DiscussMormonism.com

I recently read (somewhere) that Brigham Young was granted a Presidential Pardon by President Buchanan in 1858.

Was this a pardon for his involvement (blocking Federal Troops) in the Utah War,
or was it for his involvement with the September 11, 1857, Mountain Meadows Massacre?

If it was for the MMM, then presumably he was directly involved, people do not usually get a pardon unless they are guilty of something?

Would be interested in some pointers on this issue, Thanks.

Although called a pardon it was an amnesty. And it was not Brigham Young specific. It applied to all participants in the armed resistance to federal troops.

Whether it applied to MMM participants is another question.

The federal prosecutor in the 1850s argued that it did. A New York newspaper argued that it probably did. The presiding judge of the federal court in Utah said that it didn't.

When Buchanan issue the amnesty he probably didn't know about the MMM. In the end, it didn't apply to protect anybody in the massacre.