FROM: GREAT SALT LAKE.
Very Late and Interesting.
MORE MORMON OUTRAGE.
Violent Dispersion of the US Courts, Federal Officers Intimidated and Defied.
Extraordinary Court Proceedings—United States
Officers to be Ridden Upon a Rail, &c., &c.
Correspondence of the New-York Daily Times.
GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH TERRITORY
Thursday, March 5, 1857.
I embrace an opportunity of sending a com-munication to the States by trusty private hands, to give you such description as I am able of the present state of affairs in "Zion," premising however, that it is utterly impossible to convey to the distant reader anything like an adequate idea of our precarious and suffering condition here, in consequence of the failure of our Government to afford us the simplest protection of law. You have long been aware, I suppose, that letters sent from here by mail are subjected to careful scrutiny by Mormon agents after they are sealed and de-posited in the Post-Office. The object of this pro-ceeding is to prevent the departure from the Territory of any communications with the outward world by which the true condition of affairs in Moraondom may become known; and to accom-plish this end there is no crime which BRIGHAM YOUNG and his chosen instruments would hesitate to commit. Even the passing traveler, who is suspected of bearing such letters, is pretty sure of being waylaid and robbed of his documents and valuables; and consequently there are few leaving this place who are bold enough to at-tempt the concealment of Anti-Mormon letters about their persons or baggage. You can readily conceive then, what a Godsend to us is so safe an opportunity as that I now embrace, of sending you a few lines.
Surely, our friends at the East, are misinformed in relation to the condition of their vast multitude of their fellow-citizens dwelling upon these distant plains,—or else the stories of our wrongs which have occasionally reached you, must have been received as impossible dreams. On no other hypo-thesis can we account for your supineness. When we who have experienced the horrible reality of Mormon despotism, take a retrospect of the law-lessness and crime which have run riot here for a number of years, without the least attempt by the Federal Government to correct or check it, we can scarcely avoid the conclusion that you have delib-erately determined to leave us unaided or unsuccored, to work out our own salvation. If it be so, for Heaven's sake let us know that,—and, Hercu-lean as is the task, we will, at least attempt to throw off the joke of oppression. If we succeed, we have, our reward; and if we fail, we can be in no worse condition than that to which we have so long submitted with such patience as we could muster to our aid.
As early as 1851 the calendar of Mormon crime and oppression opened here, since when we have witnessed and endured a constant succession of outrages against religion, decency, property and life, until we have become as weary in the recital of them as we have been disgusted and pained; Mill the public in the States have never heard a hundreeth part of the long, black list. It is well known that Judges BRANDERBERRY and BROCK-us, and the Secretary of State, HARRIS, were driv-en from the territory years ago, and that nearly every other Federal officer seat out here has been compelled to resign and flee the country within two years after reaching it. So, too, quiet unoffending private citizens have been robbed and driven from their homes at Salt Lake, time and again, by large bodies of armed men, who set everything like law at defiance while claiming to be its officers, and who, in the enforcement of their indiscrimin-ate exactions of black mail, never hesitated to sacrifice even human life. I refer, for example, to the marauding expedition to Forts Bridger and Grosvenor, and the murder of Wm. WALKER in August, 1853. In that exploit of brigandism, dis-guised under the forms of law, thousands of dol-lars in money and property were collected as booty to enrich the coffers of the Mormon Church, and reward the unscrupulous cut- throats who played leading parts in the bloody drama.
The utter inadequacy of the civil law to reach such cases as these, and to punish such crimes when perpetrated by procurement or connivance of the heads of the Mormon Church, was most forci-bly exemplified in the trial of the murderers of the lamented Captain GUNNISON and his command. There can be no shadow of doubt that their mas-sacre was incited and abetted by BRIGHAM YOUNG and his crew, who, through the agency of Mormon juries, found no difficulty in securing the murder-ers the immunity from punishment which they had guaranteed in advance of the crime. For a more detailed account of this affair I refer to Judge DRUMMOND, who has been driven from among us, and who, I trust, is now in safety in the States. In the brief space of this letter I can refer to but few of the additional outrages and crimes perpetrated by the Mormons, encouraged and embold-ened by the complete success and impunity with which they have usurped all power, and neutral-ized the civil law, and by the apathy and indiffer-ence with which their conduct has been viewed by the General Government. Prominent among the most recent of these occurences stands the break-ing up and dispersion of the U. S. Court by a body of armed men, creatures of BRIGHAM YOUNG and the Priesthood, and commonly known here as the “Danites." I proceed with a statement of the facts:
The U. S. District Court for Utah commenced its session on Monday, the 9th of February. Judge STILES, a seceding Mormon, occupying the beach. The U. S. District-Attorney is HOSEA STOUT, an appointee, of course, of the Government at Wash-ington, and a noted member of the Danite Band-Upon the opening of the Court he rose and stated that no Grand Jury would be impanneled, as there were no cases to be presented worthy of its notice! Thus, by one stroke of masterly policy, adminis-tered by an officer of the law and in the name of its majesty, were covered up a long catalogue of heinous offences, including murders, robberies and arsons, which had been committed since the last preceding term of the Court. A Petit Jury was then summoned and sworn, but every imaginable impediment that could be thrown in their way to obstruct the current of justice when running coun-ter to the edicts of the Priesthood, were availed of. All the members of the bar are Mormons, except Mr. DAVID H. BURR, United States Surveyor-General, and Dr. HURT, an officer of the United States Indian Department. These gentlemen were admitted by Chief Justice KIN-KEY about a year ago in order to attend to some controversies connected with their official positions, and to an important case that was then tried, and which involved a large amount of property be-longing to a citizen who was not a Mormon They have not practiced, however, since then, until the present term of the Court, when they agreed to do so at the earnest solicitation of Mr. T. S. WIL-LIAMS, who had some very interesting cases to prosecute.
It is contended by the Mormons that the United States Conn bas no cognizance of any but United States cases, and that all offences committed in the Territory, and all Territorial suits, must be tried before the Territorial Courts and by the Ter-ritorial laws. Starting upon this pretext, while the Court was in progress on the 12th ult the Mor-mon members of the Bar and others of the Danite band inveigled Judge STILES into a private room, locked the door, barred the windows, and then with revolvers at his bead and knives within an inch of his throat, forced him to promise to uphold them in whatever they did, and to "sustain the laws of Utah!" Thus overpowered, threatened and intimidated, Judge STILES yielded, dismissed the Jury and adjourned the Court, directing the Crier to pronounce it adjourned sine die. The Crier accordingly announced the Court adjourned sine die, but also stated that it would meet the next day for the purpose of transacting any Territorial business that might be brought before it. The Judge, at the bidding of the Danites, notified the U. S. Marshal, Mr. DODSON, that after that day his presence would not be required in the Court,—that as Territorial business was to be transacted, the Territorial Marshal would, with such bailiffs and officers as he might appoint to assist him, be considered the officers of the Court, and that an account of the expenses of the Court would be kept by the Territorial Marshal, and ren-dered to the United States Marshal for payment. The Mormons feared that the United States Mar-shal—who is a "Gentile "—would interfere with the execution of their plans, and therefore adopted this method of getting rid of him, and substituting the Mormon Territorial Marshal in his place Judge STILES, on being asked by a Gentile, direct-ly after the adjournment of the Court, whether it was possible that he could imagine his proceedings and decisions correct and just, frankly acknowl-dged that he knew they were neither, and added: “You understand my position with this people. I cannot do otherwise!"
Judge STILES reopened the Court the next day, the 13th of February, in pursuance of the notice given, and proceeded to business. The Territorial Marshal, ALEXANDER MCKAY, occupied the proper station of the United States Marshal, thus giving the Court an entirely Mormon aspect, with Mr. BURR as the only Gentile within the Bar. The journal of the preceding day was then read. Finding that it recorded the Court as adjourned "until to-morrow," Mr. BURR asked if the record was correct. Judge SIILES replied that the crier hart misunderstood his order, and that instead of ad- journing the Court sine die, he should have ad-journed it until the next morning,—that he had adjourned the Court "sine die" only as related to United States business, and that it was still in session on Territorial business. He also remarked that as the Legislature was a creature of the same power as that which created the Court, they were co-ordinate; and that in all the cases to be tried be-fore him he should be governed by the laws of the Territory in preference to all others, and that he would have recourse to other Laws only when the enactments of the Territorial Legislature could not be made to apply to the case. Mr. BURR then asked him if he understood him to say that he would be guided by the laws of the territory in preference to the laws of the United States. Before any reply could be made, an attorney named FERGUSON, jumped up and commenced a most foul and abusive attack upon Mr. BURR ex-hausting the stock of even Mormon billingsgate in his malignant tirade. He then turned to the Judge, and told him that if he dared to decide against their laws he could sit on that Bench no longer, and that the court-room would be cleared “d—d quick!" The District-Attorney followed in a violent harangue, in which he accused Mr. BURR of trying to set aside the Mormon laws, and said that the Mormons had submitted to Gentile inter-ference long enough, that they were now going to have their own way, and had good authority for what they did, as well as safe backers. The room was tilled at the time with armed ruffians, who constituted the "backers" alluded to. As soon as Mr. BURK and Mr. T. S. WILLIAMS got up to reply, the Territorial Marshal ordered them per-emptorily to stop; and immediately the whole audience sprang to their feet, and the Danite mur-derers, who filled the Court, threw off their coats, brandished their knives and revolvers, and created so great confusion that the Judge was obliged to adjourn the Court at once.
The next morning, which was Saturday, the Court opened amid intense excitement. The whole Mormon populace were armed, and had been inflamed to such a degree by the incendiary speeches of FERGUSON, STOUT and others that the least pretence would have been availed of to mas-sacre every Gentile in the place. The names of Messrs. BURR and WILLIAMS were stricken from the list of attorneys, and the Court imme-diately adjourned sine die. Thus closed the last term of the United States Court that can ever be held in this Territory until the Government estab-lishes its supremacy by a vigorous exertion of physical force. What a "disgraceful spectacle in here presented to the world! A Judge, bearing the sacred ermine, laid upon his shoulders by the Gov-ernment of the United States, in well-founded fear for his life is compelled to yield to the will of a frenzied and blood thirsty rabble; a United States Court is dissolved and dispersed by a mob of armed desperadoes; an immense territory is left defence-less, lawless, and subject to the caprices of a cruel and vindictive tyrant; and American citizens, in the very heart of their own country, are left as en-tirely unprotected as though in the power of savage tribes, and in hourly danger of being massacred.
There can be no doubt, that FERGUSON, STOUT, and their Danite bullies, were, prompted to the conduct thus related by BRIGHAM YOUNG—for when Judge STILES went to the latter as Governor, and asked him if he would sustain him in the execution of his duties and the enforcement, of the laws, he replied that he would not interfere, and would hold the boys back no longer," but was going to let them have their own way, for the Court had given him too much trouble already. Sullen threats of bloody vengeance against the United States Surveyor General and the Indian Agents (Messrs. BURR and HURT) are heard all over the city. In one of the Ward meetings last night it was proposed by the notorious FERGUSON to seize the former and ride him on a rail, until he should be permanently maimed in a painful and humiliating manner. The fiendish proposi-tion was acceded to with a prolonged and univer-sal "Amen!" But this letter is already so long that I must defer other interesting facts for an-other chapter. " UTAH.
