This was a perfectly consistent statement of the Mormon position, a simple elaboration of Young's declaration that, to give up belief in Smith as a prophet, and in his "revelations," would be to give up their faith. Just as truly, any later "revelation," repealing the one concerning polygamy, must be either a pretence or a temporary expedient, in orthodox Mormon eyes. The Mormons date the active crusade of the government against polygamy from the return of the Colfax party to the East, holding that this question did not enter into the early differences between them and the government.*
* Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 358.
In the year following Colfax's visit, there occurred in Utah two murders which attracted wide notice, and which called attention once more to the insecurity of the life of any man against whom the finger of the church was crooked. The first victim was O. N. Brassfield, a non-Mormon, who had the temerity to marry, on March 20, 1866, the second polygamous wife of a Mormon while the husband was in Europe on a mission. As he was entering his house in Salt Lake City, on the third day of the following month, he was shot dead. An order that had been given to disband the volunteer troops still remaining in the territory was countermanded from Washington, and General Sherman, then commander of that department, telegraphed to Young that he hoped to hear of no more murders of Gentiles in Utah, intimating that, if he did, it would be easy to reenlist some of the recently discharged volunteers and march them through the territory.
The second victim was Dr. J. King Robinson, a young man who had come to Utah as assistant surgeon of the California volunteers, married the daughter of a Mormon whose widow and daughters had left the church, and taken possession of the land on which were some well-known warm springs, with the intention of establishing there a sanitarium. The city authorities at once set up a claim to the warm springs property, a building Dr. Robinson had erected there was burned, and, as he became aggressive in asserting his legal rights, he was called out one night, ostensibly to set a broken leg, knocked down, and shot dead. The audacity of this crime startled even the Mormons, and the opinion has been expressed that nothing more serious than a beating had been intended. There was an inquest before a city alderman, at which some non-Mormon lawyers and judges Titus and McCurdy were asked to assist. The chief feature of this hearing was the summing up by Ex-Governor J. B. Weller, of California, in which he denounced such murders, asked if there was not an organized influence which prevented the punishment of their perpetrators, and confessed that the prosecution had not been permitted "to lift the veil, and show the perpetrators of this horrible murder." *
* Text in "Rocky Mountain Saints," Appendix I.
General W. B. Hazen, in his report of February, 1867, said of these victims: "There is no doubt of their murder from Mormon church influences, although I do not believe by direct command. Principles are taught in their churches which would lead to such murders. I have earnestly to recommend that a list be made of the Mormon leaders, according to their importance, excepting Brigham Young, and that the President of the United States require the commanding officer at Camp Douglas to arrest and send to the state's prison at Jefferson City, Mo., beginning at the head of the list, man for man hereafter killed as these men were, to be held until the real perpetrators of the deed, with evidence for their conviction, be given up. I believe Young for the present necessary for us there"*
* Mis. House Doc. No. 75, 2d Session, 39th Congress.
Had this policy been adopted, Mormon prisoners would soon have started East, for very soon afterward three other murders of the same character occurred, although the victims were not so prominent.* Chief Justice Titus incurred the hatred of the Mormons by determined, if futile, efforts to bring offenders in such cases to justice, and to show their feeling they sent him a nightgown ten feet long, at the hands of a negro.
* See note 70, p. 628, Bancroft's "History of Utah." When, in
July, 1869, a delegation from Illinois, that included Senator Trumbull,
Governor Oglesby, Editor Medill of the Chicago Tribune, and many
members of the Chicago Board of Trade, visited Salt Lake City, they were
welcomed by and affiliated with the Gentile element;* and when, in the
following October, Vice President Colfax paid a second visit to the
city, he declined the courtesies tendered to him by the city officers.**
He made an address from the portico of the Townsend House, of which
polygamy was the principle feature, and was soon afterward drawn into a
newspaper discussion of the subject with John Taylor.
* In an interview between Young and Senator Trumbull during this
visit (reported in the Alta California), the following conversation took
place:—"Young—We can take care of ourselves. Cumming was good enough
in his way, for you know he was simply Governor of the Territory, while
I was and am Governor of the people."