Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 31, Number 2, 1963

TORICAL UARTERLY S P R I N G , 1963 • V O L U M E

31*NUM

UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

BOARD OF TRUSTEES j . GRANT IVERSON, Salt Lake City, 1967 President DELLO G. DAYTON, O g d e n , 1965

J A C K GOODMAN, Salt L a k e City, 1965 MRS. A. c . J E N S E N , Sandy, 1967 J O E L E . RICKS, L o g a n , 1965

Vice-President L. GLEN SNARR, Salt Lake City, 1967 EVERETT L. COOLEY, Salt Lake City Secretary

LAMONT F . TORONTO, Secretary of State Ex officio

j . STERLING ANDERSON, Grantsville, 1967

S. LYMAN TYLER, ProvO, 1965 LELAND H . CREER, Salt Lake City, 1965 RICHARD E. GILLIES, Cedar City, 1967

LEVI EDGAR YOUNG, Salt L a k e City Honorary Life Member

ADMINISTRATION E V E R E T T L . COOLEY, Director

F. T. JOHNSON, Records Manager, Archives R. w . INSCORE, Registrar, Military Records T h e U t a h State Historical Society is an organization devoted to the collection, preservation, a n d publication of Utah and related history. It was organized by public-spirited Utahns in 1897 for this purpose. In fulfillment of its objectives, t h e Society publishes t h e Utah Historical Quarterly, which is distributed to its members with payment of a $4.00 annual membership fee. T h e Society also maintains a specialized research library of books, p a m phlets, photographs, periodicals, microfilms, newspapers, maps, a n d manuscripts. Many of these items have come to t h e library as gifts.

Donations are encouraged, for only through such means can the Utah State Historical Society live u p to its responsibility of preserving the record of Utah's past.

JOHN JAMES, J R . , Librarian

MARGERY w . WARD, Associate Editor IRIS SCOTT, Business Manager T h e primary purpose of the Quarterly is the publication of manuscripts, photographs, and documents which relate or give a n e w interpretation to Utah's u n i q u e story. Contributions of writers are solicited for t h e consideration of the editor. However, the editor assumes n o responsibility for the return of manuscripts unaccompanied by return postage. Manuscripts and material for publications should be sent to the editor.

T h e Utah State Historical Society does not assume responsibility for statements of fact or opinions expressed by contributors.

T h e Utah Historical Quarterly is entered as second-class postage, paid at Salt Lake City, U t a h . Copyright 1963, Utah State Historical Society, 603 East South T e m p l e Street, Salt

Lake City, Utah.

SPRING, 1963

VOLUME 31

NUMBER 2

HISTORICAL QUARTERLY C

O

in

T

i

A B R A H A M L I N C O L N AS SEEN BY T H E M O R M O N S

BY GEORGE U . HUBBARD

91

ANCHORS AWEIGH IN UTAH: T H E U.S. N A V A L SUPPLY D E P O T A T C L E A R F I E L D , 1942-1962

BY LEONARD J . ARRINGTON AND ARCHER L. DURHAM

109

T H E B U C H A N A N SPOILS SYSTEM A N D T H E U T A H E X P E D I T I O N : CAREERS O F W . M. F . M A G R A W A N D J O H N M. H O C K A D A Y

BY WILLIAM P . MACKINNON

127

SENATOR REED SMOOT AND T H E MEXICAN R E V O L U T I O N S

BY A. F. CARDON

151

REVIEWS A N D PUBLICATIONS

164

NEWS A N D COMMENTS

173

Painting by George M. Ottinger (1833-1917), primitive

painters of Utan.

EDITOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR ART E D I T O R

one of the

L.D.S. CHURCH INFORMATION SERVICE

Everett L. Cooley Margery W. Ward Roy J. Olsen

BROOKS, J U A N I T A , The Mountain Massacre,

Meadows

BY A. R. MORTENSEN

164

C L I N E , GLORIA G R I F F E N , Exploring the Great Basin, BY LELAND H . CREER

BOOKS REVIEWED

165

ROGERS, F R E D BLACKBURN, William

Brown

Ide, Bear Flagger, BY DONALD C. CUTTER

166

A L T E R , J. CECIL, Jim Bridget;

BY CHARLES KELLY

167

N U N I S , JR., D O Y C E B., ED., The Golden Frontier: The recollections of Herman Francis Reinhart, 1851-1869,

BY STANLEY R. DAVISON

PIERCY, F R E D E R I C K H A W K I N S , Route Liverpool to Great Salt La\e

BY EVERETT L. COOLEY

167

from

Valley, 168

ABRAHAM LINCOLN AS SEEN BY THE MORMONS

BY GEORGE U . HUBBARD

Throughout the decades which have passed since the life and times of Abraham Lincoln, the deeds and examples of his life — his fairness, his sincerity, and his firmness in pursuing any course he considered to be just — have grown into a living legend and lasting tribute to the man who was called upon to preserve the Union. And Lincoln's dealings with the Mormon people are another evidence of the truthfulness of this legend. This group of people who were hated, persecuted, and driven from their several places of settlement received from the man, Lincoln, the treatment of tolerance and impartiality which was consistent with his stated policy as President to "let them alone." In spite of the fact that most of Lincoln's time and energies were devoted to the problems of slavery and the Civil War during his tenure as President, he nevertheless took time to hear and to act in behalf of the problems of the Latter-day Saints. The number of instances of his dealings with these people were necessarily few, but they were of such a nature that he was to become loved and honored by the Latter-day Saints; and his memory is revered by them still, as it is in all the world.

Lincoln's connections with the Mormons date back to the year 1840 when they were contemporaries in the State of Illinois. The Mormons, having been driven out of Missouri during the winter of 1838-39, had settled in and around Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, thus initiating the transformation of that once swampy area on the banks of the Mississippi River into what was to be for a while the largest city in Illinois. Lincoln, at this time, was living in Springfield, was a member of the Illinois Legislature, and was very active in the affairs of the Whig party. So far as can be determined, it was the political activities of both Lincoln and the Mormons that brought them into contact with each other.

During the year 1840, the Whigs and Democrats were vying with each other for political control of Illinois. A presidential campaign was in the making for that year, and since the Mormon population constituted a large bloc of votes in a state that otherwise was rather evenly divided, both political parties openly courted their favor. Lincoln was no exception in desiring the support of the Mr. H u b b a r d is a statistician and computer p r o g r a m m e r with International Business Machines Corporation, San Jose, California. Besides holding master's degrees in mathematics and statistics, he has studied history at Brigham Young University and has an ardent interest in the history of the Latter-day Saints.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). Photograph by Mathew B. Brady, ta\en on February 9, 1864.

A B R A H A M L I N C O L N AS S E E N BY T H E M O R M O N S

93

Mormons for the Whigs. Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, during one of his visits to Springfield, apparently indicated his intended support of the Whigs. As a result, Lincoln wrote a letter dated March 1,1840, to his friend, John T. Stuart, who was serving as a delegate to Congress from Illinois, in which he said, "Speed says he wrote you what Jo. Smith said about you as he passed here. We will procure the names of some of his people here and send them to you before long." 1 The Mormon vote at this time virtually assured the outcome of any election in Hancock County; and as a result of this unique position, the Mormons frequently, and sometimes unexpectedly, shifted their support from one party to the other in order to bargain for political favors.2 One incident had to do with Lincoln's unsuccessful campaign that year to become a presidential elector supporting the Whig candidates, William Henry Harrison and John Tyler. Lincoln's name was last in order on a ten-candidate ballot which consisted of six Whigs and four Democrats; and the Mormons, who had previously announced their support of Harrison as opposed to the Democratic incumbent, Martin Van Buren, suddenly decided to support both parties equally by scratching Lincoln's name from 200 of their ballots and substituting the name of James H. Ralston, a Democrat. 3 The following month at Springfield, Joseph Smith's charter for the incorporation of the City of Nauvoo came before the Illinois Legislature; and Lincoln, who at the time was a leading figure in the House of Representatives, responded, not with malice for the name-dropping incident, but in a manner typical of the magnanimity for which his memory is now revered. John C. Bennett, then a prominent Mormon who played a leading role in securing the passage of the charter, recorded the incident in a letter dated December 16, 1840, announcing the passage of the charter to the editors of the Mormon periodical, Times and Seasons: Many members in this house, likewise, were warmly in our favor, and with only one or two dissenting voices, every representative appeared inclined to extend to us all such powers as they considered us justly entitled to, and voted for the law: and here I should not forget to mention that Lincoln, whose name we erased from the electoral ticket in November, (not, however, on account of any dislike to him as a man, but simply because his was the last name on the ticket, and we desired to show our friendship to the Democratic party by substituting the name of Ralston 1 Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (8 vols., New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1955), I, 206.

2 At their height in Illinois the Mormons constituted a bloc of over 20,000 persons. It has been suggested by Gayler that the Mormon practice of transferring support from one political party to the other in order to gain political favors was one of the primary causes of their subsequent persecution and expulsion from Illinois. See George R. Gayler, "The Mormons and Politics in Illinois: 1839-1844," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, XLIX (Spring, 1956), 48-66.

3 Quincy Whig, November 7, 1840. Of this incident the Quincy Whig suggested that there was "something connected with the vote at Nauvoo precinct, which needs explanation. . . ."

94

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY for some one of the Whigs,) had the magnanimity to vote for our act, and came forward, after the final vote, to the bar of the house, and cordially congratulated me on its passage. 4

In the summer of 1842, Bennett, having become disaffected with the Mormons, left Nauvoo and began spreading vicious and slanderous accounts of the depravity of the Mormon population. So extreme were his outcries, though, that their very purpose was defeated, for few people took them seriously. Lincoln noted the situation in a letter dated July 14, 1842, which he wrote to Samuel D. Marshall, an attorney practicing at Shawneetown, Illinois: "There is nothing new here. Bennett's Mormon disclosiers [sic] are making some little stir here, but not very great. Ever your friend." 5 It has never been determined whether Abraham Lincoln and Joseph Smith were ever personally acquainted or even if they ever saw each other, although they were contemporaries and near neighbors in the State of Illinois for five years, and both were actively engaged in political activities. Joseph Smith lived in Nauvoo from 1839 until his death in 1844, and Lincoln was a resident of Springfield, the two cities being about 135 miles apart by present-day roads. It is known that Joseph Smith visited Springfield on several occasions during this period.

Because of the activity and influence of both men in politics, it can scarcely be imagined that Lincoln did not take advantage of the opportunity to see the Mormon Prophet at the time of his trial held in Springfield on the fourth and fifth days of January, 1843. Joseph Smith was accused of having been an accomplice to the attempted assassination of ex-Governor Lilburn W. Boggs of Missouri, and the trial was being held to determine whether or not there was any justification to the demands of the Missouri authorities that Smith be turned over to them. It was a case which attracted considerable notoriety and which featured the direct participation of Governor Ford and ex-Governor Carlin of Illinois, Governor Reynolds of Missouri, and, of course, ex-Governor Boggs, as well as that of Justin Butterfield, United States attorney for the District of Illinois who served as Smith's defense counsel.6 But, according to Pratt, Lincoln was engaged at this time as defense attorney in a trial of Judge Thomas C. Browne in the House of Representatives in Springfield.7 Even so, ample opportunity seems to have existed for the coming together of these two men during this occasion although no record of their meeting has as yet been discovered.8 4

Times and Seasons ( N a u v o o ) , January 1, 1841.

Basler, Works of Abraham Lincoln, I, 2 9 0 - 9 1 .

0 Brigham H . Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (6 vols., Salt Lake City, 1930), II, 1 4 8 - 5 8 .

7 Harry E. Pratt, Lincoln 1840-1846 (Springfield, 1939), 158.

8 Ibid., 158. This book is a day-to-day chronological account of Lincoln's activities d u r i n g the stated period. U n d e r the date of Sunday, January 1, 1843, Pratt's only entry is the following: "Joseph Smith, the B

ABRAHAM LINCOLN AS SEEN BY THE MORMONS

95

Following the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in June, 1844, and the exodus of the Latter-day Saints from Illinois the following spring, Lincoln's connections with the Mormons took the form of public utterances in some of his political speeches. In none of these utterances, however, did he speak disrespectfully of the Mormons nor did he publicly attack their institution of polygamy. In fact his only recorded references to the Mormons, now in Utah, were made in response to remarks on the part of Stephen A. Douglas, who, during earlier years, had been known as a friend of the Mormons, but yielding to the pressures of popular opinion, was now voicing scathing denunciations of them.

The infant Republican party was advocating the extinction of those "twin relics of barbarism," slavery and polygamy, and was even receiving praise in the South on this latter issue; while the Democratic party, which stood for popular sovereignty in the territories, was being labeled by some as a protector of the Mormons and a defender of polygamy.9 On June 12, 1857, Douglas made his celebrated speech at Springfield, Illinois, on the subjects of Kansas, the Dred Scott decision, and Utah; and in an effort to win the support of popular opinion with regard to the Mormon question, he reported on the stories and rumors which were currently rampant concerning the situation in Utah. In so doing he vehemently denounced the Mormons. Douglas accused them of being "bound by horrid oaths and terrible penalties, to recognize and maintain the authority of Brigham Young," and also that "they will, in due time, and under the direction of their leaders, use all the means in their power to subvert the government of the United States, and resist its authority." Then followed charges of Mormon organizations and alliances with the Indian tribes for the purpose of committing robberies and murders upon citizens supporting the authority of the United States. Douglas' remedy was that "the knife must be applied to this pestiferous, disgusting cancer." He further added that should all other efforts fail, the one remedy left would be to "repeal the organic law of the territory, on the ground that they [Mormons] are alien enemies and outlaws, unfit to be citizens of a territory, much less ever become citizens of one of the free and independent states of this confederacy." 10 M o r m o n leader, arrived yesterday and is today's sensation in Springfield. H e has been arrested on a w a r r a n t issued by Governor Ford and his hearing before Judge Pope in the United States District Court set for t o m o r r o w . Smith is present at a ball held on Saturday evening at the American H o u s e in honor of the election of Sidney Breese to the United States Senate." In the Quincy Whig, January 11, 1843, the paper's Springfield reporter referred to Joseph Smith on this occasion as being " t h e great lion of the d a y . " Lack of information on their meeting is borne out by Preston Nibley, L.D.S. C h u r c h historian. In his book, Joseph Smith, The Prophet (Salt Lake City, 1 9 4 6 ) , 434, Nibley states that "after diligent searching, I have not found any mention of his [Lincoln's] n a m e in connection with the court proceedings of Joseph or the visit of the brethren."

9 A n d r e w Love Neff, History of Utah, 1847-1869, Leland H a r g r a v e Creer, ed. (Salt Lake City, 1 9 4 0 ) , 457.

10 Missouri Republican (St. Louis), June 18, 1857, quoted in Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church, II, 1 4 8 - 5 8 .

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U T A H H I S T O R I C A L QUARTERLY

Two weeks later Lincoln responded to an opportunity to reply to the speech of Mr. Douglas. Commenting on Douglas' remarks concerning the situation in Utah, Lincoln's reply, rather than being a further denunciation of the Mormon people, seemed to be primarily a rebuttal to Douglas' doctrine of popular sovereignty which appeared to be merely a guise for the extension of slavery. Regarding the Utah problem, Lincoln's reply is here quoted: If it prove to be true, as is probable, that the people of Utah are in open rebellion to the United States, then Judge Douglas is in favor of repealing their territorial organization, and attaching them to the adjoining States for judicial purposes.

I say, too, if they are in rebellion, they ought to be somehow coerced to obedience; and I am not now prepared to admit or deny that the Judge's mode of coercing them is not as good as any. T h e Republicans can fall in with it without taking back anything they have ever said. To be sure, it would be a considerable backing down

by Judge Douglas from his much vaunted doctrine of self-government for the territories; but this is only additional proof of what was very plain from the beginning, that that doctrine was a mere deceitful pretense for the benefit of slavery. Those who could not see that much in the Nebraska act itself, which forced Governors, and Secretaries, and Judges on the people of the territories, without their choice or consent, could not be made to see, though one should rise from the dead to testify.

But in all this, it is very plain the Judge evades the only question the Republicans have ever pressed upon the Democracy in regard to Utah. That question the Judge well knows to be this: "If the people of Utah shall peacefully form a State Constitution tolerating polygamy, will the Democracy admit them into the Union?"

There is nothing in the United States Constitution or law against polygamy; and why is it not a part of the Judge's "sacred right of self-government" for that people to have it, or rather to \eep it, if they choose? These questions, so far as I know, the Judge never answers. It might involve the Democracy to answer them either way, and they go unanswered. 11

Although he makes several references in various speeches to the admissibility of Utah and New Mexico into the Union as states, slave or free, no further allusion by Mr. Lincoln to the Mormon question itself is found until the political campaigns of 1860. Stephen A. Douglas was still advocating the partitioning of Utah as the means of achieving the destruction of Mormonism; and in a speech delivered in Bloomington, Illinois, on April 12, 1860, Lincoln again pointed out the inconsistency between Douglas' doctrine of popular sovereignty and his proposals to partition Utah in order to destroy Mormonism. 12 Lincoln's remarks are reported as follows: Mr. Lincoln said he supposed that the friends of popular sovereignty would say — if they dared speak out — polygamy was wrong and slavery right; and therefore one might thus be put down and the other not; and after supposing several II Illinois State Journal (Springfield), June 29, 1857, quoted in Basler, Works of Abraham Lincoln, II, 398-99.

12 For additional background on the role played by the Mormon question during the political campaigns of 1856 and 1860 in Illinois, see Richard D. Poll, "The Mormon Question Enters National Politics, 1850-1856," Utah Historical Quarterly, XXV (April, 1957), 117-31; and Vern L. Bullough, "Polygamy: An Issue in the Election of 1860?" ibid., XXIX (April, 1961), 119-26.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN AS SEEN BY THE MORMONS

97

other things of northern democrats, he proceeded to notice, what he called, Mr. Douglas's sedition law.13

Lincoln also used the following anecdote in attacking Judge Douglas' proposals to partition Utah: "If I cannot rightfully murder a man, I may tie him to the tail of a kicking horse, and let him kick the man to death." 14 In spite of his stand of impartiality toward the Mormons in his political jousts with Douglas and against the stated opinions of his own party, Lincoln's first campaign for the Presidency of the United States was looked upon disfavorably by the Saints in Utah. Although they did not at that time possess the voting franchise, they gave what moral support they could to the Democratic party. At the Fourth of July, 1860, luncheon given for Governor Cummings and leading officials in the courthouse in Salt Lake City, one of the after-dinner toasts was to "the great Democratic Party — may they return to common sense in November next." 15 The reasons for the prevailing views of the Saints were primarily two-fold.

First, the Republican party had gone on record as favoring the complete extinction of those "twin relics of barbarism," slavery and polygamy. The Mormons had been befriended by various prominent Democrats in the past, and, in spite of the vicious verbal attacks currently being uttered by Stephen A. Douglas, they felt that their own chances of survival would be greater should the Democrats remain in office. Secondly, the secession of several of the Southern States had been promised should Lincoln win the election. To the Mormons the election of Lincoln meant the dissolution of the Union, a nation whose creation was divinely inspired. The result would be the beginning of the bloodshed and agonies which the Prophet Joseph Smith had prophesied for this land. 16 It is understandable, then, that when news of the election of Lincoln finally reached Utah, public reaction was one of disappointment and apprehension rather than of jubilation. John D. Lee, in a Sunday evening church service at Harmony, Utah, borrowed a Democratic phrase by referring to Lincoln as "the Black Republican." 17 An advertisement which appeared in the Deseret News of November 28, 1860, while probably submitted facetiously, nevertheless gives a good indication of the general tenor of the public sentiment.

This trend of public opinion against President Lincoln was promoted and nurtured by the church officials themselves following the lead of Brigham 13 Illinois State Register (Vandalia-Springfield), April 17, 1860, quoted in Basler, Works of Abraham Lincoln, IV, 41-43.

14 Ibid.

15 Deseret News (Salt Lake City), July 11, 1860.

10 For some of these prophecies, see Joseph Fielding Smith, Teachings of the Prophet foseph Smith (Salt Lake City, 1951), 17; and The Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City, 1950), Sec. 87.

11 Robert Glass Cleland and Juanita Brooks, eds., A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries of John D. Lee, 1848-1876 (San Marino, 1955), I, 283.

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The commencement of a new volume at this eventful period, when Abraham the I. has, in all probability, been installed into office as successor of James the IV., to preside over those of the American States preferring him for their Chief Magistrate, all others having disolved their connection with the American Confederation, or are evidently about to do so, might be considered by some an appropriate time for the expression of sentiments in relation to passing events, and for indicating what course will be pursued in the future. T o all such we have to say that no material change has come over us; we still believe as we have for many

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Young. To them, the combination of events which had been threatening the Union for so long were about to unleash their fury across the nation because of the election of Lincoln, and they saw him as being utterly helpless and powerless in the face of the situation.

Brigham Young, speaking in the Tabernacle on February 10, 1861, talked of the weakness of the positions of President Lincoln and of President James Buchanan before him, and referred to them mockingly as King Abraham and King James.18 This set the stage for the following editorial which appeared a month later in the first issue of a new volume (XI) of the Deseret News:

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A B R A H A M L I N C O L N AS SEEN BY T H E M O R M O N S

99

years, that the Union, about which so much has been and is being said, will go to destruction as fast as time will permit, and that nothing can save it. 19

Even after his inauguration, critical references to President Lincoln were made by several speakers at the general conference of the church in the session held April 6, 1861, in the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. Brigham Young was as outspoken as ever in his remarks: "Our present President, what is his strength ?

It is like a rope of sand, or like a rope made of water. He is as weak as water.

What can he do ? Very little. Has he power to execute the laws ? No. . . ." 2<) Apostle George A. Smith followed, and expressed his concern for the safety of the followers of Mormonism: Abe Lincoln, the present President of the United States, that was â&#x20AC;&#x201D; at any rate he occupies the seat and claims the title, and presides over a portion of the Union at Washington in name, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; this man is the representative of the religious enthusiasm of the country. For the last thirty years there has been a constant stirring up and firm exertion on the part of the North to get up a crusade against slavery â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to make the men who live in the Southern States turn over their slaves. . . . . . . Mr. Lincoln now is put into power by that priestly influence; and the presumption is, should he not find his hands full by the secession of the Southern States, the spirit of priestcraft would force him, in spite of his good wishes and intentions, to put to death, if it was in his power, every man that believes in the divine mission of loseph Smith, or that bears testimony of the doctrines he preached. 21

Fear for their own safety was also expressed by Heber C. Kimball, who said, "The South will secede from the North, and the North will secede from " 22

us,. . .

President Lincoln's first official act regarding the Mormons was a request to Brigham Young on April 28, 1862, to raise an armed force for the protection of the overland mail and telegraph lines against hostile Indians. During the spring of that year, passengers were being attacked, mails destroyed, and stations robbed and burned along the route east of Salt Lake City and especially in the region between Fort Bridger and North Platte. Lincoln, who was anxious to secure the needed protection quickly and effectively, made his request directly to Brigham Young rather than through the regularly constituted federal authorities in Utah. The Mormon leaders were delighted with this recognition and demonstration of confidence on the part of the federal government, and their response was immediate.

Earlier that month Acting Governor Frank Fuller had made a request to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton that James Doty, local superintendent of Indian affairs, be authorized to raise "a regiment of mounted rangers from the 19

Ibid., March 6, 1861.

Journal of Discourses (26 vols., Liverpool, 1854-1886), IX, 4.

21 Ibid., 18.

22 Ibid., 7.

20

100

U T A H HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

inhabitants of the Territory" to guard the mail route. 23 Imbedded in this communication was the implication that the existing Utah Militia, the Nauvoo Legion, was not capable of handling the assignment. Brigham Young countered with a telegram to the Utah delegate at Washington stating that "the militia of Utah are ready and able, as they ever have been, to take care of all the Indians, and are able and willing to protect the mail line if called upon to do so" 24 Without waiting for a reply, Young, because of the urgency of the situation, had orders issued on April 24, 1862, to Captain Robert F. Burton of the Nauvoo Legion to accompany the next eastbound stage "as far as it may be deemed necessary by yourself and Captain Hooper for their safety." 25 Fuller then changed his mind, and the following day he officially requested Lieutenant General Daniel H. Wells of the Nauvoo Legion to furnish the necessary protection.20 One day later a group of volunteers under the leadership of Captain Burton was on its way.

At this same time Lincoln was taking action to provide official federal authorization for the raising of a protective army. On the day that Captain Burton started out, Lincoln sent a message to Secretary of War Stanton instructing him to authorize Brigham Young to raise the necessary force. It is interesting to note that although Lincoln decided to invest this authority in Brigham Young rather than in Acting Governor Fuller, he felt the need of exercising caution in dealing with Young. His message to Stanton requested the Secretary of War to "please make an order carefully in accordance with the within." 27 On the evening of April 28, 1862, Brigham Young received a telegram from the War Department authorizing him to raise, arm and equip a company of cavalry for ninety days' service, to protect the property of the telegraph and overland mail companies between Forts Bridger and Laramie, and to continue in service until the United States troops shall reach the point where their services are needed.

The order went on to state explicitly that this company would not "be required to perform any other service than that required for the protection of the mail and telegraph." 28 Orders were issued that same evening placing Major Lot Smith in charge of a second company of men which set out within two days to relieve Burton's company.

Upon hearing of Brigham Young's prompt action, Ben Holladay, who had recently obtained control of the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Ex23

Edward W. Tullidge, History of Salt Lake City (Salt Lake City, 1886), 252.

Ibid.

25 Ibid., 253.

26 Neff, History of Utah, 622.

27 Basler, Works of Abraham Lincoln, V, 200. This was a message of endorsement written by Lincoln on a letter, dated April 26, 1862, and written by Milton S. Latham, which requested this protection.

28 Deseret News, April 30, 1862.

24

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101

press Company, sent a message of thanks to Young for his "prompt response to President Lincoln's request." 20 Despite the efforts of Brigham Young and the Nauvoo Legion in assisting the Union in the protection of the mail and telegraph route, the Mormons were to suffer additional frustrations during the year 1862. Efforts had been renewed for obtaining the admission of Utah into the Union even though it appeared at the time that the South might win the war. Not only did these efforts come to naught, but Congress passed the first of the anti-polygamy bills which President Lincoln signed into law in July, 1862.30 To make matters worse, Stephen S. Harding, who was governor of Utah at this time, was not getting along well with the Mormons. He made several complaints to Washington regarding the situation. Basler reports that Lincoln received two letters from Harding and one from Secretary of State William H. Seward, all of which he forwarded to Stanton after adding a note on Seward's letter indicating his approval that "some paroled troops be sent to that territory." 31 Stanton ordered Colonel Patrick E. Connor and a group of California volunteers to Salt Lake City for the stated purpose of protecting the overland mail. Marching from California, they entered Utah Territory in October, 1862, and after marching through the streets of Salt Lake City in a display of power, they established an encampment, Camp Douglas, east of the city at the base of the Wasatch Mountains.

This second entry of federal troops into their territory caused no small stir among the Mormons. 32 They felt that their good intentions and efforts of loyalty to the Union had been betrayed, and Brigham Young placed the blame for the presence of the army squarely on Lincoln when he said, "Lincoln has ordered an army from California, for the order has passed over these wires." 33 Additional criticism of Lincoln by the Mormons followed the issuance of his preliminary emancipation proclamation on September 22, 1862, following the Union victory over Lee's forces at Antietam Creek. The frustrations which had lately come to the Mormon people seem to have found vent in the following comments from the Deseret News: It seems that the late emancipation proclamation of President Lincoln, does not meet with universal favor, and several of the public journals in the North and West, have considered it an unconstitutional document, and speak somewhat harshly of its author. . . .

29

Tullidge, History of Salt Lake City, 256.

Act of July 1, 1862, U.S., Statutes at Large, XII, 501-2.

31 Basler, Works of Abraham Lincoln, V, 432.

32 Federal troops first entered Utah Territory under the command of General Albert Sidney Johnston at the time of the Utah War in 1857-58.

33 Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church, V, 17.

30

102

U T A H H I S T O R I C A L QUARTERLY President Lincoln has swung loose from the constitutional moorings of his inaugural address and his messages at the opening of the two successive sessions of Congress under his administration. H e is fully adrift on the current of radical fanaticism. We regret for his sake, we lament for the sake of the country, that he has been coerced by the insanity of radicals, by the denunciation of their presses, by the threats of their governors and senators. 34

Mormon appraisals of President Lincoln began to improve again early in 1863 as a result of Lincoln's response to a petition of the Mormons for relief from oppressive government officials in Utah. Governor Harding and certain other federal appointees in Utah were decidedly anti-Mormon, and during the previous year their public activities and personal conduct had grown increasingly offensive. Finally the Mormon citizenry of Utah could tolerate them no longer, and on March 3, 1863, a mass meeting was held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle at which time the following petition to President Lincoln was read and unanimously accepted: T H E PETITION TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN To his Excellency, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States: S I R : â&#x20AC;&#x201D; W e , your petitioners, citizens of the Territory of Utah, respectfully represent that: Whereas, from the most reliable information in our possession, we are satisfied that his Excellency Stephen S. Harding, Governor, Charles B. Waite and Thomas J. Drake, Associate Justices, are strenuously endeavoring to create mischief and stir up strife between the people of the Territory of Utah and the troops now in Camp Douglas (situated within the limits of Great Salt Lake City,) and, of far graver import in our Nation's present difficulties, between the people of the aforesaid Territory and the Government of the United States.

Therefore, we respectfully petition your Excellency to forthwith remove the aforesaid persons from the offices they now hold, and to appoint in their places men who will attend to the duties of their offices, honor their appointments, and regard the rights of all, attending to their own affairs and leaving alone the affairs of others; and in all their conduct demeaning themselves as honorable citizens and officers worthy of commendation by yourself, our Government and all good men; and for the aforesaid removals and appointments your petitioners will most respectfully continue to pray.

Great Salt La\e City, Territory of Utah, March 3,1863 F"

As a countermove to this petition, Colonel Connor and the military officers of Camp Douglas were joined by the non-Mormon citizenry in petitioning for the retention of Harding, Waite, and Drake in their offices and for the removal of Secretary Frank Fuller and Chief Justice John F. Kinney on the charge of being "subservient to the will of Brigham Young."

34

Deseret News, October 22, 1862.

Tullidge, History of Salt Lake City, 311.

30 Ibid., 325.

35

A B R A H A M L I N C O L N AS SEEN BY T H E M O R M O N S

103

Lincoln responded to these petitions by making concessions to both sides.

Governor Harding was removed from office, but Waite and Drake were retained as associate justices. In addition Fuller and Kinney were also removed from office. James Duane Doty, superintendent of Indian affairs, was appointed governor; Amos Reed, secretary; and John Titus, chief justice. Kinney's popularity among the Mormons was sufficiently high, however, that he was quickly elected by them to represent Utah in the Thirty-Eighth Congress, replacing the Honorable John M. Bernhisel.37 The real turning point in the Mormon attitude toward President Lincoln occurred shortly after Lincoln's response to the petitions concerning Governor Harding. Brigham Young was anxious to obtain a statement from Lincoln indicating the future policy which he might be expected to pursue toward the Mormons. As a result, the President granted an interview to T. B. H. Stenhouse, then a Mormon in good standing, who was in Washington transacting business for the church. Nibley reports the interview as follows: . . . at the insistence of President Brigham Young he [Stenhouse] called on Lincoln to ascertain what course he intended to pursue with the "Mormons" in Utah.

Lincoln was silent for some moments and then said: "Stenhouse, when I was a boy on the farm in Illinois there was a great deal of timber on the farms which we had to clear away. Occasionally we would come to a log which had fallen down.

It was too hard to split, too wet to burn and too heavy to move, so we plowed around it. That's what I intend to do with the Mormons. You go back and tell Brigham Young that if he will let me alone, I will let him alone." HS

This was precisely the kind of governmental policy which the Mormons had sought in vain for the past thirty-three years.39 They were granted no special favors nor privileges, but were merely given hope at last of the freedom of worshipping God in their own way without unjust interference. In a letter written June 25, 1863, to George Q. Cannon, then in England, Brigham Young displayed his delight with the report of Stenhouse's interview. Commenting on the political situation in Utah, President Young wrote, Since Harding's departure on the 11th inst., without the least demonstration from any party, and only one individual to bid him good-bye, the transient persons here continue very quiet, and apparently without hope of being able to create any disturbance during the present Administration. They certainly will be unable to, if President Lincoln stands by his statement made to Brother Stenhouse on the 6th inst., viz: "I will let them alone if they will let me alone." We have ever been anxious to let them alone further than preaching to them the gospel and doing 37 It is of interest to note that Kinney, not a Latter-day Saint, was the only Gentile honored by the Mormons by being elected delegate to Congress.

38 Preston Nibley, Brigham Young, The Man and His Work (Independence, 1936), 369.

39 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized April 6, 1830, "Journal History" (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Historian's Library, Salt Lake City), April 6, 1830.

104

U T A H H I S T O R I C A L QUARTERLY them good when they would permit us, and if they will cease interfering with us unjustly and unlawfully, as the President has promised, why of course they will have no pretext nor chance for collision during his r u l e . . . . 40

It may thus be seen that well before the end of President Lincoln's first term in office, the attitudes and opinions of the Mormons toward him had changed considerably. Lincoln was not a political weakling as at first feared, and the Union was not disintegrating. The Union armies were finally beginning to be victorious, and it appeared to be more and more certain that the Union would be preserved. Through it all, Lincoln was proving himself to be the strong, courageous leader which the situation demanded; and in spite of the presence of Colonel Connor and the federal troops, Lincoln's dealings with the Mormons were winning their respect and appreciation. After so many long and troublesome years, the Mormon people had finally found in the Presidency, a man whose policy, regardless of differences in religious philosophies, would be to let them alone whenever possible, and from whom, when action or decisions became necessary, they could expect justice and impartiality. As a result the Mormon population had become fervent supporters of Abraham Lincoln, and they were looking forward to his re-election.

The second inauguration of President Lincoln was an occasion of great jubilation in Utah. The inauguration took place on Saturday, March 4, 1865, and celebrations were held throughout all of Utah. In Salt Lake City the celebration was preceded by the following proclamation adopted by the city council on the second day of March, 1865: CITY C O U N C I L CHAMBER G R E A T S A L T L A K E CITY, March 2nd, 1865 Whereas, Saturday, the 4th instant, being the day of inauguration of the President of the United States, and Whereas, also, by reason of the many recent victories of the armies of our country; therefore be it Resolved, by the City Council of Great Salt Lake City, that we cheerfully join in the public celebration and rejoicings of that day throughout the United States, and we cordially invite the citizens, and organizations, military and civil, of the Territory, county and city, to unite on that occasion. Be it further Resolved, that a committee of three be appointed to confer with the Grand Marshall of the day, and make the necessary arrangements to join in the general celebration.

A. O. Smoot, Mayor. 41 40

Tullidge, History of Salt Lake City, 325. lbid., 332.

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Last photograph of Abraham Lincoln taf^en a weel^ before his assassination in 1865.

106

U T A H H I S T O R I C A L QUARTERLY

And celebrate they did! For the first time Mormon citizenry and the federal troops at Camp Douglas were joined in a common cause, co-operating with each other, and therefore learning better to understand each other. The events of the day are vividly described by Roberts: . . . in the last days of February leading citizens of Salt Lake and officers of Camp Douglas met and made the necessary arrangements for a conjoint celebration of the event. There was a procession "a mile long" through the principal streets of the city, made up of military and civil officers in carriages and mounted; California volunteers and "Mormon" militia companies of infantry; and citizens on foot and in carriages. Hon. fohn Titus, chief justice of the territory, was the orator of the day, and Hon. W . H . Hooper made the closing address. A. O. Smoot, "Mormon" mayor of Salt Lake City, and George A. Smith, of the council of the twelve apostles, met on the platform General Connor and Governor Doty. Rev. Norman McLeod, from Camp Douglas, was chaplain of the day. The platform was erected in front of the old city market on First South street; the divisions of the procession were assembled chiefly in front of the platform; the audience gathered "around, and on all sides, completely filling the streets, covering the roofs and hanging out of the windows;" it was "a dense mass of humanity, silent and attentive to the proceedings." Later in the day a banquet was given at the city hall by the city council to officers from Camp Douglas, Mayor Smoot presiding. The mayor opened the banquet by proposing "the health of President Lincoln, and success to the Union armies." Captain Hempstead responded in a patriotic speech, and proposed the health of the mayor and civil authorities of Salt Lake City. There were other patriotic toasts and responses, and fireworks in the evening. "The day closed," said the Union Vedette's enthusiastic and full report of the proceedings, "after a general and patriotic jubilee, rarely, if ever before, seen in Utah." "General Connor," reported Stenhouse, of the Utah Telegraph, "was greatly moved at the sight of the tradesmen and working people who paraded through the streets, and who cheered most heartily and no doubt honestly â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the patriotic, loyal sentiments that were uttered by the speakers. H e wanted differences forgotten, and, with gentlemanly frankness, approached the author with extended hand and expressed the joy he felt in witnessing the loyalty of the masses of the people." H e also proposed the discontinuance of the Union Vedette, the anti-"Mormon" paper, which had waged fierce war upon the "Mormon" church and its leaders, thinking that the changing conditions in Utah required its abolishment. 42

The happiness of the Mormon people was short-lived, however, as was that of most people throughout the nation and the world. News of Lincoln's assassination reached Salt Lake via the overland telegraph on Saturday, April 15,1865.

The city immediately went into mourning, business houses were closed, and the theatrical performance scheduled for that evening was postponed. Flags flew at half-mast, buildings and carriages were draped with crepe, and preparations were made for a memorial service to be held in the Tabernacle.

At the Sunday morning service in the Tabernacle on the following day, Wilford Woodruff delivered a funeral sermon, and was followed in the after42

Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church, V, 70-72.

107

ABRAHAM L I N C O L N AS SEEN BY T H E MORMONS

noon by Franklin D. Richards and George Q. Cannon who also spoke in honor of Lincoln. 43 The special memorial service, however, had been set for Wednesday, April 19, and on this occasion the Mormon and Gentile elements were once more united in a common though tragic cause. The Tabernacle was filled with over three thousand people, civil and military, Mormon and Gentile. The following description of the occasion was quoted by Tullidge from the Union Vedette: The vast assemblage was called to order by City Marshall Little, in the name of the mayor, immediately after the entrance of the orators, civil and military functionaries, and a large body of prominent citizens, who occupied the platform. The scene was impressive and solemn, and all seemed to partake of the deep sorrow so eloquently expressed by the speakers on the occasion. The stand was appropriately draped in mourning, and the exercises were opened by an anthem from the choir.

Franklin D. Richards delivered an impressive prayer. The address of Elder Amasa M. Lyman was an earnest and eloquent outburst of feeling, and appropriate to the occasion. H e spoke for forty-five minutes, and held the vast audience in unbroken silence and rapt attention.

The address did credit to Mr. Lyman's head and heart. After another anthem from the choir, Rev. Norman McLeod, Chaplain of Camp Douglas was introduced, and delivered one of the most impressive and burning eulogiums on the life, character, and public services of President Lincoln which it was ever our pleasure to hear. 44

The service was concluded by a benediction by Wilford Woodruff.45 43

Matthias Cowley, Wilford Woodruff (Salt Lake City, 1909), 441.

Tullidge, History of Salt Lake City, 336.

45 Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah (Salt Lake City, 1893), II, 120.

44

IrLjJi 13 XL. a EA i t Hi 1 J>lr.TVi3t TRUTH

AND

LIBERTY.

Washington, IS—11 *.m. utes after eight o'elook, Speaker C«lThe Star say* the President breathed flax was at the WhittMouseat the time.

The President stated to him that hu .Us last at 7,30 this morning, closing his ts r n u m i D EVSBV was going, although Mrs. Lincoln luui eyes as if going to sleep—his eountebeen well, because the paper* had uanee assuming an expression of perfect d n e f d a y M o r n i n g , not announced that (Sen, Orant was to be repose, with no indications of pain.

The Hev. Dr. Ourley, of the New present, and as Orant had gone north, RT C A R f H N C T O N , EDITOR. he did not wish the audience to be dis- York Avenue Presbyterian church, Imappointed, He went with apparent re- mediately on Its being known that life luctance, and urged Colfax to go with was extinct, knelt at the bedside and OFFICE: him, but that gentleman had made oth- altered an impressive prayer, which was I or SOUTH t EAST TEMPLE STREETS er engagement* and, with Mr, Ashman to by all present. Dr. Ourley then proceeded to the ftout praior, where Mrs, of Massachusetts, bid him good-bye.

Whan the excitement at the theatre Unoolu. e»pt. itobert Idncola, Mr. AnvlKHTlUUXTIKNCr* was at its wildest height, reports were Hay, private Secretary and others were i mstrtitm m*w* b« hmtdmt in 6y Mmtitay circulated that Secretary Seward had in waiting, where he again ottered up a £fcmt ISM* pate t» to\ w&asee. also teen assassinated. On reaching prayer, for the consolation of the famithis gentleman's residence, a erowdahil ly.

Washington, IB—noon. a military guard were around ita door.

The mots are substantially as fol The President's remains were » m o Iowa: ed from the private residence opposite About 19 o'clock, a man rung the boil Fotxl,s theatre, to the Executive Manand the call having been answered by a sion, at half-past 8, In a hearse wrapped colored servant, he said he had come in an American flag, and escorted by a VSSINATION from Dr. vied*, Secretary Seward's fam- small guard of cavalry and tien. Atigu ily physician, wltha presoription,attlte and other military officers on foot.

A dense crowd accompanied tho re same time) I i$ i> Ids hand a small piece of folded paper, and saying, In mains to the White House, where th answer to a refuKsU, Unit he must see military guard excluded all but person. the 8eoreta*y, a» he was entrusted with of the household and personal friends of particular directions concerning the the deceased. The body Is being «m Washington 14, Midnight, He insisted on going up, al- baimed with a view to its removal u President and wife, with other medicine. though repent' tl hat no one Illinois. s this evening visited ford's The- could enter the chamber. He pushed , New York, l«. or the purpose of witnessing the the servant and walked heaAll places of business are closed—tin iMtftnoeofO: t Cousins, vily towa to one side ntry's room.

He streets assuming a sombre hue—hotels i announced iit the papers that was met there by Sir. Fred. Seward, of public offices, stores and banks beibl 3wat would also be present, but whom be demanded to see the Secrein mourning. entleman took a late train of oars tary, mak "•'•• repre«e8t*tJb» were adopted a "ew Jersey. The tiiwatw- was which lie.: i-vant. the tJOfti Exchange <*old Boom by th ly elowdt \ What further passed in the way of regular board of brokers, and then lot led With s • •• 4 tbt: third act ami while there colloquy is not known: byt the man mediately adjourned.

An imn. <r was held n ilia billy, temporary pause for one of Uts struck "him on .skull and felling Wall street this forenoon, which was to enter, it an of a pi* severely injuivw, hh* 4t addressed* by Butler, Dickinson and }• attracted win almost —n - !• Tin: assas n then rus! -d into the others, Appropriate resolutions were ion, but suggested nothing seriadopted and I CO thirteen ' ntil si man rushed to the front of fii»'ti>it»d to go to master of the V.• S. Army, Mr. eminent w •esklent's box, wnvRig a. long d i l - pay U.'iss,,!! « i, , : > .state Du-

I feumt

VOL XI?.

GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, I860.

). 29.

§rwis:

§g t d « & .

SIDENT LINCOLN

soleiuulty of the occasion and the responsibility of the duttea of Hie office I am assuming.

Mr. Johnson appeared to be tit remarkably good health and has a high realizing sense of the hopes tliat are centered upon him. His manner was solemn and dignified and his whole bearing produced a most gratifying impression upon those who participated in the ceremonies.

New York, 15. • , The i*o#t>» special says the messenger of the Ht«W Department who was in attendance on Secretary 8f ward is dead, Mr, Heward Is in a very precarious condition. His wounds are bad, but not mortal. , He is composed, but has lost much blood, No arteries have been cut.

Frederick (Seward's skull i* fractured badiy lu two places above the temple.

He is Insensible. Fears are entertained that he will not recover.

Th* Washington InteUiyewer extra says evidence obtained renders it highly probable that the perse® wk© attempted to murder Mr. Seward is John riurvalt, of Prince (iaerge county, Maryland, About midnight two men crossed Anna Costa bridge—otic of whom gave Ms name as Booth—tin- other as Smith, The latter Is supposed to have been fturvalt.

Chicago, 1*.

A telegram from J, W. 8., WasaUng,on, say* (Secretary Howard's face u, gashed, buf his rb ttat is not ait. He saved hit) he bird.

Washington, 15.

Ceil. Otant arrived here bj apetdsai tmiu about noon and it eeeticii to the I'l A second extra <>t >i ,..,.,,

i

•....

the defense;- north <>t Jndue iilin ••! the Supreme Court of tht i. i j M i ' h ' i

are engii^.

lue head-

108

U T A H H I S T O R I C A L QUARTERLY

On this day also, the Deseret News, the church's weekly newspaper, paid highest journalistic tribute to Lincoln by donning the black bars of mourning and by devoting its entire first page to the account of the assassination.

The mood of the occasion was captured in a moving and beautiful poem commemorating Lincoln's death written by the poetess, Sarah Carmichael, who was of Mormon parentage.

Toll! Toll!

Toll! Toll!

All rivers seaward wend.

Toll! Toll!

Weep for the nation's friend.

Every home and hall was shrouded, Every thoroughfare was still; Every brow was darkly clouded, Every heart was faint and chill.

Oh! the inky drop of poison In our bitter draught of grief!

Oh! the sorrow of a nation Mourning for its murdered chief! 46

Throughout the many years since President Lincoln's Administration, Latterday Saints have been unanimous in their devotion to his memory and in their praise of him as President and as a person. Numerous articles in his honor have appeared in church magazines and newspapers, and he has been quoted and referred to repeatedly in sermons and lessons for the examples he set. Perhaps the most stirring tribute paid him by church officials was penned by L.D.S. President Heber J. Grant who wrote, "We honor Abraham Lincoln because we believe absolutely that God honored him and raised him to be the instrument in His hands of saving the Constitution and the Union." 47 Recent tribute was paid him in 1954 when a bronze Lincoln statue was presented to New Salem State Park, Illinois, by the Sons of Utah Pioneers.

To these examples could be added many others to show that Lincoln is greatly loved and honored by the Latter-day Saints. This man, who befriended them at the time of his ascendency to the office of President of the United States, was magnanimous enough during the most severe period in this nation's history to extend to the Mormon people the hand of tolerance and the kind of treatment which won for him their undying respect, gratitude, and honor.

46 17

Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church, V, 73.

Heber J. Grant, "Lincoln and the Law," The Improvement Era, XLIII (February, 1950), 127.

ANCHORS AWEIGH IN UTAH: The U.S. Naval Supply Depot at Clearfield, 1942-1962

BY L E O N A R D J . A R R I N G T O N AND ARCHER L. D U R H A M

The enormous build-up in military stockpiles, required by the intensive and far-flung activities of the United States Army, Navy, and Air Force during World War II, led to the establishment of a network of federal supply depots.

Because of its central location among the Western States, a number of these key installations were established in Utah. These included Army ammunition depots at Ogden (Ogden Arsenal) and Tooele (Tooele Army Depot), an Army Service Forces Depot (Utah Army Depot), and a naval congregating storehouse (U. S. Naval Supply Depot, Clearfield). The latter, constructed in the last half of 1942, was one of three inland naval supply depots in the United States, the other two being located at Great Lakes, Illinois, and at Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.1 The Clearfield Naval Supply Depot was established upon the recommendation of the Naval Bureau of Supplies and Accounts, which obtained public funds to purchase land on which to erect a physical plant with at least 7 million square feet of storage space. The site of the Depot was located in the heart of a placid farming community approximately 15 miles south of Ogden and 25 miles north of Salt Lake City.

Dr. Arrington is professor of economics, Utah State University. A graduate in political science at U.S.U., Captain D u r h a m is presently plans officer of the 28th Air Transport Squadron, Hill Air Force Base, Utah. This study was supported by a grant from the Utah State University Research Council. T h e writers are grateful for the suggestions and assistance of T h o m a s G. Alexander, economics research assistant at U.S.U. and candidate for the doctorate in history at the University of California, Berkeley. All photographs in the article are courtesy Clearfield Naval Supply Depot.

1 Unless otherwise noted, this article is based upon NSD Clearfield Tenth Anniversary Publication, 1952; Information Brochure, NSD (Clearfield, n . d . ) , and from the Depot C o m m a n d History. T h e latter is a typewritten, chronological, documentary record of the events of the Depot from its beginning to the present, kept by the many persons w h o served as historians since the initiation of the Depot. T h e Comm a n d History also includes: "Data for Presentation to the Committee to Investigate National Defense," which was compiled at the Depot in 1945; "Organization, Function and Operation of N S D Clearfield during the Six-Month Period Prior to V-J Day 1 9 4 5 " ; and "Review of Facilities Pertinent to Phase-Out of Navy Activity at the Naval Supply Depot, Clearfield," by Ray L. Davis. Captain D u r h a m also consulted Depot files, organizational manuals, personnel listings, letters, etc., which have been retained as historical items and as authority for the operation of the Depot. In m a n y instances the memories of employees, w h o have remained with the Depot since it was established, were tapped to provide data regarding questionable periods. W e are grateful to Lieutenant C. E. H a m e l , U S N , Depot administration officer, and Merlyn Goodfellow, Depot historian, w h o m a d e the C o m m a n d History available. W e are also grateful for interviews with Gordon Atkinson, deputy dispersing officer; Larry Lundquist, m a n a g e m e n t analyst; Charles Jenkins, assistant disposal officer; and Vern Frazier, chief of Plant Operations, all of the Clearfield Naval Supply Depot.

wajNuwisiiwi w wmmHm&tm

U.S. Naval Supply Depot, Clearfield, Utah.

ANCHORS AWEIGH IN UTAH: U. S. NAVAL SUPPLY DEPOT

111

SELECTION OF THE SITE AND CONSTRUCTION

The announcement of the Navy's intentions did not meet with the approval of all Utahns. Citizens located on or near the proposed site sent strongly worded protests to Senator Elbert D. Thomas and Representative }. William Robinson, who carried the petitions to the Navy Department. Governor Herbert B. Maw, Senator Abe (Orrice Abram, Jr.) Murdock, and certain officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints entered the ranks in an attempt to find an alternate Utah site. Senator Thomas and David O. McKay (an apostle of the L.D.S. Church) inspected at least seven sites in Utah, and particularly recommended one near Woods Cross. But the Navy rejected all alternative suggestions as unsuitable.2 The Ogden Chamber of Commerce, on the other hand, favored the proposed site and wired counterprotests to Utah's congressional delegation stressing both the patriotic and economic advantages of the proposed depot's activities. For its part the Navy had already considered and rejected several other sites including Pasco, Washington (too far north); Winnemucca, Nevada (insufficient transportation facilities); and Sacramento, California (too close to the coast).

Recognizing that the people had emotional attachments to the Clearfield area, nevertheless, the Navy found it difficult to understand their vehement response.

It planned to exchange a $35 million installation, with a huge staff of locally recruited employees, for 1,600 acres of farmland managed by 43 farmers; and it planned full compensation to the farmers for their lands and crops.3 After almost a month of argument, an understanding was reached, and on May 26,1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox to acquire the property. At this announcement the citizens of Clearfield and others affected by the move asserted their patriotism and affirmed that if the Navy needed the land, they would not stand in its way. After gaining possession of the 841 acres it needed at a cost of $750,000, the Navy sought to pay the farmers the fair market value for their crops which, owing to the beginning of construction, could not be harvested.4 On June 3, 1942, Captain Raymond V. Miller, the officer in charge of building the Depot arrived at Clearfield to commence construction. Headquarters of the installation were moved from the Hotel Ben Lomond to temporary quarters in a Clearfield elementary school, where both the Navy and its contractors maintained offices until construction of the administration building was sufficiently far along so they could move in (November 7,1942). 5 -Salt Lake Tribune, May 5, 9, 10, 15, 22, 1942.

3 Ibid., May 6, 10,22, 1942.

4 Ibid., May 27, June 10, 12, 25, 1942. The original decision was for 750 acres, and the rest was acquired later.

"Ibid., June 6, 9, 14, 25, November 8, 1942,

112

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

From mid-June, 1942, when Captain Miller and the civilian contractors began construction, until April 10, 1943, when the Depot was officially christened, work moved ahead at a feverish pace. The combined services of three architectural firms (Ashton, Evans, and Hodgson; Blanchard and Mayer; and Clyde C. Kennedy) and four construction companies as prime contractors (C. F. Haglin and Sons of Minneapolis, Minnesota; Missouri Valley Bridge and Iron of Leavenworth, Kansas; Sollette Construction Company of South Bend, Indiana; and Winston Brothers of Denver, Colorado) were required.6 During the fall of 1942 (with some later additions), there was constructed a storage area comprising 84 large storage buildings, with a storage area of more than 8.3 million square feet (191 acres) of covered storage. There was an additional 8 million square feet of open storage, of which 1.3 million was hard-surfaced. Thirty-three of the large storehouses were heated; 19 contained individual dehumidification plants for controlled humidity; and there were 32 unheated buildings and sheds. The 66 general and heavy-duty buildings were 200 feet by 600 feet each, and another 8 were 100 feet by 500 feet each. Twenty of the major buildings were provided with inside, full-length rail access and overhead cranes for handling heavy material. The remainder of the warehouses had truck-level floors with full-length loading docks on the railroad side and truck access doors on the street side. All told, there were 38 miles of roadroad trackage on the base. The Depot was completely self-sufficient, so far as utilities and operating services were concerned, with the exception of purchased electrical power and contract sewage disposal. Total cost of the completed installation was estimated at $37 million.

MISSION OF THE DEPOT

The predominant factors responsible for the selection of the Clearfield location were its relative security from enemy attack, and its nearness to the gateways of two major western railways. Other features were access to military air transportation at the Ogden Air Depot (Hill Air Force Base) only two miles away, and the excellent transcontinental trucking facilities, since the site is near three transcontinental highways. Also, the facility is located equidistant from the ports of Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, which afforded the Navy considerable savings through use of the "in transit privilege" resulting in lower transportation costs with the privilege of storage holdover when desired. Naval construction experts considered the gentle slope of the land and the ground's firmness to be money-saving features. The excellent comparatively arid climatic conditions also made possible the long-term storage of materials with a minimum of deterioration. Moreover, the close proximity to a number of other milia

Ibid., May 27, June 6, 1942, March 14, 1943.

ANCHORS A WEIGH IN UTAH: U. S. NAVAL SUPPLY DEPOT

113

tary installations encouraged the utilization of existing facilities through crossservicing agreements. Finally, northern Utah had been an area of substantial unemployment and underemployment during the 1930's and was thought to have a supply of manpower at rates considerably below those of more highly industrialized areas.

As construction continued, various installation facilities were occupied and used as they were completed, but the base was not officially commissioned until April 10, 1943, when all construction was finished. At this time Captain Omar D. Conger was installed as the Depot's first commander. Piped onto the platform with the traditional bosun's pipe at the services, were Rear Admiral J. F. Hatch of San Francisco, Twelfth Naval District supply officer; Rear Admiral W. J. Carter of Washington, assistant chief of the Navy's Bureau of Supplies and Accounts; and Utah Secretary of State E. E. Monson. At the services Mr. C. J. Pankow who had directed construction for the combined contractors turned the keys over to the Depot officials, and NSD, Clearfield, officially began its service.7 The mission of the Clearfield Naval Supply Depot, in a broad sense, was to provide a reservoir of materiel in support of West Coast supply points and the advance bases of the Pacific Fleet. They were also to provide a supply of automotive and materiel-handling equipment to all service activities in the Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Naval Districts and the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. The Depot also received, warehoused, distributed, and controlled designated types of naval materiel required for support of assigned shore activities and furnished necessary administrative services and maintenance functions incidental to these operations. The Depot was directed to receive, store, and issue such newly procured materiel as the Navy might require; to act as a center for holding reserves until needed by major consuming and issuing activities; and to assemble such material for overseas shipment as would be requested for transshipping through such points as a naval commander might designate.

Finally, the Depot was a depository for the personal effects of Navy, Coast Guard, and Marine personnel who were lost in action or otherwise separated from their property. These materials were sorted, inspected, and sent to the nextof-kin or returned to the rightful owners.8 T H E BUILD-UP OF PERSONNEL

The acquisition of sufficient, trained personnel during the early stages of Depot operation presented a major problem. As with most war installations, available manpower in the local communities was limited by military obliga' Ibid., January 14, April 1 1 , 1943.

"Operating Personnel of H u g e Utah Naval Supply Depot," ibid., Sunday Magazine, June 13, 1943.

8

114

U T A H H I S T O R I C A L QUARTERLY

tions and other demands. Administrative officials issued an urgent call to the community offering employment to anyone willing to work. An excerpt from the Depot Command History indicates the nature of the response: The call was answered by many, elderly men, mothers, war wives, girls fresh from college, high school boys who worked after school and during the summer and local farmers who worked swing shifts, night shifts and during the winter months. Whole families came to work at Clearfield, including old folk, seventy, eighty and even one ninety-nine-year-old. Some of NSD's workers were handicapped, crippled, deaf, mute or blind; but they, too, found a vital role in the the battle of supply. Additional personnel were recruited from many sections of the country to fill requirements after local sources had been exhausted. 9

Despite the wholehearted support of Utah civic and religious organizations, however, Clearfield was always in need of more workers to handle the base's ever-burgeoning workload. At frequent intervals announcements appeared in the newspapers calling for more workers. By December, 1944, the administration threw all requirements for typists to the wind, and, with the admission that they "couldn't find enough girls who could pass the tests," the base agreed to accept "high school graduates who flunk speed tests but express willingness to learn." 10 The labor force was further supplemented, on December 21, 1944, with twenty Pueblo and San Felipe Indians from New Mexico. Others arrived later.

Most of these had been farmers and cattle ranchers in the Rio Grande Valley, but some had worked as silversmiths, turquoise drillers, and moccasin makers.

At Clearfield they lived in dormitories near the installation.11 Late in the war, in April of 1945, 500 German prisoners-of-war were also assigned to the Depot as work crews. The quonset huts formerly used as a contractor-civilian worker camp were converted to a prison compound. While the POWs were not used to replace civilians, they completed many important functions which could not otherwise have been undertaken, particularly loading, unloading, and packing naval supplies and equipment.

Peak employment at NSD was reached in 1944, when 7,624 persons worked at the base. Complete annual employment data is given on the following page.

The tremendous influx of workers created special problems of housing, transportation, and training. Some of the workers found themselves housed in Ogden Canyon summer homes, others took up housekeeping in quonset huts, many lived in dormitories near the base, and the government later built the cinder-block Anchorage Acres near the installation to house many employees.

0

Command History, 5.

Salt Lake Tribune, January 22, February 7, 1943, January 21, July 14, 29, 1944, February 28, May 12, 1945. The quotation is from Edwin D. Ellis, U. S. Civil Service Commission branch manager, ibid., December 1, 1944.

11 Ibid., Sunday Magazine, January 9, 1944.

10

ANCHORS AWEIGH IN UTAH: U. S. NAVAL SUPPLY DEPOT

115

NUMBER OF MILITARY AND CIVILIAN PERSONNEL EMPLOYED AT NAVAL SUPPLY DEPOT, CLEARFIELD, UTAH,

1942-1962

(Source: Data furnished by Naval Supply Depot, Clearfield. Figures are yearly averages.)

Year 1942

Military Personnel

Civilian Personnel

Total

50

144

1943

94 177

2,275

2,452

1944

1,590

6,034

7,624

1945

1,546

4,403

5,949

1946

292 172 187 133 130 139 146 141 131 123 44 36 33 92 86 19 6

4,479

4,771

3,784

3,956

3,991

4,178

2,643

2,776

1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 June 1, 1962

2,664

2,794

3,248

3,387

3,001

3,147

2,547

2,688

2,158

2,289

1,781

1,904

1,641

1,685

1,455

1,491

1,331

1,364

1,300

1,392

650 601 429

736 620 435

NSD also inaugurated, in November, 1943, bus service between Salt Lake City and the base to encourage commuting. Despite all these measures, 300 WAVES (female Navy personnel) who came to work at the Depot early in 1944 were unable to find housing. While a new dormitory was being constructed, they lived successively at the Ogden Arsenal, Hill Field, and Fort Douglas, until February, 1945.12 Funds for the institution of an intensive training program of the untrained personnel were provided under the "training-within-industry" program sponsored by the federal government, with the first instructors being supplied by the Utah State Department of Public Instruction. Pilot courses at Bayonne, New Jersey, were set up to train civilian personnel in those specialties where local facilities were inadequate for the type of training desired. Courses in the operation of fork lifts, proper storage, and car-loading and shoring procedures were emphasized. Naval officers who conducted the courses prepared training outlines which were then used in conducting similar courses at the Clearfield Depot.

12

Ibid., June 6, August 19, 1942, March 21, November 21, 1943, February 1, 1945.

116

U T A H HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

The Depot maintained a Training Division of some 23 members who conducted a Preservation and Packaging School for training boxmakers and packers, a Fork Lift Training School, and a Storage Procedures School for storekeepers, including many WAVES. As supervisors became better trained, the Training Division was reduced in size, and supervisors assumed the task of on-the-job training.

DEPOT OPERATIONS DURING WORLD WAR II

The Clearfield Naval Supply Depot was "the materialization of a naval theory developed over many years, the location inland of a supply unit to serve smaller coastline units." Some idea of the size of World War II operations at the installation can be seen when it is noted that each of the warehouses at the Depot was nearly as long as a city block and that three buildings the size of ZCMI Department Store in downtown Salt Lake City could fit inside. In 1943, NSD's warehouses could hold 6,000 trainloads of materiel, and the amount of lumber used during one day in 1944 (more than 200 tons) could have built 29 five-room frame houses.13 The first materiel received at the Depot for storage consisted of a carload of safes which arrived December 21, 1942. The first shipment from the Depot was made on January 6, 1943, and consisted of a one-ton safe sent to the Naval Ammunition Supply Depot at Hastings, Nebraska. By May 1, 1943, the Depot had received 1,253 carloads of materiel, and had shipped 51 carloads to various naval stations. By July, 1943, receipts of materiel were such that the Depot was â&#x201E;˘lbid., November 13, 1942, March 14, 1943, August 13, 1944.

The Clearfield Depot was charged with the responsibility of receiving, storing, and issuing materiel which the Navy might require, such as buoys.

ANCHORS AWEIGH IN UTAH: U. S. NAVAL SUPPLY DEPOT

117

required to function at its full capacity, and all storehouse space was allocated to various programs. During 1944, hundreds of carloads of materiel overflowed allocated storage areas, and considerable quantities of materiel were stored on unimproved open areas adjacent to the railroad tracks and warehouses.

During 1944, the peak year of operation, some 30,696 carloads (representing 2,609,160 tons) of materiel were received, and 15,942 carloads (1,355,070 tons) were shipped. These included general stores, clothing, spare parts, electronics, and other materiel of war. By June, 1945, more than 500,000 different items were stored at Clearfield, representing a value of over $580 million. (This was nearly 3 times the total assessed property valuation in Utah in 1944.) These items were funneled through the Depot every hour, day and night, 7 days a week, with thousands of carloads being sped on their way each month to fighting fronts throughout the world. Internal movement of materiel within the Depot, not reflected in the above figures, amounted to approximately 21,000 carloads, or 1,875,000 tons, during the period July 1,1944, to June 30,1945. The high month was September, 1944, when there was a turnover of 4,108 full freight carloads, or 349,180 tons.

According to historical records, one of the fastest moving departments at Clearfield was its Instrument Supply Facility. As part of the Navy's welfare and recreation program, its various installations could order musical instruments, phonograph records, and music from the Depot through a catalogue similar to that used by Sears Roebuck and Company.

As the burden of America's war effort began to shift to the Pacific in 1945, supplies poured into Clearfield in ever-increasing numbers. It was during this "Big Push" that Clearfield developed the concept of the "basic boxed base load" or "Triple-B." In this system each load was designed for a particular duty at a specific prearranged destination. One load might contain a complete 1,000-bed hospital unit destined for a Pacific island, or a weapons repair depot bound for a newly conquered atoll. Each load supplied over 5,500 basic items ranging from general stores, clothing, and small stores to major ship stores. Some of these Triple-B loads were so large that they filled 100-car freight trains. 14 Owing to this stepped up operation, it was fortunate that one of the biggest breakthroughs in materials preservation could be used at NSD. To preserve engine parts against corrosion, NSD used a "soup" consisting of a plastic and just enough oil to protect the machinery. With a fiberglass string embedded in the coating which dried in several seconds, the part could be stripped open like a package of chewing gum and was always protected against tropical heat and seaborne rust.15 14 15

Ibid., February 18, 27, April 1, 1945.

Ibid., March 18, 1945.

118

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

As the war which gave birth to the Depot ended, NSD Clearfield became a part of the peacetime Navy supply system. More than 950 veterans of World War II came to work at NSD. It was at this time that the necessity of secrecy was eliminated, and the gates of the Clearfield facility opened to the general public. At an open house, held October 27,1945, about 8,500 persons visited exhibits ranging from a 28-foot motor lifeboat, demonstrated by a sailor whose life had been saved by a similar craft, to one of Clearfield's Triple-B machine repair units. 16 POSTWAR YEARS

During the war NSD Clearfield had been keyed to expediting shipments to the various continental West Coast naval facilities and to overseas bases in the Pacific Ocean area. On V-J Day (August 14, 1945) and immediately thereafter, this objective was thrown abruptly into reverse; instead of rushing supplies to our naval forces and activities as in the past, Depot authorities faced the immediate cancellation of orders assembled for shipment and the necessity of making plans to receive numerous carloads of materiel being returned by former requisitioning activities. This action resulted in a tremendous backlog of returned materiel accumulating in the storehouses. The first and hardest hit was the Clothing and Small Stores Group, which received many freight cars daily for redistribution among its eight storehouses.

By December, 1945, roll-back supplies and equipment started to arrive from the Pacific in quantity. Materiel arrived in various stages of preservation and packing. Many containers were broken, mislabeled, or not labeled at all, and the contents were damaged by water, rust, and deterioration. Problems of identifying, repackaging, preserving, and storing resulted. Sorting and repackaging lines were set up, and materials fit for reissue were stored in regular stock classes. Unmarked items were identified where possible. Damaged materials were salvaged where practicable, and disposition of others was requested from responsible bureaus. Roll-back materiel received during 1946 amounted to a total of 1,647 carloads.

The conclusion of the war brought other major problems. Many civilians who had remained on the job through patriotic loyalty during the shooting war felt less responsibility to remain and began to go back into private business in increasing numbers. Moreover, on April 12, 1946, the Prisoner-of-War Camp was deactivated and all prisoners were removed from the Depot. In the same month a dispatch ordered the detachment of the remaining WAVES. The separation of reserve officer personnel to civilian life also occurred at this time; some 163 of the 209 officers serving on September 1, 1945, were released to inactive 19

Ibid., October 28, 1945.

ANCHORS AWEIGH IN UTAH: U. S. NAVAL SUPPLY DEPOT

119

duty during the next 12 months. This necessitated considerable shuffling of remaining officer personnel and in many instances required assignment of junior officers to key positions. Through careful planning the reassignment of the Depot's remaining staff officers was accomplished without appreciable loss in Depot efficiency and production.

Another phase of the personnel problem was the loss of trained enlisted personnel who were assigned to key positions in almost every department. Under the general demobilization program, most of these were released. Whereas on September 1, 1945, 1,328 enlisted personnel were utilized at NSD Clearfield, only 296 remained a year later, with practically none of this number having been "on board" in 1945. The mass egress immediately called for many organizational adjustments and streamlining of procedures and methods to absorb the shock.

The major problem of recruiting new personnel fell to the Industrial Relations Department. It was not long until veterans began streaming in. Anxious to become settled in civilian life once more and often disturbed and troubled as to the proper course of action, they were not sure what work they wanted to do, where to make their homes, or whether to take advantage of the G.I. bill of rights to return to school. Turnover in employment was very high. The placement of disabled veterans in positions at which they could succeed also became a matter of special concern.

The situation was eased somewhat by the institution of a Depot-wide training program to implement the Navy Department's Work Improvement Program. On-the-job instruction was carried on throughout the Depot. Among the subjects offered to supervisors were: Organization and Management; Rules, Regulations, Policies, and Procedures; Problems in Handling People; Supervisory Safety; Job Methods; Efficiency Rating System; The Supervisor as Instructor; Typing; Shorthand; Naval Correspondence; Storekeeping; Stenciling; Preservation; Fireman Training; Policy Training; and Driver Training.

The Medical Department likewise played a role in the rapid demobilization.

From September of 1945, through July of 1946, the dispensary, in addition to routine duties, examined all personnel who were separated from the service in the immediate vicinity. At this time NSD Clearfield was designated a Separation Center and continued as such until July, 1946. Some 200 men per month were processed and discharged.

The necessity to dispose of vast quantities of excess materiel immediately followed the end of the war. To some extent the Navy Department had anticipated this problem, when it established the Material Redistribution and Disposal Administration in April, 1944. NSD Clearfield, as a major holding activity, became part of that program. In the month of January, 1946, alone, approximately

120

U T A H H I S T O R I C A L QUARTERLY

million in government materiel held by Clearfield had been declared surplus to appropriate disposal agencies. February, March, and April likewise found a tremendous increase in surplus activity. By April, 1946, approximately $25 million in materiel had been declared surplus, and by October of the same year, materials occupying more than a million square feet of storage space â&#x20AC;&#x201D; approximately 5,000 carloads valued at $95 million â&#x20AC;&#x201D; had been declared surplus to the needs of the Navy.

During the same period the War Assets Administration was organized nationally to handle surplus government property. That agency initiated at Clearfield a "Site Sale Operations" in July, 1946. At that time Clearfield had a total available surplus inventory of about $30 million, with approximately $23 million additional in bureau excesses available for surplus declaration. (As noted above $25 million had been declared surplus by April, 1946, and $95 million by October, 1946.) Nearly all of this was processed during the next 3 months. Salvage from declassified equipment, mainly ordnance, resulted in the accumulation and shipment of approximately 20 carloads of sorted scrap metal per month. Lumber salvage was developed to a high degree, and every usable piece of wood was cleaned and reused in making boxes, crates, and dunnage. Between September, 1945, and October, 1946, 2,644,000 board feet of lumber was salvaged and reused.

The period from the latter part of 1946 to July of 1950, when the Korean situation caused a temporary upswing in activity, was characterized by a gradual stabilization and conversion to peacetime operations. The following excerpt from the Command History gives a vivid account of this stabilization period: Material being returned from other naval activities began to arrive in better condition. Missions and functions were more clearly defined, enabling Depot personnel to more adequately plan the performance of assigned functions. Management systems and procedures began to crystallize into definite programs with objective achievement guided by a considerably more scientific approach. The Depot organization underwent gradual changes which resulted in the consolidation of like functions and the elimination of duplicate operations. Electric accounting machines took over much of the paperwork previously performed by manual methods.

Labor turnover and absenteeism declined to normal levels. As a result, better trained personnel were able to improve production in both quality and quantity.

Operating methods and procedures became generally well established and were subject to continual review as new and more efficient procedures were developed. 17

Workload during the peacetime stabilization period showed a consistent decline, with corresponding reductions in personnel. Civilian personnel dropped from 4,479 at the end of 1946 to 2,664 at the end of 1950. During the same period military personnel declined from 296 to 130. During 1950, materiel receipts dropped to 40,009 tons, and materiel issues were 46,628 tons.

11

C o m m a n d History, 20.

ANCHORS AWEIGH IN UTAH: U. S. NAVAL SUPPLY DEPOT

121

KOREAN PERIOD

The commencement of hostilities in Korea in 1950 resulted in an immediate increase in the workload of the Depot. Incoming traffic jumped from 40,000 tons in 1950, to 86,327 tons in 1951, and 166,352 tons in 1952. Shipments increased from 46,628 tons in 1950, to 58,960 tons in 1951, and 45,037 tons in 1952. Civilian personnel increased from 2,578 in June of 1950, to 3,263 in June, 1951. This figure remained fairly constant until December, 1952, when a gradual decline reduced personnel to 2,547 by December, 1953. It is interesting to note that military personnel increased by only 46 during the same period. The well-trained civilian force was able to handle the 400 per cent increase in receipts with only a 25 per cent increase in personnel.18 The Korean crisis posed a serious problem since the base had to cope with a drastically increased workload and a limited number of available personnel.

Whereas during World War II Clearfield accomplished its tremendous workload primarily by hiring more people, strict personnel ceilings during the Korean incident required that a more scientific approach be taken. The increased emphasis on efficiency placed on the various management programs at this time pointed the way to areas where large savings were possible.

Such programs as the "Paperwork Management Program" and the "Management Survey Program" resulted in an estimated savings in excess of $100,000 annually. Improved methods of management geared to a scientific approach enabled the Depot to handle the heavy workload of the Korean period with remarkable safety and without substantial additional personnel. In 1952, the Depot received the Award of Merit of the National Safety Council for 2.7 million man-hours of operation without a single disabling accident. Other safety awards included the Secretary of the Navy Motor Vehicle Safety Award, and the Secretary of the Navy Award for Achievement in Industrial Safety.

POST-KOREAN PERIOD

After the end of the Korean conflict in 1953, the Depot experienced reductions in workload, operating funds, and personnel ceilings, with consequent streamlining and consolidation. Supervisory positions were progressively eliminated. Emphasis was placed on the use of management studies, survey programs, quality control, production control, mechanization of paperwork, work measurement, and other management tools in order to continue to perform the Depot's assigned mission under a condition of retrenchment. All NSD operations were gradually phased out with the exception of disposal operations.

18 It is sometimes charged that defense installations are overstaffed and their employees underworked.

Such enterprises as NSD Clearfield were required to be prepared for any emergency and sometimes maintained a larger permanent staff than that required for a particular day's operations.

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U T A H HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

(NSD Clearfield also handled disposal operations for such neighboring installations as Hill AFB.) Thousands of tons of surplus naval and other supplies â&#x20AC;&#x201D; World War II spares that had outlived their usefulness and scrapped and condemned equipment â&#x20AC;&#x201D; were disposed of as surplus. For example during the calendar year of 1959, a total of $103,409,000 (cost to government) worth of equipment was sold as surplus at a return of $6,740,630.19 Some $56 million of this surplus was Navy equipment. In addition 38,000 tons of scrap iron and 4,400 tons of nonferrous metals were sold during the same period.

As more and more equipment and supplies were phased out from the Depot, more and more storage space became vacant and available for use. In general the Depot administration leased its available storage space to commercial enterprises. The following excerpts from the Command History illustrate these contracts : 1 March 1957 Westinghouse Electric Corporation leased 240,000 gross square feet of storage space which was amended 1 March 1958 to a total of 160,000 gross square feet. This space is used for the storage of household appliances for distribution to wholesale dealers.

1 July 1957 California Packing Corporation leased 120,000 gross square feet of space which was amended on July 1, 1958 to 240,000 gross square feet for the storage of canned food products.

1 July 1958 the Ogden Detachment, Western Mobil Depot Activity (Air Force) was allocated 20,000 square feet of space for operation of an electronic repair and maintenance facility.

1 August 1958 the Ground Engineering Installation Agency (Air Force) was allocated 32,000 gross square feet of space for use as an electronics engineering facility and office space.

On 5 May 1958, 10.77 acres of excess land formerly used as the prisoner of war compound were sold to private parties through the offices of the General Services Administration. 20

The General Services Administration of the federal government was also an important early tenant at the Depot, being allocated 25,300 gross square feet of storage space for storage of material under the Federal Supply System.

T H E PRESENT AND THE FUTURE

Though the base began a significant cutdown of its operations in 1959, the beginning of a permanent "dry dock" was signaled in April of 1960, when the Navy Department ordered NSD to place itself on a "partial maintenance basis."

During the next two years the base contracted more and more of its upkeep, progressively reduced its personnel, and transferred many of its financial and stock 19 A t first glance this 6 per cent return on the dollar may seem to represent poor m a n a g e m e n t on the part of the Disposal Office; but it must be remembered that the majority of military e q u i p m e n t is built for one purpose only, and usually its m a r k e t value is not more than the worth of the material it is made of.

20 C o m m a n d History, 3 1 - 3 2 .

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123

accounting functions to the Oakland Naval Supply Center in California. Deactivation was scheduled for July, 1964. When it became clear that a speedup in the disestablishment of the Depot would encourage the use of the facilities by missiles contractors and other firms, the facilities were transferred to General Services Administration on June 30,1962.

The Navy action at Clearfield was attributed to "rising costs in men and materials, along with evolutionary changes in weapons," and was part of a general Navy economy program. 21 A similar supply depot at Spokane, Washington, was closed and sold to private industry in the fall of 1959, and another in Hastings, Nebraska, was closed in the spring of 1960. The physical plant of the Clearfield Depot, at the time of the Navy order, was valued at $28,798,000, and its huge warehouses contained an inventory valued at $430 million.22 The impact of this retrenchment and deactivation on the economy of the Ogden area has been counteracted in large part by the contemporaneous expansion of Hill AFB and the missiles industry, and by the increasing number of industrial and governmental enterprises which have moved to NSD to take advantage of the storage space which deactivation has made available for rent.

Since 1959, new tenants have included: Advanced Cybernetics Incorporated, Happy Homes Incorporated, Thiokol Chemical Corporation, Sperry Utah Company, Hercules Powder Company, Western Affiliated Engineering, Snarr Advertising Company, and the United States Geological Survey. Beginning in 1961, the Depot has also been used as a Civil Defense Mobilization Depot. The largest renters at the time of the deactivation order were Westinghouse Corporation and California Packing Corporation. Though most of the agencies and companies have used NSD facilities for storage, some (e.g., Hercules Powder Company and Sperry Utah Company) have manufactured subassemblies for the Minuteman and Sergeant Missiles at the Depot. In 1961, the various private companies and government agencies paid approximately $1 million for the use of NSD facilities. As long as storage space was available, the in-transit-storage privilege attracted national companies whose markets were widespread and whose own intermountain facilities were not sufficient to care for their immediate needs.

The Navy Department directive of May, 1961, announcing deactivation of the Depot indicated that 3 activities might be continued. These were the sale of surplus property from government installations in Utah and neighboring states; the distribution of hydrographic charts for the Pacific area; and the maintenance and repair of industrial machines and equipment â&#x20AC;&#x201D; all of which employed approximately 350 persons. Early in 1962, however, the Defense Surplus 21

Salt Lake Tribune, April 6, 1960, August 16, 1961. ^'Deseret News (Salt Lake City), October 12, 1961.

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

124

Sales Office was transferred to the Utah General Depot; and the Industrial Equipment Reserve program was reassigned to Utah's Tooele Army Depot.23 The Navy's Hydrographic Chart Distribution Office is expected to remain at Clearfield.

The General Services Administration (GSA), which is charged with administering the physical property, has indicated that approximately half the land area of the Depot would be declared surplus and sold, probably in February, 1963.24 At the date of this writing (1962), the chambers of commerce of Salt Lake and Davis counties are spearheading a drive to acquire this portion as a unit and lease the industrial facilities to private concerns or to create a great warehouse center for the distribution of goods to the Western States. The profitability of such an arrangement hinges partly on favorable state taxing policies.* The housing is expected to be retained for use by personnel at Hill AFB. The half retained by GSA may well be used in creating a major supply center 23

Salt Lake Tribune, April 30, 1962.

Deseret News, September 2 1 , October 12, 1961. * Ed. note: By action of the 1963 Utah Legislature, a favorable taxing procedure, popularly k n o w n as the "freeport" legislation, has m a d e it all the more likely that Clearfield will serve as a distribution center for the Western States. T h e Shumacher Surgical Supply Company, of Oakland, California, gave the highest bid of more than $5 million for that portion of the Clearfield Naval Supply Depot that has been offered for sale.

24

A N C H O R S A W E I G H I N U T A H : U. S. N A V A L SUPPLY D E P O T

125

for all government agencies in the Western States, Alaska, Hawaii, and the South Pacific.25 Owing to the low humidity of the Clearfield area, the operating cost of the dehumidification units in the 19, specially constructed, large, storage warehouses runs around $600 per year for each building. At the present price of materials and supplies, it would cost about $1 million to duplicate these facilities elsewhere, and if the Navy were to transport the units elsewhere to an existing Navy facility, the operation cost could run as high as $6,000 per year per building. In addition, as the private tenants have found, the 35 other storage warehouses at NSD provide adequate, ordinary low humidity storage if they are heated for winter use.

Because of the gradualness of the "phase out," Depot employees have been able to prepare themselves for the end of operations, and morale has remained surprisingly high. In this operation the personnel deactivated have no "legal" right to positions of equivalent grade and job description at other installations, but many have found desirable employment at nearby Hill Air Force Base and Utah Army Depot, and at the expanding Tooele Army Depot. 26 25

Salt Lake Tribune, September 30, 1961.

In Civil Service language, where there is deactivation of this type, employees do not have "bumping" rights; i.e., the right, by virtue of longevity of service, to take positions of other employees at other installations who have less service.

2<!

dfc"-

The Navy Oceanographic Distribution Office is expected to remain at Clearfield after the Depot is completely "phased out."

M Records storage area for the Oceanographic Distribution

Office.

126

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Ironically enough, the Clearfield Naval Supply Depot is closing an era in the same manner it began. The forces of expediency and necessity that gave birth to the Depot are presiding at its burial. The austerity forced upon the Navy by new concepts of warfare and the new threat of vulnerability in the age of missiles have limited the base's usefulness and effectiveness. Whether the same forces may eventually cause the Depot's resurrection remains to be seen. The future of the Depot lies in the hands of GSA. It is probable that the storage facilities offered by the abandoned Depot may attract desirable private industry and provide increased employment. Whatever happens to its present functions, as long as the physical plant exists, Clearfield Naval Supply Depot will remain a potential key supply center for industry and for government in the event of a national emergency.

T H E BUCHANAN SPOILS SYSTEM A N D T H E UTAH E X P E D I T I O N : Careers of W. M. F. Magraw and John M. Hockaday

BY W I L L I A M P . M A C K I N N O N

You may give a man an office, but you cannot give him discretion.

Words may show a man's wit, but actions his meaning.

Poor Richard's Almanac

In March of 1857, James Buchanan became the fifteenth President of the United States. Within two months after taking office, he had committed the army to the most expensive and mismanaged American military venture to precede the Civil War. Buchanan had decided to resolve the "Mormon Problem" by intervening in Utah Territory with federal troops.

Critics of Buchanan's military policy have long contended that this decision was based on biased evidence, ulterior political motives, and a desire to enrich personal and commercial friends of the new Democratic Administration rather than on a sound analysis of conditions in Utah. Although widely held, especially in Utah, few of these theories have been adequately substantiated. The purpose of this article is (1) to present a small but highly important collection of documents bearing on the Utah Military Expedition, and (2) to analyze their significance in terms of both Buchanan's judgment and his relationships with political associates engaged in western business activities. This analysis deals extensively with the character and activities of two of Buchanan's associates, W. M. F. Magraw and John M. Hockaday.

Following Buchanan's decision to garrison Utah, Lieutenant General Winfield Scott marshalled 2,500 troops of the 5th and 10th Infantry Regiments, 2nd Dragoons and 4th Artillery at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Territory, in preparation for the march to Salt This article is based in part on Mr. MacKinnon's Senior Honors Essay at Yale University where it received the Walter J. McClintock Prize in 1960.

Additional research was done while he completed work on a master's degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1962.

fames Buchanan (1791-1868), was President of the United States from 1856 to 1860.

128

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Lake City. By mid-July of 1857, most of these units had left Leavenworth for Utah, even though many had been seriously weakened by a wave of desertions attributable to the Kansas heat and the grim prospect of a march across the Great American Desert.1 Although not a large force by Civil War standards, the Utah Military Expedition, or Army of Utah as the War Department designated it, was nonetheless an important one. The Expedition included more than one-sixth of the nation's army and was to involve a full complement of such prominent military and frontier figures as Albert Sidney Johnston, Randolph B. Marcy, William S. Harney, Ben McCulloch, Phillip St. George Cooke, and Jim Bridger. Furthermore, the movement of troops to Utah involved significant policy decisions pertaining to the defense of the Trans-Mississippi West, for it left Kansas Territory inadequately garrisoned during an explosive summer of Indian uprisings and civil strife over the slavery issue.

The Buchanan Administration justified its military plans for Utah on grounds that the Mormons, led by Brigham Young, were engaged in open rebellion against federal authority. Young was then both governor of Utah Territory and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Buchanan himself charged that "... for several years, in order to maintain his independence . . . [Young] had been industriously employed in collecting and fabricating arms and munitions of war." In his first Annual Message the President sternly declared: "This is the first rebellion which has existed in our territories, and humanity itself requires that we should put it down in such a manner that it shall be the last." 2 Secretary of War John B. Floyd echoed Buchanan's sentiments in accusing the Mormons of secessionist activities.3 Floyd's staff at the War Department in turn informed the initial commander of the Utah Expedition, Brigadier General William S. Harney, that "The community, and in part, the civil government of Utah Territory are in a state of substantial rebellion against the laws and authority of the United States." Harney was ordered to use his troops to maintain law and order in Utah when so directed by the man that Buchanan had just appointed to succeed Young as territorial governor.4 During the spring and summer of 1857, Buchanan's decision to intervene in Utah was a popular one among non-Mormons. Public feeling in the East was ' F o r the text of Scott's General Circular, May 28, 1857, see LeRoy R. and Ann W. Hafen, eds., The Utah Expedition 1857-1858: A Documentary Account . . . (Glendale, 1958), 27-29, or U. S., Congress, House, The Utah Expedition, 35th Cong., 1st Sess., 1857-58, House Ex. Doc. 71, Serial 956, pp. 4-5.

2 "First Annual Message of President Buchanan," Messages and Papers of The Presidents 1789-1897, James D. Richardson, compil. (Washington, 1897), V, 455-56.

3 U.S., Secretary of War, Report of the Secretary of War, 35th Cong., 1st Sess., 1857-58, House Ex. Doc. 2, Serial 943, p. 7.

4 Lieutenant Colonel George W. Lay to Brevet Brigadier General William S. Harney, June 29, 1857, Utah Expedition, House Ex. Doc. 71, p. 71.

BUCHANAN'S SPOILS SYSTEM IN UTAH

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then running high over alleged Mormon "outrages" involving the disloyalty of Utah's Indian tribes, the polygamy issue, and the maltreatment of federal appointees serving as territorial officials. The New Yor\ Times ventured that "The affairs of Utah have reached a crisis which can no longer be evaded. . . . A new Governor should be sent at once to Great Salt Lake City — backed by an imposing military force — to tender the Constitution with one hand, while a drawn sword is held in the other." 5 The prospect of a federal force in the territory seemed to satisfy the public's desire to punish a people it considered basically alien and libidinous.

As Congress was not in session during the summer of 1857, there was no legislative opposition to the President's military policy. Neither was there criticism or protest from Utah itself during most of this period, for Buchanan had elected not to inform the Mormon population of his military preparations and had severed postal communications with the territory once General Scott began to issue orders for the formation of the Expedition.

By the end of 1857, efforts of the Army of Utah to restore order among the Mormons had been notably unsuccessful. The Expedition had in fact been unable to reach its chief objective, Salt Lake City. Mormon harassment accounted for much of this failure; as the Expedition had marched westward through Kansas during the late summer of 1857, Brigham Young had organized a military force of his own and had blocked the mountain passes into Utah Territory.

Without inflicting or sustaining casualties, Mormon raiders carried off large herds of the Expedition's livestock, destroyed much of its supply line, and burned natural forage that the federal troops needed desperately for their draft animals and cavalry mounts. Heavy snows in October and November finally forced the Expedition into winter quarters in a desolate area just within the eastern boundary of Utah. Inadequately supplied and encamped in Mormon controlled territory, the Army of Utah had settled into an embarrassing and nearly untenable position. As news of the army's difficulties trickled eastward, it became painfully apparent to the country that the Expedition had been hastily conceived and ill-prepared. Increasingly, doubts were raised as to whether the Mormons had in fact been engaged in a rebellion during the spring of 1857 and whether formation of the Expedition had been a necessary or wise solution to what may only have been "political unrest" in Utah. Attuned to these doubts, the Times changed its tack of the previous spring and asked for a full explanation as to why " . . . a hostile army was sent against Utah at the outset. There were undoubted disorders in the affairs of the Territory: — but it has never yet been shown that they were such as could only be remedied by fire and sword."6 5 6

New York Times, May 11, 1857.

Ibid., December 24, 1857.

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Congress shared this somewhat truculent mood when it reconvened in December of 1857. The cost of supporting the Army of Utah was proving to be an intolerable drain on the country's economic resources, which had already been severely weakened by a financial panic that fall.7 The possibility of a humiliating military defeat at the hands of Mormon irregulars also dampened congressional enthusiasm for Buchanan's Expedition. The House of Representatives voiced its doubts by passing a resolution which asked the President to furnish ". . . the information which gave rise to the military expedition ordered to Utah Territory . . . throwing light upon the question as to how far said Brigham Young and his followers are in a state of rebellion or resistance to the Government of the United States." 8 Challenged by the House to prove that a Mormon rebellion had in fact existed in the spring of 1857, Buchanan ordered the members of his cabinet to search their files for relevant material. On February 3, 1858, Secretary of State Lewis Cass reported back to the President t h a t " . . . the only document on record or on file in this department, touching the subject of the [House] resolution, is the letter of Mr. W. M. F. Magraw to the President, of the 3d of October last, a copy of which is here unto annexed." 9 Leland H. Creer maintains that Magraw's letter was one of three reports on Utah that most influenced Buchanan's initial decision to form the Expedition.10 Although Creer fails to substantiate this point, it is obvious that the Magraw letter is one of the significant documents associated with the history of the Utah Expedition. Of the approximately 250 printed pages of correspondence that Buchanan submitted to the House on February 8, 1858, Magraw's contribution was clearly the most dramatic and vitriolic and, hence, was perhaps the most damaging indictment of Mormon activities in Utah. Magraw had written as follows: Independence, Missouri, October 3, 1856.

Mr. President: I feel it incumbent upon me as a personal and political friend, to lay before you some information relative to the present political and social condition of the Territory of Utah, which may be of importance.

There is no disguising the fact, that there is left no vestige of law and order, no protection for life or property; the civil laws of the Territory are overshadowed and neutralized by a so-styled ecclesiastical organization, as despotic, dangerous and damnable, as has ever been known to exist in any country, and which is ruining ' For a description of the panic and its effects on public attitudes, see Samuel Rezneck, "The Influence of Depression Upon American Opinion 1857-1859," The Journal of Economic History, II (May, 1942), 1-23.

8 Resolution of the House, January 27, 1858, Utah Expedition, House Ex. Doc. 71, p. 1.

9 Lewis Cass to James Buchanan, February 3, 1858, Utah Expedition, House Ex. Doc. 71, pp. 1-2.

Magraw's full name was William Miller Finney Magraw. He signed it in several different ways.

10 Leland Hargrave Creer, Utah and the Nation (Seattle, 1929), 123. Creer claims that the other two documents are the resignation of Utah's Associate Justice W. W. Drummond and a report by Indian Agent Thomas A. Twiss.

B U C H A N A N ' S SPOILS SYSTEM IN U T A H not only those who do not subscribe to their religious code, but is driving the moderate and more orderly of the Mormon community to desperation. Formerly, violence committed upon the rights of persons and property were attempted to be justified by some pretext manufactured for the occasion, under color of law as it exists in that country. The victims were usually of that class whose obscurity and want of information necessary to insure proper investigation and redress of their wrongs were sufficient to guarantee to the perpetrators freedom from punishment.

Emboldened by the success which attended their first attempts at lawlessness, no pretext or apology seems now to be deemed requisite, nor is any class exempt from outrage; all alike are set upon by the self-constituted theocracy, whose laws, or rather whose conspiracies, are framed in dark corners, promulgated from the stand of tabernacle or church, and executed at midnight, or upon the highways, by an organized band of bravos and assassins, whose masters compel an outraged community to tolerate in their midst. The result is that a considerable and highly respectable portion of the community, known from the Atlantic to the Pacific, whose enterprise is stimulated by a laudable desire to improve their fortunes by honorable exertions, are left helpless victims to outrage and oppression, liable at any moment to be stripped of their property or deprived of life, without the ability to put themselves under the protection of law, since all the courts that exist there at present are converted into engines and instruments of injustice.

For want of time I am compelled thus to generalize, but particular cases, with all the attendant circumstances, names of parties and localities are not wanting to swell the calendar of crime and outrage to limits that will, when published, startle the conservative people of the States, and create a clamor which will not be readily quelled; and I have no doubt that the time is near at hand, and the elements rapidly combining to bring about a state of affairs which will result in indiscriminate bloodshed, robbery and rapine, and which in a brief space of time will reduce that country to the condition of a howling wilderness.

There are hundreds of good men in the country, who have for years endured every privations from the comforts and enjoyments of civilized life, to confront every description of danger for the purpose of improving their fortunes. These men have suffered repeated wrong and injustice, which they have endeavored to repair by renewed exertions, patiently awaiting the correction of outrage by that government which it is their pride to claim citizenship under, and whose protection they have a right to expect; but they now see themselves liable, at any moment, to be stripped of their hard earned means, the lives of themselves and their colleagues threatened and taken; ignominy and abuse, heaped upon them day after day, if resented, is followed by murder.

Many of the inhabitants of the Territory possess passions and elements of character calculated to drive them to extremes, and have the ability to conceive and the courage to carry out the boldest measures for redress, and I know that they will be at no loss for a leader. When such as these are driven by their wrongs to vindicate, not only their rights as citizens, but their pride of manhood, the question of disparity in numerical force is not considered among their difficulties, and I am satisfied that a recital of their grievances would form an apology, if not a sufficient justification, for the violation on their part of the usages of civilized communities.

In addressing you, I have endeavored to discard all feelings arising from my personal annoyances in the Mormon country, but have desired to lay before you the actual condition of affairs, and to prevent, if possible, scenes of lawlessness which, I fear, will be inevitable unless speedy and powerful preventives are applied.

I have felt free to thus address you, from the fact that some slight requests made of

131

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U T A H HISTORICAL QUARTERLY me when I last left Washington, on the subject of the affairs of Kansas, justified me in believing that you had confidence in my integrity, and that what influence I could exert would not be wanting to terminate the unfortunate difficulties in that Territory; I have the pleasure of assuring you that my efforts were not spared.

With regard to the affairs and proceedings of the probate court, the only existing tribunal in the Territory of Utah, there being but one of the three federal judges now in the Territory, I will refer you to its records, and to the evidence of gentlemen whose assertions cannot be questioned; as to the treatment of myself, I will leave that to the representation of others; at all events, the object I have in view, the end I wish to accomplish for the general good, will preclude my wearying you with a recital of them at present.

I have the honor to be very truly yours, &c.

â&#x20AC;&#x17E;. . . â&#x20AC;&#x17E; . ,

n

Superficially, the Magraw letter appears to be a reliable account of conditions in Utah. Claiming the personal friendship as well as the political association of a President of the United States, Magraw twice assures the reader that he is an objective observer of high purpose and noble intent.

Virtually without exception, however, historians of the Expedition have quite properly rejected Magraw because he was a biased, untrustworthy source of information about contemporary conditions in Utah. In discrediting the reliability of the Magraw letter in a relatively hasty manner, though, these writers have denied themselves the opportunity of building more than a superficial case against Magraw's objectivity.12 At the same time they have failed to perceive the peculiar relationship among Magraw; his business partner, John M. Hockaday; and the Buchanan Administration. This relationship as well as the actions and character of Hockaday and Magraw merit further scrutiny.

Traditionally, attacks on Magraw's reliability have exhausted themselves with a brief observation that Magraw lost his source of income to a Mormon shortly before writing to President Franklin Pierce. Allegedly, then, Magraw's report to Pierce served as a medium for personal bitterness and hostility rather than an objective account of Mormon political activities.13 This argument seems to be essentially correct.

In March, 1854, W. M. F. Magraw had been awarded a four-year federal contract for the transportation of mail between Independence, Missouri, and Salt Lake City, Utah, on Route 8911. His contract involved an annual compensa11

W. M. F. Magraw to President of the United States, October 3, 1856, Utah Expedition, House Ex. Doc. 71, pp. 2-3. Complete text of this letter is also in Hafen and Hafen, The Utah Expedition, 361-63.

12 Until fairly recently, the simple fact that Magraw's letter was most likely directed to Franklin Pierce rather than to James Buchanan has even seemed to escape historical notice. As Andrew L. Neff in History of Utah, 1847 to 1869, Leland H. Creer, ed. (Salt Lake City, 1940), 442 and Norman F. Furniss in The Mormon Conflict, 1850-1859 (New Haven, 1960), 64, point out, Magraw wrote a full six months before Buchanan took office. So, contrary to Creer's theory, there is a strong possibility that neither Cass nor Buchanan saw the letter until the House called for a justification of the Expedition early in 1858, and a search of department files was begun.

13 Neff, History of Utah, 326. See also LeRoy R. Hafen, The Overland Mail, 1849-1869, Promoter of Settlement, Precursor of Railroads (Cleveland, 1926), 63. All other references to Hafen pertain to The Utah Expedition.

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tion of $14,400 and called for monthly round-trip service between the terminal cities.14 Magraw's predecessor on the route, Samuel H. Woodson, had started service on July 1, 1850, for $19,500 per annum but had been forced to abandon the business early in 1854 because of operating difficulties.15 Soon after succeeding Woodson, Magraw took John E. Reeside into the business as a partner. Reeside withdrew from this arrangement in November of 1854, however, after Indians attacked one of the firm's mail trains, slaughtered the guards, and made off with most of the equipment. 16 Magraw then acquired another associate, John M. Hockaday. 17 Hockaday and Magraw were almost certainly acquainted with one another before the formation of this new partnership, for there are indications that the two men had had prior business dealings.

During the summer of 1854, for example, John M. Hockaday and Isaac Hockaday (presumably a relative) had advertised the opening of a monthly passenger coach service to be operated by them in conjunction with Magraw's mail route. 18 The new partnership resulted in something less than efficient operations, and the quality of service that John M. Hockaday and Magraw were able to provide on Route 8911 became the subject of chronic grumbling in Utah during 1855 and 1856. In addition to numerous complaints of slow service, the contractors themselves were accused of tampering with the contents of the mail. 19 To a certain extent these complaints may well have been justified, for there is evidence that neither Magraw nor Hockaday were devoting their undivided attention to improving the efficiency of the mail service. Both men were then engaged in other, subsidiary businesses, for Hockaday owned a store in Salt Lake City,20 and Magraw was working as western representative of Smith-Murphy Company, a Philadelphia mercantile firm.21 The House Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads eventually took notice of the situation on Route 8911 and reported that . . . in view of the uncertainty attending the mail service on this route, and the wholly altered circumstances under which it must now be performed, the committee are of opinion that justice to both parties requires that the contract be annulled, and the contractor released . . . after the 18th of August, 1856.22 "U.S., The Postmaster General, Report of Mail Contracts for 1855, 34th Cong., 1st Sess., 1855-56, House Ex. Doc. 122, Serial 860, p. 335.

15 A. R. Mortcnsen, "A Pioneer Paper Mirrors The Breakup of Isolation In The Great Basin," Utah Historical Quarterly, XX (January, 1952), 78.

1G Memorial of William M. F. Magraw to Honorable James Campbell, October 4, 1855, U.S., Congress, House, Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, William M. F. Magraw, 34th Cong., 1st Sess., 1855-56, House Rept. 6, Serial 868, pp. 4-6.

17 Creer, Utah and The Nation, 123, 231.

18 Mortensen, "A Pioneer Paper," U.H.Q., XX, 79.

19 Ibid., 79-81 and Deseret News (Salt Lake City), May 14 and July 2, 1856.

20 Neff, History of Utah, 337n.

21 W. Turrentine Jackson, Wagon Roads West, A Study of Federal Road Surveys and Construction In The Trans-Mississippi West 1846-1869 (Berkeley, 1952), 175.

22 William M. F. Magraw, House Rept. 6, p. 2.

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Magraw's most vigorous critic in Utah, the Deseret News, was delighted at the prospect of a change in contractors: There is so favorable a prospect that the contractor will be released from further performance ( N O N - P E R F O R M A N C E ? ) of his contract, from and after the 18th of August, 1856, that we gladly waive comment upon his . . . miserably inefficient operations on the route from the beginning, trusting that the large amount of government funds, paid to him, for getting in the way of those who would have done [the job] . . . may prove as little of a gratification and benefit to him as his mailcourse has been to us. With this candid and strictly just wish, we hope to be able to close our brief biographical notice of one W . M. F. Magraw, contractor on route No. 8911....23

Magraw was relieved of his contract by act of Congress on May 29, 1856, and service on the route was thrown open to bidding under a new four-year agreement. Acting as the agent of a Mormon organization, the B. Y. Express Company, Hiram Kimball advanced the lowest bid at $23,000 and was subsequently awarded the contract on October 9. Kimball's bid was reportedly half the sum that Magraw had demanded for continued service on the route.24 The loss of this contract was unquestionably a serious blow to Magraw, for in effect it meant the loss of his livelihood. In view of a prior history of illfeeling between Magraw and the Mormons and the fact that Magraw wrote to President Pierce less than a week before the Mormon control of his mail route was formalized, it seems only reasonable to assume that the letter was actually prompted by a spirit of retaliation and economic self-seeking rather than noble considerations of what Magraw himself referred to as "the general good."

A much tighter case for Magraw's prejudices and motives can and should be made, however, than that afforded by this timing factor alone. Four other factors should be considered: the phraseology of Magraw's letter to Pierce, the character of his previous correspondence with high federal officials, the location from which Magraw wrote to Pierce, and the nature of still another letter written to the President during October of 1856.

An analysis of Magraw's phraseology, something previously lacking in accounts of the letter, provides a measure of insight into the writer's motives.

In his report to Pierce, Magraw twice referred to "personal annoyances in the Mormon country." Presumably these incidents were associated in some manner with his mail business in Utah. Specific and repeated reference to these annoyances indicates that they were in fact very much on Magraw's mind, despite protests to the contrary, when he addressed Pierce. Furthermore, whenever Magraw mentioned mistreatment of a specific group in Utah, it was always the group of which he himself was a member, the frontier businessmen 23 Deseret News, June 11, 1856. Hockaday seems to have been a "silent" partner in this mail business, for contemporary sources rarely associate him with Magraw.

21 Furniss, Mormon Conflict, 51.

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. . . whose enterprise is stimulated by a laudable desire to improve their fortunes by honorable exertions . . . men . . . who have for years endured every privation from the comforts and enjoyments of civilized life, to confront every description of danger for the purpose of improving their fortunes. . . .

In summary, then, the entire letter seems to assume an economic bias complete with Magraw's measured appeal to "the conservative people of the States." 25 Magraw's strategy in this letter becomes even clearer after an examination of his prior correspondence with various administrators in the Indian Bureau and Post Office Department during 1855. In December of 1854, Magraw had petitioned Congress to raise his annual contract allowance from $14,400 to $41,800. He succeeded in getting an increase to $36,000. Apparently heartened by this result, he spent much of 1855 in strenuous lobbying attempts to both raise his compensation further and to obtain reimbursement for property which he maintained had been damaged or stolen by Indians. Shuttling between Independence and Washington, Magraw addressed Postmaster General James Campbell on several occasions and implored him to use his official influence with Congress if the Postmaster General himself could not authorize financial relief. In dramatic and self-seeking phrases closely parallel to those he was to use a year later in his letter to Pierce, Magraw informed Campbell that The route No. 8911, from Independence to Salt Lake, is twelve hundred and fifty miles long â&#x20AC;&#x201D; perhaps the longest mail contract by land in the world. . . . From Big Blue to Fort Bridger, nine hundred and forty-seven miles . . . [I] must pass the entire route exposed to constant ambushes and assaults from a starving, exasperated, fierce, and remorseless enemy, without the slightest hope of aid or sympathy. . . . 26

Magraw's campaign met with only limited success. The House Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads refused to increase his contract revenue above $36,000 but did grant him $17,750 as compensation for property stolen by Indians.

The return address on Magraw's letter to President Pierce, an obvious yet previously neglected detail, may also throw additional light on the motives behind this piece of correspondence. Magraw wrote from Independence, the principal city of Jackson County, Missouri, and the most bitterly anti-Mormon area in the nation at that time. It was in Jackson County that the Mormons had been most brutally treated during the 1830's; it was from there that they fled to Nauvoo, Illinois, and eventually to Utah.

25 W. M. F. Magraw to President of the United States, October 3, 1856, Hafen, The Utah Expedition, 361-63.

26 William M. F. Magraw, House Rept. 6, pp. 4-7. The "enemy" Magraw mentions here were Indians.

His previous correspondence with Campbell may be found in this report along with the recommendations of the House Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads.

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One other bit of material may also contribute to an understanding of the economic and personal biases involved in Magraw's report to Pierce. Three days after Magraw wrote to the President, another letter left Independence for the White House to complain of ill-treatment in Utah Territory at the hands of the Mormon population. This time the letter was signed by Isaac Hockaday, a former business associate of John M. Hockaday and presumably a close relative.27 The agreement of circumstances makes it difficult to believe that Magraw or John M. Hockaday had not pressured Isaac Hockaday into writing in support of Magraw's lengthy account of Mormon abuses, especially in view of the fact that Magraw's own letter to Pierce stated, " . . . as to the treatment of myself, I will leave that to the representation of others . . . . " Buchanan failed to present Hockaday's letter to the House in February of 1858, although he had been specifically directed to submit all correspondence relative to conditions in Utah. A knowledgeable comparison of this document and the Magraw letter would have vitiated the sensationalism of the latter.

With the spring of 1857, and increased public interest in Utah affairs, Magraw seems to have seized on the idea of military intervention in Utah as the ideal means of avenging himself on the Mormon community there. At the same time his literary efforts took on more than their usual theatrical flair. On April 21, 1857, the Washington National Intelligencer reprinted a long letter that it had received from a correspondent whom the paper identified only by the pen name of "Verastus." Verastus denounced Mormon atrocities in terms remarkably like those employed by W. M. F. Magraw during the previous October.

The main point of Verastus' letter was that a federal force of 5,000 men should immediately be dispatched to deal with Brigham Young and his followers. The National Intelligencer heartily agreed with its correspondent. Fortunately, the paper could not resist the temptation to describe Verastus as "a respectable citizen, who lately spent twelve months in the Salt Lake Valley, engaged in business connected with the transit of the mails through the Territory." 28 The preceding points indicate that Magraw was hardly an unbiased source of information about the Mormon community in Utah. Even without most of this information, historians of the Expedition have been long appalled at the thought that Buchanan may actually have taken Magraw's letter of October 3, 1856, at face value in deciding to intervene in Utah. Without exception their line of reasoning assumes a lack of knowledge on Buchanan's part of Magraw's character and motives. A thorough sifting of primary sources, however, indicates that Buchanan knew exactly who and what Magraw was, and that the 27 For a description of this letter see David W. Parker, Calendar of Papers in Washington Archives Relating To The Territories (to 1873) (Washington, 1911), 396. Isaac Hockaday's letter has never been mentioned before in connection with the Utah Expedition. ~% National Intelligencer (Washington, D.C.), April 21, 1857.

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President still chose to favor him and John M. Hockaday repeatedly, especially in connection with the Utah Expedition.

W. Turrentine Jackson points out that Magraw was both a personal and political friend of Buchanan. In 1853, Buchanan had recommended Magraw for a minor federal appointment, stating that he was a faithful supporter of the Democratic party.29 Four years later, soon after becoming President, Buchanan appointed Magraw superintendent of the Fort Kearney-South Pass-Honey Lake stretch of the newly approved Pacific Wagon Road. This appointment was made through Secretary of the Interior Jacob Thompson only two days after the appearance of the Verastus letter.30 Significantly, before Buchanan took office, it seemed certain that not Magraw but a man from California or Minnesota would receive the South Pass appointment, since those states had been instrumental in gathering congressional support for the road bill. In addition to Buchanan's backing for the position, however, Magraw held testimonials of his service to the Democratic party in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. He was also supported by General Persifer F. Smith; Jeremiah S. Black, Buchanan's attorney general; Stephen A. Douglas; and five other Democratic Senators.31 E. Douglas Branch contends that "McGraw's [sic] appointment . . . was purely political, and [Secretary] Thompson probably had no choice but to overlook the superintendent's obvious disqualifications of engrossing incompetence and vile temper." 32 Magraw himself later informed Buchanan that as a superintendent of the Pacific Wagon Road he considered himself accountable only "... to you, and your Administration " 33 On another occasion he wrote the President: "I owe my appointment to you, and to you, and you alone, am I accountable for my conduct." 34 Before Magraw left Washington to assume his new position, Buchanan asked that he write occasionally to inform the President of conditions in the West.35 In addition to these close personal ties with the President, Magraw had a brother or brothers among Buchanan's trusted associates and advisors, for on one occasion Magraw defended the capabilities of one of his own minor appointees for the wagon road project to the President by stating that " . . . for his fitness for 29 Jackson, Wagon Roads West, 175. Magraw's father, the Reverend James Magraw, may also have been one of Buchanan's friends for Reverend Magraw was born and lived for some time in Lancaster County, P e n n s y l v a n i a â&#x20AC;&#x201D; B u c h a n a n ' s home county. According to Biographical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Maryland and District of Columbia (Baltimore, 1879), 359, W . M. F . Magraw was born on May 26, 1818.

T h e Maryland Historical Society lists Cecil County, Maryland, as his place of birth.

30

National Intelligencer, April 2 3 , 1858.

Jackson, Wagon Roads West, 175.

32 E. Douglas Branch, "Frederick West Lander, Road-Builder," The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XVI (September, 1929), 177.

33 W . M. F. Magraw to James Buchanan, January 2, 1858 (MS, Buchanan Collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania). Hereafter cited as H.S.P. 34 W . M. F . Magraw to James Buchanan, April 17, 1858, Jackson, Wagon Roads West, 200.

35 W . M. F . Magraw to James Buchanan, January 2, 1858 ( H . S. P . ) .

31

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the position allow me to refer you to either of my brothers...." 3G Jackson confirms this connection in noting that Magraw had at least one brother residing in Washington who apparently acted as an intermediary with the Buchanan Administration when W. M. F. Magraw was out of town. 37 This intermediary was most likely Robert Mitchell Magraw of Baltimore, an older brother who courted Buchanan's niece, Harriet Lane, at the White House during 1857 and was actually engaged to her at the time of his death in 1866.38 The President's letters from Washington contain a number of references to Robert Magraw, and a Washington newspaper described the man as a personal friend of the President from Baltimore.39 Referring to the members of Buchanan's inaugural party, the President's nephew and secretary spoke of Robert Magraw as " . . . an ardent personal and political friend . . . then president of the 30 Ibid. According to Biographical Cyclopedia, 359, Magraw had four brothers who were living at this time: James Cochran, Samuel Martin, Robert Mitchell, and Henry Slaymaker. Alumni records of Dickinson College of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, indicate that both James Buchanan and Samuel Martin Magraw were alumni of that school â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Buchanan was graduated in 1809, Magraw in 1827.

37 Jackson, Wagon Roads West, 200.

38 As Buchanan was not married, Harriet Lane acted as First Lady of the White House. Roy F. Nichols in The Disruption of American Democracy (New York, 1948), 101, is the only writer to mention Robert M. Magraw's romance with Miss Lane. Nichols implies a tie of kinship between Robert M. Magraw and W. M. F. Magraw, but first confirmation of this relation comes from Mrs. Edna D. Magraw, of Perryville, Maryland, to William P. MacKinnon, March 19, 1962. W. M. F. Magraw was the great-uncle of Mrs. Edna D. Magraw's husband.

39 Washington Union, February 27, 1857.

HHK

^1*

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Northern Central Railroad " 40 Finally, Captain John W. Phelps, an artillery officer with the Utah Expedition, made the following notation in his diary while passing through Fort Laramie: It appears that | W. M. F.] Magraw's brother was a delegate to the convention that nominated Buchanan for the Presidency, and hence, in the political logic of the present day, must be a party chief for a scientific exploring expedition [in connection with the Pacific Wagon R o a d ] . . . . 41

Despite these connections, however, W. M. F. Magraw's administration of his responsibilities on the wagon road project proved highly embarrassing to the Department of the Interior under whose jurisdiction the road was to be constructed. The superintendent used his position and power primarily as a means of advancing his own personal pleasures and of actively contributing to the military movement against the Mormons. Magraw's actions as superintendent reflect a great deal of his character, his hostility to Mormons, and his ties with Buchanan.

Magraw himself was expected by the Interior Department to spend the summer of 1857 in surveying a feasible route for the new wagon road. Instead he sent out Frederick West Lander, his chief engineer, at the head of a small party to do the major portion of the exploratory work while he dawdled in Independence and frittered away the project's rather sizeable appropriation. In July of 1857, the Interior Department took alarm at Magraw's inactivity and unorthodox expenditures. Secretary Thompson finally goaded the superintendent into taking the field with the rest of his employees by suspending his appropriation. 42 Once on the trail to South Pass and Utah, Magraw's conduct degenerated to a point that horrified many of his own employees. According to several accounts Ma40 J. Buchanan Henry, "Biographical Sketch," The Worlds of James Buchanan, ed., John Bassett Moore (13 vols. Philadelphia, 1911), XII, 479.

41 Diary of Captain John W. Phelps, entry for September 3, 1857, Hafen, The Utah Expedition, 123. Robert Magraw is not listed as an official delegate in Official Proceedings of The National Democratic Convention Held in Cincinnati, fune 2â&#x20AC;&#x201D;6, 1856 (Cincinnati, 1856).

42 Jackson, Wagon Roads West, 192-96.

C. W. Carter photograph of a stagecoach operating in Utah.

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graw was insensible from drink much of the time. The superintendent frequently stopped travelers headed east and urged them in an expansive manner to accept a personal letter of introduction to his "crony," the President of the United States. On these occasions Magraw would offer the advice that the best possible introduction to Buchanan was to appear before him with the smell of good liquor on the breath. Magraw also expended a considerable amount of energy in bitterly cursing the Mormons. 43 In September of 1857, the engineers, disbursing agent, and physician attached to Magraw's party wrote to Lander and urged him to take over the position which, in their eyes, Magraw had forfeited by his extraordinary conduct. This group pointed out that valuable weeks had been lost on the wagon road project because of the superintendent's chronic intoxication. Magraw's subordinates also accused him of using government wagons to haul personal supplies (including 6,300 pounds of liquor) to Fort Laramie with the intention of selling them there and dividing the profits with Tim Goodale, his guide and interpreter. Once the party reached Laramie, Goodale and Magraw could not come to terms in determining an equitable division of the profits. Goodale reportedly pulled Magraw's beard and jumped on his feet in an effort to provoke a fight and settle the affair in mountain style. Magraw ignored these challenges, however, and the dispute had to be adjudicated by army officers at Fort Laramie. Goodale was "awarded" $3,617.28.44 An officer at Laramie described the condition of Magraw's group when it reached the fort: There are several governmental parties at the Fort and in its vicinity at present.

Among others is Magraw, who has an appropriation of some 300,000 dollars for exploring the track from Fort Leavenworth, via Fort Laramie and Salt Lake to California. T h e party consists of a dozen officers, more or less, and a hundred men, and so far as the officers are concerned it is in a state of dissolution. They say that Magraw is an ignorant blackguard, totally unfit for the head of such an expedition, while the chief engineer of the party [Lander] is. 45

Shortly after pushing on from Fort Laramie, Magraw's exploration party came into contact with the main body of the Army of Utah. At this point the superintendent's anti-Mormon biases took a decidedly more active and irresponsible bent than mere letter-writing had heretofore permitted. Perceiving that the Expedition was badly in need of transportation equipment, Magraw immediately offered to further the successful prosecution of the campaign by lending out fifteen wagons and over one hundred mules. All of this stock and equipment had been entrusted to his safekeeping by the Interior Department. Colonel Al43

Ibid., 360n.

"Ibid., 197 and 361n. Magraw later defended himself by saying that this concession was necessary to obtain Goodale's services as guide, and that he himself never profited from the deal.

45 Phelps Diary, entry for September 3, 1857, Hafen, The Utah Expedition, 123.

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bert Sidney Johnston, General Harney's successor as commander of the Expedition, directed his staff to accept Magraw's unauthorized offer. In his eagerness to help the army, Magraw neither asked nor received compensation for the use of this valuable stock and equipment. 46 Two days after thus disposing of property that did not belong to him, Magraw took additional steps to ensure the success of the Expedition â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he started recruiting troops. Writing from South Pass, Colonel Johnston informed his superiors in the East that, . . . Mr. W m . Magraw, superintendent South Pass wagon road, with a patriotism highly creditable to him, places at the disposition of the government as many of his employees as will volunteer. H e thinks fifty or sixty will organize, and I have agreed to accept their service. . . . 47

Magraw's recruiting efforts met with considerable success; and when he himself volunteered for service with the Expedition, he was elected captain of the company in which his former employees were to serve.48 Writing from the army's winter quarters, Magraw later reported to the President that he had joined forces with the Expedition because, . . . the Mormons were watching my movements and dogging my trains requiring on my part the utmost vigilance . . . [and because] the employees themselves expressed their wishes to be permitted to assist in queling the rebellion of the miserable traitor Brigham Young and his marauding followers, and bringing to the justice they so richly merit these insolent offenders against the laws of our Country. 49

In this extremely long letter, Magraw revealed the full force of his hatred for the Mormons and at the same time repeated many of the phrases of self-indulgence that had become an integral and virtually automatic part of his correspondence with high federal officials.

Meanwhile, unaware of the fact that Magraw had totally abandoned his responsibilities with the Pacific Wagon Road project to campaign against the Mormons, Secretary Thompson finally grew weary of Magraw's incompetence and discharged him late in 1857. Thompson offered the superintendent's position to Lander, but the capable engineer initially refused to assume the title of this position after a trip to Washington and a consultation with Magraw's powerful friends revealed that such a move would be politically inexpedient.50 Probably in deference to Buchanan's wishes, Thompson's staff glossed over this incident "Assistant Adjutant General F. J. Porter to William F. Magraw, October 16, 1857, Hafen, The Utah Expedition, 151â&#x20AC;&#x201D;52.

47 Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston to Major Irvin McDowell, October 18, 1857, Utah Expedition, House Ex. Doc. 71, p. 36.

48 Ibid.

49 W. M. F. Magraw to James Buchanan, January 2, 1858 (H.S.P.).

50 Jackson, Wagon Roads West, 200.

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in its report to Congress by mentioning only that Magraw " . . . had vacated his commission [with the road project] by volunteering into the service of the army of U t a h . . . . " 5 1 Magraw did not receive word of his dismissal by the Interior Department until March 25,1858. His reaction is significant. Enraged by Thompson's charges of drunkenness, inefficiency, brutality, overbearingness, and ungentlemanly conduct, Magraw drafted a protest to Buchanan in which he asserted that Secretary Thompson had listened to and acted on the charges of a group of "miserable and designing men." 52 The parallel between this letter and the one written to President Pierce in 1856 is striking. The memorials to the Post Office Department and Indian Bureau, the letter of Isaac Hockaday, and the contributions of "Verastus" all fit into this same pattern. In each case Magraw vehemently lashed out at a person or group that he felt was responsible for his economic misfortunes. Usually his retaliatory efforts were channeled through the medium of correspondence with powerful Democratic political figures. Magraw's active association with the Army of Utah was a departure from this more conventional medium of attack, as was the violent nature of his later dealings with Lander.

For some reason Magraw came to believe that Lander had been chiefly responsible for his removal from the wagon road position. As a result of this conviction, ill-feeling developed between the two men, climaxing in a series of brawls in and about various Washington hotels. A contemporary paper dutifully recorded the details of one such encounter at Willard's Hotel: Last evening Mr. Lander, late the engineer attached to the Government Wagon Road Expedition of which Mr. W m . McGraw [sic] was the superintendent, met the latter in one of the public apartments of Willard's Hotel; Mr. L. having, according to popular rumors, previously challenged him, without receiving a reply to the challenge, which grew out of a difficulty between them when engaged together on the expedition. It is said that Mr. Lander, on meeting Mr. McGraw at Willard's, entered into conversation with him about his declension to make any reply to the hostile billet-doux, which . . . resulted in a terrible collision, both being physically powerful men. In the course of it Mr. McGraw, who is said to have had in his hands a sort of "billy", dealt Mr. Lander three tremendous blows ere he could return the first. When he [Lander] did return it, however, the tide of battle turned on his side, and he floored his antagonist. . . . Both left the scene of action terribly cut and disfigured.5'5

In the spring of 1860, the two men met again by accident, this time in front of the Kirkwood Hotel. Insults were exchanged, Magraw drew a pistol, and a vio51 U.S., Secretary of the Interior, Report of General Superintendent Albert H . Campbell, Report Upon The Pacific Wagon Roads, 35th Cong., 2d Sess., 1858-59, House Ex. Doc. 108, Serial 1008, p . 6.

52 W . M. F . Magraw to James Buchanan, April 17, 1858, Jackson, Wagon Roads West, 2 0 0 - 1 .

53 F r o m an undated Washington newspaper quoted in Branch, "Frederick West Lander," M.V.H.R., XVI, 181-82n.

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lent scuffle ensued. The Kirkwood's management finally succeeded in disengaging the combatants.54 Even after his removal from the Pacific Wagon Road project and release from military service with the Army of Utah, Magraw continued to benefit from the Buchanan Administration's military operations in the western territories.

Magraw's obituary notes that "He was subsequently engaged as a transporter of supplies to the army in Utah and New Mexico." 55 Significantly it was not until after Buchanan left office in 1861 that legal action was taken against Magraw to obtain compensation for the $15,851.79 worth of government property that he had turned over to the Utah Expedition and for which he could not account. While Buchanan was still in the White House, Secretary Thompson displayed an inordinate amount of patience in his informal attempts to settle the deficiencies in Magraw's accounts. Within a month after Lincoln's inauguration, however, a suit against Magraw had been authorized. 56 Magraw died unexpectedly at the age of forty-six on April 7, 1864. At the time of his death, he was visiting Baltimore from his farm in Allegany County, Maryland.57 Although John M. Hockaday shared in the same political favoritism that Magraw enjoyed once Buchanan took office, his background is considerably more obscure than Magraw's. Captain Albert Tracy, an officer attached to the Utah Expedition, spoke of Hockaday as "a Virginian," 58 while another source identified him as a young Missouri law student who was barely of age when the Expedition was being formed.59 It seems unlikely, however, that Hockaday was actually this young in 1857, for two years later he himself stated that he had ". . . an acquaintance of seven years with the country over which said route [8911] runs." 6 0 Frederick West Lander also referred to Hockaday as "an experienced mountaineer" in 1857, and stated that Hockaday had ". . . discovered in 1854 a cut-off route across the Bear River mountains, over which he attempted 51

Jackson, Wagon Roads West, 2 1 1 .

Magraw's obituary was furnished by Mrs. E d n a D . Magraw and is taken from w h a t is described as a "local paper" of April, 1864 (most likely the Baltimore Sun).

511 Jackson, Wagon Roads West, 2 1 1 - 1 2 . Apparently the suit against Magraw was never completed for a record book entitled Record of Suits, Second Comptroller's Office in the United States General Accounting Office indicates that as of August 26, 1885, Magraw's account ( N o . 5293) still showed a balance of $12,615.44 d u e the United States (suspensions in the a m o u n t of $3,236.35 had been allowed). On December 5, 1885, Magraw's account was forwarded to the Solicitor for further action, but it was returned to the Second Comptroller's Office with the notation "Parties not found."

37 M a g r a w obituary (Mrs. Edna D . M a g r a w ) .

58 Tracy Journal, entries for April 13, I860, The Utah War, Journal of Albert Tracy, 1858-1860, U.H.Q.,Xm ( 1 9 4 5 ) , 104. m Ibid., 106n. m J. M. Hockaday to Honorable J. Holt, March 8, 1859, Majority Report, U.S., Congress, Senate, Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, Report for the relief of John M. Hockaday and William Liggit, 36th Cong., 1st Sess., 1859-60, Senate Rept. 259, Serial 1040, p . 3 .

55

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to turn the emigration, and he erected a bridge for the purpose of aiding the adoption of the line." 61 It is not clear whether Hockaday was as well acquainted with Buchanan as was Magraw, but there is little doubt that Hockaday knew the President. In 1858, for instance, Magraw concluded a letter to Buchanan by stating: "Mr. Hockaday will give you all the news here, so I will trouble you no further " 62 Elsewhere in this same report, Magraw again referred to "Mr. Hockaday," indicating that Buchanan was sufficiently familiar with the man to need no further identification.

Hockaday, of course, lost his livelihood as did Magraw when Mormons took over the mail service on Route 8911 during the fall of 1856. His activities during the rest of that year and the first half of 1857 are not known. Not long after April of 1857 and Magraw's appointment by Buchanan as a wagon road superintendent, however, the President named Hockaday United States attorney for Utah. 63 At about the same time, Buchanan's Post Office Department annulled the Mormon contract on Route 8911 for "Not having executed contracts in proper season, and for other reasons. . . ." 64 Hockaday immediately sought to use the leverage of his appointment as U. S. attorney to regain the IndependenceSalt Lake City mail business.65 The Post Office Department rejected Hockaday's request and subsequently awarded the contract for Route 8911 to S. B. Miles at $32,000 per annum.

Failing to recover the mail business that he and Magraw had once operated, Hockaday left Washington and moved westward to take up his new office under the protection of the Army of Utah. At Camp Scott, the Expedition's winter quarters near Fort Bridger, Hockaday was reunited with Magraw, who by that time had abandoned the wagon road project and joined forces with the army.

While in winter quarters Hockaday performed his first duties as U. S. attorney for Utah in presenting a special grand jury with the charges against Mormon militiamen who had been captured while raiding the Expedition's supply trains. 66 Hockaday grew restless, however, and during the first week of 1858 left Camp Scott to return to Washington. It is known that at this time he planned 01 Preliminary Report of F. W. Lander, Report Upon The Pacific Wagon Road, House Ex. Doc. 108, p. 31. Lander's statement is dated November 30, 1857. The "line" and "bridge" to which Lander refers undoubtedly had some connection with the mail business of Hockaday & Magraw during 1854-56.

02 W. M. F. Magraw to James Buchanan, January 2, 1858 (H.S.P.). es New York Times, August 3, 1857.

01 J. Holt to Honorable D. L. Yulee, May 5, 1860, Minority Report (Exhibit D), Report for the relief of John M. Hockaday and William Liggit, Senate Rept. 259, p. 16. Holt was Buchanan's postmaster general and Yulee was chairman of a Senate committee investigating the administration of Route 8911.

03 Statement of John M. Hockaday, August 1, 1857, Minority Report (Exhibit N), ibid., 38-39.

0,i W. N. Davis, Jr., "Western Justice: The Court at Fort Bridger, Utah Territory," U.H.Q., XXIII (April, 1955), 102.

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to have a personal interview with Buchanan. By March of 1858, Hockaday was back in the capital, and on March 31, he again wrote an official of the Post Office Department to ask for Route 8911.67 The following day, April 1, the department hastily annulled S. B. Miles' contract on the route and awarded it to Hockaday. The new contract called for improved round-trip mail service between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Salt Lake City, this time at an annual compensation of $190,000. Hockaday's contract was to run from May 1, 1858, to November, 1860. Soon after regaining the route, he acquired a partner, William Liggit. 68 Besides the highly unusual circumstances under which Hockaday re-entered the mail business, two other points about this incident should be kept in mind â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the size of the contract fee and the connection between the contract itself and the Utah Expedition. Hockaday's compensation was to be $190,000 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Miles had asked for only $32,000 in 1857, while the B. Y. Express Company had originally succeeded Hockaday and Magraw in 1856, on a bid of $23,000. Furthermore, the wording of Hockaday's contract made it quite clear that a prolonged military campaign in Utah would be to his financial advantage. Postmaster General Holt later explained this point to Secretary of War Floyd: The postal communication between St. Joseph's, Missouri, and Salt Lake City, Utah, was, in consequence of the threatened rebellion of the Mormon population, improved to a weekly mail, in order that the government might be enabled to correspond regularly and rapidly with the troops engaged in military operations in that Territory. It was expressly provided in the contract that the Postmaster General should have the power to curtail the service whenever the reason which had led to this improvement should cease to exist. . . .<!9

With the failure of Congress to pass the Administration's requested Post Office appropriation and with the negotiated collapse of the "Mormon War" in 1858, service requirements on Route 8911 again came under scrutiny. During March and April of 1859, Postmaster General Holt advised Hockaday that his service would be reduced from a weekly to a semi-monthly basis, and that compensation would drop accordingly from a level of $190,000 to $125,000. Hockaday immediately protested that such a move was grossly unjust. At the same time he and his partner made covert plans to transfer the mail service to another firm. On May 11, 1859, Hockaday and Liggit secretly sold their contract to Jones, Russell & Company, a subsidiary of Russell, Majors & Waddell. One partner of this firm, William H. Russell, was then involved in financial practices 07 John M. Hockaday to Honorable William H . D u n d a s , March 3 1 , 1858, Minority Report (Exhibit B ) , Report for the relief of John M. Hockaday and William Liggit, Senate Rept. 259, p p . 1 2 - 1 3 . D u n d a s was second assistant postmaster general.

08 Minority Report, ibid., 1. ,,9 J. Holt to Honorable John B. Floyd, May 1, 1860, Minority Report (Exhibit D , N o . 1), ibid., 18.

Hockaday's contract dated April 1, 1858, may be found on p p . 1 3 - 1 6 .

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of doubtful ethics concerning the Utah Expedition with Secretary of War Floyd.

Between what they were later to be awarded by the government and what they received from Jones, Russell & Company, Hockaday and his partner sold out foratotalof$405,847.51. 70 This purchase agreement was not immediately made public. To further preserve the secrecy of the transfer, J. M. Hockaday & Company and Jones, Russell & Company both agreed that the latter would operate the mail service under the former's name. In addition the contract between the two companies stipulated, . . . John M. Hockaday further agrees to give his personal aid and influence to secure the interests of Jones, Russell & Co., for an increased compensation for carrying said mail, so far as he can, with convenience to his own business interests, the said Jones, Russell & Co., agrees to pay him a liberal compensation therefor in case of success.71

Hockaday eventually did start a legislative influence campaign in Washington. His efforts, however, were directed toward benefiting himself and Liggit rather than Jones, Russell & Company. On March 14, 1860, Hockaday directed a memorial to Congress in which he demanded $65,000 as compensation for unexpected operating expenses and for Holt's curtailment of service during the previous year. The House Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads sympathized with Hockaday and reported a relief bill for $59,576. In highly emotional tones the committee described what it felt were the consequences of Holt's action: Thus at a single blow the accumulations, in Mr. Liggit's case, of a long life of virtuous toil were swept away, his family beggared, and his partner, Mr. Hockaday, discouraged and disheartened, retired to Salt Lake City, where he now remains in a state of mental and physical debility, which disqualifies him from bestowing any attention whatever to his business. 72

A Senate committee also investigated the matter and recommended that $40,000 be awarded to Hockaday. This recommendation was proposed even though a militant minority of the committee had concluded, "There is no principle upon which the bill can be placed, that does not open the treasury to raiders to an illimitable amount of demands for similar damages." 73 Uneasy about the heavy expenditures attributable to the Expedition and about recent scandals involving military contractors and his cabinet officers, 70 George A. Root and Russell K. Hickman, "Pike's Peak Express Companies, Part III â&#x20AC;&#x201D; The Platte Route â&#x20AC;&#x201D; The Hockaday Purchase," Kansas Historical Quarterly, XIII (November, 1945), 486-87.

71 For contract between J. M. Hockaday & Company and Jones, Russell & Company, May 11, 1859, see Minority Report (Exhibit H ) , Report for the relief of John M. Hockaday and William Liggit, Senate Rept.

259, pp. 21-22.

72 U. S., Congress, House, Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, Report, Hockaday & Legget, 36th Cong., 1st Sess., 1859-60, House Rept. 268, Serial 1068, pp. 1-2.

73 Minority Report, Report for the relief of John M. Hockaday and William Liggit, Senate Rept. 259, p. 11.

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Buchanan vetoed a relief bill in January of 1861 that would have awarded Hockaday and Liggit $59,576. At the time, though, the President remarked, "There is no doubt that the contractors have sustained considerable loss in the whole transaction." 74 He subsequently approved a substitute measure that appropriated $40,000 on behalf of the contractors.

It is difficult to determine the nature of Hockaday's personality and temperament prior to his second and final departure from the mail business in 1859.

Captain Tracy, however, provides us with a description of the contractor's pitiful condition shortly after he petitioned Congress for financial relief in March of 1860: . . . at Gilbert's Station . . . [near South Pass, I met] one, John Hockaday, a Virginian, a former mail contractor, and, only a month or so since, one of Captain Heth's candidates — after Sharpe — for Sutler of the Tenth Regiment [of the Utah Expedition]. With Hockaday, and indeed, in actual charge of him — for John was little better than in a condition of chronic tremens — was also a most genial and kindly second, by name, Doc Erwin. . . . the driver of the incoming stage — a small, lean man — had been forthwith recognized by John Hockaday, as a party who, he insisted, had upon a certain former occasion, stolen some of his mules.

Wroth with the recollection and identification, and yet further excited with the fumes of drinks, untold of number, Hockaday . . . possessed himself of two shoemakers' knives . . . and stood in the door-way of the hut hatless, coatless, and with his hair abroad in a wild, insane manner, . . . challenging then and there to mortal combat the presumed purloiner of his animals. . . . [I stepped between the two men, pointed out to Hockaday that his "opponent" was a mere boy, and persuaded him to drop the knives.] Hockaday, retiring, took more whiskey, from what appeared a favorite blue keg, of the capacity of about two gallons, and was soon asleep, with whatever dreams may visit the brain of the sodden inebriate. 75

On July 17,1860, the San Francisco Bulletin ventured that, "Hockaday's mental faculties have been seriously affected." 76 Hockaday's activities after the summer of 1860 are not known. During July and August of 1861, however, the firm of Hockaday & Burr entered the probate court of Great Salt Lake County as a party to legal action involving both the surveyor general and territorial marshal of Utah. 77 This writer has been unable to determine whether John M. Hockaday was a partner of Hockaday & Burr.

In summary, then, we see that W. M. F. Magraw and John M. Hockaday corresponded vigorously with the President, his cabinet officers, other highranking federal officials, and even newspapers to further their personal ends.

J? Henry, "Veto Message On a Bill For The Relief of Hockaday and Leggit," January 25, 1861, Works of James Buchanan, XI, 114-16. Congressional sources alternate between spellings for the name of Hockaday's partner — "Leggit," "Liggit," and "Legget."

"Tracy Journal, entries for April 13 and 14, 1860, The Utah War, U.H.Q., XIII, 104-6.

7,1 Ibid., 106n.

77 Smith Journal, entries for July 9 and August 9, 1861, A. R. Mortensen, ed., "Elias Smith, Journal of a Pioneer Editor, March 6, 1859-September 23, 1863," U.H.Q., XXI (July, 1953), 258 and 263. Smith was a judge as well as an editor.

148

U T A H HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

All of these efforts seemed to stem from successful Mormon attempts to control operations on Route 8911 during 1856. Magraw's actions were apparently dominated by a desire to improve his financial condition and to avenge real or imagined misfortunes suffered at the hands of the Mormon community in Utah.

To him a federal military force in the territory was perhaps the ideal instrument of retaliation. Hockaday's lobbying efforts were prompted primarily by economic motives. There is little evidence to indicate that he bore the Mormons any ill will as a group.

Both men realized their prime objectives through political affiliations with the Buchanan Administration. Magraw received a responsible appointment with the Pacific Wagon Road project, and federal troops were in fact dispatched to deal with the Mormons. Magraw also managed to serve as a captain with the Army of Utah, and later as a supplier with troops in Utah and New Mexico.

Hockaday became a U. S. attorney. In addition he regained the franchise for Route 8911, ostensibly to improve communications between the War Department and the Army of Utah. There is also evidence to indicate that Hockaday was at least considered for the position of sutler with one of the infantry regiments attached to the Expedition. Both Hockaday and Magraw displayed an affinity for strong drink and violence.

The foregoing is not to say that Buchanan purposely initiated the Expedition to advance the personal fortunes of Magraw and Hockaday. The evidence does indicate, however, that the President's decision to intervene in Utah was based on biased, irresponsible sources. Once the formation of the Expedition had been decided upon, Buchanan used the Army of Utah repeatedly to benefit his personal and political associates.

In fairness to Hockaday and Magraw, though, it should be noted that their attitude was not atypical on the American frontier. Howard R. Lamar points out that, as a section, the Trans-Mississippi West looked to the presence of military units as a valuable source of cash as well as protection. The army was something to be exploited and manipulated for personal gain.78 The Army of Utah proved to be no exception. When news of Mormon raids on federal supply lines and livestock reached Kansas, for instance, a local paper offered the following commentary: Money is very scarce in Kansas. But we believe that there will be more money in the territory next summer than in any state in the union, in proportion to population. The Utah expedition has already cost $6,000,000; the army has already lost 1,700 mules and between 3,000 and 4,000 head of cattle. The probability is that all their stock will be gone before spring. This stock, the feed and fodder â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 78

25.

Howard R. Lamar, Dakota Territory 1861-1889, A Study of Frontier Politics (New Haven, 1956),

B U C H A N A N ' S SPOILS SYSTEM IN U T A H

149

every kind of agricultural produce â&#x20AC;&#x201D; will have to be replaced. It will give a market to our farmers â&#x20AC;&#x201D; who will sell for cash, at the highest prices, all that they can raise. Let Eastern Emigrants, who have stock, bring them on. 79

Neither was the attitude of Hockaday and Magraw blatantly out of place in the atmosphere engendered by the Buchanan Administration, the atmosphere Captain Phelps referred to as "the political logic of the present day." For weeks after Buchanan took office the workings of the federal government were virtually at a standstill while the President dutifully doled out patronage. 80 Corruption was rife, and one scandal after another plagued Buchanan. His Administration was accused of buying congressional votes in connection with Kansas' Lecompton Constitution.81 Secretary of War Floyd alone figured in scandals involving the purchase of property for a military reservation at Willett's Point, New York; 82 the sale of Fort Snelling; 83 a brick contract for the Washington aquaduct; and the heating contract for the Capitol itself.84 Floyd eventually had to resign when it became known that a distant relative had taken $870,000 in bonds from the Interior Department to forestall exposure of the Secretary's own irregular financial dealings with Russell, Majors & Waddell, the contracting firm which supplied the Utah Expedition. Floyd was indicted later for malfeasance of office.80 While probing the Willett's Point scandal during the summer of 1857, a congressional committee of investigation aptly identified a problem basic to the Buchanan Administration and its entire handling of the Utah Expedition which was just then getting underway: . . . this pernicious and perilous system of making public preferments the spoils of the successful side of politics, by extending it a very little, becomes a system, whereby other employments, not official, jobs and contracts, like mail contracts, army contracts, jobs for transportation and supplies, and other preferences may be 86 claimed by men who manage parties successfully

The following spring, Representative S. A. Purviance, of Pennsylvania, touched on the same subject in a highly critical speech sarcastically entitled "The Triumphs of The Administration." He said, 79 The Kansas Crusader of Freedom (Doniphan City), January 30, 1858, quoted in "Bypaths of Kansas History," Kansas Historical Quarterly, VI (May, 1937), 2 0 0 - 1 0 .

80 See National Intelligencer, May 18, 1857.

81 U.S., Congress, House. Select Committee, The Covode Investigation Report, 36th Cong., 1st Sess., 1859-60, House Rept. 648, Serial 1071.

82 U.S., Congress, House, Select Committee, Wilkins' or Willett's Point Investigation Report, 35th Cong., 1st Sess., 1857-58, House Rept. 549, Serial 968.

83 U.S., Congress, House, Select Committee, Fort Snelling Investigation Report, 35th Cong., 1st Sess., 1857-58, House Rept. 3 5 1 , Serial 965.

84 Nichols, Disruption of American Democracy, 3 2 9 - 3 0 and 553.

83 U.S., Congress, House, Select Committee, Report . . . Fraudulent Abstraction of Certain Bonds . . .

Department of the Interior, 36th Cong., 2d Sess., 1 8 6 0 - 6 1 , House Rept. 78, Serial 1105, or Raymond W . and Mary L u n d Settle, Empire On Wheels (Stanford, 1949).

86 Wilkins' or Willett's Point Investigation Report, House Rept. 549, p . 2 3 .

150

U T A H HISTORICAL QUARTERLY With a Delegate sitting in the House from Utah, with whom we have not even heard that the President ever had a conference, a war is undertaken against the Mormons, at an expense of millions; contracts given out to political favorites, to buy up broken-down horses and mules; provisions at most exorbitant prices, out of which magnificent fortunes have been made in a few weeks; the Army increased, and a partisan President enabled thereby to distribute effectually the spoils of office. . . . What a farce, to thus disgrace ourselves in the eyes of the civilized world, by exhibiting to public gaze the vibrations and vacillations of an Executive whose mind to-day is for war, to-morrow for peace, and the next day for both. Thus has ended the second triumph of the Administration, costing the people many millions of dollars, now conceded to have been uselessly thrown away. 87

8 ' U.S., Appendix to the Congressional Globe, Representative S. A. Purviance, "The Triumphs of the Administration," 35th Cong., 1st Sess., 1857-58, pp. 414-15.

Senator Reed Smoot 9/11(1 t i l 6

Mexican Revolutions

BY A. F . CARDON

COURTESY A. F. CARDON

(1862-1941) Reed Smoot

Some time ago my wife came into possession of her father's diaries for the period of 1909 to 1928. Her father was Utah Senator Reed Smoot, for thirty years an influential member of the United States Senate. To me the diaries are absorbing. This was especially so when I began to discover names and events familiar to me. For example the Senator recorded April 20, 1912, that the Treasury Department of the government advised him that some guns seized by the U. S. Army should be held as evidence against the Shelton & Payne Arms Company, or against O. P. Brown who was endeavoring to smuggle them into the Casas Grandes Valley, Mexico, in time of war.

That name Payne took me back to 1898 when Lorenzo Payne, of Colonia Dublan, one of the colonies in the Mr. Cardon is a retired government employee living presently in Los Altos, California. T h e diaries of Senator Smoot are soon to be published by the University of Utah Press. Whenever quotations from the diaries are used in this article, the dates are given. For example April 20, 1912, is given as ( 4 / 2 0 / 1 2 ) following the quotation.

152

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Casas Grandes Valley settled by Mormons from Utah and other Western States, traveled in Georgia with me as a Mormon missionary. Perhaps he was the one involved in the alleged smuggling act.

Searching the diaries for clarification of the smuggling of arms I found that the Senator was being implored by the Mormon colonists in Mexico for protection from the Mexican rebels, who were in revolt against the regime of Porfirio Diaz. These colonists the Senator regarded as part of the folks of his church, the same as those in Utah and elsewhere. So I compiled from the diaries all the references my father-in-law had made to the Mormon colonies. This article is intended to connect those entries to the history of Mexico from 1910 to 1920, a period of revolution.

In the early 1920's, my duties took me into many farming areas of the Western States. Talking with various people interested in the development of farming lands, I was impressed with the high repute of the Mormon people for having successfully handled problems related to irrigation and dry farming. As one man put it, "If I had a land project to put over I'd head for Mormon country to get them on the job."

Having Mormon relatives who had been forced to flee their homes by the wave of revolutions which had swept northern Mexico just prior to the outbreak of World War I, I was struck by the oddity of a nation driving from its midst a people who could do so much good by example in agricultural practices. In the Senator's diaries I found much to explain this incongruous situation. The Mormons of Chihuahua, Mexico, were close to Reed Smoot since they stemmed from Utah families. Their cry for help naturally struck a sympathetic response in him, and he proceeded to bring the United States government to their aid.

The diaries are woefully brief in the accounts of those suspense filled days; yet with my wife's and my close association with the Senator and the knowledge we had of the events related to the troubles of northern Mexico at the time of their happening, it became possible to piece together a good picture of the Mexican affairs. References are made in the diaries to correspondence, telegrams, and personal visits from leaders of the Mormon people in Mexico; to correspondence and visits with the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; and to visits to, and documents of, the various United States governmental departments. In addition Smoot had the ears of Presidents William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson upon many occasions.

The troubles of this period of Mexican history are closely related to the government of Porfirio Diaz, in his policies of depriving the masses of their lands and liberty and favoring the rich and influential upper classes. Of a population of about ten million people, more than eight and one-half million were downtrodden Indians. At one time the land with subsurface rights was theirs, or else

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owned by the nation with a sense of joint ownership with the masses. Diaz changed this by altering Mexico's Constitution to suit his wishes, by depriving the Indians of land and freedom, and by letting conditions build up which resulted in virtual slavery for the people. From May, 1877, to May, 1911, except for four years, he was dictator. But toward the end of this period of tyrannical

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power, Diaz announced that he would permit, or be sympathetic to, a candidate running against him at the next presidential election.

Thereupon, Francisco I. Madero announced his intention to run for president. Diaz promptly arrested him for treason, but he escaped to Texas and from there issued his plans for the emancipation of the masses. His cause found supporters and help poured into Madero's hands to support his agrarian reform program. Diaz, alarmed, offered reforms, also; but they were too late.

Naturally, the country was in something of a turmoil during Madero's rebellion, and particularly was this so in northern Mexico where many Americans, including the Mormon colonies, were located. The leader of these Mormons, prior to 1909, was Anthony W. Ivins whose wise counsel and farseeing leadership won the trust of these people. Although not in charge of the Mormon colonies at the outbreak of the events leading to the open rebellions, Ivins (an apostle of the L.D.S. Church) was nevertheless in close touch with the colonists and, no doubt, had plans formulated in the event conditions got out of hand.

The explosion came with the murder of seven Mormons, whereupon Ivins wrote to Senator Smoot in Washington, D. C , explaining the state of affairs, especially the grave danger confronting the colonists due to lack of arms for defense.

With the Ivins letter in hand, the Senator went to Secretary of State Philander Knox. Knox advised the Senator to get the names of the victims and their residences, and he "would wire for an immediate investigation." (2/3/11) The Mormons were not alone in being molested; trouble was afoot in mining camps and towns elsewhere in Mexico. Mrs. Sol Seigel, of Salt Lake City, called at the Senator's office and expressed great concern for her son who, she believed, was in Durango, the mining country. The Senator could not give her any assurance that there was no danger in these remote towns. He had just talked with President William Howard Taft who was similarly worried over the situation. Senator Smoot felt that if Diaz resigned, guerilla warfare would break out, thereby adding to the danger of Americans who were feeling the antiYankee sentiments of the Mexican people. President Joseph F. Smith, at Mormon headquarters, also sensing the danger, expressed the same fears to the Senator. Smoot again spoke to President Taft who stated that the United States did not intend to interfere, or intervene, in the trouble in Mexico. He based his position on the belief that such action would increase the danger for Americans living in Mexico.

It, therefore, appeared that the chief concern of the Mormon colonists, at this stage of the Mexican troubles, was to have no intervention by the United States for fear of reprisals from the Mexican rebels.

On May 25, 1911, Diaz resigned as president and left the country. Madero and his party, in control of the government, arranged the naming of Madero to

SMOOT A N D T H E MEXICAN R E V O L U T I O N S

155

the presidency, November 6, 1911. But success did not attend his efforts. He lacked the leadership needed to direct the course of government and showed signs of playing into the hands of the followers of Diaz. A combination of such weaknesses advanced the counterrevolution of the reactionary, General Victoriano Huerta.

Throughout 1912, Senator Smoot sought to have arms destined for the Mormon colonists, but seized by the United States Army, released to the Mormons for their defense. Conferring with the State Department at Washington, principally through J. Reuben Clark, who held a responsible position under Secretary Knox, Smoot worked assiduously to resolve the dilemma of the Mexican Mormons. At the same time correspondence passed between the Senator and the L. D. S. Church Presidency in Salt Lake City, the outcome of which appeared to be that arms and ammunition should be sent to the colonists, if possible. The diary reads, I had a conference with President Taft, asking him to instruct the officers in charge at El Paso, Texas, to allow arms and ammunition to enter Mexico for the Mormon colonists. I explained to him the conditions as they exist in Mexico and read to him a number of telegrams. Orson P. Brown had undertaken to smuggle in arms and ammunition but they were seized by Col. Steevers. The President told me he would release them to be taken into Mexico. I was to see the Secretary of War to prepare the orders, etc. (4/3/12)

The day following this entry, Smoot conferred with Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson about writing an order for the release of the arms, but the Secretary was reluctant to do so without the advice and consent of the Secretary of State.

Stimson said he would see the President and did so. But at another conference at the State Department, J. Reuben Clark felt that it was dangerous to release the arms at the time and asked that the matter be held for further consideration.

Senator Smoot agreed and reported the decision to President Smith at church headquarters.

Further consideration of the wisest course to follow resulted in a suggestion by the State Department that, to avoid future complications with the Mexican government in case the rebels were successful, a request be made to the Mexican government to allow a shipment of arms and ammunition to be sent to the colonies. Acceding to this plan the Senator wrote to the Secretary of State requesting this course be followed. He wrote in his diary, The Secretary of State wired for permit to ship into our colonies 50 rifles and 20,000 rounds of ammunition as I requested yesterday. I also asked the Secretary of War to instruct Col. Steevers at El Paso to release the rifles and ammunition seized by him some days ago, and to deliver them to the Shelton & Payne Arms Co. I wired O. P. Brown on the same subject. (4/15/12)

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Colonia Juarez, Mexico, in the early 1900's.

Senator Smoot was advised on April 16, that the President had ordered the release of the arms. Despite this order, no action was forthcoming. So Senator Smoot went to see Secretaries Knox and Stimson again, asking for help. At the War Department General Leonard Wood was with the Secretary. They listened to the Senator attentively, and then advised him that they, too, were pessimistic over the situation and had drawn up a battle campaign in the event the United States had to intervene. They also told him that they had referred to the Treasury Department the matter of seizure of arms from Brown who was trying to smuggle them to the colonists. From there the Senator . . . called on Curtis of the Treasury Department and asked him to release the guns and ammunition and allow them to be taken to our people as to do so would save our people from buying that many more. Curtis said Brown violated the law and he perhaps ought to be in prison instead of having arms and ammunition released to him. H e also thought the goods should be held as evidence against Brown, or the Shelton & Payne Arms Co. The question, he said, was now being considered by the Justice Department. I told him I was not worrying about Brown going to prison; that could be settled later; I want the rifles etc. for my people and I would guarantee the Government, if it wants to send Brown to prison, will have no trouble getting evidence of his guilt. I will testify he was guilty and so will Brown himself.

I want action now. I explained to Curtis how Brown expected to take the supplies overland to Casas Grandes. Curtis will take it up with the Attorney General.

(4/20/12)

As revealed in the diary the Mexican government proved pointedly reluctant about having the arms released and gave its reason for taking such a position:

SMOOT A N D T H E MEXICAN R E V O L U T I O N S

157

The Mexican government has refused the request [for shipment of arms] . . . for fear the shipment would fall into the hands of the rebels. If we can assure our President that they will not, he will consent, with the Mexican government's approval, and will so notify it through our Ambassador. (4/25/12)

There the matter seemed to rest. Madero was unco-operative.

If Washington could do nothing, the rebels could. Orson P. Brown, a representative of the colonists at El Paso, Texas, wired the Senator that William Brown had been murdered by the rebels. Taking the matter up with the State Department, communications were sent to the U.S. Ambassador in Mexico City and one to the Consul at Chihuahua. L.D.S. President Joseph F. Smith received a communication from a Bishop Lillywhite of Sonora giving more details of the rebel raids. The information was forwarded to Smoot who carried it to the State Department resulting in more telegrams being sent to Mexico City. These events transpired during July when the Mormons were most sorely beset. The colonists, by the end of that month, were leaving their homes upon the advice of the church and through fear of the rebels. It was estimated that two thousand colonists had fled to El Paso, Texas. Knowing that his people must be in distress there, Senator Smoot with other interested Senators had a resolution passed in the Senate authorizing the government to provide relief in the form of money, tents, and other supplies.

The Mormons were fleeing the dangers of war without a thought of their estates and chattels, only of their lives. Other Americans had their troubles too.

So Senator Smoot, with those Senators immediately concerned, had another appropriation approved, this time for $100,000 to provide transportation for those needing such help.

Toward the end of August, 1912, the Senator, at home in Salt Lake City, began conferences with the leaders of the Mormon Church. President Smith, Apostle Ivins, and the Senator were in agreement that the Taft policy of nonintervention in Mexico was sound. President Smith felt conditions would be unsettled for years, and if the Mormons could get their losses paid for it would be best to abandon their homes.

At the election that fall, President Taft was defeated. Senator Smoot, returning to Washington, called on Taft who informed him that, "The Secretary of State for Mexico has been here for the last week and promises that 2000 troops will be sent into northern Mexico and the American people and the American interests will be protected." (1/3/13) In spite of this promise, the prospect for a solution to the unrest was dim.

Senator Smoot learned from Taft that the situation was critical. United States battleships had been sent to Mexican waters, and the army was ordered to be in readiness to march in case it was necessary to intervene.

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But Victoriano Huerta gained control of the government at this point.

Arresting Madero and his vice-president on February 19,1913, he executed them three days later. This highhanded method of seizing power, while not unheard of in Latin America, caused a decided change in United States foreign policy toward Mexico. President Woodrow Wilson, who succeeded Taft, declined to recognize the Huerta government which was founded upon murder and intrigue.

It had been the policy of the United States government not to interfere with a foreign nation's internal affairs and, generally, to recognize a de facto government when events showed that government to be strong enough to function.

Wilson's policy was a departure from the traditional policy of the United States, and was one designed to grant recognition only to those governments which were founded on moral principles and represented the aspirations of the people of a nation. Deciding that the Huerta regime did not meet these standards, Wilson withheld official recognition and looked to the eventual removal of Huerta.

But the elimination of such a strong character as Huerta required more than edicts and essays. The action finally adopted was a negative one, "watchful waiting," for which President Wilson soon became known. But other factors also were making themselves felt to a great degree. Three men took up the rebellion against Huerta. A sort of triumvirate â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Venustiano Carranza, Francisco Pancho Villa, and Emiliano Zapata â&#x20AC;&#x201D; set out to win over the masses by advocating, among other things, popular agrarian reforms and by publicizing Huerta's grievous errors and shortcomings.

Senator Smoot conferred with Wilson's new secretary of state, William Jennings Bryan. After discussing the Mexican situation, Bryan asked Smoot to let him know of any further developments with which he might become acquainted. Little news from the Mormon colonists reached Smoot at this time, but the Senate heard more about Mexican events and rumors and debated them with some warmth. The event that seemed to have touched off the debate was President Wilson's selection of John Lind to go to Mexico as his personal representative. Wrote Smoot, The President's sending Lind has caused a great deal of criticism. He sends Lind as a personal representative, with no authority to act, nor does he represent in any way the United States. President Huerta will not receive him and no one could blame him. President Wilson will not recognize the Huerta government and the President has called him a murderer, a usurper and everything that is bad. (8/7/13)

The Senator was quite widely known to be in disagreement with Wilson on many matters; but on nonintervention in Mexico they were in accord. Smoot went to see Wilson to discuss the Mexican problem: I told him I was in full harmony with him in not intervening in Mexico, and that the leaders of the Mormon people were opposed to intervention. The Utah people

SMOOT A N D T H E MEXICAN R E V O L U T I O N S

159

[Mormons] had suffered more in numbers and loss of property than any other people and they are not demanding intervention. I told him of the letter I had received from A. W . Ivins in which he states that he would rather lose every cent of his property in Mexico than have intervention. (8/11/13)

This avowal of support for Wilson's policy was repeated in the Senate a few days later. Here the President read a message to Congress about the Mexican troubles and promised to publish in full the reply he expected to receive from Huerta. According to the diaries, however, it appeared to the Senator that the reply was written by the Mexican minister in Washington: " . . . a remarkable paper and, in some respects, cannot be successfully answered." (8/27/13) On that vein the matter rested, so far as the Senator was concerned. After a visit in Utah where he was advised regarding the status of the Mormon migration from Mexico, he went to the President and further discussed the situation.

Wilson was inclined to let the constitutionalists, led by Carranza, in Mexico import arms from America to help eliminate Huerta.

Such a concession to the Carranza faction indicated Wilson's willingness to depart further from the heretofore United States policy of noninterference with the internal affairs of another nation. The brutal murder of Madero and Suarez by Huerta had so aroused the resentment of many Americans that little criticism was directed toward Wilson for this departure.

All through the winter months and into the spring of 1914, this sanguine drama of rebellion and defiance held the interest of the United States, an interest that was highlighted by the incident of the salute to the American flag. An official of the Huerta regime at Tampico had arrested a naval party of the United States fleet in Mexican waters, whereupon Admiral Henry T. Mayo, in command, backed by President Wilson, demanded a public salute to the United States flag from the forts of that city. Wrote the Senator, Huerta has refused to do so but has expressed regret and punished the officer inflicting the insult. The President begins to realize his watchful waiting policy is a failure and the people are opposed to him. So he takes this small incident to make a great bluff to show our strength. This should have been done when they were killing American citizens and scoffing at every request of our government. John Lind, it is understood, caused the President to take this stand against the counsel of W m . J. Bryan. I think the President also decided this would be a good move to make to draw attention from the Free Tolls [Panama Canal] question. Eleven battleships and about 15,000 men were ordered to Tampico.

This action caused great excitement. A few of the Republicans met in Senator Gallinger's office and talked over the situation. We agreed to say nothing in the Senate today but wait and see what action will be taken by Huerta, and, if he refuses, what Wilson will do. (4/14/14)

Thus the Republicans joined in watchful waiting.

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U T A H H I S T O R I C A L QUARTERLY

The next day the Senator told of the criticism and ridicule of the President for ordering the whole Atlantic Fleet to force Huerta to salute the flag. The diary goes on, It is my belief that Wilson intends to intervene in Mexico and will deliver a message to Congress within a short time, asking that he be authorized to declare war.

Politics are at the bottom of it. Roosevelt [T. R.] gave notice that he would not go to Spain but would return home. This move [in Mexico] is to forestall Roosevelt from making the Mexican question an issue, and to withdraw public interest from his repeal of the Panama tolls. A very clever political move. (4/15/14)

The flag incident took on more somber tones next day. Much to the disgust of the Senator, it appeared that Wilson had agreed to salute the Mexican flag if Huerta would salute the American flag. Wrote Smoot, I never heard any men criticized more severely than were Wilson and Bryan for their reportedly cowardly backdown to Huerta. Bryan says our saluting the Mexican flag after their saluting ours is like one gentleman tipping his hat to another one. Men of all political faiths are condemning them for bringing humiliation to all Americans. Huerta won his point in having us agree to salute the Mexican flag.

Today he wants the salutes fired simultaneously. H e is just mocking us and showing the world what a jellyfish administration we have. (4/16/14)

Huerta stuck to his guns on the flag incident, refusing to salute the flag unless the return salute was simultaneous. But Wilson refused and promptly notified Huerta that Mexico would be given until six o'clock Sunday evening, April 19, to salute the flag of the United States or suffer the consequences. A great feeling of resentment swept the Congress as well as the country at the action of the Mexican government. In the Senator's opinion, if Huerta saluted the flag, Villa would use it against him by charging him with disloyalty to his country. Huerta hesitated still further and asked for a longer time to consider his answer. To this Wilson replied, in effect, "Not one minute more," and took the matter to Congress where he asked for a resolution backing him up in his action. Congress voted overwhelmingly its endorsement of Wilson's stand, but Senator Smoot voted against it feeling that intervention in Mexico was poorly justified and that the flag incident should not have been permitted to bring the country into open conflict. The Senator wrote in his diary that the President ordered the Navy to take Vera Cruz, and that four Americans had been killed and twenty-one wounded. Furthermore, Smoot wrote that, according to reports in the Senate, Carranza and Villa had virtually declared war against the United States. In justification of the bombardment of Vera Cruz, Secretary William J. Bryan had advised Wilson that a German ship was about to land arms in Mexico. To prevent this delivery Vera Cruz was occupied by U. S. forces. Nevertheless, the reaction in Mexico was to unite the various factions against the U. S. These events on the larger theater of operations crowded the matter of the Mormon colonies somewhat off the stage. But Villa still stalked northern Mex-

COURTESY FLORENCE I.

HYDE

Home of Anthony W. Ivins, Mormon leader, in Colonia Juarez. Mexican officials and colonists are in foreground.

ico, brandishing his sword above the heads of all Americans. Then came a telegram to Senator Smoot from the Presiding Elder of the Mormon colonies, . . . telling me of the great danger our Mexican colonies find themselves in since the attack on Vera Cruz. I took the matter up with Asst. Secretary of State Osborne and he wired the American Consul relative to the same. (4/24/14)

Much to his surprise the Senator Received word from the State Department that Villa had promised to give escort and protection to our colonists who want to leave Mexico if we would let him know just where they are located. I wired A. F . Pierce at El Paso to let us know where the colonists are located and I would see that Villa was notified. (4/25/14)

One would gather from Villa's offer and Senator Smoot's account that Villa was not so bloodthirsty as he had been represented. In fact it was the most direct offer of Mexican friendship and understanding toward the colonists that is noted in the Senator's diaries. It could scarcely be said that Villa wanted to know the location of the Mormons to attack them.

At this point Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, each of which had refused to recognize Huerta, tendered their offices for a peaceful and friendly settlement of

162

U T A H HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

the Mexican conflict. President Wilson accepted the offer, but Senator Smoot felt Huerta was not likely to do so because the offer came from those who had refused to recognize him. It turned out differently, however, and the "ABC" offer was accepted by both sides. Smoot, still gloomy about the situation, expressed the opinion that the mediation efforts would amount to nothing; Huerta would not agree to any terms that would eliminate him, and he would not recognize Carranza and Villa as parties to an agreement. But out of the ABC efforts, which did not name who should become president in Mexico, issued the resignation of Huerta on July 15, 1914, and the withdrawal of U.S. occupation forces from Vera Cruz.

This failure to agree on a successor to Huerta threatened the solution of the Mexican problem. Carranza and Villa were not fully satisfied, and Zapata apparently was ignored through the action of the State Department. This elimination of one of the trio was reported to the Senator by N. L. Hall from the Mormon colonies, as the diaries reveal.

About the first of May, 1914, Hall appeared at the Senator's office with a request that a meeting be arranged between him and John Lind, the President's representative. The meeting was arranged over the telephone. Mr. Lind, however, wanting a preliminary discussion with the Senator alone, promptly came to the latter's office and discussed the Mexican situation and Hall, who seemed so worked up about Zapata. Later, another meeting was held with Mr. Hall present. The Senator reports in his diary for that date, Lind thinks it is safe in trusting Villa and Carranza in defeating Huerta and restoring order in Mexico. Bryan and the President may have great confidence in them; I have not so much. We discussed the course to pursue in handling the land, or agrarian, policy. I told him what had been accomplished. He wants our cooperation in getting people associated with Zapata in the southern part of Mexico.

H e wants me to lay before the President and Bryan my views of assisting Mexican people and how to teach them in the future. We help them with provisions through the Red Cross by requisitions made by Brother Hall. Lind thinks Carranza and Villa will be loyal because they can't get help from any other source. H e also thinks all classes of Mexican people are tired of war and want peace. H e was impressed with my suggestion that A. W . Ivins be used in the mediation efforts, and wanted to present the same to the President. (5/10/14)

A few days later Mr. Hall told the Senator of a letter he had written to Bryan at the latter's suggestion, giving a history of Zapata and his services in the rebellion. Later, Hall wanted to have a Mr. Brady come to Washington as a representative of Zapata. Then in June, Lind was said to have advised Zapata by telegram that the United States would not negotiate with him, whereupon Zapata's representative advised Hall that his (Hall's) and another man's property would no longer be protected. Hall was discouraged. The diary continues,

SMOOT A N D T H E MEXICAN R E V O L U T I O N S

163

He received advices from Zapata that he had joined forces with Huerta and was dissatisfied with his [Hall's] services in Washington. I told him I did not believe it and the statements were sent him for the effect here in Washington, and particularly on Carranza's representatives. (7/12/14)

If Zapata did cast his lot with Huerta, he showed poor judgment in the light of what followed. Senator Smoot reported in his diary two days later that Huerta had resigned, and then added, "Villa may start another revolution as soon as Carranza is made President. Some talk of his establishing another republic with the northern states of Mexico." (7/14/14) Carranza as President of Mexico launched agrarian reforms that won him followers but also the hatred of Villa. It came about by a provisional decree in January, 1915, and from that time forward events moved along a bloody trail made through Villa's theater of operations. At Santa Ysabel eighteen miners were killed; and then followed a raid across the American border at Columbus, New Mexico, where seventeen Americans were killed. Villa fled, followed by troops led by General John J. Pershing. President Wilson ordered Villa to be taken dead or alive, but Villa was not caught. Then Carranza's government, resenting the Americans on Mexican soil, finally succeeded in having Wilson withdraw them, but not until several Americans were killed and a score captured. With time the popularity of Carranza waned when his reforms did not materialize. Another triumvirate of rebels gathered; Carranza fled but was overtaken and assassinated in May, 1920. As to Villa, a body was dug up in northern Mexico which was identified as that of the swashbuckler. Whether assassinated or otherwise killed, it made no difference. All of the first triumvirate were dead or eliminated.

Essentially, the grande motif of the Mexican unrest was the return of the land to the masses. Today's cry is Africa for Africans; then, it was Mexico for the Mexicans. Capitalizing upon the longing of the lowly Mexican to gain his own plot of land, rebel leaders attempted to oust foreign landowners â&#x20AC;&#x201D; including those who held mineral and oil rights. Does that explain the incongruity of the flight of the colonists ?

At last the play was over, the curtain down. Zapata, in the role of the scapegoat, was discredited; Carranza, the great hope and hero, was no more; Villa, the Robin Hood, or the murderer, or the irreconcilable, was in his lonely grave; and Huerta, the usurper, the murderer, the Satan of the play, was whole and out of office. These were the chief actors. There remained as always the more numerous chorus â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the lowly Mexican and the Mormon. The Mexican had good cause to lament his fate, but wiser men were on their way to temper that lot, increase his comfort, and give him his land and freedom again. As to the Mormon, he was driven off his colonial land and back to the land of the Gringo.

The Mountain

Meadows

Massacre.

JUANITA BROOKS. N e w Edition.

By (Nor-

man: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963. xiii + 316pp. $5.95) A dozen years ago this observer had occasion to read and assess, for another journal, the first edition of The Mountain Meadows Massacre, by Juanita Brooks. Because of the long years of "secrecy, half-truths, and innuendo" — the virtual taboo character of the subject—which had surrounded the tragic and unhappy event of nearly a century before, it seemed necessary at that time to defend first of all the right of Mrs. Brooks to publish her book. Essentially, the review at that time amounted to just that. For if, here in the middle of the twentieth century, she could not search for and publish the truth as she saw it, this right could be denied to all others. But as a result of a variety of events and developments in the twelve years that have since elapsed, the whole climate has changed. It now seems no longer necessary to defend Mrs. Brooks or her book. The latter can stand unchallenged, except for scholarly criticism, for what it is — an excellently researched and written book on a really little understood but important episode in the history of Utah and the West.

In the years since the first appearance of the book, a number of other studies by both Mormon and non-Mormon have been made and published which throw considerable light on the whole period of nineteenthcentury Mormon and Utah history. Mrs. Brooks herself was co-editor of A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries of John D. Lee, 1848-1876, published by the Huntington Library in 1955. In 1962, she published a full-scale biography of Lee under the title John Doyle Lee,Zealot—Pioneer Builder— Scapegoat. Illustrative of the improved at-

titude and growing understanding of Lee, the massacre itself, and the whole period in which it took place was the "reinstatement to membership and former blessings" accorded Lee in the spring of 1961 by the church he had so faithfully served during his lifetime.

As to the book itself it should be noted that while reciting in some detail the lurid events surrounding the tragedy, the real purpose of the study is to examine and explain the social and psychological factors involved and, to a lesser degree, assess the blame which certainly cannot be laid solely on the shoulders of the only man brought to trial and punished for the crime.

A testament to the original scholarship of the book is the fact that over the years and in the face of continued scholarly research on the subject it has been found necessary to make but few changes in the body of the volume. These are but minor changes in the text to bring the story in line with new developments which have come to light since 1950. Other changes and additions include a brief Author's Statement and an Acknowledgments section. Chapters now have names as well as numbers, and the footnotes are placed at the bottom of the appropriate pages instead of at the end of each chapter.

This latest edition by the University of Oklahoma Press contains the original Bibliography and Appendices and includes an Addendum, which brings the John D . Lee story up-to-date. T h e book is fitted with an attractive dust jacket and cover. The paper, typography, and cover are considerably better than the 1950 volume, making this version of The Mountain Meadows Massacre a handsome example of the bookmakers art.

A . R . MORTENSEN

University of Utah Press

REVIEWS A N D PUBLICATIONS Exploring

the Great Basin.

By GLORIA

GRIFFEN CLINE. The American

Explor-

ation and Travel Series, XXXIX. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963. xi + 306 pp. $5.95) This volume is a comprehensive survey of the explorations of the Great Basin, that area defined by the author as comprising the western half of Utah, the southwestern corner of Wyoming, the southeastern segment of Idaho, a large area in southeastern Oregon, part of southern California, and almost all of Nevada. T h e region is unique geographically in the United States because its rivers have no outlet to the sea and because it represents the last area of North America below Arctic latitudes to be explored mostly because of its difficult terrain and inhospitable climate.

The text, however, does not confine itself to the area described above but comprises also in broad outline the approaches thereto. These include a study of the Spanish penetration over the Old Spanish Trail, the British explorations along the Pacific, the impact of Hudson's Bay Company operations in the northwest, and a very interesting summary of the lure of legends which influenced Great Basin explorationsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;particularly that of the alleged belief of a river, the San Buenaventura, which supposedly flowed southwesternly through the Basin area to the Pacific. "It was here in the land of interior drainage, paradoxical as it may seem, that the search for the mythical took place; it was here that one of the most significant chapters in the annals of the North American fur trade was written; and it was here that the Mormons . . . settled down to develop an oasis out of the parched earth" (p. 17). Search for the mythical Strait of Anian, the trapping for furs, and the quest for lands of legendary riches, almost all purely economic motives, played significant roles in the discovery and exploration of the Great Basin.

The role of beaver in the exploration of the West is given proper emphasis by the author. T h e lure of wealth in the form of pelts no doubt did much to accelerate the

165 expansion plans of the British Northwest and Hudson's Bay companies into the Basin area. Organized Snake country expeditions spearheaded by Mackenzie, Ross, Ogden, and others explored the Bear River and Green River valleys at least five years before Jedediah Smith emerged from South Pass. They trapped the Snake River from its source to its mouth and gave to its tributaries names which endure to the present day. But despite the fact that the British had entered the Great Basin as early as 1818, it was the extensive efforts of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company during the years 1824 to 1830, which by combing every section of the Basin area, revealed finally and completely the arid and inhospitable nature of this desert country.

Peter Skene Ogden is given a prominent role in the exploratory scene, and the unusual interest of the author in this regard is at once revealed. Ogden Hole is correctly identified in the Huntsville area, but a perusal of the important Ogden and Kittson journals eliminates the Britisher as the probable discoverer of the Great Salt Lake (pp. 140-41). The altercation between British and American trappers at Mountain Green on the Weber River (not as heretofore claimed in Cache Valley), Ogden's brilliant reconnaissance of northern Utah, and his discovery of the Humboldt River in Nevada (which he called the Unknown) are events of paramount importance.

The survey of Basin explorations abruptly ends with the completion of Fremont's Second Expedition in 1844. In May of that year while encamped on the western shore of Utah Lake, the greatest of all American explorers came to the conclusion that "the vast interior between the Wasatch and Sierra Nevada Mountains was a land of interior drainage, truly a 'great basin' and so named it." This demolished forever the myth of the San Buenaventura. And the author aptly concludes: ". . . he [Fremont] will always be celebrated in the history of exploration as the first person to write an adequate and accurate account of the general physical features of the region between South Pass and the Pacific Ocean. As Alan

166

U T A H HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Nevins aptly puts it, 'He was not a "Pathfinder"; he was a Pathmarker.' " The author's major contribution, in the opinion of this reviewer, lies in her conception of the Great Basin in its entirety and her skill in putting together the complex facts relative to its explorations, 1776 to 1844. Although admittedly complicated, the fact remains that the inclusion of so much detail is at times confusing if not frustrating to the reader. Not enough attention has been paid to clarity of composition and effectiveness of organization.

The theme is too complex; its development is too laborious. More serious, however, are the errors which appear throughout the text. Most of these are due to carelessness, some to a flagrant misunderstanding of the topography of the area.

For example, Promontory Point (p. 32) should be Promontory Summit; Alexander, Utah, has been noted for Alexander, Idaho (p. 104); Preston, Utah, should read Preston, Idaho (p. 105), although the error is later corrected (p. 106); Leven should be spelled Levan (p. 154); Jedediah Smith's route followed through Clear Creek Canyon and thence westward to the Delta region before proceeding southward to Cedar City by way of Black Rock (map, p. 154); and cartographical errors are noted on the maps drawn on pages 37 and 163.

There are five maps included in the volume, an adequate Index, and a Foreword

by George P. Hammond of the Bancroft Library. Also included are fifteen wellchosen illustrations. The book is handsomely printed by the University of Oklahoma Press.

LELAND H . CREER

University of Utah William

Brown

Ide, Bear Flagger.

FRED BLACKBURN

ROGERS.

(San

By Fran-

cisco: John Howell—Books, 1962. iv + 101 pp. $12.50) What under close scrutiny is in length hardly more than a quarterly article is stretched into a beautifully printed, ele-

gantly published, short book. The subjects under discussion by Colonel Rogers are basically two — a biographical sketch of William B. Ide, sometimes called General Ide by California enthusiasts, and the details of that Yankee's (ex-carpenter, schoolteacher, farmer) connection with the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846.

The author is somewhat more favorably inclined toward the role played by overland immigrant Ide than have been most California historians. A solitary figure, Ide stood out among the Bear Flaggers through his penchant for legality—for he insisted on written proclamations, on following the rules of war, and on organizing the revolution. A lonely individual, Ide was never fully accepted by his fellow revolutionists or by U. S. military commanders either because of his relative erudition; or through their inability to understand his motives; or because of his strict moral code as teetotaler, possible Mormon, and staunch defender of female virtue. A forgotten man, though he held many minor offices in Colusa County, this leader "by common consent" of the Bears was not elected to any post of importance during the Mexican War, never had his picture taken, died on an undetermined date, and was buried in an unmarked grave. There is even some doubt that the Ide House Historical Monument, just north of Red Bluff, California, had any connection with the Bear Flagger.

Ide was in many ways typical of his time; born in Massachusetts, he moved to Vermont and removed successively to Kentucky, Ohio, and Illinois. In 1845, the Ide family became part of the mass migration to the Pacific. Originally intending to emigrate to Oregon, Ide was convinced at Fort Hall by aged mountain man Caleb Greenwood, an agent for prominent Californian John Sutter, to take the "easy route" to California. Trail weary and hardened, Ide arrived in time to acquire an interest in Mexican lands. A report became current in the Department of California that the government had changed its policy concerning alien land ownership. Widespread fear and misgivings among the Anglo-American set-

167

REVIEWS A N D PUBLICATIONS tiers and squatters broke into open hostility in June, 1846. Bolstered in spirit by the presence of John C. Fremont and his men, the disaffected opponents of the Mexican system took up arms. A short-lived government was established, and Ide gravitated to leadership by default. Fortunately for the Bear Flaggers, their movement was soon swallowed by the Mexican W a r during which many served in the California Battalion.

Rogers' research is painstaking and satisfactory. His fidelity to detail is noteworthy.

One can but wish along with the author that circumstances had permitted the salvation of more Ide materials so that a fuller story might be available.

DONALD C. CUTTER

University of New Mexico Jim Bridger.

By J. CECIL ALTER. N e w Edi-

tion. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962. xi + 316 pp. $5.95) This book was first printed in 1925 and distributed by the Shepard Book Company, Salt Lake City. In 1950, it was reprinted by photo-offset process by Long's College Book Shop, Columbus, Ohio, with additional notes in the back. This idea proved unsatisfactory. It has now been reprinted in a very attractive edition by the University of Oklahoma Press. In the meantime another so-called writer has published a life of Jim Bridger, but this was lifted almost entirely from Alter's original work, with far too little credit. This practice is becoming more and more common among modern "authors."

As will be remembered by most of the older members of the Utah State Historical Society, Mr. J. Cecil Alter was for many years head of the U. S. Weather Bureau of Utah. H e was also the secretary-editor of the Society when its entire assets consisted of a dusty room in the State Capitol and a few boxes of books, mostly donated by Mr. Alter himself. H e continued in this position for twenty years, until he was transferred to another area. H e now resides

at Lomita, California, but keeps in touch with the activities of the Society.

The amount of new historical material which is continually being discovered is simply amazing. A book is scarcely off the press before something new is found, which adds to the story. This is particularly true in the case of Jim Bridger. Over the years Mr. Alter has carefully collected all available new facts, and these have now been incorporated in the text of this new edition.

At the same time he has eliminated only a small amount of superfluous background material. H e has done a very smooth job of revising, and I found this new edition even more absorbing than the original.

Alter's biography of Jim Bridger was among the first of what has become, during succeeding years, a long series of biographies of men who were prominent during the days of the old fur brigade. Some of the early trappers, such as James Clyman, kept careful journals, and several of these have been published. Jim Bridger was illiterate and kept no records, but his character was so outstanding that nearly every man who met him made a record of that meeting. It is largely from such notes that this vivid biography has been compiled.

CHARLES KELLY

Salt La\e

City

The Golden Frontier: The recollections of Herman Francis Reinhart, 1851-1869.

Edited by DOYCE B. N U N I S , JR. (Austin:

University of Texas Press, 1962. xxii + 353 pp. $6.00) Sometimes an account based on pioneer reminiscences is a book of lies in which the author boasts of participating in nearly every sensational event in the West, of witnessing all the others, and of close comradeship with noted frontiersmen from Daniel Boone to Buffalo Bill. Here is nothing of the kindâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Reinhart pictures himself in mild terms as a pioneer whose only claim on our interest is that he visited most of the famous mining areas discovered after the forty-nine rush and lived as a miner

168 in these camps. T h e editor murmurs because Reinhart could have said more about the Plummer Gang or about the murder of J. M. Boseman, and could have shown more awareness of national events of the time and their relationship to his own experiences. This fault is common among those who reminisce, and such omissions are preferable to excessive comment on well-known m a t t e r s at t h e expense of unique personal observations.

Editor Nunis discusses this in a fine Prologue, probably his own best contribution to the book. The job of supplying editorial footnotes for this story, which wanders through eighteen years and innumerable mining camps, is prohibitive, and Nunis does as well as we could ask. N o man can be an expert on dozens of frontier communities, even with the acknowledged help of many consultants. So, each reader becomes his own editor for that portion where he knows the people, places, and events. Several geographical identifications in the northern Rockies are questionable.

A n d some editorial corrections are less accurate than the text, as in Meagher's drowning at Fort Benton. Utah readers will demur at some geographical footnotes for their area and surely will rebel at Holy Murder as the authoritative reference on Orrin Porter Rockwell. The editing appears more firm for the coastal area; identification of people in the Oregon camps seems especially thorough. The Index is almost too complete, and a Bibliography lists works cited in footnotes. Fifteen illustrations, mostly from old photographs, give some idea of Reinhart's West, and his portrait tells us more about himself. Good maps show his travels without excess clutter.

One editorial duty seems neglectedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that of culling out material which neither informs the reader nor contributes flavor to the narrative. In the few places where the little dots do indicate omissions, we wonder what could possibly have been dull enough to deserve this, when so much pointless detail is retained. The Prologue concedes that Reinhart's recollections are not important in themselves, and significant only as a

U T A H HISTORICAL QUARTERLY classic account of the Common Man on the frontier. So the question centers on the usefulness of such accounts; after reading Golden Frontier we conclude that there is a limited call for them. Such obscure manuscripts could be preserved for researchers, in the original or on microfilm, rather than being presented so attractively to the already swamped buyer of western books.

STANLEY R. DAVISON

Western Montana College Route from Liverpool to Great Salt La\e Valley.

By FREDERICK HAWKINS PIERCY.

Edited by FAWN M. BRODIE. New Edi-

tion. (Cambridge: T h e Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1962. xxx + 313 pp. $5.75) Frederick Piercy's account of a journey from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake Valley in 1853 has been out-of-print for many years. Yet portions of this entertaining book have been cited and quoted by authors for decades. Particularly have Piercy's paintings been reproduced again and again.

The more than thirty scenes and portrait sketches of subjects closely identified with Mormon history are faithfully reproduced here in the John Harvard Library series.

The Belknap Press of Harvard University is to be congratulated for reprinting books of this caliber. Certainly, the original Piercy book was so rare that it was available only in research libraries or to wellto-do book collectors. This edition places Piercy's narrative and artwork within the reach of any reader.

Actually, while the work is credited to Frederick Piercy, his contribution in page numbers is far less than that of James Linforth, who was the original editor. The first nine chapters are written by Linforth who provides very valuable statistical tables on the vessels and number of emigrants sailing from Britain from 1840 to 1854.

Also of special interest is an alphabetical listing by trade or profession of those who emigrated. Thus it is noted that there migrated to Utah two artists, one accountant,

REVIEWS A N D PUBLICATIONS two bookbinders, etc. From an examination of the trades represented, one can understand how semi-independent colonies could be established in Brigham Young's "Great Basin Kingdom."

Again in the Appendix, Linforth adds significantly to the work. H e contributes "Notes" consisting of a comparison of the British and American laws controlling ships and immigration companies. H e gives a lucid account of the operation of the Perpetual Emigration Fund. Geographic descriptions and historic narratives of islands, cities, states, rivers, and routes are given

by Linforth. H e begins with the first islands the emigrant encounters in the Caribbean ("San Domingo"), takes the traveler past New Orleans and up the Mississippi River, stops for a long look at Nauvoo and a lengthy discussion of the history of the Mormon Church up to that time, then travels westward across the Plains to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. Linforth concludes with brief biographic sketches of the Utah Mormon leaders. For his history and geography of the West, he draws heavily upon the reports of Captain Howard Stansbury and Lieutenant John W .

Gunnison, who surveyed the Great Salt Lake in 1849-50.

Frederick Piercy's account is, perhaps, the more reliable and certainly more interesting. It is found in Chapters X through XXI and relates his personal experiences and impressions of events and persons encountered on his journey from Liverpool to Salt Lake in 1853.

Piercy, an artist, left Liverpool February 5, 1853, on the sailing vessel Jersey in company with emigrating Mormons. H e stayed with the Jersey as far as N e w Orleans where he boarded the riverboat, St. Louis. Piercy has left us a good account of these "floating palaces" (p. 73ff.). We are also grateful to Piercy for the narrative of his visit to Nauvoo. Here he met the mother (Lucy), the wife ( E m m a ) , and the children of Joseph Smith. Piercy has provided us with excellent sketches of Lucy and the two Smith children, Joseph III and David.

169 After leaving Nauvoo Piercy made his way via St. Louis and the Missouri River to Council Bluffs â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the jumping-off place for travel across the Plains. Here he joined the emigrating company of Miller and Cooley and made his way to Utah serving as a part-time driver of a team of mules.

Fortunately for us, Piercy was not so occupied with his camp duties that he could not take time to sketch important landmarks along the way. And his word pictures are just as interesting as his drawings.

All in all, this is an interesting account of early travel to Utah. It is a handsome book, and Fawn McKay Brodie has provided valuable footnote material to aid the reader. It should find its way into every important library of Western Americana.

EVERETT L. COOLEY

Utah State Historical

Society

N E W BOOKS & P U B L I C A T I O N S Thomas Daniels Brown and Esther Wardle, their Ancestors and Descendants.

By VANCE M. HOLLAND. (Salt Lake City: Author, 1963) Beef Cattle in the Utah Economy. By JOHN R. EVANS, GORDON S. THOMPSON, HAROLD W . L E E , and OSMOND L. HARLINE.

(Salt Lake City: University of Utah Bureau of Economic and Business Research, 1962) While the Desert Blossomed. By FLOY L. TURNER. (Provo: Author, 1963) [Fictionalized biography of the W o l w a y family in the Sanpete area] Desperate Men.

By JAMES D . HORAN.

(New

York: Doubleday & Company, Incorporated, 1962) [Second half of the book reviews the activities of "Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch"] Fishes of Utah.

By WILLIAM L. SECLER

and ROBERT R. MILLER. (Salt Lake City: U t a h State D e p a r t m e n t of Fish and Game, 1963)

170

U T A H HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

History of the Iron County Mission and Parowan the Mother Town. By LUELLA

[part II of a series on the Mormons],"

by Carl Carmer, 42ff. — February 1963: "Here is my home at last! [part III of a series on the Mormons]," by Carl Carmer, 27ff.; "Was the Secretary of War a Traitor? [Civil W a r ] , " by W . A. Swanberg, 34ff.

ADAMS D A L T O N .

(Parowan:

Author,

1963) Johnston, Connor and the Mormons: An Outline of Military History in Northern Utah.

By IRMA WATSON HANCE.

(Salt

Lake City: Author, 1962) Latter-day Saints' Emigrants' Guide. By WILLIAM CLAYTON. Reprint. (Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1963) Mormonism and Inspiration. By JACK FREE.

(California: Pacific P u b l i s h i n g Company, 1963) The Nauvoo Temple. By E. CECIL M C GAVIN. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1962) Pioneers of the Outposts.

By FLOY L. T U R -

NER. (Provo: Author, 1962) [Vignettes concerning early life in the Sanpete area] Masterful Discourses and Writings of Orson Pratt. By N . B. LUNDWALL. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft Incorporated, 1962) The Race West: Boom Town Town.

to Ghost

By ROBERT W E S T HOWARD. ( N e w

York: Signet Books, 1962) Hyrum Smith — Patriarch. By PEARSON H .

CORBETT. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1962) Autobiography of Hosea Stout, 1810 to 1844.

Edited by REED A. STOUT. Reprint. (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1962) ARTICLES O F I N T E R E S T American Antiquity — XXVIII, July 1962: "Plateau Shoshonean Prehistory: A Suggested Reconstruction [Utah Indians],"

by James H . Gunnerson, 41-45.

American Heritage—XIV, December 1962: "Gold! [California Gold Rush, with discovery at Sutter's Mill]," by Ralph K. Andrist, 7ff.; " T h e Death of the Prophet

Arizona and the West—IV, Autumn 1962: "Recent Writing on Utah and the Mormons," by Philip A. M. Taylor, 249-60.

Arizoniana, The Journal of Arizona History— IV, Spring 1963: "Louis John Frederick Jaeger: Entrepreneur of the Colorado River," by Stephen N . Patzman, 31-36.

The Colorado Magazine — XL, January 1963: "Western History Association Organized at Denver Conference, 1962," 17-18.

Corral Dust, Potamac Corral of the Westerners— VII, December 1962: "Salt, S h r i m p a n d M o n s t e r s [ G r e a t Salt Lake],"byB.W.Allred,43.

Deseret News and Salt La\e Telegram, Church News—February 23,1963: "BYU Acquires works of famed sculptor [Mah o n r i M . Young]," 8ff.

Desert, Magazine of the Southwest—XXV, December 1962: " T h e Trails of T. S. Harris [founder of Union Vedette at Camp Douglas]," by Howard K.Linder, lOff. Education — XXXII, April 1962: "Leaders in Education [concerns Sterling M. McMurrin]," by A. M. West, 508ff.

The Far-Westerner [Stockton Corral of Westerners]—III, July 1962: "The 196061 Pony Express Centennial," 1-5.

Ford Times—LVI, February 1963: "Bryce Under the Snow...," by Lyola W. Winsor, 29 — January 1963: "Ford Power Challenges the Great Salt Desert [scientists of 'Expedition Mirage' use Thiokol Sprytes to retrace the route of Donner-

REVIEWS A N D PUBLICATIONS Reed party]," by Burgess H . Scott, 16-18 — April 1963: "Idaho Celebrates a Centennial," by Rafe Gibbs, 8-10.

The Great Basin Naturalist — XXII, October 15, 1962: "Escalante and the Recognition of Ancient Lakes in the Great Basin," by Ernest J. Roscoe, 87-88.

Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio — XXI, January 1963: "Travelers' Tales by Steamboat in the 1840's," by Walter Havighurst, 3-13.

Idaho Yesterdays — VI, Fall 1962: "Letters F r o m t h e Boise B a s i n , 1 8 6 4 - 1 8 6 5 [freighting]," 26-30.

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society—LV, Winter 1962: "Jonathan Baldwin Turner and the Land-Grant Idea,"

by Donald R. Brown, 370-84.

Journal of the West — II, January 1963: "Indian Horticulture West and Northwest of the Colorado River," by Jack D. Forbes, 1-14.

Louisiana History — III, Summer 1962: "Through Friends and Foes with Alexander Porter [letters to Albert Sidney Johnston]," 173-91.

The Master\ey—XXXVII, January-March 1963: "Sidelights on the Ute," by Grace L. Hartzell, 15-17.

Mountain-Plains Library Quarterly — VII, Winter 1963: "Regional Literature of the Rocky Mountain West," by H . William Axford, 3-5; "Autobiography," by Russell L. Davis, 12; "The MountainPlains in Books," by Paul N . Frame, 2 1 24; "Leonard H . Kirkpatrick," by Milton Abrams, 25.

National Geographic — CXXIII, March 1963: "Arizona: Booming Youngster of the West," by Robert DeRoos, 299-343.

National Par\s Magazine—XXXVII, January 1963: "A Canyonlands National Park," by Weldon F . Heald, 4-9.

171 Nevada Highways and Par\s — XXII, No. 2, 1962: "Las Vegas, Born Shortly After the Turn of the Century, This Always Bustling Town Packs a Lot of History," 26-31.

New MexicoHi storkal Review—XXXVIII, January 1963: "The Navaho Indians: Land and Oil," by Lawrence C. Kelly, 1-28.

Pacific Northwest Quarterly — LIV, January 1963: "Colonialism: A Western Complaint," by Gene M. Gressley, 1-8.

The Palimpsest — X L I V , J a n u a r y 1963: "Stephen Watts Kearny [entire issue devoted to h i m ] , " 1-47.

Plateau, The Quarterly of the Museum of Northern Arizona — XXXV, Winter 1963: "Recent C o n t r i b u t i o n s and Research P r o b l e m s in K a y e n t a A n a s a z i Prehistory [Glen Canyon Project, Museum of Northern Arizona]," by Alexander J. Lindsay, Jr., and J. Richard Ambler, 86-92.

Salt La\e Tribune, Home [Section] — March 17, 1963: "Mines, mountains and trains made Bingham a dangerous place for children, but—We Grew Up In Spite Of It All," by Mabel Violet Boyce, 4-5.

Saturday Review — XLVI, February 16, 1963: "The U.S. Office of Education: An Inside View," by Sterling M. McMurrin, 78-81.

Sierra Club Bulletin — XLVIII, January 1963: "(Lack of) Progress on Rainbow Bridge," 6-8.

Southern California Quarterly—XLIV, September 1962: "Early San Fernando: Memoirs of Mrs. Catherine Dace [contains portion on the Central Pacific Railroad and Brigham Young]," edited by Elizabeth I. Dixon, 219-62.

The Journal of Southern History — XXIX, February 1963: "Robert E. Lee to Albert Sidney Johnston, 1856," edited by Marilyn McAdams Sibley, 100-7.

172

U T A H H I S T O R I C A L QUARTERLY

Southwestern Lore — XXVIII, September 1962: "Ute Bands: Early Historical Reference," by Omer C. Stewart, 31-33.

rows d a m and reservoir, and other planned improvements of the Bear River project are expected to provide it," by David H . Mann, 4 —February 7, 1963: "Let the Chips Fall . . . Canyonlands Park Issues Defined," 6.

Sunset, The Magazine of Western Living — February 1963: "February Travel . . . in and beyond the West 'In Salt Lake City . . . a winter walk [picture of Historical Society M a n s i o n ] , ' " 3; " T h e pleasures of spring skiing 'Alta: Finest of a l l ? ' " 72-73.

SUP News — IX, N o v e m b e r - D e c e m b e r 1962: "Founding of Fort Douglas," 4ff.; "A Lifetime in the T h e a t r e [David McKenzie — part I I ] , " by Maurine M. Carman, 8 — X, January-February 1963: "Old City Hall Restored," by N . G. Morgan, Sr., 2.

The Trail Guide \ Kansas City Posse of W e s t e r n e r s ] — V I I , D e c e m b e r 1962: "Major John Dougherty, Pioneer," by William E. Eldridge, 1-15.

True West — X, January-February 1963: "Two Trails [A Shoshone tells the story of his people during the desperate years of their last stand]," by Willie George as told to Jack F . Contor, 6ff.; " T w o Men for Twenty Horses," by Earl Spendlove, 30ff. — March-April 1963: " T h e Oregon T r a i l , " by E z r a Meeker, 8ff.; "Chief W a s h a k i e ' s Sack of Scalps," by Bill Judge, 19ff.; "Mormons in Texas," by Maury Maverick, Jr., 35ff.

United Mainliner — VII, M a r c h 1963: "Magnificence in Music: The Mormon Choir," by Duane Stromberg, 8-10.

USA-1 Monthly News & Current History —I, May 1962: "The New Mormons,"

by Mary Lukas, 54-59.

Utah Educational Review — LVI, November-December 1962: "...Most Ambitious and Fruitful . . . [Land Grant Act]," by Carlton Culmsee, 20ff.

Utah Farmer — LXXXII, January 3, 1963: "In the years ahead . . . More Water for Utah Farms, The proposed Oneida Nar-

Utah Science — XXIII, December 1962: " R u r a l U t a h T o d a y , " by George T .

Branch, 9Iff. Vermont History — XXXI, January 1963: " E d m u n d s Essays, First Prize, 'Justin Smith Morrill,' " by Rita Brown, 65-71.

The Westerners Brand Boo\ [Chicago Corral of Westerners]—XIX, November 1962: "The Four Corner Country — A Portrait, Aline and William C. Baldwin Conduct a Ladies' Night Travelogue of the Area Where Four States Meet," 65ff.

—-February 1963: " T h e Old West's Last Stand: James J. Cizek Tells of the Past and Present of the Area of Brown's Hole in Northwestern Colorado and Southeastern Wyoming," 9Iff. The Westerners New Yor\ Posse Brand Boo^ — lX, No. 4, 1962: "Traders and Empire Builders: T h e Story of the Bents | fur trade and Bent's Fort]," by Matt Clohisy, 73ff.

Westways — LV, February 1963: "A Park for the Canyonlands of Utah?" photographs by Josef Muench, 9-11.

Annals of Wyoming — X X I V , October 1962: "Fort Laramie's Iron Bridge," by John Dishon McDermott, 137-44; "Albert Charles Peale, Pioneer Geologist of the Hayden Survey," by Fritiof Fryxell, 175-92; "Overland Stage Trail — Trek No. 3, Trek No. 13 of the Emigrant Trail Treks [Black Buttes Station to Fort Bridger]," 235-49.

Zion s Advocate—XL, February 1963: "The Origin of the American Indian," by Don Mclndoo, 28-31.

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

The new format of the Utah Historical Quarterly has illicited considerable response from the membership. Readers have expressed their appreciation for the larger type, for the non-glare paper, for a book that lies flat, for more articles and book reviews, and for that "modern look." Those readers who have objected to the new Quarterly have done so primarily for the change in size â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which upsets the appearance of a shelf-full of Quarterlies. Such an objection is a reasonable one. But in answer, it must be pointed out that the new size will permit greater flexibility in use of materials.

Maps are much more suited to larger pages as are certain illustrations. Book reviews can be double-columned and so can lengthier journals and diaries. All in all, from an editor's point-of-view, the new format permits the use of a wider range of materials.

It is encouraging that the majority of the readers approve the changes made.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

The past few months have been momentous ones for the Utah State Historical Society. Anytime an agency faces a legislative year, it can consider the year a success if it retains its present position. The Society not only survived but was able to take some steps forward.

First of all the governor reappointed to the Board of Trustees all the members whose terms expired in March, 1963. The Society is very fortunate to again have the services of Mr. J. Sterling Anderson,Grantsville; Mr. Richard E. Gillies, Cedar City; Mr. J. Grant Iverson, Salt Lake City; Mrs. A. C. Jensen, Sandy; and Mr. L. Glen Snarr, Salt Lake City. Each of these persons has served faithfully for the past four years.

The board president, Mr. J. Grant Iverson, has been especially effective in working with the legislature. H e gave freely of his time and talents to see that key legislators became acquainted with the Society.

As early as November, the board selected influential and interested Society members to work with them and the staff in formulating a plan to inform legislators of the Society's needs. Doing outstanding work for the Society in this advisory capacity were Mrs. Helen H . Brown, Woods Cross; Mrs. Mary M. Cockayne, Salt Lake City; and Mr. William B. Smart, Salt Lake City. The news media, specifically the Deseret News and KCPX Television Station, were especially co-operative in enlightening the public on the program and needs of the Society. Mr. Glen A. Lloyd, of the Utah State Building Board, went beyond the normal call of duty in working with the Society to draft an outline and sketches for an Archives vault. Dr. Hyrum Plaas, of the governor's staff, was attentive and understanding of the Society's requirements.

To these individuals and organizations, the staff, the board, and the membership extend their heartiest and sincerest thanks.

UTAH STATE ARCHIVES

For the past several years, the Utah State Historical Society has been aware of the dire need for a suitable Archives vault for the preservation of Utah's permanent records. Presently, these records are scattered throughout offices and vaults in the Capitol and other buildings around the city and state. Some records are housed in the Historical Society Mansion where the facilities are far below acceptable standards. Therefore, one of the major goals of the Society was "to sell" the legislature on the necessity of an Archives vault. After considerable study the State Building Board co-operated by placing the vault in the highest priority category on the list of critically needed buildings of the state. The legislature agreed that the vault was a critical item, but gave it a lower priority on the state building bill (Senate Bill 228). Nevertheless, the Archives vault was placed on the building program, and for this the Society was grate-

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Architect's concept of proposed Utah State ful. Holding differing views from the legislature on financing, the governor chose to veto Senate Bill 228. There is, however, every indication that the Archives vault will not be ignored by the special session of the legislature when it reconsiders the critical building needs for Utah.

The Archives Division of the Society has been hampered in its operation due to an unclear delineation of its responsibility and authority. Especially was this true of its records m a n a g e m e n t p r o g r a m . Consequently, the Uniform Records Management Act, drafted by the Council of State Governments, was presented to the legislature.

Sponsored in the Senate by Senators Orval Hafen and Frank M. Browning, and in the H o u s e of Representatives by Robert R. Sonntag and Vasco M. Tanner, the Uni-

t

*_J* v

Archives.

form Records Management Act, as Senate Bill 12, was one of the first bills to clear both houses and be signed by the governor.

One further significant development was the legislative approval of the governor's recommendation to increase the Archives budget in order that two vacancies can be filled. Since August, 1960, the position of archivist has been vacant. As of July 1, 1963, funds will be available to employ again a qualified archivist and an assistant.

These achievements should place the Archives in a position to accomplish the goals set for it in 1951 when it was first created as a division of the Historical Society.

While never receiving all the funds desired, still the Society was given a sufficiently large budget to permit it to continue the growth it has been experiencing the

Ground plan of proposed Utah State

Archives.

' *,

I» jl* -i. »

175

NEWS A N D COMMENTS past few years. No new projects can be undertaken, but at least the Society will be able to perform as in the past.

The Society is indebted to the sub-appropriations committee which heard the plea of the director and staff. Senator Bruce S. Jenkins and Representative Ralph A. Sheffield were most interested and sympathetic to the Society's program. For their help, the Society is grateful.

THE

READERS' PAGE

January 5, 1963 Dear Sir: You will find enclosed my check for $4 for which please renew Mr. Thomas' membership in the Utah State Historical Society.

Last year the membership was a Christmas gift. . . . W e have so enjoyed the publications of the Society and have shared them with many friends, and do not feel we can get along without the arrival of the Quarterly. What a fine job you do!

Very sincerely, Susan S. Thomas (Mrs. Theodore Thomas) Feb. 1-1963

Enclosed is a personal check for a personal subscription.

Hugh J. Barnes The Transcript-Bulletin Tooele, Utah March 31, 1963 I see that the Newsletter invites comment on the new Qrtrly, which I was about to volunteer anyway. It's just about right, in my opinion. Among the more significant changes I note also some little ones, such as the fact that now it's easier to read it at the table, as the leaves lie open nicely. This is important to me, . . .

Stanley R. Davison Western Montana College of Education Dillon, Montana March 20, 1963 Dear Dr. Cooley: Enclosed is a check for $2.25 to cover two copies of the last issue of the Quarterly plus mailing. . . . Congratulations on the issue and the big step forward. . . .

Merwin G. Fairbanks, mgr.

Student Publications Brigham Young University

Dear Dr. Cooley: The Newsletter came today. Please permit me to congratulate you on the growth of the Society. You are doing a fine job and should be told so. I am proud to be on your rolls. I am not a native son but feel like one, after living in Utah 44 years. . . .

Russell G. Frazier Everglades, Florida March 20, 1963 Dear Dr. Cooley, We note your suggestion as to being able to use material from the Quarterly with your permission.

Now that our advertising is beginning to pick up, I am interested in better material to fill the added s p a c e . . . .

March 26, 1963 Dear Mr. Cooley: I recently received my Winter 1963 copy of the Utah Quarterly and while it contained the usual interesting and informative material, I was disappointed in the new size of the magazine.

I have a complete file of the Quarterly from Volume I through Volume XXX and have a special shelf in my library for them and often use them for reference. T h e new "look" not only upsets the uniformity of these volumes, but it will be difficult to refer to it in the future since there are no volume numbers on the back.

I feel sure that many others who use these volumes will be concerned and disturbed by this new format. It is my sincere

176

U T A H H I S T O R I C A L QUARTERLY

hope that the editors of this fine magazine will see fit to return to the former size.

Very truly yours, Willard H . Squires, M.D. New York, New York 14 March 1963 Dear Mr. Cooley: I have just today received my copy of the Winter, 1963 issue of the Utah Historical Quarterly. While it would be difficult, in my opinion, to find fault with the old Quarterly format, this "new look" is very fine indeed. You and your staff are to be congratulated upon this change. I shall look forward to future issues of the Quarterly with anticipation of receiving a publication that is not only a pleasure to read but also a valuable addition to my library.

Yours very truly, Vernon K. Hurd Green River, Wyoming

the binding and printing puts the quarterly into a second-rate competition. This is hardly comensurate with the quality of its material. Frankly, when we see so much need for excellence on all sides and in all areas, it is honestly discouraging to see the Quarterly downgraded in this way. It is now hardly competition in construction for most weekly magazines. It is no longer possible to look on the bookshelf and immediately identify each issue as we have been able to do in the past. Neither is it an item worthy of preservation as it heretofore has been.

May I respectfully suggest that the same quality b i n d i n g and p r i n t i n g and even more profuse illustrations be used in forthcoming issues? I gave two subscriptions away this holiday season but frankly am somewhat reticent in sending in my own.

Sincerely, Gaell Lindstrom Art Department Utah State University

March 18, 1963

March 18, 1963

. . . the Quarterly can be and is both valuable and enjoyable â&#x20AC;&#x201D; assuming some difference here. The new format is excellent.

I enjoyed the last issue very much, and all of them for that matter.

Seeing the "new" Utah Historical Quarterly prompted me to write you this letter.

Congratulations on the format â&#x20AC;&#x201D; it adds lustre to the Quarterly.

Receiving the Quarterly is even more important now than when we were living in Utah. It is our main link with happy memories of our associations in U t a h . . . .

Sincerely, M. R. Merrill Vice-President Utah State University March 18, 1963 N o matter what change is made half the people are for it and half against. However, for many years I've received the Quarterly and pride myself in my somewhat complete file. When the change was made to slick cover with its illustration I applauded.

I thought this was one of the best appearing quarterlies in the country if not the best.

The current issue was an extreme disappointment and a real backward step. I don't mean the size increase, but the quality of

Ralph Hansen Archivist Stanford University March 14, 1963 Congratulations on a new format of the Utah Historical Quarterly. I think it looks good. I also think the articles in the new issue are very fine.

James B. Allen Director The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Institute of Religion San Bernardino, California

UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY Membership in the Utah State Historical Society is open to all individuals and institutions who are interested in Utah history. We invite everyone to join this one official agency of state government charged by law with the collection, preservation, and publication of materials on Utah and related history.

Through the pages of the Utah Historical Quarterly, the Society is able to fulfill part of its legal responsibility. Your membership dues provide the means for publication of the Quarterly. So, we earnestly encourage present members to interest their friends in joining them in furthering the cause of Utah history. Membership brings with it the Utah Historical Quarterly, the bimonthly Newsletter, and special prices on publications of the Society.

The different classes of membership are: Student Annual Life

$ 2.00 $ 4.00 $100.00

For those individuals and business firms who wish to support special projects of the Society, they may do so through making tax-exempt donations on the following membership basis: Sustaining Patron Benefactor Your interest and support are most welcome.

$ 250.00 $ 500.00 $1,000.00

Utah State Historica Society