  "THE MORMON" COMMENDED BY BRIGHAM YOUNG—TRYING TIMES—COURAGE—ELDER TAYLOR IN THE FRONT—"LET THE TRIAL COME"—SPEECH ON THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN THE TERRITORIES. Elder Taylor arrived in Salt Lake City from his mission to the eastern states on the 7th of August, 1857. Two days later, in the bowery on the Temple square, he preached a powerful discourse, in which he represented what the spirit of the people of the east was in respect to Mormonism, and dwelt at some length on the grandeur of the mission in which the Saints had engaged. He was followed by President Young, who took occasion to commend the labors of the committee appointed to present Utah's claims for admission into the Union (Elder Taylor was one of the committee, it will be remembered), and respecting the individual labors of Elder Taylor, expressed himself as follows: "With regard to the labors of Brother Taylor in editing the paper called The Mormon, published in the city of New York, I have heard many remarks concerning the editorials in that paper, not only from the Saints, but from those who do not profess to believe the religion we have embraced; and it is probably one of the strongest edited papers that is now published. I can say, as to its editorials, that it is one of the strongest papers ever published, so far as my information extends; and I have never read one sentence in them but what my heart could bid success to it, and beat a happy response to every sentence that I have read or heard read. Brother Taylor, that is for you; and I believe that these are the feelings and the sentiments of all in this community who have perused that paper." It was a critical time in Utah when he returned. For several years the crops, through excessive drouth and grass-hoppers, had been at least a partial failure; the isolation of the people from manufacturing and commercial centers, with very limited and very slow means of transportation, had left them almost destitute of clothing; an army was enroute for the Territory, but as to its mission the governor received no definite information, though there was a general and a fairly accurate understanding that its mission was not one of intended peace and good will to the people of Utah. If its mission was to be judged by the boasts of its officers and men, there was to be a sort of "Mormon conquest," and Mormon houses, gardens, orchards, vineyards, fields, and also Mormon wives and daughters were to be the spoils. The very houses were picked out that certain persons were to inhabit; farms, property and women were to be distributed. "Beauty and booty" were their very watchwords. It had already been determined by Governor Young and his associates that such an army with such objects in view should not enter the Territory, even if it had to be prevented by force of arms. It had further been determined that before their enemies should again revel in the homes which their industry had builded, they would burn them to ashes; cut down every fruit-tree and shrub, burn the fences, and leave the country behind them a ruined, blackened waste, while they fled again to the wilderness. These were bold measures. The "army of Utah," as the invading force was called, marched under the United States flag; it was commanded by United States officers; it had been ordered to Utah by the President of the United States; and to resist it might be construed into rebellion or even treason—that meant hanging, to the leaders, who opposed it. Yet bold as these measures were, and fraught with such serious consequences to the leaders who adopted them, they were fearlessly proclaimed, and would have been as promptly executed on occasion. Among that brave band of men who had the courage to thus proclaim their rights, and dared to maintain them even against the United States, none were more bold or fearless than John Taylor. In speech and action he went as far as he who went farthest. In the council chamber and in the field he was in the front rank; shoulder to shoulder he stood with President Young and his brethren, and his public discourses in those times glow with a soul-stirring eloquence that reminds one of the spirit of the Revolutionary patriots of '76. In the very discourse delivered two days after his return from the east, he said: "So far as I am concerned, I say let everything come as God has ordained it. I do not desire trials; I do not desire affliction; I would pray to God to leave me not in temptation; * * * but if the earthquake bellows, the lightnings flash, the thunders roll and the powers of darkness are let loose, and the spirit of evil is permitted to rage and an evil influence is brought to bear on the Saints, and my life with theirs, is put to the test—let it come. * * * I know that President Young and those associated with him are full of the spirit of revelation, and they know what they are doing; I feel to acquiesce and put my shoulder to the work, whatever it is. If it is for peace, let it be peace; if it is for war, let it be to the hilt." Speaking again in the latter part of the same month, he stated and expounded the principles which justified the resistance of the people of Utah to the proceedings of the administration at Washington. His speech on that occasion was a sound exposition of the rights of the people inhabiting the Territories as against the encroachments of the general government, and should be preserved as a valuable addition to the political literature extant upon that subject. After disclaiming any disposition on his own or on the part of his brethren to commit the act of treason, Elder Taylor said: "There are thousands of you who are Americans, who have been born in this land, whose fathers fought for the liberties we used to enjoy, but have not enjoyed for some years past. There are thousands of such men here who feel the same spirit that used to burn in their father's bosoms—the spirit of liberty and equal rights—the spirit of according to every man that which belongs to him, and of robbing no man of his rights. Your fathers and grandfathers met the tyrant when he sought to put a yoke on their necks; as men and true patriots, they came forward and fought for their rights and in defense of that liberty which we, as their children, ought to enjoy. You feel the same spirit that inspired them; the same blood that coursed through their veins flows in yours; you feel true patriotism and a strong attachment to the Constitution and institutions bought by the blood of your fathers, and bequeathed to you by them as your richest patrimony. There are others of you that have taken the oath of allegiance to the United States; and some of you not understanding correct principles, may, perhaps, feel qualms of conscience, and think, probably, that if we undertake to resist the powers that are seeking to make aggression upon us, we are doing wrong. No such thing. You let your conscience sleep at ease; let it be quiet; it is not we who are doing wrong; it is others who are committing wrong upon us." He then referred to the circumstance of the Saints being driven from Missouri, and of their expulsion from Nauvoo—not for any ill that they had done, not that they had interfered with the rights of others; but because there was not virtue enough either in state or general government to protect an innocent, helpless people in the enjoyment of their Constitutional rights; because, for sooth, they were unpopular—friendless. The speaker then asked: "What did we do when we came here? We framed a Constitution, a provisional government, and reported our doings to the United States. Right on the back of all the insults, robbery and fraud which we had endured, we still went Constitutionally to work. Afterwards they gave us a territorial government. Is there any step that we have taken that is contrary to law? There is not. They have appointed our governor, our secretaries, our judges, our marshals; they have done to us the same in this matter as they have done with other Territories. I do not believe in their right Constitutionally to appoint our officers. Still they have done it, and we have submitted to it. And they have sent some of the worst scoundrels here that ever existed on the earth. Instead of being fathers, they have tried every influence they could bring to bear in order to destroy us. Such have been our protectors! Those have been the men who have been sworn to fulfill their public duties; but they have foresworn themselves in the face of high heaven. * * * We have submitted to their sending officers here; that is all right enough if we have a mind to. We are citizens of the United States, and profess to support the Constitution of the United States; and wherein that binds us we are bound; wherein it does not, we are not bound. * * * If there is any man in this congregation, or anywhere else, that will show me any principle or authority in the Constitution of the United States that authorizes the President of the United States to send out governors and judges to this Territory, I would like to see it. I cannot find such authority. I will admit that a usage of that kind has obtained—that it is quite customary for the President of the United States, by and with the consent of the senate to appoint governors, judges, marshals, secretaries, and all of those officers that you have had here. But it is a thing that is not authorized by the Constitution,—much less to force them upon us by an armed soldiery. There is no such authority existing. "I will quote to you from the Constitution—if I had the Constitution here I would read it to you—it is to the effect 'that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.' No matter, therefore, whether the people live in the states or territories, they possess constitutional privileges alike. The most that is said in regard to Territories and the authority of the President or Congress is, that 'The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property of the United States,' that is speaking of it as land; and some of the most prominent statesmen of the United States have so construed it. It is property as land—territory as land they have a right to interfere with, not territory as regards people. I published this in The Mormon long ago, and said the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.[ "I conversed with a judge Black who was coming up to Nebraska Territory on a steam boat—an intelligent man, a Democrat, of course. When talking about these principles to him, which he acceded to, I said: 'Judge, what are you doing here?' 'I am here,' said he, 'according to the usage that has obtained; but if the people do not want me, all they have to do is to express it, and I will go away again.' I wish we had only half such decent men as that sent here. "* * * We are not lacking for men in the United States, at the present time who want to make it appear that the United States have a right to lord it over the Territories, the same as the British government used to over their colonies. Thousands of you before me were citizens of the United States, where you came from. You had the right of franchise—had a right to say who should be your governor and who should be municipal and state officers. You came out here by thousands or by tens of thousands. By what right or upon what principle are you disfranchised? Can anybody tell me? Say some: 'You need not have come out here unless you had a mind to.' Of course not. But we had a mind to; we were American citizens before we came out, and we have transgressed no law in coming; and by what rule are we deprived of our citizenship. If we had a right then to vote for anything, we have a right now; and nobody has a right to crowd this or that man upon us without our consent,—much less have they a right to dragoon us into servility to their unconstitutional exactions. "* * * In the Declaration of Independence, it is stated [as one of the just causes of complaint against the English government] that the people had rulers placed over them, and they had no voice in their election. Read that instrument. It describes our wrongs as plainly as it did the wrongs the people then labored under and discarded. Our government is doing the very things against us that our fathers complained of—'They send armed mercenaries among us to subjugate us.' What is our government doing? The same thing." "As American citizens and patriots, and as sons of those venerable sires can we, without disgracing ourselves, our fathers and our nation, submit to these insults, and tamely bow to such tyranny? We cannot do it, and we will not do it. We will rally round the Constitution, and declare our rights as American citizens; and we will sustain them in the face of high heaven and the world. "No man need have any qualms of conscience that he is doing wrong. You are patriots, standing by your rights and opposing the wrong which affects all lovers of freedom as well as you; for those acts of aggression have a withering, deadly effect, and are gnawing like a canker worm at the very vitals of civil and religious liberty. You are standing by the Declaration of Independence, and sustaining the Constitution which was given by inspiration of God; and you are the only people in the United States at this time that are doing it. You dare do it, and you feel right about the matter. "* * * We are not taking any steps contrary to the laws and the Constitution of the United States, but in everything we are upholding and sustaining them. Gentlemen, hands off! We are free men; we possess equal rights with other men; and if you send your sealed orders[ Such, then, were the principles which justified the resistance of Utah to the encroachments of the general government. The Mormons were not religious enthusiasts—fanatics—rebels—seeking to become a law unto themselves; but patriots demanding their rights—rights based upon the broad principles of liberty as set forth in the Declaration of Independence, and guaranteed in the Constitution of their country. They were contending for the right to regulate their own local affairs in their own way, and to be governed by men of their own choosing—they were but walking in the footsteps of their Revolutionary Fathers. Footnotes |
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