Should Brigham Young share blame for Utah War?
Papers asserting that opinion were delivered Thursday and Friday at the annual meeting of the Utah State Historical Society in the Salt Lake Public Library. Several workshops focused on the war, in which then-President James Buchanan sent federal troops led by Albert Sidney Johnston to put down a suspected rebellion by the Mormons. The 150th anniversary of the events approaches next year.
Historian Will Bagley, for example, said many Utah histories side too much with Mormons, and tell how "the United States sent an Army to persecute our long-suffering Mormon ancestors, and how we beat them in a fair fight ... (and) Brigham Young acted as a dedicated peacemaker throughout the entire affair."
"This history has one serious problem. It never happened," Bagley said.
According to Bagley, contemporary LDS accounts of the war told how Brigham Young was "determined to fight an apocalyptic war" against Washington with the help of Indians, hoping to end non-Mormon influence in the region, and help usher in the millennial rule of Christ. Bagley said that is different from the peacemaker of legend.
Historian Ardis Parshall said disagreement has long existed over whether Mormons or federal officials deserved most blame for the war. "The truth probably falls somewhere between the two extremes, and every Utah War scholar will produce his own catalog of 'whys,"' Parshall said.
"From the federal perspective, the people of Utah were out of control and required the strong hand of discipline to bring them into subjugation." She said that came as the public perceived Mormons as being more loyal to Young than to the government and courts. The public also detested the then-church policy of polygamy as threatening to families.
But she said, "The Mormons, on the other hand, saw their treatment by the federal government as outrageous." They viewed federal appointees in the territory as corrupt political hacks who meddled in the social and religious affairs of Utah. They said such officials slandered them in false reports purporting rebellion.
Historian David L. Bigler said Mormons caused many of the problems and misunderstandings that led to the war.
You can be the first to comment on this story.