| OCR Text |
Show 75 " Of late years, a well- grounded belief has prevaled that the Mormons were instigating the Indians to hostilities against our citizens .... It has, nevertheless always been the policy and desire of the federal government to avoid collision with this Mormon community... But their settlements lie in the great pathway which leads from tur Atlantic States to the new and flourishing communities growing upon the Pacific seaboard. They stand a lion in the path ... encouraging, if not exciting, the nomad savages .. to the pillage and massaore of peaceful and helpless emigrant families traversing the solitude of the wilderness, " From all the oircumstanoes surrounding this sub-jeot at the time, it was thought expedient during the past summer to send a_ fepjiy of troops to Utah with the civil officers recently appointed to that territory. As the intention then was merely to establish these functionaries in the offices to which they had been commissioned, and to erect Utah into a geographically military department, the force then despatched and now enroute to the Territory was thought to be amply sufficient for those purposes. Supplies were abundant there, and the position was favorable fox holding the Indiana in check throughout the whole circumjacent region of country." Senate Executive Documents, 35 Cong., 1 sess. , vol. 2 |
