The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-01-17

tied by Colonel Thomas L. Kane of the
United States army, and at his sugges-
ton Brigham Young raised the famous
Mormon battalion of 500 men fo- the
Mexican war. They marched in the
Kearny and Doniphan expedition and
from the lower Rio Grande across the
desert and mountains to San Diego
Major John D. Lee, afterward notorious
for his part in the Mountain meadow
massacre, told me while I was at his
retreat on the Colorado in 1872 how he
and Major Howard Egan went with the
battalion to Santa Fe and received there
the bounty and first payment, amount
ing to $4,000, which Lee and Egan
took back to Brigham Young to be used
in outftting for the journey to Utah.
The battalion was put in the command
of Colonel Philip st. George Cooke, and
long afterward the Mormons used to
tell, with a glow of pride, that his at
tachment to these soldiers was SO great
that when he entered Salt Lake City, in
1858, with the United States army he
rode with his head uncovered. A COM
pany of 246 pioneers had already been
sent around from New York under Colo
mel Samuel Brannan. They reached
Yerba Buena in time to aid the revo1u-
ton against Mexican rule, and, the dis
covery of gold following soon, Brannan
remained and became a very wealthy
man, while the MOrmons scattered and
worked their way through to Utah.
When Brigham Young Was a Lion.
It was on that day in 1857 when all
the people were gathered about Big Cot
tonwood lake, "a miles from the city
and 10, 600 feet above sea level, when
tho T11nCiO 1O17d and tho 6anaiT1cy of
its merriest, Brigham leading the head
cotillon with his favorite wife, Eme1ine
Free, that Elder A. o. Smoot rode in
to the assemblage, having come from
the Missouri river as fast as his strength
would bear, and announced that Presi-
dent Buchanan had sent new set of
officials for Utah, and that with them
was a great army, now rapidly nearing
Utah. Many a time have I sat by cabin
fires in remote villages Of Utah and
heard old men and women tell how the
people rose as one man and how Brig
ham was then truly the lion of the Lord.
He took the stand and said: "God has
granted my wish, and the devil has taken
me at my word. l said the day we
reached Utah that if the minions of hell
would leave me ten years I'd be ready
for them. They have taken me at my
word, and they will see that I am
ready"
He promptly ordered out the militia,
issued proclamations, and the SO called
Mormon war began. 1t was during the
three years beginning with 1855 that
most of those acts were ornmitted which
anti Mormon writers refer to as the
'church murders The first year the
crop failed, and the next winter the peo-
pie had to dig thistle roots and segoes
for food. a spirit of wild fanaticism
followed and a fearful period, known as
the reformation, during which the
'tblood atonement" doctrine was preach
ed and occasionally enforced. The same
year 1900 Mormons started from the
| frontier in August to travel to Utah
with handcarts. Winter came early while
they were in the heart of the Rocky
mountains; 800 Of them died, and many
more suffered the loss of an eye or a
limb or otherwise by cold and hunger
| In the meanwhile mob had driven the
| United States judges and other officials
out of the territory, and gentiles and
dissenting Mormons fed in every direc-
ton. The army came late in 1857 and
! was barred out till the next summer,
but it's location in the territory proved
| the beginning of Mormon prosperity.
| Mines were opened in adjacent terri
tories, and the Mormons had a good
/ market for their surplus at famine
| prices. Our civil war came on, a hard
| winter closed the Missouri river, Indians
| dominated all other routes, and flour in
| Montana rose to $11O per barrel. The
Mormons literally coined money. Dur
ing one peculiarly hard winter some
1000 miners came to winter in the city,
and have heard old Mormons and mer-
| chants estimate that their average ex-
penditures there were So, 1000 per day for
four months. After the war came the
Union Pacific railroad, and when I
crossed the plains, although the terminus
| of the road was near Cheyenne, the
! Mormon settlements were in highly
prosperous condition by reason of
freighting and furnishing supplies to
the advance working parties.
A Great State.
A dumb war followed between the
United States officials and the Mormons
till, in 1882, congress passed the Ed
munds act, and the final assault on
polygamy began. Its origin. according
to the Mormons, was in revelation to
Joseph Smith, given July IL, 1843, but
it was not openly avowed by the church
till September, 1852. In 1862 the first
law of congress against it was enacted;
it was strengthened in 1874 by the Po-
land act, but it was not till the COM
mission was appointed under the Ed
munds act that anything practical was
done. The Mormons yielded gracefully,
and now the only use of the Edmunds
act is for the prosecution of negroes in
Washington who are living according to
the old law of the plantation instead of
! the statutes