# The Rocky Mountain Saints/Chapter 34

​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/302 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/303 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/304 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/305 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/306 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/307 ​several of the predictions of the leaders were, in this manner, claimed to be fulfilled.
In the midst of their distress in the wilderness, when leaving civilization and commerce behind, and, to all human appearance, going into a desert where the Gentiles would not follow them, Heber C. Kimball had predicted to the Saints that they "would yet buy goods as cheap in the mountains as they could in New York city." Brigham had told them that in five years "they would be better off than ever they were before," and thus the unlooked-for rush to California fulfilled the prediction, and "the people acknowledged the accomplishment of that divine inspiration." At the same time one of Joseph's predictions had its fulfilment. When the Kirtland Safety Society Bank burst in 1838, its notes were not worth the clean paper. Joseph predicted that "they would yet be as good as gold." When the Battalion gold discoverers returned to the valley, they deposited with the Church leaders large quantities of gold-dust, and, with that as a basis, the Kirtland notes were for a little time put into circulation as a convenience, "on a par with gold," and in that way the prediction was fulfilled. Had the bundles of the Kirtland Safety Society notes still in Ohio been convertible and "good as gold," the holders of that paper would have seen the prediction and its fulfilment more clearly. A momentary convenience of exchange between Brother Smith and Brother Jones in Salt Lake valley (for momentary and very limited it certainly was) being the fulfilment of a prediction, requires an "eye of faith" to see.
The Congress of the United States ignored the "State of Deseret;" and on the 9th of September, 1850, extended over the country occupied by the Mormons the Territorial organization of Utah within the following limits: "bounded on the west by the State of California, on the north by the Territory of Oregon, on the east by the summits of the Rocky Mountains, and on the south by the 37th parallel of north latitude," with the proviso that Congress should be at liberty, when it might be deemed "convenient and proper," to cut it up into two or more Territories, or to attach any portion of it to any other State or Territory. On the 28th of that month, his Excellen​cy Millard Fillmore, President of the United States, appointed, "with the advice and consent of the Senate," Brigham Young, of Deseret, Governor; B. D. Harris, of Vermont, Secretary; Joseph Buffington, of Pennsylvania, Chief Justice; Perry E. Brocchus, of Alabama, Zerubbabel Snow, of Ohio, Associate Justices; Seth M. Blair, of Deseret, U. S. Attorney; and Joseph L. Heywood, of Deseret, U. S. Marshal.
Mr. Buffington declined serving as chief-justice, and Lemuel G. Brandebury was appointed in his stead.
Snow, Blair, and Heywood were Mormons, and, with Brigham added, it gave the majority of the Federal offices to the Saints, for which the name of President Fillmore is held in high esteem. At once the political capital of Utah—a hundred and fifty miles south of Salt Lake City—was designated Fillmore, and the county Millard. It is due to this statesman to add, that the charge which has been frequently made against him, of appointing Brigham Young governor "while he knew that he had eight wives," is very unfair. President Fillmore appointed Brigham on the recommendation of Col. Thomas L. Kane, and upon the assurance of that gentleman that the I charges against Brigham Young's Christian morality were unfounded. Col. Kane was long enough among the Mormons, and familiar enough with them on their journey between Nauvoo and Council Bluffs, to have learned that polygamy was a fact in Mormonism, unless the Mormons designedly kept him in ignorance, and deceived him. The larger number of the "eight wives" complained of were sealed to Brigham on the banks of the Missouri. Probably, Col. Kane did not personally know polygamy to be a fact, and certainly neither President Fillmore nor the Senate knew it.
On the 3rd of February, 1851, Brigham Young took the oath of office, and was formally acknowledged governor of Utah. He preferred Deseret under "the Lord," but with the characteristic instinct of his nature—the love of rule—rather than see a Gentile appointed governor of Utah, he himself accepted that office under Congress. On the 25th of March he issued a special message to the general assembly of the State of Deseret, notifying them of the action of Congress. On the ​5th of April, 1852, Deseret merged into Utah officially, but the State organization was continued and exists to-day as much as ever it did. Nominally, the civil authority is Utah: de facto it is Deseret. The Government pays the Territorial legislators their per diem for making the laws of Utah, and hands them their mileage at the end of the session. On the day succeeding the close, Brigham, as governor of Deseret, convenes them as a State legislation: reads his message to them, and some one proposes that the laws of the legislature, of Utah be adopted by the State of Deseret. In this manner, Brigham is continued governor de facto, and hence the tenacity with which the name of "Deseret" is preserved. To give to the State that succeeds the Territory of Utah any other name than "Deseret" would be to throw discredit upon the inspiration that named the provisional Government in 1849. Let but the Federal Congress name it "Deseret"—come when it may into the Union—and Brigham and his worshippers will see, through all the tortuous windings of its history for over a score of years, the finger of God, and the dark deeds of the past will be sanctified in their sight. They will believe that "the Lord" has been with Brigham throughout.
The Gentile Federal officers arrived in July of 1851, and very soon after their arrival concluded that Utah was not the most pleasant place in the world for unbelievers. They attended a special conference of the Church held in September, and were honoured with an invitation to sit on the platform with the prophets. On that occasion the proposition was made to send a block of Utah marble or granite as the Territorial contribution to the Washington monument at the seat of Government. Associate Justice Brocchus made a speech, and before closing it drifted on to polygamy. He spoke irreverently of that institution, going so far as to assure the ladies of its immorality, reproved the leaders for their disrespectful language concerning the Government and their consignment of President Zachary Taylor to the nether regions. This was something new in the Rocky Mountain Zion, and the "Lion of the Lord" was in a moment aroused.
The audience was indignant at Brocchus, and when Brigham let himself loose on to the unfortunate Judge, the people would ​have torn that Federal functionary into shreds if the Prophet had not restrained them. When Brigham reiterated the situation and locality of the then recently deceased President Taylor, the Judge put in a demurrer, on which "brother Heber" kindly touched his Honour on the shoulder and assured him that he need not doubt the statement, for he would see him when he got there. Heber's witty endorsement of Brigham was anything but reassuring to the Judge.
It was on this occasion that Brigham immortalized the crooking of his little finger. "If," said he, "I had but crooked my little finger, he would have been used up; but I did not bend it. If I had, the sisters alone felt indignant enough to have chopped him in pieces." Since that memorable day he had, not infrequently warned the troublesome of the danger of crooking that finger, and it was no idle threat when he said: "Apostates, or men who never made any profession of religion, had better be careful how they come here, lest I should bend my little finger."
Judge Brocchus, failing to humble himself before "the servants of the Lord," thought that retirement from the Territory would be favoured by the Life Insurance Company, and he, accompanied by Chief Justice Brandebury and Secretary Harris, soon after bade a long farewell to Zion. Miss Eliza R. Snow's clever pen satirized the retreating Federals, in popular verse, and assured them and the world when they left the Saints that:
This, however, was only poetic truth, for Secretary Harris, who was the custodian of the Territorial funds, retired with $24,000, which had been appropriated by Congress for the "per diem" and mileage of the legislature. This was a great annoyance to the Prophet-Governor, and he attempted to restrain the Secretary ; but Mr. Harris stuck to the treasure and returned it to the proper department of the Government. The Federal officers, on their arrival in the Eastern States, published a hastily written statement of the whole occurrence, and very indiscreetly used the expression that "Polygamy monopolized all the women, which made it very inconvenient ​for the Federal officers to reside there." Loose as people might suppose frontier life to be, no one anticipated that representatives of the Federal Government would thus express themselves. That one sentence annihilated them.
Over the signature of Jedediah M. Grant, Brigham's counsellor, a series of letters was addressed to the New York Herald, under the title of "Truth for the Mormons," in which the Federal officials were turned into ridicule and fiercely handled. The Herald gave the public only one letter; but Grant, nothing daunted, published the whole series in pamphlet form, and scattered them broadcast. The Grant letters, from their forcible and pungent style, attracted the attention of literary men as gems of wit and vigorous English. They were so far superior to the Mormon literature that preceded them, and so much above Jedediah himself, that great credit was given by the Saints to the special inspiration which controlled him. In after years it was really painful to the Author to learn that two of Pennsylvania's honoured sons, already alluded to in this work—one no less than an ex-Vice-President of the United States, and the other enjoying a military title—were the inspiration and authors of the famous letters. What a charm there is in a mild and harmless delusion!
On the departure of the judges and secretary from Utah, Brigham appointed his counsellor, Willard Richards, Secretary of the Territory. Associate Justice Snow, being a Mormon, took no offence, and remained, and the Legislature of the Territory clothed the Probate courts with "both appellate and original jurisdiction," and the Federal judges could thereafter be easily dispensed with. The Saints had really no use for them.
* ↑ The Author was so informed by letter from ex-President Fillmore.
* ↑ "Journal of Discourses," p. 186-7.
* ↑ Ib., p. 167.