The fact that the Message was not published having been communicated to Washington, a resolution was introduced into the Senate of the United States on the 16th of January, 1863, instructing the Committee on Territories to inquire and report whether the publication of the Message of the Governor of the Territory of Utah to the Territorial Legislature had been suppressed, and if so by what causes, and what was the Message.
In response to this resolution Mr. Wade, chairman of the Committee, on the 13th of February, submitted a Report, accompanied by a resolution, which was adopted, that one thousand copies of the Message be printed, and sent to the Governor for distribution.
This Report of the Committee was less complimentary to the Mormons than the Message itself.
The following extracts will indicate the character of the document:—
"In pursuance of the instruction contained in this resolution, your committee have the honor to report, that they have collected all the facts, and taken all the testimony within their reach,—the substance of which, together with a copy of the Message, is herewith presented.
"These sources of information disclose the fact, that the customs which have prevailed in all our other Territories in the government
of public affairs have had but little toleration in the Territory of Utah; but in their stead there appears to be, overriding all other influences, a sort of Jewish theocracy, graduated to the condition of that Territory.
"This theocracy, having a supreme head who governs and guides every affair of importance in the Church, and, practically, in the Territory, is the only real power acknowledged here, and to the extension of whose interests every person in the Territory must directly or indirectly conduce. . . .
"We have here the first exhibition, within the limits of the United States, of a Church ruling the State. . . .
"Another opinion—the subject of both public and private teaching—is, that the Government of the United States will not and ought not to stand. They make a difference between the Constitution and the Government of the United States; to the Constitution they claim to be very loyal.