several wings spreading out from what had begun as small, simple dwellings. Pointing to one of those, Gabe Hamilton said, 'You see a place like that, Mr. Lincoln, and you can bet a polygamist lives there. He'll take the center for himself and give each wife and her brats a wing.'
'How many Mormons are polygamists, truly?' Lincoln asked. 'They write all sorts of things in the Eastern papers.'
'They say all sorts of things here, too,' Hamilton answered. 'The truth is devilish hard to find, and they don't keep any public records of marriages past the first, which makes it harder yet. I'd say it's about one in ten, if that, but the polygamists have influence beyond their numbers. If you're going to support more than one wife and family, you need more than the common run of money, you see.'
'Oh, yes,' Lincoln said. 'A case similar to that of slaveholders in the Confederate States. And those not in the elite group will some of them aspire to join it over the course of time, and thus support it even without presently enjoying its benefits.'
'Benefits?' Gabe Hamilton let out a derisive guffaw. 'Have you ever seen most of these Mormon women, Mr. Lincoln? You ask me- not that anybody did-taking 'em is an act of charity.'
Like the residential blocks, the central business district of Salt Lake City boasted avenues lined with trees. The buildings back of those trees were modern enough, and included several fine-looking hotels. Ahead loomed what looked like an enormous Gothic cathedral, about three fourths of the way to completion. 'That would be the famous Mormon Temple?' Lincoln asked, pointing.
'That's right.' Hamilton nodded. 'And that long dome there- the one that'd look handsomer if the wall and the trees didn't hide its lines-that's the Tabernacle, where they worship. They don't think small, do they?'
'No,' Lincoln allowed. 'Many things may be said of them, but not thinking small.'
From the window of his hotel room, Lincoln could look out at the Tabernacle and the Temple. On scaffolding that seemed hardly thicker than cobwebs, men tiny as ants against the granite bulk of the latter laboured to bring Brigham Young's grandiose vision one day closer to completion.
Lincoln had just finished unpacking when someone knocked on the door. When he opened it, he found a handsome young man in a dignified suit standing in the hallway. 'Mr. Lincoln, President Taylor presents his compliments, and hopes you will be free to take supper with him this evening at seven o'clock,' the youngster said. 'If that is convenient to you, sir, I will come by with a carriage at about half past six, to convey you to his home.'
'President Taylor?' For a moment, the only president by that name who came to Lincoln 's mind was Zachary, now thirty years dead. Then he remembered where he was. 'The head of your church, you mean?'
'Yes, sir, of course.' The emissary had probably learned of Zachary Taylor in school, but John Taylor was the living reality for him.
'Tell him I thank him for the invitation, and I shall be pleased to see him at the hour he named.' For the life of him, Lincoln could not see why the spiritual leader of the Latter-Day Saints wanted to meet with him, but what he did not show to the young messenger, that worthy would not guess. And his own ignorance and curiosity would be relieved soon enough.
As promised, the bright young man came by the hotel in a handsome buggy at six-thirty. The journey to John Taylor's home took a little less than half an hour. The home itself, or at least the central portion of it, would not have looked out of place in Chicago or Pittsburgh: it was a two-story building, brilliantly whitewashed, with a slate roof. Added to that central portion, though, were enough wings for several butterflies, each, no doubt, housing a separate portion of the Mormon president's extended and extensive family. Poplars, maples, and grape vines surrounded the house, and ivy climbed up the front wall.
When Lincoln knocked at the front door, a man of about his own age opened it. 'Come in, sir,' he said in an accent that showed he'd been born in England. 'I am John Taylor; it is a pleasure to meet you.' His hair, his eyebrows, and the beard growing along the angle of his jaw and under his chin were all snowy white. He habitually pursed his lips, which made his mouth look narrow and bloodless; his deep-set eyes, very blue, seemed to have seen more sorrows than joys. Lincoln understood that. He would have said the same of himself.
He looked around with no small curiosity. The central portion of the house seemed no more unusual within than without: the furniture was comfortable without being lavish; bookshelves lined many walls; the knickknacks and gewgaws on tables, the pictures on the walls, were the sort any minister might have had.
Nor was the dining room in any way strange. As Lincoln sat down, Taylor said, 'I fear I can offer you only water or milk with your meal, for I have no tea or coffee or liquor in the house.'
'Water will do,' Lincoln said.
They talked of small things during supper. Taylor did not offer to introduce the girl-she was about sixteen- who brought bread and butter and beefsteaks and potatoes and squash in from the kitchen. Maybe she was a servant. Maybe she was a daughter. She didn't look much like him, but she might have favored her mother. Maybe she was a wife. Lincoln did his best to put that unappealing thought (not that the girl herself was unappealing, in spite of what Gabe Hamilton had said about Mormon women) out of his mind.
After she had cleared away the last of the dishes, the Mormon president said, 'When you next communicate with President Blaine, sir, I hope you will convey to him that the line the U.S. government has taken here makes it more difficult than it might otherwise be for us to support that government with our full power in the event of a collision with the Confederate States.'
'I have no notion when I shall be in touch with Mr. Blaine again,' Lincoln answered truthfully.
John Taylor coughed. 'Please, sir, I know you may not love the faith I follow, but that I follow it docs not make me a child or a fool. Can it be a coincidence that the one former Republican president of the United States comes to Deseret-Utah, if you'd rather-at the same time as the present Republican president is leading the country toward war with the CSA? For what other purpose could you be here than to examine our loyalty in the event of a conflict?'
'I was invited here to speak to the working men of this Territory on ways in which they can hope to better their lot,' Lincoln said, again truthfully.
'A plausible pretext, I don't deny,' Taylor said, seeming intent on finding deviousness whether it was there or not. 'The timing, however, makes me doubt it conveys the whole story of your visit. Be that as it may, do please tell President Blaine that, since he seems to be continuing the longstanding U.S. policy of attempting to suppress our institutions, some of our number wonder if continued allegiance to the United States be worth the cost. All we have ever sought is to be left alone, to practice our own ways as we think best.'
'If you will recall, President Taylor, that was also the rallying cry of the Confederate States during the war,' Lincoln answered. 'Your people were loyal then-conspicuously loyal. I note also, whether you care to believe it or not, that I have no influence to speak of on President Blaine.' Once again, that was true. Blaine did his best not to remember that he and Lincoln were members of the same party.
'Come, come.' Having dismissed the truth with two words, Taylor went back to the point he had been making before: 'Unlike the case of the Confederacy, our practices have the consent of all those involved in them. We seek to impose them on no one, but the United States have continually laboured to subvert them, the more so since the railroads have brought such an influx of Gentiles into our homeland. Do you wonder at our resentment, sir?'
Lincoln thought again of that young girl. Could she have been a wife? Taylor 's public face was the image of decorum. What did he do in private, in this great rambling boardinghouse of a home? That question, and others like it, echoed through the minds of ordinary Americans when they thought of Mormonism.
He shrugged. In any case, it was an irrelevance. 'If you like, President Taylor, I shall pass on to President Blaine what you say. I fear I cannot promise that he will take any special notice of it. As I told you, I am not a man he is in the habit of heeding.'
'He would be well advised to do so in this instance,' John Taylor said. 'We left the United States once, to come here to Utah. The borders of the USA then followed us west. We cannot emigrate again, not physically, yet we must be able to practice our religion unimpeded.' The light from the kerosene lamps filled his face with harsh shadows.
'I very much hope that is not a threat, sir,' Lincoln said.
The sockets of Taylor 's eyes were shrouded in darkness. 'So do I,' he said. 'So do I.'
'General Stuart! General Stuart! Telegram from Richmond, General Stuart!' At a dead run, a messenger came from the telegraph office, waving the flimsy sheet of paper that bore the message.
