"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action." -- George WashingtonHow can such a profound place look so plain? Camp Floyd consists of a few markers, a grass lawn, a couple old chuck wagons, a renovated inn (photo above) and commissary. Small, and off the beaten path of Hwy 73, it is physical evidence of the Utah War of 1857 - 1858. I visited the camp late Sunday afternoon. Frankly, I don’t quite know what to make of it.
I wish there was a telegraph in place at the time that could have connected President Buchanan with Governor Brigham Young, appointed territorial governor by President Franklin Pierce, because misunderstandings compounded. Just one term earlier than the the Civil War, President Buchanan thought the territory was about to split from the nation. The nation was filled with rumors about Utah. These polygamists and their strange religion were a mystery to most. Certain doctrines were distorted, circulated and publicized. At any rate, the rumor of the day was not only that they had a shadow government but also that they were burning the papers of the territorial Supreme Court and coordinating Indian attacks on federally appointed officials. Not only barbarism but now also Mormon treason!
The new Republican Party's bold platform of eradicating the “twin barbarisms” of polygamy and slavery was taking great hold on the political debate and direction of the country. Democrats were under pressure to be tough on polygamy and slavery, an accusation that the new Republican Party said Democrats were soft on. Buchanan [D] keenly felt those pressures. Utah was an opportunity to demonstrate to the South the resolve of the federal government in matters of secession.
So, it was easy for a president to use force when it came to Utah. An army of 2500 troops was sent to squash a rebellion that didn't exist. Utah was up in arms too. Still fresh with the memories of murder and destruction by mobs in Illinois, and before that Missouri, the pioneers set up to fight the federal army. (That's another tale.)
How did we get ourselves into such a position of misunderstanding, and how easy is it for a president to go to war? I don't know but the evidence of the ease in which our highest civil authority can use military power to resolve such issues and in having faulty intelligence of the world lies in an isolated field in Utah Valley.
And what of these rebellious Mormons who were about to secede? An old friend of the saints, Thomas Kane was appointed by the president to help smooth things over. He arrived in Salt Lake City early in 1858 and found that the pioneers after giving initial resistance, had decided to not fight. They were talking of moving yet again to freedom in Mexico, or perhaps this time to an isolated island in the South Pacific, where they could build their Zion unmolested. The new governor to replace Brigham Young promised to let them practice their religion in freedom, which persuaded the pioneers to stay. Despite such assurances, there was big trouble on the horizon for the church that would start as early as a year into the Civil War, 1862.
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President James Buchanan was a calculating man. At on point, Camp Floyd was the largest installation in the United States. At one point half the standing Army of the United States was station in Camp Floyd. What better place for a Southern sympathizer to send a large force of men than thousands miles away from the battle when the rebellion broke out. Half the force of Camp Floyd headed south with their former commander General Albert Sydney Johnston. What gave “Ole Buck” the justification to send such a large part of the Army on a fool’s errand? This misadventure was fueled by the slanderous lies of one immoral self serving justice, W. W. Drummond, who had returned to Washington to claim that great offenses were being committed by Brigham Young and the Mormons against the Federal Appointees and the Gentiles in general. “Ole Buck” had no reason to listen to anyone else. When Thomas Kane came to him and volunteered to be broker a peace, President Buchanan allowed him to go, at his own expense. He went as Mr. Osborne with his servant.
It was only after his reports and under pressure from a congress who was seeing wasted dollars spent on a worthless venture, that President Buchanan sent a Peace Commission and a pardon. The Utah War, know also as Buchanan’s Blunder was as much a political act as it was a military one.
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