it prudent not to assume the functions of his office; and after wintering there went to California with his troops.

The effect of this retirement of the troops was most unfortunate. From that day the Mormon "Prophet" successfully defied the government and outwitted the Federal authorities.

After Colonel Steptoe's departure, Brigham said, in a sermon to his people: "I am and will be governor, and no power can hinder it until the Lord Almighty says: Brigham, you need not be governor any longer.' Everything from that time seemed to consolidate his power.

In February, 1856, Judge Drummond, of the United States District Court, was driven from his bench by an armed Mormon mob, and he was forced to adjourn his court, and all the United States Army officers, except the Indian agents, were obliged, by the terrible condition of affairs, to leave the country.

The Mormons endeavored to justify their treatment of the Federal officers by alleging that many of them were disreputable and profligate statements that have a foundation in truth. In 1857 Alfred Cumming, of Missouri, was appointed Governor of Utah by President Buchanan. At the same time Judge Eckels, of Indiana, was made Chief-Justice of the territory. Colonel S. A. Johnson, with a body of twenty-five hundred United States troops, was sent to protect them and enforce the laws. The Mormons were greatly excited over the approach of the troops, and Brigham Young, in his capacity as governor, issued a proclamation denouncing the army as a mob, forbidding it to enter the territory, and called upon the people of Utah to arms to repel its advance. It was September when the army reached the confines of Utah, and, owing to delays, was overtaken by

the snows of winter. A party of mounted Mormons, on October 5th, destroyed several supply trains, captured eight hundred oxen, and drove them into Salt Lake City. The army went into winter quarters at Fort Bridger, where it suffered greatly. Their expedition had been fitted out with great care, and cost our government $14,000,000. October 27th Governor Cumming issued his war proclamation, declaring the Territory to be in a state of rebellion. Colonel Kane, who had been with the Mormons during their last exodus, and seems to have been at this time very much their friend and confidant (if not convert), arrived at Salt Lake in 1858 with letters from President Buchanan, and succeeded in bringing the hostile "Saints" and the governor sent to subdue them into relations of harmony.

He was quickly followed by two peace commissioners "offering pardon to all Mormons who would submit to Federal authority." This" offer of pardon" was carried by Governor Powell, of Kentucky, and Major McCullough, of Texas. The conditions were accepted by the heads of the church. With a becoming consideration for this subdued people, the army was stationed forty miles from Salt Lake City, where it remained until the spring of 1860, and was then withdrawn.

The Mormons were now exultant and hopeful. They trusted in their prophet, and echoed his boastful assertions that "nothing could harm them." He had exhibited a rare union of reckless daring with the subtlest prudence, recognizing a point beyond which he could not go, which Joseph always failed to do; and though lacking the lion-like personal courage of the first Prophet, he was more than his equal in moral heroism, and the mysterious control he exercised over his people.

During the war for the suppression of the great rebel

lion the Mormons were in a measure forgotten and overlooked; but since that time public attention, through the facilities of travel, has been continuously turned in that direction. The Pacific Railway has brought Utah in close relations with the Eastern States. The isolation of the "Saints" is again disturbed by tourists, many of them distinguished travellers, who have investigated the exceptional social system of this people through the forbearance of their leaders.

"It

On the 5th of October, 1869, Vice-President Colfax, at the time a visitor at Salt Lake City, was invited to make a speech from the portico of the Townsend House. He embraced the opportunity to tell the Mormons his opinion of polygamy in a bold and fearless way. seemed to break the spell of the Prophet's authority," and the wildest excitement ensued among his people. The Schismatics, under the leadership of one Harrison, established a paper called the Mormon Tribune, and organized a liberal movement. They and all the disaffected were cut off from the church.

On the other hand, Brigham and the leading magnates stood their ground firmly. John Taylor (the present high priest, ruler, and president of the Mormons), the leading mind and the best writer among them, answered Mr. Colfax by a letter in the New York Tribune of November 19th, 1869, in which he very cleverly disputed all his arguments and most of the assertions he had made at Salt Lake City.

The Tribune of the Schismatics was hopefully received by certain people in Utah, as it professed to aim to break down bigotry and fanaticism, to foster ideas in harmony with the age, and to be in direct opposition to polygamy ; but the attempt to bring Mormonism into agreement and adjustment with the accepted standards of the civ

ilized world as to right and wrong soon grew to be an absurdity.

New "revelations" were announced by these opposers of the Prophet, but their publication made no difference in the general estimate of the situation of affairs. In 1870 Miss Anna Dickinson made the following statements concerning Brigham Young, in her popular lecture entitled "Whited Sepulchres :"

All this vast machinery is controlled by a single mind; he is the fourth largest depositor in the Bank of England; he controls the largest emigration fund in the world, whose emissaries appeal to the poor, and homeless, and destitute, and ignorant, and misguided of all lands, with the offer of a home, and a free passage to it, etc. Yet he it was who, through his trained assassins disguised as Indians, committed the Mountain Meadow massacre, and by whose order William Hickman committed over four hundred murders in Utah.

Brigham Young was treated with the consideration of a "political offender," and while the people of the United States organized powerful agencies for the conversion of the heathen abroad, it is justly said we neglect to interpose an enlightened Christianity in behalf of the victims of Mormonism.

66

Of the many items of interest concerning the second 'Prophet," the following is given by an English writer on Mormonism :

Brigham Young was sent with others to England to preach the Gospel. They landed at Liverpool, April 6th, 1840, partook of the sacrament, and commenced preaching. They were penniless, and dependent on their enemies for support-which at first was small-and Brigham suffered much and often. He superintended affairs, issued an edition of the Book of Mormon,' inaugurated the publication of the Millennial Star,' and on April 30th, 1841, shipped seven hundred and sixty-nine converts to Nauvoo, sailing himself with them, and leaving many Mormon organizations and churches well established behind him,

many

This was but one of his seem to have been successful.

"missions," all of which

The anniversary of the day on which Brigham Young (with the heads of the church) arrived at Salt Lake City is still observed and celebrated; hence the 24th of July is the great national day with the Mormons, instead of the 4th of July.

The second Prophet inaugurated a military corps known as "Minute Men," which was quite distinct from the Danites." It was a well-drilled company of armed men, taking the character of a militia held in reserve for general defence. The Danites were also well organized, in a military point of view, with habits of undying watchfulness and hardy enterprise, acquired by a long experience of continued conflict with the Gentiles. Ever on their guard, skilled in all the arts of wood-craft, able to read as on a printed page upon the desert-by which many of their homes were surrounded-those signs which to inexperienced eyes would pass unnoticed, familiar with the laws of life and climate which characterize their country, and thus enabled to turn all to their own advantage as against strangers, and, more than all, familiar with the wild passes and deep mountain gorges through which all approach at that time could be made, they seem to have been in possession of many elements of strength to use for their own ends and in self-defence. Some of the most horrible deeds of violence against the enemies of Mormonism in Illinois, Missouri, and Utah have been committed by this "band." It is denied by the Saints at the present time that such an organization now exists, if it ever existed; but the truth in this matter is too fully established to admit of a doubt as to the past, and there is every reason to believe that any unusual hostility shown to the Mormons by individuals or the Government would prove that the "Danites" are not all dead.