Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Chapter 11

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Contents

Response to claims made in "Chapter 11: Bloody Brigham"


Claims made in "Chapter 10: A New Beginning"
A FAIR Analysis of:
One Nation Under Gods
A work by author: Richard Abanes
 Claims made in "Chapter 12: Wars and Rumors of Wars"
To this day Mormons revere Young's destroying angels as well as the Danites.
—One Nation Under Gods, p. 252.
∗       ∗       ∗

225 epigraph, 553-558n1 (PB) - A letter from Aaron DeWitt talks about murder and plunder in Utah

The author(s) of One Nation Under Gods make(s) the following 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): www.saintsalive.com/mormonism/murder.html.

FAIR's Response

Utah/Crime and violence/Aaron Dewitt letter


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

The author(s) of One Nation Under Gods make(s) the following claim:

Broughton D. Harris, Lemuel G. Brandebury and Justice Perry Brocchus and other federal officials fled Utah because they feared for their lives.

FAIR's Response

Question: Did federal officials flee Utah because they feared for their lives?

There is no evidence that the first federal appointees were threatened or at risk of their lives

Some, despite disagreeing with the Mormons and their administration, did not flee Utah, and suffered no consequences as a result. The St. Louis Republican criticized those who had left as having abandoned their posts, and noted that the judges' report did not suggest that any laws had been broken:

It will, at the first reading, strike everyone that the defense of these returning officers is fatally insufficient in the outset, in this: there is no overt act or crime charged or alleged to have been committed. The judges of the United States court go there, are well received, and from the time of their arrival to their coming away, no attempt is alleged to have been made, to infringe upon their jurisdiction, or refuse obedience to their decisions. On the contrary, as far as the statements go, there seems to have been a disposition to submit to their decisions, as in the case of the secretary and the funds in his hands (italics in original).[1]

Critics of Mormonism rely on the early testimony of some of the first federal officials appointed to Utah territory, and accept their testimony uncritically, despite the fact that virtually all historians' opinions are against the conclusion drawn.

See also: Surveyor general David H. Burr threatened with death?

Identifying the actors

  • Lemuel H. Brandebury - federal judge and territorial court chief justice
  • Perry Brocchus - federal judge and member of territorial supreme court
  • Broughton D. Harris - territorial secretary, had "$24,000 of territorial funds, as well as the seal and records of Utah."[2]

Secondary players

  • Henry R. Day - territorial Indian subagent
  • B. D. Harris - secretary of state
  • Jacob H. Holeman - territorial Indian agent

Things with the new federal appointees began badly

Young's relationship with the non-Mormon officials was damaged from the start when he began a census and called for an election of legislators before the arrival of the non-Mormon officials. Since the Secretary of State was supposed to supervise the census-taking and certify the validity of the election, Young appeared to have acted precipitously.

However, the non-Mormon territorial officials were slow in arriving. Chief Justice Brandebury arrived on 7 June 1851, and Secretary Harris, with Indian agents Stephen B. Rose and Henry R. Day, reached Salt Lake on 19 July, accompanied by Mormon representatives Almon W. Babbitt and John M. Bernhisel. Unwilling to wait for Secretary Harris's arrival, Young instructed his assistants to begin taking the census on 14 March 1851. He felt this was necessary in order to establish legislative and judicial districts and was anxious that an election be held so that territorial representatives could travel to Washington before inclement weather developed. Although the first Monday in August had been designated as election day, Young suggested that the election be held in May in Iron County while he was visiting there. He recommended that Bernhisel be named territorial representative, which recommendation was followed.[3]

Judge Brocchus was also disappointed in his desire to become territorial representative, and was upset to learn that John M. Bernhisel had already been elected.[4]

Historians have not been kind to these first federal appointees

Historian Howard Lamar described Brandebury and Brocchus as "political hacks" and concluded, "Had Fillmore searched the length and breadth of the land he scarcely could have found men less suited to deal with the Saints than the two non-Mormon judges" (Larson 1971, 8 n. 18). Brocchus, the last of the officials to arrive in Utah, arrived on 17 August 1851. In early September he was invited to speak at a general conference of the church. He showed a severe lack of tact by chastising the congregation for their religious beliefs and practices for nearly two hours, until in reaction the congregation became disorderly.[5]

Hubert Howe Bancroft wrote:

The authorities were kindly received by the saints; and had they been men of ability and discretion, content to discharge their duty without interfering with the social and religious peculiarities of the people, all would have been well; but such was not their character or policy. Judge Brocchus especially was a vain and ambitious man, full of self-importance, fond of intrigue, corrupt, revengeful, hypocritical.[6]

Judge Brocchus' speech

After Judge Brocchus' two-hour harangue of the Mormons, during which he attacked their beliefs and insisted that they should appeal to state governments for redress (though they had already done so for Missouri and Illinois and failed), Brigham Young replied:

Judge Brocchus is either profoundly ignorant, or willfully wicked, one of the two. There are several gentlemen on this platform who would be glad to prove the statements referred to in relation to him, as much more, if I would let them have the stand. His speech is designed to have political bearing. If I permit discussion to arise here, there may be either pulling of hair or a cutting of throats. It is well known to every man in this community, and has become a matter of history throughout the enlightened world, that the government of the United States looked on the scenes of robbing, driving, and murdering of this people and said nothing about the matter, but by silence gave sanction to the lawless proceedings. Hundreds of women and children have been laid in the tomb prematurely in [p.212] consequence thereof, and their blood cries to the Father for vengeance against those who have caused or consented to their death....I love the government and the Constitution of the United States, but I do not love the damned rascals who administer the government.

I know [U.S. President] Zachary Taylor, he is dead and damned, and I cannot help it. I am indignant at such corrupt fellows as Judge Brocchus coming here to lecture us on morality and virtue. I could buy a thousand of such men and put them into a bandbox. Ladies and gentlemen, here we learn principle and good manners. it is an insult to this congregation to throw out such insinuations. I say it is an insult, and I will say no more.

After some reflection, a mellowed Young sent the judge a conciliatory letter suggesting an exchange of apologies...:

Dear Sir, —Ever wishing to promote the peace, love, and harmony of the people, and to cultivate the spirit of charity and benevolence to all, and especially towards strangers, I propose, and respectfully invite your honour, to meet our public assembly at the Bowery, on Sunday evening next, at 10 A.M., and address the same people from the stand that you addressed on the 8th inst., at our General Conference; and if your honour shall then and there explain, satisfy, or apologize to the satisfaction of the ladies who heard your address on the 8th, so that those feelings of kindness which you so dearly prized in your address can be reciprocated by them, I shall esteem it a duty and a pleasure to make every apology and satisfaction for my observation which you as a gentleman can claim or desire at my hands.

Should your honour please to accept of this kind and benevolent invitation, please answer by the bearer, that public notice may be given, and widely extended, that the house may be full. And believe me, sir, most sincerely and respectfully, your friend and servant,...

P.S.—Be assured that no gentleman will be permitted to make any reply to your address on that occasion.

Brocchus refused the invitation, asserting that his speech "in all its parts were the result of deliberation and care" and that he did not feel he had said "anything deserving the censure of a justminded person."[7]

The federal officials leave Utah

Soon thereafter, many of the appointees would leave the state, including Brandebury, Brocchus, Harris, and Day:

Brocchus decided to vacate the territory but before leaving told the governor [Brigham Young] that he wanted to "bury the hatchet, shake hands and forget the past." He also asked Young to apologize to those whom he might have offended. Young announced the apology in a meeting the following day, 28 September, and two days later informed Brocchus by letter that his apology would be accepted if he agreed to control his tongue and cease to vilify "those who must everlastingly be your superiors."[8]

Said Brigham later:

The expression, "Old Zechariah Taylor is dead and in hell, and I am glad of it," which the returning officers, in their Report, alleged was said by me, I do not know that I ever thought of, until I heard Brocchus himself mention it on the stand in the Old Bowery. When he made the statement there, I simply bore testimony to the truth of it. But until then, I do not know that it ever came into my mind whether Taylor was in hell or not, any more than it did that any other wicked man was there. I suppose he is where all the ignorant wicked are gone, and where they will continue to go.[9]

Inconsistencies in the stories

Brandebury, Brocchus, Harris, and Day would leave Utah, and later claim that they left because of "the lawless and seditious conduct of the inhabitants of Utah, and Day said specifically that he could 'no longer take the abuse that was being given to the United States and its officials by the Mormons.'"[10]

However, Holeman remained, and while he "complained of the Mormons taking Indian lands [and] also accused Young of using his office and government funds to further Mormon colonization," he seems to have been in no fear for his life.[11]

Brigham Young's office journal would also report on August 18, 1860 of a member's visit to the east:

Bro[ther] G. Cannon observed that many persons of distinction whom he had seen were favorable to mormonism. he had seen Brandebury who was when here associated with Brochus and Harris, he believed Brandebury repented of the course he had taken when in Utah.

There would be no reason for Cannon to lie; the journal was not for public consumption or public-relations purposes. Why would Brandebury have something of a 'change of heart,' if his life had been threatened while in Utah?

The appointees' report that the Mormons were seditious and threatening their lives certainly affected attitudes in the east

But, the new president (Millard Fillmore) did not seem to accept that the appointees were being entirely truthful, and worked with Utah's territorial representative to find appointees that would better interface with the Mormons.[12]

Note on secondary source: Bigler

Some critics of Mormonism rely frequently on Bigler's Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847—1896 (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1998).

Bigler's work has a prevalent anti-Mormon bias and presentist approach. As one reviewer noted:

Bigler claims that previous historians, presumably LDS ones, have been "too close to the events [of Utah history] to treat them without bias" (p. 16). If this is the case, Bigler does not correct bias so much as invert it....Forgotten Kingdom's assertions apply a seemingly inequitable bias or go contrary to established understandings of well-scrutinized historical patterns. In every instance, Bigler's interpretive choices paint an unfavorable portrait of Latter-day Saints.

Forgotten Kingdom seems to display a problematic interpretive bias in the opposing ways in which it interprets specific similar historical events. In cases where Mormon actions might seem questionable, the worst possible interpretations are often given and Mormons are condemned. In cases where the actions of federal officials might seem questionable, the best possible motives are often assumed and Bigler provides friendly justification.[13]

Also see use of Bigler with similar misrepresentation in:


228, 559n16-18

Claim
  • David H. Burr reported that "Mr. Troskolowski," had been "assulted 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?

Response
  • The author here references Hirshon's book, which received the 1970 Mormon History Association award for "worst book." [14]
 [needs work]

231

Claim
  • Was the "Mormon reformation" a period of subjugation and brutal acts of violence designed to purge the Church?

Response

232, 559n32

Claim
  • Who were Brigham Young's "Destroying Angels?"
  • Were Porter Rockwell and 'Wild' Bill Hickman the most notorious of these "Destroying Angels?"

Response
  •  Misrepresentation of source: 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.
  • Utah/Crime and violence
  • Loaded and prejudicial language

232, 559n33

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."

Response

233, n36-39

Claim
  • Brigham taught "blood atonement."

Response

233-234, 560n40

Claim
  • Jedediah Grant preached about "Blood Atonement"

Response

233, 560n37

Claim
  • Did Brigham use the term "cutting off" from the earth as a "euphemism for killing?"

Response

234, 560n43

Claim
  • Did Jedediah Grant create a list of "highly intrusive" questions so that he could probe members' personal lives?

Response

234-235, 560n45-46

Claim
  • Did Brigham encourage murder out of "love" in order to save people's souls?

Response

235, 560n47

Claim
  • Did Heber C. Kimball claim that the apostles killed Judas?

Response

235, 560-561n50

Claim
  • Did Utah has a long list of crimes that were worthy of death?

Response

235

Claim
  •  Author's quote: "Blood began to flow profusely in Utah not long after the reformation was launched."

Response

236, n52

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."

Response

236-237, 563n53 (HB)

Claim
  • "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)
∗       ∗       ∗
  • "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)


Response


237, 561n54 (PB)

Claim
  • Did Brigham not care what the U.S. thought about "killing evil doers?"

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.


Response

  • 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.


237, 562n55-56 (PB)

Claim
  • Did Brigham Young have a man named Alonzo Bowman killed simply for "innocently asking about LDS beliefs and the facts behind the Saints' troubles?"

Response
 [needs work]
  • The man's name is actually Walter Alonzo Clark Bowman
  • (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.
  • There are no primary sources to support this story. Mary Ettie V. Smith's narrative is highly suspect.
  • Loaded and prejudicial language
  • Danites in anti-Mormon polemic

238, 562n57-59

Claim
  • Did Orson Hyde order Jesse Hartly shot and killed, for the crime of "falling in love with, and marrying, a Mormon?"

Response
  •  Internal contradiction: 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?
  •  Misrepresentation of source: William "Wild Bill" Hickman would later say that his purported autobiography, Brigham's Destroying Angel, was "a lie from the wild boar story onward." [15] The story occurs on pages 29–30. 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 "bowie knife" comment once again.
  • Mary Ettie V. Smith is not a reliable source.

238, 562n60 (PB)

Claim
  • Were William Parrish and his son murdered as they attempted to leave Utah because leaving Utah was "forbidden?"

Response

238, 562n61

Claim
  • Aaron DeWitt said that escape from Utah was "virtually impossible."

Response

239, 563n63-64

Claim
  • Was Richard Yates was killed for the sin of "trading with government personnel?"

Response
  • William "Wild Bill" Hickman would later say that his purported autobiography, Brigham's Destroying Angel, was "a lie from the wild boar story onward." [16] The story occurs on pages 29–30. Aside from its implausibility, then, this reference has been denied by Hickman. [needs work]

241, 563n65-66

Claim
  • Were Henry Jones and his mother murdered by Nathaniel Case, Porter Rockwell and "other church officials?"

Response
  •  History unclear or in error: Case was the testator; he denied having anything to do with the murder.
  • Stout's journal mentions only that some people had 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 second degree murder.

242-243, n67-71

Claim
  • Were "innumerable crimes" committed because of the speeches of Brigham Young and other LDS leaders?

Response

244-245, 566n82 (HB) 564n82 (PB)

Claim
  • Did a prohibition of selling supplies to the Fancher party lead to the Mountain Meadows Massacre?

Response

245

Claim
  •  Author's quote: "[T]he emigrants could not have known that two of the sins worthy of blood atonement were condemning Joseph Smith and/or consenting to his death."

Response

245, 564n86 (PB)

Claim
  •  Author's quote: "The prophet...already had decided the fate of the Baker-Fancher party...at a secret meeting in Salt Lake City with several Indian chiefs."

Response

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"?

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"?


Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources


243-250

Claim
  • The book discusses the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Response

251, 565n103

Claim
  • When Brigham Young visited the Mountain Meadows site in 1860 and saw the monument, did he order it to be demolished?

Response

252, 565n109 (PB)

Claim
  • Was 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?"

Response

Response to claim: 252, 565n111 (PB) - "To this day Mormons revere Young's destroying angels as well as the Danites"

The author(s) of One Nation Under Gods make(s) the following claim:

 Author's quote: "To this day Mormons revere Young's destroying angels as well as the Danites."

FAIR's Response

Notes


  1. ↑ Brigham H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1965), 3:535-537. GospeLink
  2. ↑ Michael W. Homer, "The Judiciary and the Common Law in Utah Territory, 1850-61," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 21 no. 1 (Spring 1998), 98-99.
  3. ↑ Eugene E. Campbell, Establishing Zion: The Mormon Church in the American West, 1847-1869 (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1998), 210.
  4. ↑ Eugene E. Campbell, Establishing Zion: The Mormon Church in the American West, 1847-1869 (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1998), 210.
  5. ↑ Edwin Brown Firmage and Richard Collin Mangrum, Zion in the Courts : a Legal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830–1900 (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 215. ISBN 0252069803.
  6. ↑ Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Utah (San Francisco, CA: The History Company, Publishers, 1890), 465.
  7. ↑ Campbell, 211-12.
  8. ↑ Campbell, 213.
  9. ↑ Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 1:185.
  10. ↑ Campbell, 105.
  11. ↑ Campbell, 105.
  12. ↑ Campbell, 218-220.
  13. ↑ Eric A. Eliason, "Review of: Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896," FARMS Review of Books 12/1 (2000): 95–112. off-site
  14. ↑ "WORST BOOK: Stanley P. Hirshon, Lion of the Lord (New York: Knopf, 1969)." - Larry C. Porter (Executive Secretary-Treasurer, MHA), "Mormon History Association Awards," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 16 no. 3 (Autumn 1983), 127–128. 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." – Kenneth H. Godfrey, "Not Trouble Enough, review of Trouble Enough: Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon by Ernest H. Taves," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 19 no. 3 (Fall 1986), 139.
  15. ↑ 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.
  16. ↑ 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.
  17. ↑ 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.
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