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Show ii4 THE MORMON CHURCH. in the rebel army), warning him to leave the territory by the same route he entered ; but in the event Colonel John ston desired to remain over winter, he might " do so in peace and unmolested," provided he would deposit his arms and ammunition with the Quartermaster- General of the ter ritory, and " leave in the spring, or as soon as the roads would permit him to march." It is unnecessary to add, that neither modest request was complied with. While the army was approaching, the Mormons were fortifying Echo Canon, to prevent its penetrating further into the territory. The only act of hostility committed during the campaign, was the destruction of two supply trains, belonging to John ston's army. This was done by a band of horsemen, sup posed to have been commanded by Porter Rockwell, who figures conspicuously in Mormon history as one of the Danites, or u avenging angels." General Johnston was not acting under orders to attack the Mormons, even if he had been so situated as to do so advantageously, and this act of hostility would have been a most excellent pretext for accepting war, and then and for ever settling the question of Mormonism in our country, if it had been at a season when it could have been taken ad vantage of. Neither the defences of Echo Canon, nor the size of the Mormon army, were by any means the cause of it not being. The army was short of supplies, as I have already stated, and the severity of the winter prevented all aggres sive measures. Before the time arrived when the army could have acted, a semi- Mormon succeeded in arranging for an interview between Brigham Young and Governor Cumming, in Salt Lake City, when . the exceeding plausibility of the former so favorably impressed the Gover nor, that he immediately communicated the result of his in terview to the President, when a commission was sent out to treat with Brigham. He satisfied them of his loyalty, and produced the records of the courts, which he had only stolen and not destroyed. The diplomacy of Brigham was equal to the occasion, and very speedily an agreement was en tered into by which the command of General Johnston was |