MAGAZINE OF WESTERN HISTORY. Vol. XI. FEBRUARY, 1890. No. 4. A MORMON EPISODE: THE WAR OF 1857. In his report under date of December 5, 1857, the Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, brought in a long bill of serious charges against the Mormons of Utah. "From the first hour they fixed themselves in that remote and almost inaccessible region of our territory," he says, "from which they are now sending defiance to the sovereign power, their whole plan has been to prepare for a successful secession from the authority of the United States and a permanent establishment of their own. They have practiced an exclusiveness unlike anything ever before known in a Christain country, and have inculcated a jealous distrust of all whose religious faith differed from their own. This Mormon brotherhood has scarcely preserved the semblance of obedience to the authority of the United States for some years past; not at all, indeed, except as it might confer some direct benefit upon themselves, or contribute to circulate public money in their community. Whenever it suited their temper or caprice, they have set the United States authority at defiance. Of late years, a well grounded belief has prevailed that the Mormons were instigating the Indians to hostilities against our citizens, and were exciting amongst the Indian tribes a feeling of insubordination and discontent." The government had always practiced forbearance towards this disorderly and mischievious element. "This forbearance," continues the Secretary," might still be prolonged, and the evils rife amongst them be allowed to work out their own cure, if this community occupied any other theater, isolated and remote from the seats of civilization, than the one they now possess. But, unfortunately for these views, their settlements lie in the great pathway which leads from our Atlantic states to the new and flourishing communities growing up upon our Pacific seaboard. They stand a lion in the path; not only themselves defying the military and civil authorities of the government, but encouraging, if not exciting, the nomad savages who roam over the vast unoccupied regions of the continent to the pillage and massacre of peaceful and helpless emigrant families traversing the solitudes of the wilderness. The rapid settlement of our Pacific possessions; the rights in those regions of emigrants unable to afford the heavy expenses of transit by water and the isthmus; the facility and safety of military, commercial, political and social intercommunication between our eastern and western populations and States, all depend upon the prompt, absolute, and thorough removal of a hostile power besetting this path midway of its route, at a point where succor and provisions should always be found, rather than obstruction, privation, and outrage."* The government accordingly, in the year 1857, determined to assume a more direct oversight of affairs in Utah. To this end a governor and other territorial officers were appointed, and a small military force was assigned to escort them to Great Salt Lake City. At the same time pains were taken to assure the Mormons of the peaceful mission of the troops, and the commander of the force was instructed to avoid any collision with the Mormons, and only to act as a posse comitatus in enforcing obedience to the laws, in case he should be called on by the governor for that purpose. Notwithstanding all these assurances, "flagrant acts of rebellion" * Message and Documents, 1857-8. Part 2. 66 continued to be committed by the Mormons. Captain Stewart Van Vliet had been sent forward to assure the Mormons of the pacific and friendly intentions of the government, and to purchase certain stores for the use of the troops. He left Fort Leavenworth on the 30th of July, 1856, and arrived at Great Salt Lake City in about thirty days of travel.. He had proceeded, he reports, as fast as it was possible to do with six mule wagons. During his progress towards Utah he met many people from that territory who assured him that he would not be allowed to enter Utah, or if he did enter the territory, he would run great risk of losing his life. "I treated all this," says the gallant captain, as idle talk, but it induced me to leave my wagons and escort at Ham's fork, 143 miles this side of the city, and proceed alone." The officer, however met with no molestation, and reached the city unharmed. He at once called upon Brigham Young, the Mormon governor of Utah, and was by him and all others with whom he came in contact, treated with great hospitality and kindness. He found the Mormons firmly resolved to oppose the progress of the United States troops. Brigham Young complained. that they had been persecuted and murdered in Missouri and Illinois, and they "had determined to resist all persecution at the commencement, and that the troops now on the march for Utah should not enter the Great Salt Lake Valley." Though there was abundance of all such stores as the troops might need, they refused absolutely to sell anything to the gov ernment. Το under the command of Col. Albert Sydney Johnston, the accomplished officer who afterwards fell on the wrong side at the battle of Shiloh. On the 29th of September he reports having just crossed the south fork of the Platte river. A portion of the small army was in advance. On the 9th of October, Col. E. B. Alexander was at Camp Winfield, Utah Territory, about thirty miles northwest of Fort Bridger, with a detachment of the army. Here he received letters from Brigham Young and Daniel H. Wells, "Lieut.-General commanding Nauvoo Legion." The latter stated that he was on the ground “to aid in carrying out the instructions of Gov. Young." In his letter Young claims to be still the Governor of the Territory by virtue of act of Congress, passed September 9, 1850, organizing the Territory of Utah, "no successor having been appointed and qualified as provided by law," and as he had not been removed from his office by the President of the United States. It was by virtue of this authority that he issued his proclamation, forbidding the entrance of armed forces into the Territory. His proclamation to the people of Utah was inflammable. "We are invaded," he says, “by a hostile force, who are evidently assailing us to accomplish our overthrow and destruction. For the last twentyfive years we have trusted officials of the Government, from constables and justices to judges, governors and presidents, only to be scorned, held in The expedition to Utah was put derision, insulted and betrayed. Our Captain Van Vliet in conversation with Young and other influential men of the Territory, told them that they might be able to prevent the small force that was then on the march from getting through the narrow mountain passes for the present; but that if so, the government the next year would send out a force that would be sufficient to overcome all resistance. this the Mormons made reply: "We are aware that such will be the case; but when those troops arrive they will find Utah a desert; every house will be burned to the ground, every tree cut down, and every field laid waste. We have three years' provisions on hand, which we will 'cache,' and then take to the mountains, and bid defiance to all the powers of the government." Also at a Sunday service at which Capt. Van Vliet was present, in the course of a sermon by Elder Taylor, the preacher referred to the approach of the United States troops, and asked how many of those present would be willing to apply the torch to their own dwellings and lay waste their fields, when every individual in a congregation of over 4,000 persons held up his hand as a sign of his willingness. From all the facts Capt. Van Vliet was satisfied that the Mormons would attempt to resist the passage of the United States troops through the narrow mountain defiles into the Territory of Utah. |