"San Francisco, Nov. 16th.
"The gentiles of Salt Lake may find very great attractions in a business way in that city, but they do not dwell in very secure habitations. Now and then one of their number is taken off as stealthily as when a wolf pounces down upon the fold. Bassfield made himself obnoxious by a marriage, and his days were numbered. The manner of his taking off was well known, but it availed nothing to trace the crime to its perpetrators. Mormon vengeance selects a shining mark even though it lets its bolts fly in the dark, and there is always a Mormon moral to the tragedy.
"The recent assassination of Dr. J. K. Robinson, in Salt Lake City, does not differ in its diabolical features from others which preceded it. He was a representative man, and as such, the murder may have peculiar significance.
"Robinson in 1864 was Assistant Surgeon of United States Volunteers, and soon after took charge of the hospital at Camp Douglas, near Salt Lake City, and sometime after, being mustered out of the service, he settled down in that city as a regular practitioner of medicine, which pursuit he followed with success, and was a leading man, at least among the gentiles. Indeed, it was said that no man stood higher, socially or morally. It seems that Robinson was at the time contesting a claim known as the Warm Springs, before the United States Territorial Court, and with good prospect of ultimate success. His opponents were, of course, Mormons, and may have chosen a more expeditious way of quieting title by quieting the claimant at the same time. But certainly a Mormon jury could have settled the claim without blood; only there might not have been such an impressive and saintly moral for the benefit of the gentiles.
"But there were other reasons why Robinson's permanent absence was deemed far more desirable than his presence. He had been very active in educational and religious enterprises, not altogether after the pattern prescribed by the saints. Nearly two years ago Rev. Norman McLeod, a Congregational minister, commenced preaching at Camp Douglas, and finding so much
encouragement from Gen. Connor and the whole gentile community, he established a preaching station in the city, and finally organized a church. An intelligent congregation was gathered every Sunday to hear a gentile preacher in the city of the saints. Money was liberally subscribed, and a church edifice, we believe, was in process of erection. A Sunday-school was organized, and considerable assistance was sent from this city. Dr. Robinson was the Superintendent of the Sunday-school, and was very effective in all matters connected with the new religious society. Some time in March last, Rev. Mr. McLeod was summoned to Washington by a Congressional Committee to state the results of his observations concerning the attitude of the Mormons toward the Federal Government, and such other knowledge concerning the workings of Mormonism as he possessed. There being no alternative, he obeyed the summons. But previous to his departure Dr. Robinson, his intimate friend and room-mate, was united by him in marriage with the daughter of the late Dr. Kay, a lady identified also with the new religious enterprise. Six months or more afterwards, and before McLeod's return, Robinson was called up in the night on pretense that he was wanted professionally, waylaid and murdered.
"A fact of some significance comes out at this juncture. Gen. Connor, who had taken a warm interest in the religious society, and was the fast friend of Robinson and McLeod, telegraphed to the latter, who is still at the East, advising him not to return as his life was in danger. Thus, the leading layman in the society was assassinated, and the pastor warned by his best friend that it is not safe to return. It may be said that the gentile society had, from the beginning, exerted a quiet but powerful influence against polygamy, and already much of doubt and skepticism on this point had begun to pervade the Mormon community. In New Zealand and some other places, the natives sometimes roasted and ate a missionary. In Salt Lake they assassinate him and throw him to the dogs. At the coroner's inquest, ex-Governor John B. Weller being present as counsel on behalf of the friends of the murdered man, addressed the jury and submitted the following suggestive propositions:—
"'And upon this evidence I have a few plain questions to propound, which I will leave you and others to answer. I do not propose to discuss them, simply because I could not do so without
increasing the excitement which already exists, and producing an exasperated state of feeling, which could not at the present time result in any public good.
"'1. If my associate, Judge Stout, the City Attorney, had been murdered under the circumstances Dr. Robinson was, would the police have exhibited a greater degree of vigilance and energy?