Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/857

Rh MORMONS 827 with him, and in order to pacify his lawful wife and silence the objections of the saints he had a revelation on 12th July 1843 expressly establishing and approving polygamy. The proclamation of the new doctrine excited widespread indignation, which found special expression in the pages of the Expositor, a newspaper published by an old friend of Smith, one Dr Foster. Smith at once caused the Ex positor printing-office to be razed and Foster expelled, on which the latter procured a warrant for the arrest of Smith, his brother Hyrum, and sixteen others. Smith resisted ; the militia was called out ; the Mormons armed themselves ; and a civil war seemed imminent, when the governor of the State persuaded Smith to surrender and stand his trial. Accordingly, on 27th June 1844 he and Hyrum were imprisoned in Carthage jail ; but that same night a mob broke into the prison and shot the two men dead. This shooting was the most fortunate thing that had ever happened to the Mormon cause, investing the murdered president with the halo of martyrdom, and effacing public recollection of his vices in the lustre of a glorious death. Of the confusion that followed Smith s &quot; taking off &quot;Brigham Young profited by procuring his own election to the pre sidency by the council of the &quot; twelve apostles,&quot; a position for which his splendid executive abilities well fitted him, as subsequent events abundantly proved. The following year witnessed what appeared to be the culmination of their misfortunes. The legislature of Illinois repealed the charter of Nauvoo, and so critical did the situation become that the leaders resolved to emigrate imme diately, and preparations were begun for a general exodus westward. Early in 1846 a large number of the body met at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and those who had stayed behind soon found cause to regret that they too had not left Nauvoo, as in the September of the same year that city was cannonaded, and the Mormons were driven out. Meanwhile pioneers had been despatched to the Great Salt Lake valley, Utah, and, their report proving favourable, a large body of emigrants was marched with military discipline across the wilderness to the valley, where they immediately proceeded to found Salt Lake City, and where on 24th July 1847 they were joined by their chief, Brigham Young. In the May following the main body of the saints set out to rejoin their brethren, and in the autumn of that year reached Salt Lake City. Large tracts of land were at once put under cultivation, a great city sprang up as by magic, and the untiring industry, energy, and zeal of the emigrants turned a barren wilder ness into a fertile and blooming garden. An emigration fund was organized, missionaries were sent out, and soon settlers began to pour in from all quarters of the globe, particularly from Great Britain, Sweden and Norway, and in less numbers from Germany, Switzerland, and France. Strangely enough, and the fact deserves emphasis, Ireland has furnished few if any recruits to the cause of Mormon- ism. In March 1849 a convention was held at Salt Lake City, and a State was organized under the name of Deseret, meaning &quot; the land of the honey-bee.&quot; A legislature was also elected, and a constitution framed, which was sent on to Washington. This Congress refused to recognize, and by way of compromise for declining to admit the proposed new State into the Union President Fillmore in 1850 organized the country occupied by the Mormons into the Territory of Utah, with Brigham Young as governor. District judges were also appointed by the Federal Govern ment ; but in 1851, a few months after their appointment, they were forced to leave by the aggressive tactics of Young. Such bold defiance of the Federal Government oould not be ignored ; Brigham was suspended from the governorship, and Colonel Steptoe of the United States army appointed in his stead. The new governor, backed by a battalion of soldiers, arrived in Utah in August 1854 ; but so strong was the opposition which he met with that he dared not assume office, and was forced to content him self with merely wintering in Salt Lake City, after which he withdrew his troops to California. Nor did the other civil officers appointed by the United States Government at the same time show any bolder front. In February 1856 a band of armed Mormons broke into the court room of the United States district judge, and forced Judge Drummond to adjourn his court sine die. His surrender precipitated the flight of the other civil officers, and with the sole exception of the United States Indian agent they withdrew from Salt Lake City. These facts led President Buchanan to appoint a new governor in the person of Alfred Gumming, the superintendent of Indian affairs on the upper Missouri, who in 1857 went to Utah, accom panied by Judge Eckels of Indiana as chief justice, and by a force of 2500 soldiers. Enraged by this aggressive action, Brigham Young boldly called the saints to arms. In September the United States army reached Utah, but on 5th and 6th October a band of mounted Mormons destroyed a number of its supply trains, and a few days later cut off 800 oxen from its rear and drove them into Salt Lake City. The result was that the United States army, now commanded by Colonel A. S. Johnston, was compelled it being now mid-November to go into winter quarters at Black s Forks, near Fort Bridger. In the same year a party of Mormons and Indians, instigated and led by a Mormon bishop named John D. Lee, attacked a train of 150 non-Mormon emigrants at Mountain Mea dows, near Utah, and massacred every soul. Governor Gumming at once declared the Territory in a state of rebellion; but in the spring of 1858, through the intei vention of Thomas L. Kane of Pennsylvania, armed with letters of authority from President Buchanan, the Mormons were induced to submit to the Federal authority, and accepted a free offer of pardon made to them by the United States Government as the condition of their submission. Matters being thus settled, the Federal troops encamped on the western shore of Lake Utah, some 40 miles from Salt Lake City, where they remained until withdrawn from the Territory in 1860. On the close of the American Civil War a Federal governor was again appointed, and in 1871 polygamy was declared to be a criminal offence, and Brigham Young was arrested. This action, however, on the part of the United States Government was merely spasmodic, and the Mormons continued to practise poly gamy, and to increase in wealth and numbers until 29th August 1877, when Brigham Young died, leaving a fortune of $2, 000,000 (400,000) to 1 7 wives and 56 children. He was succeeded in office by John Taylor, an Englishman, although the actual leadership fell to George Q. Cannon, &quot;first coun sellor &quot; to the president, and one of the ablest men in the sect. The year 1877 was otherwise signalized in Mormon history by the trial, conviction, and execution of John D. Lee for the Mountain Valley massacre of 1857. Of late years the question of Mormonism has largely occupied public attention. In 1873 Mr Frelinghuysen introduced a bill severely censuring polygamy, and declaring that the wives of polygamists could claim relief by action for divorce. In 1874 the committee of the House of Representatives reported a bill which reduced Utah to the position of a province, placing the control of affairs in the hands of Federal officials, and practically abolishing polygamy. In the same year George Q. Cannon was elected a delegate from Utah, and though his election was contested it was confirmed by the House of Representatives. This decision, however, was accompanied by the passing of a resolution by a vote of 127 to 51, appointing a committee of investiga tion into Delegate Cannon s alleged polygamy, he having,