"Sup't of Indian Affairs, Utah Territory.
"Hon. A. B. Greenwood,
"Commiss'r Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C."
So far as Brigham Young himself is concerned, the evidence is not so direct, but is scarcely less conclusive.
In addition to the circumstances mentioned, of his failing to report the massacre, or to make any mention of it in his public discourses, and the testimony of the Indians, already referred to; in addition also to the facts concerning the revelation sent from him,—facts communicated by one intimately acquainted with the secret history of the church; in addition
to these things, if we reflect for a moment upon the framework of the Mormon Church, we will find therein still more cogent evidence.
The organization of the church is such, that no project of importance is ever undertaken without the express or implied consent of Young, who is in temporal, as well as spiritual matters, the head and source of all authority. Now here was a large train which had lately passed through the place where Young resided, and his feelings and views in relation to it would be well known to the leaders of the church. Can it for a moment be admitted, that members of a community so organized would undertake so important a project as the destruction of that train, requiring, as it did, the concerted action of forty or fifty persons, without the express or implied sanction of him who sat at the head of the community, controlling its every action?
And if such a thing can be supposed possible, would not the perpetrators be immediately called to account for assuming so much responsibility? Reason and evidence all point one way; and add this to the many other acts which stamp Brigham Young as a murderer of the deepest dye,—adding to the guilt of homicide that of blasphemy and hypocrisy.
What was the motive which prompted the act? Partly revenge. These emigrants were from Missouri and Arkansas, the scenes of the alleged injuries and persecutions of the Mormons. It was soon after the killing of Parley P. Pratt, in Arkansas, by McLane, whose wife Pratt had abducted. It was at the time, too, when the United States troops were marching to Utah, and a feeling of revenge and retaliation was prevalent, and was, as has been shown, fostered and encouraged by Brigham in his sermons.
But the principal motive was plunder. The train was a very wealthy one. The spoil of the gentile was before them, and it must be appropriated by the Lord's people.