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

 

There can no longer be any doubt but that all the central routes will be unsafe as an emigrant highway for a very long time. The Mormons will resist. The anymis by which they are actuated is no longer a matter of speculation. They are determined to precipitate a collision. They number at least ten thousand fighting men, and are in close alliance with at least fifty thousand hostile Indians. We are not of those who, for a moment, suppose that the troops which have been sent out to Utah will, in the event of a rupture, be sufficient for the subjugation of that turbulent despondency. On the contrary, it is by no means beyond the bounds of possibility that a protracted war may ensue.