Part 57 (1/2)
* Leavenworth, Kansas, letter to New York Times, published May 1, 1858.
Frederick Loba was a prosperous resident of Lausanne, Switzerland, where for some years he had been introducing a new principle in gas manufacture, when, in 1853, some friends called his attention to the Mormons' professions and promises. Loba was induced to believe that all mankind who did not gather in Great Salt Lake Valley would be given over to destruction, and that, not only would his soul be saved by moving there, but that his business opportunities would be greatly advanced.
Accordingly he gave up the direction of the gas works at Lausanne, and reached St. Louis in December, 1853, with about $8000 worth of property.
There he was made temporary president of a Mormon church, and there he got his first bad impression of the Mormon brotherhood. On the way to Utah his wife died of cholera, leaving six children, from six to twelve years old. Welcomed as all men with property were, he was made Professor of Chemistry in the University, and soon learned many of the church secrets. ”These,” to quote his own words, ”opened my eyes at once, and I saw at a glance the terrible position in which I was placed. I now found myself in the midst of a wicked and degraded people, shut up in the midst of the mountains, with a large family, and deprived of all resources with which to extricate myself. The conviction had been forced upon my mind that Brigham himself was at the bottom of all the clandestine a.s.sa.s.sinations, plundering of trains, and robbing of mails.”
The manner, too, in which polygamy was practised aroused his intense disgust.
He married as his second wife an English woman, and his family relations were pleasant; but the church officers were distrustful of him. He was again and again urged to marry more wives, being a.s.sured that with less than three he could not rise to a high place in the church. ”This neglect on my part,” he explained, ”and certain remarks that I made with respect to Brigham's friends, determined the prophet to order my private execution, as I am able to prove by honest and competent witnesses.”
Loba adopted every precaution for his own safety, night and day. Then came the news of the Parrish murders, and there was so much alarm among the people that there was talk of the departure of a great many of the dissatisfied. To check this, when the plain threats made in the Tabernacle did not avail, Young had a band of four hundred organized under the name of ”Wolf Hunters” (borrowed from their old Hanc.o.c.k County neighbors), whose duty it was to see that ”the wolves” did not stray abroad.
Loba now communicated his fears to his wife, and found that she also realized the danger of their position, and was ready to advise the risk of flight. The plan, as finally decided on, was that they two should start alone on April 1, leaving the children in care of the wife's mother and brother, the latter a recent comer not yet initiated in the church mysteries.
At ten o'clock on the appointed night Loba and his wife--the latter dressed in men's clothes--stole out of their house. Their outfit consisted of one blanket, twelve pounds of crackers, a little tea and sugar, a double-barrelled gun, a sword, and a compa.s.s. They were without horses, and their route compelled them to travel the main road for twenty-five miles before they reached the mountains, amid which they hoped to baffle pursuit. They were fortunate enough to gain the mountains without detention. There they laid their course, not with a view to taking the easiest or most direct route, but one so far up the mountain sides that pursuit by hors.e.m.e.n would be impossible. This entailed great suffering. The nights were so cold that sometimes they feared to sleep. Add to this the necessity of wading through creeks in ice-cold water, and it is easy to understand that Loba had difficulty to prevent his companion from yielding to despair.
Their objective point was Greene River (170 miles from Salt Lake City by road, but probably almost 300 by the route taken), where they expected to find Indians on whose mercy they would throw themselves. Two days before that river was reached they ate the last of their food, and they kept from freezing at night by getting some sage wood from underneath the snow, and using Loba's pocket journal for kindling. Mrs. Loba had to be carried the whole of the last six miles, but this effort brought them to a camp of Snake Indians, among whom were some Canadian traders, and there they received a kindly welcome. News of their escape reached Salt Lake City, and Surveyor General Burr sent them the necessary supplies and a guide to conduct them to Fort Laramie, where, a month later, all the rest of the family joined them, in good health, but entirely dest.i.tute.
They then learned that, as soon as their flight was discovered, the church authorities sent out hors.e.m.e.n in every direction to intercept them, but their route over the mountains proved their preservation.*
* 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 of January 25, 1876, said: ”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.”
The Messenger, the organ of the Reorganized Church in Salt Lake City, said in November, 1875: ”While laying the waste pipes in front of the residence of Brigham Young recently the skeleton of a man--a white man--was dug up. A similar discovery was made last winter in digging a cellar in this city. What can have been the necessity of these secret burials, without coffins, in such places?”
CHAPTER IX. -- BLOOD ATONEMENT
As early as 1853 intimations of the doctrine that an offending member might be put out of the way were given from the Tabernacle pulpit. Orson Hyde, on April 9 of that year, spoke, in the form of a parable, of the fate of a wolf that a shepherd discovered in his flock of sheep, saying that, if let alone, he would go off and tell the other wolves, and they would come in; ”whereas, if the first should meet with his just deserts, he could not go back and tell the rest of his hungry tribe to come and feast themselves on the flock. If you say the priesthood, or authorities of the church here, are the shepherd, and the church is the flock, you can make your own application of this figure.”
In September, 1856, there was a notable service in the bowery in Salt Lake City at which several addresses were made. Heber C. Kimball urged repentance, and told the people that Brigham Young's word was ”the word of G.o.d to this people.” Then Jedediah M. Grant first gave open utterance to a doctrine that has given the Saints, in late years, much trouble to explain, and the carrying out of which in Brigham Young's days has required many a Mormon denial. This is, what has been called in Utah the doctrine of ”blood atonement,” and what in reality was the doctrine of human sacrifice.
Grant declared that some persons who had received the priesthood committed adultery and other abominations, ”get drunk, and wallow in the mire and filth.” ”I say,” he continued, ”there are men and women that I would advise to go to the President immediately, and ask him to appoint a committee to attend to their case; and then let a place be selected, and let that committee shed their blood. We have those amongst us that are full of all manner of abominations; those who need to have their blood shed, for water will not do; their sins are too deep for that.”*
He explained that he was only preaching the doctrine of St. Paul, and continued: ”I would ask how many covenant breakers there are in this city and in this kingdom. I believe that there are a great many; and if they are covenant breakers, we need a place designated where we can shed their blood.... If any of you ask, Do I mean you, I answer yes. If any woman asks, Do I mean her, I answer yes.... We have been trying long enough with these people, and I go in for letting the sword of the Almighty be unsheathed, not only in word, but in deed.”**
* Elder C. W. Penrose made an explanation of the view taken by the church at that time, in an address in Salt Lake City on October 12, 1884, that was published in a pamphlet ent.i.tled ”Blood Atonement as taught by Leading Elders.” This was deemed necessary to meet the criticisms of this doctrine. He pleaded misrepresentation of the Saints'
position, and defined it as resting on Christ's atonement, and on the belief that that atonement would suffice only for those who have fellows.h.i.+p with Him. He quoted St. Paul as authority for the necessity of blood shedding (Hebrews ix. 22), and Matthew xii. 31, 32, and Hebrews x. 26, to show that there are sins, like blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, which will not be forgiven through the shedding of Christ's blood. He also quoted 1 John v. 16 as showing that the apostle and Brigham Young were in agreement concerning ”sins unto death,” just as Young and the apostle agreed about delivering men unto Satan that their spirits might be saved through the destruction of their flesh (1 Corinthians v. 5). Having justified the teaching to his satisfaction, he proceeded to challenge proof that any one had ever paid the penalty, coupling with this a denial of the existence of Danites.
Elder Hyde, in his ”Mormonism,” says (p. 179): ”There are several men now living in Utah whose lives are forfeited by Mormon law, but spared for a little time by Mormon policy. They are certain to be killed, and they know it. They are only allowed to live while they add weight and influence to Mormonism, and, although abundant opportunities are given them for escape, they prefer to remain. So strongly are they infatuated with their religion that they think their salvation depends on their continued obedience, and their 'blood being shed by the servants of G.o.d.' Adultery is punished by death, and it is taught, unless the adulterer's blood be shed, he can have no remission for this sin.
Believing this firmly, there are men who have confessed this crime to Brigham, and asked him to have them killed. Their superst.i.tious fears make life a burden to them, and they would commit suicide were not that also a crime.”
** Journal of Discourses, Vol. IV, pp. 49, 50.
Brigham Young, who followed Grant, said that he would explain how judgment would be ”laid to the line.” ”There are sins,” he explained, ”that men commit, for which they cannot receive forgiveness in this world nor in that which is to come; and, if they had their eyes open to see their true condition, they would be perfectly willing to have their blood spilt upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might ascend to heaven for their sins...I know, when you hear my brethren telling about cutting people off from the earth, that you consider it a strong doctrine; but it is to save them, not to destroy them.”