History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

558
THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE.
conveyed to Arkansas, the sum of $10,000 having
been appropriated by congress for their recovery and
restoration. 27
To Brigham Young, as governor and superintendent
of Indian affairs, belonged the duty of ordering
an investigation into the circumstances of the massacre
and of bringing the guilty parties to justice. His
reasons for evading this duty are best explained in his
own words. In his deposition at the trial of John D.
Lee, when asked why he had not instituted proceedings,
he thus made answer: "Because another governor
had been appointed by the president of the
United States, and was then on the way here to take
my place, and I did not know how soon he might arrive;
and because the United States judges were not
in the territory. Soon after Governor Cumming arrived
I asked him to take Judge Cradlebaugh, who
belonged to the southern district, with him, and I
would accompany them with sufficient aid to investigate
the matter and bring the offenders to jus-
tice." 28
Lynch, who accompanied Forney's party, states under oath that when he
first saw them the children were 'with little or no clothing, covered with
filth and dirt.' Id., p. 81. Judge Cradlehaugh says nothing about their being
ill treated. It was at first supposed that the children had been left in the
hands of Indians, but this is denied by all the officers and officials whose reports
are given in Id., passim. 'No one can depict the glee of these infants,'
remarks Cradlebaugh, ' when they realized that they were in the custody of
what they called "the Americans "—for such is the designation of those not
Mormons. They say they never were in the custody of the Indians. I recollect
one of them, John Calvin Sorrow, after he found he was safe, and before
he was brought away from Salt Lake City, although not yet nine years of
age, sitting in a contemplative mood, no doubt thinking of the extermination
of his family, saying: "Oh, I wish I was a man! I know what I would do: I
would shoot John D. Lee. I saw him shoot my mother. " I shall never forget
how he looked.' Mormonism, 13.
n For further particulars as to the treatment and disposition of the children,
see Sen. Doc, 36th Cong. 1st Sess., ii. no. 42, passim; S. F. Alta, Feb.
23, March 12, May 29, July 10, 20, 1859; 8. F. Bulletin, May 30, 31, June
6, Aug. 13, 1859; Sac. Union, July 19, 1859. Cradlebaugh says that on their
way back they frequently pointed out carriages and stock that had belonged
to the train, and stated whose property they were. Mormonism, 14.
28 The Lee Trial, 37; Lee's Mormonism Unvailed, 305-6; Millennial Star,
xxxvii. 675; Tullidye's Hist. S. L. City, 243. In a conversation with Governor
Cumming, George A. Smith remarked: * If the business had not been taken
out of our hands by a change of officers in the territory, the Mountain Meadows
affair is one of the first things we should have attended to when a U. S.