ley until January 27, 1851, being even then unofficially conveyed by way of San Francisco, through New York papers which were brought to Salt Lake City by Mr. Henry E. Gibson. Prior to this time, the Provisional Government of the State of Deseret had borne sway. It was the child of a mass convention which met in Salt Lake City on the 4th of March, 1849. On the 10th of the same month, a constitution was adopted, and a pro visional government was organized under the name of the State of Deseret. The election of officers for this provisional government took place on the 12th following, and resulted in the choosing of Brigham Young for governor. It will thus be seen that he was already the choice of the people and was acting as governor when the news of his presidential appointment reached him. He took the oath of office on the 3rd day of February, 1851, and immediately set to work to change the provisional to the territorial form of government. Accordingly, on the 5th of April, 1851, the General Assembly of the State of Deseret was dissolved, and the state merged into the Territory of Utah, the first territorial election being held the following August. Aside from the political events of his first term, which though exciting were of little permanent import except for the episodes of the "Runaway Judges" Brandebury and Brocchus and Secretary D. B. Harris, who created a breach which may rightly be said to be the beginning of the long controversy between the Federal judges and the "Mormons," there were many significant events which occurred in the local history of the people, in all of which the wisdom of the directing mind of the great leader was manifest. The national Congress was petitioned, March 3, 1852, for the construction of a national central railroad and telegraph line to the Pacific coast-a request followed by other similar petitions in 1853-54. The hopes of the people were realized in 1869, President Young living to take part in the construction of this great highway. The growth, extention and colonization of new settlements were continued; dramatic and educational interests were encouraged; public buildings and stores were erected; grist and saw mills were busy in all parts; home manufacturing institutions sprang up in various places, encouraged by legislative appropriation and protection. The corner stone of the temple was laid on the 6th of April, 1853; the Indian question called for careful diplomacy; and the troubles with the red men, in the Walker war of 1853, caused a conflict in which the lives of twenty whites were lost with a loss of three hundred thousand dollars in property. At the expiration of his first term, a petition, signed alike by Federal officials, "Mormons" and Gentiles, and headed by Colonel E. J. Steptoe (who had arrived in Salt Lake City with a body of troops to punish the perpetrators of the Gunnison Indian massacre,) was sent to President Franklin Pierce, asking the appointment of Governor Young for a second term. The president had at first refused to reappoint him, owing doubtless to evil imputations against his character circulated by Secretary Harris and others. The place was tendered to Colonel Steptoe, who declined, knowing that Young was the people's choice. This petition was forwarded to Washington in December,1854,and resulted in the reappointment of Brigham Young as Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs. A growing discontent among the Federal officials characterized the second term, notwithstanding Brigham Young was the means of instituting such order and justice in Utah as were never equalled in any other western state or territory in our frontier history. Three local events occurred in 1856, each of which may well be called a calamity. The period of want, in the early months of that year, caused by the previous season's crop being destroyed by grasshoppers and drought, in which the people were compelled to add sego and thistle roots to their scanty rations of meal and vegetables; the Tintic Indian war, by which twelve settlers lost their lives, with other Indian troubles on the plains; and the greatest calamity of all-the death of upwards of one hundred and fifty persons in the belated hand-cart companies. The close of his second term saw that "ill-advised measure on the part of the United States Government," the Utah War, which cost the government "several hundred lives and the loss of at least fifteen million dollars at a time when men and money could least be spared, and accomplished practically nothing save that it exposed the president and his cabinet to much well-deserved ridicule." Through the wise manipulations and consummate strategy of Governor Young, the "Mormons" won through it the respect and esteem of a large portion of the outside world, and a thousand favorable echoes from the press which recognized the bravery and patriotism of the inhabitants of Utah. This unfortunate episode introduces the second governor of Utah, Alfred Cumming, who was commissioned in July, 1857, and who entered Salt Lake City, respectfully treated and acknowledged as governor, on April 12, 1858, after the peace arrangements of Colonel Thomas L. Kane had become effective. Of the rare abilities, staunch character, and the master-mind of Governor Young, nothing need be said in this sketch. They are known to all, and his genius is apparent in every city and village of our prosperous commonwealth. President Young died in Salt Lake City on August 29, 1877, beloved by the whole people whose religious as well as temporal leader and guide he had been for thirty-three years. TIME AND ETERNITY. What is Time? But a moment, the present, the now; Eternity! What? No beginning, no end! H. W. Naisbitt. WALTER MURRAY GIBSON. A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND ADVENTURES, IN TWO CHAPTERS.** BY ANDREW JENSON, ASSISTANT HISTORIAN OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS. CHAPTER I. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints affords but few opportunities for adventurers and hypocrites. Yet, during the seventy years of its existence, a few men have endeavored to obtain means and gain temporary honor among the Saints under false pretenses; but they have invariably come to grief sooner or later. Among adventurers who have become generally known throughout The Church, such men as John C. Bennett and Walter M. Gibson, and some others, might be mentioned. They were men who pretended to embrace the Gospel in all sincerity, but who subsequently proved themselves utterly unworthy of the confidence of the Saints, and were cast out when their hypocrisy and evil deeds came to light. The career of the late Walter M. Gibson is perhaps the most striking example of this class of men mentioned in Church history. Without further comment, I shall present *Compiled principally from Church documents, U. S. Government Records, Biography of Lorenzo Snow, a pamphlet entitled, The Shepherd of Lanai, Honolulu and San Francisco papers, and the writer's own notes. some historic facts illustrative of his career and his brief connection with The Church. Walter Murray Gibson was born of American parents, at sea, on board a Spanish vessel, in the Bay of Biscay, between Gibraltar and England, January 16, 1822. He was a son of John Gibson and Lucy Murray. Concerning his early career, we find the following in the San Francisco Evening Bulletin under the caption, "A Modern Knight-errant in Town:" * * * Walter M. Gibson is almost as noticeable a specimen of the genuine roving Yankee as ever turned up; yet he was not born in America at all, and he has no New England blood in him. He was born in the Bay of Biscay, was raised in the rebellious South Carolina, kept an "old field school" at fifteen, married at seventeen, and was a widower with three children at twenty-one, at which same ripe age he was master of the first iron steamship ever built in the United States. In 1843, he planned an expedition to California, and bought a schooner for the purpose, but the project fell through. But though the California expedition failed, some California ventures did not, and of course the Captain went to Washington. For a while, he was Consul-general for Guatemala, San Salvador and Costa Rica, and in 1849 and 1850, we hear of him sojourning at Mango de Clava, Santa Anna's residence; and while a Russian envoy and convoy of soldiers, visiting every state in Mexico, and rumaging in the subterranean ruins of Xochychalco. Next we hear of him as the guest of General Robles at Vera Cruz, and then master of the late U. S. revenue cutter Flirt, in the harbor of New York; with an armament on board for the service of General Carrera of Guatemala. * It appears that Mr. Gibson bought the revenue cutter Flirt, in May, 1851, and attempted to sell her to General Carrera, of Guatemala. "He was compelled to abandon the attempt," says the report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, "because the vigilance of the United States authorities prevented it." Gibson then loaded the Flirt with ice, and sailed southward. At Porta Praya, a town of the Cape Verd Islands, his vessel was searched; at Pernambuco, in Brazil, South America, his ice was reduced to one or two tons which he sold. Being the owner of the vessel, he took command as captain and sailed away toward the East Indies; he entered the Straits of Sunda, December 25, 1851, traversed the |