History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 625
invited to a banquet at the city hall, the invitation
being accepted, although the general, who had now
received orders to take charge of the department of
the Platte, was unable to attend in person. 60
In the
evening the party again met at the theatre, and the
festivities concluded at a late hour, with a display of
fire-works, the federal officials being well pleased, and
perhaps a little surprised at the exuberant loyalty of
the Mormons.
A few weeks after this gala-day citizens and soldiers
again united in fraternal gathering to mourn the
loss of their president. 61 When news of his assassina-
tion was first received, the volunteers could with dif-
ficulty be controlled from venting their fury on the inhabitants,
who, as they imagined, were exulting over
this deed of infamy. Soon, however, they were forced
to acknowledge themselves in error, for Lincoln had
ever been friendly toward the Mormons, and by none
was he more respected. On the 19th of April, the
day set apart for the funeral solemnities at Washington,
business was suspended in Salt Lake City; the
flags on the public buildings were hung at half-mast
and covered with crape; many of the stores and residences
were dressed in mourning, and long before the
appointed hour more than three thousand persons,
among them being many gentiles, were assembled at
the tabernacle. The platform was occupied by the
civil and military functionaries and a number of promi-
60 Stenhouse mentions that before his departure a ball was given at the
social hall, which Brigham and his councillors declined to attend, the officers'
wives of Camp Douglas also refusing to meet the Mormon women. Rocky Mountain
Saints, 612. Gen. P. Edward Connor, an Irishman by birth, came to the
U. S. early in life, and enlisted in the regular army, serving for five years as a
private soldier on the frontier. During the Mexican war he raised a company
of volunteers in Texas, and led them as their captain at Buena Vista, where
he was wounded, and received honorable mention in the official despatches.
At the close of the war he settled in California, where in ten years he accumulated
a fortune. At the beginning of the civil war he was offered the colonelcy
of the third Cal. volunteers. Waite's The Mormon Prophet, 112-13.
61 On the 18th of April a meeting of federal, civil, and military officers was
held at S. L. City, when arrangements were made for the funeral exercises.
It is worthy of note that Col Burton was appointed one of the committee of
arrangements. See Tullidge's Hist. S. L. City, 335.
Hist. Utah. 10