| Topic: |
Religions > Bible |
| User: |
"Christian" |
| Date: |
11 Dec 2007 09:36:53 AM |
| Object: |
TRAITOROUS FAITH OF ROMNEY'S FATHERS |
I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is
the faith of my fathers - I will be true to them and to my beliefs.
Mitt Romney - December 6, 2007
Mitt Romney's Traitorous Ancestor - 1857
Romney ancestor fled Army, joined LDS Church
By Lee Davidson
Deseret Morning News
September 8, 2007
It may not be what a presidential candidate would want historians
discussing, as they did Friday. But exactly 150 years ago, an ancestor
of Mitt Romney deserted from U.S. Army troops sent to put down a
purported Mormon rebellion in Utah.
Carl Heinrich (Charles Henry) Wilcken, Romney's great-great-
grandfather, would give Mormons information about approaching troops,
eventually joined the LDS Church and ultimately became a bodyguard and
confidant of two church presidents.
The middle name of Romney's father, former Michigan Gov. George W.
Romney (also once a presidential candidate), is Wilcken, after that
soldier-ancestor.
The little-known soldier in the little-known "Utah War" was a topic
Friday at the annual Utah State History Conference. Several seminars
focused on the 150th anniversary of that "war," in which President
James Buchanan sent troops against Mormons in 1857-58 after ex-
officials convinced him that Mormons would not submit to federal law.
Mormons saw that as a renewal of persecution and sent militia to face
the army in what was essentially a mini-civil war four years before
the real thing between North and South. Little shooting occurred, as
Buchanan eventually gave amnesty to Mormons as they accepted a non-
Mormon governor and a permanent garrison of U.S. troops.
Amateur historian Steve Richardson presented a paper Friday that
discussed Wilcken, who he said had previously been awarded the Iron
Cross by the king of Prussia for service in its war against Denmark.
After that war, Denmark attempted to draft former Prussian soldiers
living in its acquired regions of Scheswig-Holstein. So Wilcken
decided to leave and join friends in Argentina but had only enough
money to make it to New York.
Richardson said Wilcken was unable to find work, so he joined the U.S.
Army and was sent on the "Utah expedition."
"He was unhappy with the lack of discipline of the soldiers,"
Richardson said. "He had a low opinion of other soldiers," as they
talked about possibly hanging or jailing Mormon leaders and
"appropriating" their wives and daughters.
Wilcken saw poor protection by U.S. troops, which allowed Mormon
militia to burn forage in front of the approaching army. LDS soldiers
also burned many of the federal supply wagons and ran off the army's
livestock. Soldiers had little to eat. Their winter camp in Wyoming
would be one of the hardest in the history of the U.S. Army.
Wilcken decided to desert and head for Salt Lake City. But, Richardson
said, Wilcken reported a spiritual experience that delayed that action
for a day and possibly saved him from being jailed or shot.
As he was about to desert, he said he "heard a voice calling his name"
-- his real name, not the assumed name he used to enlist. Two other
times as he was to leave, he heard his name called and stopped.
Wilcken later learned that the cavalry had been on patrol all night
watching Mormon camps and likely would have caught him.
Richardson said, "That night, he had a dream telling him to ask his
captain for permission to go out hunting the next day, and he would
meet some friends." He did exactly that, deserted and met Mormons who
escorted him back to their lines. That was on Oct. 7, 1857, 150 years
ago next month.
Richardson said Wilcken was impressed with Mormons and their lack of
the cursing and fighting that he had seen with U.S. troops. Wilcken
provided Mormons with information about conditions of the U.S. Army
and went to Salt Lake City.
Historian William P. MacKinnon added that Wilcken's U.S. Army captain,
John W. Phelps, wrote in his diary about Wilcken's disappearance and
"talked about what a fine man he was and how different he was from
another man who deserted."
MacKinnon noted that Phelps, who would become a Union general in the
Civil War, ran for president in 1880 but received only a few hundred
votes. Wilcken's Romney descendants have done better than that in
their campaigns for president.
Wilcken was baptized into the LDS Church only two months after he
deserted the Army and later had plural wives. In later years, he
became a messenger and bodyguard for LDS President John Taylor, who
was, at times, in hiding during federal anti-polygamy crusades. He
also was a bodyguard for President Wilford Woodruff, who succeeded
John Taylor and ultimately led the church away from the practice of
polygamy.
Mitt Romney's campaign declined comment on the story.
http://www.truthandgrace.com/Mormon.htm
.
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