Sam Houston and Utah War

Sam Houston and the Utah War

By MICHAEL SCOTT VAN WAGENEN

The “Utah War” of 1857-58, grew out of rumors that the Utah Territory was embroiled in open rebellion against the United States government. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly called Mormons, did in fact distrust federal, state, and local governments after being driven from their homes in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. In the isolation of the Utah Territory they created their own theocratic judicial and legislative bodies. To outsiders, there appeared to be sinister motives behind Governor Brigham Young’s kingdom in the West. 1

This conflict came to a head in 1857, when federal Judge W. W. Drummond in Utah relayed exaggerated reports to President James Buchanan that the Mormons were engaged in sedition against the United States.2 Garland Hurt, a territorial Indian agent, further reported that the Mormons had joined forces with Native Americans to retake Utah from the United States.3 In spite of these rumored separatist leanings, the Mormon leadership made a second petition for statehood in 1856.4 While congressional rejection of that petition contributed to a deepening resentment of the federal government, the Mormons were far from implementing any formal plan of secession.

Sam Houston, Senator from Texas c. 1860

NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Mormon appeals for an investigative commission of the Utah situation fell on deaf ears, and the president sent the United States Army westward to suppress the Mormon uprising in the summer of 1857.5 Church leaders met the federal challenge with a scorched earth policy. The Nauvoo Legion (Utah’s territorial militia) implemented the plan, burning critical grazing areas on the windswept plains of Wyoming, and setting the torch to Fort Bridger and Fort Supply before they could fall into the hands of the approaching troops.6 During the early weeks of the campaign, Mormon guerillas attacked military supply trains and destroyed more than three months worth of provisions. The unexpected resistance forced the expedition of 2,500 infantry, dragoons, and artillery to winter near the ruins of Fort Bridger. 7

As word of Mormon resistance reached Washington, D.C., Buchanan formulated a plan to increase the size of the standing army by five regiments to help meet the threat posed by the Mormons.8 The president’s “Army Bill,” as it was called, easily passed the House of Representatives, and in February 1858, after weeks of debate, the Senate prepared to vote on the Army Bill.

In the midst of this federal warmongering, an elderly statesman whittled at his desk.9 Going back fourteen years, Texas Senator Sam Houston had had dealings with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As President of the then Texas Republic Houston had negotiated with Mormon officials for the settlement of the church in his southern borderlands.10 Some 250 of the church’s adherents currently lived in his state, where they had proven themselves to be an important part of the Texas frontier economy.11 Perhaps most important, Houston had friends in the Utah Territory he hoped to protect.

A combination of politics, economics, and intolerance on both sides pitted the Mormons against their more numerous “gentile” neighbors.12 In 1844 the church’s founder Joseph Smith Jr. began searching for a place of refuge for his people. The Oregon Country, Alta California, and the Texas Republic all provided possible solutions.13

To explore the Texas option, Smith sent three political ministers: Lucien Woodworth, George Miller, and Almon Babbitt to meet with Texas Republic President Sam Houston.14 These emissaries carried instructions to purchase land from President Houston in the disputed western and southern borderlands of Texas. The details of these negotiations remain vague although it is clear that Houston and the Mormons had reached some preliminary agreements in the spring of 1844.15 According to one account, Houston outright rejected the original offer. Instead he agreed to sell the Mormons a small strip of land between the Nueces and Rio Grande Rivers.16 To complicate matters, this area, a geographic no-man’s land called the Nueces Strip, was also claimed by Mexico. The dispute over this frontier had prompted intermittent warfare between Mexico and the Texas Republic for several years. But before any firm actions could be taken by the church, a mob killed Smith in June of 1844, putting an end to the negotiations with Houston.17

Prior to his death, Smith had appointed Lyman Wight, one of the church’s Twelve Apostles, to lead a preliminary mission into the Texas Republic. While fellow apostle Brigham Young consolidated his power and prepared for a westward exodus, Wight led a group of 150 Mormons to the Texas Republic. The group established their original settlement in Austin shortly after the United States annexed Texas. This small colony of Mormons immediately set to work building a mill on the outskirts of town. “Mormon Springs,” as it came to be known, was the first gristmill in central Texas.18

After the Mormon’s first public meeting in Austin, one Texan observed that the townspeople felt that the Mormons “were a lawless band, and the subject of rising up and driving them from the country was strongly advocated.” While Wight’s practice of polygamy raised the ire of his neighbors in the new Texas capital, they tolerated the Mormon apostle once they realized the value of his milling services.19 Soon the Mormons were grinding corn and constructing buildings for the residents of Austin. They even won the contract to build Austin’s first jail.20

George A. Smith, who, with John M. Bernhisel, met privately with Senator Houston in 1856 in an effort to secure statehood for Utah.

UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

During the next twelve years, Wight’s colony of Mormons would move throughout central Texas. They mainly engaged in the milling industry, although they also farmed, ranched, and made shingles and furniture to supplement their “common stock” economy.21 (Their contributions to the Texas frontier, while largely forgotten today, were well known in central Texas during the mid-nineteenth century.)

There is little historical evidence to indicate that Houston had any personal contact with the Mormons in Texas. He did, however, have several friends and acquaintances in the Utah Territory. These friends proved most important in influencing the senator during the Utah War.

As a result of his negotiations with the Mormons in 1844, Houston had come to understand the unusual practice of the church sending political ambassadors to lobby world governments on various issues. In 1856, when the Mormon-dominated constitutional convention again considered petitioning Congress for statehood, Mormon leaders George A. Smith and John M. Bernhisel met privately with Senator Houston.22 In this meeting Houston expressed great interest in Brigham Young’s polygamist lifestyle. Like many Americans, Houston seemed filled with an odd combination of curiosity and moral indignation at the unusual Mormon marriage practices.23 Nonetheless, Houston expressed sympathy for the Mormon desire for statehood. 24

John M. Bernhisel

UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

An oral tradition has persisted among some Latter-day Saints about Sam Houston’s meeting with George A. Smith and John M. Bernhisel. Although some facts seem exaggerated, the basic story possesses a note of truth. According to one version of the story, Smith and Houston became fast friends:

The two old men then laid down on the floor with a pillow under their heads and laid on the back of chairs and went on talking . . . After General Houston and President Smith had been talking a little while President Smith became cold . . . whereupon General Houston got a parcel which he had and took a Navajo Blanket out of the parcel and put it over his shoulders and again went on talking . . . General Houston was always a great friend to the West and remained a friend to the Mormon people up to the time of his death.25

While such meetings with Mormon leadership proved amiable, Houston responded best to the Mormons who had fought alongside him in the Texas Republic. Early Mormon missionary efforts in the state yielded some one thousand Texan converts who eventually moved west to the Utah Territory. Records show that some of these individuals had in fact fought with Houston in the Texas War of Independence.26 The bond of allegiance forged between veterans of Texas’ most venerated conflict seemed to transcend the difficult political and theological divide between Houston and his Mormon friends.

The most influential of Houston’s Mormon friends was Seth Millington Blair. Born near New London, Missouri, in 1819 Blair was five years old, when his parents pulled up stakes and moved the family to Tennessee. In 1836, Sam Houston sent out a call for volunteers from the United States to help fight against Mexico in defense of the fledgling Texas Republic, and seventeen years old, Blair joined hundreds of volunteers from Tennessee to fight in the Texas War of Independence. 27

Joining the Texas Rangers, Blair made the acquaintance of Texas President Sam Houston. Blair must have been an impressive young man, for in spite of his youth, he achieved the rank of major—a title he would carry proudly with him for life. As a member of the Texas Rangers, he campaigned through the end of the war. Blair settled near Austin, but eventually moved about seventy-five miles southeast of San Antonio to De Witt County where he practiced law and worked as a land agent for the Texas Republic.28

A year after arriving in the Great Basin, Brigham Young sent Preston Thomas and William Martindale on missions to Texas. Their mission was twofold: to make converts among the Texans and to persuade Lyman Wight and his group to join the main body of the saints in Utah. While the latter charge proved a failure, Thomas and Martindale were successful missionaries.29 Blair encountered the Mormon elders when they came through De Witt County, looking for a place to preach. The Major found them a suitable location, and the missionaries gave him a Book of Mormon. After reading the book, Blair became convinced of the truthfulness of the Mormon gospel. He was soon baptized, and prepared his family to move to the Utah Territory to join the saints. 30

In Utah, Young apparently knew of Blair’s connection to Houston and made ready use of the Texas attorney.31 In spite of Blair’s obvious devotion to Mormonism, Young intentionally withheld him from the church hierarchy.32 This allowed Blair to deal with Houston and other outsiders while maintaining an apparent independence from the church. The strategy worked, and Blair received appointment as Utah Attorney General from President Millard Fillmore.33

As the army approached the Utah Territory, Young called upon Blair to persuade Senator Houston of the futility of the military campaign.34 On December 1, 1857, Blair sat down to write a letter to his old friend in Congress.35 In his letter, Blair appealed to Houston as the Mormons’ last hope. “In my heart I believe you the only Senator who sits in Congress of the United States who dares lift up his voice in opposition to public opinion.” He continued to explain that being,

unheard we are condemned, without cause we have been disfranchised, as traitors we are branded, as fanatics we are cursed, as dogs we are to be hung! Our wives ravished by the mercenary soldiers under the stars and stripes, our daughters seduced by the United States officers, our cities pillaged, our fields laid in ashes, our altars and temples polluted.

He then recounted the defensive measures currently being made in the territory, warning that the Mormons would destroy their property rather than have it fall into the hands of the military. “As Forts Bridger and Supply have gone, so will each city, town, hamlet, village, settlement, habitation, field, altar, temple, all and every trace of civilization in these mountains go at the approach of the invading army.” He continued, “Our numbers, you ask, what are they? Enough! Our resources, true patriotism, which asks no reward save equal rights. Our hope, victory or death.” 36

Blair no doubt struck a chord with Houston when he warned the senator that the Utah campaign would “drain the treasury and accomplish but one object—the dissolution of the Union.” In spite of being a southerner, Houston defended the Union above all else and remained sensitive to threats against it. 37

Blair concluded his letter with an impassioned appeal to his old friend:

I beseech you, then, as one who loves the Union and despises the life that would tamely submit to a tyrannical rule, to raise your voice to stop the bigoted crusade of the administration against Governor Young and this people, and ask Congress to countermand the exterminating orders of the administration, stay the floodgate that traitors, highwaymen, public robbers (who thirst for gold), although crimson with the blood of their fellow men, have raised to drain the treasure in sending soldiers to murder an innocent and law abiding people. 38

Houston received Blair’s letter the second week of January 1858. Unsettled by the correspondence, Houston asked for a meeting with his old Mormon contact in Washington, D.C., John M. Bernhisel.39 On January 18, 1858, the two men met in the Senate chamber when Houston assured Bernhisel he would speak personally to the president about the Utah campaign and would recommend a commission be sent to investigate the state of affairs in the territory. Whatever Houston may have said to Buchanan seemed to have no effect as he continued with his plan to raise five additional regiments for the Utah campaign.

Given Buchanan’s refusal to act on his advice, Houston carefully planned his next step. On February 1, 1858, Buchanan hoped to have a favorable vote for his Army Bill in the Senate. During the debate over the bill, Houston sat at his desk whittling and feigning disinterest. Finally, laying his carving knife aside, he rose to address his fellow senators.

If it is necessary on this occasion, for the Mormon war or any other purpose, I care not what, to raise an additional force, of what description should that force be? Is it to be composed of active and efficient men? Are they to be such men as could be raised in the United States? No, sir. 40

While Houston believed that the Mormons needed to accept federal authority, he doubted they intended rebellion. He claimed that the impending war against the Mormon rebellion was a thinly veiled effort to build up a large, standing army. He adamantly persisted in his opinion that a large standing army could not conquer Utah, and suggested that a volunteer force could better deal with the Mormon situation. 41

While such language seems to infer that Houston wanted to invade the Utah Territory, his call for volunteers would actually derail the president’s bill by denying him the authority to recruit additional regular troops. Any further action would require the bill to return to the House of Representatives.This would provide an important delay which could allow the organization of a commission to investigate the extent of Mormon rebellion in the territory. This was in keeping with his discussion with Bernhisel two weeks earlier, when he voiced support of such a commission. Rather than seem too sympathetic towards the Mormons, however, Houston focused his attack on the raising of additional troops for the Utah campaign.The day ended without a vote.

On February 10, 1858, President Buchanan again hoped for a positive vote on his Army Bill. As the debate ensued, Houston was accused of not only trying to defeat the bill, but also attempting to reduce the ranks of the existing military. The old Texan rose to his own defense, claiming once again that he preferred volunteers be recruited rather than regular troops.42 For the first time though, he raised the issue that the president’s appointees may have actually started the whole affair. 43 While discussing the efficiency of using volunteers for short campaigns, he added:

if war be necessary; but I doubt whether, unfortunately, men have not been there in former times who were worse than the Mormons themselves, and whose moral texture and complexion might reflect disgrace upon the Mormons. It may be that such persons incited these men to desperation, and led to the statements which have induced the present Executive to act as he has done, when, perhaps there would not have been a necessity for that action if the truth had been before him. 44

Houston’s attack now focused on President Buchanan, creating quite a stir in the Senate chambers. This, along with Houston’s poor characterization of the standing army, continued to make him the target of considerable criticism. The following day, Senator Jefferson Davis rose in an angry invective against Houston. Once again, Houston was on the defense. He tried to explain his position on volunteers yet another time. Then turning to his characteristic use of levity to diffuse hostile situations, he made a joke about the Utah campaign.

These are my views in relation to this emergency, and I am as anxious to see the country quiet as any one. I think that volunteers, actively, sprightly, animated young men, going to that country, would be the best means of breaking up the Mormons. When they get there they will feel that they are cut off from the rest of the country, and be pleased to settle there. They will take wives from amongst the Mormons, and that will break up the whole establishment; it will take away their capital.45

The Congressional Globe made note of the laughter that filled the Senate following Houston’s remark.

As far as charges that the Native Americans were collaborating with the Mormons, Houston chastised his fellow congressmen. Referencing the brutal military policy toward the Native Americans, he claimed:

. . . it has driven them to the Mormons; they are their allies. Why? Because they were killed when they wanted peace. Because the Mormons have not committed a corresponding wrong on them, they are the allies of the Mormons. They will always go where friendship and justice are accorded to them. 46

Houston, an advocate for indigenous rights, believed that the Mormons shared his favorable view of Native Americans. 47

Two weeks later, on February 25, 1858, Houston returned to the Senate for the final confrontation with President Buchanan over the Army Bill. While he once again stressed his preference for the raising of volunteers for emergency actions such as the Utah War, he overtly took to the defense of the Mormons for the first time. In a long and impassioned speech, Houston focused on the Mormon problem. He warned:

If they have to be subdued – and God forfend [sic] us all from such a result – and the valley of Salt Lake is to be ensanguined with the blood of American citizens, I think it will be one of the most fearful calamities that has [sic] befallen this country, from its inception to the present moment. I deprecate it as an intolerable evil. 48

Houston continued to detail the massacre that the United States Army would likely face against the Mormon guerillas, who were well-accustomed to the mountainous terrain. Once again, he saved his most pointed criticism for the president.The debate allowed Houston the opportunity to attack his old political rival. He accused Buchanan of abusing his power by launching the Utah Expedition without fully investigating the veracity of the claims of Mormon sedition.

I am satisfied that the Executive has not had the information he ought to have had on this subject before making such a movement as he has directed to be made. I am convinced that facts have been concealed from him. I think his wisdom and patriotism should have dictated the propriety of ascertaining, in the first place, whether the people of Utah were willing to submit to the authority of the United States. Why not send to them men to whom they could unbosom themselves, and see whether they would say, “we are ready to submit to the authorities of the United States…” 49

To support his criticism of the Utah campaign, Houston referred directly to the Seth Blair letter.

I received the other day from a very intelligent Mormon whom I knew in Texas, and a very respectable man he was, once I believe the United States district attorney for Utah, a letter of seven pages. In that letter he takes a comprehensive view of this subject. He protests most solemnly that there never would have been the least hostility to the authorities of the United States if the President had sent respectable men there. He says that Governor Brigham Young has been anxious to get rid of the cares of office, and would freely have surrendered it and acknowledged the authority of the United States; but that men have gone there, who have made threats that they would hang them . . . 50

Jefferson Davis C. 1860. As United States Senator from Mississippi, Davis denounced Sam Houston's position on the Utah War. Davis served as President of the Confederate States of American during the Civil War.

NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Houston then laid out in detail the defensive measures undertaken by the Mormons in the territory. Brigham Young and much of the leadership of the church had gone into hiding in the mountains, canyons, and smaller settlements far to the south of the capital. Thousands of Mormon troops armed themselves with weapons carried in from Mormon settlements in California and Nevada.51

Predicting the army faced a bloodbath, Houston tried to convey the foolishness of the venture by comparing the imminent battle to the crushing defeat of Napoleon at Moscow:

They will find Salt Lake, if they ever reach it, a heap of ashes . . . Just as sure as we are now standing in the Senate, these people, if they fight at all, will fight desperately. They are defending their homes. They are fighting to prevent the execution of threats that have been made, which touch their hearths and their families; and depend upon it they will fight until every man perishes before he surrenders . . . I say your men will never return, but their bones will whiten the valley of Salt Lake. If war begins, the very moment one single drop of blood is drawn, it will be the signal of extermination.52

Ironically, the man leading the United States forces was Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston, a former Secretary of War of the Texas Republic under Houston. In spite of their previous association, Houston had no love for Johnston and finished his discourse by openly questioning the Colonel’s abilities to successfully lead the army against the Mormons.53

Houston’s speech proved a success. Writing to his wife the following day, Houston claimed credit for the defeat of the Army Bill. 54 While the failure of this legislation had little impact on the force already on the Utah frontier, it signaled Buchanan’s failing support within his own government. Ultimately, Houston undermined the goals of the president’s Utah Expedition, and helped turn it into what was popularly called “Buchanan’s Blunder.” 55

In an attempt to salvage some dignity from the fiasco, Buchanan offered a full pardon to the Mormons on April 6, 1858. The negotiated peace required that Brigham Young step down as governor. Young allowed the invading force to march through Salt Lake City on the condition that they not attempt to occupy the city. To ensure that the army would honor its promise, Mormon militia filled the buildings of the city with straw and stood ready to apply the torch if the army dared stop within city limits. For all intents and purposes, the Utah War was over. 56

Was Houston’s defense of Brigham Young and the Mormons merely politicking, or was he sincere in his desire to bring a peaceful resolution to the Utah War? Certainly he had personal reasons to oppose both President Buchanan and the growth of the regular army, but the tenacity of his attack on the Utah campaign points to other factors.57 His friendship with Seth Blair, George A. Smith, and John Bernhisel along with his willingness to risk his reputation in defending the Mormons, suggests that Houston acted out of compassion for a people who he felt faced undeserved violence at the hands of the United States Army.

A final piece of evidence comes in the form of a private letter Houston wrote to his wife Margaret. With no expectations that this letter would become public record, he bore his soul to his wife.

I am no Mormon, & the evil of the difficulty has grown out of the policy pursued by Pierce, and kept up by Mr. Buchanan. Men were sent there of worse morals, than the Mormons. For instance, a man by the name of Drummond, who left a wife, & family in Ill. starving, & from this place took a hussy (I will not call her a woman) and introduced her at various places, Independence, Mo, & Santa Fe, and San Francisco as his wife, and at Salt Lake lived with her as such. Others were men [of] dissolute habits, and these facts were known to the Mormons. Now my Dear, this Mormon war has, been predicated, on the reports of such men, and the Mormons have never refused to receive Federal officers, and respect them. So upon these premises, the President has sent Troops to subdue them, and Genl A. S. Johns[t]on is sent to the work, and of all men living the least qualified for such business. If the Mormons chuse [sic] to do it, they can destroy the whole command. If blood is drawn, the Troops will be annihilated…58

While Houston struggled with the morality of Mormon polygamy, he nonetheless recognized that the federal government had treated them unfairly. Understanding the precarious situation, he sincerely sought to curb the loss of life on both sides.

Following the end of his term in Congress, Houston successfully ran for governor of Texas. He occupied this unenviable position as the nation crumbled in 1861. A unionist to the end, Houston refused to swear allegiance to the Confederate States of America and resigned his office. He retired to his farm in Huntsville under a cloud of controversy. A fighter to the end, Houston never feared supporting unpopular causes. 59

Perhaps as an ultimate irony, Houston’s son, Sam Jr., joined the Second Texas Infantry at the outbreak of the Civil War, and was led into battle by Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston—a man with whom his father had little faith as a commander. At the Battle of Shiloh both Johnston and the younger Houston received serious arterial leg wounds. Johnston died quickly, while surgeons gave Houston up for dead. Against the odds, Sam Jr. survived his wound and was taken a prisoner of war. Paroled as an invalid, he was able to return to join his grateful father before the elderly statesman passed away in 1863. 60

Visitors to Houston’s final resting place in Huntsville will find a marble monument befitting the first President of the Republic of Texas. An inscription on the tomb reads:

A Brave Soldier. A Fearless Statesman. A Great Orator – A Pure Patriot. A Faithful Friend, A Loyal Citizen. A Devoted Husband and Father. A Consistent Christian – An Honest Man.

Such tributes are often rhetoric for the memorials of mediocre politicians. Indeed, these words mask the contradictions and complexities of Houston’s tumultuous life. Nonetheless, for the Mormons of the Utah Territory Houston’s epitaph rang true. At a time when Mormons had few allies in Congress, Sam Houston risked his political career to fight for the lives of his friends in what he believed to be an unjust war.

NOTES

Michael Scott Van Wagenen is a Ph.D candidate in history at the University of Utah.

1 For additional background of the tension between the federal government and Utah’s theocracy, see Nor man F Furniss, The Mormon Conflict, 1850-1859 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1960), 1-20; Donald R. Moor man, with Gene A. Sessions, Camp Floyd and the Mormons: The Utah War (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992), 8-9.

2 William P MacKinnon, “Utah Expedition of 1857-58, or Utah War,” in The New Encyclopedia of the American West, ed. Howard R. Lamar (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 1149-51; and William P. MacKinnon, “And the War Came: James Buchanan, the Utah Expedition and the Decision to Intervene” in this issue

3 MacKinnon, “Utah Expedition,” 1149.

4 In addition to these first two attempts at statehood, five other petitions were made to Congress, the last in 1894 resulted in Congress passing the enabling act to allow for a constitutional convention in Utah.

5 Moor man, Camp Floyd, 3-24. This introductory chapter gives an excellent over view of the events leading to Buchanan’s decision to send the army to the Utah Territory.

6 Gordon B Dodds, “Bridger, James,” in The New Encyclopedia of the American West, ed Howard R Lamar, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 125-26. The Mormons claimed to have bought these outposts in 1855, although Jim Br idger disputed this purchase See Moor man, Camp Floyd, 48.

7 William P MacKinnon, "Utah Expedition," 1149; Richard D Poll and Ralph W. Hansen, “‘Buchanan’s Blunder’ The Utah War, 1857-1858,” Military Affairs 25 (Autumn 1961): 124.

8 A force as large as five thousand.

9 James L. Haley, Sam Houston (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002), 354.

10 These obscure and ultimately unsuccessful negotiations are explored in Michael Scott Van Wagenen’s The Texas Republic and the Mormon Kingdom of God (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2002).

11 For a complete treatment of the early Mormon-Texas experience see Melvin C Johnson’s Polygamy on the Pedernales: Lyman Wight’s Mormon Villages in Antebellum Texas, 1845 to 1858 (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2006).

12 Reports of Mormon “outrages” were popular in the major eastern newspaper s during this time While these were mostly sensationalized, popular accusations of Mormon polygamy later proved to be true The New York Herald in particular printed and reprinted many inflammatory articles about the Mormons. See: “Highly Important from the West – Arrest of Joe Smith, the Mormon Chief , ” June 26, 1841; and “Highly Important from the West – Progress of the Mormons, ” August 10, 1841.

13 Van Wagenen, The Texas Republic, 29, 34-63.

14 George Miller, Correspondence of Bishop George Miller With The Northern Islander From his first acquaintance with Mormonism up to near the c lose of his life Written by himself in the year 1855 (Michigan: Wingfield Watson, 1916), 21. Miller’s account actually lists A. W Brown, which is a misprinting of Almon W Babbitt, a member of the Council of Fifty who was deeply involved in Mor mon politics at the time

15 Miller, Correspondence, 20-21.

16 Journal History, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, April 2, 1847. Family and Church History Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. Hereinafter cited as LDS Church History Library.

17 Van Wagenen, The Texas Republic, 53-54.

18 Ibid., 54-59.

19 Noah Smithwick, The Evolution of a State: Recollections of Old Texas Days (Austin, 1900), 235-36.

20 Heman Hale Smith, “The Lyman Wight Colony in Texas,” unpublished manuscript, (ca. 1900), 12. The L. Tom Perry Special Collections of Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

21 Van Wagenen,The Texas Republic, 60-62.

22 The quest for Utah statehood proved a long, politically-charged process that was not completed until 1896.

23 Houston had been married three times. His apparent difficulty in obtaining divorces from his first two wives led to rumors that Houston was himself a bigamist. See Haley, Sam Houston, 90, 98-99, 202.

24 George A. Smith to Brigham Young, July 23, 1856, LDS Church History Library

25 George Henry Crosby, (1872-1938) Paper s [ca. 1929-1936] Typescript. LDS Church History Library Some details are clearly confused as the letter is the recounting of a story passed through several people and generations. The blanket is Houston’s famous Cherokee cloak. Utah Mormons might easily mistake this for a colorful Navajo blanket with which they themselves were acquainted.

26 Melvin C Johnson, “Lone Star Trails to Zion: Mormon Narratives of the Republic and State of Texas 1844-1858,” 5, unpublished manuscript presented at Sunstone Symposium, Salt Lake City, August 1998, copy in possession of the author See also Deseret News, July 29, 1874. Nearly forty years after the Texas War of Independence, the Texas Legislature passed a law allotting an annual pension to veterans of the campaign. At the time, only three known veterans were still living in the Utah Territory All three were former officers in the Texas military This total does not take into account how many had died or previously left the territory

27 Seth Millington Blair, “Reminiscences and Journal, 1819-1875,” LDS Church History Library

28 Ibid. See also Blair’s obituary in the Deseret News, March 24, 1875.

29 Preston Thomas, Preston Thomas: His Life and Travels, ed. Daniel Thomas, unpublished manuscript, LDS Church History Library.

30 Blair, “Reminiscences.”

31 Blair’s service in this capacity began as early as 1850, when he wrote a letter of introduction for church apostle John Taylor to Sam Houston. It is unclear if Taylor and Houston ever met. See Seth M. Blair to Sam Houston, February 17, 1850, John Taylor Collection, LDS Church History Library William P MacKinnon provided a copy of the letter to the author

32 See Seth M Blair to George A Smith, June 3, 1858, George A Smith Paper s, 1834-1875, LDS Church History Library Blair wrote: “I felt that the good sense fine judgment & Statements like course of Bro Brigham would suffer if for a moment it was believed that I ‘held a high place (or low one) in his Council.’”

33 Blair Obituary, Deseret News, March 24, 1875.

34 This was part of a larger campaign to solicit the aid of Eastern politicians in the coming war

35 Blair's obituary in the Deseret News, March 24, 1875, states the letter was printed "first in the Washington Star, and subsequently in many journals throughout the Union.” A search of the Washington Evening Star and other newspaper s f ailed to produce the letter William P MacKinnon located the letter in the New York Herald, March 2, 1858, and graciously provided me this important par t of the Blair–Houston story.

36 Ibid.

37 When the Union did in fact dissolve at the outbreak of the Civil War, Houston refused to swear allegiance to the Confederacy and was removed from his position as Governor of Texas See Haley, Sam Houston, 390-91.

38 New York Herald, March 2, 1858.

39 John M. Bernhisel to Brigham Young, January 17, 1858, LDS Church History Library

40 Sam Houston, The Writings of Sam Houston, 1813-1863, ed. Amelia W Williams and Eugene C Barker (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 1941) 6:471. The entire speech can be found in the Congressional Globe, 35th Cong., 1st sess., Par t 1, 1857-1858, pp 492-97.

41 Houston, Writings, 483.

42 Ibid., 492. Sam Houston’s speech can be found in its entirety in the Congressional Globe, Par t 1, 18571858, pp 646-47.

43 For examples of federal officials giving misinformation to President James Buchanan see William P MacKinnon, “The Buchanan Spoils System and the Utah Expedition: Careers of W. M. F. Magraw and John M. Hockaday” Utah Historical Quarterly 31 (Spring 1963): 127-50.

44 Houston, Writings, 492-93.

45 Ibid., 504. This speech can be found in its entirety in the Congressional Globe, Part 1, 1857-1858, pp 669-73.

46 Houston, Writings, 507.

47 Both Houston and the Mormons had an inconsistent record in dealing with Native Americans Houston had brutally fought the Creek Nation during the War of 1812, but lived among and was adopted by the Cherokee Nation. For the complex relationship between the Mormons and Native Americans see Howard A Christy, “Open Hand and Mailed Fist: Mormon-Indian Relations in Utah, 1847-52, ” Utah Historical Quarterly 46 (Summer 1978): 216-35; Sondra Jones, “Saints or Sinners? The Evolving Perceptions of Mormon-Indian Relations in Utah Historiography,” Utah Historical Quarterly 72 (Winter 2004): 19-46; and Ronald W Walker, “Toward a Reconstruction of Mormon and Indian Relations, 1847-1877,” BYU Studies 29 (Fall 1989): 23-42.

48 Houston, Writings, 521. The speech can be found in its entirety in the Congressional Globe, Par t 1, 1857-1858, pp 873-75.

49 Ibid., 522-23.

50 Ibid., 525.

51 For details related to the Mormon military operations in the Utah War, see Leonard J Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985), 250-71.

52 Houston, Writings, 524-25.

53 Ibid., 526-27.

54 Sam Houston to Margaret Houston, February 26, 1858, in Sam Houston, The Personal Cor respondence of Sam Houston, Volume IV: 1852-1863, ed. Madge Thornall Roberts (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 1996) 4: 286. See also New York Times March 3, 1858, and Washington Evening Star, March 26, 1858.

55 Poll and Hansen, “Buchanan’s Blunder,” 131.

56 MacKinnon, “Utah Expedition of 1857-58,” 1150; Moor man, Camp Floyd, 38-50.

7 Houston, Writings, 466, and the Congressional Globe, Par t 1, 1857-1858, pp 492-97.

58 Sam Houston to Margaret Houston, March 1, 1858, in Houston, The Personal Correspondence 290.

59 Haley, Sam Houston, 365-94 covers his short term as Texas governor

60 Ibid., 403-405.