OCR Text |
Show 514 WESTERN WILDS. Mountains; the Pacific Coast papers bristled with denunciations of Brigham and the leading Mormons. The staidest journals seemed to grow wild. One advocated a reign of martial law till every murderer in Utah was executed. Another called for the immediate arrest of Brigham, on a bench warrant, before he could fly the country. And still another complained that the civil law was too slow : " The streets of Salt Lake should be ornamented with the heads of the Mormon leaders." Then came answering echoes from the East. Nearly every influential paper in the country called for prompt jus-tice. Utah was excited as I never saw it before. The six Mormon papers literally bowed before the blast, and appeared afraid to say any thing, or had nothing to say. Beyond a few commonplaces about " waiting for the facts," and deprecating " the mob spirit," they attempted no defense. In the States were two journals which can always be depended on to espouse the cause of the Mormons in every emergency the Omaha Herald and the Washington Capital. But both remained silent over this affair, virtually admitting that the worst was proved against the Mormons. Captain Codman, with a faithful friendship that did him honor, came to the rescue of Brigham-in the columns of the New York Post; and the editor of that paper mildly hinted that the Mountain Meadow massacre was " a feature of the Mormon rebellion of 1857," and had perhaps been condoned by Buchanan's proclamation of amnesty, made in 1858. Beyond these no word of palliation was heard ; the press and the country were unanimous in the opinion that the Mormon theocracy was morally responsible for this great crime, and that a solemn duty devolved upon the government to see that full justice was done. But of all the Mormons in Utah, the case of none excited such horror and regret among the Gentiles as that of Hon. W. H. Hooper. It is proved that he received forty head of the murdered emigrants' cattle ; and it is scarcely possible that he, a Mormon high in the con-fidence of the Church, could have been ignorant of the matter. And yet he, through all his congressional career, again and again, and that most bitterly, laid the whole affair on the Indians; and more than once, in company with senators, he solemnly swore that no Mormon had any thing to do with it. He even employed journalists to \ vrite up the Mormon view of the case. And can it be possible that all that time he knew it was a cruel lie? Can it be that he has taken the money of the Government even while employing fraud and perjury to defeat j ustice, and shield those who had murdered its citizens? If so, this earth has no damnation deep enough for him. But among his |