The Utah Territory.
(Continued from Wednesday.)
Messrs. Branderbury, Brocchus and Harris, contin-uing their report to the President, multiply allega-tions of disloyalty against all the territorial and local officers. We pass over remarks by one of these functionaries to the effect that "the mob of Illinois murdered in cold blood the prophet Joseph and patri-arch Hyrum Smith, while confined in jail under the guarantee of safety and pledge of the Governor, Thomas Ford;" as also that "the Government of the United States required a battalion of five hundred men to leave their homes" in the inclement season of 1846, as matters scarcely affecting the present issue, and come to such treasonable sayings and doings as came under the notice of these gentlemen; who say however, that as "the Governor asked no advice, so none was volunteered to him, and he was free to proceed in the performance of his duties as he thought proper." We are pained to see this temper pervad-ing the whole report, and cannot but think that there was a mutual indisposition to come to an understand-ing. Perhaps had the Governor and other territorial officers been kindly but firmly counselled, matters would not have reached their present condition of difficulty. The federal officers would not have com-promised their dignity by tendering such advice;—they would have deserved credit for performing an unpleasant duty.
The act of Congress required that a census should he taken, and prescribed the form of procedure. The Governor refused to obey the organic law, declaring that a census had been taken by the state, and issued orders on his own responsibility, and without the sea of the state or the countersign of the secretary, for an election of a delegate to Congress "under the pro-visional laws of the state of Deseret."
No sheriff or constable was appointed in the terri-tory, and criminals went at large. The United States Judges could not interfere. The Church executed criminal law arbitrarily. Respecting the murder of Mr. James Munroe, of Utica, New York, on his way to Salt Lake City, by a member of the Church, these gentlemen say “it was reported and by many believed that the murder was counselled by the Church or some of its leading members;" a rather vague statement. They allege, however, that it was the common talk that this man intended to murder Mr. Munroe, and that after the murder he appeared openly in Salt Lake City, without being molested.
They charge the Governor also with receiving the $20,000 appropriated by Congress for the erection of public buildings, and using the greater portion of it for the payment of debts due by the Mormon Church.
On the 6th of September Associate Justice Broc-chus addressed a large assembly on behalf of the Washington Monument Association. The gentlemen say the speech was everything that it ought to be, courteous, respectful and without the remotest re-ference to the religious tenets of the Mormons, being an honest attempt to defend the Federal Govern-ment and revive popular patriotism. The sequel is thus descriced:—
At the close of the address, the Governor rose and denounced the speaker with great violence, as “profoundly ignorant, or wilfully wicked"—strode the stage madly—assumed various theatrical atti-tudes—declared "he was a greater man than ever George Washington was"—"that he knew more than ever George Washington did"—that "he was the man who could handle the sword;" and "that if there was any more discussion, there would be pulling of hair and cutting of throats." Referring to a remark of the speaker that the United States Government was humane and kindly disposed [toward] them, he said, "I know the United States did not murder our wives and children, burn our houses, and rob us of our property, but they stood by and saw it done, and never opened their mouths, the d—d scoun-drels." By this time the passions of the people were lashed into a fury like his own. To every sentence uttered there was a prompt and determined re-sponse, showing beyond a doubt, that all the hostile and seditious sentiments we had previously heard were the sentiments of this people.
Those of us present felt the personal danger that surrounded us. If the Governor had but pointed his finger toward us, as an indication of his wish, we have no doubt we should have been massacred before leaving the house. The Governor declared afterward "that if he had crooked his finger, we would have been torn to pieces.''
They also, on information given them by "many leading men"—(whether members of the Church is not said; but whether they were or were not, it would seem that the federal officers had the sympa-thy, and we presume the support, of "many leading men," notwithstanding the gloomy picture they sketch)—charge the Governor with entering the le-gislative hall and dictating what laws should be pass-ed; with visiting the courts and jury rooms and dictating verdicts; and with having declared that "the United States judges should never try a cause if he could prevent it." Then follows the following remarkable sentence—remarkable as forming part of a statement of actual evils drawn up by legal gentle-men, by United States judges, and solemnly present-ed to the President as a bill of grievances:
We have no doubt he would have fulfilled his own prophetic declaration, by the interposition of his power as head of the Church, to repel parties and business from the courts, and force them to the dis-posal of the Church upon its own terms—screen criminals from arrest and trial—drive off witnesses and make the court a mockery and the judge an ob-ject of ridicule.
This is surmise, not fact; it is not alleged that the Governor did any such thing. The most that is as-serted is that he "omitted to appoint proper officers to issue and execute writs and warrants, summon juries and perform other duties in the organization of courts," &c.
The next allegation is of a serious character.—
We slightly abridge the report:—
The Secretary had twenty-four thousand dollars entrusted to him by the Government, for which he had given bond to the United States for its safety and faithful application to the purposes specified, according to law; and efforts had been made by the Governor, as we shall show, to get this money also, in addition to the twenty thousand dollars, and for the same purpose, the benefit of himself and the Mormon Church.
The Legislature was not to meet until January, 1852, as was given out by the Governor, a period of a year and four months after the passage of the act establishing the territory. As the Secretary was bound to transmit to the President and Congress on or before the first of December, annually, a copy of the executive and legislative proceedings, no expose of the misapplication of the twenty thousand dol-lars, appropriated for public buildings, could have been made known officially before December, 1852—more than a year after it occurred.
A few days after the arrival of the Secretary (19th of July), an attempt was made, in the interview al-ready referred to, to browbeat and intimidate him into submission to the Governor's purposes, or, as the Governor said, "to let the Secretary know what kind of people he had to deal with"—and soon there-after called upon him, in a patronizing manner, to borrow eight or ten thousand dollars of him for the Church. He was informed by the Secretary that no consideration could induce the loan of a dollar of it, as the law made an act of the kind a felony. This effort having failed, another attempt was made by setting up a claim for daily pay and mileage for the members of the last Legislature of the provisional government of the "State of Deseret"—a leading member of the Church informing the Secretary that this money would be of great assistance to the Church in relieving her from debt, and in justice should be paid as demanded. This effort having also failed, the fixed determination of the Governor to get possession of the public money in the hands of the Secretary for the benefit of himself and the Church, revealed itself more openly and decidedly. Although the election for members of the Legislative Assembly had been held on the first Monday in Au- gust, he had made no declaration of the result, as he was specifically required to do by the organic act, and without such declaration, of course, the election itself was not complete. But disregarding the plain directions of the organic act, he issued secret notices to members of the Legislative Assembly to meet on Monday, the 22d day of September.
So solicitous was the Governor that the Secretary and other officers (not Mormons) should be kept in ignorance of this step, that on the 19th of September, two days after the date of the above notice, he most positively and emphatically denied, as communicated to the Secretary, that any such notice had been is-sued. Immediately thereafter, however, on the same day, (Friday, the 19th,) a proclamation, declaring the members elect and convening the Legislative As-sembly at ten o'clock on Monday, the 22d September, was brought to the Secretary for his signature and seal. That proclamation, however, was never pub-lished. In obedience to the secret instructions of the Governor, the Legislative Assembly met on the 22d. The Governor transmitted to them a printed mes-sage, which was afterwards, for some reason, sup-pressed, and none of the undersigned were able to procure a copy. On the 25th, the Secretary was served with the following paper by Mr. William Kimball, the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Assembly, to wit:
"HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
"GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH TERRITORY,
"September 24th, 1851.
"To the Hon. B. D. Harris,
Secretary of Utah Territory;
"SIR; By a resolution passed by the Legislative Assembly this day, it was directed that an order be drawn on the Secretary of the Territory for the sum of five hundred dollars toward defraying the inci-dental expenses of the Legislative Assembly.
"We therefore send this order by the sergeant-at-arms of the Legislative Council, hoping that you will furnish the same for our convenience.
"Respectfully yours, &c.,
"WILLIARD RICHARDS,
President of the Council.
"H. CORNEY,
Secretary of the Council.
"W. W. PHELPS,
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
"ALBERT CARRINGTON,
Clerk House of Representatives Utah Territory."
With the foregoing order, Mr. Kimball placed in the hands of the Secretary a copy of joint resolutions passed by the Legislative Assembly on the 24th Sep-tember, and approved by the Governor, ordering and requiring the United States marshal to demand this money from the Secretary, and if he refused to sur-render it, to seize and imprison him until he deliver-ed over the whole amount. The Marshal being ab-sent, his deputy (Horace Eldridge, a Mormon) under-took the execution of the order. The Secretary re-fused the comply with the demand, and transmitted his reasons therefor in writing. As Governor Young had declared he would have this money, if he had to take it by violence, the Secretary applied to the Su-preme Court for an injunction, which was granted, for-bidding the marshal and others from seizing or inter-meddling with the funds and other property of the United States in the custody of the Secretary. It was understood the members, being all Mormons, would relinquish their daily pay and mileage to the Church.
But the Governor's efforts to get the money did not stop here. A warrant was issued by Aaron F. Farr, a member of the Church, purporting to be a justice of the peace, but who had neither given bond nor taken the oath of office, so far as we could learn, directed “to any legal officer of the aforesaid territo-ry (Utah) and county of Great Salt Lake," command-ing him "to restrain and to take A. W. Babbit into your possession, and also the effects of A. W. Babbit, consisting of wagons, carriages and teams, and search his wagons for a sum of money, probably gold, to the amount of twenty-four thousand dollars, and for the seal of the territory of Utah, and bring the same before me in Great Salt Lake City, and to search all other suspected persons and places." Mr. Babbitt (Honorable A. W. Babbitt, late Delegate in Congress from the territory,) had left the city a day or two before with his family and household affairs, on his return to the United States. There was no one named in the warrant as complaining, no oath made, and no offence alleged. It was placed in the hands of a man, another member of the Church, purporting to be a constable, but who had neither given bond nor taken an oath of office, who, with a force of thirty men or more, well armed and mount-ed, started in pursuit, with instructions from the Governor, as we were informed, "to bring Babbitt back dead or alive."
They came upon his camp about forty miles from the city, some time in the night, and in the morning Mr. Babbitt and his family found themselves sur-rounded by a body of armed men. The carriages and wagons were emptied and the contents searched, and then reloaded to be taken back to the city. Mr. Bab-bitt appealed to them to allow his family and teams to proceed on their journey, as a delay of a few days might overwhelm them in snow-storms, and repeated trips over the mountains he had already passed would so fatigue and break down his animals, as at that late period in the year to seriously endanger the lives of himself and family on the plains. He at the same time made known his own willingness to return with them. But their orders from the Governor were peremptory, and they refused. The tent was rudely torn down over the head of his wife, then nursing a sick child, his family ordered into the car-riages, and the teams turned back to the city. This extraordinary writ was executed as above stated, after the injunction of the Supreme Court had been grant-ed, forbidding all persons from seizing or intermed-dling with the money of the United States.
Mr. Babbitt applied for and was discharged from custody upon a habeas corpus by one of the under-signed judges. Beyond his discharge, he could procure no redress for this grievance from a Mor-mon community, especially as the outrage had been perpetrated by command of the governor. It may not be improper to add in this connection, that the Secretary succeeded in keeping possession of the money, brought it over the plains, and on his arri-val at St. Louis, deposited it with the Assistant Trea-surer to the credit of the United States.
The report adds that inasmuch as bigamy, or poly-gamy, is common, a statutory law against it could never pass the Legislature, and if prosecuted under common law, no conviction could be obtained with a Mormon jury.
The report then furnishes particulars of certain criminal trials which took place before these judges went there—how long before we cannot make out, as no date is given—bad enough certainly. The reports of these trials were "furnished by a respectable gen-tleman," but whether they are official records or on-ly newspaper reports is not said. At all events they were scarcely worthy of being embodied in such a report as that now before us, and only strengthen the impression that Messrs. Branderbury, Brocchus and Harris were determined to make out the very worst case and the most injurious impression in their power.
[To be continued.]
