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Show 520 WESTERN WILDS. of the Mormon Church were selected from this organization. I took an active part as a Mormon soldier, as it was the recurring conflicts between the people and the Mormons which made Jackson County, Missouri, historic ground. When the Mormons were er.- pelled from Missouri, I was one of the first to settle at Nauvoo, Illinois, where I took an active part in all that was done by the Church or city. I had charge of the construc-tion of many public buildings there, and was the policeman and body- guard of Joseph Smith at Nauvoo. After his death I held the same position to Brigham Young, who succeeded Joseph Smith as Prophet, Priest, and Revelator in the Church. I was Ke-corder for the Quorum of Seventy, head clerk of the Church, and organized the priest-hood in the Order of Seventy. I took all the degrees of the Endowment House, and stood high in the priesthood. I traveled extensively throughout the United States as a Mormon missionary, and acted as trader and financial agent of the Church. From the death of Joseph Smith until the settlement at Salt Lake City, I was one of the locating committee that selected sites for various towns and cities in Utah Territory. I held many offices in the Territory, and was a member of the Mormon legislature, and was probate judge of Washington County, Utah. Immediately after Joseph Smith received the revelation concerning polygamy, I was informed of its doctrines by said Joseph Smith and the Apostles. I believe in the doctrine, and have been sealed to eighteen women, three of whom are sisters, and one was the mother of three of my wives. I was sealed to this old woman for her soul's salvation. I was an honored man in the Church, flat-tered and regarded by Brigham Young and the Apostles, until 1868, when I was cut off from the Church and selected as a scapegoat to suffer for and bear the sins of my people. As a duty to myself and mankind I now confess all that I did at the Mountain Mead-ow Massacre, without animosity to any one, shielding none, and giving the facts as they existed. Those with me at that time were acting under orders from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints. The horrid deeds then committed were done as a duty which we believed we owed to God and our Church. We were all sworn to secrecy be-fore and after the massacre. The penalty for giving information concerning it was death. As I am to suffer death for what I then did, and have been betrayed both by those who gave orders to act and those who were the most active of my assistants, I now give the world the true facts as they exist, and tell why the massacre was com-mitted, and who were the active participants. In the month of September, 1857, the company of emigrants, known as the " Arkansas Company," arrived in Parowan, Iron County, Utah, on their way to California. At Parowan young Aden, one of the company, saw and recognized one William Laney, a Mormon resident of Parowan. Aden and his father had rescued Laney from an anti- Mormon mob in Tennessee several years before, and saved his life. He ( Laney), at the time he was attacked by the mob, was a Mormon missionary in Tennessee. Laney was glad to see his friend and benefactor, and invited him to his house, and gave him some garden sauce to take back to the camp with him. The same evening it was reported to Bishop ( Colonel) Dame that Laney had given potatoes and onions to the man Aden, one of the emigrants. When the report was made to Bishop Dame he raised his hand and crooked his little finger in a significant manner to one Barney Carter, his brother- in- law, and one of the " Angels of Death." Carter, without another word, walked out, went to Laney's house with a long picket in his hand, called Laney out, and struck him a heavy blow on the head, fracturing his skull, and left him on the ground for dead. C. Y. Webb and Isaac Newman, President of the " High Council," both told me that they saw Dame's maneuvers. James McGuffee, then a resident of Parowan but through oppression has been forced to leave there, and is now a merchant in Pahranagat valley, near Pioche, Nevada knows these facts. About the last of August, 1857, some ten days before the Mountain Meadow Massa- |