[00:00.00]by:www.51VOA.com [00:11.26]Welcome to the MAKING OF A NATION [00:14.00]American history in VOA Special English. [00:18.36]In the eighteen twenties, [00:20.89]in the state of New York, [00:22.50]a man named Joseph Smith [00:25.01]started the Mormon religion. [00:26.90]Smith based it on what he said were God's words [00:31.02]to the ancient people of America. [00:33.23]Many people became members of the new church. [00:37.47]Others,however, [00:39.15]laughed at some of the beliefs of the Mormons. [00:42.43]This led to trouble. [00:44.32]Smith had to move his people many times. [00:48.03]For a while, [00:49.52]they settled in the state of Illinois, [00:52.05]in a town they built and called Nauvoo. [00:55.92]The church split when Joseph Smith said [00:59.52]that Mormons could have more than one wife. [01:03.14]The split led to violence [01:06.16]and public opposition to the Mormons. [01:09.16]Smith was arrested and put in jail. [01:12.56]A mob attacked the jail [01:14.87]and killed Smith and his brother. [01:17.29]The governor of Illinois [01:20.18]ordered the Mormons to leave the state. [01:22.92]This week on our series, [01:25.35]Sarah Long and Richard Rael discuss relations [01:30.11]between the Mormons and the federal government. [01:34.11] [01:36.73]Brigham Young [01:37.83]became the new leader of the Mormons. [01:41.17]He told his people [01:43.22]that he had seen their new home in a dream. [01:46.96]He said it was a wide, [01:49.78]beautiful valley in the West. [01:52.66]He said he would recognize it when he saw it. [01:56.40]The Mormons left Illinois [01:59.61]in the spring of eighteen forty-six. [02:03.13]There were more than fifteen thousand people, [02:07.06]and many wagons and farm animals. [02:10.56]The trip west was hard. [02:13.77]Many of the people died. [02:16.48]After months of slow travel, [02:19.26]they stopped to make their winter camp. [02:22.85]Explorers visited the camp. [02:27.19]They told Brigham Young about a great salt lake [02:32.48]in a wide valley on the western side [02:36.17]of the Rocky Mountains. [02:37.92]From the way they described it, [02:40.36]young believed it was the valley of his dream. [02:44.58]He started to move his people [02:48.37]toward the Great Salt Lake [02:50.76]as soon as the winter snows melted. [02:54.46]They arrived in the summer [02:57.49]of eighteen forty-seven. [02:59.86]Brigham Young looked out over the valley. [03:03.79]"This," he said [03:06.75]"is the right place." [03:09.38]The Mormons wasted no time. [03:13.29]Two hours after arriving, [03:16.52]they began to prepare the ground for planting. [03:20.08]The lake water was too salty to use. [03:25.02]So they built a system of canals [03:28.48]to bring water down from the mountains. [03:31.77]The first few years were difficult. [03:35.89]Cold weather and insects destroyed their crops. [03:40.79]Yet the Mormons continued to work hard [03:44.97]to make their settlement a success. [03:47.74]They refused to think of leaving. [03:51.08]At first,the Mormons were ruled [03:55.55]only by the laws of their church [03:58.67]and by their leader. [04:01.08]Then gold was discovered in California. [04:06.09]Many non-Mormons [04:08.41]passed through the Salt Lake area [04:11.22]on their way to the gold fields. [04:14.12]Some of them stayed. [04:16.27]It soon became clear [04:19.10]that new laws were needed [04:21.45]to govern the growing population. [04:23.97]The Mormons asked Congress to approve [04:29.26]a territorial government for their land. [04:32.83]They called the land Deseret. [04:36.27]That was a Mormon word meaning honeybee. [04:41.21]The Mormons claimed a large area. [04:45.28]It stretched from the mountains of Colorado [04:49.41]west to the mountains of California; [04:52.77]from Arizona north to Oregon. [04:58.17] [04:59.80]Congress rejected the large claim of Deseret [05:03.57]and made it a much smaller territory. [05:07.03]It also refused to accept the name Deseret. [05:12.10]Instead,Congress called it Utah, [05:16.08]after the Ute tribe of Native American Indians [05:20.37]that lived there. [05:21.63]As a compromise, [05:24.21]Brigham Young was named governor [05:26.97]of the new Utah territory. [05:29.54]Most of the new territorial officials [05:33.81]were Mormons,too. [05:35.49]Four were not Mormon. [05:38.12]Governing the territory would not be easy. [05:43.36]There were disputes during the administrations [05:47.61]of several American presidents. [05:50.29]As a result of one dispute, [05:53.53]the four non-Mormon officials [05:56.41]returned to Washington. [05:58.74]The Mormons then formed their own [06:02.45]territorial government [06:04.44]with a legislature and courts. [06:07.74]Other federal officials were sent to Utah. [06:12.58]Some of them were not prepared for the job. [06:16.55]Usually,they did not stay long. [06:21.19]Some of the officials made many charges [06:25.94]against Brigham Young and other Mormon leaders. [06:29.65]They said Mormons refused to recognize [06:33.84]the power of the federal government. [06:36.31]They said Mormons put the words of Young [06:40.70]above the laws of Congress. [06:43.19]They said the church had a secret organization [06:47.58]to take the lives and property of those [06:51.02]who questioned the power of the church. [06:53.93]There were charges [06:56.35]that Mormons had burned the papers [06:58.90]of the Supreme Court of the territory. [07:01.76]And there were charges [07:04.08]that Mormons were responsible [07:06.38]for Indian attacks on some officials. [07:09.98]President Franklin Pierce decided [07:14.18]he should make someone else governor of Utah. [07:17.79]The man he chose,however, [07:20.54]did not want the job. [07:22.57]Instead,he urged the president [07:25.74]to let Brigham Young remain. [07:28.01]President Pierce agreed. [07:30.81]Relations between the Mormons and the government [07:35.49]did not improve in the next three years. [07:39.31]Territorial officials resigned. [07:42.69]They charged that the Mormons [07:45.62]were in open rebellion [07:47.72]against the federal government. [07:50.14]The next president, [07:52.86]James Buchanan, [07:54.49]dismissed Brigham Young as governor. [07:57.50]He ordered more than one thousand soldiers [08:01.63]to go to Utah to put down the rebellion. [08:05.71]He also sent a new governor, [08:09.07]Alfred Cumming,with the soldiers. [08:12.42]The Mormons prepared to fight. [08:16.36]A small group of Mormon men attacked [08:21.00]and destroyed the army's supply wagons. [08:24.55]They forced the soldiers to stop for the winter [08:28.77]before reaching the Salt Lake Valley. [08:32.22]The soldiers could do nothing until spring. [08:36.71]In Washington, [08:39.06]efforts were made to settle the dispute. [08:42.70]A man named Thomas Kane [08:46.46]asked President Buchanan to let him go to Utah. [08:51.45]Kane was an old friend of the president. [08:55.52]He also was a friend of the Mormons. [08:58.99]He had spent much time with them [09:02.42]during their long trip to Utah [09:05.48]ten years earlier. [09:07.33]Kane feared what might happen [09:10.97]to his Mormon friends if fighting started. [09:14.44]He told President Buchanan [09:17.29]that he did not want a job or money. [09:20.74]He only wanted a chance to be useful. [09:24.87]The president agreed to let him try [09:28.27]to settle the dispute. [09:30.19]Thomas Kane arrived in Salt Lake City, [09:34.98]the territorial capital, [09:37.55]early in eighteen fifty-eight. [09:40.39]He found that the Mormons [09:43.33]had decided not to fight. [09:45.87]Instead,they were preparing [09:48.60]to search for a new home. [09:51.17]They talked of moving to Mexico [09:54.73]or perhaps to an island in the South Pacific. [09:59.38]Kane talked with Brigham Young. [10:03.40]Then he went to the army camp [10:06.62]to talk with Governor Cumming. [10:09.06]The governor agreed [10:11.62]to go to Salt Lake City with Kane. [10:14.53]The two men went alone, [10:17.52]without any soldiers. [10:20.34]The Mormons welcomed Cumming, [10:23.40]but continued their preparations to leave. [10:27.15]Cumming called a public meeting. [10:30.45]He said he was in Utah [10:33.41]to represent the federal government. [10:35.94]He said he was there [10:38.24]to make sure the people of the territory [10:41.39]obeyed the constitution [10:43.38]and the laws of the United States. [10:46.52]He said he would not use military force [10:50.82]until every other way had failed. [10:54.06]Above all,said Cumming, [10:56.94]he would not interfere with the Mormon religion. [11:00.95]He urged the Mormons not to leave the land [11:04.79]they had worked so hard to build. [11:07.39]Brigham Young agreed to stay. [11:11.10]Governor Cumming returned to the army camp. [11:15.95]He told the commander [11:18.55]that the Mormons had accepted him. [11:21.44]He said military force would not be needed. [11:26.15]A few days later, [11:28.72]two representatives [11:30.38]of President Buchanan arrived. [11:33.24]They brought news that the president [11:36.02]would not act against Mormons [11:38.79]who accepted the rule [11:40.73]of the United States government. [11:43.34]Brigham Young and the other Mormon leaders [11:47.72]made a statement. [11:49.53]They said they wished to live in peace [11:54.09]under the Constitution [11:55.99]and the laws of the United States. [11:59.62]The dispute was over. [12:02.65]Brigham Young continued [12:05.47]to lead the Mormon church. [12:07.95]But the governor ruled [12:10.21]the territorial government. [12:12.52]The two jobs were separate [12:15.39]and would remain that way. [12:18.05]Congressional elections were held [12:22.16]in the United States in eighteen fifty-eight. [12:25.94]One political race created national interest. [12:31.06]It was for one of the two Senate seats [12:35.43]representing the state of Illinois. [12:38.46]The candidate of the Democratic Party [12:41.88]was Stephen Douglas. [12:43.73]He was running for re-election. [12:46.88]His opponent was a lawyer [12:49.89]and member of the Republican Party. [12:52.69]His name was Abraham Lincoln. [12:56.20]That will be our story next time. [12:59.52](MUSIC) [13:11.42]Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. [13:14.39]The narrators were Sarah Long [13:17.00]and Richard Rael. [13:18.40]Transcripts,MP3s [13:21.59]and podcasts of our programs are online, [13:25.49]along with historical images, [13:28.44]at www.51VOA.com. [13:32.12]Join us again next week [13:35.04]for THE MAKING OF A NATION [13:37.44]an American history series [13:39.70]in VOA Special English.