As yet the "Camps of Israel" were unorganized, awaiting the coming of the President, on Sugar Creek, which he and his companions reached at dusk.
The next day he was busy organizing the company, and on the following, which was February 17th, at 9:50 a. m., the brethren of the camp had assembled near the bridge, to receive their initiatory instructions, and take the word of command from their leader, who ended his first day's orders to the congregation with a real touch of the law-giver's method. He said, " We will have no laws we cannot keep, but we will have order in the camp. If any want to live in peace when we have left this place, they must toe the mark." He then called upon all who wanted to go with the camp to raise their right hands. "All hands flew up at the bidding," says the record.
After the dismissal of the congregation, the President took several of the Twelve with him half a mile up a valley east of the camp and held a council. A letter was read from Mr. Samuel Brannan, of New York, with a copy of a curious agreement between him and a Mr. A. G. Benson, which had been sent west, under cover, for the authorities to sign.
To make clear to the reader a story, which now belongs to our national history, in connection with the first settling of California, it must be observed that Brannan, once known as one of the millionaires of the Golden State, had been the editor of The Prophet, published at New York. He seems to have been one of those sagacious men who saw in Mormonism the means to their own ends.
At the date of the exodus he was in the charge of a company of Saints, bound for the Pacific Coast, in the ship Brooklyn. They took all necessary outfit for the first settlers of a new country, including a printing press, upon which was afterwards struck off the first regular newspaper of California. This company was, also, the earliest company of American emigrants that arrived in the bay of San Francisco, and really the pioneer emigration of American citizens to the Golden State, for Fremont's volunteers cannot be considered in that character. Indeed, it is not a little singular that the Mormons were not only the pioneers of Utah, but also the pioneers of California, the builders of the first houses, the starters of the first papers, and, what has contributed so much to the growth of the Pacific Slope, the men who discovered the gold, under Mr. Marshal, the foreman of Sutter's mills. These facts, however, the people of California seem somewhat to hide in the histories of their State.
Relative to the sailing of this company, Samuel Brannan had written to the Mormon authorities. Ex-Postmaster Amos Kendall, and the said Benson, who seems to have been Kendall's agent, with others of political influence, represented to Brannan that, unless the leaders of the Church signed an agreement with them, to which the President of the United States, he said, was a "silent party," the government would not permit the Mormons to proceed on their journey westward.
This agreement required the pioneers " to transfer to A. G. Benson & Co., and to their heirs and assigns, the odd numbers of all the lands and town lots they may acquire in the country where they may settle." In case they refused to sign the agreement the President, it was said, would issue a proclamation, setting forth that it was the intention of the Mormons to take sides with either Mexico or Great Britain against the United States, and order them to be disarmed and dispersed. Both the letter and contract are very characteristic, and the worldly-minded man's poor imitation of the earnest religionist has probably often since amused Mr. Brannan himself. In his letter he said: "I declare to all that you are not going to California, but Oregon, and that my information is official. Kendall has also learned that we have chartered the ship Brooklyn, and that Mormons are going out in her; and, it is thought, she will be searched for arms, and, if found, they will be taken from us; and if not, an order will be sent to Commodore Stockton on the Pacific to search our vessel before we land. Kendall will be in the city next Thursday again, and then an effort will be made to bring about a reconciliation. I will make you acquainted with the result before I leave."
The "reconciliation" between the Government and the Mormons, as the reader will duly appreciate, was to be effected by a division of the spoils among the political chiefs, including, if Brannan and Kendall are to be relied on, the President of the United States. The following letter of fourteen days later date is too rich and graphic to be lost to the public: "New York, January 26, 1846.
"Dear Brother Young: "I haste to lay before your honorable body the result of ray movements since I wrote you last, which was from this city, stating some of my discoveries, in relation to the contemplated movements of the General Government in opposition to our removal.
"I had an interview with Amos Kendall, in company with Mr. Benson, which resulted in a compromise, the conditions of which you will learn by reading the contract between them and us, which I shall forward by this mail. I shall also leave a copy of the same with Elder Appleby, who was present when it was signed. Kendall is now our friend, and will use his influence in our behalf, in connection with twenty-five of the most prominent demagogues in the country.
You will be permitted to pass out of the States unmolested. Their counsel is to go well armed but keep them well secreted from the rabble.
"I shall select the most suitable spot on the Bay of San Francisco for the location of a commercial city. When I sail, which will be next Saturday, at one o'clock, I shall hoist a flag with ' Oregon' on it.
"Immediately on the reception of this letter, you must write to Mr. A. G. Benson, and let him know whether you are willing to coincide with the contract I have made for our deliverance. I am aware it is a covenant with death, but we know that God is able to break it and will do it. The Children of Israel, in their escape from Egypt, had to make covenants for their safety, and leave it for God to break them; and the Prophet has said, 'As it was then, so shall it be in the last days.' And I have been led by a remarkable train of circumstances to say, amen; and I feel and hope you will do the same.
"Mr. Benson thinks the Twelve should leave and get out of the country first, and avoid being arrested, if it is a possible thing; but if you are arrested, you will find a staunch friend in him; and you will find friends, and that a host, to deliver you from their hands. If any of you are arrested, don't be tried west of the Alleghany Mountains; in the East you will find friends that you little think of.
"It is the prayer of the Saints in the East night and day for your safety, and it is mine first in the morning and the last in the evening.
"I must now bring my letter to a close. Mr. Benson's address is No. 39 South Street; and the sooner you can give him answer the better it will be for us.
He will spend one month in Washington to sustain you, and he will do it, no mistake. But everything must be kept silent as death on our part, names of parties in particular.
"I now commit this sheet to the post, praying that Israel's God may prevent it from falling into the hands of wicked men. You will hear from me again on the day of sailing, if it is the Lord's will, amen.
"Your's truly, a friend and brother in God's kingdom.
S. Brannan."
The contract in question was signed by Samuel Brannan and A. G. Benson and witnessed by W. I. Appleby. To it is this postscript: "This is only a copy of the original, which I have filled out. It is no gammon, but will be carried through, if you say, amen. It was drawn up by Kendall's own hand; but no person must be known but Mr. Benson."
The following simple minute, in Brigham Young's private journal, is a fine set-off to these documents: "Samuel Brannan urged upon the council the signing of the document.
The council considered the subject, and concluded that as our trust was in God, and that, as we looked to him for protection, we would not sign any such unjust and oppressive agreement. This was a plan of political demagogues to rob the Latter-day Saints of millions and compel them to submit to it by threats of Federal bayonets."
No matter what view the reader may take of the Mormons and their leaders relative to the intrinsic value to the world of their social and theological problems, no intelligent mind can help being struck with the towering superiority of men trusting in their God, in the supremest