THE MORMON TREASON.
Subjoined is the Letter and Proclamation of Brigham Young, alluded to in the last number of our paper:
Governor’s Office, Utah Territory,
Great Salt Lake City, September 29, 1857.
To the Officer Commanding the Forces now Invading Utah Territory:
Sir : By reference to the act of Congress passed September 9, 1850, organizing the Territory of Utah, you will find the following:
“ Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the Executive power and authority in and over said Territory of Utah shall be vested in a governor, who shall hold his office for four years, and until his successor shall be appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the President of the United Stales. The governor shall reside within said Territory, shall be commander-in-chief of the militia thereof,” &c.
I am still the Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Territory, no successor having been appointed and qualified, as provided by law, nor have I been removed by the President of the United States. By virtue of the authority thus vested in me, I have issued and forwarded to you a copy of my proclamation forbidding the entrance of armed forces into the Territory. This you have disregarded. I now further direct that you retire forthwith from the Territory, by the same route you entered. Should you deem this impracticable, and prefer to remain until spring in the vicinity of your present encampment—Black Ford, on Green river—you can do so in peace and unmolested, on condition that you deposit your arms and ammunition with Lewis Robinson, Quartermaster General of the Territory, and leave in the spring as soon as the condition of the roads will permit you to march ; and should you fall short of provisions, they can be furnished you upon making the proper application therefor.
General 1). II. Wells will forward this and receive any communication you may make. Very respectfully,
Brigham Young, Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs.
PROCLAMATION OF THE MORMON CHIEF.
The following is the Proclamation referred to by Brigham Young:
Proclamation by the Governor.
Citizens of Utah : We are invaded by a hostile force, who are evidently assailing us to accomplish our overthrow and destruction. For the last twenty-five years we have trusted officials of the Government, from constables and justices to judges, governors, and presidents, only to be scorned, held in derision, insulted, and betrayed. Our houses have been plundered and burnt, our fields laid waste, our principal men butchered while under the pledged faith of the Government for their safety, and our families driven from their homes to find that shelter in the barren wilderness and that protection among hostile savages which were denied them in the boasted abodes of Christianity and civilization.
The Constitution of our common country guaranties unto us all that we do now or have ever claimed. If the constitutional rights which pertain unto us as American citizens were extended to Utah according to the spirit and meaning thereof, and fairly and impartially administered, it is all that we could ask, all that we have ever asked.
Our opponents have availed themselves of prejudice existing against us because of our religious faith to send out a formidable host to accomplish our destruction. We have had no privilege nor opportunity of defending ourselves from the false, foul, and unjust aspersions against us before the nation. The Government has not condescended to cause an investigating committee or other person to be sent to inquire into and ascertain the truth, as is customa.y in such cases. We know those aspersions to be false ; but that avails us nothing. We are condemned unheard, and forced to an issue with an armed mercenary mob, which has been sent against us at the instigation of anonymous letter-writers, ashamed to father the base, slanderous falsehoods which they have given to the public of corrupt officials, who have brought false accusations against us to screen themselves in their own infamy, and of hireling priests and howling editors, who prostitute the truth for filthy lucre’s sake.
The issue which has thus been forced upon us compels us to resort to the great first law of self-preservation, and Stand in our own defence, a right guarantied to us by the genius of the institutions of our country, and upon which the Government is based. Our duty to ourselves, to our families, require us not to tamely submit to be driven and slain without an attempt to preserve ourselves. Our duty to our country, our holy religion, our God, to freedom and liberty, requires that we should not quietly stand still and see those tetters forging around us which are calculated to enslave and bring us in subjection to an unlawful military despotism, such as dan only emanate, in a country of constitutional law, from usurpation, tyranny, and oppression.
Therefore, I, Brigham Young, Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs for ihe Territory of Utah, in the name of the people of the United States, in the Territory of Utah, forbid —
First, all armed forces of every description from coming into this Territory under any pretence whatever.
Second, that all the forces in said Territory hold themselves in readiness to march at a moment’s notice to repel any and all such invasion.
Third, martial law is hereby declared to exist in this Territory from and after the publication of this proclamation, and no person shall be allowed to pass or repass into or through or from this Territory without a permit from the proper officer.
Given under my hand and seal, at Great Salt Lake city. Territory of Utah, this fifteenth day of September, A. D. eighteen hundred and fifty-seven, and of the independence of the United States of America the eighty-second.
BRIGHAM YOUNG.
[E. S.]
FROM THE NEBRASKA NEWS OF OCT. 24.
Troops Driven from New Jerusalem.—We learn by the arrival of the Salt Lake mail that the advance party of some thirty or more United States troops sent outdaring the summer have been driven out from Salt Lake city. Brigham is preparing to receive the whole posse of the United States troops. He declares vengeance upon all heretics. Our informant, tells us that robberies and murder are frequent on the plains by the Mormons and Indians. Five hundred United States troops have started for Utah ; but these are thought to be a force totally inadequate to quell disturbances at Salt Lake, and it is not expected that this small force will reach this season the Mormon hornet’s nest. They are to winter upon Fall river.
We have late intelligence by express, sent to Messrs. Russell and Waddell, says the Leavenworth (Kansas) Times, that three of their trains, consisting of seventy- five wagons, in charge of Dawson, Simpson, and Barrett, containing Government stores for the army en route for Salt Lake city, were captured and burnt by the Mormons at Hand’s forks of Green river, on the 10th of October. Five wagons and sufficient rations to reach Fort Laramie were allowed the drivers and those connected with the trains, and ten minutes given them to leave.
They have burnt all the Government stores, but did not offer to hurt any of those connected with the trains, saying that they did not wish to spill blood, unless one of the saints should be killed, and then they would annihilate the whole United States army.
They have burnt off all the grass for a distance of two hundred miles around Salt Lake city, for the purpose of starving the stock with the Government trains.
Jesse Jones, one of Russell and Waddell’s agents, had gone to Fort Bridger for supplies. He was detained there as a prisoner, and is supposed to have been killed, as it is known that he is well acquainted with all the reads and mountain passes leading into the city.
Had the troops at Fort Leavenworth, under Gen. Harney, been pushed on early in the spring, Utah might have been awed into submission, without the sacrifice of life or property. Now we may look for both, and a long and bloody fight besides.
P. S. We have unofficial intelligence that the advanced trains, consisting of three hundred and fifty wagons, are with the troops, and are safe.
