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342
THE CITY OF THE SAINTS.
Chap. VII.

nefer to be a peaceful citizen, and quiet, unoffending man, thus brutally outraged by tyrannical servants of government, and, moreover, prove for him an alibi from the original cause of quarrel. I have given but a few instances: all are equally contradictory, and tantas componere lites quis audet?

Strongly disclaiming the idea that the officers who discussed with me the subject at Camp Floyd had any tendency to exaggeration or to set down aught in malice, and quite conscious, as they never failed to remark, that a stranger is allowed to see only the beau côté of the New Faith, I can not but think that their views are greatly warped by causes external to it. This is to be expected. Who, after the massacre of Cawnpore, would have admitted into his mind a shadow of excuse for Nana Sahib? Among so many, however blinded and fanatic, and however fond of polygamy—this is ever the first reproach—there must be some good men. Yet from the "chief impostor" to the last "acolyte," all are represented to be a gang of miscreants. The Mormons are far more tolerant; they have praise for those Gentiles, even federal officers, who have abstained from injuring them. They speak well of Lieutenant Colonel E.J. Steptoe, 9th Regiment of Infantry, and the officers of his force;[1] of General Wilson, afterward the Navy Agent at San Francisco; and of the present commandant, Colonel Cooke. They have nothing to say against Judge Reed, or Mr. John J. Kinney, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; and when Judge Leonidas Shaver died in 1855, they put the papers in mourning, and buried the Gentile in their cemetery. They do not abuse even their merchant rivals. Mr. J.B. Kimball, to mention no other, is generally praised and trusted. But when they find it necessary or advisable to take away a man's character, they can do it, "and no mistake." At the same time, their tolerance and discipline are, to say the least, remarkable. Judge Brocchus,[2] to quote but one, would run the risk of being torn to pieces in almost any fanatical meeting in Europe.

At Camp Floyd I was introduced to Colonel G. H. Crossman, Department Quarter-master General, and Major Montgomery of the same department; to Dr. Porter, who was uncommonly and unnecessarily shy upon the subject of a "sick certificate;" and to Lieutenant N. A. M. Dudley, when we passed many a merry time over "simpkin." It is hardly necessary to say that the judge, having no authority to demand, did not obtain either escort or carriage. Colonel Cooke frankly told him that he had neither men nor conveyance at liberty, and even if they were that he could not exceed orders. The Secretary of War is ready to "be down" upon such offenses, and in the United States Army prob-

  1. Mr. Hyde (chap. vi.) gives the official document in which these officers petitioned President Pierce to reappoint Mr. Brigham Young as Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Utah Territory, and it speaks volumes in praise of the much-abused Saints.
  2. Chap. vi.