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What a lie, they were in Utah out of control of national laws at that point,

Really? Then why was Johnston’s 1,500 man army marching towards them with no advanced warning or stated purpose? Mormons in Utah were in a state of high tension, expecting one more massacre at the hands of the Americans. The first movements of the Utah War were taking place. Scouts were sent out to empede the advance of the troops. Mormons were gathering their grain and supplies together wondering what more they had to endure. They were ready to even abandon homes and move on once again, to Mexico if necessary. The Fancher emigrant train moved through Utah angry with the Mormons because they would not sell them grain or supplies. Tensions grew between the Mormons and the emigrant train. There were threats and counter threats. There were boasts from some of the Fancher party that they had been part of early Mormon persecutions. There were threats that when the Fancher party got to California, they would send back more troops. When Brigham Young heard of the gathering conflict, he sent a fast rider with word to let the party go unharmed. It was too late. The massacre had already occurred. Mormons will always be embarrassed by the event. However, they are also angry when the story is told without the context. You refer to this story as a way Mormons handle dissidents. Actually it is a story of how many Americans handle dissidents. In fact, you can see that same spirit on FR today.

“Really? Then why was Johnston’s 1,500 man army marching towards them with no advanced warning or stated purpose? “

Perhaps because Brigham Young was a murderous cutthroat?

“Mormons in Utah were in a state of high tension, expecting one more massacre at the hands of the Americans.”

It wasn’t like they hadn’t brought their own extermination orders with them, starting with Sydney Rigdon’s extermination order, Joseph Smith’s involvement with the Danites, the plunder of Davies county, leading to their near annihilation at Far West. Once Joseph Smith succeeded in having Governor Boggs executed, and Smith destroyed the Nauvoo Expositor Press (because he’d been wife stealing, land speculating and running a tinpot army), the events at Carthage were preordained and only halted by Governor Ford or they’d all have been killed. Brigham Young did his own deeds, inciting Blood Atonement and the Meadows Mountain Massacre.

“The first movements of the Utah War were taking place. Scouts were sent out to empede the advance of the troops.”

Think about that, what other group had been continually waging a militia war AGAINST THE U.S. since 1838??

“Mormons were gathering their grain and supplies together wondering what more they had to endure.”

Nothing is EVER their fault. That’s one explanation. The other is that Smith and Young were tinpot dictators out to fornicate and make themselves rich and were little different than outlaws. No wonder so many MORMONS got sick of them and apostasized left and right, including most of the Witnesses and Apostles! ! ! But it’s always their fault, not bank cheat Smith or murderer Young.

“They were ready to even abandon homes and move on once again, to Mexico if necessary. The Fancher emigrant train moved through Utah angry with the Mormons because they would not sell them grain or supplies.”

I’d say so, because it meant they’d die between there and California, even though the Utah harvest had been plentiful. Nice Brigham, starving out a pioneer wagon train as part of Blood Atonement. And please tell the whole story, Parley Pratt was killed because HE WAS WIFE AND CHILD STEALING and the jilted husband caught up with the bum.

“Tensions grew between the Mormons and the emigrant train. There were threats and counter threats. There were boasts from some of the Fancher party that they had been part of early Mormon persecutions. There were threats that when the Fancher party got to California, they would send back more troops.”

Well, when you run a paranoid anti-American outfit like Young did, there were bound to be conflicts with normal people who still thought law and order existed in U.S. territories.

“When Brigham Young heard of the gathering conflict, he sent a fast rider with word to let the party go unharmed. It was too late. The massacre had already occurred.”

Like anyone except true-believers think Brigham Young, who had dicatorial powers, didn’t himself order the massacre.

“Mormons will always be embarrassed by the event. However, they are also angry when the story is told without the context. You refer to this story as a way Mormons handle dissidents. Actually it is a story of how many Americans handle dissidents. In fact, you can see that same spirit on FR today.”

Butchery of 152 men women and children needs context? Does Haun’s Mill also need context??

Of course, you can see the same atmosphere of Blood Atonement here today. Oh, maybe you aren’t calling for murders, but you certainly have your enforcers out trying to shut up anyone who presents an alternative history (one which I’ve taken pains to find from Mormons as well as Gentiles).

So please, keep your head in the sand and ONLY present the view straight from the mothership. Never read any of the other accounts, that way you’ll never be accused of actually thinking.

They were ready to even abandon homes and move on once again, to Mexico if necessary.

My my; how wishy washy they became in just a few years!!!

OFFICIAL DECLARATION—1

EXCERPTS FROM THREE ADDRESSES BY
PRESIDENT WILFORD WOODRUFF
REGARDING THE MANIFESTO

The Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as President of this Church to lead you astray. It is not in the programme. It is not in the mind of God. If I were to attempt that, the Lord would remove me out of my place, and so He will any other man who attempts to lead the children of men astray from the oracles of God and from their duty. (Sixty-first Semiannual General Conference of the Church, Monday, October 6, 1890, Salt Lake City, Utah. Reported in Deseret Evening News, October 11, 1890, p. 2.)

It matters not who lives or who dies, or who is called to lead this Church, they have got to lead it by the inspiration of Almighty God. If they do not do it that way, they cannot do it at all. . . .

I have had some revelations of late, and very important ones to me, and I will tell you what the Lord has said to me. Let me bring your minds to what is termed the manifesto. . . .

The Lord has told me to ask the Latter-day Saints a question, and He also told me that if they would listen to what I said to them and answer the question put to them, by the Spirit and power of God, they would all answer alike, and they would all believe alike with regard to this matter.

The question is this: Which is the wisest course for the Latter-day Saints to pursue—to continue to attempt to practice plural marriage, with the laws of the nation against it and the opposition of sixty millions of people, and at the cost of the confiscation and loss of all the Temples, and the stopping of all the ordinances therein, both for the living and the dead, and the imprisonment of the First Presidency and Twelve and the heads of families in the Church, and the confiscation of personal property of the people (all of which of themselves would stop the practice); or, after doing and suffering what we have through our adherence to this principle to cease the practice and submit to the law, and through doing so leave the Prophets, Apostles and fathers at home, so that they can instruct the people and attend to the duties of the Church, and also leave the Temples in the hands of the Saints, so that they can attend to the ordinances of the Gospel, both for the living and the dead?

The Lord showed me by vision and revelation exactly what would take place if we did not stop this practice. If we had not stopped it, you would have had no use for . . . any of the men in this temple at Logan; for all ordinances would be stopped throughout the land of Zion. Confusion would reign throughout Israel, and many men would be made prisoners. This trouble would have come upon the whole Church, and we should have been compelled to stop the practice. Now, the question is, whether it should be stopped in this manner, or in the way the Lord has manifested to us, and leave our Prophets and Apostles and fathers free men, and the temples in the hands of the people, so that the dead may be redeemed. A large number has already been delivered from the prison house in the spirit world by this people, and shall the work go on or stop? This is the question I lay before the Latter-day Saints. You have to judge for yourselves. I want you to answer it for yourselves. I shall not answer it; but I say to you that that is exactly the condition we as a people would have been in had we not taken the course we have.

. . . I saw exactly what would come to pass if there was not something done. I have had this spirit upon me for a long time. But I want to say this: I should have let all the temples go out of our hands; I should have gone to prison myself, and let every other man go there, had not the God of heaven commanded me to do what I did do; and when the hour came that I was commanded to do that, it was all clear to me. I went before the Lord, and I wrote what the Lord told me to write. . . .

I leave this with you, for you to contemplate and consider. The Lord is at work with us. (Cache Stake Conference, Logan, Utah, Sunday, November 1, 1891. Reported in Deseret Weekly, November 14, 1891.)

Now I will tell you what was manifested to me and what the Son of God performed in this thing. . . . All these things would have come to pass, as God Almighty lives, had not that Manifesto been given. Therefore, the Son of God felt disposed to have that thing presented to the Church and to the world for purposes in his own mind. The Lord had decreed the establishment of Zion. He had decreed the finishing of this temple. He had decreed that the salvation of the living and the dead should be given in these valleys of the mountains. And Almighty God decreed that the Devil should not thwart it. If you can understand that, that is a key to it. (From a discourse at the sixth session of the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple, April 1893. Typescript of Dedicatory Services, Archives, Church Historical Department, Salt Lake City, Utah.)