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

 

"The Man for the Emergency." 

The following very pert and sensible remarks we clip from the Golden, Era. Emergencies have recently arisen in Mormondom which called for the energies of one who could act boldly and tearlessly, with a consciencious sense of right; one who would not succomb to Gubernatorial dictation or cower under his comnand, and such an one has been found in his honor, Judge Cradlebaugh.

We have an more than one occasion endeavored to defend his Excellency, Gov. Cumming, against the accusation of Mormonism, but his recent action in opposition to Judge Cradlebaugh, manifested by his efforts in conjunction with the Mormons for the removal of the necessary military protection from the court at Provo, convinces us that his sympathies, at least, are with that immortal association of patriotic and loyal American citizens:

Shake a measure of corn, and the large grains will rise to the top. So it is with a community. Agitate it, and great minds, which otherwise might have slumbered on in obscurity, unconscious of their own might, become conspicuous.

Judge Cradlebaugh, of the U. S. District Court of Utah, may be cited as an example. He is making his mark in that Territory, if half that is written of him be true. Six months ago he was known as a young man of fair abilities, but of years too few to successfully manage the important charge intrusted to him; but he has shown himself the man for the emergency. Satisfied that many of the leading Mormons had taken part in, or instigated; the Mountain Meadow massacre, and the murder of Jones, Porter, Forbes, Parrish and a dozen others during the past two years, lie determined to bring them to punishment. On the 8th of March he organized his court in Provo city. As there was no jail in the city, he made a requisition on Gen. Johnston for a detachment of troops to guard the prisoners and give protection to the court. The local authorities and Mormons strongly objected to the presence of the troops, and petitioned tor their immediate removal, but without effect.

Governor Cumming, who is represented as an admirer of Brigham and a tolerably good Mormon, was prevailed upon by some mysterious influence to join in the request.

The judge, however, did not feel disposed to gratify his Excellency, but on the contrary, considerably augmented the military force around Provo. Grand and petit juries were sworn in, but as the majority of their members were Mormons, they refused either to indict or convict. In his charge to the grand jury, the Judge, although his words fell like bombs among the Saints and shook Mormondom to its centre, openly accused elders and bishops of participating in the butchery of one hundred and forty immigrants at the Mountain Meadows, and mentioned the names of Mormons who had perpetrated other murders and robberies, and where witnesses might be found to establish their guilt. He spoke and acted with the fearlessness and resolution of a Jackson, but the jury failed to indict, or even to report on the charges, while threats of violence were heard in every quarter, and an attack upon the troops was intimated if he persisted in his course. Finding that nothing could be done with the juries, they were discharged on the 21st, with a scathing rebuke from the Judge. Sitting as a committing magistrate, he began the task alone. He examined witnesses, made arrests in every quarter and created a consternation in the camps of the Saints, greater even than was occasioned by the first arrival of the troops within the walls of Zion. At last accounts terrified elders  

and bishops were decamping to save their necks, and developments of the most startling character were being made, implicating the highest church dignitares in the many murders and robberies committed upon the Gentiles during the past eight years. All honor to the young Judge!—Territorial Enterprise