History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

JUDGE DRUMMOND'S REPORT. 491
law would be represented by a gamester 21 with a
strumpet by his side. Drummond soon became even
more unpopular than had been Judge Brocchus, and
after administering justice for a brief term at Fillmore
and Carson, went home by way of California. On
handing in his resignation, he addressed a letter to the
attorney-general, in which are many groundless accusations
and some truths. He complains "that the
federal officers are daily compelled to hear the form
of the American government traduced, the chief executives
of the nation, both living and dead, slandered
and abused from the masses, as well as from the leading
members of the church, in the most vulgar, loathsome,
and wicked manner that the evil passions of
men can possibly conceive." He is pained to say that
he has accomplished little good while there, and that
the judiciary is only a puppet. He states that the
records and papers of the supreme court had been
destroyed by order of the church, that Brigham had
pardoned Mormon criminals, and imprisoned at will
innocent men who were not Mormons. 22 He attributes
to the saints the Gunnison massacre, the death
of Judge Shaver and of Secretary Almon W. Babbitt, 28
who was in fact murdered by Indians during the year
1856, and says that officials are "insulted, harassed,
and murdered for doing their duty, and not recogniz-
21 Remy states that after a gambling quarrel Drummond ordered his negro
Cato to assault and ill use a Jew named Levi Abrahams, who had turned Mormon.
Journey to G. 8. L. City, i. 469-70. Mrs Waite's version of the matter
is, that when the court was about to be opened at Fillmore, a Jew was hired
to quarrel with the judge and strike him. Instead of striking him, the Jew
sent an insulting message by a negro belonging to Drummond. For answer,
the judge ordered the negro to take a rawhide and lay it on lustily to the back
of the Jew. The negro and judge were arrested. The Mormon Prophet, 39.
See also Hickman's Destroying Angel, 111-12.
22 He mentions the cases of Moroni Green, convicted before Judge Kinney
of assault with intent to murder, and of a man named Baker, who murdered
a dumb boy. Beth were sentenced to the penitentiary, but pardoned on arriving
there. Drummond states that on the sabbath after his pardon Brigham
accompanied one of them to church. Hoztse Ex. Doc., 35th Cong. 1st
Sess., x. no. 71, p. 212. He also alleges that five or six men from Missouri
and Iowa, who had not violated any criminal law in America, were in the
penitentiary.
23 Who, he sajs, was murdered by Mormons by order of Brigham Young,
Heber C. Kimball, and J. M. Grant. Id., p. 213.