for not accomplishing peace or war in Utah.10
It is well, as you may say, to dismiss the past, and look [p. 2] [at]
the present and future. One half of the Civil [G] overnment are admit-
ted drunk, and it would puzzle
cern when the other [h]alf are sober—a pretty specimen (as they hold
themselves [t]o be) of the living embodiment of the Constitution and
laws, having no use for the written word. The dregs of the Army lodge
in the City; have only killed two [w]ithin the last week,11 exclusively
private—hush—unless [t]he surviving belligerent parties (one of whom
was badly [w]ounded) should die: Thus civilization progresses!12
9. According to the official record of the commissioners’ meeting with the Mormons, Young had urged an investigation of the widely circulated charges that the Mormons had killed John W. Gunnison and Almon W. Babbitt. Young also wanted an airing to Judge Dummond’s various accusations. See “Minutes of the Conference, June 11 and 12,” Lazarus Powell and Ben McCulloch to John W. Floyd, August 24, 1858; Report of the Secretary of War in U.S. Congress, 35th Cong., August 24, 1858; “Messrs. Powell and McCulloch to the Secretary of War” in Messages of the President of the Unites States to the Two Houses of Congress at the Commencement of the Second Session of the Thirty-Fifth Congress (Washington: William A. Harris, 1858), 175–177.
10. On the peace commissioners, see Kane to Young, July 18, 1858, and Young to Kane, August 6, 1858.
11. The day following Young’s letter, George A. Smith wrote Kane, “The headquarters of rowdyism is our East Temple St. in this City . . . There have been two murders within the last week, and several men badly wounded; a good many have been badly bruised who chose to use other weapons than revolvers. . . the persons participating in these riots are generally strangers.” On September 15, the Deseret News addressed two incidents involving killings in the streets of Salt Lake City. One involved two African Americans: “one was stabbed and the other shot dead by his antagonist.” In addition, on September 9, Longford Peel killed Oliver H. Rucker in a duel but also received “three wounds from which it is not yet known whether he will recover.” In Young’s draft of this letter to Kane letter, he began to write “three” and then scratched it out to write “two.” See George A. Smith to Kane, September 11, 1858, Kane Collection, Yale; “Truth and Liberty,” Deseret News, September 15, 1858, 3, and Young to Kane, draft, September 10, 1858, BYOF.
12. For similar comments, see Young to Bernhisel, September 8, 1858, BYOF. Some Deseret News reports rendered the word “civilization” with a (!) following it. See “Truth and Liberty,”
Deseret News, September 15, 1858, 3, and “Attack on the Police,” Deseret News, October 27, 1858, 3.
Young to Kane, September 10, 1858
293
The Army is still augmenting with reinforcements, [r] ecruits and large
quantities of supplies.13 We judge they are quite safe, being surrounded
on every side by Settlements, while their loose riff raff—including such
desperadoes as Powell and Burr14 and others—fill the hotels in the city,
aiming, it is very generally supposed, to kick up a row with the citizens,
[in] order to justify the interference of the Courts, and [p]erhaps the
Army. All their plans fail so far. Governor Cumming holds an even hand,
and appears disposed to see justice extended to Utah, so far as his power
and influence can accomplish that object. He likes exceedingly to have
things his own way, but so long as his way lies generally in the right
channel we can overlook some erratic flights of assumed authority &c.,
when they do not compromise any general interests. The kindliest rela-
tions and [p. 3] intercourse exist so far in all respects whatever between
us and the Governor. We have not been urgent upon him to do this or
that, but rather leaving him to follow the bent of his own mind. It is
quite refreshing to see how he sometimes winds up the “Camp Poets”
(as he calls the Reporters) popinjays15 that flutter around him.
The investigations, however, have not progressed as rapidly as we
could desire, but we feel now to move in these matters, and also to
attend to the opinions of the Press. To promote this object we send our
Brother, Geo. Q. Cannon, as you will perceive by a letter of introduction
which he will hand you.16
Judge Eckels, it is reported, will leave in a few days. If this proves
true, he will go without holding a single Court in Utah.17 I have not
formed his acquaintance.
13. R
eports reaching the Mormons in June 1858 put the army’s reinforcements in dramatic terms, including a reported surge of 6,000 troops. Kenney, Wilford Woodruff Journal, June 22, 1858, 5:198.
14. Likely references to Frederick H. Burr, a surveyor and the son of federal surveyor David H. Burr, and John W. Powell, a mountaineer who had been connected with the American Indian attack on the Mormon settlement of Fort Limhi. Burr and Powell were “occasional partners.” Bigler, Fort Limhi, 318.
15. A popinjay was a term for parrot in the nineteenth-century, often used as a playful epithet to describe the pretentious. Oxford English Dictionary, vol. 7 (London: Oxford University Press, 1933), s.v. “popinjay.”
16. See Young to Kane, September 1, 1858.
17. Technically, Young was incorrect, as Eckels had held court at Camp Scott, which was part of Utah Territory. Young’s point was that Eckels had not held court since arriving in the main Mormon settlements, although Utah had been divided into three judicial districts: one based in Farmington, another in Fillmore, and a third in Salt Lake City. See Minutes, August
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the prophet and the reformer
The appointing of an entire set of officials from among strangers (not
too few enemies) and from a long distance, having no sympathies, inter-
est, feelings or knowledge in unison with those they are called upon to
preside over may be republican, and even democratic in Washington
City; but if the people care a fig for their liberty they had better have
a care how they permit such a consolidation of power to cluster around
the White House, or even the Capitol of the great Central Government.
We know it is subversive of the rights and liberties of the American
people—the people from [p. 4] whom, in this Government, political
power is supposed to eminate. Notwithstanding professions from the
dominent party upon the doctrine of popular sovereignty; concerning
which so much is daily spoken and written, and which is doubtlessly
correct in principle and should be
menaces of a living Military despotism, which, unable to find any excuse
for letting loose the dogs of war, still our cities and settlements are flood-
ing with
with its train of hell furnishing every species of corrupting influence.
The influx of Camp followers, of whose character you are somewhat
acquainted, consisting of Government speculaters, traders, gamblers,
rowdies, and bullies is perfectly astounding. It appears as though it was
their object to flood us under, and can scarcely help believing that this
is a part of the programme enacting against us. I would not mention it
but it is a thousand times more to be dreaded than the Army; and the
more especially as it appears to be their object to provoke a quarrel with
our people, if possible.
In a community like this who have so long w
eltered under the lash
of persecution, and have sacraficed so much, and travelled so far to
enjoy quietness and peace, it is as you will readily perceive no easy task
[to] restrain the vigorous manly feelings, revelling in conscious strength
from emitting some sparks, when, writhing under the vile abuse and
insult of such a horde of vile vagabonds and foreign drunken dicta-
tors, who set themselves up as the law bending every thing to suit their
own peculiar notions—of stupidity and ignorance. [p. 5] We have the
28, 1858, BYOF;
Deseret News, September 8, 1858, 3. Eckels left Utah for Washington in
mid-September. See “Attack on the Police,” Deseret News, October 27, 1858, 3.
18. Young’s reference to the “dominant party” is to the Democrats, who for twenty years had largely controlled political events. The party championed the idea of local power and made
“popular sovereignty” one of its chief planks in the election of 1856. See Walker, “Buchanan, Popular Sovereignty, and the Mormons,” 108–132.
Young to Kane, September 10, 1858
295
authority of Senator Toombs, “That order maintained by a regular sol-
diery is despotism.”19 In Utah, it is more like disorder maintained &c.
Do not consider, Col., that I wish to complain, for I have always
understood how this would be, and have had the privilege of discours-
ing this matter personally with you; but we do feel
that the Army should be withdrawn, when, as you know, the vultures
will follow.
Colonel, do you not feel that you accomplished all that you could
have desired in your visit to Utah? We feel that it is all right. We are
only having a little of what we would have had a good deal of, if we
had not stayed the advance of the Army last fall. The Administration
yielded, and we feel also to yield a little, and bear much so long as we
are satisfied that no real evil is intended. What you have suggested in
regard to myself, and the country we think is admirably carried out; and
if you were here you would be abundantly satisfied—every thing works
kindly, tho’ occasionally rather chilly.
Judge Eckels disposed of, we trust that the exported20 Postmaster
Morrell, Dr. Hurt, Craig, Dotson,21 will speedily follow in his wake.
Gov. Cumming had better remain for the present, not only in office,
but in the Territory. You said well, “that we could not spare him yet.”
He has sent 150 of the soldiers out on the Humboldt22 [p. 6] [to qu]iet
19. G
eorgia Senator Robert Toombs was criticizing the intervention of federal troops in the civil conflict in Kansas. Young was quoting a New York Tribune report reprinted in Deseret News, April 21, 1858.
20. George A. Smith referred to Postmaster Hiram Morrell as “our imported Postmaster”; Smith implied that the postmaster had intercepted correspondence and newspapers. Morell and the Mormons experienced difficulties almost immediately after his arrival in the territory in January 1857. Smith to Kane, September 11, 1858, Kane Collection, Yale; Les Whall, The Salt Lake City Post Office, 1849–1869 (Salt Lake City: Crabtree Press, 1982), 111–112, 117–118.
21. Morell left Utah in spring 1861 to pan for gold in Montana. Indian agents Garland Hurt and C. L. Craig left Utah in December 1858. Federal marshal Peter Dotson resigned on August 20, 1859. See ( Report of Committees, 41st Congress, 3rd Session Report No. 346, 12; Deseret News, January 5, 1859; Deseret News, November 9, 1859.
22. As the territorial superintendent for Indian affairs, Jacob Forney led this expedition to investigate Indian hostilities on Mary’s River and recover the surviving children of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. On September 3, 1858, he wrote: “I asked General Johnston, through the Govenor, for a small escort, to accompany me, to the Humbolt and as far beyond it as contingent circumstances will allow me to go . . . I have just learned, that a Military force of 150 will leave next Sunday, for the Humbolt.” See Jacob Forney to Charles E. Mix, September 3, 1858, Letters Received by Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Utah Superintendency, National Archives.
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the prophet and the reformer
the Indians: the Expedition is accompanied by [Dr.?] Forney and Mr.
Dodge, the newly appointed Agent for Carson. They expect to be sixty
days
to the States, [v] ia California. He will collect those children which [our]
citizens rescued last fall from Indians after the Mountain Meadows
Massacre.23
We notice the Newspapers correspondents who came in with the
Army are very bitter in their correspondence. They have now princi-
pally left, we suppose, to enjoy in a more congenial atmosphere where
their false statements are not likely to be thrown in their faces; they took
good care to [le]ave this region before the papers could bring back their
[lie]s. Brown, of the Tribune is, however, still here; he is [J] udge Eckel’s
appointee to the clerkship of his judicial [D]istrict.24 Judge Sinclair has
also appointed a Mr. [Gi]lbert,25 another of the new arrivals. It is a curi-
osity [wi]th what facility Stock jobbers, traders, and gentlemen [lo]afers,
who have no real interest or business in the [Ter]ritory, and who only
are here to pick up the golden [dr]oss of the Army, become respectable
“citizens of Utah.” [The]y were all herded out together last winter, and
if the [arm]y leaves will very soon herd themselves out of these [mou]
ntains. We must not forget one important item which [is] this: the pres-
ent Administration is entitled to the credit [of] filling these mountains
with not only gamblers, but [highw]aymen or robbers,26 who already
begin to [p. 7] invest the travellers upon the principal roads—discharged
soldiers, numerous deserters, teamsters and worthy camp followers fur-
nish ample materials, which, we fear, if the Army should immediately
withdraw, it would take years to eradicate.
23. In M
arch, Forney had been directed to “use every effort to get possession” of the surviving children from the massacre. “If recovered,” Commissioner of Indian Affairs Charles Mix wrote him, “they must be maintained and taken care of until they can be turned over to their friends.” See Mix to Forney, March 4, 1858, BYOF.
24. Delana Eckels appointed Albert Browne, Jr., a reporter for the New York Tribune, to serve as clerk to the court. Browne was the son of a Boston shipmaker and had studied law at Harvard: Albert Browne, “The Utah Expedition: Its Causes and Consequences,”
Atlantic Monthly (March 1859): 374; William MacKinnon, “Albert Gallatin Browne Jr.: Brief Life of an Early War Correspondent, 1832–1891,” Harvard Magazine (November–December 2008): 48–49.
25. Charles E. Sinclair, then a federal judge in the First Judicial District Court, appointed Samuel Gilbert to be a clerk to the court. Gilbert resigned by November 1858. See New York Times, November 6, 1858.
26. See “Brutal Assault and Robbery,” Deseret News, October 27, 1858, 2, for an example.
Young to Kane, September 10, 1858
297
Elder Geo. Q. Cannon is a young man who has been raised with us,
and is every way confidential and reliable, and we consider of fair abili-
ties; you can, therefore, place the most implicit confidence in him.27 He
is a printer by trade, and, as you will doubtless remember, conducted the
Western Standard in San Francisco, therefore has some experience in mat-
> ters of the Press.28
We have, through the blessing of that God whom we serve,
accomplished much, and the hopeful future already looks bright
before us. But, Col., even with a State sovereignty which we most
ardently desire and rely so much upon your aid to acquire, we do
not expect to be let alone. So long as Christ and Belial are not
friends,29 so long we expect the devils will howl and strive to stir
up his willing agents to overthrow the power and authority of the
Most High; and just so long will the Saints be striven against, but
they will finally prevail, as truth is mighty, and will in the end
triumph over every foe. But we write to you as a friend—political
if you prefer it—who not only can feel for suffering humanity, but
dare act, speak and [p. 8] [blank] for the rights and liberties of
Americans, wherever [or b]y whomsoever assailed. May the Lord
God of [Isr]ael bless and prosper you; give you long life, health [an]
d happiness, together with your family; and the [An]gel of Peace
and Love preside over you, and all [you]r interests and welfare in
time and eternity.
Remember me to your Mother, from whom I received kind [reg]
ards by Bro. Egan,30 and also to your Brothers who so nobly [stoo]d by
you in your absence, during that long and tedious [jour]ney undertaken
under such adverse circumstances, with [su]ch a will and purpose: We
shall never forget it.
We take pleasure in forwarding your Trunk and Sack [wh]ich since
they arrived from San Bernardino, have remained [in] the charge of
Gov. Cumming. I had supposed, until now, since they came into my
possession, that you had left the key to your trunk with Gov. Cumming,
and that he could examine and see that all was safe, but as it is it will
27
. Cannon was 31 years old.
28. See Young to Kane, September 1, 1858.
29.2 Corinthians 6:15.
30. On Howard Egan, see Kane to Young, July 18, 1858.
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