Brigham Young, the Quorum of the Twelve, and the Latter-Day Saint Investigation of the Mountain Meadows Massacre: Arrington Lecture No. Twelve (Arrington Lecture Series) (Paperback)

by Thomas G Alexander (Author)
Key Phrases: Brigham Young, Cedar City, Salt Lake City (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

On September 11, 1857, a wagon train of emigrants passing through the Utah Territory on their way to California were massacred at Mountain Meadows. Although today’s historians agree that the principal perpetrators were members of the Mormon militia in southern Utah, how much the central Mormon leadership, especially Brigham Young at the top, knew about the massacre, when and how they learned about it, and the extent of a cover up afterward are still matters of controversy and debate.

In this 12th volume of the Arrington Lecture Series, Thomas Alexander (Lemuel  Redd Professor of Western American History, Emeritus, at Brigham Young University), asserts that Brigham Young and the LDS Church’s governing Quorum of Twelve made timely and diligent efforts to investigate the massacre and encouraged legal proceedings but were hindered by federal  territorial officials and lied to by massacre participant John D. Lee, preventing Young from learning the full truth for many years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Utah State Special Collection; 1st edition (September 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874216877
• ISBN-13: 978-0874216875
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.1 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #955,066 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Facinating Tidbits, May 13, 2009

By	Eric C. Player "Reason Together" (Delta Junction, AK USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Short as it is, this work is neither boring nor apologetic. It reveals a moment by moment account of Brigham Young coming to terms with the horror of what has occurred 400 miles south of him--and the years it takes him to process this new knowledge.

He is not painted as a simpleton, but neither is he painted as a Saint (in the catholic sense), he is presented as the hard-headed leader of the LDS people that he always was, trying to feel around for just what the hell happened.

He had just begun his preparations for the trench/guerrilla warfare that would become the "Utah War" (and made some very big, probably ill-advised, threats in the process) when the news of what was happening in the Mountain Meadows crossed his desk, and he was livid, because he had not yet called Marshall Law--wagon trains were still considered civilian and needed to be left alone (all this on p.4). He sent word for them to be allowed to pass, but as everyone knows, it arrived too late.

He got word of what happened within two weeks--pretty fast in those days--and even though they were already blaming the Indians he got so sick he had to go home (p.6). He knew he wasn't getting the whole story. Well, the Utah War did its thing and he couldn't send anyone down to investigate until the following spring (still pretty fast), when he sent two of his right-hand men; Apostles.

The rest of the pages of the booklet outline twenty years of Young and his subordinates trying to do five different investigations into what happened, and being hemmed in by members who don't want to testify, leadership who believe it is against God's Will to go against a Mormon, and government officials who alternately want to just arrest everybody or make the whole thing go away.

Particularly between 1861 (His "vengeance" quote) and 1870, Young is shown going from believing the Indian story to being shocked when he discovers how much John D. Lee, Issac Haight, Nephi Johnson, and William Stewart (among others) had been keeping from him. At least three of the men are known to have been excommunicated when Young discovered their crimes, although only Lee is ever officially prosecuted by the government for the massacre.

The book shows that this was, in many ways, due to the government's refusal to cooperate with Young, not vice-versa, as many claim. It is an excellent read.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Whose work is in question?, October 22, 2008

By	User ratings fan (Boise, Idaho United States) - See all my reviews

I wish potential readers could be led to this review by Will Bagley before they read his other works. Then they would understand the bias and vitriol that Bagley brings to any topic related to Mormonism.

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Nonsense from Tom Alexander, August 28, 2008

By	Alfred J. Wromke "romx" (Silicon Valley) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I believe Tom Alexander's inane and factually unwarranted findings and conclusions call into question all his previous work.