Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1874-12-11
NO. so.
The Mountain meadow Massacre.

The Mountain N adow Na aassacre
1t is now somewhat more than seven
teen years since nearly 140 mon, women and
children, emigrating from the older states
TO homes in southern California, were muir
derod by Mormon militia and Indian al
lies in southern Utah. Brigham Young,
under federal appointment confirmed bv
federal cowardice, was governor Of the
territory, but President Buchanan had su-
perssded him, and his legal successor, Gov.
Cummings, federal judges and other Of
ficers, we're even then on their way to
Salt Lake City, under the escort Of United
States troops, commanded by Gen. Harney.
The MormonS, wrought to fury by the re-
sellious utterances Of their prophet and
other chief men of the church, were full of
wrath against GENTLE intruders upon their
promised land. The pioneer savagerv, re-
inforced by religious fanaticism, made
them as merciless as the ancient Hebrews.
They were eIiles from their house their
prophet had been killed, their homes and
they driven into the wilderness and now
they were to be despoied of the refuge
they had found and the prosperity they
the temper TO which these luckess emf
grants fell victims.
They were in two bands originally; a
third Of them Missourians, of the border
ruffian type, on the way TO the diggings;
the rest respectable families from Arkan-
sas they had joined forces for safety. 1t
was said at the time that the Missourians
had Dragged in the Mormon settlements of
having taken part in the murder of 10
Smith and the expulsion of his followers
from Nauvoo ; that they insuted the set
tiers and stole their chickens on the way:
one story went 80 far as to accuse them of
poisoning spring, which was not only
slanderous but absurd. But whatever
provocation the roughs in the party had
given on the way, it was nothing to pal
late the terrible doom visited upon them.
ln the middle of September they had en-
camped at spring in Mountain Meadows,
when a band of Indians solely, as the
Mormons asserted, began an attack upon
them. The emigrants fortified themselves
as best they could in the circle of their
wagons, and for days fought desperately.
There was no water in their cramped quar-
tured TO the spring were shot down. AT
length, after four days siege, wagon,
over which hoated white flag, borno by
white men, approached their camp. The
chief man in that wagon was John d. Lee,
then major of militia and Indian agent
under Brigham Young, and an elder in
the Mormon church. Il was hailed as
deliyerer, and under his advice the emil
grants gave up their arms and consented
10 60 TO the nearest settlement for safety.
1t is said that the women and children
went in advance, the men behind guarded
by militia and that, but a little ways from
camp, the signal was given by Lee, the
Mormons shot down the men, the Indians
slaughtered the women and youth, and
| only II children Of tender Years were say
ed. This was the Mountain Meadow mas
sacre, as it has been described during the
years since.
There is little doubt as TO The substan-
tial truth of the story. The early DAYS Of
Mormonism were marked by violent and
fearful measures, and the Ddnites, or De-
stroying Angels, were not figments Of the
imagination. The day of such defiant out
rage has long since past. The locomotive
headlight glares too ominously, and the
audacity and the fanaticism are faint shad-
ows of what were mighty passions then.
But how wonderfully the flattering secu-
rity of time fades and dissipates, before the
| grasp of the marshal's posse that caught
John d. Lee from his wild home, a few
days agol He had gone into the remote,
unneighbored regions of southern Utah,
on the New Mexico border; he is G2 years
old he has is wives and "a children, and
seemed to have conquered immunity. But
the arm of justice is no fiction, after all.
Here it stretches, over the seventeen years,
wherein Lee has bought and sold and mar
ried and bred sons and daughters, and, as
if it were but yesterday, the victims of the
Mountain Meadow massacre arise, and call
for the laws vengeance.
Lee, low-browed, muscular, adventur-
Gus, constituencies man, declares that he
will make all clear that he will no longer
bear the burden of curses for the wholesale
murder he committed, but will "put the
saddle on the right horse" At whom ho
hints is not certainly known. If he should
condemn the prophet, or that right hand Of
his, George A. Smith, who were thought
concerned in the affair, and bring any evil
d ence TO prove his allegations he might
deal a deadly blow to the Mormon
hierarchy if he should refer only TO small
er men, subordinates but little higher than
himself, the effect has reached its climax.
-Sprinlfeld Republican.