The Greater Good and the Lesser Sacrifice
A wagon train weaved its way into the Rocky Mountains.
It was the summer of 1846, and fourteen families had pulled together a dozen wagons, hired an experienced guide, gathered supplies and armed themselves for the journey through the untamed American west.
As they reached the rough terrain of the Rocky Mountains mid-summer, one wagon broke down. One of the wheels broke going over a rock in the road. Their guide told the party they were behind schedule, and in danger of being caught by winter snows before reaching Oregon. He insisted the wagon train not wait for the single wagon to be repaired. It was for the greater good.
The others moved around the broken down wagon, and continued on the trail. The wagon driver and a volunteer assistant stayed behind with an ox and caught up at camp that evening after making repairs to the wagon.
The next day, however, another wagon broke, this time in a part of the trail that was too narrow for all the wagons to get around. The guide again told them they couldn’t stop, regardless of the supplies in the trapped wagons. The wagons that weren’t blocked would keep going and make camp several miles down the trail that night, for the greater good.
Two wagons were left stuck behind the broken one, their drivers left to help with repairs. The other nine wagons continued, expecting to be reunited again that evening, like had happened before.
But by the next morning, none of the wagons left behind had rejoined the group, and the men who were with the wagons had not been heard from.
The guide, still claiming concern at the lateness of the season, insisted the group must keep moving west, or they would be snowed into the mountains before reaching Oregon and likely all die. The lives of the people with the wagons left behind would be sacrificed for the greater good of the nine wagons that would make it.
As they ate a hurried breakfast and packed up camp to return to the trail, there was much discussion.
“It just doesn’t feel right, leaving those men behind for our own good,” a woman said in a hushed tone to her husband. “There must still be time to search for them.
“And what of those men’s families? What will they do in Oregon without their husbands and fathers? I’m not sure the guide cares as much for our lives as he does for our money.”
“It doesn’t seem like he’s put a single thought into what the rest of us are giving up by leaving those men and wagons behind,” her husband agreed.
That’s when her brother-in-law, a ne’er do well who had joined the train with little more than the clothes on his back to escape debts he owed in the east, stamped his foot.
“The supplies in those wagons are important, too!” he said. “Our whiskey barrel was in the last wagon.”
A couple of eyebrows raised around the fire.
“You know,” said the man’s brother coyly. “You could walk back to check on them and catch up to us easily on foot, regardless of what you find.”
Several people around the campfire nodded and murmured in agreement. The man had no family and wasn’t one of the wagon drivers, so he could easily be spared. The one with the least to lose, and would cost the group the least, could go back to try to recover the lost wagons.
The ne’er-do-well blanched. He didn’t want to leave the group, he was no mountain man. But, he had exposed himself and could hardly refuse now, with his own brother pushing him to go. He acquiesced reluctantly, packed a small bag with supplies, and headed back up the trail.
Within a few hours, he reached the men, who were struggling to move the broken wagon out of the way so the two unbroken wagons could continue. A fourth man made a big difference.
“Thank the Lord, you came back!” said one of the wagon drivers, after heaving the broken wagon aside. “We were starting to feel like we had been sacrificed by the guide.”
“You were, and then the group sacrificed me to come get you, too,” the brother said.
The four men stood in silence for a moment.
“I don’t think you can sacrifice something that isn’t yours,” said one of the other drivers. “But assuming you can, let’s sacrifice some of the group’s whiskey before heading out.”
