Responsibility for the Mountain Meadows.Massascre

RESPONSIBILITY for the Mountain Meadows Massacre is a subject of gravest importance. About two weeks after the tragedy, being urged thereto by Isaac C. Haight, John D. Lee visited Salt Lake City to report what had been done at Mountain Meadows to Governor Young. According to Lee's statement, he made a full report of all that had been done. fn According to Governor Young's deposition at the second trial of Lee, he (Governor Young) refused to hear the story in detail. fn

Wilford Woodruff was present at this interview, and at the time set down in his most excellent daily journal what took place, and this may be relied upon as being more accurate than anything that would be remembered in subsequent years. Following is his record of the interview:

"29th [September, 1857]. We have another express in this morning, saying that the army are rapidly marching towards us, will soon be at Bridger, and they wish men immediately sent out. Elder John D. Lee also arrived from Harmony with an express and an awful tale of blood. A company of California emigrants, of about 150 men, women and children, many of them belonging to the mob in Missouri and Illinois, had been massacred. They had many cattle and horses with them. As they traveled along south, they went damning Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball and the heads of the church, saying that Joseph Smith ought to have been shot a long time before he was. They wanted to do all the evil they could, so they poisoned beef and gave it to the Indians, and some of them died. They poisoned the springs of water, several of the saints died. The Indians became enraged at their conduct and they surrounded them on the prairie, and the emigrants formed a bulwark of their wagons, and dug an intrenchment up to the hubs of their wagons, but the Indians fought them five days until they killed all the men, about sixty in number. They then rushed into their corral and cut the throats of the women and children, except some eight or ten children which they brought and sold to the whites. They stripped the men and women naked and left them stinking in the boiling sun. When Brother Lee found it out he took some men and went and buried their bodies. It was a horrid, awful job. The whole air was filled with an awful stench. Many of the men and women were rotten with [unnameable disease] before they were hurt by the Indians. The Indians obtained all the cattle and horses and property, guns, etc. There was another large company of emigrants who had 1,000 head of cattle, who was also damning both the Indians and the 'Mormons.' They were afraid of sharing the same fate, and Brother Lee had to send interpreters with them to the Indians to help save their lives, while at the same time they were trying to kill us. We spent most of the day in trying to get the brethren ready to go to the mountains [i. e. brethren going out to resist the approach of Johnston's army]. Brother Brigham while speaking of the cutting of the throats of women and children by the Indians down south, said that it was heart-rending; that emigration must stop, as he had before said. Brother Lee said that he did not think there was a drop of innocent blood in their camp, for he had two of the children in his house, and he could not get but one to kneel down in prayer-time, and the other would laugh at her for doing it, and they would swear like pirates. The scene of blood has commenced, and Joseph said that we should see so much of it that it would make our hearts sick." fn

From this statement of Woodruff's Journal, as also from President Young's own deposition in which he states that he refused to hear Lee's story in detail, it is clear that Brigham Young, unfortunately, as I think, did not then get the full account of the great crime. Also it is to be noted that John D. Lee most likely was not anxious to tell the whole story of white men's presence and responsibility in the massacre, as he had to be "urged" by Isaac C. Haight to report the affair to Brigham Young at all, although Lee was the local Indian agent, and Haight had no connection with that department. It is quite evident from Woodruff's account of the interview of Lee and Governor Young that the former did not report any white men as being connected with or responsible for the massacre.

It appears from all the circumstances that it was the intention of the white men engaged in the tragedy to place the responsibility for it upon the Indians. This is emphatically the assumption of the formal report made by George A. Smith to President Young in 1858, about one year after the event; as will be observed from the following letter which I quote entire because of the civil and ecclesiastical standing of its author; for he was not only one of the apostles' quorum in the church, but also he was a member of the legislature—to the council—from the district in which the unfortunate affair had occurred; and his letter was in the nature of a report from a member of such "council district."

LETTER OF GEORGE A. SMITH TO PRESIDENT BRIGHAM YOUNG

"Parowan, Aug. 17, 1858.

President Young,

Dear Sir:—I have recently canvassed the precincts in my council district. I have been enthusiastically received, and listened to by the people, with seeming pleasure. I have gathered some information in relation to the difficulties between the emigrants and Indians, which terminated in the horrible massacre at Mountain Meadows.

It appears that the emigrants, who passed over this route last fall, conducted themselves in a hostile manner towards the Indians, as well as the citizens. While at Fillmore they threatened the destruction of the town, and boasted of their participation in the murders and other outrages that were inflicted upon the 'Mormons' in Missouri and Illinois.

While camping at the sink of Corn Creek, fifteen miles beyond Fillmore, they poisoned the springs and the body of an ox which had died. The carcass of the ox was eaten by a band of Piedes from the desert, who were on a visit to the Pahvantes.

I was informed, by the people living at Meadow Creek, the nearest settlers to Corn Creek, that ten Indians died from eating this poisoned meat, and that a considerable number of cattle also died from the poisoning of the water. Some of these cattle were fat and the owners "tried them up" to save the tallow. A son of Mr. Robinson, of Fillmore, was poisoned from the handling of the meat, and died. Among the cattle that died of the poison, were some belonging to the Hon. John A. Ray. He being in Europe, Mrs. Ray attended to the saving of the tallow and was so poisoned as to endanger her life, and permanently injure her hand.

This party of emigrants consisted of some fifty or sixty men. They were attacked in the fore part of September by Indians, near what is called the 'Cane Spring,' about forty-five miles beyond Cedar City, which was the most southern settlement of any importance on the way to California.

While passing through the lower settlements the emigrants boasted of their participation in the expulsion of the 'Mormons' from Missouri, and threatened to stop at some convenient point, and fatten their stock, that when the United States troops should arrive, the emigrants would have plenty [of] beef to feed them with, and would then help to kill every 'God damned Mormon' that there was in the mountains.

This course of conduct on their part, coupled with the rumor which they spread, that some four or five hundred Dragoons were expected through on the Fremont trail, whom they would join, caused them to be regarded by the settlers with a feeling of distrust.

When the attack was made upon the emigrant party, the Indians sent out runners to the various bands in every direction, to gather additional help. The news reached the settlement at Cedar through this means. Ahwonup, the Piede chief at Parowan, received an invitation to join the foray against the emigrants. He went to Colonel Dame, to tell him what he was going to do, upon which the colonel succeeded in inducing him and most of his warriors to abandon the project.

At this time another company of emigrants fired upon a party of Pahvantes in the neighborhood of Beaver, some thirty-five miles north of Parowan, and wounded one of them. This occurrence created so much excitement among the Pahvantes of that region, that they were determined to exterminate those emigrants, which was only prevented by a detachment of militia sent from Parowan, by Colonel Dame, who effected a compromise with the Indians, and guarded that company safely from that place to the Vegas, some three hundred miles.

No news of the attack at the Mountain Meadows had reached Parowan except the Indian rumor, until it was too late for Colonel Dame to take any measures to relieve the company, which was some sixty miles distant.

On the 6th of September I understand that rumor reached Cedar that the emigrant train had been attacked in camp by the Indians at Mountain Meadows, that several of the emigrants and Indians had been killed and others wounded, and that more Indians were gathering from various parts in considerable numbers, being very much exasperated

Immediately upon the arrival of this intelligence, Major Haight dispatched some interpreters to conciliate the Indians. The interpreters left Cedar the same evening, and when they arrived the next day at the scene of the difficulty, they found the Indians in a state of intense excitement, in consequence of the killing and wounding of some of their men. The interpreters sought to conciliate them, but they threatened them with death if they did not either leave immediately, or turn in and help them, accusing them of being friendly to the emigrants, or 'Mericats,' as they called them. The Indians said that if the interpreters attempted to go to the emigrants' camp, they would kill every one of them. Finding that their services could avail the emigrants nothing, the interpreters returned to Cedar, after a ride of some 80 miles on the same animals, and dallying most of the day with the Indians, and reported the condition of the camp.

On the 9th Major Haight, with a party of about 50 men, started from Cedar City to endeavor to relieve the emigrants, and arriving at Mountain Meadows the next morning, found the Indians had killed the entire company, with the exception of a few small children, who were with difficulty obtained from them. The Indians were pillaging and destroying the property and driving off the cattle in every direction; each one endeavoring to secure to himself the most plunder, without respect to the others. When they had secreted one back load in the hills, they returned and got another, thus continuing with the most unremitting energy, till everything was cached.

Major Haight and party found the bodies of the company stripped of their clothing, and scattered along the road for half a mile. The party obtained a few spades from a ranch about six miles distant, and buried the dead as well as they could, under the circumstances. The ground was hard, and the party being destitute of picks, and having but a limited number of spades, the pits could not be dug to a very great depth.

From the appearance of the camp ground the wagons, previous to the attack were scattered promiscuously, but the emigrants, upon being attacked, gathered most of them into a close circle, inside of which they dug two rifle pits.

It appears that on the 9th the Indians withdrew from the siege; that, towards evening, the emigrants left their camp and started back towards Hamblin's ranch, and that after proceeding about half a mile and one (sic!), they were again attacked and slain except the children above mentioned.

It is reported that John D. Lee, and a few other white men were on the ground during a portion of the combat, but for what purpose, or how they conducted themselves, or whether, indeed, they were there at all, I have not learned.

It is supposed that there were upwards of two hundred warriors engaged in this massacre. A large number of the emigrants were killed with arrows, the residue with bullets, the Indians being armed with guns, as well as bows and arrows.

The Indians also killed some horses and a large number of cattle which lay scattered over the plain. This was probably done in accordance with their custom requiring a sacrifice to be sent along with their departed warriors.

Some sixteen or eighteen children were preserved from death, and placed in the charge of families, where they were well cared for. The prejudice that these emigrants had themselves excited during their passage through the territory, contributed not a little to inspire in the minds of the people an indifference as to what the Indians might do, but nobody dreamed of or anticipated so dreadful a result. There were not a dozen white men living within thirty miles of the spot where this transaction occurred; and they were scattered, two or three in a place, herding cattle. Mr. Hamblin, the nearest settler, was in Great Salt Lake City at the time, and the stock at his ranch was in the custody of his children and two or three Indian boys.

It was the impression of Major Haight that the interpreters would succeed in bringing about a compromise to enable the emigrants to buy the Indians off. For the citizens to have attacked and killed the Indians, in defense of the emigrants, would have been little less than suicide, as you are well aware of the exposed condition of the southern settlers, and the annoyance to which the Indians, who had been subjected for many years by emigrants killing them, as they passed through the Indian country.

I have been told that since this transaction many of the Indians who had previously learned to labor have evinced a determination not to work, and that the moral influence of the event upon the civilization of the Indians has been very prejudicial.

Considerable improvements have been made in every settlement, except Cedar, during my absence from this district. The failure of the iron company to make iron satisfactorily has caused a large number of the operatives in that department to seek employment elsewhere, thereby much reducing the population of that city.

I have given you the substance of the information I have received from various individuals during my canvass, and I regret exceedingly that such a lamentable occurrence should have taken place, within the limits of this territory.

Your friend and well wisher,

[Signed] "Geo. A. Smith." fn

Three things in this semi-official communication, apart from the general implication and assumption that the deed of which it treats was altogether the work of the Indians, and those three things tend to disprove the main idea in the report that the massacre was the sole work of the Indians: These are, first, that "sixteen or eighteen children were preserved from death." This is not customary for Indians to do in war or in their murders; they do not spare children—especially of uniformly young age, as in this case; that was not the act of savages. Second, the demoralizing effect the massacre had upon the Indians: "Since the transaction [i. e. massacre] many of the Indians who had previously learned to labor have evinced a determination not to work; * * * the moral influence of the event upon the civilization of the Indians has been very prejudicial!" Inevitable consequence! For they had seen that their white neighbors, instructors in industry, had been capable of an act of treachery and savagery equal to their own, even if not more treacherous and murderous. Surely there could be no more white man's moral and spiritual influence over the red men after what the latter had witnessed at Mountain Meadows! Third, the cautious admission that "report" gave it out that John D. Lee and some other white men were present at the affair: "It is reported that John D. Lee and a few other white men were on the ground during a portion of the combat, but for what purpose, or how they conducted, or whether indeed they were there at all, I have not learned." This a year after the crime was perpetrated; and is the only indication from the whole report that white men were present at the massacre! But previous to this, and "soon after" the event, the presence of Lee and other white men at the massacre and even somewhat of their participation in it had been made known in Salt Lake City.

TESTIMONY OF JACOB HAMBLIN

Jacob Hamblin, a reputable witness, testified at the second Lee trial that "soon after it [the massacre] happened," he reported to Brigham Young and George A. Smith what Lee had told him of the affair; of the part that white men had taken in it; and that in greater detail than he had given it, or was able to give in his testimony in court, because he then more clearly remembered it; and that Brigham Young said to him that "as soon as we can get a court of justice we will ferret this thing out, but till then, don't say anything about it." fn All this seems to have been forgotten in the Smith "report."

It must be remembered that at the time of Hamblin's report everything was in a state of chaos in Utah; an army was within the borders of the territory on the east, the purpose of which was not clearly known; the territory was under martial law by proclamation of the governor de facto, Brigham Young; and the people were making preparations for the destruction of their settlements and another flight into the wilderness. Hamblin makes an important statement in his biography respecting the action of Governor Young in regard to this tragedy, locating the incident to be related as happening "soon after the United States Army had entered Salt Lake valley;" and the army entered the valley on the 26th of June, 1858.

Following is the incident which occurred:

ATTITUDE OF GOVERNOR CUMMING ON THE MATTER OF INVESTIGATING THE MASSACRE

"It is generally known that the enemies of the Latter-day Saints have accused them of shielding from justice the white men, who, it was supposed, joined with the Indians in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Mr. Cumming succeeded President Brigham Young as governor of Utah territory in the early spring, before the arrival of the United States army in Salt Lake valley.

President Brigham Young requested Elder George A. Smith to have an interview with the new governor, and learn his views concerning the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and assure him that all possible assistance would be rendered the United States courts to have it thoroughly investigated.

Brother Smith took me with him, and introduced me as a man who was well informed regarding Indian matters in southern Utah, and would impart to him any information required that I might be in possession of. He also urged upon Governor Cumming the propriety of an investigation of this horrid affair, that, if there were any white men engaged in it, they might be justly punished for their crimes.

Governor Cumming replied that President Buchanan had issued a proclamation of amnesty and pardon to the 'Mormon' people, and he did not wish to go behind it to search out crime.

Brother Smith urged that the crime was exclusively personal in its character, and had nothing to do with the general officers of the territory, and, therefore, was a fit subject for an investigation before the United States courts.

Mr. Cumming still objected to interfering, on account of the president's proclamation.

Brother Smith replied substantially as follows: 'If the business had not been taken out of our hands by a change of officers in the territory, the Mountain Meadows affair is one of the first things we should have attended to when a United States court sat in southern Utah. We would see whether or not white men were concerned in the affair with the Indians.'" fn

PRESIDENT YOUNG'S OWN ANSWER TO ALLEGED DELAY OF ACTION IN THE CASE

The reasons for Brigham Young not acting more promptly and vigorously in the matter, and the general conditions then prevailing in the territory are thus stated by himself in his deposition admitted in evidence at the second Lee trial:

"Twelfth Question—Why did you not, as governor, institute proceedings forthwith to investigate that massacre, and bring the guilty authors thereof to justice?

Answer—Because another governor had been appointed by the president of the United States, and was then on the way to take my place, and I did not know how soon he might arrive, and because the United States judges were not in the territory. Soon after Governor Cumming arrived, I asked him to take Judge Cradlebaugh, who belonged to the southern district, with him and I would accompany them with sufficient aid to investigate the matter and bring the offenders to justice."

PRESIDENT YOUNG'S REPORT TO THE INDIAN DEPARTMENT

It is often charged that Brigham Young made no report of this massacre to the government; he at least made such report of it as John D. Lee, in his capacity as farmer to the Indians in the locality where the event occurred, sent to him in writing. Governor Young had made a report on general conditions and current accounts to the Indian department at Washington on Sept. the 12th, 1857. Lee supplemented his verbal report to Governor Young—already considered,—by a written one from Harmony, his home in Iron county, under date of November 20th, 1857, in which the Lee version of the massacre was given.

The written report of Lee so far as it relates to the Arkansas company of emigrants is as follows:

"HARMONY, WASHINGTON CO., U. T., November 20th, 1857.

To His Excellency Governor B. Young, Ex-Officio and Superintendent of Indian Affairs:

DEAR SIR:—My report under date, May 11th, 1857, relative to the Indians over whom I have charge as farmer, showed a friendly relation between them and the whites, which doubtless would have continued to increase had not the white mans (sic!) been the first aggressor, as was the case with Captain Fancher's company of emigrants, passing through to California about the middle of September last, on Corn Creek, fifteen miles south of Fillmore City, Millard county. The company there poisoned the meat of an ox, which they gave the Pahvant Indians to eat, causing four of them to die immediately, besides poisoning a number more. The company also poisoned the water where they encamped, killing the cattle of the settlers. This unguided [sic!] policy, planned in wickedness by this company, raised the ire of the Indians, which soon spread through the southern tribes, firing them up with revenge till blood was in their path, and as the breach, according to their tradition was a national one, consequently any portion of the nation was liable to atone for that offense.

About the 22nd of September, Captain Fancher and company fell victims to their wrath, near Mountain Meadows; their cattle and horses were shot down in every direction, their wagons and property mostly committed to the flames." fn

Then in an official letter to Hon. James W. Denver, commissioner of Indian affairs, Washington City, D. C., under date of January 6th, 1858, Governor Young as superintendent of Indian affairs, quoted as follows from Lee's report:

"'About the 22nd of September, Captain Fancher & Co. fell victims to the Indians' wrath near Mountain Meadows. Their cattle and horses were shot down in every direction; their wagons and property mostly committed to the flames."

This quotation the governor followed by the following comments:

"Lamentable as this case truly is, it is only the natural consequence of that fatal policy which treats the Indians like the wolves, or other ferocious beasts. I have vainly remonstrated for years with travelers against pursuing so suicidal a policy, and repeatedly advised the government of its fatal tendency. It is not always upon the heads of the individuals who commit such crimes that such condign punishment is visited, but more frequently the next company that follows in their fatal path become the unsuspecting victims, though peradventure perfectly innocent." fn

THE PASSAGE OF "DUKE'S TRAIN" THROUGH UTAH UNDER MILITIA PROTECTION

Following the ill-fated Arkansas company, came one several days later of about the same size, captained by a man of the name of——-Duke, and hence it was known as "Duke's Train." They had some trouble with the Indians near Beaver. Lee's written report to Governor Young, which mentions the Mountain Meadows affair—quoted above—states that Duke's company "had many of their [the Indians] men shot down near Beaver City; fn and had it not been for the interposition of the citizens at that place, the whole company [Duke's] would have been massacred by the enraged Pahvantes." From this place they were protected by military force, by order of Colonel W. H. Dame, through the territory, besides providing the company with interpreters, to help them through to the Las Vegas. On the Muddy, some three to five hundred Indians attacked the company, while traveling, and drove off several hundred head of cattle, telling the company that if they fired a single gun that they would kill every soul. The interpreters tried to regain the stock, or a portion of it, by presents, but in vain. The Indians told them to mind their own business, or their lives would not be saved. "Since that occurrence no company has been able to pass without some of our interpreters to talk and explain matters to the Indians." fn

Hon. George A. Smith also reports this second company:

"At this time [i. e., about the time of the massacre] another company of emigrants fired upon a party of Pahvantes in the neighborhood of Beaver, some thirty-five miles north of Parowan, and wounded one of them. This occurrence created so much excitement among the Pahvantes of that region, that they were determined to exterminate those emigrants, which was only prevented by a detachment of militia sent from Parowan by Colonel Dame who effected a compromise with the Indians, and guarded that company safely from that place to the Vegas, some three hundred miles." fn

This company is also spoken of by Jacob Hamblin, and he it was who selected the interpreters to go with the emigrants through the Indian country. The Indian tribes on the Muddy, however, taxed Duke's company heavily in cattle for the otherwise peaceful passage through their country, taking from them four hundred and eighty head, but the company continued its journey in safety to California, while the two interpreters, "Brothers Knight and Leavitt," who had safely conducted them beyond danger, returned to the Santa Clara settlements. "As soon as possible,' says Hamblin's Narrative, "I talked with the principal Indians engaged in this affair, and they agreed that the stock not killed should be given up. I wrote to the owners in California, and they sent their agent, Mr. Lane, with whom I went to the Muddy, and the stock was delivered to him as the Indians had agreed." fn

Still later in the autumn of 1857, Hamblin piloted safely through the southern Indian country a company made up chiefly of merchants who had been doing business in Salt Lake City; but who, not desiring to be involved in the difficulties between the "Mormons" and the United States, then pending, were now fleeing to the eastern states via California and the Isthmus of Panama. The company carried with them a letter from Brigham Young to Hamblin directing him to see that the company was safely conducted to California, which was done. fn

FORNEY'S REPORT ON WHITE MEN BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MASSACRE

When the new United States judiciary for the territory of Utah, who, with Alfred Cumming as governor of the territory, were finally installed in their offices; fn and when through the investigation of Indian Agent Jacob Forney he reported that "the massacre in question was concocted by white men and consummated by whites and Indians," it could but follow that the judiciary would seek to bring to judgment the guilty parties, notwithstanding the attitude assumed by Governor Cumming in refusing to investigate the matter as represented by Jacob Hamblin, and President Young. Accordingly Judge Cradlebaugh, to whom was assigned the southern judicial district, and who held his first term of court at Provo, opening on the 8th of March, 1859, called the attention of the grand jury he impannelled to the Mountain Meadows Massacre and also to some other homicides that had been committed at Springville, in Utah county. "To allow these things to pass over gives a color as if they were done by authority," said the judge significantly and accusingly; and then added:

"The very fact of such a case as that of the Mountain Meadows shows that there was one person high in the estimation of the people, and it was done by that authority; and this case of the Parrishes [The Springville homicides] 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." fn

This was proceeding upon an unwarranted assumption, and of course gave offense. The grand jury not moving with that alacrity in these matters that the impatience of the judge demanded, after two weeks in session, and while still in deliberation, they were summoned into court, roundly lectured by his honor and summarily discharged "as an evidently useless appendage of a court of justice." fn The judge announced that the court would "think of the propriety of venireing another grand jury," and concluded as follows:

"When this people [meaning the Mormons] come to their reason, and manifest a disposition to punish their own high offenders, it will be time to enforce the law also for their protection. If this court cannot bring you to a proper sense of your duty, it can at least turn the savages in custody loose upon you." fn

The grand jury failing to indict according to the suggestions of the judge of the district, the court proceeded to issue bench warrants based upon sworn information, and the United States marshal for the territory aided by a military posse made some arrests of parties charged with committing the Springville homicides, and doubtless a like policy was intended to be pursued with reference to the perpetrators of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

In the evident furtherance of such a project Judge Cradlebaugh, after closing his term of court at Provo, accompanied by a small detachment of United States troops, commanded by Captain Reuben P. Campbell, and by a deputy marshal, visited the southern part of the territory, including the Santa Clara valley, Mountain Meadows, Cedar City and all the surrounding settlements. En route the judge met the Indian Agent Forney returning from his investigations, with the surviving children of the massacre. Forney gave to Judge Cradlebaugh the names of a number of white men reported to be prominent in the affair at the Meadows. The judge and his deputy marshal made inquiries among the Indian tribes of the Santa Clara, and of the people at Cedar, and surrounding settlements, with the result that a formidable list of the names of men prominent in military, civil, and ecclesiastical life were enrolled as being connected with the tragedy. fn At this juncture, however, Captain Campbell's command was recalled by the commanding General A. S. Johnston, as by instruction from the war department at Washington, "the services of the army in connection with the civil affairs of this territory—are to be invoked only to assist in the 'execution of the sentences of the law, or the judicial decrees of the court;' and then only on the written application of the governor when the service of a civil posse are found to be insufficient." fn This put an end to the judge's overzealous civil-military activities as associate justice of Utah. He soon afterwards was appointed over the judicial district that included Carson valley, where he became one of the prime movers in the creation of the territory of Nevada from the western half of Utah, and was twice elected delegate to congress from the new territory; and in the national house of representatives continued his anti-"Mormon" attacks upon the leaders of the Church of the Latter-day Saints in the matter of the Mountain Meadows affair. fn

Of this Cradlebaugh effort to probe into the Mountain Meadows affair, Agent Forney, who, earlier in the summer of 1859, had been zealous in the support of Judge Cradlebaugh, fn in a letter to the commissioner of Indian affairs at Washington, in August, wrote:

"I fear, and I regret to say it, that with certain parties here there is a greater anxiety to connect Brigham Young and other church dignitaries with every criminal offense than diligent endeavor to punish the actual perpetrators of crime." fn

That continued to be the sentiment of those who manifested any interest in the matter of the Mountain Meadows affair; but fourteen years will pass away before another official agitation of the matter occurs, and eighteen years before the most conspicuous leader in that horrible crime is led to the Mountain Meadows by officers of the law and the death sentence of the court executed upon him at the scene of his great crime. fn Of all those who participated in the massacre he alone was brought to execution. How meager the retribution in this world when weighed against the repulsive perfidy practiced against those emigrants, and the largeness of the crime!. But the end is not yet—"the murderer hath never forgiveness:" "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord;" fn and in his own time and way he will doubtless be the minister of his own retribution. "Some men's sins are open before hand, going before to the judgment, and some men they follow after." fn This much, and only this need to be said here, both in respect of this great crime of the Mountain Meadows and of other deeds of blood perpetrated in those troubled, and unsettled years of Utah's history, fn when men's worst passions were highly wrought upon by memories of past injustice, and by threatening portents of oppression yet to come—of all this it will be enough to say, let the finger of accusation point at whom it may, and the just verdict of history pronounce guilty whom it will, this much I hold to be clear, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints bears no stain, and carries no responsibility for bloodshed at any time or any place. Her law was announced from the beginning, by the Son of God, saying:

"Behold, I speak unto the church. Thou shalt not kill; and he that kills shall not have forgiveness in this world, nor in the world to come. And again I say, thou shalt not kill, but he that killeth shall die. * * * And it shall come to pass, that if any person among you shall kill, he shall be delivered up and dealt with according to the laws of the land; for remember that he hath no forgiveness, and it shall be proven according to the laws of the land." fn

Such the law of the church, and whosoever has violated that law of God or whosoever shall violate it in the future, he and not the church which forbids his wickedness, is responsible to God and to the laws of the land for his crime. And when Brigham Young said to Jacob Hamblin, after he had listened to the latter's report of the part Lee and other white men had taken in the crime, "As soon as we can get a court of justice, we will ferret this thing out, but until then don't say anything about it;" fn and when later Brigham Young sent Jacob Hamblin and George A. Smith to Governor Cumming—as already detailed in this chapter, to "learn his views concerning the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and assure him that all possible assistance would be rendered to United States courts to have it investigated;" fn and when Brigham Young, soon after Governor Cumming arrived in Utah, went to him and "asked him to take Judge Cradlebaugh, who belonged to the southern district, with him," and that he [Brigham Young] would also "accompany them with sufficient aid to investigate the matter and bring the offenders to justice"—when President Young did these several things he had up to that time fulfilled his moral obligations to the church and to the state.

In 1870, through some representations made by Elder Erastus Snow and Bishop L. W. Roundy, who had been meantime investigating the crime of the Mountain Meadows, President Brigham Young became convinced of the absolute responsibility of John D. Lee in that affair. Also of Isaac C. Haight's responsibility for failing to restrain Lee and to take prompt action against him, since he was Lee's superior officer in the church. These representations were made to President Brigham Young on the occasion of his visit to the southern settlements in the aforesaid year of 1870; and on his return to Salt Lake City the matter was taken up at the meeting of the twelve apostles, the facts laid before them, and "President Young himself proposed, and all present unanimously voted, to excommunicate John D. Lee and Isaac C. Haight." "President Young gave instructions at that time that John D. Lee should, under no circumstances, ever be again admitted as a member of the church." fn

Later, when some of the accused were before the secular court, and Lee was tried and found guilty, Sumner Howard, the prosecuting attorney, in closing his plea in the case against Lee, said:

"He had had all the assistance any United States official could ask on earth in any case. Nothing had been kept back, and he was determined to clear the calendar of every indictment against any and every actual guilty participator in the massacre, but he did not intend to prosecute any one that had been lured to the Meadows at the time, many of whom were only young boys and knew nothing of the vile plan which Lee originated and carried out for the destruction of the emigrants." fn

The report of the deed, at the time it was committed, sent a thrill of horror through the whole community of Utah, and when later developments compelled the belief that white men had taken the leading part in the betrayal and murder of the emigrants, sorrow, humiliation and a sense of shame prevailed. Perhaps the best description of the attitude of mind, and the sentiments of the Latter-day Saints towards this most unfortunate, pitiful and disgraceful affair, was voiced by the late President John Taylor when he said:

"I now come to the investigation of a subject that has been harped upon for the last seventeen years, [this in 1874] viz: The Mountain Meadows Massacre. That bloody tragedy has been the chief stock in trade for the above named time, for penny-a-liners, the press, and pulpit, who have gloated in turns, and by chorus, over the sickening details. Do you deny it? No. Do you excuse it? No. There is no excuse for such a relentless, diabolical, sanguinary deed. That outrageous infamy is looked upon with as much abhorrence by our people as by other parties, in this nation or in the world; and at its first announcement, its loathing recital chilled the marrow and sent a thrill of horror through the breasts of the listeners. It was most certainly a horrible deed; and like many other defenseless tragedies, it is one of those things that cannot be undone. The world is full of deeds of crime and darkness; and a question often arises, who is responsible therefore? It is usual to blame the perpetrators. It does not seem fair to accuse nations, states and communities of deeds perpetrated by some of their citizens, unless they uphold it." fn

And this the Latter-day Saints have never done with respect of this massacre at Mountain Meadows, or other homicides which unhappily have been committed in their communities.

NOTE

A FANCHER INCIDENT

Elder Orson F. Whitney, author of a four volumned History of Utah also the author of A School History of Utah, under the title The Making of a State, very kindly prepared for the writer of this History the following statement of a "Fancher Incident," which shows that family prejudice even may not always blind men to truth.

STATEMENT BY ELDER ORSON F. WHITNEY

"On the 24th and 25th August, 1912, in company with Elder Joseph W. McMurrin, I attended the Latter-day Saint Big Horn stake conference, held at Cowley, Wyoming. During one of the meetings connected with the conference a young man named Fancher, who I believe was clerk of the stake, was invited to the stand to address the congregation. He was about to resign his office, and remove to California, and this was his farewell address to the Latter-day Saints in Big Horn, with whom he had been identified as a member of the church for several years. He had come from Arkansas originally, and in Davis county, Utah, had fallen in with a 'Mormon' family who were about moving to Wyoming. He accompanied them, and subsequently married a 'Mormon' girl, became a convert to her faith, and rendered valuable service as a member of that stake. He was a relative of Captain Fancher, who was killed at Mountain Meadows in 1857, and at one time had shared the bitter prejudice felt by the family toward the 'Mormon' people. He had become convinced, however, that the church was in no way responsible for the awful affair at the Meadows, and that the people, excepting a few hot-headed zealots, who had joined with the Indians, were innocent of any participation in the crime. His conversion to the gospel was genuine. His father, on learning what he had done, disowned him, accounted him as one dead, and would not have his name mentioned in his hearing. Young Fancher wept at this point in his recital, and the whole congregation was visibly affected. He went on to say that he was not leaving because he had lost his faith; it was stronger than ever, and he hoped to continue faithful to the end. But his father, who now lived in California had softened toward him and had sent for him, needing his help in the management of his property. As none of his brothers were willing to go, he felt it his duty to rejoin his father and be with him in his declining years. He therefore resigned his office and parted regretfully from his many friends in that stake.

It was evident that he was held in high esteem by the authorities and the people in general, whose good wishes, he was assured, would follow him to his new place of residence."

Footnotes

1. Lee's Confession in Mormonims Unveiled, p. 252.

2. From the Deposition of Brigham Young, second trial of John D. Lee, 1876. Ninth Question: Did John D. Lee report to you at any time after this massacre what had been done at that massacre, and if so, what did you reply to him in refrence thereto?

Answer: Within some two or three months after the massacre he called at my office and had much to say with regard to the Indians, their being stirred up to anger and threatening the settlements of the whites, and then commenced giving an account of the massacre. I told him to stop, as from what I had already heard by rumor, I did not wish my feelings harrowed up with a recital of details." (Court Record, the second Lee trial, Sept., 1876, Deposition of Brigham Young).

3. Woodruff's Journal, Sept. 29, 1857.

4. History of Brigham Young, Ms., entry for Aug. 17, 1858, pp. 929-937.

5. Court Record, Lee's second trial, testimony of Jacob Hamblin.

6. Jacob Hamblin, A Narrative of His personal Experiences, edited by James A. Little, 1881, pp. 56-7.

7. From Lee's Report, Mormonism Unveiled, p. 255. The faulty diction of the original is followed.

8. These reports of Brigham Young are published at length in the Court Records, second trial of John D. Lee, Sept., 1876, also in Mormonism Unveiled, pp. 302-16; these letters also appear in House Executive Documents, 35th Congress, 1st Session, vol. x, No. 71. For interesting incident in connection with a member of the Fancher family, see Note end of chapter.

9. Evidently Lee reported what rumors had brought to him of this incident; George A. Smith reports, as will be seen by a paragraph in his letter (ante), that the Beaver shooting resulted in only one Indian being wounded.

10. Lee's written report to Governor Young, from Harmony, under date of Nov. 20th, 1857.

11. History of Brigham Young, Ms., entry Sept. 9, 1857, pp. 481-89.

12. Jacob Hamblin, A Narrative of his Personal Experiences, etc., p. 47.

13. Jacob Hamblin, etc., ch. vii.

14. The new judiciary were D. R. Eckles, of Indiana, chief justice; Charles E. Sinclair and John Cradlebaugh, associate justices; Alexander Wilson, of Iowa, was United States attorney for the territory, and Peter K. Dotson, Marshal.

15. Judge Cradlebaugh to the Grand Jury, the charge is published in full in Deseret News of March 16th, 1859.

16. The words are from Judge Cradlebaugh's speech in the house of representatives, February 7th, 1863, Congressional Globe, 37th Congress, 3rd Session, Appendix, p. 122. Judge Cradlebaugh subsequently to being a judge in Utah, went to Nevada to live, from which newly made territory he was elected to be territorial delegate, and hence his speech in congress.

17. The remarks of Judge Cradlebaugh to the grand jury are published at length in Deseret News of March 30, 1859, and as corrected from a stenographic report by Mr. J. V. Long. Stenhouse says, "the grand jury would not have listened to such language had there been no foundation for the accusations" (Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 408). The fact is the grand jury did not listen to the judge without protest. "A remonstrance signed by the grand jury without a dissenting voice against Judge Cradlebaugh's unprecedented course in peremptorily and vindictively discharging them when about consummating the business before them," says the editor of the News, in a note immediately following the full statements of Judge Cradlebaugh to the jury, "was presented;" it appears in the same impression of the News as the Editorial. (vol. ix, p. 28). Besides Stenhouse's quotation from Judge Cradlebaugh in which he censures the jury for not resenting, were not addressed to the grand jury, but were the summing up of the evidence in the Springville murder cases. (Stenhouse's Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 408; cf., Deseret News, impression of April 6th, 1859, Court Record).

18. Judge Cradlebaugh claims that while at Cedar City he "was visited by a number of apostate Mormons," who gave him "every assurance that they would furnish an abundance of evidence in regard to the matter, as soon as they were assured of military protection." "While there;" he also says, "I issued warrants on affidavits filed before me for the arrest of the following named persons; Jacob [Isaac C.] Haight, president of the Cedar City stake; Bishop John M. Higbee, and Bishop John D. Lee [Lee never was, at any time or place, a "Mormon" bishop, though he was an "elder," and had presided over a small settlement or branch of the church], Columbus Freeman, William Slade, John Willis, William Riggs,—— Ingram, Daniel McFarlan, William Stewart, Ira Allen and son, Thomas Cartwright, E. Welean, William Halley, Jabez Nomlen, John Mangum, James Price, John W. Adair,—— Tyler, Joseph Smith, Samuel Pollock, John McFarlan, Nephi Johnson,—— Thornton, Joel White,—— Harrison, Charles Hopkins, Joseph Flang, Samuel Lewis, Sims Matheny, James Mangum, Harrison Pierce, Samuel Adair, F. C. McDulange, William Bateman, Ezra Curtis, and Alexander Loveridge. (Congressional Globe, 37th Congress, 3rd Session, Appendix, p. 123).

19. For Campbell's Report, see Senate Documents, 36th Congress, 1st Session, vol. ii, No. 56, p. 190; also No. 64, pp. 205-208; also Cradlebaugh's speech, 37th Congress, 3rd Session, Appendix, p. 123.

20. See his speeches in the 37th Congress, passim; and especially in 3rd Session, Congressional Globe, Appendix, p. 119, et seq.

21. See his letter to General Johnston, May 1st and June 15th, 1859, Senate Documents, 36th Congress, vol. ii, pp. 172-73. See also his letter to Judge Elias Smith in Deseret News of May 11th, 1859; in which he says of the Mountain Meadows Massacre: "I deem it my imperative duty to say that the Indians had material aid and assistance from whites; and in my opinion, the Pi-Ute Indians would never have perpetrated the terrible massacre without such aid and assistance. Mr. Hamblin and others, of Santa Clara, expressed much anxiety to bring the guilty to justice."

22. Senate Documents, 36th Congress, 1st Session, ii, No. 2, p. 86; also quoted by Bancroft's History of Utah, p. 561.

23. Lee was executed on the 23rd of March, 1877.

24. Rom. xii:19. These were the words which Major James H. Carleton caused to be inscribed upon a rude wooden cross he erected above the cairn that marked the burial place of the Arkansas emigrants; but which later was destroyed either by some vandal's hand or the ruthless ravages of time; the cross has fallen and nothing now marks the resting place but the ruck of stones, placed above the common grave of the emigrants by United States troops some two years after the massacre (see Report of Charles Brewer, ass. surgeon U. S. A., to Captain R. P. Campbell, Senate Documents, 36th Congress, 1st Session, vol. ii, pp. 206-7; Judge Cradlebaugh's speech, in the 37th Congress, 3rd Session, Congressional Globe, Appendix, p. 123). The destruction of this inscription is unjustly connected by the judge with President Young's first visit to southern Utah after it was erected, (1861), (Ibid). It is also said that when Brigham Young read the inscription on that occasion, he "changed the purport of its language, and said to those around him that it should read thus: 'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and I have repaid!'" (Stenhouse's Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 453; see also Woodruff's Journal, entry for May 25, 1860).

25. I Tim., v:24.

26. This has reference to some homicides committed at Springville in Utah county, in March, 1857. The victims were members of the Parrish family, and the deed was committed on the eve of the intended departure of the family for California. Also to the killing of the Aiken party, in 1857. The party received its designation from two brothers of the name of Aiken, who, with four other men, were returning from California to the eastern states. Four of the party were arrested in southern Utah as "spies," and en route for Salt Lake City via Nephi the party was attacked at night; two were killed outright, the other two, though wounded, made their way to Nephi, whence they started for Salt Lake, but were killed on their way at Willow Springs. The remark of the text also has reference to all other homicides committed in 1857, and in all antecedent years; whatever was done in that kind was done on the responsibility of the guilty individuals; and in all subsequent years, whatever was done stands upon the same footing. The law of God has not lodged the right of capital punishment with the church. Even where there is a church trial had, and proof given of the worthiness of death, at that point it becomes the duty of the church to turn over those guilty of offenses worthy of death to the law of the land, to be dealt with according to that law, and through its ministers. What the law of God does not auhorize the church to do, it has not authorized individuals to do.

27. Doctrine and Covenants, sec. xlii. This revelation was given Feb. 9th, 1831.

28. Court Record, Hamblin's testimony at Lee's second trial, Sept., 1876. It must be remembered that then, late in 1857, and early in 1858, a United States army was within the northeastern borders of the territory, and "the United States judges were not in the territory," (Deposition of Brigham Young, see Court Record, second Lee trial, Sept., 1857).

29. Jacob Hamblin, A Narrative of His Personal Experiences, etc., etc., p. 57.

30. See affidavit of Erastus Snow under date of 21st February, A. D. 1882, Mountain Meadows Massacre, Penrose, pp. 67, 68. Some mitigating circumstances subsequently were learned respecting Haight's responsibilities in the matter of not restraining Lee, and he was restored to church fellowship.

31. Second Lee trial, 1876, Court Record, also Deseret News of Sept. 27th, 1876.

32. From a series of letters to the Deseret News on "Utah and the Mormons," 1874, impression of April 15th, of that year.

(B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1930], 4: 160.)