Charles S. Zane
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(1831-1915) CHARLES S. ZANE Until recently, the interpretation of Utah territorial history has suffered from two conflicting conspiratorial points of view. Some writers have seen in the tremendous economic, political, and social power of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a conspiracy against the United States government; and others have viewed congressional enact ments and the actions of territorial officials as a conspiracy against the Mormons' basic rights of self-government, economic freedom, and reli gious liberty. A superficial examination of such issues as congressional legislation, the disfranchisement of 12,000 voters, the filling of the pene- tentiaries with polygamists, and the church's loss of property could sup port either conspiratorial view.1 In a recent study one historian, himself not a proponent of either conspiratorial viewpoint, justifiably called the period of intense conflict "The Raid." 2 Though a federal marshal may undertake a raid, the consequences of the arrests which he makes depend upon the trial judge. Thomas G. Alexander is an assistant professor of history at Brigham Young University. The author expresses appreciation to Professors S. George Ellsworth of Utah State University and Clark C. Spence of the University of Illinois for their suggestions and comments. 1 For examples of each point of view see R. N. Baskin, Reminiscences of Early Utah (Salt Lake City, 1914) ; B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (6 vols., Salt Lake City, 1930) ; and Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah (4 vols., Salt Lake City, 1892-1904). 2 Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900 (Cambridge, 1958), 353-79. Apostle of the New Era BY THOMAS G. ALEXANDER If the judge fails to support the marshal and the prosecuting attorney and allows criminals to return to their former pursuits without punish ment, the law is but a dead letter. One feature which characterized the last six years of the 1880's was the strict enforcement of the law, and if any one man was more responsible for this enforcement than any other, that man was Utah territorial Chief Justice Charles Shuster Zane. Because of the conspiratorial viewpoints, many who have investi gated the period between 1884 and 1892 have emphasized the conflict between the anti-Mormon legislation which Zane and his colleagues enforced and Mormon political, social, and economic institutions. This emphasis on the enforcement of the Edmunds Act (1882) and the Ed munds-Tucker Act (1887) has subjected Zane's work to two irreconcil able interpretations, and the real impact of his service has been lost in excessive praise and criticism. From their analysis of Zane's work, B. H. Roberts and Orson F. Whitney, both contemporary Mormon historians, interpreted him as a man with a deep-seated prejudice against the Mormon people. They summed up his enforcement of the anti-Mormon legislation by saying, Judge Zane . will stand classed ... in history as sharing in responsibility for the cruelty and injustice of that regime, which marks the saddest period of Utah's history .... Judge Zane never divorced himself from his deepseated prejudice and vindictiveness against . [the 292 Utah Historical Quarterly Mormon] offenders and their religious faith, ... his object was the over throw of Mormonism as a religion.3 On the other hand, some contemporaries of Zane describe a man who bears little resemblance to the ogre whom Roberts and Whitney observed. R. N. Baskin, a prominent Gentile lawyer and former Liberal party candidate for Congress, writing to refute the assertions of Whitney and others of his pursuasion, said that Zane: is too well known, and his uprightness both as a judge and as a citizen is too well established to be impaired by such an atrocious slur as the foregoing. [He had just quoted from the anonymous History of the Bench and Bar of Utah.] A more conscientious, impartial and humane judge than he never sat upon the bench. During his administration as chief justice a large number of Mormons were convicted of unlawful cohabitation under the Edmunds law of 1882, in the third district court over which he presided . [No one may assert] that any of them had not been granted a fair and impartial trial.4 The Salt Lake Tribune, a Gentile newspaper, said that he is following a line of duty, as God gives him to see his duty, and there is not a man who has noticed his ways on the bench for an hour who does not know that in following that duty he would not deviate a hair's breadth . .5 Was this a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde about whom the sources spoke? Certainly both viewpoints cannot be correct, and the old cliche that the truth lies somewhere in between does not aid us in assessing Zane's real contribution. Perhaps it is impossible to find the truth about a man so shrouded in controversy, but the historian neglects his duty if he does not try. This article will attempt to assess the work and character of Charles S. Zane and his impact on Utah between 1884 and 1892. Although Charles S. Zane came from a New Jersey Quaker back ground, he himself was an agnostic. He was born on March 3, 1831, in Tuckahoe, Cape May County, New Jersey; and in his mid-teens he left home to become a grocery clerk and livery stable owner in Philadelphia. After moving to Illinois in 1850 at the behest of his brother who had preceded him, he studied at McKendree College, Lebanon, Illinois, from 1852 until 1855. He taught school for several months; then, because Ab- 3 Roberts, Comprehensive History, VI, 176-77. See also Whitney, History of Utah, III, 266-69. 4 Baskin, Reminiscences, 52—53. 5 Salt Lake Tribune, February 5, 1885. Charles S. Zane 293 raham Lincoln's activities as a captain in the Blackhawk War impressed him, at the age of 25 he applied at the law office of Lincoln and Hern- don to study law. Although they were unable to accept him, William H. Herndon gave Zane a letter to James C. Conkling under whom the young lawyer studied until he was admitted to the bar in 1857. He was an early Lincoln supporter, and after Lincoln was elected president, he became Herndon's law partner. Zane had already married Herndon's niece, Margaret Maxcy, in 1859, and when Herndon retired Zane formed a law partnership with Shelby M. Cullom until 1873 when he was elected circuit judge.0 Any man is, in a large measure, the sum total of his experiences, and Zane's past had shaped him for the service which he was to perform on the Utah bench. Unlike so many federal territorial appointees, he was no disappointed office seeker. As a city, then county attorney, and later from 1875 to 1883 as an elected judge on the Fifth Circuit in Illi nois, he had been so successful that some doubted whether he would accept the appointment to Utah. Through the personal influence of his old law partner, Senator Shelby M. Cullom, President Chester Arthur commissioned Zane chief justice of the Utah Supreme Court July 5, 1884. In August 1884 when he left for Utah, the lawyers and dignitaries of Illinois honored him with a farewell dinner and a letter praising him for the services he had performed. He arrived in Salt Lake City August 23, 1884, and Governor Eli H. Murray assigned him to the Third Judi cial District September 1, 1884.' One could, of course, take the position that the lawyers were pleased to see Zane go to Utah for reasons other than their joy at the fine service he had rendered. Perhaps they too thought him partial and prejudiced. After all, the only justifiable appraisal of the worth of a judge must be based on all the decisions which he made, not merely on a selected group of them. If his decisions evince a prejudice or if he were unfair and partial in his administration of justice, one must then accept the judge ment of Whitney and Roberts, if not, a new evaluation must be made. Do Zane's decisions reveal a man with a well-developed humanitarian attitude and social consciousness, or do they show a man who harbored "Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography (22 vols., New York, 1928-1944), XX, 643-44. Charles S. Zane, "Lincoln As I Knew Him," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, XIV (April-July, 1921), 75. 7 J. Cecil Alter, ed., Utah the Storied Domain: A Documentary History of Utah's Event ful Career ... (3 vols., Chicago, 1932), I, 452-53. "Journal History" (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Historian's Library, Salt Lake City), July 12, 1884. Shelby M. Cullom, Fifty Years of Public Service (Chicago, 1911), 205-6. 294 Utah Historical Quarterly intolerant feelings, desired to suppress a particular religion, and disre garded contestants' legal rights? Only six months after taking the bench in Utah, Zane expressed his attitude toward legal rights in a case involving the Union Pacific Rail road Company. John E. Dooly, trustee for the stockholders of the Utah Eastern Railroad Company, complained that the Union Pacific had gained control of the Utah Eastern and was forcing the directors and officials of the Eastern to disregard the interests of the stockholders. Zane, after considering the allegations of both disputants, ruled that "all these parties should be permitted to litigate their rights"; and because investigation was necessary to discover whether Dooly's complaints were true, he appointed a receiver pending completion of the investigation, thus assuring the protection of the rights of all parties concerned.8 Besides trying to secure everyone's rights in such litigation, Zane sought to protect Utah citizens against corporations from outside the state.