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Show 63 Utah's chief executive, Young was oath-bound to protect the inhabitants of the Territory. This included defending the people from an invasion by an "armed mob." Brigham Young made this point clear in a speech from the Taoernacle on October 18: If the Government of the United States have sent soldiers to this Territory, I do not know it; for I have had no official notice of such a circumstance, and you will perceive that I treat them accordingly.... ... And though we may believe that they are sent by the Government of the United States, yet I, as Governor of this Territory, have no business to know any such thing until I am notified by proper authority at Washington. I have a right to treat them as a mob, just as though they had been raised and officered in Missouri and sent here expressly to destroy this people." This policy of Governor Young allowed him to follow his schemes of resit-ance without being technically guilty of committing an overt act of treason against the government. It was believed that the army could be stopped with little or no bloodshed by employing a series of delaying tactics. By annoying the troops in every way possible short of an outright assault, it was hoped the army would be unable to reach the settlements before the winter snow made the mountain passes impossible to cross. Brigham Young bad an appreciation for the natural defenses of the Territory and he intended to use them to his advantage. When contemplating the possibility of troops being sent to Utah on July 5* Young declared: "You have now got to fire long shots, unless you come much nearer to us than you are."? In this plan, supply trains would be destroyed, the grass burned off the plains, and stock stampeded. If the army was not recalled in the spring, the |