asking if he had any statement to make in connection with the publi-
cation. Brigham replied as follows :

St. Geoboe, Utah, March 22.
Jame» Gordon BenneUy New York: — ^Yours just received. If Lee has made a statement
in his confession implicating me, as charged in your telegraph of the 21st inst, it is ut-
terly false. My course of life is too well known by thousands of honorable men for
them to believe for one moment such accusations.

(Signed) BRIGHAM YOUNG.

Only that and nothing more. And straightway all the Mormon
papers of Utah, and all of Brigham's apologists in the East, cried out
that the Prophet was completely exonerated; that no one would take
the word of a murderer like Lee against so good a man as Brigham,
How easily are people deceived, if they ardently wish to be.



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524 WESTERN WILDS.

The last day drew near, and United States Marshal, William Nelson,
with an eye to poetical justice, selected Mountain Meadows as the
scene of execution. Judge Boreman did not approve of this, thinking
it savored of revenge and spectacular display ; he would have preferred
the execution should take place at Beaver, where the court was held.
But few officials and press representatives knew of this selection
till after the escort had left Beaver. Several reporters were present.
As his last hour drew near, Lee became very cheerful and communi-
cative. The execution ground was about a hundred yards east of the
monument, which is now but a mass of rocks. Lee was attended by
Rev. Mr. Stokes, to whom he finally confessed that he killed five of
the emigrants with his own hands. This was his. first and last con-
fession of actual murder. The shooting squad of five men was detailed
from the guard of soldiers who had escorted the party from Camp
Cameron. They were armed with needle-guns, and stood no more
than forty feet from the coffin, on which sat the condemned. At 10:30
A. M., Marshal Nelson read the death-warrant, and asked Lee if he
had any thing to say. Mr. Fennemore, an artist, had meanwhile ar-
ranged his material for taking a photograph of the scene. Lee said :

^^ I want to speak to that man.^'

Fennemore replied : " In a second, Mr. Lee.'^

Lee : " I want to ask you a favor. I want you to furnish my three
wives each a copy of my photograph — a copy of the same to Rachel !

A., Sarah C, and Emma B." I

Fennemore (in a low tone) : " I will.'^ j

Marshal Nelson (aloud) : " He says he will do it, Mr, Lee."

Lee (in a somewhat pleading tone) : " Please forward them — you
wUW

Lee then stood up ia,nd said in calm and measured tones :

I have but little to aay this morning. Of course I feel that I am upon the brink of
eternity, and the solemnities of eternity should rest upon my mind at the present I
have made out, or endeavored to do so, a manuscript and an abridged history of my
life. This is to be published, sir. I have given my views and feelings with regjird to
all these things. I feel resigned to my fate. I feel as calm as a summer morning. I
have done nothing designedly wrong. My conscience is clear before God and man, and
I am ready to meet my Redeemer. This it is that places me on this field. I «m not an
infidel. I have not denied God or His mercy. I am a strong believer in these things^
The most I r^;ret is parting with my family. Many of them are unprotected, and will
be left fatherless. When I speak of those little ones, they touch a tender chord within
me. (Here Lee*8 voice faltered perceptibly.) I have done nothing designedly wrong in
this afiair. I used my utmost endeavors to save this people. I would have given
worlds, were it at my command, to have avoided that calamity. But I could not. I am
sacrificed to satisfy feelings, and I am used to gratify parties, but I am ready to die. 'I
have no fear. Death has no terror. No partide of mercy have I asked of the court or



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GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY f 525

officials to spare my life. I do not fear death. I shall never go to a worse place than
the one I am now in. I have said it to my family, and I will say it to-day, that the
Grovemment of the United States sacrifices its best friend, and that is saying a great deal,
but it is true. I am a true believer in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I do not believe
every thing that is now practiced and taught by Brigham Young. I do not agree with
him. I believe he is leading the people astray; but I believe in the gospel as it
was taught in its purity by Joseph Smith in former days. I have my reasons for say-
ing this. I used to make this man's will my pleasure, and did so for thirty years. See
how and what I have come to this day. I have been sacrificed in a cowardly and das-
tardly manner.

There are thousands of people in the Church, honorable, good-hearted, that I cherish
in my heart. I regret to leave my 'family. They are near and dear to me. These are
things to rouse my sympathy. I declare I did nothing wrong designedly in this unfortu-
nate affair. I did every thing in my power to save all the emigrants, but I am the one
that must suffer. Having said this, I feel resigned. I ask the Lord my God to extend
his mercy to me, and receive my spirit. My labors are done.



BzxcxrrioN of john d. lee.

Having thus spoken he sat down on his coffin.

The minister offered a fervent prayer. The spectators were ordered
to &11 back. Marshal Nelson gave command :

" Make ready ! Aim ! Fire V'

The five rifles cracked simultaneously, and Lee fell back dead,
without a struggle. Five balls had passed through him in the imme-
diate vicinity of the heart. Either alone would have caused instant
death. His countenance was plerfectly placid ; his lips parted to some-
thing very near a smile.



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626 WESTERN WILD8.

Thus died John Doyle Lee^ a fanatic and a sengnalist, a devotee
and a murderer^ a kind father, a pleasant host, a hospitable gentleman
and a remorseless bigot. The same qualities which, with proper edu-
cation and surroundings, would have made him an energetic, active
and valuable citizen of a Christian community, in Mormonism made
him a polygamist and a murderer. Doubtless there was a time in his
early life when the weight of a hair either way would have determined
the course of his career — as the drop billing on one side of a Minne-
sota roof may flow down to the sunny gulf, on the other side to the
frozen ocean. The accident of an hour turned his life into the chan-
nels of Mormonism ; thence his way was steadily downward, and the
perversion of those forces which would have made him honored in Il-
linois, consigned him to infamous remembrance in Utah. So may all
who are conscious of unregulated passion look upon him as the pious
bishop did upon the hardened convict, "There go I, but for the
grace of God."

It only remains to inquire into the probable, or possible, fate of his
companions in crime, and the proof of Brigham Young^s complicity.
Of those indicted, only George Adair and Elliott Wilden are in cus-
tody, bothnninor characters in the tragedy, though other participants
testified on the trial. But the really guilty, such as Isaac Haight,
John M. Higbee and William C. Stewart — the men who planned and
carried the matter through exultingly — are in hiding in the Indian
country. For a long time they lived in a mountain &stness of south-
eastern Utah, and Hon. G. C. Bates, their attorney, visited and con-
versed with them in their chosen stronghold. He gave me a dra-
matic account of his experience there ; of his going in at night and re-
turning the next night, by a way so devious that none but Indians or
the most accomplished scouts could find it. But even that place did
not make them feel safe ; and since the Mormons extended their south-
em settlements into New Mexico and Arizona, the murderers have re-
treated there. The community still shields them, but, as time passes,
there is a growing number of Mormons who would like to see jus-
tice done. The United States Government now has one duty to per-
form : to offer a moderate reward for their capture, or guarantee the
expense. Let this be done, and Marshal William Stokes will pick
his assistants and have those assassins in the Beaver jail within two
months.

Marshal Stokes, to whom Utah and the cause of justice are so
greatly indebted, deserves more than a passing notice. A native of
New York, but reared in Wisconsin, he is now thirty -three years of



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GUILTY OB NOT OUILTYf 627

age, in the very prime of mental and physical vigor. He served four
years in Company " D," of the Eighth Wisconsin, and was in twenty-
five battles and skirmishes, including the battle of Coriuth and assault
on Vicksburg. With a posse of but five men he executed the skillful
movement ending in the capture of Lee ; and if our somewhat too
cautious Congress will but vote to pay the expense, he will capture
the others.

Is Brigham Young guilty ? To me the evidence seems overwhelm-
ing that he was accessory after the fact — not quite conclusive that he
ordered the massacre. But there is a fearful array of evidence, and
steadily accumulating, to that effect, though much of it is moral and
inferential rather than direct. Its nature may be judged from one
fact: the longer a Gentile lives in Utah the more he is convinced of
Brigham's guilt, for he sees more and more that no such action would
have been taken by those southern Mormons unless they had been
certain of Brigham's approval. The empire that man had obtained
over Utah in 1857 and succeeding years, has never been exceeded on
earth ; it is something Americans can never hope to understand until
they have lived years in Utah. As Prophet, he held the " keys of
the kingdom,^^ and all Mormons believed that none could ^nter there
without his voucher. As Priest, he alone had authority to " seal '^ and
divorce, whether for time or eternity. As Seer, he literally directed
every movement of the community. As Revelator, they regarded his
words as the very oracles of God. As First President, he was official
head of all orders of the priesthood. He was and is officially styled
" Prophet, Priest, Seer and Eevelator, First President and Trustee-in-
Trust of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.'^ In the
last capacity he had control of all the property concerns of Utah.
Every thing was done and every body directed by priestly " counsel.''
No move of any importance was entered upon without his consent;
no lay member of his own motion ever ventured upon any new enter-
prise. Brigham must be consulted if he would change his town or
residence, his associations or his business, go abroad or remain at
home, buy a farm or take another wife. Nor is this all. Besides be-
ing their spiritual head and guide, he was military commander over
Dame, Haight and Lee. If there is any power possible on this earth
which he did not have, many years search have failed to show it. Is
it credible that, under such circumstances, such a momentous affair
could take place without his consent? Scores of times have I heard
Brigham speak of the power he exercised over " this people.'' It has
been his boast for thirty years that the Saints would do nothing against



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528 WESTERN WILDS.

his wish. We must judge him by his own utterances and those of his
nearest friends.

But there are direct evidences. First : His sermota that if emi-
grants tried to cross the Territory he would " turn the Indians loos^
on them." Second : His admitted knowledge of the affair soon after
it occurred, and failure to denounce or seek to have the guilty pun-
ished. Third : His complete silence thereon in his next report as In-
dian Agent. Fourth : His persistent falsehood for fifteen years after-
wards in denying that the whites had any thing to do with it. FiftJi :
His continued attempts to deceive all who made inquiry into the mat-
ter, and a score of other fiicts already mentioned. Collateral to the
main issue, there are other crimes of which Brigham is undoubtedly
guilty. The public files show that the year afl^r the massacre he wrote
to Indian Commissioner Denver charging the crime upon the In-
dians — this in accordance with the arrangement made with the mur-
derers, of which Lee speaks — and that he actually charged the Govern-
ment for the material taken fronji the murdered emigrants and given
to the Indians! Here is a clear case of perjury, proved by docu-
mentary evidence. And for this also, if an honest jury can be found
in Utah, Brigham will be indicted. Nor is this all. In 1864 a mem-
ber of the Indian Committee visited Utah, and to him Brigham made
complaint that the Mormons had not been paid fo^ their expenses in
the late Indian wars. The official gave as a reason that charges
against them were on file in connection with Mountain Meadows.
Then Brigham called high heaven to witness that the Saints had noth-
ing to do with that massacre — " it was all the work of Indians." As
late as 1869, the Deaeret News, Brigham Young^s official organ, con-
tained an article written by Apostle George Q. Cannon, present Dele-
gate in Congress from Utah, bitterly denying that any Mormon was
engaged. Thus the Mormon authorities went on year after year
swearing to lies and publishing lies about Mountain Meadows, when,
according to all the evidence on the trial, they knew the facts then as
well as we know them now! What rational explanation can be
given of such cipokedness, except that they had some sort of guilty
connection with the actual participants?

I have but touched upon the mass of evidence. Brigham Young
has many apologists in the East, but among them all I have heard no
attempt at explanation of these things. There is one man to whose
life-long friendship the Mormons are more indebted for the immunity
they enjoy than to any other one agency. Colonel (since General)
Thomas L. Kane, a gentleman of high character, accompanied them



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GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY t 629

in tTieir journey fi*om Council Blufis to Salt Lake ; was the guest of
Brigham Young; acted as their mediator in 1858, and has been their
apologist to the Government ever since. He first saw them in their
extreme misery, after their expulsion from Nauvoo, and his sympa-
thies were powerfully excited in their behalf. He gave his views of
them in a fascinating lecture, delivered before the Historical Society
of Pennsylvania, March 26, 1850, and that lecture has probably cov-
ered more crimes and done more harm than any ever delivered in
America. Assuredly, Colonel Kane was benevolent and sympathetic;
bat it is equally certain that his sympathy overbalanced his judgment.
The value of his testimony may be judged from a few facts. He
gave his solemn assurance that the Saints were a law-abiding people ;
that they were rigid moralists in all that pertained to the relations of
the sexes; that all the charges made against them, including polygamy,
were false and scandalous, and made with a view of getting their prop-
erty. At the very time these words were written, and when Colonel
Kane was a guest in his tent, Brigham was the husband qf Jour wives!
I am personally acquainted with dozens of men and women who were
born in polygamy at the very time Colonel Kane was with the Saints,
proving that polygamy had no existence! The Saints were denying
the practice then ; they now avow its existence since 1843, and laugh
at the Gentiles for having been deceived. Between 1843 and 1852
they put on record fourteen sworn or printed denials of the existence
of polygamy; since 1852 they have denied their own denials, and now
claim that polygamy was an established institution among them three
years before they left Illinois. Colonel Kane speaks as if it were
little short of blasphemy to doubt the high character of Mormon
women ; and in the postscript to the second edition he insists that the
Mormons, as he knew them, had " a general correctness of deportment
and purity of character above the average of ordinary communities."
And yet in that same camp were men having mother and daughters as
"wives;" one woman who had left her husband in Boston to follow
Brigham, and another who had got a divorce from Dr. Seely, of
Nauvoo, to become Brigham's "second!" Oscar Young, oldest son
of Brigham's third or fourth " wife," was born near the Missouri
River about the time Colonel Kane was reporting to the President
that no polygamy existed among the Saints ; and the perpetrator now
acknowledges four murders committed near there, while the Colonel
was indorsing the law-abiding Mormons! A little further on the
Colonel recites with amazement .that gulls were unknown in Utah, till
the Mormons needed them to eat the crickets which were devouring
34



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630 WESTERN WILDS.

«
their crops ! And this, when every explorer for a centnry past "has

told of the Salt Lake gulls^ which are certainly as much indigenous
to the Great Basin as the blackbird is to Ohio! There remains but
one question in my mind : Could a man of Colonel Kane's acumen
be so grossly deceived, or was there some other reason?

But a little later Colonel Kane accidentally states a very important
fact. Having endeavored to show that the Mormons in Illinois were
sadly belied by their neighbors, who wanted to drive them away and
get their property, he adds : " When they left Nauvoo all their fair-
weather friends forsook them. Priests and elders, scribes and preach-
ers, deserted by whole councils at a time ; each talented knave, of
whose craft they had been victims, finding his own pretext for aban-
doning tliera, without surrendering the money-bag of which he was
the holder." So it appears there were "talented knaves'' in tbe
Church while it was at Nauvoo ; there were thieves who ran off with
"money-bags," and "fair-weather friends" who used the Mormons.
And yet while these people were in the Church, stealing from Gentiles
and laying it to Saints, and stealing from Saints and laying it to Gen-
tiles, Colonel Kane can find no reason for outside hostility to Nauvoo,
except that the Gentiles wanted their property. He proves that
nearly half the Nauvoo community was composed of adventurers from
all parts of the country, "talented knaves" who proved to be thieves,
and then maintains that the Illinois Gentiles were resiK)nsible for all
the troubles th*ere ! Verily, benevolence is a grand bentiraont ; but it
may be overdone.



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CHAPTER XXXIII,

SPIRITUAL WIVES AND CABNAL HUSBANDS.

It is not my intention to sermonize on the moral and social anomaly
of Utah, the misery it brings to women, or its illegality under our
laws. We are away beyond that. Every man who knows enough to
read this book knows that polygamy is not the social system for white
people ; that it can only be permanent among the inferior races, and
that no man or woman of refined feelings can find happiness in it.
It is idle to argue that. But I wish to treat of one feature strangely
misunderstood in the East : the political economy of polygamy.

Many appear to think there is great progress in Utah ; that its in-
stitutions, though morally wrong, lead to the accumulation of wealth
and to physical comfort. It seems to be conceded by some writers
that in one part of the world a people may be Asiatic in social and
religious canons, and Saxon in energy and intellect ; at the same time
going forward in wealth and culture, and backward in intellectual and
moral discernment. If this were true as applied to Utah — that is, if
its people progressed faster than, or as fast as, those of other commu-
nities — it would be a case calling loudly for investigation by all the
philosophers of the world ; for it would be an exception to all rules,
and a flat contradiction of all accepted theories. I ofier a few facts to
show that in this matter science, and the popular prejudice, if you
choose to call it such, are right, and the Mormon apologists wrong.

First : In the United States a polygamous community can not get
rich; it must steadily fall behind a monogamous community in
material thingsi For polygamy tends, first, to the multiplication of
non-producers in a ratio unnaturally great as compared to the pro-
ducers. The political economist knows that the surplus year by year
accumulated in the United States rarely exceeds three per cent. This,
funded and in turn made productive, measures the general increase of
wealth. Suppose now some fector introduced which should consume
this three per cent, of increase. Then the people would not accumu-
late a surplus, nor would wealth increase as fast as population. Po-
lygamy has just that effect, there being a larger number of children

born in proportion to the able-bodied men. As these children grow

' (6ai)



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532 WESTERN WILDS.

towards maturity, there would be a tendency for the evil to correct
itself; but, under ordinary circumstances, forty per cent, of the race
die before reaching the age of self-support. So of this increase beyond
monogamic rates, all is a present loss, and forty per cent, an absolute
loss. But this is not the worst. The ratio of consumers to producers
must in any case vastly increase before any of the young become self-
supporting. Hence a much smaller surplus, a smaller ratio to each
of what sustains and cheers life, and less to bestow upon the weaker,
who have extra needs ; consequently a stronger pressure by the whole
community on the means of subsistence, a sharper struggle for exist-
ence, and a considerably greater mortality among the feeble children.
This in turn increases the dead loss set forth above ; and thus polyg-
amy causes the loss beyond recovery of a part of the productive energy
of a people appreciably greater than is lost in monogamy. This it is,
doubtless, which causes much of that large infant mortality in Utah,
which so many have noted, and which has often been mistakenly
attributed to the purely physiological effects of polygamy. It is not
that children are born with weaker constitutions, but that too many
of them are born for the productive strength of the community to
carry.

This position will be best appreciated by a comparison with any
locality in the Central West — say, a rural region in Ohio. There
about one-fifth of the whole community are producers. One-half are
children, one-half the remainder women (whom political economy does
not consider as producers), and a small proportion infirm and aged.
Given freedom, monogamy, and natural conditions, this proportion
will maintain itself with almost perfect constancy. There will always
be a certain proportion of unmarried women. Families will average
four or five children each, and the annual increase will be such as the
productive capacity of the commonwealth can carry, and leave a slight
surplus to add to its funded wealth.

Now, introduce polygamy, apportion the single women, and possi-
bly import a few more. Give every fifth man two wives and two sets
of children, every tenth man three, and every fiftieth man from four
to twenty — this is about the condition in Utah — and what then? In
ten years, instead of one-fifth only one-sixth or seventh of the whole
population will be producers ; and the number of the helpless will be
greater than the aggregate strength of the community can provide a
proper surplus for. Inevitably, then, the whole population will press
harder on the means of subsistence, there will be less abundant nour-
ishment, and a weakening of vitality among the poorest, and^ in no



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SPIRITUAL WIVES AND CARNAL HUSBANDS. 533

long time, a marked increase of mortality among the children thus
imperfectly nourished; for thus does inexorable Nature restore the
balance, with a stern justice untempered by mercy. That Utah po-
lygamy causes more children to be born is unquestioned; that many
more of them die than would in monogamy, is equally unquestioned.
The proof is a simple matter of record, which any man can verify for
himself by looking at the Salt Lake reports. And as to permanent
increase of population from native births alone, compare Utah -and
Oregon ; or Germans with Turks, Russians with Persians, or Saxons
with Hindoos. Here is the natural rhythm : polygamy, as it leaves
few single women, results in a vast increase of children ; this increase
adds greatly to the burdens of the able-bodied men ; there is, there-
fore, less surplus, more poverty and a closer pressure on the means of
subsistence ; and this greater pressure results in a vast increase in the
number of deaths, more than enough to overbalance the additional