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Show 185 On occasion Governor Camming personally rode along the highway between Salt Lake and Utah County pleading with the people to return to their homes. But all was in vain. Brigham Young governed the people, and when he told them to move south,they moved. During the first two weeks of May, six hundred wagons per day passed through Salt Lake City heading south, and in one of his journeys on May 6, Cumming counted eight hundred teams between Springville and Salt Lake City. To add to tbe governor's frustration were the obvious plans of the Mormons to destroy Salt Lake. George A. Smith had little hesitation in parting with his new $12,000 home: I think my buildings will make a good fire, should Johnston advance on a sudden," declared the Apostle. And when Cumming asked W. H. Hooper, secretary pro tem of the Territory, why the government safe was located in his barn, Hooper replied: "We were going to burn the city shortly, IS and did not want to burn any United States propertyi" On April 25, three days after Bean's arrival in Provo, Cumming made a public address to the people of Utah. Boldly and singlehandedly he confronted the issued before a radical assembly of three to four thousand Mormons in the Tabernacle. He told them it was his "duty to secure the supremacy of the constitution and laws." Cumming held back nothing, even though he fully understood the Saints embitterment toward the government. The audience "listened respectfully" as he candidly explained the character of his administration. He also denied that the army was sent to destroy them, claiming it was sent to protect them. While his listeners did not particularly trust him, nor did they believe him, they admired his courage. Then tbe Mormons voiced their grievances, and the meeting became quite spirited as the atrocities committed against them were recited again and again. Apostle John Taylor asserted that "these troops must be withdrawn before we |