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Chapter 11, Bloody Brigham
Brigham Says to "Cut Their Throats"
The Quote
One Nation under Gods, page 236-237
Apostates certainly were viewed as the worst of sinners, although every reprobate received the same penalty.
As Brigham instructed his flock: "If any miserable scoundrels come here, cut their throats.53
The Reference
Endnote 53, page 563
53. Brigham Young, July 8, 1855, in JOD, vol. 2., 311.
The Problems
In an effort to forward his agenda of depicting Brigham in a negative light, Abanes conveniently
lifts half of a sentence from one of Young's statements and leave the context behind. Abanes has a knack for
taking a small portion of a sentence and/or paragraph and presenting it as something it is not.
Here is the more complete quote from that discourse, in context (the portion Abanes quotes is
in BOLD ALL CAPS):
It was asked this morning how we could obtain redress for our wrongs; I will tell you how it
could be done, we could take the same law they have taken, viz., mobocracy, and IF ANY MISERABLE SCOUNDRELS
COME HERE, CUT THEIR THROATS. (All the people said, Amen.) This would be rooting out that treatment
to wicked men, which they had measured to innocent persons. We could meet them on their own ground, when
they will not honor the law, but will kill the Prophets and destroy the innocent. They could drive the
innocent from their homes, take their houses and farms, cattle and goods, and destroy men, women, and
children, walking over the laws of the United States, trampling them under their feet, and not honoring
a single law. Suppose I should follow the example they have shown us, and say, "Latter-day Saints, do ye
likewise, and bid defiance to the whole clan of such men?
So, was Brigham "instructing?" No! When the matter was put before him, regarding what should
be done to those who had come and robbed, murdered and destroyed (he had just been asked that morning),
Brigham said "here's how we COULD approach it," so to speak. "Suppose I should follow the example they
have shown us," he says. "I will tell you how it COULD be done." These are not instructions, by any means.
You have ripped the statement from its context and presented it as instructions to kill the Church's enemies,
when that is not what Brigham said.
If I were to say, in writing a review of an anti-Mormon book written by a Southern Baptist,
"Suppose I write a book against the Baptists? I have been asked what to do about the horrible attacks on our
Church from the Southern Baptists. I will tell you how it could be done, we could start writing anti-Baptist
books and attack their history, their origins and their leaders. Suppose I were to follow the example they
have set?" Would one be correct in making the statement that Cooper Johnson said that Mormons should, "start
writing anti-Baptist books and attack their history?" Certainly not.
It is a supposition for the purposes of making a point. Nowhere in this statement of Brigham's is
he advocating the cutting of anyone's throat.
Written by J. Cooper Johnson
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