more have they been able to reproduce their works. It is with this understanding that the Mountain Meadows Massacre is explicable, and the subject-matter of this chapter can be comprehended.
John D. Lee, who has been selected as the chief scapegoat upon which to pile the responsibility of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, is not, in his own estimation, without defence. That his instincts are, in the judgment of others, low and brutal, is unquestioned, but he probably prays as much as the most refined Mormon in Utah, and doubtless pays his tithing with as great regularity. The Author wrote to a gentleman, who had visited Lee and had been with him some time, to ask what his personal opinion was about this man now so notorious. His answer was: "Lee is a good, kind-hearted fellow, who would share his last biscuit with a fellow-traveller on the plains, but at the next instant, if Brigham Young said so, he would cut that fellow-traveller's throat."
It is not intended to infer here that Lee, in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, was but the tool of Brigham Young. Lee has refused to divulge anything on the subject, but he has said that the order was not given by the Prophet, and though there has been but little done that was not, either directly or indirectly, ordered or countenanced by Brigham, it is due to the latter that he should have all the advantage of Lee's disclaimer, till evidence shows that Lee has spoken falsely. The arguments and statements of "Argus" are very forcible to all who have lived in Utah, and they point logically to Brigham, but there is not yet before the public the evidence of direct communication between Brigham Young, in Salt Lake City, and Col. W. H. Dame, in Parowan. That the communication was possible, is true, but that it was had is as yet "not proven," and Brigham Young has a right to the benefit of that fact.[1]
The chapter on the "Reformation" must have satisfied the reader that the commission of the massacre was possible in
- ↑ Many respectable persons in Utah, who have free intercourse with the apostles and leading men of the Mormon Church, do not believe that Brigham Young had anything to do with this massacre. It would be very gratifying to see him exonerated from the charge. Should it yet turn out that it was the work of another, and that Brigham has patiently borne the imputation for so many years, he will richly deserve respect where he now is condemned.
