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Romney ancestor fled Army, joined LDS Church

What your point? There is a cowardice gene?

I'm tired of everyone focusing on Mitt's religion or now what some distant family member did 100 yrs ago. USA needs to focus on his political aspects and what he can do for our great nation.

Enter commentIs Wilken running for President? No. Mitt Romney, a completely different person is.

And if a presidential candidate's ancestor fled the Union army to join the Confederate army during the Civil War that would mean...? Oh yeah... nothing to see here. Move along.

One point is to get some pub for an obscure conference no one would have written about otherwise.

The other is to keep alive the chickenhawk slur. See, not only did his sons not serve, but his ancestors deserted and became polygamists. Connect the dots, folks, he's clearly unfit to serve as president!

Can't wait to see the articles on other candidates' great-great-grandparents. Oh wait--there aren't any.

This is NOT news. What bearing does this have on Romney running for president? Zero. And Romney isn't my choice for prez, by the way. I don't think he can win. But printing something so horribly off-subject and unrelated to what goes on today is just irresponsible by your newspaper. It's looking for a tie where there is none. If you don't have anything informative, like a plan for fixing Social Security, healthcare, the war in Iraq, or the like coming from the Romney camp, then don't print anything at all.

This is hardly news. If the Deseret News going to carry this, let's comb through the ancestry of all the other presidential candidates and find what all their ancestors did. Some of the stories of how their ancestors came to the country could be quite interesting.

And in reference to the previous commentator ("Is there a cowardice gene?"), when I clicked on the comment page it brought up an ancestry.com ad which says "Maybe it runs in the family...Meet your ancestors." I'm not kidding.

Oh yes, this is the golden nugget of disgrace, just what the Democrats and his Republican foes were waiting for.

This will make all forget that he built a strong and successful company oversaw the Olympic mess through to a fantastic result, and governed in a seemingly solid manor in Mass.

Come on writers. I am constantly incensed of what is called "news" today. If I held that same standard of my long dead relatives to myself I would be marked as a slave trader today. Wait, maybe I am. I mean I actually make my kids work hard depriving them of their constitutional right to do nothing and learn nothing.

Step up Davidson, give us real news. Write of the critical things actually affecting our current living circumstances.

Who cares? Don't you have something better to report on?

I think the point was intuitively obvious to the most casual observer---reporting what went on at the Utah State History Conference.

Sounds like a good gene to me. One that is free thinking, and prone to good leadership. One that we need in our future President.

Do we care about stuff like that. It's not like Romney himself deserted the Army and gave information to the people the army was going after. It's noot like Romney is giving information to Al Quaeda. People only care about such things if it's against a Republican candidate. Remember that Bill Clinton fled the country to avoid the Vietnam War, and he was still elected President for 8 years. So let's not crucify Romney for something that happened 150 years ago.

Very entertaining piece... 150 year old ancestors shouldn't help or hurt candidates.

After reading the story, I cannot understand how anonymous could call the desertion of Mitt's ancestor cowardly. Carl Wilcken was honored by his native country for bravery. The Iron Cross is roughly equivalent to either the Bronze or Silver Star. He apparently was a very disciplined soldier. What Carl saw in the American army that was going to Utah in 1857 was hardly no more than a barely organized mob. To quote the article "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."
Professional, disciplined soldiers do not carry on in such a fashion.
As for the point of the story, I also do not see how such a story has any impact on Mitt's campaign. Unless the author of the story was just trying to fill column space. If Lee Davidson was to research his family history, he would more than likely find some ancestors that have done worse than what Carl Wilcken had ever done.
Just for the record, according to my military file, I have 22 years of military service between the regular army and the active reserves.

"Anonymous" asks (somewhat duplicitously, I suspect), "What [sic] your point? There is a cowardice gene?"

You are asking about the point of an article about seminars about history at a Utah stat historical conference???

The "point" of the article IS the article. It is meant to inform people about some part of the past. In this case, one of the ancestors of a candidate for President.

Regarding your implication of cowardice, if the article is correct, it would seem Mr. Wilcken, a decorated veteran of some very brutal campaigns in Europe, chose to align himself with a more honorable party after enduring the association of too many undsciplined and loutish soldiers who openly discussed engaging in immoral and illegal acts of murder and rape. He then risked capture and imprisonment, if not execution, to do it.

Subsequently, he was apparently deemed of such high and stout character that he was entrusted with defending the lives of some of the most beloved people among the Mormons.

None of those things seems to indicate the least bit of cowardice. Certainly not like someone asking some smarmy question about someone else’s character while hiding behind the oh-so brave moniker of “Anonymous”.

Great Grandpa's aversion to military service seems to have been passed down. Neither George W., Mitt, nor any of Mitt's sons have seen the inside of a barracks.

"The Romney campaign declined to comment on this story." Did you expect them to?
What is your point with this story?

Dear Anonymous: Cowardice? Duh! Doesn't sound like you read past the headline. The the point is, the man was inspired, faithfully followed the inspiration and not only he, but his posterity for generations, was greatly blessed. What a wonderful heritage.

What a lame story, who cares about Romney's ancestors?

Thanks for the info.....and the point is?