A LITTLE KNOWN SIDELIGHT ON US/MEXICAN/ MORMON HISTORY: MORMONISM & THE CINCO DE MAYO The following story was recounted by a Mexican Secondary School Principal who is well-read in Mexican and Southwestern American history, and who, as a long-time member of the LDS Church had the privilege of knowing and talking to Church old-timers. He claims that the story has never been told in Mexican history books because of the bad light it would throw on the Juarez regime (illegally alienating Mexican lands to Gringos ), hasn't been made much mad of in U.S. history because it would show the Mormons (against the U.S. Government had just sent an army of conquest three years earlier) to have been responsible for salvaging the Monroe Doctrine when the U.S. was otherwise engaged in the Civil War, and has been left out of LDS histories because it would show Brigham Young and Sam Brannan cooperating in a major international venture at a time when accepted LDS history considers them to have been on the outs. The broad elements are confirmed in LaMont Tullis' Mormons in Mexico , Utah State University Press: 1987 The Brannan - Brigham Brouhaha Sam Brannan was President of the LDS Church in New York. Like other early day Presidents in regions away from Church headquarters, his responsibilities were rather broad and somewhat ill-defined. Some of these early regional leaders, in fact, came to consider themselves almost equal in authority to the President of the Church in Nauvoo -- or later Utah: collecting and making free use of tithes, calling missionaries, undertaking colonization projects, and generally acting in surprisingly independent manner. Like Anson Pratt in the Pacific Isles, Lyman Wight in Texas, and James Strang in Michigan, Brannan seems, by reason of his ordination as "king and priest" to have considered himself head of a quasi-independent church organization, and patriarch in his own right in the Abrahamic tradition. Brannan was instructed to bring the New York Saints, together with a group coming from Europe, around Cape Horn by ship to California, thence to join the Saints, who were traveling overland from Nauvoo, to the Great Salt Lake Valley. To briefly recapitulate the story, when Brannan and his associates arrived in Yerba Buena (now San Francisco), he found the soil and climate so agreeable that he sent a message to Brigham, suggesting that he bring his pioneer party on to California. Brigham declined; Brannan stayed; gold was discovered (by James Marshall, a member of the Mormon Battalion who'd been mustered out in San Diego and stopped to work in Sutter's Mill [today, Sacramento] on his way back to Utah); and Brannan found himself in a position to profit from the ensuing gold rush. It seems that for his initial capital, Sam relied on the tithes he collected from the Mormon settlers who'd accompanied him and from the Mormon miners who arrived shortly thereafter. He shortly became one of the richest men in California, a major San Francisco property owner, and, soon, mayor of the city no less. Brigham Young, as President of the Church, eventually asked for an accounting of the California tithes. Brannan reportedly said he'd send his accounting to Brigham when Brigham sent him an accounting of the Sale Lake tithes. There was a distinct falling out, and in due course Brannan was excommunicated (as had been Lyman Wight and James Strang in at least superficially similar circumstances. The story of the parallels between these early leaders and the common heresy into which they fell by misinterpreting the king/priest doctrine remains to be told). The Mormon War and the Polygamy Problem We now skip ahead in time. But as in all proper advances, we must first fall back a step. Joseph Smith's 1832 prophecy of "the war which should shortly come to pass between the Northern States and the Southern States, commencing in South Carolina" (D&C Section 87), was fulfilled some twenty-eight years later, just twelve years after the arrival of the pioneers in the Valley, when Confederate troops fired on Union-held Fort Sumpter. (Recalling this prophecy, Brigham had announced shortly after arrival in 1847, that now that the Saints were in the protection of the Rocky Mountains where the Lord had thousands of years before prophesied he would hide them, that given ten years to prepare, "even the devil himself couldn't dig us out." (Journal of Discourses). Ten years to the day later as the Saints were gathered to celebrate their tenth anniversary at Brighton's camp in Big Cottonwood Canyon, July 24, 1857, Orson Porter Rockwell came riding into camp at break neck speed, having ridden from Nebraska to warn Brigham that Johnston's Army was on its way to take up his challenge. (See Tullidge: History of Utah ). This was the largest peacetime military maneuver in US history, and it is noteworthy that by astute diplomacy and courageous action the Saints survived this invasion. My great grandfather, as an eighteen year old, helped man the teenage force in Echo Canyon, spending the summer marching from bonfire to bonfire every night to keep them burning, thus giving Johnston's scouts the impression that the Mormons had a major force in the hills. This caused Colonel Johnston to bide his time on the flats near Evanston, Wyoming until winter fell on his, weakening his forces and bringing him to reasonable terms the next spring. It is equally noteworthy that Johnston, by now a general, was within twelve years a leader in the Confederate forces, himself fighting on behalf of his state's interests against the Union which had sent him to pacify the "rebellious Mormons". The American Civil War Puts the Monroe Doctrine on Ice, Opening the Door for the French Invasion of Mexico With the outbreak of the Civil War, President Monroe's declaration thirty-nine years earlier in his 1823 State of the Union Address that the Western Hemisphere had now been sufficiently colonized and that the United States would "view with displeasure and European intervention in the Americas", had became impossible of enforcement by the United States (or by the Confederacy, had the latter any interest in the enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine). In short order, Napoleon III, recognizing the possibility of extending French interests in the New World -- and possibly with a view to recovering former French possessions in the Central and Western Territories of North America in the aftermath of a fratricidal US/Confederate conflict, sent French troops to Mexico to establish the Austrian Archduke Maximillian on the throne. These troops arrived in 1864. Mexican Masonry and an Echo of Nauvoo At this period of Mexican history, the Masonic movement was particularly strong (Masonry is still very active there). But there was considerably more than fraternal strife between the Scottish Rite and York Rite Masons. Benito Juarez, hoping to heal the breach, was making efforts to resolve the problem, and in the process had been looking into Masonic policies and problems in the Great Neighbor to the North. And his nearest Anglo-Saxon neighbors of any consequence were the Mormons. Juarez seems also to have been aware that Brigham Young and many of his associates were Masons. And, apparently, despite the failure of Joseph Smith to win acceptance for the Church through Masonic politics, Brigham, Heber C. Kimball, and others among the Church leadership continued to consider themselves Masons -- or were at least willing to the play the Masonic card in the interests of Church security. As Tullidge reports, the Mormons at this moment had as especially high sense of responsibility to form good relationship with, and preach the gospel to, the Indians -- and considered the Mexicans to be prime representatives of the Lamanites. Apostle Parley Pratt was studying Spanish and preparing for his mission to South America as early as 1849 -- just ten years after arrival in Deseret. Facing the invasion by Maximillian, Juarez had immediate need of guns -- and money to buy these guns. He sent envoys to Brigham Young, asking advice on the Masonry issue and requesting a million dollar loan (in today's terms this would be roughly equivalent of a hundred million US dollars). The Saints were barely established in the Rocky Mountains, had just survived their own war with the United States, and were spending about all they had to bring European converts to Zion financed by the tithes and offerings made available to the Perpetual Immigration Fund. Neither Brigham nor the Church had this kind of money. But there was still Brother Brannan -- excommunicated, but very rich and still a power in San Francisco. Brigham advised Juarez to create his own "Mexican Rite" Masonry as his solution to the first problem, and referred him to Sam Brannan in re the loan. Sam Brannan Providentially Invests in His Future and that of His Church Here the story become somewhat more anecdotal. But based on my source's reading and the oral history of old-timers, and the confirming circumstantial events which followed, I am prepared to accept this account: Brigham (sending Juarez' delegation on to see Brannan), succeeded in brokering the loan, with Brannan putting up most, though not all, of the million. With this money (and here the story is bolstered by an additional sidelight contributed by a local bank manager friend in northern Mexico with whom I've discussed the matter), Juarez succeeded in buying a supply of the first Winchester repeating rifles (built from a design just patented by the Mormon gunsmith Jonathan Browning and licensed for production to Winchester as with other Browing inventions), which were not yet even available to the U.S. Army -- with which Mexican forces succeeded in defeating Maximillian. This victory is still a major day for patriotic celebration in Mexico -- the famous Cinco de Mayo , now rivalling Washington's birthday in the American Southwest as a retailer's excuse for another post-Christmas sales event. As a result, the Monroe Doctrine was rescued (ironically, by Mexico, which considers the Doctrine among the worst examples of Gringo imperialism), and the Book of Mormon pronouncement that if the people were righteous "Kings would not rule on this continent" was salvaged, (which, however, leaves unresolved the uncomfortable episode of King Pedro of Brazil and the current example of Queen Elizabeth II in Canada). In the later years of a subsequent Juarez administration -- there were half a dozen -- comes Sam Brannan, now broke and discredited, to try to collect on his loan. As is known, he was granted extensive holding in Sonora, where he died a not-rich, but not-terribly-poor, expatriate. Also came the representatives of Brigham's successor John Taylor, now President of a Church which was experiencing further problems with the Government in Washington, now less for "rebellion" than for outraging the moral sentiments of the nation by espousing the practice of plurality of wives. President Taylor, looking for refuges for the Saints, was encouraging settlements in Canada, where even the Sioux Indians could expect fair treatment from Queen Victoria's Mounties, and in Mexico, where it is still not uncommon for a man to count a hundred brothers and sisters from the same father (machismo yet lives south of the border). Bread Cast Upon the Waters is Returned Juarez, who ruled altogether for twenty-nine years, was again around when Mexican authorities were approached by President Taylor's envoys to seek places of refuge (negotiations were completed under Wilford Woodruff). Juarez paid his debt by setting aside hundreds of thousands of acres of land, principally in Chihuahua, but also in Sonora, which became the foundation for the thirteen Mormon Colonies (one of which was appropriately named Juarez in honor of the Church's benefactor), in the which were later born President Marion G. Romney and his nephew George, Governor of Michigan and 1972 Republican Presidential Candidate, as well as many of the top leadership of the modern Church. Hundreds of descendants of these Anglo-Saxon settlers remain in the Colonies as welcome, progressive (in the socio-economic sense), bi-lingual, anglo-sajone citizens of Mexico. Being a canny Mexican, however, Juarez only gave authorization and informal government support for the Mormon colonization effort, considering this sufficient repayment for the loan which had made the Cinco de Mayo victory possible. The Mormons, unlike Brother Brannan, had to pay for every inch of land they acquired. Indeed, as Tullis recounts, because surveys and land claims in this part of Mexico were so often in conflict, sometimes Mexican Colony Saints had to pay a couple of times when it was found that some of the original purchases were within the borders of ranchos owned by others than those they thought they'd bought from. Why Has This Intriguing Multiple-Chapter Story Never Been Told? Why is the story of how the Mormons helped save Mexico from French domination; how the Church salvaged the Monroe Doctrine during the Civil War; how Joseph Smith's Masonic policy eventually bore fruit despite its failure in Illinois (when Joseph's Masonic brethren failed to come to his aid when he gave the Masonic distress call as he was fired upon by the Carthage Jail lynch mob); and how Mexican President Benito Juarez came to the aid of the Mormon Church in its hour of distress, not better known among Mexicans, Americans, or even Mormons? According to my Mexican school principal friend and the non-member Sonoran Bank President with whom I checked out this story, it is because: a) contemporary Mexicans would be forced negatively to reevaluate one of their hero presidents for illegally permitting and supporting alienation of hundreds of thousands of acres of Chihuahua and Sonoran land to Gringo Anglo -sajones , b) because American historians would have to give the Mormon Church credit for pulling the country's Monroe Doctrine chestnut out of the fire only seven years after the American Government had, in effect, declared war on the Church, and c) because official Mormon historians would have to acknowledge that Brigham Young and Samuel Brannan were still working hand in glove years after Brigham had publicly condemned Brother Samuel to "go to hell 'cross lots." While documents don't exist to footnote the text, the story remains a significant and interesting one. It has the circumstantial ring of truth, and its essentials are substantiated by Mexicans, members and non-members alike, who have a good grasp of the unwritten history of the region. And, as noted, Tullis' well-researched history confirm its broad outlines, with the exception of the details of the Brigham/Brannan loan and the reasons why Mexican Masons at Brigham's suggestion today follow their own rite, rather than either York or Scottish traditions.