History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

622
PROGRESS OF EVENTS.
mony at length prevailed between the federal and
territorial authorities. The new magistrate was a
conservative ruler, liberal and tolerant in his policy,
an able and experienced statesman, and on terms of
friendship with many of the most eminent men of
his day. His youth had been passed among the
frontier settlements of Wisconsin and Michigan, and
in early manhood he had held prominent positions
in state and national councils. 48 During his residence
in the territory he had made many friends and scarcely
a single enemy, his intercourse with the citizens being
always marked by the cordiality and freedom from
constraint characteristic of western life and manners.
At his decease, which occurred, after a painful illness,
on the 13th of June, 1865, a city draped in mourning
gave token of the respect in which he was held by
the Mormon community. 49
Governor Doty was succeeded by Charles Durkee,
a native of Wisconsin, who held office until late in
1869. 50 At the time of his appointment he was aged
and infirm, and was selected perhaps for that reason,
his orders being to pursue a negative and conciliatory
policy. "I was sent out to do nothing," he once remarked
to an intimate friend, 51 and his instructions
were faithfully executed. 52
During Durkee's administration the territory of
48 Doty, a native of Salem, N. Y., was admitted to the supreme court of
Michigan in 1818, in which year he began to practice law at Detroit, being
then only 19 years of age. In 1819 he was appointed secretary to the Mich,
legislature; in 1834-5 he was a member of the Mich, legislative council, and
introduced a measure providing for a state government, which was adopted by
the council; in 1S37 he was elected delegate to congress, and in 1S49, representative
in congress from Wisconsin. Waite's The Mormon Prophet, 108-9;
Beadle's Life in Utah, 214-15; Deseret News, June 21, 1865.
49 On the day of his funeral business was suspended in S. L. City. Deseret
News, June 21, 1865.
50 In the first half of 1869 Secretary E. P. Higgins acted as governor, duriDg
Durkee's absence. His message to the legislature, while in that capacity,
was regarded as one of the most able ever presented to that body.
51 J. H. Beadle author of Life in Utah.
62 Gov. Durkee was born at Royal ton, • Vt, in 1802. He was one of the
earliest settlers and most prominent men in Wisconsin, and a member of its
first legislature. In 1855 he was elected U. S. senator, and was a stanch adherent
of the anti-slavery party. He died at Omaha on the 14th of Jan., 1S70j
Deseret News, Jan. 26, 1S70; Beadle's Life in Utah, 215.