cy Millard Fillmore, President of the United States, appointed, "with the advice and consent of the Senate," Brigham Young, of Deseret, Governor; B. D. Harris, of Vermont, Secretary; Joseph Buffington, of Pennsylvania, Chief Justice ; Perry E. Brocchus, of Alabama, Zerubbabel Snow, of Ohio, Associate Justices; Seth M. Blair, of Deseret, U. S. Attorney; and Joseph L. Heywood, of Deseret, U. S. Marshal.
Mr. Buffington declined serving as chief-justice, and Lemuel G. Brandebury was appointed in his stead.
Snow, Blair, and Heywood were Mormons, and, with Brigham added, it gave the majority of the Federal offices to the Saints, for which the name of President Fillmore is held in high esteem. At once the political capital of Utah a hundred and fifty miles south of Salt Lake City was designated Fillmore, and the county Millard. It is due to this statesman to add, that the charge which has been frequently made against him, of appointing Brigham Young governor "while he knew that he had eight wives," is very unfair. President Fillmore appointed Brigham on the recommendation of Col. Thomas L. Kane, and upon the assurance of that gentleman that the I charges against Brigham Young's Christian morality were unfounded. Col. Kane was long enough among the Mormons, and familiar enough with them on their journey between Nauvoo and Council Bluffs, to have learned that polygamy was a fact in Mormonism, unless the Mormons designedly kept him in ignorance, and deceived him. The larger number of the "eight wives" complained of were sealed to Brigham on the banks of the Missouri. Probably, Col. Kane did not personally know polygamy to be a fact, and certainly neither President Fillmore nor the Senate knew it.[1]
On the 3rd of February, 1851, Brigham Young took the oath of office, and was formally acknowledged governor of Utah. He preferred Deseret under "the Lord," but with the characteristic instinct of his nature the love of rule rather than see a Gentile appointed governor of Utah, he himself accepted that office under Congress. On the 25th of March he issued a special message to the general assembly of the State of Deseret, notifying them of the action of Congress. On the
- ↑ The Author was so informed by letter from ex-President Fillmore.
