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CHAPTER XIII.
The Policy of the Priesthood Was to Prevent Gentiles From Settling in the Territory, or to Acquire Property.
The hostility of the Priesthood to the settlement of Gentiles in the Territory is shown by its teachings, sermons, and also by the outrages perpetrated to prevent it. Brigham opposed the articles of the Utah Magazine which advocated the opening up of the mines on the ground that it would "open the floodgates to Gentile immigration," and procured the excommunication of Mr. Godbe, the proprietor of the magazine, as also Mr. Harrison, its editor, on the charge of having advocated the opening up of the mines in opposition to the counsel of Brigham Young. Brigham, in a sermon delivered in the tabernacle on the subject, said: "I would make a wall so thick and so high around the Territory that it would be impossible for the Gentiles to get over or through it."
The following is an extract from a sermon of Heber J. Kimball, copied from Bowies' book, entitled "Across the Continent":
"Ladies and gentlemen, good morning! I am going to talk to you by revelation. I never study my sermons, and when I get up to speak I never know what I am going to say, only as it is revealed to me from on high; then all I say is true. Could it help but be so when God communicates through me? * * * The Gentiles are our enemies. They are damned forever. They are thieves and murderers: and if they don't like what I say, they can got to hell - damn them."
In the case of the Church v. The United States, 136 U. S. Rep., page 49, Mr. Justice Bradley, in the opinion, said:
"It is unnecessary here to refer to the past history of the sect - to their defiance of the government's authority, to their attempt to establish an independent community, to their efforts to drive from the Territory all who were not connected with them in communion and sympathy. The tale is one of patience on the part of the American government and people, and of contempt of authority and resistance to law on the part of the Mormons."
The manner in which any considerable number of Gentiles were successfully prevented from settling in Utah until after the development of the mines and the completion of the Union Pacific railroad is shown by the following statement of facts:
The legislature of the State of Deseret, which was established by the Mormons previously to the meeting of the first territorial legislature in 1852, granted to Brigham Young, the governor of that State, and other officials of the Mormon church, the control of the most important canyons. The following is a sample of the acts granting such control:
"Be it ordained by the General Assembly of the State of Deseret: That Brigham Young have the sole control of City Creek and Canyon; and that he pay into the public treasury the sum of five hundred dollars therefor."
This act was approved by Governor Young, December 9, 1850, and in pursuance of that grant Brigham Young, by the erection of the Eagle Gate, closed the only entrance to City Creek canyon then existing; and from that time, and until long after my arrival in Salt Lake City in 1865, he exacted tribute from the inhabitants for the privilege of utilizing the natural, useful and extensive resources of that canyon. By that grant Brigham obtained a rich bonanza, and the eagle which still hovers over that gate is a fit emblem of the rapacity which exacted tribute from the masses for the privilege of enjoying that portion of the natural resources of the public domain within the limits of City Creek canyon. All of the acts of the Deseret legislature were re-enacted by the territorial legislature in 1852.
The most available agricultural land of the Territory was also monopolized likewise. Cities and small villages were at an early day started at the mouths of the various irrigating streams, and incorporated by acts of the State of Deseret and confirmed by the territorial legislature by similar acts. In each instance, the corporate boundaries included a large quantity of unoccupied agricultural land, notwithstanding that even the largest cities at that time had but a small number of inhabitants. The corporate limits of Cedar City is a fair sample of the other cities and villages, and is as follows: "Beginning at the mouth of Coal Creek canyon, thence north three miles, thence west six miles, thence south six miles, thence cast six miles, thence north three miles to the place of beginning." Cedar City was incorporated, as were many of the other cities and villages, at the first session of the territorial legislature in 1852. At that time Cedar City had only about one hundred inhabitants.
The homestead and preemption act of Congress expressly excludes from its operation land within the corporate limits of a city or town. By an act of the territorial legislature the surveyor-general was authorized and required to give to the person for whom he made a survey a certificate therefor, describing the tract, block or lot, and specifying its area, and provided that such certificate should be title of possession to the person holding it. Under that act as construed and enforced, no one had a right to take possession and hold any of the land so excluded from the homestead and preemption act without obtaining such certificate as the one mentioned. In view of the church policy of excluding Gentiles from settling in the Territory, it would have been useless for any Gentile to apply for such a certificate, and it would have been the height of folly, and dangerous for him, to have attempted to hold possession of any of the land so excluded without such a certificate. Among the incidents which show that the latter statement is correct, are the assassination of Dr. Robinson, and an occurrence told to me by Dr. Williamson, whose veracity was unquestionable, and which in substance is as follows:
During the same year that Dr. Robinson was assassinated. Dr. Williamson, intending to acquire the title to an unoccupied tract of land lying outside the inhabited portion of the city of Salt Lake, after surveying the same, and without applying to the surveyor-general for a certificate, erected a house thereon. On a night a few weeks afterwards, while the doctor and Captain Brown, a friend, were sitting in the house, they were arrested by a squad of masked men and forcibly taken to the Jordan river, which was near the doctor's house, On the brink of that stream their captors halted, and then began to bind the arms and legs of their prisoners. Captain Brown exclaimed, "If you intend to take our lives, as we are honorable men, for God's sake, shoot us instead of drowning us like dogs!" When Captain Brown made that exclamation, one of the masked men recognized him as a former acquaintance by whom he had been befriended in California, and having stated that fact, he interceded to save the life of his former friend. The masked men after holding a short consultation offered to release the prisoners on condition that the doctor would promise to abandon his claim to said land, and not again take possession of it. The doctor promised, and both he and the captain were set free. Dr. Williamson recognized among his captors two members of the police force of Salt Lake City. Both Dr. Williamson and Captain Brown were Gentiles, and had previously been United States officers, the former as surgeon and the latter a captain on General Connor's staff at Camp Douglas.
The exclusion of the land at the mouth of the various irrigation streams of the Territory practically placed all of the available irrigation water under the control of the municipal corporations, and practically prevented homestead or preemption filings on land not within the corporate limits by outsiders. As the municipal boundaries in some instances are contiguous in different localities in Utah, a person can travel in places for many miles without being outside of the limits of a municipal corporation. The land monopoly thus secured was held in reserve by the priesthood for the future occupation of Latter-day Saints.
In connection with that monopoly, a company called the Perpetual Emigration Fund was incorporated by the territorial legislature. It was authorized to acquire by donation and otherwise, without limitation, both real and personal property. Section 10 of the act incorporating the company provided, "that the entire proceeds of the company should inure to a perpetual emigration fund for the poor, and the general business of the company would be devoted, under the direction and supervision of the First Presidency of the church, to promote, facilitate and accomplish the emigration of the poor."
The numerous missionaries sent out by the church succeeded in proselyting many converts by representing to them that by joining the Mormon church and emigrating to Utah they would be assisted in acquiring ownership in land on which to establish homesteads of their own, and that the money necessary in accomplishing this, as also the expenses of their emigration, would be advanced to them by a company formed to assist the poor. Thousands of emigrants were brought to Utah by that company and settled upon the land so monopolized by the church. They were required upon arrival in Utah to give their notes for money advanced bearing the high rates of interest prevalent there at that time. There existed in the Territory a general sentiment which made the indebtedness thus incurred a preferred one, and although ample time was given to the obligors in which to meet it, until discharged it was practically a mortgage on all the property subsequently acquired by them. Almost the entire population of the Territory was Mormon until several years after the completion of the Union Pacific railroad, and the mines had been developed by Gentiles. Previous to that time members of the church were prohibited by the priesthood from selling land to outsiders, or from patronizing Gentiles engaged in mercantile and other commercial pursuits, and to secure the observance of the latter prohibition, a sign, here reproduced, was always
placed over the entrance of each Mormon store and business house in obedience to an order of Brigham Young, and any Mormon who patronized a house over the entrance of which there was no such sign, if caught in doing so, incurred the displeasure of the priesthood and was liable to church "discipline" therefor. No doubt the priesthood thought that it had by the methods mentioned forestalled any extensive settlement in the Territory by Gentiles, but-
"The best laid schemes of mice and men
Gang aft a-glee
And lea'e us nought but grief and pain
For promised joy."Brigham Young, by interdicting the discovery and development of the mines by his adherents, thwarted his well-laid schemes of exclusion. If, instead of prohibiting his followers from doing so, he had ordered them to prospect, they could have as readily - as was afterward clone by outsiders - discovered the mines, formed mining districts, and made local mining laws under which locations of mining claims could have been made as would have enabled the Mormons to monopolize the mines in the Territory the same as was done respecting the available agricultural land.
The following testimony of Henry W. Lawrence, in the investigation of the naturalization cases before mentioned, shows the method resorted to by Brigham Young to prevent the opening up of the mines:
"The charge upon which I was excommunicated was a rather general charge of apostasy. Anything in disobedience to the priesthood was apostasy. * * * There are many theories connected with Mormonism that are pretty good - they are very winning to the outside world. The practical working of Mormonism is one thing, the theories are another. There were a great many things connected with it that were objectionable. When you would ask any one in authority they would say, `Well, you don't understand. These things are all right, and if you only have faith - are faithful - you will understand them after a while.' We were taught to a certain extent to give up our individuality, not to think, not to reason.
"For some little time before we came out of the church Mr. Godbe and Mr. Harrison were printing what was called The Utah Magazine, the forerunner of the Tribune. The paper was started with the view of printing some advanced ideas or liberal thoughts to set the people to thinking. I realized that there were a great many things that were wrong, and we wanted to see them corrected. We were all in the church, and we wanted Mormonism to be true. We had grown up in the system, and we didn't want to follow something that was not what it represented itself to be. For about a year or two that magazine existed. The priesthood was supreme here in these mountains. To object to anything, - to object to any of the counsels of Brigham Young or any of the leaders of the church - was considered, I won't say worthy of death, but of excommunication and ostracism which very few men could afford to bear. In temporal matters and in spiritual matters it is the right of the priesthood to dictate in all things, the people to give their unquestioned obedience. We saw that the course which we were pursuing, defying the government and trying to ostracize and alienate the people from the government and the world would bring us into conflict with the government and with civilization. We wanted to prevent this if we could. It was considered quite a crime for any man to advocate the opening of mines. Brigham Young or the priesthood used to say that whenever the Lord wanted the mines open he would order them opened. Of course, that would he through the priesthood.
"They printed a piece on opening the mines. At that time they were building the Union Pacific railroad. Brigham Young had contracts on that road, and he tried to control the wages of the workman. He taught that the wages of workmen and all these temporal matters must he controlled by what was called the School of the Prophets. Mr. Harrison wrote a piece on Workmen's Wages in which he argued that Supply and Demand should control the men's wages. Brigham Young had never been opposed by anyone at that time.
"The charges were that they had printed things in the Utah Magazine against the counsels and direction of the holy priesthood. George Q. Cannon was the `prosecuting attorney.' He stood right there (pointing), and he read that piece on the Development of Mines as one of the evidences of the spirit of apostasy. That was the main charge against these men, that they wanted to open up the mines here contrary to the directions and counsels of the holy priesthood. The result was that the vote was taken and they were cut off from the church. Geo. A. Smith got right up there, and says: `These two men sitting there have blacker hearts than any men since the formation of the world. They want to open up the mines and bring all hell and the devil in here.' When the contrary vote was called for, Mr. Kelsey voted to sustain them. He had been a member of the church ever since the old Nauvoo days. For exercising the right to vote the contrary vote, Brigham Young got up and says, `I move that Eli B. Kelsey be cut off from the church.'
"That vote was taken immediately, without a trial, when the theory of the church is that every man shall have a fair hearing before the members of the church. [Kelsey was excommunicated.] I remained in the church probably for a month afterward. I wanted to help bring about some reforms that I saw were necessary. We wanted to see Mormonism made respectable so as to bear the light of the nineteenth century. I wasn't even then prepared to give up the church, but they cited me to appear before the bishop in the eighth ward, and some general charges were made against me, of a spirit of apostasy in sustaining Godbe and Harrison and their movement, and I was cut off from the church.
"They didn't give me a trial before the high council, nor allow any more pubic trials. The Mormon church claims to be the government and Kingdom of God - that is, a present, literal kingdom, with laws to govern and control its members and all its affairs - extended to the direction of the people in all things.
"When they first came here they had a provisional government called the State of Deseret; they included within their jurisdiction the whole country this side of Oregon on the north, east of the Sierra Nevadas; took in, I think, New Mexico. This was the extent of what they hoped and expected to get a State government for, and establish their kingdom, the kingdom that was set upon the earth no more to be thrown down. As the power developed they expected to control, not only this government of the United States, but the whole earth. They believed that because the government of the United States was established upon such a broad basis, so free and liberal in its provisions, this Kingdom of God could he established and increase until in time it would take possession of the government. That is the theory of the Mormon Kingdom of God. We used to sing a song here in early days, `Brigham Young, he is our king.' It went to the tune of `Du da.' It is a temporal and spiritual kingdom combined.
"Nowhere in the teaching of the Mormon leaders - nowhere in their private ceremonies - are people taught to be loyal and true to the government of the United States. The general tenor of the teachings in early days was disloyalty to the government."
Several of General Connor's soldiers, stationed at Fort Douglas, being experienced miners were given leave by the general in 1862 to prospect for mines in the mountains, and upon discovering any, to locate the same. They discovered and located valuable mines both in Bingham Canyon and Stockton. In 1868, the phenomenally rich bonanza of the celebrated "Emma mine" was developed. That event directed the attention of the prospectors and miners of the Rocky mountains and West coast to the importance and extent of the mineral resources of Utah. As a consequence, the summer following brought from other mining regions into the mountains of Utah hundreds of practical prospectors and miners who were well equipped with the usual outfit of prospectors. They possessed extraordinary courage, energy and ability. They were the kind of men that the church could not control and the Destroying Angels could not intimidate. Their discoveries and development of numerous productive and valuable mines, in connection with the completion of the Union Pacific railroad, induced a greatly increased immigration of Gentiles to the Territory, and large investments of outside capital. As mining and agriculture are the leading and most important sources of prosperity in Utah, if the mines had been monopolized by the Mormons as the agricultural land had been, the exclusion sought would have lasted for an indefinite period. From what has been accomplished in Colorado and other territories, where the natural laws of immigration were not interrupted, I confidently assert that if the Mormons had not settled in Utah, and there had not been any inhabitants there previous to the discovery and opening up of the mines, that State today would be richer and have a much greater population, and that there would at the present time be, if not on the site of Salt Lake City, somewhere in this State, a city corresponding to that of Denver. Utah's natural resources are greater than Colorado's, and there were many inhabitants in the valleys of Utah long before any settlements in Colorado were commenced. The policy of exclusion enforced by the priesthood, and the Frequent diatribes uttered in Mormon pulpits against the Gentiles, made Ishmaelites of the Latter-day Saints, and the expression, "Those who are not for us are against us," became proverbial among them.
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