The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-07-29

HE MOUNTAIN MEADOW MASSACRE AND
THE EVENTS WHICH PRECEDED Tr.-The New
York Evening Post gives concise aud inter-
esting narrative of the events which preceded
the horrible Mountain Meadow massacre, and
which go to show that that crime was only one
feature in deliberately formed scheme of war
and rebellion on the part of the Mormon pow
err:
when Utah was organized as territory in
1901, PRESIDENT Fillmore, acting on an imper-
rect knowledge of the character of the Nor.
mon community, conferred the Office of Gov
er1or upon Brigham Young. In 1855 President
Fierce made an Intellectual attempt to substi-
tute Lieut.. Col. Steptoe of the regular army in
tne place OF Young. The details of this effort
were complicated, and are unimportant in this
connection. We mention the fact only to ex-
plain the occasion of a sermon which Young
preached in the Mormon Tabernacle the Sun
day after Steptoe departed from Salt Lake City
in the spring of 1856, in which he said:
L am, and will be, Governor, and no power
can prevent it until the Lord Almighty says,
Brigham, you need not be Governor any long
En-
In April 1857, Young expelled most of his
associate civil officers of the United States
from the territory. This gave occasion for the
curious episode which is known 10 our history
as the Utah Expedition. President Buchanan,
within few months after his Inauguration,
formally removed Young from Office appointed
Alfred Cumming in his place, aud ordered a
strong military force to Utah, ostensiby to
sustain the civil government. On July oath,
1857, upon the receipt of this news by the Nor
mons, they declared their independence.
The day was memorable one in the history
of the Mormon church. On July "a, 1847 Brig
ham Young first entered Salt Lake Valley from
the east. after his expulsion from Nauvoo, and
the anniversary was always kept as holiday.
0n this occasion the celebration was held at
nf kt,v
grandest gorges in the Wasatch Mountains,
about 20 miles southwark from Sa Lake CITY,
More than $500 people had gathered there; and
during the afternoon, while they were celebrat-
ing their festival, two dusty messengers rode
up the glen and announced that the troops had
begun their march from the Missouri frontier.
A scene OF wild confusion ensued, of which
Young availed himself to make speech in
which he reminded the fanatics that just ten
years before he had said, "Give us ten wears of
peace and we will ask no odds of the United
States" and he added that now they asked no
odds, that they constituted thenceforth free
and independendent state, to be known no lon
ger as Utah, but by their own Mormon name of
During the next ensuing weeks the Mormon
militia was put under arms and Notifications
were built in Echo Canon. Upon the arrival
OF Captain Van Vliet, of the Quartermaster'
department. OF our army, in lSalt Lake City,
early in August to make preliminary arrange
ments for the reception of our troops there, he
was warned that the Mormons would resist
their advance by force, and two days after he
had left the city to report to his superior
officer the condition of affairs Young issued
proclamation in which he denounced the
United States army as a mob, and summoned
the Mormons to resist its approach. When
this document reached the troops, at the end of
September, they had already crossed the terri
torial line; and within fortnight afterwards
an attack was made upon their trains by the
Mormon soldiers, and hundred and twenty
hve wagons were captured and burned, and the
teamsters were disarmed and dismissed"