History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

624
PROGRESS OF EVENTS.
when, in 18G5, all joined in celebrating the second inauguration
of Abraham Lincoln and the success of
the union arms. Though his party was strongly opposed
to Mormonism, Lincoln had little to say on the
so-called Mormon question, and that little was expressed
in three words: Let them alone. To be left
alone was all that the people asked and all that they
had struggled for, since Utah was first admitted as a
territory. The occasion was therefore one of rejoicing,
honest and heart-felt, and the pageant more imposing
than anything that had yet been witnessed in the city
of the saints. 53
In the centre of Main Street a platform
was erected, and here, on the morning of the 4th
of March, the federal officers, civil and military, exchanged
greetings with the church dignitaries. Past
them filed a procession of tradesmen and working men,
a mile in length, the sidewalks, the windows, and
house-tops being crowded with an eager and boisterous
throng. The buildings were draped with flags,
the carriages and sleighs decorated with streamers,
the men and women with rosettes, while the bands of
the 3d infantry and the Nauvoo legion furnished
music, and Mormon banners, with their manifold de-
vices, appeared side by side with the stars and stripes.
Later the concourse assembled in front of the stand,
the provost guard 59 facing the platform, the militia
companies forming in the rear, and the volunteers
drawn up on their right, four deep and with arms at
rest. Addresses were delivered, the bands playing
and the multitude cheering lustily during the intervals.
The troops were then escorted to their camp by the
cavalry of the legion, and General Connor and his staff
tended for secular news and for general circulation, though friendly in ita
tone toward the saints. It lasted only one year. Ibid.
58 A meeting of officers and prominent citizens was held at Camp Douglas
on the 28th of Feb., and a committee of arrangements appointed.
59 Organized by Connor with a view, as Tullidge says, to establishing a
military dictatorship in Utah. In a strongly anti-JSIormon report to J. Bidwell,
rep. from Cat, dated Feb. 1867, Gen. Hazen admits that Connor was
unduly harsh toward the saints, remarking that his zeal as a catholic may
account for his rigor. Bouse Misc. Doc, 75, 39th Cong. 2d Sess., 4.