the Mountain Meadows massacre still doesn’t speak very well for the church as a whole. I mean, The Prophet said murder and they murdered, was clearly not the right way to get close to God. We were supposed to be over that sort of thing in America by then.
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Yes well, Brigham Young had his own theocratic dictatorship going in Utah Territory, complete with private army etc...
He ordered the murder of those 140 UNARMED men, women children and babers in arms and stole their 1,000 head of cattle 300 blood line horses, dozens of wagons, 10s of 1000s of dollars, property and the clothes off the backs of his victims and left their naked bodies to rot unburied for 2 years until the US Army came and buried them...then Briggy young went and destroyed the monum,ent that the US Army had placed over the bodies...
Young also kidnapped 17 babies and children under 7 and refused to return tham for 2 years until the US government paid him $10,000 ransom..(how much is that in todays money???)
Young never returned any of the cattle or property he stole...
Brigham Young was an evil greedy despot and crowned himself “king” as Joey Smith had before him and ruled his religous kingdom with an iron hand...
He lived in a mansion with his many concubines...”the Lion House” but considered himself “virtuous”...
Woe betide anyone man woman boy or girl who drew Youngs ire...
It was dangerous to believe outside mormonism..
murdered people were buried in secret in back yards all over Salt Lake in those days even children...
If Young wanted something he wasnt passed killing whole families of his own followers to get it..
Life was cheap in Salt Lake City under Youngs rule...
He also made himself governor of the whole territory anbd controlled the lives and property of everyone in his “land” collecting 10% taxfrom everyone that he called a tithe...
But very little went into the storehouse ...
A lot of the “tithe” was spent on his 50+ selfish mistresses, and his 80+ children...
Brigham Young died an extremely rich man 30 years after he arrived in Salt Lake...
A multi billionaire by todays money...
BY was a teleevangalist before his time...
and TV had still 100 years to go before it was invented...
By a Mormon. AHA!
APPENDIX. A. BRIEF SKETCH OF MORMON HISTORY.
and APPENDIX. B. THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE.
A quick Google search will find the book free online.
Mark Twain was still a journalist by trade at the time.