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Topical Quotes
Accounts of July 24, 1857
Wilford Woodruff Diary
At about noon Bishop A O. Smoot Elders
Judson Stodard, O.P. Rockwell, & Judge E Smith Rode into Camp the 2 former from the States in 20 days. They informed Us
that the United States had taken away the mail Contract & that a New Govornor & Judges & 2,500 troops
would start for Utah soon. We went into the Presidets tent & questions were asked and answered And Presidet Young
said that if General Harney Crossed the South Pass He should send him word they must not come into the valley. If the Govornor
& officers wished to come & would behave themselves well they would be well treated. President Young felt determined
no more to submit to oppression either to individuals, towns, Counties, states of Nation. (Diary)
Hosea Stout Diary:
About noon A. O. Smoot Jud Stoddard, O P. Rockwell an Judge Smith came
into camp Smoot & Stoddard were from the States in 20 day and they report that the Post office department has annulled
Mr Kimball's contract to carry the mail so they had to come without it
They also report hostile feelings to wards us in the States Some talk of
troops coming. (Diary)
Lorenzo Brown Diary:
But in the midst of this joyful scene there comes a mounted messenger with
news. Those happy faces benign with radiant joy now gather around but alas! a cloud comes o'er the spirit of their dreams.
News, News of vital importance to citizens of Utah is quickly but quietly communicated. The mail that was expected
was refused to be delivered by the Post Master at Independence & an army is actually advancing on Utah. For what
purpose is enquirred by one & all as no one knows each countenance seems to resume its former cheerfulness the doubts
& cares are thrown aside as a vain thing & the amusements & sports are continued with redoubled interest. (Journal,
cited in Juanita Brooks, ed., On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout [University of Utah Press, 1964], 2:634).
Speculations/Rumors
of the Purpose of the Utah
Expedition
Burlington [Vermont] Weekly Sentinel: December 18, 1857, "The Policy of Our Government Towards the Mormons,"
Hitherto Young's policy has been to profess obedience to the laws of the
United States, and whilst the Government had no official notice of any overt act of rebellion against its authority,
its policy has not only been right, wise and prudent, but masterly and energetic. It has not only planned, but carried into
execution a peaceful policy which deserves the hearty commendation of the whole United States. And now that the arch fanatic
Young has struck the blow which makes him an outlaw and a traitor, we have no doubt that the same prudence, energy
and determination will characterize Buchanan's future Mormon policy. Under that policy we confidently expect to see the
utter annihilation of that terrible fanaticism which has so long been a curse to our nation. editorial of The Burlington
Weekly Sentinel (Burlington, Vermont; D. A. Danforth, ed.) for December 18, 1857]
Heber C. Kimball
Address August 2, 1857 (Journal of Discourses 5:130):
And as President Buchanan, the President of the United States of America,
holds the keys of the government of this whole nation, so Brigham Young holds the keys pertaining to this Church and people.
Well, do I suppose, when I reflect, that troops are being sent here without
President Buchanan's permission? No, not for a moment: he has permitted it. We are a poor, isolated people, driven over one
thousand miles from our native land, and many of us have been driven and broken up five times; and he and his coadjutors have
acknowledged it and have said pointedly there could nothing be done for us as a community: and here we are, after sending
forth our men, the Elders of Israel, and redeeming this land from Mexico. They are now designing to come with troops to break us up and to kill our Prophets, and our Apostles, and our Elders.
Heber C. Kimball
Address September 27, 1857 (Journal of Discourses 5:277):
Mr. Buchanan and his coadjutors are striving to oppress Utah and
deprive us of our constitutional rights. They have taken the Eastern mail from us, and they will endeavour to take away everything
they have given us, and will make their heaviest efforts to destroy this people. But if this community will entirely
cease to do any evil and will unitedly live their religion, God Almighty will so confound their enemies that they cannot bring
an army into this country. He will do that, if you will do as you are told.
Brigham Young
Discourse, October 18, 1857 (Journal of Discourses 5:336, 338):
If the Government of the United States have sent soldiers to this Territory,
I do not know it; for I have had no official notice of such a circumstance, and you will perceive that I treat them
accordingly. If they are sent by Government, they are sent expressly to destroy this people; and if they are not sent
by the Government, they have come expressly to destroy this people; therefore I shall treat them, as I have informed the officer
in command, the same as though they were an avowed mob,—not as I would those who have heretofore mobbed us, but as parties
who have come to mob us now...
We have sought for peace all the day long; and I have sought for peace
with the army now on our borders, and have warned them that we all most firmly believe that they are sent here solely
with a view to destroy this people, though they may be ignorant of that fact. And though we may believe that they are
sent by the Government of the United States, yet I, as Governor of this Territory, have no business to know any such thing
until I am notified by proper authority as Washington. I have a right to treat them as a mob, just as though they had been
raised and officered in Missouri and sent here expressly to destroy this people. We have been very merciful and very lenient
to them. As I informed them in my unofficial letter, had they been those mobocrats who mobbed us in Missouri, they never would
have seen the South Pass. We had plenty of boys on hand, and the mode of warfare they would have met with they are not acquainted
with.
John Taylor discourse, August 23, 1857 (Journal of Discourses
5:153)
What are they sending an army here for? I had thought things were a little
different until I got here; but I have found, in conversing with President Young, that he knows more about things as they
exist in the Eastern country than I did, who had just come from there. I had read all the newspapers, examined the spirit
of the times, and tried to get at all the information I could; and I find, from the information I have received since then,
that he understood things more correctly than I did.
I thought it was a kind of a pacific course which the Administration was
taking, in order to pacify the Republicans, that they might have a reasonable pretext to have fulfilled their duties; for
I do know that they were apprised of the unreliable character of some of their informants. When I heard that the troops now
on their way here had sealed orders, were coming with cannon, and had stopped the mail, it argued that there
was the Devil behind somewhere.
JD 4:347-352 June 7, 1857. BY on misrepresentations of apostates and officers sent to Utah: usurping power, transgressing
the laws of the U.S., treasonous; and William Smith and Judge Drummond's claims of Danites everywhere "ready to slay all before
them" including government appointees and even the President upon "one word from Brigham." They "proclaim that the 'Mormons'
ought to be used up."
JD 4:347-352 June 7, 1857. BY on corrupt appointees, their false stories and lies about the Mormons, and thinking
their lives are in danger. "the cry from one end of the nation to the other now is to destroy the 'Mormons.'"
Buchanan's Secret
Norman F. Furniss: To exclude the extraneous elements from the causes of the Administration's warlike policy toward
Utah, one must first discover when its decision was reached. It is a difficult task, for Buchanan kept his purposes secret
as long as he could. (Norman F. Furniss, The Mormon Conflict, 1850-1859 [Yale University Press, 1960] p. 63)
Will Bagley: ...Buchanan had made up his mind by May 20. He acted without making even a minimal inquiry and
failed to notify anyone in Utah, including Briggham Young, that the army and a new governor were bound for the territory.
(Will Bagley, Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows [University of Oklahoma Press,
2002], p. 79).
Leonard Arrington: Since Brigham Young was not given any official notification of his displacement as governor
or of the assignment of federal troops to the territory, he chose to regard the troops as an hostile mob. (Leonard Arrington,
The Great Basin Kingdom, [University of Utah Press, 1958] p. 175)
Leroy R. Hafen: The President chose not to make a public announcement of his plans, presuming that he could thus
carry them into affect before the Mormons were aware of his intentions. The secrecy shrouding the administration's program
led to unfortunate suppositions and interpretations by the Mormons and caused them to fear more dancer and hostility than
were intended.
Had the President publicly announced a change
of governors - though the Mormons would certainly have preferred to keep Brigham Young as their civil as well as their religious
leader - an uprising by the Mormons would almost surely have been avoided, even though some troops were to be staioned in
Utah. (Leroy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, eds., Mormon Resistance: A Documentary Account of the Utah Expedition, 1857-1858)
Brandon J. Metcalf: In the spring of 1857, newly elected president James Buchanan launched
an expedition of nearly one-third of the United States Army to the territory of Utah. Buchanan determined to appoint new officials
in the territory and considered it necessary to send a military escort in case rumors of a Mormon rebellion were true. The
moment Mormon leaders received the news of the incoming army they feared the worst, having received no word from the government
concerning the purpose of the expedition. [Brandon J. Metcalf, "The Nauvoo Legion and the Prevention of the Utah War"
Utah Historical Quarterly 72 (Fall 2004): 300.]
Col. Edmund B. Alexander was the ranking officer during the march of the Army, intended to reach SLC before winter. Stalled in southwest Wyoming
at Ham's Fork, before Col. A. S. Johnston arrived November 6, 1857 to take command, Alexander wrote a report October 8, 1857
stating:
...I am in utter ignorance of the objects of the government in sending
troops here, or the instructions given for their conduct after reaching here." (complete text of his report: Mormon Resistance,
66-69)
Brigham Young's Willingness to be Replaced
Brigham Young's
address, August 1, 1856 (Journal of Discourses 4:41):
I am still governor of this Territory, to the constant chagrin of my enemies;
but I do not in the least neglect the duties of my Priesthood, nor my office as governor; and while I honor my Priesthood
I will do honor to my office as governor. This is hard to be understood by the wicked, but it is true. The feelings of many
are much irritated because I am here, and Congress has requested the President to inquire why I still hold the office of governor
in the Territory of Utah. I can answer that question; I hold the office by appointment, and am to hold it until my successor
is appointed and qualified, which has not yet been done. I shall bow to Jesus, my Governor, and under him, to brother
Joseph. Though he has gone behind the vail, and I cannot see him, he is my head, under Jesus Christ and the ancient Apostles,
and I shall go ahead and build up the kingdom. But if I was now sitting in the chair of state at the White House in Washington,
everything in my office would be subject to my religion. Why? Because it teaches me to deal justice and mercy to all. I am
satisfied to love righteousness and be full of the Holy Ghost, while all hell yawns to destroy me, though it cannot do it.
John W. Young,
Brigham's son, wrote a defense of his father, which appeared as a letter to the editor of The Mormon, June 29, 1857,
published in New York:
Brigham Young will resign the Governorship of Utah without a word when his successor is appointed, and there is no possible chance of any collision
between the Mormons and the General Government unless President James Buchanan should appoint some hot-headed, blood-thirsty
fool as Governor of Utah, who will go beyond all law, all reason, and all good sense, and attempt to rule the people with
a high hand. (Leonard Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses, [Knopf, 1985] p. 248-249).
Brigham Young July 24, 1857:
More than 2000 were gathered in Big Cottonwood Canyon to celebrate the
10th anniversary of arriving in Salt Lake Valley. Abraham Smoot and 3 others rode into camp with information that a new governor,
judges and 2500 troops were coming to Utah. Brigham Young said that "if the Govornor & officers wished to come &
would behave themselves well they would be well treated." (Wilford Woodruff diary)
Brigham Young comments to Capt. Van Vliet sent to SLC ahead of the Army, September 13, 1857:
He said He wished Capt Van Vliet to report at Washington Just as things
were here. He said I have seen the suffering of this people through the Persecutions of the people of the United States for
the last 25 years and I will not bear it any longer. We have always treated the united States Officers well but they have
Constantly lied about us & tried to destroy us all the time. We would still have received their govornors & officers
if they had sent them here without an Army but inasmuch as they are now disposed to send an Armey here to hold us still
while others run their red hot Iron into us & then kill us we will now say that we will not have neither their soldiers
Armies or officers any more here at all. And you may tel them so. We will Just fight for our liberty & rights from this
day forth. (Wilford Woodruff diary).
Willingness to Leave
and Desolate the Territory
Brigham Young
Remarks, September 6th, 1857 (Journal of Discourses 5:211):
It is my faith and feelings that, if we live as we should live, they cannot
come here; but I am decided in my opinion that, if worse comes to worst, and the Lord permits them to come upon us, I will
desolate this whole Territory before I will again submit to the hellish corruption and bondage the wicked are striving
to thrust upon us solely for our exercising our right of freedom of conscience.
Brigham Young,
September 13, 1857, in conversation with Capt. Van Vliet, who had been sent to SLC ahead of the Army:
And even should an Armey of 50,000 men get into this valley when they got
here they would find nothing but a Barren waste. We should burn evry thing that was wood & evry acre of grass that would
burn... (Wilford Woodruff diary).
Problem with Presidental Appointees
Heber C. Kimball
Discourse, August 30, 1857 (Journal of Discourses 5:160):
You all acknowledge brother Brigham as the President of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints; then you acknowledge him as our Leader, Prophet, Seer, and Revelator; and then you acknowledge
him in every capacity that pertains to his calling, both in Church and State, do you not? [Voices: "Yes."] Well, he is our
Governor. What is Governor? One who presides or governs. Well, now, we have declared, in a legislative capacity, that we will
not have poor, rotten-hearted curses come and rule over us, such as some they have been accustomed to send. We drafted a memorial,
and the Council and the House of Representatives signed it, and we sent to them the names of men of our own choice—as
many as from five to eight men for each office—men from our own midst, out of whom to appoint officers for this Territory.
We sent that number for the President of the United States to make a selection from, and asked him to give us men of our
own choice, in accordance with the rights constitutionally guaranteed to all American citizens. We just told them right
up and down, that if they sent any more such miserable curses as some they had sent were, we would send them home; and that
is one reason why an army, or rather a mob, is on the way here, as reported. You did not know the reason before, did you?
Well, we did that in a legislative capacity; we did it as members of the
Legislature—as your representatives; and now you have got to back us up. You sent us, just as we sent brother Bernhisel
to seek for our rights and to stand in our defence at Washington.
Well, here is brother Brigham: he is the man of our own choice; he is our
Governor, in the capacity of a Territory, and also as Saints of the Most High.
Well, it is reported that they have another Governor on the way now, three
Judges, a District Attorney, a Marshal, a Postmaster, and Secretary, and that they are coming here with twenty-five hundred
men. The United States design to force those officers upon us by the point of the bayonet.
Plea for Investigation
of Rumors and Charges of Rebellion
Deseret News
July 1, 1857.
... the universal yell is, 'President Buchanan must do something with the
Mormons!' Not yet knowing how long and how well he will be able to withstand the terribly clamorous and unjust outside pressure,
and we being known to be on the side of economy as well as justice, we most respectfully suggest, in case he cannot withstand
the pressure, that he select one or more civilians unbound by any 'ism' or 'isms,' if such can be found, also intelligent,
strictly honorable, upright and gentlemanly, in the true sense of those terms, and send them to Utah on a short visit to look
around and see what they can see, and return and report.
Brigham Young's Proclamation September 15, 1857:
Our opponents have availed themselves of prejudice existing against us
because of our religious faith, to send out a formidable host to accomplish our destruction. We have had no privilege, no
opportunity of defending ourselves from the false, foul, and unjust aspersions against us before the nation. The government
has not condescended to cause an investigating committee or other persons to be sent to inquire into and ascertain the truth,
as is customary in such cases.
We know those aspersions to be false, but that avails us nothing. We are
condemned unheard and forced to an issue with an armed, mercenary mob, which has been sent against us at the instigation of
anonymous letter writers ashamed to father the base, slanderous falsehoods which they have given to the public; of corrupt
officials who have brought false accusations against us to screen themselves in their own infamy; and of hireling priests
and howling editors who prostitute the truth for filthy lucre's sake. (complete text: CHC 4:273-274)
Miscellaneous
Cherry Valley Gazette, Cherry Valley, N.Y., Thursday, February 11, 1858
==> Mr. Bernheisel,
delegate from Utah, has had several conferences with the President recently. He proposes that the troops be withdrawn and
a Commission dispatched to the territory to arrange for the settlement of present difficulties. Mr. Bernheisel speaks in the
name of the people of Utah, not pursuance to instructions from Brigham Young. The President turns a cold shoulder to his proposition
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