This Abominable Slavery

1.5 Excerpt from the Deseret News, Associate Justice Zerubbabel Snow renders his decision in the Lujan Trial

Associate Justice Zerubbabel Snow (1809-1888)

On February 10, 1852, Associate Justice Zerubbabel Snow reported the results of the Luján trial to Willard Richards, President of the Legislative Council and later sent a copy to the Deseret News for publication.

Document Introduction

Judge Snow dated this document February 10, 1852, over two weeks after the Luján libel case ended, and addressed it to Willard Richards who was then serving as President of the Legislative Council. [1] It was clearly intended to inform the legislature on the legal arguments he used to justify his decisions in the Luján cases and it was likely meant to also help them craft an Indian indenture bill that could withstand judicial scrutiny. There is no indication in the legislative minutes or in the debate over the Indian indenture bill that lawmakers had read Snow’s summary. In fact the debate over the bill was over by the time Snow drafted this document. Nonetheless, legislators were aware of many of the issues Snow raised in this account because they also raised them as they debated the proposed indenture bill. At some point Snow decided to also send this document to the Deseret News for public consumption. The News published it on March 6, the last day of the legislative session and the day that lawmakers passed an “Act for the Relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners.”

[1] “First Judicial Court,” Deseret News, 6 March 1852, 4.