The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1877-06-08
CROOK ON UTAH.
His Observations Regarding Affairs
There as Gathered During a Three
Days Visit.

Gen. George Crook arrived here yes
terday afternoon on his return from q
visit to Utah, he having gone thither at
the request of Lieut.. Gen. Sheridan,
to investigate and report upon the con-
dition of affairs in general in the Nor
mon territory. The General took
rooms at the Railroad house and a
LEADER reporter visited him in the
evening to learn the result Of his OBJ
servations.
Gen. Crook arrived at Salt Lake on
Sunday, and early on Monday morning
received a note signed by the leading
Gentiles Of the city stating that they
would call upon him in the afternoon
for the purpose of holding a conference
and giving him ali the information they
possessed relating to the state of affairs
as now existing in Utah. An inter-
view was granted cheerfully, and the
General c~onversed at length with the
gentlemen. They informed him that
they had no fears whatever of an up
rising among the Mormons, and that
the sensational reports sent out by un-
reliable correspondents and excited res
idents, while they had greatly injured
the business interests Of the Territory,
were almost entirely false. They gave
it as their opinion that there was not
the slightest necessity for more troops,
and that although the grand jury, which
sits next month, might indict Brigham
Young for completely in the Mountain
Meadows massacre, and thus cause
some trouble among the Mormons, yet
there was no danger of anything like a
formidable outbreak.
Another class of citizens, also Gen
tiles, took occasion to express their
views to the General. These men were
fearful of an uprising, fearful of blood
shed, and fearful Of almost everything
which smacked of the dangerous.
Crook said, however, that the latter
class consisted mainly of attaches of
the Salt Lake Tribune, with a few NAL
contents of the anne ilk.
The General obtained from General
Smith, commander at Camp Douglas,
an expression of opinion rs formed
from his personal and careful survey of
affairs. General Smith regarded the
situation as far from alarming. He
had sent one Of his most trusty officers
to all points in the territory and OBJ
tanned from him full reports as to the
condition Of rnoffaro arI Tho faa1irr
among the masses of the people, and
from these reports General Smith had
drawn the con clusion that there was
not the slightest occasion for alarm.
General Crook says that ever since
their advent in Utah the Mormons have
kept up a military organization similar
to that which is in existence in many Of
the Eastern States at present, and that
they have been drilled at stated periods.
This fact was seized upon by sensation
al correspondents as a basis for their
wild and damaging dispatches and let
tiers from Utah.
Brigham Young said the General,
sis fast losing his influence and pres
tige with the Mormons, who are rapid
ly disintegrating. In former years they
considered themselves bound to uphold
each other in everything, whether GRIM
inal or otherwise, but of late they have
been gradually drifting apart, and the
breach is fast widening. They see that
they can live, move and have their be-
ing, whether Brigham Young rules or
not, and they have to a great extent
grown weary of paying 1.-THE to the
so-called Prophet. He can no longer
enforce his arbitrary and unjust Claws"
and his collectors fail to gather the
vast tribute which they formerly did.
In case he should be indicted by the
Grand Jury, there would be a still
greater falling off in his following, so
that 1 do not apprehend yer the SEM
blance of serious trouble. He is i'm
mensely rich, and it would be an impos-
sibility, in my opinion, to secure a jury
which would convict him, so that /
have come to regard the Utah trouble
as a senseless and cruel hoax"
The Mormons kept aloof from the
General during his stay in Salt Lake,
and he did not seek them, believing
that if they wanted to see him it was
their duty to call and have their say.