HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
April, 1958
z*m~* IN THIS ISSUE
The San Juan Mission
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ABOUT THE COVER Looking east from the river rim above Hole-in-the-Roc\. The old road is still visible on the jar side of the river.
PHOTO COURTESY GLENN EDGERTON
The Hole~in-the-Roc\, west from the river.
looking
PHOTO COURTESY BUREAU OF RECLAMATION
HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
A. R. Mortensen, Editor
UTAH
STATE
VOLUME
HISTORICAL
XXVI,
SOCIETY
NUMBER 2
April, 1958
Copyright 1958, Utah State Historical Society, 603 East South Temple, Salt La\e City, Utah
CONTENTS Carpetbag Rule — Territorial
Government
in Utah,
BY EVERETT L. COOLEY
The Kingdom
107
of God, The Council of Fifty and the State
of Deseret,
BY JAMES R. CLARK
Lake Bonneville,
Its Name
131
and History,
BY RUFUS WOOD LEIGH
The San Juan Mission Call, BY DAVID E. MILLER "Utah Has Not Seceded":
A Footnote to Local
161 History,
171
BY GAYLON L. CALDWELL.
Letter From Mexico, Impressions
of a Mormon,
BY ANTHONY W . IVINS
Reviews
and Recent
177
Publications
O'DEA, The Mormons,
NOALL, Intimate
BY STERLING M . MCMURRIN
Disciple:
A Portrait of Willard
183
Richards,
BY LELAND HARGRAVE CREER
WEST, Kingdom
186
of the Saints, BY BRIGHAM D. MADSEN
188
CRAMPTON, ED.. The Mariposa Indian War 1850-1851: Diaries of Robert Eccleston: The California Gold Yosemite,
151
and the High
PALMER, Why the North
Rush,
Sierra, BY EDWARD EVERETT DALE ... 189
Star Stands Still, BY KARL YOUNG
Other Publications
191
192
Historical Notes
201
ILLUSTRATIONS Arthur L. Thomas, fames Duane Doty, Samuel B. Axtell, John W. Dawson
106
L. John Nuttall
130
Facsimile of a page from A Mormon Conspiracy
136
Map of Lake Bonneville
150
The Hole-in-the-Rock.
'60
Silas S. Smith, Platte D. Lyman
165
Workers of the Overland
170
Anthony
Telegraph Line, BY W. H . JACKSON
W. Ivins
176
Notice of Election
Inside back cover
ARTHUR L. THOMAS (1851-1924) Governor from 1889-1893
SAMUEL B. AXTELL (1819-1891) Served four months in 1874
JAMES DUANE DOTY (1799-1865) Governor from 1862-1865
JOHN W. DAWSON ( Served in December of 1861
)
Territorial governors were appointed by the "spoils system." The first three men here pictured are representative of high caliber individuals thus selected, while John W. Dawson, of questionable character, had tofleeto escape the wrath of outraged Utahns.
CARPETBAG TERRITORIAL
RULE
GOVERNMENT
IN
UTAH
By Everett L. Cooley*
In the minds of most readers the descriptive phrase "carpetbag government" is associated primarily with the reconstruction period of southern history following the Civil War. However, as defined by Webster and accepted by some noted historians,1 j ustifiably the phrase can be applied to the administration of Colonial America by the British as well as to the administration of the territories by the United States. Fundamentally, British colonies or plantations were never considered to be an extension of British soil to the extent that all rights of Englishmen were guaranteed thereon. The Crown and later Parliament never conceived of the idea that the colonists were eligible for the same rights and privileges as those of British subjects living in the British Isles. And it was this failure to grant colonial subjects tfie rights cherished by Englishmen which led to the loss of the colonies in the War of Independence. * Dr. Cooley is director of the Utah State Archives, a division of the Utah State Historical Society. The article printed here was presented as a paper at the Social Science section meeting of the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, which was held at the Utah State University, Logan, Utah, on November 9, 1957. 'Frederic L. Paxson, History of the American Frontier, 1763-1893 (Cambridge, 1924), 558-59.
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Americans, while still engaged in the struggle to gain long-cherished rights and privileges, established the pattern which was to guide them for 130 years in dealing with their own "colonials." Only since acquiring noncontiguous soil have the Americans subverted the great ideal established in 1780. One of the most vexatious problems confronting the ineffectual and loosely formed Congress of the rebellious colonies in 1780 was that of western lands. New York, holding vast claims north of the Ohio, agreed to relinquish these lands for the benefit of all the states. In the resolution of acceptance, Congress set forth the principle to guide America's future colonial policy: The unappropriated lands that may be ceded or relinquished to the United States . . . shall be disposed of for the common benefit of the United States, and be settled and formed into distinct republican States, which shall become members of the Federal Union, and have the same rights of sovereignty, freedom and independence as the other States. The details for the transition to statehood were prescribed in subsequent reports and ordinances. The basic principles, incorporated in the now famous Northwest Ordinance of 1787 are: (1) That territorial government under centrally appointed officials is temporary. (2) That the inhabitants of a territory have the right to elect their own representatives and to determine their own taxation. (3) That the inhabitants of a territory have the right of statehood upon meeting certain conditions established by the central legislative authority. Thus a new colonial policy based upon equality was begun. Henceforth, colonies or territories were but an extension of the nation and were entitled by right to all the benefits of equality. With the adoption of the Constitution, one more fundamental concept was pronounced. Congress had power to make necessary rules and regulations for governing territories and to create new states. Upon this basis, land settlement began and local government grew up in the West. That the pledge of 1787 has continued to be observed has been attributed to the lack of development of a governing caste in the United
CARPETBAG
GOVERNMENT
109
States.2 Instead, the spoils system was the method used for the selection of territorial officials. A concomitant of the spoils system was carpetbagging. The party in power, anxious to reward the party faithful, selected territorial appointees from the states where they were in a position to gain votes for the party. The residents of the territories, having no presidential vote nor power in Congress, were overlooked. Since the territorial officers (governor, secretary, three judges, marshal, and attorney) were appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, candidates were selected with an eye to pleasing powerful politicians. This method of selection, plus the low salary the positions offered, did not lead to the highest caliber of individual being sent to preside over the destinies of the territories. However, some surprisingly good men were sent west, men with years of experience devoted to public service. Various factors influenced their decision to leave the comforts of the settled East for the hardships of the hinterlands, not least among them the opportunities to be found in lands newly opened for settlement and speculation, in recently discovered mineral wealth, and in railroad development. Nor was the possibility lost sight of that faithful and sympathetic administration of territorial affairs might lead to election as delegate to Congress.3 On record are many instances of appointees leading a territory into the fold of statehood and thereby being rewarded with a senatorship or governorship. Such motives can offer the only explanation for the coming west of such men as James Duane Doty and Samuel B. Axtell, Utah's fifth and tenth governors. Governor Doty devoted his lifetime to public service as legislator, commissioner, Indian agent, delegate to Congress, and congressman in Michigan and Wisconsin. Governor Axtell's service extended over twenty years and four states. He was representative to the Fortieth Congress from California in 1867, was appointed governor of Utah in 1874 and of New Mexico in 1875, and finally served as chief justice in New Mexico from 1882 to 1885. At the opposite end of the spectrum were to be found such unsavory characters as Judge William W. Drummond and Governor John W. Dawson, both of whom openly flouted the moral code while serving in Utah. Some territories experienced the most flagrant commission of '-Ibid., 564-65. "John F. Kinney, chief justice of the Utah Supreme Court, was rewarded for his sympathetic attitude toward the Mormons by being elected delegate to Congress in 1863. He thereby gained the distinction of being the first Gentile so honored.
MO
UTAH
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crimes at the hands of high-placed appointees.* Yet these officials could not be removed by local action. The only recourse was to appeal to Washington. For unlike the British system of the eighteenth century, the Americans had corrected one weakness (from the standpoint of the administering authority) by freeing the appointees from reliance upon the colonial or territorial legislature for their salaries. The territorial officer served at the pleasure of the President and drew his pay from the federal treasury. This made him independent of the whims and desires of the "colonials." However, the official did not have unlimited power nor could he dictate local laws. His power and prerogatives were set down in the organic act which gave birth to a territory. Hence Utah's Organic Act of September 9, 1850, became the "territorial constitution'' for the guidance of territorial officials. This instrument provided the source for all governmental power exercised in the territory. The executive power was vested in a governor, who held his office for four years. In addition the governor became commander-in-chief of the militia and performed the duties of superintendent of Indian affairs.5 The legislative power and authority of the territory were vested in the governor and a legislative assembly — the assembly to be chosen by the vote of the people. Other offices provided for were those of a secretary, three judges, an attorney, and a marshal — all appointed by the President subject to approval of the Senate. The elected officials, in addition to the legislators, were: a delegate to the House of Representatives of the United States and certain unspecified township, district, and county officers. This lack of a specific list or naming of other officers led to untold difficulties between the federal appointees and resident legislators. Problems of interpretation did not arise, however, as long as Brigham Young was governor. The Mormon governor was willing to have the legislature "elect" eligible Mormons to office. But with the arrival of nonMormon governors on the scene, the battle lines were drawn. And victory for the Gentiles, and what they termed "supremacy of constituted authority," did not come until near the end of Utah's territorial period. Part of the difficulty which arose between the Gentile federal appointees and the Mormons was one of Mormon or western practicality versus legal technicalities demanded by the federal appointees. This 1 Earl S. Pomeroy, The Territories and the United States, 1861-1890 (Philadelphia 1947), 17, 29-30. 5 The superintendency was separated from the office of governor in 1857.
CARPETBAG
GOVERNMENT
III
cleavage was revealed with the arrival of the first non-Mormon officers in Utah. Brigham Young, never a man to procrastinate, had launched Utah into its territorial status in the most expeditious manner by ordering a census and an election. These were completed prior to the arrival of Secretary B. D. Harris, bearer of the territorial seal and federal funds for payment of the expenses of the new government. Secretary Harris claimed the actions of the governor were not legal because of his failure to follow the letter of the law in having the secretary attest to the census and election. Within a short time the secretary and other Gentile officers made ready to depart from Utah. Whereupon Governor Young ordered the territorial marshal to take custody of the funds held by Harris and asked the territorial supreme court for its opinion regarding the intended action of Harris in returning east with the funds. The court's reply was, "We cannot give your Excellency a judicial opinion upon the subject proposed, not being your legal advisers, nor having the subject judicially before u s , . . . " After disclaiming their rights to do so, the judges then proceeded to give their personal opinion in a very judicial manner; not, however, before stating that they had already issued an injunction against "Horace Eldredge Esq' and all others acting by, or under the authority of the assembly, purporting to be the Legislative Assembly of the Territory, from taking or interfering with the funds and property in his [the secretary's] possession." e The very wording of their statement indicated they too held the newly elected assembly to be illegal. It is no wonder, therefore, that the judges left their posts along with Secretary Harris. These were but the first of many who came to Utah, made known their stand on the "Utah Problem," and then departed. What was this "problem" which resulted in a continual coming and going of Washington appointees? Certainly at the base of what the Gentiles called the "Utah Problem" was the Mormon concept of government. A Gentile soon perceived that there was not the customary separation of church and state which should prevail under the Constitution. The wording of the first (1851) Thanksgiving proclamation of Governor Brigham Young (cited by many later governors as proof of the unity of church and state) causes the reader to pause and wonder whether he is reading an excerpt "Executive Record Book A, 1850-54, pp. 25-26, in Utah State Historical Society, Archives Division, as are all the Executive Record Books cited in this article.
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UTAH
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from the Journal of Discourses or an official proclamation of a governor of it territory of the United States: PROCLAMATION
For a day of Praise and Thanksgiving It having pleased the Father of all good, to make known his mind and will to the children of men, in these last days, and through the ministration of his angels, to restore the Holy Priesthood unto the sons of Adam, by which the Gospel of his Son has been proclaimed, and the ordinances of life and salvation are administered; and through which medium the Holy Ghost has been communicated to believing, willing, and honest minds; causing faith, wisdom, and intelligence to spring up in the hearts of men, and influencing them to flow together, from the four quarters of the earth to a land of peace and health; rich in mineral and vegetable resources; reserved of old in the councils of eternity for the purposes to which it is now appropriated; a land choice above all other lands; far removed from the strife, contention, divisions, moral and physical commotions, that are disturbing the peace of the nations and kingdoms of the earth. I, Brigham Young, Governor of the Territory aforesaid, . . . Do Proclaim Thursday, the first day of January, eighteen hundred and fifty-two, a Day of Praise and thanksgiving, for the citizens of this our peaceful Territory; in honor of the God of Abraham, who has preserved his children amid all the vicissitudes they have been called to pass; for his tender mercies in preserving the nation undivided, in which we live; for causing the gospel of His Kingdom to spread and take root upon the earth, beyond the power of men and demons to destroy; and that he has promised a day of universal joy and rejoicing to all the inhabitants who shall remain when the earth shall have been purified by fire, and rest in peace... .7 In contrast, a Thanksgiving proclamation of a Gentile governor reads as follows: THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION
Territory of Utah Pursuant to the Proclamation of U.S. Grant, President of the United States, and in accordance with a time-honered cus7
Ibid., 35,
CARPETBAG
GOVERNMENT
113
torn, I designate Thursday the twenty-sixth day of November A.D. 1874 as a day for Public Thanksgiving and Prayer. I therefore request all of the people within our borders to properly observe said day. [Signed] George L. Woods.8 To the resident Mormon the latter proclamation was considered decidedly inappropriate, while the former showed no incongruity. It was proper that the sentiments of Brigham Young, governor, as the constituted executive of a United States territory, should be in harmony with the sentiments of Brigham Young, president, prophet, seer, and relevator of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For had not these same people sat at the feet of the authorities of the Mormon Church and heard them proclaim time after time that "oneness and unity in all things" were the goals of Mormonism? Brigham Young in preaching to the Saints on this theme declared: We have been witnessing, this afternoon, the world's great objection to "Mormonism," for we have had the privilege of beholding the unanimous vote of the people when the names of the officers of the Church were presented for election or rejection. We have seen the same oneness and unity this afternoon which characterize the Latter-day Saints on all occasions, and this is objectionable to the world. They say it is anti-democratic, though we think not.9 John Taylor, speaking on the same theme, said: . . . We are seeking to establish a oneness,. .. We want one-man power and one-God power. Would not they who cry out against it like to have one-man power if they could get it? Yes. Is there now or was there ever a political party in the United States but would seek to carry their own points? No . . . We consider that union is the great principle that we ought to cultivate; union in religion, morals, politics, and everything else.10 On still another occasion,the same John Taylor told the gathered Saints: There is a little difference between our principles, or, I should say, the principles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and what are called democratic principles. "Executive Record Book C, 1872-86, p. 81. 'journal of Discourses, XIV, 41-92. 10 Ibid., XI, 346.
114
UTAH
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Democracy governs by the people alone; . . . It is not with us as it is with democracy. We do not believe that any people are capable of governing themselves. There is no need of entering into an argument upon the matter before this congregation; but it is my opinion that there are no people under the heavens that now exist, nor are there any that ever did exist, that are capable of governing themselves.11 These views on unity were accepted as perfectly natural and uncontroversial by the membership. For had they not been promised that they would be instrumental in effectuating the Kingdom of God here on earth, which was to have "pre-eminence over all other nations and kingdoms." In fact they were told that the "Kingdom is actually organized, and the inhabitants of the earth do not know it." 12 But the Saints knew the organization had been created and that they were part of it. For their Kingdom of God was not an otherworldly one, but an earthly one of here and now. And, as explained by President John Taylor, it could not exist without the guidance of God speaking through his ordained spokesman here on earth. Therefore it was not only fitting and proper that the president of the church should also be governor of the territory; it was a necessity, since it was the ordained plan.13 In the light of these beliefs, is it any wonder that the Mormon "colonist" and the Gentile office-holder clashed head-on. The excuses for this clash were reflected in many minor incidents — such as the disagreement between Governor Young and Secretary Harris. The basic conflict, however, was over church monopoly in all matters. The first loyalty of the Mormons was to church and only secondly to the state and constitutional government. This conflict was time and time again spelled out in messages and reports of the Gentile governors. Governor James Duane Doty complained that of the various powers in Utah — church, army, and federal officers — the church was indisputably the most powerful. And this complaint was registered after Brigham Young had been deposed and Gentile appointees installed in office by federal troops. Even though a Gentile occupied the governor's chair, Heber C. Kimball proclaimed: " Ibid., IX. 9. "Ibid., II, 310. 13 Ibid., IX, 6-8, 332-33; XVII, 154-60.
CARPETBAG
GOVERNMENT
115
. . . President Young is our leader, and has been all the time since the death of Joseph Smith the Prophet. He can govern his people with his hands in his pockets, and they are not governed one whit by the men that are sent here. I want to tell it, and I want they should know I tell it.14 Some of the federal appointees undoubtedly recognized the problem facing them and attempted to live with it or ignore it. Governor Cumming, in an exchange of correspondence with Councilman Daniel H. Wells, pointed out that some of the acts of the territorial legislature were highly irregular if not downright illegal. It appeared to the governor that the legislature took action through joint resolution, thereby circumventing the power bestowed upon the executive by the Organic Act. Apparently Daniel H. Wells successfully defended the actions of the legislative assembly, for Governor Cumming registered no further complaints.15 Perhaps he recognized that "discretion was the better part of valour" and resigned himself to living with the "Utah Problem." For his discretion, Alfred Cumming has ever since been accepted by Mormondom as one of the better Gentile governors.16 Other territorial officials took up the challenge to do something about the situation in Utah. For their troubles they have been characterized by Mormon writers as scoundrels and men of the lowest order. For the most part, however, they were men of average talents faced with the task of bringing a religious autocracy into conformity with a republican government. This, they soon learned, was a herculean task. Power which by organic law was vested in the governor and the legislative council had been entirely appropriated by the legislature in some areas. This usurpation led at first only to gubernatorial protests, although it eventually was debated in the United States Supreme Court, where the case was decided in favor of the governor. Before this decision was given, however, an opera bouffe was enacted in Utah, with two sets of officials claiming the same office. The legislative assembly had for years elected the territorial treasurer and auditor.17 In 1886, " Ibid., IX, 6-8. Letter of Daniel H. Wells to His Excellency A. Cumming, Governor of Utah Territory, dated October 7, 1858, and Letter of A. Cumming, Governor of Utah Territory, to Hon. Daniel H. Wells, Member of Utah Legislative Council, U.T., October 12, 1858. Executive Papers, 1858, Utah State Archives. See also Executive Record Book C, 1872-86, p. 46. '"Improvement Era (Salt Lake City, 1900-01), IV, 81-85. "Executive Record Book B, 1852-71, p. 38. The office was made elective at a genral election in 1878. 15
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UTAH
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Governor Eli H. Murray, in compliance with the Organic Act, submitted the names of two men for these positions. When the council refused to act upon the names, the governor issued the oath of office to his appointees. Arthur Pratt then instituted suit against Nephi Clayton, the elected auditor, demanding that Clayton surrender the office. A similar situation existed between James Jack, electee, and Bolivar Roberts, governor's appointee. The territorial court decided in favor of the governor's appointees, but the elective officers held the territorial funds and refused to surrender the offices. Only after the United States Supreme Court decision was the office vacated by the Mormons. In the meantime the de facto office holders drew the salaries and the de jure appointees went without.18 Other "Mormon peculiarities" proved to be sources of irritation which kept the elective Mormon public servants constantly at loggerheads with Gentile appointees. Some of these peculiarities had found expression in law. Chapter eight, Section two, Laws of Utah 1851-1870, was aimed at one very vocal segment of society and provided that "no person or persons employing counsel, in any of the courts of this Territory, shall be compelled by any process of law to pay the counsel so employed for any services rendered as counsel, before, or after, or during the process of trial in the case." Still another section of the law declared that: . . . no laws nor parts of laws shall be read, argued, cited, or adopted in any court, during any trial, except those enacted by the Governor and Legislative Assembly of this Territory, and those passed by the Congress of the United States when applicable; and no report, decision or doings of any court shall be read, argued, cited, or adopted as a precedent in any other trial.10 Naturally such restrictions on lawyers and judges evoked violent protest, which was reflected in the governor's message to the legislature.20 One of Utah's first laws created a territorial militia bearing the title of Nauvoo Legion. Although the Organic Act made the governor the commander-in-chief of this military force, actual command was in the 18 Marshall and Zane, Reports of Cases Determined in the Supreme Court of the Territory of Utah from the June Term, 1884, to the June Term, 1886 (Salt Lake City, 1890), IV, 421-37; Executive Record Book D, 1887-95, p. 183. lu Acts, Resolutions, and Memorials Passed at the Several Annual Sessions of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah from 1851-1870 (Salt Lake City, 1870), Chap. 2, Sec. 1. 20 Governor S. A. Mann's message to the Legislative Assembly, January 11, 1870. Executive Record Book B, 1852-71, pp. 152, 346-47.
CARPETBAG
GOVERNMENT
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hands of a lieutenant general in the personage of Daniel H. Wells, counselor of Brigham Young. The high-sounding title galled many federal officers who had seen action in the Civil War, where none but Ulysses S. Grant gained such a distinction. At least four governors called the attention of the assembly to the relative independence of the militia and asked that laws be passed bringing it into line with other state and territorial militias. This the legislature refused to do. The friction ended with Governor J. W. Shaffer's forbidding the militia to assemble and the final abolishment of the organization by the EdmundsTucker Act of 1887. Still another source of irritation between the opposing factions was a law of January 20, 1854, concerning the Perpetual Emigrating Fund. The objection to the act resulted from the fact that more Mormons were brought to Utah through the fund, and the chief complaint was that non-Mormons were by law forced to contribute to it. The contributions came through action of the probate judges, who took possession of unclaimed property of "deceased or abscondant persons" and transferred it to the Emigrating Fund. An answer to this problem and a partial solution to another (that of free schools) were recommended numerous times to the legislative assembly. In 1874, Governor George L. Woods urged the passage of an escheats law which would transfer abandoned property to a fund for the benefit of public schools. His urging of legislation to benefit schools was not the first, nor the last. From the very first, the Gentile governors had recommended that free schools be instituted in Utah, recognizing the religious domination in the existing schools. Of course this religious dominance was intended by the L.D.S. Church â&#x20AC;&#x201D; there was nothing inconsistent in such a practice; but to the Gentile, the forced religious instruction in tax-supported schools was an abomination as well as being unconstitutional. Not until 1890 was a satisfactory school law passed by the legislature. It was then that President Wilford Woodruff urged that: . . . the time has arrived when the proper education of our children should be taken in hand by us as a people. Religious training is practically excluded from the public schools. . . . The desire is universally expressed by all thinking people in the church that we should have schools where the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants can be used as text-books, and where tiie principles of our religion may form part of the teaching of the schools.21 "Executive Record Book D, 18f<7-95, p. 84.
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This movement for religious schools the Gentiles did not oppose, but they were ready to take strong measures to assure that public schools were free and devoid of religious dominance. Two other areas of controversy, of greater significance in any discussion of territorial government in Utah, were those of marriage and elections. Workable solutions to these thorny problems were not achieved until just before statehood in 1896. In fact, it was the solution of these problems which brought statehood to Utah. With some justification, Gentile officials declared that free elections in Utah were a farce. In the first place, more frequently than not there was only one slate of officers presented to the electors. Secondly, a law of January 3,1855, provided: Each elector shall provide himself with a vote [ballot] containing die names of the persons he wishes elected and the offices he would have them fill, and present it neatly folded to tiie Judge of the election, who shall number and deposit it in a ballot box; the Clerk shall then write the name of the elector, and opposite it the number of his vote. Under such a system the vote of every elector could be accounted for. It is small wonder that the Gentiles questioned the "freedom" of such elections. Only after years of protest did the legislature in 1878 make provision for a secret ballot. Of all her "peculiarities,'' the most peculiar was marriage as practiced in Utah. From the very beginning, Mormons were called upon by Gentile appointees to forsake their practice of marrying more than one woman. At first only by innuendo was plural marriage referred to in public utterances. After the Gentiles were entrenched in office with federal troops, innuendo was replaced with direct threat of action if polygamy were not abandoned. In addition to the practice of polygamy was the absence of legal provision for civil marriages. One governor was led to disclaim that women were given the franchise in Utah, but their marriages were not recognized by law nor did they have the right of dower.22 Not until the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887 were these privileges conferred upon women, and then through Congressional enactment rather than local laws. That territorial officials played an important part in securing the passage of tfiese measures aimed at polygamy there is no doubt. Year after year the reports of the governors contained "Executive Record Book C, 1872-86, p. 538. Women were given the franchise in 1870, but civil marriages with required licenses did not come until 1887.
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recommendations for corrective legislation. As a result an anti-polygamy act, striking at polygamy and church domination of politics, was passed by Congress in 1862, expanded in 1882, and re-enforced in 1887. During twenty years of operation of the Morrill Anti-Polygamy Law of 1862, only three convictions were effected. Upon the urging of religious groups throughout the nation and repeated pleas from Gentile territorial officials, Congress enacted the famous, or infamous, Edmunds Law to deal with both marriage and politics as they existed in Utah. The Mormons viewed the measure as one which robbed them of their constitutional rights and invaded the sanctity of religious freedom. Bishop Daniel Sylvester Tuttle, speaking for the Protestant groups of Utah, said, "The true policy is to encourage the building up of an opposition in the ranks of the Mormons." This was to be achieved by giving political advantages to monogamous Mormons and Gentiles and withholding them from the pluralists through the administration of election machinery by a presidentially appointed committee of five members, "no more than three being of the same political party." 23 "'In the next to final report (pp. 70-71) of the Utah Commission to the Secretary of Interior (1895), die complete list of the appointees of the commission is given. In compliance with the act of Congress of March 22, 1882, the Board of Registration and Elections, known as the Utah Commission, was appointed, and on July 17, 1882, it was duly organized. Ever since said date the conduct of elections in the Territory has been under its control and direction. Since the creation of the Board the following-named persons have served as members, to wit: Alex Ramsey, of Minnesota, appointed June 23, 1882, resigned April 16, 1886. A. B. Carlton, of Indiana, appointed June 23, 1882, resigned May 10, 1889. A. S. Paddock, of Nebraska, appointed June 23, 1882, resigned December 20, 1886. G. L. Godfrey, of Iowa, appointed June 23, 1882, resigned April 25, 1894. J. R. Pettigrew, of Arkansas, appointed June 23, 1882, died October 17, 1886. J. A. McClernand, of Illinois, appointed April 16, 1886, resigned April 25, 1894. A. B. Williams, of Arkansas, appointed October 25, 1886, resigned April 25, 1894. A. L. Thomas, of Pennsvlvania, appointed December 20, 1886, resigned May 10, 1889. R. S. Robertson, of Indiana, appointed May 10, 1889, resigned April 25, 1894. Alvin Saunders, of Nebraska, appointed May 10, 1889, resigned June 6, 1893. H. C. Lett, of Utah, appointed June 6, 1893, died March 27, 1894. March 3, 1893, a further act of Congress was approved, pursuant to which A[ members of the Board thereafter appointed were required to be residents of the Territory. April 25, 1894, the remaining members of the Commission having tendered their resignations, the following-named persons were nominated by the President and immediately confirmed by the Senate, to wit: Jerrold R. Letcher, Erasmus W. Tatlock, Albert G. Norrell, Hoyt Sherman, jr., and George W. Thatcher. After having duly qualified as required by law the new Board entered upon the discharge of its duties on April 27, 1894, Jerrold R. Letcher, one of the members from Salt Lake, being selected as chairman.
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The official name of this group was the Board of Registration and Elections, but it was commonly known as the Utah Commission. "Its first duty was to adjust the local laws to the Act of Congress [of 1882], and to provide the necessary rules for conducting the registration and election." 2J In more direct words, the Utah Commission was to assume all responsibility for the selection of registration officials, judges of election, and establishment of precinct and legislative districts. Furthermore, the commission was to canvass all returns and issue certificates of election for those duly elected to the legislative assembly and to Congress. The commission displayed a generous amount of energy in the discharge of its duties, which was applauded by non-Mormons and opposed by Mormons. The policy followed in appointing election officers was explained in the following words of the commission: . . . In the appointment of Registration Officers, . . . so far as it was practicable to do so, we selected non-Mormons. In a few counties, this was not possible, and in such cases reputable Monogamists were designated for this service. The aggregate population of all counties for which non-Mormon Registrars were appointed is about 132,000, while the whole population in counties for which Monogamists were appointed does not exceed 13,000. The same rule was observed in the selection of Precinct 25 Registrars To further carry out their responsibilities the commission redistricted the territory. In this process they were not above resorting to a bit of gerrymandering. District 8 was composed of Tooele County, Bingham Precinct, and Tintic Precinct: thus, to assure a majority of Gentiles, areas from three counties were combined into one district.26 In addition to the above measures an oath was demanded of all voters requiring that they swear or affirm that: . . . I am not a bigamist nor a polygamist; that I have not violated the laws of the United States prohibiting bigamy or polyg"' "Report of the Utah Commission to the Secretary of the Interior, September 30, 1887," in Utah Commission Minute Book C, 1887-88, p. 169, Utah State Historical Society, Archives Division. "â&#x20AC;˘' Taken from a substitute report offered by Commissioner Paddock in 1882. On a vote of the commission, Mr. Paddock's report was not submitted. Utah Commission Minute Book A, 1882-84, p. 118. ""Utah Commission Minute Hook D, 1888-90, pp. 1-7; Book E, 1890-93, pp. 138-40.
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amy; that I do not live or cohabit with more than one woman in the marriage relation,... This oath, according to the second report of the commission (1883) succeeded in disfranchising 15,000 persons (this figure was quoted before the disfranchisement of women in 1887). At a later date (1887), the oath was made more inclusive and read as follows: I being duly sworn (or affirmed) depose and say that I am over twenty-one years of age; that I have resided in the Territory of Utah for six months last past, and in this precinct for one month immediately preceding the date hereof; and that I am a native born (or naturalized as the case may be) citizen of the United States; that my full name is ; that I am years of age; that my place of business is ; that I am a (single or) married man, that the name of my lawful wife is ; and that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and will faithfully obey the laws thereof, and especially will obey the act of Congress of March 22, 1882, entitled "An Act to amend section 5352 of the Revised Statutes of the United States in reference to bigamy and for other purposes"; and that I also will obey the Act of Congress of March 3, 1887, entitled "An Act to Amend an Act entitled An Act to Amend Section 5352 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, in reference to bigamy and for other purposes," approved March 22, 1882, in respect of the crimes in said act defined and forbidden, and that I will not directly or indirectly, aid or abet, counsel or advise any other person to commit any of said crimes defined by Acts of Congress as polygamy, bigamy, unlawful cohabitation, incest, adultery and fornication; and I further swear (or affirm) that I am not a bigamist or polygamist, and that I have not been convicted of any crime under the Act of Congress, entitled "An Act to amend Section 5352, of the Revised Statutes of the United States, in reference to bigamy and for other purposes," approved March 22, 1882; nor under the Act amendatory thereof, of March 3, 1887, and I do not associate or cohabit polygamously, with members of the other sex.27 L7 A telegraph message was received by the commission from Silver Reef, Beaver County. It read, "Can oath be administered here omitting all after 'the laws thereof,' nonMormons will not take the oath, claiming reflection on previous moral status." Signed, J. N . Louder, Registration Officer. This omission would have excluded all reference to marriage or the sexual relationship, so the commission replied: "As we read the law, the whole of the test oath pre-
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This new oath brought protests from an unexpected quarter, as revealed in the following letter: Registration Office Stockton, Utah May 9,1887. W. C. Hall, Esq. Sec. Utah Commission, Dear Sir: â&#x20AC;&#x201D; For the information of the Honorable Commissioners, I beg leave to make a brief report of progress in registration for some of the precincts in Tooele County. On Monday, May 2,1 began registration in this, Stockton precinct, and to my surprise six of the first ten I asked to register, refused; and all of the ten are Gentiles. I finished going through the Precinct, last night, and found about 25 who refused to register, all Gentiles, but two or three. At one mine, of four men there, I got only one. The fact is this, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in a mining locality there are a great many who do not like to take any oath. Blank oaths were sent me by the League Committee, and I am satisfied, from inquiry, that if that had been presented, that from 40 to 50 per cent of the Gentile voters would have refused it. As it is, 20% have refused the oath of the Commission. I registered 119 in this Precinct; at Grantsville, 87 registered; and at Tooele, 115. Only a few Mormons refused to register. Resp'y Your Obedient Servant, David B. Stover Registration Officer Tooele County28 The explanation offered by the registration officer was not the only reason why the men in mining camps refused to take the oath. One of the commissioners reported that the morals or sexual relations of men in mining communities were different from those elsewhere. A study of the minutes and reports of the commission discloses that a definite change in attitude developed on the part of some of the commissioners. Beginning in 1886 votes on issues reveal a split in the commission. The majority advocated that a more hostile and punative policy be applied to the Mormons; while the minority, in the personages scribed by Congress must be taken, and no part of the oath should be omitted in favor of any person." Signed A. B. Carlton, Chairman. (See Utah Commission Minute Book B. 1884-87, p. 442.) 28 Ibid., 446-47.
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of J. A. McClernand, of Illinois, and A. B. Carlton, of Indiana, favored a waiting policy to see what the existing laws and rules would accomplish. Their attitude is reflected in the several minority reports they submitted to the Secretary of the Interior. Indicative of the less repressive policy of the minority is the letter of Chairman A. B. Carlton to deputy registrar Robert Scott, of Tooele Precinct: Office of the Utah Commission Salt Lake City, Utah Aug. 6,1888. Dear Sir: Your letter of July 31,1888, is received. When you go from house to house to make your revision of the registration list, die fact of your finding a man absent from his home is not a good reason for erasing his name from the registration list. If you find the family at home, or the usual indications that the residence is not abandoned, the presumption is that the absence is only temporary and the name should not be erased. If the man leaves the Territory on a mission or on business or pleasure, witfi the intention to return, it does not deprive him of his right to vote, unless he has in some pronounced way, by moving his family, etc. evidenced his intention to make a change of residence. It is now too late to correct any errors that may have been made but at the September revision you should restore to the list the names of such persons who may have been erased without sufficient cause. Very Resp. A. B. Carlton Chairman20 Other indications of a more ameliorative policy are found in the investigations by the commission of fraud and unfairness at the polls and in the removal of certain Gentiles from election offices.30 Nevertheless the Utah Commission, backed by the other non-Mormon territorial officials, held firm that there should be no temporizing with the Mormons on the basic "Utah Problem." Mormons must capitulate. They must accede to the will of Congress. Polygamy must be abandoned and other constructive laws must be passed by the territorial legislature to 28 10
Utah Commission Minute Book C, 1887-88, pp. 323-24. Utah Commission Minute Book D, 1888-90, pp. 455, 459-60.
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make Utah's militia, marriage, election, and school practices conform to accepted standards. Should the Mormons fail to take the necessary steps to bring about conformity, there were those in Utah who were recommending more severe punative measures. Recommendations were sent to Congress for a more stringent test oath â&#x20AC;&#x201D; one patterned after Idaho's oath, which disfranchised all Mormons. The abolition of the territorial legislative assembly was recommended, to be replaced with a federally appointed commission. The appointment of officers from Washington, D.C., was to extend downward to the county and municipal level. All polygamous persons were to be denied the privilege of filing for public lands. Terms of imprisonment were to be increased for plural marriage convictions. Faced with not only the threat but also the probability of enactment of some or all of these measures, the Mormons gave ground. Within a few short years, beginning in 1888, the legislative assembly enacted laws providing for civil marriages, free schools, free elections, and abolition of polygamy. The Mormon or People's party was disbanded in 1890, with the membership seeking affiliation with the two national parties. These momentous changes, accompanied by a Manifesto of the church authorities (1890) and approved by the Saints in general conference (1891), foreshadowed the termination of "carpetbag rule" in Utah. There were those among the Gentile officials, suspicious of the recent actions of the Mormons, who sought to postpone the day of their departure by proclaiming that the Mormons were only using the "reforms" to gain statehood, when they would again return to their old domination of political life. Others pointed to the changes with assurance that a new day had dawned in Utah. In the words of one commissioner : The Utah of today is not, and never can be, what it was when Brigham Young, as prophet, seer, and revelator, dominated over his devoted followers, isolated from all the world, in secluded valleys of the Rocky Mountains; . . . To further convince the Gentiles in Utah and Washington that a real change had taken place within the church, the Mormon leaders petitioned for amnesty: We, the first presidency and apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, beg respectfully to represent to your excellency the following facts:
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We formerly taught to our people that polygamy or celestial marriage, as commanded by God through Joseph Smith, was right; that it was a necessity to man's highest exaltation in the life to come. That doctrine was publicly promulgated by our president, the late Brigham Young, forty years ago, and was steadily taught and impressed upon the Latter-Day Saints up to a short time before September, 1890. Our people are devout and sincere, and they accepted the doctrine and many personally embraced and practiced polygamy. When the Government sought to stamp the practice out, our people, almost without exception, remained firm, for they, while having no desire to oppose the Government in anything, still felt that their lives and their honor as men were pledged to a vindication of their faith, and that their duty towards those whose lives were a part of their own was a paramount one, to fulfill which they had no right to count anything, not even their own lives, as standing in the way. Following this conviction, hundreds endured arrest, trial, fine, and imprisonment, and the immeasurable suffering borne by the faithful people no language can describe. That suffering, in abated form, still continues. More, the Government added disfranchisement to its other punishments for those who clung to their faith and fulfilled its covenants. According to our faith the head of our church receives, from time to time, revelations for the religious guidance of his people. In September, 1890, the present head of the church, in anguish and prayer, cried to God for help for his flock, and received the permission to advise the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that the law commanding polygamy was henceforth suspended. At the great semiannual conference which was held a few days later this was submitted to the people, numbering many thousands and representing every community of the people in Utah, and was by them in the most solemn manner accepted as the future rule of their lives. They have since been faithful to the covenant made that day. At the late October conference, after a year had passed by, the matter was once more submitted to the thousands of people gathered together, and they again, in the most potential manner, ratified the solemn covenant.
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This being the true situation and believing that the object of the Government was simply the vindication of its own authority and to compel obedience to its laws, and that it takes no pleasure in persecution, we respectfully pray that full amnesty may be extended to all who are under disabilities because of the operation of the so-called Edmunds and Edmunds-Tucker law. Our people are scattered; homes are made desolate; many are still imprisoned; others are banished or in hiding. Our hearts bleed for these. In the past they followed our counsels, and while they are thus afflicted our souls are in sackcloth and ashes. We believe there is nowhere in the Union a more loyal people than the Latter-Day Saints. They know no other country except this. They expect to live and die on this soil. When the men of the South, who were in rebellion against the Government in 1865, threw down their arms and asked for recognition along their old lines of citizenship, the Government hastened to grant their prayers. To be at peace with the Government and in harmony with their fellow-citizens who are not of their faith, and to share in the confidence of the Government and people, our people have voluntarily put aside something which all their lives they have believed to be a sacred principle. Have they not the right to ask for such clemency as comes when the claims of both law and justice have been fully liquidated? As shepherds of a patient and suffering people we ask amnesty for them and pledge our faith and honor for their future. And your petitioners will every pray. Wilford Woodruff. George Q. Cannon. Joseph F. Smith. Lorenzo Snow. Franklin D. Richards. Moses Thatcher. Francis M. Lyman.
H. J. Grant. John Henry Smith. John W. Taylor. M. W. Merrill. Anthon H. Lund. Abraham H. Cannon.31
The Mormons were correct in their evaluation of their plea for amnesty, for the Gentile officials accepted this document as a truer reflection of the Mormon accommodation to federal law and accepted " Executive Record Book D, 1887-95, pp. 257-58.
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customs than the previously pronounced Manifesto. Governor Arthur L. Thomas and members of the Utah Commission warmly recommended to the President of the United States amnesty for the Mormons. President Benjamin Harrison responded on January 4, 1893, with the following proclamation: By the President of the United States of America. A PROCLAMATION
Whereas Congress, by a statute approved March 22, 1882, and by statutes _p furtherance and amendment thereof, defined the crimes of bigamy, polygamy, and unlawful cohabitation in the Territories and other places within the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States and prescribed a penalty for such crimes; and Whereas on or about the 6th day of October, 1890, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Church, through its president, issued a manifesto proclaiming the purpose of said church no longer to sanction the practice of polygamous marriages and calling upon all members and adherents of said church to obey the laws of the United States in reference to said subject-matter; and Whereas it is represented that since the date of said declaration the members and adherents of said church have generally obeyed said laws and have abstained from plural marriages and polygamous cohabitation; and Whereas by a petition dated December 19,1891, the officials of said church, pledging the membership thereof to a faithful obedience to the laws against plural marriage and unlawful cohabitation, have applied to me to grant amnesty for past offenses against said laws, which request a very large number of influential non-Mormons residing in the Territories have also strongly urged; and Whereas the Utah Commission in their report bearing date September 15, 1892, recommended that said petition be granted and said amnesty proclaimed, under proper conditions as to the future observance of the law, with a view to the encouragement of those now disposed to become law-abiding citizens; and Whereas during the past two years such amnesty has been granted to individual applicants in a very large number of
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cases, conditioned upon the faithful observance of the laws of the United States against unlawful cohabitation, and there are now pending many more such applications: Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested, do hereby declare and grant a full amnesty and pardon to all persons liable to the penalties of said act by reason of unlawful cohabitation under the color of polygamous or plural marriage, who have since November 1, 1890, abstained from such unlawful cohabitation; but upon the express condition that they shall in the future faithfully obey the laws of the United States hereinbefore named, and not otherwise. Those who shall fail to avail themselves of the clemency hereby offered will be vigorously prosecuted. In Witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington this fourth day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-three, and of the United States the one hundred and seventeenth. Benj. Harrison32 The next step toward self-rule for Utah was soon taken. A constitution was adopted with the blessings of the governor, chief justice, and Utah Commission. The great gap between Mormon and federally appointed officers had closed to the extent that two members of the Utah Commission in company with the Mormon delegation conveyed the newly adopted constitution to Washington for presentation to the President.33 Statehood and freedom from federal control of the election machinery came to Utah on January 4, 1896. Her schooling for statehood under the tutelage of carpetbag officials had been a long and arduous one. Fortunately for us, one of the final official acts of the Utah Commission was the transferral of the records34 of the commission to the 32
Ibid., pp. 267-68.
33
Report oj the Utah Commission to the Secretary of the Interior, 1896 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1896), 73-74. 3,1 These records consist of minute books, letter books, record of commissions issued, and records of election officers. (Letter of receipt from Governor Heber M. Wells in Commission Reports, 1882-96, in the Utah State Historical Society, Archives Division.)
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custody of the governor of the new state. These are worthy of a careful study by students of Utah history, for they will reveal that carpetbag government did exist in Utah for certain periods. At other times during her territorial days Utah was blessed with wise, devoted, but determined public servants who were doing their best to bring constitutional government to Zion. If they failed, it was human failure prompted by most trying conditions.
L. JOHN NUTTALL (1834-1905)
Secretary to presidents Brigham Young, John Taylor, and Wilford Woodruff, Nuttail's diaries provide invaluable information on ecclesiastical and civil history of the Mormons in Utah and before. He was a member of the Council of Fifty and served as territorial superintendent of schools.
THE THE
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THE
By James R. Clark?
On the subject of the inter-relationship of church and state in America the following statement in a book edited by Henry P. Van Dusen is pertinent: In this democratic America the Church is so embedded in society that it cannot altogether be separated from it. You cannot have a sharp distinction between the group of the Church and the same people who form a more or less controlling element in the State.1 Utah became a territory of the United States in 1850. It was admitted into the Union of the States in 1896. Primarily it was settled by members of one church â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the Mormon Church â&#x20AC;&#x201D; beginning in 1847. * James R. Clark is assistant professor of religion at Brigham Young University, Provo. The following article was presented as a paper at die Social Science section, Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, held at Utah State University, Logan, Utah, November 9, 1957. 'Henry P. Van Dusen (ed.), Church and State in the Modern World (New York, 1937), 208.
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Relatively small non-Mormon minority groups have made substantial contributions to Utah's history from its earliest days. Today Utah is cosmopolitan in population, and many of the problems arising in earlier years through clashes in basic religious, political, social, and economic philosophies and ideologies have found satisfactory compromises and adjustments, but not before there were many heated words, and arguments, much action and counteraction affecting all phases of society, which almost tore to shreds the body politic. A word needs to be said about a point of view on pressure and counter-pressure groups that operate in the American democracy. If the attitude is taken that all pressure groups are inherently bad or evil, this viewpoint will likely adversely color the interpretation that is placed on events in American history. If, on the other hand, the view is held that pressure groups are a necessary part of the democratic system, although at times misused, this again will impart a somewhat different interpretation to historical events. The view taken in this study, for purposes of interpretation of the events in Utah's history, follows essentially a point of view expressed by a prominent Utah political scientist, Dean Milton R. Merrill of Utah State University, in the Sixteenth Annual Faculty Research Lecture in 1956. Dean Merrill maintained that in the American democracy an essential element making possible our freedom is the spirit of compromise and accommodation, and that the American way has been for conflicting interests to accept the rather uneasy security of innumerable and transitory compromises because these are better in the long run than resorting to force. The genius of American democracy has been that it has recognized these diverse interests and, recognizing them, has been able to keep any single interest from completely stifling opposition.2 W. H. Cowley, professor of higher education at Stanford University, highlights the importance of pressure or power groups when he states "that social interaction is always the reaction of power to power" and that the power available to any group of people at a specific time will largely determine the nature of its social enterprises.3 In Utah, at least during the territorial period from 1847 to 1896, the formative idea or concept of society so far as the leaders of the major power group were concerned was the Mormon enunciation of the con2 Milton R. Merrill, The Political Process. U.S.A.C. Sixteenth Annual Faculty Research Lecture (Logan, Utah, 1956). 3 W. H. Cowley, "Introduction to American Higher Education," Stanford University, Mimeo., 1955, p. 168.
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cept of the Kingdom of God. Its accompanying corollary was the political theory of legitimacy promulgated by Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor, and other early leaders of the Mormon Church. Mormon leaders have repeatedly said that in the philosophy of Mormonism there is no way of separating the spiritual from the temporal, which sometimes may be another way of saying church and society and ultimately the church and state. When the Mormons moved west from Illinois in 1846-47, they not only brought with them their basic philosophy, educational and otherwise, but they had formulated also a political and civil theory of society and of church and state relationships. When they organized the Provisional State of Deseret, before they were accorded territorial status by the United States government, it was not a temporary expedient nor was it an example of American frontier democracy adjusting to a new region. The basic ideas for the government of the State of Deseret were not worked out after the Mormons arrived in Utah, but in meetings of the Council of Fifty in Nauvoo before the westward migration. The State of Deseret was the planned result of the doctrine of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God was a civil-religious form of government. It was, eventually, to spread world wide and to have as its head Jesus Christ, the King. It was the instrument by which He was to govern the entire world. The religio-civil doctrine of the Kingdom of God was formulated and promulgated by Joseph Smith and other Mormon leaders in the East in the period from 1830 to 1846 and then carried westward with the Mormon pioneers to develop and take shape in the territorial period. In 1874 Brigham Young declared publicly that a few months before the death of Joseph Smith in 1844, he, Joseph Smith, had received a revelation setting forth "a full and complete organization to this Kingdom" and that its constitution "was given by revelation." This Kingdom of God was to be a religio-civil government and is not to be confused or identified with the Mormon Church as such, which is a religious organization. However, in current Mormon literature the church is often referred to as the Kingdom, and the distinction between the two terms and the two entities is not now sharp as it was in the territorial period. It can be stated on the basis of Mormon, non-Mormon, and state and federal documents of the territorial period that the insistence of the Mormon leaders on this concept of the Kingdom of God was largely instrumental, along with the practice of polygamy, in delaying statehood for Utah for half a century. A careful consideration of the Kingdom of
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God concept as the basis for the societal pattern â&#x20AC;&#x201D; economic, social, educational, and political â&#x20AC;&#x201D; may well cause Utah history, at least for the territorial period, to be re-evaluated and rewritten. The immediate task is to define and outline the concept of the Kingdom of God as a framework for the society which the Mormons were seeking to establish in Utah and to which the non-Mormons so violently objected. This concept is enunciated in the public addresses and papers of the Mormon leadership and was well known to the nonMormon inhabitants of Utah throughout the territorial period. The theory of the Kingdom of God was developed by revelation and adaptation until it was given its basic organizational structure by Joseph Smith in 1844, fourteen years after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized. The basic authority for the Kingdom of God lay in the authority of the priesthood of the president of the Mormon Church, but the directional control was vested in a council known by a number of names, chief of which were the special council, the Council of Fifty, or more commonly, the General Council. CHARACTERISTICS OF T H E KINGDOM OF GOD Certain characteristics of the projected Kingdom of God become clear as one reads the voluminous literature dealing with the concept. These characteristics are: (1) The Kingdom of God was the kingdom predicted by the Old Testament Prophet Daniel. It was the stone cut out of the mountain without hands that was to break in pieces all other kingdoms and consume them. (2) The Kingdom of God was to be the government of God on earth, and as such it was eventually to absorb all other governments. (3) The Kingdom of God was to include as members and as officers non-Mormons as well as Mormons. (4) The Kingdom of God was to protect all peoples in their civil and religious rights, including the right to differ. (5) The Kingdom of God was to rest politically on the doctrine of Legitimacy, expressed succinctly in these words of John Taylor in 1853: Let us now notice our political position in the world. What are we going to do ? We are going to possess the earth. Why ? Because it belongs to Jesus Christ, and he belongs to us, and we to him. We are all one, and will take the kingdom and possess it under the whole heavens, and reign over it forever
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and ever. Now, ye kings and emperors, help yourselves, if you can. This is the truth, and it may as well be told at this time as at any other.4 (6) The Kingdom of God was a state and a political, social, and economic system which touched all phases of human life. (7) The Kingdom of God had its own revealed constitution. The Constitution of the United States was written, according to Mormon belief, under the inspiration of God. The constitution of the Kingdom of God was given to Joseph Smith in 1844. Copies of this constitution are not at present available, but there is good evidence that it existed from 1844 to at least 1880. (8) The Kingdom of God, though composed of non-Mormons as well as Mormons, was to be presided over in ultimate authority by the Mormon priesthood as representatives of Jesus Christ, the King. (9) The establishment of the Kingdom of God necessitated the gathering of the Saints to form the nucleus of the Kingdom. If membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints alone had been involved, the converts could have stayed in their own localities and nations. This ties the Kingdom of God concept definitely to the Mormon doctrine and policy of Zion and the "gathering" discussed in such works as Gustive Larson's Prelude to the Kingdom. NON-MORMON OPPOSITION TO T H E KINGDOM OF GOD Eloquent testimony to the tenacity of the Latter-day Saints in their efforts to establish the Kingdom of God in territorial Utah is borne out by the non-Mormon documents in the Martin-Paden collection at Westminster College, Salt Lake City. In 1885 the Salt Lake Tribune published a sixteen-page pamphlet with unsigned authorship entitled: The Mormon Conspiracy to Establish an Independent Empire to be Called the Kingdom of God; The Conspiracy Exposed by the Writings, Sermons and Legislative Acts of the Prophets and Apostles of the Church. The pamphlet impugns the motives of the Mormon leaders and claims that the idea of the Kingdom of God was one of basic disloyalty to the United States. It is perhaps generally conceded now that Mormon leaders have since been cleared of this charge of disloyalty. The pamphlet remains, however, as an interesting documentation to the concept of the Kingdom of God as an influence in Mormon-non-Mormon re1
Journal of Discourses (26 vols., Liverpool, 1854-86), I, 230.
the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company in peace and security. WHAT IS THE KINGDOM OF MOD? The D i v i n e R i g h t of the M o r m o n P r i e s t h o o d to R u l e .
In 1848-9 Apostle Orson Pratt published in Liverpool, England, a series of four essays on the Kingdom of G"d. They reveal the Mormon conspiracy more completely than anything else extant. The following extracts from these publications will suffice to give a clear idea of the monstrosity. Pratt says: THE ONLY LEGAL GOVERNMENT.
The Kingdom of God Is an order of government established by divine authority. It Is the only legal government that can exist In any part of the universe. All other governments are illegal and unauthorized. God, having made ail beings and worlds, has the supreme right to govern them by His own laws and by officers of His own appointment. Any people attempting to govern themselves by laws of their own making and by officers of their own appointment are Indirect rebellion against the Kingdom of (iod. * * * ' For seventeen hundred years the nations upon the Eastern Hemisphere have been entirely destitute of the Kingdom of Hod—entirely destitute of ii true legal government—entirely destitute of officers legally authorized to rule and govern. All emperors, kings, princes, presidents, lords, nobles and rulers have acted without authority. * » Their authority Is all assumed; It originated In man. Their laws are not trom the Great Law driver, but the production of their own false governments. Their very foundations were laid In rebellion, and the whole superstructure, from first to last, Is a heterogeneous mass of discordant elements, In direct opposition to the Kingdom of God, which Is the only true government which should be recognized on earth or in heaven. THE KINGDOM OF GOD
IB a theocracy, and as It Is the only form of government which will redeem and save mankind, It Is necessary that every soul should be rightly and thoroughly Instructed In regard to Its nature and general characteristics. The beauty, glory, power, wisdom and order of the Kingdom of God may be more fully understood by a, careful examination of the following subjects: First—The nature and character of the King. Second—The character and requisite qualifications of the subordinate officers. Third—The nature and character of the laws of adoption, or.the Invariable rule by which aliens are admitted Into the Kingdom as citizens. Fourth—The nature and character of the laws given for the government of all adopted citizens. Fifth—The character, disposition and qualifications necessary for every citizen to possess. Sixth -The rights, privileges and blessings enjoyed by the subjects In this life. Seventh—The lights, privileges and blessings promised to the faithful, obedient subjects In a future life. GOD IS KING.
Mr. Pratt proceeds to inform his "dear reader" that God is the King, and then goes on to construct the material God of the Mormons. The
same idea he says is applicable to the person of the Son. The Holy Spirit being one part of the Godhead, Is also a material substance, of the same nature and properties In many respects, as the spirits of the Father and Son. It exists In vast, Immeasurable quantities In connection with all material worlds. This » * * * Is what a person gets when he receives the gift of the Holy Spirit. * * * It Is these three all-powerful substances that stand at the head of all legal ;overnments. All governments not estabIshed by these three will be ere long overthrown.
f
THIS IMCOPHET HIS AOKNT.
Second—The diameter and requisite qualifications of the subordinate officers In the Kingdom of (iod are now to be considered. As the persons ol the Father and Son cannot be everywhere present, It Is therefore Impossible for them to attend In iierami to all the multiplied affairs of government among Intelligent beings; therefore, God, In establishing;! government among such beings, has always called persons of their own number to officiate In his name. * * The various officers called of God to administer the affairs of his government are apostles, prophets, bishops, evangelists, elders, pastors, teachers and deacons, (iod has only one way of calling these different officers, and that Is by new revelation. No person was ever authorized to act In the name of the Lord, unless called by tunn revelation."
Those gcntiy, the, apostle says, may be known by their claim of having been appointed or callpd by new revelation, and their "power" to confer the gift of the Holy Ghost "by the laying on of hands." THE LAWS OF ADOPTION.
Third -The laws of adoption, or the Invariable rule by which aliens are admitted Into the Kingdom of God, are next considered by the Apostle, and briefly stated, this rule consists of faith, repentance and baptism Into the Mormon Church, the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands and Initiation Into the Priesthood. OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW.
Under the head of the fourth division of this important treatise—the nature and character of the laws given for the government of all adopted citizens, Apostle Pratt lays it down that the subject should obey "strictly all the laws, ordinances, statutes, commands, counsels and words of the Great King." These come to the Saint by " new revelation" as the circumstances of each particular case may require, and "every faithful, upright person in the Church or Kingdom of God enjoys the gift of the Holy Ghost, which is a sure preventative against all deception. * * The revelations given by the Holy Ghost; by the voice of the Lord; by the ministry of angels; by visions and dreams, and by the in-
A facsimile of page three from a sixteen-page pamphlet published in the year 1885 by the Salt Lake Tribune in which the motives of the Mormon leaders are impugned by the use of the very words of the leaders themselves.
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lationships in the territorial period. The Kingdom of God was a dominant influence in Utah society all during the territorial period, an influence against which non-Mormons were constantly fighting in all phases of life â&#x20AC;&#x201D; political, economic, social, educational, and religious. AIMS AND IDEALS OF T H E KINGDOM OF GOD IN TERRITORIAL UTAH Although perhaps not all-inclusive, the following are some of the main aims and ideals of the Kingdom of God in its attempted establishment in territorial Utah. (1) The ultimate aim of the Kingdom of God was the establishment of a world society based on the justice and equality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, personally administered by Him. In that society the doctrine of free agency of the individual was to operate. It was to be the hope of this society that all would accept Christ as their King and lawgiver and likewise recognize His legal representatives in the Mormon priesthood. No one, however, was to be coerced. It was recognized that this state of society would not likely be reached until well into the Christian millennium. (2) Short of this ultimate goal there was a secondary and more immediate goal: the building of such a society among the Latter-day Saints and their friends. This society was to perfect itself to the point where the people became one politically, economically, and socially, but without robbing the individual of free agency and individuality. The people were to be one in all things because through a system of education they would become convinced that such unity was for their own best interests. If the Latter-day Saints could thus unite as the nucleus of the Kingdom of God, their success would serve as a pattern for the rest of the world. (3) This society was not to be established separate and apart from the world, but was to function in the world as a leavening agent. Being in the world, the Kingdom was to direct its membership in all phases of life short of final ecclesiastical authority, which was retained by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (4) Relative to politics and government, the ultimate aim of the Kingdom recognized only one legitimate government on the earth â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the government of God. All other governments were considered to be subordinate and inferior, including the government of the United States, even though its Constitution was held to be divinely inspired. Uniquely,
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the government of the United States, as provided for in the Constitution of 1789, was recognized as divinely approved in principles and was intended to serve the needs of the people and protect them in their Godgiven rights until the government of God could be established. (5) Since the government of God, which was to control the Kingdom of God, was revolutionary in many of its principles and practices so far as the governments of men were concerned, it was not to be expected that it could avoid conflicts with established human institutions and governments. This fact was made clear as early as 1834 in a statement of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as recorded in the History of the Church? (6) It is pertinent to ask how the Mormons were taught to regard those who were not members of the Mormon Church under the concept of the Kingdom of God. What were to be the policies, the attitudes, the ideals that would allow Mormons and non-Mormons to work in harmony and peace within the Kingdom while still retaining their identity and separate religious affiliations ? The concept of the Kingdom did not anticipate that all of its members would join the Mormon Church, and a partial answer to this question is to be found in a sermon preached by Brigham Young the year before the completion of the transcontinental railroad, which some individuals were saying would end the Mormon "isolation." Brigham Young was quick to point out the historical fact that the Mormons had never been isolated in the Great Basin. He might have gone into considerable detail to point out that: (a) In 1847 the Mormons found a non-Mormon group of settlers near the present site of Ogden. (b) In 1849 the Gold Rush brought a constant stream of non-Mormon migrants through Utah. (c) Several government explorations and surveys, manned by Mormons and non-Mormons working together, were made in Utah before the coming of the railroad. (d) At least three groups of federal military forces, all non-Mormons, were stationed in Utah before 1869. The sermon of Brigham Young in 1868 must be understood, then, as not only a statement of future policy but, as is evident, as a reprimand to the Saints for the past actions and attitudes over the years from 1847 to 1868 toward non-Mormons, whom they were in the habit of calling "Gentiles.'' Brigham Young said: 5
Joseph Smith, History of the Church (7 vols., Salt Lake City, 1948), II, 10-11.
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I want, now, to say a few words with regard to a term that is frequently used in our midst. I refer to the term "Gentile." I have explained this a great many times to the Elders both in public and in private, and I was surprised at the use made of the term this afternoon. "Gentile," or "gentilism," applies only to those who reject the gospel It does not apply to any only those who are opposed to God and His Kingdom. . . . But it does not apply to this or any other nation, simply because they are not of our faith; .. ,e The distinction which Brigham Young draws here between "Israel" and the "Gentiles" is not couched in terms of blood relationship to ancient Israel or in terms of birth or baptism into the Mormon Church. It is couched in terms of attitudes and actions of people in relation to the purposes of the Kingdom of God. Those who actively oppose the Kingdom of God are "Gentiles" regardless of blood or ancestry. Those who support or join the Kingdom, not the church, necessarily are of the "fold" regardless of blood or ancestry. Brigham Young's further elaboration of the theme seems to make this distinction crystal clear: Remember this, O ye Elders of Israel, and do not apply the term "Gentile" to a man because he is not baptized.... Whoever has been in our Councils [referring in all probability to the presiding or General Council of the Kingdom of God] •— would never make the application of "Gentile" to a man or woman, simply because he or she was not baptized, for that has nothing to do with it one way or the other. I want the brethren to learn this,.. .T T H E COUNCIL AS T H E GOVERNING BODY OF T H E KINGDOM Some indication of the nature and activities of the Council of Fifty, or the General Council, is found in the diaries and letters of men who are known to have been members of it. The minute books of the council which were consulted on March 29, 1880, by Franklin D. Richards and L. John Nuttall are not now available.8 However, entries from the ° Brigham Young, "Gentile or Gentilism,'' address delivered in Salt Lake City, August 16, 1868, see journal of Discourses, XII, 270. 7 Ibid., 270-71. B L. John Nuttall Diaries, II, p. 3, typescript copy in Brigham Young University library. The entry reads, "Went this morning with Elder F. D. Richards at his office and examined the records of the council of 50 or Kingdom of God and made out lists of members now living."
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diaries of Hosea Stout, John D. Lee, and L. John Nuttall, in addition to those from the daily histories of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, copies of which are in the libraries of several public institutions, when combined allow a fairly accurate reconstruction of the nature, purposes, and functions of the council. It is on these sources that the ensuing discussion is based. Perhaps the most condensed statement of the nature and purpose of the council is found in the diary of John D. Lee under the date of November, 1848, which was immediately prior to the December meeting of the council in which the State of Deseret was organized. Lee says: This council alluded to is the Municipal department of the Kingdom of God set up in the earth, and from which all law emanates, for the rule, government and control of all Nations, Kingdoms and tongues and People under the whole heavens but not to control the Priesthood, but to council, deliberate and plan for the general good and upbuilding of the Kingdom of God on the Earth.9 On the day of the first organization of the council in Nauvoo, Illinois, March 11, 1844, Brigham Young had recorded in his daily history the following entry: Joseph commenced the organization of the Council for the purpose of taking into consideration the necessary steps to obtain redress for the wrongs which had been inflicted upon us by our persecutors, and also the best manner to settle our people in some distant and unoccupied territory; where we could enjoy our civil and religious rights, without being subject to constant oppression and mobocracy, under the protection of our own laws, subject to the Constitution. The Council was composed of about fifty members, several of whom were not members of the Church. We prepared several memorials to Congress for the redress of our grievances, and used every available means to inform ourselves of the unoccupied territory open to settlers. We held a number of sessions, and investigated the principles upon which our national government is founded; and the true foundation and principles of all governments.10 ' John D. Lee, A Mormon Chronicle: the Diaries of John D. Lee, 1848-1876, Robert G. Cleland and Juanita Brooks, eds. (2 vols., San Marino, California, 1955), I, 80. 10 Brigham Young, "History of Brigham Young," Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star (Liverpool, 1844), XXVI, 328.
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An entry in Joseph Smith's history under the same date confirms the account given by Brigham Young. He outlines the responsibilities of the council in these words: . . . to take into consideration . . . the best policy for this people to adopt to obtain their rights from the nation and insure protection for themselves and children; and to secure a resting place in the mountains, or some other uninhabited region, where we can enjoy the liberty of conscience guaranteed to us by the Constitution of our country, rendered doubly sacred by the precious blood of our fathers, and denied to us by the present authorities who have smuggled themselves into power in the states and nation.11 Benjamin F. Johnson was a member of the council as originally organized in Nauvoo. He continued as a member in Utah in 1848 and is listed as one of the original members in a list made in 1880. He had a long and continuous membership in the council and a close association with its officers. In 1903, at the age of eighty-five, he wrote of the council as follows: Its settings were always strictly private, and all its rules were carefully and promptly observed . . . I was present at every session, and being about the youngest member of that Council (in Nauvoo) I was deeply impressed with all that transpired, or was taught by the Prophet.12 In territorial Utah the Council of Fifty, or General Council, was the policy-making body of the Kingdom of God. It was the body from which policies for the civil government of men on the earth were to emanate. It was the policy-making body; the legislature of the State of Deseret was the legislative agency required to put these policies into law; and the executive branch, with Brigham Young as governor, was charged with the administration of the laws so formulated. The council was charged with the responsibility of seeing that all men were protected in their God-given rights as individuals and as free men in all phases of life, and with the inauguration and carrying out of such plans of government as would assure co-operation and unity as well as freedom. 11
Joseph Smith, op. cit., VI, 260-61. " Benjamin F. Johnson, letter to Elder George S. Gibbs, pp. 7-9. This letter was written in 1903 at the instance of the First Presidency, and a typescript copy is on file in the Brigham Young University library.
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In order to carry out these responsibilities properly, the council met in frequent study and business sessions where they were expected to become thoroughly familiar with the Constitution of the United States and with the constitutions of all nations. This knowledge would be necessary if they were to understand the relationship between these laws and the laws of God given by revelation for the temporal governance of men on the earth. This council was not to act solely on revelation apart from human or man-made laws. It was not to set up and operate a system of law functioning "separate and apart" from the world in which men lived. Its sessions were private and guarded by a set of rules designed to insure secrecy. Its meetings were "closed session hearings." Its members were influential men in both church and state. Membership in the Council of Fifty was considered a high honor.13 The following reconstruction of some of the political and civic activities of the council has been made from what sources are available. The evidence is still not complete, and therefore some of the conclusions drawn may later prove to be in error. If the records and minute books of the council were available they might change our understanding of the direction in which the activities of this council eventually moved, but it is doubtful if they would change what has been said of the purposes for which the council was organized originally. POLITICAL AND CIVIL ACTIVITIES OF T H E COUNCIL The council initiated and supervised the preparation of memorials to Congress, both for the redress of previous grievances and as petitions for the granting of statehood to the people of Deseret, or Utah. Several of these memorials were prepared by the council while the Mormons were still in Nauvoo. After the Council of Fifty had directed the westward migration of the Mormons in 1847, they met to consider means of government in the new territory. According to the diary of John D. Lee, private secretary to Brigham Young, the council met in Salt Lake City on December 9, 1848, to set up the planned State of Deseret. He says that the council: . . . took into consideration the propriety of petitioning Congress for a Territorial Government, giving them to understand at the same time that we wanted officers of our own nomination . . . "Minutes of the Council of Fifty, April 10, 1880. An entry reads, "Being called into the council appears to me to be one of the greatest steps in my life. F.M.L." This entry is quoted from a typewritten copy in die Brigham Young University library.
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Prs. B. Young was nominated and voted to be governor of said Territory; Willard Richards, Secretary; Heber C. Kimble, Chief Judge; N . K. Whitney & P. P. Pratt, Associate Judges; Dr. J. M. Burnhisal, Marshal. The Territory to be called Desarett " On January 6, 1849, the council considered a report of a committee which had previously been appointed to set the boundaries of the State of Deseret. On December 27, 1849, a memorial was prepared by the legislative council of the Provisional Government of Deseret praying for admission into the Union as a state, or for a territorial government. On March 28, 1851, the legislature of the State of Deseret passed a formal motion dissolving the State of Deseret. It is generally known to students of Utah history that the State of Deseret and its legislative and executive branches continued to function for at least another twenty years after formal dissolution in 1851. Some have called this the "ghost" government of the "Ghost State of Deseret." In reality the federally established territorial government of Utah was the de jure government; the State of Deseret was the de facto government; and the Council of Fifty or General Council was the policymaking body for the civil government of Utah from 1848 to 1870, if not later. INTERLOCKING MEMBERSHIPS OF T H E COUNCIL W I T H OTHER GROUPS Up to this point discussion has centered largely on the philosophy and functioning of the Kingdom of God and the Council of Fifty. The more specific question is that of the working relationships between the Council of Fifty and the various civil and political bodies in Utah. Insight into the principle upon which the Council of Fifty operated in its relationship with other governing and policy-making bodies is gained in a rule laid down in a meeting of the Council of Fifty on February 17, 1849. The subject under discussion was the membership of a proposed committee to direct and control the use of the South Farm in Great Salt Lake Valley. President Brigham Young appointed Amasa Lyman to nominate members of this committee. John D. Lee records that Brigham Young voiced no objection to the nominations provided the committee chairman was J. D. Lee. ' John D. Lee, loc. cit.
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UTAH
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. . . and further said that when a man was taken out of this Council to do business, let that man be the chairman of whatever committy he may belong to, thus the chairman can report to the Council.15 This system of interlocking chairmanships and directorships permitted the Council of Fifty or the General Council to know what each of the various agencies of government â&#x20AC;&#x201D; civil, political, economic, or educational â&#x20AC;&#x201D; was planning and to influence their decisions without having identical personnel in the governing bodies of all these civil agencies of government. Information given in volume VI of Joseph Smith's History of the Church and in the diary of Hosea Stout allows the compilation of a list of members, admittedly not all-inclusive or official, of the Council of Fifty in Nauvoo. A comparison of this list with a list of school officials in Nauvoo shows that at least ten civic and religious leaders had joint membership on the Council of Fifty and on the roster of school officials. Out of fourteen elected civil officers for the city of Nauvoo in 1845, at least seven were members of the Council of Fifty. A list of members of the Council of Fifty in Salt Lake City in 184849 can be compiled from lists given in the diaries of John D. Lee and Hosea Stout. A comparison of this list with the lists of officers of the State of Deseret on various dates is most enlightening. John D. Lee gives two lists of officers for the State of Deseret, one slate chosen on December 9,1848,16 and the other on March 4,1849.17 The six officers nominated on December 9, 1848, were all members of the Council of Fifty. On March 4, 1849, an enlarged slate of officers was nominated. Of the thirteen men nominated on that date, ten are known to have been members of the Council of Fifty. Neff in his History of Utah is aware of the nominations of "Brigham Young's Council" on March 4 and the election on March 12. He did not seem to have been aware of the actions of the Council of Fifty in the preceding November. Thus the entry in the Lee diary places the actual selection of the first set of officers for the Provisional State of Deseret by the Council of Fifty at a date earlier than has been supposed. When the election was held on March 12, 1849, there were eleven men elected as principal officers of the State of Deseret, all of whom were members of the Council of Fifty. '" Ibid., 90-92. Ibid., 80. Ibid., 98-99,
10 17
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It seems clear from evidence already presented that the Kingdom of God and the Council of Fifty were still strong and active in 1870. A typewritten copy of extracts from the minutes of the Council of Fifty for April, 1880, on file in the Brigham Young University library, when coupled with the entry from the journal of L. John Nuttall for March 29, 1880, previously cited, gives evidence that reorganization, reactivation, and enlargement of the Council of Fifty took place in April, 1880. The extracts from the minutes list thirty-six "old" members and thirteen new members added in 1880. A combination of these lists makes possible certain other comparisons of interlocking memberships of the Council of Fifty and civil officers. It is significant, perhaps, that four out of six of the territorial delegates to Congress from Utah are known to have been members of the Council of Fifty. There is good reason to believe that John T. Caine, a fifth delegate, may also have been a council member. J. F. Kinney, the other territorial delegate, was a former non-Mormon judge who was highly sympathetic to the Mormon cause and who performed admirable service for the Mprmons in Washington. Four out of eight territorial superintendents of public schools are also known to have been members of the Council of Fifty. At least five members of the Council of Fifty were members of the Central Committee of the People's party in 1887. Thirteen out of thirtyfour members of the territorial legislature in 1882 were members of the Council of Fifty. The principle enunciated by Brigham Young in 1849, that members of the Council of Fifty should be key members of other civic bodies rather than having the membership rolls identical, becomes more evident later in Utah's territorial history when a wider selection of Mormon leadership was available and as non-Mormon residents began to secure seats on these civil and educational governing bodies. Membership in the presiding councils of the Mormon Church did not bring automatic membership in the Council of Fifty, nor was membership in those councils of the church a prerequisite to membership in the council. Non-Mormons had been members of the Council of Fifty from the time of its organization in Nauvoo. This Council of Fifty was not to direct the organization or activities of the Mormon Church, as George Miller and Alexander Badlam, two members of the council, learned when they made such a suggestion to Brigham Young and other church leaders in Nauvoo following the death of Joseph Smith.
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CONTINUING ACTIVITIES OF T H E COUNCIL OF FIFTY AND T H E STATE OF DESERET In January, 1862, the State of Deseret held a Constitutional Convention at which another memorial for statehood was drafted and sent to Congress. On March 9, 1862, Brigham Young in a public address at a religious gathering made it clear that the ideas and principles espoused by the Council of Fifty and the Kingdom of God were still in operation. He said: The kingdom of God has sustained me a good while, and I mean to stick to it. We shall form a State Government, and you need not fear any consequences that may arise from such a course.... .. . When Mr. Fillmore appointed me Governor of Utah, I proclaimed openly that my Priesthood should govern and control that office. I am of the same mind today. We have not received our election returns; but, should I be elected Governor of the State of Deseret, that office shall be sustained and controlled by the power of the eternal Priesthood of the Son of God, or I will walk the office under my feet. Hear it, both Saint and sinner, and send it to the uttermost parts of the earth, that whatever office I hold from any Government on this earth shall honor the Government of heaven, or I will not hold it.18 The next January (1863) as governor of the State of Deseret Brigham Young delivered two messages to the legislature. In the public message he referred to the failure of Congress to grant statehood to Deseret, ascribing the failure to a busy Congress "heavily burdened with duties pertaining to the conduct of the War." On the same day (January 19, 1863) he also delivered a special private message to the General Assembly of the State of Deseret as its de facto governor. This message gives evidence that the concepts of the Kingdom of God and the Council of Fifty were very much alive and in evidence. He clearly outlines the reasons for continuing the government of the State of Deseret despite the fact that Utah had had a territorial government with federally appointed officers since 1850: Many may not be able to tell why we are in this capacity. I do not think you see this thing as it is. Our organization will 18 Brigham Young, "Constitutional Power of the Congress of the United States; Growth of the Kingdom of God," Journal of Discourses, X, 38-42.
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be kept up. We may not do much at present in this capacity, yet what we have done or will do will have its effect. . . . This body of men will give laws to the nations of the earth. We have met here in our second Annual Legislature. [The State of Deseret was formally dissolved in 1851 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; it was evidently formally reorganized in 1861.] . . . We are called the State Legislature, but when the time comes, we shall be called the Kingdom of God . .. the time will come when we will give laws to the nations of the earth. Joseph Smith organized this government before, in Nauvoo, and he said if we did our duty, we should prevail over all our enemies.19 Highly significant is Brigham Young's statement that the State of Deseret in 1863 was the government organized by Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, which would be called the Kingdom of God and give laws to the nations of the earth. This seems to equate the Kingdom of God and the Council of Fifty with the State of Deseret in 1863. The General Assembly of the State of Deseret may have been but another name for the General Council or the Council of Fifty, which by this time may have had an enlarged membership. The existence of this fourth government in Utah was referred to in a letter from Governor James Duane Doty to William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States, on January 28,1865: There are three distinct governments in this Territory: The Church, the Military, and the civil. In the exercise of their several powers collisions cannot always be avoided; but I am glad to report that during the past year none have occurred. But the leaders of "the church" . . . in 1861, formed an independent government called the State of Deseret. . . . For the information of the Department I herewith transmit a copy of a paper containing the proceedings of the Governor and Legislature of this embryo State at a session held in this city on the 23rd of this month, by which it will be perceived this fourth government is now fully inaugerated.20 19 Brigham Young, Special Message to the General Assembly of the State of Deseret, in Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, entry of January 19, 1863, in Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City. M Utah Governor (James Duane Doty) Report to Honorable W. H . Seward, Secretary of State, United States Department of State, Territorial Papers, Utah Series, Vol. II, January 28, 1865.
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SUMMARY The foregoing discussion seems to establish without much doubt that there was organized in Nauvoo, Illinois, on March 11, 1844, a Council of Fifty to serve as the policy-making body of the Kingdom of God which the Latter-day Saints were seeking to establish in preparation for the Second coming of Jesus Christ to reign as King. It seems rather certain from the evidence that it was this Council of Fifty which formulated the policies and handled the relationships with the federal government and which directed the efforts of the Latter-day Saints, and those non-Mormon friends who would join with them, in their political, civil, and educational activities. Although evidence has not been offered in this discussion, there is every reason to believe that the council directed the economic activities of the Kingdom as well. The aims and purposes of this Kingdom and council were not directed primarily to the conversion of the world to Mormonism, as that was the province of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The efforts of the council and Kingdom were directed toward the establishment of an equitable form of government that would protect all men in their God-given rights and in their free agency and the establishment of a society in which the freedoms would thrive. So far-reaching into every phase of society in territorial Utah is the concept of the Kingdom of God and its accompanying body of control, the General Council, that it might be stated that a significant history of Utah cannot be written which does not take into consideration the influence of these ideas on both the Mormon and non-Mormon populations of the state.
LAKE BONNI ( A WATtR »ODV Or THfc QUATJBKAHV
B Y « K-tiiiJitmr. 1 U ( i . l b w t T l u n i . | « o n U>*-4 V i II A.W'lwwtM- niHt A I W 1 I. Vatwtttr
Boundaries of Lake Bonneville, as it existed about 25,000 years ago, are shown in this map published in 1890 by G. K. Gilbert. The lake drained through Red Rock .pass, located at the northern end of what is now Cache Valley in southern Idaho.
LAKE
BONNEVILLE, AND
ITS
NAME
HISTORY
By Rufus Wood Leigh*
The first historical allusion to the Great Salt Lake is in the journal of the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition from Santa Fe in 1776. Their informants were Lake Utah Indians; but no member of the party came north actually to view the lake. It was recorded: ".. . its waters occupy many leagues, its waters are very harmful and very salty." J Etienne Provot may have seen the lake as early as 1820.2 Great Salt Lake was discovered by James Bridger late in 1824. He floated down the Bear River from the trappers' rendezvous in Willow (Cache) Valley in a bullboat to decide a wager relative to the place where the Bear debouches. He tasted the salty water of the Lake and reported his discovery upon his return to the rendezvous.3 It was then surmised that the salt water Bridger discovered was an arm of the Pacific Ocean. In the spring of 1826 four of William Sublette's men, based at the Rocky Mountain Fur Company's rendezvous at the present site of * Dr. Leigh is a dental pathologist and a physical anthropologist. He has written one volume of separate papers on histo-pathology and one on physical anthropology. The paper here published is an excerpt from a book manuscript entided "Place Names of the Great Basin and Colorado Plateaus." Early spellings of names have been used. 1 Herbert E. Bolton, Pageant in the Wilderness (Salt Lake City, 1950). 2 Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, Fremont and '49 (New York, 1914), 42. 3 See J. Cecil Alter, James Bridger (Salt Lake City, 1925).
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Ogden, circumnavigated the Great Salt Lake in bullboats to determine any outlet and to make searching quests for new beaver streams. As a result of this exploration the myth concerning the connection of Bridger's "salt water" with the Pacific Ocean was dispelled. Captain Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville, who had never seen the great salt sheet, and the account of whose travels was glamorized and published by Washington Irving in 1837, had the audacity to give Bridger's "salt water" his own name on revised maps of Madison and Gallatin. Bonneville's name did not adhere to the "salt water." However, Captain Bonneville was recompensed, posthumously, later in the century for this loss of desired fame. John C. Fremont came north from the Rio Severo (Sevier River) into Utah Valley on May 24, 1844, and encamped on the bottoms of the Spanish Fork. Speaking of the Indian name of the principal affluent of Lake Utah, Timpanogo (Provo River), Fremont wrote: "It is probable that this river furnished the name which on the older maps has been generally applied to the Great Salt Lake; but for this I have preferred a name which will be regarded as highly characteristic, . . ." The distinctive qualities of the waters of this lake required and received a name truly descriptive, and it was John Charles Fremont who put the seal on the name on the maps, Great Salt Lake. Captain B. L. E. Bonneville in his explorations and beaver pelt enterprises in the Northwest was more than once within sixty miles of Great Salt Lake while seeking beaver on the Malad River, but lacked sufficient interest to visit this phenomenal lake. He and his brilliant publicist, Washington Irving, deservedly failed in their attempt to give the lake his name. But Bonneville was a man of parts; his career during the trapper era was impressive; and in the last quarter of the nineteenth century his name was chosen by a great geologist for that of the immense extinct geologic lake of the Great Basin â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Lake Bonneville. From this circumstance his name has currently become the mode in the Salt Lake Valley. Let us develop these historic elements. T H E TRAPPER ERA: 1820-1839 Into the vast Rocky Mountain and Pacific Northwest regions French-Canadian and American trappers and traders penetrated in the third and fourth decades of the nineteenth century, primarily in pursuit of the pelts of the beaver. The economy dependent on this most interesting of Rocky Mountain fur-bearers was far-flung, ruthless, and lucra-
LAKE
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tive. Beaver-inhabited streams were hunted for in this vast domain; when found, the beaver was trapped until extinct. Previously agreedupon temporary meeting places known as rendezvous were hives of activity at certain seasons for trappers, traders, and Indian associates. Here the trappers relinquished their stores of peltries and accepted therefor annual supplies for life in the mountains, including cheap whiskey for themselves and with which to debauch the helpless Indians. Rendezvous in Utah included: Brown's Hole on the Green, where the canyon widens to a small verdant bottom; Fort Du Chesne and Fort Rubedeau on the Uinta; Ogden's Hole on the Ogden River; another on or near the present site of Ogden; and those in Cache Valley, on the Malade, and on the upper Provot River. All these places are imprinted with personal and other names from the Trapper Era. The trappers and factors of Hudson's Bay Company and later of the rival Northwest Company monopolized the tremendous Pacific Northwest and extended their suzerainty as far south as the Provot River and east to the Du Chesne and Uinta rivers in Utah. The American fur trade was based at St. Louis. General William H. Ashley of that city was the pre-eminent leader of this economy on the Green, its tributaries, and the adjoining regions. His was the great name in the Utah valleys in the 1820's. Outstanding contemporary characters were James Bridger, Jedediah S. Smith, Peter Skene Ogden, William Sublette, and the famous voyageur, Etienne Provot â&#x20AC;&#x201D; all of whom have given the region their names. Ashley put the stamp of his great personality on this decade, 1820-1830, as did Bonneville on the next, 1830-1839. Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville was of French birth; he was a graduate of the United States Military Academy (1819) and a close friend of the Marquis de Lafayette. As a lieutenant in the United States Army he had been stationed at Indian outposts on the western frontier and had become enamored of the wilderness with its lure for fame and fortune, both of which definitely interested this young officer. In 1832 Captain Bonneville secured leave of absence from the army, ostensibly for exploration of the Far West, which the government encouraged; actually he was more interested in his private fortune. He was financed by New York friends and immediately undertook to get rich quickly by exploiting the fur trade. His exploits were on the upper Green, the Snake, the Salmon, and the Columbia rivers. He took geocraphic notes, redrew and adapted maps originally made by Madison and others of the inland mountain domain, and, although he had never
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seen fit to view the great salt sheet or explore it, applied his name to it on his revised maps of Great Salt Lake. Grove K. Gilbert, geologist, in the Second Annual Report of the United States Geographical Surveys, 1874, writes: "Captain Bonneville, . . . traveling in the interest of the fur trade but with the spirit of exploration, took notes of geographic value (1833), which were put in shape and published after a lapse of some years by Washington Irving, and his map is probably the first which represents interior drainage." It is true that Bonneville's lieutenant, Joseph R. Walker, with a detachment of rough men left him in 1833 at their rendezvous on the Snake and proceeded southwesterly. Walker skirted the northwest shore of the salt lake and continued on an historic exploration across northern Nevada. He entered the Humboldt River Valley a short distance east of the site of Elko; traversed the river to its outlet in the Sink; climbed the High Sierra northwest of Mono Lake; discovered Yosemite; then proceeded down the Merced into the San Joaquin Valley and on to Monterey, the seat of Mexican government in Alta California. Thus, Walker certainly did not stay in the Salt Lake Basin to make any important observations, record notes, or sketch any maps of the lake shore, streams, or character of the terrain. When he left Captain Bonneville on the Snake, his association with the genial captain was permanently severed. Bonneville's later claim to vicarious exploration of the Great Salt Lake through his former associate was made after a lapse of several years; the claim was tenuous and undocumented. He did not relate to his gifted raconteur, Washington Irving, any directive to his supposed lieutenant, nor did he give the resultant details of Walker's exploration. Bonneville's claim, through Irving, of exploration of the Great Salt Lake by substitution must be viewed as Washington Irving literature, not as history. The cultivated Irving made Bonneville's claim of exploration of the Great Salt Lake Basin4 amply plausible, to the degree that forty years later the distinguished geologist, Grove Karl Gilbert, was unduly influenced by the narrative, for which there was no historical validity. The definitive documentation of the naming of Lake Bonneville by Grove Karl Gilbert is as follows. Gilbert and Howell were geologists with the Wheeler Survey west of the one hundredth meridian in 1872, and in the published report of the survey Gilbert writes: * Washington Irving, The Adventures of Captain Bonneville, U.S.A., in the Rocky Mountains and the Far West (.New York, 1837, 1850).
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Lat\e Bonneville â&#x20AC;&#x201D; From considerations . . . I have come to regard as phenomena of the Glacial epoch a series of lakes, of which the beaches and sediments are to be found at many points in the Great Basin. The greatest of these . . . covered a large area in western Utah, including the valleys now occupied by Sevier, Utah, and Great Salt Lakes, and its limits and history have been so far indicated by our examination, that I venture to propose for it the name of Bonneville, in honor of Capt. B. L. E. Bonneville, who first afforded an authentic account of Great Salt Lake.5 Captain Bonneville was not scientific, as was Captain Fremont in the next decade, and his wanderings in the wilderness did not bring forth any new geographic facts of note. His proceeds from the fur trade were mediocre, due in a measure to the ruthless competition of the British interests in the Northwest. He failed to submit reports to his army superiors and overstayed his leave, with the result that his name was removed from the army rosters. Recent historical writers have attempted to rationalize the facts of Bonneville's long absence from the army, his removal from the officers' list, and his later reimbursement for emoluments lost during his stay in the wilderness, as indicative of his real mission in the disputed Oregon country â&#x20AC;&#x201D; namely, as a covert agent of the Washington government. Bonneville's procedures, objectives, results, and the chronology of events do not warrant this assumption. His career in the disputed Oregon Territory cannot be compared with explorations in Mexican Territory by Fremont in the next decade, who received almost open subsidies from the government. "Non-the-less," says one writer, "he [Bonneville] gave the seal to the fourth decade of the century in breaking the unknown areas, as Ashley had to the third, and after him, as Fremont to the fifth." Bonneville demonstrated much adroitness and self-sufficiency.in traversing the virgin land; he was popular with his followers and was a most successful conciliator of the Indians. Following his exploits on the SnakeColumbia drainage during the fourth decade, he received more glamorous publicity than any trapper, trader or explorer. As has been stated, without much effort of his own Captain Bonneville won acclaim through his raconteur, the famed writer Washington Irving. The explorer's notes and maps, after a lapse of several years, were edited 5 Grove Karl Gilbert, Report upon United States Geographical Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian, in Charge of Captain George M. Wheeler, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army, . . Vol. III. Geology (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1875), 88.
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by Irving, whose publication, The Adventures of Captain Bonneville, U.S.A., in the Rocky Mountains and the Far West, made for the captain a name with which to conjure. Bonneville's modified map of the Great Salt Lake indicating interior drainage, a basin, was the first to be published, but it remained for Fremont in the next decade to give to the world a clear concept of the Great Basin. Hiram Chittenden, historian of the American fur trade, says of the genial captain: "After all it will not be far wrong to say that the greatest service which Captain Bonneville rendered his country was by falling into the hands of Washington Irving." By extension, the present writer adds â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and posthumously into the arms of the learned geologist, Grove K. Gilbert, nearly a halfcentury later. As mentioned above, although Bonneville (and Irving) failed to impart his name to the great salt sheet in the Great Basin, it was perpetuated as the name of Great Salt Lake's predecessor lake of the Ice Age by the eminent government geologist of the area, Grove Karl Gilbert, in 1875. Gilbert's monograph6 on the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville is the authoritative classic on the subject. PLEISTOCENE LAKES OF T H E GREAT BASIN In some semiarid regions not covered by the ice sheet, the climate of the Pleistocene, or Glacial Epoch, seems to have been more moist than at present and before glacial times. This fact is brought out by a study of the Great Basin. Great Salt Lake is a remnant of a Pleistocene lake which was many times larger. This fossil, or geologic, lake extended westward from the base of the Wasatch Mountains, covered all of Utah west of the present lake, or the region known as the Great Salt Lake Desert, and extended southward, including the Sevier Desert and Lake, with arms to the west in White Valley and in Snake Valley at the Nevada line. From the Sevier Desert a long arm extended far south to cover the Escalante Valley in Beaver and Iron counties; an eastern bay included Lake Utah and Valley, connected to the main body by a narrow neck at Jordan Narrows; while to the north the Cache Valley Bay extended 130 miles to Red Rock Pass in southern Idaho. Lake Bonneville at its maximum size covered an area of 17,000 square miles and was 1,000 feet deep. During the epoch of moisture and at the lake's maximum, there was a tremendous breakout from its basin. Red Rock "Grove Karl Gilbert, Lake Bonneville (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1890).
LAKE
BONNEVILLE
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Pass afforded this outlet into the Portneuf River, a branch of the SnakeColumbia drainage into the Pacific. Through the pass a torrent flowed, cutting away the alluvium deposits to a sill of solid rock. The lake level was then without oscillations for some time: intake became equal to evaporation. Toward the end of the Glacial Epoch there was a return to an arid climate and intake subsequently became less than evaporation, with consequent shrinkage of the former body of fresh water to its present area and maximum depth of only fifty feet, i.e., Great Salt Lake. As the lake shrank all the soluble salts of the larger lake, as well as those brought into the lake basin since that time, have accumulated to form the present exceedingly saline waters. The salt density is about seventeen per cent â&#x20AC;&#x201D; three times that of the ocean. Thus, not only Great Salt Lake and brackish Sevier Lake, but also fresh water Lake Utah are remnants of the former geologic lake â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Bonneville. The Bonneville terraces, marking stationary levels of Lake Bonneville, are conspicuous features of the Utah landscape. The two most important shorelines are the Bonneville and the Provo, the former marking the maximum depth of the lake. The outpouring torrent through Red Rock Pass drained the lake down to the Provo terrace, or shoreline, and reduced the lake's area by one-third; there was a vertical drop of 375 feet. The Provo level remained stationary for a considerable period, producing the most marked shore terrace; it is conspicuous because it is strangely sculptured. There are many terraces less well marked than the Provo which record shorter stationary periods in the lake's area and depth. These terraces are colloquially called "benches." The terraces are well marked on the north end of the Oquirrh Mountains where the present lake shore approaches the mountain. As one floats in the brine of the present lake he may observe these Oquirrh shorelines. Historically, the first recorded observations of these former shores were made by Captain John C. Fremont in October, 1845, as he passed around the southern shore of Great Salt Lake and headed across the Salt Desert toward Pilot Peak. No one in the Mormon community saw any geologic history in these conspicuous terrain "benches." But in 1849-50 Captain Howard Stansbury in making his exploration and survey of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake observed older, higher shorelines marked by driftwood; and farther back and much higher he noted lines of erosion and, in some areas, deposits which marked with certainty ancient shorelines. All along the east side of the Great Salt Lake Valley from Brigham City southward, and particularly at the southern end of the valley at
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UTAH
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"the point of the mountain" or the traverse spur of the Wasatch, the terraces are well marked. An observant eye will discern them on outlier buttes on the Sevier Desert and on one near Franklin, Idaho. These lines are in some places made by deposits of gravel and in others by notches cut by the waves in hard rock. The Great Bar at Stockton, on the west base of the Oquirrh Mountains, was thrown across the strait between Tooele Valley — a bay of the main lake — and the small Rush Valley bay to the south, by the oscillations of the waters at this narrow pass. The Stockton Bar elicits the attention of laymen as a great manmade embankment or dyke. A similar but less discrete, and thus less noticeable, deposition of lucustrine gravel is found at the Jordan Narrows between the main lake in the Salt Lake Valley and the lesser Utah Valley bay. Lake La Hontan in northwestern Nevada was the sister lake of Bonneville during the Glacial Epoch. This geologic fresh water lake in the Great Basin occupied an immense, very irregular area. Lake La Hontan spread out through most of the lower valleys; the mountain ranges stood as islands or peninsulas, and the shore outline was thus a veritable labyrinth. In outline Lake La Hontan was more irregular than any other lake, recent or fossil. La Hontan was deepest at the present Pyramid Lake, five hundred feet above the present water surface. La Hontan had no outlet, as did Bonneville temporarily; its waters were dissipated entirely by evaporation. This geologic lake left several residual or remnant lakes in northwestern Nevada: Pyramid, Winnemucca, Humboldt, Carson, and Walker. The Humboldt River, in its lower course, meanders in the bed of this ice-age lake for a hundred miles southwestward from the lake's eastern crest near Golconda. This extinct Nevada lake was named by Clarence King of the United States Geological Survey in honor of Baron La Hontan, a noted early explorer of the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Thus the United States Geological Survey named the two Pleistocene lakes of the Great Basin for explorers of French birth, neither of whom explored the Great Basin. This is analogous to the naming of the Humboldt River by Fremont for the great German geographer, Baron von Humboldt, who had never been on the North American Continent. BONNEVILLE — T H E MODE This is the story of Bonneville, the lake name. Thus in exploration, in geography, in geology, in history, in literature, in contemporary life in the Salt Lake Basin as well as on the Snake-Columbia system, the name Bonneville is permanently fixed and amazingly on the ascendancy.
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Captain Bonneville's explorations and exploits were on the SnakeColumbia drainage, not in the Great Salt Lake Basin, so historically it is fitting that his melodious French surname should be applied in that area. Bonneville is the name of a town in Wyoming on the Green River drainage where Captain Bonneville first engaged in the fur trade. On the upper reaches of the Snake River in eastern Idaho is Bonneville County, of which Idaho Falls is the seat; in that city is the Hotel Bonneville in which a first-rate portrait and a sketch of Captain Bonneville are on the wall. On the lower Columbia River, upstream from Portland, is Bonneville Dam with its shipping locks and fish ladders â&#x20AC;&#x201D; one of the greatest reclamation dams in the United States. Back of the dam is Bonneville Lake, which extends for many miles upstream in the Columbia River gorge. Manifestly, as a local Salt Lake Valley style there is a popular trend toward the displacement by Bonneville of the hallowed though commercialized name Deseret. The euphonious French surname has been applied in general to the terraces of the ancient lake, to the renowned automobile speedway on the salt flats of the Great Salt Lake Desert, to a chemical refining company of that area, to a Salt Lake City public school, to a street, to a golf club, a dinner-lecture club, a Mormon chapel and administrative unit, a hotel dining-room, and a motel. Does the name Bonneville cast a hypnotic or commercial spell, that its use is so common as to be almost nonsensical ?
The Hole-in-the-Rock as it appears from the top. Through this notch in the Colorado River Canyon wall, 6 miles upstream from the confluence of the Colorado and San Juan rivers, the pioneers chiseled, blasted, and hand-built a road from the mesa to the river 1800 feet below.
THE
S A N JUAN
MISSION
CALL
By David E. Miller*
It is the voice of the Lord to me to go and I am going by the help of the Almighty. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; fens Nielson Brigham Young was probably the greatest colonizer America has produced. Under his leadership the Latter-day Saints Church moved to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake and from that point branched out in all directions, discovering, exploring and settling not just the Great Basin but the whole Intermountain West. The pioneers of this great colonizing movement truly made the "desert blossom as the rose" â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and a good deal of the exploring and colonizing was in real desert country. A common and practical method of colonization developed by the church was to call people on missions to colonize any region the leaders wanted occupied at a given time. When called, most families gladly responded, often leaving well-established homes, farms and other business enterprises, taking all their possessions into rough untried country. There was no assurance that the new home would prove satis* Dr. Miller is professor of history at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. This article is an adaptation of the first chapter of his forthcoming book, "Hole-In-The-Rock, An Epic in the Mormon Colonization of the Great American West," which deals primarily with the six-months' trek of the original pioneer expedition to the San Juan.
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factory, that sufficient water would be available for crops, or that rivers would not flood the new settlements. But the missionaries called seem not to have been too much concerned about such economic and temporal matters. They usually considered their call an opportunity to serve, and once they had accepted there would be no turning back until the mission had been accomplished. Sometimes the assignment seemed virtually impossible, the difficulties to be overcome almost too great; yet somehow all obstacles were surmounted! When Brigham Young died in 1877 the colonization program which he had launched had not been completed. Among the areas not yet settled was southeastern Utah. For several years expansion had been in that general direction, but only one settlement had been attempted east of the Colorado — the Elk Mountain Mission at Moab — and that had been abandoned. A study of this colonization program indicates that it was a part of church policy to plant settlements in all available areas — to occupy all usable farm and grazing land. This expansion was natural and inevitable since the Mormon settlers were always looking beyond the horizon for more and better acres. Furthermore, some of the rapidly growing Utah communities needed outlets to relieve their growing pains. It was in addition to this spontaneous, natural expansion that the church at times found it desirable to organize official colonizing "missions" for the purpose of occupying definite areas. This was especially true when the region to be colonized was too remote for natural expansion or so thoroughly unknown that little or no interest had been shown in it. Such was the case with the San Juan "Four Corners" area — Mormon colonists were just not moving into it of their own accord. Church leaders seem to have been anxious to obtain the San Juan area before it should be taken by non-Mormons. Recent mining booms in southwestern Colorado had resulted in a rather extensive migration to that region; some stock men were moving to the same area. Also, the region was becoming known as a rendezvous for outlaws. But Mormon settlers were slow to go in that direction. Furthermore, the late 1870's was a period of rather extreme antagonism and increasing friction between Mormons and non-Mormons in Utah. The federal campaign against polygamy was rapidly gaining momentum. Although the Latterday Saints Church considered this campaign an unconstitutional violation of religious freedom and justified resistance to the anti-bigamy act on that ground, the United States Supreme Court handed down its deci-
THE
SAN JUAN
MISSION
163
sion in the famous and important Reynolds case of 18791 upholding the anti-polygamy law. In spite of this court ruling, however, there was another decade of conflict and ill-will before the church finally abandoned the practice of plural marriage.2 During those same years also, an intense struggle was being waged between Mormons and non-Mormons for political control of Salt Lake City and the whole territory of Utah. In view of tiiese and various other developments, it is understandable why church leaders had reason to be very conscious of the increasing numbers of non-Mormons in their midst and why they would be interested in occupying all available "border lands" â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if for no other reason than to keep non-Mormons from obtaining these same lands. Although this may not be considered the main objective or reason for the San Juan Mission, it must certainly be considered an important factor. Another very definite reason for establishing a settlement on the San Juan was to provide satisfactory homes for Mormon converts from the southern states. Many of these people had located in south central Colorado but had expressed considerable dissatisfaction because of the severity of the winters. It was believed the warmer climate of the San Juan Valley might solve this problem.3 Important as were the foregoing reasons for colonizing the San Juan area, however, the primary objective of the mission was to cultivate better relations with the Indians and lay the foundations for future permanent Mormon settlements. In spite of the L.D.S. Church's attitude of friendliness toward the natives there had been considerable friction between the two peoples. As Mormon settlements were being established in southern Utah and northern Arizona during the fifties, sixties, and seventies, roving Navajos and Paiutes, long accustomed to plundering their neighbors, found the flocks and herds of the newly arrived whites an irresistible booty. Being well acquainted with all possible crossings of the Colorado River, small parties of Indians often raided the outlying settlements, drove off stock, and disappeared into secret hideouts southeast of the river, beyond the reach of their pursuers. A natural outgrowth of this cattle rustling activity was spasmodic border warfare that resulted in numerous armed clashes and many dead 'Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S., 145-69. This case is cited in numerous books devoted to studies of religious freedom in America. 'During the late 1880's the L.D.S. Church began modifying its views regarding the practice of plural marriage; in 1890 the Manifesto forbidding die practice was adopted. 3 Letters on file in the L.D.S. Church Historian's library as well as information contained in die San Juan Stake History [MS] furnish abundant proof of this.
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on both sides. During the late 1860's this warfare became so fierce that some Mormon outposts such as Kanab and Pipe Springs had to be abandoned temporarily. The diplomatic skill of Jacob Hamblin, Thales Haskell, and others was taxed to the limit in attempts to bring peace to the southern Utah border. The perseverance of Hamblin and his associates succeeded in winning the confidence of the Navajos, with the result that peaceful and legal trading replaced looting and border raids during the early seventies. However, in 1874 three Navajo brothers were killed in an unfortunate tangle with Utah cattlemen, and the whole southern frontier was threatened with full-scale Indian warfare. Albert R. Lyman, in "The Fort on the Firing Line," has very effectively described this phase of Utah history and shown the relationship between these Mormon-Indian hostilities and the evolution of what was to become the San Juan Mission. Says Lyman: The decision of the Church leaders was to plant a little colony of Mormons in the very heart of all this incipient danger; right on the turbulent border between the Navajos and Paiutes, and squarely on the trail of the fugitive desparado wolf pack from all over the west. It was a perilous venture, as the years were to prove, its objectives to be achieved through great sacrifice, hardship and danger. With few in numbers the little colony would be compelled to hang its hopes of survival on the hand of Providence and the faithfulness with which it could wield the agencies of peace. Besides the precarious problem of saving itself with its women and helpless children from the wrath and rapacity of these three breeds of savages, its principal purpose was to save the rest of Utah from further Indian troubles by constituting itself a buffer state between the old settlements and the mischief which might be incubating against them. It was to be a shockabsorber to neutralize what otherwise might develop into another war.4 By 1878 circumstances seemed right; the time had come to put the colonization program into operation. Erastus Snow was given the assignment of perfecting the plan and providing for its successful execution. Southern Utah settlements being nearest the new site were expected to supply most of the colonists. Consequently a mission call "to settle in Arizona or where directed" was made part of the business of * Albert R. Lyman, "Fort on the Firing Line," Improvement Era (Salt Lake City, December, 1948), LI, 797.
THE
SAN JUAN
MISSION
Silas S. Smith led the company as far as the Hole-in-the-Rock, tfien went back to campaign for funds for tools and supplies.
165
Platte D. Lyman, appointed to assist Smith, was actually the field captain of the expedition during most of the trek.
the quarterly conference of the Parowan Stake, "held in the Parowan Meeting House" December 28 and 29,1878. At that time a list of names was simply read by the stake clerk.5 In this way people learned that their church was calling them on a mission â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a mission that would require many to give up fine homes and move with all their possessions to a site that had not yet been definitely determined. There seem to have been no prior interviews, no letters in inquiry. People attending the conference heard their names read from the pulpit much as though they were being called to run an errand for the bishop. Those not in attendance would learn from their neighbors and friends that their names were among those "called." If this seems a bit blunt today, we must realize that that was the method tfien used for calling people on missions, be it for a lifetime of colonizing or for two years of proselyting among the Gentiles. The following March 22 and 23 (1879) at the next regular quarterly conference held in Cedar City, more people received similar calls. In the interim Silas S. Smith was named to head the movement, with Platte D. Lyman ultimately chosen as first assistant. 5
Parowan Stake Historical Record, #22125, p. 174, L.D.S. Church Historian's library, Salt Lake City, Utah.
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In the meantime at a meeting held in the Social Hall, Cedar City, January 2, 1879, those named at the recent Parowan conference were given counsel and encouraged to express their feelings regarding the "mission."6 The new colonizing venture was portrayed as being definitely part of the Lord's work; this assignment was to be considered just as important as though they had been called on foreign missions.7 The missionaries were admonished to put their trust in God, and all would be well with them. Single men were advised to seek a bride and to marry, if possible, before the movement got under way. This mission was intended to be a stable, permanent project. In order to further impress the gathering with the importance of their calling, Henry Lunt of the Parowan Stake Presidency "stated that the march of the Saints today was toward the center stake of Zion. . . ." The colonists might very well be the first vanguard of Saints to begin the great trek eastward â&#x20AC;&#x201D; back to Missouri.8 In the course of the meeting, Bishop C. J. ArtJiur informed those present that they were not compelled to accept the call. He "required all to use their agency as to whether they went or not, but advised all who were called to go with a cheerful heart." He further announced that additional volunteers would be accepted should anyone not already called desire to make the trek. The undertaking would require many strong and valiant people if it were to succeed â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and there could be no thought of failure. As the months passed and the time approached for the company actually to get under way, some members had dropped out, others had obtained official releases, and some new families had joined the ranks of the expedition. For those ready to begin the trek, Jens Nielson expressed what was probably the prevailing sentiment: "he felt it [was] the voice of the Lord to him to go and he was going ° Parowan Stake, Cedar Ward Historical Record, #22183, p. 332. ' In a general sense the term "foreign mission" refers to a proselyting mission outside of Utah, either in one of the other states or in some foreign country. "When the L.D.S. Church established itself in Missouri during the 1830's, diere was created at Jackson County what was called die "Center Stake of Zion." However, due to persecution the church was forced to leave Missouri before this stake had been thoroughly established or the proposed temple built. Since leaving Missouri the church consistently has taught that there will be a return to the "Center Stake" which eventually will become an important Mormon center. This ultimate migration back to Missouri is still part of die long-range church plan; three-quarters of a century ago it was believed by many to be imminent. For a discussion of this element of L.D.S. history and doctrine see B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (6 vols., Salt Lake City, 1930), I.
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SAN J U A N
MISSION
167
by the help of the Almighty. . . ." ° Kumen Jones, writing late in life, a half-century after the Hole-in-the-Rock trek, expressed what was, no doubt, still the sentiment of the founders of Bluff and that of most of their descendants today. He wrote: There are two powers that work among mortal men, a good and an evil power. Any movements for good and tending to move men upward is always met by evil forces which oppose and fight it. My purpose in this humble effort in writing about it, is to convince my children and my descendants of the fact that this San Juan Mission was planned, and has been carried on thus far, by prophets of the Lord, and that the people engaged in it have been blessed and preserved by the power of the Lord according to their faith and obedience to the counsels of their leaders. No plainer case of the truth of this manifestation of the power of the Lord has ever been shown in ancient or in modern times.10 An important fact that must not be lost sight of is that the precise location of the proposed settlement was indeed very nebulous, not only to those named but to the general church leaders as well. The December, 1878, mission call had been to "settle in Arizona or where directed." Various subsequent communications indicate that the San Juan, Salt, and Grand rivers were all under consideration as possible sites. Accounts which mention the Four Corners region were written long after the establishment of the colony inside the boundaries of Utah. The naming of Silas S. Smith to head the proposed migration turned out to be a deciding factor in the actual location of the new settlement, for he was known to favor the San Juan Valley. As he traveled from town to town arranging for an exploring expedition to go out in the spring of 1879 in search of a satisfactory site, he naturally tended to speak favorably regarding his choice of location and gradually directed the thinking of his followers in that direction. At any rate, when the exploring party got under way in April it was taken for granted that their destination was the San Juan. But the San Juan is a long river; settlements along it might be in Utah, New Mexico, or Colorado; and it must be emphatically pointed out that the actual location "Parowan Stake, Cedar Ward Historical Record, #22183, p. 379, report of Sacrament Meeting in Cedar Ward, Sunday, October 19, 1879. I have taken the liberty of placing this statement in the first person to use as a quotation at the beginning of this chapter. 10 Kumen Jones, preface to die "Writings of Kumen Jones," p. 23.
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of the Mission at Bluff and Montezuma was the direct result of Smith's exploring expedition, not a result of church directive. The explorers located suitable farmland and then returned to Iron County to escort the bulk of the missionaries to the new sites. However, they had reached the San Juan after a long, difficult journey into Arizona by way of Lee's Ferry, Moenkopi, and the Navajo reservation, and had returned to the settlements over a northern route through Moab, Greenriver, Castle Valley, Salina Canyon, and the Sevier Valley â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a circuit of almost a thousand miles. Surely there must be an easier, shorter way! At j ust the right psychological moment when the missionaries were preparing for the migration, Reuben Collett and Andrew P. Schow arrived at Parowan to report that a satisfactory short cut could be made by way of Escalante. Mission leaders eagerly accepted this good news and decided to use the new route. Not until the main body of pioneers had worked their way deep into the desert southeast of Escalante did they learn that the country ahead had not been explored. Deep gulches and canyons, sheer cliffs, and solid rock buttes blocked the way. But heavy snows in the Escalante Mountains blocked the return route also; so they decided to push ahead at all costs. The major barrier was the Hole-in-the-Rock, a narrow slit in the west rim of the Glen Canyon Gorge. Six weeks of concentrated effort were required to widen that notch and prepare it for wagon traffic. Because of the difficulties experienced there the whole migration has become known as the Holein-the-Rock Expedition. A trek that had been expected to last approximately six weeks stretched out into as many months before the travel-weary train finally struggled onto the riverbottom at the present site of Bluff early in April, 1880. They had completed the most remarkable roadbuilding feat in the history of the West.
The overland telegraph was completed October 18, 1861, on which date Brigham Young sent his historic message. Reproduced by courtesy of Clarence S. Jackson is a William Henry Jackson painting of a Pony Express rider passing the construction workers on the telegraph lines.
"UTAH
HAS NOT S E C E D E D "
A FOOTNOTE
TO LOCAL
HISTORY
By Gaylon L. Caldwell*
Perhaps the single disadvantage of interest in local history is the tendency of its devotees to exaggerate the importance of regional events to the extent that their conception of the mainstream of history is colored, if not positively distorted, by the exaggeration. This proclivity would seem to be more likely in an ethnocentric community such as Utah because it is precisely those who regard history — and particularly their own history — so seriously who are most liable to become unconscious creators and victims of historical distortion.1 But even if writers of local history remain constantly aware of this hazard and seek continuously to minimize it, a case can be made for the genuine need for local revisionists — that is, sympathetic iconoclasts who are sufficiently concerned to inquire into and evaluate the accounts of even the most minor occurrences with the view of ascertaining their proper perspective. * Dr. Caldwell is on the staff of the political science department at Brigham Young University. For die current academic year he is a Research Fellow at Yale Divinity School, New Haven, Connecticut. ' An extreme example is found in Margaret M. Fisher's Utah and the Civil War (Salt Lake City, 1929). Mrs. Fisher was a former National Patriotic Instructor for the Grand Army of the Republic.
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A case in point is the very quotable, and oft-quoted, message by Brigham Young during the dark days of secession when he publicly announced the loyalty of the inhabitants of the territory of Utah to the cause of the Union. As a youth, the writer, like every Utah schoolboy, knew that when the telegraph was completed to Utah Territory the first message to flash eastward over the wires was sent by Brigham Young. Although he had not read the text, he had learned from history teachers in the public schools2 and from innumerable speakers at the various types of Latter-day Saint church meetings that it contained the patriotic words: "Utah has not seceded, but is firm for the Constitution. His imagination, probably like that of most Utah youngsters before and since, was kindled to imagine how this inspiring message was received in the great world outside. He enjoyed the fantasy that pictured the supporters of the Union as filled with relief and joy to have gained such an estimable ally, while the Confederates gnashed their teeth in consternation to have lost one. It was only years later, as he thumbed through old newspapers published from New England to the heart of the Confederacy, that he realized the message which had been so electrifying when repeated from pulpit and classroom in the twentieth-century Mormon culture actually had been received with indifference in nineteenth-century America. If it was considered by the press to be noteworthy at all, Brigham Young's pronouncement was generally treated merely as a news item and was not accorded editorial comment. In the few instances when it was a subject for additional mention, it served the purpose of comic relief rather than of bolstering the Northern will to fight. For example, the New York treatment of Brother Brigham's mes2 Ibid., 10. Perhaps these teachers had taken seriously the injunction of Mrs. Fisher: "It is hoped the story herein contained will, on occasions, be brought to the attention of the youth of the state by teachers in our public schools." 3 The celebrated message was sent to Mr. J. H. Wade, president of the Pacific Telegraph Company, and not to President Abraham Lincoln, as is commonly supposed. The text is as follows: "SIR: Permit me to congratulate you on the completion of the Overland Telegraph line West to this city; to commend the energy displayed by yourself and associates in the rapid and successful prosecution of a work so beneficial, and to express the wish that its use may ever tend to promote the true interests of the dwellers on both the Atlantic and Pacific slopes of our continent. Utah has not seceded, but is firm for the Constitution and laws of our once happy country, and is warmly interested in successful enterprises as the one so far completed. BRIGHAM YOUNG F O R T BRIDGE, Utah [sic], Friday, Oct. 18, 1861." New York Daily Tribune, October 19, 1861, p . 4. Mr. Wade sent a suitable reply two days later.
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sage was typical in that all five of the papers examined4 were profoundly interested in the westward march of the telegraph but not particularly interested in its arrival in the "Mormon Country" and not at all interested in the professed loyalty of the Saints. What was not typical was that each of these newspapers carried the texts of both Brigham Young's message to J. H. Wade and the grandiloquent one Acting Governor Fuller sent to President Lincoln two days later.5 Of these five, only one accorded front-page space to the texts, and only the Herald and the Times commented on these texts. The former merely mentioned "a congratulatory message sent by Brigham Young — who, by-the-by, assures us that Utah is firm for the Union — on the opening of the Pacific Telegraph line to Salt Lake City. .. ." 6 Before one lays aside the Times after having read on page four: "The great Apostle of the 'Saints' announces the important fact that Utah has not seceded, but is firm for the Constitution and the laws," he must place this "important fact" in context with the whimsical tone of an editorial on the following page, which stated: A COMMONPLACE MIRACLE. —We publish this morning news which left Utah yesterday I The completion of the Pacific line of telegraph to Great Salt Lake City brings us into immediate communication with our polygamous friends of Mormondom. Twenty-five years ago this would have been deemed a miracle;—now, so commonplace a matter has telegraphic communication become, that it will scarcely elicit a passing remark. The first message, moreover, is a protest from BRIGHAM YOUNG against secession. This is scarcely less surprising than the other. He has evidently forgiven the United States Government the war it waged upon him a few years since, or else he fears the South might prove still worse masters than Uncle Sam.7 * These were the Evening Post, Journal of Commerce, Times, Herald, and Daily Tribune. " T O THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES —Utah, whose citizens strenuously resist all imputations of disloyalty, congratulates the President upon the completion of an enterprise which spans the continent, unifies oceans to oceans, and connects remote extremities of the body politic with the governments heart. May the whole system speedily thrill with quickened pulsations of that heart, the parricidal hand of political treason be punished, and the entire sisterhood of States join hands in glad reunion around the national fireside. FRANK FULLER, Acting Gov. of Utah." Daily Courant (Hartford), October 21, 1861, p. 2. "New York Herald, October 21, 1861, p. 4. ' New York Times, October 19, 1861, pp. 4, 5.
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Two of the five New York newspapers found the attempt of the Mormons to grow cotton in Utah's Dixie more newsworthy than their repudiation of secession.8 The reception of the message in New England also apparently was less than thunderous. The papers reviewed3 were very much interested in the completion of the line to San Francisco but not in the statement that had come from Fort Bridger. To be precise, half of the eight newspapers made no mention at all of Mormon loyalty and of two that did, the text was printed without comment. One of these used its editorial space to discuss "The Opium Shops of Java," presumably a subject of more concern to the citizens of New Haven than the statement by Utah Territory's highest ranking spiritual and secular leaders.10 A later editorial in the other paper told of "many patriotic messages" received by President Lincoln and referred explicitly to several, including one from the secretary of the California Pioneer Sons of Temperance; but the loyal message from Utah's Acting Governor received no notice.11 A third newspaper reported simply that the telegraph was in Utah, while a fourth published a paraphrased version of Brigham Young's text and then chose "The Loyal Women of St. Louis" as its editorial topic, while the loyal Mormons of the Far West were forgotten.12 One of the four weekly newspapers that failed to publish news either of the arrival of the telegraph or of Utah's adherence to the Union did report the newsworthy fact that Mrs. Joseph Hollister's garden had yielded the editor a fully ripe sprig of raspberries â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the second crop of the year.13 The exchange of messages between the mayors of New York and San Francisco upon the arrival of the telegraph at the West Coast received elaborate attention in a later edition.14 Thanks to its telegraphic facilities, a Massachusetts newspaper that was unconcerned about Utah was able to report a volcanic disturbance in the Dead Sea.15 In the City of Brotherly Love, the Philadelphia North American and United States Gazette accorded the text of Brigham Young's dispatch first-page position, whereas the Press published Fuller's congratu8 New York Journal of Commerce, October 24, 1861, and Evening Post (New York), November 11, 1861. "These were: Daily Courant (Hartford); Hartford Evening Press; Hartford Weekly Times; Daily Palladium (New Haven); Norwich Aurora (Conn.); Waterbury American; Willimantic Journal (Conn.); Worcester Palladium. '"Daily Palladium (New Haven), October 23, 1861. " Hartford Evening Press, October 28, 1861. "Daily Courant (Hartford), November 6, 1861. 13 Waterbury American, October 25, 1861. 11 Ibid., November 1, 1861. 15 Worcester Palladium, October 23, 1861.
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latory wire to Lincoln but did not print that of the Mormon leader to Mr. Wade. The Inquirer mentioned only that the telegraph had arrived at Fort Bridger and omitted the protestations of loyalty of both Young and Fuller. The pro-Confederate newspapers examined10 indicated that their subscribers had read both about the progress of the telegraph line (but only when it arrived in California) and about Mormons (Remy's article, "Journey to Great Salt Lake City," which offered minute details about polygamy, was front-page copy at this time). 17 However, none of the three was interested in the use of the telegraph by the Mormons to avow fidelity to the Constitution. In the Old West after the historic day of October 18, 1861, one Cincinnati newspaper relegated the text of Brigham Young's stirring telegram to page three, while it devoted a good deal of space on page one to the description of a Mormon-style criminal execution.18 Finally, a second Cincinnati editor, who accorded more comment than any of the others to the Mormons per se, indicated unequivocally his impression of the loyalty statement from Fort Bridger when he wrote: The message of Brother Brigham Young dated at Great Salt Lake City [sic] on the 18th, will, therefore, be received with almost as much surprise as the first message that ever flashed over the wires. We may now fairly be considered in daily communication with the Saints, who, it is gratifying to be assured, are, as their polygamous inclinations and customs would lead us to suppose, unanimously in favor of the Union.19 This brief investigation was made of an event that finds its way into most books on Utah history.20 It was undertaken to ascertain the reaction of the then-contemporary Americans to the declaration: "Utah has not seceded. . . ." The result suggests a footnote to our local history. Yet in a larger sense, the failure of the press of both North and South in Civil War America to regard seriously what was conceived by the people of Utah, then and now, to be the classic statement of Mormon devotion to the Union, might profitably serve as a parable. '"The South (Baltimore); Richmond Examiner; Richmond Dispatch. " Richmond Dispatch, October 22, 1861. 18 Cincinnati Daily Gazette, October 19, 1861. 19 Cincinnati Daily Commercial, October 19, 1861, p. 2. 20 For example see Hubert H. Bancroft, History of Utah (San Francisco, 1891), 770; John Henry Evans, The History of Utah (New York, 1933), 165; Andrew Love Neff, History of Utah: 1847-1869, Leland H. Creer, ed. (Salt Lake City, 1940), 730; and Wain Sutton, Utah: A Centennial History (3 vols., New York, 1949), II, 995.
ANTHONY W. IVINS (1852-1934)
A. W. Ivins came to Utah in 1853. He lived for many years in Utah's Dixie where he was active in church and civic affairs. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1895. The following year he became the leader of the Mormon colonies in Mexico.
LETTER
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IMPRESSIONS OF A M O R M O N *
The official historian of the Mormon expedition which left Salt Lake City in the fall of 1861, bound for Utah's Dixie to settle the city of St. George, was James G. Bleak. Another member of the party was nine-year-old Anthony W. (Tony) Ivins. In his role as general historian for the community and keeper of records for the St. George Stake and the Temple, Mr. Bleak became one of the principal preservers of southern Utah history. During the winter of 1875-76, young Ivins, now twenty-three years old, was one of a party of seven men and about thirty horses and mules which made an exploration and missionary journey through Arizona and New Mexico and spent nearly nine weeks in Mexico. Six years later he went to Mexico City on a two-year mission for the Mormon Church. In 1896 he was called by the church to preside over the colonies which had been established in northern Mexico as cities of refuge for polygamists. In February and March of 1898 he spent thirty-five frustrating days in Mexico City trying to transact colonization business which he thought should have been disposed of in two or three days. In the midst of his frustration he sat down to write a letter to his friend Bleak Âť ED. NOTE: The introduction to this letter was prepared by S. S. Ivins, a son of the author.
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at St. George. The original letter was presented to the Utah State Historical Society by Mrs. Juanita Brooks, a trustee of the Society. It is here reproduced without alterations or emendations. City of Mexico Feby. 19th 1898. James G. Bleak Esq. St. George, Utah. Dear Bro. I have a little time at my disposal while I am waiting the slow movement of Mexican law and slower movement of Mexican officials and feel certain that I cannot use a portion to better advantage than to write a letter to you. I have promised myself for several months past that I would write you but this is the first favorable opportunity that I have had and now it is a question whether I will not have to surrender unconditionally to the fleas. It is fifteen years since I was in this wonderful city and I find that the fleas have prospered under president Diaz' administration as well as the people, and that they seem, like the giant in Tom Thum, to readily smell the blood of an Englishman or his American cousin. While I think of it I desire to ask if you have received from C. E. Johnson my Mothers picture for the temple. I had a Crayon made from one of her photographs and paid Charley for framing, packing and shipping it. This was while I was at Salt Lake last October and you should have received the portrait before the present date. I have been here since the 5 th attending to colonization business and expect that I shall remain a week or ten days longer, and perhaps till a later date; when one gets mixed up with the government it is like a case in chancery, or the supreme court, it is impossible to tell when you will get out. Bro. Macdonald came down with me to close up some business which he had begun but only remained a few days and I suppose is now at home. We have a number of important matters before different departments of the government which should have been settled long ago and I hope before I return home to get them all adjusted, so that we may take a fresh start. I am negotiating for the purchase of about 40,000 acres of land near our colonies which will cost us if I succeed, as I hope to, about ten cents per acre. There is but little agricultural land in the tract but is good
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grazing land and some of it is well timbered. I shall also pay for, and get deeds for about 12000 acres of land which Bro. Macdonald had bought, or rather bargained for. This will give our company, or our stake about 210,000 acres of land, enough, if of good quality to sustain a large population, but unfortunately it is nearly all grazing and timber land. I do not think we have more than ten thousand acres of agricultural land altogether. There is plenty of good agricultural land in the neighborhood of the colonies but it belongs to wealthy Mexicans who refuse, as a rule to sell it, and if they do offer it at all the exaggerated notions which they entertain of the wealth of Americans in general and Mormons in particular prompts them to demand a price which no one will think of paying. Under these circumstances our development is of necessity slow but still we move and occasionally pick up a piece of land which is offered for what it is worth and we expect as we utilize that which we have, that the Lord will open the way so that we may get more and better lands and that our advancement will be steady and continuous. Nearly all of the Latterday Saints who are in Mexico came here without resources and with large families to support; they have had a multitude of difficulties and obsticals to over come which people in the U.S. know nothing about, and the facilities at their disposal were very few, but notwithstanding these facts the tithing paid in the Juarez ward during the past year amounted to between [deleted: seventy] eighty and [deleted: eighty] ninety dollars per capita for each tithe payer for 1897. I have not the exact figures but it will be nearer ninety than eighty dollars. This is in Mexican Silver and a large proportion of the tithing was paid in cash. I refer to this because it gives you a very good idea of the condition of the people, the tithing being the best rule by which we can judge of their prosperity. We are building a nice brick academy at Juarez which will contain ten ten [sic] rooms and hope to have it completed for the beginning of this years school term. I have secured the services of Bro. Guy C. Wilson, formerly of the B. Y. Academy at Provo, who is now teaching at Juarez. He is a very nice man and an excellent teacher. I need not refer to the great benefit which this school will be to the colonies, no one I am certain would give support to an educational movement of this character more readily than you. While waiting for the colonization department to consider my business I have been visiting familiar places and old friends and have enjoyed myself as well as I can expect to do among such a people. When I was here 14 years ago we had nearly one hundred people
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who were members of the Church. I have met since my arrival six who still profess faith in the Gospel and there are a few others but they have been left so long without a shepherd that they have drifted away in practice if not in faith. They are like children and must be carefully taught and removed from their old surroundings before they can be made to appreciate the blessings of the Gospel and live according to its precepts. Mexico has developed rapidly during the past ten years. Many rail roads have been built and there has been a great influx of foreign population and the investment of large sums of money in different avenues of trade. The City has greatly improved and that millionaires are being made is evident by the beautiful mansons which have been and are now being erected, the thousands of fine carriages which are seen on the streets any evening in the week, and the fine business blocks which are going up on every side. Public improvements are also being carried on with very creditable enterprise. The "Alameda," covering about sixty acres of land in the central part of the city is a most beautiful park, the trees and grass are as green as summer at home (in Utah) and flowers in bloom. It is a curious sight to go there in the evening and see multitudes of people of all grades from the wealthiest class to the half naked Indian indiscriminately mixed together, Americans, Englishmen, Germans, French, Spanish, Italians, Japs, Chinese and no telling how many other nationalities, the most cosmopolitan crowd in the world and no one assuming a prerogative which he is not willing to grant to another. I walked down the "Paseo de la Reforma" yesterday to Chipultepec and very greatly enjoyed my walk and visit after reaching my destination. The Paseo has been greatly improved since I was here and is now a most beautiful walk bordered with trees, seats, statuary and kiosks for the bands which make the heart glad by their fine music. Chipultapec is a historical spot. I[t] was upon the summit of this hill that the Montezumas had their summer palace, the viceroys, and later Iturbede and Maximillian made their summer residence there and later when it had been converted into a military academy under Santa Annas administration the Americans stormed it at the battle of Chipultepec where many Mexicans and American soldiers lost their lives. A fine building now crowns the summit of the hill which is at present used as a military academy and summer residence of the president, the West Point and White House of Mexico. The grounds are beautifully kept but the same giant cypress trees are there which shaded Montezuma more than three hundred years ago, and where Cortez rested and slaked
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his thirst from the chrystal spring which gushes out from their roots and which has supplied this city with water since before the conquest. It was by stopping this supply of fresh water and cutting off the food from the mainland that Cortez was finally able to to [sic] subjugate Guatamozin whose bronz statue now stands looking down upon the spot where he was cruelly tortured by his merciless conqueror because he refused to divulge the spot where he had secreted the state treasure. What am I doing? If I keep on in this strain my letter will weary you, but these thoughts and many others, revived from the study of youth come to me as I stand upon the brow of the hill upon which the castle of Chipultipec stands and look around me upon one of the most beautiful vallies that the sun shines upon, for looking East with the city and valley before you in its cloak of green, the foot hills beyond dotted with the cottages and fields of the Indians, and beyond the snow capped peaks of "Iztlacihualt" and "Popocatapetl" the view is an inspiring one to the most passive mind. What must it be to one who knows the past history of the land he gazes upon and the people who occupy it, knows it far better than they with all of their great archeologists, their libraries and their museums. Who knows how blessed they were in their obedience to the Gospel of Christ, how wicked they became when they rejected it, the great civilization which they had attained to under the Moc-tezumas, but with it how idolatrous they became, and how, because they had so fallen from grace, the Lord permitted the Spanish conquer [or] s to chasten them and instead of the idolatry of Huitzel introduce the idolatry of the cross which they worship today as blindly as their fathers did the images of stone to which they bowed down three hundred years ago. One thinks of their past, studies the present and concludes that the Lord only knows what the future will be. What is to become of the masses of the Mexican people. When I go into the suburbs of the city, into the byways, or in fact upon the highways, and see the degradation of the masses, their poverty, their drunkenness, their filth and immorality, when I see them come through the streets of the city as they do every day in trains bending under the heavy burdens which are placed upon their backs, and above all when I observe how firmly the Mother of Abominations seems to have them within her grasp I conclude that only the power of the Lord and that manifest to a degree almost without parallel can ever bring their redemption. When I contemplate these things which are constantly before me, when I think of this Military Oligarchy which is called a republic, I thank the Lord for the Anglo Saxon race, I thank Him still more for the great Republic,
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where with all its defects, self government and the enjoyment of personal rights prevail to a degree which cannot be found elsewhere in the known world, and above all I thank him for the Gospel of His Son which brings with it a more perfect system of government, and more perfect laws of personal liberty and equality than the the [sic] wisest men have ever been able to devise or the average man is able to comprehend. If there are any of the boys who do not appreciate the blessing of the government under which they live send them to Mexico. I surmise they will return more patriotic, more appreciative of the blessings they enjoy, more thoughtful and interested in the downtroden of other Nations. It is nearly 12 oclock. I feel almost as though I were talking to you and could could [sic] go on and fill a small volume if the clock would only stop while I do it, but the little French clock which sits before me on the table keeps ticking away the moments and hours, just as our lives are ticking on, and admonishes me that my work is done so far as this day is concerned, be it good or bad. I cannot recall the hours which have passed while I have [been] scribbling off these lines. With the dying of the day I will finish this letter. I have enjoyed writing it, how much more I should enjoy standing] on the hill at Chipu[l]tapeck and discussing these things with you as we gazed upon them together. Remember me kindly to Bro. Cannon, Bro. Thompson and all the Temple workers as well as any enquiring friends. I shall hope to see you at conference. With best wishes Your Bro. /s/
A. W. Ivins
REVIEWS
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The Mormons. By THOMAS F. O'DEA. (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1957, xii + 289 pp., $5.00) The excellence of Professor O'Dea's work is the product of a careful study of the historical materials and a close look at the Mormons in real life, combined with a fine sensitivity to human values, a good education in the sociology of religion, and competence in the analysis and appraisal of human situations. It is neither an essentially historical study nor an extended and intensive analysis of Mormon thought and institutions. Nor is it the kind of work that professes to be a definitive treatment of its subject. But the attractive synthesis of the material and its scholarly treatment, together with O'Dea's knowing insight into the character of the contemporary problems and his eminent fairness in handling the subject, make the volume easily the best general statement yet published on the Mormons. Mormonism as a subject has suffered much from the attentions of three classes of authors: biased critics, often with questionable intent and deficient information; Mormon writers bent on apologetics or disqualified by honest inability to see the whole picture; and journalists who always find a ready market for a Mormon piece that promises a touch of sensationalism. But there is a growing group of competent scholars and writers both within and without the church who find in Mormon history and society a wealth of material deserving serious
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attention and who are willing to treat the subject with a measure of honesty and objectivity. O'Dea, who is associate professor of sociology at Fordham University, qualifies for the latter category. His look at the Mormons and their religion is from the mature perspective of a person who knows more than a little about the history of religion and has a good grasp of the American scene in which Mormonism has played its role and to which he so effectively relates it. The merit of O'Dea's historical essays does not lie in new data or original interpretations but rather in the fine balance and restrained assessments that characterize his conclusions. Although he gives too little attention to the Campbellite connections of the early church, his description of the background of Mormon beginnings is especially good in the treatment of the general relevance to Mormonism of Protestant theology. In contrast to many authors who describe Joseph Smith in terms of medical and abnormal psychology, O'Dea treats him as a normal person functioning in a somewhat unusual environment. He assumes uncritically Joseph Smith's authorship of the Boo\ of Mormon and proceeds with an interesting analysis of the religious and moral ideas of that book as a reflection of the thought, attitude, and life of the prophet's own world. In contrast to the not uncommon dismissal of the Book °f Mormon as a worthless and boring illiterate concoction, O'Dea is found saying that "in some of the scenes of prophecy and preaching the Book °f Mormon reaches something like greatness in portraying the tension of hope, the inner soaring of the spirit, of the common man who embraced revival Christianity." As in his discussion of the Book °f Mormon, O'Dea throughout his volume has given a prominent place to the theological ideas and philosophical insights of Mormonism. Better than most writers on the subject, he recognizes fully the intellectualistic character of the religion and comes to grips with the problem of the relation of the doctrine to the practice of the people. He has not only a good book understanding of the doctrine but through his own participation in the life of a Mormon community has achieved something of the distinctive feeling of Mormon theology with its broad perspectives combined with hope, aspiration, and almost naive confidence. As a sociologist, and supported by a Rockefeller Foundation Grant to Harvard University, O'Dea was involved, prior to the writing of the present book, in a study of the value structure of a small Mormon village. It was here that he met at first hand the distinctive community character of Mormonism and was attracted to its healthy and aggressive
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life-affirming quality as evidenced, for instance, in the patterns and techniques of social co-operation. He encountered here also the authoritarian structure of the church government which he so effectively describes not only in its present state but in its historical development from early congregational tendencies. Certainly one of the best pieces to be found in the analysis of the development of Mormon institutions or in the study of Joseph Smith is O'Dea's brief discussion on the "Containment of Charisma." In such sections as this he demonstrates the relevance to his task of his specialized education in social psychology and in the social history of religion. It is in the analysis of current internal conflict within the Mormon community that O'Dea has made his most interesting observations. In a comparatively short time, by shrewd observation and effective interviewing, he quite successfully grasped the basic sources of the strains that are the chief problems of the church today. The encounter of orthodoxy with liberal and secular thought, the democratic challenge to authority, the progressive industrialization of Mormon country, and the general threat to Mormon provincialism come in for brief but spirited treatment. It is worth noting that while O'Dea is fully cognizant of the disintegrating power of numerous factors that have become a part of Mormon life, as, for instance, the inevitable threat to orthodoxy posed by the church's commitment to higher education, he nevertheless refuses to agree with the not uncommon judgment that the end of Mormonism as an effective movement is at hand. "It is a tremendous presumption to attempt to judge the future of a movement like Mormonism. Yet it is my suspicion that those who emphasize the obsolescence of Mormonism, those who see the end of the movement in a stereotyped lack of creativity and a routine running down, who believe that this Mormon world will end not with a bang but a whimper, are wrong. There is still too much vitality â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the characteristic Mormon vitality â&#x20AC;&#x201D; remaining for such a prognosis to be likely." This is not in any sense a monumental product of long and meticulous research. It depends heavily on the scholarly work of others. But it has done what many meritorious studies of the subject, both published and unpublished, have failed to do. And it is perhaps a fair guess that even the Mormons, who are not accustomed to self-examination and do not enjoy the objective gaze of others, will find Professor O'Dea's volume both interesting and provocative. STERLING M. MCMURRIN
University of Utah
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Intimate Disciple: A Portrait of Willard Richards. By CLAIRE NOALL. (Salt Lake City, University of Utah Press, 1957, 630 pp., $4.75) This historical novel based on the life of Willard Richards is an intensely moving and colorful story of one of Utah's great pioneer citizens. It is a study of dedication to the Mormon faith, for it was his almost unheralded devotion and unswerving loyalty to this cause, and especially to its leader, Joseph Smith, that enabled Richards to overcome mob violence, domestic tragedy, and heartless persecution. However, the volume is much more than a personal portrait. Because of the author's skill in integrating the narrative with the locale of Richards' life, it becomes in reality the history of the Berkshire country in western Massachusetts, of the frontier Mormon communities of Kirtland, Nauvoo, Salt Lake City, and even of the Lancashire towns of England during the first half of the nineteenth century. "The story of his life seems best told through his own eyes," writes the author. "I have frequently used his words but have supplied many others. The latter have been largely chosen from his own statements and the language of his lucid family, who left thousands and thousands of lines in letters, journals, maxims, as he himself did. I have employed in my portrait the pigments supplied by his brothers, sisters, friends, and enemies, striving always to grasp the inner truth of a situation." (p. viii.) And how well she has succeeded. In the opinion of the reviewer, the author's study is perhaps the best of its type in western Americana to appear within the past decade. Her style is lucid, forceful, convincing, even dramatic. She has succeeded like an artist in drawing a portrait of Willard Richards, great Mormon leader, which is historically accurate, vital, and compelling. Willard Richards was born of stern Congregational parentage in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, near Boston, June 24, 1804; the eleventh and last child of Joseph and Rhoda Howe Richards. Eight years later the family moved to Richmond in the Berkshire country of western Massachusetts. Here the boy Willard, completely yet unhappily dominated by Congregational orthodoxy, sought spiritual emancipation. For a while he won this freedom by teaching school, barnstorming with an electrical show, and even by practicing medicine, for which he was licensed in the art of herb healing. Thereafter he was called Dr. Richards. His emancipation from Congregational influences came finally, though rather accidentally, through the procurement of a copy of the Boor\ of Mormon from one Lucius Parker, a cousin, who in turn
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had received it from another cousin, Brigham Young. Fired with enthusiasm, Willard determined to repair to Kirtland, Ohio, and confer with the Prophet in person. As a result of this experience, he was readily converted and baptized a member of the Mormon Church. In 1837 he left with Heber C. Kimball to introduce Mormonism in England. Here at Preston he met one Jennetta Richards, who is said to have been the first British convert to become baptized and confirmed a member of the Mormon Church. Within a few months, culminating a most romantic courtship, the couple were married. A year later a son, Heber John Richards, was born, who, however, died a few months later. In 1841 Richards returned to America and repaired at once to Nauvoo, Illinois, the new headquarters of the church. Shortly before his departure from Preston he was ordained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Willard Richards had earned a fine reputation through his experiences in England, especially as a writer, and the Prophet accordingly made him his private secretary and commissioned him to write his personal history. He was also named editor and manager of the Times and Seasons, Mormon periodical. In 1842 he was secretly apprized by the Prophet of the practice of polygamy and enjoined to enter that order. After much hesitation Willard agreed. This decision gave him much mental anguish. Subsequently he married nine additional polygamous wives. Two years later, in 1844, he, Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and John Taylor were arrested and incarcerated at Carthage jail. This precipitated an attack on June 27 by a frenzied mob, during which Joseph and Hyrum were martyred. Taylor was severely wounded but Willard miraculously escaped injury and was thus enabled to record the only eye-witness account of the tragedy. When the pioneers left Winter Quarters on their trek to Utah, April 7, 1847, Willard Richards was assigned to the Second Company of Ten commanded by Ezra T. Benson. As the pioneers approached the Great Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young ordered him to proceed with sixty wagons and one hundred ten Saints through the mouth of Emigration Canyon and over the mesa into Salt Lake Valley. This he did, and established the first pioneer encampment on the north bank of Parley's Creek, near the junction of the present Seventeenth South and Fifth East streets, on the evening of July 22,1847. Richards returned to Winter Quarters in the fall of 1847 to expedite the migration of the Saints to Utah. At Kanesville (Council Bluffs) in December of that year he received his greatest signal honor by being
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named second counselor to Brigham Young in the First Presidency of the church, an action which was reaffirmed a year later at Salt Lake City. Because of his unusual ability as a writer, this faithful servant of the church won recognition first as secretary of the State of Deseret, then as secretary of the territory of Utah, and finally as editor of the Deseret News, which he founded in 1850. He also served as president of the territorial assembly, church historian, and postmaster of Great Salt Lake City. Church and state papers that came from his adroit pen prove his linguistic eloquence. Judged by the standard of service, the life of Willard Richards, though marred with domestic tragedy and sorrow, was an abundant and happy one. He died March 11, 1854, three months short of his fiftieth year. The book is handsomely bound and printed, thanks to the University of Utah Press, to whom a debt of gratitude is due. There are copious notes appended, two genealogical appendixes, and an adequate and helpful bibliography. Two fine maps and several excellent photographs add interest to the volume. LELAND HARCRAVE CREER
University of Utah
Kingdom of the Saints. The Story of Brigham Young and the Mormons. By ROY B. WEST, JR. (New York, Viking Press, 1957, xxii + 389 pp., $6.00) For those readers who eagerly anticipate the disclosure of new and startling source materials on Mormon history, this volume will be a distinct disappointment. Mr. West's intent has been to give an impartial and understanding appraisal of the Mormon story from the founding of the church in 1830 to the present. Although some readers may strongly object to his point of view and conclusions, the narrative of Mormon trials and trails which he presents seems eminently fair and, in fact, a bit prosaic to students of the subject who have long supported the approach. The important contribution of the book is that here is set down in succinct and readable fashion the Mormon saga which modern scholarship has delineated but which has not been readily available to the average reader. Documented research and monographic materials on
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specific phases of Latter-day Saint history have become increasingly numerous in recent years, so that such a synthesis is essential. As the sub-title suggests, Brigham Young rides through almost every page, dominates nearly every scene, and in the end captures the book, converting it into a creditable biography of himself. The drama of Joseph, the Prophet, unfolds to the reader through the eyes of Brigham Young, as does the movement to Utah and the establishment of Deseret. In a final essay the author surveys "The Kingdom of God" today, points out its shortcomings, praises its accomplishments, and notes that "it has reached a point of salvation and has begun to flow backward into a world which was once a world of enemies." At such a point in history, the summing up of a century and a quarter of Mormon activity is both desirable and necessary. The present volume accomplishes that objective. BRIGHAM D. MADSEN
Salt Lake City, Utah
The Mariposa Indian War 1850-1851: Diaries of Robert Eccleston: The California Gold Rush, Yosemite, and the High Sierra. Edited by C. GREGORY CRAMPTON. (Salt Lake City, University of Utah Press, 1957,168 pp., $6.00) The first published volume of the diaries of Robert Eccleston was entitled Overland to California on the Southwestern Trail, 1849, and was edited by George P. Hammond and Edward H. Howes and distributed to Friends of the Bancroft Library in 1950. This second volume deals largely with the period from October, 1850, to December, 1851. Apparently upon reaching California late in December, 1849, Eccleston abandoned his practice of keeping a diary but resumed it on October 20, 1850. After giving a brief account of his movements during the preceding summer, he made occasional entries until February 12, 1851, when he was mustered into the Mariposa Battalion for service against the Indians. He then began to make daily entries which were continued with few breaks until early in the following December. The encroaching of the early California gold seekers upon lands occupied by Indians soon caused trouble. In September, 1850, James D. Savage learned that the Indians of the Mariposa region were planning a general war against the whites. Savage had come to California in
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1846 and after service with Fremont had become an Indian trader and established three or four trading posts. He had learned some of the languages of the Indians and according to tribal custom had married several Indian wives. Savage sought to prevent the war, but about the middle of December, 1850, his post on the Fresno River was destroyed by the Indians and three of his men were killed. Governor John McDougal promptly ordered the formation of a volunteer force of two hundred men to prosecute the war. In response to this order the Mariposa Battalion of three companies was organized. Savage, who had already gathered a considerable band for defense against the Indians, was elected to command the battalion, with the rank of major. In the meantime a federal commission composed of Redick McKee, George W. Barbour, and O. M. Wozencraft had reached California with full authority to deal with Indian affairs. The commissioners set out from Stockton for the Mariposa area with a military escort, three wagons, and a hundred and fifty pack mules loaded with their baggage and presents for the Indians. Governor McDougal placed the Mariposa Battalion under the command of these commissioners, who urged patience and moderation until they could meet with the Indians and try to make treaties. As a result the battalion saw almost no fighting but made three major expeditions deep into the Indian country. On one of these an advance party camped on the floor of the Yosemite Valley, probably the first white persons to do so. Another party discovered some of the big trees and a third explored the high Sierra. Peace was made with the Indians by the commissioners and the Mariposa Battalion was mustered out on July 1, 1851. Eccleston re-formed his companions of the "Cayata Mess" of which he had earlier been a member, and the group continued mining until December 8, 1851. The appendix of the book lists the members of the Mariposa Battalion and for two of its three companies gives the age and former home of each man. This reveals the cosmopolitan nature of the mining population and the youth of most of the miners. Seventeen states and three foreign countries were represented in Companies A and C in the total membership of 125 men. Of these states Missouri, New York, and Texas, in that order, contributed the largest number, while the foreign countries were Australia, France, and England. Only two of the 125 were more than forty years old, 97 were under thirty, and 60 under twenty-five. The Eccleston diaries have great historical importance since they give prices, daily returns from mining, and details of life in the camps.
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Their value has been enormously increased by the scholarly and voluminous notes of the editor, which make the book a very significant contribution to the literature of early mining operations in California. EDWARD EVERETT DALE
University of
Oklahoma
Why the North Star Stands Still. By WILLIAM R. PALMER. ( N e w York, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1957,118 pp., $3.50) N o t for forty years, since F r a n k B. Linderman's delightful books told "how things came about" among the Blackfeet, Chippewas, and Crees, has this reviewer seen a collection of folk tales that carried more sense of authenticity than this book of "why-stories" from the Pahutes of southern Utah and Nevada. T h e stories have in them the ring of the true folk tale. For one thing, they give answers to questions which a white m a n would never think of asking. They explain, for example, why the coyote looks up when he howls, why rocks cannot travel, why the sun rises cautiously, how the beaver lost the hair on his tail, how the eagle got smoke on his feathers, why the porcupine can't throw his quills, how the packrat got his pouches, and other such fascinating though unuseful phenomena. N a t u r e was the Indian's book, and he tried to understand every page of it, including the footnotes. Whenever he found it impossible to answer his own questions through natural causes, he invented an answer and called it magic. T h e magic in this book is Indian magic without question, for the culture patterns show through. Indian taboos, Indian goals and desires, and Indian ways of achieving them are apparent throughout. Moreover, one finds a fertility of fancy and a variety of resolutions to the plot complications of the stories that point to multiple authorship or folk origin of the tales. T h e author has lived in close proximity to the Pahutes (as he insists on spelling the tribal name) for most of a lifetime. H e learned the native language and ingratiated himself with the people through acts of kindness and consideration, until ultimately their confidence in him was such that they were willing to have him hear and tell their tribal tales and, after many years, to put the stories into a book. T h e telling of the tales is somewhat less satisfying than the tales themselves. N o doubt the tales were set down at different times and in different moods. Then, many years afterward, they were brought
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together in this collection. A shifting point of view is almost inevitable under the circumstances. Sometimes the narrator is an old Pahute telling his tale in simple primer sentences of three or four words each; at other times the narrator is a white man speaking of "the Indian" as though he were far away and strange. At such times the sentences are of much more complex structure, being simply white man's English with no pretense at primitive communication. The author takes little pains to prepare the reader for these sudden shifts in point of view. As a result some tales are more dramatic than others, and the tone is alternately naive and sophisticated. Yet the stories are intrinsically interesting, and most children and many adults will appreciate them. Westerners, especially, will feel grateful for another indigenous contribution to their bookshelves. The book is copiously illustrated with drawings by Ursula Koering. These are adequate but not remarkable, the lack which one feels in them being that the images are generic Indians rather than Pahutes. The fact that many of the characters illustrated are supernatural personages does not mitigate the charge, for Pahutes, like other primitive people, probably created their folk characters in their own image. However, despite any shortcomings the book may have, Dr. Palmer is to be congratulated for having assembled, without academic training, a notable collection of Indian folk tales. [Ed. note: This book was issued in 1946 by the Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, Utah, under another title and with a different arrangement of the stories.] KARL YOUNG
Brigham Young University ANNOUNCEMENT Too newly off the press for review at this time, yet too important to be overlooked, is the book by two men prominently identified with history in Utah and the West and intimately associated with the affairs of the Utah State Historical Society. We call your attention to the imposing volume, Among the Mormons: Historic Accounts by Contemporary Observers, edited by WILLIAM MULDER and A. R. MORTENSEN. (New York, A. A. Knopf, 1958, xiv, xiv + 482 pp., $6.75). The book represents the culmination of years of painstaking research as the editors scoured literally thousands of obscure, rare, and unique materials, published and unpublished: letters, newspaper columns, documents, memoirs of the
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Mormons themselves and travelers, journalists, soldiers, officials (and their wives), humorists, and sensation-seekers who followed and observed the Mormons in their westward trek and later struggles in Zion. T h e history of the Mormon people is presented from the fresh and novel viewpoint of the "contemporary observer" himself. By extremely readable, interesting, and informative introductory comments to each chapter, the editors have succeeded in keeping the historical thread intact, and the book emerges as a documentary history which should prove to be an invaluable source book. A full-scale review will appear in a later issue of this magazine. D.S. The American Heritage Boot\ of Great Historic Places. T h e Editors. (American Heritage-Simon & Schuster, 1957) The Bannoc\ °f Idaho. By BRICHAM D . MADSEN. (Caldwell, Idaho, T h e Caxton Printers, 1958) British Emigration to North America: Projects and Opinions in the Early Victorian Period. By W . S. SHEPPERSON. (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1957) The Charles M. Russell BookDoubleday & Co., 1957) The
Exploration
By HAROLD MCCRACKEN. ( N e w York,
of the Colorado River.
By JOHN WESLEY POWELL.
(Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1957) The Hudson's Bay Company as an Imperial Factor, 1821-1869. By JOHN S. GILBRAITH. (Berkeley, University of California Press, [1957]) Magnificent
Missourian.
By ELBERT B. SMITH. (Philadelphia, Lippin-
cott, 1957) Mormonism. By WALTER R. MARTIN. (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan Publishing House, 1957) The North
West Company.
By MARJORIE W I L K I N S CAMPBELL.
York, St. Martin's Press, [1957])
(New
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Revivalism and Social Reform in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America. By TIMOTHY L. SMITH. ( N e w York, Abingdon Press, 1957) Roads, Rails &• Waterways. By FOREST G. H I L L . ( N o r m a n , University of Oklahoma Press, 1957) The Young Mustangers. Brown & Co., 1957)
By- JONREED LAURITZEN. ( N e w York, Little
A. V. KIDDER, "Earl Halstead Morris — 1889-1956," American April, 1957.
Antiquity,
N E I L M . JUDD, M. R. HARRINGTON, and S. K. LOTHROP, "Frederick Webb
Hodge—1864-1956," z'fef. DOUGLAS W . SCHWARTZ, "Climate Change and Culture History in the Grand Canyon Region," ibid. OLIVER JENSEN, "Farewell to Steam," American 1957.
Heritage,
December,
Lucius BEEBE, "Pandemonium at Promontory," ibid., February, 1958. MAURINE CARLEY, "Oregon Trail Trek N o . Five," Annals of October, 1957.
Wyoming,
THELMA GATCHELL CONDIT, " T h e Hole-In-The-Wall," Part V, ibid.
AKE HULTKRANTZ, " T h e Indians in Yellowstone Park," ibid. DALE L. MORGAN, "Washakie and the Shoshoni," Part IX, ibid. LAWRENCE CLARK POWELL, "A Southwestern Century," Arizona
High-
ways, March, 1958. "Change Comes to Zion's Empire," Business Wee\, November 23,1957. J. N . BOWMAN, "Driving the Last Spike at Promontory, 1869" (conclusion), California Historical Society Quarterly, September, 1957.
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"Battalion Gold Bought Ogden," Church News [Deseret News], cember 1,1957.
De-
MERWIN G. FAIRBANKS, "Assassin's Bullet Ends Prophet's Campaign for U.S. Presidency," ibid., December 14,1957. DOROTHY O. REA, "Old Fort Bridger," ibid., February 8,1958. LULITA CRAWFORD PRITCHETT, "Tilford Stillings, Pioneer Mail Carrier to Brown's Park," The Colorado Magazine, October, 1957. ROBERT G. ATHEARN, " T h e Denver and Rio Grande Railway," ibid., January, 1958. BILL ALLRED, " T h e Old Spanish Trail," Corral Dust [Brand Book of the Potomac Corral of Westerners], September, 1957. LOUIS H . RODDIS, "Fact and Fiction about the American Indian in the History of the United States," ibid. THEODORE H . HAAS, "Indian Treaties Broken and Unbroken," ibid., December, 1957. "Pierre Jean DeSmet 'Black Robe' 1801-1873," The Denver Monthly Roundup, September, 1957.
Westerners
NOLIE MUMEY, "Your Writers of Western History" (Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, 1793-1864), ibid., October, 1957. , "Your Writers of Western History" (George Catlin, 17961872), ibid., November, 1957. , "Your Writers of Western History" (John Charles Fremont, 1813-1890), ibid., December, 1957. IDA LIBERT UCI-IILL, "Pioneer Jewish History, Etc.," ibid. GENE SPERRY, "Collecting Gizzard Stones in Utah," Desert, July, 1957.
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RANDALL HENDERSON, "With Harry Goulding in Mystery Valley," ibid., August, 1957. , " W e Camped in the Land of the Standing Rocks" [southeastern U t a h ] , ibid., October, 1957. , " T h e Water Was Rough in Cataract Canyon," ibid., February, 1958. O. V. DEMING, " T h e Antiquities Laws and You," ibid., November, 1957. JEAN PAGE KILLGORE, "In His Memory, A N e w T o w n " [Page, Glen
Canyon damsite community], ibid. W . THETFORD LEVINESS, "Harrison Begay â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Navajo Artist," ibid., December, 1957. ROBERT O. GREENAWALT, "Guano Tramway in Granite Gorge," ibid., January, 1958. NELL MURBARGER, "Flaming Gorge D a m on the Green River," ibid. ELIZABETH RIGBY, "Primitive Village in Havasupai Canyon," ibid. JOSEF AND JOYCE MUENCH, "Crossing of the Fathers," ibid., March, 1958.
CECIL M. OUELLETTE, "Over the T o p of Landscape Arch" [Arches National Monument, U t a h ] , ibid. FRANK ELMER MASLAND, JR., "Running the Colorado Rapids,"
Explorers
Journal, December, 1957. CORNELIUS C. SMITH, JR., "Navaho and Hopi Country," Ford December, 1957.
Times,
WILLARD LUCE, "Natural Bridges National Monument," ibid., January, 1958. "Cody [Wyoming] Mural Tells History of the Church," Era, November, 1957.
Improvement
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DOYLE L . GREEN, " T h e Saga of Mormonism," ibid. MABLE HARMER, " W h e n the Candle Was Lit" [Young family in the Lion H o u s e ] , The Instructor, June, 1957. BOYD O. HATCH, "Utah Trails before the Mormons," ibid. HOWARD R. DRIGGS, "Highways from their Wagon Tracks," ibid., January, 1958. GEORGE R. GAYLER, "Governor Ford and the Death of Joseph and H y r u m Smith," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Winter, 1957. HARTZELL SPENCE, " T h e Story of Religions in America â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the Mormons," Loo\, January 21,1958. JOSEPH F . GORDON, " T h e Political Career of Lilburn W . Boggs," Missouri Historical Review, January, 1958. TRUMAN C. EVERTS, "Thirty-Seven Days of Peril, or Lost in the Wilderness" [Washburn-Doane Expedition to Yellowstone], Montana the Magazine of Western History, A u t u m n , 1957. WALTER PRESCOTT WEBB, " T h e West and the Desert," ibid., Winter,
1958. ROBERT G. ATHEARN, " T h e Great Plains in Historical Perspective," ibid. CARL F . KRAENZEL, " T h e Great Plains, Voiceless Region," ibid. BARTLETT BODER, "Missouri and T h e Latter-Day Saints," Graphic, Fall, 1957.
Museum
, "Temple of the Latter-Day Saints" [Nauvoo, Illinois], ibid. , "This is the Place," ibid. "Pyramid Lake," Nevada Highways
and Parks, N o . 2, 1957.
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AUSTIN E. HUTCHESON, "A Life of Fifty Years in Nevada" [memoirs of the Comstock], Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, November, 1957. WILLIAM C. MILLER, " T h e Pyramid Lake Indian W a r of 1860," Part II, ibid. GEORGE P . HAMMOND and AGAPITO REY, " T h e Crown's Participation in
the Founding of N e w Mexico," New Mexico Historical October, 1957.
Review,
JAMES ABARR, "City in the Sky [Acoma]," New Mexico Magazine, December, 1957. ROY L . BUTTERFIELD, " O n the American Migrations," New Yor\ tory, October, 1957.
His-
"Fort Garland 1858-1883," The Overland News, November, 1957. "The First Newspapers {Deseret News),"
ibid., February, 1958.
CAROLYN HOGG AN, "DeVoto's Letters F r o m Harvard," Pen [University of U t a h ] , Spring, 1957. T O M V. BROADBENT, "Notes: Emerson and the Mormons," ibid., Winter, 1957. WILLIAM Y. ADAMS, " N e w Data on Navajo Social Organization," Plateau, January, 1958. EDWARD B. DANSON, "The Glen Canyon Project," ibid. WILLIAM C. MILLER and DAVID A. BRETERNITZ, "1957 Navajo Canyon
Survey â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Preliminary Report," ibid. PEARL WILCOX, "Journeying and Reminiscing" [In the Green Mountains of Vermont], Part I, Saints' Herald, February 3, 1958. , "Journeying and Reminiscing" [Palmyra], Part II, ibid., February 10, 1958.
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-, "Journeying and Reminiscing" [Palmyra, continued], Part III, ibid., February 17,1958. -, "Journeying and Reminiscing" [Harmony, P a . ] , Part IV, ibid., February 24,1958. JOHN BIRD, " T h e Miseries of Elder Benson," Saturday December 21,1957.
Evening
Post,
PAUL SCHUBERT, "Roundup in Bloody Basin" [Zane Gray country in Arizona], ibid., February 15,1958. KENNETH T . GREEN, "Touring Kirtland Temple," Stride, March, 1958. LELAND H . CREER, "Lansford W . Hastings and Discovery of Old Morm o n Trail," SUP News, May-June, 1957. ELIAS L. D A Y , "General Albert Sidney Johnston," ibid. ILENE H . KINGSBURY, "Chief Wanship," ibid. J. SEDLEY STANFORD, " T h e n Came the Gulls," ibid. S. LYMAN TYLER, "Utes and Spaniards in the Eighteenth Century," ibid., October, 1957. ADOLPH M. REEDER, " T h e Salmon River Saga," ibid., November, 1957. EUGENE E. CAMPBELL, " T h e Mormons and the Tragic Donner Party," ibid., December, 1957. ORAN WHITTAKER, "City of the Rocks â&#x20AC;&#x201D; O n the Trail of the FortyNiners," ibid. "Roll Call of Original Pony Express Riders," ibid., January, 1958. BERNICE GIBBS ANDERSON, " T h e Old Co-op Dairy at Collinston, Utah,"
ibid. LELAND H . CREER, "Miles Goodyear," ibid.
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A N N I E CARTER JOHNSON, "A Tribute to Pioneer Mothers," ibid.
L. C. BOLLES, "Possible Proof of Pueblo Origins," Uranium — American Outdoorsman, November, 1957.
Prospector
GERALD R. MILLER, "Indians, Water, and the Arid Western States — A Prelude to the Pelton Decision," Utah Law Review, Fall, 1957. ROBERT W . SWENSON, "Railroad Land Grants: A Chapter in Public Land Law," ibid. NEAL A. MAXWELL, " T h e Conference of Western Senators," The Western Political Quarterly, December, 1957. JAMES L. POTTS, " T h e Relation of the Income T a x to Democracy in the United States," ibid. WILLIAM H . GOETZMANN, " T h e
Topographical Engineers and
Western Movement," The Westerners Book], N o . 4,1958.
the
[ N e w York Posse Brand
ALVIN M. JOSEPI-IY, JR., " T h e Lolo Trail," ibid. RAY ALLEN BILLINGTON, "Turner and the Frontier Hypothesis," Westerners Brand Book [Chicago], November, 1957. "From Buffalo to Beef — T h e Saga of Cattle," ibid., December, 1957. E. B. LONG, "Fremont, Lyon, and Wilson's Creek" (Civil W a r and Effect on the West), ibid., January, 1958. "Mule Deer in the Kaibab," Westways, November, 1957. "The Road from Hanksville," ibid. ANDREW HAMILTON, "Bat Cave Bonanza" [Guano], ibid., January, 1958. IDWAL JONES, "Men on Snowshoes" [Story of Genoa, N e v a d a ] , ibid.
HISTORICAL
NOTES
On Sunday, February 16, 1958, from 3:00 to 5:00 P.M., the opening of the first art exhibit to be sponsored by the Historical Society was held in the ballroom of the Mansion at 603 East South Temple. Through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. N. G. Morgan, Sr., the Society recently has acquired a collection of sixty reproductions of paintings by William H. Jackson (1843-1942), "Picture-Maker of the Old West." Mr. Jackson was himself a pioneer and witnessed many of the scenes which he portrayed. The collection of his work is unique, for the pictures are authentic recordings by the artist of the transition period of the West, 1861-1869, when the covered wagon and the Pony Express were being replaced by the railroad and the telegraph. Depicted are scenes of the Old West â&#x20AC;&#x201D; old forts and missions, Pony Express stations, and the life and activities surrounding these historic places. Buffalo stampedes, Indian ambushes, stage coach adventures, and the terrain of the country along the Mormon, California, and Oregon trails from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast, are graphically portrayed. From 1930 to 1942, while research secretary of the Oregon Trails Association, Mr. Jackson made from seventy-five to one hundred water color paintings from pencil sketches he had made in 1866. He completed this task when he was past ninety-nine years of age. These original paintings are scattered among national museums, universities, libraries, and private collections throughout the country. Mr. Clarence S. Jackson, son of the painter, has retained photographic copies of most
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of these which he reproduces as hand-colored photographs, faithfully preserving the technique and color values of the originals. In addition to the Jackson pictures, the sculptured works of Ortho Fairbanks—the statue of Eliza R. Snow, the Tilman D. Johnson plaque, the statue of Karl G. Maeser, busts of Louis Buchman, former governor Charles R. Mabey, and others—are on display in the ballroom and other areas of the building. The extensive collection of the drawings of historic buildings and scenes of Utah, the work of the noted artist, Carlos Andreson; the historic photograph collection housed on the second and third floors; and the notable works of art exhibited in the halls of the building are continuing to be a source of delight and interest to all visitors to the Society. Through the processing of recent acquisitions from the office of the secretary of state by the Archives Division, exceedingly valuable and important research materials are being made available. The complete records of the Utah Commission as contained in the Letter Books and Minute Books are now available for students. In the Minute Books of the commission are found the reports of the commission to the Secretary of the Interior. In the Secretary of Territories correspondence (1853-1895) are found many official documents — petitions to the legislature, original bills of the legislature, election results, appointments to office, Commissioner of Deeds appointments, and oaths of office. A most important collection, one which came into custody of the Society in a way which no one knows and the whereabouts of the rest of which no one knows — an example of the way invaluable documents have been tossed around, lost, and destroyed in the past — are transcripts of the 1929-30 case of the United States vs. Utah over title of the streambed of the Green, Colorado, and San Juan rivers. The materials consist of both published and unpublished reports given before the watermaster appointed to hear the case and numerous exhibits presented at the trial. The exhibits include pictures, diaries, Indian treaties, and maps. Unfortunately, testimony reveals that the exhibits numbered in the hundreds, but there are only eighy-eight in the present collection. These papers are sources of information for the case that is arising to determine the extent of navigability of the San Juan River, and the Archives Division is now in the process of trying to reconstruct these valuable files in order to serve better certain members of the University of Utah and others who are doing research on the Glen Canyon area under a special foundation grant.
HISTORICAL
NOTES
203
Comments pro and con the new format of the Quarterly have been received with interest and appreciation in the editorial offices of the Society. The general consensus seems to be in line with the main purposes of the change â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that is to bring Utah, Mormon, and Western history to a wider audience â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and the feeling seems to be that the new format is a step in the right direction to do just that. In addition to his daily routine work, the business of running the Society, planning and working on Quarterly revisions and an extended publications program generally, your Director has had a busy fall, winter, and spring program. He has been called upon to talk to various clubs and groups on historical matters. On January 2 and 3, in connection with his activities on the State Parks Commission, Dr. Mortensen traveled to Kanab, Utah, and the Glen Canyon damsite with Mr. C. J. Olsen, director of the State Parks Commission. At the banquet meeting of the Utah State Association of County Officials in Salt Lake City, January 24, 1958, he served as toastmaster for the occasion. On matters nearer home, at the request of the Public Relations Committee of the Board of Trustees, he delivered the first lecture of the Society's newly inaugurated public lecture series, the first meeting of which was held Friday, March 7, in the rooms of the Mansion. His subject was "The Historical Society, a Public Institution," and was an excellent keynote for the rest in the scheduled series. The University of Utah chapter, Alpha Rho of Phi Alpha Theta, national honorary history fraternity, held its initiation meeting at the Mansion of the Historical Society on Thursday evening, January 23, 1958. Mr. Nicholas G. Morgan, Sr., addressed the group, his subject being Abraham Lincoln. The activities of the evening were completed with a tour of the building and a review of the resources of the Utah State Historical Society and its state Archives Division. Since it was inadvertantly omitted from the January issue of the Quarterly, acknowledgment is hereby given to the Huntington Library, San Marino, California, for its gracious permission to reproduce "Fort San Bernardino, from the North East, Oct. 1852," which appeared on page 29 of Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume XXVI, Number 1. The Daughters of Utah Pioneers completed their series, Treasures of Pioneer History, upon publication of Volume VI. A third series, Our Pioneer Heritage, will be forthcoming the latter part of this year.
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HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
Thomas F. O'Dea, author of the recently published book, The Mormons, and associate professor of sociology at Fordham University, will conduct a course on the Sociology of Religion at the summer, 1958, session of the University of Utah. Mr. Bertram J. Silliman of Greenriver, Utah, died in December, 1957. In his passing the Society lost a valued and respected supporter. Mr. Silliman had a profound interest in the history and exploration of this western land of ours, and the files of the Library are the richer for several pieces of material which he accumulated and prepared on various phases of the Old Spanish Trail, mining in the Henry Mountains, and various other subjects. An interesting addition to the collections of the Society was the recent gift from the Naval Supply Depot, Clearfield, Utah, of thirteen trophy cups, one trophy, and two plaques, along with a book giving the histories of United States warships named for people and places in Utah. The ships are: U. S. S. Utah, U. S. S. Salt Lake City, U. S. S. Bennion (named for Captain Mervyn Sharp Bennion), U. S. S. Lyman K. Swenson (named for Captain Lyman Knute Swenson), U. S. S. Merrill (named for Ensign Howard Deal Merrill), U. S. S. Robert Brazier, U. S. S. Ogden, U. S. S. Bryce Canyon, U. S. S. Wayne, and the U. S. S. Escalante. Gifts are always appreciated, and the Society wishes to extend thanks to the following: Donald Prince, Mrs. John D. Giles, E. L. Winn, Mrs. M. Walker Wallace, Stanley S. Ivins, J. N. Bowman, Hugh F. O'Neil, Carl I. Wheat, Abraham Kambler, Miss Lucile M. Francke, S. George Ellsworth, Milton C. Abrams, Mrs. Kate B. Carter, N. G. Morgan, Sr., M. Wilford Poulson, American Gilsonite Company, University of Utah Press, William A. Dawson, Ivard R. Rogers, Newman C. Petty, Eugene McAuliffe, and Brig. Gen. Franklin Riter. Special thanks are accorded Mr. John Spencer of Universal Microfilm Company for his gift of $100 to the Archives Division to be used in the microfilm program.
UTAH
STATE
HISTORICAL
BOARD OF TRUSTEES (Terms Expiring April
1,1961)
JUANITA BROOKS, St. George
SOCIETY
OFFICERS 1957-59 LELAND H. CREER, President NICHOLAS G. MORGAN, SR., Vice-President A. R. MORTENSEN, Director
LELAND H. CREER, Salt Lake City NICHOLAS c. MORGAN, SR., Salt Lake City
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
JOEL E. RICKS, Logan
JUANITA BROOKS, Chairman
RUSSEL B. SWENSEN, PrOVO
LEVI EDGAR YOUNG
(Terms Expiring April
1,1959)
A. K. MORTENSEN
LOUIS BUCHMAN, Salt Lake City
MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
GEORGE F. EGAN, Salt Lake City
JOEL E. RICKS, Chairman
CHARLES R. MABEY, Bountiful
A. R. MORTENSEN
WILLIAM F. MCCREA, Ogden LEVI EDGAR YOUNG, Salt Lake City
PUBLIC RELATIONS COMMITTEE GEORGE F . EGAN, Chairman
(Ex-Officio
Member)
WILLIAM F. MCCREA
LAMONT r. TORONTO, Secretary of State
CHARLES R. MABEY
EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTIONS: The Society was or-
The Utah State Historical Society assumes no responsibility for statements made by contributors to this publication.
ganized essentially to collect, disseminate and preserve important material pertaining to die history of the state. T o effect this end, contributions of manuscripts are solicited, such as old diaries, journals, letters, and odier writings of the pioneers; also original manuscripts by present-day writers on any phase of early Utah history. Treasured papers or manuscripts may be printed in faithful detail in the Quarterly, without harm to them, and without permanently removing them from their possessors. Contributions for the consideration of the Publications Committee, and correspondence relating thereto, should be addressed to die Editor, Utah State Historical Society, 603 East South Temple, Salt Lake City 2 , Utah.
MEMBERSHIP: Membership in the Society is $3.00 per year. The Utah Historical Quarterly is sent free to all members. Non-members and institutions may receive the Quarterly at $3.00 a year or $1.00 for current numbers. Life membership, $50.00. Checks should be made payable to the Utah State Historical Society and mailed to die Editor, 603 East South Temple, Salt Lake City 2, Utah. Entered as second-class matter January 5, 1953, at the Post Office at Salt Lake City, Utah, under the Act of August 24, 1912.
Election Notice! In accordance with the provisions of Law and by direction of "The Board of Registration and Election," notice is hereby given that
AN ELECTION WILL BE HELD at Precinct, in. Territory of Utah, on
County,
TUESDAY, NOVEHBEfl 5th, 1895, tor the purpose of choosing persons to till the following offices: T B H R I T O R I A L . ——
flUUBKH
OF TIIK L K I i W M T n t : COUNCIL FOR
CONSISTING o r T H E 4-01 NTIEM o r
, ._
DISTRICT.
„
„
MEMBER Or THE HOI HE OF KEPBENENTATI* E» VOM-..-...COMPOSED Or
.
... DISTRICT,
COUNTIES.
County. ONE SUPEBINTENDKNT Ol' DISTRICT SCHOOLS. PEECIWCT.
1-IT7 IT I C I P JLX-. ONE HAVOR. ONE HECOKnEK. ONE TREASURER. ONE MARSHAL. ONE CITY J l STICE. HE3IBKRH CITY COUNCIL.
-STATE.ONE REPRESENTATIVE TO THE 54th CONGRESS OP THE UNITED STATES. ONE GOVERNOR. ONE SECRETARY Or STATE. ONE STATE 4ID1TOR. ONE STATE TKEASI RER. ONE ATTORNEY GENERAL. ONE HI I'ERINTENUENT Ol' PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. THREE SUPREME JUDGES. ONE DISTRICT JUDGE POR
DISTRICT,
CONSISTING OP —
-COUNTIES.
ONE MEMHER OF SENATE F O R CONSISTING OP THE COUNTIES OF
..... -DISTRICT, - _
ONE MEMHER OE HOUSE OE REPRESENTATIVES FOB
DISTRICT,
CONSISTING OF THE COUNTY OF And atl*o on the question of the adoption or rrjertlon of the
O O W S T I T p Tioar For the proponed State of Utah.
Said election will commence at one hour after sunrise, and continue until sunset, on the 5th day of November, 1895. [Sun riaea at 7 and Beta at 4:30, sun time.
Dated at this day of October, 1895*
Standard time ia 37 minutes faster than sun time.]
Precinct,.
Registrar (or
.County, Utah Territory,
Precinct.
. County.
Notice of Election! distributed by the Utah Commission to local registrars, it provided for several contingencies: (1) adoption of a state constitution, (2) a slate of state officials, (3) territorial officials, should the constitution be rejected.
UTAH
STATE
HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY