tween the Mormons and the federal govern- | Captain Van Vliet, who was then in the city, ment. The United States judges were pro- sent by the government, was so impressed with voked by the arrogant claims of the priesthood this wonderful demonstration of religious heroto attempt the overthrow of the hierarchy, and ism and self-sacrifice that he pledged his honor were compelled to leave the Territory. They to Brigham Young that, if the army attempted only attempted what Congress has since resolved to force an entrance before a commission of inupon, what General Shaffer was appointed by vestigation could be sent, he would resign his Grant to do, and what the present Chief Justice office in the army and protest to the nation and his associates are doing. In 1857-58 Bu- against the wrong. Then arrived General chanan took up the conflict; and no great Thomas L. Kane, who immediately went out nation was ever more completely beaten and to meet Governor Cumming, and both were eshumbled than was the United States in that corted into the city by the Mormon troops, and struggle. The President sent out the Utah ex- the Governor duly installed. Then followed pedition, under the command of Albert Sidney the "second exodus," and the people moved Johnston, to crush a rebellion which had then south, leaving men selected to burn the city. no palpable existence, and to force a Governor Cumming thereupon sent after the refugees a upon the people, assuming beforehand that he proclamation requesting their return, assuring would be rejected. This army was sent at a them that no harm should befall them. A reseason of the year when it could do nothing, action in favor of the Mormons took place and was obliged to winter at Ham's Fork, where throughout the country, and also in Europe. both men and animals were liable to perish from The event was compared to that of the Dutch hunger and cold. Hundreds of the mules died submerging Holland to save it from France, in a night, and there was not an ounce of salt inspired by the heroism and daring of the in the whole camp. This delay gave the Mor-young Prince of Orange; and the London mon chief time to play the diplomatic rôle sug- Times called the Mormons a nation of heroes. gested by the advantages of his position. He Commissioners were sent, and through them said to Captain Van Vleit, the government rep-Buchanan humbly said, "Let us have peace.' resentative: "If I can keep the army out till spring the nation will see its mistake, send commissioners, and there will be a reaction throughout the country in our favor."

When the Southern rebellion broke out, in 1861, the Mormon pontiff issued his manifesto, in the style of an independent sovereign, against the "fratricidal war," and in favor of the right of secession-a right which he might thereafter find it convenient to assert for himself. Singularly in this matter did he depart from the settled programme of Joseph Smith. For thirty years the Mormon elders had declared that the

On the approach of the army Brigham Young sent a proclamation to meet it, in which, as Governor of Utah, he forbade its entrance into the city. He had not been removed from office, he said, nor notified either of the coming of an army or of the purposes it was sent to exe-day would come when the fate of the nation cute. As Governor, he did not need this army as a posse comitatus to enable him to execute the laws, having the militia at his command; and if it should attempt an entrance into the city he would call out the militia to disperse it as an armed mob. Protests from the Governor and the apostles were sent abroad affirming that Utah was loyal, had broken no law, and had rejected no Governor, and demanding investigation by a "commission of honorable men." Evidently the Mormons had the best of it, and had succeeded in putting the national government in a ridiculous position. General Sam Houston was brought over to their side, and General Thomas L. Kane, their great friend, rushed to the rescue, and, it was generally understood, secured a special but private mission from the government to hasten to Utah and heal the breach.

would hang in a balance, and then the Mormon people would come out and save the Union. It was the intention of Prophet Smith to throw an army of his elders upon the battlefield, and to lead them himself; for he supposed, as is shown in his famous prophecy on the rebellion of the South, "beginning at South Carolina," delivered December 25, 1832, that it would come in his lifetime. To be ready for this he organized the Nauvoo Legion, and, through the influence of Senator Douglas, got himself appointed, by the Legislature of the State of Illinois, its Lieutenant-General.

From the moment of the establishment of Camp Douglas in Utah, in sight of Salt Lake City, the nation maintained a permanent foothold in the Territory, for with General Connor and his soldiers came the era of change and reforms. He, and others who sided with him, in There was also the heroic and sensational attempting to bring about a harmony between part in this extraordinary drama. The apostles the people of Utah and the institutions of the declared that they would burn all the cities and republic, were stigmatized by the church party settlements in the Territory, destroy their or- as "The Regenerators." About that time T. chards and farms, and, leaving Utah a waste B. H. Stenhouse, now one of the reformers, but place, as they found it, make another exodus; then a stanch adherent to the cause of Brigham or, to use Brigham's own words, he would "make Young, was allowed to start The Daily Telea Moscow of every settlement, and a Potter's graph. The new paper opposed the "regenerField of every cañon." The entire people ators," but it inaugurated the reign of the press backed their resolution by acclamation; and in Utah. Harrison and Tullidge at the same

time went into direct fellowship with the na- as a lot of scoundrels, drunkards, gamblers, and tional party, and published their magazine, The whoremongers. This was at the October conPeep o' Day, at Camp Douglas. Its cardinal ference in 1868. Vice-President Colfax did affirmation was that Mormonism was republican in its genius—a statement justly pronounced untrue by Brigham Young, and only affirmed by the editors to draw attention to its falsity.

not forget this, and on his second visit to Salt Lake City he made the outrage upon himself and his associates the subject of a public speech.

For years Elias L. T. Harrison and his friend W. S. Godbe had attempted to establish a free press. At the time of which we write they left the Territory, worn out with their exertions, Mr. Godbe giving the Utah Magazine into the hands of the gentleman who had started with him The Peep o' Day. These men had reached a critical point in their career. Their faith in Mormonism burned in the socket, but it was hard for them to obliterate the past with all its dreams, its attachments, and its strange ro

They must now decide for or against the "Lord's anointed." They made the matter a subject of earnest prayer and consultation. A more than ordinary experience was now theirs. Their minds were conceptive of a divine mission, calling them to redeem the Mormons from the priestly rule that had so long enslaved them. They returned to Utah as inspired reformers.

But it was too early as yet for the reform movement. There was a party in its favor every day growing stronger, made up of United States men, on the one hand, and of prominent Mormons, including a corps of elders, on the other. This latter feature was the most auspicious one connected with the movement, since it tended to prevent a violent collision between the national and the church parties, and thus to deprive the Mormons of the advantages of religious martyrdom. The Pacific Railroad-mance. a most important element in the progress of this movement was being rapidly pushed forward. Nor was Brigham Young ignorant of the significance of this new fact, and since he could not prevent its accomplishment, he purposed to make it serve his own ends. He became the chief contractor in the construction of the Utah branch of the line. He went further than this, During their absence Brigham Young's coand introduced the telegraph, sending for wires, operative scheme had been organized into an in 1866, to connect all the settlements, so that institution. Over all the stores were fixed the he could converse in his own office with all his new signs of commerce, inscribed "Holiness to bishops, and simultaneously direct them in all the Lord." This inscription was surmounted parts of his Territory. The design was bold in by a golden eye, meant to represent the Allits conception. It was an attempt to use the seeing One, but irreverently stigmatized as "the machinery of civilization, usually designed for bull's eye;" beneath was the commercial debreaking up isolation, to make isolation com- scription, "Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Inplete and organized; to establish Mormonism stitution." This communal scheme was presswithin civilization, but intact, as a wheel with-ed upon the people with all the savage energy in a wheel, an imperium in imperio; an isolation of a higher and more complex character, unlike that which had hitherto existed, and was dependent upon geographical conditions merely, was to be secured.

and iron will that characterized the Mormon pontiff. Not even Jennings, one of the most enterprising merchants of Mormondom, dared to refuse to be absorbed into the one-man and one-pocket power, while among the gentiles In the execution of this purpose the entire there was universal consternation, extending commercial economy of the Territory must be even to the United States officers. The bishrevolutionized. This was to be done through ops and apostles were ordered to cut off all comthe system of co-operation-a kind of Mormon munication between gentiles and the people, to commercial commune, from which the gentiles see that no employment should be given to the must be excluded. This co-operative scheme disaffected of the working classes, and nightly established over the Territory, all the influen- missionaries were preaching in every ward tial Mormon merchants absorbed, and the Walk-throughout the city, and over all the Territory, er Brothers and the gentile merchants driven to whip the people into commercial union. out, it was his design next to bring in the The Mormon merchants were publicly told that "Order of Enoch." This order, which bears all who refused to join the co-operation should the deceptive style of the "celestial law" for be left out in the cold; and against the two society, would altogether supersede the law of most popular of them the "Lion of the Lord" tithing, and "consecrate" the entire property, roared, "If Henry Lawrence don't mind what wealth, and persons of the saints "unto the he's about I'll send him on a mission, and W. Lord," i.e., in effect, to Brigham Young. So S. Godbe I'll cut off from the church." Years complete would this have been that the very ago this would have been an awful utterance of laborer would lay his wage at the feet of the doom against the men, but now W. S. Godbe bishop, and to each would be given that which and his brother merchant, who was secretly a he needed. disciple of the reform mission, which was waiting for birth, did not tremble. Henry Lawrence, however, put into the co-operation about thirty thousand dollars, for it had been resolved that Brigham should be allowed to work up the movement against himself in the public mind.

Brigham Young's confidence in his scheme was an infatuation. He aroused the ire of the government, provoked a Cullom bill, and caused a schism among the elders. He denounced the members of the administration and of Congress

would tempt a nation and throw a million gen-
tiles into the Territory. When General Connor
and his men began to explore the mountains
and cañons some years ago the apostles and the
saints prayed that the "Lord would hide up the
treasures from the gentiles." And the time is
not long gone by when if a Mormon had opened
a silver mine he would have been in great dan-
ger.
Yet there were now such men as Godbe,
Lawrence, Harrison, and others, who led com-
merce and the press, urging the people into a
course which would destroy his power in a year
or two, and bring in the gentiles. He would
cut them off at once, and they would pass away
as straws upon the rapid tide. As chief elders
they were potent to create public opinion;
apostates they would be powerless.
In the School of the Prophets, which Brig-
ham had instituted for the purpose of carry-

The reformers opened action upon the cause of the working classes. Not content with crushing out individual enterprise on the part of the merchant class, Brigham Young undertook to systematize the wages of the working-man, reducing the laborer to seventy-five cents and a dollar per day, and the mechanic to a dollar and a half. He held conventions and took up the matter in the "School of the Prophets, with two or three thousand pliant elders at every meeting to back him with a unanimous vote. But the great public had to be managed over the wages question. He found something in his hands which he could not master, yet which he was resolved to master. He threatened to bring in Chinese labor if the working-men did not come to his terms. They did not rebel, as working-men elsewhere would have done, with a grand "strike" and a public demonstration of wrath against the "oppressor and the tying out his measures, he arose as the "prophrant," but they left Brigham Young and his bishops to manage the "elephant" which it was evident they had now in hand.

The working-men, however, would have been forced to submit or leave the Territory, as many were actually preparing to do, when the Utah Magazine came to their rescue. It exposed the "false policy of President Young" in attempting to reach social and commercial results by lowering the wages of the working classes, at the same time mildly condemning him for his oppressive measure. The working-men were safe then; but Brigham raged as only he who has held absolute power can when suddenly and for the first time checked in his career.

The reform movement had fairly begun. Its leaders were ready to be excommunicated and anathematized by their pope; but their aim was to let the wrong-doing be clearly on his side. Each week an editorial, dangerous because of its much truth, drew the "man of infallibility" on to the brink of a precipice. He sent the editor on a mission. The mission was accepted, instead of being rejected, as was designed; but the acceptance gave time, and Brigham lost his point.

as

et of the Lord," a character which he assumes only on extraordinary occasions, and revealed to the awe-stricken elders that there was a great and secret rebellion in Israel, and that an apostacy was coming which would shake the entire church. He made out in his prophetic mood perhaps more than he intended; for he certainly prophesied little less than his own overthrow. He denounced and cursed Godbe, Harrison, Stenhouse, George D. Watt, Tullidge, and two others, and summoned them for trial.

There was a great sensation in the city. The gentiles were deeply interested. Nothing before had occurred in Utah to so stir them toward a common cause. An organized movement from the elders was what the national party most desired to see arrayed against the Utah hierarchy. That night might have been seen in the gentile stores groups of men in earnest conversation touching the signs of the times and the new situation.

At the School of the Prophets on the next Saturday the rebels were at the bar. The prophet, however, had somewhat revised himself. He designed, if possible, only to take action against Godbe and Harrison. To raise The next step taken by the reformers was to up a party against himself of the chief men of agitate the subject of the mineral resources of the press and of commerce he saw, upon reflecUtah. The people were urged to develop the tion, was too serious an undertaking. The first inexhaustible wealth which Nature herself had hour of the trial before the School of the Prophstored for them in the mountains and cañons | ets was exhausted by the president's manœuevery where. Again was exposed the false vres to exclude from trial two of his good but policy of their leaders in attempting commer-erring servants, that they might "testify" for cial and manufacturing schemes which crippled the "Lord's anointed," and weep for having enterprise, while they left the treasure-houses spoken against co-operation. They were patted of the earth unopened, whence alone prosperity on the back and restored to grace. There was could come to the people. This brought on management and comedy in this; and the eldthe issue. The president now saw something ers were fitly chosen, for one of them was the of the aim of the reformers. Men were arising best character comedian of Brigham's theatre, who sought to lead the people through the pow- the other the costumer. Next came T. B. H. er of the press. He had feared the mines Stenhouse, who had designed to proclaim the from the beginning; for none believed more rebellion. But the prophet was playing the than did he in the mineral resources of the fox, not the lion, that day. Stenhouse was the Territory. It had long been the household father-in-law of Brigham's eldest son, and the talk among the Mormons that Brigham knew wily chief made the grievance between them a where to open gold and silver mines which | personal matter of a most trivial character, to

the infinite chagrin of the elder. At last Brig- | rival mission; and at a word from President

Young Eli B. Kelsey was added to their number, and cut off without the form of a trial.

ham came to his rivals, whom he and his coun-
selors had foredoomed; while they, on their
part, had resolved to force a controversy with On the following Saturday the Utah Maga-
the president and the Twelve. W. S. Godbe zine appeared with manifestoes from the prot-
was the first called. Modestly, but with firm- estant elders, which were republished in most
ness, he took the speaker's stand, and awaited of the leading papers in America. The reform
the questions from Apostle Woodruff upon leaders hastened, also, to take the platform,
which he and his compeer were to be tried. which they were prepared to do in a few weeks.
The first embodied all the rest-"Do you be- In the meantime Henry Lawrence had re-
lieve that President Young has the right to dic-signed as one of the directors of "Zion's Co-
tate to you in all things temporal and spiritual?" operative Mercantile Institution," and drawn
The question drew a speech from Mr. Godbe out his capital, thus half-breaking the back of
to several thousand assembled elders. He did Brigham's great scheme. He also resigned all
not believe in the extraordinary right claimed his offices as alderman, first counselor of the
for President Young; deemed it wise in com- bishop, etc., and forced his excommunication.
merce to be guided by commercial experience Presidents Young and Wells had plead with
and the circumstances of the case; had till then him for hours not to leave their side; but Hen-
followed the president in his mercantile schemes, ry Lawrence had resolved to stand by his friend
often against his own judgment, and he instanced Godbe and the reform cause, and the man is as
the failures. Touching theology, he said that an immovable rock.
"the light of God in each individual soul was
the proper guide in the life of every rightly cul-
tured man, and not the intelligence of one hu-
man mind dictating for all God's creatures."

When the protestant elders first announced their intention of taking the platform for a great agitation of public opinion, the Mosaic mind of Mormondom was touched as by a tremendous innovation. Even the men of progress, now the mightiest in maintaining the national cause in Utah, deemed their compeers rashly forward in proposing thus to strike directly in the face of Brigham Young and his hitherto all-potent priesthood. And these more prudent men were sound in judgment, for they had in remembrance the solemn oath of the terrible man in

The pontiff of Mormondom then arose, and let loose his matchless tongue of ridicule to belittle his rivals. He mimicked the man of sentiment who had preached "another Gospel" to the School of the Prophets than that which it was accustomed to hear. The Utah Magazine he denounced as a snake in the grass, which he would now destroy; for it was more dangerous than all the papers which the gentiles had pub-power that before apostates should be allowed lished in Utah to destroy the priesthood.

There was a sensation when the president
sat down, and Elder Elias Harrison arose and
took the stand. Brigham and his Luther were
now face to face in their controversy. The re-
former, instead of addressing the audience,
turned boldly to the judge himself, and protest-
ed against him and his rule in a voice which
thundered through the School. The apostles
and elders were wrathful. At a word from their
chief they would have driven the bold heretic
from their synagogue; but Brigham hastened
to hand the case over to the High Council for
private trial, and took a vote to discontinue the
reading of the Utah Magazine. This brought
Henry Lawrence out with his protest, and the
statement that he should maintain the freedom
of the press.
The affair was becoming every
moment more serious, for Lawrence was one
of Brigham's pillars in commerce and the city
government.

The trial before the High Council came on
the following Wednesday morning. None were
allowed into the court-room but those who
brought with them the permit of President
Young. The reform leaders did not permit
the case to take the form of trial, but made the
circumstance their opportunity to declare their
mission before the High Council, and read a
series of resolutions for a reform movement.
Clearly nothing remained for the High Council
to do but to excommunicate these men of a

to form a party in Utah he would "unsheath his bowie-knife and lay judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet." A proscribed press, conducted by excommunicated elders, might not provoke a destructive wrath, but an organized movement of protest and reform, with public agitation by bold men denouncing the ruling priesthood and their policy, was very likely to bring a massacre of the protestant party, or at least the assassination of its leaders. But the men of progress had counted the cost, and with their lives in their hands they went forth to their work.

The Thirteenth Ward assembly-rooms were applied for to inaugurate the reformation. Mr. Godbe owned three or four thousand dollars' worth of stock in the property, but Bishop Woolley dared not grant the chapel without first consulting President Young. Henry Lawrence and William S. Godbe had been appointed by the council of the reformers, and they answered the bishop: "Tell Brother Brigham we have no desire to be unkind, and hope he will grant our reasonable request; but we are resolved that if he refuses we will shut up the Thirteenth Ward assembly - rooms by a process of law upon W. S. Godbe's claims." The bishop took the message, and the chapel was granted for the morning service. Brother Brigham, however, did take the threat as unkind, but he well knew that Lawrence and Godbe would keep their word.

Sunday, December 19, 1869, was an eventful day in the history of Utah. An hour before the time the people began to gather, and by eleven o'clock the large assembly-rooms were filled and the door-way crowded. The service of the day opened by the choir singing the famous hymn of Parley P. Pratt:

"The morning breaks, the shadows flee,
So Zion's standard is unfurled;
The dawning of a brighter day
Majestic rises on the world."

been gathered around the dépôt block not less than fifteen thousand people. As the train with the invited guests from Ogden and the north came in sight, dashing toward the end of the track, shouts arose from the assembled city. A large steel mallet had been prepared for the occasion, made at the blacksmith's shop of the public works of the church. The "last spike" was forged of Utah iron, manufactured ten years ago by the late Nathaniel V. Jones, one of the chief prophets of the iron resources of the Territory. The mallet was elegantly chased, bearing on the top an engraved beehive (the emblem of the State of Deseret), surrounded by the inscription "Holiness to the Lord," and underneath the bee-hive were the letters U. C. R. R.; a similar ornament consecrated the spike, both intending to symbolize that Utah with the railroad should still be the "Kingdom of God." The sun, which had hid himself behind the clouds during the whole day, burst forth as in joy to witness the event of the laying of the last rail almost at the very instant. It was like a glad surprise, and the apostles took it as an omen of good. The honor of driving the last spike in the first railroad built by the Mormon people belonged to President Brigham Young. At a few minutes past two o'clock he stood on the spot with the steel mallet in his hand, and lifted it to strike with the symbol of "Holiness to the Lord" and the arms of the State of Deseret. Brigham Young, the "man of destiny," missed his mark and broke the last spike!

It is the first hymn in the Mormon hymn-book, and has been sung thousands of times at home and abroad, but on this eventful morning it had a new meaning. The people sang it with the heart and with the understanding; and even the gentiles, who formed one-third of the audience, evidently liked the theme. Thus the spirit of Parley P. Pratt, the Mormon Isaiah, through the mediumship of his hymn, opened rebellion against the man who was jealous of him all his lifetime, on account of his influence over the Mormon heart. Then came the speeches of the two reformers, Harrison and Godbe, reviewing the past and declaring their mission and "call from the heavens to arise and redeem the people of Zion from their bondage." In the evening the Utah protestants met in Masonic Hall, which was literally packed, and yet not more than two-thirds of those who came could get inside of the door. There were great speeches delivered that night, and that of Henry Lawrence was like an iron bolt driven with a forceful deliberation direct to its mark. That speech assured the United States party that the Other events of marked importance soon folmovement of the reform elders would be carried lowed. Indignation meetings of Mormon womon with a will which not even Brigham Young en were held throughout the Territory to proand his apostles could shake. All were im- test against the passage of the Cullom bill. pressed by the results of the day that the To encourage them to persevere in their patri"schism" was a great fact, and that henceforthotic course, the Utah Legislature passed a bill in Utah there would be a public platform and granting woman suffrage. The following is a a public voice. copy of this remarkable instrument:

"An Act giving Women the Elective Franchise in the Territory of Utah.

The next capital event in the history of Utah was the laying of the last rail of the Utah Central Pacific Railroad. The completion of "Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Governor and the Legthe Union and Central Pacific lines was a naislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah, that every tional event, affecting greatly the destiny of ed in this Territory six months next preceding any woman of the age of twenty-one years, who has residUtah as well as that of the entire Pacific coast; general or special election, born or naturalized in the but the completion of the Utah Central was United States, or who is the wife, or widow, or the the proper local sign of radical changes in Mor-daughter of a naturalized citizen of the United States, shall be entitled to vote at any election in this Terrimonism. That event put the Territory en rap-tory. port with the age of railroads, and under the influence of its civilizing agencies lessening in a day half the influence of the priesthood over society, without shocking it with the consciousness of the fact. A world of expansion came to Mormondom with the laying of the last rail in Salt Lake City, and a community, formed in a state of isolation, appreciated at once that henceforth the hand of the East and the hand of the West were on Utah, and forty millions of people at her door.

It was January 10, 1870; the weather was cold, a heavy fog hung over the city of the Great Salt Lake; but the multitude assembled, and by two o'clock P.M. there is said to have

"Sec. 2. All laws or parts of laws conflicting with this act are hereby repealed.

"Approved February 12, 1870."

This bill was intended by President Young to serve his own purposes; but, as the issue will prove, it was an important step in the progress of reform: the women of Utah were emancipated.

The act granting female suffrage was approved on the Saturday preceding the city elections on the following Monday. While the Legislature was working on the bill the national party was holding political meetings and organizing the opposition ticket. Eli B. Kelsey, a chief of the reformers, was chosen chairman of