Curiously, the following items were not included in this "History of the Mormon Church."
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One Nation Under Gods
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166
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The book fails to mention how General Lucas ordered Alexander Doniphan to execute Joseph Smith and other Church leaders at Far West, and how Doniphan refused to do so because he considered it "cold blooded murder."
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211
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- There is no mention at all of well-known anti-Mormon Thomas Sharp, owner of the Warsaw Signal, and how the paper played a major role leading up to Joseph's death. The author simply mentions Sharp's articles. Sharp wrote the following on 11 June 1844:
War and extermination is inevitable! Citizens ARISE, ONE and ALL!!!—Can you stand by, and suffer such INFERNAL DEVILS! to ROB men of their property and RIGHTS, without avenging them. We have no time for comment, every man will make his own. LET IT BE MADE WITH POWDER AND BALL!!!
On July 10, Sharp wrote:
Joe and Hiram [sic] Smith, at the time their lives were taken, were in the custody of the officers of the law; and it is asked by those who condemn the act, why the law was not first allowed to take its course before violence was resorted to? We answer that the course of law in the case of these wretches would have been a mere mockery; and such was the conviction of every sensible man.
- Sharp would also say that the murder of the Smiths was "a summary execution," and that "the anti-Mormons had agreed in early June to exterminate the Mormon leaders."[1]
- How likely is it that the Nauvoo Signal will offer accurate information about the Saints? Would Abanes appeal to articles in Der Sturmer about the Jews?
- See also: Crime and violence in Nauvoo
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226a
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- Orson Hyde said that the United States "will have to suffer," and the "corrupt Government" to not long "flourish or prosper."
- Now, suppose the Lord had offered us all these things, and we should sit down and not move a finger for the blessings he had given, should we be worthy of them? No, not at all. We should be in this condition, if we were suffered to take possession of these blessings without any trials.
- If we are dilatory, we shall have to suffer as in days gone by, and our enemies will come in here and bring in their whoredoms and abominations that they have been accustomed to from their youth up. This will be the case, if we do not save ourselves by our diligence and obedience. But if we show to God that we are willing to stand up in behalf of his kingdom and of the truth, even unto death, then, notwithstanding our enemies may be two hundred to our one, we shall feel strong in the Lord, and he will fight our battles. Then we shall accomplish that which has been promised by the Prophets; and not only the United States will have to suffer, but as the Prophet Isaiah says—"The multitude of all the nations that fight against Zion shall become like the dream of a night vision, as when a man who is hungry dreameth that he is satisfied with food, and he awaketh and behold he is faint." So will be all nations who fight against this people: they will pass away before the power of the servants of God. His servants will be clothed with wisdom and with the power of the Most High to prevail against all their enemies.
- We would let the poor curses alone, if they would stay at home and mind their own business. The American continent never was designed for such a corrupt Government as the United States' to flourish or prosper long upon it. After they should become ripened in iniquity, it was not intended they should continue. The Lord has designed another thing, and for this reason we are here in these mountains: the little stone has been rolling up hill.
- The president at the time (28 January 1858) was James Buchanan, a Democrat beholden to southern slave states. Following Buchanan, Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected, and the United States was plunged into a bloody and costly civil war. Members of the Church saw this as a fulfillment of such expectations as expressed by Elder Hyde.
Compare: Government to be 'overthrown and wasted'?
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232
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- Additional context for Brigham's statement:
One of the first and plainest principles to be believed and practised is to put ourselves and all we have into the kingdom of God, and then be dictated by the Lord and his servants. Is there any danger? Some are ready [p.176] to say, "Yes, we are afraid to trust ourselves and our means here and there....
Can we feed and clothe ourselves? Yes, we can, as well as any people on the earth. We have a goodly share of the genius, talent, and ability of the world; it is combined in the Elders of this Church and in their families. And if the Gentiles wish to see a few tricks, we have "Mormons" that can perform them. 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.
We have already showed the invading army a few tricks; and I told Captain Van Vliet that if they persisted in making war upon us, I should share in their supplies. The boys would ride among the enemy's tents; and one of their captains ran into Colonel Alexander's tent one night, saying, "Why, Colonel, I'll be damned if the Mormons won't be riding into your tent, if you don't look out....
But look out, pertaining to taking care of and sustaining ourselves, that the children of this world are not smarter than the children of light. I say that they shall not be; for we will best them in every good thing, the Lord and the brethren being our helpers.
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237
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Brigham actually said:
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.
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."
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?
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.(emphasis added)
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238
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- Los Angeles Star reported that Indians had supposedly killed Parrish and two others; it noted too that "rumor had it [that Parrish]...'had a difficulty with the authorities about removing property which he had previously 'consecrated' to the church.'"[2] No guilty parties were ever found.[3]
- The only "leader" accused was Parrish's bishop.[4] If a local leader did commit an act of murder, this proves nothing about Brigham Young or other general leaders ordering it, or that this is a representative example of how Utah Mormons dealt with apostates.
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241
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- Hosea Stout's diary reads only:
- Saturday 27 Feb. 1858: "This evening several persons disguised as Indians entered Henry Jones' house and dragged him out of bed with a whore and castrated him by a square & close amputation."
- Thus, this provides no evidence regarding Stout's murder, as the citation might lead us to expect.
- Jones was later killed, and the anti-Mormon newspaper Valley Tan printed an affidavit from Nathaniel Case claiming that Jones' bishop had plotted his death with several other members.[5] If true, Jones was not attacked for trying to marry someone, but for adultery with a prostitute. Reportedly, the murder of Jones and his mother sprang from accusations of incest.[6]
- There is no evidence linking the attack on Jones to anyone but local members. Joseph Hancock was found guilty of second degree murder in 1890.[7]
- Critics try to use this as an example of a "tip of the iceberg," problem, implying that many such extra-legal castrations occurred in Utah, and that the Church or its doctrines or leaders are somehow to blame. Such a characterization is unfair.
- Given that in the 19th century there was a common tendency among non-Mormons for "frontier justice" to be carried out extra-legally, especially in the case of sexual crimes, its occurrence in areas far from central Church control on one or two occasions is not particularly surprising.
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- Brigham actually said "a source," not "the source:"
"Since the founding of the Roman empire monogamy has prevailed more extensively than in times previous to that. The founders of that ancient empire were robbers and women stealers, and made laws favoring monogamy in consequence of the scarcity of women among them, and hence this monogamic system which now prevails throughout all Christendom, and which has been so fruitful a source of prostitution and whoredom throughout all the Christian monogamic cities of the Old and New World, until rottenness and decay are at the root of their institutions both national and religious."
- — Brigham Young, June 18, 1865, Journal of Discourses, vol. 11, 128.
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304
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- The author quotes Brigham thusly:
- "It is for you to bear children,...are you tormenting yourselves by thinking that your husbands do not love you? I would not care whether they loved a particle or not; but I would cry out, like one of old, in the joy of my heart, 'I have got a man from the Lord!' 'Hallelujah! I am a mother—I have borne an image of God!'"
- Brigham's actual words, in context, read:
- It is for you to bear children, in the name of the Lord, that are full of faith and the power of God,—to receive, conceive, bear, and bring forth in the name of Israel's God that you may have the honour of being the mothers of great and good men—of kings, princes, and potentates that shall yet live on the earth and govern and control the nations. Do you look forward to that? or are you tormenting yourselves by thinking that your husbands do not love you? I would not care whether they loved a particle or not; but I would cry out, like one of old, in the joy of my heart, "I have got a man [child] from the Lord!" "Hallelujah! I am a mother—I have borne an image of God!" (emphasis added)
Brigham is encouraging those who are unhappy to focus upon their blessings, rather than upon their sorrows.
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355
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- The author quotes Joseph Smith as saying, ""Had I anything to do with the negro, I would confine them by strict law to their own species..." (History of the Church. Volume 5 link). He apparently wishes to make Joseph appear racist and backward. He does not, however, provide us with the other perspectives which Joseph offered on race issues:
- Elder Hyde inquired the situation of the negro. I replied, they came into the world slaves, mentally and physically. Change their situation with the whites, and they would be like them. They have souls, and are subjects of salvation. Go into Cincinnati or any city, and find an educated negro, who rides in his carriage, and you will see a man who has risen by the powers of his own mind to his exalted state of respectability. The slaves in Washington are more refined than many in high places, and the black boys will take the shine off many of those they brush and wait on.
- Elder Hyde remarked, "Put them on the level, and they will rise above me." I replied, if I raised you to be my equal, and then attempted to oppress you, would you not be indignant and try to rise above me, as did Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer, and many others, who said I was a fallen Prophet, and they were capable of leading the people, although I never attempted to oppress them, but had always been lifting them up? Had I anything to do with the negro, I would confine them by strict law to their own species, and put them on a national equalization.
Fawn Brodie, from whom the author otherwise quotes liberally, noted that aside from the issue of intermarriage, Joseph was "in every other respect in favor of total equality. . .a stand which in 1844 was dangerously revolutionary."[8]
In materials besides that from which the author's fragment was taken, Joseph also said:
- "Break off the shackles from the poor black man, and hire him to labor like other human beings, for 'an hour of virtuous liberty on earth is worth a whole eternity of bondage.'" (Nauvoo Neighbor (17 April 1844)).
- Slaves owned by Mormons should, said Joseph in private, be brought "into a free country and set . . . free--Educate them and give them equal Rights."[9]
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- Even if the immigrants had poisoned a stream, they would not deserve their fate, as the Ensign (cited below) noted: "nothing that any of the emigrants purportedly did or said, even if all of it were true, came close to justifying their deaths....Some traditional Utah histories of what occurred at Mountain Meadows have accepted the claim that poisoning also contributed to conflict—that the Arkansas emigrants deliberately poisoned a spring and an ox carcass near the central Utah town of Fillmore, causing illness and death among local Indians. According to this story, the Indians became enraged and followed the emigrants to the Mountain Meadows, where they either committed the atrocities on their own or forced fearful Latter-day Saint settlers to join them in the attack. Historical research shows that these stories are not accurate."
- All LDS accounts have not accepted this "myth" as readily or completely as the author would have us believe.
B.H. Roberts (1930)
After telling about the alleged poisoning, B.H. Roberts wrote in his 1930 work:
- "On the other hand it is alleged that the poisoning of dead cattle resulted from their having eaten a poisonous weed that grows in southern Utah. Jacob Forney, who succeeded Brigham Young as Indian agent for the territory, makes this as an explanation in his report to the government and cites the case of the ox of Mr. Ray...as being so killed while the Arkansas emigrants were in the neighborhood of Corn Creek....It is further asked what motive the Arkansas party could have for thus inviting the hostility of the Indians. The only answer, if any, would be the general contempt in which western emigrants held the Indians, the lightness in which they regarded the act of taking their lives, culminating in that most wretched of all aphorisms of the mountains and the plains—'The only good Indian is a dead one.'"[10]
- Roberts points out, therefore, the problematic aspects of the poisoning story. As Walker et al. point out, the Utahns may have sincerely believed the poisoning charge, though it is false. Immigrants also accused the Mormons of poisoning their cattle—the deaths in both cases were likely due to anthrax.[11]
Juanita Brooks (1950, 1962)
Another LDS historian was Juanita Brooks, who also expressed skepticism about this claim:
- “After the deed was done, the Mormons tried to find all the justification possible, one of their favorite stories being that of a poisoned spring at which at least one Mormon died. This evidently stemmed from an incident told by Thomas Waters Cropper and written by him in his later life. At the time, he was just fifteen years old and was living at Fillmore. The part of his story pertinent here follows:
- ‘In company with several other boys I was up on the benches when we saw the unusual sight of an emigrant train. We ran down to where they were…. They dared us to ride one of their wild steers and I got on it, and it dashed into Cattelin’s Mill pond, which caused them a lot of merriment….
- There appeared to be two companies of them joined together for safety form the Indians.. One company which was mostly men called themselves the Missouri Wild Cats. I heard one of them make the brag that he helped to mob and kill Joe Smith, and he further said, ‘I would like to go back and take a pop at Old Brig before I leave the territory.’ They moved on over to what was known as the Big Spring on the Corn Creek Sloughs. A lot of the Kanosh Indians came to their camp to beg and trade. One man insisted on examining an Indian’s bow and arrows but the Indian refused and jabbed an arrow into the man’s breast. The man whipped out a revolver and shot the Indian dead.
- They poisoned the spring and a number of cattle died around the spring. The Indians ate some of the meat and several Indians died from the effects.
- I went over and saw the cattle dead around the spring. Proctor Robinson son of Joseph Robinson had been skinning some of the cattle. He went back with me as far as Meadow and insisted on my going on to Fillmore with him (I was staying at Barrows). He was on a poor rhone mare and I was afraid she would not carry us both, but we started for Fillmore about eight miles distant. When about 2 miles out it began to rain. He complained of his eye and kept rubbing it. It swelled shut and the rain came down in torrents. I slipped off form behind him and told him to {48} whip the old mare through and get home, for his face was getting very swollen.
- I trudged on until I finally reached Fillmore. I was almost perishing with the cold and rain. I stopped in to warm and got something to eat at Theodore Rogers. Bro Rogers went part way home with me and I succeeded in getting home all right.
- Next morning early I went down to see Proctor. He was so swollen and bloated I would not have recognized him. He died that night. Next day I went on the range and saw a lot more dead cattle.
- This same company moved on South and met a sad fate at the Mountain Meadows’ [Typescript at Utah State Historical Society]” (47-48).
- “Here is evidence of cattle dead from evident poisoning, which might have been the result of loco weed or other poison plant as well as polluted water. Proctor Robinson died of some infection from rubbing his eyes with hands that had been skinning animals too long dead. But this all provided a fact upon which it was easy to hang a growing line of accusations. Because of the Mormon tendency to exaggerate the offenses of the emigrants, reports from non-Mormons, and especially from men not friendly to the Mormons, take on added significance” (48).
- “William B. Ashworth, in his ‘Autobiography,’ tells of their difficulties at Beaver, and of the intervention of the bishop there to prevent bloodshed:
- ‘I remember when the unfortunate company came through Beaver. They came in about noon and passed on about a mile to a nice patch of meadow grass. In {51} the afternoon some boys and myself were up on the east edge of town and saw a man from the camp coming through the sage brush. He had a gun and was apparently hunting rabbits. There were some strange Indians in town, and one of them fired a shot at this man, but did not seem to hurt him, as he turned and ran back towards the camp.
- This incident caused quite a commotion in the town. The bishop and a number of the other men were gathered to learn the cause of the trouble. They met the Indians who were from Corn Creek; this seemed to be the headquarters for the Indians in that part of the country. The Indians said, ‘The men of the Mericats (this term was generally used to designate what the Mormons called Gentiles), while encamped at Corn Creek, poisoned a mule that had died, and also a spring, and the Indians had been made sick by eating the mule and drinking the water, and they were heap made!’
- Bishop, who was pretty well versed in Indian lore, sympathized with them, but told them they must not harm the emigrants, as there were lots of innocent women and children in the company, but with all the reasoning and persuading the Indians were determined to revenge themselves. They were offered an animal for beef, this being the policy of Mormons all through the early days, being the advice of President Young, ‘It is better to feed them than to fight them.’ But this offer had no effect.
- About this time a delegation from the camp came up to learn more about the trouble. They were told what had been done to dissuade the Indians from making further trouble, but that all their efforts had been to no avail. The bishop then advised the emigrants to protect themselves as best they could, as the town would not help them on account of all the women and children whose safety depended on the friendliness of the Indians. He urged the men not to come up into the town, as that would jeopardize, not only themselves but the people of Beaver. I was by my father’s side and listened to every word with interest’
- Fortunately, just about sundown, Chief Walker and some others of his tribe came into town, and he was persuaded to let the emigrants proceed on their way. They, however, not realizing the danger they were in, manifest a very bitter spirit against the Mormons, and some of them were reported to have said they would like to go back to Salt Lake and help hang ‘Old Brigham and the church leaders.’
- The Indians all disappeared the day after the emigrants left and it was surmised that they had followed the emigrants. This was at the time when there was a great bitterness against the Mormons. Buchanan’s UY.S. army was even then on its way to Utah for no good purpose’ [typescript in BYU]” (50, and note 17, 50-51; the underlined portion was in text; all of it in note).
“While the above excerpt does show the conditions at the time, it has the weakness of all reminiscences. In this case, the writer did not remember his Indians well, for Chief Walker had died in January, 1855, nearly three years earlier” (51, note 17).
- “Years later, Laban Morrill wrote in his journal:
- ‘My opponents claimed that there were among the emigrants men who had assisted in the crimes of murdering and driving from {54} their homes our people in Missouri and that one of them had openly boasted that he had helped to kill our prophet. Other claims brought against them by my opponents (among them were many redmen) were that they had poisoned the springs of water, etc., as they passed through the territory, and had proclaimed that they would help to kill every damn Mormon off the earth’ [Typescript, BYU]” (53-4).
- “Then, too, there was the problem of the Indians, newly impressed with the fact that the Mormons and Mericats were at war, and that they must help the Mormons. The stories of the poisoned seeps and the poisoned meat were told and retold, and grew with the telling. The herds of cattle and the fine outfits of this company would be a fair reward for doing away with people who so definitely deserved to be killed. The Indians, being ‘the battle-ax of the Lord,’ could logically do the work, for they had no qualms about shedding blood, even innocent blood. Since the Big Mormon Chief wanted them to help with this war, here was a good place to begin. So the native shad followed and annoyed the company, happy in the sense of Mormon approval; they sent {57} out runners to other bands for reinforcements in this exciting and thrilling game” (56-57).
- “There is some evidence that rumors of this party had reached Harmony earlier, for Benjamin Platte, a convert from England who was working for Lee at the time, said
- ‘In September the famous Mountain Meadows Massacre was committed I saw John D. Lee leave Harmony Fort on Sunday morning to go to meet the Emagrants at Mountain Meadows as they were campt there and the rumer was that they were very mean on the road to the people and had poisened an Ox at corn creek and given it to the Indians with intent to poison them and this enraged the Indians so that they {76} were on there trail to massacre them at the first opertunity and they wanted the Mormons to help them and a few days before Lee started I heard some Indians talking to Lee and asking him to go and help fight them but he refused to do so, saying that the Indians had killed a good man meaning Captain Gunison of the United States surveying party he was killed at Gunison Sanpete County [sic] but on Saturday night he went to Cedar City to get his horses shod and came back with orders to gather up Indians and go to the Imagrants camp and commence an asalt on them as I was told by Don Carlos Shirts his son in law and the next Sunday morning he came back with a company of Indians loaded with plunder such as beds and tinwair and in about three days after there were a large heard of cattle brought to Harmony and he branded them with JDL I think perhaps 3 or 4; When he came back he road around half way of the fort inside about aposet the well and made this exclamation Thanks to the Lord God of Isriel that had delivered our enemies into our hands, the Indians following in single file after him with their plunder He afterwards made a statement of the affair in meeting in the afternoon;
- In the afternoon he told a great deal of what was done in a meeting called for that purpose’ [copy of diary in Henry Huntington Library]” (note 2, page 75-76).
Summary
Mormon authors have not accepted the poisoning uncritically, and Bagley is not the first to challenge it, or claim that if true it would not justify the slaughter at Mountain Meadows.
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We are told that Isaac McWithy was "brought to trial before the church's High Council for insolence" after he "refused to sell his land to Joseph for $3000."
The book fails to mention:
- The High Council court was to "investigate the charges of 'A want of benevolence to the poor, and charity to the Church,' which [Joseph] had previously preferred against Brother Preserved Harris and Elder Isaac McWithy.
- Note that Joseph said "We offered him..."—this was not a personal transaction with Joseph.
- History of the Church states: "In the pleas of the Councilors, in the case of Elder McWithy, they decided that the charges had been fully sustained; after which, I spoke in my turn as accuser, and stated that I called on the accused, in company with President Oliver Cowdery, for money to send up to Zion, but could get none; afterwards saw him, and asked him if he would sell his farm. He at first seemed willing, and wished to build up Zion. He pleaded excuse in consequence of his liberality to the poor. We offered him three thousand dollars for his farm, would give him four or five hundred dollars to take him to Zion, and settle him there, and an obligation for the remainder, with good security and interest. He went and told Father Lyon that we demanded all his property, and so we lost four or five hundred dollars; because the accused told him [Lyon] such a story, [that] he calculated to keep it [the aforesaid four or five hundred dollars] himself."
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