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Show 51 And when it was learned, it was not generally' believed. The experiences of the Mormons in the States had taught them not to trust government promises. Their distrust was not totally unfounded either. Mormon leaders could find little comfort in reports of the army or in accounts of the expedition in the eastern press. It is clear that many in the Army of Utah considered their assignment a punitive expedition to put the Mormons in their place or break them up. Captain Jesse Gove of the Utah Expedition wrote to his wife: "You see we have got to give them a sound whipping, hang about 100 of them, and the rest will submit." Church leaders were not ignorant of the army's hostile attitude toward them. The press was equally discomforting. The New York Tribune reported the object of the expedition was intended to convert the Mormons to more correct ideas on the subject of matrimonial relations and religious truth; to break up their polygamous households, and to compel them to be content with one wife each; or should they not be brought to reason as to these matters by the precept and example of the new civil officers, seconded by the officers and soldiers of the army, then to resort to the remedy of .dispersing them by fire and sword. This view of the |object of the "Expedition" Is even taken and zealously sustained on the floor of congress itself.^ (italics mine.) The Mormon element received sure knowledge of the expedition July 24, the tenth anniversary of the Saints'entrance into the Salt Lake Valley. To many, this had a prophetic ring to it, as Brigham Young had said on that momentous occasion in 1847: "Give us ten years in this place and we'll ask no odds of Uncle Sam or the devil. nl3 It was ten years to the day when Brigham Young received the news of the coming army. He was attending the commemoration celebration with 2,500 others in Big Cottonwood Canyon at the time word reached |
