"While our territorial courts, officers and municipal authorities, have been always foremost in punishing crime, whether committed by Mormons or Gentiles, some of the United States officials have shielded and protected criminals, and for this purpose every subterfuge known to the law has been brought into requisition. Thus, by writs of error, injunctions, habeas corpus, pardons, and officious and indecent interference, they have exhibited themselves as the abettors and protectors of crime. They have liberated felons and murderers, encouraged drunkenness and riot, protected and shielded brothel-houses, winked at and sustained gambling, and so clogged the wheels of justice, in both civil and criminal cases, that they have brought the judiciary into such contempt that it has become a stink in the nostrils of honest men."
These charges and the facts he published to prove them he prefaced with the following:
"I am not writing under the very questionable shelter of a nom de plume, and have nothing but facts to relate, for which I hold myself responsible."
The parties he indicted before the bar of public opinion made no attempt to refute his statements—a tacit admission of the truth of his charges.
Judge McKean and his coadjutors, however, continued their lawless course. The judge entertained a suit for divorce and alimony brought into his court by Ann Eliza Webb, the plural wife of President Brigham Young. The marriage between Ann Eliza Webb and Brigham Young was not recognized by the law of the land. It was illegal, and therefore void from the beginning; consequently there could be neither divorce nor alimony. Still Judge McKean entertained the suit, and ordered the defendant to pay $3,000 attorney's fees to plaintiff's counsel, $9,500 alimony to plaintiff, and also $500 per month to her, pending a decision in the case.
President Young, acting on the advice of his counsel, pending an appeal to the supreme court of the United States, did not obey the orders of the judge; whereupon he was found guilty of contempt of court, fined twenty-five dollars, and sentenced to one day's imprisonment in the penitentiary. In this James B. McKean displayed the petty, personal spite of a small man, instead of the courage of a dignified judge defending the honor of the bench. The rash and illegal act cost the Judge his official head. No sooner did the country become acquainted with the course he had taken than a storm of public indignation arose, and clamored loudly for his removal from office. Four days afterwards he was dismissed from the bench.
The federal officers which followed the McKean ring were a better class of men; and for some years Utah had a period of peace. A circumstance which vindicated the wisdom of Elder Taylor's counsel to "Be quiet."
CHAPTER XXXVI.
INTEREST IN EDUCATIONAL AFFAIRS—CHOSEN SUPERINTENDENT OF COMMON SCHOOLS—COMMENDED BY AUTHORITIES AT WASHINGTON—DEATH OF PRESIDENT YOUNG—THE NEW LEADER—STANDING OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES—ELDER TAYLOR'S PLACE IN THE QUORUM—THE HAND OF THE LORD.