CHAPTER XIX.
Eastern Visitors To Salt Lake City--Unpunished Murderers
Schuyler Colfax's Interviews with Young--Samuel Bowles's Praise of the Mormons and his Speedy Correction of his Views--Repudiation of Colfax's Plan to drop Polygamy--Two more Utah Murders--Colfax's Second Visit
IN June, 1865, a distinguished party
from the East visited Salt Lake City, and their visit was not without public
significance. It included Schuyler Colfax, Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Lieutenant Governor Bross of Illinois, Samuel Bowles, editor
of the Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, and A. D.
Richardson of the staff of the New York Tribune. Crossing the continent
was still effected by stage-coach at that time, and the Mormon capital had
never been visited by civilians so well known and so influential. Mr. Colfax
had stated publicly that President Lincoln, a short time before his death, had
asked him to make a thorough investigation of territorial matters, and his
visit was regarded as semi-official. The city council formally tendered to the
visitors the hospitality of the city, and Mr. Bowles wrote that the Speaker's
reception "was excessive if not oppressive."
In an interview between Colfax and Young, during which
the subject of polygamy was brought up by the latter, he asked what the
government intended to do with it, now that the slavery question was out of the
way. Mr. Colfax replied with the expression of a hope that the prophets of the
church would have a new "revelation" which would end the practice,
pointing out an example in the course of Missouri and Maryland in abolishing
slavery, without waiting for action by the federal government. "Mr.
Young," says Bowles, "responded quietly and frankly that he should
readily welcome such a revelation; that polygamy was not in the original book
of the Mormons; that it was not an essential practice in the church, but only a
privilege and a duty, under special command of God."1
1 "Across the Continent," p. 111.
It is worth while to note Mr. Bowles's summing up of his observations of Mormondom during this visit. "The result," he wrote, "of the whole experience has been to increase my appreciation of the value of their material progress and development to the nation; to evoke congratulations to them and to the country for the wealth they have created, and the order, frugality, morality (sic), and industry they have organized in this remote spot in our continent; to excite wonder at the perfection of their church system, the extent of its ramifications, the sweep of its influence, and to enlarge my respect for the personal sincerity and character of many of the leaders in the organization."2 These were the expressions of a leading journalist, thought worthy to be printed later in book form, on a church system and church officers about which he had gathered his information during a few hours' visit, and concerning which he was so fundamentally ignorant that he called their Bible -- whose title is, "Book of Mormon" -- "book of the Mormons!" It is reasona bly certain that he had never read Smith's "revelations," doubtful if he was acquainted with even the framework of the Mormon Bible, and probable that he was wholly ignorant of the history of their recent "Reformation." Many a profound opinion of Mormonism has been founded on as little opportunity for accurate knowledge.3
2 "Across the
Continent," p. 106.
3 As another illustration of the value of
observations by such transient students may be cited the following, from Sir
Charles Wentworth Dilke's "Greater Britain," Vol. I, p. 148:
"Brigham's deeds have been those of a sincere man. His bitterest opponents
cannot dispute the fact that, in 1844, when Nauvoo was about to be deserted
owing to attacks by a ruffianly mob, Brigham Young rushed to the front and took
command. To be a Mormon leader was then to be the leader of an outcast people,
with a price set on his head, in a Missouri country in which almost every man
who was not a Mormon was by profession an assassin."
The Eastern visitors soon learned, however, how little intention the Mormon leaders had to be cajoled out of polygamy. Before Mr. Bowles's book was published, he had to add a supplement, in which he explained that "since our visit to Utah in June, the leaders among the Mormons have repudiated their professions of loyalty to the government, and denied any disposition to yield the issue of polygamy." Tullidge sneers at Colfax "for entertaining for a while the pretty plan" of having the Mormons give up polygamy as the Missourians did slavery. The Deseret News, soon after the Colfax party left the territory, expressed the real Mormon view on this subject, saying: --
"As a people we view every revelation
from the Lord as sacred. Polygamy was none of our seeking. It came to us from
Heaven, and we recognized it, and still do, the voice of Him whose right it is
not only to teach us, but to dictate and teach all men.... They {Gentiles} talk
of revelations given, and of receiving counter revelations to forbid what has
been commanded, as if man was the sole author, originator, and designer of
them.... Do they wish to brand a whole people with the foul stigma of
hypocrisy, who, from their leaders to the last converts that have made the
dreary journey to these mountain wilds for their faith, have proved their
honesty of purpose and deep sincerity of faith by the most sublime sacrifices?
Either that is the issue of the irreasoning, or they imagine that we serve and
worship the most accommodating Deity ever dreamed of in the wildest vagaries of
the most savage polytheist."
This was a perfectly consistent statement of the Mormon
position, a simple elaboration of Young's declaration that, to give up belief
in Smith as a prophet, and in his "revelations," would be to give up
their faith. Just as truly, any later "revelation," repealing the one
concerning polygamy, must be either a pretence or a temporary expedient, in
orthodox Mormon eyes. The Mormons date the active crusade of the government
against polygamy from the return of the Colfax party to the East, holding that
this question did not enter into the early differences between them and the
government.4
4 Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 358.
In the year following Colfax's visit, there
occurred in Utah two murders which attracted wide notice, and which called
attention once more to the insecurity of the life of any man against whom the
finger of the church was crooked. The first victim was O. N. Brassfield, a
non-Mormon, who had the temerity to marry, on March 20, 1866, the second
polygamous wife of a Mormon while the husband was in Europe on a mission. As he
was entering his house in Salt Lake City, on the third day of the following
month, he was shot dead. An order that had been given to disband the volunteer
troops still remaining in the territory was countermanded from Washington, and
General Sherman, then commander of that department, telegraphed to Young that
he hoped to hear of no more murders of Gentiles in Utah, intimating that, if he
did, it would be easy to reenlist some of the recently discharged volunteers
and march them through the territory.
The second victim was Dr. J. King Robinson, a young man
who had come to Utah as assistant surgeon of the California volunteers, married
the daughter of a Mormon whose widow and daughters had left the church, and
taken possession of the land on which were some well-known warm springs, with
the intention of establishing there a sanitarium. The city authorities at once
set up a claim to the warm springs property, a building Dr. Robinson had
erected there was burned, and, as he became aggressive in asserting his legal
rights, he was called out one night, ostensibly to set a broken leg, knocked
down, and shot dead. The audacity of this crime startled even the Mormons, and
the opinion has been expressed that nothing more serious than a beating had
been intended. There was an inquest before a city alderman, at which some
non-Mormon lawyers and judges Titus and McCurdy were asked to assist. The chief
feature of this hearing was the summing up by Ex-Governor J. B. Weller, of
California, in which he denounced such murders, asked if there was not an
organized influence which prevented the punishment of their perpetrators , and
confessed that the prosecution had not been permitted "to lift the veil,
and show the perpetrators of this horrible murder."5
5 Text in "Rocky Mountain Saints," Appendix I.
General W. B. Hazen, in his report of February,
1867, said of these victims:
"There is no doubt of their murder from
Mormon church influences, although I do not believe by direct command.
Principles are taught in their churches which would lead to such murders. I
have earnestly to recommend that a list be made of the Mormon leaders,
according to their importance, excepting Brigham Young, and that the President
of the United States require the commanding officer at Camp Douglas to arrest
and send to the state's prison at Jefferson City, Mo., beginning at the head of
the list, man for man here after killed as these men were, to be held until the
real perpetrators of the deed, with evidence for their conviction, be given up.
I believe Young for the present necessary for us there"6
6 Mis. House Doc. No. 75, 2d Session, 39th Congress.
Had this policy been adopted, Mormon prisoners would soon have started East, for very soon afterward three other murders of the same character occurred, although the victims were not so prominent.7 Chief Justice Titus incurred the hatred of the Mormons by determined, if futile, efforts to bring offenders in such cases to justice, and to show their feeling they sent him a nightgown ten feet long, at the hands of a negro.
7 See note 70, p. 628, Bancroft's "History of Utah."
When, in July, 1869, a delegation from Illinois, that included Senator Trumbull, Governor Oglesby, Editor Medill of the Chicago Tribune, and many members of the Chicago Board of Trade, visited Salt Lake City, they were welcomed by and affiliated with the Gentile element;8 and when, in the following October, Vice President Colfax paid a second visit to the city, he declined the courtesies tendered to him by the city officers.9 He made an address from the portico of the Townsend House, of which polygamy was the principle feature, and was soon afterward drawn into a newspaper discussion of the subject with John Taylor.
8 In an interview between Young
and Senator Trumbull during this visit (reported in the Alta California), the
following conversation took place: --
"Young -- We can take care of ourselves. Cumming
was good enough in his way, for you know he was simply Governor of the
Territory, while I was and am Governor of the people."
"Senator Trumbull -- Mr. Young, may I say to the
President that you intend to observe the laws under the constitution?"
"Young -- Well-yes -- we intend to."
"Senator Trumbull -- But may I say to him that you
will do so?"
"Young -- Yes, yes; so far as the laws are just,
certainly."
9 "Mr. Colfax politely refused to
accept the proffered courtesies of the city. Brigham was reported to have
uttered abusive language in the Tabernacle towards the Government and Congress,
and to have charged the President and Vice President with being drunkards. One
of the Aldermen who waited upon Mr. Colfax to tender to him the hospitality of
the city could only say that he did not hear Brigham say so." --
"Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 638.