Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1863-03-20

: |
type. "i J. NJ.
P. S. You added some statements to my
dispatch of yesterday not altogether true
Maj. O'Connor returned from Island No. l,
several weeks since. The companies at tina
place and those in Williamson county hay
not been ordered to follow the regiment AL
will probably return to Cairo in few days
| Capt. Keeler, acting Provost Marshal, ant
twelve of his company, the provost guard
will remain here till further orders, as alst
the sick and their attendants in the hospitals
| ]. NJ.
Utah Territory.
| Public attention has lately been drawn
with fresh anxiety to the region of country
inhabited by that patriarchial but obstreper
GUS people, the Mormons, or Latter-Da
Saints. On the Sd inst, mass meeting o.
the Saints was held in the Tabernacle at Sal
Lake City at which the Federal officers sem
to Utah about year ago were bitterly de-
nounced, and committee was appointed tc
wait on Gov. Harding and request him te
leave the Territory. In answer to the re-
quest of the committee the Governor assured
them that his duty required him to remain "a,
his post until it shall please the President to
recall him, and that no threats of violence or
degree of personal danger coull induce him
to act otherwise The causes which have
rendered the Governor so obnoxious to the
people of Utah are to be cleaned from the
following extracts from his message to the
Territorial Legislature which convened on
the 9Th of December last:
Much to my astonishment [ have not
been able to find any law upon the statutes
of this Territory regulating marriage. |
earnestly recommend TO your early considera-
ton the passage of some law that will meet
the exigencies of this people,"
u respectfully call your attention to an
act of Congress, passed July 1st, 1862, en-
titled an act to punish and prevent the prac,
tice of polygamy in the Territories Of the
United States, and in other places, and dis
approving and annulling certain acts of the
Legislative Assembly of the Territory Of
Utah, chapter CXXVII of the S atutes at
large of the last session of Congress, page
SOL"
The Governor argued at some length and
with much force the necessity of legislating
upon these subjects, and further, rebuked
Mormon disloyalty to the Union. The SEN
sation was tremendous. The Mormon press
dare not publish the address. 1t was very
scrupulousy kept from circulation in Mormon.
dom, and since then the storm has been
brewing, apparently now about to break.
There is no doubt that violence will overtake
and destroy the bold Federal officers in Utah
unless they arc speedily reinforced with
troops, (which cannot be too soon sent thither.
The matter will doubtless receive the early
attention of the Government.
We are indebted to an eastern paper for
the following interesting summary of Utah,
past and present, which will prepare our
readers for what may prove the extent OF
this disturbance
"One word as to Gov. Harding's predcces.
sors in the Gubernatoral office. Brigham
| Young was appointed in September, 1S49,
| by President Fillmore. The Saints had left
Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1945 and 1916, and ar
rived at Salt Lake valley, the pioneers in
l847, the main body one year later. Aspir-
ing to be, from the outset, full-blown State,
they knocked for admission as Dcseret, in
| l849. Congress held the door fast agains'
them, but organized the Territory of Utah,
its admission being all that was successful in
the famous "omnbus bill " for the organiza.
ton of the Territories, the struggle over
which formed prominent part of the Con-
gressional annals of 1850.
| The Saints accepted Brigham, of course,
but speedily expelled the Federal Judges, the
Governor himself aiding in driving them out.
Brigham was removed and Col. Steptoe, U.
S. A., was appointed to replace him. The
latter did not dare take the chair. The
Mormons now had it all their own way, and
their resistance was muscularized by four
years of successfully having their own will
Col. Steptoe made show of assuming his
duties in 1854, but was frightened away, and
shortly after he left his fellow -unfortunates
in Federal appointments in Utah arrived, to
embark on sea of trouble. They took only
feeble sembance of Office or functions, but
even this the Mormons resisted, and, in 1856
the now not very illustrious Chicago lawyer
who bears the name of g Utah Drummond,'
was forced to close his United States Dis,
trict Court, in Salt Lake, ard leave Brig.
ham was then in full bloom as Governor
"appointed by the Lord" and not to be sci
aside by Federal mandate.
Alfred Cumming, Superintendent of Indian
| Hairc boc cl> oJ hv E0l T1nstad Cfokoo ror,,
lars, was next sent out as Governor of Utah
with hostile SHOWS and more hostile Mormons
and only by Intervention and fresh under
standing brought about by mutual conces.
sions was Gov. Cumming allowed to enter
the kingdom. This was in 1858. Gov
Cummings troops were stationed about forty
miles from the capital, where they remained
until 1860, when they were withdrawn. The
appointees Of President Lincoln in time sue
ceeded those of the ignoble Lancasteran."
Gov. Cummings chief exertions seem tc
have been to draw his pay of $2.50o aid
let alone contention" ....
Gov. Stephen S. Harding was appointed
to the executive Office of Utah by President
Lincoln, early in the spring of 1862, and as
sumed the duties of the Office on the 7th o
July. The United States District Judges
Waite and Drake went out with him." ,
The CoPPERHEAD LEADER.-V Vallandighan
addressed full house at the Broadway Head
quarters of the Democracy, in New York, OF
Saturday evening. He opposed the war, ad
vocated immediate peace, denounced our Con
scription act as ten times worse than that o