Mormon Scripture – The Articles of Faith/Part 28

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The twelfth LDS Article of Faith states, “We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring and sustaining the law.” Mormons today are gener­ally seen as very moral, patriotic, and law abiding citizens. And that is certainly true of most Mormons. But there have been times in Mormonism’s history when many, even in the highest offices in the government of the United States, didn’t see those qualities in Mormonism. That is because Mormonism’s founder, Joseph Smith, and other LDS leaders deliberately broke the law when they believed it would help their cause.

For example, in 1844 when William Law, Joseph Smith’s Second Counselor in the First Presidency, learned that Smith had married several wives, he was convinced that Smith was living in immorality and was a fallen prophet. He also believed that the Nauvoo Charter gave Joseph Smith too much power over even temporal matters of the people in Nauvoo, IL. When William Law tried to persuade Smith to change his ways, Smith refused. So, Law and several other Mormons bought a printing press and published one edition of the Nauvoo Expositor newspaper. In it they exposed some of Smith’s activities and called for the repeal of the Nauvoo Charter.

The repeal of that Charter would have put an end to Smith’s Nauvoo Legion (the largest private army in the USA) as well as some of Smith’s political power in Nauvoo. Smith was then Mayor of Nauvoo and Lt. General of the Nauvoo Legion in addition to being the President and Prophet of the Mormon Church. He was also running for the office of President of the United States. Obviously, Smith didn’t want negative things published about him, especially by Mor­mons. The Nauvoo Charter gave the Mayor and City Council the power to rid the city of any “nuisances.” At a meeting they declared the Nauvoo Expositor a nuisance and sent men to destroy the printing press. The press was broken up and the pieces were thrown into the street.

That action violated state law concerning the property rights of the owners of the press and it also violated Constitutional law which guaranteed the freedom of the press. The Nauvoo City Council didn’t accidentally break the law; they broke it deliberately because they thought their own interests were more important than the law of the land. It was that action that led to Smith’s arrest and then his death in the Carthage Jail that same month.

Mormon leaders were also involved in unlawful, immoral and unpatriotic activities after they moved west to Utah. Their involvement in the Mountain Meadow Massacre in southern Utah was one of the worst tragedies in the history of the American West. In the spring of 1857, John T. Baker and Alexander Fancher along with about 135 others gathered at Caravan Spring in Boone County, Arkansas to form a wagon train headed for California. Others joined them along the way before they reached southern Utah that September.

Two events in 1857 had a profound affect on what happened to them: 1. LDS Apostle Parley P. Pratt seduced the wife of Hector McLean in Arkansas and she left him and went with Pratt as one of his plural wives. McLean was understandably angry and went after Pratt and caught up with him in western Arkansas and killed him. When the news of Pratt’s death reached Salt Lake, LDS leaders vowed to revenge it; 2. At the same time President James Buchanan had been informed that Utah wouldn’t accept the Federal Governor he had appointed and that Brigham Young was leading the Mormons in a rebellion against the United States. President Buchanan sent Johnson’s army to Utah to put down the rebellion. When word arrived in Salt Lake that an army was coming to put down their rebellion, all kinds of wild stories began to circulate in Utah Territory.

Already enraged by Pratt’s death, Mormon leaders preached inflammatory sermons against the United States and President Buchanan, which made matters even worse. In that emotionally charged climate, the wagon train led by Baker and Fancher arrived in southern Utah. For rea­sons known only to them, about 60 Mormons dressed like Indians along with a few Piute Indians attacked the wagon train and killed several people on September 7, 1857. But the wagon train was better defended than they expected so the attack was aborted.

The Mormon leaders in southern Utah who were also militia leaders met to plan their next attack on the wagon train. They selected their most trusted men in the Nauvoo Legion to handle the Mountain Meadow situation. On September 11 at their encampment near the wagon train, John D. Lee told them that everyone on the wagon train over six years old must die. They asked William Bateman to approach the wagon train with a white flag. When those on the wagon train agreed to talk, John D. Lee came to negotiate with them. Lee told them that the Mormons would provide safe passage to town if they put their guns into a Mormon wagon and covered them so the Indians wouldn’t see them. He then separated the men and women. The men marched ahead of the women with each man escorted by an armed Mormon who shot him when the signal was given. At the same time, Indians and Mormons dressed like Indians killed the women who were a ways behind the men.

When it was over, 120 people had been killed by Mormon leaders and their helpers! Among the dead were 50 men, 20 women and 50 children between the ages of 7 and 18. Only 17 children below the age of six were kept alive. Mormons have given many different excuses to justify that terrible massacre, but there is no valid excuse for killing 120 people in cold blood! Not only was that heinous act unlawful, it was immoral too. The leaders of the massacre were well known but only John D. Lee was tried, convicted and executed. And that didn’t happen until 20 years after the massacre.

For those who want to read more on this subject we suggest Blood of the Prophets by Will Bagley, published by University of Oklahoma Press in 2002. Next article we will look further into this same Article of Faith.