THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 433, 2 November 1875, Page 3

THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE.

(American correspondent of the Times.) The terrible “Mountain Meadows Massacre” in Utah, once famous, but for a lime forgotten. is having its dreadful storv revived by a trial now going on in the United States Court in Utah. In 1858 the Mormons had been about 10 years in Utah, having been driven out of Illinois and Missouri, wher their prophet, Joseph Smith, had been killed At that time there were rumours of the Go vernmeut intending to send troops against them, and some movements of the forces on the western frontiers seemed to confirm these suspicions. The overland route to California lay through Utah, and in August a large emigrant train entered the territory on its way west. In September they encamped at the Mountain Meadows, about 800 miles from Salt Lake, to recruit their stock before crossing the desert beyond. There were 40 or 50 families, and many women and children among them. Some of these immigrants came from the part of Missouri whence the Mormons had been exiled, and iu the unsettled state of feeling of the Saints towards the Gentiles they did not behave very discretely. They indulged in ridicule of the Mormon religion ; named their cattle after leading apostles, and one even displayed a pistol with which, he said, the prophet Joseph Smith had been killed. The place which had been selected for their encampment was surrounded by Mormon settlements, and the Saints finally became so exasperated that an attack was planned. It is believed that Brigham Young, then as now the Mormon chief, had nothing to do with this attack, but still it seems to have been made upon orders emanating from Salt Lake, and to have been led by three Mormon apostles, one of them being John IX Lee, Bishop of Harmony, The Mormons disguised themselves as Indians, and and were also helped by real Indians, and endeavoured to surprise the camp, but, failing in this, laid siege. This continued for a week, the emigrants resisting successfully, when the besiegers, becoming tired of the delay, the Mormons washed off the war paint and laid aside the feathers, and on September 18th, 1858, appeared before the camp in the guise of a rescuing band of United States troops, to whom the emigrants gladly surrendered. As soon as they had laid down their arms and marched out of the protecting corral of waggons by which they had been surrounded, the order was given to the Mormons to fire upon them and save only the little children, and to aid this the Indians suddenly appeared from an ambush. The massacre was carried out to the letter, 138 persons oeing slain, and but three men escaping, all of whom were afterwards killed. There were 17 small children saved alive, who were supposed to be too young io remember the bloody crime. These were distributed among the Mormons. Nothing was heard of the emigrant train for months, and it was given up for lost, but gradually the truth leaked out. The property of the emigrants had been divided among the assassins, and some of this, chiefly jewellery, was seen and recognised at Salt Lake. The children spared were not so young but that some of them remembered the terrible scene. Apostate Mormons who were of the besieging party, confessed, and the tale was unfolded in all its horrors. Now the time for punishment has come, and the actors in the tragedy who still live have been arrested for trial. Between the children, now adults, and the confessing Mormons, the evidence against them is conclusive, and the names of all the participants iu the raas&acre have been disclosed. Among these is Phillip K. Smith, an exhiahop, who has made full confession under oath, and also Bishop Lee, who by a confession has endeavored to avoid punishment, though the authorities will not accept his evidence, but declare that he must be tried and punished. Lee says that when Brigham Young heard of the massacre he burst into tears, and declared that “ it would be a blot on the Mormon name for ever.” The tiial is now going on, and though the crime occurred seventeen years ago, and during the interval, overshadowed by the great events of the war, was for a long time forgotten, vengeance, though slow, seems at last to be surely coming.