Mormon History
Open Letter to Brigham Young #3 - 1871
Daily Corinne Reporter – August 19, 1871
HISTORY OF MORMONISM.
_______
(Written
expressly for the Corinne Reporter and containing a
true and succinct account of the Reign of Terror in Utah. -- Ed.)
Brigham Young’s Indifference to the Mountain Meadow Massacre -- His Army of Defense -- Appeal to the Proper Authorities to Investigate the Massacre -- The Guilty Should be Exposed and Punished -- Etc.
Salt Lake City, Aug. 17, 1871.
An Open Letter to Brigham
Young.
SIR: That an entire company of peaceful families, as at the Mountain Meadows,
should be butchered in cold blood, anywhere in the United States, upon the
public highway, and within the easy reach of the arm of the civil power created
expressly for the protection of life and property, is a mystery which the purely
American mind finds very hard to understand.
And the marvel is only increased by the fact that no inquest was held over the
remains of those slaughtered ones -- that no arrests were made of the murderers,
although they were well and notoriously known, and that no official notice was
taken of the matter (except as I have heretofore stated) during the remainder of
your term as Governor, and no apparent authoritative notice since, except to
gather up, by soldiers of the United States, what bones the wolves had left, and
giving them respectable sepulture. Based upon American ideas, and, indeed, upon
the more general notions of civilization, the whole story becomes
incomprehensible.
In order to understand this matter, it will be necessary for the reader, first,
to mentally segregate Utah geographically from the United States -- to consider
it as absolutely a foreign State and nation, with a civilization such as existed
thirty-live hundred years ago, and a religion as antagonistic to Christianity as
Moslemism itself, including within its creed a tenet 'more cruel and bloody than
the Thuggism of India. Second, to consider this Deseret nation as incensed to
the last degree against the Government and people of the United States, for a
series of wrongs committed against them, including exile and the loss of life
and property. Third, to take into the account, that the American Government at
that time had actually proposed to extend its jurisdiction over said Deseret
(otherwise called Utah), and an army was then on its way to occupy said Utah for
the purpose of maintaining the sovereignty of said Government there, and that a
state of war was apparently existing between said two nations. Fourth, that you
were, at the very time of the massacre at the Mountain Meadows, mustering and
putting into the field an army of one thousand two hundred men, which was known
in Utah as 'The Standing Army,' and that said army was designed for active
operations against the forces of the United States, under Colonel Johnston, then
en route for Salt Lake. Fifth, that you were the 'Sovereign' lord of Deseret --
that your rule was an absolute and unmitigated despotism -- that your word was
the only recognized law -- that it was within your imperious nature to rule with
a high hand and a stretched-out arm over all your subjects, and with fury poured
out against your enemies. If the reader can grasp the ideas contained in the
above items, and arrange them into one compound proposition, he will be able to
form some idea of the causes which made the aforesaid massacre possible.
But the misfortune is, that said proposition being based upon falsehood and not
upon the truth, affords you no justification whatever; for, first, Utah was a
part of the United States, and not a foreign State; second, your intense hatred
of Americans and their Government was without adequate cause; third, the
occupation of Utah as a Military Department was altogether a friendly act, and
in strict accordance with the known military policy of the Government; fourth,
that all your acts in relation to the State of Deseret were and are treasonable
in their intent, and therefore illegal and of no binding force. For these
reasons, the American people will refuse to look upon that massacre from your
stand-point. They will and do hold you to your responsibility as a citizen of
the Republic. And as you were at that time the Chief Magistrate of Utah, they
have the right to demand why you took no official steps to inquire into that
sanguinary affair which is the shame and damning disgrace of your
administration. They have the right to demand why you took no official action in
the case of Dame, Haight, and Lee; and how it is that you have so far
persistently and successfully screened those murderers from the officers and the
action of the law. It is a foul blot upon the workings of the system of American
jurisprudence that the Mountain Meadow Massacre should having been committed
nearly sixteen years ago, and to this present writing you, and Lee, and Dame,
and Haight, are at large, and come and go unquestioned by the proper authority.
The blush of shame should mantle the cheeks of the Governor of our Territory so
long as that bloody affair remains uninvestigated, now that such investigation
is possible. The judges of our courts should not have the courage to look a
law-abiding man in the face so long as anything remains undone which they can
legally do to bring those murderers to justice.
It appears to have all along been the opinion that the investigation of the
Mountain Meadow Massacre must originate in the criminal courts. With that view,
and the Grand Jury subject to your dictation, and under your complete control,
what could be done? Nothing, absolutely nothing, but to wait. Murder is shielded
by no statute of limitations. But I will here suggest, that such investigation
should be made by a military court, for the reason that the operations of Lee
were purely and undeniably of a military character. Such a court would
officially determine the military character of those operations, would collect
all necessary facts in the case, and those facts would fix the responsibility
where it justly belongs.
Then such ulterior proceedings could be had as the case would seem to demand. If
there are not Gentile officers enough in the Utah militia to constitute such a
court, enough can soon be commissioned. But no Mormon should be allowed to
constitute a part of that court, nor any Gentile who could be allured from duty
by your sirens or be purchased by your ill-gotten gold.
And now, in conclusion, as a Mormon, I demand of the proper authorities that
this long-neglected affair be investigated, in order that the innocent may no
longer suffer that reproach which belongs to Brigham Young and others only. In
this connection it is proper to state that there is a strong and growing feeling
in Southern Utah against Lee and his co-labourers on that bloody mission, and
against their confederates, apologists, and protectors. Even in Cedar City those
characters are now known as 'Mountain Meadow Dogs.' As a citizen of the United
States, I demand that the veil of mystery so long covering that butchery be rent
asunder, and the foul deed exposed in all its repulsive hideousness, bringing to
the light those latent agencies which superinduced its commission, in order that
justice may be meted out to the guilty parties, thus wiping out a foul blot upon
the American name. In the name of Justice I demand it, that it may no longer be
said that in Utah the direst of felonies may be committed with impunity. In the
name of Truth, I demand that the facts concerning the Mountain Meadow Massacre
be ascertained and stated in official form by competent authority, in order that
the people of the United States may know that said massacre, even to its most
sickening details, was only too true...
Note: The full content of the above "Argus" letter remains undetermined.