THE UTAH WAR OF 1857, Chapter 12 of Kingdom of God volume 3

THE UTAH WAR OF 1857, Chapter 12 of Kingdom of God volume 3

 Pages 147-161

John Taylor to Captain Marcy: Excuse me, sir, when I say that you are merely the servants of a lamentably corrupt administration; that your primary law is obedience to orders, and that you came here with armed foreigners, with cannon, rifles, bayonets and broadswords, expressly, and for the openly avowed purpose of “cutting out the loathsome ulcer from the body politic.” (Contributor 3:339)

 No sooner had the Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, than a petition was sent to the Committee on Territories of the Unitqed States against the Mormon territory becoming a State. It was from the Beaver Island apostate group led by James Strang and William Smith, brother to Joseph. They were establishing their kingdom of God and didn’t want Brigham Young to establish another.

 When a false story about the Mormons starting a “rebellion” reached Washington, D.C., Pres. Buchanan over-reacted and ordered an army to go west to stop this uprising. The government administration was incited to defend their authority in the territory; on the other hand, the Mormons felt they had to defend themselves for survival against a federal army.

 Polygamy had already been publicly announced in 1852 as a doctrine of Mormonism, and ten years later Lincoln signed a law against it.