1857, for the Tabernacle had been preaching a "reformation" by blood for a period of three years. The provocation to violence was all that was required. The advance of the troops and the passage of the emigrant trains were only the accidents. Before either of them was heard of, the teachings of the "Reformation" had begun to bear their fruits among the Mormons themselves, particularly in the very notable case known as the Parrish Murders at Springville.
The family of Parrish had at one time been very devoted to the Church. In the controversy that occurred between Sidney Rigdon and the Twelve Apostles at Nauvoo for the ruling supremacy of the Church, Parrish's name figures in one of the documents, and he is reported to have said that "he would follow the Twelve if they led him to hell." Ten years later his zeal had cooled considerably, and he had resolved to leave the Territory. It is not likely that the consideration of the influence abroad of a man of his calibre could have weighed much with the Mormon leaders, yet he was brutally and foully murdered, as also was one of his sons, and the other son was seriously wounded, on the evening that they were preparing to start for California. This particular case is probably the best illustration of how men are "killed to save them."
The facts of this deed of blood clearly exhibit that it was a religious murder. The major part of the men charged with compassing the death of the Parrishes never would have soiled their hands with the blood of these or any other persons on their own account. They are not men of bad habits; not riotous, nor drunkards. Bishop Johnson, for whose apprehension Judge Cradlebaugh issued a warrant on the charge of this murder, is a very quiet, inoffensive man. He has a well-regulated and, for aught the public know, a peaceable home, with ten excellent wives and a long string of children. Mayor McDonald is a thorough Scotchman, a Gaelic Highlander, born and reared with the best surroundings of Presbyterianism, a man of unfailing honesty, strict integrity, and truthfulness, and blessed with as sweet a wife as ever honoured man with her love. Though great and powerful physically, he was by nature docile as a lamb. There could be nothing possibly in the "apostasy" of Parrish, and the proposed departure of his family from Utah, to tempt such
