Mountain Meadows Massacre and Mormon Theology - Utah Territory's Political Structure During The Massacre

Utah Territory's Political Structure During The Massacre

A decade prior the Baker–Fancher party's arrival, Mormons had established in the Utah Territory a theocratic community (see theodemocracy). There Brigham Young presided over The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as LDS Church president and Prophet of God, until Christ's assumption of world kingship at his Second Coming. U.S. President Millard Fillmore appointed Young governor of the Territory of Utah and its Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Yet there was minimal effective separation between church and state until 1858.

Brigham Young envisioned a Mormon domain, called the State of Deseret, spanning from the Salt Lake Valley to the Pacific Ocean, and so he sent church leaders to establish colonies far and wide. These colonies were governed by Mormon officials under Brigham Young's mandate to enforce "God's law" by "lay the ax at the root of the tree of sin and iniquity", while preserving individual rights. Despite the distance to these outlying colonies, local Mormon leaders received frequent visits from church headquarters, and were under Young's direct doctrinal and political control. Mormons were taught to obey the orders of their priesthood leaders, as long as they coincided with LDS gospel principles. Young's view of theocratic enforcement included a death penalty for such sins as theft. However, there are no documented cases showing that such threats were ever enforced as actual policy, and there were no accusations of thievery against the Baker–Fancher party. Mormon leaders taught the doctrine of blood atonement, in which Mormon "covenant breakers" could in theory gain their exaltation in heaven by having "their blood spilt upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might ascend to heaven as an offering for their sins". More clearly stated, this doctrine holds that capital punishment is requisite for offenses of murder.

Mormon historian Thomas G. Alexander argues that most violent speech by LDS leaders was rhetorical in nature. He further states that statistical studies are needed in order to determine whether frontier Utah was in reality any more violent than surrounding regions. But he argues that the limited statistical evidence which does exist (although unfortunately dating from the 1880s) shows Utah to be far less violent than other contemporaneous western states and territories. Referring to the frequent Mormon declarations that there were fewer deeds of violence in Utah than in other pioneer settlements of equal population, the Salt Lake Tribune reported on January 25, 1876: "It is estimated that no less than 600 murders have been committed by the Mormons, in nearly every case at the instigation of their priestly leaders, during the occupation of the territory. Giving a mean average of 50,000 persons professing that faith in Utah, we have a murder committed every year to every 2500 of population. The same ratio of crime extended to the population of the United States would give 16,000 murders every year." Brigham Young's typical response to such charges was undisguised sarcasm. Speaking on July 26, 1857 he stated "what is now the news circulated through the United States?...That Brigham Young has killed all the men who have died between the Missouri River and California." He had previously retorted to similar charges, "just one word from Brigham, and they are ready to slay all before them...It is all a pack of nonsense, the whole of it." Whatever the case, there is consensus that William H. Dame and Isaac C. Haight, the two most senior local church leaders in southern Utah complicit in the massacre, took the rhetoric of such doctrines seriously as they contemplated sanctionable applications of violence.

According to rumors and accusations, Brigham Young sometimes enforced "God's law" through a secret cadre of avenging Danites. The truth of these rumors is debated by historians. While there existed active vigilante organizations in Utah who referred to themselves as "Danites", they may have been acting independently. Historian Leonard Arrington attributes these rumors to the actions of "Minute Men," a law enforcement organization created by Young to pursue hostile Indians and criminals. However, these became associated with the Danite vigilantes which had operated briefly in Missouri in 1838. Haight and Dame were never Danites; however, Young's records indicate that in 1857 he authorized Haight and Dame to secretly execute two recently released convicts traveling through southern Utah along the California trail if they were caught stealing cattle or other livestock. Dame replied to Young in a letter that "we try to live so when your finger crooks, we move". Haight and/or Dame might have been involved in the subsequent ambush of part of the convicts' party just south of Mountain Meadows.