Mormon Question,The

DESCRIPTION: "When Uncle Sam first set out His army to destroy us, Says he, 'Those Mormons we'll rout...." "There's a great commotion in the east About the Mormon question." But the expedition encounters much trouble and concludes "These Mormons beat the devil."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: war travel hardtimes
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1857 - Mounting of the Mormon Expedition/Mormon War/Utah War
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #234, "The Mormon Question" (2 texts plus an excerpt)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 227-228, "The Mormon Question" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10840
NOTES [182 words]: The Mormons, having been oppressed in the United States, moved to Utah under the direction of Brigham Young to try to avoid American persecution. Then came the Mexican War, which put Utah and the Mormons back in the United States. Young still tried to stay independent even as colonists headed west. And then came Mountain Meadows Massacre (for which see "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19]; also "Brigham Young (I)"). Eventually the United States decided to show that it, not Brigham Young, ruled Utah. So they sent out an army led by Albert Sidney Johnston. But Utah was so far away, and so dry, that the expedition found it very hard to mount a real attack. Eventually a peace was patched up -- but the Mormons, correctly, regarded that as a victory; they still had substantial self-goverment despite American hatred of them and of polygamy.
On the other hand, they eventually had to abandon polygamy to gain statehood, and once the United States surrounded them, they needed statehood for economic reasons. In the long run, I'd call their quarrel with the United States a draw. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hubb234

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