Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/40

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30 AMOS WILLIAM HARTMAN sign a petition in favor of the re-appointment of Young. So Young continued to fill the office. But public feeling against the Mormons grew in the East as they learned more about the treatment of federal officers in Utah, the practice of polygamy, and the tendency to disregard federal authority. In July, 1857, President Buchanan appointed Alfred Cumming governor of Utah, at the same time appointing new federal judges. Troops were sent to the Territory to assure the maintenance of national authority. 38 In the fall of 1857, an advance party was sent to Utah under Colonel E. B. Alexander. This was followed later in the year by the main force under Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston. The total number of troops sent in 1857 was about 2,400. 39 Governor Brigham Young defied the federal government. He forbade the entrance of armed forces into the territory, raised a Mormon force to op- pose any such entrance and placed the territory under martial law. Breastworks were thrown up in Echo Canon to block the road to Salt Lake City. The federal troops were forced to spend the winter in the vicinity of Fort Bridger. 40 In the spring of 1858 more troops arrived. But although the Mormons threatened to destroy the crops and everything of value in the settlements, and take to the mountains if the soldiers entered the territory, a com- promise was arranged and no fighting took place. Gov- ernor Cumming and the other federal officials were al- lowed to take up their duties, the federal troops were allowed to enter the Territory and the Mormons were par- doned for their opposition to federal authority. In the latter part of June, 1858, the army entered Utah and in July, Camp Floyd was established near the northern end of Lake Utah. 41 38 Ibid., pp. 467-478. 39 Bancroft, History of Utah, p. 522. 40 Linn, op. cit., pp . 386 -500. ^Ibid., pp. 500-516.