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Show THE MORMON CHURCH. 113 such officers from the territory. The overt act, that brought about the bloodless " Mormon War," was the seizure of the records of the United States courts in the office of Judge Styles, one of the associate Justices of the territory. This was done by order of the President, during the absence of the Judge from his office, and the parties who carried out the President's instructions also destroyed the private property of the Judge. Soon thereafter Judge Styles withdrew from the territory and reported the fact at , Washington. Mr. Buchanan then appointed other territorial officers in the place of Mormons, including Governor A. Gumming to re lieve Brigham Young. The Secretary of War was direct ed to send a sufficient body of troops with the Governor to the territory to act as a posse comltatus in requiring the en forcement of the laws. Nothing more was contemplated. It was not the inten tion of the Government to inflict upon the Mormons any punishment for their past lawlessness, but to make them more mindful of law in the future, by stationing this body of troops in the territory. The commanding officer of the ex pedition expected no opposition to the march of his forces into the territory, and was so fully of the impression that they would submit quietly, that he sent an officer in advance of the column to purchase grain in Salt Lake City for the army upon its arrival there. Brigham Young, however, regarded rt as a hostile move ment, and not only refused to sell the officer supplies, but upon the day of his arrival in the city issued his proclama tion declaring martial law, and calling out the militia to re sist a u hostile force who are evidently assailing us ( the Mormons) to accomplish our destruction and overthrow." The army marched onward, until it arrived in the vicinity of where Fort Bridger now stands, when their supplies be came scant because of trains failing to come up, and the capture of some by the Mormons, and they encamped on Black's Fork for the winter. While there Brigham address ed a communication to the then Colonel A. Sidney John ston ( who afterward distinguished himself and lost his life * 6 |
