SPEECH OF MR. BOYCE,
OF SOUTH CAROLINA,
ON AFFAIRS IN UTAH TERRITORY.
HOUSE REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 11,1858.
The House being in Committee of the Whole, and hav-ing under consideration the bill to supply deficiencies in appropriations for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1858—
Mr. BOYCE, of South Carolina, said : Mr. Chairman, I consider the question of coercing the Mormons of Utah, involved in the bill to increase the army, as one of the gravest nature. This singular people, the wonder and the opprobrium of the age, have established themselves in the heart of this continent, at a vast distance from the civilized world, and separated from it by vast deserts and mountains. Their voluntary exodus from the Christian world, their selection of the great central basin for the seat of their power, their peculiar system of religion, their domestic institutions, so opposed to the spirit of the age, their singular unanimity of action—all excite our astonishment. Whatever else we may think, there is one thing we must all perceive, that they are actuated by the fiercest fanaticism. They are, what we have not re-cently seen in the civilized world, an entire community of fanatics. It has been apprehended, from their first development in Utah, that we would have trouble with them, and the apprehension is now being realized. Mr. Fillmore has been a good deal censured for permitting their great leader, Brigham Young, to act a Governor of the Territory. This was not the wish of Mr. Fillmore, but the result of a supposed political necessity Perhaps it would have been wiser to have met the question then, for it has only been postponed, and comes up for a solu-tion now, when they are far stronger than they were then. The same considerations of political necessity act-ing on Mr. Fillmore acted also on Mr. Pierce, and Brig-ham Young was permitted to remain in office as Govern-or. The public mind of the United States during the ad-ministration of Mr. Pierce seemed to become fixed in opposition to the retention of Brigham Young in power by the Federal Government. One of the political parties of the country, in the recent Presidential election, made opposition to the Mormons one of the planks in their political platform. Influenced, perhaps, in some degree by the laudable desire of meeting the wishes of the coun-try, and also, I have no doubt, upon general views of pub-lic policy, the present Administration determined to su persede Brigham Young as Governor, and appointed Mr. Cumming to the position—a gentleman well fitted for the place.
During the period that Brigham Young had been al-lowed to act as Governor, though we had some cause of complaint, yet there was no general revolt against the authority of the United States. Having things pretty much their own way, the Mormons seemed formally to submit to our authority. Individual Gentiles complained of bad treatment; some of the Government officials in the Territory also complained; but a formal obedience was kept up. The emigrant trains to California passed through Utah, as a general rule, undisturbed But re cently matters have changed. The effort upon the part of our Government to put Governor Cumming in authority has been resisted by force, and we appear to be on the eve of a war with the Mormons. A portion of the army, with Governor Cumming are in the mountains of Utah waiting for reinforcements with which to begin their march, and put the question to the arbitrament of the sword. This is a sad spectacle in a Republic, and de-mands our serious consideration.
The question is before us now, what shall we do with the Mormons? We must decide upon it ; we cannot postpone it if we would. Fortunately, it is a question with which nothing of sectionalism mingles. The laws of Utah, it is true, recognise and provide for slavery, but there are no slaves there. Utah, while it is techni-cally a slave community, is actually a free community. The President of the United States has simply undertaken to perform his duty in seeing that the laws are executed in Utah. He has no power to institute a policy, though he may suggest, one; he can only enforce the laws as they exist. It is for Congress to determine the policy to be pursued in reference to these people. Whatever that policy may be, I have no doubt the President will carry it out as far as it depends upon him and is possible.
War, even with a foreign nation, is a grave matter, not to be gone into inconsiderately. But domestic war war upon a portion of our own people, even if they be fanatics, madmen, fools, rebels, traitors, is a matter of far graver importance. The genius of our Government in its internal relations is peace. It is presumed that the laws will enforce themselves, that the people will submit to the laws Though force is not excluded from our system, yet it is considered a sad alternative, only to be resorted to in the last extremity. Such a condi tion of affairs as exists in Utah was, I apprehend, never considered as possible by the framers of the Constitu tion That a whole people should rise in arms and defy the central Government in the exercise of its undoubted authority, without even a plausible pretext, never en-tered into their minds. They had no conception that an American Mohammed would rise up in the United States in the middle of' the nineteenth century and pro-mulgate a new dispensation, made up of Christianity and Oriental sensuality, which should fascinate multi tudes and establish a distinct nationality in the bosom of the Rocky Mountains The condition of Utah, then is one which, while it has no precedent in our history, will, I trust, for the sake of humanity, have no imitation
Before we undertake to determine what we should do in reference to the Mormons it is necessary that we should understand precisely what we wish to accomplish, the benefit to be attained, or the evil to be averted. Utah is settled almost exclusively by Mormons ; there if scarcely a handful of Gentiles as those are called who do not adopt their faith, there. So far as good govern ment, order, and obedience to law is concerned in Utah among the Mormons it is a matter of very small import-ance to us, except from the general desire we have that even the Mor mons should prosper. But as that region of country is not now wanted for settlement by our citi-zens generally other than Mormons, and is not likely to be warned for an indefinite period, we would have no special motive to exert our power to restore order, so far as the interests of the inhabitants of that region may be concerned. If, therefore, Utah, instead of being in the centre of the continent, on the highway of our emigra-tion to the Pacific, were in some other portion of our do-minion not traversed by emigrants, we might feel under no necessity to concern ourselves about their proceed-ings no more than we do about remote tribes of Indians. But the local position of Utah, the fact that our great emigration trains to the Pacific coast must necessarily pass through Utah or make a considerable detour to the north or the south, invests the condition of affairs in Utah with great practical importance to us. So far as the people of Utah are concerned, we might, without loss to ourselves, abandon them to their own anarchy or mad-ness. The only practical aspect of the case of immediate interest is the necessity we are under of preserving un-disturbed our communications through the middle route to our Pacific possessions. It seems to me that this is the extent of our present practical interest in the ques-tion. If all Utah were to transform itself into Pandemo-nium it would not materially affect us, provided our com-munications were left undisturbed. While we should, of course, desire to see order in Utah, yet no degree of dis-order would at all disturb us, except in the single matter of having our communications disturbed This is, I think, fairly stating the extent of the present, practical interest we have in the Utah question ; it is to continue the central route open and undisturbed to the Pacific.
There are two modes of solving the Mormon question—first, by peaceful means ; second, by force There can be no doubt that the first mode is infinitely the best, if it can be made efficacious. The peaceful mode is mere congenial to the spirit of our institutions. Our Govern-ment is and should be reluctant to draw the sword against any portion of the people It is dangerous to inaugurate the reign of the sword in our Republic. The great leading idea upon which our Government proceeds is that all government rests on the consent of the gov-erned. Whilst on the one hand we have not been able entirely to ignore the sword in enforcing the laws, yet we should be very careful not to proceed to this fatal extremity except under the most imperative necessity. The Spanish Republics on this continent could never settle any dispute without the sword. The result is they are all dying out from the fatal effects of their own violence. For my part, I shall be sorry to see a ques tion involving the fate of so large a portion of our popu-lation as this Utah question incapable of any other solu-tion than civil war. We have had two rebellions in our history : the first, Shay's rebellion in Massachusetts during the comederation, and the Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania since the formation of the existing Con-stitution. In both of these instances order was finally restored without the effusion of blood. Massachusetts, by a course of singular prudence and firmness, suc-ceeded in subjugating their rebels without a battle, though hostile armies were actually in the field.
It became the duty of General Washington, the then President, to deal with the Pennsylvania insurgents. In reading the history of that period, we are struck with the forbearance with which Washington treated the insur-gents. He sent commissioners to remonstrate with them, and exerted every possible menus to solve the difficulty by a peaceful solution. When all peaceful means seemed to have failed, be displayed a strong military force, and advanced against the insurgents with the power of the Government, still tendering peace. The result justified the wisdom of Washington. The supremacy of the law was established without bloodshed General Washington was a man of profound wisdom; though it was an easy matter for the Government to beat, down the rebellion and extinguish it in the blood of the Insurgents, yet he knew that the Government could not strike any portion of the people without wounding itself. The same grave con-sideration which made General Washington reluctant to shed the blood of misguided men in Pennsylvania makes me anxious, if possible, to avoid the calamity in Utah. I am unwilling, if it can possibly be avoided, to put a whole community of our people to the sword, great as their errors or their crimes may be. It is a dangerous precedent, I would avoid it if possible. I fear us con-sequences.
Peaceful solution costs nothing ; whereas war will en-tail an expenditure of the most astonishing amount. It will be the most expensive military expedition, to the force employed, ever set on foot in modern times. Utah is eleven hundred miles from Missouri; a land passage through an uncultivated wilderness; a portion of the way through deserts and difficult mountains. Subsistence will have to be carried by wagons from the Missouri; even the animals with the army cannot be sustained at all seasons along the route by the native grasses. The expedition of Napoleon to Moscow has been looked upon as a great folly. Yet Moscow was only five hundred miles from Napoleon's supplies in Poland. It will take tons of gold to support our troops in Utah. The expense of the army there will, I believe, amount to $3,000 per man for the year. The Seimnole war cost something in the neighborhood of one hundred million dollars. The Seminole war was a war with a few hundred savages, in a country easily approachable by sea, and to which sup-plies; could be readily carried. A war with the Mormons will have to be carried on at a vast distance from our supplies, eleven hundred miles, against a people mad with fanaticism, and able to bring ten thousand fighting men into the field. It is true the Mormons have not the swamps of Florida; but they have the mountains and boundless plains and vast desert steppes of Utah To prosecute successfully the war in Utah will require an expenditure absolutely astounding. I say, then, that the peaceful adjustment of this difficulty is a great economy.
The peaceful mode of solving the Mormon question is the most conformable to hu anity. No one wishes to shed the blood of this misguided people. However great may be their errors or their crimes, they are still a por tion of our people, entitled to our protection and good offices. To devastate their country and shed their blood cannot hut be a most painful alternative. A Govern ment glorifies itself on the victories gained by its armies over a foreign foe ; it regrets those gained over its own people It erects triumphal arches to perpetuate the memory of the first; it draws a veil of oblivion over the second. When we consider the infinite miseries we shall infl ct upon the people of Utah by an offensive war, we cannot but deplore the necessity, and, if possible, en deavor to avoid it. If we could punish the guilty leaders alone, it would be well enough ; but we cannot reach them except by destroying a vast number of their mis-guided followers. As a matter of humanity, then, we should be glad to escape from the necessity of making war upon this people.
The peaceful solution of the question, besides the ad-vantages I have already mentioned, is also by far the most efficacious. If we can restore order in Utah with-out bloodshed then we will have accomplished all we desire. Law and order will reign there; we will have avoided all the evils and sacrifices of war, and secured the object we have in view. The rebellion will have ceased to exist, and our communications will be open and undisturbed to the Pacific. It is evident, then, that the peaceful solution of the question is the best, if it be possible.
The material question, then, in this regard, is, whether this peaceful solution be possible ? If it be possible, we should resort to it. Now, is it possible ? This can never be known until the experiment is fairly made. I am not sanguine that it would succeed, but still I do not see why it should not ; at any rate, it is worth while to make the effort. One advantage of this mode is, that if you try it and fail then force is still open to you; whereas, if you try force first and fail, in vain will you resort to nego-tiations; force failing, you have no other resource but acquiescence in defeat.
Mankind are usually, controlled by their interests The Mormons are scarcely exempt from the operation of this universal principle. It is clearly their interest to adjust their difficulties with this Government, peacefully. They cannot but realize the fact, that if we exert our power against, them we must drive them before us, de-stroy their cities, and inflict a multitude of evils upon them. Besides even the injuries we may inflict upon them by actual war in their country, we can subject them to great inconvenience, by cutting off all trade with them, thus interrupting the supply of many articles of prime necessity. Furthermore, the corner-stone of their policy is addition to their power by foreign immigration, which we can entirely cut off from them. Besides, our annual appropriations for their Territorial government is a very convenient addition to their income. From these considerations, and others which will naturally suggest themselves, it is clearly the interest of the Mor-mons to listen to reason, especially when that reason is backed by the great power of our Government. I think, therefore, the prospect of success is sufficiently great to induce us to resort to negotiations with this people The wisdom of resorting to pacific measures first is sustained by another view of the case. Brigham Young has im pressed the Mormons with the idea that this Govern-ment wishes to interfere with their religion, to punish them for their polygamy, and generally to crush and de-stroy them. I have no idea that Brigham Young be-lieves any such thing; but it is his policy to have it be-lieved by his people. It is our policy to disabuse the people of this false impression. This false idea is a tower of strength for Brigham Young. Let us so act as to overthrow this tower. If we can remove this impres-sion from the popular mind in Utah, Brigham Young will be shorn of a large portion of his strength. The people of Utah may proceed to the most desperate extremities if they believe that our purpose is to destroy them that w are, naturally hostile to them, end are seizing upon pretexts to subjugate them. Let us pursue such a line of policy as will circumvent the policy of Brigham Young. Brigham Young wishes us to manifest nothing but the most settled hostility to the Mormons, in order to consolidate his power over them. Let us do exactly the thing he does not wish us to do. Let us go to the ut must verge of moderation; let us manifest our intentions, of peace, of kindness, and generosity, in the most unmis takable manner to these people ; let us, before a gun is fired, gain a moral victory over Brigham Young. That moral victory may supersede the necessity of resorting to force. If it does not accomplish that much, it will weaken the grasp of the Mormon hand upon the sword, and cannot but operate favorably to us in the progress of the struggle. The Mormons can only be stimulated to the resistance of desperation by having their minds poisoned as to the purposes of this Government. A re-sort to a peaceful policy will be the most effectual way of counteracting the diseased condition of the public mind in Utah. It has been forcibly said that "the pen is mightier than the sword." There is infinite truth in this, as expressive of the greater power of ideas over ma-terialism I would try the force of ideas on the Mor mons before resorting to the scourge of humanity, the sword. Let our Government present itself to them in the image of a generous, kind, paternal, and affectionate Government, anxious, if possible, to forgive even them ; and if this fails, then let destiny take its course.
But let us now suppose that all efforts to settle mat-ters peaceably in Utah shall have failed, and that the sword must be drawn—that terrible instrument of the avenging Nemesis, which even Christianity has not been able to supersede; let us suppose that the sword must be restored to its old office of sprinkling the bosom of mother earth with the blood of the children of men What, then ? There are two modes of prosecuting this war:
1st. By what I shall call offensive war, invasion, de-struction, devastation.
2d. By cutting off all communication with Utah, placing the Mormons in quarantine, letting none come out and none go in, and guarding our trains of emi-grants over the Northern and Southern routes.
As regards the first mode, I shall say nothing of the distance of Utah from us, practically further than Europe, nor of the difficulty of carrying subsistence so far, nor of the difficult approaches through wild gorges in the mountains, nor of the army of fierce fanatics to be en-countered shall say nothing of all these, because such is my confidence in our indomitable army that I believe we shall carry every thing before us, and plant our vic-arious standards in the heart of their sacred city. I grant you that we shall beat down the Mormon chivalry upon the plains of Utah; but what I fear is that our greatest success will be our greatest disaster. The de-feat of the Mormons will, I fear, be the dispersion of the Mormons through the boundless plains and vast moun-tain ranges of the middle of the continent. Once they are thus dispersed they become a fierce banditti; every mountain gorge will re-sound with the crack of their un-erring rifles. Their very women will give forth from their envenomed wombs a race of monsters more horri-ble than Milten describes as pursuing Sin at the gates of Hell. Confederated with the Indian tribes, a race of American Arabs, they all become enemies of the human race. In vain will your emigrant trains endeavor to cross the centre of the continent. The march of every train would be a succession of battles, and you will have upon your hands, for a hundred years, a perpetual war with bandits. Study the physical geography of the globe, and nowhere else do you find a vast conformation of the earth's surface so well adapted to tribes of rob-bers as the great basin of the Salt Lake.
I said in the, beginning that the immediate practical interest we had in the Mormon question was securing our emigrant routes to the Pacific. This interest, I fear, will be more endangered by a successful war against the Mormons than in any other way. We wish a railroad; we wish the telegraph wires to "wreak themselves upon expression " through the centre of the continent How can you accomplish either of these great ideas after you have driven the Mormons in desperation and fury to the mountains? My objection to offensive war is that, even if successful, it defeats more completely than any thing else the very purpose we have in view—securing our communications with the Pacific.
The second mode of employing force against the Mor-mons, shutting them up in Utah, interrupting all com-munication with them, seems to me the wisest kind of force to adopt towards them, at, least at first. By that mode, with proper criminal legislation, we may place the Mormons in such circumstances as may make them willing to obey the laws. The only inconvenience this mode of procedure will cost us will be some addition perhaps to our military strength, and a more circuitous route tor our emigrant trains The question is not free from difficulty in any aspect. We should choose the least of evils. Let us try peaceful means, if they be possible; then the isolating process. If all fail, then war outright will still be left to us. In the mean time something may turn up in the chapter of events. There may be a schism among the Mormons, or something else that may give us the opportunity of acting to more advantage.
There is one consideration should not be overlooked in this Mormon question. It is this, that the greatest dan-ger to the integrity of the Mormon faith is prosperity the greater their material, moral, inte lectual develop-ment, the less hold a false faith will have upon them ; the more likelihood of woman asserting her divine mis-sion among them. In short, the more they become civil-ized the less they are Mormons. This development will most certainly take place by peace. Mormonism may be eternal among nomadic tribes, Arabs, or bandits; it must perish out under the blaze of civilization. Prosperity will destroy Mormonism : slowly, it may be, but certain-ly. The Turks, the Mormons of Europe, are perishing from contact with civilization. They only proclaim a great philosophical principle when they recognise that they are only camping on this side of the Bosphorus, and that it is their destiny to return into Asia. Civilization is death to Mohammedanism or Mormonism. Let us not lose sight of this consideration in determining our policy towards the Mormons.
Before I close, I would cite to the House some remarks of Mr. Burke, in the British Parliament, on the subject of coercing the American colonies. Mr. Burke, in his celebrated speech on conciliation with the American colo-nies, says:
"First, sir, permit me to observe that the use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment, but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again : and a nation is not governed which is perpetually to be conquered.”
Suppose you defeat the Mormons in a series of battles, and they do not fly to the mountains, but remain sullen, yielding an enforced obedience under the shadow of their holy temple ; how long will that last ? As soon as you have withdrawn your troops they trample your authority under foot It will be necessary to keep a large military force permanently in Utah. Do you propose to do this? It will be a very expensive operation.
Again, Mr. Burke says:
"We have no sort of experience in favor of force as an in-strument in the rule of our colonies. Their grow and their utility have been owing to methods altogether different The last cause of this disobedient spirit in the colonies is hardly less powerful than the rest, as it is not merely moral, but laid deep in the natural condition of things. Three thou-sand miles of ocean lie between you and them. No contrive ance can prevent the effect of this distance in weakening Government. Seas roll and months pass between the order and the execution ; and the want of a speedy explanation of a single point is enough to defeat a whole system. You have, indeed, jour winged ministers of vengeance, who carry your bolts in their pounces to the remotest verge of the sea. But there is a power steps in that limits the arrogance of raging passions and furious dements, and says, 'so far shalt thou go and no farther ' Who are you 'that you should fret and rage and bite the chains of nature?’ Nothing worse happens to you than does to all nations who have extensive empire, and it happens in all the forms into which empire can be thrown. In large bodies the circulation of power must be less vigorous at the extremities. Nature has said it. The Turk cannot govern Egypt and Arabia and Cardistan as he governs Thrace; nor has he the same dominion in the Cri-mea and Algiers which he has at Brusa and Smyrna. Des potism itself is obliged to truck and huckster. The Sultan gets such obedience as he can. He governs with a loose rein that he may govern at all; and the whole of the force and vigor of his authority in his centre is derived from a prudent relaxation in all his bonders. Spain in her provinces is per-haps not so well obeyed as you are in yours. She complies too, she submits, she watches time. This is the immutable condition, the eternal law of extensive and detached empire."
I will not make the application of these remarks to the present condition of affairs. I only commend them to the consideration of this House and the country.
This Mormon question is a great question. It is not one of those common-place matters which you can sum-marily dispose of. It is not a question of partisanship, but a question of statesmanship. You may turn from it, but, there is Utah ; there are the Mormons; there is the cancer on your body politic. How will you get rid of it ? Will you strike at it with the sword ? Those rough re-medies sometimes aggravate the disease. It needs, in my opinion, to be dealt with gently and with consum-mate wisdom. With these remarks I leave the question, at least, for the present.
