"Horrible Massacre of Emigrants!!" The Mountain Meadows Massacre in Public Discourse

 
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CHAPTER VIII.1 

BLOOD ATONEMENT.—REIGN OF TERROR.—MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE.

THE people of Utah were now thoroughly excited. Their religious antipathy, their political hatred had been appealed to, and both in public and private had they been stirred up to a pitch of frenzy which is hardly possible at the present time to comprehend. There were whisperings now of a most fearful doctrine, calculated not only to strike terror into the hearts of those whose faith was weakening, but even to shock with a sense of horror those who only heard of it from afar. I mean the doctrine of the BLOOD ATONEMENT.

"This was the doctrine that certain sins can not be forgiven here on earth—even the blood of Christ does not avail to atone for them. Shedding innocent blood; divulging the secrets of the Endowment House; marital unfaithfulness on the part of the wife; leaving the Mormon Church,—these are unpardonable. Only the shedding of the blood of the person committing these sins will atone for them and save him. It is to this day a matter of fact that if any apostate from the Mormons were to com-

 
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mit any of the unpardonable sins, and were to be assassinated, all zealous Mormon leaders would maintain not only that the deed was justifiable, but even meritorious! This seems bad enough, but it is not the worst. The doctrine of BLOOD ATONEMENT is that the murder of an apostate, that is, one who has left the Mormon Church, is a deed of love! If a Saint sees another leave the church, or if be only believes his brother's faith is weakening, he knows that only by his brother's blood being shed is there any chance of forgiveness for him; it is therefore the kindest action that he can perform to his brother to shed his blood! It is making atonement—not a crime.

"That such doctrines have, over and over again, been distinctly taught in the plainest words in the public hearing of thousands; that they have been printed and reprinted by authority; that they have been practiced, and the very highest of the Mormon leaders have applauded; and that, even at the present moment, these doctrines form a part of the dogmas of the church, are evidenced by the following:—

"Jedediah M. Grant said in a sermon in the tabernacle on this subject:—

I would advise some of you men here to go to President Young and confess your sins, and ask him to take you outside the city and have your blood shed to atone for your sins. There are men and women that I would advise to go to the president immediately, and ask him to appoint a committee to attend to their ease; and then let the place be selected and let that committee shed their blood. . . .

I would ask how many covenant-breakers there are in this city and in this kingdom? I believe that there are a great many; and if they are covenant-breakers, we need a place designated where we can shed their blood. . . . We have  
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been trying long enough with this people, and I go in for letting the sword of the Almighty be unsheathed not only in word but in deed.

What ought this meek people, who keep the commandments of God, to do unto them? "Why," says one, "they ought to pray the Lord to kill them." I want to know if you would wish the Lord to come down and do all your dirty work? . . . When a man prays for a thing, he ought to be willing to perform it himself. . . . Putting to death the transgressors would exhibit the law of God, no matter by whom it was done.

"Brigham Young, in a discourse delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake, and afterwards reprinted by authority in the Journals of Discourses, said:—

There are sins that men commit for which they can not receive forgiveness in this world or in that which is to come; and if they had their eyes opened to see their true condition, they would be perfectly willing to have their blood spilt upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might ascend to heaven as an offering for their sins, and the smoking incense would atone for their sins.

I know when you hear my brethren telling about cutting people off from the earth that you consider it is strong doctrine; but it is to save them, not to destroy them. . . . I have had men come to me and offer their lives to atone for their sins. It is true that the blood of the Son of God was shed for sins through the fall and those committed by men, yet men can commit sins which it can never remit, but they must be atoned for by the blood of the man.

When will we love our neighbors as ourselves? Now take a person in this congregation who has committed a sin that he knows will deprive him of that exaltation which he desires, and that he can not attain to it without the shedding of his blood, and also knows that by having his blood shed he will atone for that sin; is there a man or woman in this house but would say, "Shed my blood that I might be saved and exalted with the gods"? Will you love your brothers  
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or sisters likewise when they have a sin that can not be atoned for without the shedding of their blood? Will you love that man or woman well enough to shed their blood? That is what Jesus Christ meant. He never told a man or woman to love their enemies in their wickedness, never.

I could refer you to plenty of instances where men have been righteously slain in order to atone for their sins. I have seen scores and hundreds of people for whom there would have been a chance if their lives had been taken and their blood spilled on the ground as a smoking incense to the Almighty, but who are now angels to the devil.

I have known a great many men who have left this church, for whom there is no chance whatever of exaltation, but if their blood had been spilled it would have been better for them. This is loving our neighbor as ourselves; if he needs help, help him; it he needs salvation, and it is necessary to spill his blood on the earth in order that he may be saved, spill it. . . . That is the way to love mankind.

Now, brethren and sisters, will you live your religion? How many hundreds of times have I asked that question! Will the Latter Day Saints live their religion?

"And so, according to Brigham Young, their prophet, this was the religion of the Saints! And the people acted up to the 'religion' thus taught; and the story is so terrible that one dare not even whisper all its details.

"It is no secret that all this was understood literally. The wife of one elder, when he was absent on a mission, acted unfaithfully toward him. Her husband took counsel of the authorities, and was reminded that the shedding of her blood alone could save her. He returned and told her but she asked for time, which was readily granted. One day, in a moment of affection, when she was seated on his knee, he reminded her of her doom, and suggested that now when their hearts were full of love was a suitable time for carrying it into execution. She acquiesced, and out of love he cut her throat from ear to ear.

 
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"In many instances the outrages committed against persons who were known to be innocent were so revolting that no woman, nay, even no right-minded man, would venture to do more than just allude to them. A few, however, and only a few, and they by no means the worst, of the milder cases I will just mention.

"There was the murder of the Aikin party, six persons, who were killed on their way to California. The same year a man named Yates was killed under atrocious circumstances; and Franklin McNeil, who had sued Brigham for false imprisonment and was killed at his hotel door. There was Sergeant Pike, and there were Arnold and Drown. There were Price and William Bryan at Fairfield; there were Almon Babbitt, and Brassfield, and Dr. Robinson; there were also James Cowdy and his wife and child, and Margetts and his wife; and many another, too, to say nothing of that frightful murder at the Mountain Meadows.

"Besides these, there is good reason to think that Lieutenant Gunnison and his party were also victims, although it was said that they were shot by 'Indians.' The Potter and Parrish murders were notorious: Forbes, and Jones and his mother, might be added to the same list: the dumb boy, Andrew Bernard; a woman killed by her own husband; Morris, the rival prophet, and Banks, and four women who belonged to their party; Isaac Potter and Charles Wilson and John Walker. These are but a few. The death list is too long for me to venture to give it.

"These were all well-known and notorious instances. I say nothing of those of whose fate nothing, not even a whisper, was ever heard; and I say nothing of the frightful 'cuttings off' before the reformation and in recent years.

 
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"Gentile men and women were killed, for hatred; and that 'killing' was no murder, for theirs was not innocent blood. Apostates and saints of doubtful faith, and those who were obnoxious, had their blood shed all for love. and that 'cutting off' was also no murder because to secure their salvation by cutting their throats was an act of mercy.

"All through the Reign of Terror, marrying and giving in marriage was the order of the day. It mattered not if a man was seventy years of age; according to Brother Brigham he was still a boy,— 'the brethren are all boys until they are a hundred years old,' —and some young girl of sixteen, fifteen, or even younger would be 'counseled,' that is, commanded, to marry him. She might even have a sister no older than herself, and then as likely as not he would take the two to wife, and very probably both on the same day. The girls were told that to marry a young man was not a safe thing, for young men were not tried; it was better to marry a well-tested patriarch, and then their chances of 'exaltation' in the kingdom of heaven were sure and certain. In this way the life-long happiness of many a girl, little more than a child, was blighted forever. At the time of which I speak, every unmarried woman, or girl who could by the utmost stretch of possibility be thought old enough to marry, was forced to find a husband, or a husband was immediately found for her, and without any regard to her wishes was forced upon her. Young men, and even boys, were forced, not only into marriage, but even into polygamy, and none dared resist. The marrying mania in fact was universal and irresistible; every one must marry or be given in marriage. So evidently was this the case that women in jest said that if one were to  
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hang a petticoat upon a fence-pole, half a dozen men would flock at once to marry it! Absurd as this may seem, it was not very far from the truth. Young men and maidens, old men and children, widows, virgins, and youths, in fact, every one, whether married or unmarried, it mattered not, was 'counseled,' commanded, to marry. Even during that strange time in which every Saint seemed to have gone stark crazy mad, the frightful anomaly of men of fifty, sixty, and even seventy, marrying more children, girls of fourteen and even thirteen, forced itself upon the attention of some of the leaders. The question arose, an odd question to Gentile ears, 'At what age is a girl old enough to marry? Considerable discussion ensued, and even in the tabernacle the question was taken up. The voice of authority, however, eventually answered the matter, but not in the way that any ordinary civilized person would expect. I am afraid that the reader will think that I exaggerate or misrepresent facts. I wish it were so, for the case is so outrageously atrocious; but I am sorry to say that scores and hundreds of instances similar to this, which occurred during the reformation, might be given.

There are before me, as I write, letters, papers, documents of various sorts relative to marriage and the matrimonial affairs of the Saints at the time of which I speak, that I wish the reader could peep at. I would not like him to read them; in fact, I dared not read them all myself, for some of them are so shameful that the mere knowledge of having read them through would make any right-minded person blush. Taking more wives was the order of the day; how, was of little matter.

"The work of the reformation was in full progress;  
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the people were excited to frenzy; the federal troops were expected; men were marrying and maidens were given in marriage; every one in Utah was looking forward to the time when the prophecies of Joseph the Seer should be fulfilled, and the Son of man should come: and then, when one would have supposed that every man would have wished that his hands should he pure, was perpetrated a deed which is unparalleled in modern civilized times — a deed at which angels and men have stood aghast with horror."

The doctrine of Blood Atonement had borne its fruit in a hundred places in Utah. There had been the secret assassination of Gentiles, the "cutting off" of "apostates "in hours of darkness; private vengeances had been assuaged in blood; "the Indians had killed "those whom the air whispered had offended Brigham or some officer of the church; some, it was said, "fell off a mountain precipice;" others strangely "disappeared;" and still others went on journeys which had no end. Murder stalked abroad, vengeance filled the air. The only safety was in silent and implicit obedience to the every wish ("counsel") of Brigham and his high officers. Under cover of this doctrine of blood, he who did not yield his money or business, or betrothed or wife to the "counsel" of the covetous higher officer was way-laid, and none dare ask too many questions concerning him. The murderous poison of this doctrine spread throughout Utah. Its culmination was the Mountain Meadows Massacre "— the most horrid crime that stains the American continent.

One of the causes that led up to it was that Parley P. Pratt, a high officer in the Mormon Church, while on a " mission" in Arkansas, ran off with the wife of a Mr.  
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McLean. The injured husband caught up with the fleeing pair and shot down the despoiler of his home. The Mormons were greatly incensed at this resentment of their right to "prey upon the Gentiles," and nursed hatred against all people from Arkansas. The main features of this massacre shall be told in the words of Mrs. Stenhouse: —

I feel myself utterly incompetent to tell the story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, it is so shocking, so fiend-like. And yet it must be told.

"While the work of reformation, that is, the so-called reforming of the Mormon Church, was going on, and when the United States troops were constantly expected in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, a large train of emigrants from Arkansas came into Utah on its way to California. They were one hundred and twenty people, hard-working, plain folks, but well-to-do, and, taken all in all, about as respectable a band of emigrants as ever passed through Salt Lake City.

"They traveled along in the most orderly fashion. On Sunday they rested, and one of their number conducted divine service. All went well until they reached Salt Lake City, but it was there that they first discovered that feeling of enmity which finally resulted in their destruction.

Weary and footsore they encamped by the Jordan River, trusting there to recruit themselves and their teams, and to replenish their stock of provisions. Brigham Young was then governor of Utah Territory, commander-in-chief of the militia, and Indian agent as well: he was therefore responsible for all that took place within his jurisdiction. These emigrants were ordered to break up their camp and move on; and it is said that written instructions were sent on before them, directing  
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the people in the settlements through which they would have to pass to have no dealings with them.

"Compelled to travel on, they pursued their journey slowly towards Los Angeles. At American Fork they wished to trade off some of their worn-out stock and to purchase fresh; they also desired to obtain provisions. There was abundance of everything from the farm and front the field, for God had very greatly blessed the land that year; but they could obtain nothing. They passed on, and went through Battle Creek, Provo, Springville, Spanish Fork, Payson, Salt Creek, and Fillmore, and their reception was still the same. The word of the Mormon pontiff had gone forth, and no man dared to trade with them. Now and then some Mormon, weak in the faith or braver or more fond of money than his fellows, would steal into the camp, in the darkness of the night, bearing with him just what he was able to carry; but beyond this they could obtain nothing. Their only hope now lay in the chance of holding out until they could push through to some Gentile settlement. Through fifteen different Mormon settlements did they pass. without being able to purchase a morsel of bread.

"At Beaver they were again repulsed, and at Parowan they were not permitted to enter the town; they were forced to leave the public highway and pass round.

"At Cedar City they were allowed to purchase fifty bushels of tithing wheat, and to have it ground at the mill of that infamous scoundrel John D. Lee, upon whose memory will rest the eternal curses of all who have ever heard his name. The sellers of this wheat knew well enough even then that it would return to them again in the course of a few days.

"They remained in Cedar City only one day, and so  
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jaded were their teams that it took them three days to travel thence to Iron Creek, a distance of twenty miles; and two days were occupied ill journeying fifteen miles, the distance between Iron Creek and the Meadows.

"The morning after they left Iron Creek, the Mormon militia followed them in pursuit, intending, it is supposed, to assault them at Clara Crossing. That this was done by authority is evident from the sworn testimony to the effect that the assembling of those troops was the result of 'a regular militia call from the superior officers to the subordinate officers and privates of the regiments. . . . Said regiment was duly ordered to muster, armed and equipped as the low directs, and prepared for field operations.' A regular military council was held at Parowan, at which were present President Isaac C. Haight, the Mormon high priest of southern Utah, Colonel Dame, Major John D. Lee, and the apostle George A. Smith.

Brigham Young was in this case the superior authority; he was the commander-in-chief of the militia. The inference is obvious.

The regiment which started from Cedar City under the command of Major John D. Lee, the sub-agent for Indian affairs in southern Utah, was accompanied by baggage wagons and the other paraphernalia of war. A large body of the Piede Indians had been invited to accompany them.

An order came from headquarters to cut off the entire company except the little children. The emigrants were utterly unprepared, and the first onslaught found them defenceless. Accustomed, however, to border warfare, they immediately corraled their wagons and prepared for a siege. The next morning, Major  
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John D. Lee assembled his troops, including the auxilialies which he had summoned, about half a mile from the entrenchment of the fated emigrants, and then and there informed them, with all the coolness which such an infamous scoundrel alone could muster, that the whole company was to be killed, and only the little children who were too young to remember any thing were to be spared. The unfortunate emigrants did not know who their foes were. They saw Indians, or men who were so colored that they looked like Indians, and they saw others who were more than strangers to them, but they had no clew to the cause of their detention. The emigrants supposed that they were surrounded by Indians, and expected the cruelest treatment in case of resistance, not only death, but the outrage and shocking atrocities of savages.

"So day followed day. The agony of the unhappy men and women who were thus besieged, and were in daily, hourly peril of the most frightful of all deaths, can he imagined, not told. Meanwhile, what were those atrocious scoundrels doing who were lying in wait for their blood? Some of them were tricked out as Indians some were in their own proper dresses; and, moreover, real Utes were there. The unhappy victims could not possibly escape. There was time for the murderers to do their work leisurely. Between chance shots, which were intended to, and did, carry death with them, they amused themselves with 'pitching horse-shoe quoits.' Such heartlessness is almost beyond conception.

In terrible need of water, the emigrants dressed two little girls in white and sent them to the well. But the fiends—the Mormon militia—shot them down. They could not possibly advance. Their corn would not last long. They were famishing for water.  
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A wagon came near and was found to be tilled with armed men. Surely now, the unhappy emigrants thought, substantial help had come, the authorities of Utah in the neighborhood, whether Gentile or Mormon, had come out in the cause of civilization and humanity, and succor was at hand.

"A white flag was waxed from the wagon as an emblem of peace, and in order that the emigrants might know that it was white men and not the red demons of the hills who approached. They did not, indeed, know that these themselves were the monsters who had wronged them all the time, and who were even now compassing their death.

"Inside that wagon were President Haight, the infamous Mormon bishop John D. Lee, and other authorities of the church in southern Utah. They professed to the emigrants that they came upon the friendly errand of standing between them and the Indians. They said the Indians had taken offence at something that the emigrants had done, that they were thirsting for their blood, but that they, these Mormon officials, were on good terms with the Indians, and had influence, and would use their good offices in the cause of mercy and of peace. After some discussion they left with the professed view of conciliating the Indians. They returned, and said that the Indians had agreed that if the emigrants marched back to Salt Lake City, their lives should be spared; but that they must leave everything behind thew in their camp, even including the common weapons of defence which every western man carries about his person. The Mormon officials then solemnly undertook to bring an armed force and to guard the emigrants safely back again to the settlements.

 
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"This agreement being made, the Mormon officials retired, and after a short time again returned with thirty or forty armed men. Then the emigrants were marched out — the women and children in the front, and the men following, while the Mormon guard followed in the rear. When they had marched in this way about a mile, and had arrived at the place where the Indians were hid in the bushes on each side of the road, the signal was given for the slaughter. So taken by surprise were the emigrants, and so implicitly had they confided in these murderers, that they offered no resistance. The Mormon militia, their guard, immediately opened fire upon them from the rear, while the Indians and Mormons disguised as Indians, who were hidden among the bushes, rushed out upon them, shooting them down with guns and bows an arrows, and cutting some of the men's throats with knives. The women and children, shrieking with mortal terror, scattered and lied, some trying to hide in the bushes. Two young girls actually did escape for about a quarter of a mile, when they were overtaken and butchered under circumstances of the greatest brutality. About half an hour was probably occupied in the butchery, and every soul of that company was cut off, excepting only a few little children who were supposed to be too young to understand or remember what had taken place. The unfortunate victims were stripped, without reference to age or sex, and then left to rot upon the field. There they remained until torn and dismembered by the wolves, when it was then thought prudent to conceal such as lay nearest to the road.

"The remains were subsequently gathered together by Major Carleton, the United States commissioner, who erected over them a huge cairn of stones, surmounted  
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by a cross of red cedar, with the inscription thereon: Vengeance is mine: I will repay, said, the Lord;' and on a stone beneath were engraved the words:—

"'Here one hundred and twenty men, women, and children were massacred in cold blood early in September, 1857. They were from Arkansas.'

"It is said that this monument was subsequently destroyed by Brigham Young, when he visited that part of the territory.

"The little children, while their parents were being butchered, had clung about their murderers' knees, entreating mercy, but none of them finding it save those who were little better than infants. Their fears and cries the night after the murder are said to have been heart-rending. One little babe, just beginning to walk, was shot through the arm. Another little girl was shot through the ear, and the clothes of most of them were saturated with their mothers' blood. They were distributed among the people of the settlements, and when finally the government took them under the protection of the nation, the people among whom these little ones lived actually charged for their boarding. Two of them are said to have uttered some words from which it was presumed that their intelligence was in advance of their years. They were taken out quietly and buried! This happened some time after the massacre.

"Most of the property of the emigrants was sold by public auction in Cedar City. The Indians got most of the flour and ammunition, and the Mormons the more valuable articles. They jested over it and called it Spoil taken at the siege of Sevastopol.' There is legal proof that the clothing stripped from the corpses, blood-stained, riddled by the bullets, and with shreds of flesh  
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attached to it, was placed in the cellar of the tithing office in Salt Lake City, where it lay about three weeks, when it was privately sold. The cellar is said to have smelled of it for years. Long after this time, jewelry torn from the mangled bodies of the unfortunate women was publicly worn in Salt Lake City, and every one knew whence it came. Brigham Young, who was at the time governor of the territory and also Indian agent, made no report of the matter.

Mr. Jacob Forney, the first superintendent of Indian affairs after Brigham Young, gathered up sixteen of the children made orphans by that foul, treacherous deed, and gives the names and ages, eighteen months after the occurrence, as follows:—

John Calvin, now seven or eight years old, does not remember his name; says his family lived at Horse Head, Johnston County, Arkansas. Ambrose Mironi, about seven years, and William Taggit, four and a half years, brothers; these also lived in Johnston County. Prudence Angeline, six years, and Annie, about three years these two are said to be sisters. Rebecca, nine years; Louisa, five years; and Sarah, three and a half years; from Dunlap. Betsy, six years, and Anna, three years; said to be sisters; these know nothing of their family or residence. Charles Francher, seven or eight years; and his sister Annie, three and a half years. Sophronia or Mary Huff, six years, and Elisha W. Huff, four years. A boy; no account of him; those among whom he lived called him William. Francis Hawn or Korn, four and a half years old.

"Facts in my possession warrant me in estimating that there was distributed a few days after the massacre, among the leading church dignitaries, $30,000 worth of property.

 
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"Mormons have been accused of aiding the Indians in the commission of the crime, but, unfortunately, every step in my inquiries satisfied me that the Indians acted only a secondary part. White men were present and directed the Indians."

Mr. T. B. H. Stenhouse says:—

"To this should be added that wives and daughters of some of those murderers wore the apparel of the massacred women and maidens, while their polygamic husbands and fathers wore the masculine garments of their victims, plowed the fields with their cattle, and drove to their religious assemblies with the horses that they had stolen from the Arkansas train, and no one called then to account.

It has been repeatedly asserted that the best carriage was taken to Salt Lake City and was there seen rolling through the streets of that place for years afterwards."1

CHAPTER IX.

MURDER AND TREASON UNPUNISHED.—BRIGHAM YOUNG.

IT seems incredible that such a crime as the Mountain Meadows Massacre could have been committed in the United States; and still more incredible that it should have been eighteen years before any one was brought to trial for it; and yet such is the burning fact. Brigham Young, the chief criminal, was at that very time a United States officer, in the double capacity of governor and Indian agent; and John D. Lee, who had

 
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charge of the massacre, was a deputy Indian agent appointed by Young.

In 1875 John D. Lee was tried for being one of the Mountain Meadows murderers. The jury were mostly Mormons, the whole Mormon people, from Young down, conspired to keep back evidence, and the jury "disagreed''! A second trial came in 1876, and Brigham Young having then concluded that the only safety for himself and others was in having a scapegoat, deserted Lee, the evidence was forthcoming, and Lee was found guilty, and executed upon the very spot where his victims had pleaded with him for their lives. Before his death he wrote a full confession and indirectly laid the responsibility on Brigham Young, to whom, after the bloody work, he made a detailed report of the massacre. Brigham told him to write to him (Young) an account of it, and to lay it all on "the Indians," and then never to mention the matter again to any human soul.

And Brigham Young, the arch-murderer, with all the others who helped Lee to do his terrible work, went free.' One hundred and twenty innocent lives sacrificed, and the United States government, after nineteen years, executes one wretch for the crime, and then folds its hands!

"There is implanted in the human breast an instinctive horror of the act of murder, and a large number of the Mormons who took part in the massacre were too good men to rest in peace after the commission of a dreadful deed that was forced upon them. It has unmistakably withered and blasted their happiness, and some of them have suffered agonizing tortures of conscience, equal to those of Shakespeare's Thane of Cawdor. Two of them are said to have lost their reason entirely, and  
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others have gone to early graves with a full realization of the terrible crime upon their souls.1

One of the cases which illustrates the result of the teaching of the Blood Atonement doctrine is that which is known as the "Parrish murders" at Springville, Utah. After having been a fanatical Mormon for many years, Mr. Parrish apostatized, and prepared to leave Mormondom for California. The Mormon elders of that village held a council and appointed two men to go to the Parrishes and, pretending that they were themselves getting dissatisfied with the church, find out the time set for their departure. On the fourteenth of March, 1857 the evening of their proposed departure, they were led by these professed friends into ambush, and the father stabbed to death, one son shot, and the other son wounded. Some of the Mormon men who were guilty were put upon the coroner's jury and the verdict was that the murderers were "unknown"!

This Reign of Terror had been for several years absolute in Utah. It was well understood that the penalty of death, or worse than death, followed apostasy from the Mormon Church, or even dissent from any of its teachings, or the least criticism of any of its tyrannical methods or wicked deeds. What the situation of the people of Utah — the poor victims of this terror, half-deluded, half-cowed, and hushed — would have come to he, had not the United States army entered the territory, is too dark a picture to paint. The teachers of this doctrine (that each man's sins must be atoned for by having his own throat cut) must have given themselves over to wickedness so fully that they came to a state of madness.

 
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One of the first things done by Governor Cumming after his arrival and of that of the United states troops was to announce protection to all who wished to leave the territory. The fear, however, that they would be detected and "cut off " by the Danite assassins of the church before they could get safely under the guard of United States soldiers was so general that few dared to avail themselves of this offer of escape. Others were hindered also by their extreme poverty. Mr. Albert G. Browne says:1

"During the ensuing week nearly two hundred persons registered themselves in the manner he proposed, and a greater number would undoubtedly have been glad to follow their example, but were deterred by the surveillance to which they were subjected by certain functionaries of the church before being admitted to his presence. Those who were registered were organized into trains, with the little movable property they possessed, and despatched toward Fort Bridger. They arrived there in the course of May — as motley, ragged, and destitute a crowd as ever descended from the deck of an Irish emigrant ship at New York or Boston. The only garments which some possessed were made of the canvas of their wagon covers. Many were on foot. For provisions they had nothing but flour and some fresh meat. It is a fact creditable to humanity that private soldiers by the score shared their own abridged rations and scanty stock of clothing with those poor wretches, and in less than a day after their arrival they were provided with much to make them comfortable."

United States Judge Cradlebaugh charged the grand jury at Provo. Utah, in March, 1859, in part, as follows:

 
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"I said to you in the outset that a great number of cases have come to my knowledge of crimes having been committed through the country, and I shall take the liberty of naming a few of them. The persons committing those offences have not been prosecuted. The reasons why I can not tell, but it strikes me that outside influences have prevented it. If you do your duty you will not neglect to inquire into those matters, or allow the offenders to go unpunished. I may mention the Mountain Meadows murders. If it is a fact that citizens have been guilty of that offence, indict them, send for them, and have them brought before this court.

"One is the case of the Parrishes and Potter. Springville is a village of several hundred inhabitants. There was one young man whom it was intended to kill. He ran to his uncle's, and was followed to his uncle's house. Here are three persons killed, and the criminal goes unpunished. This is sufficient to show that there has been all effort to cover up instead of to bring to light and punish.

"At the same place there was another person killed. When Henry Fobbs was here, he made his home at Partial Terry's, stayed there a few weeks; during that time his horse and revolver were stolen. He made his escape, tried to get to Bridger, was caught, brought back, and murdered; and that is the last of Henry Fobbs. No investigation has been made. His body has been removed several times, so that now, perhaps, it could not be found. Here is a man said to be killed by the Indians and then his horse is taken by Mr. Terry and traded for sheep. It seems to me that these are matters that you ought to investigate. Fobbs, I believe, lived in the state of Illinois. He had a wife and chil-  
[p. 182]
dren, and was anxious to get hack, and I suppose his wife is still anxious about him; but as to what has become of him she can not tell.

"A few days before the matter of the murder of the Parrishes and Potter, the stable of Parrish was broken into, and his carriage and horses were taken out; this was done in the night. These horses have never been returned. That woman, the wife of Mr. Parrish, told me that since then at times she has lived on bread and water, and still there are persons in this community riding about on those horses. Mr. Lysander Gee has those horses. He says that a few days after they were stolen they were given to him, and that he was directed to give them to no person whatever.

"Now, it is a strange kind of matter that persons should go to Parrish's, break open his stable and rob him, and then take the horses to Mr. Lysander Gee and tell him to keep them. It does not look reasonable. It would look more reasonable to suppose that Mr. Lysander Gee was engaged in it himself, and it is an outrageous thing that this woman, one of whose children was killed with her husband, has been obliged to live in the very dregs of poverty. I say, bring that man up and compel him to restore those horses, and give the property to her, and do not allow her to live in poverty while others are riding about the country here with her husband's property. Young Parrish is here; if the grand jury desire to have him, they can use him as a witness. To allow these things to pass over gives a color as if they were done by authority. The very fact of such a ease as the Mountain Meadows shows that there was some person high in the estimation of the people, and it was done by that authority; and this case  
[p. 183]
of the Parrishes shows the same; and, unless you do your duty, such will be the view that will be taken of it.

"You can know no law but the laws of the United States and the laws you have here. No person can commit crimes and say they are authorized by higher authorities, and if they have any such notions they will have to dispel them."

After Judge Cradlebaugh had waited for two weeks for some action on the part of the grand jury against the murderers, his patience was exhausted, and he discharged them, assigning as his reason the folly of trying to bring any of the murderers to justice with a Mormon jury. He narrated how the officers of the court had sought to apprehend criminals in Springville, and how, when they got to that settlement, a trumpet was sounded, and the persons sought were secreted until the departure of the officers, when the trumpet was again sounded, and the accused came out of their hiding-places and went about their ordinary business.

After the jury was discharged, the judge continued to take the affidavits of the witnesses, which revealed the existence of a reign of terror in the country settlements wherever there were apostates, beyond all credibility. Evidence in possession of the court was most positive that the witnesses testifying of the murders in Springville believed themselves to be in constant jeopardy, and that their lives were insecure but for the protection afforded by the troops."1

At the close of the term, Judge Cradlebaugh was filled with righteous indignation at the cool refusal of the grand jury, several of whom were themselves guilty, to indict

 
[p. 184]
the Mountain Meadows murderers and other criminals. He discharged the jury with these remarks: —

"Until I commenced the examination of the testimony in this case, I always supposed I lived in a land of civil and religious liberty, in which we were secured by the Constitution of our country the right to remove at pleasure from one portion of our domain to another, and also that we enjoyed the privilege of worshiping God according, to the dictates of our own conscience.' But I regret to say that the evidence in this case clearly proves that. so far as Utah is concerned, I have been mistaken in such supposition. Men are murdered here, coolly, deliberately, premeditatedly murdered. Their murder is deliberated and determined upon by church council-meetings, and that, too, for no other reason than that they had apostatized from your church, and were striving to leave the territory.

"You are the tools, the dupes, the instruments of a tyrannical church despotism. The heads of your church order and direct you. You are taught to obey their orders and commit these horrid murders. Deprived of your liberty, you have lost your manhood, and become the willing instruments of had men.

"I say to you it will be my earliest effort, while with you, to knock off your ecclesiastical shackles and set you free."

Defeated in every attempt to bring offenders to justice, Judge Cradlebaugh adjourned his court and entered upon the docket this record, namely: "The whole community presents a united and organized opposition to the proper administration of justice."

The result was that the Mormons filially succeeded in getting an order from President Buchanan's secretary  
[p. 185]
of war that the military could be used as a posse only upon call of the governor of the territory. "As the governor was a friend of the Mormons, the United States courts were left without military protection, and the Mormons were, as usual, victorious.

Some apostate Mormons, called "Morrisites," who rebelled against the leadership of Brigham Young, started a colony at Weber, Utah, and Joseph Morris, an ignorant and excessively fanatical Welshman, was their prophet. They quarreled among themselves, refused to obey the summons of the court; the Mormon militia were called out, and after a siege of three days, in which eight persons were killed, four of whom were women, the Morrisites surrendered. The Mormon Colonel Burton then rode into the village and deliberately shot down Morris himself, two women, and others. And thus Brigham's rival prophet came to his death.

When Edward M. Stanton became secretary of war, Colonel Connor was sent to Utah in charge of a small number of United States troops, with instructions to establish a military post near Salt Lake City. On the twentieth of October, 1862, he marched through that city and established Fort Douglass on a bench of the Wahsatch range, in the suburbs of Salt Lake City, where the guns of the United States could point to any part of the city, and were within easy range of the harem of Brigham Young. The new governor, Stephen R. Harding, of Indiana, sent a message to the Mormon legislature, in which he warned them against violations of the new anti-polygamy law of that year, 1862. The presence of the United States soldiers and their offensive location at Camp Douglass, overlooking the "City of the Saints," aroused Brigham and all Mormondom to indignation.  
[p. 186]
Brigham added also insult to defiance at this time by taking another polygamous wife (Amelia Folsom), not-withstanding the recent passage of the anti-polygamy law. The Mormons held an indignation meeting, denounced the United States officers and soldiers, declared Camp Douglass "a nuisance," and appointed a committee "to request the United States officers to resign and leave the territory." Judge Waite prepared to have Brigham arrested for polygamy. Mormon spies reported this to Brigham, who hastily flung out a signal, and there was instantly a gathering of Mormon militia, and within one hour two thousand armed Mormons were guarding the premises of the polygamous prophet. Cannon, rifles, and ammunition were brought forth from concealment, and the Mormon city was in a fever of excitement. Spies watched every move at Camp Douglass, and signals were sent out, by which the whole Mormon people could be assembled at any moment, by day or by night. But Judge Kinney, who was friendly to the Mormons, came to their aid. Brigham was politely invited to appear before Judge Waite and give bonds to await the action of the grand jury. This body, composed of Mormon church officers, gravely reported to the court that they found "no evidence" that Brigham Young had married Amelia Folsom, although it was notorious that he had courted her with such silly demonstrations as to excite universal ridicule, had married her, and was then living with her and calling her his wife.

Brigham Young believed that the United states was to be torn asunder by the war of the Rebellion, then in its darkest days, and he preached fiery denunciations from the tabernacle, and the hostile feeling between the Mormons and the little band of soldiers in Camp Doug-  
[p. 187]
lass increased, and a collision seemed certain. Both parties knew that the Mormons were in such superior numbers that they could at any time massacre every United states soldier in the territory, and finally Brigham ordered the Mormon mayor to drive the soldiers out. Upon a false signal, in March, 1863, in the dead of night, the Mormon men rushed from their houses and gathered as one man around the prophet's harem, armed and desperate.

When Colonel Connor learned of Brigham's order he said: "I know that Brigham Young could use up this handful of men: but there are sixty thousand men in California who would avenge our blood, and behind them the whole nation." Young's sober second thought led him to recall his order. Had he not done so, and had the troops in Camp Douglass then fallen victims to Mormon hatred of the United States and her laws, the volunteers which would have poured into Utah from the Pacific coast and from adjoining territories would have wiped out the Mormons so effectively that the "Mormon Problem" would never again have vexed the peace and shamed the honor of our fair country.

There is one thing I wish to call attention to that is generally overlooked. All good Mormons are equally criminal. I mean by this that if not guilty of the crime in chief, they are aiders and abettors. In civilized countries, all citizens are anxious to have crime punished; here the order is reversed. I have been a detective officer for many years, but I must say that Utah is the hardest place I have ever worked in. Men who have lived from boyhood in a little settlement are not known by any of the inhabitants. The very children who have been raised with the man you are looking for, if asked  
[p. 188]
his residence or anything about him, will answer 'dunno.' In fact, none of them seem to know anything except how to commit a crime and cover it up."1

Brigham Young was horn in Whittingham, Windham County, Vermont, June 1, 1801, and died in Salt Lake City, "August 29, 1877, aged seventy-six years. He was one of ten children, five sons and five daughters. When he was a babe his parents moved to Smyrna, Chenango County, New York: thence, in 1813, to Genoa, Cayuga County, New York, where he remained until he was twenty-eight years of age. He then moved to Mendon, Monroe County, next to Canandaigua, and soon after returned to Mendon. Here, on April 14, 1832, he was baptized into membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and soon afterwards "gathered" with those of like ilk to Kirtland, Ohio, and became an energetic assistant to the prophet Joseph Smith.

Brigham's parents were poor and he learned the trade of painter and glazier, and, as he said, "did many a hard day's work for six 'bits' a day."

When he desired to attend a conference early in the history of the church he had to go in a borrowed suit and boots. It was always his boast that he had "never attended school but eleven and one-half days."

Brigham Young's official residence was known in Salt Lake City as the Bee-hive House, where he had his private office, reception room, and bedchamber. Adjoining was the Lion House, so called, where dwelt about one dozen of his wives and their children. Mrs. Stenhouse says:—

"The Lion House is what ought to be the home of the prophet, for here nearly all of his wives reside. (He

 
[p. 189]
has, however, many other houses in the city.) On the basement floor is the dining-room, kitchen, pantry, and other general offices. The first floor is divided by a long passage with doors on each side. On the right hand, about half a dozen wives with small families find accommodations. On the left, at the entrance, is the parlor, and the other rooms on that side are occupied by mothers with larger families, and ladies who have a little more than ordinary attention. The upper door is divided into twenty square bedrooms.

"When I first knew brother Brigham, poor man, he had only sixteen wives living with him in Salt Lake City; and even now he has no more than nineteen! Perhaps I ought to say eighteen, since Eliza Ann has run away from him, and left the poor old gentleman desolate and forlorn. Of course brother Brigham has had many more than nineteen wives, but besides the living ladies, others are dead or have strayed away, no one knew whither, and perhaps, as brother Heber once said to me, nobody cared."

From Nauvoo onward till his death Brigham Young was the life and soul of Mormonism, its guiding spirit, its unyielding despot. Of him it may be said almost with literal truth that his eyes constantly followed and his hand was always upon every man and every woman in all the Utah country. He carried his right to rule farther than any despot before him had ever dared. He held that every man's entire religious belief, daily routine, business affairs in detail, and political action were under his absolute control; and it is one of the marvels in the world's history that he succeeded, in the main, in carrying his claims into recognition and securing such unquestioned yielding.

 
[p. 190]

Mr. T. B. H. Stenhouse says:—

"No one to-day, even in Utah, can form any idea of the thorough control that Brigham once had over the people. Nothing was ever undertaken without his permission. He knew of everything. No person could enter into business without consulting him, nor would any one ever think of leaving the city to reside in any other part of the country without first having his approval. Merchants who went east or west to purchase goods had to present themselves at his office, and report their intention of going to the States at such a time — if he had no contrary orders to give them. Some, no doubt, may have sought his counsel on their proposed undertakings and journeys, believing that his superior wisdom could aid them, but in his own mind he claimed that the Saints should do nothing without his knowledge and approval. That oft-reiterated expression, that it was his right to dictate and control everything, 'even to the ribbons that a woman should wear,' or 'to the setting up of a stocking,' was the truthful illustration of his feelings.

"A ball even could not take place until he was consulted upon the propriety of dancing then; and before the invitations were issued, the list of the invited was read to him, and he erased or added names at his pleasure. Before any of the married brethren could make love to a maiden with the view of making her a second, third, or tenth wife, he was expected to go and obtain Brigham's permission, and even the young men were instructed that properly they should do likewise.

"But the worst form of this surveillance, control, and dependence upon his will was the power which Brigham assumed in the most vital interests of every man's affairs.  
[p. 191]
He not only sent the missionaries abroad when and whither he pleased, but when he desired it, he sent the elders away for some cause of offence, real or imaginary. Time after time he has called men living in Salt Lake City to close their business and go down to 'Dixie,' — the southern part of the territory, — which has been regarded by most people as a penal settlement, or place of banishment. Repugnance to such a country or the inadaptability of the person to any pursuits there was nothing to him. Quite a number of persons had to sacrifice property in the city in order to go to Dixie, and free tongues have not been slow to insinuate that, in some instances, those persons were sent away for the very purpose that the prophet might the more easily purchase their property."1

As a speaker, Brigham Young was always listened to with attention. This was not so much because his discourse was interesting, but because he was liable, at any time, to be excited or angry on the platform, and was then sure to say things which were interesting to the Mormon crowd before him and disgusting to all persons of any refinement. He was unacquainted with history, knew no logical methods, and was innocent of rhetoric. His language was ungrammatical and coarse, and, at times, most indecently low, vulgar, and profane. His addresses were direct and bold, his illustrations apt, and his delivery vigorous. In "set speeches" he was a failure. When Vice-President Colfax and some of his friends visited Salt Lake City, Brigham was expected to do his best, but he failed signally. He had been "coached" by some of his brethren to use Philip, Land-grave of Hesse, for illustrating a certain point, and he

 
[p. 192]
blundered out, "Mr. Philip Landgrave," etc., to the infinite merriment of his visitors and mortification of his more intelligent Mormon brethren.

Brigham's greed for wealth showed itself in his youth and clung to him to the grave. From poverty he came to be the owner of several millions of property. As the officer of the church upon a salary, and having church matters which demanded all his time, that he should thus pile up millions of private property shows on its face that his gains could not have been honestly acquired. His absolute control over the tithing income of the church, which grew to be hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, accounts for his large acquisitions of wealth. At Nauvoo there was complaint that Brigham did not account for the collections and tithings gathered when on his missions. When Joseph Smith confronted him with the accusation, Brigham replied: Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadedth out the corn." To this Joseph responded: "True, but Moses did not say the ox was to eat up all the corn."

The peculations of Brigham Young from the church amounted to enormous sums, and after his death the facts were publicly admitted by his executors when brought into open court. "At one time, finding that his indebtedness to the church funds amounted to $200,000, he directed the church bookkeeper to credit his account with the church with that amount for services rendered," and thus a "settlement" was made. "After his death the officers of the church presented a claim against the executors of Young's estate for $999,932.90 for church property which he had converted to his own use, and the executors paid it. Some of Young's heirs were dissatisfied with this action of the executors, and brought suit against  
[p. 193]
them. One of the affidavits presented in behalf of the heirs made such damaging exposures that the executors paid the heirs $75,000, and the affidavit was withdrawn from the tiles of the court, and never brought to light.