# The Rocky Mountain Saints/Chapter 43

* THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE.
* The Story of two Emigrant Trains
* The Journey across the Plains
* Arrival in Salt Lake City
* Denied Provisions in the Mormon Settlements
* The Travel to the Mountain Meadows
* A Militia Regiment follows them
* Indians and Mormon Militia attack the Train
* A Fight for Four Days
* Mormon Officers betray the Emigrants under a Flag of Truce
* They lay down their Arms under Promise of Protection
* A Hundred and Twenty Men, Women, and Children butchered
* Seventeen Children preserved
* The Story of the Massacre confirmed by the Affidavit of Bishop Smith
* The Author's Letter to Brigham Young
* Superintendent Forney's Report Names of the Little Ones saved
* Judge Cradlebaugh's Speech in Congress
* Sale of the Emigrants' Property
* Major Carlton's Story of the Monument
* "Vengeance is mine, I have repaid"
* "Argus" defines Brigham Young's Responsibility
* Congress deaf to the Demand for Investigation.
A few weeks in advance of the United States Expedition to Utah in 1857, there were two trains of emigrants crossing the plains with the purpose of going to southern California. The one was from Missouri, the other from Arkansas. The former was composed chiefly of men who named themselves "Missouri Wild-cats;" the other train was a company of highly-respectable persons, sober and orderly, and in their associations seemed like a large gathering of kindred, or very near friends. The first were probably venturous spirits seeking fortune; the others, citizens seeking new homes.
The latter company was wealthy, and there were around them every indication of comfort, and everything in abundance for pleasant travelling. In addition to the ordinary transportation wagons of emigrants, they had several riding carriages, which betokened the social class of life in which some of the emigrants had moved before setting out on the adventure of western colonization.
THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE.
One of their number had been a Methodist preacher, and probably most of the adults were members of that denomination. They were moral in language and conduct, and united regularly in morning and evening prayers.
On Sundays they did not travel, but observed it as a day of sacred rest for man and beast. At the appointed hour of service, this brother-preacher assembled his fellow-travellers in a large tent, which served as a meeting-house, within their wagon-circled camp, for the usual religious exercises, and there, on the low, boundless prairies, or in higher altitudes at the base of snow-capped mountains, he addressed them as fervently, and with as much soul-inspiring faith, as if his auditory had been seated comfortably within the old church-walls at home, and they too sang their hymns of praise with grateful, feeling souls, and with hearts impressed with the realization that man was but a speck in the presence of that grand and limitless nature that surrounded them, and of which they were but a microscopic part.
Those who passed the company en route, or travelled with them a part of the way, were favourably impressed with their society, and spoke of them in the kindest terms as an exceedingly fine company of emigrants, such as was seldom seen on the plains.
Though utterly unlike themselves in character and disposition, the "Wild-cats" contracted for them much respect, and came as near to them in travelling as was convenient for the grazing of the cattle and the purposes of the camp at night. Within sight of each other they would form their corrals, but, while the one resounded with vulgar song, boisterous roaring, ​and "tall swearing," in the other there was the peace of domestic bliss and conscious rectitude.
A gentleman, a friend of the Author, travelled with this Arkansas company from Fort Bridger to Salt Lake City, and speaks of them in the highest terms: he never travelled with more pleasant companions. Hearing the nightly yells of the "Wild-cats," he advised the Arkansas company to separate from them as much as possible while passing through the settlements, and in going through the Indian country. At that time it was easy to provoke a difficulty; the whole country was excited over the news of the "invading army;" and so much was this gentleman impressed with the necessity of great prudence on the part of the emigrants that, after he had left them on his arrival at Salt Lake City, he afterwards returned and impressed upon the leading men the urgency of refusing to travel further with the Missouri company so near to them. The kindly suggestions were appreciated, and they expressed their desire to act upon them. Up to this time the journey of the emigrants had been prosperous, and everything bade fair for a pleasant termination of their travels. Like all other pilgrims, they had counted upon replenishing their stock of provisions at Salt Lake City, and to do this, and to rest their cattle, they concluded to camp awhile by the Jordan.
In early times of overland travel, the arrival of a Gentile emigrant train was usually a pleasant season for trade and barter, and those who thought proper to visit the camp could readily exchange the fruits of the garden and the produce of the dairy or the field for tea, coffee, sugar, and similar useful articles, which the emigrants had in greater abundance. Many a sister in Salt Lake City has bedecked herself with apparel advantageously purchased from the passers-by with the eggs and butter she had accumulated for just such an opportunity.
But a change had come over the spirit of the people in 1857. The Federal troops were advancing upon Zion, and the Saints were preparing for the defence of their homes. The Indian is not the only human being who fails to discriminate between the innocent and the guilty.
Since that date it has been frequently asserted by the Mor​mon preachers that some of the Missouri company had boasted on the way that they had taken part in driving the Mormons from that State, and they are also said to have expressed their joy at the approach of the United States army to "wipe out the Mormons," and adding to that folly that they themselves would willingly assist in such a pleasant work. The alleged animus against the other company can be briefly told.
About twelve months preceding that time one of the Apostles, Parley P. Pratt, had been arraigned at Fort Smith, Arkansas, on a charge of abducting the children of one Hector McLean, of New Orleans, and trying to run them off to Utah. The mother of the children had years before become converted to the Mormon faith in California, and subsequently became one of the Mrs. P. P. Pratt in Utah. This apostle had not, at this time, been to New Orleans, and he personally did not abduct the children of the act direct he was guiltless, but he was to meet with Mrs. McLean Pratt in Arkansas while she was en route from New Orleans to Utah. Of that Hector McLean became assured, and he started "upon their trail."
At the examination before a magistrate, Mrs. McLean Pratt assumed all the responsibility for the abduction of the children, and the apostle was honourably discharged. His friends, however, apprehended danger, and advised him to escape, if he could, for McLean was a violent man. Those who proffered this advice also offered him a brace of revolvers for his defence, but the apostle refused the carnal weapons, and preferred, on this occasion, to leave "his life in the protection of the Lord."
In such a sparsely-settled country the escape of the apostle was impossible. In a few hours McLean was certain to overtake him wherever he went. At length he came within sight of his enemy, as he regarded the apostle, and hotly pursued him with a thirst for blood. Hoping for some possible shelter, Mr. Pratt made some détour from the public road, but it served him nothing, for McLean reached him before he could arrive at the house where he thought to take refuge. Following him closely, he emptied his revolver at the apostle, but failed to touch him. He became much enraged, urged forward his horse, and, as he rode past him, made a lunge with a bowie-knife, and gave him a fatal thrust in the side. The wounded ​man instantly fell from his horse, and McLean, with a Derringer that he obtained from one who accompanied him, fired again at his victim as he lay bleeding on the ground. That ball penetrated his breast, and in a few hours later the apostle Parley P. Pratt was dead.
McLean returned to Fort Smith, walked through the town with his friends, and in the evening took the passing steamer for the South. No one seemed to think that he should be arrested; Mormonism and apostles were unpopular. Whether with justice in this case or not, there is always a feeling of sympathy for the injured when domestic intrusions are before the public.
A contributor to the Corinne Reporter, a Gentile paper published about sixty miles north of Salt Lake City, recently published a series of "open letters" addressed to Brigham Young, in which there is much light thrown upon the terrible fate of the two emigrant companies from Missouri and Arkansas. The writer of the letters signed himself "Argus," and, for prudential reasons, has withheld his name from the public.
As this gentleman relates with minuteness of detail the circumstances preceding the massacre, and also gives a thrilling picture of that dreadful deed, the Author avails himself of the courtesy by which he has been permitted to make such extracts as were necessary to tell the story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre: only prefacing these extracts with the statement that the charges as to the author of the order for ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/465 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/466 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/467 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/468 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/469 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/470 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/471 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/472 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/473 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/474 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/475 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/476 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/477 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/478 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/479 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/480 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/481 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/482 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/483 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/484 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/485 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/486 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/487 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/488 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/489 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/490 ​Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/491 ​that the emigrants poisoned a spring, and that for doing so the Indians attacked them. To those who can accept such statements, in the light of the facts stated in this chapter, as a solution of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, they are perfectly welcome; but upon the Government of this great Republic, that massacre will ever be a stain until the fullest investigation has been made, and the guilty ones brought to justice.
Fifteen long years have passed away since that dark tragedy was enacted, and yet the nation slumbers, and the representatives of the Government are deaf to the cries of the slaughtered! How well did Britain, a few years ago, earn the admiration of the world for the proud march of her army into the heart of Abyssinia, to demand from the infatuated Theodorus the release of British subjects! Other nations, too, have disregarded distance, time, and money, when the cries of injured citizens have been heard calling for protection. But here, in the very heart of "the Great Republic," on the highway between the seas, the darkest deed of the nineteenth century is passed by in silence! The cries and prayers of the orphans have been heard in vain in free America!
* ↑ It has often been charged to Parley that he seduced Mrs. McLean from her husband. Mrs. McLean asserts to the contrary.
* ↑ As no statements of such importance as those made by this writer could possibly be cited in a work of this kind without knowing who he was, and whether he was likely to be in possession of the information that he claimed to know, for some months the Author sought anxiously, but ineffectually, to discover the writer's name; the publisher very properly concealed it. At an unlooked-for moment the thread was accidentally found, and "Argus" frankly avowed that he wrote the "open letters," and assured the Author that before a Federal court of justice, where he could be protected, he was prepared to give the evidence of all that he had asserted. It need only be added that "Argus" has probably been for thirty years a Mormon, has resided many years in Utah, has been a high-priest in the Church, and has held responsible civil positions in the Territory.