Читать книгу The History of Salt Lake City and its Founders, Volume 1 - Edward William Tullidge - Страница 5

GOVERNOR FORD URGES THE MIGRATION OF THE MORMONS TO CALIFORNIA. COMPACT OF THE REMOVAL. ADDRESS TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. THE EXODUS MORMON LIFE ON THE JOURNEY. A SENSATION FROM THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.

Soon after the assassination of the Prophet and his brother Hyrum, Governor Ford, in a letter to President Young, under date of April 8th, 1845, urging the migration of the Mormons to California, said: "If you can get off by yourselves you may enjoy peace; but, surrounded by such neighbors, I confess that I do not see the time when you will be permitted to enjoy quiet. I was informed by General Joseph Smith last summer that he contemplated a removal west: and from what I learned from him and others at that time, I think, if he had lived, he would have begun to move in the matter before this time. I would be willing to exert all my feeble abilities and influence to further your views in this respect if it was the wish of your people.

"I would suggest a matter in confidence. California now offers a field for the prettiest enterprise that has been undertaken in modern times. It is but sparsely inhabited, and by none but the Indian or imbecile Mexican Spaniards. I have not enquired enough to know how strong it is in men and means. But this we know, that if conquered from Mexico, that country is so physically weak, and morally distracted, that she could never send a force there to reconquer it. Why should it not be a pretty operation for your people to go out there, take possession of and conquer a portion of the vacant country, and establish an independent government of your own, subject only to the law of nations? You would remain there a long time before you would be disturbed by the proximity of other settlements. If you conclude to do this, your design ought not to be known, or otherwise it would become the duty of the United States to prevent your emigration. If once you cross the line of the United States Territories, you would be in no danger of being interfered with."

Knowing the intentions of Joseph Smith to remove the Mormon people, Senator Douglas and others had given similar advice to him; and the very fact that such men looked upon the Mormons as quite equal to the establishment of an independent nationality, is most convincing proof that not their wrongdoing, but their empire-founding genius has been, and still is, the cause of the "irrepressible conflict" between them and their opponents. The advice of Governor Ford, however, was neither sought nor required.

Brigham Young, carrying out Joseph Smith's plan, had nearly matured every part of the movement, shaping also the emigration from the British Mission; but the Rocky Mountains, not California proper, was the place chosen for his people's retreat.

It was then that the Mormon leaders addressed the famous petition to President Polk and the Governors of all the States, excepting Missouri and Illinois, changing simply the address to each person. Here it is: "Nauvoo, April 24th, 1845.

"His Excellency James K. Polk, President of the United States.

"Hon. Sir: Suffer us, in behalf of a disfranchised and long afflicted people, to prefer a few suggestions for "your serious consideration, in hope of a friendly and unequivocal response, at as early a period as may suit your convenience, and the extreme urgency of the case seems to demand.

"It is not our present design to detail the multiplied and aggravated wrongs that we have received in the midst of a nation that gave us birth. Most of us have long been loyal citizens of some one of these United States, over which you have the honor to preside, while a few only claim the privilege of peaceable and lawful emigrants, designing to make the Union our permanent residence.

"We say we are a disfranchised people. We are privately told by the highest authorities of the State that it is neither prudent nor safe for us to vote at the polls; still we have continued to maintain our right to vote, until the blood of our best men has been shed, both in Missouri and Illinois, with impunity.

"You are doubtless somewhat familiar with the history of our expulsion from the State of Missouri, wherein scores of our brethren were massacred. Hundreds died through want and sickness, occasioned by their unparalleled sufferings.

Some millions worth of our property was destroyed, and some fifteen thousand souls fled for their lives to the then hospitable and peaceful shores of Illinois: and that the State of Illinois granted to us a liberal charter, for the term of perpetual succession, under whose provision private rights have become invested, and the largest city in the State has grown up, numbering about twenty thousand inhabitants.

"But, sir, the startling attitude recently assumed by the State of Illinois, forbids us to think that her designs are any less vindictive than those of Missouri.

She has already used the military of the State, with the executive at their head, to coerce and surrender up our best men to unparalleled murder, and that too under the most sacred pledges of protection and safety. As a salve for such unearthly perfidy and guilt, she told us, through her highest executive officers, that the laws should be magnified and the murderers brought to justice; but the blood of her innocent victims had not been wholly wiped from the floor of the awful arena, ere the Senate of that State rescued one of the indicted actors in that mournful tragedy from the sheriff of Hancock County, and gave him a seat in her hall of legislation; and all who were indicted by the grand jury of Hancock County for the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, are suffered to roam at large, watching for further prey.

"To crown the climax of those bloody deeds, the State has repealed those chartered rights, by which wo might have lawfully defended ourselves against aggressors. If we defend ourselves hereafter against violence, whether it comes under the shadow of law or otherwise (for we have reason to expect it in both ways), we shall then be charged with treason and suffer the penalty; and if we continue passive and non-resistant, we must certainly expect to perish, for our enemies have sworn it.

"And here, sir, permit us to state that General Joseph Smith, during his short life, was arraigned at the bar of his country about fifty times, charged with criminal offences, but was acquitted every time by his country; his enemies, or rather his religious opponents, almost invariably being his judges. And we further testify that, as a people, we are law-abiding, peaceable and without crime; and we challenge the world to prove to the contrary; and while other less cities in Illinois have had special courts instituted to try their criminals, we have been stript of every source of arraigning marauders and murderers who are prowling around to destroy us, except the common magistracy.

"With these facts before you, sir, will you write to us without delay as a father and friend, and advise us what to do. We are members of the same great confederacy. Our fathers, yea, some of us, have fought and bled for our country, and we love her Constitution dearly.

"In the name of Israel's God, and by virtue of multiplied ties of country and kindred, we ask your friendly interposition in our favor. Will it be too much for us to ask you to convene a special session of Congress, and furnish us an asylum, where we can enjoy our rights of conscience and religion unmolested? Or, will you, in a special message to that body, when convened, recommend a remonstrance against such unhallowed acts of oppression and expatriation as this people have continued to receive from the States of Missouri and Illinois? Or will you favor us by your personal influence and by your official rank? Or will you express your views concerning what is called the "Great Western Measure" of colonizing the Latter-day Saints in Oregon, the north-western Territory, or some location remote from the States, where the hand of oppression shall not crush every noble principle and extinguish every patriotic feeling?

"And now, honored sir, having reached out our imploring hands to you, with deep solemnity, we would importune you as a father, a friend, a patriot and the head of a mighty nation, by the Constitution of American liberty, by the blood of our fathers who have fought for the independence of this republic, by the blood of the martyrs which has been shed in our midst, by the waitings of the widows and orphans, by our murdered fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, wives and children, by the dread of immediate destruction from secret combinations now forming for our overthrow, and by every endearing tie that binds man to man and renders life bearable, and that too, for aught we know, for the last time,—that you will lend your immediate aid to quell the violence of mobocracy, and exert your influence to establish us as a people in our civil and religious rights, where we now are, or in some part of the United States, or in some place remote therefrom, where we may colonize in peace and safety as soon as circumstances will permit.

"We sincerely hope that your future prompt measures towards us will be dictated by the best feelings that dwell in the bosom of humanity, and the blessings of a grateful people, and many ready to perish, shall come upon you.

"We are, sir, with great respect, your obedient servants, Brigham Young, Willard Richards, Orson Spencer, Orson Pratt, y Committee, W. W. Phelps, A. W. Babbitt, J. M. Bernhisel, In behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at Nauvoo, Illinois.

"P.S.—As many of our communications, post-marked at Nauvoo, have failed of their destination, and the mails around us have been intercepted by our enemies, we shall send this to some distant office by the hand of a special messenger."

The appeal itself is not a mere attempt at rhetoric. The very inelegance of multiplied ties and sacred objects invoked and crowded upon each other, to touch the hearts of men in power, is truly affecting. There is a tragic burden in the circumstances and urgency of the case. But the prayer was unanswered.

Towards the close of the year 1845, the leaders, in council, resolved to remove their people at once and seek a second Zion in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. It was too clear that they could no longer dwell among so-called civilized men. They knew that they must soon seek refuge with the children of the forest; and as for humanity, they must seek it in the breasts of savages, for there was scarcely a smoldering spark of it left for them, either in Missouri or Illinois, nor indeed anywhere within the borders of the United States.

They had now no destiny but in the West. If they tarried longer their blood would fertilize the lands which they had tilled, and their wives and daughters would be ravished within the sanctuary of the homes which their industrious hands had built. Their people were by a thousand ancestral links joined to the Pilgrim Fathers who founded this nation, and with the heroes who won for it independence, and it was as the breaking of their heartstrings to rend them from their fatherland, and send them as exiles into the territory of a foreign power. But there was no alternative between a Mormon exodus or a Mormon massacre.

Sorrowfully, but resolutely, the Saints prepared to leave; trusting in the Providence which had thus far taken them through their darkest days and multiplied upon their heads compensation for their sorrows. But the anti-Mormons seemed eager for the questionable honor of exterminating them. In September of the year 1845, delegates from nine counties met in convention, at Carthage, over the Mormon troubles, and sent four commissioners: General Hardin, Commander of the State Militia; Senator Douglass; W. B. Warren; and J. A. McDougal, to demand the removal of the Mormons to the Rocky Mountains. The commissioners held a council with the Twelve Apostles at Nauvoo, and the Mormon leaders promptly agreed to remove their people at once, a movement, as we have seen, which they had been considering for several years. Now were they brought face to face with the issue. The Mormon leaders sought not to evade it; but, with their characteristic Israelitish methods, resolved to grapple with the tremendous undertaking of the exodus of a people.

On that exodus, hung, not only the very destiny of the people, but the peace of the State of Illinois. Probably it was a sensible comprehension of this fact that prompted General Hardin to ask of the Twelve Apostles, at the council in question, what guarantee they would give that the Mormons would fulfill their part of the covenant. To this Brigham Young replied, with a strong touch of common-sense severity: "You have our all as the guarantee; what more can we give beyond the guarantee of our names?" Senator Douglass observed, "Mr. Young is right." But General Hardin knew that the people of Illinois, and especially the anti-Mormons, would look to him more than to Douglass, who had been styled the Mormon-made senator; so the commissioners asked for a written covenant, of a nature to relieve themselves of much of the responsibility, and addressed the following: "Nauvoo, Oct. 1st, 1845.

"To the President and Council of the Church at Nauvoo: "Having had a free and full conversation with you this day, in reference to your proposed removal from this country, together with the members of your church, we have to request you to submit the facts and intentions stated to us in the said conversations to writing, in order that we may lay them before the Governor and people of the State. We hope that by so doing it will have a tendency to allay the excitement at present existing in the public mind.

"We have the honor to subscribe ourselves,

Respectfully yours,

John J. Hardin,

W. B. Warren,

S. A. Douglass,

J. A. McDougal."

The covenant itself is too precious to be lost to history; here it is: "Nauvoo, Ill., Oct. 1st, 1845.

"To Gen. J. Hardin, W. B. Warren, S. A. Douglass, and J. A. McDougal: "Messrs:—In reply to your letter of this date, requesting us ' to submit the facts and intentions stated by us in writing, in order that you may lay them before the Governor and people of the State,' we would refer you to our communication of the 24th ult. to the 'Quincy Committee,'etc., a copy of which is herewith enclosed.

"In addition to this we would say that we had commenced making arrangements to remove from the country previous to the recent disturbances; that we have four companies, of one hundred families each, and six more companies now organizing, of the same number each, preparatory to a removal.

"That one thousand families, including the Twelve, the High Council, the trustees and general authorities of the Church, are fully determined to remove in the Spring, independent of the contingencies of selling our property; and that this company will comprise from five to six thousand souls.

"That the Church, as a body, desire to remove with us, and will, if sales can be effected, so as to raise the necessary means.

"That the organization of the Church we represent is such that there never can exist but one head or presidency at any one time. And all good members wish to be with the organization: and all are determined to remove to some distant point where we shall neither infringe nor be infringed upon, so soon as time and means will permit.

"That we have some hundreds of farms and some two thousand houses for sale in this city and county, and we request all good citizens to assist in the disposal of our property.

"That we do not expect to find purchasers for our Temple and other public buildings; but we are willing to rent them to a respectable community who may inhabit the city.

"That we wish it distinctly understood that although we may not find purchasers for our property, we will not sacrifice it, nor give it away, or suffer it illegally to be wrested from us.

"That we do not intend to sow any wheat this Fall, and should we all sell, we shall not put in any more crops of any description.

"That as soon as practicable, we will appoint committees for this city, La Harpe, Macedonia, Bear Creek, and all necessary places in the county, to give information to purchasers.

"That if these testimonies are not sufficient to satisfy any people that we are in earnest, we will soon give them a sign that cannot be mistaken—we will LEAVE THEM.

"In behalf of the council, respectfully yours, etc.,

Brigham Young, President.

Willard Richards, Clerk.'''

The covenant satisfied the commissioners, and for a time also satisfied the anti-Mormons.

But their enemies were impatient for the Mormons to be gone. They would not keep even their own conditions of the covenant, much less were they disposed to lend a helping hand to lighten the burden of this thrice-afflicted people in their exodus, that their mutual bond might be fulfilled—a bond already sealed with the blood of their Prophet, and of his brother the Patriarch. So the High Council issued a circular to the Church, January 20, 1846, in which they stated the intention of their community to locate "in some good valley in the neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains, where they will infringe on no one, and not be likely to be infringed upon." "Here we will make a resting place," they said, '.' until we can determine a place for a permanent location. * * * We also further declare, for the satisfaction of some who have concluded that our grievances have alienated us from our country, that our patriotism has not been overcome by fire, by sword, by daylight nor by midnight assassination which we have endured, neither have they alienated us from the institutions of our country."

Then came the subject of service on the side of their country, should warbreak out between it and a foreign country, as was indicated at that time by our growing difficulties with Mexico. The anti-Mormons took advantage of this war prospect, and not satisfied with their act of expulsion, they raised the cry, "The Mormons intend to join the enemy!" This was as cruel as the seething of the kid in its mother's milk, but the High Council answered it with the homely anecdote of the Quaker's characteristic action against the pirates in defense of the ship on which he was a passenger, when he cut away the rope in the hands of the boarder, observing: "If thee wants that piece of rope I will help thee to it."

"The pirate fell," said the circular, "and a watery grave was his resting place."

Their country had been anything but a kind protecting parent to the Saints, but at least, in its hour of need, they would do as much as the conscientious Quaker did in the defense of the ship. There was, too, a grim humor and quiet pathos in the telling, that was more touchingly reproachful than would have been a storm of denunciations. In the same spirit the High Council climaxed their circular thus: "We agreed to leave the country for the sake of peace, upon the condition that no more persecutions be instituted against us. In good faith we have labored to fulfill this agreement. Governor Ford has also done his duty to further our wishes in this respect, but there are some who are unwilling that we should have an existence anywhere; but our destinies are in the hands of God, and so are also theirs."

Early in February, 1846, the Mormons began to cross the Mississippi in flat boats, old lighters, and a number of skiffs, forming, says the President's Journal, "quite a fleet," which was at work night and day under the direction of the police, commanded by their captain, Hosea Stout. Several days later the Mississippi froze over, and the companies continued the crossing on the ice.

On the 15th of the same month, Brigham Young, with his family, accompanied by Willard Richards and family, and George A. Smith, also crossed the Mississippi from Nauvoo, and proceeded to the " Camps of Israel," as they were styled by the Saints, which waited on the west side of the river, a few miles on the way, for the coming of their leaders. These were to form the vanguard of the migrating Saints, who were to follow from the various States where they were located or had organized themselves into flourishing branches and conferences; and soon after this period also began to pour across the Atlantic that tide of emigration from Europe which has since swelled to the number of over one hundred thousand souls.

As yet the "Camps of Israel" were unorganized, awaiting the coming of the President, on Sugar Creek, which he and his companions reached at dusk.

The next day he was busy organizing the company, and on the following, which was February 17th, at 9:50 a. m., the brethren of the camp had assembled near the bridge, to receive their initiatory instructions, and take the word of command from their leader, who ended his first day's orders to the congregation with a real touch of the law-giver's method. He said, " We will have no laws we cannot keep, but we will have order in the camp. If any want to live in peace when we have left this place, they must toe the mark." He then called upon all who wanted to go with the camp to raise their right hands. "All hands flew up at the bidding," says the record.

After the dismissal of the congregation, the President took several of the Twelve with him half a mile up a valley east of the camp and held a council. A letter was read from Mr. Samuel Brannan, of New York, with a copy of a curious agreement between him and a Mr. A. G. Benson, which had been sent west, under cover, for the authorities to sign.

To make clear to the reader a story, which now belongs to our national history, in connection with the first settling of California, it must be observed that Brannan, once known as one of the millionaires of the Golden State, had been the editor of The Prophet, published at New York. He seems to have been one of those sagacious men who saw in Mormonism the means to their own ends.

At the date of the exodus he was in the charge of a company of Saints, bound for the Pacific Coast, in the ship Brooklyn. They took all necessary outfit for the first settlers of a new country, including a printing press, upon which was afterwards struck off the first regular newspaper of California. This company was, also, the earliest company of American emigrants that arrived in the bay of San Francisco, and really the pioneer emigration of American citizens to the Golden State, for Fremont's volunteers cannot be considered in that character. Indeed, it is not a little singular that the Mormons were not only the pioneers of Utah, but also the pioneers of California, the builders of the first houses, the starters of the first papers, and, what has contributed so much to the growth of the Pacific Slope, the men who discovered the gold, under Mr. Marshal, the foreman of Sutter's mills. These facts, however, the people of California seem somewhat to hide in the histories of their State.

Relative to the sailing of this company, Samuel Brannan had written to the Mormon authorities. Ex-Postmaster Amos Kendall, and the said Benson, who seems to have been Kendall's agent, with others of political influence, represented to Brannan that, unless the leaders of the Church signed an agreement with them, to which the President of the United States, he said, was a "silent party," the government would not permit the Mormons to proceed on their journey westward.

This agreement required the pioneers " to transfer to A. G. Benson & Co., and to their heirs and assigns, the odd numbers of all the lands and town lots they may acquire in the country where they may settle." In case they refused to sign the agreement the President, it was said, would issue a proclamation, setting forth that it was the intention of the Mormons to take sides with either Mexico or Great Britain against the United States, and order them to be disarmed and dispersed. Both the letter and contract are very characteristic, and the worldly-minded man's poor imitation of the earnest religionist has probably often since amused Mr. Brannan himself. In his letter he said: "I declare to all that you are not going to California, but Oregon, and that my information is official. Kendall has also learned that we have chartered the ship Brooklyn, and that Mormons are going out in her; and, it is thought, she will be searched for arms, and, if found, they will be taken from us; and if not, an order will be sent to Commodore Stockton on the Pacific to search our vessel before we land. Kendall will be in the city next Thursday again, and then an effort will be made to bring about a reconciliation. I will make you acquainted with the result before I leave."

The "reconciliation" between the Government and the Mormons, as the reader will duly appreciate, was to be effected by a division of the spoils among the political chiefs, including, if Brannan and Kendall are to be relied on, the President of the United States. The following letter of fourteen days later date is too rich and graphic to be lost to the public: "New York, January 26, 1846.

"Dear Brother Young: "I haste to lay before your honorable body the result of ray movements since I wrote you last, which was from this city, stating some of my discoveries, in relation to the contemplated movements of the General Government in opposition to our removal.

"I had an interview with Amos Kendall, in company with Mr. Benson, which resulted in a compromise, the conditions of which you will learn by reading the contract between them and us, which I shall forward by this mail. I shall also leave a copy of the same with Elder Appleby, who was present when it was signed. Kendall is now our friend, and will use his influence in our behalf, in connection with twenty-five of the most prominent demagogues in the country.

You will be permitted to pass out of the States unmolested. Their counsel is to go well armed but keep them well secreted from the rabble.

"I shall select the most suitable spot on the Bay of San Francisco for the location of a commercial city. When I sail, which will be next Saturday, at one o'clock, I shall hoist a flag with ' Oregon' on it.

"Immediately on the reception of this letter, you must write to Mr. A. G. Benson, and let him know whether you are willing to coincide with the contract I have made for our deliverance. I am aware it is a covenant with death, but we know that God is able to break it and will do it. The Children of Israel, in their escape from Egypt, had to make covenants for their safety, and leave it for God to break them; and the Prophet has said, 'As it was then, so shall it be in the last days.' And I have been led by a remarkable train of circumstances to say, amen; and I feel and hope you will do the same.

"Mr. Benson thinks the Twelve should leave and get out of the country first, and avoid being arrested, if it is a possible thing; but if you are arrested, you will find a staunch friend in him; and you will find friends, and that a host, to deliver you from their hands. If any of you are arrested, don't be tried west of the Alleghany Mountains; in the East you will find friends that you little think of.

"It is the prayer of the Saints in the East night and day for your safety, and it is mine first in the morning and the last in the evening.

"I must now bring my letter to a close. Mr. Benson's address is No. 39 South Street; and the sooner you can give him answer the better it will be for us.

He will spend one month in Washington to sustain you, and he will do it, no mistake. But everything must be kept silent as death on our part, names of parties in particular.

"I now commit this sheet to the post, praying that Israel's God may prevent it from falling into the hands of wicked men. You will hear from me again on the day of sailing, if it is the Lord's will, amen.

"Your's truly, a friend and brother in God's kingdom.

S. Brannan."

The contract in question was signed by Samuel Brannan and A. G. Benson and witnessed by W. I. Appleby. To it is this postscript: "This is only a copy of the original, which I have filled out. It is no gammon, but will be carried through, if you say, amen. It was drawn up by Kendall's own hand; but no person must be known but Mr. Benson."

The following simple minute, in Brigham Young's private journal, is a fine set-off to these documents: "Samuel Brannan urged upon the council the signing of the document.

The council considered the subject, and concluded that as our trust was in God, and that, as we looked to him for protection, we would not sign any such unjust and oppressive agreement. This was a plan of political demagogues to rob the Latter-day Saints of millions and compel them to submit to it by threats of Federal bayonets."

No matter what view the reader may take of the Mormons and their leaders relative to the intrinsic value to the world of their social and theological problems, no intelligent mind can help being struck with the towering superiority of men trusting in their God, in the supremest hour of trial, compared with the foremost politicians in the country, including a President of the United States, as illustrated in the above example. It is charitably to be hoped, however, that President Polk was a very "silent party" to this scheme, and that his name was merely used to give potency to the promise of protection-, and to the threat that the General Government would intercept the Mormons in their exodus.

Little did the political demagogues of the time, and these land speculators, understand the Mormon people, and still less the character of the men who were leading them; nor did "Elder Brannan" know them much better. From the beginning the Mormons never gave up an inch of their chosen ground, never, as a people, consented to a compromise, nor allowed themselves to be turned aside from their purposes, nor wavered in their fidelity to their faith. They would suffer expulsion, or make an exodus if need be, yet ever, as in this case, have they answered, "Our trust is in God. We look to Him for protection." So far "Elder Brannan" understood them; hence his profession of faith that the Lord would overrule and break the "covenant with death." But these men did wiser and better. They never made the covenant, but calmly defied the consequences, which they knew too well might soon follow. Not even as much as to reply to Messrs. Benson, Kendall & Co. did they descend from the pinnacle of their integrity.

But, be it not for a moment thought that the Mormon leaders did not fully comprehend their critical position in all its aspects. A homely anecdote of the apostle George A. Smith will illustrate those times. At a council in Nauvoo, of the men who were to act as the captains of the people in that famous exodus, one after the other brought up difficulties in their path until the prospect was without one poor speck of daylight. The good nature of "George A." was provoked at last, when he sprang up and observed with his quaint humor that had now a touch of the grand in it, " If there is no God in Israel we are a 'sucked in' set of fellows. But I am going to take my family and cross the river, and the Lord will open the way." He was one of the first to set out on that miraculous journey to the Rocky Mountains.

Having resolved to trust in their God and themselves, quietly setting aside the politicians, Brigham Young and several of the Twelve left the Camp of Israel for a few days, and returned to bid farewell to their beloved Nauvoo, and hold a parting service in the Temple. This was the last time Brigham Young ever saw that sacred monument of the Mormons' devotion.

The Pioneers had now been a month on Sugar Creek, and during the time had, of course, consumed a vast amount of the provisions; indeed, nearly all, which had been gathered up for their journey. Their condition, however, was not without its compensation; for it checked the movements of the mob, among whom the opinion prevailed that the outfit of the Pioneers was so utterly insufficient that, in a short time, they would break in pieces and scatter. Moreover, it was mid-winter. Up to the date of their starting from this first camping ground, detachments continued to join them, crossing the Mississippi, from Nauvoo, on the ice; but before starting they addressed the following memorial: "To His Excellency Governor of the Territory of Iowa: Honored Sir: The time is at hand in which several thousand free citizens of this great Republic are to be driven from their peaceful homes and firesides, their property and farms, and their dearest constitutional rights, to wander in the barren plains and sterile mountains of western wilds, and linger out their lives in wretched exile, far beyond the pale of professed civilization, or else be exterminated upon their own lands by the people and authorities of the State of Illinois.

"As life is sweet, we have chosen banishment rather than death, but, sir, the terms of our banishment are so rigid, that we have not sufficient time allotted us to make the necessary preparations to encounter the hardships and difficulties of these dreary and uninhabited regions. We have not time allowed us to dispose of our property, dwellings and farms, consequently many of us will have to leave them unsold, without the means of procuring the necessary provisions, clothing, teams, etc., to sustain us but a short distance beyond the settlements; hence our persecutors have placed us in very unpleasant circumstances.

"To stay is death by ' fire and sword;' to go into banishment unprepared is death by starvation. But yet, under these heartrending circumstances, several hundred of us have started upon our dreary journey, and are now encamped in Lee County, Iowa, suffering much from the intensity of the cold. Some of us are already without food, and others have barely sufficient to last a few weeks: hundreds of others must shortly follow us in the same unhappy condition, therefore: "We, the presiding authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as a committee in behalf of several thousand suffering exiles, humbly ask Your Excellency to shield and protect us in our constitutional rights, while we are passing through the Territory over which you have jurisdiction. And, should any of the exiles be under the necessity of stopping in this Territory for a time, either in settled or unsettled parts, for the purpose of raising crops, by renting farms or upon public lands, or to make the necessary preparations for their exile in any lawful way, we humbly petition Your Excellency to use an influence and power in our behalf, and thus preserve thousands of American citizens, together with their wives and children, from intense sufferings, starvation and death. And your petitioners will ever pray."

In the diary of the President is a sort of valedictory, written before starting on their journey from Sugar Creek, which concludes thus: "Our homes, gardens, orchards, farms, streets, bridges, mills, public halls, magnificent temple, and other public improvements we leave as a monument of our patriotism, industry, economy, uprightness of purpose, and integrity of heart, and as a living testimony of the falsehood and wickedness of those who charge us with disloyalty to the Constitution of our country, idleness and dishonesty."

The Mormons were setting out under their leaders, from the borders of civilization, with their wives and their children, in broad daylight, before the very eyes of ten thousand of their enemies, who would have preferred their utter destruction to their " flight," notwithstanding they had enforced it by treaties outrageous beyond description, inasmuch as the exiles were nearly all American born, many of them tracing their ancestors to the very founders of the nation. They had to make a journey of fifteen hundred miles over trackless prairies, sandy deserts and rocky mountains, through bands of warlike Indians, who had been driven, exasperated, towards the West; and at last, to seek out and build up their Zion in valleys then unfruitful, in a solitary region where the foot of the white man had scarcely trod. These, too, were to be followed by the aged, the halt, the sick and the blind, the poor, who were to be helped by their little less destitute brethren, and the delicate young mother with her new-born babe at her breast, and still worse, for they were not only threatened with the extermination of the poor remnant at Nauvoo, but news had arrived that the parent-government designed to pursue their pioneers with troops, take from them their arms, and scatter them, that they might perish by the way, and leave their bones bleaching in the wilderness.

Yet did Brigham Young deal with the exodus of the Mormon people as simply in its opening as he did in his daily record of it. So, indeed, did the entire Mormon community. They all seemed as oblivious of the stupendous meaning of an exodus, as did the first workers on railroads of the vast meaning to civilization of that wonder of the age. A people trusting in their God, the Mormons were, in their mission, superior to the greatest human trials, and in their childlike faith equal to almost superhuman undertakings. To-day, however, with the astonishing change which has come over the spirit of the scene, on the whole Pacific Slope, since the Mormons pioneered our nation towards the setting sun, the picture of a modern Israel in their exodus has almost faded from the popular mind; but, in the centuries hence, when the passing events of this age shall have each taken their proper place, the historian will point back to that exodus in the New World of the West, as one quite worthy to rank with the immortal exodus of the children of Israel.

At about noon, on the 1st of March, 1846, the " Camp of Israel" began to move, and at four o'clock nearly four hundred wagons were on the way, traveling in a north-westerly direction. At night, they camped again on Sugar Creek, having advanced five miles. Scraping away the snow, they pitched their tents upon the hard-frozen ground; and after building large fires in front, they made themselves as comfortable as possible under the circumstances. Indeed, it is questionable whether any other people in the world could have cozened themselves into a happy state of mind amid such surroundings, with such a past, fresh and bleeding in their memories, and with such a prospect as was before both themselves and the remnant of their brethren left in Nauvoo to the tender mercies of the mob. In his diary Apostle Orson Pratt wrote that night, "Notwithstanding our sufferings, hardships and privations, we are cheerful, and rejoice that we have the privilege of passing through tribulation for the truth's sake."

These Mormon pilgrims, who took much consolation on their journey in likening themselves to the pilgrim fathers and mothers of this nation, whose descendants many of them actually were, that night made their beds upon the frozen earth. "After bowing before our great Creator," wrote Apostle Pratt, "and offering up praise and thanksgiving to him, and imploring his protection, we resigned ourselves to the slumbers of the night."

But the weather was more moderate that night than it had been for several weeks previous. At their first encampment the thermometer, at one time, fell twenty degrees below zero, freezing over the great Mississippi. The survivors of that journey will tell you they never Suffered so much from the cold in their lives as they did on Sugar Creek. And what of the Mormon women? Around them circles an almost tragic romance. Fancy may find abundant subject for graphic story of the devotion, the suffering, the matchless heroism of the "Sisters," in the telling incident that nine children were born to them the first night they camped out on Sugar Creek, February 5th, 1846. That day they wept their farewells over their beloved city, or in the sanctuary of the Temple, in which they had hoped to worship till the end of life, but which they left, never to see again; that night suffering nature administered to them the mixed cup of woman's supremest joy and pain.

But it was not prayer alone that sustained these pilgrims. The practical philosophy of their great leader, daily and hourly applied to the exigencies of their case, did almost as much as their own matchless faith to sustain them from the commencement to the end of their journey. With that leader had very properly come to the "Camp of Israel" several of the Twelve and the chief bishops of the Church, but he also brought with him a quorum humble in pretensions, yet useful as high priests to the Saints in those spirit saddening days.

It was Captain Pitt's brass band. That night the President had the "brethren and sisters" out in the dance, and the music was as glad as at a merry-making. Several gentlemen from Iowa gathered to witness the strange interesting scene. They could scarcely believe their own senses when they were told that these were the Mormons in their "flight from civilization," bound they knew not whither, except where God should lead them by the "hand of his servant."

Thus in the song and (he dance the Saints praised the Lord. When the night was fine, and supper, which consisted of the most primitive fare, was over, some of the men would clear away the snow, while others bore large logs to the camp fires in anticipation of the jubilee of the evening. Soon, in a sheltered place, the blazing fires would roar, and fifty couples, old and young, would join, in the merriest spirit, to the music of the band or the rival revelry of the solitary fiddle. As they journeyed along, too, strangers constantly visited their camps, and great was their wonderment to see the order, unity and good feeling that prevailed in the midst of the people. By the camp fires they would linger, listening to the music and song; and they fain had taken part in the merriment had not those scenes been as sacred worship in the exodus of a God-fearing people. To fully understand the incidents here narrated, the reader must couple in his mind the idea of an exodus with the idea of an Israelitish jubilee; for it was a jubilee to the Mormons to be delivered from their enemies at any price.

The sagacious reader will readily appreciate the wise method pursued by Brigham Young. Prayers availed much. The hymn and the prayer were never forgotten at the close of the dance, before they dispersed, to make their bed within the shelter of the wagon, or under it, exposed to the cold of those bitter nights. But the dance and the song kept the Mormon pilgrims cheerful and healthy in mind, whereas, had a spirit of gloomy fanaticism been encouraged, such as one might have expected, most likely there would soon have been murmuring in the congregation against their Moses, and the people would have been sighing for the flesh-pots of Egypt. The patriarchal care of Brigham Young over the migrating thousands was also something uncommon. It was extended to every family, every soul; even the very animals had the master friend near to ease and succor them. A thousand anecdotes could be told of that journey to illustrate this. When traveling, or in camp, he was ever looking after the welfare of all. No poor horse or ox even had a tight collar or a bow too small but his eye would see it. Many times did he get out of his vehicle and see that some suffering animal was relieved.

There can be no doubt that the industrious habits of the Mormons, and the semi-communistic character of their camps, enabled them to accomplish on their journey what otherwise would have been impossible. They were almost destitute at the start, but they created resources on the way. Their pioneers and able-bodied men generally took work on farms, split rails, cleared the timber for the new settlers, fenced their lands, built barns and husked their corn. Each night brought them some employment; and, if they laid over for a day or two at their encampment, the country around was busy with their industry. They also scattered for work, some of them going even into Missouri among their ancient enemies to turn to the smiter the "other cheek," while they were earning support for their families.

At one of their first camping grounds, on a ten-acre lot which the pioneer had cleared of timber, they made the acquaintance of its owner, a Dr. Jewett.

The worthy doctor was an enthusiast over mesmerism and animal magnetism, so he sought to convert the Mormon leaders to his views. Brigham Young replied, "I perfectly understand it, Doctor. We believe in the Lord's magnetizing.

He magnetized Belshazzar so that he saw the hand-writing on the wall." The Mormons, too, had seen the hand-writing on the wall, and were hastening to the mountains.

The citizens of Farmington came over to invite the Nauvoo Band, under Captain Pitt, to come to their village for a concert. There was some music left in the " brethren." They had not forgotten how to sing the " Songs of Zion," so they made the good folks of Farmington merry, and for a time forgot their own sorrows.

As soon as the "Camp of Israel" was fairly on the march, the leader, with the Twelve and the captains, divided it into companies of hundreds, fifties, and tens; and then the companies took up their line in order, Brigham Young directing the whole, and bringing up the main body, with the chief care of the families.

The weather was still intensely cold. The Pioneers moved in the face of keen-edged northwest winds; they broke the ice to give their cattle drink; they made their beds on the soaked prairie lands; heavy rains and snow by day, and frost at night, rendered their situation anything but pleasant. The bark and limbs of trees were the principal food of their animals, and after doubling their teams all day, wading through the deep mud, they would find themselves at night only a few miles on their journey. They grew sick of this at last, and for three weeks rested on the head waters of the Chariton, waiting for the freshets to subside.

These incidents of travel were varied by an occasional birth in camp. There was also the death of a lamented lady early on the journey. She was a gentle, intelligent wife of a famous Mormon missionary, Orson Spencer, once a Baptist minister of excellent standing. She had requested the brethren to take her with them. She would not be left behind. Life was too far exhausted by the persecutions to survive the exodus, but she could yet have the honor of dying in that immortal circumstance of her people. Several others of the sisters also died at the very starting. Ah, who shall fitly picture the lofty heroism of the Mormon women!

It was near the Chariton that the organization of the " Camp of Israel" was perfected, on the 27th of March, when Brigham Young was formally chosen as the President; and captains of hundreds, fifties, and tens were appointed.

Thus the Twelve became relieved of their mere secular commands, and were placed at the heads of divisions, in their more apostolic character, as presidents.

The provisioning of the camp was also equally brought under organic management. Henry G. Sherwood was appointed contracting commissary for the first fifty; David D. Yearsley for the second; W. H. Edwards for the third; Peter Haws for the fourth; Samuel Gulley for the fifth: Joseph Warburton for the sixth. Henry G. Sherwood ranked as acting commissary-general. There were also distributing commissaries appointed. Their duties, says the President's diary, "are to make a righteous distribution of grain and provisions, and such articles as shall be furnished for the use of the camp, among their respective fifties."

Thus it will be seen that the "Camp of Israel" now partook very much of a military character, with all of an army's organic efficiency.

Towards the end of April the camp came to a place the leaders named Garden Grove. Here they determined to form a small settlement, open farms, and make a temporary gathering place for "the poor," while the better prepared were to push on the way and make other settlements.

On the morning of the 27th of April the bugle sounded at Garden Grove, and all the men assembled to organize for labor. Immediately hundreds of men were at work cutting trees, splitting rails, making fences, cutting logs for houses, building bridges, digging wells, making plows, and herding cattle. Quite a number were sent into the Missouri settlements to exchange horses for oxen, valuable feather beds and the like for provisions and articles most needed in the camp, and the remainder engaged in plowing and planting. Messengers were also dispatched to call in the bands of pioneers scattered over the country seeking work, with instructions to hasten them up to help form the new settlements before the season had passed; so that, in a scarcely conceivable time, at Garden Grove and Mount Pisgah, industrious settlements sprang up almost as if by magic. The main body also hurried on towards old Council Bluffs, under the President and his chief men, to locate winter quarters, and to send on a picked company of pioneers that year to the Rocky Mountains. Reaching the Missouri River, they were welcomed by the Pottowatomie and Omaha Indians.

By this time Apostle Orson Hyde had arrived at headquarters from Nauvoo, and Apostle Woodruff, home from his mission to England, was at Mount Pisgah.

To this place an express from the President at Council Bluffs came to raise one hundred men for the expedition to the mountains. Apostle Woodruff called for the mounted volunteers, and sixty at once followed him out into the line; but the next day an event occurred which caused the postponement of the journey to the mountains till the following year.

It was on the 26th of June when the camp at Mount Pisgah was thrown into consternation by the cry, "The United States troops are upon us!" But soon afterwards, Captain James Allen arriving with only three dragoons, the excitement subsided. The High Council was called, and Captain Allen laid before it his business, which is set forth in the following '' Circular to the Mormons: I have come among you, instructed by Col. S. F. Kearney, of the U. S. Army, now commanding the Army of the West, to visit the Mormon camp, and to accept the service for twelve months of four or five companies of Mormon men who may be willing to serve their country for that period in our present war with Mexico; this force to unite with the Army of the West at Santa Fe, and be marched thence to California, where they will be discharged.

"They will receive pay and rations, and other allowances, such as other volunteers or regular soldiers receive, from the day they shall be mustered into the service, and will be entitled to all comforts and benefits of regular soldiers of the army, and when discharged, as contemplated, at California, they will be given gratis their arms and accoutrements, with which they will be fully equipped at Fort Leavenworth. This is offered to the Mormon people now. This year an opportunity of sending a portion of their young and intelligent men to the ultimate destination of their whole people, and entirely at the expense of the United States, and this advanced party can thus pave the way and look out the land for their brethren to come after them.

"Those of the Mormons who are desirous of serving their country on the conditions here enumerated, are requested to meet me without delay at their principal camp at the Council Bluffs, whither I am now going to consult with their principal men, and to receive and organize the force contemplated to be raised.

"I will receive all healthy, able-bodied men of from eighteen to forty-five years of age.

J. Allen, Capt., 1st Dragoons.

"Camp of the Mormons at Mount Pisgah, 138 miles east of Council Bluff, June 26th, 1846.

"Note.—I hope to complete the organization of this battalion in six days after my reaching Council Bluffs, or within nine days from this time."

The High Council of Mount Pisgah treated the military envoy with studied courtesy, but the matter was of too great importance for even an opinion to be hazarded in the absence of the master mind; so Captain Allen was furnished with a letter of introduction to Brigham Young and the authorities at headquarters, and a special messenger was dispatched by Apostle Woodruff to prepare the President for the business of the government agent.