MARTIAL LAW DECLARED IN UTAH—THE LEGISLATURE TO CONGRESS—"WE SHALL NOT ABANDON OUR RELIGION"—GIVE US OUR RIGHTS AND WE ARE AT HOME—ARRIVAL OF COL. KANE—COMPROMISES—ENTRANCE OF GOVERNOR CUMMING INTO SALT LAKE—REMAINING DIFFICULTIES—PREPARATIONS FOR AN EXODUS—THE PEACE COMMISSION—DIFFICULTIES ADJUSTED—ELDER TAYLOR'S PART.

It was but a few days after the departure of Captain Van Vliet on his return to the army, that Governor Young issued his proclamation forbidding all armed forces from entering the Territory. He called on the territorial militia to enforce the proclamation, and declared martial law to exist throughout Utah. This action was followed by sending a portion of the militia to watch the movements of the army, and prevent its marching into the Territory.

These military movements were under the immediate supervision of Lieutenant-General Daniel H. Wells; but when he went to the front he was accompanied by Elders Taylor and Geo. A. Smith. Elder Taylor remained with the militia at the front until about the middle of December, when he returned to Salt Lake City, as the legislature, to which he had been elected a member from Salt Lake County, convened in the latter part of that month. He was unanimously chosen Speaker of the House.

The most important action of this legislature was the passage of a memorial to the President and Congress of the United States. It called attention to the fact that a previous legislature had memorialized Congress in respect to the situation in Utah, had set forth the grievances of the people and made known their wishes in regard to the appointment of the U. S. officials for the Territory. They had asked that the said officials be selected from the citizens of Utah, whose interests would be identical with those of the people among whom they administered the law.

The present memorialists reminded the President and Congress that no action had been taken, no answer made to this former memorial, "unless," said they, "it is to be understood that the appointment of a full set of officers for this Territory, backed by an army to enforce them upon us * * is to be deemed an answer." And then, notwithstanding an army was encamped on their borders, with the prospect of being re-enforced and marched into Salt Lake Valley in the spring, the legislature had the spirit to talk to Congress in the following strain:

"We appeal to you as American citizens who have been wronged, insulted, abused and persecuted; driven before our relentless foes from city to city—from state to state—until we were finally expelled from the confines of civilization to seek a shelter in a barren, inhospitable clime, amid the wild, savage tribes of the desert plains. We claim to be a portion of the people, and as such have rights that must be respected, and which we have a right to demand. We claim that in a republican form of government, such as our fathers established, and such as ours still professes to be, the officers are and should be the servants of the people—not their masters, dictators or tyrants.

"To the numerous charges of our enemies we plead not guilty, and challenge the world before any just tribunal to the proof. * * Try on the plaster of friendly intercourse and honorable dealing instead of foul aggression and war. Treat us as friends—as citizens entitled to and possessing equal rights with our fellows—and not as alien enemies, lest you make us such. * * All we want is the truth and fair play. The administration have been imposed upon by false, designing men; their acts have been precipitate and hasty, perhaps through lack of due consideration. Please to let us know what you want of us before you prepare your halters to hang, or 'apply the knife to cut out the loathsome, disgusting ulcer.' Do you wish us to deny our God and renounce our religion? That we shall not do. * * Withdraw your troops, give us our Constitutional rights and we are at home."

This document was signed by Elder Taylor, Speaker of the House; and Heber C. Kimball, President of the council.

During the winter of 1857-8 the "army for Utah" was kept encamped on or near Ham's Fork, and about Fort Bridger, unable to move into Salt Lake Valley, as large numbers of its stock had been run off; and a forced march into the Valley was impracticable as the mountain passes were well fortified and guarded by the Utah militia, determined to resist such a movement. Meantime the favorable report given of the Mormons by Captain Van Vliet at Washington, had produced a change in public sentiment; and President Buchanan found himself with his Utah expedition on his hands without being able to assign any reasonable cause for having inaugurated it.

It was at this juncture that Colonel Thomas L. Kane, of Pennsylvania, offered his services to the perplexed President. Colonel Kane had been a witness of the cruel expulsion of the Mormons from Illinois, and had become their firm and fast friend. It was, therefore, as much the object of the Colonel to render further service to a people to whom he had become attached, as it was to prevent the administration at Washington from making a further blunder, that induced him to offer his services as mediator between the President and the people of Utah.

The Colonel arrived in Salt Lake City in February, 1858, and was heartily welcomed by the Church leaders and the Saints. The result of his mediation was that the people received and acknowledged the President's appointee for Governor of the Territory, Alfred Cumming, of Georgia, provided he would agree to come to Salt Lake City without the army—conditions which Governor Cumming readily accepted.

He was escorted to Salt Lake City by Colonel Kane and several companies of the Utah militia; and everywhere was met with a hearty welcome and acknowledged Governor of Utah. He notified General Albert Sidney Johnston—who had succeeded Harney in the command of the Utah expedition—to this effect; and informed him that the presence of the army was not necessary to maintain his authority.

In his report to the Secretary of State, Governor Cumming denied the charges made against the Mormon people—charges which had been pointed to as justifying the President in sending the army—so that there was left not even the shadow of a justification for this inconsiderate, hostile demonstration. But even before Governor Cumming's report reached Washington, President Buchanan had become so heartily sick of his blunder that he issued a proclamation^[1] pardoning the people for their alleged rebellion and treason.

Governor Cumming had entered the Territory, his authority had been acknowledged, he was in the full discharge of his official duties and congratulated himself that all the Utah difficulties were approaching a happy termination. His rejoicing was premature. The difficulties were not ended. The army was within a few days' march of the capital and other thickly settled portions of the Territory, and might rush in at any time to be quartered in Salt Lake City or encamped in close proximity to other settlements to insult, abuse and oppress the people. Furthermore, with the army and its camp followers once settled in or near Salt Lake City, with judges deeply prejudiced against them, and with an idea that they were judges with a mission, it was more than possible, it was quite probable, that juries composed of teamsters and camp followers would be packed to set in judgment on the old settlers of Utah in respect to events which had occurred during the unsettled state of affairs of the past two years. To these things the leaders of the people had determined not to submit; and rather than brook such treatment, an exodus from the Territory was determined upon.

Early spring saw the people in the northern settlements moving en masse for the south, leaving only enough men in the deserted settlements to fire them and lay waste the country. Alfred Cumming might be Governor of the Territory, but the people leaving would make his sceptre a barren one. The army might march into the Territory with all the pomp and circumstance of glorious war, but the country would be a blackened waste—not much glory to be reaped on such a field for the army of the great Republic!

By June, Salt Lake City and all the settlements north of Lehi were deserted, save by those left to destroy them. Such was the state of things in Utah when President Buchanan's Peace Commissioners—L. W. Powell, Senator-elect from Kentucky, and ex-Governor of that state, and Major-General Ben McCullough—arrived. A conference between them and the leaders of the Church, in which Elder Taylor took part, resulted in an adjustment of the Utah difficulties. The past was to be buried. In the language of Commissioner Powell, "Bygones are to be bygones;" and while the army was to be permitted to enter the Territory it was not to be encamped nearer than forty miles of Salt Lake City, and not adjacent to densely settled districts.

The location decided upon for its encampment was in Cedar Valley, south-west of Salt Lake City. The troops marched through the deserted city en route for this point, but made no stay in it. Their permanent encampment in Ceder Valley was made at Fairfield, and named Camp Floyd, in honor of the then Secretary of War.

These stipulations carried out on the part of the Governor, the Commission and the army, and assurances given that they should be faithfully observed, the people returned to their deserted homes in time to reap the volunteer harvest with which their fields were spread; and affairs in troubled Utah began to settle to normal conditions.

In all these stirring events Elder Taylor took a prominent part. Having implicit faith in God his glorious hopes for the future, lined the dark and threatening clouds with brightest silver. Confident, as he ever was, that God held the destiny of His people and that of their enemies in His own hands, he was ready for peace or war; or for the abandonment and destruction of his home, if such were the will of God. This spirit of trust and confidence in the Lord he not only possessed himself, but had also the faculty of imbuing others with it. He encouraged the disheartened, cheered the sorrowful, strengthened the weak, reproved the fearful, convinced the unbelieving, counseled even the wise; and throughout those dark and turbulent times, bore himself with dignity, courage and true manliness which intensified the love of the Saints for him, and called forth the admiration of his brethren.

Footnotes

1. Governor Cumming's report to Lewis Cass, Secretary of State, bears the date of May 2, 1858: The President issued his proclamation, on the sixth of April, of the same year.