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IX.

WHEN General Wells went to the front he was accompanied by Presidents John Taylor and George A. Smith, who participated in the councils and rendered important service among the men, besides exercising a most salutary influence upon the enemy through communications which passed between them and certain officers of the army. The following letter to Captain Marcy has often been alluded to as a remarkably clear, cutting and salient exposition of the rights and duties of the opposing forces, and displays a keen appreciation of the situation, expressed in the peculiarly brilliant literary style of the author:

GREAT SALT LAKE CITY,

October 21, 1857.

MY DEAR SIR: I embrace this the earliest opportunity of answering your communication to me, embracing a letter from Mr. Fuller, of New York, to you, an introductory letter to me, and also one from W. I. Appleby to Governor Young; the latter, immediately on its receipt, I forwarded to his excellency; and here let me state, sir, that I sincerely regret that circumstances now existing have hitherto prevented a personal interview.

I can readily believe your statement, that it is very far from your feelings, and most of the command that are with you, to interfere with our social habits or religious views. One must naturally suppose that among gentlemen educated for the army alone, who have been occupied by the study of the art of war, whose pulses have throbbed with pleasure at the contemplation of the deeds of our venerated fathers, whose minds have been elated by the recital of the heroic deeds of other nations, and who have listened almost exclusively to the declamations of patriots and heroes, that there is not much time and less inclination to listen to the low party bickerings of political demagogues, the interested twaddle of sectional declaimers, or the throes

and contortions of contracted religious bigots. You are supposed to stand on elevated ground, representing the power and securing the interests of the whole of a great and mighty nation. That many of you are thus honorable, I am proud, as an American citizen, to acknowledge; but you must excuse me, my dear sir, if I cannot concede with you that all your officials are so high-toned, disinterested, humane and gentlemanly, as a knowledge of some of their antecedents expressly demonstrate. However, it is not with the personal character, the amiable qualities, high-toned feelings, or gentlemanly deportment of the officers in your expedition that we at present have to do. The question that concerns us is one that is independent of your personal, generous, friendly and humane feelings or any individual predilection of yours; it is one that involves the dearest rights of American citizens, strikes at the root of our social and political existence, if it does not threaten our entire annihilation from the earth. Excuse me, sir, when I say that you are merely the servants of a lamentably corrupt administration; that your primary law is obedience to orders, and that you came here with armed foreigners with cannon, rifles, bayonets and broadswords, expressly, and for the openly avowed purpose of "cutting out the loathsome ulcer from the body politic." I am aware what our friend Fuller says in relation to this matter, and I entertain no doubt of his generous and humane feelings, nor do I of yours, sir; but I do know that he is mistaken in relation to the rabid tone and false, furious attacks of a venal and corrupt press. I do know that they are merely the mouthpiece, the tools, the barking dogs of a corrupt administration. I do know that Mr. Buchanan was well apprised of the nature of the testimony adduced against us by ex-Judge Drummond and others; for he was informed of it to my knowledge by a member of his own cabinet, and I further know, from personal intercourse with members

of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, that there have been various plans concerted at headquarters for some time past, for the overthrow of this people. Captain, Mr. Fuller informs me that you are a politician; if so, you must know that in the last presidential campaign the republican party had opposition to slavery and polygamy as two of the principal planks in their platform. You may know, sir, that Utah was picked out, and the only Territory excluded from a participation in pre-emption rights to land. You may

also be aware that bills were introduced into Congress for the persecution of the Mormons; but other business was too pressing at that time for them to receive attention. You may be aware that measures were also set on foot, and bills prepared to divide up Utah among the territories of Nebraska, Kansas, Oregon and New Mexico, (giving a slice to California,) for the purpose of bringing us into collision with the people of those Territories, not to say anything about thousands of our letters detained at the post office at Independence. I might enumerate injuries by the score, and if these things are not so, why is it that Utah is so "knotty a question ?" If people were no more ready to interfere with us and our institutions than we are with them and theirs, these difficulties would vanish into thin air. Why, again I ask, could Drummond and a host of others, mean scribblers, palm their barefaced lies with such impunity, and have their infamous slanders swallowed with such gusto? Was it not that the administration and their satelites, having planned our destruction, were eager to catch at anything to render specious their contemplated acts of blood? Or, in plain terms, the democrats advocated strongly popular sovereignty. The republicans tell them, that if they join in maintaining inviolable the domestic institutions of the south they must also swallow polygamy.

The democrats thought this would not do, as it would interfere with the religious scruples of many of their supporters, and they looked about for some means to dispose of the knotty question.

Buchanan, with Douglas, Cass, Thomp son and others of his advisers, after failing to devise legal measures, hit upon the expedient of an armed force against Utah; and thus thought, by the sacrifice of the Mormons, to untie the knotty question; do a thousand times worse than the republicans ever meant; fairly out-Herod Herod, and by religiously expatriating, destroying, or killing a hundred thousand innocent American citizens, satisfy a pious, humane, patriotic feeling of their constituents; take the wind out of the sails of the republicans, and gain to themselves immortal laurels. Captain, I have heard of a pious Presbyterian doctrine that would inculcate thankfulness to the all-wise Creator for the privilege of being damned. Now, as we are not Presbyterians, nor believe in this kind of self-abnegation, you will, I am sure, excuse us for finding fault at being thus summarily dealt with, no matter how agreeable the excision or expa triation might be to our political, patriotic, or very pious friends. We have lived long enough in the world to know that we are a portion of the body politic, have some rights as well as other people, and that if others do not respect us, we, at least, have manhood enough to respect ourselves.

Permit me here to refer to a remark made by our friend Mr. Fuller, to you, viz.: "That he had rendered me certain services in the city of New York, and that he had no doubt that when you had seen and known us as he had, that you would report as favorably as he had unflinchingly done." Now those favors to which Mr. Fuller refers were simply tell ing a few plain matters of fact, that had come under his own observation during a short sojourn at Salt Lake. This, of course, I could duly appreciate, for I always admired a man who dare tell the truth. But, captain, does it not strike you as humiliating to manhood and to the pride of all honorable American citi zens, when among the thousands that have passed through and sojourned among us, and knew as well as Mr. Fuller did our true social and moral posi tion, that perhaps one in ten thousand

dare state their honest convictions; and further, that Mr. Fuller, with his knowledge of human nature, should look upon you as a rara avis, possessing the moral courage and integrity to declare the truth in opposition to the floods of falsehood that have deluged our nation. Surely, we have fallen on unlucky times, when honesty is avowed to be at so great a premium.

In regard to our religion it is perhaps unnecessary to say much; yet, whatever others' feelings may be about it, with us it is honestly a matter of conscience. This is a right guaranteed to us by the Constitution of our country; yet it is on this ground, and this alone, that we have suffered a continued series of persecutions, and that this present crusade is set on foot against us In regard to this people, I have travelled extensively in the United States, and through Europe, yet have never found so moral, chaste, and virtuous a people, nor do I expect to find them. And, if let alone, they are the most patriotic, and appreciate more fully the blessings of religious, civil and political freedom than any other portion of the United States. They have, however, discovered the difference between a blind submission to the caprices of political demagogues and obedience to the Constitution, laws and institutions of the United States; nor can they, in the present instance, be hoodwinked by the cry of "treason." If it be treason to stand up for our constitutional rights; if it be treason to resist the unconstitutional acts of a vitiated and corrupt administration, who, by a mercenary armed force, would seek to rob us of the rights of franchise, cut our throats to subserve 'their party, and seek to force upon us his corrupt fools, and violently invade the rights of American citizens; if it be treason to maintain inviolate our homes, our firesides, our wives, and our honor, from the corrupting and withering blight of a debauched soldiery; if it be treason to keep inviolate the Constitution and institutions of the United States, when nearly all the States are seeking to trample them under their feet, then, indeed, we are guilty of treason. We

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have carefully considered all these matters, and are prepared to meet the "terrible vengeance" we have been very politely informed will be the result of our acts. It is in vain to hide it from you that this people have suffered so much from every kind of official that they will endure it no longer. It is not with them an idle phantom, but a stern reality. is not, as some suppose, the voice of Brigham only, but the universal, deep settled feeling of the whole community. Their cry is, "Give us our constitutional rights; give us liberty or death." A strange cry in our boasted model republic but a truth deeply and indelibly graven on the hearts of a hundred thousand American citizens by a series of twenty-seven years' unmitigated and unprovoked, yet unrequited wrongs. Having told you of this, you will not be surprised that when fifty have been called to assist in repelling our aggressors, a hundred have volunteered, and, when a hundred have been called, the number has been more than doubled; the only feeling is "don't let us be overlooked or forgotten." And here let me inform you that I have seen thousands of hands raised simultaneously, voting to burn our property rather than let it fall into the hands of our enemies. They have been so frequently robbed and despoiled without redress, that they have solemnly decreed that, if they cannot enjoy their own property, nobody else shall. You will see by this that it would be literally madness for your small force to attempt to come into the settlements. It would only be courting destruction. But, say you, have you counted the cost? have you considered the wealth and power of the United States and the fearful odds against you? Yes; and here let me inform you that, if necessitated, we would as soon meet a hundred thousand as one thousand and, if driven to the necessity, will burn every house, tree, shrub, rail, every patch of grass and stack of straw and hay, and flee to the mountains. You will then obtain a barren desolate wilderness, but will not have conquered the people, and the same principle in regard to other property will be carried out. If this people

have to burn their property to save it from the hands of legalized mobs, they will see to it that their enemies shall be without fuel; they will haunt them by day and by night. Such is, in part, our plan. The three hundred thousand dollars worth of our property destroyed already in Green River County is only a faint sample of what will be done throughout the Territory. We have been twice driven, by tamely submitting to the authority of corrupt officials, and left our houses and homes for others to inhabit, but are now determined that, if we are again robbed of our possessions, our enemies shall also feel how pleasant it is be houseless at least for once, and be permitted, as they have sought to do to us, "to dig their own dark graves, creep into them, and die."

You see we are not backward in showing our hands. Is it not strange to what lengths the human family may be goaded by a continued series of oppressions? The administration may yet find leisure to pause over the consequences of their acts and it may yet become a question for them to solve, whether they have blood and treasure enough to crush out the sacred principles of liberty from the bosoms of a hundred thousand freemen, and make them bow in craven servility to the mendacious acts of a perjured degraded tyrant. You may have learned already that it is anything but pleasant for even a small army to contend with the chilling blasts of this inhospitable climate. How a large army would fare without resources you can picture to yourself. We have weighed those matters; it is for the administration to post their own accounts. It may not be amiss, however, here to state that, if they continue to prosecute this inhuman fratricidal war, and our Nero would light the fires, and, sitting in his chair of state, laugh at burning Rome, there is a day of reckoning even for Neroes. There are generally two sides to a question. As I before said, we wish for peace, but that we are determined on having it if we have to fight for it. We will not have officers forced upon us who are so degraded as

to submit to be sustained by the bayonet's point. We cannot be dragooned into servile obedience to any man.

These things settled, captain, and all the like preliminaries of etiquette are easily arranged; and permit me here to state, that no man would be more courteous and civil than Governor Young, and nowhere could you find in your capacity of an officer of the United States a more generous and hearty welcome than at the hands of his excellency. But when, instead of battling with the enemies of our country, you come (though probably reluctantly) to make war upon my family and friends, our civilities are naturally cooled, and we instinctively grasp the sword; Minie rides, Colt's revolvers, sabres, and cannon may display very good workmanship and great artistic skill, but we very much object to hav ing their temper and capabilities tried upon us. We may admire the capabilities, gentlemanly deportment, heroism and patriotism of United States officers; but in an official capacity of enemies, we would rather see their backs than their faces. The guillotine may be a very pretty instrument, and show great artistic skill, but I don't like to try my neck in it.

Now, captain, notwithstanding all this, I shall be very happy to see you if cir cumstances should so transpire as to make it convenient for you to come, and to extend to you the courtesies of our city, for I am sure you are not our personal enemy. I shall be happy to ren der you any information in my power in regard to your contemplated explorations.

I am heartily sorry that things are so unpleasant at the present time, and I cannot but realize the awkwardness of your position, and that of your compatriots, and let me here say that anything that lays in my power compatible with the conduct of a gentleman you can command. If you have leisure, I should be most happy to hear from you. You will, I am sure, excuse me, if I disclaim the prefix of reverend to my name; ad dress John Taylor, Great Salt Lake City.

I need not here assure you that personally there can be no feelings of enmity between us and your officers. We regard you as the agents of the administration in the discharge of a probably unpleasant duty, and very likely ignorant of the ultimate designs of the administration.

As I left the east this summer, you will excuse me when I say I am probably better posted in some of these matters than you are, having been one of a delegation from the citizens of this Territory to apply for admission into the Union. I can only regret that it is not our real enemies that are here instead of you. We do not wish to harm you, or any of the command to which you belong, and I can assure you that in any other capacity than the one you now occupy, you would be received as civilly and treated as courteously as in any other portion of our Union.

On my departure from the States the fluctuating tide of popular opinion against us seemed to be on the wave. By this time, there may be quite a reaction in the public mind. If so it may probably affect materially the position of the administration, and tend to more constitutional, pacific and humane measures. In such an event our relative positions would be materially changed, and instead of meeting as enemies, we could meet, as all Americans should, friends to each other, and united against our legitimate enemies only. Such an issue is devoutly to be desired, and I can assure you that no one would more appreciate so happy a result to our present awkward and unpleasant position than yours truly, John Taylor.

LAWYERS and doctors, when they encounter each other in a court of justice, usually engage in a verbal game of "tit, tat, too." A New York lawyer, who was cross-examining Dr. Warren, declared that a doctor ought to be able to give an opinion of a disease without making mistakes.

"Doctors make fewer mistakes than the lawyers," responded the physician. "That's not so," said the counsellor;

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"but doctor's mistakes are buried six feet under ground; a lawyer's are not."

"No," replied Warren;" but they are sometimes hung as many feet above ground." The advantage was with the doctor.

When disputing as to the comparative methods of their profession, Sir Henry Holland said to Bobus Smith, ex-advocate-general:

"You must admit that your profession does not make angels of men."

The lawyer replied: "There you have the best of it; yours certainly gives them the best chance."

RUSSIANS AND JEWS.

A Swiss writer, who has been studying the condition of the Russian peasantry, especially with a view to the discovery of the causes of the wholesale local persecutions of the Jews, has come to the conclusion that the phenomenon is neither religious nor political, but entirely social. The Imperial Government is about to issue a series of stringent measures for the protection of the Jews and the severe punishment of their ill users. The writer feels certain that the Czar and his government cannot amend the stupendous evil by mere repression and punishment. No cure is possible so long as the Russian peasant-farmer class remains in its present hopeless condition. Throughout the whole of Central Russia, with its great Russian population of thirty-five millions-that is to say, one-third part of the Russian Empire with nearly one-half of its inhabitantsthe interests of the peasants must be made the first and foremost care of the government, to the postponement of the less important interests of the nobility and the other great land-owners. The question is one of life and death for the government itself, for the economical future and prosperity of Central Russia depend entirely upon the welfare and thrift of the small peasant-farming class. As it is, the main bulk of the taxes is contributed by this poverty-stricken class. Quoting the report of the tax commissioners, the writer shows that the peasants are now annually paying in