Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/854

 836 MORMONS of his followers attacked the "Expositor" office and razed it to the ground, destroying the presses and other contents of the building. Foster and Law took refuge in Carthage, the county seat, where they obtained warrants against Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum Smith, and 16 others. The warrant was served upon Smith, but he refused to obey, and the constable who served it was driven from Nau- voo. The county authorities called out the militia to enforce the law ; the Mormons armed themselves, and a civil war seemed impending, when the governor of the state persuaded the two Smiths to surrender and take their trial. They were committed to the jail at Carthage, and a guard stationed for their protection. On the evening of June 27 a mob attacked the jail, overpowered the guard, and fired upon the prisoners with rifles through a window and door. Hyrum Smith was instantly shot dead. Joseph returned the fire with a revolver till his charges were exhausted, and then at- tempted to escape through the window, but was shot as he leaped through it and fell to the ground dead. The death of the prophet caused much temporary confusion among the saints. Sidney Rigdon aspired to succeed him as head of the church; but Brigham Young was chosen first president, and Rigdon, being contumacious, was cut off from the communion of the faithful, cursed, and solemnly delivered to the devil " to be buffeted in the flesh for a thousand years." In 1845 the charter of Nau- voo was repealed by the legislature of Illinois, and the Mormons made preparations to remove to the Rocky mountains. Early in the follow- ing year they gathered in considerable numbers at Council Bluffs, Iowa. Those who remained in Nauvoo became again involved in trouble with the surrounding people, and in September, 1846, the city was cannonaded for three days, and its inhabitants were driven out at the point of the bayonet. In the following year pioneers crossed the plains from Council Bluffs to Salt Lake valley, Utah, where Brigham Young ar- rived July 24, 1847. In May, 1848, the main body of the saints set out for Utah, and arrived at the Great Salt lake in the autumn. Salt Lake City was founded (see SALT LAKE CITY), and large tracts of land were brought under cultivation. An "emigration fund" was es- tablished, and large numbers of converts were brought by a well organized system from Eu- rope, chiefly from the working classes of Great Britain, and especially from Wales. A considerable number came also from Sweden and Norway, and a smaller number from Ger- many, Switzerland, and France. In March, 1849, a convention was held at Salt Lake City and a state organized under the name of De- Beret, understood by the Mormons to signify "the land of the honey bee." A legislature was elected and a constitution framed and sent to Washington ; but congress refused to recog- nize the new state, and in September, 1850, organized the country occupied by the Mor- mons into the territory of Utah, of which Brigham Young was appointed governor by President Fillmore. In the following year the federal judges were forced by threats of violence from Brigham Young to quit Utah, and the laws of the United States were openly defied and subverted. This led to the re- moval of Brigham Young, and the appoint- ment of Col. Steptoe of the United States army as governor. Col. Steptoe arrived in Utah in August, 1854, with a battalion of sol- diers ; but such was the state of affairs in the territory that he did not deem it prudent to assume the office of governor, and after win- tering in Salt Lake City he formally resigned his post and removed with his troops to Cali- fornia. In a sermon preached in the taber- nacle at Salt Lake City on the Sunday after Col. Steptoe's departure, Brigham Young said : "I am and will be governor, and no power can hinder it, until the Lord Almighty says : ' Brigham, you need not be governor any longer.' " Most of the civil officers who were commissioned about the same time with Col. Steptoe arrived in Utah a few months after he had departed. They were harassed and terri- fied like their predecessors. In February, 1856, a mob of armed Mormons, instigated by ser- mons from the heads of the church, broke into the court room of the United States district judge, and at the point of the bowie knife compelled Judge Drummond to adjourn his court sine die. Soon afterward all the United States officers, with the exception of the Indian agent, were forced to flee from the territory. These and similar outrages at length determined President Buchanan to supersede Brigham Young in the office of governor, and to send to Utah a military force to protect the federal officers and to compel obedience to the laws. The Mormons attempted to justify their treat- ment of the United States officials, by alleging that some of them were profligate and disrep- utable persons ; an accusation which they at- tempted to sustain by scandalous statements which were probably not entirely destitute of truth. In 1857 the office of governor of Utah was conferred upon Alfred Gumming, a super- intendent of Indian affairs on the upper Mis- souri, and that of chief justice on Judge Eckels of Indiana ; and a force of 2,500 men under experienced officers was sent to protect them in the discharge of their functions. The Mor- mons were greatly excited at the approach of these troops. Young in his capacity of gov- ernor issued a proclamation denouncing the army as a mob, and forbidding it to enter the territory, and calling the people of Utah to arms to repel its advance. The army reached Utah in September, and on Oct. 5 and 6 a party of mounted Mormons destroyed several of the supply trains, and a few days later cut off 800 oxen from the rear of the army and drove them to Salt Lake City. The army, of which Col. A. S. Johnston had by this time assumed the com- mand, was overtaken by the snows of winter