View source for Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Chapter 11

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{{H1
|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Chapter 11
|H=Response to claims made in "Chapter 11: Bloody Brigham"
|T=[[../../|One Nation Under Gods]]
|A=Richard Abanes
|<=[[../Chapter 10|Claims made in "Chapter 10: A New Beginning"]]
|>=[[../Chapter 12|Claims made in "Chapter 12: Wars and Rumors of Wars"]]
}}
{{ChartOneNationUnderGodsChapter11}}
<onlyinclude>
{{H2
|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Chapter 11
|H=Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 11: Bloody Brigham"
|S=
|L1=Response to claim: 225 epigraph, 553-558n1 (PB) - A letter from Aaron DeWitt talks about murder and plunder in Utah
|L2=Response to claim: 227-228 - Broughton D. Harris, Lemuel G. Brandebury and Justice Perry Brocchus and other federal officials fled Utah because they feared for their lives
|L3=Response to claim: 228, 559n16-18 - David H. Burr reported that "Mr. Troskolowski," had been "assaulted and severely beaten by three men under the direction of one Hickman, a noted member of the so-called Danite Band"
|L4=Response to claim: 231 - The author claims that the "Mormon reformation" a period of subjugation and brutal acts of violence designed to purge the Church
|L5=Response to claim: 232, 559n32 - Who were Brigham Young's "Destroying Angels"?
|L6=Response to claim: 233, n36-39 - Brigham taught "blood atonement"
|L7=Response to claim: 233, 560n37 - Did Brigham use the term "cutting off" from the earth as a "euphemism for killing"?
|L8=Response to claim: 234, 560n43 - Did Jedediah Grant create a list of "highly intrusive" questions so that he could probe members' personal lives?
|L9=Response to claim: 234-235, 560n45-46 - Did Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball encourage murder out of "love" in order to save people's souls?
|L10=Response to claim: 235, 560n47 - The author states that Heber C. Kimball claimed that the apostles killed Judas
|L11=Response to claim: 235, 560-561n50 - Did 19th century Utah have a long list of crimes that were worthy of death?
|L12=Response to claim: 235 - "Blood began to flow profusely in Utah not long after the reformation was launched"
|L13=Response to claim: 236, n52 - Brigham said: "I say, rather than that apostates should flourish here, I will unsheath my bowie knife"
|L14=Response to claim: 236-237, 563n53 (HB) - "every reprobate received the same penalty. As Brigham instructed his flock: 'If any miserable scoundrels come here, cut their throats'"
|L15=Response to claim: 237, 561n54 (PB) - Did Brigham not care what the U.S. thought about "killing evil doers"?
|L16=Response to claim: 237, 562n55-56 (PB) - The author claims that Brigham Young had a man named Alonzo Bowman killed simply for "innocently asking about LDS beliefs and the facts behind the Saints' troubles"
|L17=Response to claim: 238, 562n57-59 - The author claims that Orson Hyde ordered Jesse Hartly shot and killed for the crime of "falling in love with, and marrying, a Mormon"
|L18=Response to claim: 238, 562n60 (PB) - Were William Parrish and his son murdered as they attempted to leave Utah because leaving Utah was "forbidden"?
|L19=Response to claim: 239, 563n63-64 - The author asserts that Richard Yates was killed for the sin of "trading with government personnel"
|L20=Response to claim: 241, 563n65-66 - Were Henry Jones and his mother murdered by Nathaniel Case, Porter Rockwell and "other church officials"?
|L21=Response to claim: 242-243, n67-71 - Were "innumerable crimes" committed because of the speeches of Brigham Young and other LDS leaders?
|L22=Response to claim: 244-245, 566n82 (HB) 564n82 (PB) - Did a prohibition of selling supplies to the Fancher party lead to the Mountain Meadows Massacre?
|L23=Response to claim: 245 - "The emigrants could not have known that two of the sins worthy of blood atonement were condemning Joseph Smith and/or consenting to his death"
|L24=Response to claim: 245, 564n86 (PB) - "The prophet...already had decided the fate of the Baker-Fancher party...at a secret meeting in Salt Lake City with several Indian chiefs"
|L25=Response to claim: 245, 564n87 - Did Brigham promise the Indians that they could have all the cattle in the Fancher wagon-train "if they would do away with the entire company"?
|L26=Response to claim: 251, 565n103 - When Brigham Young visited the Mountain Meadows site in 1860 and saw the monument, did he order it to be demolished?
|L27=Response to claim: 252, 565n109 (PB) - The author states that John D. Lee's "constant companion throughout his trial" was a Methodist minister, "even though Lee had been taught all his life that Christendom's ministers were satanically-inspired and corrupt"
|L28=Response to claim: 252, 565n111 (PB) - "To this day Mormons revere Young's destroying angels as well as the Danites"
}}
</onlyinclude>

==Response to claim: 225 epigraph, 553-558n1 (PB) - A letter from Aaron DeWitt talks about murder and plunder in Utah==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
A lengthy letter is printed in its entirety in the endnotes. The author says that the letter from Aaron DeWitt was written to his sister Elizabeth Durrant on January 31, 1875 and slipped into a time capsule. The letter talks about murder and plunder in Utah.
Source for the letter is an online web address at Saint's Alive (Ed Decker's site): <nowiki>www.saintsalive.com/mormonism/murder.html.</nowiki>
}}
{{propaganda|Even a hostile historian cited by Ed Decker grants that the majority of DeWitt's letter "is the standard 19th Century Gentile charge against the Mormons— '''largely dismissed in light of later scholarship'''—and Dewitt's repetition of the horrors of the Mountain Meadows Massacre and the murder of the Morrisites lend nothing to the historical record except (and it is a major exception) that a pioneer settler of Logan believed them...." (emphasis added).
}}
{{:Question: Did Aaron DeWitt, an ex-Mormon in Utah, receive threats to his life from the Church?}}

<!-- ====226, n5====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title={{check}}
|claim=Did Latter-day Saints believe that "America's doom" was sealed the day Joseph died?
}}
* [[../../Notable omissions#226a|Notable omissions: Orson Hyde on the USA]]
|authorsources=<br>
#{{JDfairwiki|author=Orson Pratt|disc=30|vol=6|start=204}}.
*Brigham Young, "Manuscript History of Brigham Young," under July 8, 1849 and August 26, 1849, reprinted in William S. Harwell, ed., ''Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1847-1850'', 221, 238.
}} -->

<!-- ====227, 558n13====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title={{check}}
|claim=Did Broughton D. Harris find that census results for the State of Deseret were "false and exaggerated?"
}}
* [[../../Use of sources/Early federal territorial officials|Early federal territorial officials]]
* [[One_Nation_Under_Gods/Use_of_sources/Early_federal_territorial_officials#Note_on_Abanes.27_secondary_source:_Bigler|Bigler]], the author's source distorts and misrepresents LDS history on numerous counts.
|authorsources=<br>
#David L. Bigler, ''Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West'', 1847-1896, 57-58.
}} -->

==Response to claim: 227-228 - Broughton D. Harris, Lemuel G. Brandebury and Justice Perry Brocchus and other federal officials fled Utah because they feared for their lives==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Broughton D. Harris, Lemuel G. Brandebury and Justice Perry Brocchus and other federal officials fled Utah because they feared for their lives.
|authorsources=<br>
#David L. Bigler, Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847-1896, 57-58.
}}
{{disinformation|This is false.
}}
{{:Question: Did federal officials flee Utah because they feared for their lives?}}

==Response to claim: 228, 559n16-18 - David H. Burr reported that "Mr. Troskolowski," had been "assaulted and severely beaten by three men under the direction of one Hickman, a noted member of the so-called Danite Band"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
David H. Burr reported that "Mr. Troskolowski," had been "assaulted and severely beaten by three men under the direction of one Hickman, a noted member of the so-called 'Danite Band.'"  Was the beating order by LDS leaders because Troskolowski was attempting to ensure that twelve-year-old Emma Wheat escaped a planned marriage to a polygamist?
|authorsources=<br>
#David H. Burr, letter to Thomas A. Hendricks, General Land Office, August 30, 1856, located in the annual land reports of the General Land Office for 1856 and 1857; cf. Nels Anderson, ''Desert Saints: The Mormon Frontier in Utah'', 149.
*Hirshon, 127
}}
{{propaganda|The author here references Hirshon's book, which received the 1970 Mormon History Association award for "worst book." <ref>"WORST BOOK: Stanley P. Hirshon, ''Lion of the Lord'' (New York: Knopf, 1969)." - {{Dialogue1|author= Larry C. Porter (Executive Secretary-Treasurer, MHA)|article= Mormon History Association Awards |vol=16|num=3|date=Autumn 1983|start=127&ndash;128}}  Another reviewer wrote, "At least once a decade, it seems, someone publishes a book about the Latter-day Saints without taking the necessary "trouble" to adequately research the subject. Stanley Hirshon was judged guilty of this offense in 1969 and received from the Mormon History Association its "Worst Book" award for his volume on Brigham Young." – {{Dialogue1|author= Kenneth H. Godfrey|article=Not Trouble Enough, review of ''Trouble Enough: Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon'' by Ernest H. Taves|vol=19|num=3|date=Fall 1986|start=139}}</ref>
}}

==Response to claim: 231 - The author claims that the "Mormon reformation" a period of subjugation and brutal acts of violence designed to purge the Church==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
The author claims that the "Mormon reformation" a period of subjugation and brutal acts of violence designed to purge the Church.
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{propaganda|The "Mormon Reformation" was a reform or spiritual rejuvenation movement that began among the Utah Saints in the mid-1850s.  Ironically, noted one historian, "[m]ore has been written about its excesses (real and imaginary) than about what actually happened. Stenhouse's anonymous chapter on the Reformation and Blood Atonement was typical.  Even church historian B. H. Roberts devoted twice as much space in discussing blood atonement in connection with the reform movement than he did to the Reformation itself."<ref>Gustave O. Larson, "The Mormon Reformation," ''Utah Historical Quarterly'' 26/1 (January 1958): 45&ndash;46.</ref>
}}
{{Abanes:One Nation:Mormon Reformation}}
* [[../Absurd claims]]

==Response to claim: 232, 559n32 - Who were Brigham Young's "Destroying Angels"?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Who were Brigham Young's "Destroying Angels"? Were Porter Rockwell and 'Wild' Bill Hickman the most notorious of these "Destroying Angels?"
|authorsources=<br>
#Jerald and Sandra Tanner, "Brigham Young and Wild Bill Hickman," ''Salt Lake City Messenger'' (#77), February 1991.
*Hope A. Hilton, ''"Wild Bill" Hickman and the Mormon Frontier'', 65, 113.
}}
{{misinformation|The cited pages of Hilton's work only describes Hickman as a military leader during the Utah War receiving instruction from Brigham, and a letter he wrote to Brigham denying an accusation.  It says nothing about being one of "Brigham's enforcers." The author's only other source is Jerald and Sandra Tanner.  They rely heavily on Hickman's ''Brigham's Destroying Angel''.
}}
* [[../Loaded and prejudicial language|Loaded and prejudicial language]]

<!-- ====232, 559n33====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim=
*Did Brigham often make favorable comments about his "Destroying Angels?"
*Brigham said: "We have the meanest devils on the earth in our midst, and we intend to keep them, for we have use for them; and if the Devil does not look sharp, we will cheat him out of them at the last, for they will reform and  go to heaven with us."
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*No other references are provided to support the idea that Brigham "often commented" on this.
*[[../../Notable omissions#232|Notable omissions: Brigham and the 'meanest devils']]
*[[Danites/Danites in anti-Mormon polemic|Danites in anti-Mormon polemic]]
|authorsources=<br>
#{{JDfairwiki|author=Brigham Young|disc=26|vol=6|start=176}}.
}} -->

==Response to claim: 233, n36-39 - Brigham taught "blood atonement"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Brigham taught "blood atonement."
|authorsources=<br>
*{{JDfairwiki|author=Brigham Young|disc=10|vol=4|start=53|end=54}}.
*{{JDfairwiki|author=Brigham Young|disc=35|vol=3|start=247}}.
}}
{{information|Brigham taught it, but it was not put into practice.
}}
{{:Question: What is "blood atonement"?}}
{{:Source:Charles Penrose:Improvement Era:September 1912:Do you believe in "blood-atonement"?}}
{{:Question: Did early Mormon leaders teach that apostasy was the unforgivable sin, and that the only thing an apostate could do to redeem himself was to give his own life, willingly or unwillingly?}}
{{:Question: Were apostates secretly put to death by "blood atonement" during the administration of Brigham Young?}}

<!-- ====233-234, 560n40====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title={{check}}
|claim=Jedediah Grant preached about "Blood Atonement"	
}}
*[[Church doctrine/Repudiated/Blood atonement]]
*{{Abanes:One Nation:Mormon Reformation}}
|authorsources=<br>
#{{JDfairwiki|author=Jedediah Grant|disc=9|vol=4|start=49|end=50}}
}} -->

==Response to claim: 233, 560n37 - Did Brigham use the term "cutting off" from the earth as a "euphemism for killing"?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Did Brigham use the term "cutting off" from the earth as a "euphemism for killing"?
|authorsources=<br>
#{{JDfairwiki|author=Brigham Young|disc=10|vol=4|start=53}}
}}
{{misinformation|Brigham's rhetoric was certainly charged, but his intent seems to have been to awaken people to a sense of their sinfulness, and to impress upon them the need for continued obedience and rededication to God, as well as the seriousness of repeated violations of their covenant relationship.
}}
{{:Question: When Brigham Young talked of "cutting off" from the earth, was he using a euphemism for killing?}}

==Response to claim: 234, 560n43 - Did Jedediah Grant create a list of "highly intrusive" questions so that he could probe members' personal lives?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Did Jedediah Grant create a list of "highly intrusive" questions so that he could probe members' personal lives?
|authorsources=<br>
#Diary of John Moon Clements, under November 4, 1856, as quoted in Gene A. Sessions, ''Mormon Thunder: A Documentary History of Jedediah Morgan Grant'', 220-221.
}}
{{propaganda|
The "highly intrusive" list of questions is listed in the endnote, and sounds very much like a temple recommend interview today.
Many are analogous to modern temple recommend questions:
# Have you shed innocent blood or assented thereto?
# Have you committed adultery?
# Have you betrayed your brother?
# Have you borne false witness against your neighbor?
# Do you get drunk?
# Have you stolen?
# Have you lied? (This was expanded to include questions "made specific as to the use of fields, animals, lost property, strays, irrigation water, and to borrowing and branding"&mdash;see below.)
# Have you contracted debts without prospect of paying?
# Have you labored faithfully for your wages?
# Have you coveted that which belongs to another?
# Have you taken the name of the Lord in vain?
# Do you preside in your family as a servant of God?
# Have you paid your tithing in all things?
#Do you teach your family the gospel of Salvation?
#Do you speak against your brethren or against any principle taught us in the Bible, Book of Mormon, Book of Doctrine & Covenants, revelations given through Joseph Smith the prophet and the Presidency of the Church as now organized?
#Do you wash your body and have your family do so as often as health and cleanliness require and circumstances permit?
#Do you labor six days and rest or go to the house of the Worship on the seventh?
#Do you and your family attend ward meetings?
#Do you oppress the hireling in his wages? <ref>Gustive O. Larson, "The Mormon Reformation," ''Utah Historical Quarterly'' 26/1 (January 1958): 53-55.</ref>

Expanded questions in conjunction with #7 above:
#Have you cut hay where you had no right to, or turned your animals into another person's grain or field, without his knowledge and consent?
#Have you branded an animal that you did not know to be your own?
#Have you taken another's horse or mule from the range and rode it without the owner's consent?
#Have you fulfilled your promise in paying your debts, or run into debt without prospect of paying?
#Have you taken water to irrigate with, when it belonged to another person at the time you used it? <ref>Glen M. Leonard, ''A History of Davis County'', Utah Centennial County History Series, Allan Kent Powell and Craig Fuller, editors, (Utah State Historical Society, 1999), 65&ndash;66.</ref>

Those who administered the questions were cautioned:

<blockquote>
In answer to the above questions, let all men and women confess to persons they have injured and make restitution, or satisfaction. And when catechizing the people, the Bishops, Teachers Missionaries and other officers in the Church are not at liberty to pry into sins that are between a person and his or her God, but let such persons confess to the proper authority, that the adversary may not have an opportunity to take advantage of human weakness and thereby destroy souls. <ref>Larson, 55; citing Andrew L. Neff, ''History of Utah, 1847-1869'', Leland H. Creer, ed. (Salt Lake City, 1940), 550.</ref>
</blockquote>
}}
*[[../Absurd claims#234|Absurd claims: "highly intrusive questions"]]

==Response to claim: 234-235, 560n45-46 - Did Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball encourage murder out of "love" in order to save people's souls?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Did Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball encourage murder out of "love" in order to save people's souls?
|authorsources=<br>
*{{JDfairwiki|author=Brigham Young|disc=42|vol=4|start=219|end=220}}
*{{JDfairwiki|author=Heber C. Kimball|disc=35|vol=4|start=173|end=174}}
}}
{{propaganda|This is nonsense.
}}
{{:Question: Did Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball encourage members to kill apostates in an attempt to save their souls?}}

==Response to claim: 235, 560n47 - The author states that Heber C. Kimball claimed that the apostles killed Judas==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
The author states that Heber C. Kimball claimed that the apostles killed Judas.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{JDfairwiki|author=Heber C. Kimball|disc=19|vol=6|start=125|end=126}}
}}
{{misinformation|Heber did not claim the apostles carried out the killing. Heber's message is not about murder or the early apostles killing people—it is about the natural consequences of serious sin, and the need to keep covenants made with God, not with other mortals.
}}
{{:Question: Did Heber C. Kimball claim that the apostles killed Judas?}}

==Response to claim: 235, 560-561n50 - Did 19th century Utah have a long list of crimes that were worthy of death?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Did 19th century Utah have a long list of crimes that were worthy of death?
|authorsources=<br>
#The author includes a long list of crimes that "called for death." This list is from the Tanners, although the Tanners are not credited for the entire list: They are cited once under the "Intermarriage" entry.
}}
{{propaganda|The list of crimes alleged to be "worthy of death" is inflated.
}}
{{:Source:JD 11:262:Brigham Young:There is also a man down the street who tried to exhibit the endowments to a party who was here}}
{{:Question: Did the concept of "blood atonement" include a long list of crimes that were considered "worthy of death"?}}
{{:Question: Was murder a crime that was "worthy of death" among 19th century Mormons?}}
{{:Question: Were adultery and immorality crimes that were "worthy of death" among 19th century Mormons?}}
{{:Question: Was stealing a crime that was "worthy of death" among 19th century Mormons?}}
{{:Question: Was using the name of the Lord in vain a crime that was "worthy of death" among 19th century Mormons?}}
{{:Question: Was "not receiving the Gospel" a crime that was "worthy of death" among 19th century Mormons?}}
{{:Question: Did Brigham Young say that race mixing was punishable by death?}}
{{:Question: Was lying a crime that was "worthy of death" among 19th century Mormons?}}
{{:Question: Was counterfeiting a crime that was "worthy of death" among 19th century Mormons?}}
{{:Question: Was condemning Joseph Smith a crime that was "worthy of death" among 19th century Mormons?}}

==Response to claim: 235 - "Blood began to flow profusely in Utah not long after the reformation was launched"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
{{AuthorQuote|"Blood began to flow profusely in Utah not long after the reformation was launched."}}
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{propaganda|This is absurd nonsense.
}}
*[[../Loaded and prejudicial language|Loaded and prejudicial language]]

==Response to claim: 236, n52 - Brigham said: "I say, rather than that apostates should flourish here, I will unsheath my bowie knife"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
After "relating a dream wherein he had slit the throats of two men 'from ear to ear' with a bowie knife" Brigham said: "I say, rather than that apostates should flourish here, I will unsheath my bowie knife, and conquer or die...Now, you nasty apostates, clear out, or judgment will be put on the line, and righteousness to the plummet."
|authorsources=<br>
#{{JDfairwiki|author=Brigham Young|disc=14|vol=1|start=83}}
}}
{{misinformation|On p. 238, the author claims apostates were forbidden to leave Utah, yet in this speech Brigham tells violent apostates to leave Utah.  Which is it?  Was Brigham forcing apostates out with threat of violence, or forbidding apostates from leaving? Brigham has nothing violent to say about those who leave the Church, or say "Damn Mormonism, and all the Mormons," or who want to leave. Those of whom he is wary are those who remain among the Saints, "became violent with" the Saints, and who seek to "run out and bring in all the devils they possibly could." Brigham is announcing that the Saints will no longer tolerate violence and aggression from their enemies.
}}
*[[../Use of sources/Brigham and bowie knife|Use of sources: Brigham and bowie knife]]

==Response to claim: 236-237, 563n53 (HB) - "every reprobate received the same penalty. As Brigham instructed his flock: 'If any miserable scoundrels come here, cut their throats'"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=<br>
*"Apostates certainly were viewed as the worst of sinners, although every reprobate received the same penalty. As Brigham instructed his flock: 'If any miserable scoundrels come here, cut their throats.'" (HB)
{{parabreak}}
*"Apostates certainly were viewed as the worst sinners, although every reprobate, risked similar justice. Young once said: "It was asked this morning how we could obtain redress for our wrongs; I will tell you how it could be done, we could take the same law they have taken...and if any miserable scoundrels come here, cut their throats." (PB)
|authorsources=<br>
#{{JDfairwiki|author=Brigham Young|disc=47|vol=2|start=311}}.
}}
{{propaganda|Brigham was using hyperbole. 
}}
{{:Question: Did Brigham Young advocate that apostates have their throats cut?}}

==Response to claim: 237, 561n54 (PB) - Did Brigham not care what the U.S. thought about "killing evil doers"?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Did Brigham not care what the U.S. thought about "killing evil doers"?
<blockquote>
What do you suppose they would say in old Massachusetts….What would they say in old Connecticut?"" They would raise a universal howl of, 'how wicked the Mormons are; they are killing the evil doers who are among them; why I hear that they kill the wicked away up yonder in Utah.'...What do I care for the wrath of man? No more than I do for the chickens that run in my dooryard.
</blockquote>
|authorsources=<br>
*{{JDfairwiki|author=Brigham Young|disc=8|vol=3|start=50}}
*Note the typographical error in the quote "the Mormons" as opposed to "those Mormons" in the original source, indicating that the author's version of the quote may have been copied from a secondary source.
}}
{{misinformation|Consider the full title of Brigham's discourse:FAITH—PRACTICAL RELIGION—CHASTISEMENT—NECESSITY OF DEVILS. The "necessity of devils" relates to the subject discussed here.

Brigham actually said:
<blockquote>
'''We must have those amongst us who will steal''' our fence poles, who will go and steal hay from their neighbor's hay stack, or go into his corn field to steal corn, and leave the fence down; nearly every ax that is dropped in the kanyon must be picked up by them, and the scores of lost watches, gold rings, breast pins, &c., must get into their hands, though they will not wear them in your sight. It is essentially necessary to have such characters here.<br><br>

After we had given the brethren such a scouring two or three months ago, about returning lost property when found, one or two men brought in two or three rusty nails of no value, which they had picked up; this was tantamount to saying to brother Sprague, "If we had found your purse, or if we had found Brigham's purse, we would see you, in hell before we would return it." We wish to impress upon you the necessity of your bringing the ax you find, the hay fork, or any other lost property which you find, to the person who is appointed to take charge of such property, that the owners may again possess it. But if you should pick up a piece of rotten wood, and bring it to brother Brigham, or Dr. Sprague, with a show of honesty, '''and in derision of the counsel you have received''', it would be like saying, "If we could find or steal your purses, you should never see them again. We are poor, miserable devils, and mean to live here by stealing from the Saints, and you cannot help yourselves."<br><br>

Live here then, you poor, miserable curses, until the time of retribution, when your heads will have to be severed from your bodies. Just let the Lord Almighty say, "Lay judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet," and the time of thieves is short in this community. What do you suppose they would say in old Massachusetts, should they hear that the Latter-day Saints had received a revelation or commandment to lay "judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet?" What would they say in old Connecticut? They would raise a universal howl of, "How wicked those Mormons are; they are killing the evil doers who are among them; why I hear that they kill the wicked away up yonder in Utah." They do not kill anybody down there, do they?<br><br>

As for the inhabitants of the earth, who know anything about the "Mormons," having power to utter worse epithets against us than they do, they have to get more knowledge in order to do it; and '''as for those enemies who have been in our midst, feeling any worse than they do, they have first to know more; they are as full of bad feeling now as they can hold without bursting'''. What do I care for the wrath of man? No more than I do for the chickens that run in my dooryard. I am here to teach the ways of the Lord, and '''lead men to life everlasting''', but if they have not a mind to go there, I wish them to '''keep out of my path'''.{{ea}}<br><br>
</blockquote>
}}
*[[../Notable omissions#237|Notable omissions:killing the evil doers]]

==Response to claim: 237, 562n55-56 (PB) - The author claims that Brigham Young had a man named Alonzo Bowman killed simply for "innocently asking about LDS beliefs and the facts behind the Saints' troubles"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
The author claims that Brigham Young had a man named Alonzo Bowman killed simply for "innocently asking about LDS beliefs and the facts behind the Saints' troubles"
|authorsources=<br>
#Quoted in Nelson Winch Green, ''Mormonism: its rise, progress, and present condition. Embracing the narrative of Mrs. [[../../Use_of_sources/Ettie_V._Smith|Mary Ettie V. Smith]]'', 273-275.
}}
{{propaganda|There are no primary sources to support this story. [[../../Use_of_sources/Ettie_V._Smith|Mary Ettie V. Smith]]'s narrative is highly suspect. The man's name is actually Walter Alonzo Clark Bowman
}}
*[[../Loaded and prejudicial language|Loaded and prejudicial language]]
<!--*(from MADB): There is mention by Joseph Lee Robinson in his journal that Pres. Young had received "credible information" of "traders" and "several hundred spaniards collegeing with the indians to turn them against us" on April 20 1853. Brigham Young gave a proclamation to "take into custody all groups of spaniards or any suspicious characters" at that time. The account in the story takes place in the summer of 1853. -->

==Response to claim: 238, 562n57-59 - The author claims that Orson Hyde ordered Jesse Hartly shot and killed for the crime of "falling in love with, and marrying, a Mormon"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
The author claims that Orson Hyde ordered Jesse Hartly shot and killed for the crime of "falling in love with, and marrying, a Mormon"
[[../Use_of_sources/Ettie_V._Smith|Mary Ettie V. Smith]] is not a reliable source.
|authorsources=<br>
*Quoted in Nelson Winch Green, ''Mormonism: its rise, progress, and present condition. Embracing the narrative of Mrs. [[../../Use_of_sources/Ettie_V._Smith|Mary Ettie V. Smith]]'', 309.
*{{JDfairwiki|author=Brigham Young|disc=14|vol=1|start=83}}
*William Hickman, ''Brigham's Destroying Angel: Being the Life, Confession, and Startling Disclosures of the Notorious Bill Hickman'', 97-98.
}}
{{propaganda|It was no crime for a non-Mormon to marry a Mormon. On p. 238, the author claims apostates were forbidden to leave Utah, yet in this speech Brigham tells violent apostates to leave Utah.  Which is it?  Was Brigham forcing apostates out with threat of violence, or forbidding apostates from leaving?

William "Wild Bill" Hickman would later say that his purported autobiography, ''Brigham's Destroying Angel'', was "a lie from the wild boar story onward." <ref> Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, ''A Book of Mormons'' (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1982), 123.  See also Hope A. Hilton, ''"Wild Bill" Hickman and the Mormon Frontier'' (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1988), 127.</ref>  The story occurs on pages 29&ndash;30.  In any case, the referenced pages say ''nothing'' about a murder of anyone, much less 'Jesse Hartly', who a text search does not reveal mentioned anywhere in the book.

In the endnotes, the author quotes Brigham's "[[../../Use of sources/Brigham and bowie knife|bowie knife]]" comment once again.
}}

==Response to claim: 238, 562n60 (PB) - Were William Parrish and his son murdered as they attempted to leave Utah because leaving Utah was "forbidden"?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Were William Parrish and his son murdered as they attempted to leave Utah because leaving Utah was "forbidden"?
|authorsources=<br>
*Bigler, ''Forgotten Kingdom'', 131-132.
}}
{{misinformation|On p. 236, the material referenced by the author tells violent apostates to leave Utah. Which is it? Was Brigham forcing apostates out with threat of violence, or forbidding apostates from leaving?
}}
*[[../Notable omissions#238|Notable omissions: Parrish murder]]
{{:Question: Were William Parrish and his son murdered as they attempted to leave Utah because leaving Utah was "forbidden"?}}

<!-- ====238, 562n61====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title={{check}}
|claim=Aaron DeWitt said that escape from Utah was "virtually impossible."
}}
* [[Leaving Utah forbidden|Leaving Utah forbidden?]]
*[[Danites/Danites in anti-Mormon polemic|Danites in anti-Mormon polemic]]
|authorsources=<br>
#DeWitt letter.
}} -->

==Response to claim: 239, 563n63-64 - The author asserts that Richard Yates was killed for the sin of "trading with government personnel"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
The author asserts that Richard Yates was killed for the sin of "trading with government personnel"
|authorsources=<br>
#Hickman, 124-125.
*Stout, in Brooks, vol. 2, 643.
}}
{{propaganda|William "Wild Bill" Hickman would later say that his purported autobiography, ''Brigham's Destroying Angel'', was "a lie from the wild boar story onward." <ref>Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, ''A Book of Mormons'' (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1982), 123.  See also Hope A. Hilton, ''"Wild Bill" Hickman and the Mormon Frontier'' (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1988), 127.</ref>  The story occurs on pages 29&ndash;30.  Aside from its implausibility, then, this reference has been denied by Hickman.
}}

==Response to claim: 241, 563n65-66 - Were Henry Jones and his mother murdered by Nathaniel Case, Porter Rockwell and "other church officials"?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Were Henry Jones and his mother murdered by Nathaniel Case, Porter Rockwell and "other church officials"?
|authorsources=<br>
*Stout in Brooks, vol. 2, 653.
*Nathaniel Case, affidavit of April 9, 1859, sworn before John Cradlebaugh, Judge 2nd Judicial District, Utah, reprinted in ''The Valley Tan'', April 19, 1859. Quoted in Jerald and Sandra Tanner, "Blood Atonement: Fact or Fantasy?," ''Salt Lake City Messenger'' (#92), April 1997, 13.
}}
{{misinformation|Case was the testator; he denied having anything to do with the murder. Stout's journal mentions only that some people had [[Castration_in_Utah#Hosea_Stout_diary|castrated Henry Jones]]; it says nothing about murder of him or his mother. Jones and his mother were accused of incest; Joseph Hancock was eventually found guilty of [[../../Notable omissions#241|second degree murder]].
}}

==Response to claim: 242-243, n67-71 - Were "innumerable crimes" committed because of the speeches of Brigham Young and other LDS leaders?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Were "innumerable crimes" committed because of the speeches of Brigham Young and other LDS leaders?
|authorsources=<br>
*Baskin, ''Reminiscences of Early Utah'', 150.
*Harold Schindler, ''Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God, Son of Thunder'', 268-279.
*Bigler, 309.
*Hickman, 210.
*Baskin, 154-155.
*Ann Eliza Young, ''Wife No. 19'', Chapter X-XVI.
}}
{{propaganda|There is no evidence to support this claim. William "Wild Bill" Hickman would later say that his purported autobiography, ''Brigham's Destroying Angel'', was "a lie from the wild boar story onward." <ref>Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, ''A Book of Mormons'' (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1982), 123.  See also Hope A. Hilton, ''"Wild Bill" Hickman and the Mormon Frontier'' (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1988), 127.</ref>  The story occurs on pages 29&ndash;30.  Aside from its implausibility, then, this reference has been denied by Hickman. [[One_Nation_Under_Gods/Use_of_sources/Early_federal_territorial_officials#Note_on_Abanes.27_secondary_source:_Bigler|Bigler]], the author's source distorts and misrepresents LDS history on numerous counts.
}}
{{:Question: Did Brigham Young create a 'culture of violence' in 19th century Utah with his incendiary speeches?}}

==Response to claim: 244-245, 566n82 (HB) 564n82 (PB) - Did a prohibition of selling supplies to the Fancher party lead to the Mountain Meadows Massacre?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=Did a prohibition of selling supplies to the Fancher party lead to the Mountain Meadows Massacre?
|authorsources=<br>
#On August 2, 1857, just one month before the massacre, Brigham Young wrote to [sic] a letter to church leaders telling them to make sure that no one sold as much as "one kernal" of food to the Saints "enemies" (Brigham Young letter to Bronson and Haight, August 2, 1857, MS 1234 LDSCA). (hardback and paperback)
{{parabreak}}
*Will Bagley, ''Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows'', 111, 115. (added in paperback)
*Eugene E. Campbell, ''Establishing Zion'', 250, 317. (added in paperback)
}}
{{misinformation|There were much more complex reasons for not selling supplies to wagon trains that were passing through.
}}
{{Abanes:One Nation:MMM}}
{{:Question: Did Brigham Young issue orders that no food or grain should be sold to "Gentiles" that were passing through Utah?}}

==Response to claim: 245 - "The emigrants could not have known that two of the sins worthy of blood atonement were condemning Joseph Smith and/or consenting to his death"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
{{AuthorQuote|"The emigrants could not have known that two of the sins worthy of blood atonement were condemning Joseph Smith and/or consenting to his death."}}
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{propaganda|This is total nonsense.
}}

==Response to claim: 245, 564n86 (PB) - "The prophet...already had decided the fate of the Baker-Fancher party...at a secret meeting in Salt Lake City with several Indian chiefs"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
*{{AuthorQuote|"The prophet...already had decided the fate of the Baker-Fancher party...at a secret meeting in Salt Lake City with several Indian chiefs."}}
|authorsources=<br>
#{{CriticalWork:Bigler:Forgotten Kingdom|pages=167}}
}}
{{misinformation|There is substantial evidence that Brigham Young did ''not'' order the massacre. Bagley (and, following him, the author of ONUG) have distorted the contents of the Huntington diary and ignored other evidence [[One_Nation_Under_Gods/Use_of_sources/Early_federal_territorial_officials#Note_on_Abanes.27_secondary_source:_Bigler|Bigler]], the author's source distorts and misrepresents LDS history on numerous counts.
}}
*[[../Use of sources/Brigham Young ordered MMM|Use of sources: Brigham Young ordered Mountain Meadows Massacre?]]

==Response to claim: 245, 564n87 - Did Brigham promise the Indians that they could have all the cattle in the Fancher wagon-train "if they would do away with the entire company"?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Did Brigham promise the Indians that they could have all the cattle in the Fancher wagon-train "if they would do away with the entire company"?
|authorsources=<br>
#Dimick B. Huntington, "Dimick B. Huntington Journal," under September 1, 1857.
}}
{{disinformation|Brigham offered the natives the approaching army's cattle if they would scatter it.
}}
*[[../Use of sources/Brigham Young ordered MMM|Brigham Young ordered Mountain Meadows Massacre?]]
{{Abanes:One Nation:MMM}}

<!-- ====243-250====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title={{check}}
|claim=The book discusses the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
}}
{{Abanes:One Nation:MMM}}
|authorsources=<br>
#John D. Lee
}} -->

==Response to claim: 251, 565n103 - When Brigham Young visited the Mountain Meadows site in 1860 and saw the monument, did he order it to be demolished?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
When Brigham Young visited the Mountain Meadows site in 1860 and saw the monument, did he order it to be demolished?
|authorsources=<br>
*{{CitationError}} The Wilford Woodruff journal date should be May 25, 1861.
*{{WWJ1|vol=5|start=577|date=(under May 25, 1860)}}; cf. Brooks, ''Mountain Meadows'', 183.
}}
{{misinformation|Wilford Woodruff (and John D. Lee) said nothing in his journal about Brigham Young ordering—or desiring— the destruction of the monument. Waite's book reports a rumor, and Leavitt's account is frank to admit that all Brigham did was "raise his arm to the square" (this gesture is used, for example, during LDS baptisms to indicate that the priesthood is being invoked, and a covenant made). Leavitt presumes that Brigham wanted the monument destroyed, but this was his supposition. It is completely unsupported by Woodruff, and it is completely inconsistent with Lorenzo Brown's witness of three years later that the monument was still standing.
}}
{{:Question: Did Brigham Young order that the Mount Meadows monument be destroyed?}}
{{:Question: What was Brigham Young's attitude toward the Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1861?}}

==Response to claim: 252, 565n109 (PB) - The author states that John D. Lee's "constant companion throughout his trial" was a Methodist minister, "even though Lee had been taught all his life that Christendom's ministers were satanically-inspired and corrupt"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
The author states that John D. Lee's "constant companion throughout his trial" was a Methodist minister, "even though Lee had been taught all his life that Christendom's ministers were satanically-inspired and corrupt"
|authorsources=<br>
#Thelma Geer, ''Mormonism, Mama and Me'', 171.
}}
{{propaganda|Mormons do not teach or believe that Christendom's ministers are "satanically-inspired and corrupt." The source cited by the author is an anti-Mormon work published by Thelma "Granny" Geer (second edition in 1980; expanded 4th edition by 1984; 5th edition 1986).  Ms. Geer's book cover announces that she has appeared in two films, ''The Cult Explosion'' and [[The God Makers|''The God Makers'']].  It is not clear why the author, who clearly has pretensions to writing a 'scholarly' work, would use this type of polemic as a secondary source.  Anti-Mormon literature is nothing if not self-referential.
}}
*[[../Loaded and prejudicial language|Loaded and prejudicial language]]

==Response to claim: 252, 565n111 (PB) - "To this day Mormons revere Young's destroying angels as well as the Danites"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
{{AuthorQuote|"To this day Mormons revere Young's destroying angels as well as the Danites."}}
|authorsources=<br>
#Quoted in Tony Yapia, "Statue Honors Pioneer Figure Rockwell," ''Salt Lake Tribune'', September 11, 2000.
}}
{{propaganda|This is an absurd claim.
}}

{{endnotes sources}}



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