The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-09-22
THE MOUNTAIN MEADOW MASSACRE.
A MORMON CITIZEN DEFENDS THE PEOPLE OF HIS
CHURCH.

r
They have made the waste places of the
desert to smile with beauty, and have built 9
grand and enduring city where but few
years ago was trackless wilderness. Many
OF the dreadful stories told about the atroci'
ties committed by the Mormons are doubtless
the purest fiction, and we have not been
among those who have credited the state
ments made in the Northern and Western
papers, in regard to the horrible Mountain
Meadow massacre for which, it has been
charged President Young himself and the
Mormon Church were directly responsible.
The subjoined statement of the affair." from a
Mormon, il not only interesting, but it seems
reasonable. Doubtless there were Mormons
engaged in that massacre, but is seems unfair
to hold the entire Mormon Church response
BILE for the acts of few bad men:
FAIR PLAY.
Editors Herald I am glad to meet on fair
grounds of the Herdtds columns SO gentle
manly and reasonable a Gentle citizen OF
Plymouth extraction.
Ii is refreshing to inhaIe the fragrant can
dor and inquiry for truth, when you have
for long time sensed only suppostion OF
evil and the black pail of Misrepresentation.
I snail endeavor under this refreshing lnfu-
ence to accord to my Plymouth friend can
did answer to his four questions. l demur
slightly to his fourth paragraph, but thank
him for his acknowledgment in the close of
it. / give him the benefit of the effect he
was weak enough to try to make from SO
simple and plain a statement as mine.
Protest does not amount to much in these
days. but my friend uses one, and l will
answer it by stating that the whole effort Of
the "ring" has been to fix the stigma OF
crimes committed by evil persons) on inno-
cent men in these days. The instructive ideas
of Anglo Saxons are changed much from fifty
years ago; then honor was the escutcheon;
what it is to day with Americans, no people
better understand than the Mormons. If the
Missouri and Illinois robberies and butch
cries are distasteful to read, who is to blame !?
They are facts and must live forever, and will,
in the Justice of the God of the Mormon and
Methodist, be met in the final settlement.
Rev. Mr. Wood, captain and preacher in
the Missouri mob, is in memory, as | read
my friends assertion, that any party based on
such an idea need only be known to be alb
horred.
The American people perpetrated the hor-
rors of wholesale robbery and death on the
Mormons, and thank my friend for admit
ting that they SO sympathized with the mob
transaction that their sympathy paralyzed
the law and its officers. Where were the Nor
mon people then? and where the Christian
world? In whom was our trust Destitute,
many sick, shivering on the banks OF the Mis-
souri, River, eighteen hundred miles between
them and Observation-Disclosures, our leaders ap-
piled by letter to the Governors of every
State for permission to make our home within
their borders. Only two of those gentlemen
deigned to reply, and both of those replies
were refusalS.
Thus we were driven from all the eastern
portion of our country. A draft was then
the Mexican war, and the government took
from our camp the very pride OF the man.
hood that composed it, leaving US an addi-
tional number Of helpless dependents. l
ask the question of those men who tell US
they "only want to kill our leaders," what
would you have done then2
The leader of this people rescued that
camp and successfully planted them in this
DESERT where no one else believed humanity
could be sustained. Why is it that all the
evils ever committed here are laid upon
them?
/ deem my friends third paragraph I'M
II.
palliste one crime because another had been
committed; but reasonable bar was raised
against the persistent effort to blackmail the
whole people of Utah because few Norm on
men were found to be in the Meadow massa-
ere. 1t is not yet proven whether they were
there for an evil purpose or to try to save
those immigrants from wholesale Indian
slaughter; at any rate they saved seventeen
children, and however odious comparisons
may be, it exceeds in humanity's record any
thing recorded of Bakers reported horrifying
circumstance.
am under obligations to my friend for SO
fairly answering the question he introduces
in his fourth paragraph, theoretically, and
will quote his first legitimate question: "Was
there any difficulty or danger IN administer
ing the law through the probate court in 1857
and for ten years following ?" and answer
there was great difficulty and some danger.
In 1857 there were practically no probate
courts, the people of Utah were threatened
with determination by volunteers from ths
West and Blchansn's army marching from the
East with threats strong and loud, and the
motto of death to the leaders and the love
of wolves to the women. Almost every able
bodied man and boy was out on military
duty to keep from our borders what
we considered another invasion like that of
Missouri and Illinois. Brigham Young was
commissioned Governor, yet no instruction
was sent to him respecting the movements OF
the troops. No railroads or telegraphs existed
then, and rumor on rumor brought by traders
and travellers startled the entire Territory,
calling forth the instructive element of self
defense Many of these Mormon troops did
not return until the depth of winter, in 1858
This unsettled condition of things was not
the only difficulty or danger that the Probate
Court labored under in 1857, and for years
after. The year of 1858 found a gentle Gov
ernor, gentle judges and tull quota Of
Federal officials to institute arrests and to in
quire into the Mountain Meadow massacre.
President Young requested Governor Cum
minis, early in 1853, to ferret out and bring to
justice the participants in that crime, Offering
his aid to effect the object. He afterwards re-
peated that offer in the hearing of thousands
in the Tabernacle, stating that he did not
wish the innocent to suffer with the guilty.
Governor Cummins favored the proposition
and laid it before Judge Cradlebaugh. The
Judge took no action, for reasons best known
to himself. At the time it was reported, and