The following comes from Thomas Bullock, Journal entry for July 28, 1847, in The Pioneer Camp of the Saints: The 1846 and 1847 Mormon Trail Journals of Thomas Bullock, ed. Will Bagley (Kingdom in the West: The Mormons and the American Frontier 1; Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997, 2022), 243-44, emphasis in bold added:
President Young then addressed
the brethren on the order of building the City, its regulation for cleanliness
& being supplied with pure Water, his determination of having order and
righteousness in all things. He stated Joseph Smith’s views of coming to this
valley—that he would have still been alive, if the Twelve had been in Nauvoo
when he recrossed the River from Montrose to Nauvoo. He reviewed the driving of
the Saints from place to place & stated the only way that Governor Boggs,
General Clark & Lucas, & the leaders of the Missouri mob could have
been saved; but now will be eternally damned. [19] [Young] also damned
President Polk—stated the numerous petitions to all the Governors &
Presidents, all refusing aid. That when the Saints were driven from Illinois,
Polk’s tyranny in drafting out 500 men to form a Battalion, in order that the
women & the children might perish on the Prairies. In case he had refused
their enlisting. Missouri was ready with 3000 men, to have swept the Saints out
of existence on attempting to cross the Missouri River. [20] He next
made a discourse on the duties of men and women, that men should find out &
then do the will of the Lord & the women should observe and do the Will of
their husbands. It is their duty to rear the children from their birth until
they are old enough to go under a master. He stated the objections of some
men to the plurality of Wives and that the Elders would marry Wives of every
tribe of Indians, and showed how the Lamanites would become a White &
delightsome people & how our descendants may live to the age of a tree
& be visited & hold communion with the Angels; & bring in the
Millennium. [21] He hoped to live to lead forth the armies of Israel
to execute the judgments & justice on the persecuting Gentiles & that
no officer of the United States should ever dictate him in this valley, or he
would hang them on a gibbet as a warning to others. He showed the spot where
the Ensign would be hoisted & never have any commerce with any nation, but
be Independent of all. If we want any thing we cannot get here, let the Elders
of Israel gather it when they are on Missions preaching the Gospel. He made a
most powerful & impressive discourse & did not conclude until 5 minutes
past 10 when he dismissed the Meeting. [22]
[19] Young referred to generals John B. Clark and
Samuel D. Lucas of the Missouri militia, and to Governor Lilburn Boggs, all
participants in the 1838 Mormon War. Young probably suggested that the men
could have escaped damnation only by forfeiting their lives.
[20] The Mormon leader believed Senator Thomas
Hart Benton had struck a deal with President Polk to permit the annihilation of
the Saints if they refused to serve in the Mexican War—an allegation for which
there is no evidence.
[21] This sentence encapsulates the Millennial
role of the American Indian in LDS belief, which would have enduring
consequences in Mormon-Indian relations in Utah Territory. The phrase “white
and delightsome” is from the Book of Mormon, but the LDS church has
removed it from recent printings.
[22] Young’s vision of the apocalypse would have
dramatic consequences in 1857, when the Mormons challenged the authority of the
federal government and raised a U.S. Army expedition ordered to Utah by
President James Buchanan to enforce federal law.
