 CHAPTER XXI OF TELL IT ALL, BY FANNY STINHOUSE THE ORIGIN OF THE REFERMATION, EXTRAORDINARY DOINGS OF THE SAINTS From time to time, in the course of this narrative, I have had the occasion to allude to a certain period of extraordinary fanatical excitement among the saints in Utah, a period which was there popularly termed the Reformation. And I think that a brief sketch of the terrible sayings and doings of that time and the causes which led them may be interesting to the reader and may help to explain much which to a Gentile must otherwise be very obscure. The popular idea of Mormonism is that the peculiar feature which distinguishes it from all other Christian sects is polygamy. To a certain extent this is of course true, but it is only a partial statement of the truth. If polygamy were to be relinquished, it would still be found that Mormonism had really very little in common with other sects and very much that was completely antagonistic to them. The confession of faith published by Joseph Smith during his lifetime would certainly deceive an uninitiated person, and it was in consequence of the ambiguity of that very document that so many unsuspecting persons were from the beginning of Mormonism led astray by the teachings of the missionaries. The convert was told that the Mormon faith proclaimed the existence of one true God, but he was not told that Father Adam was that deity and that he is like a well-to-do farmer. He was told that Christ was the Son of God, but he was not taught that the Virgin Mary was the lawful wife of God the Father and that he intended after the resurrection to take her again as one of his own wives to raise up immortal spirits in eternity. He was told of faith in a Saviour. He was not told that men were the only Saviours of their wives and that unless a woman pleased her husband and was obedient and was saved by him she could not be saved at all. He was told that the saints believed in the Holy Ghost, but he was not told the Holy Ghost is a man, he is one of the sons of our Father and our God. You think our Father and our God is not a lively, sociable and cheerful man? He is one of the most lively men that ever lived. And yet although such fearful and shocking blasphemy was of course hidden from the convert whom it was desirable to impress with the idea that Mormonism was only a development of Christianity, it was openly taught in the sermons in the tabernacle before thousands of people and inculcated in the writing of the highest authorities. The passages which I have just quoted were preached in public, taken down in shorthand, were revised under the superintendents of Brigham Young or one of the chief leaders, were then printed and published in Salt Lake City and afterwards reprinted in another form. The verbal repetition of such blasphemy as this would be simply painful and disgusting to any right-minded person. I shall therefore endeavour to give an idea of some of these outrageous doctrines without entering too closely into details. Should the reader however wish to search and see for himself I refer him to the journals of discourses, the files of the church papers and the publications of the Mormon writers generally. One of the first innovations upon the received faith of ordinary Christians was the doctrine of polytheism. There can be no doubt that even in Joseph's time that doctrine was taught, although as in the case of polygamy all knowledge of it was kept from everyone but the initiated, the strong men who could be entrusted with the inner secrets of the church leaders. That such a doctrine, however, was beginning even then to form parts of the faith of the saints may be seen in the following lines upon the occasion of the prophet's murder. Unchanged in death with a saviour's love he pleads their cause in the courts above. His homes in the sky he dwells with the gods, far from the furious rage of mobs. He died, he died for those he loved, he reigns, he reigns in realms above. Many other instances even stronger than this could easily be given. The Mormon idea of the other world, while in some respects it differed from the teachings of certain modern spiritualists, was not altogether dissimilar. The soul was said to be immortal and it had three stages of existence. The first was purely spiritual, the state of the soul before it came into this world. Spirits in that condition were not perfect. They must first take a fleshly body and pass through the trials of life before they could attain to the highest state of existence. Hence it was a solemn duty as well as their highest privilege for men to practice polygamy. Their duty, as by this means and by this alone, the yet imperfect souls now waiting to come into this world could ever hope to be admitted into the celestial kingdom and a privilege. Thus all the souls whom they thus assisted to emigrate would form their own kingdoms in eternity over which as kings and priests they would reign for ever and ever. The second stage of the soul's existence is the mortal, with which we are all sadly well acquainted. The third is the condition subsequent to the resurrection when they believe the flesh and bones will form the raised body, but the blood will not be there, for the blood is the principle of corrupt life, and therefore another spirit supplies its place in heaven. That Christ partook of some broiled fish and part of a honeycomb is evident from Holy Scripture. The Mormons therefore teach that heaven will be very much the same as earth, only considerably improved. We shall not marry there or be given in marriage, hence it is necessary for us to marry here, and to marry as much as we can, for then in heaven a man will take the wives whom he married on earth, or who have been sealed to him by proxy. They will be his queens and their children will be his subjects. We shall eat and drink and feast and spend a happy time generally. We shall henceforth never die, hence shall we ourselves be gods. It was in the pre-existent state, the Mormons teach, that the work of salvation was first planned, but not after the fashion believed by all Christians. A grand celestial council was held, at which all the sons of God appeared. Michael, the father of all, presided and stated that he proposed to create a new world, of which he proceeded to give some details. His first begotten then arose and made a speech in which he proposed that Michael, his father, should go down to the world when created with Eve, his mother, and do their much after the fashion of what is related to our first parents in the book of Genesis. He himself would descend some thousands of years subsequently, and would lead his airing brethren back, and save them from their sins. Lucifer, the second son, then stood forth and unfolded his plan. Jealous of the popularity of his elder brother, he proposed to save men in their sins. Great discussion ensued in which the unnumbered family of heaven divided into three parties, one under each of the two elder sons, and the third standing neutral. After a terrible conflict Lucifer, the second son, was defeated and with all his followers was driven out of heaven. They descended into the abyss where they founded the infernal kingdom of which Lucifer became the chief. He was henceforth known as the devil. Adam created his world and carried out his part of the plan, and in due time the eldest son, who conquered in heaven, took upon him the form of flesh, dwelt among men, and was known as their redeemer. The spirits who stood neutral during the fight subsequently took upon them forms of flesh, entering into the children of Ham, and were known as Negroes. Therefore it is that although the American Indians and all other races are eligible for the Mormon priesthood, the Negro alone can never attain to that high dignity. It is only natural, amidst all this confusion of ideas, to ask who then is the real originator of created things. In the eternity of matter the Mormons have from the first believed. But they have supposed that the formation of worlds and systems had definite dates, although they are unknown to us. Far away in the immensity of space is Kolab, the great and glorious son of sons, the abode of the first principle of Godhead, of which we can form any conception. Around that son countless other systems revolve, of which ours is one. That son itself may be only one of many other systems whose origin and existence is lost in inconceivable space, and concerning which we can form no just realization, while in this finite state. From the first source in Kolab other gods have proceeded in precisely the same way as genealogies and family trees have been continued on earth. Each new patriarchal God has formed his own earth out of the aggregation of matter, and over that earth he reigns. On the 9th of April 1852 Brigham Young publicly announced that, when our Father Adam came into the Garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve one of his wives with him. He helped to make and organize this world. He is Michael, the Archangel, the Ancient of Days, about whom holy men have written and spoken. He is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do. This public declaration gave great offence and led to the apostasy of many. Nevertheless, Brigham Young thinks that just as Adam came down to Eden and subsequently became a God, in like manner he also himself will attain to the Godhead. Heber C. Kimball, zealous to go a step further, declared that Brigham was God, and that he, Kimball, stood towards him in the same relation as the third person in the Blessed Trinity does towards the first. It will hence be seen that subordination is one of the first principles of the Mormon faith, and this even in the church organization of the saints has been distinctively shown. For the purposes for which it exists, the Mormon hierarchy could not be surpassed. Of the priesthood there are two orders, the Melchizedek and the Oronic, of which the former ranks first and highest. The lowest rank in the church is the Deacon, and he looks after the places of meeting, takes up collections, and attends to other similar duties. Next comes the Teacher. He visits the saints and takes notes of their standing, and reports the same. Weakness of faith or backwardness in paying tithing is never overlooked by him. After him is the priest, and above him is the elder, whose office it is to preach, baptize, and lay on hands. All these belong to the Order of the Oronic, or the Levitical priesthood. Bishops are simply church officers having local jurisdiction. The lowest grade in the Melchizedek priesthood is the Elder. He administers in all the ordinances of the church. Above him there is no higher rank as respects the priesthood, but in respect to office there are various gradations, as for example the High Priests, the Seventies, and Bishops, who occupy positions of authority, although both go on missions, and also the Apostles. The Apostles were chosen in imitation of the Twelve appointed by Christ, and in the same way the Seventies, in imitation of the Seventy Disciples, sent forth to preach and work miracles. They claim rank next to the Twelve. The Quorum of the Apostles is presided over by the Eldest of their Number. The Quorums of Seventies are each composed of Seventy Elders, with the President and Six Counselors. The Number of Quorums is Unlimited, and over them all collectively is another President and Six Counselors. The Highest Authority in the Church is the First Presidency. Brigham Young, George A. Smith, and Daniel H. Wells, who are said to represent on earth the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. As from President Young down to the most illiterate Elder, every one is supposed to be specially inspired and to be immediately guided by the gift of the Holy Ghost. Education is utterly unnecessary to the members of the Mormon Priesthood. In fact, it has always been looked upon as an impediment to its possessor. Obedience is considered the highest qualification, and it was the strict enforcement of obedience on the part of the ordinary people, and the lower grades of the Priesthood, towards the higher, that alone could have made possible that state of affairs which existed during the Reformation. Hence also it is that Brigham Young and the leaders are rightly held responsible for the deeds of violence and fanaticism which their followers may perpetrate, for it is well known that no Mormon, in a matter of grave importance, would dare to act upon his own responsibility, and without he felt sure that what he did would meet with the approbation of those in authority. There is another class of Church Officer which I had very nearly forgotten, the Patriarchs. The chief of these is called the presiding Patriarch over the Church, and the rest are Patriarchs in the Church. The office of these dignitaries is to bless the people and to be paid for their blessings. The price of good blessings is variable. Not long ago, when money was scarce and payments were made in produce, two dollars was considered reasonable, and if several were wanted for the same family a reduction was made. Hiram Smith, the original Prophet's eldest brother, was the first Patriarch, and to him succeeded Uncle John, as he was popularly called the eldest brother of Brigham. The present Patriarch is the son of Hiram, still a young man, who obtained his office by inheritance, and this, I believe, is about the only office in the Church which Brother Brigham has permitted the Smith family to inherit or enjoy. Odd as it may seem, some of the people have quite a passion for these blessings. I knew one old French woman who was said, like the woman in the parable in respect to the physicians, to have spent all of her living upon them. I met her one day with the flannel petticoat under her arm which she was going to sell. Upon inquiry she frankly told me that she had given her last cent, and had sold every scrap of any value which she possessed, and nearly all of her clothes in order to obtain blessings. And as she did not understand English, she was now going to sell her old petticoat, the very last article of any value which she now possessed, in order to pay an old dame who knew a little English for her services in translating the blessings. She was in a state of great sorrow at the thought that now her supply of blessings would be stopped. She would have to do without. The patriarchs, however, at no time possessed any particular official weight, and from them never preceded any of those strange doctrines which excited the people to violence and bloodshed. In a religious sense, this outrageous fanaticism was all originated in the first place, in Missouri by some of the more prominent men, such as Sidney Rigdon, Dr. Avard, David Patton, and others, doubtless with the connivance of the prophet Joseph, not long after the organization of the church, and subsequently by the extreme and preposterous doctrines constantly inculcated by Brigham Young, among whom Jedediah M. Grant and Heber C. Kimball were the most conspicuous. In a political sense it was the natural result of the peculiar position of the saints in Missouri, Ohio, and Illinois, and of the ridiculous threats of Brigham Young against the federal government after the exodus of the Mormons to the Salt Lake Valley, together with the idea which had become popular among the people that a temporal kingdom was to be set up among the Rocky Mountains, and that Christ should personally reign and rule there. The idea of reviving the old Jewish polity was always uppermost in the minds of the first teachers. Hence they revived the priesthood and high priesthood in their various forms. A magnificent temple was built in Nauvoo, just as another temple is now being erected at Salt Lake City, and so far did they go that it was even determined that the ancient sacrifices should eventually be restored. At the same time, while the minds of the Mormons newly converted and fired with zeal were bent upon founding the kingdom of the saints on earth, the people of Missouri among whom they dwelt heard that even in social life the customs of the Jews were to be introduced and that polygamy was to be practiced. Husbands and brothers trembled for their wives and sisters, and the hatred to the new religion was increased when it was observed that the Mormons in every political movement held altogether and voted as one man, thus exercising an influence which no ordinary religious sect could have possessed or wielded. This, the discipline of the hierarchy to which I have already referred, enabled them to do. Ill-feeling was shown on both sides in a thousand petty ways at first, with more serious results presently. The Mormons were accused of circulating large quantities of base coin, of cheating and defrauding the gentiles as they called everyone, even Jews, who rejected the new religion, and of even being guilty of darker crimes, which last charge, however, was only at first hinted at. On the other hand, the Mormons accused their enemies of every possible villainy of which men and women could be guilty. The real fact would appear to be that both the Mormons and their enemies were at that time guilty of much wrongdoing against each other, while at the same time much that was alleged on both sides was utterly groundless, and only originated in the natural jealousy which Western pioneers, rough and ready frontiersmen, such as the people of those parts, then were, would naturally feel when enlisted in two parties, animated by religious and political hatred against each other. Now came whisperings of still more atrocious deeds. It was alleged that among the Mormons a secret body of men had been chosen who were enrolled under the most frightful oaths to avenge every wrong which might be perpetrated against the saints. This band was said to have originated with Sidney Rigdon and Dr. Samson Avard, and, as I have somewhere else mentioned, Thomas B. Marsh, and Hyde, the present chief of the apostles, both made affidavit that such was the case, and that the band was sworn to commit the most shocking acts of vengeance, and surely Marsh and Hyde ought to know. Various names were chosen for this death society. First the members were called the Daughters of Zion, from Micah 4.13. But as it sounded rather ridiculous to speak of bearded ruffians as Daughters, that name was abandoned, and the title of venging angels substituted, and that, with some other names then temporarily used, were subsequently dropped for the name Danites, from Genesis 1917, which has since been retained, not by the Mormons, for they have ever denied the existence of any such band, but by the Gentiles. It matters very little what the name of such a society might be, so long as it existed at all, and that it does, and has existed in some form, cannot reasonably be denied. There probably is not at the present time any formally enrolled society, but it is quite certain that for many years past, if the church had only dropped a hint that any man's blood ought to be shed, that man would have had a very short tenure of his life. Even Brigham himself said publicly, If men come here and do not behave themselves, they will not only find the Danites whom they talk so much about, biting the horses heels, but the scoundrels will find something biting their heels. In my plain remarks, I simply call things by their own names. It is beyond a doubt that notwithstanding all the social changes and improvements of late years, the secret police of Salt Lake City are in matters of crime, as well as in fact, though not perhaps nominally, the successors of the original Death Society. Many of its members are known to have committed grievous crimes and to have repeatedly died their hands in blood. The shocking deeds that every now and then are divulged to the world are all of their doing and no resident of Salt Lake City, whether Mormon or Gentile, although he might prudently decline to state his opinions, would in his mind question the fact that it is fear of consequences and only because the saints are on their good behavior in the sight of the federal government, that the hands of these wretches are withheld from a continuance of their old enormities. As might be supposed, the establishment of a secret band of men professedly ready at a moment to steal, to shed blood or commit any crime at the command of their leaders created great excitement in the whole state of Missouri and especially in the vicinity of the Mormon settlements. Like the Ishmaelites of old, the hands of the saints were against every man and every man's hand was against them. They were taught that they were a chosen nation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people. The sword of the Lord and of Gideon was to be theirs. They were to go forth conquering and to conquer and the Gentiles were to be trodden down beneath their feet. As might be expected, trouble immediately arose. The people of Missouri outraged the Mormons and the Mormons in return outraged them. Murders, thefts and the most shameful atrocities were of daily occurrence and the history of those terrible doings would fill a good-sized volume. Suffice it to say that the excitement continued and increased, reprisals being made on both sides. Finally the mob was triumphant and after committing many fearful excesses, it was organized into a militia. The leading men in authority declaring that the Mormons must either leave the state or else they must be extirpated by the sword. Notwithstanding all this, the Mormons at all times and industrious people were in one sense successful and prosperous. The morality, however, of some of their leading men was to say the least very questionable. It was openly argued that the silver and gold were the lords and so were the cattle on a thousand hills. The scripture says that God has given his people all things richly to enjoy. The saints were the people of God. He had given them all the wealth and substance of the earth and therefore it was no sin for them to help themselves. They were but taking their own. To overreach or defraud their enemies was facetiously called by the Mormons milking the Gentiles. Their city called Nauvoo, the beautiful, a name given by the prophet Joseph and supposed to be of celestial origin, was well laid out and well built. A costly temple was nearly complete and the leaders at least began to show signs of wealth and prosperity. This, however, was but the lull before the storm. Rits upon various charges against Joseph and the leading elders had always been floating about and the serving of some of the later ones had only been prevented by technical difficulties or the personal fears of the sheriff. To enter Nauvoo for the purpose of arresting the prophet was like bearding the lion in his den. For by this time one of the best equipped and best drilled militia regiments under the name of the Nauvoo Legion had been organized and Joseph had been elected Lieutenant General. The regiment consisted solely of well tried Mormons who were devotedly attached to their leader besides which the whole of the population of the city was at his call at a moment's notice. Into the city of the Saints, as far as it was possible to prevent it, no Gentile was allowed to intrude. It was at the risk of life and property that anyone ventured. One oddly original mode of driving out the devoted stranger is worthy of mention. It was called whittling a man out of the town. Opposite the victim's door, a number of men and overgrown boys would take up their quarters, each armed with a stout stick of wood and a huge knife. No sooner did the Gentile appear than the whole horde gathered in a circle round him. Not a word was uttered, but each man, grasping firmly his stick in his left hand, pointed its other end to within a few inches of the victim's face, while with the knife in his right hand he sliced a shaving out of the wood in such a way as to bring the point of the knife almost against the face of the unfortunate man. Wherever he turned they attended him, always preserving the strictest silence and never actually touching him. The intolerable sensation caused by the whittling of this strange bodyguard, who were in attendance day and night, and the unpleasantness of seeing half a score of sharp knives flashing perpetually within an inch of his nose, generally subdued the strongest-minded Gentile. Few could endure it for more than a day or so at the utmost. They were glad to leave, whittled out of town. The evil day, however, at last came. The Prophet, fearing arrest, fled, but was persuaded to return and deliver himself up. The charge against him was one for which reasonable bail could be taken. Bail was offered, accepted, and the prisoners discharged. Before leaving court, however, the Prophet and his brother Hiram, the patriarch, were arrested upon a trumped-up charge of treason, a charge for which it was impossible that bail should be taken. They were therefore committed to custody in Carthage jail under solemn promise from Governor Ford of Illinois that the state should be answerable for their personal protection. The same day, however, a mob of over one hundred men assisted it is said, by the militia who were left in charge, burst into the jail and assassinated the Prophet and his brother. As might be supposed, this outrage by no means weakened the Mormon cause. Their Prophet was now a martyr, and his name more powerful after death than it could possibly have been had he lived. It was, however, clearer than ever that nothing could now reconcile the people of Illinois to the Mormons, and the latter seriously began to think of leaving the state in a body as they had formerly left Missouri. The terrible doings of those times I have no idea of relating just now. I simply allude to them in order that the reader may understand how, in the excitement produced in that border warfare, it was possible for such strange events as afterwards transpired in Utah to originate. I may simply add that the temple being completed and the first endowments given there, the people gathered up what little property they could rescue from the mob, and under the guidance of Brigham Young, and amidst privations, sufferings, and outrages of the most painful character, left the city which they had founded in Illinois and set out for the Rocky Mountains, where beside the Great Salt Lake they founded their modern Zion. Free now from the violence of mobs and gentile enmity, it might have been supposed that the hatred which had so long been part of the Mormon faith would have died a natural death. The contrary, however, was the case. The Mexican war was then raging, and en route to the Rocky Mountains, the Mormons had received a proposal from the federal government that they should supply a regiment upon highly advantageous conditions to join the United States troops which were then operating in California. This suggestion was kindly made, for it was thought that the Mormon regiment, thus raised, would, in reality, be only marching their own way to going to California, and that the outfits, pay, arms, and so forth, which were to be theirs after the year for which they were enrolled had expired, would be of essential service to them. It was like paying men liberally for making a journey for their own benefit. Notwithstanding all this, Brigham Young and the leaders represented the transaction in quite another light, and the people were taught that an engagement into which they had entered of their own free will, and from which they had derived substantial advantages, was an act of heartless cruelty, and despotic tyranny on the part of the government. This feeling was fostered until at length the saints as a body regarded themselves as a wronged and outraged people, and considered every Gentile, in fact, the whole nation, as their natural enemies. This was perhaps all the more singular since after the vast tract of country of which Utah forms a part, had, at the end of the war, been rested from Mexico, Brigham Young had been appointed by President Millard Fillmore, the first governor and Indian agent of the territory. He was therefore in federal pay, and bound, as long as he retained office, to support the government, or at the very least, not to stir up disaffection. Trouble soon arose between Governor Young and the Mormons on one side, and the judges and United States courts and officials, on the other. Once an armed mob burst into the Supreme Court, and forced the judge then sitting to adjourn. At another time a bonfire was made of the books and papers of the district courts. Then a judge on the bench was threatened with personal outrage, and subsequently a posse summoned by legal process and camped for a whole fortnight over against another posse summoned without legal process. The two bodies burning with bitter hatred and breathing out threatenings and slaughter. Such a state of affairs could not, of course, last long. On the one side the wildest statements were publicly made against the government. Threats, which uttered by a little band of pioneers against a mighty nation, were perfectly ridiculous, stirred up the hearts of the saints. On the other hand it was pretty certain that federal troops would have to be sent out to Utah to preserve the peace of the territory. The federal government was nevertheless defied, abused, and derided, and the people thoroughly blinded by their fanaticism did not for a moment doubt that should Governor Young declare war the United States troops would vanish before the armies of the saints like chaff upon the threshing floor. So absurd does all this appear that I should really hardly venture to repeat it were it not that everyone in Utah, Mormon and Gentile, knows that I am really understating facts rather than otherwise. Now came a crisis in Mormon history for which all these wild sayings and unlawful doings had been so long paving the way. The Reformation was destined to be the crowning point of saintly folly and saintly sin. End of Chapter 21. Chapter 22 of Tell It All by Fanny Stenhouse. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Reign of Terror in Utah. The Reformation of the Saints. The people were now thoroughly excited. Their religious antipathy, their political hatred, two of the most powerful passions which move individuals or bodies of men had been appealed to and both in public and private they had been stirred up to a pitch of frenzy which it 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. The Saints had all along been taught to distinguish between murder and the shedding of innocent blood, the former being spoken of as a crime for which atonement might be made. But for the latter there was no repentance on earth. It was an unpardonable sin. They were also taught to distinguish carefully between sins which might be forgiven and sins for which pardon was impossible. Now the difference between murder and shedding innocent blood is this. The latter is the crime of killing a saint which can never be forgiven but by the death of the transgressor. But the former is of a quite different character. To murder a Gentile may sometimes be inexpedient or perhaps even to a certain extent wrong. But it is seldom if ever a crime and never an unpardonable sin. A friend of mine was in a state of apostasy. The bishop went to her to expostulate and told her that if he were her husband he would get rid of her and take away her children as well. He would not on any account live with her. Perhaps she said you would not allow me to live at all. Certainly not, he replied, I would think about as much of killing you or any other miserable apostate as I would about killing a cat. If Brigham Young were to tell me to put you to death I would do it with the greatest of pleasure and it would be for your good too. Thus when the famous revelation on polygamy says that a man cannot be pardoned for shedding innocent blood it does not mean that he cannot be pardoned for murdering a Gentile or an apostate. For that under some circumstances might even be meritorious. But that the murder of a saint by one of the brethren cannot under any circumstances be forgiven on earth and that his only chance of forgiveness lies in his own blood being shed as an atonement. Certain sins cannot be forgiven here on earth shedding innocent blood, divulging the secrets of the endowment house, marital unfaithfulness on the part of the wife, apostasy. These are unpardonable. All other crimes which Gentiles abhor may become even virtues if done in the cause of the church. I do not of course mean to say that the mass of the Mormon people act to such atrocious doctrines for although when among themselves they would admit that the theory was correct the better instincts of their nature keep them from even putting that theory into practice. But what I do mean to say is 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. It is this day a matter of fact and not a matter of question that if any Mormon apostate were to commit any of the unpardonable sins which I have mentioned, and if he or she were to be assassinated by a private individual, all zealous Mormons indeed the leaders would maintain that not only was the deed justifiable, but even meritorious. This may seem bad enough, but it is not the worst. The doctrine of the blood atonement is that the murder of an apostate is a deed of love. If a saint sees another leave the church, or if even he only believes that his brother's faith is weakening, and that he will apostatize before long, he knows that the soul of his unbelieving brother will be lost if he dies in such a state and that only by his blood being shed is there any chance of forgiveness for him. It is therefore the kindest action that he can perform toward him to shed his blood. The doing so is a deed of truest love. The nearer the dearer, the more tenderly loved the sinner is, the greater the affection shown by the shedder of blood. The action is no longer murder or the shedding of innocent blood, for the taint of apostasy takes away its innocence. It is making an atonement, not a crime. It is an act of mercy, therefore meritorious. These were the terrible teachings which the Reformation brought to light. They had been whispered before among the elect and had been acted upon by the avenging angels, but before this they had never been publicly and intelligibly explained. As I before said, the saints had been excited to a condition of frenzy and were ready to engage in any fanatical folly. But the way in which the spark was applied to the powder was as ridiculous as its results were terrible. Jedediah M. Grant, an enthusiast of the wildest kind, a man without education or a mental discipline of any description, one of the first Presidency and high-end authority among the saints, had occasion to attend a meeting which was held at Caysville, a place about twenty-five miles distant from Salt Lake City, and he invited some of the elders to meet him there to take part in the proceedings. To one of these, Jedediah as he was familiarly called, obligingly lent a mule. He himself did not accompany the party but went on before. These elders were pretty well-mounted, and one of them, being a good horseman, made the rest keep up with him. In consequence of this, when they arrived at Caysville, the beasts were heated and tired. The apostle Jededi watched them, but said nothing. Up to a certain point, the meeting passed off pleasantly enough, the elders present were good at testimony and strong in exhorting their hearers to faithfulness. Jededi was the last speaker. He began in his usual way, but presently warmed up until he became quite excited and then proceeded to accuse every one present of all sorts of wrongdoing. The elders who had preceded him came in for their full share. He denounced them for their inconsistency and hypocrisy, and bitterly uprated them for running his mule and their own beasts in such a manner. The bishop of the place and his counsellors, he accused of inactivity and carelessness, and he called loudly upon every one present to repent and do their first works, threatening them with speedy judgments of heaven. All this was well enough if it had stopped there. For it might have been taken for just what it was, an ebullition of temper on the part of Jededi, who was naturally vexed that his mule had been overheated. But like many other manias and epidemics, this Mormon movement began with the most insignificant trifle and the spirit of fiery denunciation became perfectly contagious. Another meeting was held in the course of a few weeks, and then the mutual accusations of those who were present became, if possible, more bitter than before. The saints were denounced as the vilest of sinners, and they were all commanded to be rebaptised. Accordingly, after the meeting, although it was night and the weather was cold, a considerable number were immersed by the elders, and Jededi himself was so enthusiastically engaged in the performance that he remained in the water so long that he got a thorough chill and contracted the disease of which he died. Sunday after Sunday similar scenes were repeated in the tabernacle until, had it not been painful, the whole affair would have been ludicrous in the extreme. Everyone had strayed from the path of duty, and the fact was announced in the strongest terms. People were called upon by name to publicly confess their sins, and many were then and there pointed out and accused of crimes of which they were entirely guiltless, but which they dared not deny. In the midst of all this, the duty of implicit obedience to the priesthood and the payment of tithes was loudly insisted upon. Then the missionaries were sent out all over the territory armed with the full authority of the priesthood and also a catechism which, on account of its obscene character, has been bought up so successfully by Brigham that it is doubtful if there is a copy in existence. The Mormons have a curious way of appointing missionaries. If a man is weak in the faith, a depraved bad man, or even a youth with wild tendencies, and inclined to sow his wild oats a little too luxuriously, he is sent on his travels to preach the Gospel. Nothing strengthens a man's faith at his thought more than having to defend it from the opposition of unbelievers, and the enforced good example which the missionaries obliged to set will, it is said, produce a salutary effect upon the exuberance of youth or the depravity of more mature years. In the present instance many of the missionaries thus sent forth were known to be as immoral as they were grossly ignorant. There was one terrible meeting at which Brigham himself was put to the plush. Men of note were there. No one was present who did not belong to the priesthood. Jetty held forth, and Heber and Brigham were strong upon the occasion. In the midst of the proceedings, Brother Brigham, full of confidence, in the plainest words called upon all who could not plead guiltless of certain crimes to stand up. Three-fourths of those present immediately arose. Utterly shocked the prophet entered into explanations, but self-convicted these three-fourths of his hearers stood conscientiously firm. Even Brigham saw the necessity of taking some stringent measures. The saints were told that if they were rebaptised their sins would be washed away, and they could then say they were not guilty of the crimes suggested in the catechism. Subsequently the catechism itself was, as I said, bought up and burnt. The burden of every sermon was unquestioning obedience, repentance, payment of tithing, and above all the taking of more wives. The missionaries without the slightest ceremony would visit the houses of respectable saints, examine them out of the abominable catechism, and question husbands and wives in the presence of their children about even their very thoughts in a manner and upon subjects which would amply have justified their being hung up to the nearest tree. Lynch law was in fact too good for such atrocities, wicked ideas the utterance of which would have called forth a blush even if heard from the lips of a drunken rowdy in a pot-house were suggested and explained to young children, while it would have been literally at the risk of life for their parents to have expostulated. Tudusa would have shown want of faith, and want of faith would have justified some fanatical scoundrel in using his knife or his pistol for the loving purpose of cutting off his brother's soul from earth in order to save it in heaven. Meanwhile, Jedediah did not for a moment cease his exhortations. The work must be done thoroughly. The blood atonement must not be forgotten. On one occasion in the tabernacle this crazy fanatic said, 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 case, and then let a 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 been trying long enough at this people and I go in for letting the sword of the Almighty be unsheathed, not only in word, but in deed. Last he be mistaken, he said. What ought this meek people who keep the commandments of God 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. Heber C. Kimball, the model saint, after a speech to the same effect in which as usual he made use of the most disgusting language, added, Joseph Smith was God to the inhabitants of the earth when he was among us, and Brigham is God now. But more shocking than any other was the language of Brigham Young himself. On the 21st of September, 1856, in a discourse delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, and afterwards reprinted by authority in the journals of discourses, volume four, pages 53 through 54, he said, The time is coming when justice will be laid to the line and righteousness to the plummet, when we shall take the old broadsword and ask, are you for God? And if you are not heartily on the Lord's side, you will be hewn down. There are sins that men commit for which they cannot 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, whereas, if such is not the case, they will stick to them and remain with them in the spirit world. I know when you hear my brethren telling about cutting people off from the earth that you consider it a strong doctrine, but it is to save them, not to destroy them. I do know that there are sins committed of such a nature that if the people did understand the doctrine of salvation, they would tremble because of their situation, and furthermore, I know that there are transgressors who, if they knew themselves and the only condition upon which they can obtain forgiveness, would beg of their brethren to shed their blood, that the smoke thereof might ascend to God as an offering to appease the wrath that is kindled against them, and that the law might have its course. I will say further, 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. As it was in ancient days, so it is in our day, and though the principles are taught publicly from this stand, still the people do not understand them. Yet the law is precisely the same. There are sins that can be atoned for by an offering upon an altar, as in the ancient days, and there are sins that the blood of a lamb, a calf, or of turtle doves, cannot remit, but they must be atoned for by the blood of the man. One would have supposed that even Brigham had now reached the culminating point of horror and blasphemy, but no, a month or so later he even surpassed himself when in a tabernacle sermon he said, When will we love our neighbors as ourselves? In the first place Jesus said that no man hadith his own flesh. It is admitted by all that every person loves himself. Now if we do rightly love ourselves, we want to be saved, and continue to exist. We want to go into the kingdom where we can enjoy eternity, and see no more sorrow nor death. This is the desire of every person who believes in God. Now take a person in this congregation who has knowledge with regard to being saved in the kingdom of our God and our Father, and being exalted, one who knows and understands the principles of eternal life, and sees the beauties and excellency of the eternities before him, compared with the vain and foolish things of the world. And suppose that he is overtaken in a gross fault, that he has committed a sin that he knows will deprive him of that exaltation which he desires, and that he cannot attain to it without the shedding of his blood, and also knows that by having his blood shed, he will atone for that sin and be saved and exalted with the gods. Is there a man or a woman in this house but would say, shed my blood that I might be saved and exalted with the gods? This would be loving ourselves, even unto an eternal exaltation. Will you love your brothers or sisters likewise when they have a sin that cannot 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. He never meant any such thing. His language is left as it is for those to read, who have the spirit to discern between truth and error. It was so left for those who can discern the things of God. Jesus Christ never meant that we should love a wicked man in his wickedness. 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 in the last resurrection there will be, 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 until our elder brother Jesus Christ raises them up and conquers death, hell, and the grave. I have known a great many men who have left this church for whom there is no chance whatever for exaltation, but if their blood had been spilled it would have been better for them. The wickedness and ignorance of the nations forbid this principle being in full force, but the time will come when the law of God will be in full force. This is loving our neighbor as ourselves. If he needs help, help him. If he wants salvation and it is necessary to spill his blood on the earth in order that he may be saved, spill it. Any of you who understand the principles of eternity, if you have sinned a sin requiring the shedding of blood, except the sin unto death, should not be satisfied or rest until your blood should be spilled that you might gain salvation you desire. That is the way to love mankind. Light and darkness cannot dwell together and so it is with the kingdom of God. 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 towards 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. 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 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 Achan 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 who was killed at his hotel door. There was Sergeant Pike, and there was Arnold and Drown. There was Price and William Bryan at Fairfield, there was Almond Babbitt and Brassfield, and Dr. Robinson. There was also James Cowdy and his wife and child, and Margetts and his wife, and many another two 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 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. One instance I can give from my own personal knowledge. A sister who occasionally does a little work at my house on one occasion said to me, Mrs. Denhouse, when first I came to this country I lived in the southern portion of Utah. One day I saw a woman running across the field towards our house, pale and trembling. When she came in she looked round her as if she were frightened, and she asked if anyone besides our own family were present. On being assured that there was no one present whom she might fear, she said, two men came to our house late last night and asked to see my husband who had already retired. He was in bed but they insisted that he must get up as they had a message from the authorities for him. When they saw him they requested him to go with them to attend, they said, to some church business. I became very much alarmed for my poor husband had been known to speak rather freely of late of some of the measures of the church. But he tried to reassure me and finally left the house with the two men. In about an hour after they came back bearing between them his lifeless body. They laid him upon the bed and then one of them pulled aside the curtain which constituted our only cupboard and took there from a bake kettle and stood it beside the bed in order to catch the blood that was flowing from a fearful wound in his throat. They then left the house telling me to make as little noise about it as possible or they might serve me in the same way. The men were masked and I cannot tell who they are but I spent a fearful night with my poor dead husband. This sister added, Sister Stenhouse, in those more fearful times we dared not speak to each other about such things for fear of spies. These are 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. 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. Can it be possible that men should thus act and say and believe that Jesus the gentle and merciful saviour commended it when he said Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself? All through this 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 the 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 lifelong 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 polygamy and none dared resist. The marrying mania in fact was universal and irresistible. Everyone must marry or be given in marriage. So evidently was this the case that women in jest said if one were to 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 everyone whether married or unmarried it mattered not it was counseled commanded to marry. There is above fanaticism a stronger law which despite every effort of the deluded victim will occasionally make itself heard. The voice of nature 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 mere 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 subject was taken up. The voice of authority however eventually answered the matter but not in the way that any ordinary civilized person would expect. In those times unmarried girls were very scarce. In the settlements it was difficult to find any at all. Not infrequently it happened that a brother was counseled to marry but could not obey as there was no unmarried woman in the place where he lived. But in that case he generally paid a visit to Salt Lake City. But business at the endowment house nevertheless was pretty lively. In fact so much so that it was deemed necessary to set apart certain days for the various settlements. Once when the provo-day was fast approaching two old brethren from that town who had been counseled to enlarge their families but who had been unsuccessful in finding partners began to despair of being able to obey the word of the Lord. The day before that appointed for the endowment since celestial marriage arrived and they were as far from success as ever. Being neighbors the two old gentlemen met and mingled their griefs and considered what might be done. It then occurred to them that there was a certain brother who had two daughters respectively twelve and fourteen years of age and they resolved to call upon him about these children. As might be supposed the father at first refused them giving as a reason that the girls were too young. The old men explained that if they could not marry the children it was impossible for them to obey counsel. And the father then agreed. The next morning the marriage ceremony was performed in the endowment house. One of these wretches was sixty years of age and the other a few years younger. The father of the children was about forty. I am really 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. Not long before this infamous transaction one of these men looking round in search of a wife learned that a certain young English girl was stopping at the house of a certain brother in the neighborhood. He immediately visited that brother and said he should like to be made acquainted with the girl. It happened that the young sister in question had recently been married. But of that the ancient brother was of course ignorant and his friend at whose house the lady was stopping, being fond of a little practical joke at times, did not inform him of the fact. The would-be lover in a business-like way at once began with his wooing, spoke to the young lady about the revelation of the counsel he had received, of his desire to obey, and finally offered her his hand and heart, at least as much of the latter as remained. He expatiated upon his prospects and possessions. He had a small house and a large lot, a good farm, a few cows, a yoke of oxen and a wagon. Another wife was a trifle which he himself was well able to keep. The sister listened in silence and seemed a little bashful. At last she said that about such a serious matter she must have a little time for consideration and asked for a week's thinking time. Delighted with his success the gentleman withdrew. But before the end of the week he found out that the lady was married. He saw her husband, he saw the friend at whose house the lady was stopping, and over the matter he made a considerable fuss. 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 reformation was in full progress. 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 be pure, was perpetrated a deed which is unparalleled in modern civilized times, a deed at which angels and men have stood aghast with horror. While the work of reformation was going on, and when the United States troops were constantly expected in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, a large train of immigrants passed through Utah on its way to California. The train consisted of one hundred and twenty, or one hundred and twenty, or one hundred and twenty. One hundred and thirty persons, and they came chiefly from Arkansas. They were people from the country districts, sober, hardworking plain folks, but well to do, and taken all in all, about as respectable a band of immigrants as ever passed through Salt Lake City. Nothing worthy of any particular note occurred to them until they reached the valley. That was the point from which they started towards death. My old friend Eli B. Kelsey traveled with them from Fort Bridger to Salt Lake City, and he spoke of them in the highest terms. If I remember rightly he said that the train was divided into two parts. The first a rough and ready set of men, regular frontier pioneers, the other a picked community, the members of which were all more or less connected by family ties. They traveled along in the most orderly fashion, without hurry or confusion. On a Sunday they rested, and one of their number, who had been a Methodist preacher, conducted divine service. All went well until they reached Salt Lake City, where they expected to be able to refit and replenish their stock of provisions, but it was there that they first discovered that feeling of enmity which finally resulted in their destruction. Now it so happened that the minds of the saints in Salt Lake City were at that time strongly prejudiced against the people of Arkansas, and for a most unsaintly reason. The Apostle Parley P. Pratt, who was one of the earliest converts to Mormonism, and who so ably defended his adopted creed with his pen and from the platform, had not very long before been sojourning in Arkansas, and had there run away with another man's wife. This was only a trifle for an Apostle to do, and the husband, Mr. McLean, might have known it. But he was a most inconsiderate man, and was actually offended with the amorous Apostle for what he had done. He pursued him and killed him. For in those rough parts it was considered that the Apostle did wrong in marrying the man's wife. Nobody, however, took any notice of the matter or brought the murderer to trial. The Mormon people, of course, took the side of Apostle Parley P. Pratt, sensitive themselves to the highest degree concerning their wives and daughters. They considered McLean a sinner for doing just exactly what any saint would have certainly done. Their opinion, however, would have been a matter of consequence only to themselves, had not such fatal consequences resulted from it. Reasoning without reason, they argued that McLean was the enemy of every Mormon, and every Mormon was the enemy of McLean. McLean was protected in Arkansas, therefore every man from Arkansas was an enemy of the Mormons. An enemy ought to be cut off. Therefore it was the duty of every Mormon to cut off, if he could, every Arkansas man. This appears to have been the tone of thought which actuated the minds of the leaders of the people at the time when this immigrant train arrived in the city. Weary and foot sore, they encamped by the Jordan River, trusting there to recruit themselves and their teams, and to replenish their stock of provisions. The harvest in Utah that year had been abundant, and there was nothing to hinder them from obtaining a speedy and full supply. 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. It was his duty to protect all law-abiding persons who either resided in or traveled through the country. The immigrants so far from being protected were ordered to break up their camp and move on, and it is said that written instructions were sent on before them, directing the people in the settlements through which they would have to pass to have no dealings with them. This, considering their need of provisions, was much the same as condemning them to certain death. 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 an abundance of everything from farm and from 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 hold communion or 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 procure nothing. Their only hope now lay in the chance of holding out until they could push through to some gentile settlement where the word of the priestly governor of Utah was not law. Through fifteen different Mormon settlements did they pass without being able to purchase a morsel of bread. With empty wagons and on short allowance they pushed on until they reached Corn Creek where for the first time in saintly Utah they met a friendly greeting from the Indians and purchased from them thirty bushels of corn, of which they stood very greatly in need. At Beaver they were again repulsed, and at Perawan they were not permitted to enter the town. They were forced to leave the public highway and pass round the west side of the Fort Wall. They encamped by the stream and tried as before to obtain food and fresh cattle, but again to no purpose. The reason why they were refused admission into the town was probably because the militia was there assembled under Colonel William H. Dame, which militia afterwards assisted in their destruction, for which preparations were even now made. They made their way to Cedar City, the most populous of all the towns of southern Utah. Here 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. It was however no act of mercy, the supplying of this corn. The sellers of it knew well enough, even then, that it would return to them again in the course of a few days. After all they had but forty days rations to carry them on to San Bernardino in California, a journey of about seventy days. Scanty kindness, miserable generosity, fifty bushels of corn for a seventy days journey for men, women, and young children, and at least one little one to be born on the road. They remained in Cedar City only one day, and so 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 in 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 no private outburst, and that, on the contrary, it was done by authority, is evident from sworn testimony to the effect that the assembling of those troops was the result of, quote, a regular military call from the superior officers to the subordinate officers and privates of the regiment. Said regiment was duly ordered to muster, armed, and equipped as the law directs, and prepared for field operations, end quote. A regular military council was held at Perawan, 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. No military council, whether of the militia or the ordinary troops of the line, would dare to determine upon such an important matter as the cutting off of an immigrant train of one hundred and thirty persons without receiving permission from superior authority. Brigham Young was in this case the superior authority. He was the commander-in-chief of the militia. The inference is obvious. I do not, of course, say that he gave the order for this accursed deed, but that it was his business to bring the criminals to justice no one can doubt or deny. The regiment, which started from Cedar City under the command of Major John D. Lee, the subagent for Indian affairs in Southern Utah, was accompanied by baggage wagons and other paraphernalia of war, accepting only heavy artillery, which in this case would have been useless. But at the same time a large body of the Piety 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 defenseless. Accustomed, however, to border warfare, they immediately corralled their wagons and prepared for a siege. Their great misfortune was that they had not any water. Major John D. Lee, finding the emigrants' resolute, sent to Cedar City and Washington City for reinforcements, which duly arrived. The next morning Major John D. Lee assembled his troops, including the auxiliaries which he had summoned, about half a mile from the entrenchment of the faded 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 anything 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 clue to the cause of their detention. To them all was mystery. That Indians should attack them was quite within the bounds of probability, although there was at that time no cause for such an outrage. But that such an attack should be persistent and should be carried on under the peculiar circumstances in question was, to say the least, highly improbable. A flag of truce was sent down to the unfortunate emigrants, but wherefore a flag of truce? Wherefore any conditions of warfare? And wherefore should the militia regiment be militant against them? No answer can be returned to these questions without disclosing secret scenes of sin and shameful iniquity at the mention of which even the souls of fiends might stand aghast. A message was sent to the emigrant camp, a message not of Christian love and help, but such as might be sent from one foeman to another. A flag of truce was sent, and with it a message to the effect that if the emigrants chose to lay down their arms and surrender themselves to the militia their lives should be spared. Consider the atrocity of this. Here was a company of harmless emigrants against whom not even the slightest wrongdoing had been suggested. Yet unquestioned, unaccused, innocent of all wrongdoing, the authorised and duly constituted militia of Utah territory, a territory claiming even then to be admitted into the Union, as the State of Deseret, was encamped against those unoffending citizens, with the cruel, the iniquitous purpose of cutting them off. Who could rightly tell a story so fearful as this? The emigrant train, men, women and children, fainting and famishing for want of bread and meat. In their pockets was money wherewith the necessaries of life might have been bought, and the generous hand of the Almighty had that year been opened so wide, and had scattered those necessaries so liberally that nothing but the wickedness of man towards his fellow could have created a dearth, but so it was that darkness and the fear of death, a fearful death even at the door, was all those poor emigrants had standing before their eyes. What right had the Mormon militia to be pursuing, to be hanging about the skirts of any body of emigrants? Their very presence was in itself unauthorised, criminal. The emigrants supposed that they were surrounded by Indians and expected the cruelest treatment in case of resistance, not death, but the outrage and shocking atrocities of savages. They did not know that the red men who threatened their lives and the lives of their helpless wives and infants were brought together at that spot for that same purpose by the Council of Mormon Authorities. They did not know that so many of the appearing redskins were only painted devils, mocks of humanity, wretches who under the mask of a redskins colour were eager to perpetrate the foulest of offences. Scoundrels a thousand times damned in the opinion of men and by the decree of God. Day after day went by and the poor creatures began to despair. Who can wonder? The brave men cared little for their own lives but there was something fearful in the thought that their darling ones would be scalped and torn in pieces and brutally outraged. Who can wonder that they resolved to sell life as dearly as they possibly could? They might at least die in defence of those they loved. 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 be 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 horseshoe coits. Such heartlessness is almost beyond conception. In terrible need of water they thought that even the Indians who they supposed were their assailants might possibly respect a token of truce. So they dressed two little girls in white and sent them down to the well. But the fiends, the Mormon militia, shot them down. In the day of doom the blood of those babes will testify more heavily against Major John D. Lee and Isaac C. Haight and Colonel Dame and George A. Smith and the other wretch who plotted and contrived that fearful iniquity than any of the base and cowardly crimes which have for years and years blackened their contemptible and miserable souls. They could not possibly advance. Their corn would not last long. They were famishing for water. How long they could hold out was evidently only a matter of time. Had the train consisted only of men they might certainly, if with loss, have cut their way through their besiegers and escaped. But with wives and children and others bound to them by the tenderest ties such a thing was impossible. They looked and waited. The Indians, they supposed, were their only enemies. Coldly, strangely, as they had been treated at the Mormon settlements they could never for a moment suppose that white men could be in league against them or could meditate their destruction. Up in the meadows, in the distance there was a white dusty cloud as if of some person or persons approaching. The hearts of the immigrants leapt for joy. Was help coming at last? It was evident that a wagon was coming near and the wagon was filled with armed men. Here was hope. After all the misery of that waitful watching they were overjoyed and shouted aloud with gladness and sprang with open arms to welcome their visitors. Little did they suppose that the fiends who then came down with pale faces and the manners of white men were the same as those who painted and decked out like Indians had been leagued about their camp with murderous intentions for so many days. The wagon came near and was found to be filled with armed men. Surely now the unhappy immigrants 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 sucker was at hand. A white flag was waved from the wagon as an emblem of peace and in order that the immigrants 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 this time and who were even now compassing their death. Inside that wagon was President Haight the infamous Mormon Bishop John D. Lee and other authorities of the church in southern Utah. They professed to the immigrants that they came upon the friendly errand of standing between them and the Indians. They said that the Indians had taken offense at something that the immigrants had done that they were thirsting for their blood but that they, the Mormon officials were on good terms with them 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. Then they returned and said that the Indians had agreed that if the immigrants marched back to Salt Lake City their lives should be spared but that they must leave everything behind them in their camp even including the common weapons of defense which every western man carries about his person. The Mormon officials then solemnly undertook to bring an armed force and to guard the immigrants safely back again to the settlements. The immigrants were not cowards and would doubtless have preferred to cut their way through to the south but they could not leave their wives and little ones and any terms however disadvantageous were better than leaving those they loved to the tender mercy of those wretches. This agreement being made the Mormon officials retired and after a short time again returned with 30 or 40 armed men then the immigrants 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 hidden the bushes on each side of the road the signal was given for the slaughter so taken by surprise with the immigrants 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 and arrows and cutting some of the men's throats with knives. The women and children scattered and fled 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 the son of John D. Lee endeavored to protect one poor girl who clung to him for help but his father tearing her from him by violence blew out her brains another unhappy girl is said to have kneeled in treating him to spare her life he dragged her into the bushes stripped her naked and cut her throat from ear to ear after she had suffered worse at his hands than death itself about half an hour was probably occupied in the butchery and every soul of that company was cut off accepting only a few little children who were supposed to be too young to understand or remember what had taken place the unfortunate victims were then 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 an eyewitness subsequently visiting the spot said the scene of the massacre even at this late day was horrible to look upon women's hair in detached locks and in masses hung to the sage bushes and was strewn over the ground in many places parts of little children's dresses and a female costume dangled from the shrubbery or lace scattered about and among these here and there on every hand for at least a mile in the direction of the road by two miles east and west they're gleamed, bleached white by the weather and covered a glance into the wagon when all these had been collected revealed a sight which never can be forgotten the remains were subsequently gathered together by Major Carlton the United States Commissioner who erected over them a large cairn of stones surmounted by a cross of red cedar with an inscription thereon vengeance is mine I will repay and on a stone beneath were engraved the words here 120 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 the order of Brigham Young when he visited that part of the territory the little children while their parents were being butchered had clung about their murderer's knees in treating mercy but none of them finding it saved those who were little more 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 girl was shot through the ear and the clothes of most of them were saturated with their mother's 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 sometime after the massacre most of the property of the emigrants was sold by public auction in Cedar City the Indians got most of the flower and ammunition and the Mormons the more valuable articles they gestured 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 the shreds of flesh attached to it was placed in the cellar of the tithing office where it lay about three weeks when it was privately sold the cellar is said to have smelt 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 everyone knew whence it came a tithing of it all is reported upon very conclusive evidence made at the feet of Brigham Young this is the story most imperfectly told for I dare not sketch its foulest details of the Mountain Meadows Massacre Brigham Young who was at the time governor of the territory and also Indian agent made no report of the matter let that fact of itself speak for his innocence or guilt would any other governor or agent in another territory have been thus silent? John D. Lee and Dame and Haight and the other wretches have never been brought to trial or cut off from the church although their monstrous crime has never been a secret nor have any endeavors been made to conceal it this fearful deed was one of the unavoidable results of the teachings of the Mormon leaders during the Reformation there were crimes then perpetrated which will never be known until the day of doom and there were horrors which have been known and recorded but for which no one has been brought to trial or has suffered inconvenience there are men in Salt Lake City who walk about unbleshingly in broad daylight but who are known to be murderers and whose hands have been again and again died with blood under circumstances of the most atrocious cruelty there was one cruel murder but by no means the worst which came under my own personal observation and which I have alluded to elsewhere the murder of Dr. John King Robinson in Salt Lake City which attracted more than ordinary attention this gentleman was a physician of good standing who came out as assistant surgeon with the United States Army and afterwards began to practice in Salt Lake City he was known as a man of character and there are to this day hundreds of responsible people who would testify to his fair fame and rectitude although he had by some means incurred the dislike of many of the Mormon leaders he formed the idea of taking possession of some warm springs on the north of the city and proposed to erect their baths and hospital etc a small wooden shanty was erected for the purpose of holding possession of spring and after some very unpleasant proceedings the matter was referred to the law courts and Judge Titus decided against the doctor after this verdict had been rendered Dr. Robinson seems to have acted very prudently and to have remained indoors as much as possible during the succeeding days between eleven and twelve o'clock on the night of the third day however after the family had retired to rest a man called at the house and stating that his brother had broken his leg by a fall from a mule and was suffering very much he after some earnest persuasion induced the doctor to accompany him anxious as he might be to remain indoors at such a time no professional man would refuse to perform an act of mercy he accordingly went at a distance of about a couple of hundred steps from the house he was struck over the head with some sharp instrument and immediately after shot through the brain his wife, a young girl to whom he had only been married a very short time heard the report of the pistol and witnesses saw men fleeing from the spot the police were sent for and the body was carried to Independence Hall and afterwards to the victim's house the mayor of the city was informed of the murder until ten o'clock the next day and the chief of police who was sitting round the fire with his men when news of the murder arrived went to bed immediately and did not visit the sign of the outrage for three days the following Sunday Brigham Young in the Tabernacle publicly suggested that the doctor had probably been murdered by some of the soldiers from Camp Douglas who were dissatisfied with his treatment when they were under his hands that he had fallen in some gambling transaction both of which statements however were known by everyone present to be utterly false no one was ever punished for this cruel murder this murder did not occur during the Reformation but it was the natural result of the teachings of those times I simply mentioned these facts without any comment of my own let the reader form his own conclusion more of these frightful stories that I do not care to relate and I should not even have presented these to the notice of the reader had it not been impossible otherwise to give any suitable idea of that terrible Reformation the Gentile Army came in the Union Pacific Railroad was opened changes and chances altered all that had been and brought into being that which might be and that which finally really was instead of looking to the events of three or four thousand years ago men began to act up to things which were to think and act in the present not to dream of the past the day has gone by but not far when the perpetration openly of such deeds was possible but it is still boasted that when Deseret becomes a state the saints will shoe still greater zeal for the Lord End of Chapter 23