Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Use of sources/Brigham Young orders MMM monument demolished


Brigham Young ordered Mountain Meadows Massacre
A work by author: Richard Abanes
 LDS "Birth Machines"

Brigham Young orders Mountain Meadows massacre monument demolished

The Quotes

One Nation under Gods, page 251 (hardback and paperback)

  • When Brigham Young visited the site in 1860 and saw the monument, he "ordered the monument and cross torn down" and demolished.

The References

Endnote 103, page 567 (hardback); page 565 (paperback)

  • Wilford Woodruff, Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, 9 vols., ed., Scott G. Kenny (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1985), 5:577 (journal entry dated (under May 25, 1860)). ISBN 0941214133. [should be May 25, 1861]; cf. Brooks, Mountain Meadows, 183.

The Problem

Abanes gets the date and reference to Woodruff's diary wrong—the reference is to 1861, not 1860.

But, there are more serious lapses.

Woodruff journal

The quote from Woodruff's journal reads simply:

25 A vary Cold morning. Much Ice on the Creek. I wore my great Coat & mittens. We visited the Mountain Meadow Monument put up at the burial place of 120 persons killed by Indians in 1857. The pile of stone was about 12 feet high, but begining to tumble down. A wooden Cross was placed on top with the following words: Vengence is mine and I will repay saith the Lord. President Young said it should be Vengence is mine and I have taken a little.

There is no mention of Brigham Young tearing down the cross or demolishing the monument—Woodruff notes that the monument is already "begining [sic] to tumble down," but says nothing about Brigham ordering it torn down.

Brooks

The Brooks account is more on point. In favor of the claim that Brigham had something to do with the monument's destruction, Brooks cites:

  1. her grandfather, Dudley Leavitt, to one of his sons, who recorded it: "‘I was with a group of elders that went out with President Young to visit the spot in the spring of ’61. The soldiers had put up a monument, and on top of that a wooden cross with words burned into it, ‘Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay.’ Brother Brigham read that to himself and studied it for a while and then he read it out loud, ‘Vengeance is mine saith the Lord; I have repaid.’ He didn’t say another word. He didn’t give an order. He just lifted his right arm to the square, and in five minutes there wasn’t one stone left upon another. He didn’t have to tell us what he wanted done. We understood.’"
  2. Catherine Waite's book, which has a footnote which quotes from General Carlton, who wrote that "this monument is said to have been destroyed the first time Brigham visited that part of the Territory" (Waite, The Mormon Prophet and his Harem, 71).

Brooks also cites, however, the Lorenzo Brown diary from July 1, 1864, who passed by, and saw the monument still standing. This was three years after Brigham's first visit to the monument. It is possible that this was a rebuilt monument, but the description is strikingly similar:

went past the monument that was erected in commemoration of the Massacre that was committed at that place by officers & men of Company M Calafornia volunteers May 27 & 28 1864 It is built of cobble stone at the bottom and about 3 feet high then rounded up with earth & surmounted by a rough wooden cross the whole 6 or 7 feet high & perhaps 10 feet square On one side of the cross is inscribed Mountain Meadow Massacre and over that in smaller letters is vengeance is mine & I will repay saith the Lord. On the other side Done by officers & men of Co. M Cal. Vol. May 27th & 28th 1864 Some one has written below this in pencil. Remember Hauns mill and Carthage Jail….’[1]

B.H. Roberts adopted a similar view, writing, "later was destroyed either by some vandal’s hand or the ruthless ravages of time…. The destruction of this inscription is unjustly connected by the judge with President Young’s first visit to southern Utah after it was erected (1861)."[2]

Uncited material

Abanes does not mention the John D. Lee diary, which contains a second-hand account of Brigham Young proceeding "by way of Mountain Meadows." Lee likewise says nothing about demolishing the monument.[3] He was to record Brigham's words as recorded by Woodruff six days later, so he clearly had an interest in the matter. An order or event of destruction of the monument would arguably have been something he would have recorded had he heard about it.

Brigham's attitude to the massacre in 1861

Though ambiguous, it seems plausible that Brigham Young bought into different versions of the story at different times, a victim of the propaganda of the Iron County militia leaders which ranged from "The Indians did it", to "The Indians made us do it", to the massacred train were part of prior violent mob activity or "They were asking for it", to "They were threatening to bring an army back from California."[4] That sets up the background for an incident that occurred a couple of years later that Alexander covers:

Moreover, as late as 1861, Young still believed the stories of Baker/Fancher crimes which led to the massacre, in spite of his efforts to bring the perpetrators to trial. On visiting the massacre site in May 1861, Woodruff recorded Young's assessment that the plaque Carleton had erected on the mass grave which read: "Vengeance is mine and I will repay saith the Lord:' should read: "Vengence is mine and I (the Lord] have taken a little." Young clearly refused to take responsibility for the massacre. Later, the same month, Young told John D. Lee that the emigrants "Meritd their fate, & the only thing that ever troubled him was the lives of the Women & children, but that under the circumstances [this] could not be avoided."

John D. Lee's 1861 diary is troubling. Juanita Brooks and her co-editor of the JDL diaries find the entry below to be evidence of Brigham Young's complicity in the post massacre cover-up.

Pres. Young Said that the company that was usede up at the Mountain Meadowes were the Fathers, Mothe[rs], Bros., Sisters & connections of those that Muerders the Prophets; they Meritd their fate, & the only thing that ever troubled him was the lives of the Women & children, but that under the circumstances [this] could not be avoided. Although there had been [some?] that wantd to betreyed the Brethrn into the hands of their Enimies, for that thing [they] will be Damned & go down to Hell. I would be Glad to see one of those traitors, though I [don't] Suppose that there is any here now. They have ran away, & when he came to the Monument that contained their Bones, he made this remark, Vengeance is Mine Saith the Lord, & I have taken a little of it.[5]

Since Brigham Young did not know all the details of the massacre at this date, his determination to protect the Church from those who would use the actions of a few—which, because of the lies and half-truths he had been told, he probably believed to have been justified at this point—to attack or prosecute all members in the territory make his decision understandable. (For more information see: Mountain Meadows: The Aftermath.)

Main articles: Brigham Young ordered Mountain Meadows Massacre and Brigham Young and the prosecution of Mountain Meadows Massacre

Analysis

If Brigham Young had ordered the monument's destruction, this would be an unfortunate example of the fallibility of mortal prophets. The ability of Lee and others to hide their crimes for a time is not unexpected given LDS doctrine (DC 10꞉37).

Wilford Woodruff (and John D. Lee) said nothing in his journal about Brigham Young ordering—or desiring— the destruction of the monument. Waite's book reports a rumor, and Leavitt's account is frank to admit that all Brigham did was "raise his arm to the square" (this gesture is used, for example, during LDS baptisms to indicate that the priesthood is being invoked, and a covenant made). Leavitt presumes that Brigham wants the monument destroyed, but this is his supposition. It is completely unsupported by Woodruff, and it is completely inconsistent with Lorenzo Brown's witness of three years later that the monument was still standing.

Abanes' claim that Wilford Woodruff's journal supports the destruction of the monument is absolutely false. It is certainly not a historical certainty that Brigham Young ordered the monument destroyed. The Leavitt account tells us only that some members interpreted Brigham's actions in that manner—we thus cannot rule out an intention by Brigham to have the monument destroyed, but historians are less skilled at mind-reading than even Dudley Leavitt would have been.

Abanes' certainty is unwarranted.

Endnotes

  1. [note]  Typescript of the Lorenzo Brown Journals is at Brigham Young University, page 294 of transcript; cited by Turley, Walker and Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, ?..
  2. [note]  {{CHC1|vol=4|pages=176, note; also cited by Turley, Walker and Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, ?..
  3. [note]  Robert Glass Cleland and Juanita Brooks, eds., A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries of John D. Lee 1848-1876, 2 vols. (San Marino, California: The Huntington Library, 1955. Reprinted Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1983), 1:311-312.(dated May 25th [24th, 1861]).
  4. [6] This section is derived, with permission, from David Keller, "Thomas Alexander’s Arrington Lecture on the MMM," fairblog (16 January 2008) FAIR link. Due to the nature of a wiki project, it may have had alterations and additions since that time.
  5. [note]  Robert Glass Cleland and Juanita Brooks, eds., A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries of John D. Lee 1848-1876, 2 vols. (San Marino, California: The Huntington Library, 1955. Reprinted Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1983), 1:314.(dated May 25th [24th, 1861]).

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