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Show 254 tify his own actions by bashing through all of the old charges against the Mormon people in Utah, including accusations of treason and rebellion. The first paragraph begins: Whereas the territory of Utah was settled by certain emigrants from tbe states and from foreign countries, who have for several years past, manifested a spirit of insubordination to the Constitution and laws of the United States. The great mass of these settlers, acting under the influence of leaders to whom they seem to have surrendered their judgement, refuse to be controlled by any other authority. They have been often advised to obedience, and these friendly counsels have been answered with defiance. Officers of the federal government have been driven from the territory for no offence but an effort to do their sworn duty. Others have been prevented from going there by threats of assassination.... M3ny other acts of unlawful violence have been perpetrated, and the right to repeat them has been openly claimed by the leading inhabitants with at least the silent acquiescence of nearly all the others. Their hostility to the lawful government of the country has at length become so violent that no officer bearing a commission from the chief magistrate of the union can enter the territory or remain there with safety;...1 3 After asserting his purposes and right to send troops to Utah Territory, Buchanan then accused the Mormons of attacking the government supply trains-the only charge to which the Mormons would admit. "Fellow citizens of Utah," the president declared, "this is rebellion against the government to which you owe allegiance. It is levying war against the United States and involves you in the guilt of treason." But of course the Mormons disagreed with this view. They were only protecting themselves from an armed mob sent to destroy them. Perhaps the most insulting of Buchanan's allegations was the absurd state- |