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Show 184 been so far fooled by this nincompoop of a Mr. Col. Kane, he is a bigger fool than I thought him to be," he wrote in a letter dated 26 March.-* And on April 27 he wrote that Cumming "has made an ass of himself, to say the least of it."^ Cumming, it seems, was standing in the way of the military conquest so much desired by the Utah Expedition. "We have been cursing old Cumming," wrote the captain to his wife. "Dunovant says he will volunteer to go under my command to Salt Lake City. He wants to have the matter done with. Says old Cumming is a d d old fool, and he is not alone in that belief."' In Salt Lake City Cumming requested and received two interviews with Brigham Young on the 13th and l4th of April. On tbe 15th he sent a letter to the seething General Johnston, declaring, "I have been everywhere recognized as the governor of Utah." While Cumming was boarding at the home of William C. Staines, the Territorial librarian, he was shown the library in perfect condition. Others displayed to him the records and papers of the federal court, the legislative records, Territorial seal, and other materials, many of which had been alleged by Judge Drummond to have been destroyed. Notwithstanding his apparent success in gaining recognition as governor, Cumming was greatly disturbed by the rapid depopulation of the northern counties. In his numerous interviews with the leading churchmen in the city, he expressed his concern over the matter. "There would be nobody left here but renegades who followed the army for juries," he exclaimed to Brigham Young in a private interview/ Daniel H. Wells explained to the governor that "the people had resolved not to be governed by officers sustained by the bayonet." And President Young informed the concerned governor that "if the troops were withdrawn from the territory, the people would stop moving; but that ninety-nine out of every hundred of this people, would rather live out their lives in the mountains .. ..11 than endure the oppression the federal government was now heaping on teem. |