The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-05-09
Lees Con fcssion-And What May
Follow.


On the 22d Of March the HERALD pub
lished a confession Of John d. Lee, the
Mormon bishop, in which Lee gave full
account Of the Mountain Meadows mas
sacre. This document was written by Lee
after he was sentenced to death, and when
he saw that the Mormon leaders had de-
serted him, and that his death was certain.
It was handed by Lee to Mr.. w. W. Bishop,
one of his counsel, and was obtained from
Mr. Bishop by the HERALD.
On the 23d Lee was executed at Mountain
Meadows, and on the same day the United
States District Attorney, Sumner Howard,
made public what purported to be another
confession of Lee. differing in some respects
from the real confession originally pub
lished by the HERALD. Later one Edward
Gilman, of Salt Lake City, made affidavit
that he had been employed by the District
Attorney to procure confession from Lee,
on the promise that Lee should not suffer
death, and that he had at the instance of
the District Attorney otherwise tempered
with Lee We print elsewhere, by the per-
mission of the Attorney General, COM
munication made to that officer by the
District Attorney, in which Mr.. Howard,
we think, entirely clears himself Of the
charges brought against him by Gill
man. At the same time Mr. Towards state
ment shows conclusively that the docu-
ment published by the HERALD was Lees
true confession. He relates that Lee gave
him manuscript, which he still retains, en-
tirely in Lees handwriting, which he re-
fused to receive as full confession, telling
Lee that he had already evidence which
covered all the ground of Lees paper and
more too. Mr.. Howard offered, he says, to
return the manuscriptto Lee, who said it was
not necessary, as he had already 'fur-
nished Mr.. Bishop, his lawyer, with SUBJ
stantially the same" It was the document
which Lee thus said he had furnished to Mr..
Bishop, his lawyer, which the HERALD pub
lished, our correspondent reporting the
source whence he had obtained it. The
document given by Lee to Mr.. Howard was
evidently the one published later.
incidentally, the District Attorney gives
his official chief to understand in the docu-
ment we print elsewhere that he has still
evidence in his possession showing that
Brigham Young did give orders concerning
the massacre, and hints that oil the persons
who were concerned in that terrible crime
are not dead nor beyond the reach of justice,
He adds that Lee told him that Brigham
Young had sent him word, in prison, by
the woman Rachel, ''to be true to his cove
nants and not a hair of his head should be
touched" that Bates, the lawyer employed
by the Mormon authorities to defend Lee on
his first trial, was opposed to his making
any statement, and that he is persuaded
that Lee expected to be rescued on his way
to execution.
Rereading the Gilman affidavit in the
light of District Attorney Towards state
ment we are led to the conclusion that the
attempt to misrepresent Mr.. Howard had
its rise in Mormon quarters and was in
tended to procure the removal in disgrace
of an officer who apparently knows too much
and is too jealous for justice to be liked by
the Mormon authorities This attempt has
failed. We are glad to see Mr.. Howard re-
lieved of suspicious, and we trust he will
proceed fearlessly and energetically with
his task of bringing to justice all who had
share in the Mountain Meadows massacre,
no matter how high he strikes. He may de-
pend upon the strong sympathy and support
OF the whole public.