User:InProgress/Aiken

From: Edward Jones <[email protected]> To: FAIR Apologetics List <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, September 28, 2009 11:15:19 AM Subject: Re: [FAIRapol] AtA: Aiken Party murders in 1857

Roger, Have you heard back from anyone on this article? I read it some time ago, and just found my copy. I can't critique the entire article: I had underlinings and marginal notes the entire way through.

Here is the opening and closing paragraphs:

"Six 'gentlemen of good address,' known as the Aiken party, rode into Salt Lake Valley from CAlifornia in October 1857 and were never seen or heard from again by family members or friends. Their covert arrest and execution illlustrates why James Buchanan early in his presidency ordered troops to Utah to enforce federal law and exposes the conditions that led Mormons and their Indian allies that year to massacre over one hundred California-bound emigrants at Mountain Meadows. The Aiken party murders, ordered by MOrmon leaders and carried out by church members in central Utah, are also a haunting reminder of the fear and desperation the millennialist Mormons felt, and the absolute power Brigham Young exerted over the lives of all who entered the territory" (page 457)

Next to last paragraph:

"LIke the ARkansas emigrants, the Aiken party arrived in a place unlike any other they had known, a place of unbridled religious zeal, war-fever, and defiance toward the United States. The arbitrary murder of both parties and other crimes at this time reveal a territory outside the rule of federal law and confirm the action by President Buchanan to restore it by military force. It also demonstrates the autocratic leadership of a man whose authority was perceived as divinely bestowed and therefore absolute among his followers" (476)

At least one problem with these two paragraphs is that Buchanan had sent the troops to Utah long before either of these two events had occurred. And the LDS knew they were coming, but did not know the details of why. I think a case could be made that Buchanan's actions precipitated the activity as much as anything Brigham said or did. In other words, Buchanan did not send the troops to Utah *because* of these two incidences; it was due to things told to him by runaway judges.

Whether Brigham was 'autocratic' or not, I think is debatable. Church members were leaving Utah in droves from 1847 till long after the Utah war period. Brigham didn't like it, especially when the PEF had helped them cross the pond and the prairie. But he didn't make much effort to prevent those who wanted to leave, from leaving. His autocratic rule was not quite that severe.

Here are some of the bibliographical data provided by Bigler, which might be available to some on the list:

Harold Schindler, Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God, Son of Thunder (2nd ed. 1983): 268-83. BY, JD 5. 231-6 [Sept 13, 1857; but cited only as Deseret News article by Bigler]

BY, JD 4. 33-42 [same as above; only DN reference]

He cites Micah 5.8 and III N 21. 12 as evidence for the 'privilege' of LDS wreaking havoc amongst unrepentant gnetiles; "the doctrine had general alarm, conflict, and misunderstanding on the frontier", citing Stephen C. LeSueur, The 1838 Mormon War in MIssouri (1990): 17, 18, 71-2 [my marginal note indicates that there is nothing on those pages justifying Biglers reference]

He writes that BY learned about Washington's efforts to remove him from governorship in late August 1856 "and from then on he defied the federal government."

For sources on blood atonement he recommends Quinn, Extensions of power, 243-61, 273; GEne Sessions, Mormon Thunder (1982): 125-9; David Bigler, Forgotten Kingdom, 123-4

For BY's admission that vengeance was the motive for MMM, see Bagley, Blood of the Prophets (2002): 246-7

for other unpublished crimes during this period: Polly Aird, "'You Nasty Apostates, Clear OUt': REasons for Disaffection in the late 1850s", JMH 30 (Fall 2004): 129-207 Ardis Parshall, "'Pursue, REtake & PUnish': The 1857 Sant Clara AMbush,": UHQ 73 (Winter 2005): 64-86

He quotes from a San FRancisco Daily Evening Bulletin of 18 January 1858 ["Alleged Murder of Five AMerican Citizens in Utah"]; [this was reprinted in NY Times Feb 15, 1858, which can be found online at the NYT website, under date]

The Aiken party came from CAlifornia, and was suspected of being spies against the LDS. They were arrested. Before a trial could be held Cumings rep0laced BY as governor, and canceled the trial and released the men. They were later found murdered. Twenty years laterSylvanus Collett was tried for the murders. His trial was carried in the Deseret Evening News, and can be found in the Journal History in the members section, dates of October 8-19 1878. You'll have to scroll through the material to find headlines indicating "Collett trial" or "Aiken murders"; other data from the time is also present, interrupting the flow of the trial articles.

Material for the trial is also found in the Salt Lake Daily Tribune (later SL Tribune), which I believe is also online. Also in the Salt Lake Herald (not sure if it is online yet or not).

A witness was called who claimed Collett was present at the time. Collett flatly denied that, stating he was 400 miles south at the time; a respected former president of the Indian mission corroborated that testimony, of Collett.

Bigler writes "The prosecutor's case was credible, but Collett's testimony was unbreakable and convincing. The mixed panel of Mormons and no-M ormons found Collett not guilty" (473)

Bigler continues: "Contrary to the church-owned paper's opinion, however, evidence now shows that Colett's defense rested on false testimony, deliberately given. The original journal of the Salmon River Mission, long unavailable to most historians, reports that Collett did not go with the slow ox train that left Fort Limhi on 28 October. He and the mail rider Abraham Zundel instead took off with four horses between them on 16 October, twelve days before the fish hauling part left.... The evidence now demonstrates beyond reasonable doubt that two members of the Aiken party, possibly John Achard and Thomas L. Aiken, were murdered 25 NOvember 1857... and two otehrs, John Aiken and A.J. Jones, were killed three days later..." (473-4)

He here quotes William A. Hickman, Brigham's Destroying Angel (1872), who was told "about this time" to "get him {?} out of the way, and use him up".

Bigler suggests that rather than their having been spies, the Aiken party were headed to Utah to "establish a gambling operation an brothel at what became the U.S. Army's largest post.... the cash they carried and the quality of their animals and outfit indicates that they wreen ot just travelers in search of scenery" (475)

Ted