The Story of the Mormons: From the Date of their Origin to the Year 1901
by
William Alexander Linn
Part 14 out of 15
the troops at Camp Douglas would be used to enforce the warrant
for Young's arrest if necessary, and the possible outcome has
been thus portrayed by the Mormon historian:--"It was well known
that he [Young] had often declared that he never would give
himself up to be murdered as his predecessor, the Prophet Joseph,
and his brother Hyrum had been, while in the hands of the law,
and under the sacred pledge of the state for their safety; and,
ere this could have been repeated, ten thousand Mormon Elders
would have gone into the jaws of death with Brigham Young. In a
few hours the suspended Nauvoo Legion would have been in arms."*
* Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 527.
The warrant was served on Young at his house by the United States
marshal, and, as Young was ill, a deputy was left in charge of
him. On October 9 Young appeared in court with the leading men
of the church, and a motion to quash the indictment was made
before the chief justice and denied.
The same grand jury on October 28 found indictments for murder
against D. H. Wells, W. H. Kimball, and Hosea Stout for alleged
responsibility for the killing of Richard Yates during the "war"
of 1857. The fact that the man was killed was not disputed; his
brains were knocked out with an axe as he was sleeping by the
side of two Mormon guards.* The defence was that he died the
death of a spy. Wells was admitted to bail in $50,000, and the
other two men were placed under guard at Camp Douglas.
Indictments were also found against Brigham Young, W. A.
Hickman, O. P. Rockwell, G. D. Grant, and Simon Dutton for the
murder of one of the Aikin party at Warm Springs. They were all
admitted to bail.
* Hickman tells the story in his "Brigham's Destroying Angel," p.
122.
When the case against Young, on the charge of improper
cohabitation, was called on November 20, his counsel announced
that he had gone South for his health, as was his custom in
winter, and the prosecution thereupon claimed that his bail was
forfeited. Two adjournments were granted at the request of his
counsel. On January 3 Young appeared in court, and his counsel
urged that he be admitted to bail, pleading his age and ill
health. The judge refused this request, but said that the
marshal could, if he desired, detain the prisoner in one of
Young's own houses. This course was taken, and he remained under
detention until released by the decision of the United States
Supreme Court.
In April, 1872, that court decided that the territorial jury law
of Utah, in force since 1859, had received the implied approval
of Congress; that the duties of the attorney and marshal
appointed by the President under the Territorial Act "have
exclusive relation to cases arising under the laws and
constitution of the United States," and "the making up of the
jury list and all matters connected with the designation of
jurors are subject to the regulation of territorial law."* This
was a great victory for the Mormons.
* Chilton vs. Englebrech, 13 Wallace, p. 434.
In October, 1873, the United States Supreme Court rendered its
decision in the case of "Snow vs. The United States" on the
appeal from Chief Justice McKean's ruling about the authority of
the prosecuting officers. It overruled the chief justice,
confining the duties of the attorney appointed by the President
to cases in which the federal government was concerned,
concluding that "in any event, no great inconvenience can arise,
because the entire matter is subject to the control and
regulation of Congress." *
* Wallace's "Reports," Vol. XVIII, p. 317.
The following comments, from three different sources, will show
the reader how many influences were then shaping the control of
authority in Utah:--"At about this time [December, 1871] a change
came in the action of the Department of justice in these Utah
prosecutions, and fair-minded men of the nation demanded of the
United States Government that it should stop the disgraceful and
illegal proceedings of Judge McKean's court. The influence of
Senator Morton was probably the first and most potent brought to
bear in this matter, and immediately thereafter Senator Lyman
Trumbull threw the weight of his name and statesmanship in the
same direction, which resulted in Baskin and Maxwell being
superseded, . . . and finally resulted in the setting aside of
two years of McKean's doings as illegal by the august decision
of the Supreme Court."--Tullidge, "History of Salt Lake City,"
p. 547.
"The Attorney for the Mormons labored assiduously at Washington,
and, contrary to the usual custom in the Supreme Court, the
forthcoming decision had been whispered to some grateful ears.
The Mormon anniversary conference beginning on the sixth of
April was continued over without adjournment awaiting that
decision."--"Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 688.
"Thus stood affairs during the winter of 1870-71. The Gentiles
had the courts, the Mormons had the money. In the spring Nevada
came over to run Utah. Hon. Thomas Fitch of that state had been
defeated in his second race for Congress; so he came to Utah as
Attorney for the Mormons. Senator Stewart and other Nevada
politicians made heavy investments in Utah mines; litigation
multiplied as to mining titles, and Judge McKean did not rule to
suit Utah . . . . The great Emma mine, worth two or three
millions, became a power in our judicial embroglio. The Chief
Justice, in various rulings, favored the present occupants.
Nevada called upon Senator Stewart, who agreed to go straight to
Long Branch and see that McKean was removed. But Ulysses the
Silent . . . promptly made reply that if Judge McKean had
committed no greater fault than to revise a little Nevada law,
he was not altogether unpardonable."--Beadle, "Polygamy," p.
429.
The Supreme Court decisions left the federal courts in Utah
practically powerless, and President Grant understood this. On
February 14, 1873, he sent a special message to Congress, saying
that he considered it necessary, in order to maintain the
supremacy of the laws of the United States, "to provide that the
selection of grand and petit jurors for the district courts [of
Utah], if not put under the control of federal officers, shall
be placed in the hands of persons entirely independent of those
who are determined not to enforce any act of Congress obnoxious
to them, and also to pass some act which shall deprive the
probate courts, or any court created by the territorial
legislature, of any power to interfere with or impede the action
of the courts held by the United States judges."
In line with this recommendation Senator Frelinghuysen had
introduced a bill in the Senate early in February, which the
Senate speedily passed, the Democrats and Schurz, Carpenter, and
Trumbull voting against it. Mormon influence fought it with
desperation in the House, and in the closing hours of the session
had it laid aside. The diary of Delegate Hooper says on this
subject, "Maxwell [the United States Marshal for Utah] said he
would take out British papers and be an American citizen no
longer. Claggett [Delegate from Montana] asserted that we had
spent $200,000 on the judiciary committee, and Merritt [Delegate
from Idaho] swore that there had been treachery and we had
bribed Congress."*
* The Mormons do not always conceal the influences they employ to
control legislation in which they are interested. Thus Tullidge,
referring to the men of whom their Cooperative Institution buys
goods, says: "But Z. C. M. I. has not only a commercial
significance in the history of our city, but also a political
one. It has long been the temporal bulwark around the Mormon
community. Results which have been seen in Utah affairs,
preservative of the Mormon power and people, unaccountable to
'the outsider' except on the now stale supposition that 'the
Mormon Church has purchased Congress,' may be better traced to
the silent but potent influence of Z. C. M. I. among the ruling
business men of America, just as John Sharp's position as one of
the directors of U. P. R---r,--a compeer among such men as
Charles Francis Adams, Jay Gould and Sidney Dillon--gives him a
voice in Utah affairs among the railroad rulers of
America."--"History of Salt Lake City;" p. 734.
In the election of 1872 the Mormons dropped Hooper, who had long
served them as Delegate at Washington, and sent in his place
George Q. Cannon, an Englishman by birth and a polygamist. But
Mormon influence in Washington was now to receive a severe
check. On June 23, 1874, the President approved an act introduced
by Mr. Poland of Vermont, and known as the Poland Bill,* which
had important results. It took from the probate courts in Utah
all civil, chancery, and criminal jurisdiction; made the common
law in force; provided that the United States attorney should
prosecute all criminal cases arising in the United States courts
in the territory; that the United States marshal should serve and
execute all processes and writs of the supreme and district
courts, and that the clerk of the district court in each
district and the judge of probate of the county should prepare
the jury lists, each containing two hundred names, from which the
United States marshal should draw the grand and petit juries for
the term. It further provided that, when a woman filed a bill to
declare void a marriage because of a previous marriage, the
court could grant alimony; and that, in any prosecution for
adultery, bigamy, or polygamy, a juror could be challenged if he
practised polygamy or believed in its righteousness.
* Chap. 469, 1st Session, 43d Congress.
The suit for divorce brought by Young's wife "No. 19,"--Ann Eliza
Young--in January, 1873, attracted attention all over the
country. Her bill charged neglect, cruel treatment, and
desertion, set forth that Young had property worth $8,000,000
and an income of not less than $40,000 a year, and asked for an
allowance of $1000 a month while the suit was pending, $6000
for preliminary counsel fees, and $14,000 more when the final
decree was made, and that she be awarded $200,000 for her
support. Young in his reply surprised even his Mormon friends.
After setting forth his legal marriage in Ohio, stating that he
and the plaintiff were members of a church which held the
doctrine that "members thereto might rightfully enter into
plural marriages," and admitting such a marriage in this case,
he continued: "But defendant denies that he and the said
plaintiff intermarried in any other or different sense or manner
than that above mentioned or set forth. Defendant further
alleges that the said complainant was then informed by the
defendant, and then and there well knew that, by reason of said
marriage, in the manner aforesaid, she could not have and need
not expect the society or personal attention of this defendant
as in the ordinary relation between husband and wife." He
further declared that his property did not exceed $600,000 in
value, and his income $6000 a month.
Judge McKean, on February 25, 1875, ordered Young to pay Ann
Eliza $3000 for counsel fees and $500 a month alimony pendente
lite, and, when he failed to obey, sentenced him to pay a fine
of $25 and to one day's imprisonment. Young was driven to his
own residence by the deputy marshal for dinner, and, after
taking what clothing he required, was conducted to the
penitentiary, where he was locked up in a cell for a short time,
and then placed in a room in the warden's office for the night.
Judge McKean was accused of inconsistency in granting alimony,
because, in so doing, he had to give legal sanction to Ann
Eliza's marriage to Brigham while the latter's legal wife was
living. Judge McKean's successor, Judge D. P. Loew, refused to
imprison Young, taking the ground that there had been no valid
marriage. Loew's successor, Judge Boreman, ordered Young
imprisoned until the amount due was paid, but he was left at his
house in custody of the marshal. Boreman's successor, Judge
White, freed Young on the ground that Boreman's order was void.
White's successor, Judge Schaeffer, in 1876 reduced the alimony
to $100 per month, and, in default of payment, certain of
Young's property was sold at auction and rents were ordered
seized to make up the deficiency. The divorce case came to trial
in April, 1877, when Judge Schaeffer decreed that the polygamous
marriage was void, annulled all orders for alimony, and assessed
the costs against the defendant.
Nothing further of great importance affecting the relations of
the church with the federal government occurred during the rest
of Young's life. Governor Woods incurred the animosity of the
Mormons by asserting his authority from time to time ("he
intermeddled," Bancroft says). In 1874 he was succeeded by S. B.
Axtell of California, who showed such open sympathy with the
Mormon view of his office as to incur the severest censure of
the non-Mormon press. Axtell was displaced in the following year
by G. B. Emery of Tennessee, who held office until the early
part of 1880, when he was succeeded by Eli H. Murray.*
* Governor Murray showed no disposition to yield to Mormon
authority. In his message in 1882 be referred pointedly, among
other matters, to the tithing, declaring that "the poor man who
earns a dollar by the sweat of his brow is entitled to that
dollar," and that "any exaction or undue influence to dispossess
him of any part of it, in any other manner than in payment of a
legal obligation, is oppression," and he granted a certificate
of election as Delegate to Congress to Allan G. Campbell, who
received only 1350 votes to 18,568 for George Q. Cannon, holding
that the latter was not a citizen. Governor Murray's resignation
was accepted in March, 1886, and he was succeeded in the
following May by Caleb W. West, who, in turn, was supplanted in
May, 1889, by A. L. Thomas, who was territorial governor when
Utah was admitted as a state.
CHAPTER XXII. Brigham Young's Death--His Character
Brigham Young died in Salt Lake City at 4 P.M. on Wednesday,
August 29, 1877. He was attacked with acute cholera morbus on
the evening of the 23rd, after delivering an address in the
Council House, and it was followed by inflammation of the
bowels. The body lay in state in the Tabernacle from Saturday,
September 1, until Sunday noon, when the funeral services were
held. He was buriod in a little plot on one of the main streets
of Salt Lake City, not far from his place of residence.
The steps by which Young reached the position of head of the
Mormon church, the character of his rule, and the means by which
he maintained it have been set forth in the previous chapters of
this work. In the ruler we have seen a man without education,
but possessed of an iron will, courage to take advantage of
unusual opportunities, and a thorough knowledge of his flock
gained by association with them in all their wanderings. In his
people we have seen a nucleus of fanatics, including some of
Joseph Smith's fellow-plotters, constantly added to by new
recruits, mostly poor and ignorant foreigners, who had been made
to believe in Smith's Bible and "revelations," and been further
lured to a change of residence by false pictures of the country
they were going to, and the business opportunities that awaited
them there. Having made a prominent tenet of the church the
practice of polygamy, which Young certainly knew the federal
government would not approve, he had an additional bond with
which to unite the interests of his flock with his own, and thus
to make them believe his approval as necessary to their personal
safety as they believed it to be necessary to their salvation.
The command which Young exercised in these circumstances is not
an illustration of any form of leadership which can be held up
to admiration. It is rather an exemplification of that tyranny in
church and state which the world condemns whenever an example of
it is afforded.
Young was the centre of responsibility for all the rebellion,
nullification, and crime carried on under the authority of the
church while he was its head. He never concealed his own power.
He gloried in it, and declared it openly in and out of the
Tabernacle. Authority of this kind cannot be divided. Whatever
credit is due to Young for securing it, is legitimately his. But
those who point to its acquisition as a sign of greatness, must
accept for him, with it, responsibility for the crimes that were
carried on under it.
The laudators of Young have found evidence of great executive
ability in his management of the migration from Nauvoo to Utah.
But, in the first place, this migration was compulsory; the
Mormons were obliged to move. In the second place its
accomplishment was no more successful than the contemporary
migrations to Oregon, and the loss of life in the camps on the
Missouri River was greater than that incurred in the great rush
across the plains to California; while the horrors of the
hand-cart movement--a scheme of Young's own device--have never
been equalled in Western travel. In Utah, circumstances greatly
favored Young's success. Had not gold been discovered when it
was in California, the Mormon settlement would long have been
like a dot in a desert, and its ability to support the stream Of
immigrants attracted from Europe would have been problematic,
since, in more than one summer, those already there had narrowly
escaped starvation while depending on the agricultural resources
of the valley.
J. Hyde, writing in 1857, said that Young "by the native force
and vigor of a strong mind" had taken from beneath the Mormon
church system "the monstrous stilts of a miserable superstition,
and consolidated it into a compact scheme of the sternest
fanaticism."* In other words, he might have explained, instead of
relying on such "revelations" as served Smith, he refused to use
artificial commands of God, and substituted the commands of
Young, teaching, and having his associates teach, that obedience
to the head of the church was obedience to the Supreme Power.
Both Hyde and Stenhouse, writing before Young's death, and as
witnesses of the strength of his autocratic government,
overestimated him. This is seen in the view they took of the
effect of his death. Hyde declared that under any of the other
contemporary leadersTaylor, Kimball, Orson Hyde, or Pratt:
"Mormonism will decline. Brigham is its tun; this is its
daytime." Stenhouse asserted that, "Theocracy will die out with
Brigham's flickering flame of life; and, when he is laid in the
tomb, many who are silent now will curse his memory for the
cruel suffering that his ambition caused them to endure." But
all such prophecies remain unfulfilled. Young's death caused no
more revolution or change in the Mormon church than does the
death of a Pope in the Church of Rome. "Regret it who may,"
wrote a Salt Lake City correspondent less than three months
after his burial, "the fact is visible to every intelligent
person here that Mormonism has taken a new lease of life, and,
instead of disintegration, there never was such unity among its
people; and in the place of a rapidly dying consumptive, whose
days were numbered, the body of the church is the picture of
pristine health and vigor, with all the ambition and enthusiasm
of a first love."** The new leadership has, grudgingly, traded
polygamy for statehood; but the church power is as strong and
despotic and unified to-day on the lines on which it is working
as it was under Young, only exercising that power on the more
civilized basis rendered necessary by closer connection with an
outside civilization.
* "Mormonism," p.151.
** New York Times, November 23, 1877.
Young was a successful accumulator of property for his own use. A
poor man when he set out from Nauvoo, his estate at his death
was valued at between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000. This was a
great accumulation for a pioneer who had settled in a
wilderness, been burdened with a polygamous family of over twenty
wives and fifty children, and the cares of a church
denomination, without salary as a church officer. "I am the only
person in the church," Young said to Greeley in 1859, "who has
not a regular calling apart from the church service"; and he
added, "We think a man who cannot make his living aside from the
ministry of the church unsuited to that office. I am called
rich, and consider myself worth $250,000; but no dollar of it
ever was paid me by the church, nor for any service as a
minister of the Everlasting Gospel." * Two years after his death
a writer in the Salt Lake Tribune** asserted that Young had
secured in Utah from the tithing $13,000,000, squandered about
$9,000,o on his family, and left the rest to be fought for by
his heirs and assigns.*** Notwithstanding the vast sums taken by
him in tithing for the alleged benefit of the poor, there was not
in Salt Lake City, at the time of his death, a single hospital
or "home" creditable to that settlement.
* "Overland Journey," p. 213.
** June 25, 1879.
*** "Having control of the tithing, and possessing unlimited
credit, he has added 'house to house and field to field,' while
every one knew that he had no personal enterprises sufficient to
enable him to meet anything like the current expenses of his
numerous wives and children. As trustee in trust he renders no
account of the funds that come into his hands, but tells the
faithful that they are at perfect liberty to examine the books
at any moment."--"Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 665.
The mere acquisition of his wealth no more entitled Young to be
held up as a marvellous man of business than did Tweed's
accumulations give him this distinction in New York. Beadle
declares that "Brigham never made a success of any business he
undertook except managing the Mormons," and cites among his
business failures the non-success of every distant colony he
planted, the Cottonwood Canal (whose mouth was ten feet higher
than its source), his beet-sugar manufactory, and his Colorado
Transportation Company (to bring goods for southern Utah up the
Colorado River).*
* "Polygamy," p. 484.
The reports of Young's discourses in the Temple show that he was
as determined in carrying out his own financial schemes as he
was in enforcing orders pertaining to the church. Here is an
almost humorous illustration of this. In urging the people one
day to be more regular in paying their tithing, he said they
need not fear that he would make a bad use of their money, as he
had plenty of his own, adding:--"I believe I will tell you how I
get some of it. A great many of these elders in Israel, soon
after courting these young ladies, and old ladies, and
middle-aged ladies, and having them sealed to them, want to have
a bill of divorce. I have told them from the beginning that
sealing men and women for time and all eternity is one of the
ordinances of the House of God, and that I never wanted a
farthing for sealing them, nor for officiating in any of the
ordinances of God's house. But when you ask for a bill of
divorce, I intend that you shall pay for it. That keeps me in
spending money, besides enabling me to give hundreds of dollars
to the poor, and buy butter, eggs, and little notions for women
and children, and otherwise use it where it does good. You may
think this a singular feature of the Gospel, but I cannot
exactly say that this is in the Gospel."*
* Deseret News, March 20, 1861. For such an openly jolly old
hypocrite one can scarcely resist the feeling that he would like
to pass around the hat.
We have seen how Young gave himself control of a valuable canon.
That was only the beginning of such acquisitions. The
territorial legislature of Utah was continually making special
grants to him. Among them may be mentioned the control of City
Creek Canon (said to have been worth $10,000 a year) on payment
of $500; of the waters of Mill Creek; exclusive right to Kansas
Prairie as a herd-ground; the whole of Cache Valley for a
herd-ground; Rush Valley for a herd-ground; rights to establish
ferries; an appropriation of $2500 for an academy in Salt Lake
City (which was not built), etc.*
* Here is the text of one of these acts: "Be it ordained by the
General Assembly of the State of Deseret that Brigham Young has
the sole control of City Creek and Canon; and that he pay into
the public treasury the sum of $500 therefore. Dec. 9, 1850."
Young's holdings of real estate were large, not only in Salt Lake
City, but in almost every county in the territory.* Besides city
lots and farm lands, he. owned grist and saw mills, and he took
care that his farms were well cultivated and that his mills made
fine flour.**
* "For several years past the agent of the church, A. M. Musser,
has been engaged in securing legal deeds for all the property
the prophet claims, and by this he will be able to secure in his
lifetime to his different families such property as will render
them independent at his death. The building of the Pacific
Railroad is said to have yielded him about a quarter of a
million."--"Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 666.
** "His position secured him also many valuable presents. From a
barrel of brandy down to an umbrella, Brigham receives
courteously and remembers the donors with increased kindness. I
saw one man make him a present of ten fine milch cows."--Hyde,
"Mormonism," p. 165.
As trustee in trust for the church Young had control of all the
church property and income, practically without responsibility
or oversight. Mrs. Waite (writing in 1866) said that attempts
for many years by the General Conference to procure a balance
sheet of receipts and expenditures had failed, and that the
accounts in the tithing office, such as they were, were kept by
clerks who were the leading actors in the Salt Lake Theatre,
owned by Young.* It was openly charged that, in 1852, Young
"balanced his account" with the church by having the clerk
credit him with the amount due by him, "for services rendered,"
and that, in 1867, he balanced his account again by crediting
himself with $967,000. A committee appointed to investigate the
accounts of Young after his death reported to the Conference of
October, 1878, that "for the sole purpose of preserving it from
the spoliation of the enemy," he "had transferred certain
property from the possession of the church to his own individual
possession," but that it had been transferred back again.
* "The Mormon Prophet," pp. 148-149,
Young's will divided his wives and children into nineteen
"classes," and directed his executors to pay to each such a sum
as might be necessary for their comfortable support; the word
"marriage" in the will to mean "either by ceremony before a
lawful magistrate, or according to the order of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or by their cohabitation in
conformity to our custom."
On June 14, 1879, Emmeline A. Young, on behalf of herself and
the heirs at law, began a suit against the executors of Young's
estate, charging that they had improperly appropriated $200,000;
had improperly allowed nearly $1,000,000 to John Taylor as
trustee in trust to the church, less a credit of $300,000 for
Young's services as trustee; and that they claimed the power, as
members of the Apostles' Quorum, to dispose of all the
testator's property and to disinherit any heir who refused to
submit. This suit was compromised in the following September,
the seven persons joining in it executing a release on payment of
$75,000. A suit which the church had begun against the heirs and
executors was also discontinued. The Salt Lake Herald (Mormon)
of October 5, 1879, said, "The adjustment is far preferable to a
continuance of the suit, which was proving not only expensive,
but had become excessively annoying to many people, was a large
disturbing element in the community, and was rapidly descending
into paths that nobody here cares to see trodden."
Just how many wives Brigham Young had, in the course of his life,
would depend on his own and others' definition of that term. He
told Horace Greeley, in 1859: "I have fifteen; I know no one who
has more. But some of those sealed to me are old ladies, whom I
regard rather as mothers than wives, but whom I have taken home
to cherish and support."* In 1869, he informed the Boston Board
of Trade, when that body visited Salt Lake City, that he had
sixteen wives living, and had lost four, and that forty-nine of
his children were living then. " He was," says Beadle, "sealed
on the spiritual wife system to more women than any one can
count; all over Mormondom are pious old widows, or wives of
Gentiles and apostates, who hope to rise at the last day and
claim a celestial share in Brigham." J. Hyde said that he knew
of about twenty-five wives with whom Brigham lived. The
following list is made up from "Pictures and Biographies of
Brigham Young and his Wives," published by J. H. Crockwell of
Salt Lake City, by authority of Young's eldest son and of seven
of his wives, but is not complete:--
* "Overland journey," p. 215.
NAME************* DATE OF MARRIAGE *** NUMBER OF CHILDREN***
Mary Ann Angell * February, 1834. Ohio 6
Louisa Beman ** April, 1841. Nauvoo 4
Mrs. Lucy Decker Seely June, 1842. Nauvoo 7
H. E. C. Campbell November, 1843.Nauvoo 1
Augusta Adams November, 1843. Nauvoo 0
Clara Decker May, 1844. Nauvoo 5
Clara C. Ross September, 1844. Nauvoo 4
Emily Dow Partridge** September, 1844. Nauvoo 7
Susan Snively November, 1844. Nauvoo 0
Olive Grey Frost** February, 1845. Nauvoo 0
Emmeline Free April, 1845. Nauvoo 0
Margaret Pierce April, 1845. Nauvoo 1
N. K. T. Carter January, 1846. Nauvoo 0
Ellen Rockwood January, 1846. Nauvoo 0
Maria Lawrence** January, 1846. Nauvoo 0
Martha Bowker January, 1846. Nauvoo 0
Margaret M. Alley January, 1846. Nauvoo 2
Lucy Bigelow March, 1847. (?) 3
Z. D. Huntington ** March, 1847 (?). Nauvoo 1
Eliza K. Snow** June, 1849. S. L. C. 0
Eliza Burgess October, 1850. S. L. C. 1
Harriet Barney October, 1850. S. L. C. 1
Harriet A. Folsom January, 1863. S. L. C. 0
Mary Van Cott January, 1865. S. L. C. 1
Ann Eliza Webb April, 1868. S. L. C. 0
* His first wife died 1832.
** Joseph Smith's widows.
Young's principal houses in Salt Lake City stood at the
southeastern corner of the block adjoining the Temple block, and
designated on the map as block 8. The largest building,
occupying the corner, was called the Beehive House; connected
with this was a smaller building in which were Young's private
offices, the tithing office, etc; and next to this was a
building partly of stone, called the Lion House, taking its name
from the figure of a lion sculptured on its front, representing
Young's title "The Lion of the Lord." When J. Hyde wrote,
seventeen or eighteen of Young's wives dwelt in the Lion House,
and the Beehive House became his official residence.* Individual
wives were provided for elsewhere. His legal wife lived in what
was called the White House, a few hundred yards from his
official home. His well-beloved Amelia lived in another house
half a block distant; another favorite, just across the street;
Emmeline, on the same block; and not far away the latest
acquisition to his harem.
* The Beehive House is still the official residence of the head
of the church, and in it President Snow was living at the time
of his death. The office building is still devoted to office
uses, and the Lion House now furnishes temporary quarters to the
Latter-Day Saints' College.
Young's life in his later years was a very orderly one, although
he was not methodical in arranging his office hours and
attending to his many duties. Rising before eight A.m., he was
usually in his office at nine, transacting business with his
secretary, and was ready to receive callers at ten. So many were
the people who had occasion to see him, and so varied were the
matters that could be brought to his attention, that many hours
would be devoted to these callers if other engagements did not
interfere. Once a year he made a sort of visit of state to all
the principal settlements in the territory, accompanied by
counsellors, apostles, and Bishops, and sometimes by a favorite
wife. Shorter excursions of the same kind were made at other
times. Each settlement was expected to give him a formal
greeting, and this sometimes took the form of a procession with
banners, such as might have been prepared for a conquering hero.
CHAPTER XXIII. Social Aspects Of Polygamy
There was something compulsory about all phases of life in Utah
during Brigham Young's regime--the form of employment for the
men, the domestic regulations of the women, the church duties
each should perform, and even the location in the territory
which they should call their home. Not only did large numbers of
the foreign immigrants find themselves in debt to the church on
their arrival, and become compelled in this way to labor on the
"public works" as they might be ordered, but the skilled
mechanics who brought their tools with them in most cases found
on their arrival that existence in Utah meant a contest with the
soil for food. Even when a mechanic obtained employment at his
trade it was in the ruder branches.
Mormon authorities have always tried to show that Americans have
predominated in their community. Tullidge classes the population
in this order: Americans, English, Scandinavian (these claim
one-fifth of the Mormon population of Utah), Scotch, Welsh,
Germans, and a few Irish, French, Italians, and Swiss. The
combination of new-comers and the emigrants from Nauvoo made a
rude society of fanatics,* before whom there was held out enough
prospect of gain in land values (scarcely one of the immigrants
had ever been a landowner) to overcome a good deal of the
discontent natural to their mode of life, and who, in religious
matters, were held in control by a priesthood, against whom they
could not rebel without endangering that hope of heaven which
had induced them to journey across the ocean. There are
roughness and lawlessness in all frontier settlements, but this
Mormon community differed from all other gatherings of new
population in the American West. It did not migrate of its own
accord, attracted by a fertile soil or precious ores; it was
induced to migrate, not without misrepresentation concerning
material prospects, it is true, but mainly because of the hope
that by doing so it would share in the blessings and protection
of a Zion. The gambling hell and the dance hall, which form
principal features of frontier mining settlements, were wanting
in Salt Lake City, and the absence of the brothel was pointed to
as evidence of the moral effect of polygamy.
* "I have discovered thus early (1852) that little deference is
paid to women. Repeatedly, in my long walk to our boarding
house, I was obliged to retreat back from the [street] crossing
places and stand on one side for men to cross over. There are
said to be a great many of the lower order of English here, and
this rudeness, so unusual with our countrymen, may proceed from
them."-- Mrs. Ferris. "Life among the Mormons."
The system of plural marriages left its impress all over the home
life of the territory. Many of the Mormon leaders, as we have
seen, had more wives than one when they made their first trip
across the plains, and the practice of polygamy, while denied on
occasion, was not concealed from the time the settlement was
made in the valley to the date of its public proclamation. In the
early days, a man with more than one wife provided for them
according to his means. Young began with quarters better than
the average, but modest in their way, and finally occupied the
big buildings which cost him many thousands of dollars. If a man
with several wives had the means to do so, he would build a long,
low dwelling, with an outside door for each wife, and thus house
all under the same roof in a sort of separate barracks. When
Gunnison wrote, in 1852, there were many instances in which more
than one wife shared the same house when it contained only one
apartment, but he said: "It is usual to board out the extra
ones, who most frequently pay their own way by sewing, and other
female employments." Mrs. Ferris wrote: "The mass of the
dwellings are small, low, and hutlike. Some of them literally
swarmed with women and children, and had an aspect of extreme
want of neatness . . . . One family, in which there were two
wives, was living in a small hut--three children very sick [with
scarlet fever]--two beds and a cook-stove in the same room,
creating the air of a pest-house."*
* "Life among the Mormons," pp. 111, 145.
Hyde, describing the city in 1857, thus enumerated the home
accommodations of some of the leaders:--"A very pretty house on
the east side was occupied by the late J. M. Grant and his five
wives. A large barrack-like house on the corner is tenanted by
Ezra T. Benson and his four ladies. A large but mean-looking
house to the west was inhabited by the late Parley P. Pratt and
his nine wives. In that long, dirty row of single rooms, half
hidden by a very beautiful orchard and garden, lived Dr. Richard
and his eleven wives. Wilford Woodruff and five wives reside in
another large house still further west. O. Pratt and some four or
five wives occupy an adjacent building. Looking toward the
north, we espy a whole block covered with houses, barns,
gardens, and orchards. In these dwell H. C. Kimball and his
eighteen or twenty wives, their families and dependents."*
* "Mormonism," p. 34. The number of wives of the church leaders
decreased in later years. Beadle, giving the number of wives
"supposed to appertain to each" in 1882, credits President
Taylor with four (three having died), and the Apostles with an
average of three each, Erastus Snow having five, and four others
only two each.
Horace Greeley, prejudiced as he was in favor of the Mormons when
he visited Salt Lake City in 1859, was forced to observe:--"The
degradation (or, if you please, the restriction) of woman to the
single office of childbearing and its accessories is an
inevitable consequence of the system here paramount. I have not
observed a sign in the streets, an advertisement in the
journals, of this Mormon metropolis, whereby a woman proposes to
do anything whatever. No Mormon has ever cited to me his wife's
or any woman's opinion on any subject; no Mormon woman has been
introduced or spoken to me; and, though I have been asked to
visit Mormons in their houses, no one has spoken of his wife (or
wives) desiring to see me, or his desiring me to make her (or
their) acquaintance, or voluntarily indicated the existence of
such a being or beings."*
* "Overland journey," p. 217.
Woman's natural jealousy, and the suffering that a loving wife
would endure when called upon to share her husband's affection
and her home with other women, would seem to form a sort of
natural check to polygamous marriages. But in Utah this check
was overcome both by the absolute power of the priesthood over
their flock, and by the adroit device of making polygamy not
merely permissive, but essential to eternal salvation. That the
many wives of even so exalted a prophet as Brigham Young could
become rebellious is shown by the language employed by him in
his discourse of September 21, 1856, of which the following will
suffice as a specimen:--"Men will say, 'My wife, though a most
excellent woman, has not seen a happy day since I took my second
wife; no, not a happy day for a year.' . . . I wish my women to
understand that what I am going to say is for them, as well as
all others, and I want those who are here to tell their sisters,
yes, all the women in this community, and then write it back to
the states, and do as you please with it. I am going to give you
from this time till the 6th day of October next for reflection,
that you may determine whether you wish to stay with your
husbands or not, and then I am going to set every woman at
liberty, and say to them, 'Now go your way, my women with the
rest; go your way.' And my wives have got to do one of two
things; either round up their shoulders to endure the
afflictions of this world, and live their religion, or they may
leave, for I will not have them about me. I will go into heaven
alone, rather than have scratching and fighting all around me. I
will set all at liberty. What, first wife too?' Yes,I will
liberate you all. I know what my women will say; they will say,
'You can have as many women as you please, Brigham.' But I want
to go somewhere and do something to get rid of the whiners . . .
. Sisters, I am not joking."*
* Journal of Discourses, Vol. IV, p. 55.
Grant, on the same day, in connection with his presentation of
the doctrine of blood atonement, declared that there was
"scarcely a mother in Israel" who would not, if they could,
"break asunder the cable of the Church in Christ; and they talk
it to their husbands, to their daughters, and to their neighbors,
and say that they have not seen a week's happiness since they
became acquainted with that law, or since their husbands took a
second wife."* The coarse and plain-spoken H. C. Kimball, in a
discourse in the Tabernacle, November 9, 1856, thus defined the
duty of polygamous wives, "It is the duty of a woman to be
obedient to her husband, and, unless she is, I would not give a
damn for all her queenly right or authority, nor for her either,
if she will quarrel and lie about the work of God and the
principles of plurality."**
* Ibid, P. 52.
** Deseret News, Vol. VI, p. 291.
Gentile observers were amazed, in the earlier days of Utah, to
see to what lengths the fanatical teachings of the church
officers would be accepted by women. Thus Mrs. Ferris found that
the explanation of the willingness of many young women in Utah
to be married to venerable church officers, who already had
harems, was their belief that they could only be "saved" if
married or sealed to a faithful Saint, and that an older man was
less likely to apostatize, and so carry his wives to perdition
with him, than a young one; therefore "it became an object with
these silly fools to get into the harems of the priests and
elders."
If this advantage of the church officers in the selection of new
wives did not avail, other means were employed,*as in the
notorious San Pete case. The officers remaining at home did not
hesitate to insist on a fair division of the spoils (that is,
the marriageable immigrants), as is shown by the following
remarks of Heber C. Kimball to some missionaries about starting
out: "Let truth and righteousness be your motto, and don't go
into the world for anything but to preach the Gospel, build up
the Kingdom of God, and gather the sheep into the fold. You are
sent out as shepherds to gather the sheep together; and remember
that they are not your sheep; they belong to Him that sends you.
Then don't make a choice of any of those sheep; don't make
selections before they are brought home and put into the fold.
You understand that. Amen." Mr. Ferris thus described the use of
his priestly power made by Wilford Woodruff, who, as head of the
church in later years, gave out the advice about abandoning
polygamy: "Woodruff has a regular system of changing his harem.
He takes in one or more young girls, and so manages, after he
tires of them, that they are glad to ask for a divorce, after
which he beats the bush for recruits. He took a fresh one, about
fourteen years old, in March, 1853, and will probably get rid of
her in the course of the ensuing summer." **
* Conan Doyle's story, "A Study in scarlet," is founded on the
use of this power.
** "Utah and the Mormons," p. 255.
Mrs. Waite thus relates a conversation she had with a Mormon wife
about her husband going into polygamy:--"'Oh, it is hard,' she
said, 'very hard; but no matter, we must bear it. It is a
correct principle, and there is no salvation without it. We had
one [wife] but it was so hard, both for my husband and myself,
that we could not endure it, and she left us at the end of seven
months. She had been with us as a servant several months, and
was a good girl; but as soon as she was made a wife she became
insolent, and told me she had as good a right to the house and
things as I had, and you know that didn't suit me well. But,'
continued she, 'I wish we had kept her, and I had borne
everything, for we have GOT TO HAVE ONE, and don't you think it
would be pleasanter to have one you had known than a stranger?'"*
* "The Mormon Prophet," p. 260. Many accounts of the feeling
of first wives regarding polygamy may be found in this book and
in Mrs. Stenhouse's "Tell it All."
The voice which the first wife had in the matter was defined in
the Seer (Vol. I, p. 41). If she objected, she could state her
objection to President Young, who, if he found the reason
sufficient, could forbid the marriage; but if he considered that
her reason was not good, then the marriage could take place, and
"he [the husband] will be justified, and she will be condemned,
because she did not give them unto him as Sarah gave Hagar to
Abraham, and as Rachel and Leah gave Bilhah and Zilpah to their
husband, Jacob." Young's dictatorship in the choice of wives
was equally absolute. "No man in Utah," said the Seer (Vol. I,
p. 31), "who already has a wife, and who may desire to obtain
another, has any right to make any proposition of marriage to a
lady until he has consulted the President of the whole church,
and through him obtained a revelation from God as to whether it
would be pleasing in His sight."
The authority of the priesthood was always exerted to compel at
least every prominent member of the church to take more wives
than one. "For a man to be confined to one woman is a small
business," said Kimball in the Tabernacle, on April 4, 1857.
This influence coerced Stenhouse to take as his second wife a
fourteen-year-old daughter of Parley P. Pratt, although he loved
his legal wife, and she had told him that she would not live
with him if he married again, and although his intimate friend,
Superintendent Cooke, of the Overland Stage Company, to save
him, threatened to prosecute him under the law against bigamy if
he yielded.* Another illustration, given by Mrs. Waite, may be
cited. Kimball, calling on a Prussian immigrant named Taussig
one day, asked him how he was doing and how many wives he had,
and on being told that he had two, replied, "That is not enough.
You must take a couple more. I'll send them to you." The
narrative continues:--
* When Mr. and Mrs. Stenhouse left the church at the time of the
"New Movement" their daughter, who was a polygamous wife of
Brigham Young's son, decided with the church and refused even to
speak with her parents.
"On the following evening, when the brother returned home, he
found two women sitting there. His first wife said, 'Brother
Taussig' (all the women call their husbands brother), 'these are
the Sisters Pratt.' They were two widows of Parley P. Pratt. One
of the ladies, Sarah, then said, 'Brother Taussig, Brother
Kimball told us to call on you, and you know what for.' 'Yes,
ladies,' replied Brother Taussig, 'but it is a very hard task
for me to marry two' The other remarked, 'Brother Kimball told
us you were doing a very good business and could support more
women.' Sarah then took up the conversation, 'Well, Brother
Taussig, I want to get married anyhow.' The good brother
replied, 'Well, ladies, I will see what I can do and let you
know."*
* "The Mormon Prophet," p. 258.
Brother Taussig compromised the matter with the Bishop of his
ward by marrying Sarah, but she did not like her new home, and
he was allowed to divorce her on payment of $10 to Brigham
Young!
Each polygamous family was, of course, governed in accordance
with the character of its head: a kind man would treat all his
wives kindly, however decided a preference he might show for
one; and under a brute all would be unhappy. Young, in his
earlier days at Salt Lake City, used to assemble all his family
for prayers, and have a kind word for each of the women, and all
ate at a common table after his permanent residences were built.
"Brigham's wives," says Hyde, "although poorly clothed and hard
worked, are still very infatuated with their system, very devout
in their religion, very devoted to their children. They content
themselves with his kindness as they cannot obtain his love."* He
kept no servants, the wives performing all the household work,
and one of them acting as teacher to her own and the others'
children. As the excuse for marriage with the Mormons is
childbearing, the older wives were practically discarded, taking
the place of examples of piety and of spiritual advisers.
* "Mormonism," p. 164.
** How far this doctrine was not observed may be noted in the
following remarks of H. C. Kimball in the Tabernacle, on
February 1, 1857: "They [his wives] have got to live their
religion, serve their God, and do right as well as myself.
Suppose that I lose the whole of them before I go into the
spiritual world, but that I have been a good, faithful man all
the days of my life, and lived my religion, and had favor with
God, and was kind to them, do you think I will be destitute
there? No. The Lord says there are more there than there are
here. They have been increasing there; they increase there a
great deal faster than they do here, because there is no
obstruction. They do not call upon the doctors to kill their
offspring. In this world very many of the doctors are studying to
diminish the human race. In the spiritual world . . . we will go
to Brother Joseph . . . and he will say to us, 'Come along, my
boys, we will give you a good suit of clothes. Where are your
wives?' 'They are back yonder; they would not follow us.' 'Never
mind,' says Joseph, 'here are thousands; have all you
want.'"--Journal of Discourses, Vol. IV, p. 209.
A summing up of the many-sided evils of polygamy was thus
presented by President Cleveland in his first annual message:--
"The strength, the perpetuity, and the destiny of the nation
rests upon our homes, established by the law of God, guarded by
parental care, regulated by parental authority, and sanctified
by parental love. These are not the homes of polygamy.
"The mothers of our land, who rule the nation as they mould the
characters and guide the actions of their sons, live according
to God's holy ordinances, and each, secure and happy in the
exclusive love of the father of her children, sheds the warm
light of true womanhood, unperverted and unpolluted, upon all
within her pure and wholesome family circle. These are not the
cheerless, crushed, and unwomanly mothers of polygamy.
"The fathers of our families are the best citizens of the
Republic. Wife and children are the sources of patriotism, and
conjugal and parental affection beget devotion to the country.
The man who, undefiled with plural marriage, is surrounded in
his single home with his wife and children, has a status in the
country which inspires him with respect for its laws and courage
for its defence. These are not the fathers of polygamous
families."
CHAPTER XXIV. The Fight Against Polygamy--Statehood
The first measure "to punish and prevent the practice of polygamy
in the Territories of the United States" was introduced in the
House of Representatives by Mr. Morrill of Vermont (Bill No. 7)
at the first session of the 36th Congress, on February 15, 1860.
It contained clauses annulling some of the acts of the
territorial legislature of Utah, including the one incorporating
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This bill was
reported by the Judiciary Committee on March 14, the committee
declaring that "no argument was deemed necessary to prove that
an act could be regarded as criminal which is so treated by the
universal concurrence of the Christian and civilized world," and
characterizing the church incorporation act as granting "such
monstrous powers and arrogant assumptions as are at war with the
genius of our government." The bill passed the House on April 5,
by a vote of 149 to 60, was favorably reported to the Senate by
Mr. Bayard from the Judiciary Committee on June 13, but did not
pass that House.
Mr. Morrill introduced his bill by unanimous consent in the next
Congress (on April 8, 1862), and it was passed by the House on
April 28. Mr. Bayard, from the judiciary Committee, reported it
back to the Senate on June 3 with amendments. He explained that
the House Bill punished not only polygamous marriages, but
cohabitation without marriage. The committee recommended limiting
the punishment to bigamy--a fine not to exceed $500 and
imprisonment for not more than five years. Another amendment
limited the amount of real estate which a church corporation
could hold in the territories to $50,000. The bill passed the
Senate with the negative votes of only the two California
senators, and the House accepted the amendments. Lincoln signed
it.
Nothing practical was accomplished by this legislation, In 1867
George A. Smith and John Taylor, the presiding officers of the
Utah legislature, petitioned Congress to repeal this act,
setting forth as one reason that "the judiciary of this
territory has not, up to the present time, tried any case under
said law, though repeatedly urged to do so by those who have
been anxious to test its constitutionality." The House Judiciary
Committee reported that this was a practical request for the
sanctioning of polygamy, and said: "Your committee has not been
able to ascertain the reason why this law has not been enforced.
The humiliating fact is, however, apparent that the law is at
present practically a dead letter in the Territory of Utah, and
that the gravest necessity exists for its enforcement; and, in
the opinion of the committee, if it be through the fault or
neglect of the judiciary of that territory that the laws are not
enforced, the judges should be removed without delay; and that,
if the failure to execute the law arises from other causes, it
becomes the duty of the President of the United States to see
that the law is faithfully executed."*
* House Report No. 27, 2nd Session, 39th Congress.
In June, 1866, Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio obtained unanimous
consent to introduce a bill enacting radical legislation
concerning such marriages as were performed and sanctioned by
the Mormon church, but it did not pass. Senator Cragin of New
Hampshire soon introduced a similar bill, but it, too failed to
become a law.
In 1869, in the first Congress that met under President Grant,
Mr. Cullom of Illinois introduced in the House the bill aimed at
polygamy that was designated by his name. This bill was the
practical starting-point of the anti-polygamous legislation
subsequently enacted, as over it was aroused the feeling--in its
behalf in the East and against it in Utah--that resulted in
practical legislation.
Delegate Hooper made the leading speech against it, summing up
his objections as follows:--
"(1) That under our constitution we are entitled to be protected
in the full and free enjoyment of our religious faith.
"(2) That our views of the marriage relation are an essential
portion of our religious faith.
"(3) That, in conceding the cognizance of the marriage relation
as within the province of church regulations, we are practically
in accord with all other Christian denominations.
"(4) That in our view of the marriage relation as a part of our
religious belief we are entitled to immunity from persecution
under the constitution, if such views are sincerely held; that,
if such views are erroneous, their eradication must be by
argument and not by force."
The bill, greatly amended, passed the House on March 23, 1870, by
a vote of 94 to 32. The news of this action caused perhaps the
greatest excitement ever known in Utah. There was no intention
on the part of the Mormons to make any compromise on the
question, and they set out to defeat the bill outright in the
Senate. Meetings of Mormon women were gotten up in all parts of
the territory, in which they asserted their devotion to the
doctrine. The "Reformers," including Stenhouse, Harrison,
Tullidge, and others, and merchants like Walker Brothers,
Colonel Kahn, and T. Marshall, joined in a call for a
mass-meeting at which all expressed disapproval of some of its
provisions, like the one requiring men already having polygamous
wives to break up their families. Mr. Godbe went to Washington
while the bill was before the House, and worked hard for its
modification. The bill did not pass the Senate, a leading
argument against it being the assumed impossibility of
convicting polygamists under it with any juries drawn in Utah.
The arrest of Brigham Young and others under the act to punish
adulterers, and the proceedings against them before Judge McKean
in 1871, have been noted. At the same term of the court Thomas
Hawkins, an English immigrant, was convicted of the same charge
on the evidence of his wife, and sentenced to imprisonment for
three years and to pay a fine of $500. In passing sentence, Judge
McKean told the prisoner that, if he let him off with a fine,
the fine would be paid out of other funds than his own; that he
would thus go free, and that "those men who mislead the people
would make you and thousands of others believe that God had sent
the money to pay the fine; that, by a miracle, you had been
rescued from the authorities of the United States."
After the passage of the Poland law, in 1874, George Reynolds,
Brigham Young's private secretary, was convicted of bigamy under
the law of 1862, but was set free by the Supreme Court of the
territory on the ground of illegality in the drawing of the
grand jury. In the following year he was again convicted, and was
sentenced to imprisonment for two years and to pay a fine of
$500. The case was appealed to the United States Supreme Court,
which rendered its decision in October, 1878, unanimously
sustaining the conviction, except that Justice Field objected to
the admission of one witness's testimony.
In its decision the court stated the question raised to be
"whether religious belief can be accepted as a justification for
an overt act made criminal by the law of the land." Next came a
discussion of views of religious freedom, as bearing on the
meaning of "religion" in the federal constitution, leading up to
the conclusion that "Congress was deprived of all legislative
power over mere opinion, but was left free to reach actions
which were in violation of social duties, or subversive of good
order." The court then traced the view of polygamy in England
and the United States from the time when it was made a capital
offence in England (as it was in Virginia in 1788), declaring
that, "in the face of all this evidence, it is impossible to
believe that the constitutional guaranty of religious freedom
was intended to prohibit legislation in respect to this most
important feature of social life." The opinion continued as
follows:--"In our opinion, the statute immediately under
consideration is within the legislative power of Congress. It is
constitutional and valid as prescribing a rule of action for all
those residing in the Territories, and in places over which the
United States has exclusive control. This being so, the only
question which remains is, whether those who make polygamy a
part of their religion are excepted from the operation of the
statute. If they are, then those who do not make polygamy a part
of their religious belief may be found guilty and punished,
while those who do, must be acquitted and go free. This would be
introducing a new element into criminal law. Laws are made for
the government of actions, and, while they cannot interfere with
mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices.
Suppose one believed that human sacrifices were a necessary part
of religious worship, would it be seriously contended that the
civil government under which he lived could not interfere to
prevent a sacrifice? Or, if a wife religiously believed it was
her duty to burn herself on the funeral pile of her dead
husband, would it be beyond the power of the civil government to
prevent her carrying her belief into practice?
"So here, as a law of the organization of society under the
exclusive dominion of the United States, it is provided that
plural marriages shall not be allowed. Can a man excuse his
practices to the contrary because of his religious belief? To
permit this would be to make the professed doctrines of religious
belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit
every citizen to become a law unto himself. Government could
exist only in name under such circumstances.
"A criminal intent is generally an element of crime, but every
man is presumed to intend the necessary and legitimate
consequences of what he knowingly does. Here the accused knew he
had been once married, and that his first wife was living. He
also knew that his second marriage was forbidden by law. When,
therefore, he married the second time, he is presumed to have
intended to break the law, and the breaking of the law is the
crime. Every act necessary to constitute the crime was knowingly
done, and the crime was therefore knowingly committed.*
* United States Reports, Otto, Vol. III, p. 162.
P. T. Van Zile of Michigan, who became district attorney of the
territory in 1878, tried John Miles, a polygamist, for bigamy,
in 1879, and he was convicted, the prosecutor taking advantage
of the fact that the territorial legislature had practically
adopted the California code, which allowed challenges of jurors
for actual bias. The principal incident of this trial was the
summoning of "General" Wells, then a counsellor of the church,
as a witness, and his refusal to describe the dress worn during
the ceremonies in the Endowment House, and the ceremonies
themselves. He gave as his excuse, "because I am under moral and
sacred obligations to not answer, and it is interwoven in my
character never to betray a friend, a brother, my country, my
God, or my religion." He was sentenced to pay a fine, of $100,
and to two days' imprisonment. On his release, the City Council
met him at the prison door and escorted him home, accompanied by
bands of music and a procession made up of the benevolent, fire,
and other organizations, and delegations from every ward.
Governor Emery, in his message to the territorial legislature of
1878, spoke as plainly about polygamy as any of his
predecessors, saying that it was a grave crime, even if the law
against it was a dead letter, and characterizing it as an evil
endangering the peace of society.
There was a lull in the agitation against polygamy in Congress
for some years after the contest over the Cullom Bill. In 1878 a
mass-meeting of women of Salt Lake City opposed to polygamy was
held there, and an address "to Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes and the
women of the United States," and a petition to Congress, were
adopted, and a committee was appointed to distribute the petition
throughout the country for signatures. The address set forth
that there had been more polygamous marriages in the last year
than ever before in the history of the Mormon church; that
Endowment Houses, under the name of temples, and costing
millions, were being erected in different parts of the territory,
in which the members were "sealed and bound by oaths so strong
that even apostates will not reveal them"; that the Mormons had
the balance of power in two territories, and were plotting to
extend it; and asking Congress "to arrest the further progress
of this evil."
President Hayes, in his annual message in December, 1879, spoke
of the recent decision of the United States Supreme Court, and
said that there was no reason for longer delay in the
enforcement of the law, urging "more comprehensive and searching
methods" of punishing and preventing polygamy if they were
necessary. He returned to the subject in his message in 1880,
saying: "Polygamy can only be suppressed by taking away the
political power of the sect which encourages and sustains it . .
. . I recommend that Congress provide for the government of Utah
by a Governor and judges, or Commissioners, appointed by the
President and confirmed by the Senate, (or) that the right to
vote, hold office, or sit on juries in the Territory of Utah be
confined to those who neither practise nor uphold polygamy."
President Garfield took up the subject in his inaugural address
on March 4, 1881. "The Mormon church," he said, "not only
offends the moral sense of mankind by sanctioning polygamy, but
prevents the administration of justice through ordinary
instrumentalities of law." He expressed the opinion that Congress
should prohibit polygamy, and not allow "any ecclesiastical
organization to usurp in the smallest degree the functions and
power, of the national government." President Arthur, in his
message in December, 1881, referred to the difficulty of
securing convictions of persons accused of polygamy--"this
odious crime, so revolting to the moral and religious sense of
Christendom"--and recommended legislation.
In the spirit of these recommendations, Senator Edmunds
introduced in the Senate, on December 12, 1881, a comprehensive
measure amending the antipolygamy law of 1862, which, amended
during the course of the debate, was passed in the Senate on
Feruary 12, 1882, without a roll-call,*and in the House on March
13, by a vote of 199 to 42, and was approved by the President on
March 22. This is what is known as the Edmunds law--the first
really serious blow struck by Congress against polygamy.
* Speeches against the bill were made in the Senate by Brown,
Call, Lamar, Morgan, Pendleton, and Vest.
It provided, in brief, that, in the territories, any person who,
having a husband or wife living, marries another, or marries
more than one woman on the same day, shall be punished by a fine
of not more than $500, and by imprisonment, for not more than
five years; that a male person cohabiting with more than one
woman shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and be subject to a fine
of not more than $300 or to six months' imprisonment, or both;
that in any prosecution for bigamy, polygamy, or unlawful
cohabitation, a juror may be challenged if he is or has been
living in the practice of either offence, or if he believes it
right for a man to have more than one living and undivorced wife
at a time, or to cohabit with more than one woman; that the
President may have power to grant amnesty to offenders, as
described, before the passage of this act; that the issue of
so-called Mormon marriages born before January 1, 1883, be
legitimated; that no polygamist shall be entitled to vote in any
territory, or to hold office under the United States; that the
President shall appoint in Utah a board of five persons for the
registry of voters, and the reception and counting of votes.
To meet the determined opposition to the new law, an amendment
(known as the Edmunds-Tucker law) was enacted in 1887. This law,
in any prosecution coming under the definition of plural
marriages, waived the process of subpoena, on affadavit of
sufficient cause, in favor of an attachment; allowed a lawful
husband or wife to testify regarding each other; required every
marriage certificate in Utah to be signed by the parties and the
person performing the ceremony, and filed in court; abolished
female suffrage, and gave suffrage only to males of proper age
who registered and took an oath, giving the names of their
lawful wives, and promised to obey the laws of the United States,
and especially the Edmunds law; disqualified as a juror or
officeholder any person who had not taken an oath to support the
laws of the United States, or who had been convicted under the
Edmunds law; gave the President power to appoint the judges of
the probate courts;* provided for escheating to the United States
for the use of the common schools the property of corporations
held in violation of the act in 1862, except buildings held
exclusively for the worship of God, the parsonages connected
therewith, and burial places; dissolved the corporation called
the Perpetual Emigration Company, and forbade the legislature to
pass any law to bring persons into the territory; dissolved the
corporation known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints, and gave the Supreme Court of the territory power to
wind up its affairs; and annulled all laws regarding the Nauvoo
Legion, and all acts of the territorial legislature.
* The first territorial legislature which met after the passage
of this law passed an act practically nullifying such
appointments of probate judges, but the governor vetoed it. In
Beaver County, as soon as the appointment of a probate judge by
the President was announced, the Mormon County Court met and
reduced his salary to $5 a year.
The first members of the Utah commission appointed under the
Edmunds law were Alexander Ramsey of Minnesota, A. B. Carleton
of Indiana, A. S. Paddock of Nebraska, G. L. Godfrey of Iowa,
and J. R. Pettigrew of Arkansas, their appointments being dated
June 23, 1882.
The officers of the church and the Mormons as a body met the new
situation as aggressively as did Brigham Young the approach of
United States troops. Their preachers and their newspapers
reiterated the divine nature of the "revelation" concerning
polygamy and its obligatory character, urging the people to stand
by their leaders in opposition to the new laws. The following
extracts from "an Epistle from the First Presidency, to the
officers and members of the church," dated October 6, 1885, will
sufficiently illustrate the attitude of the church
organization:--"The war is openly and undisguisedly made upon our
religion. To induce men to repudiate that, to violate its
precepts, and break its solemn covenants, every encouragement is
given. The man who agrees to discard his wife or wives, and to
trample upon the most sacred obligations which human beings can
enter into, escapes imprisonment, and is applauded: while the
man who will not make this compact of dishonor, who will not
admit that his past life has been a fraud and a lie, who will
not say to the world, 'I intended to deceive my God, my
brethren, and my wives by making covenants I did not expect to
keep,' is, beside being punished to the full extent of the law,
compelled to endure the reproaches, taunts, and insults of a
brutal judge . . . .
"We did not reveal celestial marriage. We cannot withdraw or
renounce it, God revealed it, and he has promised to maintain it
and to bless those who obey it. Whatever fate, then, may
threaten us, there is but one course for men of God to take;
that is, to keep inviolate the holy covenants they have made in
the presence of God and angels. For the remainder, whether it be
life or death, freedom or imprisonment, prosperity or adversity,
we must trust in God. We may say, however, if any man or woman
expects to enter into the celestial kingdom of our God without
making sacrifices and without being tested to the very
uttermost, they have not understood the Gospel . . . .
"Upward of forty years ago the Lord revealed to his church the
principle of celestial marriage. The idea of marrying more wives
than one was as naturally abhorrent to the leading men and women
of the church, at that day, as it could be to any people. They
shrank with dread from the bare thought of entering into such
relationship. But the command of God was before them in language
which no faithful soul dare disobey, 'For, behold, I reveal unto
you a new and everlasting covenant; and if ye abide not that
covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this
covenant, and be permitted to enter into my glory.' . . . Who
would suppose that any man, in this land of religious liberty,
would presume to say to his fellow-man that he had no right to
take such steps as he thought necessary to escape damnation? Or
that Congress would enact a law which would present the
alternative to religious believers of being consigned to a
penitentiary if they should attempt to obey a law of God which
would deliver them from damnation?"
There was a characteristic effort to evade the law as regards
political rights. The People's Party (Mormon), to get around the
provision concerning the test oath for voters, issued an address
to them which said: "The questions that intending voters need
therefore ask themselves are these: Are we guilty of the crimes
of said act; or have we THE PRESENT INTENTION of committing these
crimes, or of aiding, abetting, causing or advising any other
person to commit them. Male citizens who can answer these
questions in the negative can qualify under the laws as voters
or office-holders."
Two events in 1885 were the cause of so much feeling that United
States troops were held in readiness for transportation to Utah.
The first of these was the placing of the United States flag at
half mast in Salt Lake City, on July 4, over the city hall,
county court-house, theatre, cooperative store, Deseret News
office, tithing office, and President Taylor's residence, to show
the Mormon opinion that the Edmunds law had destroyed liberty.
When a committee of non-Mormon citizens called at the city hall
for an explanation of this display, the city marshal said that
it was "a whim of his," and the mayor ordered the flag raised to
its proper place.
In November of that year a Mormon night watchman named McMurrin
was shot and severely wounded by a United States deputy marshal
named Collin. This caused great feeling, and there were rumors
that the Mormons threatened to lynch Collin, that armed men had
assembled to take him out of the officers' hands, and that the
Mormons of the territory were arming themselves, and were ready
at a moment's notice to march into Salt Lake City. Federal troops
were held in readiness at Eastern points, but they were not
used. The Salt Lake City Council, on December 8, made a report
denying the truth of the disquieting rumors, and declaring that
"at no time in the history of this city have the lives and
property of its non-Mormon inhabitants been more secure than
now."
The records of the courts in Utah show that the Mormons stood
ready to obey the teachings of the church at any cost.
Prosecutions under the Edmunds law began in 1884, and the
convictions for polygamy or unlawful cohabitation (mostly the
latter) were as follows in the years named: 3 in 1884, 39 in
1885, 112 in 1886, 214 in 1887, and 100 in 1888, with 48 in
Idaho during the same period. Leading men in the church went
into hiding--"under ground," as it was called--or fled from the
territory. As to the actual continuance of polygamous marriages,
the evidence was contradictory. A special report of the Utah
Commission in 1884 expressed the opinion that there had been a
decided decrease in their number in the cities, and very little
decrease in the rural districts. Their regular report for that
year estimated the number of males and females who had entered
into that relation at 459. The report for 1888 stated that the
registration officers gave the names of 29 females who, they had
good reason to believe, had contracted polygamous marriages
since the lists were closed in June, 1887. As late as 1889 Hans
Jespersen was arrested for unlawful cohabitation. As his plural
marriage was understood to be a recent one, the case attracted
wide attention, since it was expected to prove the insincerity
of the church in making the protest against the Edmunds law
principally on the ground that it broke up existing families.
Jespersen pleaded guilty of adultery and polygamy, and was
sentenced to imprisonment for eight years. In making his plea he
said that he was married at the Endowment House in Salt Lake
City, that he and his wife were the only persons there, and that
he did not know who married them. His wife testified that she
"heard a voice pronounce them man and wife, but didn't see any
one nor who spoke." * Such were some of the methods adopted by
the church to set at naught the law.
* Report of the Utah Commission for 1890, p. 23.
But along with this firm attitude, influences were at work
looking to a change of policy. During the first year of the
enforcement of the law it was on many sides declared a failure,
the aggressive attitude of the church, and the willingness of
its leaders to accept imprisonment, hiding, or exile, being
regarded by many persons in the East as proof that the real
remedy for the Utah situation was yet to be discovered. The Utah
Commission, in their earlier reports, combated this idea, and
pointed out that the young men in the church would grow restive
as they saw all the offices out of their reach unless they took
the test oath, and that they "would present an anomaly in human
nature if they should fail to be strongly influenced against
going into a relation which thus subjects them to political
ostracism, and fixes on them the stigma of moral turpitude." How
wide this influence was is seen in the political statistics of
the times. When the Utah Commission entered on their duties in
August, 1882, almost every office in the territory was held by a
polygamist. By April, 1884, about 12,000 voters, male and
female, had been disfranchised by the act, and of the 1351
elective officers in the territory not one was a polygamist, and
not one of the municipal officers of Salt Lake City then in
office had ever been "in polygamy."
The church leaders at first tried to meet this influence in two
ways, by open rebuke of all Saints who showed a disposition to
obey the new laws, and by special honors to those who took their
punishment. Thus, the Deseret News told the brethren that they
could not promise to obey the anti-polygamy laws without
violating obligations that bound them to time and eternity; and
when John Sharp, a leading member of the church in Salt Lake
City, went before the court and announced his intention to obey
these laws, he was instantly removed from the office of Bishop
of his ward.
The restlessness of the flock showed itself in the breaking down
of the business barriers set up by the church between Mormons
and Gentiles. This subject received a good deal of attention in
the minority report signed by two of the commissioners in 1888.
They noted the sale of real estate by Mormons to Gentiles
against the remonstrances of the church, the organization of a
Chamber of Commerce in Salt Lake City in which Mormons and
Gentiles worked together, and the union of both elements in the
last Fourth of July celebration.
In the spring of 1890, at the General Conference held in Salt
Lake City, the office of "Prophet, Seer and Revelator and
President" of the church, that had remained vacant since the
death of John Taylor in 1887, was filled by the election of
Wilford Woodruff, a polygamist who had refused to take the test
oath, while G. Q. Cannon and Lorenzo Snow, who were disfranchised
for the same cause, were made respectively counsellor and
president of the Twelve.* Woodruff was born in Connecticut in
1807, became a Mormon in 1832, was several times sent on
missions to England, and had gained so much prominence while the
church was at Nauvoo that he was the chief dedicator of the
Temple there. While there, he signed a certificate stating that
he knew of no other system of marriage in the church but the
one-wife system then prescribed in the "Book of Doctrine and
Covenants." Before the date of his promotion, Woodruff had
declared that plural marriages were no longer permitted, and,
when he was confronted with evidence to the contrary brought out
in court, he denied all knowledge of it, and afterward declared
that, in consequence of the evidence presented, he had ordered
the Endowment House to be taken down.
* Lorenzo Snow was elected president of the church on September
13, 1898, eleven days after the death of President Woodruff, and
he held that position until his death which occurred on October
10, 1901.
Governor Thomas, in his report for 1890, expressed the opinion
that the church, under its system, could in only one way define
its position regarding polygamy, and that was by a public
declaration by the head of the church, or by action by a
conference, and he added, "There is no reason to believe that any
earthly power can extort from the church any such declaration."
The governor was mistaken, not in measuring the purpose of the
church, but in foreseeing all the influences that were now
making themselves felt.
The revised statutes of Idaho at this time contained a provision
(Sec. 509) disfranchising all polygamists and debarring from
office all polygamists, and all persons who counselled or
encouraged any one to commit polygamy. The constitutionality of
this section was argued before the United States Supreme Court,
which, on February 3, 1890, decided that it was constitutional.
The antipolygamists in Utah saw in this decision a means of
attacking the Mormon belief even more aggressively than had been
done by means of the Edmunds Bill. An act was drawn (Governor
Thomas and ex-Governor West taking it to Washington) providing
that no person living in plural or celestial marriage, or
teaching the same, or being a member of, or a contributor to,
any organization teaching it, or assisting in such a marriage,
should be entitled to vote, to serve as a juror, or to hold
office, a test oath forming a part of the act. Senator Cullom
introduced this bill in the upper House and Mr. Struble of Iowa
in the House of Representatives. The House Committee on
Territories (the Democrats in the negative) voted to report the
bill, amended so as to make it applicable to all the
territories. This proposed legislation caused great excitement in
Mormondom, and petitions against its passage were hurried to
Washington, some of these containing non-Mormon signatures.
As a further menace to the position of the church, the United
States Supreme Court, on May 19, affirmed the decision of the
lower court confiscating the property of the Mormon church, and
declaring that church organization to be an organized rebellion;
and on June 21, the Senate passed Senator Edmunds's bill
disposing of the real estate of the church for the benefit of the
school fund.*
* After the admission of Utah as a state, Congress passed an act
restoring the property to the church.
The Mormon authorities now realized that the public sentiment of
the country, as expressed in the federal law, had them in its
grasp. They must make some concession to this public sentiment,
or surrender all their privileges as citizens and the wealth of
their church organization. Agents were hurried to Washington to
implore the aid of Mr. Blaine in checking the progress of the
Cullom Bill, and at home the head of the church made the
concession in regard to polygamy which secured the admission of
the territory as a state.
On September 25, 1890, Woodruff, as President of the church,
issued a proclamation addressed "to whom it may concern," which
struck out of the NECESSARY beliefs and practices of the Mormon
church, the practice of polygamy.
This important step was taken, not in the form of a "revelation,"
but simply as a proclamation or manifesto. It began with a
solemn declaration that the allegation of the Utah Commission
that plural marriages were still being solemnized was false, and
the assertion that "we are not preaching polygamy nor permitting
any person to enter into its practice." The closing and important
part of the proclamation was as follows:--
"Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress, which laws have
been pronounced constitutional by the court of last resort, I
hereby declare my intention to submit to these laws, and to use
my influence with the members of the church over which I preside
to have them do likewise.
"There is nothing in my teachings to the church, or in those of
my associates, during the time specified, which can be
reasonably construed to inculcate or encourage polygamy, and
when any elder of the church has used language which appeared to
convey any such teachings he has been promptly reproved.
"And now I publicly declare that my advice to the Latter-Day
Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by
the law of the land."
On October 6, the General Conference of the church, on motion of
Lorenzo Snow, unanimously adopted the following resolution:--
"I move that, recognizing Wilford Woodruff as President of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and the only man on
the earth at the present time who holds the keys of the sealing
ordinances, we consider him fully authorized, by virtue of his
position, to issue the manifesto that has been read in our
hearing, and which is dated September 24, 1890, and as a church
in general conference assembled we accept his declaration
concerning plural marriages as authoritative and binding."
This action was reaffirmed by the General Conference of October
6, 1891.
Of course the church officers had to make some explanation to the
brethren of their change of front. Cannon fell back on the
"revelation" of January 19, 1841, which Smith put forth to
excuse the failure to establish a Zion in Missouri, namely,
that, when their enemies prevent their performing a task assigned
by the Almighty, he would accept their effort to do so. He said
that "it was on this basis" that President Woodruff had felt
justified in issuing the manifesto. Woodruff explained: "It is
not wisdom for us to make war upon 65,000,000 people . . . . The
prophet Joseph Smith organized the church; and all that he has
promised in this code of revelations the "Book of Doctrine and
Covenants" has been fulfilled as fast as time would permit. THAT
WHICH IS NOT FULFILLED WILL BE." Cannon did explain that the
manifesto was the result of prayer, and Woodruff told the people
that he had had a great many visits from the Prophet Joseph
since his death, in dreams, and also from Brigham Young, but
neither seems to have imparted any very valuable information,
Joseph explaining that he was in an immense hurry preparing
himself "to go to the earth with the Great Bridegroom when he
goes to meet the Bride, the Lamb's wife."
Two recent incidents have indicated the restlessness of the
Mormon church under the restriction placed upon polygamy. In
1898, the candidate for Representative in Congress, nominated by
the Democratic Convention of Utah, was Brigham H. Roberts. It
was commonly known in Utah that Roberts was a violator of the
Edmunds law. A Mormon elder, writing from Brigham, Utah, in
February, 1899, while Roberts's case was under consideration at
Washington, said, "Many prominent Mormons foresaw the storm that
was now raging, and deprecated Mr. Roberts's nomination and
election."* This statement proves both the notoriety of
Roberts's offence, and the connivance of the church in his
nomination, because no Mormon can be nominated to an office in
Utah when the church authorities order otherwise. When Roberts
presented himself to be sworn in, in December, 1899, his case
was referred to a special committee of nine members. The report
of seven members of this committee found that Roberts married his
first wife about the year 1878; that about 1885 he married a
plural wife, who had since born him six children, the last two
twins, born on August 11, 1897; that some years later he married
a second plural wife, and that he had been living with all three
till the time of his election; "that these facts were generally
known in Utah, publicly charged against him during his campaign
for election, and were not denied by him." Roberts refused to
take the stand before the committee, and demurred to its
jurisdiction on the ground that the hearing was an attempt to
try him for a crime without an indictment and jury trial, and to
deprive him of vested rights in the emoluments of the office to
which he was elected, and that, if the crime alleged was proved,
it would not constitute a sufficient cause to deprive him of his
seat, because polygamy is not enumerated in the constitution as
a disqualification for the office of member of Congress. The
majority report recommended that his seat be declared vacant.
Two members of the committee reported that his offence afforded
constitutional ground for expulsion, but not for exclusion from
the House, and recommended that he be sworn in and immediately
expelled. The resolution presented by the majority was adopted by
the House by a vote of 268 to 50.**
* New York Evening Post, February 20, 1899.
** Roberts was tried in the district court in Salt Lake City, on
April 30, 1900, on the charge of unlawful cohabitation. The case
was submitted to the jury of eight men, without testimony, on an
agreed statement of facts, and the jury disagreed, standing six
for conviction and two for acquittal.
The second incident referred to was the passage by the Utah
legislature in March, 1901, of a bill containing this provision:
"No prosecution for adultery shall be commenced except on
complaint of the husband or wife or relative of the accused with
the first degree of consanguinity, or of the person with whom
the unlawful act is alleged to have been committed, or of the
father or mother of said person; and no prosecution for unlawful
cohabitation shall be commenced except on complaint of the wife,
or alleged plural wife of the accused; but this provision shall
not apply to prosecutions under section 4208 of the Revised
Statutes, 1898, defining and punishing polygamous marriages."
This bill passed the Utah senate by a vote of 11 to 7, and the
house by a vote of 174 to 25. The excuse offered for it by the
senator who introduced it was that it would "take away from
certain agitators the opportunity to arouse periodic furors
against the Mormons"; that more than half of the persons who had
been polygamists had died or dissolved their polygamous
relations, and that no good service could be subserved by
prosecuting the remainder. This law aroused a protest throughout
the country, and again the Mormon church saw that it had made a
mistake, and on the 14th of March Governor H. M. Wells vetoed the
bill, on grounds that may be summarized as declaring that the
law would do the Mormons more harm than good. The most
significant part of his message, as indicating what the Mormon
authorities most dread, is contained in the following sentence:
"I have every reason to believe its enactment would be the signal
for a general demand upon the national Congress for a
constitutional amendment directed solely against certain
conditions here, a demand which, under the circumstances, would
assuredly be complied with."
The admission of Utah as a state followed naturally the
promulgation by the Mormon church of a policy which was accepted
by the non-Mormons as putting a practical end to the practice of
polygamy. For the seventh time, in 1887, the Mormons had adopted
a state constitution, the one ratified in that year providing
that "bigamy and polygamy, being considered incompatible with 'a
republican form of government,' each of them is hereby forbidden
and declared a misdemeanor." The non-Mormons attacked the
sincerity of this declaration, among other things pointing out
the advice of the Church organ, while the constitution was
before the people, that they be "as wise as serpents and as
harmless as doves." Congress again refused admission.
On January 4, 1893, President Harrison issued a proclamation
granting amnesty and pardon to all persons liable to the penalty
of the Edmunds law "who have, since November 1, 1890, abstained
from such unlawful cohabitation," but on condition that they
should in future obey the laws of the United States. Until the
time of Woodruff's manifesto there had been in Utah only two
political parties, the People's, as the Mormon organization had
always been known, and the Liberal (anti-Mormon). On June 10,
1894, the People's Territorial Central Committee adopted
resolutions reciting the organization of the Republicans and
Democrats of the territory, declaring that the dissensions of the
past should be left behind and that the People's party should
dissolve. The Republican Territorial Committee a few days later
voted that a division of the people on national party lines
would result only in statehood controlled by the Mormon
theocracy. The Democratic committee eight days later took a
directly contrary view. At the territorial election in the
following August the Democrats won, the vote standing:
Democratic, 14,116; Liberal, 7386; Republican, 6613.
It would have been contrary to all political precedent if the
Republicans had maintained their attitude after the Democrats
had expressed their willingness to receive Mormon allies.
Accordingly, in September, 1891, we find the Republicans
adopting a declaration that it would be wise and patriotic to
accept the changes that had occurred, and denying that statehood
was involved in a division of the people on national party
lines.
All parties in the territory now seemed to be manoeuvring for
position. The Morman newspaper organs expressed complete
indifference about securing statehood. In Congress Mr. Caine,
the Utah Delegate, introduced what was known as the "Home Rule
Bill," taking the control of territorial affairs from the
governor and commission. This was known as a Democratic measure,
and great pressure was brought to bear on Republican leaders at
Washington to show them that Utah as a state would in all
probability add to the strength of the Republican column. When,
at the first session of the 53d Congress, J. L. Rawlins, a
Democrat who had succeeded Caine as Delegate, introduced an act
to enable the people of Utah to gain admission for the territory
as a state, it met with no opposition at home, passed the House
of Representatives on December 13, 1893, and the Senate on July
10, 1894 (without a division in either House), and was signed by
the President on July 16. The enabling act required the
constitutional convention to provide "by ordinance irrevocable
without the consent of the United States and the people of that
state, that perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be
secured, and that no inhabitant of said state shall ever be
molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of
religious worship; PROVIDED, that polygamous or plural marriages
are forever prohibited."
The constitutional convention held under this act met in Salt
Lake City on March 4, 1895, and completed its work on May 8,
following. In the election of delegates for this convention the
Democrats cast about 19,000 votes, the Republicans about 21,000
and the Populists about 6500. Of the 107 delegates chosen, 48
were Democrats and 59 Republicans. The constitution adopted
contained the following provisions:--
"Art. 1. Sec. 4. The rights of conscience shall never be
infringed. The state shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof; no religious test shall be required as a qualification
for any office of public trust, or for any vote at any election;
nor shall any person be incompetent as a witness or juror on
account of religious belief or the absence thereof. There shall
be no union of church and state, nor shall any church dominate
the state or interfere with its functions. No public money or
property shall be appropriated for or applied to any religious
worship, exercise, or instruction, or for the support of any
ecclesiastical establishment.
"Art. 111. The following ordinance shall be irrevocable without
the consent of the United States and the people of this state:
Perfect toleration of religious sentiment is guaranteed. No
inhabitant of this state shall ever be molested in person or
property on account of his or her mode of religious worship; but
polygamous or plural marriages are forever prohibited."
This constitution was submitted to the people on November 5,
1895, and was ratified by a vote of 31,305 to 7687, the
Republicans at the same election electing their entire state
ticket and a majority of the legislature. On January 4, 1896,
President Cleveland issued a proclamation announcing the
admission of Utah as a state. The inauguration of the new state
officers took place at Salt Lake City two days later. The first
governor, Heber M. Wells,* in his inaugural address made this
declaration: "Let us learn to resent the absurd attacks that are
made from time to time upon our sincerity by ignorant and
prejudiced persons outside of Utah, and let us learn to know and
respect each other more, and thus cement and intensify the
fraternal sentiments now so widespread in our community, to the
end that, by a mighty unity of purpose and Christian resolution,
we may be able to insure that domestic tranquillity, promote that
general welfare, and secure those blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity guaranteed by the constitution of
the United States."
* Son of "General" Wells of the Nauvoo Legion.
The vote of Utah since its admission as a state has been cast as
follows:--
************* REPUBLICAN **** DEMOCRAT
1895. Governor 20,833 18,519
1896. President 13,491 64,607
1900. Governor 47,600 44,447
1900. President 47,089 44,949
CHAPTER XXV. The Mormonism Of To-Day
An intelligent examination of the present status of the Mormon
church can be made only after acquaintance with its past
history, and the policy of the men who have given it its present
doctrinal and political position. The Mormon power has ever in
view objects rather than methods. It always keeps those objects
in view, while at times adjusting methods to circumstances, as
was the case in its latest treatment of the doctrine of
polygamy. The casual visitor, making a tour of observation in
Utah, and the would-be student of Mormon policies who satisfies
himself with reading their books of doctrine instead of their
early history, is certain to acquire little knowledge of the
real Mormon character and the practical Mormon ambition, and if
he writes on the subject he will contribute nothing more
authentic than does Schouler in his "History of the United
States" wherein he calls Joseph Smith "a careful organizer," and
says that "it was a part of his creed to manage well the
material concerns of his people, as they fed their flocks and
raised their produce." Brigham Young's constant cry was that all
the Mormons asked was to be left alone. Nothing suits the
purposes of the heads of the church today better than the
decrease of public attention attracted to their organization
since the Woodruff manifesto concerning polygamy. In trying to
arrive at a reasonable decision concerning their future place in
American history, one must constantly bear in mind the arguments
which they have to offer to religious enthusiasts, and the
political and commercial power which they have already attained
and which they are constantly strengthening.
The growth of Utah in population since its settlement by the
Mormons has been as follows, accepting the figures of the United
States census:--
1850 11,380
1860 40,273
1870 86,786
1880 143,963
1890 207,905
1900 276,749
The census of 1890 (the religious statistics of the census of
1900 are not yet available) shows that, of a total church
membership of 128,115 in Utah, the Latter-Day Saints numbered
118,201.
What may be called the Mormon political policy embraces these
objects: to maintain the dictatorial power of the priesthood
over the present church membership; to extend that membership
over the adjoining states so as to acquire in the latter, first
a balance of power, and later complete political control; to
continue the work of proselyting throughout the United States and
in foreign lands with a view to increasing the strength of the
church at home by the immigration to Utah of the converts.
That the power of the Mormon priesthood over their flock has
never been more autocratic than it is to-day is the testimony of
the best witnesses who may be cited. A natural reason for this
may be found in the strength which always comes to a religious
sect with age, if it survives the period of its infancy. We have
seen that in the early days of the church its members apostatized
in scores, intimate acquaintance with Smith and his associates
soon disclosing to men of intelligence and property their real
objects. But the church membership in and around Utah to-day is
made up of the children and the grandchildren of men and women
who remained steadfast in their faith. These younger generations
are therefore influenced in their belief, not only by such
appeals as what is taught to them makes to their reason, but by
the fact that these teachings are the teachings which have been
accepted by their ancestors. It is, therefore, vastly more
difficult to convince a younger Mormon to-day that his belief
rests on a system of fraud than it was to enforce a similar
argument on the minds of men and women who joined the Saints in
Ohio or Illinois. We find, accordingly, that apostasies in Utah
are of comparatively rare occurrence; that men of all classes
accept orders to go on missions to all parts of the world without
question; and that the tithings are paid with greater regularity
than they have been since the days of Brigham Young.
The extension of the membership of the Mormon church over the
states and territories nearest to Utah has been carried on with
intelligent zeal. The census of 1890 gives the following
comparison of members of Latter-Day Saints churches and of "all
bodies" in the states and territories named:--
******* L.D. SAINTS **** ALL BODIES ***
Idaho******* 14,972 **** 24,036
Arizona***** 6,500 **** 26,972
Nevada****** 525 **** 5,877
Wyoming***** 1,336 **** 11,705
Colorado**** 1,762 **** 86,837
New Mexico** 456 **** 105,749
The political influence of the Mormon church in all the states
and territories adjacent to Utah is already great, amounting in
some instances to practical dictation. It is not necessary that
any body of voters should have the actual control of the
politics of a state to insure to them the respect of political
managers. The control of certain counties will insure to them the
subserviency of the local politicians, who will speak a good
word for them at the state capital, and the prospect that they
will have greater influence in the future will be pressed upon
the attention of the powers that be. We have seen how steadily
the politicians of California at Washington stood by the Mormons
in their earlier days, when they were seeking statehood and
opposing any federal control of their affairs. The business
reasons which influenced the Californians are a thousand times
more effective to-day. The Cooperative Institution has a hold on
the Eastern firms from which it buys goods, and every commercial
traveller who visits Utah to sell the goods of his employers to
Mormon merchants learns that a good word for his customers is
always appreciated. The large corporations that are organized
under the laws of Utah (and this includes the Union Pacific
Railroad Company) are always in some way beholden to the Mormon
legislative power. All this sufficiently indicates the measures
quietly taken by the Mormon church to guard itself against any
further federal interference.
The mission work of the Mormon church has always been conducted
with zeal and efficiency, and it is so continued to-day. The
church authorities in Utah no longer give out definite
statistics showing the number of missionaries in the field, and
the number of converts brought to Utah from abroad. The number of
missionaries at work in October, 1901, was stated to me by church
officers at from fourteen hundred to nineteen hundred, the
smaller number being insisted upon as correct by those who gave
it. As nearly as could be ascertained, about one-half this force
is employed in the United States and the rest abroad. The home
field most industriously cultivated has been the rural districts
of the Southern states, whose ignorant population, ever
susceptible to "preaching" of any kind, and quite incapable of
answering the Mormon interpretation of the Scriptures, is most
easily lead to accept the Mormon views. When such people are
offered an opportunity to improve their worldly condition, as
they are told they may do in Utah, at the same time that they
can save their souls, the bait is a tempting one. The number of
missionaries now at work in these Southern states is said to be
much smaller than it was two years ago. Meanwhile the work of
proselyting in the Eastern Atlantic states has become more
active. The Mormons have their headquarters in Brooklyn, New
York, and their missionaries make visits in all parts of Greater
New York. They leave a great many tracts in private houses,
explaining that they will make another call later, and doing so
if they receive the least encouragement. They take great pains to
reach servant girls with their literature and arguments, and the
story has been published* of a Mormon missionary who secured
employment as a butler, and made himself so efficient that his
employer confided to him the engagement of all the house
servants; in time the frequent changes which he made aroused
suspicion, and an investigation disclosed the fact that he was a
Mormon of good education, who used his position as head servant
to perform effective proselyting work. By promise of a husband
and a home of her own on her arrival in Utah, this man was said
to have induced sixty girls to migrate from New York City to that
state since he began his labors.
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