[begin page 550]
THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACREⒶ
The persecutions which the Mormons suffered so long—and which they
consider they still suffer in not being allowed to govern themselves—they have endeavored
and are still endeavoring to repay.
The now almost forgotten “Mountain Meadows massacre” was their work. It was very famous
in its day. The whole United
States rang with its horrors. A few items will refresh the reader’s memory. A great emigrant
train from Missouri and Arkansas passed through Salt Lake City and a few disaffected
Mormons joined it for the sake of the strong
protection it afforded for their escape. In that matter lay sufficient cause for hot
retaliation by the Mormon chiefs. Besides, these
one hundred and forty-five or one hundred and fifty unsuspecting emigrants being in
part from Arkansas, where a noted Mormon missionary
had lately been killed, and in part from Missouri, a State remembered with execrations
as a bitter persecutor of the saints when they
were few and poor and friendless, here were substantial additional grounds for lack
of love for these wayfarersⒺ. And finally, this train was richⒺ, very rich in cattle, horses, mules and other property—and how could the Mormons
consistently keep up their
coveted resemblance to the Israelitish tribes and not seize the “spoil” of an enemy
when the Lord had so manifestly “delivered it into their hand?”Ⓔ
Wherefore, according to Mrs. C. V. Waite’s entertaining book, “The Mormon
Prophet,” it transpired that—
A “revelation”Ⓐ from Brigham Young, as Great Grand Archee, or GodⒺ, was despatched to President J. C. Haight, Bishop Higbee, and J. D. Lee (adopted son of Brigham)Ⓐ
Ⓔ, commanding them to raise all the forces they could muster and trust, follow
those cursed gentiles (so read the revelation), attack them, disguised as Indians,
and with the arrows of the Almighty [begin page 551] make a clean sweep of them, and leave none to tell the tale; and if they needed any
assistance, they were commanded to
hire the Indians as their allies, promising them a share of the booty. They were to
be neither slothful nor negligent in their duty,
and to be punctual in sending the teams back to him before winter set in, for this
was the mandate of Almighty GodⒺ.
The command of the “revelation”
was faithfully obeyed. A large party of Mormons, painted and tricked out as Indians, overtook the
train of emigrant wagons some three hundred miles south of Salt Lake City, and made
an attack. But the emigrants threw up earthworks,
made fortresses of their wagons and defended themselves gallantly and successfully
for five days! Your Missouri or Arkansas gentleman
is not much afraid of the sort of scurvy apologies for “Indians” which the southern
part of Utah affordsⒺ. He would stand up and fight five hundred of them.
At the end of the five days the Mormons tried military strategy. They retired to the
upper end
of the “Meadows,” resumed civilized apparel, washed off their paint, and then, heavily
armed, drove down in wagons to the
beleaguered emigrants, bearing a flag of truce! When the emigrants saw white men coming
they threw down their guns and welcomed them
with cheer after cheer! And, all unconscious of the poetry of it, no doubt, they lifted
a little child aloft, dressed in white, in
answer to the flag of truce!
The leaders of the timely white “deliverers”
were President Haight and Bishop John D. LeeⒺ, of the Mormon churchⒶ. Mr. Cradlebaugh, who served a term as a Federal Judge in Utah and afterward was sent
to
Congress from Nevada, tells in a speech delivered in CongressⒺ how these leaders next
proceeded:
TheyⒶ professed to be on good terms with the Indians, and represented themⒶ as being very mad. They also proposed to intercede, and settle the matter with the
Indians. After several hours ofⒶ parley, they, having (apparently)Ⓐ visited the Indians, gave the ultimatum of the savagesⒶ; which was, that the emigrants should march out of their camp, leaving everything
behind them, even their guns. It was promised
by the Mormon bishops that they would bring a force, and guard the emigrants back
to the settlements.
TheⒶ terms were agreed to,—the emigrants being desirous of saving the lives of their families.
The Mormons retired, and
subsequently appearedⒶ with thirty or forty armed men. The emigrants were marched out, the women and children
in front, and the men behind, the Mormon
guard [begin page 552] being in the rear. When they had marched in this way about a mile, at a given signal,
the slaughter
commencedⒺ. The men were
almostⒶ
Ⓐ all shot down at the first fire from the guard. Two only escaped, who fled to the desert, and
were followed 150 miles before they were overtakenⒶ and slaughteredⒺ.
TheⒶ women and children ran on, two or three hundred yards further, when they were overtaken,
and with the aid of the Indians they
were slaughtered. Seventeen individuals only, of all the
emigrant party, were spared, and they were little childrenⒺ
Ⓐ, the eldest of themⒶ being only seven years oldⒶ. Thus, on the 10th day of September, 1857, was consummated one of the most cruel,
cowardly, and bloody murders known in our
history.Ⓐ
The number of persons butchered by the Mormons on this
occasion was one hundred and twenty.
With unheard-of temerity Judge Cradlebaugh opened his court
and proceeded to make Mormondom answer for the massacreⒺ. And what a spectacle it must
have been to see this grim veteran, solitary and alone in his pride and his pluck,
glowering down on his Mormon jury and Mormon
auditory, deriding them by turns, and by turns “breathing threatenings and
slaughter!”Ⓔ
An editorial in the Territorial
Enterprise
Ⓔ of that day says of him and of the occasion:Ⓐ
HeⒶ
Ⓐ spoke and acted with the fearlessness and resolution of a Jackson; but the jury failed
to indict, or even report on the charges,
while threats of violence were heard in every quarter, and an attack on the U.S.Ⓐ troops intimated, if he persisted in his course.
FindingⒶ that nothing could be done with the juries, they were discharged, with a scathing
rebuke from the Judge. And then, sittingⒶ as a committing magistrate,
he commenced his task alone
Ⓐ. He examined witnesses, made arrests in every quarter, and created a consternation
in the camps of the saints, greater than any they had ever witnessed before, since Mormondom was bornⒶ. At last accounts, terrified elders and bishops were decamping to save their necks;
and developments of the most startling
character were being made, implicating the highest church dignitaries in the many
murders and robberies committed upon the gentiles
during the past eight years.Ⓐ
Had Harney been Governor, Cradlebaugh would have been
supported in his work, and the absolute proofs adduced by him of Mormon guilt in this
massacre and in a number of previous murders,
would have conferred gratuitous coffins upon certain citizens, together with occasion
to use them. But Cumming was the Federal [begin page 553] Governor, and he, under a curious pretenseⒶ of impartiality, sought to screen the Mormons from the demands of justiceⒺ.
OnⒶ one occasion
heⒶ even went so far as to publish his protest against the use of the U.S.Ⓐ troops in aid of Cradlebaugh’s proceedingsⒺ.
Mrs. C. V. Waite closes her interesting detail of the great
massacre with the following remark and accompanying summary of the testimony—and the
summary is concise, accurate and
reliable:Ⓐ
For the benefit of
those who may still be disposed to doubt the guilt of Young and his Mormons in this
transaction, the testimony is here collated, and
circumstances given, which go, not merely to implicate, but to fasten conviction upon
them, by “confirmations strong as proofs ofⒶ Holy WritⒺ
Ⓐ.”
1. The evidence of Mormons themselves, engaged in the affair,
as shown by the statements of Judge Cradlebaugh and
Deputy U.S.
Marshal RogersⒺ
Ⓐ.
2. The failure of Brigham Young to embody any account of it in his Report as Superintendent
of Indian Affairs.
Also his failure to make any allusion to it whatever from the pulpit, until several
years after the occurrenceⒺ.
3. The flight to the mountains of men high in authority in the
Mormon Church and State, when this affair was brought to the ordeal of a judicial
investigation.
4. The failure of the “Deseret News,” the Church organ, and the only
paper then published in the Territory, to notice the massacre, until several months
afterwardⒺ, and then only to deny that Mormons were engaged in it.
5. The testimony of the children saved from the massacreⒺ.
6. The children and the property of the emigrants found in possession of the Mormons,
and that
possession traced back to the very day after the massacre.
7.Ⓐ
Ⓐ The statements of Indians in the neighborhood of the scene of theⒶ massacre: these statements are shown, not only by Cradlebaugh and RogersⒶ, but by a number of military officers, and by J. Forney, who was, in 1859, Superintendent of
Indian Affairs for the TerritoryⒺ. To all these were such statements freely and
frequently made by the Indians.
8. The testimony of R.
P. Campbell, Capt. 2d Dragoons, who was sent in the spring of 1859 to Santa Clara,
to protect travellersⒺ on the road to California, and to inquire into Indian depredations.Ⓔ
Editorial Emendations APPENDIX B
Ⓐ
APPENDIX B (C) •
B. (A)
Ⓐ
MASSACRE (C) •
MASSACRE. (A)
Ⓐ
“revelation” (C) •
‘revelation’ (A)
⁁revelation
⁁
(MP)
Ⓐ
(adopted son of Brigham) (A) •
not in
(MP)
Ⓐ
church (C) •
Church (A)
Ⓐ
They (C) •
“They (A)
“This wagon contained President Haight and Bishop John D. Lee, among others of the
Mormon Church. They (MP)
Ⓐ
them (A) •
the Indians (MP)
Ⓐ
hours of (MP) •
hours (A)
Ⓐ
(apparently) (A) •
⁁apparently
⁁
(MP)
Ⓐ
savages (A) •
Indians (MP)
Ⓐ
appeared (A) •
appeared at the corral (MP)
Ⓐ
overtaken (A) •
over-
| taken (MP)
Ⓐ
individuals . . . children (A) •
only of the small children were saved (MP)
Ⓐ
of them (A) •
not in
(MP)
Ⓐ
history. (C) •
history.” (A)
history. Upon the way from the Meadows, a young Indian pointed out to me the place
where the Mormons painted and
disguised themselves. (MP)
Ⓐ
The . . . occasion: (A) •
not in
(MP)
Ⓐ
He (C) •
“He (A)
“Judge Cradlebaugh, of the United States Court of Utah, is making his mark in that
Territory, if half that is
written of him is true. . . . . Satisfied that many of the leading Mormons had taken
part in or instigated the
Mountain Meadow massacre, and the murder of Jones, Potter, Forbes, Parrish, and a
dozen others, he determined to bring them to
punishment. . . . . He (MP)
Ⓐ
Finding (C) •
“Finding (MP)
Ⓐ
And then, sitting (A) •
Sitting (MP)
Ⓐ
he . . . alone
(A) •
he commenced his task alone (MP)
Ⓐ
than . . . born (A) •
even than was occasioned by the arrival of the troops within the walls of Zion (MP)
Ⓐ
years. (C) •
years.” (MP)
Ⓐ
Had . . . pretence (A) •
Governor Cumming did not sustain Judge Cradlebaugh, but, under the pretence (MP)
Ⓐ
On (A) •
[¶] Hence various differences between Cumming on one side, and Johnson and Cradlebaugh
on the other; and on (MP)
Ⓐ
he (A) •
the Governor (MP)
Ⓐ
Mrs. . . . reliable: (A) •
not in
(MP)
Ⓐ
Deputy U.S. Marshal Rogers (C) •
Deputy U.S. Marshal Rodgers (A)
Deputy-Marshal Rodgers (MP)
Ⓐ
2. . . . 7. (C) •
“2. . . . “3. . . . “4. . . . “5. . . . “6.
. . . “7. (A)
5. . . . 7. . . . 6. . . . 3. . . . 4. . . . 2.
paragraphs reordered as well as renumbered in A; C follows A
(MP)
Ⓐ
scene of the (A) •
not in
(MP)
Ⓐ
Rogers (C) •
Rodgers (MP A)
Explanatory Notes APPENDIX B
Ⓔ A great emigrant train
from Missouri and Arkansas . . . additional grounds for lack of love for these wayfarers]
In September 1857, when
they were still fearful of being invaded by federal troops, a group of Mormons (abetted
by Indians) attacked a wagon train at Mountain
Meadows in southern Utah, killing some fifty men, forty women, and thirty-two children.
The victims
were members of a wagon train led by Alexander Fancher of Arkansas, which early in
August had passed through Salt Lake City, where
Mormons declined to resupply it. Resupply became increasingly difficult as the train
traveled south through the territory, producing
friction as it went: there were reports of damage to crops, water sources, and livestock,
as well as injury to Indians. Some witnesses
recalled that the travelers boasted of having persecuted Mormons in Missouri, and
one even claimed to have the gun that had killed
“Old Joe Smith.” The “noted Mormon missionary” recently killed in Arkansas was also
clearly pertinent: he
was Parley Pratt (see the note at 103.13–14). But what Mark Twain cites as in itself
a “sufficient cause for hot
retaliation by the Mormon chiefs” was probably not even a contributing factor. Waite’s
claim that the emigrant families
were “joined by some few Mormons, who were disaffected, and sought to travel under
their protection,” has not been
confirmed (
Waite, 76, 80). They were joined at Provo by a non-Mormon who had lived
several months in Utah, which may explain the error (
Brooks 1962, 211;
Wise, 2, 270–76;
Brooks 1970,
20–22, 30–57, 61–67, 78, 219–20).
Ⓔ this train was rich]
Waite asserted that although the massacre was largely prompted by a desire for “revenge
and retaliation,” the
“principal motive was plunder” (
Waite, 80).
The Fancher train was well equipped, and its members were more prosperous than typical
emigrants. There were even
reports that they carried a large quantity of gold coin (
Wise, 10–12;
Brooks 1962, 340, 372–76;
Brooks 1970,
193, 199;
Bancroft 1882–90, 21:545 n. 4;
Carleton, 1–2, 9, 11).
Ⓔ “spoil”
of an enemy . . . “delivered it into their hand?”] See, for example, Deuteronomy 2:33–36
and
3:3–7.
Ⓔ A
“revelation” from Brigham Young . . . the mandate of Almighty God] Mark Twain quotes
Waite (76,
79), adding the quotation marks around “revelation.”
No decisive evidence has been
found to support Waite’s claim regarding Young’s orders. It is clear that his policies
and behavior contributed to the
charged atmosphere in which the crime occurred, and that he afterward collaborated
in the coverup. A letter preserved in the Mormon
archives indicates that he explicitly counseled against bloodshed in this instance
and had no prior knowledge
[begin page 755] of the attackers’ intentions. Nevertheless, John D. Lee, the high-ranking Mormon later
executed for the
Mountain Meadows massacre (see the note at 550.25–26), came to believe that “exterminating
Captain Fancher’s
train of emigrants” was the “direct command of Brigham Young” (
John D.
Lee, 225;
Brooks 1970, 61–67, 112–13, 219).
Ⓔ Great Grand Archee, or
God] Waite identifies the “Grand Archees” as the highest ranking Mormons, who had
the “power of life and
death,” within the “Order of the Danites,” an “established institution in the Mormon
Church” (
Waite, 281; see the note at 85.33–34). This title has not been verified in Mormon
literature, religious or secular.
Ⓔ President J. C.
Haight, Bishop Higbee, and J. D. Lee (adopted son of Brigham)] These men, all deeply
implicated in the Mountain Meadows
massacre, were among the local leaders who shared civil, religious, and military authority
in the small Mormon communities of southern
Utah.
Isaac Chauncey Haight (1813–86) was, at the time of the massacre, mayor of Cedar City
(the town nearest the emigrants’ encampment), delegate to the territorial legislature,
president of the Cedar Stake of the
Mormon church (the highest local religious authority), and lieutenant colonel in the
local militia. In his military capacity he was
the immediate superior of the men who attacked the emigrants, receiving and sending
messages and orders between the men at Mountain
Meadows and his own military superior in a neighboring town, but he was not present
during the actual attack, first visiting the site
the following morning. John Mount Higbee (1827–1904) was a counselor to Haight in
the local church leadership and a major in
the militia, a detachment of which he commanded in the attack at Mountain Meadows.
Higbee coordinated his activities with John Doyle
Lee (1812–77), who assumed responsibility for carrying out the overall plan of attack.
Lee, who had been “sealed for
eternity” to Young as an adopted son in 1845, was a long-time leader in southern Utah.
At the time of the massacre he was a
probate judge, county clerk, assessor, and local agent to the Indians. In time, the
leading participants in the massacre, including
these three men, went into exile outside Utah. By 1870, disapproval had grown so strong
within the Mormon church that Haight and Lee
were excommunicated, although no action was taken against Higbee. Haight was readmitted
about four years later. Lee remained in
hiding—ostracized by his church, his associates, and his neighbors—until his arrest
in 1874. His first trial ended with
a hung jury. He was convicted after a second trial, at which a number of his associates
at Mountain Meadows testified against him,
evidently having agreed to make him a scapegoat. He was taken to the site of the massacre
and executed there in 1877, the only
participant ever tried for the crime. Lee’s autobiography, including his account of
the Mountain Meadows massacre, was
[begin page 756] published posthumously (
Brooks 1970, 52–55, 72–74,
76, 79, 83, 86, 110–11, 184–87, 191, 193–98, 207–12;
Brooks
1962, 73, 185;
Jones and Jones, 10–11, 28;
Eugene E. Campbell, 170–72;
John D. Lee).
Ⓔ A large party of
Mormons . . . tricked out as Indians . . . the slaughter commenced] The emigrants
were first
attacked on 7 or 8 September 1857, while camped about two hundred sixty miles south
of Salt Lake City at Mountain Meadows, where they
planned to take an extended rest before continuing their journey to California.
Eyewitness accounts
of the initial attack conflict; the aggressors are described both as an Indian party
of “several hundred” and as a group
of Mormons disguised as Indians (
John D. Lee, 226;
Brooks 1970, 275). Mark Twain accepts the latter version, on the authority of Waite’s quotation
of the account by
Cradlebaugh (see the note at 551.25–28), who interrogated the Indians in 1859 while
investigating the incident. The Indians
reported that the Mormons alone—“all painted”—had initiated the attack, after which
the Indians joined in
(
Waite, 72). By 10 September a group of Mormons, over fifty strong, commanded by the
local military, had gathered near the besieged emigrants. On Friday afternoon, 11
September, the emigrants were lured from their camp
by the Mormons’ promise of protection from the Indians. After allowing themselves
to be disarmed, they were systematically
murdered, the Mormons killing the men, the Indians killing the women and older children.
The Mormons subsequently attempted to place
full responsibility for the crime on the Indians (
Brooks 1970, 67, 69–75,
101–5, 158–59, 165–66;
Brooks 1962, 206–15;
John D. Lee, 226–44, 379–80).
Ⓔ the sort of scurvy
apologies for “Indians” which the southern part of Utah affords] Mark Twain may be
echoing Cradlebaugh’s
remark that “the Indians in the southern part of the Territory of Utah” were unlikely
to participate in a prolonged
attack on the emigrants because they were “a very low, cowardly, beastly set” (
Waite, 72).
Ⓔ The leaders of the
timely white “deliverers” were President Haight and Bishop John D. Lee] Contrary to
Cradlebaugh’s
assertion (quoted by Waite), Haight was not at the site, although he was a full participant
in planning the massacre.
Lee and a militiaman carried the white flag into the emigrants’ camp and Lee negotiated
the (false)
terms of surrender (
Waite, 73;
John D. Lee,
238, 329, 334;
Brooks 1970, 72–73).
Ⓔ Mr. Cradlebaugh
. . . tells in a speech delivered in Congress] Cradlebaugh delivered this speech,
on the “Admission of
Utah as a State,” in the House of Representatives on 7 February 1863.
Waite quoted only a
portion of it, apparently taking her text from its publication as a book (and making
only minor changes in punctuation); her quotation
in turn served as Mark Twain’s source for the information
[begin page 757] paraphrased in the text at
551.7–25, as well as for the extract at 551.29–552.11 (
Cradlebaugh,
17–19;
Waite, 72–73).
Ⓔ Two only escaped
. . . before they were overtaken and slaughtered] Most accounts agree that three emigrants
escaped the initial
attack on 7 or 8 September, but were killed subsequently. There were no adult survivors
(
Brooks
1970, 70–72, 97–100).
Ⓔ Seventeen individuals
. . . were spared, and they were little children] The Mormons spared eighteen young
children. In 1859 the
territorial superintendent of Indian affairs, Jacob Forney (see the note at 553.33–34),
located and took custody of seventeen
of them to be returned to relatives. The remaining child apparently lived her life
among the Mormons (
Brooks 1970, 101–5).
Ⓔ
Judge Cradlebaugh
. . . proceeded to make Mormondom answer for the massacre] Cradlebaugh held court
in the town of Provo in March
1859 and attempted to prosecute a number of crimes, including the Mountain Meadows
massacre. The
following month he traveled with a military escort to the towns nearest Mountain Meadows,
where he gathered testimony about the
massacre and issued writs for the arrest of thirty-eight men. None was served because
those named were all in hiding.
Cradlebaugh’s strong judicial stance won him high regard in some quarters: when he
returned to Nevada in December 1863 he was
hailed as a hero, both for his war record and his actions in Utah. “His fearlessness
and impartiality in the administration of
justice secured him the enmity of the Mormons of Salt Lake,” noted the Carson City
Independent:
Pistols were drawn in the Court room, and men threatened to shoot him if he persisted
in
his course. The stern and plain-spoken old Judge told them to “shoot and be d—d, but
he intended to do his duty.”
Neither threats nor persuasion could swerve him one hair’s breadth from what he deemed
to be the path of duty. (“Judge
Cradlebaugh,” Sacramento Union, 28 Dec 63, 1, reprinting the Carson City Independent)
Mark Twain, who was then reporting for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, would surely have seen this article or others like it (“Ovation to Colonel Cradlebaugh,”
Sacramento Union, 4 Jan 64, 4, reprinting Carson City Independent of 30 December; Furniss, 214–19; Cradlebaugh,
15–16, 19–20; Waite, 70, 74; Brooks
1970, 173, 177).
Ⓔ “breathing threatenings
and slaughter!”] Acts 9:1.
Ⓔ An editorial in the
Territorial Enterprise] No example of the
Enterprise printing is known to survive.
Mark Twain’s source for the extract at 552.22–35 was Waite’s book, which quoted only
a portion of the original
(
Waite, 84–85).
Ⓔ Cumming was the
Federal Governor . . . to screen the Mormons from the demands of justice] In July
1857 Buchanan appointed
[begin page 758] Alfred Cumming (1802–73) to replace Young as territorial governor.
Cumming had been mayor of Augusta, Georgia, and an Indian agent on the upper Missouri.
Despite fears to the contrary (see the note
at 548.26–31), Cumming was able to enter Salt Lake City in April 1858 and peaceably
effect the transfer of executive power. He
adopted a conciliatory approach to the Mormons, “possibly going beyond moderation
to leniency” (
Furniss, 208). With Lincoln’s inauguration in 1861, Cumming returned to Georgia (
Furniss, 96–98, 207–8;
Hafen and Hafen, 286–87,
296;
Bancroft 1882–90, 21:525–26;
Linn, 505–7;
Wise, 252–54).
Ⓔ he even went so far as
to publish his protest against . . . Cradlebaugh’s proceedings] On opening his court
in Provo in March
1859, Cradlebaugh requested of General Johnston a military detachment to aid in securing
prisoners.
The presence of armed troops from Camp Floyd—in direct contact for the first time
with the civilian population—quickly
inflamed the Mormon community. As the situation worsened, Governor Cumming ordered
the troops withdrawn, but not before their numbers
in and around Provo had swelled to over eight hundred. Johnston refused the order.
Cumming, indignant at the usurpation of his
authority, issued a proclamation on 27 March 1859 “protesting against all movements
of troops except such as accorded with his
own instructions as chief executive magistrate” (
Bancroft 1882–90, 21:562).
The conflict was rendered moot when Cradlebaugh adjourned his court because the Mormons
refused to testify, the Mormon grand jury
refused to bring charges, and all the likely suspects had gone into hiding. Cumming’s
position was later sustained by the
federal government, and Cradlebaugh was censured for using federal troops to facilitate
the work of the court (
Furniss, 214–19;
Bancroft 1882–90, 21:561–62
n.36).
Ⓔ “confirmations
strong as proofs of Holy Writ.”]
Othello, act 3, scene 3.
Ⓔ 1. The evidence of
Mormons themselves . . . Indian depredations] In reproducing Waite’s list, Mark Twain
reordered and
renumbered items 1–7, presumably to reflect his own view of their relative importance:
Waite’s order (expressed with
Mark Twain’s numbers) was 1, 5, 7, 6, 3, 4, 2. In addition, he dropped Waite’s extract
of Campbell’s testimony
from item 8 and omitted entirely the last item on her list, a lengthy excerpt from
the letters and reports of Jacob Forney (
Waite, 76–79).
Ⓔ Deputy U. S. Marshal
Rogers] During late March and April 1859 William H. Rogers, a territorial Indian agent
and acting deputy United States marshal,
assisted both Jacob Forney, superintendent of Indian affairs, and Cradlebaugh in their
investigation of the Mountain
[begin page 759] Meadows massacre.
On 29 February 1860 Rogers published in the Salt Lake City
Valley Tan, an anti-Mormon newspaper, a lengthy and dispassionate “Statement” about their findings
and the evidence for Mormon participation in the crime (reprinted in
Brooks 1970,
265–78). Rogers assisted Forney in recovering the surviving children and joined Cradlebaugh
in interviewing people claiming
knowledge of the massacre. His statement included an account of a detailed confession
by one Mormon who participated in the massacre
and “gave Judge C. the name of 25 or 30 other men . . . who assisted” (
Brooks 1970, 276). He also described conversations with Indians who attributed the massacre to
Mormons acting on
orders of Young. Rogers attempted to serve Cradlebaugh’s writs for the arrest of Haight,
Higbee, and Lee, but found that the
suspects—along with a “large portion” of the male population of the area—had fled
(
Brooks 1970, 272;
Bancroft 1882–90, 21:557 n. 23;
Furniss, 210–11).
Ⓔ The failure of Brigham
Young to embody any account of it . . . until several years after the occurrence]
Young continued to function as
superintendent of Indian affairs until his replacement arrived in June 1858 (see the
note at 553.33–34).
On 6 January 1858, in his official report to the commissioner of Indian affairs in
Washington, D.C., Young blamed the
massacre on the emigrants themselves, claiming that their poisoning of meat and water
resulted in the deaths of several Indians; he
quoted Lee’s report to him that “about the 22nd of Sept. Capt Fanchers & Co. fell
victims to the Indians wrath
near Mountain Meadows.” Young took the occasion to deliver a homily on the mishandling
of Indian affairs and expressed the hope
that future relations with the Indians would benefit from “a uniform consistent humane
and conciliating course of superior acts
by those who profess superior attainments” (
Brooks 1970, 158–59). Several
years later, in a sermon of 8 March 1863, Young also claimed that he had assured Governor
Cumming of the Mormons’ full
cooperation with a trial before “an unprejudiced judge”—that is, someone other than
Cradlebaugh—but, Young
maintained, the case had remained unprosecuted “for fear the Mormons would be acquitted
. . . and our enemies
would thus be deprived of a favorite topic to talk about, when urging hostility against
us” (
Arrington 1985, 280, 480 n. 30;
Morgan, 407–8).
Ⓔ The failure of the
“Deseret News,” . . . to notice the massacre, until several months afterward] The
Salt Lake City
Deseret News, the only newspaper published in the territory between 1850 and November 1858, made
no mention of
the massacre until it published an account of Cradlebaugh’s proceedings in March 1859
(
Bancroft 1882–90, 21:326,715–19).
Ⓔ The testimony of the children
saved from the massacre] Forney, in his report of August 1859 to the commissioner
of Indian affairs,
[begin page 760] stated that two such children were being “detained to give evidence” (
Brooks 1970, 260).
Ⓔ J. Forney, who was, in
1859, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Territory] Jacob Forney of Philadelphia
officially succeeded Young as
territorial superintendent of Indian affairs in August 1857, although he did not reach
Salt Lake City until June 1858.
The results of Forney’s inquiry into the massacre may be found in his several official
reports to
the commissioner of Indian affairs in Washington, D.C., and his letter of 10 May 1859
to the Salt Lake City
Valley
Tan (reprinted in
Brooks 1970, 253–65, and
Cradlebaugh, 34–38, 40–42; see also
Waite,
78–79). In his report of August 1859 Forney concluded that the “massacre was concocted
by white men and consummated by
whites and Indians. The names of many of the whites engaged in this terrible affair
have already been given to the proper legal
authorities” (
Brooks 1970, 259;
Morgan, 407–8;
Furniss, 194–95).
Ⓔ The testimony of R.P.
Campbell, Capt. 2d Dragoons, who was sent . . . to protect travellers] Reuben P. Campbell
was a United States
Army captain who commanded the detachment of troops accompanying Cradlebaugh to southern
Utah in April 1859.
Campbell’s report to his superior officer was included in the appendix to the published
text of
Cradlebaugh’s speech. In it he attributed the massacre to “the
Mormons . . .
assisted by such of the wretched Indians of the neighborhood as they could force or
persuade to join” (
Cradlebaugh, 31–32; also in
Waite, 77–78;
Brooks 1970, 271, 312).