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Show 256 Cumming left Salt Lake with Colonel Kane on May 13. The governor realized he had no authority to prevent Johnston from marching if he was determined to do so, as Johnston was under orders from tbe president. But perhaps he could persuade the general to adopt a more liberal interpretation of his orders. His poor relationship with Johnston made this a difficult task; nevertheless, Cumming was dedicated to defusing the Utah powder keg. Alfred Cumming was the only man who was in communication with all the parties involved. On the one hand he had the difficult task of convincing the angry and defiant Mormons of their duty to the constitution; on the other, he had to somehow deter the inflexible general from acting too hastily, or the peace he was nurturing could be shattered in a day. Johnston, however, cared little for peace and wanted only to chastise the rebels."1 5 He felt that if an example was not made of Utah the constitution would be compromised. The snow had melted sufficiently in the mountain passes, and the general was anxious to march. The peace commissioners arrived at Camp Scott on May 29. For several days McCulloch and Powell listened carefully to the divergent views of Johnston and Cumming. Although the commissioners were decidedly in agreement with Johnston's point of view, they did extract a pledge from the general that he would not march until be had received word from them or the governor. On June 2 Powell and McCulloch departed for Salt Lake City, followed the next day by Governor Cumming and his wife. In Provo Brigham Young had sufficient reason to be optimistic when he learned of the commissioners' arrival in Salt Lake on June 7• The plan to fight the invading army had long since died along with the millennial considerations of the previous fall. Talk of returning to Jackson County in the near future was no longer heard. President Young was serious in his threat to burn the city, but, |
