Chapter VI: Political History Continued (2)

"Yesterday Col. Connor rode into the city, and called on Judge
Waite at his residence, and made a stay of perhaps an hour or
so. Immediately after his departure, a signal of distress was
hastily thrown to the breeze, from a small flag-staff on
Brigham's 'Lion House.' . . . . Immediately a commotion was
seen, and soon armed men began to pour along the different
streets, and the report was carried, as on the wings of
lightning, to the uttermost parts of the city, that an order
was being made out for the arrest of Brigham and his
counsellors, and that Col. Connor had been down to make
arrangements for enforcing the writ. Men with muskets and
rifles,--some few with antiquated swords,--of all ages, from
the brawny youth to the old white-haired sexagenarian, came
pouring along, singly and in groups, by twos, by threes, and
the half-dozen or more, pressing hurriedly on towards
Brigham's premises, zealous, and ready to yield up life, if
need be, in defence of the 'Prophet of the Lord.' Altogether
some two thousand 'citizen soldiery' collected, and stood
guard during the watches of the night, over the beloved
Brigham and his harem. Verily, 'The wicked flee when no man
pursueth.'"

That Brigham really feared arrest at this time, and believed that a movement was on foot for that purpose, is evident from the following, taken from the "Latter Day Saints' Millennial Star," published in London. It is a portion of a letter written for that magazine by David O. Calder, a clerk in the tithing-office:--

"AMERICA. GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, March 13th, 1863.

"_President G. Q. Cannon_:

"Dear Brother,--You of course have learned through the New
York press of our 'expected collision between the military and
citizens of Utah,' and will learn through Capt. Hooper, (he
being just informed by telegraph to write to you,) that
comparative peace is restored. I shall now give you some
details of the trouble.

"As you are aware, we have been of the opinion that the
mission of the troops despatched from California last year was
not altogether to be confined to the guarding of the mail and
telegraph lines, and the protection of the California
emigration, and consequently have been watchful of their
proceedings; the more so, that they made their winter-quarters
within the city limits, and on one of the most commanding
benches above the city, instead of being distributed at the
several posts along the line of travel.

"We also have been made acquainted with the doings of Governor
Harding, and Judges Waite and Drake; that they were
corresponding with the authorities at Washington, and moving
everything that could be moved to bring the army here in
contact with the people, and to have the War Department send
on two or three thousand more troops.

"These and other movements compelled the citizens to be on
their guard, and prepared for any emergency. On Monday last, a
reliable person overheard Colonel Connor and Judge Waite in
conversation. The Colonel says, 'These three men must be
surprised.' The Judge replied, 'Colonel, you know your duty.'
In half an hour after, from a signal given, which was
previously understood, about one thousand citizens were armed,
and on duty, and in another half hour another thousand men
were on duty. This sudden demonstration proved to them that
their secret was known, and that we were fully prepared for
them. In the mean time our 'outside' friends in this city
telegraphed to those interested in the mail and telegraph
lines, that they must work for the removal of the troops,
Governor Harding, Judges Waite and Drake, _else there would be
difficulty, and the mail and telegraph lines would be
destroyed_. Their moneyed interest has given them great energy
in our behalf. They have placed their line at the disposal of
President Young, to be used to Washington, or New York. We
fully expect the Colonel, Governor, and Judges will be
recalled."

Here, it will be noticed, is the same covert threat contained in Brigham Young's speech, that the mail and telegraph lines would be destroyed, if the federal officers should be retained at their posts. It is to be regretted that this standing menace should so far have had its effect, as to induce the President, some two or three months afterward, to recall Governor Harding from his position. It is true, by transferring him to the Chief Justiceship of Colorado Territory, his removal was disconnected with any censure of his administration. It still remained, however, a substantial yielding to the arbitrary demands of Brigham Young, and as such, had a direct tendency to encourage him in his lawless proceedings, and to postpone for years the solution of the Utah problem.

Judges Waite and Drake had, immediately after the demonstration of the 3d of March, written to the President, giving it as their opinion that the laws were nugatory, and the Organic Act entirely inoperative in the Territory, and declining to hold any terms of the District Court in their respective districts until they should be properly supported by the military power of the Government; at the same time giving it as their opinion, that such a support should be at least five thousand men, well armed, equipped, and provided.

The failure to furnish this force, and the subsequent change in the governorship of the Territory, satisfied them that the Government was not then prepared to meet the questions which had arisen in such a manner as the dignity and honor of the nation required, and accordingly all effort to further counteract the evil effects of this intolerant theocracy were, for the time, abandoned.

Judge Waite, after holding, with his associates, in July, 1863, a term of the Supreme Court, _at which there was not a single case on the docket_, left the Territory in disgust, and established himself in the practice of his profession in Idaho City, Idaho Territory. He resigned his office, and was succeeded, in the spring of 1864, by Judge McCurdy, the present incumbent.

Governor Harding was succeeded, in May, 1863, by James Duane Doty, who, at the time of his appointment, was Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Governor Doty is a man of sound judgment, and of large experience in public affairs; and does as well as any man could in his embarrassing position. But his governorship is merely nominal. With the form and semblance, he lacks all the substance of power; and where he should _order_, he must satisfy himself with request and expostulation.

Judge Drake still remains in Utah, and with all the talent, energy, and experience necessary to fill his position to the great benefit of the people, he is obliged to remain entirely inactive, and goes through the forms of holding court, with scarcely an attempt to administer justice to the whole people, so well persuaded is he that all such attempts are futile in the present condition of affairs.

Gen. Connor also remains, and, considering the small force at his command, has accomplished wonders. By his bold and fearless vindication of the rights and interests of the Government, guided, at the same time, in all his acts by great discretion and moderation, he has compelled some show of respect for the federal authority.

Neither Gen. Connor nor Judge Waite had the slightest intention of arresting Brigham Young at the time alluded to in March, 1863. The astute leader of the Mormons had a spy listening to the conversation of those gentlemen, and the spy aforesaid heard some things, and thought he heard others. He reported to headquarters the supposed result of his discoveries, and it must be admitted that those who had been placed under this insulting espionage took no great pains to correct the impression which prevailed, and which so quickly and so thoroughly developed the disloyal sentiments which the people had imbibed under the infamous teachings of Brigham and his corrupt priests, apostles, and bishops.

Mark the language used by Mr. Calder. "On Monday last, a reliable person overheard," &c. Here the infamous system of espionage maintained over the federal officers by Young, stands plainly confessed. But the fact was well known, and he reaped no great benefit from it.

So thoroughly was he frightened, that, to save himself the ignominy and humiliation of a public and forcible arrest, he went privately to his friend, Chief Justice Kinney, and gave his bonds for his appearance at Kinney's court, to answer to any indictment that _might be_ found against him for polygamy.

The grand jury, of course, found no indictment, and the incident is only worth mentioning as curiously illustrative of the extent to which he was operated on by his fears on that occasion.

A brief notice of the federal officers stationed and residing in Utah, while the writer was living in that Territory, will close the present chapter.

Hon. Stephen S. Harding, who was Governor from the spring of 1862 for about one year, is from Milan, Indiana. He is about fifty years of age; is a sound lawyer, and a man of extraordinary energy and decision of character. These traits are modified, in some degree, by considerable ambition, and great love of approbation. In his administration of Utah affairs, so far as he was governed by this feeling, he labored for the respect and approval of the great body of the American people, rather than of the masses by whom he was immediately surrounded.

That he possesses much personal courage is evidenced by many of his official acts, some of which he had reason to believe would subject him at once to personal danger. The presence of the military in the immediate neighborhood was sufficient to prevent any open outbreak; still there were many ways in which his personal safety might be jeopardized, without subjecting the perpetrators of the acts to punishment.

So well is this understood in Salt Lake, that it requires a high degree of moral courage to enable one to do any act offensive to "the powers that be" in the Holy City.

Every attempt was made to seduce him from the path of duty, not omitting the same appliances which had been brought to bear upon Steptoe and Dawson, but all in vain.

His family remained at Milan, except his son, Attila, who was with the Governor at Salt Lake, and acted as his private secretary.

Hon. James Duane Doty, the successor of Harding, and the present Governor of the Territory, was, for nearly two years previous to receiving the appointment of Governor, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Territory. He was appointed to succeed Harding in April or May, 1863.

James Duane Doty, Governor of Utah, was born at Salem, in the County of Washington and State of New York, on the 5th day of November, A. D. 1799, the last year of the last century.

He emigrated to Detroit, Michigan, where he was admitted to the Supreme Court, and settled in the practice of the law in the year 1818, and was one of the earliest emigrants to that State.

The next year he was elected Clerk of the Common Council of the City, and appointed Secretary to the Legislature, which was then composed of the Governor and Judges of the Supreme Court; and was also appointed a Notary Public, and soon afterwards Clerk of the Supreme Court of the Territory by the Judges of that court.

In 1820 he accompanied Governor Cass, as Secretary, in his expedition to the sources of the Mississippi, travelling a distance of over four thousand miles through the Indian Country in a birch-bark canoe, from the 20th of May to the 20th of November.

In this year he revised the laws of the Territory, which were published by the authority of the Legislature.

In 1821 he was admitted an attorney of the Supreme Court of the United States at Washington.

In 1823 the country north of lakes Huron and Michigan, and west of lakes Michigan and Superior, was made by Congress a judicial district, and he was appointed by James Monroe its Judge, with the title of "an additional Judge of the Territory of Michigan." He performed the duties of this office until the year 1832,--having married, and fixed his residence at Green Bay, then the largest settlement in the country north or west of Detroit.

In 1832 he was appointed by the Secretary of War a Commissioner to locate Military Roads from Fort Howard, at Green Bay, to Fort Crawford on Prairie du Chien, and to Fort Dearborn at the mouth of Chicago Creek, now the site of the city of Chicago,--between which points there were then scarcely twenty white inhabitants.

In 1834 and 1835 he served in the Legislative Council of Michigan, having been elected by the voters west of the Lake; and introduced the measure of a State government, which was adopted by the Council.

He contended for the right of the people to form a government for themselves, under the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787.

By this measure a territorial government was obtained for Wisconsin, and a permanent separation from Michigan of the country west of Lake Michigan, which had been attached to that Territory in 1818, when Illinois was admitted into the Union. It had been sought in vain of Congress from the year 1825,--the application having been successfully opposed by the party averse to laying the foundation of new non-slaveholding States.

In 1837 he was elected Delegate to Congress from Wisconsin, and continued to serve in that office by reëlection until the year 1841, when he was appointed Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs in that Territory; and as Commissioner held treaties at Oeyoowurah, on Minnesota River, with the Dakotahs, and with the bands of that nation on the Mississippi River.

It was in 1837 that he laid out the town of Madison, and succeeded in making it the seat of government,--one of the most valuable services which he ever rendered that State. It is now considered one of the most beautiful sites for a town. When selected by him there was not a white settler within forty miles, and it was occupied by Winnebago Indians.

He was elected and served as a member of the Convention to form a State Constitution in 1846 for Wisconsin.

In 1849 he was elected in the Third District of Wisconsin a Representative in Congress, and was reëlected in 1851,--serving on several committees. It was during his first term as a member that he was declared an Abolitionist--now no longer a term of reproach--by Father Ritchie and the Southern leaders, because he declined to vote for a repeal of the duty on lead.

In 1861 he was appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Territory of Utah; and in 1862 was appointed a Commissioner to negotiate treaties with the Shoshonees,--which were held by him in 1863. These were the first treaties ever made by the United States with this nation of Indians.

In May, 1863, he was appointed Governor of the Territory of Utah. During his long public service he has had the acquaintance, and enjoyed the friendship, of most of the eminent men connected with the Government of our country. Of those who were on the stage when he entered public life, it is believed that but one is now living,--Gen. Cass, who was his generous patron in boyhood, and has been his friend during this long period of an eventful life.

He is now believed to be the oldest pioneer living west of Lake Michigan. In the performance of his duties he has traversed the Continent,--having stood on the shores of the Atlantic and Pacific; on the latter of which he reached the point in his westward march, where, when the eye is directed over that vast ocean towards the East Indies, the West appears to terminate and the East begins.

Hon. Thomas J. Drake, Associate Justice, is from Pontiac, Michigan, where he had resided from early manhood. He is now over sixty years of age. He has a thin, wiry frame, dark hair, and a nervous, bilious temperament.

His mind is vigorous and clear, and his virtue and integrity of the old Roman order. Of blameless life and manners, all the shafts of his accusers fall harmless at his feet.

The wrongs and iniquities he has witnessed, added to personal ill-treatment, has engendered an intense hatred of the despots who sit enthroned over the people of Utah, but he has the most kindly feelings toward the great body of the people.

Lacking all adequate power, he is obliged to sit quietly by, and see wrongs perpetrated, which he is utterly unable to redress.

Judge Waite, the Associate of Harding and Drake, was from the State of Illinois, where he had resided since the year 1840.

At the time of his appointment, in February, 1862, he was thirty-eight years of age. He was then living near Chicago, in which city he had resided and practised law since 1853.

Of Chief Justice Kinney mention has already been made. Suffice it to add, he was, in the summer of 1863, elected as Delegate to Congress from Utah, and took his seat the following winter. He doubtless aspires to still higher honors from the same Territory.

Hon. John Titus, who succeeded Kinney, and is the present Chief Justice of the Territory, is somewhat past fifty years of age,--a gentleman of much dignity and urbanity of manners. He is large and well formed, and has an active temperament.

His duties as yet have been exceedingly light, and will probably continue so while he remains in the Territory. The Mormons withhold from him all the cases they can control. He is outspoken against polygamy, making no reserve whatever of his opinions on that question.

Chief Justice Titus was appointed from the Philadelphia bar.

Dr. Frank Fuller was Secretary of the Territory about two years, and was succeeded by Mr. Reed, in the fall of 1863.

Dr. Fuller is from New Hampshire, and a dentist by profession and practice. He was attentive and obliging in his official intercourse with all parties. He is a polished gentleman also in social intercourse.

He was one of the few federal officers in Salt Lake at that time who was so fortunate as never seriously to offend Brigham Young. Doubtless his position brought him less in collision with that gentleman than was the case with other officers. If he saw any difficulties approaching, by a little shrewd management he carefully avoided them. If in thus steering between Scylla and Charybdis he did not always meet the approbation of his fellow-officers, he managed at least to avoid any open differences, and thus kept up the appearance of friendship with all.

He enjoyed for a long time the confidence and apparent respect of Brigham, to a greater degree, perhaps, than Kinney himself.

From Salt Lake he went to San Francisco, where he engaged in dealing in mining stocks.

From the time of Dawson's hasty departure in the fall of 1861, until Governor Harding's arrival in July, 1862, he acted as Governor of the Territory, and his administration gave general satisfaction to the Mormons.

Amos Reed, Esq., who succeeded Dr. Fuller as Secretary in 1863, and who now holds that position, came into the Territory with Governor Doty from Wisconsin.

During the winter of 1863-64, while Governor Doty was absent in Washington, Reed was the acting Governor, and as such evinced a high order of administrative talent. The affairs of the Territory were, during that time, conducted with much discretion and judgment, and so far as was in his power, the rights and interests of all classes were respected.

General P. Edward Connor was born in County Kerry, Ireland, and migrated to the United States, with his parents, at a very early period of life.

Having reached the age of manhood, he enlisted in the regular army of the United States, and served an honorable term, as private, for five years, on the frontier.

At the breaking out of the Mexican War, he raised a company of Texas Volunteers, and as captain, led them with distinguished success and heroism at the battle of Buena Vista. He was mentioned in official dispatches, with high encomiums for bravery. At this battle he was severely wounded, and received a pension from the Government. At the close of the war he settled upon the Pacific coast.

Captain Connor resided in Stockton, California, for ten years, prior to the rebellion, engaged in private business, wherein he attained a handsome competence.

He was married at Stockton, and now has two children living. During his residence in Stockton, Captain Connor took an active interest in military affairs, and commanded a uniform company.

At the breaking out of the present rebellion, he was tendered the appointment of Colonel of the Third Regiment of Infantry, California Volunteers. With the expectation that his regiment was to be sent East, he promptly raised and organized it.

The exigencies of the service, however, required his presence in Utah, and in the summer of 1862 he led the 3d Infantry, and part of the 2d Cavalry, Cal. Vol., across the Plains, in a most successful, though arduous march, and established his camp where it would command the City of the Saints.

Amid the snows and storms of the winter of 1862-63, he planned and prosecuted a successful campaign against hostile Indians, and on the 29th of January, 1863, fought the hard battle of Bear River, defeating and almost annihilating the savages, under the leadership of Bear Hunter and Lehigh.

For the brilliancy of this action, Col. Connor was promoted by the President to be Brigadier-General of United States Volunteers, which rank he now retains.

He is a man of strong common sense, excellent and quick judgment, invincible energy and determination, firmness amounting to obstinacy, and the strictest integrity.

His administration in Utah has been eminently successful. By Brigham Young he is at once hated and feared. He is but little past forty years of age.

FOOTNOTES:

[97:A] The above embraces all the commissioned officers then stationed at Camp Douglas.