Posted by:
baura
(
)
Date: July 20, 2017 11:13AM
From the article:
"While they were in Iowa preparing to wait out the winter of
1846-47 before proceeding west, the U.S. Army asked church
leaders to provide men to serve in the Mexican War. Their nation
was asking fathers to abandon their fleeing wives and children
and risk their own lives defending the country. The call was
answered with patriotic fervor!"
This fits a great lie that was started by Brigham Young and
perpetuated throughout the Church. The lie is that the Mormon
Battalion was something the government imposed on the Mormons in
their hour of need. The truth is that it was a favor the
government did for the Church at the Church's request. It was
not done out of patriotism. It was done for money--money
negotiated by the Church leaders and paid by the U.S.
Government.
From "On This Day in Mormon History:"
June 30, 1846 - U.S. army officers ask church leaders at
Kanesville (Council Bluffs), Iowa, to raise 500 volunteers for
the Mexican War. Brigham Young had previously commissioned
Jesse C. Little to secretly negotiate army service for 2,000
Mormons to finance exploration of the Great Basin. But in
public sermons Young would insist that the Mormon Battalion
was a necessary accommodation to the U.S. president's threat
to annihilate the Mormons if they did not comply.
Aug 11, 1846 - Parley P. Pratt arrives at Winter Quarters from
Fort Leavenworth with $5,860, "being a portion of the
allowance for clothing of the [Mormon] battalion.
Nov 21, 1846 - John D. Lee and Howard Egan return from their
"mission to the [Mormon] Battalion." They bring "mail of 282
letters and 72 packages, and some funds from the
battalion--first payment in government drafts." The next day,
Sunday, Orson Pratt (appointed deputy postmaster during
Willard Richard's illness) "called off" the letters from "the
stand."
Sept 13, 1857 - In Salt Lake City, with a representative from
Johnson's Army, Captain Van Vliet, on the stand with him
Brigham Young preaches: "There cannot be a more damnable,
dastardly order issued than was issued by the Administration
to this people while they were in an Indian country, in 1846.
. . while we were doing our best to leave their borders, the
poor, low, degraded curses sent a requisition for five hundred
of our men to go and fight their battles! That was President
Polk; and he is now weltering in hell with old Zachary Taylor,
where the present administrators will seen be, if they do not
repent." Actually the calling of the Mormon Battalion was a
favor done by the government at the Mormon's request.
July 7, 1861 - Heber C. Kimball, in a sermon recalling past
persecutions of the Saints, preaches: "After all these
hardships and trials we started for this country, and what did
the Government then require of us? Five hundred men were
called to go and take part in the Mexican war, and that too at
a time when we were all living in our waggons: many were sick,
and some were dying;" This perpetuates the myth that the
Mormon Battalion was a favor that the Church did for the
government when in reality it was a favor that the government
did for the Mormons at Church leaders' request.
May 30, 1927 - B. H. Roberts delivers the main address at the
unveiling of the Battalion Monument on the Utah State Capitol
grounds,. It is reported that "literal quotations from
diplomatic correspondence . . . with Elder Roberts' comments,
startled his audience . . . in a manner that was quite
unexpected." It was common knowledge taught by the brethren
that the Mormon Battalion had been a sacrifice demanded of the
Mormons by President James K. Polk. Roberts, thorough
historian, pointed out that the Battalion was a favor made by
Polk to the Mormons at the Mormon leaders' request. A fact
that the leaders had kept from the membership.