that the emigrants poisoned a spring, and that for doing so the Indians attacked them. To those who can accept such statements, in the light of the facts stated in this chapter, as a solution of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, they are perfectly welcome; but upon the Government of this great Republic, that massacre will ever be a stain until the fullest investigation has been made, and the guilty ones brought to justice.
Fifteen long years have passed away since that dark tragedy was enacted, and yet the nation slumbers, and the representatives of the Government are deaf to the cries of the slaughtered! How well did Britain, a few years ago, earn the admiration of the world for the proud march of her army into the heart of Abyssinia, to demand from the infatuated Theodorus the release of British subjects! Other nations, too, have disregarded distance, time, and money, when the cries of injured citizens have been heard calling for protection. But here, in the very heart of "the Great Republic," on the highway between the seas, the darkest deed of the nineteenth century is passed by in silence! The cries and prayers of the orphans have been heard in vain in free America!
