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YOUNG, BRIGHAM. 



nally successful iu making converts. After 

 the death of Joseph Smith, in June, 1844, 

 Young was one of four aspirants to the presi- 

 dency, and was unanimously chosen to that 

 office by the apostles. The choice met the 

 general approval of the sect, and soon after- 

 ward his principal rival, Sidney Rigdon, being 

 contumacious, was excommunicated. After 

 the charter of Nauvoo had been revoked by 

 the Legislature of Illinois, and the city bom- 

 barded, Young set out with his followers in 

 1846, and, after a weary march across the 

 Plains, reached Great Salt Lake Valley, which, 

 he persuaded them, was the promised land. 

 Here he founded Salt Lake City in July, 1847, 

 and became the absolute ruler of the colony. 

 Extensive tracts of land were brought under 

 cultivation, an " immigration fund " was estab- 

 lished, and large numbers of converts were 

 brought by a well-organized system from Eu- 

 rope, chiefly from the working classes of Great 

 Britain, and especially from Wales. A con- 

 siderable number came also from Sweden and 

 Norway, and a smaller number from Germany, 

 Switzerland, and France. In March, 1849, a 

 convention was held at Salt Lake City, and a 

 State organized under the name of Deseret, a 

 word understood by the Mormons to signify 

 " the land of the honey-bee." A legislature 

 was elected, and a constitution framed and 

 sent to Washington ; but Congress refused to 

 recognize the new State, and in September or- 

 ganized the country occupied by the Mormons 

 into the Territory of Utah, of which Brigham 

 Young was appointed Governor by President 

 Fillmore. In the following year the Federal 

 judges were forced by threats of violence 

 from Young to quit Utah, and the laws of the 

 United States were openly defied and sub- 

 verted. This led to the removal of Young, 

 and the appointment of Colonel Steptoe of 

 the United States Army as Governor. Colo- 

 nel Steptoe arrived in Utah in August, 1854, 

 with a battalion of soldiers ; but such was the 

 state of affairs in the Territory that he did not 

 deem it prudent to assume the office of Gover- 

 nor, and, after wintering in Salt Lake City, he 

 formally resigned his post, and removed with 

 his troops to California. Most of the civil 

 officers who were commissioned about the 

 same time with Colonel Steptoe arrived in 

 Utah a few months after he had departed. 

 They were harassed and terrified like their 

 predecessors. In February, 1856, a mob of 

 armed Mormons, instigated by sermons from 

 the heads of the Church, broke into the court- 

 room of the United States District Judge, and, 

 at the point of the bowie-knife, compelled 

 Judge Drummond to adjourn his court tine 

 die. Soon afterward all the United States of- 

 ficers, with the exception of the Indian agent, 

 were forced to flee from the Territory. These 

 and similar outrages at length determined 

 President Buchanan to supersede Brigham 

 Young in the office of Governor, and to send 

 to Utah a military force to protect the Federal 



officers, and to compel obedience to the laws. 

 In 1857 the office of Governor of Utah was 

 conferred upon Alfred Cumming, a superin- 

 tendent of Indian affairs on the Upper Mis- 

 souri, and that of Chief Justice on Judge 

 Eckels, of Indiana ; and a force of 2,500 men, 

 under experienced officers, was sent to pro- 

 tect them in the discharge of their duties. 

 The Mormons were greatly excited at the ap- 

 proach of these troops. Young, in his capac- 

 ity of Governor, issued a proclamation de- 

 nouncing the army as a mob, and forbidding 

 it to enter the Territory, and calling the people 

 of Utah to arms to repel its advance. The 

 army reached Utah hi September, and on Oc- 

 tober 5th and 6th a party of mounted Mor- 

 mons destroyed several of the supply trains, 

 and a few days later cut off 800 oxen from the 

 rear of the army and drove them to Salt Lake 

 City. The army, of which Colonel A. S. John- 

 ston had by this time assumed the command, 

 was overtaken by the snows of winter before 

 it could reach Salt Lake Valley, and about the 

 middle of November went into winter quar- 

 ters on Black's Fork, near Fort Bridger. On 

 November 27th, Governor Cumming issued a 

 proclamation declaring the Territory to be in a 

 state of rebellion. In the spring of 1858, by 

 the intervention of Mr. Thomas L. Kane, of 

 Pennsylvania, who had gone to Utah by way 

 of California, bearing letters from President 

 Buchanan, a good understanding was brought 

 about between Governor Gumming and the 

 Mormon leaders ; and toward the end of May 

 two commissioners arrived at the camp with a 

 proclamation from the President offering par- 

 don to all Mormons who would submit them- 

 selves to Federal authority. This offer was 

 accepted by the heads of the Church. On 

 August 29, 1852, Brigham Young proclaimed 

 the "celestial law of marriage," sanctioning 

 polygamy, which he declared had been re- 

 vealed to Joseph Smith in July, 1848. Smith's 

 widow and her four sons at once denounced 

 this as a forgery, and headed a schism. 

 Though the Mormon apostles had repeatedly 

 replied to the imputation of such doctrine or 

 practice with the most emphatic and explicit 

 denials, the personal power of Brigham Young 

 was such that he had little difficulty in estab- 

 lishing polygamy as an institution of the 

 Church. Young took to himself a large num- 

 ber of wives, most of whom resided in a build- 

 ing known as the " Lion House," so called from 

 a huge lion carved in stone which stands upon 

 the portico. In 1874, his fifteenth wife, Ann 

 Eliza, left him, and petitioned the United 

 States Court for a divorce. The petition was 

 denied on the ground that the marriage was 

 polygamous, and therefore null. In 1871 

 Brigham Young was indicted for polygamy, 

 but no conviction was reached. In addition 

 to his office of President of the Church, Young 

 was Grand Archer of the Order of Danites, a 

 secret organization within the Church, which 

 was one of the chief sources of his absolute 



