Editing Mountain Meadows Massacre (section)

====Brigham Young====
{{Main|Brigham Young and the Mountain Meadows Massacre}}
[[File:Brigham Young.jpg|thumb|upright|Historians debate the role of [[Brigham Young]] in the massacre. Young was [[theodemocracy|theocratic]] leader of the Utah Territory at the time of the massacre.]]

There is a consensus among historians that Brigham Young played a role in provoking the massacre, at least unwittingly, and in concealing its evidence after the fact. However, they debate whether Young knew about the planned massacre ahead of time and whether he initially condoned it before later taking a strong public stand against it. Young's use of inflammatory and violent language{{sfnp|MacKinnon|2007|p=57}} in response to the Federal expedition added to the tense atmosphere at the time of the attack. Following the massacre, Young stated in public forums that God had taken vengeance on the Baker–Fancher party.{{sfnp|Bagley|2002|p=247}} It is unclear whether Young held this view because he believed that this specific group posed an actual threat to colonists or because he believed that the group was directly responsible for past crimes against Mormons. However, in Young's only known correspondence prior to the massacre, he told the Church leaders in Cedar City:

{{blockquote|In regard to emigration trains passing through our settlements, we must not interfere with them until they are first notified to keep away. You must not meddle with them. The Indians we expect will do as they please but you should try and preserve good feelings with them. There are no other trains going south that I know of[.] [I]f those who are there will leave let them go in peace.<ref name=Vengeance>{{Cite book |last=Jones Brown |first=Barbara |title=Vengeance Is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath |last2=Turley |first2=Richard E. |authorlink2=Richard E. Turley, Jr. |date=2023 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Vengeance_Is_Mine/8464EAAAQBAJ?hl=en |via=[[Google Books]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-767573-1 |location=New York City}}</ref>{{rp|p=42}}<ref name=BYletter>{{cite archive|last1=Young|first1=Brigham|author-link=Brigham Young|date=10 September 1857 |page=827 |institution=[[Church History Library]] | location=Salt Lake City|repository=Letterbook, Vol. 3, 1856 August 20-1858 January  |item-id=CR 1234 1|collection-url=https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/99279f54-9c69-41a1-ac5d-e6069f9a2920/0/1701|collection=Brigham Young Office Files}}</ref>}}

According to historian MacKinnon, "After the [Utah] war, U.S. President James Buchanan implied that face-to-face communications with Brigham Young might have averted the conflict, and Young argued that a north-south telegraph line in Utah could have prevented the Mountain Meadows massacre."{{sfnp|MacKinnon|2007|loc=endnote p. 50}} MacKinnon suggests that hostilities could have been avoided if Young had traveled east to Washington D.C. to resolve governmental problems instead of taking a five-week trip north on the eve of the Utah War for church-related reasons.{{sfnp|MacKinnon|2007|p=59}}

A modern forensic assessment of a key affidavit, purportedly given by William Edwards in 1924, has complicated the debate on complicity of senior Mormon leadership in the Mountain Meadows massacre.<ref>{{Cite news |last=De Groote |first=Michael |date=2010-09-07|title=Mountain Meadows Massacre affidavit linked to Mark Hofmann |url=https://www.deseret.com/2010/9/7/20384994/mountain-meadows-massacre-affidavit-linked-to-mark-hofmann |access-date=2020-06-15 |newspaper=[[Deseret News]]|publisher=LDS Church}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|publisher=	[[Council for Secular Humanism]] |last=Jeffreys |first=Keith B. |date=2010 |url= https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2002/10/22160058/p26.pdf |page=26|title=Mountain Meadows Massacre Artifact Now Believed To Be A Fake |journal=[[Free Inquiry]] |volume=22 |issue=4|via=[[Center for Inquiry]]}}</ref> Analysis indicates that Edwards's signature may have been traced and that the typeset belonged to a typewriter manufactured in the 1950s. The [[Utah State Historical Society]], which maintains the document in its archives, acknowledges a possible connection to [[Mark Hofmann]], a convicted forger and extortionist, via go-between Lyn Jacobs who provided the society with the document.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50203408-76/affidavit-lee-hofmann-massacre.html.csp |title=Mountain Meadows affidavit Hofmann forgery? |last=Smart |first=Christopher |date=Sep 10, 2010 |work=[[Salt Lake Tribune]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite press release |title=Probable Hofmann Forgery Uncovered |url=http://history.utah.gov/events_and_news/press_room/forgery.html |publisher=[[Utah State Historical Society]] |date=2010 |access-date=May 26, 2011 |archive-date=September 5, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100905005521/http://history.utah.gov/events_and_news/press_room/forgery.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>