UTAH.
OPENING OF THE DISTRICT COURT—
TROUBLE BETWEEN THE SAINTS AND
THE TROOPS—BRIGHAM REFUSES TO
OBEY PROCESS.
From Our Own Correspondent.
CAMP FLOYD, U. T., NOV. 27, 1858.
The term of the United States District Court, which was adjourned from the first Monday of November, to await the arrival of the newly-ap-pointed Attorney-General, Mr. Wilson, was re-commenced on last Monday, the 23d inst., Judge Sinclair presiding. The Judge is quite a young man for the position, but confidence is felt that he will discharge the functions of his office with ability, firmness and discretion. Judge Sinclair's views of the state of affairs in this Territory, and of the policy proper to be pursued, correspond very nearly with the ideas of Chief-Justice Eckels, and of course differ widely and essentially from those of Gov. Cumming. The charge of the Judge to the Grand Jury on the opening of the Court on last Monday is said to have been very able and decided, meeting fully and pointedly the various questions of law arising out of the anom-alous social and religious organization of the Mor-mon community.
It is currently reported in camp, and on what appears to be good authority, that Brigham Young has positively and peremptorily refused to obey the summons to appear before the District Court, ex-cept upon condition that Gov. Cumming shall furnish him a sufficient escort to protect his sacred person from harm. According to the accounts we have in camp, Marshal Dodson and his Deputy have had the door of the Lion House shut in their faces three several times. As yet no requisition for military aid has been made on Gen. Johnston. One thing, I think, may be assumed as pretty certain, and that is, that Gov. Cumming will never call upon the military for aid to enforce the laws in this Territory as long as he can, according to his own con-ceptions of propriety and official duty, avoid doing so. Whatever view may be taken of Utah matters at Washington, it is certain that among all the Gentiles here, whether in the military service or not, it would be difficult to find a half a dozen who do not consider that Gov. Cumming is disposed to take entirely too lenient and charitable a view of the political offenses and social enormities which have characterized the Mormon community of late years.
Our camp was thrown into quite a state of ex-citement night before last, by a report; since fully verified, that one officer of the Army had been shot in gait Lake City, on Monday night last, and another first knocked down with a bludgeon, and then carried to jail by the Mormon Police. The circumstances appear to he these: Lieut Saun-ders, of the 2d Dragoons, was one of the officers attached to the command sent some time since in the direction of the Hum-boldt, to look after certain bands of Indians who, it had been reported, had attacked and an-noyed the California mail party. While on this expedition Lieut. Saunders was taken very ill of the typhoid fever, and on the return of the com-mand it was found necessary to leave him in Salt Lake City, under the medical care of Assistant-Surgeoun Corey, who was detached for that purpose.
On the evening of last Monday, Dr. Corey who is known to be one of the mildest and quietest gen-tlemen in the service, and Lieut, Saunders who has recently risen from his slewed, were at or in the vicinity of the store of Messrs. Swings on Kinkead & Co., in company with Mr. Kinkead of that firm. The party were laughing, talking, and enjoying themselves, when a policeman stepped up and told them they were making too much noise and must quit it. To this Mr. Kinkead make noise, reply, which drew forth an insulting some guardian of the night, whereupon consort from the knocked down by Mr. Kinkead. A melee ensued, several other policemen coming up on the instant Sixteen or seventeen shots were fired. Dr. Corey was slightly wounded in the arm, and Mr. Saunders was knocked down with a bludgeon, and then carried off to jail. Fortunately for the assailants, neither gentleman was armed. Lieut. Saunders is a powerful man, and one whom I should think could not often be knocked down with impu-nity. But the typhoid fever is not exactly the thing to prepare a man for "traveling on his muscle " through a crowd of assailants armed with bludgeons and six-shooters.
Great was the excitement produced in camp by the news of this assault upon two of our officers, and by the well authenticated intelligence that Brigham Young had refused to obey the process of United States District Court. Nothing less was expected by many than an immediate requisition from the Governor for a detachment of troops to proceed at once to the scene of action. The Tintic war was, for the nonce, completely eclipsed and thrown into the shade; but is gradually regaining its preeminence though not on Indians, or even any fresh sign of Indians has been seen by any of the detachments sent to the South. Still the or-ders are out, in black and white, to treat any Indians who may show themselves in the vicinity of our herds, as enemies, unless the contrary is made manifestly to appear—whereas the powers that be, on civil authority here, seem determined to persist in considering the Mormons friends and loyal citizens to the last.
A few nights ago, while Wm. Hobson, N. S. Marshall and Mr. Hartnett, Secretary of State, were walking after dark on one of the most public streets of the city, a pistol ball whistled by them, fired, it is supposed, by one of the police. In the present state of affairs, I should not be surprised at any moment to hear of bloodshed and violence on a more extended scale in the city.
I know of nothing that displays in a more strik-ing light the brutishness of the Mormon character than a Circumstance I have heard in connection with the recent cutting off from the church of a considerable number of the women. No where else, I venture to say, on the Continent of North America, are white women to be seen working like slaves, barefooted, in the field.
It is notorious to all here that large numbers of the Mormon women are in a state of great want and destitution, and that their husbands do not pretend to provide them even with the necessaries of life. The Gentile merchants of Salt Lake City gave employment in the way of needlework to a considerable number of these poor women, thus enabling them to earn a decent support for them-selves and children.
I have been assured by a lady, who has herself been excommunicated, that every female in Salt Lake City who took in sewing from the Gentile merchants has been cut off from the Church. Nearly every Mormon woman about our camp has shared the same fate. The actresses at our theater have, of course, not been spared, though their conduct since they have been at Camp Floyd has been so irreproachable that not even the voice of slander has whispered aught against them.
Brigham Young and his confederates know full well that his system cannot continue to thrive or to exist except by being isolated, and that anything like free or general intercourse between his peo-ple and the army would tend directly and power-fully toward the overthrow of the most objec-tionable features of Mormonism. Hence no pains are spared, by a system of thorough and searching espionage, by an extensive and ubiquitous police organization, by anathemas and excommunications from his conventicles, to prevent anything like a free association of his people, especially of the fe-male portion, with the Gentiles now in Utah. I think that it is much tobe regretted that the policy of our Government officials here has from the first been such as to subserve Brigham Young's views and play into his hands in this matter. The troops have been kept as far away from the masses of the Mormon population as practicable, and the inter-course between the army and the population of the Territory has been of the most limited character. In no other portion of the Union would it to con-sidered a ground of grievance or complaint to have troops stationed in or near a town or city.
Gen. Burr, formerly Surveyor-General of this Territory, has submitted a motion to the District Court, which will come up at the present term, to have Hosea Stout, Adjutant-General Ferguson, and G. C. Little, prominent Mormon lawyers, dis-missed from the Bar. The grounds of the motion are that, some two years ago, the individuals named sought to have Gen. Burr discharged, on false charges preferred against him by them—they knowing at the time that such charges were false—and for, furthermore, attempting to effect their purpose by intimidating the Court with mob vio-lence.
As Brigham Young was Governor of the Terri-tory at the time, and was appealed to, in vain, to protect the Court from outrage, I presume that one of the matters upon which he will be called on to testify will be in relation to his conduct on that occasion. The motion of Gen. Burr, I presume, will prevail, as there is the most ample testimony at hand to substantiate his allegations.
Our camp theater is a decided success, and affords us a constant fund of amusement. Last night the performance consisted of "Luke the Laborer" and "The Rough Diamond."The per-formance of the latter piece would have been con-sidered creditable on the boards of your best metropolitan theaters. Mrs. Tuckett, in the char-acter of "Margery," was admirable, and the same, may be said of Corporal Northrop and Private Thatcher in their parts.
In addition to the dramatic corps, we have a most excellent band of Ethiopian singers, consist-ing of enlisted men of the 2d Dragoons. There are eleven members, all good musicians and fine singers. They gave their first representation last Saturday evening, to a crowded house, and were applauded to the echo. Bugler Drown, on the jaw- bones, was immense. There have also been organized recently among our enlisted men of Ger-man extraction two Sanger Bunds, of twenty or thirty members each, which are expected to effulge shortly.
P. S.—I have just seen a gentleman from Salt Lake City, who informs me that all the attempts of Marshal Dorson and his deputy to serve process on Brigham Young personally were fruitless; and that finally the papers were handed to Adjutant-General Ferguson, to be handed by him to Brigham Young. Whether that would be valid service I am not sufficiently conversant with the Utah laws to be able to say. Ferguson, by the way, in addition to being Adjutant-General of the Nauvoo legion and attorney at law, figures about the portals of the Lion House in an official character.
CAMP FLOYD, U. T., Dec. 3, 1858.
Brigham Young has not yet appeared in Court, nor has the Marshal, so far as I have been able to learn, yet succeeded in serving a subpena upon him. It appears to be generally understood now, however, upon what grounds I have not been able to ascertain, that whenever it is intimated to Mm that his presence is required he will appear and "take a swar." His attendance will be needed next Monday, in the suit for false imprisonment brought by McNeil, who was put in jail and in irons for attempting to leave the Valley last Winter with-out a passport. Col. Fabens, McNeil's companion in misfortune, disappeared some two months ago very mysteriously, and his most intimate friends here do not know what has become of him.
It having been intimated to Gen. Johnston that Judge Sinclair was under the troops would not be sent into impression that except upon a requisition Salt Lake City the General from the Governor, addressed a letter to the Judge assuring him that troops would be sent in at once upon an intimation from the Judge himself that their presence was needed. To provide for such contingency, the horses belong for any light battery, which had been to Phelps's Quartermaster and sent ben turned over to the have been brought to Rush Valley to winter, I do not back and the battery remounted, ther it probable, however, that any fur-ther demonstration will be made, as it seems to be screed that the only honors to be won by the Utah army are those consequent upon a heroic Exhibition of patience, forbearannce and long-suffering, and a determination to be jolly under difficulties, "at all "hazards, and to the last extremity."
Assistant-Surgeon Corey, and Lieut. Saunders, who were assaulted and wounded in Salt Lake City last week, kave returned to camp. The Church organ here, The Deseret News, gives an account of the affray in which these gentlemen were injured, which is altogether false. Neither of them was armed, not having so much as a pen-knife about them, and one of them was just recov-ering from the effects of a severe attack of the typhoid fever. There were five or six Gentiles in the party set upon by the Danites, (in the conven-ient garb of star policemen,) and it is somewhat singular that the only ones injured in any way should have been the officers present. Out of the 16 or 17 shots fired, all or nearly all must have been fired by the so-called policemen, the only thing in the nature of a firearm in the possession of one of the gentile party, being a small pistol which one of them had in his vest pocket. The Mormons, according to the statements of their own paper, were all armed with revolvers, and some with shot-guns. Right upon the heels of this af-fair, and in the face of this ubiquitous police, a private soldier of the Tenth Infantry, who had been sent in on duty, was knocked down, beaten, and robbed on the public street. Hereafter, officers and men going among these people, will not fail to be well armed at all times, and if they are molested will then be well able to take care of themselves.
Winter has set in here at last in good earnest. Valleys and mountains all around are covered with snow, presenting as dreary a winter landscape as the eye could rest on. The thermometer yester-day was as low as 12° above zero, and the wind from the north was sharper than the edge of a razor.
It is to be hoped that the snows on the moun-tains and on the canons will not be of sufficient depth to stop our mails. The present contractors are entitled to great credit, for, up to the present time, the mail has arrived with as much punctual- ity as though it were carried on a short route be-tween neighboring New-England villages. When the length of the route and the nature of the coun-try traversed are considered, too great credit can-not be awarded to the contractors.
CONDITION OF THE CITY AND TERRI-TORY—INDIANS.
Correspondence of The N. Y. Tribune.
SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 2, 1858.
This city is livelier now than it ever was. Up-ward of one hundred freight trains with over three thousand men and thirty-five thousand head of cattle have entered the valley this Summer and Fall; several trains of Mormons have also arrived in this city. Hand cart trains are done away with now, and the more easy and commodious way of traveling with ox or mule teams has taken their place. More freight has entered this valley this year than has ever been brought into the Territory before. New stores are going up in great numbers, and all articles of home manufacture, as well as those which have been imported from the States, are very high in price. Bacon, sugar and coffee are selling briskly at prices ranging from seventy-five cents to one dollar and a half a pound. Tea is a scarce artiste, and is only used by the wealthier classes. There is little or no business doing here. The only two trades that do well, are blacksmithing and shoemaking.
General news is very scarce here now. Although the city is filled with rowdies, gamblers, thieves and pickpockets, its four hundred policemen are sufficient to quell all disturbances. The liquor shops, only three in number have large gambling hells attached to them.
Robberies and shooting matches are of frequent occurrence, and so little is thought of them that The Deseret News never notices them. A few nights ago, a mail-driver was garroted and robbed of $165.
Since the return of the Mormons from their southern flight, they have seemed to care less for matters and things than was ever expected they could. Their creed, "Mind your own business," they obey to the letter, i. e., they do not trouble any one in public, but when they can annoy a gentile in an underhanded way they do it. Since the build-ing of a military post at Cedar Valley, they have been trying to get the Indians to harrass and trouble all the emigrants who are on their way to California, so as to get up an Indian war with the Government. The Government officials at Camp Floyd have decided upon moving their military post to the mouth of Provo Cañon in the Spring. This will be a much pleasanter and healthier loca-tion than the present one, and easier of access.
A company of troops left the camp last week with a party of surveyors to explore and find out a new route, over which the mail is to be carried this Winter to California, the present route over the Goose Creek mountains is impossible in the Winter season in consequence of snow. I under-stand from a reliable source that they have found a route which is one hundred and fifty miles shorter, at the same time that it cuts off the moun-tains and enters the old road somewhere on the Humboldt River. The mail is carried very regularly by the contractor, but how he manages to do it is a query, having old and broken down mules and small carriages which will not carry two passengers with safety, overloaded and carrying from six to nine passengers at the rate of forty miles a day. The price of passage is one hundred and twenty-five dollars in figures, and the passen-gers have to work their passage, and very hard work it is to keep the mules moving. I would ad-vise all those who wish to go to California not to take the route from Salt Lake City, a meaner and a mo-re contemptible way of traveling it would puzzle any one to invent; the stations are mere huts, and the men are in danger of being robbed and murdered by the Indians along the route. The agents at each end greatly misrepresent the manner of traveling, the passengers having to stand guard nights, and walk about one quarter of the distance.
The Indians are very troublesome on the line now. They robbed the mail a short time ago, and, not less than a week ago, burnt down a station, robbing the men of their provisions, and driving them off. The whole matter, as I understand it, was brought about by the foolishness of the Indian Agent (Dr. Torney), who gave one of the most friendly Indian Chiefs of the Shoshone tribe all the presents which he brought with him. This created a bitter feeling among the rest of the tribe, and the Chief of the Towzowitches, and one of the Chiefs of the Shoshones planned a massacre of all the men on the mail stations, which they would have carried into effect, had not the men taken the alarm. There were upward of 400 In-dians congregated around the station, and were waiting for night to put their plans into execu-tion. One of the men on the station, understand-ing some little of their dialect, told the others, and they escaped with their scalps, but had not been out of sight of their "wickeyup" before it was in a blaze. The Indians threaten to have revenge on the first party of whites that pass by their lands, and they have dared the whites to fight them, man to man. From my knowledge of the tribes and their manners, I have not the least doubt that they will put their plans in execution. No one is safe in traveling this route, unless there are enough together to defend themselves against the Indians.
The crops are very small this season in this Ter-ritory, owing to the flight of the Mormons, and all sorts of produce bring high prices. Hay cannot be bought for less than $25 a tun, and, before pas-turing time, it will reach $40. The only fruits which are grown here are apples and peaches. The Chinese sugar cane has been successfully in-troduced, and I think, that, in a short time, this Territory will equal any of the Southern States in growing sugar and cotton. In the southern part the growing of tobacco and cotton has been suc-cessfully experimented in. Iron and coal mines are discovered almost every day, and the discovery of these mines create quite a considerable excitement in the city. The Mormons are not building much this year, but repairing their houses now, which they ruined last Spring. The city is very healthy here; one a week is the average. The weather is warm and pleasant; the snow hardly ever reaches the foot of the mountains, and the rain hardly ever falls so as to hurt anything.
There is a new paper to be published in the Val-ley; it is to be called A Voice from the Other Side of Jordan. Kirk Anderson of St. Louis is the edi-tor, and it will support the Administration, from which it expects to get its support. If the emi-gration continues as it was begun, the power of government will soon be wrested from the hands of the Mormons and pass; into the hands of the Gen-tiles. Now everything has to be sanctioned by the President (Brother Brigham) of the Church. The Mormons, before entering into any sort of business, must ask his consent. The editor's office of The Deseret News is in the President's house, and every article to be published mast first be shown to him, and if it suits him it is published, if not it is rejected. Money is plenty here now, and never before has there been so much of it in the Territory.
