The Story of the Mormons:

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When the Mormons found that the federal forces had gone into
winter quarters, the Nauvoo Legion was massed in a camp called
Camp Weber, at the mouth of Echo Canon. This canon they fortified
with ditches and breastworks, and some dams intended to flood the
roadway; but they succeeded in erecting no defences which could
not have been easily overcome by a disciplined force. A watch was
set day and night, so that no movement of "the invaders" could
escape them, and the officer in charge was particularly forbidden
to allow any civil officer appointed by the President to pass.

This careful arrangement was kept up all winter, but Tullidge
says that no spies were necessary, as deserting soldiers and
teamsters from the federal camp kept coming into the valley with
information.

The territorial legislature met in December, and approved
Governor Young's course, every member signing a pledge to
maintain "the rights and liberties" of the territory. The
legislators sent a memorial to Congress, dated January 6, 1858,
demanding to be informed why "a hostile course is pursued toward
an unoffending people," calling the officers who had fled from
the territory liars, declaring that "we shall not again hold
still while fetters are being forged to bind us," etc. This
offensive document reached Washington in March, and was referred
in each House to the Committee on Territories, where it remained.
When the federal forces reached Fort Bridger, they found that the
Mormons had burned the buildings, and it was decided to locate
the winter camp--named Camp Scott--on Black's Fork, two miles
above the fort. The governor and other civil officers spent the
winter in another camp near by, named "Ecklesville," occupying
dugouts, which they covered with an upper story of plastered
logs. There was a careful apportionment of rations, but no
suffering for lack of food.

An incident of the winter was the expedition of Captain Randolph
B. Marcy across the Uinta Mountains to New Mexico, with two
guides and thirty-five volunteer companions, to secure needed
animals. The story of his march is one of the most remarkable on
record, the company pressing on, even after Indian guides refused
to accompany them to what they said was certain death, living for
days only on the meat supplied by half-starved mules, and beating
a path through deep snow. This march continued from November 27
to January 10, when, with the loss of only one man, they reached
the valley of the Rio del Norte, where supplies were obtained
from Fort Massachusetts. Captain Marcy started back on March 17,
selecting a course which took him past Long's and Pike's Peaks.
He reached Camp Scott on June 8, with about fifteen hundred
horses and mules, escorted by five companies of infantry and
mounted riflemen.

During the winter Governor Cumming sent to Brigham Young a
proclamation notifying him of the arrival of the new territorial
officers, and assuring the people that he would resort to the
military posse only in case of necessity. Judge Eckles held a
session of the United States District Court at Camp Scott on
December 30, and the grand jury of that court found indictments
for treason, resting on Young's proclamation and Wells's
instructions, against Young, Kimball, Wells, Taylor, Grant,
Locksmith, Rockwell, Hickman, and many others, but of course no
arrests were made.

Meanwhile, at Washington, preparations were making to sustain the
federal authority in Utah as soon as spring opened.* Congress
made an appropriation, and authorized the enlistment of two
regiments of volunteers; three thousand regular troops and two
batteries were ordered to the territory, and General Scott was
directed to sail for the Pacific coast with large powers. But
General Scott did not sail, the army contracts created a
scandal,** and out of all this preparation for active hostilities
came peace without the firing of a shot; out of all this open
defiance and vilification of the federal administration by the
Mormon church came abject surrender by the administration itself.

* For the correspondence concerning the camp during the winter of
1858, see Sen. Doc., 2d Session, 35th Congress, Vol. II.

** Colonel Albert G. Brown, Jr., in his account of the Utah
Expedition in the Atlantic Monthly for April, 1859, said: "To the
shame of the administration these gigantic contracts, involving
an amount of more than $6,000,000, were distributed with a view
to influence votes in the House of Representatives upon the
Lecompton Bill. Some of the lesser ones, such as those for
furnishing mules, dragoon horses, and forage, were granted
arbitrarily to relatives or friends of members who were wavering
upon that question.

The principal contract, that for the transportation of all the
supplies, involving for the year 1858 the amount of $4,500,000,
was granted, without advertisement or subdivision, to a firm in
Western Missouri, whose members had distinguished themselves in
the effort to make Kansas a slave state, and now contributed
liberally to defray the election expenses of the Democratic
party."

CHAPTER XIV. COLONEL KANE'S MISSION

When Major Van Vliet returned from Utah to Washington with
Young's defiant ultimatum, he was accompanied by J. M. Bernhisel,
the territorial Delegate to Congress, who was allowed to retain
his seat during the entire "war," a motion for his expulsion,
introduced soon after Congress met, being referred to a committee
which never reported on it, the debate that arose only giving
further proof of the ignorance of the lawmakers about Mormon
history, Mormon government, and Mormon ambition.

In Washington Bernhisel was soon in conference with Colonel T. L.
Kane, that efficient ally of the Mormons, who had succeeded so
well in deceiving President Fillmore. In his characteristically
wily manner, Kane proposed himself to the President as a mediator
between the federal authorities and the Mormon leaders.* At that
early date Buchanan was not so ready for a compromise as he soon
became, and the Cabinet did not entertain Kane's proposition with
any enthusiasm. But Kane secured from the President two letters,
dated December 3.** The first stated, in regard to Kane, "You
furnish the strongest evidence of your desire to serve the
Mormons by undertaking so laborious a trip," and that "nothing
but pure philanthropy, and a strong desire to serve the Mormon
people, could have dictated a course so much at war with your
private interests." If Kane presented this credential to Young on
his arrival in Salt Lake City, what a glorious laugh the two
conspirators must have had over it! The President went on to
reiterate the views set forth in his last annual message, and to
say: "I would not at the present moment, in view of the hostile
attitude they have assumed against the United States, send any
agent to visit them on behalf of the government." The second
letter stated that Kane visited Utah from his own sense of duty,
and commended him to all officers of the United States whom he
might meet.

* H. H. Bancroft ("History of Utah," p. 529) accepts the
ridiculous Mormon assertion that Buchanan was compelled to change
his policy toward the Mormons by unfavorable comments "throughout
the United States and throughout Europe." Stenhouse says ("Rocky
Mountain Saints," p. 386): "That the initiatory steps for the
settlement of the Utah difficulties were made by the government,
as is so constantly repeated by the Saints, is not true. The
author, at the time of Colonel Kane's departure from New York for
Utah, was on the staff of the New York Herald, and was conversant
with the facts, and confidentially communicated them to Frederick
Hudson, Esq., the distinguished manager of that great journal."

** Sen. Doc., 2d Session. 35th Congress, Vol. II, pp. 162-163.

Kane's method of procedure was, throughout, characteristic of the
secret agent of such an organization as the Mormon church. He
sailed from New York for San Francisco the first week in January,
1858, under the name of Dr. Osborn. As soon as he landed, he
hurried to Southern California, and, joining the Mormons who had
been called in from San Bernardino, he made the trip to Utah with
them, arriving in Salt Lake City in February. On the evening of
the day of his arrival he met the Presidency and the Twelve, and
began an address to them as follows: "I come as ambassador from
the Chief Executive of our nation, and am prepared and duly
authorized to lay before you, most fully and definitely, the
feelings and views of the citizens of our common country and of
the Executive toward you, relative to the present position of
this territory, and relative to the army of the United States now
upon your borders." This is the report of Kane's words made by
Tullidge in his "Life of Brigham Young." How the statement agrees
with Kane's letters from the President is apparent on its face.
The only explanation in Kane's favor is that he had secret
instructions which contradicted those that were written and
published. Kane told the church officers that he wished to
"enlist their sympathies for the poor soldiers who are now
suffering in the cold and snow of the mountains!" An interview of
half an hour with Young followed--too private in its character to
be participated in even by the other heads of the church. An
informal discussion ensued, the following extracts from which, on
Mormon authority, illustrate Kane's sympathies and purpose:--

"Did Dr. Bernhisel take his seat?"

Kane--"Yes. He was opposed by the Arkansas member and a few
others, but they were treated as fools by more sagacious members;
for, if the Delegate had been refused his seat, it would have
been TANTAMOUNT TO A DECLARATION OF WAR."

"I suppose they [the Cabinet] are united in putting down Utah?"

Kane--"I think not."*

* Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 203.

Kane was placed as a guest, still incognito, in the house of an
elder, and, after a few days' rest, he set out for Camp Scott.
His course on arriving there, on March 10, was again
characteristic of the crafty emissary. Not even recognizing the
presence of the military so far as to reply to a sentry's
challenge, the latter fired on him, and he in turn broke his own
weapon over the sentry's head. When seized, he asked to be taken
to Governor Cumming, not to General Johnston.* "The compromise,"
explains Tullidge, "which Buchanan had to effect with the utmost
delicacy, could only be through the new governor, and that, too,
by his heading off the army sent to occupy Utah." A fancied
insult from General Johnston due to an orderly's mistake led Kane
to challenge the general to a duel; but a meeting was prevented
by an order from Judge Eckles to the marshal to arrest all
concerned if his command to the contrary was not obeyed.

"Governor Cumming," continued Tullidge, "could do nothing less
than espouse the cause of the `ambassador' who was there in the
execution of a mission intrusted to him by the President of the
United States."**

* Colonel Johnston was made a brigadier general that winter.

** Kane brought an impudent letter from Young, saying that he had
learned that the United States troops were very destitute of
provisions, and offering to send them beef cattle and flour.
General Johnston replied to Kane that he had an abundance of
provisions, and that, no matter what might be the needs of his
army, he "would neither ask nor receive from President Young and
his confederates any supplies while they continued to be enemies
of the government" Kane replied to this the next day, expressing
a fear that "it must greatly prejudice the public interest to
refuse Mr. Young's proposal in such a manner," and begging the
general to reconsider the matter. No farther notice seems to have
been taken of the offer.

Kane did not make any mistake in his selection of the person to
approach in camp. Judged by the results, and by his admissions in
after years, the most charitable explanation of Cumming's course
is that he was hoodwinked from the beginning by such masters in
the art of deception as Kane and Young. A woman in Salt Lake
City, writing to her sons in the East at the time, described the
governor as in "appearance a very social, good-natured looking
gentleman, a good specimen of an old country aristocrat, at ease
in himself and at peace with all the world."* Such a man, whom
the acts and proclamations and letters of Young did not incite to
indignation, was in a very suitable frame of mind to be cajoled
into adopting a policy which would give him the credit of
bringing about peace, and at the same time place him at the head
of the territorial affairs.

* New York Herald, July 2, 1858. For personal recollections of
Cumming, see Perry's "Reminiscences of Public Men," p. 290. What
is said by Governor Perry of Cumming's Utah career is valueless.

In looking into the causes of what was, from this time, a backing
down by both parties to this controversy, we find at Washington
that lack of an aggressive defence of the national interests
confided to him by his office which became so much more evident
in President Buchanan a few years later. Defied and reviled
personally by Young in the latter's official communications,
there was added reason to those expressed in the President's
first message why this first rebellion, as he called it, "should
be put down in such a manner that it shall be the last." But a
wider question was looming up in Kansas, one in which the whole
nation recognized a vital interest; a bigger struggle attracted
the attention of the leading members of the Cabinet. The
Lecompton Constitution was a matter of vastly more interest to
every politician than the government of the sandy valley which
the Mormons occupied in distant Utah.

On the Mormon side, defiant as Young was, and sincere as was his
declaration that he would leave the valley a desert before the
advance of a hostile force, his way was not wholly clear. His
Legion could not successfully oppose disciplined troops, and he
knew it. The conviction of himself and his associates on the
indictments for treason could be prevented before an unbiased
non-Mormon jury only by flight. Abjectly as his people obeyed
him,--so abjectly that they gave up all their gold and silver to
him that winter in exchange for bank notes issued by a company of
which he was president,--the necessity of a reiteration of the
determination to rule by the plummet showed that rebellion was at
least a possibility? That Young realized his personal peril was
shown by some "instructions and remarks" made by him in the
Tabernacle just after Kane set out for Fort Bridger, and
privately printed for the use of his fellow-leaders. He expressed
the opinion that if Joseph Smith had "followed the revelations in
him" (meaning the warnings of danger), he would have been among
them still. "I do not know precisely," said Young, "in what
manner the Lord will lead me, but were I thrown into the
situation Joseph was, I would leave the people and go into the
wilderness, and let them do the best they could.... We are in
duty bound to preserve life--to preserve ourselves on earth--
consequently we must use policy, and follow in the counsel given
us." He pointed out the sure destruction that awaited them if
they opened fire on the soldiers, and declared that he was going
to a desert region in the territory which he had tried to have
explored "a desert region that no man knows anything about," with
"places here and there in it where a few families could live,"
and the entire extent of which would provide homes for five
hundred thousand people, if scattered about. In these
circumstances "a way out" that would free the federal
administration from an unpleasant complication, and leave Young
still in practical control in Utah, was not an unpleasant
prospect for either side.

A long Utah letter to the Near York Herald (which had been
generally pro-Mormon in tone) dated Camp Scott, May 22, 1858,
contained the following: "Some of the deceived followers of the
latest false Prophet arrived at this post in a most deplorable
condition. One mater familiar had crossed the mountains during
very severe weather in almost a state of nudity. Her dress
consisted of a part of a single skirt, part of a man's shirt, and
a portion of a jacket. Thus habited, without a shoe or a thread
more, she had walked 157 miles in snow, the greater part of the
way up to her knees, and carried in her arms a sucking babe less
than six weeks old. The soldiers pulled off their clothes and
gave them to the unfortunate woman. The absconding Saints who
arrive here tell a great many stories about the condition and
feeling of their brethren who still remain in the land of
promise.... Thousands and thousands of persons, both men and
women, are represented to be exceedingly desirous of not going
South with the church, but are compelled to by fear of death or
otherwise."

Governor Cumming, in his report to Secretary Cass on the
situation as he found it when he entered Salt Lake City, said
that, learning that a number of persons desirous of leaving the
territory "considered themselves to be unlawfully restrained of
their liberty," he decided, even at the risk of offending the
Mormons, to give public notice of his readiness to assist such
persons. In consequence, 56 men, 38 women, and 71 children sought
his protection in order to proceed to the States. "The large
majority of these people;" he explained, "are of English birth,
and state that they leave the congregation from a desire to
improve their circumstances and realize elsewhere more money for
their labor."

Kane having won Governor Cumming to his view of the situation,
and having created ill feeling between the governor and the chief
military commander, the way was open for the next step. The plan
was to have Governor Cumming enter Salt Lake Valley without any
federal troops, and proceed to Salt Lake City under a Mormon
escort of honor, which was to meet him when he came within a
certain distance of that city. This he consented to do. Kane
stayed in "Camp Eckles" until April, making one visit to the
outskirts to hold a secret conference with the Mormons, and,
doubtless, to arrange the details of the trip.

On April 3 Governor Cumming informed General Johnston of his
decision, and he set out two days later. General Johnston's view
of the policy to be pursued toward the Mormons was expressed in a
report to army headquarters, dated January 20:--

"Knowing how repugnant it would be to the policy or interest of
the government to do any act that would force these people into
unpleasant relations with the federal government, I have, in
conformity with the views also of the commanding general, on all
proper occasions manifested in my intercourse with them a spirit
of conciliation. But I do not believe that such consideration of
them would be properly appreciated now, or rather would be
wrongly interpreted; and, in view of the treasonable temper and
feeling now pervading the leaders and a greater portion of the
Mormons, I think that neither the honor nor the dignity of the
government will allow of the slightest concession being made to
them."

Judge Eckles did not conceal his determination not to enter Salt
Lake City until the flag of his country was waving there, holding
it a shame that men should be detained there in subjection to
such a despot as Brigham Young.

Leaving camp accompanied only by Colonel Kane and two servants,
Governor Cumming found his Mormon guard awaiting him a few miles
distant. His own account of the trip and of his acts during the
next three weeks of his stay in Mormondom may be found in a
letter to General Johnston and a report to Secretary of State
Cass.* As Echo Canon was supposed to be thoroughly fortified, and
there was not positive assurance that a conflict might not yet
take place, the governor was conducted through it by night. He
says that he was "agreeably surprised" by the illuminations in
his honor. Very probably he so accepted them, but the fires
lighted along the sides and top of the canon were really intended
to appear to him as the camp-fires of a big Mormon army. This
deception was further kept up by the appearance of challenging
parties at every turn, who demanded the password of the escort,
and who, while the governor was detained, would hasten forward to
a new station and go through the form of challenging again: Once
he was made the object of an apparent attack, from which he was
rescued by the timely arrival of officers of authority.**

* For text, see Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City,"
pp. 108-212.

** "In course of time Cumming discovered how the Mormon leaders
had imposed upon him and amused themselves with his credulity,
and to the last hour that he was in the Territory he felt annoyed
at having been so absurdly deceived, and held Brigham responsible
for the mortifying joke."--"Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 390.

The trip to Salt Lake City occupied a week, and on the 12th the
governor entered the Mormon metropolis, escorted by the city
officers and other persons of distinction in the community, and
was assigned as a guest to W. C. Staines, an influential Mormon
elder. There Young immediately called on him, and was received
with friendly consideration. Asked by his host, when the head of
the church took his leave, if Young appeared to be a tyrant,
Governor Cumming replied: "No, sir. No tyrant ever had a head on
his shoulders like Mr. Young. He is naturally a good man. I doubt
whether many of your people sufficiently appreciate him as a
leader."* This was the judgment of a federal officer after a few
moments' conversation with the reviler of the government and a
month's coaching by Colonel Kane.

Three days later, Governor Cumming officially notified General
Johnston of his arrival, and stated that he was everywhere
recognized as governor, and "universally greeted with such
respectful attentions" as were due to his office. There was no
mention of any advance of the troops, nor any censure of Mormon
offenders, but the general was instructed to use his forces to
recover stock alleged to have been stolen from the Mormons by
Indians, and to punish the latter, and he was informed that
Indian Agent Hurt (who had so recently escaped from Mormon
clutches) was charged by W. H. Hooper, the Mormon who had acted
as secretary of state during recent months, with having incited
Indians to hostility, and should be investigated! Verily, Colonel
Kane's work was thoroughly performed. General Johnston replied,
expressing gratification at the governor's reception, requesting
to be informed when the Mormon force would be withdrawn from the
route to Salt Lake City, and saying that he had inquired into Dr.
Hurt's case, and had satisfied himself "that he has faithfully
discharged his duty as agent, and that he has given none but good
advice to the Indians."

* Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 206.

On the Sunday after his arrival Young introduced Governor Cumming
to the people in the Tabernacle, and then a remarkable scene
ensued. Stenhouse says that the proceedings were all arranged in
advance. Cumming was acting the part of the vigilant defender of
the laws, and at the same time as conciliator, doing what his
authority would permit to keep the Mormon leaders free from the
presence of troops and from the jurisdiction of federal judges.
But he was not all-powerful in this respect. General Johnston had
orders that would allow him to dispose of his forces without
obedience to the governor, and the governor could not quash the
indictments found by Judge Eckles's grand jury. Young's knowledge
of this made him cautious in his reliance on Governor Gumming.
Then, too, Young had his own people to deal with, and he would
lose caste with them if he made a surrender which left Mormondom
practically in federal control.

When Governor Cumming was introduced to the congregation of
nearly four thousand people he made a very conciliatory address,
in which, however, according to his report to Secretary Cass,* he
let them know that he had come to vindicate the national
sovereignty, "and to exact an unconditional submission on their
part to the dictates of the law"; but informed them that they
were entitled to trial by their peers,--intending to mean Mormon
peers,--that he had no intention of stationing the army near
their settlements, or of using a military posse until other means
of arrest had failed. After this practical surrender of
authority, the governor called for expressions of opinion from
the audience, and he got them. That audience had been nurtured
for years on the oratory of Young and Kimball and Grant, and had
seen Judge Brocchus vilified by the head of the church in the
same building; and the responses to Governor Cumming's invitation
were of a kind to make an Eastern Gentile quail, especially one
like the innocent Cumming, who thought them "a people who
habitually exercised great self-control." One speaker went into a
review of Mormon wrongs since the tarring of the prophet in Ohio,
holding the federal government responsible, and naming as the
crowning outrage the sending of a Missourian to govern them. This
was too much for Cumming, and he called out, "I am a Georgian,
sir, a Georgian." The congregation gave the governor the lie to
his face, telling him that they would not believe that he was
their friend until he sent the soldiers back. "It was a perfect
bedlam," says an eyewitness, "and gross personal remarks were
made. One man said, 'You're nothing but an office seeker.' The
governor replied that he obtained his appointment honorably and
had not solicited it."** If all this was a piece of acting
arranged by Young to show his flock that he was making no abject
surrender, it was well done.***