A Plot Against Utah.
District- Attorney Bates, of Utah, charges distinctly that the recent raid on the Mormons was made for the sole purpose of driving them out and getting possession of their lands, which are notably rich in the precious minerals and coal. The first step was to send Rev. Dr New-man out to wrestle with Brigham Young openly on the subject of his religion. That was set up as the abomination of abominations, not to be longer endured by this singularly Puritan Administration. Next followed the charge of murder against Young, in the form of a Grand Jury indictment. Had this been sustained the work would have been easy, and the people of the United States would have been led to be-lieve that the Government had dealt out even-handed justice at last and broken up a nest of corruption which was a scandal to the national reputation. But Mr Bates, who is a superior lawyer, chanced to be summoned to the official part of the task by the Government, and it was because he regarded honesty and justice above greed and wrong that the guilty design was foiled and his removal determined on by the powers at Washington.
Young and his associate leaders in the Mor-mon Church were arrested on a charge of murder alleged to have been committed in 1856, which has been compared to indicting a well-to-do Californian for a crime committed during the lawless times of 1848-49. There was absolutely no government in the Territory of Utah at that time, except such an one as a state of war established. The only witness was Bill Hickman, who confessed to having committed a number of murders himself. The Court was composed of three Judges, against two of whom the most scandalous charges were openly made by the Western press. The prison-ers were illegally secured and confined in Camp Douglas. Mr Bates was selected as the prose-cuting attorney, and complimented personally by the Solicitor-General at Washington on his appointment, as being "strong in the con-fidence of the President," a phrase which read-ily interprets itself. He examined the case critically, and at once discovered three fatal errors in it for the Government: one, that the District- Attorney presenting the indictment had never been legally appointed and confirmed," the second, that the Grand Jury making the inquest was drawn contrary to all forms of law ; the third, that the single witness relied on to hang Young and his companions was a manifold murderer himself by his own confession.
Mr Bates further found that the proceedings were carried on at the expense of other par-ties than the United States, and that a United States Deputy Marshal was acting as a detect-ive, having the witness Hickman in his exclu-sive custody. Upon Mr Bates's refusal to prostitute his talents and professional integrity to the success of the conspiracy, in which he was promptly sustained by the Supreme Court of the United States quashing the indictment of the Grand Jury, he was notified of the ap-pointment of his successor. The card he has recently published exposes the whole of this wicked transaction, fortunately brought to naught, though perhaps but for a time. He says that in 1871 serious charges of corruption were preferred against two United States offi-cials by telegraph to the Attorney- General, and in reply an order was issued- for as investigation with directions for the removal of the individ-uals accused, if found guilty; but that before the order could be executed, the Rev. Dr Newman— the same who led off in the bout with Brigham Young on his religion, and whose part of the work it was to give to this scheme of plunder the guise of a religious cru-sade— intervened at the Presidential residence at Long Branch when the matter was dropped. Of peculations from the mails and the Post Office, of the appropriation of large tracts of coal lands under false pretences, of the wanton stripping of timber lands, of frauds in Indian supplies within the Territory, and of the re-fusal of the Federal Court to permit any inves-tigation of these charges, he speaks with posi-tiveness in his card ; leaving an impression of a wide-spread conspiracy, with the Federal Gov-ernment to sustain it, for driving the Mormons forth from their homes in order that covetous men may pounce upon them for their own en-richment. Such a serious accusation cannot well be passed by in silence by an honest Gov-ernment, and the people will demand a thor-ough investigation.
19th Century Mormon Article Newspaper Index
