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Date Posted: 10:43:04 08/25/12 Sat
Author: SWC
Subject: The Mormon's Part 5

The Second Mormon War

A great draught in 1855-57 caused the populace to seek answers for why they were having to go through such hardship. There was a feeling that they must have committed sins that had to be atoned for. Church leaders began to criss-cross Mormon communities in a dramatic call for greater orthodoxy and religious purity. It was called the “Mormon reformation”. The entire territorial legislature was re-baptized and pledged to reform their lives in an effort to end the draught. “The pledges of conformity with Church practices led to a measurable increase in plural marriages throughout the Mormon region. Many men who had previously resisted plural marriages were sealed to one or more plural wives.” Many of the church members who felt that they might be found wanting by the zealots moved out of Utah and established themselves elsewhere, (This may have been a reason why Heber Clawson didn’t return to Utah when asked, as noted in “The Pursued”).

Brigham Young thought the draught might be a harbinger of the Second Coming. The most ardent and conservative Mormons suggested that what was needed was “blood atonement“, a concept that originated with the shedding of Christ‘s blood for the sins of mankind.

The Mormons had long been in favor of capital punishment, feeling that it was "a deed of charity" because "he, (the perp), might now possibly be redeemed in the eternal world". It’s not murder if this life is just a stage of one’s eternal existence. This wasn’t limited to murder crimes: Young favored decapitation the crime of miscegenation, (marrying outside one’s race). They also advocated a firing squad for murderers, (which is why Utah still offers this option and is about to use it in a highly publicized case- decapitation as punishment for murder was legal in Utah until 1888). Their blood had to be shed on the ground in atonement for their sins. Hanging, (or lethal injection, the gas chamber or “the chair”), produces no blood and thus no atonement.

Now the thinking was that capital punishment should be used for all sins. Jedediah Grant, the most militant of the church leaders, asked, “"What disposition ought the people of God to make of covenant breakers?" In answer to his question, he stated that they should be put to death. However, he lamented on the difficulty in applying this in a secular democracy, stating, "I wish we were in a situation favorable to our doing that which is justifiable before God, without any contaminating influences of Gentile amalgamation, laws, and traditions." Arguing for a purer theocracy, he stated that it is the right of the church "to kill a sinner to save him, when he commits those crimes that can only be atoned for by shedding his blood.... We would not kill a man, of course, unless we killed him to save him." Beyond this, sermons suggested that blood atonement did not have to be carried out by the state: it could be carried out by individuals: “if you found your brother in bed with your wife, and put a javelin through both of them, you would be justified, and they would atone for their sins, and be received into the kingdom of God." He said, "under such circumstances, I have no wife whom I love so well that I would not put a javelin through her heart, and I would do it with clean hands."

This sort of rhetoric alarmed people around the nation. On March 16, 1856, Young acknowledged that it might seem, based on rhetoric from the pulpit, that "every one who did not walk to the line was at once going to be destroyed," but thus far, he said, nobody had been killed. He warned them, however, that the time "is not far distant" when the LDS Church would enforce the law of blood atonement against covenant breakers.” There were rumors that the Danites had been re-organized to carry out these “atonements”. Political pressure on the government to intervene grew to a fever pitch.

The new Republican Party was organized to combat slavery but also had as a plank in it’s 1856 platform "to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism: polygamy and slavery". Many Americans who accepted slavery opposed polygamy and Democratic politicians also felt pressured to come out against it. Democratic President James Buchanan was persuaded that am expedition against the Mormons might take the country’s mind off the slavery question. (Not the first or last time a government initiated something to get people’s mind off of something else, not unlike a magician who wants you looking at one hand so you won’t see what’s doing with the other one.)

The growing suspicion and resentment came to a head in 1857 when President Buchanan received reports of Mormon interference with federal officials, including judges. They may have had some legitimate grievances: federal appointees in those days were notoriously of low quality and high corruption. When federal officials began to flee the territory for their safety, Buchanan deposed Young as territorial governor and sent his new choice, Alfred Cumming, (a “grotesquely fat former Indian agent”), with a military force of 2500 men led by Colonel Albert Sydney Johnston, (later to die at Shiloh as commander of the Confederate forces), to take power from Young.

The expedition was delayed dealing with the warfare in Kansas and Missouri over slavery, giving Young time to organize a response. “July was already far into the campaigning season and the army and their supply train were unprepared for winter in the Rocky Mountains. The army was also dispatched under the mistaken impression that the Mormons would not dare to oppose federal troops, and without clear instructions on how to react in case of resistance.” The resulting conflict has been described thusly by historian William MacKinnon: “The Utah War was America's most extensive and expensive military undertaking during the period between the Mexican and Civil War, one that ultimately pitted nearly one-third of the US Army against what was arguably the nation's largest, most experienced militia."

In Utah fears grew that the government was going to try to exterminate them, especially after Apostle Parley Pratt was murdered on a mission in Arkansas. “Young's strategies to defend the Saints vacillated between all out war, a more limited confrontation, and retreat.” Young considered burning Salt Lake City and moving to Mexico but instead opted to temporarily abandon it. He called in Mormon colonists in surrounding territories to come to defend the chosen place, (the fictional Heber Clawson was one of them but decided to stay at his ranch in Beehive).

He met with representatives of Native American tribes, telling them that “He stated that "the Gentile emigrants shoot the Indians wherever they meet with them & the Indians now retaliate & will kill innocent people."and that they "must learn to help us or the United States will kill us both." He promised them “all the livestock then on the northern and southern trails into California”, as a sort of bribe to get them on his side. He also warned all immigrant trains to stay way from Utah. He declared martial law. He then activated the Utah militia, which he called the Nauvoo Legion.

Captain Stewart Van Vliet arrived in Utah with a small escort in September, 1857. Receiving many warnings that the Mormons would kill them all, he left his troop 15 miles from Salt Lake City to save their lives and pressed on alone. He was not killed and was received by Brigham Young. Van Vliet asserted that the Army’s intentions were peaceful and that they simply wanted to set up a couple of encampments and provide protection for the new appointees. He was unable to convince his hosts of that but was treated so kindly that he told them that the Mormons "have been lied about the worst of any people I ever saw." He promised to stop the Utah Expedition on his own authority, and on September 14 he returned east through the Mormon fortifications then being built in Echo Canyon. Upon returning to the main body of the army, Van Vliet reported that the Latter-day Saints would not resort to actual hostilities, but would seek to delay the troops in every way possible. He also reported that they were ready to burn their homes and destroy their crops, and that the route through Echo Canyon would be a death trap for a large body of troops. Van Vliet went on to testify for the Mormons and against the war before Congress.

But it wasn’t much of a war. Young decided to harass Johnston’s army by setting fires to impede their progress, attacking their supply trains and stampeding their horses and cattle. The Army cavalry took to riding mules, giving them the nickname the “Jackass Cavalry”. Between 1200 and 2000 militiamen were stationed in the Echo and Weber Canyons, the two narrow passes into the Salt Lake Valley. The Army decided to swing north and enter Utah from the Bear River. But they got caught up in a blizzard. They moved into a miserable winter encampment at Fort Bridger, which had been burnt by the Mormons. There Governor Cummings declared Utah to be “in rebellion” and set up a grand jury that indicted Brigham Young and 64 others for treason. It was a meaningless act unless the war could be won.

The firm of Russell, Majors and Waddell, (the same William Russell who would soon be organizing the Pony Express), was contracted to re-supply the Army. They were asked to move 3 million pounds of supplies from Fort Leavenworth in Kansas to the winter encampment in Utah. Russell obtained the concession that, while the freight company was normally considered liable for losses, here Congress would guarantee reimbursement. Their wagon train made it to South Pass, Wyoming, but was then set upon by the Mormons over the next 75 miles. Eventually, they surrendered and the teamsters, including the young Bill Cody, were sent back and the train burned, the animals driven off. Russell presented Congress with a bill for $493,762.61. After a long wait he was informed that the government felt no obligation to pay the bill because the contract was not in writing and the War Department had exceeded it‘s budget for 1857. Russell, Majors and Waddell went out of business. So much for hand shakes.

Meanwhile Young wrote to his old friend Thomas Kane who went to President Buchanan, who was worried about the impact of a military defeat at the hands of the Mormons. Kane was given permission to mediate the situation but to do it in secret. Traveling under the name, Dr. Osborne, he took a circuitous route to Utah: to Panama, across the isthmus, up to San Francisco, where he found the Sierra passes blocked. He then went to Los Angeles and got some Mormons to guide him through the southern branch of the California Trial to Utah, where he arrived in February, 1858. There he managed to get Young to agree to let the Army into Utah and to the appointment of Cummings as the new territorial governor. He then traveled to Johnston’s encampment and convinced Cummings to accompany him to Salt Lake City without the Army. There Cummings met with Young and the other Mormon leaders and was allowed to take office, becoming a voice for moderation during his tenure there. Kane returned to Washington.

He found that people there were unconvinced that the matter had been resolved and another 3000 soldiers were sent to reinforce Johnston, which caused Young to again anticipate invasion. He now planed an evacuation to Montana and perhaps to Canada. Salt Lake City was evacuated. "It was an extraordinary operation. As the Saints moved south they cached all the stone cut for the Salt Lake Temple and covered the foundations to make it resemble a plowed field. They boxed and carried with them twenty thousand bushels of tithing grain, as well as machinery, equipment, and all the Church records and books. The sight of thirty thousand people moving south was awesome, and the amazed Governor Cumming did all he could to persuade them to return to their homes. Brigham Young replied that if the troops were withdrawn from the territory, the people would stop moving...."

Back in Washington political oppostion to the Mormon expedition was rising, led by Senator Sam Houston of Texas. Buchanan responded by sending a peace commission to Utah to assure Brigham Young that the government would not interfere with the church but that he should allow the Army into the state. The Army would remain only so long as was necessary to make sure the laws were obeyed and the passage of emigrants to California secured. Meanwhile Young and the 64 other men would be pardoned. Young accepted the terms. Johnston marched his army into Salt Lake City- and straight out the other side, by agreement with Young, mumbling that “I would have given my plantation to bombard the city for 15 minutes.” The Army stayed, in uneasy relationship to the populace, until the Civil War broke out.

There was almost no blood shed in the Mormon War itself but it resulted in a great human disaster. A group of emigrants from Arkansas called the Francher-Baker Party ignored Brigham Young’s warnings not to enter Utah territory,(it’s possible they may not have heard of it yet). There were come conflicts with Mormon farmers and ranchers as they progressed. Supposedly one man told the locals that “Buchanan’s army is right behind us.” At a place called Mountain Meadows, they were set upon by a combined force of Paiutes and Morman militiamen disguised as Native Americans. In classic fashion, the emigrants circled their wagons and dug trenches and used the dirt to fill in the space below and between the wagons, making an effective fort. They held out for 5 days, despite getting dangerously low on water and ammunition.

An Indian agent and militia officer named John Lee approached with a white flag. He told them that a treaty had been struck with the Paiutes allowing passage under Mormon protection and they should follow him. On a signal, the Mormon/Paiute group attacked the emigrants, killing the men first and then the women and children. Some of the later were spared and given to Mormon families. A total of 120-140 emigrants died. The bodies and the train were looted and the dead buried in shallow graves. A plan was hatched to blame it all on the Indians. Two days later a letter from Brigham Young arrived granting the Francher-Baker party passage.

News of the massacre didn’t reach the outside world until 1859. Young investigated and accepted Lee’s account that it had been an Indian massacre. Investigation by the federal government was forstalled by the Civil War. But the issue didn’t die and eventually Lee and three other men were indicted for conspiracy to commit murder. Only Lee was convicted and he was executed by fireing squad in 1877, twenty years after the slaughter. Lee had insisted he was only following orders and blamed Young for not acknowledging his culpability in the affiar. His last words were "I do not believe everything that is now being taught and practiced by Brigham Young. I do not care who hears it. It is my last word... I have been sacrificed in a cowardly, dastardly manner."

Many blamed the stridency of the rhetoric of Young and his Apostles and the “war histeria” it generated. “In 1857, Mormon leaders taught that the Second Coming of Jesus was imminent and that God would soon exact punishment against the United States for persecuting Mormons and martyring "the prophets" Joseph Smith, Jr., Hyrum Smith, Patten and Pratt. In their Endowment ceremony, faithful early Latter-day Saints took an Oath of vengeance against the murderers of the prophets. As a result of this oath, several Mormon apostles and other leaders considered it their religious duty to kill the prophets' murderers if they ever came across them.” Many thought the calls for “blood atonement” resulted in a killing frenzy. They also blamed Young’s negotiations with the Indians., which were interpreted as a call to kill white solders and settlers.

The Church also suffered from the stories surrounding the supposed exploits of Orrin Porter Rockwell, the personal bodyguard of both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Called “The Avenging Angel of Mormondom”. Joseph Smith had told him "I prophesy, in the name of the Lord, that you — Orrin Porter Rockwell — so long as ye shall remain loyal and true to thy faith, need fear no enemy. Cut not thy hair and no bullet or blade can harm thee." It paralleled the biblical story of Sampson. He became a famous gunfighter, religious enforcer and was even a Deputy US Marshal. It was he who said “I never killed a man who didn’t need it.” he never kept a diary so no one is sure who he killed but it it’s rumored that he’s the one who shot Missouri governor Liburn Boggs in 1842. He also killed Frank Worrell, the Illinois militia officer in charge of protecting Joseph Smith at the time he was assassinated. One estimate suggested he may have killed as many as 200 men in his lifetime.

He was in the group that harassed Johnston’s army during the Mormon War. He was later indicted for the killing of a half dozen men known as the Aiken Party, who were tyring to reach Johnston’s army. He became a mountain man and died of natural causes before he could be bought to justice. (He’s been played on the screen by John Carradine and James Coburn and is said to be the basis for the Preacher in the Clint Eastwood film “Pale Rider”. ) Much of what is said about Rockwell, (as well as Joseph Smith and Brigham Young), comes from their enemies so no one is sure just how much to believe about them.

The “war” left the Mormon church in tact and the great power in Utah but confirmed the sovereignty of the federal government. The Mormons did not create a “theodemocracy” that would eventually take over the world but they were in charge of their own lives and beliefs. The Heber Clawsons could return to their farms and ranches. We are still awaiting the Second Coming.

In 1890, the territorial legistlature of Utah ”bowed to the inevitable” and passed a law abolishing the doctirne of plural marriage. The Mormon church never did make “blood atonement” part of it’s official teachings. In 1896 Utah became a state and “when it came it included the restoration of women’s sufferage”. The state of Utah thus took it’s place in the union and the Mormon church and it’s people were let alone under the protections of the Constitution to follow their faith.

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