Amer/Rare

BX

8670.1 . Sn614h 1887

MORMON

AMERICANA

Harold B. Lee Library Brigham Young University Americana Collection

197 22309 7954

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 with funding from Brigham Young University

https://archive.org/details/histenwivestraveOOutah

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HIS TEN WIVES.

THE

Travels, Trial and Conviction

OF THE

»

FROM

Nauvoo to the Penitentiary.

FROM THE RECORD.

BUTTE, MONTANA!

M. KOCH, PUBLISHER. 1887.

PREFACE.

In the following pages there is only an endeavor to narrate a plain un- exaggerated story, every word of which is founded on well authenticated facts and judicial records. The Compiler makes no claim for it as a novel; he merely states the fact that such a state of affairs exists in this Western World where it is the popular boast that Liberty, Civilization and Christianity find their home.

The reader will find as he progresses with the narrative that each statement of a fact is based upon reliable and trustworthy authority, cither of Court record or other equals reliable witnesses. Wherever the records could be reached, the writermas availed himself of them.

It is especially desired that no word shall be construed in this book to be an intentional personal slur, or abuse of the chief character, Lorenzo Snow. So far as the writer knows, he personally may be a good man — of him, representatively, the book treats, as it has a right to do.

The writer was a careful observer of the “Great Trial” from beginning to conviction. He had free access to the records of the Court wherein Snow was convicted, and has honestly used them in these pages. For the courtesy of Court Officers, Attorneys in the case and persons who are not in the succeeding chapters, he acknowledges his indebtedness, and with the hope and belief that his labors herein will give information to his fel- low countrymen, and to others whose homes are beyond the borders of this Nation, and that the information, will to some extent, aid the Government and the people at large in providing a full and complete remedy for thp curse to society and the family— Polygamy— that to-day afflicts Utah and others of the American Territories, and at this most trying hour arouse both Government and people to the great danger that is now threatening and menacing Liberty and Law, by the practical subordination of Civil Government to Church creed and Priestcraft among the Mormons, he launches this little volume upon the tide of popular inspection for approval. The Author.

I

CHAPTER I.

EARLY DAYS OF JOSEPH SMITH.

ABOUT sixty years ago there dwelt in the little town of Manchester, near Palmyra, New York, an old man named Smith. He had for his wife a woman of the lowest type of humanity, who was incapable of telling anything as it might have happened. She hesitated at no false- hood or exaggeration, and believed in, or pretended to believe in, charms, ghosts, fortune tellings, signs, omens and mysteries. She was wholly without moral character, as hosts of witnesses now alive will testify, and those recently deceased have left evidence of.

Old man Smith was a well digger. His wife undertook jobs of wash- ing about the village, told fortunes, pilfered such articles as she had op- portunity to pilfer and was, although densely ignorant and vile, an in- stitution among her class.

Old man Smith had several sons and daughters; one of the sons was named Joseph. He was born and spent his childhood in Vermont. This son was wholly under the evil influence of his mother, who taught him to believe in all the superstitions she believed in, to trust in all the signs, omens, etc., that she trusted in and from his childhood she im- pressed him with the idea he was to be God’s Prophet and work out great things in the world. This son Joseph soon exhibited aptness in all the tricks, notions and beliefs of the mother and became, even in early ^childhood, silent, morose, mysterious and* given to strange stories of

supernatural beings and visits.

Personally Joseph, in a sort of a way, followed the trade of his father. During his early childhood and youth “Joe,” as he was commonly called by the people of the neighborhood, was a shiftless, lazy sort of fellow, seldom working, unless upon some occasion when he could get plenty ol “wiskeyor cider” and do very little labor. But he was always ready to tell some wild story of miraculous character, and no matter how often

cornered in a falsehood, would “face the lie through. This he had learned from his mother. In short, Joe was then known, and is, by the old people of his native village and vicinity to-day spoken of as one who, did he live to-day, would be considered a sort of “boy crank.

One day, while old man Smith was digging a well, Joe espied a curious rock or stone, shaped somewhat like a small human foot. He seized it at

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HIS TEN WIVES.

once, and in a short time some of his supernatural visitors— for he had not then advanced sufficiently in his career to dignify them as heavenly, God-ordered visitors— told him the stone he had been led to find by their agency, was a “seer” or “peek” stone, by looking into which he should be able to divine great things. Joe was now fifteen years old. He then ex- perimented under the guidance of his unseen advisers, and soon it became noised through the village and vicinity that by looking into this “peek” stone, Joe Smith— the son of the fortune-telling, omen-believing, pilfering, chronic deceiver and vulgar washerwoman of whom we have first written— could work wonders.

It became more and more generally reported among the low and super- stitious classes — the witch-believers of the period — that by the “peek” stone Joe could see things that were hidden from ordinary mortals, and could tell all about things that were beyond the knowledge of those about him.

Did a neighbor lose an article of property, a short consultation with Joe and his magic “peek” stone was sure to reveal its whereabouts; and it may be easily inferred that the profits he reaped from this use of the wonderful stone were by no means unwelcome in the Smith family. Some gossips, it is true, did not hesitate to declare that when the Smith family’s exchequer ran low, or became empty, an accommodating mem- ber of the household would about midnight or some other mysterious, ghostly hour, visit a neighbor’s premises and carry off a set of harness, perhaps some apparel from the clothes-line, and put them in place of hiding. But an application to Joe and his “peek” stone, accompanied by a fee of a few paltry dollars, never failed to reveal the whereabouts of the pilfered article, and to secure its safe return. So it appears that Joe, even when only a “Cheap John” sort of a “seer” and prophet, had that eye to business that characterized him and his followers in after life.

But be this story as it may, it is certain that about the year 1830 Joe suddenly assumed a most serious manner, going about alone with down- cast eye and saddened face, muttering almost inaudibly strange and curious words, remaining away in seclusion and only appearing in the company of the ignorant, the superstitious and gullible villagers when he had some remarkable vision or revelation to tell of. At such times he would assume a strange air, and tiie wondering rustics ranged around him.

About this time Joe announced that he had direct communication with heaven and Jehovah. Under the assurances that vast sums of gold, jew- els and precious things were buried in the hills, around the little village of Manchester, near Palmyra, Joe soon impressed upon the minds of the simple and ignorant class about him that the claims he set up were true. Then began his reign. He would gather about him old man Smith, his

HIS TEN WIVES.

7

father, his brothers and the bummer element of the village and in the darkness of night go forth to the hills around Manchester. Silence un- broken was enjoined. Joe would wave a slender switch which he broke from the hazel tree as a magic wand, and bearing before him the inspired “peek” stone, move at the head of his raga-muffins to the hills where all the wealth, of which God had sent a special messenger in the form of an angel to tell him, lay buried. Arrived at the hill, strange ceremonies were gone through with; weird rites were performed, and each one en- joined to keep the silence of the grave. Then the spades were struck in- to the ground, and when after hours had passed in silent labor and the box of buried treasure was about to be uncovered, some excited member of Joe’s brigade would speak and lo! the box and the gold and the pre- cious stones were spirited away, and work would be suspended until an- other night.

This mode of proceeding went on for, perhaps, eight years. In the meantime Joe and his fanatical followers had dug upon those hills until the surface for acres round about was honey-combed with holes. But so for as heard from there is no record that the buried gold and treasures were ever brought forth.

Steadfast and persevering was Joe Smith. Cheeky, too, he was. With these traits and the constant urging of his witch-believing mother, he kept on in this “calling,” that he had now assured the simple people for great distances around he had received from God.

One day, after an unusually long absence, Joe came silently into his father’s house, took up a hearthstone and deposited beneath it something that looked like a little box, which he had brought bundled in an old blanket or bedspread. His movements were sly, silent and mysterious. When he had buried it he turned away without a word. No one inter- rupted him, and no one spoke. The mother, only, presently broke fojth in some of her weird chants.

About twenty years before the time when Joe began to dictate the ac- tions of the people of his neighborhood under, as he claimed, ehtorder of God, there lived in Ashtabula County, Ohio, having left his native State, Vermont, one of those coughing, asthmatic preachers so often found in the Eastern States, whose health compels them to give up the “good work.” His name was Solomon Spaulding. In Vermont he wrote poetry and fanciful books, like Joaquin Miller and other jackleg poets and novelists. Spaulding wrote a story after the style of the Bible. He called it “The Manuscript Found,” and in it he maintained the theory that the great mounds then found about the United States and which have been greatly increased by discoveries since that time, were evi- dences of the former existence of a people, who, although then ex- tinct, were surely much more advanced and enlightened than the

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HIS TEN WIVES.

ordinary American Indians. Spaulding, subsequent to the completion of his story — a sort of a parody upon the Bible — removed to the smoke- wrapped town of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, taking the manuscript of his story along. After getting to Pittsburg Spaulding arranged to have the manuscript “set up” and the story published by a man named Patterson, who had a printing office in that town. But for some unexplained cause, the printer gave up the job, possibly for lack of the forthcoming of funds, and the manuscript was returned to its author. In about two or three years after the return of the manuscript, Spaulding, the ex-preacher and owner of the manuscript, died.

Some years before this time, indeed as far back as about 1828, before Joe had become well trained for his work by the “Angel of the Lord,” a man named Sidney Rigdon— another of the strange personages who seemed to have been so interested in Joe Smith that they left earthly and heavenly homes to visit and talk with him— called and asked to stop awhile in Joe’s cabin. Rigdon was also an ex-preacher. He had been a Campbellite parson in Mentor, Ohio. [This little town is now interest- ing because the martyred Garfield lived there, and near there repose his bones to-day with the soldiers of the Nation guarding the casket and the tears of the Nation watering his grave.]

After this the blacksliding Rigdon turned school-master for a time. The conference he had with Joe Smith was long, secret and significant in its results, as will be seen as the reader follows this story.

CHAPTER II.

COURT AND PROSECUTOR— ARREST OF LORENZO SNOW.

THE fall term of Court for the First Judicial District of Utah began November 17, 1885. The Presiding Judge was Orlando W. Powers. Judge Powers is about 35 years of age. He is by birth a New Yorker. He left the State of his birth in 1873, and settled in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In the beginning of the stern battle of life he was not rich, except in the possession of those rare elements that nature gives to those men whom she has marked for great deeds and high renown. Judge Powers had no host of friends, but among those he did possess were industry, brains, courage, and an exalted ambition. He had graduated at the Michigan Law School with honor, and soon won the confidence, esteem and patron- age of the people of his adopted home. In April, 1885, he was selected by the President of the United State to be Associate Justice of the Utah Supreme Court, and assigned to the First Judicial District, within which, at Ogden City and Provo, he was to hold his Courts. The field to which he was called was uninviting. It was here that he— a stranger— was to wit- ness the great crimes, or at least hear the stories of the great crimes that have made Utah a stench in the nostrils of civilized Nations, and a putrid excrescence upon the body politic of the great Republic. How he has met, grasped and performed the task imposed upon him this true story will in part tell.

The Representative of the Government as Prosecutor in the Ogden Vic.Court was Bierbower, Esq., whom the District Attorney for Utah, W. H. Dickson, selected as Assistant in the Autumn of 1885. Mr. Bierbower is a Pennsylvanian. At a somewhat early day he located in Nebraska, with Sidney, of Cowboy notoriety and Buffalo Bill fame, as his head- quarters. “Vic,” as his friends call him, was popular with the “broad- brims” of the cattle ranges and was chosen to represent them in tqe Leg- islature, and also elected District Attorney in the Fifth Judicial District of Nebraska.

With a full complement of worthy Court Officers, but a community of which eight-tenths hated him as they would any loyal American officer, Judge Powers began his official career in Utah.

On the 19th day of November, 1885, a complaint was filed before United States Commissioner T. J. Black, and a warrant issued thereon was given

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to United States Marshal Oscar Vandercook to execute. The charge was that Lorenzo Snow, in Box Elder County, Utah Territory, did, in certain years, unlawfully live and cohabit with more than one woman at the same time as his wife. It was filed under an act of Congress to sup- press polygamy and unlawful cohabitation, now generally known as the “Edmunds Law,” which was enacted in 1882. A number of witnesses were named at the time the warrant for Snow was issued and these the officers were directed to subpoena and have, with Snow, before the Commissioner on the day named in the warrant, to testify as to the charge. Duputy Marshal Vandercook called to his assistance five officers.

At an hour after midnight these officers silently left Ogden in several conveyances and drove to Brigham City, where “Apostle” Snow with his society of followers and sworn adherents lived. Here he had builded his stronghold; here he had his “co-operative store” — a gigantic estab- lishment for the reception of grinding taxes and tithes from the deluded people, drawn from them under pretense of a divine order, and used to enrich the Priesthood and to pay for murders and blood atonings and to bribe such scoundrelly United States officers in Utah and Washington as were approachable, and to meet the expenses incurred in defense and management of Saints for the perpetuation of Priest rule, Polygamy and other Mormon infamies. Here too, surrounded by the stolen gains of years of sinful rule, he had established his harem. It consisted of sever- al houses with convenient surroundings and peopled with the women whom his lust had taken in their youth, despoiled of their precious vir- tue and used as concubines; throwing upon the world a flock of illegiti- mate children — future Saints and Saintesses. All these things in the name of God, who has commanded “Thou shall not commit adultery; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor anything that is his; thou shalt do no mur- der; and woe unto you, Scribes, Pharisees and Hypocrites, woe unto you, Fornicators, Liars and Blasphemers.”

It must be borne in mind that in Utah every Mormon is oathbound and a slave, except the “President” of the Church and a few of hia Associate “Officers.” Every Mormon is a spy for the Priesthood. Every woman a ready and willing victim to the brutish passion of such a man as shall prove himself devoted to the infamous doctrines and purposes of the Priesthood, and who will pass through the ordeal of secret rites and ceremonies required by those mountebanks in the Endowment House at the initiation of sinners to Sainthood.

Surrounded by such people as these, the finding and arrest of the lead- ers charged with crime is by no means a light or easy undertaking. It was because of this state of things in Utah that Deputy Marshal Vander-

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cook took several assistants and rode to Snow’s stronghold under cover of night. His purpose was to arrive there unbeknown to Snow or his pickets and spies. And yet with all this precaution the “old man” had become aware of the expedition and when the officer knocked at the door of the house where he was known to live the greater portion of his time when in Brigham City, the woman “Minnie”— formerly Jen- sen and latest of his “Saintly Darlings”— after some delay, appeared at the door and with hands and eyes up-lifted to God, swore that Loren- zo Snow had been absent from the house and Brigham City for months and was then she knew not where.

But the United States officers knew full well that no dependence could be placed upon the assurances of those who are so well trained in crime, in sin, in treason and falsehood, and who are wedded to such ser- vice by bonds and ties whose monstrous enormity none but the non-fanat- ical appreciate and habituated to dissemble, evade and falsify when one of the “Church” people and interests are at stake; and to swear falsely, if need be, to shield the one or the other for which the forgiveness of God was always plentifully at hand, ready-made— politely stepped inside the house and searched it from cellar to garret. That search was in vain. No “Apostle” could be found, nor, indeed, did they find even a trace of his recent presence there. With polite explanations of their duty under the warrant to intrude upon a woman’s private rooms, they bid Minnie good-bye and started off. But the whining and movements of a dog that was tied near the house attracted notice. Deputy Marshal Vandercook noted the intentness with which the dog looked into a sort of cellar win- dow or opening for air and light. The parties returned to the inside of the house and again began to search. Presently the carpet under an Angora goat skin was noticed. It was not tacked down. It was at once removed. A trap door was found and lifted. Down into an under- ground passage went the officer. Another trap door was discovered. This led into a sort of cave or dugout, about 4x8 feet. Rapping up- on this door the officer called: “Snow! Come out! It is just as well. I know you are there. Come forth, or I batter dowrn the door!” “All right; I will come out!” came from the recess of the dugout, and in a moment, lo! the great Apostle of God stood before the loyal men of the Government. He was informed that he was under arrest and heard the reading of the warrant. He replied by asserting his belief that they “could not make out a case against him,” and then asked the boys to take a drink!

The remainder of this stage of the proceedings can be briefly told. Snow was taken along with the inmates of his harem, to Ogden. He waived examination before Commissioner Black, and was bailed. D. H. Perry, Mayor of Ogden, and H. S. Young, of a Mormon Bank, became sureties for his appearance to answer any indictment that the Grand

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Jury, soon to be called together, might return against him. His women were recognized to appear as witnesses before the same “inquisitorial board,” as the Mormon press called the Grand Jury, and the curtain was rung down on another act of this life drama.

CHAPTER III.

SNOW IN THE HANDS OF THE LAW — INDICTED.

THE news of the arrest of an Apostle of God, the sacrilege of seizing a Prophet, a Seer and man who had confidential and personal rela- tions with Jehovah, as well as with the inmates of his harem and the dupes of his Church, spread like a prairie fire. Secret meetings were held; spies enjoined to be active; special prayeTS were said; tithes poured in rapidly. Mormon newspapers opened their wrathful batteries of threats, abuse, treason and libel, while Elders, Deacons, Priests and lay- men vowed vengeance upon the Gentile “beasts” who dared to desecrate the soil on which God’s Holy Apostle and his faded, worn-out and now barren women “companions” had trod. And yet amid it all the reader will see that the Court and its officers stood firm.

As the opening day of the Court of the First Judicial Dis- trict, to be held at Ogden, approached, public interest ran high, and pub- lic opinion and gossip grew angry and excited. The tone of popular sentiment was tempered on the one side by the well settled hope and be- lief that the great combination of the Mormons would be successfully assailed. The Mormons waxed warmer, and more angry and threaten- ing on the other hand, under the pulpit and ward meeting harangues of their head men, which, brimful of treason, disloyalty and fanaticism as they were, were scattered broadcast over the Territory by the enslaved press of the Church.

The looked for 17th day of November, 1883, arrived. The town was un- usually filled with bustle and strangers. Jurors, Grand Jurors, witness- es and parties litigant, numerous as they were, made up but a fraction of the throng who moved along the streets, congregated in public houses, and gathered in little groups, here and there, busily engaged in low and earnest conversation. In five minutes after the doors of the Court-room were thrown open, every seat and every standing space was taken, and the vacant places in aisles and passages filled to a jam, while the hall outside the Court-room was packed its entire length. All knew that num- bers of all sorts of criminal and civil cases were to be taken up and passed upon, and all knew that an “Apostle” of God had been dragged, with his harem-people, into that room, and was yet under bonds to ans- wer what accusation the Grand Jury, who were that morning to be se- lected and organized, might prefer against him.

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HIS TEN WIVES.

Whispers grew loud as the minute hands of the clock moved on slowly, oh, how slowly! as if delighting in the torment of suspense.

Denser and denser grew the crowd of anxious spectators; closer and closer they packed themselves, all eager and anxious to know who would be Grand Jurors and what the Judge would say in his charge.

It must not be forgotten that the “Judicial Mills” had just begun to “grind slowly,” and upon this day’s proceedings depended, to a great ex- tent, the problem of how small they would grind.

Precisely at 10 o’clock Judge Powers took his seat. Bailiff 0. S. Bridges— an old soldier of the Union— called order, and a hush like that of a tomb fell upon the vast throng. Every officer of the Court was in his place. Every resident Attorney and many from adjoining States and Territories took seats with their brethren. Upon making the proper re- turn the officer was directed to call the Grand Jury. It was done, and after the usual examination of each the following names were selected and accepted, and will go down through the years that are to come as the men selected by a hostile Government to persecute God’s chosen peo- ple, to harass and outrage their “inspired” Prophet and Apostle and trample upon and desecrate the holy principles, revelations and com- mands of the great Ruler of the world. These are the immortal fifteen. Immortal in infamous memory in the eye of the Mormon fanatics; im- mortal in the esteem of true Americans and loyal men throughout the world because they knew their duty and amid such surroundings never faltered in its performance.

John W. McNutt, native of Virginia; Foreman, 0. E. Hill, of California; Clerk, David Thornborn, Nevada; L. B. Stephens, Ohio; A. Peterson, Den- mark; J. S. Lew#is, Tennessee; S. S. Schranim, Ohio; W. M. Chapman, Illi- nois; G. G. Griffiths, Ohio; C. B. Payson, Michigan; John B. Hopkins, New York; H. C. Wadleigh, California; J. R. Crendall, Michigan; F. A. Shields, England, and Isaac Rabel, a Hebrew.

These men were all representative business men who ha lived in Utah for periods ranging from three to twenty years. Each man ans- wered to his name, took the prescribed oath and the panel resumed their seats.

At this moment the hush that pervaded the Court-room was that of the chamber of death. It was caused by Judge Powers’ charge and was as follows:

CHAPTER IV.

CHARGE OF JUDGE POWERS TO THE GRAND JURY.

GENTLEMEN of the Grand Jury: It is my duty to charge you specifically, to make due and diligent inquiry, whether the laws of our country, relative to Polygamy and unlawful cohabitation, are being infringed in the District. I therefore charge you to investigate this matter. For years the laws relative to the marriage relation have been set at defiance in this Territory. This is a fact of such common notoriety, that the Court is bound to take Judicial knowledge of it. But this state of affairs cannot be allowed longer to exist. The Government is in earn- est. The laws of the land must be enforced, and guilty parties taught that if they continue in their evil course, they must pay the penalty. People must learn that the law can no more be violated with impunity in Utah, than it can be in the States. They must understand that the great moral sentiment of the Nation is opposed to plural marriage. The sooner they learn the lesson, they must learn, sooner or later, that the law must be obeyed, and that Utah is a portion of the United States, the better it will be for all. It is strange that any will pursue the path that the people of this Territory seem determined to take. Here, amid these Mountains, Nature’s own great treasure vaults, enclosing Valleys so fer- tile that they need only to be “tickled with the hoe in the Spring time to laugh with the harvest in Autumn,” could be framed an intelligent, enterprising State. Some day this will be done, but it will not be un - til our people learn to love their country, learn to obey its laws, and learn to reverence that great institution of civilization, the home, with its wife and mother, revered and honored by the husband and father. The laws relative to marriage relations, which the Court expects your aid in enforcing, are just laws, and are constitutional laws. As was said by the Supreme Court of the United States, “no Legislation can be supposed more wholesome and necessary in the founding of a free, self-governing commonwealth, fit to take rank among the co-ordinate States of the Union, than that which seeks to establish it upon the basis of the idea of the family, as consisting in and springing from the union for life of one man and one woman in the holy estate of matri- mony, the sure foundation of all that is stable and noble in our civiliza- tion; the best guaranty of that reverent morality which is the source of all beneficent progress in social and political improvement.”

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The crime of Bigamy, or Polygamy, consists in entering into a Biga- mous or Polygamous marriage. • The offense is complete when any per- son who has a husband or wife living marries another. It is also com- plete when any man simultaneously, or on the same day, marries more than one woman. This, however, does not apply to any person by reason of any former marriage, whose husband or wife by such marriage has been absent for five successive years and is believed by such persons to be dead, nor to any person by reason of any former marriage which shall have been dissolved by a valid decree of a competent Court, on the ground of nullity of marriage contract.

In this Territory there is no law regulating marriage. No form of ceremony is required, and no record of marriage is kept. Marriage is left as it was at common law. There need be no witness present. If the parties are competent to contract, all that is essential is a present agree- ment. The marriage is complete when there is a full, free and mutual consent of parties capable of contracting. Proof that parties have treated each other as husband and wife, have lived together as such, and have held each other out to the world as such, is sufficient to enable a Court or Jury to find that at some previous time the parties did, as a fact, con- sent to be married, and as a fact agree to be husband and wife. The mode of life, the holding out, the declarations or admissions of the accused, and the like, are circumstantial evidence from which the fact of marriage may be inferred.

The offense of cohabitation is complete when a man, to all outward ap- pearances, is living or associating with more than one woman as his wife. To constitute the offense, it is not necessary that it be shown that the parties indulge in sexual intercourse. The intention of the law- making power, in enacting the law against cohabitation and Polyga- my, was to protect Monogamous marriage by prohibiting all other marriage, whether evidenced by a ceremony, or by conduct and cir- cumstances alone. ,

An indictment may be found against a man guilty of cohabitation, for every day, or other distinct interval of time, during which he offends. Each day that a man cohabits with more than one woman, as I have de- fined the word “cohabit,” is a distinct and separate violation of the law, and is liable to punishment for each separate offense. A Grand Jury is vested with very large discretion in limiting the time within which a series of acts may be alleged as constituting a single offense. Com. v. Robinson, 120 Mass., 262.

I also charge you, that if you should find that a man is guilty of co- habiting with two or more women, one of whom resides in this District and the other in some other District in this Territory, you should indict him; for the offense is deemed by the law to be completed and commit-

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ted here. The Statute of the United States says, “where an offense against the United States is begun in one Judicial District and com- pleted in another, it shall be deemed to have been committed in either, and may be dealt with, inquired of, tried, determined, and punished in either District, in the same manner as if it had been actually and wholly committed therein.” Rev. St. U. S. 731.

* * * Hi * * * * He Hi

Now, gentlemen, the Court expects you to do your whole duty. Bear constantly in mind your oath, that you will “diligently inquire into and true indictments make of all public offenses against the United States and the people of this Territory committed or triable within this District of which you shall have legal evidence. That you will indict no person through malice, hatred, or ill will, nor leave any unindicted through fear, favor, affection, or for any reward or the promise or hope thereof; but in all your indictments you will state the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, according to the best of your skill and under- standing.” You will now retire and enter upon your labors.

The delivery of the charge which was full and directory upon every possible question within the jurisdiction of the Grand Jury, was listened to with the most marked attention by all within the Court-room. The voice of the Judge rang out clear as a bell. His articulation was excel- lent and his manner and emphasis impressive. He spoke as the earnest man speaks. He impressed the listener with the belief that he was on that bench fully appreciative of the responsibility resting upon him. Full master- of the great problem presented to the Government he sat there to represent, yet so kindly was his bearing, so regretful were his tones that at times one almost felt that the stern determination of the Judge, to see the law upheld, would melt into the pity of the man for the persons who were daily and hourly violating that law. Never was there a more perfect instance of a Court blending the suaviter in modo, and the fortiter in verbo.

Upon the conclusion of the charge, the Grand Jurors were given into the care of Bailiff 0. S. Bridges and retired to their Council Chamber for organization and work. There for many weeks they were laboring for the good of society, for the purging of a great community cursed with many, many criminals, and executing the plan adopted by the law to shield a good citizen from the consequences of the misdeeds of bad citizens.

When this work was finished — the event of the day — the Court pro- ceeded with the routine duty and the great concourse of spectators left the hall. There were solemn faces on every hand. The “charge” was canvassed pro and con. The great majority, being Polygamist in fact, -or Mormons, who are Polygamists in faith, denounced Justice Pow-

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ers as a Jeffries, a cruel, inhuman monster, a vile persecutor of religion and Godly people, and then began the scheming and planning to com- pass his defeat in the United States Senate, when the President should send his name to that high body for confirmation. A scheming and planning that, unhappily for the country at large, yea, for civilization everywhere, was not foiled, by reason of unusual and most despicable means in men, money, vilification and perjury.

CHAPTER V.

THE MAN WITH TEN WIVES INDICTED.

SOON after their retirement the Grand Jury returned into the Court three indictments charging Lorenzo Snow with violations of the United States Law— the Statute popularly known as the “Edmunds Law.” These indicements were pretty much identical, except that the offenses were laid in three different years, viz. 1883, 1884 and 1885. The following is a copy of the indictment:

United States of America,

AGAINST

Lorenzo Snow.

The Grand Jurors of the United States of America, within and for the District aforesaid, in the Territory aforesaid, being duly empaneled and sworn, on their oaths do find and present that Lorenzo Snow, late of said District, in the Territory aforesaid, heretofore, to-wit: On the first day

of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eight-five, at the County of Box Elder, in the said District, Territory aforesaid, and within the Jurisdiction of this Court, and on divers others days and times thereafter, and continuously between said first day of January, A. D. 1885, and the first day of December, A. D, 1885, did then and there unlawfully live and cohabit with more than one woman, to- wit: With Adeline Snow, Sarah Snow, Harriet Snow, Eleanor Snow,

Mary H. Snow, Phoebe W. Snow, and Minnie Jensen Snow, and during all the periods aforesaid, at the County aforesaid, he, the said Lorenzo Snow, did unlawfully claim, live and cohabit with all of said women as his wives, against the form of the Statute of said United States in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the same.

V. Bierbower,

J. W. McNutt, Asst. U. S. District Attorney.

Foreman of Grand Jury.

CHAPTER VI.

PEN PICTURE OF THE COURT AND SURROUNDINGS.

HE accused “Apostle” in due time appeared in Court with a vast ar-

ray of Counsel, and pleaded “not guilty.” A day was fixed for hearing that was acceptable to all parties and on Wednesday December 30th, 1885, under the charge relating to 1885, Snow’s trial began.

The writer of these pages had been selected by the proprietor of the newspaper, of whose editorial staff he was that time a member, to attend and carefully note every step in these proceedings. This was done for the two reasons, that under the existing state of pnblic anxiety and hate, it was right, just and politic that the exact truth should be made public, and because this trial of one of the most prominent, accom- plished, influential, wealthy and powerful men in this Anti-American Or- ganization, known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints, was by all odds the most significant and important trial ever held in Utah Territory. It was in fact a trial of the supremacy of law over license; of the power to convict one who was high in the Counsels of those who have erected, and to-day maintain in the heart of the United States, a Church Government of Priests to which they subordinate the laws of the American Congress, made in pursuance of the American Constitution, and adjudicated and prononnced valid by that august tribunal — The Supreme Court of the United States! This is the problem presented in Utah to-day, and this is the evil which the statesmanship of the country is called upon to wipe out and to destroy!

The scene presented in the Court-room and adjacent offices when the “Hear ye; Hear ye,” of Bailiff Bridges announced the opening of Court on Wednesday morning, was one whose memory will go with each per- son there to his grave. It is as fresh to-day as then, and will often, no doubt, in after years be told around the winter fireside by the children of to-day; for it must be borne in mind that the interest in that investi- gation was not confined to any especial class or age or sex— the aged, the young, the hale and the infirm were represented, and it is more than probable that hereafter, in the evening of their lives, the boys and girls of to-day who attended this trial of Apostle Snow, looking down the broad vista of youthful years, will relate its scenes and incidents to their

HIS TEN WIVES.

21

families, while each step and happening will serve as a link— a well re- membered link to unite that present with this past.

In his cushioned chair sat Justice Powers — pale, peaceful, calm and intellectual in appearance. On his left was District Clerk A. C. Emer- son, young, handsome, competent and obliging. On his right Sat A. H. Winne, official stenographer of the Court, quick as lightning, accurate, skilful, bright and, off duty, the prince of good fellows. Upon a row of chairs along the left wall were Weber County officials, Sheriff Belknap, and others, all Mormons, good officers and friends and sympathizers with the accused “Holy Man of God.” Immediately in front of the Court sat Assistant District Attorney Vic. Bierbower, the sole Representative of the United States Government in the capacity of Counsel; near him were clustered the company of Counsel who were there to fight the great Church Leader’s battle— these were Franklin S. Richards, Esq., a petted son of a Mormon Apostle to whom every opportunity for accomplish- ment by study, schooling and travel had been afforded, and to whom his father looked with pride and possibly the hope that ere long he, too, would be a high dignitary in the Church Counsels of “God’s chosen people”— Messrs. Bennett, Harkness & Kirkpatrick, a prominent firm of Salt Lake City Attorneys; Hon. Rufus K. Williams, of Ogden, Ex-Chief Justice of Kentucky, and in his earlier years a personal friend of the martyred Lincoln, and Messrs. Rollopp and Richards, rising young attorneys of Ogden and personal, political and religious sympathisers with the “Apostle” whom they had come to defend. It was a grand array of legal talent, with at least one more than ordinary orator in its ranks.

Just to the right front and within the bar were the twelve seats that were soon to be occupied'by the men who were to decide upon the guilt or innocence of the defendant; while at their immediate right was a table for the representatives of the local and distant press. All other seats within the bar were taken by attorneys not engaged in the “great trial.” At the door, opening on the left to the United States Marshal’s office, Deputy Oscar Vandercook stood — erect as a soldier, silent as the sphynx, prompt, reliable, safe, sure and ever-ready, this officer, sur- rounded by Deputies Steel and Perkins, able, willing and reliable as- sociates, seemed the impersonation of calm courage, intelligent action and gentlemanly bearing. But the picture that first caught and held the eye of everyone was that just in the rear of the attorneys it was Lorenzo Snow and his seven living wives and a baby, in its mother’s arms! It was “Minnie’s” baby. These seven were Adeline, Sarah, Har- riet, Eleanor, Mary H., Phoebe W., and Minnie Jensen Snow. Had not death laid his cold hand upon them and borne them away to the land of silence, there would have been three other “wives” gathered about this “Man of God!” A glance at the “seven” prepared one for the fearful

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HIS TEN WIVES.

story soon to be