# Wife No. 19/Chapter 15
### CHAPTER XV.
#### THE BLOOD-ATONEMENT. — THE DESTROYING ANGELS. — DANITES AND THEIR DEEDS.

* Sweet, Saintly Sentiments.
* "He ought to have his Throat cut."
* Too many Gentiles About.
* The Spirit of "Blood-Atonement" still Cherished.
* Present Position of Apostates.
* How they used to be "Cut Off."
* "Cutting Men off below the Ears."
* How "Accidents" happened to People who "Knew too Much."
* How Mr. Langford expressed his Opinion too Freely.
* Mormon Friends kindly advise him to "Shut Up."
* "Be on your Guard!"
* Poetry among the Saints: a Popular Song.
* Human Sacrifices Proposed!
* How Saints were taught to Atone for their Sins.
* "Somebody" ready to shed their Blood.
* "The Destroying Angels:" who they were, and what they Did.
* Saints told to do their own "Dirty Work."
* People who "ought to be Used Up."
* Murdering by Proxy!
* Brigham Young proved to be the Vilest of Assassins.
* Hideous Crimes of Porter Rockwell and Bill Hickman.
* How Rockwell tried to Murder Governor Boggs.
* Hickman Confesses his Atrocious Crimes.
* Six Men Robbed of $25,000, and then "Used Up."
* Another Frightful Assassination.
* A Council of Mormon Murderers.
* The "Church" orders the Assassination of the Aikin Party.
"Using up" an Apostate.T is only a very few weeks since two prominent officers of the Mormon Church were overheard in the street, in Salt Lake City, angrily discussing some person who had "broken his covenants." Said one, —
"He ought to have his throat cut.".
"It wouldn't do," replied the other; "there are too. many Gentiles about."
It is now nearly twenty years since the eventful ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/277 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/278 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/279 ​that man with a gray coat? He is a Mormon spy, and is evidently watching you, and will watch you as long as you remain in the city. I say, as your Mormon adviser did, Be on your guard."
During all the time that Langford was in the city he was followed by this man, and he said he felt sure that if one word in disparagement, or criticism, of the Mormon people, or their religion, had crossed his lips, he would have been a dead man. He followed the advice he received, however, else the readers of Scribner would not have been so charmingly entertained afterwards, as they were by his readable articles.
It may seem like digressing somewhat, but I cannot refrain from quoting the "nursery rhymes" which the Mormons sang by the camp-fire, and which evidently impressed Langford with their absurdity. These rhymes are printed in the Mormon Sunday-school song-book, and are sung in Sunday-schools and religious meetings to the tune of "The Bonny Breast Knots." They are a most remarkable piece of religious composition.
I have heard women singing this chorus in some meeting, because they dared not be silent, when their faces belied the words of the song, and who I knew hated the life which they were compelled to live, and who had seen nothing but the most abject misery since they had entered it; whose lives were one long, terrible torture, and who would have been perfectly happy had they seen any way of escape from it.
The dangers of non-Mormons in 1863, great as they were, were much less than in days just succeeding the "Reformation," which days have been rightly called "The Reign of Terror." It was a terrible time, indeed, and one fairly shudders to recall the blood-curdling atrocities that ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/282 ​aged" a great many murders, of which he would probably avow himself entirely guiltless, since his hand did not perform the deed. But though his hand may have no bloodstain to haunt him, yet his heart must be terribly weighted with the load of guilt, which he cannot shake off, let him try as hard as he may. To look at the man, rosy and smiling, comfortable in every particular, you would never take him to be the hard, cruel despot he is. He looks. clean enough outwardly, but within he is filled with moral rottenness to the very core.
Among the men he has employed, the most notorious are Orrin Porter Rockwell, known familiarily as "Port" Rockwell, and William, or, as he is called, "Bill" Hickman. "Port" was an old friend and ally of Joseph Smith, holding very much the same relation to him that "Bill Hickman" has held to the present Prophet. Among other things of which he was accused, was the murder of Governor Boggs, of Missouri. Brigham's "Destroying Angel," "Port" Rockwell Joseph Smith and he were both accused, the former of instigating the murder, the latter for committing it; but Smith got free without a trial, through some quibble of the law, and Rockwell proved that he was in another place at the time of the attempted assassination. He was always near the Prophet in the time of danger, and, in return, Joseph promised "Port" that so long as he wore his hair uncut his life should be safe. So he still wears his hair long, in braided queues down his back, and he says that he shall live until every enemy of Joseph Smith is killed.
His evil deeds will probably equal, if not outnumber, Bill ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/284 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/285 ​with clubs, they crept stealthily up to where their sleeping companions lay, and dealt furious blows at them while they slept. Two of the men died without a struggle; John Aiken was but slightly wounded, and rose to his feet to defend himsef, but received a shot from the pistol of one of the men which laid him senseless. A man called the "Colonel," believing the whole party were attacked by robbers, made his way into the bush, receiving as he went a shot in the shoulder from "Port" Rockwell's pistols. He succeeded in Murder of Aiken Party. evading his pursuers, and made his way to Nephi, twenty-five miles distant, and arrived, pale and drenched with blood, at Bishop Foote's, whose guests the party had been during their stay in Nephi. He told his story, which was listened to with a surprise and horror that were well feigned.
The three bodies were thrown into the river; but in some miraculous manner, in spite of his wounds, John Aiken managed to get ashore, and, hiding in the bush, he heard one of the men ask Rockwell "if all the damned Gentiles were dead;" to which the other replied, that they were, all ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/287 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/288 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/289 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/290