“Hang ’em up, like pirates!” That conclusion regarding the Mormons, reached by the editor of the Sacramento California American, echoed the sentiments of many California newspapers during the critical years of 1856–1857. Drawing on both pro- and anti-Mormon sources, this presentation will replicate, through dramatic reading and commentary, some of the more inflammatory newspaper wars of the day. The star of this show will be the young George Q. Cannon, future apostle and fiery editor of the Western Standard, the LDS newspaper he published in San Francisco during the time of the Utah Reformation up to the advent of Johnston’s Army.

Roger Ekins, Will Bagley