In May, 1863, he was appointed Governor of the Territory of Utah. During his long public service he has had the acquaintance, and enjoyed the friendship, of most of the eminent men connected with the Government of our country. Of those who were on the stage when he entered public life, it is believed that but one is now living,—Gen. Cass, who was his generous patron in boyhood, and has been his friend during this long period of an eventful life.
He is now believed to be the oldest pioneer living west of Lake Michigan. In the performance of his duties he has traversed the Continent,—having stood on the shores of the Atlantic and Pacific; on the latter of which he reached the point in his westward march, where, when the eye is directed over that vast ocean towards the East Indies, the West appears to terminate and the East begins.
Hon. Thomas J. Drake, Associate Justice, is from Pontiac, Michigan, where he had resided from early manhood. He is now over sixty years of age. He has a thin, wiry frame, dark hair, and a nervous, bilious temperament.
His mind is vigorous and clear, and his virtue and integrity of the old Roman order. Of blameless life and manners, all the shafts of his accusers fall harmless at his feet.
The wrongs and iniquities he has witnessed, added to personal ill-treatment, has engendered an intense hatred of the despots who sit enthroned over the people of Utah, but he has the most kindly feelings toward the great body of the people.
Lacking all adequate power, he is obliged to sit quietly by, and see wrongs perpetrated, which he is utterly unable to redress.
Judge Waite, the Associate of Harding and Drake, was from the State of Illinois, where he had resided since the year 1840.
At the time of his appointment, in February, 1862, he was thirty-eight years of age. He was then living near Chicago, in which city he had resided and practised law since 1853.
Of Chief Justice Kinney mention has already been made. Suffice it to add, he was, in the summer of 1863, elected as Delegate to Congress from Utah, and took his seat the following winter. He doubtless aspires to still higher honors from the same Territory.
Hon. John Titus, who succeeded Kinney, and is the present Chief Justice of the Territory, is somewhat past fifty years of age,—a gentleman of much dignity and urbanity of manners. He is large and well formed, and has an active temperament.