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Show 28 INDIAN DEPEEDATIONS FEB. 9th. BATTLE AT FORT UTAH. As for the inhabitants of Fort Utah, they pa-tiently bore their annoyances and losses until nearly spring, 1850, when affairs became so serious that they felt compelled to appeal for aid to Governor Brigham Young and the Legislature, still in session at Salt Lake City. Captain Peter W. Conover, in charge of military affairs at the fort, and Miles Weaver carried the message of their anxious fel-low settlers to headquarters. Governor Young, on receiving the message, found himself in a somewhat peculiar position. That the beleaguered settlers must be relieved, and at once was evident, not only for their own sakes, but for that of other settlements already forming or in pros-pect ill the south. But how best to relieve them was the question. The thought of more fighting and blood-shed was most repugnant to him. Not for worlds would the " Mormon" leader have the sons of La-man think that he and his people came among them for that purpose. " Feed them and not fight them," was his life- long motto and policy toward the red men. Besides, how would the authorities at Washing-ton, by whom the petition of Deseret for statehood was then being considered, regard the opening of a warfare by the " Mormons " upon these dusky " Wards of the Government. ' ' Deem not this a trifling consideration, reader. A people like the " Mor-mons, liable to be misinterpreted, had to be cautious and circumspect in their public acts and policies, where other communities, whose loyalty and good intents were unquestioned, might have risked all with impunity. |