chief-Justice Eckles opened court, empanelled a grand jury, took the burned trains into consideration, and found indictments against Brigham and the leading Mormons for treason, at the same time assessing the damages to the Government for goods burned and cattle stolen at a round million of dollars.
The winter of 1857–8 at Camp Scott was not quite so gay as that enjoyed by the Saints on the western side of the Wahsatch range of mountains. The burning of the three trains by the Mormons had greatly reduced the commissariat of the troops. Rations were short, and many articles of daily necessity were altogether unattainable.
Enterprising suttlers, who had ventured out with the expedition, taking the usual stock of extras, found the necessities of the civil and military officers and the wants of the camp followers a mine of wealth. The miserable whiskey that was poisonous enough at less than a dollar a gallon was eagerly purchased at twelve times that price, while tobacco was sold at $3 a pound, and coffee and sugar at about the same rate.
The greatest privation, however, was caused by the absence of salt, and Brigham in his "magnanimity" sent a present of that needful article to Colonel Johnston; but the gallant soldier ordered the messengers from his camp with every expression of contempt for the "rebel" prophet.[5] The Indians, however, soon settled the question of patriotism and necessity, and hurried through the snow into Camp Scott with all the salt they could pack, and sold it readily at five dollars per pound. The commercial principle of supply and demand, however, soon reduced by one-half the price of that indispensable condiment during the remainder of the winter. Flour for a time was a luxury at a very high figure, and the possession of a good supply with no other protection than the covering of a tent was as dangerous to its owner as a well-filled purse is to a pedestrian in a first-class city after sunset.
The beef-cattle had been run off by the hundred, and the poor, thin, worn-out, emaciated work-cattle were consigned to the butcher, partly as a substitute for the better-conditioned which had been stolen, but quite as often "to save the critturs the trouble of dying," and to furnish the soldiers with something like mocassins, which the needy but industrious men manufactured from their hides. From these necessities resulted the most galling phase of the expedition to Utah. Every day, all through that winter, bands of fifteen or twenty men might be seen hitched to wagons, trailing for five or six miles to the mountain-sides to get loads of fuel for the use of the camp. It will readily be credited that under these circumstances there was little kind feeling for the Mormons entertained at Camp Scott.
The unpleasant situation of the troops and any incidents of interest were duly reported by scouts at the Mormon headquarters, and added greatly to the faith of the disciples that "the Lord" was with them. The following letter from a lady in Salt Lake City to her children in Providence, Rhode Island, breathed the true Mormon spirit that characterized those warlike times:
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- ↑ This Mormon "Du dah" is a remarkable composition, but it is too lengthy to be given entire. Two verses, however, will suffice to show the breathings of the Tabernacle, and the extent of the enthusiasm which then prevailed. After partaking of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, such a song as the following seems hardly in harmony with the place and occasion:
...."Old Sam has sent, I understand, Du dah!A Missouri ass to rule our land, Du dah! Du dah day!But if he comes, we'll have some fun, Du dah!To see him and his juries run, Du dah! Du dah day!Chorus—Then let us be on hand, By Brigham Young to stand, And if our enemies do appear, We'll sweep them from the land."Old Squaw-killer Harney is on the way, Du dah!The Mormon people for to slay, Du dah! Du dah day!Now if he comes, the truth I'll tell, Du dah!Our boys will drive him down to hell, Du dah! Du dah day!"Chorus
From such lyrical effusions as these, sung during "divine worship" in the Tabernacle, the elevated tone of the sermons can be imagined. It is due to the better taught of the people to add that they had no alternative but to submit to the infliction.
- ↑ Tabernacle, September 6, 1857.
- ↑ Ibid., August 30th, 1857.
- ↑ "Resolutions adopted and signed," December 21st, 1857.
- ↑ How mutable are human affairs! Five years later, that same Colonel Johnston was himself designated "a rebel," and became one of the most distinguished generals in the Confederate army. The Colonel Johnston of Utah became the General Albert Sidney Johnston of Shiloh!