An earlier
story this week looked at the cost of transporting the Saints to the Salt Lake
Valley. Cheapest was best in most cases, but not in all. For instance, it was
cheaper to have the immigrating Saints sail to New Orleans, transfer to
riverboats and then paddle their way north to Nauvoo. However, there are times
when cheapest isn’t always best and this route of travel came to a halt by
Church leaders. The Church chose the
more expensive route of gathering the Saints by sailing the immigrants to the
ports of New York, Boston, or Philadelphia, and then using the railroads to
transport to the staging camps at the railhead in Iowa City.
Why did
Brigham Young use the more expensive route?
a.
More and
more people were paying tithing, which allowed for the comfort of travel by train
b.
The number
of deaths from cholera coming up the Mississippi
c.
The amount
of persecutions endured on the riverboats
d.
From months
of lack of exercise on sailing vessels and river boats took away much of the
leg strength the Saints desperately needed to cross the plains
Yesterday’s answer:
a.
A trade gone
bad involving flour and fish
In 1853,
open warfare commenced [natives and Saints], again in Utah Valley, when an
argument over a simple trade of fish for flour lit the match on what has been
called the Walker War. Brigham Young immediately dispatched orders that “no
retaliation be made and no offense offered but for all to act entirely on the
defense until further orders”—to no avail. Discipline cracked and a spate of
brutal killings occurred as each side retaliated against the other. Apparently
exasperated by such indiscipline and carnage, in October Brigham Young pleaded:
“Brethren we must have peace. We must cease our hostilities and seek by every
possible means to reach the Indians with a peaceful message. In the spring of
1854, after offering full amnesty, Governor Young met with Chief Walkara in the
chief’s tent, blessed a sick child, purchased a slave as a further gesture, and
the war was over.
Plewe,
Brandon S., et. at., Mapping Mormonism (Provo,
Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2012) 100.
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