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CHAPTER XVII.
A Reference to the Mormon Battalion.
The masses of the people in Utah were formerly taught, and yet believe, that the government made a demand on the Mormons for a battalion of five hundred men to participate in the war with Mexico, and that the demand was made for the purpose of oppressing the Mormons.
In September, 1857, Brigham Young, in an address delivered in Salt Lake City and found in Vol. V, Journal of Discourses, used the following language:
"There cannot be a more damnable, dastardly order than was issued by the Administration to this people while they were in an Indian country in 1846. Before we left Nauvoo, no less than two United States senators came to receive a pledge from us that we would leave the United States, and then while we were doing our best to leave their borders, the poor, low, degraded curses sent a requisition for five hundred of our men to go and fight their battles. That was President Polk, and he is now weltering in hell with old Zachariah Taylor, where the present administrators will soon be if they do not repent. * * * Liars have reported that this people have committed treason, and upon their lies the President has ordered troops to aid in officering this Territory, and if those officers are like many who have previously been sent here, and we have reason to believe that they are, or they would not come when they know that they are not wanted; they are poor, miserable, blacklegs, broken-down political hacks, robbers and whore-mongers - men that are not for civilized society, so they dragoon them upon us for officers. I feel that I won't bear such cussed treatment, and that is enough to say, for we are just as free as the mountain air. * * * There is high treason in Washington, and if the law was carried out, it would hang up many of them, and the very act of James K. Polk, in having five hundred of our men, while we were making our way out of the country, under an agreement forced upon us, would have hung him between the heavens and the earth if the laws had been faithfully carried out. And now, if they can send a force against this people, we have every constitutional and legal right to send them to hell, and we calculate to send them there. * * * Our enemies had better count the cost, for if they continue the job they will want to let it out to subcontractors before they get half through with it. If they persist in sending troops here, I want the people of the West and the East to understand that it will not be safe for them to cross the plains."
Wilford Woodruff, in his address at the gathering of the pioneers on the 24th of July, 1880, said:
"Our government called upon us to raise a battalion of five hundred men to go to Mexico to fight the battles of our country. This draft was ten times greater, according to the population of the Mormon camp, than was made upon any portion of our nation. Whether our government expected we would comply with the request or not is not for me to say. But I think I am safe in saying that a plan was laid by certain parties for our destruction if we did not comply."
Both Brigham Young and Wilford Woodruff knew that the enlistment of the Mormon Battalion was requested by Colonel Little, who represented the Mormon church, and that President Polk granted the request for the purpose of assisting the Mormons on their journey to the West, and not to oppress or injure them. As an earnest of this I refer to the evidence following: Captain Allen was sent to the Mormon camps for the purpose of enlisting that Battalion, and he issued the following circular to the Mormons, which explains the object of that enlistment:
"I have come among you instructed by Col. S. F. Kearney of the U. S. Army, now commanding the Army of the West, to visit the Mormon camp and accept the service for twelve months of four or five companies of Mormon men who may be willing to serve their country for that period in our present war with Mexico; this force to unite with the Army of the West at Santa Fe, and be marched thence to California where they will be discharged. They will receive pay and rations, and other allowances such as other volunteers or regular soldiers receive, from the day they shall be mustered into the service, and will be entitled to all comforts and benefits, of regular soldiers of the army, and when discharged as contemplated at California, they will be given, gratis, their arms and accoutrements with which they will be fully equipped at Fort Leavenworth. This is offered to the Mormon people now. This year an opportunity of sending a portion of their young and intelligent men to the ultimate destination of their whole people, and entirely at the expense of the United States, and this advance party can thus pave the way and look out land for their brethren who come after them. Those of the Mormons who are desirous of serving their country on the conditions here enumerated are requested to meet me without delay at their principal camp at Council Bluffs, where I am going to consult with their principal men, and to receive and organize the force contemplated to be raised. I will receive all healthy, able-bodied men of from eighteen to forty-five years of age.
"(Signed) J. ALLEN,
"Capt. First Dragoons."The following is a quotation from an article published in the Deseret News, and relates to an address delivered by B. H. Roberts on the 4th of July, 1911:
"* * * The calling of the Mormon Battalion, and the fact that this event was not intended by the general government to harm the Mormon people, but that it was for their welfare and the direct results of a request by the church leaders, was forcibly brought out, and that Col. Jesse C. Little, the eastern representative of the Mormon church, had asked President Polk to assist the people in their enforced western march, and that President Brigham Young stated that it was what he had wanted, was shown from letters and journals of many of early church leaders, among them being the journal of John Taylor. The government intended to help the people in their western march, and the Mormon people were thus given a glorious opportunity to prove their patriotism to their country.
"The journal of President Taylor states that President Young said, `We are pleased to show our patriotism for the country we expect to have for our future home. I think President Polk has done us a great favor in calling us.'
"Similar facts were read from the biography of President Wilford Woodruff and others. The exodus of the pioneers, and their arduous journey and their final entrance into the valley of Salt Lake were beautifully pictured, and numerous interesting events connected with that occasion were told."
The following is an extract from the testimony given in the naturalization case hereinbefore referred to by Henry W. Lawrence, a gentleman of the highest standing and whose veracity is beyond question, and who at present is a member of the governing commission of Salt Lake City:
"In 1847, during the Mexican war, when the Mormons were on the frontier, all in their camps, going out to Salt Lake - or west somewhere, there was a battalion called for from the Mormons to go and fight the battles in Mexico. I always supposed, from the teachings of the Mormon leaders, that it was a requisition, and I have heard over and over the government handled roughly - denounced for calling upon the Mormon people for 500 of their best men, to cripple them right there on the banks of the Missouri, in the most trying time. The people were taught that the government had called for these men so that we would not be prepared to protect ourselves against even the Indians. It was so represented by our leaders. I used often to think that that was a most damnable thing. That was preached in sermons by Brigham Young, by George A. Smith and the other leading men of the church, time and time again. The true condition of the thing was, we afterwards found out, and it was one of the things that turned me against the system, that it was on the solicitation of the agents of this church that that battalion was asked for. Jesse S. Little was one of them. The government, out of kindness to the people, and on the solicitations of the agents of this church, asked for that battalion. They paid them one or two months' wages in advance, and that money was used to help buy teams and assistance for the people, and helped them to come out here to Salt Lake. Instead of the truth being told, they were told that it was done in order to cripple them in the face of the Indians. This was one of the things they taught the people to prejudice them against the government of the United States.
"From 1862 to 1865 the most radical talk was indulged in; since that time they have been a little more careful in their expressions. This talk was indulged in, not only by Brigham Young, H. C. Kimball, Geo. A. Smith and the twelve apostles, but by other leading men of the Mormon church. We were told that the government had allowed us to be driven from our homes, deprived of our property, the saints to be murdered, the prophets to be murdered, and that they had deprived us of all our rights as American citizens, and that by that means we were alienated from the government. Had it not been for the teachings that were given to them by the leaders, there is no reason why the people should not have been friendly to the government of the United States. If they felt that they were free from the obligations of the church, they would be a good, loyal people."
The following extracts are from prayers which were made at the dedication of the St. George temple on January 1, 1877, and published in the Deseret News of January 13, 1877. Prayer of Wilford Woodruff, who afterwards issued the manifesto:
"And we pray Thee our Father in Heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ, if it be Consistent with Thy will, that Thy servant Brigham may stand in the flesh to behold the nation which now occupies the land upon which Thou, Lord, hast said the Zion of God shall stand in the latter days; that nation which shed the blood of the saints and prophets which cry unto God day and night for vengeance; the nation which is making war with God and Christ; that nation whose sins, wickedness and abominations are ascending up before God and the Heavenly Host which causes all eternity to be pained, and the Heavens to weep like falling rain: Yea, 0 Lord, that he may live to see that nation, if it will not repent, broken in pieces like a potter's vessel and swept from the earth with a besom of destruction as were the Jaredites and Nephites, that the hand of Zion may cease to groan under the wickedness and abomination of men."
PORTER ROCKWELL.Prayer of Apostle Lorenzo Snow, afterwards president of the church:
"We, thy servants and people, stretch forth our hands unto Thee, Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, and in His name we beseech Thee to hear the prayer of Thy servant Wilford Woodruff, which has been offered up in the first room of this house, and answereth it for this house and people.
From prayer of Apostle Brigham Young, Jr.:
"Hear and answer the prayer offered up by Thy apostles Wilford Woodruff and Lorenzo Snow, that they may penetrate the ears of the Lord of Sabbath."
The foregoing remarks of Brigham Young on the subject of the Mormon Battalion is one among the many instances which show his flagrant duplicity; and the prayers of Woodruff, Snow and Brigham Young, Jr., are among, the many instances which show the animus of the priesthood against the general government, and are of the same general character referred to by Mr. Lawrence in his testimony.
Whitney has studiously avoided mentioning in his history such occurrences as the preceding ones, or referring to any of the anomalous sermons from which I have made quotations. In the light of what I have shown respecting the Mormon Battalion, his treatment of the same in his history is as reprehensible as the way he treats the subject of the Mountain Meadows massacre.
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