History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

496 THE GOVERNMENT IN ARMS.
In a report of the secretary of war, dated December
5, 1857, it is stated that Utah was inhabited exclusively
by Mormons; that the people implicitly
obeyed their prophet, from whose decrees there was
no appeal; that from the day when they had settled
in the territory their aim had been to secede from
the Union; that for years they had not preserved even
the semblance of obedience to authority, unless by
doing so they could benefit themselves; that they encouraged
and perhaps excited nomad bands of savages
to pillage and massacre emigrants; and that they
stood as a lion in the path of the gentile communities
established on the Pacific seaboard. Except that
the internal government of the saints was nominally
theocratic and practically autocratic, these statements
are grossly unjust, but not more so than might be
expected from a biased and ill-informed official, who
was not even aware that the population of Utah contained
a considerable percentage of gentiles. When
first the Mormons peopled their desert land they had
raised with due respect the Union flag, and as citizens
of the nation had, in the name of the nation, claimed
the territory as the nation's right; but now, on the
24th of July, 1857, while celebrating the tenth anniversary
of the arrival of the pioneers, they were to
hear for the first time of the approach of a United
States army, and, as they supposed, were to be driven
out of their homes at the point of the bayonet.
It has not been alleged, however, except by Mormons,
that in ordering the Utah expedition the president
had any desire to limit the freedom of the
saints in its broadest constitutional sense. However
baneful to gentile eyes their rights appeared, however
profane their dogmas, however bigoted their
rulers, it was not proposed to interfere with them
until it was made to appear by the reports of Drum-
the press on the Pacific slope, see, among others, S. F. Alta, Apr. 24, May 21,
July 15, Nov. 13, 16, 1857; S. F. Bulletin, Apr. 15, 1857; Sac Daily Union,
Oct. 27, 1857; S. L. C. Contributor, iii.-iv. passim.