A very depressing part of the history of Slaterville, as well as that of other communities throughout the state, involved trouble the Church had with the Federal Government in 1857. Government threat of invading the territory that year had a very disturbing effect on the struggling settlers, who were making slow but peaceful progress in advancing their religious, social, and economic interests. Church and Government relations had not been too friendly from the time the Church was organized until the Saints were forced to seek refuge in these desolate valleys miles from civilization. Unwarranted invasion of the rights and peaceful living of a people who always recognized obedience to law and order as an essential part of a Christian creed, could not have been entirely unexpected from a Government that demonstrated unsympathetic feeling for them and their cause by the feeble response it made to their pleas for protection from persecution at the hands of state and Federal law defying mobs, during early days of the Church. Five years after colonization commenced and ten yeans after the Saints entered the Salt Lake Valley, the Government instituted a law enforcement system in the territory; territorial courts with Federal judges were set up, purported to protect Government rights and laws against criminal infringements, while it was well known that these procedures were intended to harrass and obstruct activities of the Saints. President Young resented being ruled by outsiders, with whom he declared, "We have nothing in common and who too often have revealed themselves to be rascals." The two judges, George Stiles and W.W. Drummond, who were assigned to execute laws in the territory, refused to accept decisions of Utah Probate court and in a report to the Government in Washington, denounced Utah laws as founded in ignorance and charged Governor Young with innumerable law violations; that he ignoned Federal courts and slandered the judges, refused to consider laws passed by Congress, allowed plurel marriages (polygamy) in violation of Federal law, that he illegally appropriated property of individuals to his own use and imprisioned any who dared to speak against the Church. Such were the ungrounded charges brought against Brigham Young, which brought a quick and somewhat bitter message from President Buchanan, delivered by an officer of the army, Captain Maurice VanVliet, to President Young, which read, "I am relieving you as Governor of the territory of Utah and have appointed Alfred Cummings in your place, and at the moment am sending an army to put down rebellion of the Mormon people. In an immediate reply in a note handed to the officer to deliver to President Buchanan, the angered Governor had this to say, "We don't want to fight the United States, but if we are driven to it, we will do the best we can, and I promise as the Lord lives, we'll emerge victorious." A fearless, determined leader, annoyed, but unyielding by threatening tactics of the Federal Government, acting in the role of Governor, appealed to all able-bodied young men of the various communities to assemble in Salt Lake City as early as possible to form an army. Some men were sent as scouts to the border of Wyoming over which an army would have to pass on the way to invade Salt Lake Valley, and Lot Smith, a man famous for clever scouting tactics, acquired, while scouting for the Church on occasions of Indian uprisings, was sent at the head of a well-organized state militia to patrol -78- the narrow rugged Echo Canyon to deter Federal troops at that point long enough for an army t be organized and armed in the state to counter any attempt of invasion. Successful work of the Scouts and Smith's men in destroying forage along the road and border of Wyoming, the only readily accessible feed for army stock, together with stampeding and scattering the stock, harassing rifle fire poured into soldiers' camps at nightly intervels and destruction of wagons and supplies of the army's main supply train by Smith's raiders, dimmed hopes of an early invasion of Salt Lake Valley. The army, in command of General W.S. Harney, entered Utah from Wyoming in August, 1857. The General vowed at the time, he "would winter in the Valley or in Hell." His dreams of invasion, however, were shattered by the unforeseeable predicament in which he finally found himself and army and therefone, took the easier and apparently, logical way out, retreating to Wyoming. Early in September, the army made a forced march to Fort Bridger, only to find that place had been burned by Smith's men. Retreating farther east, the army located at Camp Scott where soldiers half fed and poorly clad, weathered blizzards and extreme cold of long, severe winter, resulting in the death of a hundred men, while General Harney wintered in Kansas in luxury with the best food, best clothes to wear, and fabulous pay, During weeks of confusion that marked the retreat of Government troops, an army organized and equipped under direction of President Young, was moved to Echo Canyon to fortify that place against any further attempts to take an army through there to invade the Salt Lake Valley. However, in late 1857, the tide of affairs in the East suddenly changed. After spending several million dollars and sacrificing a great number of lives in sending an army to put down the Mormons and nothing had been accomplished, an indignant public, newspapers, and critics of the whole idea of the expedition, labeled it, "Buchanan's Blunder." About the beginning of the new year, 1858, Col. Albert Sidney Johnston, was placed in command of the army, but before orders were given to invade the territory of Utah, a worried President Buchanan sent Col. Thomas L. Kane, whom he knew to be a friend of the Mormons, to confer with President Young. Col. Kane had befriended the Saints during their trials and tribulations before and after they were driven from Nauvoo. It was felt his friendship with the Mormon leader would be the means of convincing him of the futility of a war between the Mormon army and Government troop, which would only result in loss of lives on both sides and accomplishment of nothing. After a somewhat extended consultation between the two, President Young agreed to relinquish the Governorship to Alford Cummings, withdraw the army from the canyon, and for Government troops to enter the Salt Lake Valley. Unwarranted disruption caused by troops stationed in the valley was a source of much dismay to the Saints and their leader, who resented the idea of a -79