THE MORMON BISHOP, JOHN LEE.
THE execution of " Bishop " John D. Lee marks, we imagine, a turning-point in the history of the Mormon Church,- that strangest and in some respects most interesting product of our time. The friends of that faith have always declared that however opposed one of its tenets might be to the Christian idea of morality, the corporation was essentially a Church, a body ..of persons voluntarily associated under a reli- gious idea, and therefore entitled to the freedom secured by the Constitution of the United States to every religious or ecclesiastical opinion. To refuse to its members the control of a State merely because they were Mormons was, they argued, in fact to proscribe a particular form of religious opinion, and assert the right of the Central Government to pronounce this or that creed immoral and liable to the ordinary penalties of civil crime. The enemies of the Mormons, on the other hand, have consistently asserted that the Mormon Church was not merely a Church holding some Pagan doctrines, but a Govern- ment maintaining an organisation entirely contrary to the Con- stitution of the United States, making secret laws of its own, levying taxes for unknown purposes, and securing obedience both to taxation and legislation by the maintenance of an armed force, not obedient to the laws or Executive of the Union. Moreover, they contended that the Church, so far from elaiming disciplinary powers only over its own members, claimed the right also of punishing opponents, even if only prospectively dangerous, unheard, untried, and unoondemned, and of exacting even the penalty of death. The Church was, in fact, not merely an imperium in imperio, a State within the Union recognising no law but its own, but a despotic power which refused to ordinary citizens ordinary rights, and in fact prohibited the existence of that "Republican Government" which the Executive at Washington is privileged and is bound to secure to all citizens of the Union. The controversy has lasted twenty years, but it is now terminated, as we imagine, finally, by the confession of John D. Lee. It appears from this extraordinary document that in 1557 a body of-emigrants from Arkansas were known to be approaching Utah, and the heads of the Mormon Church, either from a desire to deter emigrants, or from fear lest the new comers should prove refractory, or from a mere wish to strike terror into the United States, resolved on their destruction. A report was accordingly spread that the coming emigrants were " guilty of the blood of the Saints," that is, had been concerned in the expulsion of the Mormons from Illinois, and orders were sent from Cedar City, then a central point of the organisation, to leading Mormons, to excite the Indians tribes who had allied themselves with Brigham Young to an attack on the emigrant train. These orders were executed by John D. Lee, a leading man in the Church, husband, first and last, of eighteen wives and father of fifty-four children, and were readily responded to by the Indians, afraid of the rush of whitacolonists through their territory. Lee, originally a Roman Catholic, and a man of some education, declares himself to have been throughout a convinced Mormon, who believed that the orders of the Church were the command of God, and that obedience to them could in no case involve sin. His superiors declared the incoming emigrants to be "stained with the blood of the prophets," and their destruction to be a sacred duty ; and accordingly he roused the Indians, and sent them to the attack, but either,- as he alleges, from some scruple of conscience, or be- cause he did not want.white men to be seen, he did not join in the first assault. The Indians acted alone, killed seven of the emi- grants, and wounded sixteen others, but as usual, found them- selves so resolutely opposed that they became alarmed, and called on their white allies to appear in person. Lee, as he says, re- fused, but on:receipt of further orders, as he believed from the Church, consented, and a council was held, at which 53 whites and 500 Indians were present, and it was resolved that the emigrants should be induced to surrender by treachery, and should all be slain, the men because they were enemies, the women and children because " they could talk,"—that is, could reveal the fact that .their assailants were not Indians at all. The account of this council, as given by Lee shortly before his death, is most horrible. resembles one of Mayne Reid's or. Aimard's worst dreams rather than any incident in modern history. Lee says :—":Then Major Higby made a speech, and said that the emigrants were all to be killed who could talk ; that we must get them out of the fortifications by treachery. I was to follow the flag of truce, and make a treaty with the besieged, and promise protection. I was also to get the arms of the emigrants and the sick and wounded, and also the children, into waggons. , Then the troops, under MajorHigby, -would meet the emigrants. The Indians were to remain in ambush. The women were to go . ahead. The Indians were then to kill the women, the Militia were to kill the men, and I and the drivers of the waggons were to kill the wounded and sick that were in the waggons. Several other amen then made speeches. Then we had a prayer-cirele,,and then more speeches were naade, and it was -agreed by all parties that it was the will of God for us to do as we were ordered. On Friday morning the emigrants had a white flag flying, and the Mormon brethren again assembled. Speeches were made, and all expressed themselves as willing to aet." The flag of truce was then sent forward by a white man, and the emigrants, though exceedingly distrustful, were induced to surrender, probably by the belief that if the worst came to the worst, the white men, though they might plunder, would not massacre them, or at all events would spare the women and children. The captives were then marched forward, the waggons being loaded with the little children, the sick, and wounded, the women and large children marching after, and the men, surrounded by the Danites, bringing up the rear. " When the waggons were half a mile off, the fire commenced ; the Indians killed all the women and large children, the Mormons killed the men, the drivers with me killed the sick and the wounded. We saved 17 of the children. The dead were stripped and mutilated, and the corpses left on the field." This astounding crime roused the whole Union, but although the Federal troops were sent to the spot, who buried the victims, and raised over them a cross with the in- scription, " Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay," it was not convenient to attack the Mormons, and for eleven years John D. Lee, who had, as he declares, acquainted Brigham Young with every detail of the atrocity, remained a trusted official of the Church, and was sealed by the President himself to three more wives. A rumour, however, always pur- sued him of having been concerned in the massacre of Mountain Meadows, evidence was obtained from one or two Mormons engaged, the archives of the Church were searched, and at last, after one failure, a jury was empanelled independent enough to return a verdict. Lee was sentenced to death, and according to a local law, claimed the right to choose his own mode of execution. He selected death by shooting, and met his fate calmly on the scene of the massacre, standing opposite the memorial-cross, with its significant inscription. It is characteristic of the man and of the Union that he delayed his death for a few moments in order that his photograph might be taken and copies sent to three of his eighteen wives.
This is the first instance in which a Mormon leader has suffered death by judicial sentence for any act performed in the interests of his Church, and the execution must break the power of Mormonism, not, indeed, as a creed, but as a civil polity. The long time which has elapsed since the commis- sion of the crime, the high position of the offender, the failure of one jury to find a verdict, the dramatic method of execu- tion, and above all, the confession of the criminal, will all increase the weight of the shock to the organisation upon which Brigham Young relies, and through which he has hitherto been able to control his State. He himself has been compelled to deny, in a telegram to the New York Herald, any complicity in the crime ; but though his followers may exonerate him, even he does not assert that the crime did not occur. The pious believers among his people—and Mormon- ism, like every other creed, numbers many such—will be shocked by a crime for which that creed gives no direct war- rant, the doubters will be encouraged to demand more liberty by the mischief which in this case has followed blind obedience, and the fanatics will hesitate to enrol themselves in a band which the President himself dare not or will not openly protect. The power of terrorising is gone, and with that power one main instru- ment for holding together a community which is compelled by its very system to defy the pressure of the civilisation without. This pressure will now be more severe than ever. The people of the United States have long been desirous that Mormonism as a civil polity should be broken up, and have been restrained mainly by an idea and a doubt, an idea that if they once interfered with a creed, they should never know where to stop, and a doubt whether Mormonism, after all, was more than a disagreeable creed. That doubt is now finally removed ; every instance of terrorism will be rigidly punished, and in no long time ,the leaders of Mormonism will be regarded on the spot as dangerous enemies to society. No such position can be held for long by any body of men in America, and we expect to hear shortly, either that the Mormons have once more emigrated, or that they have dissolved their organisation in fear of Gentile violence, or that they have received a new revelation, reducing them, till better times come, to the level of an ordinary industrial society with a peculiar creed. - If Brigham Young were still in his prime, the first would be the most probable solution ; but he is old and feeble, yet greatly reverenced by his followers, and he is more likely to resort to ,.the; third. -A. century hence, we presume, there will be 'Mor- mons, possibly persons as much respected as Quakers are now ; but as an aggressive polity, an organisation aspiring at terri- torial sovereignty, the execution of Bishop Lee for a crime such as that recorded in his confession—and his confession makes the least of it—must prove a death-blow.