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Show 602 WESTERN WILDS. of chestnuts, and other things in proportion. Brigham returned that autumn to Council Bluffs, and at a conference held soon after, was chosen to all the honors and titles of the dead Prophet Joseph. Thenceforward Brigham was Prophet, Priest, Seer and Revelator, first President and Trustee- in- trust of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints. The Mormons were hurried forward to the valley as fast as possible ; there a pure theocracy, of the most absolute char-acter, was established, and Brigham ruled as Lord temporal and spir-itual, till late in 1850, when Congress- organized the Territory of Utah. Meanwhile the Mormons had filled the country with written, printed, and sworn denials of the existence of polygamy, and Col. Thomas L. Kane had indorsed their denials ; so President Fillmore appointed Brigham Young Governor of the new Territory, an office he held till 1857. The President appointed one Mormon U. S. District- Judge, the other two being Gentiles ; a Mormon District- Attorney, and a Gentile Secretary, dividing the offices very fairly. Of course there was trouble. Brigham kept the people in such an excited state that the two Gentile judges soon left not to put too fine a point upon it, ran away, to the great delight of the Saints. And soon after, at the annual festival, the following toast was rapturously applauded: " Our runaway judges; may they go on to where they belong to hell!" And to further demonstrate his loyalty Brigham preached a sermon on the " earthly reign of the Saints," in which he said: " In that day the chief men of the earth will come to us begging for a place ; I expect the President of the United States to black my boots ! " Polite reference to the gentleman who had made him Gov-ernor. But this sort of thing greatly delighted the foreign- born serfs natural snobs who constituted a majority of the Church laity. Unfortunately for them, Secretary Harris concluded to go with the judges; and in spite of threats and injunctions, carried with him the $ 24,000 Congress had appropriated to pay the legislature of the new Territory, and the Mormons never got a cent of it. This hurt Brig-ham right where he lived. He did not get reconciled to it, till long after he had become a millionaire. In 1854, President Pierce decided to appoint another governor, but could find no suitable person to take the place. More judges were appointed, and things ran along pretty smoothly till 1856, when the climax of Mormon fanaticism was reached ; murder by wholesale was inaugurated, the judges were driven out, and the Mormon war began. As a result of that war, Brigham ceased to be Governor ; and a some-what better state of things was established. We have now done with |