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diff --git a/2443.txt b/2443.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..722f6e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/2443.txt @@ -0,0 +1,27152 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Story of the Mormons, by William Alexander Linn + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Story of the Mormons + From the Date of their Origin to the Year 1901 + +Author: William Alexander Linn + +Release Date: December 2000 [EBook #2443] +Last Updated: July 25, 2012 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE MORMONS *** + + + + +Produced by Several Anonymous Volunteers, Dianne Bean, and David Widger + + + + + + +THE STORY OF THE MORMONS + +FROM THE DATE OF THEIR ORIGIN TO THE YEAR 1901 + +By William Alexander Linn + + + + +PREFACE + +No chapter of American history has remained so long unwritten as that +which tells the story of the Mormons. There are many books on the +subject, histories written under the auspices of the Mormon church, +which are hopelessly biased as well as incomplete; more trustworthy +works which cover only certain periods; and books in the nature of +"exposures" by former members of the church, which the Mormons attack as +untruthful, and which rest, in the minds of the general reader, under +a suspicion of personal bias. Mormonism, therefore, to-day suggests to +most persons only one doctrine--polygamy--and only one leader--Brigham +Young, who made his name familiar to the present generations. Joseph +Smith, Jr., is known, where known at all, only in the most general +way as the founder of the sect, while the real originator of the whole +scheme for a new church and of its doctrines and government, Sidney +Rigdon, is known to few persons even by name. + +The object of the present work is to present a consecutive history of +the Mormons, from the day of their origin to the present writing, and as +a secular, not as a religious, narrative. The search has been for facts, +not for moral deductions, except as these present themselves in the +course of the story. Since the usual weapon which the heads of +the Mormon church use to meet anything unfavorable regarding their +organization or leaders is a general denial, this narrative has been +made to rest largely on Mormon sources of information. It has been +possible to follow this plan a long way because many of the original +Mormons left sketches that have been preserved. Thus we have Mother +Smith's picture of her family and of the early days of the church; the +Prophet's own account of the revelation to him of the golden plates, of +his followers' early experiences, and of his own doings, almost day by +day, to the date of his death, written with an egotist's appreciation of +his own part in the play; other autobiographies, like Parley P. Pratt's +and Lorenzo Snow's; and, finally, the periodicals which the church +issued in Ohio, in Missouri, in Illinois, and in England, and the +official reports of the discourses preached in Utah,--all showing up, as +in a mirror, the character of the persons who gave this Church of Latter +Day Saints its being and its growth. + +In regard to no period of Mormon history is there such a lack of +accurate information as concerning that which covers their moves to +Ohio, thence to Missouri, thence to Illinois, and thence to Utah. Their +own excuse for all these moves is covered by the one word "persecution" +(meaning persecution on account of their religious belief), and so +little has the non-Mormon world known about the subject that this +explanation has scarcely been challenged. Much space is given to these +early migrations, as in this way alone can a knowledge be acquired of +the real character of the constituency built up by Smith in Ohio, and +led by him from place to place until his death, and then to Utah by +Brigham Young. + +Any study of the aims and objects of the Mormon leaders must rest on the +Mormon Bible ("Book of Mormon") and on the "Doctrine and Covenants," the +latter consisting principally of the "revelations" which directed the +organization of the church and its secular movements. In these alone +are spread out the original purpose of the migration to Missouri and the +instructions of Smith to his followers regarding their assumed rights +to the territory they were to occupy; and without a knowledge of these +"revelations" no fair judgment can be formed of the justness of +the objections of the people of Missouri and Illinois to their new +neighbors. If the fraudulent character of the alleged revelation to +Smith of golden plates can be established, the foundation of the +whole church scheme crumbles. If Rigdon's connection with Smith in the +preparation of the Bible by the use of the "Spaulding manuscript" can be +proved, the fraud itself is established. Considerable of the evidence on +this point herein brought together is presented at least in new shape, +and an adequate sketch of Sidney Rigdon is given for the first time. The +probable service of Joachim's "Everlasting Gospel," as suggesting the +story of the revelation of the plates, has been hitherto overlooked. + +A few words with regard to some of the sources of information quoted: + +"Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith and his Progenitors for Many +Generations" ("Mother Smith's History," as this book has been generally +called) was first published in 1853 by the Mormon press in Liverpool, +with a preface by Orson Pratt recommending it; and the Millennial Star +(Vol. XV, p. 682) said of it: "Being written by Lucy Smith, the +mother of the Prophet, and mostly under his inspiration, will be ample +guarantee for the authenticity of the narrative.... Altogether the +work is one of the most interesting that has appeared in this latter +dispensation." Brigham Young, however, saw how many of its statements +told against the church, and in a letter to the Millennial Star (Vol. +XVII, p. 298), dated January 31, 1858, he declared that it contained +"many mistakes," and said that "should it ever be deemed best to publish +these sketches, it will not be done until after they are carefully +corrected." The preface to the edition of 1890, published by the +Reorganized Church at Plano, Illinois, says that Young ordered the +suppression of the first edition, and that under this order large +numbers were destroyed, few being preserved, some of which fell into the +hands of those now with the Reorganized Church. For this destruction +we see no adequate reason. James J. Strang, in a note to his pamphlet, +"Prophetic Controversy," says that Mrs. Corey (to whom the pamphlet +is addressed) "wrote the history of the Smiths called 'Mother Smith's +History.'" Mrs. Smith was herself quite incapable of putting her +recollections into literary shape. + +The autobiography of Joseph Smith, Jr., under the title "History of +Joseph Smith," began as a supplement to Volume XIV of the Millennial +Star, and ran through successive volumes to Volume XXIV. The matter +in the supplement and in the earlier numbers was revised and largely +written by Rigdon. The preparation of the work began after he and Smith +settled in Nauvoo, Illinois. In his last years Smith rid himself almost +entirely of Rigdon's counsel, and the part of the autobiography then +written takes the form of a diary which unmasks Smith's character as +no one else could do. Most of the correspondence and official documents +relating to the troubles in Missouri and Illinois are incorporated in +this work. + +Of the greatest value to the historian are the volumes of the Mormon +publications issued at Kirtland, Ohio; Independence, Missouri; Nauvoo, +Illinois; and Liverpool, England. The first of these, Evening and +Morning Star (a monthly, twenty-four numbers), started at Independence +and transferred to Kirtland, covers the period from June, 1832, to +September, 1834; its successor, the Latter Day Saints' Messenger and +Advocate, was issued at Kirtland from 1834 to 1837. This was followed +by the Elders' journal, which was transferred from Kirtland to Far West, +Missouri, and was discontinued when the Saints were compelled to leave +that state. Times and Seasons was published at Nauvoo from 1839 to 1845. +Files of these publications are very scarce, the volumes of the Times +and Seasons having been suppressed, so far as possible, by Brigham +Young's order. The publication of the Millennial Star was begun in +Liverpool in May, 1840, and is still continued. The early volumes +contain the official epistles of the heads of the church to their +followers, Smith's autobiography, correspondence describing the +early migrations and the experiences in Utah, and much other valuable +material, the authenticity of which cannot be disputed by the Mormons. +In the Journal of Discourses (issued primarily for circulation in +Europe) are found official reports of the principal discourses (or +sermons) delivered in Salt Lake City during Young's regime. Without +this official sponsor for the correctness of these reports, many of them +would doubtless be disputed by the Mormons of to-day. + +The earliest non-Mormon source of original information quoted is +"Mormonism Unveiled," by E. D. Howe (Painesville, Ohio, 1834). Mr. Howe, +after a newspaper experience in New York State, founded the Cleveland +(Ohio) Herald in 1819, and later the Painesville (Ohio) Telegraph. +Living near the scene of the Mormon activity in Ohio when they moved to +that state, and desiring to ascertain the character of the men who were +proclaiming a new Bible and a new church, he sent agents to secure +such information among the Smiths' old acquaintances in New York +and Pennsylvania, and made inquiries on kindred subjects, like the +"Spaulding manuscript." His book was the first serious blow that Smith +and his associates encountered, and their wrath against it and its +author was fierce. + +Pomeroy Tucker, the author of "Origin and Progress of the Mormons" (New +York, 1867), was personally acquainted with the Smiths and with Harris +and Cowdery before and after the appearance of the Mormon Bible. He read +a good deal of the proof of the original edition of that book as it was +going through the press, and was present during many of the negotiations +with Grandin about its publication. His testimony in regard to early +matters connected with the church is important. + +Two non-Mormons who had an early view of the church in Utah and who +put their observations in book form were B. G. Ferris ("Utah and the +Mormons," New York, 1854 and 1856) and Lieutenant J. W. Gunnison of +the United States Topographical Engineers ("The Mormons," Philadelphia, +1856). Both of these works contain interesting pictures of life in Utah +in those early days. + +There are three comprehensive histories of Utah,--H. H. Bancroft's +"History of Utah" (p. 889), Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City" (p. +886), and Orson F. Whitney's "History of Utah," in four volumes, three +of which, dated respectively March, 1892, April, 1893, and January, +1898, have been issued. The Reorganized Church has also published a +"History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" in three +volumes. While Bancroft's work professes to be written from a secular +standpoint, it is really a church production, the preparation of the +text having been confided to Mormon hands. "We furnished Mr. Bancroft +with his material," said a prominent Mormon church officer to me. Its +plan is to give the Mormon view in the text, and to refer the reader for +the other side to a mass of undigested notes, and its principal value to +the student consists in its references to other authorities. Its general +tone may be seen in its declaration that those who have joined the +church to expose its secrets are "the most contemptible of all"; that +those who have joined it honestly and, discovering what company they +have got into, have given the information to the world, would far better +have gone their way and said nothing about it; and, as to polygamy, that +"those who waxed the hottest against" the practice "are not as a rule +the purest of our people" (p. 361); and that the Edmunds Law of 1882 +"capped the climax of absurdity" (p. 683). + +Tullidge wrote his history after he had taken part in the "New +Movement." In it he brought together a great deal of information, +including the text of important papers, which is necessary to an +understanding of the growth and struggles of the church. The work was +censored by a committee appointed by the Mormon authorities. + +Bishop Whitney's history presents the pro-Mormon view of the church +throughout. It is therefore wholly untrustworthy as a guide to opinion +on the subjects treated, but, like Tullidge's, it supplies a good deal +of material which is useful to the student who is prepared to estimate +its statements at their true value. + +The acquisition by the New York Public Library of the Berrian collection +of books, early newspapers, and pamphlets on Mormonism, with the +additions constantly made to this collection, places within the reach of +the student all the material that is necessary for the formation of the +fairest judgment on the subject. + +W. A. L. HACKENSACK, N. J., 1901. + + + + +DETAILED CONTENTS + +BOOK I. THE MORMON ORIGIN + +I. FACILITY OF HUMAN BELIEF: The Real Miracle of Mormon +Success--Effrontery of the Leaders' Professions--Attractiveness of +Religious Beliefs to Man--Wherein the World does not make Progress--The +Anglo-Saxon Appetite for Religious Novelties + +II. THE SMITH FAMILY: Solomon Mack and his Autobiography +--Religious Characteristics of the Prophet's Mother--The Family Life in +Vermont--Early Occupations in New York State--Pictures of the Prophet as +a Youth--Recollections of the Smiths by their New York Neighbors + +III. HOW JOSEPH SMITH BECAME A MONEY-DIGGER: His Use of a +Divining Rod--His First Introduction to Crystal-gazing--Peeping after +Hidden Treasure--How Joseph obtained his own "Peek-stone"--Methods of +Midnight Money-digging + +IV. FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE GOLDEN BIBLE: Variations in the +Early Descriptions--Joseph's Acquaintance with the Hales--His Elopement +and Marriage--What he told a Neighbor about the Origin of his Bible +Discovery--Early Anecdotes about the Book + +V. THE DIFFERENT ACCOUNTS OF THE REVELATION OF THE BIBLE: +The Versions about the Spanish Guardian--Important Statement by the +Prophet's Father--The Later Account in the Prophet's Autobiography--The +Angel Visitor and the Acquisition of the Plates--Mother Smith's Version + +VI. TRANSLATION AND PUBLICATION OF THE BIBLE: Martin Harris's +Connection with the Work--Smith's Removal to Pennsylvania--How the +Translation was carried on--Harris's Visit to Professor Anthon--The +Professor's Account of his Visit--The Lost Pages--The Prophet's +Predicament and his Method of Escape--Oliver Cowdery as an +Assistant Translator--Introduction of the Whitmers--The Printing and +Proof--reading of the New Bible--Recollections of Survivors + +VII. THE SPAULDING MANUSCRIPT: Solomon Spaulding's +Career--History of "The Manuscript Found"--Statements by Members of +the Author's Family--Testimony of Spaulding's Ohio Neighbors about the +Resemblance of his Story to the Book of Mormon--The Manuscript found in +the Sandwich Islands + +VIII. SIDNEY RIGDON: His Biography--Connection with the +Campbells--Efficient Church Work in Ohio--His Jealousy of his Church +Leaders--Disciples' Beliefs and Mormon Doctrines--Intimations about +a New Bible--Rigdon's First Connection with Smith--The Rigdon-Smith +Translation of the Scriptures--Rigdon's Conversion to Mormonism + +IX. "THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL": Probable Origin of the Idea of +a Bible on Plates--Cyril's Gift from an Angel and Joachim's Use +of it--Where Rigdon could have obtained the Idea Prominence of the +"Everlasting Gospel" in Mormon Writings + +X. THE WITNESSES TO THE PLATES: Text of the Two +"Testimonies"--The Prophet's Explanation of the First--Early Reputation +and Subsequent History of the Signers--The Truth about the Kinderhook +Plates and Rafinesque's Glyphs + +XI. THE MORMON BIBLE: Some of its Errors and +Absurdities--Facsimile of the First Edition Title-page--The Historical +Narrative of the Book--Its Lack of Literary Style--Appropriated Chapters +of the Scriptures--Specimen Anachronisms + +XII. ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH: Smith's Ordination by John +the Baptist--The First Baptisms--Early Branches of the Church--The +Revelation about Church Officers--Cowdery's Ambition and How it was +Repressed--Smith's Title as Seer, Translator, and Prophet--His Arrest +and Release--Arrival of Parley P. Platt and Rigdon in Palmyra--The +Command to remove to Ohio + +XIII. THE MORMONS' BELIEFS AND DOCTRINES--CHURCH GOVERNMENT: +Long Years of Apostasy--Origin of the Name "Mormon"--Original Titles of +the Church--Belief in a Speedy Millennium--The Future Possession of +the Earth--Smith's Revelations and how they were obtained--The +First Published Editions--Counterfeit Revealers--What is Taught of +God--Brigham Young's Adam Sermon--Baptism for the Dead--The Church +Officers + +BOOK II. IN OHIO + +I. THE FIRST CONVERTS AT KIRTLAND: Original Missionaries sent +out to the Lamanites--Organization of a Church in Ohio--Effect of +Rigdon's Conversion--General Interest in the New Bible and Prophet--How +Men of Education came to believe in Mormonism--Result of the Upturning +of Religious Belief + +II. WILD VAGARIES OF THE CONVERTS: Convulsions and +Commissions--Common Religious Excitements of those Days--Description of +the "Jerks"--Smith's Repressing Influence + +III. GROWTH OF THE CHURCH: The Appointment of Elders--Beginning +of the Proselyting System--Smith's Power Entrenched--His Temporal +Provision--Repression of Rigdon--The Tarring and Feathering of Smith +and Rigdon--Treatment of the Mormons and of Other New Denominations +compared--Rigdon's Punishment + +IV. GIFTS OF TONGUES AND MIRACLES: How Persons "Spoke in +Tongues"--Seeing the Lord Face to Face--Early Use of Miracles--The +Story of the "Book of Abraham"--The Prophet as a Translator of Greek and +Egyptian. + +V. SMITH'S OHIO BUSINESS ENTERPRISES: Young's Picture of the +Prophet's Experience as a Retail Merchant--The Land Speculation--Laying +out of the City--Building of the Temple--Consecration of Property--How +the Leaders looked out for themselves--Amusing Explanation of Section +III of the "Doctrine and Covenants"--The Story of the Kirtland Bank--The +Church View of its Responsibility for the Currency--The Business Crash +and Smith's Flight to Missouri + +VI. LAST DAYS AT KIRTLAND: Pictures of the Prophet--Accusations +against Church Leaders in Missouri--Serious Charge against the +Prophet--W. W, Phelps's Rebellion--Smith's Description of Leading Lights +of the Church--Charges concerning Smith's Morality--The Church accused +of practising Polygamy--A Lively Fight at a Church Service--Smith's and +Rigdon's Defence of their Conduct--The Later History of Kirtland + +BOOK III. IN MISSOURI + +I. THE DIRECTIONS TO THE SAINTS ABOUT THEIR ZION: Western +Missouri in the Early Days--Pioneer Farming and Home-making--The Trip +of the Four Mormon Missionaries--Direction about the Gathering of the +Elect--How they were to possess the Land of Promise--Their Appropriation +of the Good Things purchased of their Enemies + +II. SMITH'S FIRST VISITS TO MISSOURI: Founding the City of Zion +and the Temple--Marvellous Stories that were told--Dissatisfaction of +Some of the Prophet's Companions + +III. THE EXPULSION FROM JACKSON COUNTY: Rapid Influx of +Mormons--Result of the Publication of the Revelations--First +Friction with their Non-Mormon Neighbors--Manifesto of the Mormons' +Opponents--Their Big Mass Meeting--Demands on the Mormons--Destruction +of the Star Printing-office--The Mormons' Agreement to leave--Smith's +Advice to his Flock--Repudiation of the Mormon Agreement and Renewal of +Hostilities--The Battle at Big Blue--Evacuation of the County--March of +the Army of Zion--An Inglorious Finale + +IV. FRUITLESS NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE JACKSON COUNTY PEOPLE: A +Fair Offer Rejected--The Mormon Counter Propositions--Governor Dunklin +on the Situation + +V. IN CLAY, CALDWELL, AND DAVIESS COUNTIES: Welcome of the +Mormons by New Neighbors--Effect of their Claims about Possessing the +Land--Ordered out of Clay County--Founding of Far West--A Welcome to +Smith and Rigdon + +VI. RADICAL DISSENSIONS IN THE CHURCH: Trial of Phelps and +Whitmer--Conviction of Oliver Cowdery on Serious Charges--Expulsion +of Leading Members--Origin of the Danites--Suggested by the Prophet at +Kirtland--The Danite Constitution and Oath--Origin of the Tithing System + +VII. BEGINNING OF ACTIVE HOSTILITIES: Result of Smith's +Domineering Course--Jealousy caused by the Scattering of the +Saints--Founding of Adam-ondi-Ahman--Rigdon's Famous Salt Sermon--Open +Defiance of the Non-Mormons--The Mormons in Politics--An Election Day +Row--Arrests and Threats + +VIII. A STATE OF CIVIL WAR: Calling out of the Militia--Proposed +Expulsion of the Mormons from Carroll County--The Siege of De Witt--The +Prophet's Defiance--Work of his "Fur Company"--Gentile Retaliation--The +Battle of Crooked River--The Massacre at Hawn's Mills--Governor Boggs's +"Order of Extermination" + +IX. THE FINAL EXPULSION FROM THE STATE: General Lucas's Terms to +the Mormons--Surrender of Far West and Arrest of Mormon Leaders--General +Clark's Address to the Mormons--His Report to the Governor--General +Wilson's Picture of Adam-ondi-Ahman--Fate of the Mormon +Prisoners--Testimony at their Trial--Smith's Escape--Migration to +Illinois + +BOOK IV. IN ILLINOIS + +I. THE RECEPTION OF THE MORMONS: Incidents in the Early History +of the State--Defiant Lawlessness--Politicians the First to Welcome the +Newcomers--Landowners Among their First Friends + +II. THE SETTLEMENT OF NAUVOO: Smith's Leadership +Illustrated--The Land Purchases--A Reconciliation of Conflicting +Revelations--Smith's Financiering--Shameful Misrepresentation to +Immigrants + +III. THE BUILDING UP OF THE CITY: Unhealthfulness of its +Site--Rapid Growth of the Place--Early Pictures of it--Foreign +Proselyting--Why England was a Good Field--Method of Work there--The +Employment of Miracles--How the Converts were Sent Over + +IV. THE NAUVOO CITY GOVERNMENT: Dr. Galland's Suggestions--An +Important Revelation--Church Buildings Ordered--Subserviency of the +Legislature--Dr. John C. Bennett's Efficient Aid--Authority granted to +the City Government--The Nauvoo Legion--Bennett's Welcome--The Temple +and How it was Constructed + +V. THE MORMONS IN POLITICS: Smith's Decree against Van +Buren--How the Prophet swung the Mormon Vote back to the Democrats--The +Attempted Assassination of Governor Boggs--Smith's Arrest and What +Resulted from it--Defeat of a Whig Candidate by a Revelation + +VI. SMITH A CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: His +Letter to Clay and Calhoun--Their Replies and Smith's Abusive +Wrath--The Prophet's Views on National Politics--Reform Measures that +He Proposed--His Nomination by the Church Paper--Experiences of +Missionaries sent out to Work Up his Campaign + +VII. SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN NAUVOO: Character of its +Population--Treatment of Immigrant Converts--Some Disreputable +Gentile Neighbors--The Complaints of Mormon Stealings--Significant +Admissions--Mormon Protection against Outsiders--The Whittlers + +VIII. SMITH'S PICTURE OF HIMSELF AS AUTOCRAT: Glances at his +Autobiography--Difficulties Connected with the Building Enterprises--A +Plain Warning to Discontented Workmen--Trouble with Rigdon--Pressed by +his Creditors--Transaction with Remick--Currency Law passed by his City +Council--How Smith regarded himself as a Prophet--His Latest Prophecies + +IX. SMITH'S FALLING OUT WITH BENNETT AND HIGBEE: Bennett's +Expulsion and the Explanations concerning it--His Attacks on his +Late Companions--Charges against Nauvoo Morality--The Case of Nancy +Rigdon--The Higbee Incident + +X. THE INSTITUTION OF POLYGAMY: An Examination of its +Origin--Its Conflict with the Teachings of the Mormon Bible and +Revelations--Early Loosening of the Marriage View under Smith--Proof of +the Practice of Polygamy in Nauvoo--Testimony of Eliza R. Snow--How +her Brother Lorenzo shook off his Bachelorhood--John B. Lee as a +Polygamist--Ebenezer Robinson's Statement--Objects of "The Holy +Order"--The Writing of the Revelation about Polygamy--Its First Public +Announcement--Sidney Rigdon's Innocence in the Matter + +XI. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE OF POLYGAMY: Text of +the Revelation--Orson Pratt's Presentation of it--The Doctrine of +Sealing--Necessity of Sealing as a Means of Salvation--Attempt to show +that Christ was a Polygamist + +XII. THE SUPPRESSION OF THE EXPOSITOR: Dr. Foster and the +Laws--Rebellion against Smith's Teachings--Leading Features of +the Expositor--Trial of the Paper and its Editors before the City +Council--Destruction of the Press and Type--Smith's Proclamation + +XIII. UPRISING OF THE NON-MORMONS: Resolutions Adopted at +Warsaw--Organizing and Arming of the People--Action of Governor +Ford--Smith's Arrest--Departure of the Prisoners for Carthage + +XIV. THE MURDER OF THE PROPHET: Legal Proceedings after his +Arrival in Carthage--The Governor and the Militia--The Carthage Jail and +its Guards--Action of the Warsaw Regiment--The Attack on the Jail +and the Killing of the Prophet and his Brother--Funeral Services in +Nauvoo--Final Resting-place of the Bodies--Result of Indictments of the +Alleged Murderers--Review of the Prophet's Character + +XV. AFTER SMITH'S DEATH: The People in a Panic--The Mormon +Leaders for Peace--The Future Government of the Church--Brigham Young's +Victory--Rigdon's Trial before the High Council--Verdict Against +Him--His Church in Pennsylvania--His Ambition to be the Head of a +Distinct Church--A Visit from Heavenly Messengers--His Last Days + +XVI. RIVALRIES OVER THE SUCCESSION: The Claim of the Prophet's +Eldest Son--Trouble caused by the Prophet's Widow--The Reorganized +Church--Strang's Church in Wisconsin--Lyman Wight's Colony in Texas + +XVII. BRIGHAM YOUNG: His Early Years--His Initiation into the +Mormon Church--Fidelity to the Prophet--Embarrassments of his Position +as Head of the Church--His View about Revelations--Plan for Home Mission +Work--His Election as President + +XVIII. RENEWED TROUBLE FOR THE MORMONS: More Charges +of Stealing--Significant Admission by Young--Business Plight of +Nauvoo--More Politics--Defiant Attitude of Mormon Leaders--An Editor's +View of Legal Rights--Stories about the Danites--Brother William +on Brigham Young--The "Burnings"--Sheriff Backenstos's +Proclamations--Lieutenant Worrell's Murder--Mormon +Retaliation--Appointment of the Douglas-Hardin Commission + +XIX. THE EXPULSION OF THE MORMONS: General Hardin's +Proclamation--County Meetings of Non-Mormons--Their Ultimatum--The +Commission's Negotiations--Non-Mormon Convention at Carthage--The +Agreement for the Mormon Evacuation + +XX. THE EVACUATION OF NAUVOO: Major Warren as a Peace +Preserver--The Mormons' Disposition of their Property--Departure of +the Leaders hastened by Indictments--Arrival of New Citizens--Continued +Hostility of the Non-Mormons--"The Last Mormon War"--Panic in +Nauvoo--Plan for a March on the Mormon City--Fruitless Negotiations +for a Compromise--The Advance against the City--The Battle and its +Results--Terms of Peace--The Final Evacuation XXI. NAUVOO AFTER +THE EXODUS: Arrival of Governor Ford--The Final Work on the Temple--The +"Endowment" Ceremony and Oath--Futile Efforts to sell the Temple--Its +Destruction by Fire and Wind--The Nauvoo of To-day + +BOOK V. THE MIGRATION TO UTAH + +I. PREPARATIONS FOR THE LONG MARCH: Uncertainty of their +Destination--Explanations to the People--Disposition of Real and +Personal Property--Collection of Draft Animals--Activity in Wagon and +Tent Making--The Old Charge of Counterfeiting--Pecuniary Sacrifices of +the Mormons in Illinois + +II. FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE MISSOURI: The First Crossings of +the River--Camp Arrangements--Sufferings from the Cold--The Story of +the Westward March--Motley Make-up of the Procession--Expedients +for obtaining Supplies--Terrible Sufferings of the Expelled +Remnant--Privations at Mt. Pisgah + +III. THE MORMON BATTALION: Extravagant Claims Regarding +it Disproved--General Kearney's Invitation--Source of the Initial +Suggestion--How the Mormons profited by the Organization--The March to +California--Colonel Thomas L. Kane's Visit to the Missouri--His Intimate +Relations with the Mormon Church + +IV. THE CAMPS ON THE MISSOURI: Friendly Welcome of the Mormons +by the Indians--The Site of Winter Quarters--Busy Scenes on the River +Bank--Sickness and Death--The Building of a Temporary City + +V. THE PIONEER TRIP ACROSS THE PLAINS: Early Views of the +Unexplored West--The First White Visitors to that Country--Organization +of the Pioneer Mormon Band--Rules observed on the March--Successful +Buffalo Hunting--An Indian Alarm--Dearth of Forage--Post-offices of the +Plains--A Profitable Ferry + +VI. FROM THE ROCKIES TO SALT LAKE VALLEY: No Definite +Stopping-place in View--Advice received on the Way--The Mormon +Expedition to California by Way of Cape Horn--Brannan's Fall from +Grace--Westward from Green River--Advance Explorers through a +Canon--First View of Great Salt Lake Valley--Irrigation and Crop +Planting begun + +VII. THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES: Their Leaders and Make-up +--Young's Return Trip--Last Days on the Missouri--Scheme for a Permanent +Settlement in Iowa--Westward March of Large Companies + +BOOK VI. IN UTAH + +I. THE FOUNDING OF SALT LAKE CITY: Utah's First White +Explorers--First Mormon Services in the Valley--Young's View of the +Right to the Land--The First Buildings--Laying out the City--Early +Crop Disappointment--Discomforts of the First Winter--Primitive +Dwelling-places--The Visitation of Crickets--Glowing Accounts sent to +England + +II. PROGRESS OF THE SETTLEMENT: Schools and Manufactures +--How the City appeared in 1849--Sufferings during the Winter of +1908--Immigration checked by the Lack of Food--Aid supplied by the +California Goldseekers--Danger of a Mormon Exodus--Young's Rebuke to his +Gold-seeking Followers--The Crop Failure of 1855 and the Famine of the +Following Winter--The Tabernacle and Temple + +III. THE FOREIGN IMMIGRATION TO UTAH: The Commercial joint Stock +Company Scandal--Deceptive Statements made to Foreign Converts--John +Taylor's Address to the Saints in Great Britain--Petition to +Queen Victoria--Mormon Duplicity illustrated--Young's Advice to +Emigrants--Glowing Pictures of Salt Lake Valley--The Perpetual +Emigrating Fund--Details of the Emigration System + +IV. THE HAND-CART TRAGEDY: Young's Scheme for Economy--His +Responsibility for the Hand-cart Experiment--Details of the +Arrangement--Delays at Iowa City--Unheeded Warnings--Privations by +the Way--Early Lack of Provisions--Suffering caused by Insufficient +Clothing--Deaths of the Old and Infirm--Horrors of the Camps in the +Mountains--Frozen Corpses found at Daybreak--Sufferings of a Party at +Devil's Gate--Young's Attempt to shift the Responsibility + +V. EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY: The Aim at Independence--First +Local Government--Adoption of a Constitution for the State of +Deseret--Babbitt's Application for Admission as a Delegate--Memorial +opposing his Claim--His Rejection--The Territorial Government + +VI. BRIGHAM YOUNG'S DESPOTISM: Causes that contributed to +its Success--Helplessness of the New-comers from Europe--Influence of +Superstition--Young's Treatment of the Gladdenites--His Appropriation +of Property Laws passed by the Mormon Legislature--Bishops as Ward +Magistrates--A Mormon Currency and Alphabet--What Emigrants to +California learned about Mormon Justice + +VII. THE "REFORMATION": Young's Disclosures about the Character +of his Flock--The Stealing from One Another--The Threat about "Laying +Judgment to the Line"--Plain Declarations about the taking of +Human Lives--First Steps of the "Reformation"--An Inquisition and +Catechism--An Embarrassing Confession--Warning to those who would leave +the Valley + +VIII. SOME CHURCH-INSPIRED MURDERS: The Story of the +Parrishes--Carrying out of a Cold-blooded Plot--Judge Cradlebaugh's +Effort to convict the Murderers--The Tragedy of the Aikin Party--The +Story of Frederick Loba's Escape + +IX. BLOOD ATONEMENT: Early Intimations concerning it--Jedediah +M. Grant's Explanation of Human Sacrifices--Brigham Young's Definition +of "Laying Judgment to the Line"--Two of the Sacrifices described--"The +Affair at San Pete" + +X. TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT: Brigham Young the First +Governor--Colonel Kane's Part in his Appointment--Kane's False +Statements to President Fillmore--Welcome to the Non-Mormon +Officers--Their Early Information about Young's Influence--Pioneer +Anniversary Speeches--Judge Brocchus's Offence to the Mormons--Young's +Threatening and Abusive Reply--The Judge's Alarm about his Personal +Safety--Return of the Non-Mormon Federal Officers to Washington--Young's +Defence + +XI. MORMON TREATMENT OF FEDERAL OFFICERS: A Territorial Election +Law--Why Colonel Steptoe declined the Governorship--Young's Assertion of +his Authority--His Reappointment--Two Bad Judicial Appointments--Judge +Stiles's Trouble about the Marshals--Burning of his Books and +Papers--How Judge Drummond's Attempt at Independence was foiled--The +Mormon View of Land Titles--Hostile Attitude toward the Government +Surveyors--Reports of the Indian Agents + +XII. THE MORMON "WAR": What the Federal Authorities had learned +about Mormonism--Declaration of the Republican National Convention of +1856--Striking Speech by Stephen A. Douglas--Alfred Cumming appointed +Governor with a New Set of Judges--Statement in the President's +Message--Employment of a Military Force--The Kimball Mail +Contract--Organization of the Troops--General Harney's Letter of +Instruction--Threats against the Advancing Foe--Mobilization of the +Nauvoo Legion--Captain Van Vliet's Mission to Salt Lake City--Young's +Defiance of the Government--His Proclamation to the Citizens of +Utah--"General" Wells's Order to his Officers--Capture and Burning of a +Government Train--Colonel Alexander's Futile March--Colonel Johnston's +Advance from Fort Laramie--Harrowing Experience of Lieutenant Colonel +Cooke's Command + +XIII. THE MORMON PURPOSE: Correspondence between Colonel +Alexander and Brigham Young--Illustration of Young's Vituperative +Powers--John Taylor's Threat--Incendiary Teachings in Salt Lake City--A +Warning to Saints who would Desert--The Army's Winter Camp--Proclamation +by Governor Cumming--Judge Eckles's Court--Futile Preparations at +Washington + +XIV. COLONEL KANE'S MISSION: His Wily Proposition to President +Buchanan--His Credentials from the President--Arrival in California +under an Assumed Name--Visit to Camp Scott--General Johnston +ignored--Reasons why both the Government and the Mormons desired +Peace--Kane's Success with Governor Cumming--The Governor's Departure +for Salt Lake City--Deceptions practiced on him in Echo Canon--His +Reception in the City--Playing into Mormon Hands--The Governor's +Introduction to the People--Exodus of Mormons begun + +XV. THE PEACE COMMISSION: President Buchanan's Volte-face--A +Proclamation of Pardon--Instructions to Two Peace Commissioners--Chagrin +of the Military--Governor Cumming's Misrepresentations--Conferences +between the Commissioners and Young--Brother Dunbar's Singing +of "Zion"--Young's Method of Surrender--Judge Eckles on Plural +Marriages--The Terms made with the Mormons--March of the Federal Troops +to the Deserted City--Return of the Mormons to their Homes + +XVI. THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE: Circumstances Indicative +of Mormon Official Responsibility--The Make-up of the Arkansas +Party--Motives for Mormon Hostility to them--Parley P. Pratt's Shooting +in Arkansas--Refusal of Food Supplies to the Party after leaving Salt +Lake City--Their Plight before they were attacked--Successful Measures +for Defence--Disarrangement of the Mormon Plans--John D. Lee's +Treacherous Mission--Pitiless Slaughter of Men, Women, and +Children--Testimony given at Lee's Trial--The Plundering of the +Dead--Lee's Account of the Planning of the Massacre--Responsibility +of High Church Officers--Lee's Report to Brigham Young and Brigham's +Instructions to him--The Disclosures by "Argus"--Lee's Execution and +Last Words + +XVII. AFTER THE "WAR": Judge Cradlebaugh's Attempts to enforce +the Law--Investigation of the Mountain Meadows Massacre--Governor +Cumming's Objections to the Use of Troops to assist the Court--A +Washington Decision in Favor of Young's Authority--The Story of a +Counterfeit Plate--Five Thousand Men under Arms to protect Young from +Arrest--Sudden Departure of Cumming--Governor Dawson's Brief +Term--His Shocking Treatment at Mormon Hands--Governor Harding's +Administration--The Morrisite Tragedy + +XVIII. ATTITUDE OF THE MORMONS DURING THE SOUTHERN REBELLION: +Press and Pulpit Utterances--Arrival of Colonel Connor's Force--His +March through Salt Lake City to Camp Douglas--Governor Harding's Plain +Message to the Legislature--Mormon Retaliation--The Governor and Two +Judges requested to leave the Territory--Their Spirited Replies--How +Young escaped Arrest by Colonel Connor's Force--Another Yielding to +Mormon Power at Washington + +XIX. EASTERN VISITORS To SALT LAKE CITY: Schuyler Colfax's +Interviews with Young--Samuel Bowles's Praise of the Mormons and his +Speedy Correction of his Views--Repudiation of Colfax's Plan to drop +Polygamy--Two more Utah Murders--Colfax's Second Visit + +XX. GENTILE IRRUPTION AND MORMON SCHISM: Young's Jealousy of +Gentile Merchants--Organization of the Zion Cooperative Mercantile +Institution--Inception of the "New Movement"--Its Leaders and +Objects--The Peep o' Day and the Utah Magazine--Articles that aroused +Young's Hostility--Visit of the Prophet's Sons to Salt Lake City--Trial +and Excommunication of Godbe and Harrison--Results of the "New +Movement". + +XXI. THE LAST YEARS OF BRIGHAM YOUNG: New Governors--Shaffer's +Rebuke to the Nauvoo Legion--Conflict with the New Judges--Brigham Young +and Others indicted--Young's Temporary Imprisonment--A Supreme Court +Decision in Favor of the Mormon Marshal and Attorney--Outside Influences +affecting Utah Affairs--Grant's Special Message to Congress--Failure +of the Frelinghuysen Bill in the House--Signing of the Poland Bill--Ann +Eliza Young's Suit for Divorce--The Later Governors + +XXII. BRIGHAM YOUNG'S DEATH: His Character--Explanation of +his Dictatorial Power--Exaggerated Views of his Executive +Ability--Overestimations by Contemporaries--Young's Wealth and how he +acquired it--His Revenue from Divorces--Unrestrained Control of the +Church Property--His Will--Suit against his Executors--List of his +Wives--His Houses in Salt Lake City + +XXIII. SOCIAL ASPECTS OF POLYGAMY: Varied Provisions for Plural +Wives--Home Accommodations of the Leaders--Horace Greeley's Observation +about Woman's Place in Utah--Means of overcoming Female Jealousy--Young +and Grant on the Unhappiness of Mormon Wives--Acceptance of Fanatical +Teachings by Women--Kimball on a Fair Division of the Converts--Church +Influence in Behalf of Plural Marriages--A Prussian Convert's +Dilemma--President Cleveland on the Evils of Polygamy + +XXIV. THE FIGHT AGAINST POLYGAMY: First Measures introduced in +Congress--The Act of 1862--The Cullom Bill of 1869--Its Failure in +the Senate--The United States Supreme Court Decision regarding +Polygamy--Conviction of John Miles--Appeal of Women of Salt Lake City to +Mrs. Hayes and the Women of the United States--President Hayes's Drastic +Recommendation to Congress--Recommendations of Presidents Garfield and +Arthur--Passage of the Edmunds Bill--Its Provisions--The Edmunds-Tucker +Amendment--Appointment of the Utah Commission--Determined Opposition of +the Mormon Church--Placing their Flags at Half Mast--Convictions under +the New Law--Leaders in Hiding or in Exile--Mormon Honors for those +who took their Punishment--Congress asked to disfranchise All +Polygamists--The Mormon Church brought to Bay--Woodruff's Famous +Proclamation--How it was explained to the Church--The Roberts Case and +the Vetoed Act of 1901--How Statehood came + +XXV. THE MORMONISM OF TO-DAY: Future Place of the Church in +American History--Main Points of the Mormon Political Policy--Unbroken +Power of the Priesthood--Fidelity of the Younger Members--Extension +of the Membership over Adjoining States--Mission Work at Home and +Abroad--Decreased Foreign Membership--Effect of False Promises to +Converts--The Settlements in Canada and Mexico--Polygamy still a Living +Doctrine--Reasons for its Hold on the Church--Its Appeal to the Female +Members--Importance of a Federal Constitutional Amendment forbidding +Polygamous Marriages--Scope of the Mormon Political Ambition + + + + +THE STORY OF THE MORMONS + + + + +BOOK I. -- THE MORMON ORIGIN + + + +CHAPTER I. -- FACILITY OF HUMAN BELIEF + +Summing up his observations of the Mormons as he found them in Utah +while secretary of the territory, five years after their removal to the +Great Salt Lake valley, B. G. Ferris wrote, "The real miracle [of their +success] consists in so large a body of men and women, in a civilized +land, and in the nineteenth century, being brought under, governed, and +controlled by such gross religious imposture." This statement presents, +in concise form, the general view of the surprising features of the +success of the Mormon leaders, in forming, augmenting, and keeping +together their flock; but it is a mistaken view. To accept it would be +to concede that, in a highly civilized nation like ours, and in so +late a century, the acceptance of religious beliefs which, to the +nonbelievers, seem gross superstitions, is so unusual that it may be +classed with the miraculous. Investigation easily disproves this. + +It is true that the effrontery which has characterized Mormonism from +the start has been most daring. Its founder, a lad of low birth, +very limited education, and uncertain morals; its beginnings so near +burlesque that they drew down upon its originators the scoff of their +neighbors,--the organization increased its membership as it was driven +from one state to another, building up at last in an untried wilderness +a population that has steadily augmented its wealth and numbers; +doggedly defending its right to practise its peculiar beliefs and obey +only the officers of the church, even when its course in this respect +has brought it in conflict with the government of the United States. +Professing only a desire to be let alone, it promulgated in polygamy a +doctrine that was in conflict with the moral sentiment of the Christian +world, making its practice not only a privilege, but a part of +the religious duty of its members. When, in recent years, Congress +legislated against this practice, the church fought for its peculiar +institution to the last, its leading members accepting exile and +imprisonment; and only the certainty of continued exclusion from the +rights of citizenship, and the hopelessness of securing the long-desired +prize of statehood for Utah, finally induced the church to bow to the +inevitable, and to announce a form of release for its members from the +duty of marrying more wives than one. Aside from this concession, the +Mormon church is to-day as autocratic in its hold on its members, +as aggressive in its proselyting, and as earnest in maintaining its +individual religious and political power, as it has been in any previous +time in its history. + +In its material aspects we must concede to the Mormon church +organization a remarkable success; to Joseph Smith, Jr., a leadership +which would brook no rival; to Brigham Young the maintenance of an +autocratic authority which enabled him to hold together and enlarge his +church far beyond the limits that would have been deemed possible when +they set out across the plains with all their possessions in their +wagons. But it is no more surprising that the Mormons succeeded in +establishing their church in the United States than it would have been +if they had been equally successful in South America; no more surprising +that this success should have been won in the nineteenth century than it +would have been to record it in the twelfth. + +In studying questions of this kind, we are, in the first place, entirely +too apt to ignore the fact that man, while comparatively a "superior +being," is in simple fact one species of the animals that are found upon +the earth; and that, as a species, he has traits which distinguish him +characteristically just as certain well-known traits characterize those +animals that we designate as "lower." If a traveller from the Sun should +print his observations of the inhabitants of the different planets, he +would have to say of those of the Earth something like this: "One of +Man's leading traits is what is known as belief. He is a credulous +creature, and is especially susceptible to appeals to his credulity +in regard to matters affecting his existence after death." Whatever +explanation we may accept of the origin of the conception by this animal +of his soul-existence, and of the evolution of shadowy beliefs into +religious systems, we must concede that Man is possessed of a tendency +to worship something,--a recognition, at least, of a higher power +with which it behooves him to be on friendly terms,--and so long as the +absolute correctness of any one belief or doctrine cannot be actually +proved to him, he is constantly ready to inquire into, and perhaps give +credence to, new doctrines that are presented for his consideration. +The acceptance by Man of novelties in the way of religions is a +characteristic that has marked his species ever since its record has +been preserved. According to Max Matter, "every religion began simply as +a matter of reason, and from this drifted into a superstition"; that +is, into what non-believers in the new doctrine characterize as a +superstition. Whenever one of these driftings has found a lodgement, +there has been planted a new sect. There has never been a year in the +Christian era when there have not been believers ready to accept +any doctrine offered to them in the name of religion. As Shakespeare +expresses it, in the words of Bassanio:-- + +"In religion, What damned error but some sober brow Will bless it, and +approve it with a text, Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?" + +In glancing at the cause of this unchanged susceptibility to religious +credulity--unchanged while the world has been making such strides in +the acquisition of exact information--we may find a summing up of the +situation in Macaulay's blunt declaration that "natural theology is not +a progressive science; a Christian of the fifth century with a Bible is +on a par with a Christian of the nineteenth century with a Bible." The +"orthodox" believer in that Bible can only seek a better understanding +of it by studying it himself and accepting the deductions of other +students. Nothing, as the centuries have passed, has been added to +his definite knowledge of his God or his own future existence. When, +therefore, some one, like a Swedenborg or a Joseph Smith, appears with +an announcement of an addition to the information on this subject, +obtained by direct revelation from on high, he supplies one of the +greatest desiderata that man is conscious of, and we ought, perhaps, to +wonder that his followers are not so numerous, but so few. Progress in +medical science would no longer permit any body like the College of +the Physicians of London to recognize curative value in the skull of a +person who had met with a violent death, as it did in the seventeenth +century; but the physician of the seventeenth century with a +pharmacopoeia was not "on a par with" a physician of the nineteenth +century with a pharmacopoeia. + +Nor has man changed in his mental susceptibilities as the centuries have +advanced. It is a failure to recognize this fact which leads observers +like Ferris to find it so marvellous that a belief like Mormonism +should succeed in the nineteenth century. Draper's studies of man's +intellectual development led him to declare that "man has ever been the +same in his modes of thought and motives of action, and to assert his +purpose to judge past occurrences in the same way as those of our own +time."* So Macaulay refused to accept the doctrine that "the world is +constantly becoming more and more enlightened," asserting that "the +human mind, instead of marching, merely marks time." Nothing offers +stronger confirmation of the correctness of these views than the history +of religious beliefs, and the teachings connected therewith since the +death of Christ. + + + * "Intellectual Development of Europe," Vol. II, Chap. 3. + + +The chain of these beliefs and teachings--including in the list only +those which offer the boldest challenge to a sane man's credulity--is +uninterrupted down to our own day. A few of them may be mentioned by way +of illustration. In one century we find Spanish priests demanding the +suppression of the opera on the ground that this form of entertainment +caused a drought, and a Pope issuing a bull against men and women having +sexual intercourse with fiends. In another, we find an English tailor, +unsuccessfully, allotting endless torments to all who would not accept +his declaration that God was only six feet in height, at the same time +that George Fox, who was successful in establishing the Quaker sect, +denounced as unchristian adoration of Janus and Woden, any mention of a +month as January or a day as Wednesday. Luther, the Protestant pioneer, +believed that he had personal conferences with the devil; Wesley, +the founder of Methodism, declared that "the giving up of (belief) in +witchcraft is, in effect, giving up the Bible." Education and mental +training have had no influence in shaping the declarations of the +leaders of new religious sects.* The learned scientist, Swedenborg, told +of seeing the Virgin Mary dressed in blue satin, and of spirits wearing +hats, just as confidently as the ignorant Joseph Smith, Jr., described +his angel as "a tall, slim, well-built, handsome man, with a bright +pillar upon his head." + + + * "The splendid gifts which make a seer are usually found among +those whom society calls 'common or unclean.' These brutish beings +are the chosen vessels in whom God has poured the elixirs which amaze +humanity. Such beings have furnished the prophets, the St. Peters, the +hermits of history." BALZAC, in "Cousin Pons." + + +The readiness with which even believers so strictly taught as are the +Jews can be led astray by the announcement of a new teacher divinely +inspired, is illustrated in the stories of their many false Messiahs. +One illustration of this--from the pen of Zangwill--may be given:-- + +"From all the lands of the Exile, crowds of the devout came to do +him homage and tender allegiance--Turkish Jews with red fez or +saffron-yellow turban; Jerusalem Jews in striped cotton gowns and soft +felt hats; Polish Jews with foxskin caps and long caftans; sallow German +Jews, gigantic Russian Jews, highbred Spanish Jews; and with them often +their wives and daughters--Jerusalem Jewesses with blue shirts and +head-veils, Egyptian Jewesses with sweeping robes and black head-shawls, +Jewesses from Ashdod and Gaza, with white visors fringed with gold +coins; Polish Jewesses with glossy wigs; Syrian Jewesses with eyelashes +black as though lined with kohl; fat Jewesses from Tunis, with clinging +breeches interwoven with gold and silver." + +This homage to a man who turned Turk, and became a doorkeeper of the +Sultan, to save himself from torture and death! + +Savagery and civilization meet on this plane of religious credulity. The +Indians of Canada believed not more implicitly in the demons who howled +all over the Isles of Demons, than did the early French sailors and the +priests whose protection the latter asked. The Jesuit priests of the +seventeenth century accepted, and impressed upon their white followers +in New France, belief in miracles which made a greater demand on +credulity than did any of the exactions of the Indian medicine man. That +the head of a white man, which the Iroquois carried to their village, +spoke to them and scolded them for their perfidy, "found believers among +the most intelligent men of the colony," just as did the story of the +conversion of a sick Huguenot immigrant, with whose gruel a Mother +secretly mixed a little of the powdered bone of a Jesuit martyr.* And +French Canada is to-day as "orthodox" in its belief in miracles as +was the Canada of the seventeenth century. The church of St. Anne de +Beaupre, below Quebec, attracts thousands annually, and is piled with +the crutches which the miraculously cured have cast aside. Masses were +said in 1899 in the church of Notre Dame de Bonsecours at Montreal, +at the expense of a pilots' association, to ward off wrecks in the +treacherous St. Lawrence; and in the near-by provinces there were +religious processions to check the attacks of caterpillars in the +orchards. + + + * Parkman's "Old Regime in Canada." + + +Nor need we go to Catholic Quebec for modern illustrations of this kind +of faith. "Bareheaded people stood out upon the corner in East 113th +Street yesterday afternoon," said a New York City newspaper of December +18, 1898, "because they were unable to get into the church of Our Lady +Queen of Angels, where a relic of St. Anthony of Padua was exposed for +veneration." Describing a service in the church of St. Jean Baptiste +in East 77th Street, New York, where a relic alleged to be a piece of a +bone of the mother of the Virgin was exposed, a newspaper of that city, +on July 24th, 1901, said: "There were five hundred persons, by actual +count, in and around the crypt chapel of St. Anne when afternoon service +stopped the rush of the sick and crippled at 4.30 o'clock yesterday. +There were many more at the 8 o'clock evening Mass." What did these +people seek at the shrine? Only the favor of St. Anne and a kiss and +touch of the casket that, by church authority, contains bone of +her body. "France has to-day its Grotto of Lourdes, Wales its St. +Winefride's Well, Mexico its wonder-working doll" that makes the sick +well and the childless mothers, and Moscow its "wonder-working picture +of the Mother of God," before which the Czar prostrates himself." + +Not in recent years has the appetite for some novelty on which to fasten +belief been more manifest in the United States than it was at the +close of the nineteenth century. Old beliefs found new teachers, and +promulgators of new ideas found followers. Instructors in Brahminism +attracted considerable attention. A "Chapter of the College of Divine +Sciences and Realization" instituted a revival of Druid sun-adoration +on the shores of Lake Michigan. An organization has been formed of +believers in the One-Over-At-Acre, a Persian who claimed to be the +forerunner of the Millennium, and in whom, as Christ, it is said that +more than three thousand persons in this country believe. We have among +us also Jaorelites, who believe in the near date of the end of the +world, and that they must make their ascent to heaven from a mountain in +Scotland. The hold which the form of belief called Christian Science has +obtained upon people of education and culture needs only be referred +to. Along with this have come the "divine healers," gaining patients +in circles where it would be thought impossible for them to obtain even +consideration, and one of them securing a clientage in a Western city +which has enabled him to establish there a church of his own. + +In fact, instead of finding in enlightened countries like the United +States and England a poor field for the dissemination of new beliefs, +the whole school of revealers find there their best opportunities. +Discussing this susceptibility, Aliene Gorren, in her "Anglo-Saxons and +Others," reaches this conclusion: "Nowhere are so many persons of sound +intelligence in all practical affairs so easily led to follow after +crazy seers and seeresses as in England and the United States. The truth +is that the mind of man refuses to be shut out absolutely from the world +of the higher abstractions, and that, if it may not make its way thither +under proper guidance, it will set off even at the tail of the first +ragged street procession that passes." + +The "real miracle" in Mormonism, then,--the wonderful feature of its +success,--is to be sought, not in the fact that it has been able to +attract believers in a new prophet, and to find them at this date and in +this country, but in its success in establishing and keeping together in +a republic like ours a membership who acknowledge its supreme authority +in politics as well as in religion, and who form a distinct organization +which does not conceal its purpose to rule over the whole nation. Had +Mormonism confined itself to its religious teachings, and been preached +only to those who sought its instruction, instead of beating up the +world for recruits and conveying them to its home, the Mormon church +would probably to-day be attracting as little attention as do the +Harmonists of Pennsylvania. + + + +CHAPTER II. -- THE SMITH FAMILY + +Among the families who settled in Ontario County, New York, in 1816, was +that of one Joseph Smith. It consisted of himself, his wife, and nine +children. The fourth of these children, Joseph Smith, Jr., became the +Mormon prophet. + +The Smiths are said to have been of Scotch ancestry. It was the mother, +however, who exercised the larger influence on her son's life, and she +has left very minute details of her own and her father's family.* Her +father, Solomon Mack, was a native of Lyme, Connecticut. The daughter +Lucy, who became Mrs. Joseph Smith, Sr., was born in Gilsum, Cheshire +County, New Hampshire, on July 8, 1776. Mr. Mack was remembered as +a feeble old man, who rode around the country on horseback, using a +woman's saddle, and selling his own autobiography. The "tramp" of those +early days often offered an autobiography, or what passed for one, and, +as books were then rare, if he could say that it contained an account of +actual adventures in the recent wars, he was certain to find purchasers. + + + * "Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith and his Progenitors for +Many Generations," Lucy Smith. + + +One of the few copies of this book in existence lies before me. It +was printed at the author's expense about the year 1810. It is wholly +without interest as a narrative, telling of the poverty of his parents, +how he was bound, when four years old, to a farmer who gave him no +education and worked him like a slave; gives some of his experiences in +the campaigns against the French and Indians in northern New York and +in the war of the Revolution, when he was in turn teamster, sutler, +and privateer; describes with minute detail many ordinary illnesses and +accidents that befell him; and closes with a recital of his religious +awakening, which was deferred until his seventy-sixth year, while he was +suffering with rheumatism. At that time it seemed to him that he several +times "saw a bright light in a dark night," and thought he heard a voice +calling to him. Twenty-two of the forty-eight duodecimo pages that the +book contains are devoted to hymns "composed," the title-page says, "on +the death of several of his relatives," not all by himself. One of these +may be quoted entire:-- + +"My friends, I am on the ocean, So sweetly do I sail; Jesus is my +portion, He's given me a pleasant gale. + +"The bruises sore, In harbor soon I'll be, And see my redeemer there +That died for you and me." + +Mrs. Smith's family seem to have had a natural tendency to belief in +revelations. Her eldest brother, Jason, became a "Seeker"; the "Seekers" +of that day believed that the devout of their times could, through +prayer and faith, secure the "gifts" of the Gospel which were granted to +the ancient apostles.* He was one of the early believers in faith-cure, +and was, we are told, himself cured by that means in 1835. One of Lucy's +sisters had a miraculous recovery from illness. After being an invalid +for two years she was "borne away to the world of spirits," where she +saw the Saviour and received a message from Him for her earthly friends. + + + * A sect called "Seekers," who arose in 1645, taught, like the +Mormons, that the Scriptures are defective, the true church lost, and +miracles necessary to faith. + + +Lucy herself came very exactly under the description given by Ruth +McEnery Stuart of one of her negro characters: "Duke's mother was of the +slighter intelligences, and hence much given to convictions. Knowing +few things, she 'believed in' a great many." Lucy Smith had neither +education nor natural intelligence that would interfere with such +"beliefs" as came to her from family tradition, from her own literal +interpretations of the Bible, or from the workings of her imagination. +She tells us that after her marriage, when very ill, she made a covenant +with God that she would serve him if her recovery was granted; thereupon +she heard a voice giving her assurance that her prayer would be +answered, and she was better the next morning. Later, when anxious for +the safety of her husband's soul, she prayed in a grove (most of +the early Mormons' prayers were made in the woods), and saw a vision +indicating his coming conversion; later still, in Vermont, a daughter +was restored to health by her parent's prayers. + +According to Mrs. Smith's account of their life in Vermont, they were +married on January 24, 1796, at Tunbridge, but soon moved to Randolph, +where Smith was engaged in "merchandise," keeping a store. Learning of +the demand for crystallized ginseng in China, he invested money in that +product and made a shipment, but it proved unprofitable, and, having in +this way lost most of his money, they moved back to a farm at Tunbridge. +Thence they moved to Royalton, and in a few months to Sharon, where, +on December 23, 1805, Joseph Smith, Jr., their fourth child, was born.* +Again they moved to Tunbridge, and then back to Royalton (all these +places in Vermont). From there they went to Lebanon, New Hampshire, +thence to Norwich, Vermont, still "farming" without success, until, +after three years of crop failure, they decided to move to New York +State, arriving there in the summer of 1816. + + + ** There is equally good authority for placing the house in which +Smith was born across the line in Royalton. + + +Less prejudiced testimony gives an even less favorable view than this of +the elder Smith's business career in Vermont. Judge Daniel Woodward, +of the county court of Windsor, Vermont, near whose father's farm the +Smiths lived, says that the elder Smith while living there was a hunter +for Captain Kidd's treasure, and that he also "became implicated with +one Jack Downing in counterfeiting money, but turned state's evidence +and escaped the penalty."* He had in earlier life been a Universalist, +but afterward became a Methodist. His spiritual welfare gave his wife +much concern, but although he had "two visions" while living in Vermont, +she did not accept his change of heart. She admits, however, that after +their removal to New York her husband obeyed the scriptural injunction, +"your old men shall dream dreams," and she mentions several of these +dreams, the latest in 1819, giving the particulars of some of them. One +sample of these will suffice. The dreamer found himself in a beautiful +garden, with wide walks and a main walk running through the centre. "On +each side of this was a richly carved seat, and on each seat were placed +six wooden images, each of which was the size of a very large man. When +I came to the first image on the right side it arose, bowed to me with +much deference. I then turned to the one which sat opposite to me, on +the left side, and it arose and bowed to me in the same manner as the +first. I continued turning first to the right and then to the left until +the whole twelve had made the obeisance, after which I was entirely +healed (of a lameness from which he then was suffering). I then asked my +guide the meaning of all this, but I awoke before I received an answer." + + + * Historical Magazine, 1870. + + +A similar wakefulness always manifested itself at the critical moment +in these dreams. What the world lost by this insomnia of the dreamer the +world will never know. + +The Smiths' first residence in New York State was in the village +of Palmyra. There the father displayed a sign, "Cake and Beer Shop, +"selling" gingerbread, pies, boiled eggs, root beer, and other like +notions," and he and his sons did odd jobs, gardening, harvesting, and +well-digging, when they could get them.* + + + * Tucker's "Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism," p. 12. + + +They were very poor, and Mrs. Smith added to their income by painting +oilcloth table covers. After a residence of three years and a half in +Palmyra, the family took possession of a piece of land two miles south +of that place, on the border of Manchester. They had no title to it, +but as the owners were nonresident minors they were not disturbed. There +they put up a little log house, with two rooms on the ground floor +and two in the attic, which sheltered them all. Later, the elder Smith +contracted to buy the property and erected a farmhouse on it; but he +never completed his title to it. + +While classing themselves as farmers, the Smiths were regarded by +their neighbors as shiftless and untrustworthy. They sold cordwood, +vegetables, brooms of their own manufacture, and maple sugar, continuing +to vend cakes in the village when any special occasion attracted a +crowd. It may be remarked here that, while Ontario County, New York, was +regarded as "out West" by seaboard and New England people in 1830, +its population was then almost as large as it is to-day (having 40,288 +inhabitants according to the census of 1830 and 48,453 according to the +census of 1890). The father and several of the boys could not read, +and a good deal of the time of the younger sons was spent in hunting, +fishing, and lounging around the village. + +The son Joseph did not rise above the social standing of his brothers. +The best that a Mormon biographer, Orson Pratt, could say of him as a +youth was that "He could read without much difficulty, and write a very +imperfect hand, and had a very limited understanding of the elementary +rules of arithmetic. These were his highest and only attainments, while +the rest of those branches so universally taught in the common schools +throughout the United States were entirely unknown to him."* He was "Joe +Smith" to every one. Among the younger people he served as a butt +for jokes, and we are told that the boys who bought the cakes that he +peddled used to pay him in pewter twoshilling pieces, and that when he +called at the Palmyra Register office for his father's weekly paper, the +youngsters in the press room thought it fun to blacken his face with the +ink balls. + + + * "Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism," p. 16. + + +Here are two pictures of the young man drawn by persons who saw him +constantly in the days of his vagabondage. The first is from Mr. +Tucker's book:-- + +"At this period in the life and career of Joseph Smith, Jr., or 'Joe +Smith,' as he was universally named, and the Smith family, they were +popularly regarded as an illiterate, whiskey-drinking, shiftless, +irreligious race of people--the first named, the chief subject of this +biography, being unanimously voted the laziest and most worthless of +the generation. From the age of twelve to twenty years he is distinctly +remembered as a dull-eyed, flaxen-haired, prevaricating boy noted +only for his indolent and vagabondish character, and his habits +of exaggeration and untruthfulness. Taciturnity was among his +characteristic idiosyncrasies, and he seldom spoke to any one outside +of his intimate associates, except when first addressed by another; +and then, by reason of his extravagancies of statement, his word was +received with the least confidence by those who knew him best. He could +utter the most palpable exaggeration or marvellous absurdity with the +utmost apparent gravity. He nevertheless evidenced the rapid development +of a thinking, plodding, evil-brewing mental composition--largely given +to inventions of low cunning, schemes of mischief and deception, and +false and mysterious pretensions. In his moral phrenology the professor +might have marked the organ of secretiveness as very large, and that of +conscientiousness omitted. He was, however, proverbially good natured, +very rarely, if ever, indulging in any combative spirit toward any one, +whatever might be the provocation, and yet was never known to laugh. +Albeit, he seemed to be the pride of his indulgent father, who has been +heard to boast of him as the 'genus of the family,' quoting his own +expression."* + + + * "Remarkable Visions." + + +The second (drawn a little later) is by Daniel Hendrix, a resident of +Palmyra, New York, at the time of which he speaks, and an assistant in +setting the type and reading the proof of the Mormon Bible:-- + +"Every one knew him as Joe Smith. He had lived in Palmyra a few years +previous to my going there from Rochester. Joe was the most ragged, +lazy fellow in the place, and that is saying a good deal. He was about +twenty-five years old. I can see him now in my mind's eye, with his torn +and patched trousers held to his form by a pair of suspenders made out +of sheeting, with his calico shirt as dirty and black as the earth, and +his uncombed hair sticking through the holes in his old battered hat. In +winter I used to pity him, for his shoes were so old and worn out that +he must have suffered in the snow and slush; yet Joe had a jovial, easy, +don't-care way about him that made him a lot of warm friends. He was a +good talker, and would have made a fine stump speaker if he had had +the training. He was known among the young men I associated with as a +romancer of the first water. I never knew so ignorant a man as Joe +was to have such a fertile imagination. He never could tell a common +occurrence in his daily life without embellishing the story with his +imagination; yet I remember that he was grieved one day when old Parson +Reed told Joe that he was going to hell for his lying habits."* + + + * San Jacinto, California, letter of February 2, 1897, to the St. +Louis Globe-Democrat. + + +To this testimony may be added the following declarations, published in +1833, the year in which a mob drove the Mormons out of Jackson County, +Missouri. The first was signed by eleven of the most prominent citizens +of Manchester, New York, and the second by sixty-two residents of +Palmyra:-- + +"We, the undersigned, being personally acquainted with the family of +Joseph Smith, Sr., with whom the Gold Bible, so called, originated, +state: That they were not only a lazy, indolent set of men, but also +intemperate, and their word was not to be depended upon; and that we are +truly glad to dispense with their society." + +"We, the undersigned, have been acquainted with the Smith family for +a number of years, while they resided near this place, and we have +no hesitation in saying that we consider them destitute of that +moral character which ought to entitle them to the confidence of any +community. They were particularly famous for visionary projects; spent +much of their time in digging for money which they pretended was hid in +the earth, and to this day large excavations may be seen in the earth, +not far from their residence, where they used to spend their time in +digging for hidden treasures. Joseph Smith, Sr., and his son Joseph +were, in particular, considered entirely destitute of moral character, +and addicted to vicious habits."* + + + * Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 261. + + +Finally may be quoted the following affidavit of Parley Chase:-- + +"Manchester, New York, December 2, 1833. I was acquainted with the +family of Joseph Smith, Sr., both before and since they became Mormons, +and feel free to state that not one of the male members of the +Smith family were entitled to any credit whatsoever. They were lazy, +intemperate, and worthless men, very much addicted to lying. In this +they frequently boasted their skill. Digging for money was their +principal employment. In regard to their Gold Bible speculation, they +scarcely ever told two stories alike. The Mormon Bible is said to be a +revelation from God, through Joseph Smith, Jr., his Prophet, and this +same Joseph Smith, Jr., to my knowledge, bore the reputation among his +neighbors of being a liar."* + + + * Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 248. + + +The preposterousness of the claims of such a fellow as Smith to +prophetic powers and divinely revealed information were so apparent to +his local acquaintances that they gave them little attention. One of +these has remarked to me in recent years that if they had had any idea +of the acceptance of Joe's professions by a permanent church, they would +have put on record a much fuller description of him and his family. + + + +CHAPTER III. -- HOW JOSEPH SMITH BECAME A MONEY-DIGGER + +The elder Smith, as we have seen, was known as a money-digger while a +resident of Vermont. Of course that subject as a matter of conversation +in his family, and his sons were a character to share in his belief in +the existence of hidden treasure. The territory around Palmyra was as +good ground for their explorations as any in Vermont, and they soon let +their neighbors know of a possibility of riches that lay within their +reach. + +The father, while a resident of Vermont, also claimed ability to locate +an underground stream of water over which would be a good site for a +well, by means of a forked hazel switch,* and in this way doubtless +increased the demand for his services as a well-digger, but we have no +testimonials to his success. The son Joseph, while still a young lad, +professed to have his father's gift in this respect, and he soon added +to his accomplishments the power to locate hidden riches, and in +this way began his career as a money-digger, which was so intimately +connected with his professions as a prophet. + + + * The so-called "divining rod" has received a good deal of +attention from persons engaged in psychical research. Vol. XIII, Part +II, of the "Proceedings of the Society Of Psychical Research" is devoted +to a discussion of the subject by Professor W. F. Barrett of the +Royal College of Science for Ireland, in Dublin, and in March, 1890, a +commission was appointed in France to study the matter. + + +Writers on the origin of the Mormon Bible, and the gradual development +of Smith the Prophet from Smith the village loafer and money-seeker, +have left their readers unsatisfied on many points. Many of these +obscurities will be removed by a very careful examination of Joseph's +occupations and declarations during the years immediately preceding the +announcement of the revelation and delivery to him of the golden plates. + +The deciding event in Joe's career was a trip to Susquehanna County, +Pennsylvania, when he was a lad. It can be shown that it was there that +he obtained an idea of vision-seeing nearly ten years before the date he +gives in his autobiography as that of the delivery to him of the golden +plates containing the Book of Mormon, and it was there probably that, in +some way, he later formed the acquaintance of Sidney Rigdon. It can also +be shown that the original version of his vision differed radically +from the one presented, after the lapse of another ten years spent under +Rigdon's tutelage, in his autobiography. Each of these points is of +great incidental value in establishing Rigdon's connection with the +conception of a new Bible, and the manner of its presentation to the +public. Later Mormon authorities have shown a dislike to concede that +Joe was a money-digger, but the fact is admitted both in his mother's +history of him and by himself. His own statement about it is as +follows:-- + +"In the month of October, 1825, I hired with an old gentleman by the +name of Josiah Stoal, who lived in Chenango County, State of New York. +He had heard something of a silver mine having been opened by the +Spaniards in Harmony, Susquehanna County, State of Pennsylvania, and +had, previous to my hiring with him, been digging in order, if possible, +to discover the mine. After I went to live with him he took me, among +the rest of his hands, to dig for the silver mine, at which I continued +to work for nearly a month, without success in our undertaking, and +finally I prevailed with the old gentleman to cease digging for it. +Hence arose the very prevalent story of my having been a moneydigger."* + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, Supt., p. 6. + + +Mother Smith's account says, however, that Stoal "came for Joseph on +account of having heard that he possessed certain keys by which he could +discern things invisible to the natural eye"; thus showing that he had +a reputation as a "gazer" before that date. It was such discrepancies +as these which led Brigham Young to endeavor to suppress the mother's +narrative. + +The "gazing" which Joe took up is one of the oldest--perhaps the +oldest--form of alleged human divination, and has been called +"mirror-gazing," "crystal-gazing," "crystal vision," and the like. Its +practice dates back certainly three thousand years, having been noted +in all ages, and among nations uncivilized as well as civilized. Some +students of the subject connect with such divination Joseph's silver cup +"whereby indeed he divineth" (Genesis xliv. 5). Others, long before the +days of Smith and Rigdon, advanced the theory that the Urim and Thummim +were clear crystals intended for "gazing" purposes. One writer remarks +of the practice, "Aeschylus refers it to Prometheus, Cicero to the +Assyrians and Etruscans, Zoroaster to Ahriman, Varro to the Persian +Magi, and a very large class of authors, from the Christian Fathers and +Schoolmen downward, to the devil."* An act of James I (1736), against +witchcraft in England, made it a crime to pretend to discover property +"by any occult or crafty science." As indicating the universal knowledge +of "gazing," it may be further noted that Varro mentions its practice +among the Romans and Pausanias among the Greeks. It was known to the +ancient Peruvians. It is practised to-day by East Indians, Africans +(including Egyptians), Maoris, Siberians, by Australian, Polynesian, and +Zulu savages, by many of the tribes of American Indians, and by persons +of the highest culture in Europe and America.** Andrew Lang's collection +of testimony about visions seen in crystals by English women in 1897 +might seem convincing to any one who has not had experience in weighing +testimony in regard to spiritualistic manifestations, or brought this +testimony alongside of that in behalf of the "occult phenomena" of Adept +Brothers presented by Sinnett.*** + + + * Recent Experiments in "Crystal Vision," Vol. V, "Proceedings of +the Society for Psychical Research." + + + ** Lang's "The Making of Religion," Chap. V. + + + *** "The Occult World." + + +"Gazers" use different methods. Some look into water contained in a +vessel, some into a drop of blood, some into ink, some into a round +opaque stone, some into mirrors, and many into some form of crystal or a +glass ball. Indeed, the "gazer" seems to be quite independent as to the +medium of his sight-seeing, so long as he has the "power." This "power" +is put also to a great variety of uses. Australian savages depend on it +to foretell the outcome of an attack on their enemies; Apaches resort to +it to discover the whereabouts of things lost or stolen; and Malagasies, +Zulus, and Siberians to see what will happen. Perhaps its most general +use has been to discover lost objects, and in this practice the seers +have very often been children, as we shall see was the case in the +exhibition which gave Joe Smith his first idea on the subject. In the +experiments cited by Lang, the seers usually saw distant persons or +scenes, and he records his belief that "experiments have proved beyond +doubt that a fair percentage of people, sane and healthy, can see vivid +landscapes, and figures of persons in motion, in glass balls and other +vehicles." + +It can easily be imagined how interested any member of the Smith family +would have been in an exhibition like that of a "crystal-gazer," and +we are able to trace very consecutively Joe's first introduction to the +practice, and the use he made of the hint thus given. + +Emily C. Blackman, in the appendix to her "History of Susquehanna +County, Pennsylvania" (1873), supplies the needed important information +about Joe's visits to Pennsylvania in the years preceding the +announcement of his Bible. She says that it is uncertain when he arrived +at Harmony (now Oakland), "but it is certain he was here in 1825 and +later." A very circumstantial account of Joe's first introduction to a +"peep-stone" is given in a statement by J. B. Buck in this appendix. He +says:-- + +"Joe Smith was here lumbering soon after my marriage, which was in +1818, some years before he took to 'peeping', and before diggings were +commenced under his direction. These were ideas he gained later. The +stone which he afterward used was in the possession of Jack Belcher of +Gibson, who obtained it while at Salina, N. Y., engaged in drawing salt. +Belcher bought it because it was said to be a 'seeing-stone.' I have +often seen it. It was a green stone, with brown irregular spots on it. +It was a little longer than a goose's egg, and about the same thickness. +When he brought it home and covered it with a hat, Belcher's little boy +was one of the first to look into the hat, and as he did so, he said he +saw a candle. The second time he looked in he exclaimed, 'I've found my +hatchet' (it had been lost two years), and immediately ran for it to +the spot shown him through the stone, and it was there. The boy was soon +beset by neighbors far and near to reveal to them hidden things, and +he succeeded marvellously. Joe Smith, conceiving the idea of making +a fortune through a similar process of 'seeing,' bought the stone +of Belcher, and then began his operations in directing where hidden +treasures could be found. His first diggings were near Capt. Buck's +sawmill, at Red Rock; but because the followers broke the rule of +silence, 'the enchantment removed the deposit.'" + +One of many stories of Joe's treasure-digging, current in that +neighborhood, Miss Blackman narrates. Learning from a strolling Indian +of a place where treasure was said to be buried, Joe induced a farmer +named Harper to join him in digging for it and to spend a considerable +sum of money in the enterprise. "After digging a great hole, that is +still to be seen," the story continues, "Harper got discouraged, and was +about abandoning the enterprise. Joe now declared to Harper that there +was an 'enchantment' about the place that was removing the treasure +farther off; that Harper must get a perfectly white dog (some said +a black one), and sprinkle his blood over the ground, and that would +prevent the 'enchantment' from removing the treasure. Search was made +all over the country, but no perfectly white dog could be found. Then +Joe said a white sheep would do as well; but when this was sacrificed +and failed, he said The Almighty was displeased with him for attempting +to palm off on Him a white sheep for a white dog." This informant +describes Joe at that time as "an imaginative enthusiast, +constitutionally opposed to work, and a general favorite with the +ladies." + +In confirmation of this, R. C. Doud asserted that "in 1822 he was +employed, with thirteen others, by Oliver Harper to dig for gold +under Joe's direction on Joseph McKune's land, and that Joe had begun +operations the year previous." + +F. G. Mather obtained substantially the same particulars of Joe's +digging in connection with Harper from the widow of Joseph McKune about +the year 1879, and he said that the owner of the farm at that time "for +a number of years had been engaged in filling the holes with stone +to protect his cattle, but the boys still use the northeast hole as a +swimming pond in the summer."* + + + * Lippincott's Magazine, August, 1880. + + +Confirmation of the important parts of these statements has been +furnished by Joseph's father. When the reports of the discovery of a new +Bible first gained local currency (in 1830), Fayette Lapham decided to +visit the Smith family, and learn what he could on the subject. He found +the elder Smith very communicative, and he wrote out a report of his +conversation with him, "as near as I can repeat his words," he says, and +it was printed in the Historical Magazine for May, 1870. Father Smith +made no concealment of his belief in witchcraft and other things +supernatural, as well as in the existence of a vast amount of buried +treasure. What he said of Joe's initiation into "crystal-gazing" Mr. +Lapham thus records:-- + +"His son Joseph, whom he called the illiterate,* when he was about +fourteen years of age, happened to be where a man was looking into a +dark stone, and telling people therefrom where to dig for money and +other things. Joseph requested the privilege of looking into the stone, +which he did by putting his face into the hat where the stone was. It +proved to be not the right stone for him; but he could see some things, +and among them he saw the stone, and where it was, in which he could see +whatever he wished to see.... The place where he saw the stone was not +far from their house, and under pretence of digging a well, they found +water and the stone at a depth of twenty or twenty-two feet. After this, +Joseph spent about two years looking into this stone, telling fortunes, +where to find lost things, and where to dig for money and other hidden +treasures." + + + * Joe's mother, describing Joe's descriptions to the family, at +their evening fireside, of the angel's revelations concerning the golden +plates, says (p. 84): "All giving the most profound attention to a boy +eighteen years of age, who had never read the Bible through in his life; +he seemed much less inclined to the perusal of books than any of the +rest of our children." + +If further confirmation of Joe's early knowledge on this subject is +required, we may cite the Rev. John A. Clark, D.D., who, writing in 1840 +after careful local research, said: "Long before the idea of a golden +Bible entered their [the Smiths'] minds, in their excursions for +money-digging.... Joe used to be usually their guide, putting into a hat +a peculiar stone he had, through which he looked to decide where they +should begin to dig."* + + + * "Gleanings by the Way" (1842), p. 225. + + +We come now to the history of Joe's own "peek-stone" (as the family +generally called it), that which his father says he discovered by using +the one that he first saw. Willard Chase, of Manchester, New York, near +Palmyra, employed Joe and his brother Alvin some time in the year 1822 +(as he fixed the date in his affidavit)* to assist him in digging a +well. "After digging about twenty feet below the surface of the earth," +he says, "we discovered a singularly appearing stone which excited my +curiosity. I brought it to the top of the well, and as we were examining +it, Joseph put it into his hat and then his face into the top of the +hat. It has been said by Smith that he brought the stone from the well, +but this is false. There was no one in the well but myself. The next +morning he came to me and wished to obtain the stone, alleging that +he could see in it; but I told him I did not wish to part with it on +account of its being a curiosity, but would lend it. After obtaining +the stone, he began to publish abroad what wonders he could discover by +looking in it, and made so much disturbance among the credulous part of +the community that I ordered the stone to be returned to me again. +He had it in his possession about two years." Joseph's brother Hyrum +borrowed the stone some time in 1825, and Mr. Chase was unable to +recover it afterward. Tucker describes it as resembling a child's foot +in shape, and "of a whitish, glassy appearance, though opaque."** + + + * Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 240. + + + ** Tucker closes his chapter about this stone with the +declaration "that the origin [of Mormonism] is traceable to the +insignificant little stone found in the digging of Mr. Chase's well in +1822." Tucker was evidently ignorant both of Joe's previous experience +with "crystal-gazing" in Pennsylvania and of "crystal-gazing" itself. + + +The Smiths at once began turning Chase's stone to their own financial +account, but no one at the time heard that it was giving them any +information about revealed religion. For pay they offered to disclose by +means of it the location of stolen property and of buried money. There +seemed to be no limit to the exaggeration of their professions. They +would point out the precise spot beneath which lay kegs, barrels, and +even hogsheads of gold and silver in the shape of coin, bars, images, +candlesticks, etc., and they even asserted that all the hills thereabout +were the work of human bands, and that Joe, by using his "peek-stone," +could see the caverns beneath them.* Persons can always be found to give +at least enough credence to such professions to desire to test them. It +was so in this case. Joe not only secured small sums on the promise of +discovering lost articles, but he raised money to enable him to dig for +larger treasure which he was to locate by means of the stone. A Palmyra +man, for instance, paid seventy-five cents to be sent by him on a fool's +errand to look for some stolen cloth. + + + * William Stafford's affidavit, Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. +237. + + +Certain ceremonies were always connected with these money-digging +operations. Midnight was the favorite hour, a full moon was helpful, and +Good Friday was the best date. Joe would sometimes stand by, directing +the digging with a wand. The utmost silence was necessary to success. +More than once, when the digging proved a failure, Joe explained to his +associates that, just as the deposit was about to be reached, some one, +tempted by the devil, spoke, causing the wished-for riches to disappear. +Such an explanation of his failures was by no means original with +Smith, the serious results of an untimely spoken word having been long +associated with divers magic performances. Joe even tried on his New +York victims the Pennsylvania device of requiring the sacrifice of +a black sheep to overcome the evil spirit that guarded the treasure. +William Stafford opportunely owned such an animal, and, as he puts +it, "to gratify my curiosity," he let the Smiths have it. But some new +"mistake in the process" again resulted in disappointment. "This, I +believe," remarks the contributor of the sheep, "is the only time they +ever made money-digging a profitable business." The Smiths ate the +sheep. + +These money-seeking enterprises were continued from 1820 to 1827 (the +year of the delivery to Smith of the golden plates). This period +covers the years in which Joe, in his autobiography, confesses that +he "displayed the corruption of human nature." He explains that his +father's family were poor, and that they worked where they could find +employment to their taste; "sometimes we were at home and sometimes +abroad." Some of these trips took them to Pennsylvania, and the stories +of Joe's "gazing" accomplishment may have reached Sidney Rigdon, and +brought about their first interview. Susquehanna County was more thinly +settled than the region around Palmyra, and Joe found persons who were +ready to credit him with various "gifts"; and stories are still current +there of his professed ability to perform miracles, to pray the frost +away from a cornfield, and the like.* + + + * Lippincott's Magazine, August, 1880. + + + +CHAPTER IV. -- FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE GOLDEN BIBLE + +Just when Smith's attention was originally diverted from the discovery +of buried money to the discovery of a buried Bible engraved on gold +plates remains one of the unexplained points in his history. He was +so much of a romancer that his own statements at the time, which were +carefully collected by Howe, are contradictory. The description given of +the buried volume itself changed from time to time, giving strength in +this way to the theory that Rigdon was attracted to Smith by the rumor +of his discovery, and afterward gave it shape. First the book was +announced to be a secular history, says Dr. Clark; then a gold Bible; +then golden plates engraved; and later metallic plates, stereotyped or +embossed with golden letters.* Daniel Hendrix's recollection was that +for the first few months Joe did not claim the plates any new revelation +or religious significance, but simply that they were a historical record +of an ancient people. This would indicate that he had possession of the +"Spaulding Manuscript" before it received any theological additions. + + + * "Gleanings by the Way," p. 229. + + +The account of the revelation of the book by an angel, which is accepted +by the Mormons, is the one elaborated in Smith's autobiography, and +was not written until 1838, when it was prepared under the direction of +Rigdon (or by him). Before examining this later version of the story, we +may follow a little farther Joe's local history at the time. + +While the Smiths were conducting their operations in Pennsylvania, and +Joseph was "displaying the corruption of human nature," they boarded for +a time in the family of Isaac Hale, who is described as a "distinguished +hunter, a zealous member of the Methodist church," and (as later +testified to by two judges of the Court of Common Pleas of Susquehanna +County)" a man of excellent moral character and of undoubted veracity."* +Mr. Hale had three daughters, and Joe received enough encouragement to +his addresses to Emma to induce him to ask her father's consent to their +marriage. This consent was flatly refused. Mr. Hale made a statement +in 1834, covering his knowledge of Smith and the origin of the Mormon +Bible.** When he became acquainted with the future prophet, in 1825, Joe +was employed by the so-called "money-diggers," using his "peek-stone." +Among the reasons which Mr. Hale gave for refusing consent to the +marriage was that Smith was a stranger and followed a business which he +could not approve. + + + * Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 266. + + + ** Ibid., p. 262. + + +Joe thereupon induced Emma to consent to an elopement, and they were +married on January 18, 1827, by a justice of the peace, just across +the line in New York State. Not daring to return to the house of his +father-in-law, Joe took his wife to his own home, near Palmyra, New +York, where for some months he worked again with his father. + +In the following August Joe hired a neighbor named Peter Ingersol to +go with him to Pennsylvania to bring from there some household effects +belonging to Emma. Of this trip Ingersol said, in an affidavit made in +1833:-- + +"When we arrived at Mr. Hale's in Harmony, Pa., from which place he +had taken his wife, a scene presented itself truly affecting. His +father-in-law addressed Joseph in a flood of tears: 'You have stolen +my daughter and married her. I had much rather have followed her to her +grave. You spend your time in digging for money--pretend to see in a +stone, and thus try to deceive people.' Joseph wept and acknowledged +that he could not see in a stone now nor never could, and that his +former pretensions in that respect were false. He then promised to give +up his old habits of digging for money and looking into stones. Mr. Hale +told Joseph, if he would move to Pennsylvania and work for a living, +he would assist him in getting into business. Joseph acceded to this +proposition, then returned with Joseph and his wife to Manchester.... + +"Joseph told me on his return that he intended to keep the promise which +he had made to his father-in-law; 'but,' said he, it will be hard for +me, for they [his family] will all oppose, as they want me to look in +the stone for them to dig money'; and in fact it was as he predicted. +They urged him day after day to resume his old practice of looking in +the stone. He seemed much perplexed as to the course he should pursue. +In this dilemma he made me his confidant, and told me what daily +transpired in the family of Smiths. + +"One day he came and greeted me with joyful countenance. Upon asking the +cause of his unusual happiness, he replied in the following language: +'As I was passing yesterday across the woods, after a heavy shower of +rain, I found in a hollow some beautiful white sand that had been washed +up by the water. I took off my frock and tied up several quarts of it, +and then went home. On entering the house I found the family at the +table eating dinner. They were all anxious to know the contents of +my frock. At that moment I happened to think about a history found in +Canada, called a Golden Bible;* so I very gravely told them it was the +Golden Bible. To my surprise they were credulous enough to believe what +I said. Accordingly I told them I had received a commandment to let +no one see it, for, says I, no man can see it with the natural eye and +live. However, I offered to take out the book and show it to them, but +they refused to see it and left the room. 'Now,' said Joe, 'I have got +the d--d fools fixed and will carry out the fun.' Notwithstanding he +told me he had no such book and believed there never was such book, he +told me he actually went to Willard Chase, to get him to make a chest in +which he might deposit the Golden Bible. But as Chase would not do it, +he made the box himself of clapboards, and put it into a pillow-case, +and allowed people only to lift it and feel of it through the case."** + + + * The most careful inquiries bring no information that any such +story was ever current in Canada. + + + ** Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 234. + + +In line with this statement of Joe to Ingersol is a statement which +somewhat later he made to his brother-in-law, Alva Hale, that "this +'peeking' was all d--d nonsense; that he intended to quit the business +and labor for a livelihood."* + + + * Ibid., p. 268. + + +Joe's family were quite ready to accept his statement of his discovery +of golden plates for more reasons than one. They saw in it, in the first +place, a means of pecuniary gain. Abigail Harris in a statement (dated +"11th mo., 28th, 1833") of a talk she had with Joe's father and mother +at Martin Harris's house, said:-- + +"They [the Smiths] said the plates Joe then had in possession were but +an introduction to the Gold Bible; that all of them upon which the Bible +was written were so heavy that it would take four stout men to load them +into a cart; that Joseph had also discerned by looking through his stone +the vessel in which the gold was melted from which the plates were made, +and also the machine with which they were rolled; he also discovered in +the bottom of the vessel three balls of gold, each as large as his fist. +The old lady said also that after the book was translated, the plates +were to be publicly exhibited, admission 25 cts."* + + + * Ibid, p. 253. + + +But aside from this pecuniary view, the idea of a new Bible would have +been eagerly accepted by a woman like Mrs. Smith, and a mere intimation +by Joe of such a discovery would have given him, in her, an instigator +to the carrying out of the plot. It is said that she had predicted that +she was to be the mother of a prophet. She tells us that although, in +Vermont, she was a diligent church attendant, she found all preachers +unsatisfactory, and that she reached the conclusion that "there was not +on earth the religion she sought." Joe, in his description of his state +of mind just before the first visit of the angel who told him about +the plates, describes himself as distracted by the "war and tumult of +opinions." He doubtless heard this subject talked of by his mother +in the home circle, but none of his acquaintances at the time had any +reason to think that he was laboring under such mental distress. + +The second person in the neighborhood whom Joe approached about his +discovery was Willard Chase, in whose well the "peek-stone" was found. +Mr. Chase in his statement (given at length by Howe) says that Joe +applied to him, soon after the above quoted conversation with Ingersol, +to make a chest in which to lock up his Gold Book, offering Chase an +interest in it as compensation. He told Chase that the discovery of +the book was due to the "peek-stone," making no allusion whatever to an +angel's visit. He and Chase could not come to terms, and Joe accordingly +made a box in which what he asserted were the plates were placed. + +Reports of Joe's discovery soon gained currency in the neighborhood +through the family's account of it, and neighbors who had accompanied +them on the money-seeking expeditions came to hear about the new Bible, +and to request permission to see it. Joe warded off these requests +by reiterating that no man but him could look upon it and live. +"Conflicting stories were afterward told," says Tucker, "in regard to +the manner of keeping the book in concealment and safety, which are +not worth repeating, further than to mention that the first place of +secretion was said to be under a heavy hearthstone in the Smith family +mansion." + +Joe's mother and Parley P. Pratt tell of determined efforts of mobs and +individuals to secure possession of the plates; but their statements +cannot be taken seriously, and are contradicted by Tucker from personal +knowledge. Tucker relates that two local wags, William T. Hussey and +Azel Vandruver, intimate acquaintances of Smith, on asking for a sight +of the book and hearing Joe's usual excuse, declared their readiness to +risk their lives if that were the price of the privilege. Smith was not +to be persuaded, but, the story continues, "they were permitted to go to +the chest with its owner, and see WHERE the thing was, and observe its +shape and size, concealed under a piece of thick canvas. Smith, with his +accustomed solemnity of demeanor, positively persisting in his refusal +to uncover it, Hussey became impetuous, and (suiting his action to +his word) ejaculated, 'Egad, I'll see the critter, live or die,' and +stripping off the canvas, a large tile brick was exhibited. But Smith's +fertile imagination was equal to the emergency. He claimed that his +friends had been sold by a trick of his."* + + + * "Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism," p. 31. + + +Mother Smith, in her book, gives an account of proceedings in court +brought by the wife of Martin Harris to protect her husband's property +from Smith, on the plea that Smith was deceiving him in alleging the +existence of golden plates; and she relates how one witness testified +that Joe told him that "the box which he had contained nothing but sand," +that a second witness swore that Joe told him, "it was nothing but a +box of lead," and that a third witness declared that Joe had told him +"there was nothing at all in the box." When Joe had once started the +story of his discovery, he elaborated it in his usual way. "I distinctly +remember," says Daniel Hendrix, "his sitting on some boxes in the store +and telling a knot of men, who did not believe a word they heard, all +about his vision and his find. But Joe went into such minute and careful +details about the size, weight, and beauty of the carvings on the golden +tablets, and strange characters and the ancient adornments, that I +confess he made some of the smartest men in Palmyra rub their eyes in +wonder." + + + +CHAPTER V. -- THE DIFFERENT ACCOUNTS OF THE REVELATION OF THE BIBLE + +The precise date when Joe's attention was first called to the +possibility of changing the story about his alleged golden plates so +that they would serve as the basis for a new Bible such as was finally +produced, and as a means of making him a prophet, cannot be ascertained. +That some directing mind gave the final shape to the scheme is shown by +the difference between the first accounts of his discovery by means +of the stone, and the one provided in his autobiography. We have also +evidence that the story of a direct revelation by an angel came some +time later than the version which Joe gave first to his acquaintances in +Pennsylvania. + +James T. Cobb of Salt Lake City, who has given much time to +investigating matters connected with early Mormon history, received a +letter under date of April 23, 1879, from Hiel and Joseph Lewis, sons +of the Rev. Nathaniel Lewis, of Harmony, Pennsylvania, and relatives of +Joseph's father-in-law, in which they gave the story of the finding of +the plates as told in their hearing by Joe to their father, when he was +translating them. This statement, in effect, was that he dreamed of +an iron box containing gold plates curiously engraved, which he must +translate into a book; that twice when he attempted to secure the plates +he was knocked down, and when he asked why he could not have them, "he +saw a man standing over the spot who, to him, appeared like a Spaniard, +having a long beard down over his breast, with his throat cut from ear +to ear and the blood streaming down, who told him that he could not get +it alone." (He then narrated how he got the box in company with Emma.) +In all this narrative there was not one word about visions of God, or of +angels, or heavenly revelations; all his information was by that dream +and that bleeding ghost. The heavenly visions and messages of angels, +etc., contained in the Mormon books were afterthoughts, revised to +order. + +In direct confirmation of this we have the following account of the +disclosure of the buried articles as given by Joe's father to Fayette +Lapham when the Bible was first published:-- + +"Soon after joining the church he [Joseph] had a very singular dream.... +A very large, tall man appeared to him dressed in an ancient suit of +clothes, and the clothes were bloody. This man told him of a buried +treasure, and gave him directions by means of which he could find the +place. In the course of a year Smith did find it, and, visiting it by +night, "I by some supernatural power" was enabled to overturn a huge +boulder under which was a square block of masonry, in the centre of +which were the articles as described. Taking up the first article, he +saw others below; laying down the first, he endeavored to secure the +others; but, before he could get hold of them, the one he had taken up +slid back to the place he had taken it from, and, to his great surprise +and terror, the rock immediately fell back to its former place, nearly +crushing him [Joseph] in its descent. While trying in vain to raise the +rock again with levers, Joseph felt something strike him on the breast, +a third blow knocking him down; and as he lay on the ground he saw +the tall man, who told him that the delivery of the articles would be +deferred a year because Joseph had not strictly followed the directions +given to him. The heedless Joseph allowed himself to forget the date +fixed for his next visit, and when he went to the place again, the tall +man appeared and told him that, because of his lack of punctuality, he +would have to wait still another year before the hidden articles would +be confided to him. "Come in one year from this time, and bring your +oldest brother with you," said the guardian of the treasures, "then you +may have them." Before the date named arrived, the elder brother +had died, and Joseph decided that his wife was the proper person to +accompany him. Mr. Lapham's report proceeds as follows:-- + +"At the expiration of the year he [Joseph] procured a horse and light +wagon, with a chest and pillowcase, and proceeded punctually with his +wife to find the hidden treasure. When they had gone as far as they +could with the wagon, Joseph took the pillow-case and started for the +rock. Upon passing a fence a host of devils began to screech and +to scream, and make all sorts of hideous yells, for the purpose of +terrifying him and preventing the attainment of his object; but Joseph +was courageous and pursued his way in spite of them. Arriving at the +stone, he again lifted it with the aid of superhuman power, as at +first, and secured the first or uppermost article, this time putting it +carefully into the pillow-case before laying it down. He now attempted +to secure the remainder; but just then the same old man appeared, and +said to him that the time had not yet arrived for their exhibition to +the world, but that when the proper time came he should have them and +exhibit them, with the one he had now secured; until that time arrived, +no one must be allowed to touch the one he had in his possession; for +if they did, they would be knocked down by some superhuman power. Joseph +ascertained that the remaining articles were a gold hilt and chain, and +a gold ball with two pointers. The hilt and chain had once been part +of a sword of unusual size; but the blade had rusted away and become +useless. Joseph then turned the rock back, took the article in the +pillow-case, and returned to the wagon. The devils, with more hideous +yells than before, followed him to the fence; as he was getting over the +fence, one of the devils struck him a blow on the side, where a black +and blue spot remained three or four days; but Joseph persevered and +brought the article safely home. "I weighed it," said Mr. Smith, Sr., +"and it weighed 30 pounds." In answer to our question as to what it was +that Joseph had thus obtained, he said it consisted of a set of gold +plates, about six inches wide and nine or ten inches long. They were in +the form of a book."* + + + * Historical Magazine, May, 1870. + + +We may now contrast these early accounts of the disclosure with the +version given in the Prophet's autobiography (written, be it remembered, +in Nauvoo in 1838), the one accepted by all orthodox Mormons. One of +its striking features will be found to be the transformation of the +Spaniard-with-his-throat-cut into a messenger from Heaven.* + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, Supt. + + +It was, according to this later account, when he was in his fifteenth +year, and when his father's family were "proselyted to the Presbyterian +church," that he became puzzled by the divergent opinions he heard from +different pulpits. One day, while reading the epistle of James (not a +common habit of his, as his mother would testify), Joseph was struck by +the words, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God." Reflecting +on this injunction, he retired to the woods on the morning of a +beautiful clear day early in the spring of 1820, and there he for the +first time uttered a spoken prayer. As soon as he began praying he was +overcome by some power, and "thick darkness" gathered around him. Just +when he was ready to give himself up as lost, he managed to call on God +for deliverance, whereupon he saw a pillar of light descending upon him, +and two personages of indescribable glory standing in the air above him, +one of whom, calling him by name, said to the other, "This is my beloved +Son, hear him." Straightway Joseph, not forgetting the main object of +his going to the woods, asked the two personages: "which of all the +sects was right." He was told that all were wrong, and that he must +join none of them; that all creeds were an abomination, and that all +professors were corrupt. He came to himself lying on his back. + +The effect on the boy of this startling manifestation was not radically +beneficial, as he himself concedes. "Forbidden to join any other +religious sects of the day, of tender years," and badly treated by +persons who should have been his friends, he admits that in the next +three years he "frequently fell into many foolish errors, and displayed +the weakness of youth and the corruption of human nature, which, I am +sorry to say, led me into diverse temptations, to the gratification of +many appetites offensive in the sight of God." It was during this period +that he was most active in the use of his "peek-stone." + +On the night of September 21, 1823, to proceed with his own account, +when again praying to God for the forgiveness of his sins, the room +became light, and a person clothed in a robe of exquisite whiteness, +and having "a countenance truly like lightning," called him by name, and +said that his visitor was a messenger sent from God, and that his name +was Nephi. This was a mistake on the part of somebody, because the +visitor's real name was Moroni, who hid the plates where they were +deposited. Smith continues:-- + +"He said there was a book deposited, written upon golden plates, giving +an account of the former inhabitants of this continent and the +source from whence they sprang. He also said that the fulness of the +Everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Saviour to +the ancient inhabitants. Also, there were two stones in silver bows (and +these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the +Urim and Thummim) deposited with the plates; and the possession and use +of these stones was what constituted seers in ancient or former times, +and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book." + +The messenger then made some liberal quotations from the prophecies +of the Old Testament (changing them to suit his purpose), and ended by +commanding Smith, when he got the plates, at a future date, to show them +only to those as commanded, lest he be destroyed. Then he ascended into +heaven. The next day the messenger appeared again, and directed Joseph +to tell his father of the commandment which he had received. When he had +done so, his father told him to go as directed. He knew the place (ever +since known locally as "Mormon Hill") as soon as he arrived there, and +his narrative proceeds as follows:-- + +"Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario Co., N. Y., stands +a hill of considerable size, and the most elevated of any in the +neighborhood. On the west side of this hill, not far from the top, under +a stone of considerable size, lay the plates, deposited in a stone box; +this stone was thick and rounded in the middle on the upper side, and +thinner toward the edges, so that the middle part of it was visible +above the ground, but the edge all round was covered with earth. Having +removed the earth and obtained a lever, which I got fixed under the edge +of the stone, and with a little exertion raised it up, I looked in, +and there, indeed, did I behold the plates, the Urim and Thummim and +breastplate, as stated by the messenger. The box in which they lay was +formed by laying stones together in a kind of cement. In the bottom of +the box were laid two stones crosswise of the box, and on these stones +lay the plates and the other things with them. I made an attempt to take +them out, but was forbidden by the messenger. I was again informed that +the time for bringing them out had not yet arrived, neither would till +four years from that time; but he told me that I should come to that +place precisely one year from that time, and that he would there meet +with me, and that I should continue to do so until the time should come +for obtaining the plates". + +Mother Smith gives an explanation of Joe's failure to secure the plates +on this occasion, which he omits: "As he was taking them, the unhappy +thought darted through his mind that probably there was something else +in the box besides the plates, which would be of pecuniary advantage +to him.... Joseph was overcome by the power of darkness, and forgot the +injunction that was laid upon him." The mistakes which the Deity made in +Joe's character constantly suggest to the lay reader the query why the +Urim and Thummim were not turned on Joe. + +On September 22, 1827, when Joe visited the hill (following his own +story again), the same messenger delivered to him the plates, the Urim +and Thummim and the breastplate, with the warning that if he "let them +go carelessly" he would be "cut off", and a charge to keep them until +the messenger called for them. + +Mother Smith's story of the securing of the plates is to the effect that +about midnight of September 21 Joseph and his wife drove away from his +father's house with a horse and wagon belonging to a Mr. Knight. He +returned after breakfast the next morning, bringing with him the Urim +and Thummim, which he showed to her, and which she describes as "two +smooth, three-cornered diamonds set in glass, and the glasses were set +in silver bows that were connected with each other in much the same way +as old-fashioned spectacles." She says that she also saw the breastplate +through a handkerchief, and that it "was concave on one side and convex +on the other, and extended from the neck downward as far as the stomach +of a man of extraordinary size. It had four straps of the same material +for the purpose of fastening it to the breast.... The whole plate was +worth at least $500." The spectacles and breastplate seem to have +been more familiar to Mother Smith than to any other of Joseph's +contemporaries and witnesses. + +The substitution of the spectacles called Urim and Thummim for the +"peek-stone" was doubtless an idea of the associate in the plot, who +supplied the theological material found in the Golden Bible. Tucker +considers the "spectacle pretension" an afterthought of some one when +the scheme of translating the plates into a Bible was evolved, as "it +was not heard of outside of the Smith family for a considerable period +subsequent to the first story."* This is confirmed by the elder Smith's +early account of the discovery. It would be very natural that Rigdon, +with his Bible knowledge, should substitute the more respectable +Urim and Thummim for the "peek-stone" of ill-repute, as the medium of +translation. + + + * "Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism," p. 33. + + +The Urim and Thummim were the articles named by the Lord to Moses in +His description of the priestly garments of Aaron. The Bible leaves them +without description;* and the following verses contain all that is +said of them: Exodus xxviii. 30; Leviticus viii. 8; Numbers xxvii. 21; +Deuteronomy xxxiii. 8; Samuel xxviii. 6; Ezra ii. 63; Nehemiah vii. 65. +Only a pretence of using spectacles in the work of translating was kept +up, later descriptions of the process by Joe's associates referring +constantly to the employment of the stone. + + + * "The Hebrew words are generally considered to be plurales +excellentoe, denoting light (that is, revelation) and truth.... There +are two principal opinions respecting the Urim and Thummim. One is +that these words simply denote the four rows of precious stones in the +breastplate of the high priest, and are so called from their brilliancy +and perfection; which stones, in answer to an appeal to God in difficult +cases, indicated His mind and will by some supernatural appearance.... +The other principal opinion is that the Urim and Thummim were two small +oracular images similar to the Teraphim, personifying revelation and +truth, which were placed in the cavity or pouch formed by the folds of +the breastplate, and which uttered oracles by a voice.... We incline to +Mr. Mede's opinion that the Urim and Thummim were 'things well known to +the patriarchs' as divinely appointed means of inquiries of the Lord, +suited to an infantile state of religion. 'Cyclopedia of Biblical +Literature.'" Kitto and Alexander, editors. + + +Joe says that while the plates were in his possession "multitudes" tried +to get them away from him, but that he succeeded in keeping them until +they were translated, and then delivered them again to the messenger, +who still retains them. Mother Smith tells a graphic story of attempts +to get the plates away from her son, and says that when he first +received them he hid them until the next day in a rotten birch log, +bringing them home wrapped in his linen frock under his arm.* Later, she +says, he hid them in a hole dug in the hearth of their house, and again +in a pile of flax in a cooper shop; Willard Chase's daughter almost +found them once by means of a peek-stone of her own. + + + * Elder Hyde in his "Mormonism" estimates that "from the +description given of them the plates must have weighed nearly two +hundred pounds." + + +Mother Smith says that Joseph told all the family of his vision the +evening of the day he told his father, charging them to keep it secret, +and she adds:-- + +"From that time forth Joseph continued to receive instructions from the +Lord, and we continued to get the children together every evening for +the purpose of listening while he gave us a relation of the same. I +presume our family presented an aspect as singular as any that ever +lived upon the face of the earth--all seated in a circle, father, +mother, sons, and daughters, and giving the most profound attention to +a boy eighteen years old, who had never read the Bible through in his +life.... We were now confirmed in the opinion that God was about to +bring to light something upon which we could stay our mind, or that +would give us a more perfect knowledge of the plan of salvation and the +redemption of the human family." + + + +CHAPTER VI. -- TRANSLATION AND PUBLICATION OF THE BIBLE + +The only one of his New York neighbors who seems to have taken a +practical interest in Joe's alleged discovery was a farmer named Martin +Harris, who lived a little north of Palmyra. Harris was a religious +enthusiast, who had been a Quaker (as his wife was still), a +Universalist, a Baptist, and a Presbyterian, and whose sanity it would +have been difficult to establish in a surrogate's court. The Rev. +Dr. Clark, who knew him intimately, says, "He had always been a firm +believer in dreams, visions, and ghosts." + + + *Howe describes him as often declaring that he had talked with +Jesus Christ, angels, and the devil, and saying that "Christ was the +handsomest man he ever saw, and the devil looked like a jackass, with +very short, smooth hair similar to that of a mouse." Daniel Hendrix +relates that as he and Harris were riding to the village one evening, +and he remarked on the beauty of the moon, Harris replied that if his +companion could only see it as he had, he might well call it beautiful, +explaining that he had actually visited the moon, and adding that +it "was only the faithful who were permitted to visit the celestial +regions." Jesse Townsend, a resident of Palmyra, in a letter written in +1833, describes him as a visionary fanatic, unhappily married, who "is +considered here to this day a brute in his domestic relations, a fool +and a dupe to Smith in religion, and an unlearned, conceited hypocrite +generally." His wife, in an affidavit printed in Howe's book (p. 255), +says: "He has whipped, kicked, and turned me out of the house." Harris, +like Joe's mother, was a constant reader of and a literal believer in +the Bible. Tucker says that he "could probably repeat from memory every +text from the Bible, giving the chapter and verse in each case." This +seems to be an exaggeration. + + + * "Gleanings by the Way." + + +Mother Smith's account of Harris's early connection with the Bible +enterprise says that her husband told Harris of the existence of the +plates two or three years before Joe got possession of them; that when +Joe secured them he asked her to go and tell Harris that he wanted +to see him on the subject, an errand not to her liking, because "Mr. +Harris's wife was a very peculiar woman," that is, she did not share in +her husband's superstition. Mrs. Smith did not succeed in seeing Harris, +but he soon afterward voluntarily offered Joe fifty dollars "for the +purpose of helping Mr. Smith do the Lord's work." As Harris was +very "close" in money matters, it is probable that Joe offered him a +partnership in the scheme at the start. Harris seems to have placed +much faith in the selling quality of the new Bible. He is said to have +replied to his wife's early declaration of disbelief in it: "What if it +is a lie. If you will let me alone I will make money out of it."* The +Rev. Ezra Booth said: "Harris informed me [after his removal to Ohio] +that he went to the place where Joseph resided [in Pennsylvania], and +Joseph had given it [the translation] up on account of the opposition of +his wife and others; and he told Joseph, 'I have not come down here for +nothing, and we will go on with it.'"** + + + * Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 254. + + + ** Ibid., p. 182. + + +Just at this time Joe was preparing to move to the neighborhood of +Harmony, Pennsylvania, having made a trip there after his marriage, +during which, Mr. Hale's affidavit says, "Smith stated to me that he had +given up what he called 'glass-looking,' and that he expected to work +hard for a living and was willing to do so." Smith's brother-in-law +Alva, in accordance with arrangements then made, went to Palmyra and +helped move his effects to a house near Mr. Hale's. Joe acknowledges +that Harris's gift or loan of fifty dollars enabled him to meet the +expenses of moving. + +Parley P. Pratt, in a statement published by him in London in 1854, set +forth that Smith was driven to Pennsylvania from Palmyra through fear of +his life, and that he took the plates with him concealed in a barrel of +beans, thus eluding the efforts of persons who tried to secure them by +means of a search warrant. Tucker says that this story rests only on +the sending of a constable after Smith by a man to whom he owed a small +debt. The great interest manifested in the plates in the neighborhood of +Palmyra existed only in Mormon imagination developed in later years. + +According to some accounts, all the work of what was called +"translating" the writing on the plates into what became the "Book of +Mormon" was done at Joe's home in New York State, and most of it in a +cave, but this was not the case. Smith himself says: "Immediately after +my arrival [in Pennsylvania] I commenced copying the characters off the +plates. I copied a considerable number of them, and by means of the Urim +and Thummim I translated some of them, which I did between the time +I arrived, at the house of my wife's father in the month of December +(1827) and the February following." + +A clear description of the work of translating as carried on in +Pennsylvania is given in the affidavit made by Smith's father-in-law, +Isaac Hale, in 1834.* He says that soon after Joe's removal to his +neighborhood with his wife, he (Hale) was shown a box such as is used +for the shipment of window glass, and was told that it contained the +"book of plates"; he was allowed to lift it, but not to look into it. +Joe told him that the first person who would be allowed to see the +plates would be a young child.** The affidavit continues:-- + + + * Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 264. + + + ** Joe's early announcement was that his first-born child was to +have this power, but the child was born dead. This was one of the +earliest of Joe's mistakes in prophesying. + + +"About this time Martin Harris made his appearance upon the stage, and +Smith began to interpret the characters, or hieroglyphics, which he +said were engraven upon the plates, while Harris wrote down the +interpretation. It was said that Harris wrote down 116 pages and lost +them. Soon after this happened, Martin Harris informed me that he must +have a GREATER WITNESS, and said that he had talked with Joseph about +it. Joseph informed him that he could not, or durst not, show him the +plates, but that he [Joseph] would go into the woods where the book of +plates was, and that after he came back Harris should follow his track +in the snow, and find the book and examine it for himself. Harris +informed me that he followed Smith's directions, and could not find the +plates and was still dissatisfied. + +"The next day after this happened I went to the house where Joseph +Smith, Jr., lived, and where he and Harris were engaged in their +translation of the book. Each of them had a written piece of paper which +they were comparing, and some of the words were, I my servant seeketh a +greater witness, but no greater witness can be given him.... I inquired +whose words they were, and was informed by Joseph or Emma (I rather +think it was the former), that they were the words of Jesus Christ. I +told them that I considered the whole of it a delusion, and advised them +to abandon it. The manner in which he pretended to read and interpret +was the same as when he looked for the moneydiggers, with the stone in +his hat and his hat over his face, while the book of plates was at the +same time hid in the woods. + +"After this, Martin Harris went away, and Oliver Cowdery came and wrote +for Smith, while he interpreted as above described. + +"Joseph Smith, Jr., resided near me for some time after this, and I +had a good opportunity of becoming acquainted with him, and somewhat +acquainted with his associates; and I conscientiously believe, from the +facts I have detailed, and from many other circumstances which I do not +deem it necessary to relate, that the whole Book of Mormon (so-called) +is a silly fabrication of falsehood and wickedness, got up for +speculation, and with a design to dupe the credulous and unwary." + +Harris's natural shrewdness in a measure overcame his fanaticism, and he +continued to press Smith for a sight of the plates. Smith thereupon made +one of the first uses of those "revelations" which played so important +a part in his future career, and he announced one (Section 5, "Doctrine +and Covenants"*), in which "I, the Lord" declared to Smith that the +latter had entered into a covenant with Him not to show the plates to +any one except as the Lord commanded him. Harris finally demanded of +Smith at least a specimen of the writing on the plates for submission to +experts in such subjects. As Harris was the only man of means interested +in this scheme of publication, Joe supplied him with a paper containing +some characters which he said were copied from one of the plates. This +paper increased Harris's belief in the reality of Joe's discovery, but +he sought further advice before opening his purse. Dr. Clark describes a +call Harris made on him early one morning, greatly excited, requesting a +private interview. On hearing his story, Dr. Clark advised him that the +scheme was a hoax, devised to extort money from him, but Harris showed +the slip of paper containing the mysterious characters, and was not to +be persuaded. + + + * All references to the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants" refer to +the sections and verses of the Salt Lake city edition of 1890. + + +Seeking confirmation, however, Harris made a trip to New York City in +order to submit the characters to experts there. Among others, he called +on Professor Charles Anthon. His interview with Professor Anthon +has been a cause of many and conflicting statements, some Mormons +misrepresenting it for their own purposes and others explaining away +the professor's accounts of it. The following statement was written by +Professor Anthon in reply to an inquiry by E. D. Howe:-- + +"NEW YORK, February 17, 1834. + +"DEAR SIR: I received your favor of the 9th, and lose no time in making +a reply. The whole story about my pronouncing the Mormon inscription to +be 'reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics' is perfectly false. Some years ago +a plain, apparently simple-hearted farmer called on me with a note +from Dr. Mitchell, of our city, now dead, requesting me to decypher, +if possible, the paper which the farmer would hand me, and which Dr. M. +confessed he had been unable to understand. Upon examining the paper in +question, I soon came to the conclusion that it was all a trick--perhaps +a hoax. When I asked the person who brought it how he obtained the +writing, he gave me, as far as I can recollect, the following account: +A 'gold book' consisting of a number of plates fastened together in +the shape of a book by wires of the same metal, had been dug up in +the northern part of the state of New York, and along with the book an +enormous pair of 'spectacles'! These spectacles were so large that, if +a person attempted to look through them, his two eyes would have to +be turned toward one of the glasses merely, the spectacles in question +being altogether too large for the breadth of the human face. Whoever +examined the plates through the spectacles, was enabled, not only to +read them, but fully to understand their meaning. All this knowledge, +however, was confined to a young man who had the trunk containing the +book and spectacles in his sole possession. This young man was placed +behind a curtain in the garret of a farmhouse, and being thus concealed +from view, put on the spectacles occasionally, or rather, looked through +one of the glasses, decyphered the characters in the book, and, having +committed some of them to paper, handed copies from behind the curtain +to those who stood on the outside. Not a word, however, was said about +the plates being decyphered 'by the gift of God.' Everything in this way +was effected by the large pair of spectacles. The farmer added that he +had been requested to contribute a sum of money toward the publication +of the 'golden book,' the contents of which would, as he had been +assured, produce an entire change in the world, and save it from ruin. +So urgent had been these solicitations, that he intended selling his +farm, and handing over the amount received to those who wished to +publish the plates. As a last precautionary step, however, he had +resolved to come to New York, and obtain the opinion of the learned +about the meaning of the paper which he had brought with him, and which +had been given him as part of the contents of the book, although no +translation had been furnished at the time by the young man with the +spectacles. On hearing this odd story, I changed my opinion about the +paper, and, instead of viewing it any longer as a hoax upon the learned, +I began to regard it as a part of a scheme to cheat the farmer of his +money, and I communicated my suspicions to him, warning him to beware of +rogues. He requested an opinion from me in writing, which, of course, +I declined giving, and he then took his leave, carrying his paper with +him. + +"This paper was in fact a singular scrawl. It consisted of all kinds of +crooked characters, disposed in columns, and had evidently been prepared +by some person who had before him at the time a book containing various +alphabets. Greek and Hebrew letters, crosses and flourishes, Roman +letters inverted, or placed sideways, were arranged and placed in +perpendicular columns; and the whole ended in a rude delineation of a +circle, divided into various compartments, decked with various strange +marks, and evidently copied after the Mexican Calendar, given by +Humbolt, but copied in such a way as not to betray the source whence +it was, derived. I am thus particular as to the contents of the paper, +inasmuch as I have frequently conversed with my friends on the subject +since the Mormonite excitement began, and well remember that the paper +contained anything else but 'Egyptian Hieroglyphics.' + +"Some time after, the farmer paid me a second visit. He brought with +him the golden book in print, and offered it to me for sale. I declined +purchasing. He then asked permission to leave the book with me for +examination. I declined receiving it, although his manner was strangely +urgent. I adverted once more to the roguery which had been, in my +opinion, practised upon him, and asked him what had become of the gold +plates. He informed me that they were in a trunk with the large pair +of spectacles. I advised him to go to a magistrate, and have the trunk +examined. He said 'the curse of God' would come upon him should he do +this. On my pressing him, however, to pursue the course which I had +recommended, he told me he would open the trunk if I would take 'the +curse of God' upon myself. I replied I would do so with the greatest +willingness, and would incur every risk of that nature provided I could +only extricate him from the grasp of the rogues. He then left me. + +"I have thus given you a full statement of all that I know respecting +the origin of Mormonism, and must beg you, as a personal favor, to +publish this letter immediately, should you find my name mentioned again +by these wretched fanatics. Yours respectfully, + +"CHARLES ANTHON."* + + + * "Mormonism Unveiled," pp. 270-272. A letter from Professor +Anthon to the Rev. Dr. Coit, rector of Trinity Church, New Rochelle, New +York, dated April 3, 1841, containing practically the same statement, +will be found in Clark's "Gleanings by the Way," pp. 233-238. + + +While Mormon speakers quoted Anthon as vouching for the mysterious +writing, their writers were more cautious. P. P. Pratt, in his "Voice of +Warning" (1837), said that Professor Anthon was unable to decipher +the characters, but he presumed that if the original records could +be brought, he could assist in translating them. Orson Pratt, in his +"Remarkable Visions" (1848), saw in the Professor's failure only a +verification of Isaiah xxix. 11 and 12:-- + +"And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is +sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, +I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed: and the book is +delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: +and he saith, I am not learned." + +[Illustration: + Facsimile of the Characters of the Book of Mormon + 072] + +John D. Lee, in his "Mormonism Unveiled," mentions the generally used +excuse of the Mormons for the professor's failure to translate the +writing, namely, that Anthon told Harris that "they were written in +a sealed language, unknown to the present age." Smith, in his +autobiography, quotes Harris's account of his interview as follows:-- + +"I went to New York City and presented the characters which had been +translated, with the translation thereof, to Prof. Anthon, a man quite +celebrated for his literary attainments. Prof. Anthon stated that the +translation was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated +from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not yet +translated, and he said they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and +Arabic, and he said they were the true characters." + +Harris declared that the professor gave him a certificate to this +effect, but took it back and tore it up when told that an angel of God +had revealed the plates to Joe, saying that "there were no such things +as ministering angels." This account by Harris of his interview with +Professor Anthon will assist the reader in estimating the value of +Harris's future testimony as to the existence of the plates. + +Harris's trip to New York City was not entirely satisfactory to him, +and, as Smith himself relates, "He began to tease me to give him liberty +to carry the writings home and show them, and desired of me that I would +enquire of the Lord through the Urim and Thummim if he might not do so." +Smith complied with this request, but the permission was twice refused; +the third time it was granted, but on condition that Harris would show +the manuscript translation to only five persons, who were named, one of +them being his wife. + +In including Mrs. Harris in this list, the Lord made one of the greatest +mistakes into which he ever fell in using Joe as a mouthpiece. Mrs. +Harris's Quaker belief had led her from the start to protest against the +Bible scheme, and to warn her husband against the Smith family, and she +vigorously opposed his investment of any money in the publication of +the book. On the occasion of his first visit to Joe in Pennsylvania, +according to Mother Smith, Mrs. Harris was determined to accompany him, +and he had to depart without her knowledge; and when he went the second +time, she did accompany him, and she ransacked the house to find the +"record" (as the plates are often called in the Smiths' writings). + +When Harris returned home with the translated pages which Joe intrusted +to him (in July, 1828), he showed them to his family and to others, who +tried in vain to convince him that he was a dupe. Mrs. Harris decided on +a more practical course. Getting possession of the papers, where Harris +had deposited them for safe keeping, she refused to restore them to him. +What eventually became of them is uncertain, one report being that she +afterward burned them. + +This should have caused nothing more serious in the way of delay +than the time required to retranslate these pages; for certainly a +well-equipped Divinity, who was revealing a new Bible to mankind, and +supplying so powerful a means of translation as the Urim and Thummim, +could empower the translator to repeat the words first written. Indeed, +the descriptions of the method of translation given afterward by Smith's +confederates would seem to prove that there could have been but one +version of any translation of the plates, no matter how many times +repeated. Thus, Harris described the translating as follows:-- + +"By aid of the seer stone [no mention of the magic spectacles] sentences +would appear and were read by the prophet and written by Martin, and, +when finished, he would say 'written'; and if correctly written, that +sentence would disappear, and another appear in its place; but if not +written correctly, it remained until corrected, so that the translation +was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in the language +then used."* + + + * Elder Edward Stevenson in the Deseret News (quoted in Reynold's +"Mystery of the Manuscript Fund," p. 91). + +David Whitmer, in an account of this process written in his later years, +said:-- + +"Joseph would put the seer stone into a hat [more testimony against the +use of the spectacles] and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely +around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual +light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would +appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would +appear, and under it was the translation in English. Brother Joseph +would read off the English to O. Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, +and when it was written down and repeated to brother Joseph to see if +it were correct, then it would disappear and another character with the +interpretation would appear."* + + + * "Address to Believers in the Book of Mormon." + + +But to Joseph the matter of reproducing the lost pages of the +translation did not seem simple. When Harris's return to Pennsylvania +was delayed, Joe became anxious and went to Palmyra to learn what +delayed him, and there he heard of Mrs. Harris's theft of the pages. His +mother reports him as saying in announcing it, "my God, all is lost! all +is lost!" Why the situation was as serious to a sham translator as it +would have been simple to an honest one is easily understood. Whenever +Smith offered a second translation of the missing pages which differed +from the first, a comparison of them with the latter would furnish proof +positive of the fraudulent character of his pretensions. + +All the partners in the business had to share in the punishment for what +had occurred. The Smiths lost all faith in Harris. Joe says that Harris +broke his pledge about showing the translation only to five persons, +and Mother Smith says that because of this offence "a dense fog spread +itself over his fields and blighted his wheat." When Joe returned to +Pennsylvania an angel appeared to him, his mother says, and ordered him +to give up the Urim and Thummim, promising, however, to restore them +if he was humble and penitent, and "if so, it will be on the 22d of +September."* Here may be noted one of those failures of mother and son +to agree in their narratives which was excuse enough for Brigham Young +to try to suppress the mother's book. Joe mentions a "revelation" dated +July, 1828 (Sec. 3, "Doctrine and Covenants"), in which Harris was +called "a wicked man," and which told Smith that he had lost his +privileges for a season, and he adds, "After I had obtained the above +revelation, both the plates and the Urim and Thummim were taken from me +again, BUT IN A FEW DAYS they were returned to me."** + + + * "Biographical Sketches," by Lucy Smith, p. 125. + + + ** Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 8. + + +For some ten months after this the work of translation was discontinued, +although Mother Smith says that when she and his father visited the +prophet in Pennsylvania two months after his return, the first thing +they saw was "a red morocco trunk lying on Emma's bureau which, Joseph +shortly informed me, contained the Urim and Thummim and the plates." +Mrs. Harris's act had evidently thrown the whole machinery of +translation out of gear, and Joe had to await instructions from his +human adviser before a plan of procedure could be announced. During this +period (in which Joe says he worked on his father's farm), says Tucker, +"the stranger [supposed to be Rigdon] had again been at Smith's, and the +prophet had been away from home, maybe to repay the former's visits."* + + + * "Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism," p. 48. + + +Two matters were decided on in these consultations, viz., that no +attempt would be made to retranslate the lost pages, and that a second +copy of all the rest of the manuscript should be prepared, to guard +against a similar perplexity in case of the loss of later pages. The +proof of the latter statement I find in the fact that a second copy did +exist. Ebenezer Robinson, who was a leading man in the church from +the time of its establishment in Ohio until Smith's death, says in his +recollections that, when the people assembled on October 2, 1841, to lay +the corner-stone of Nauvoo House, Smith said he had a document to +put into the corner-stone, and Robinson went with him to his house to +procure it. Robinson's story proceeds as follows:-- + +"He got a manuscript copy of the Book of Mormon, and brought it into the +room where we were standing, and said, 'I will examine to see if it is +all here'; and as he did so I stood near him, at his left side, and saw +distinctly the writing as he turned up the pages until he hastily went +through the book and satisfied himself that it was all there, when he +said, 'I have had trouble enough with this thing'; which remark struck +me with amazement, as I looked upon it as a sacred treasure." + +Robinson says that the manuscript was written on foolscap paper and most +of it in Oliver Cowdery's handwriting. He explains that two copies were +necessary, "as the printer who printed the first edition of the book had +to have a copy, as they would not put the original copy into his hands +for fear of its being altered. This accounts for David Whitmer having a +copy and Joseph Smith having one."* + + + * The Return, Vol. II, p. 314. Ebenezer Robinson, a printer, +joined the Mormons at Kirtland, followed Smith to Missouri, and went +with the flock to Nauvoo, where he and the prophet's brother, Don +Carlos, established the Times and Seasons. When the doctrine of polygamy +was announced to him and his wife, they rejected it, and he followed +Rigdon to Pennsylvania when Rigdon was turned out by Young. In later +years he was engaged in business enterprises in Iowa, and was a resident +of Davis City when David Whitmer announced the organization of +his church in Missouri, and, not accepting the view of the prophet +entertained by his descendants in the Reorganized Church, Robinson +accepted baptism from Whitmer. The Return was started by him in +January, 1889, and continued until his death, in its second year. His +reminiscences of early Mormon experiences, which were a feature of the +publication, are of value. + +Major Bideman, who married the prophet's widow, partly completed and +occupied Nauvoo House after the departure of the Mormons for Utah, and +some years later he took out the cornerstone and opened it, but found +the manuscript so ruined by moisture that only a little was legible. + +In regard to the missing pages, it was decided to announce a revelation, +which is dated May, 1829 (Sec. 10, "Doctrine and Covenants"), stating +that the lost pages had got into the hands of wicked men, that "Satan +has put it into their hearts to alter the words which you have caused to +be written, or which you have translated," in accordance with a plan +of the devil to destroy Smith's work. He was directed therefore to +translate from the plates of Nephi, which contained a "more particular +account" than the Book of Lehi from which the original translation was +made. + +When Smith began translating again, Harris was not reemployed, but Emma, +the prophet's wife, acted as his scribe until April 15, 1829, when a new +personage appeared upon the scene. This was Oliver Cowdery. + +Cowdery was a blacksmith by trade, but gave up that occupation, and, +while Joe was translating in Pennsylvania, secured the place of teacher +in the district where the Smiths lived, and boarded with them. They told +him of the new Bible, and, according to Joe's later account, Cowdery +for himself received a revelation of its divine character, went to +Pennsylvania, and from that time was intimately connected with Joe in +the translation and publication of the book. + +In explanation of the change of plan necessarily adopted in the +translation, the following preface appeared in the first edition of the +book, but was dropped later:-- + +"TO THE READER. + +"As many false reports have been circulated respecting the following +work, and also many unlawful measures taken by evil designing persons to +destroy me, and also the work, I would inform you that I translated, +by the gift and power of God, and caused to be written, one hundred +and sixteen pages, the which I took from the book of Lehi, which was an +account abridged from the plates of Lehi, by the hand of Mormon; which +said account, some person or persons have stolen and kept from me, +notwithstanding my utmost efforts to recover it again--and being +commanded of the Lord that I should not translate the same over again, +for Satan had put it into their hearts to tempt the Lord their God, +by altering the words; that they did read contrary from that which I +translated and caused to be written; and if I should bring forth the +same words again, or, in other words, if I should translate the same +over again, they would publish that which they had stolen, and Satan +would stir up the hearts of this generation, that they might not receive +this work, but behold, the Lord said unto me, I will not suffer that +Satan shall accomplish his evil design in this thing; therefore thou +shalt translate from the plates of Nephi until ye come to that which ye +have translated, which ye have retained; and behold, ye shall publish it +as the record of Nephi; and thus I will confound those who have altered +my words. I will not suffer that they shall destroy my work; yea, I will +show unto them that my wisdom is greater than the cunning of the Devil. +Wherefore, to be obedient unto the commandments of God, I have, through +His grace and mercy, accomplished that which He hath commanded me +respecting this thing. I would also inform you that the plates of which +hath been spoken, were found in the township of Manchester, Ontario +County, New York.--THE AUTHOR." + +In June, 1829, Smith accepted an invitation to change his residence to +the house of Peter Whitmer, who, with his sons, David, John, and Peter, +Jr., lived at Fayette, Seneca County, New York, the Whitmers promising +his board free and their assistance in the work of translation. There, +Smith says, they resided "until the translation was finished and the +copyright secured." + +As five of the Whitmers were "witnesses" to the existence of the plates, +and David continued to be a person of influence in Mormon circles +throughout his long life, information about them is of value. The +prophet's mother again comes to our aid, although her account conflicts +with her son's. The prophet says that David Whitmer brought the +invitation to take up quarters at his father's, and volunteered the +offer of free board and assistance. Mother Smith says that one day, as +Joe was translating the plates, he came, in the midst of the words +of the Holy Writ, to a commandment to write at once to David Whitmer, +requesting him to come immediately and take the prophet and Cowdery to +his house, "as an evil-designing people were seeking to take away his +[Joseph's] life in order to prevent the work of God from going forth to +the world." When the letter arrived, David's father told him that, +as they had wheat sown that would require two days' harrowing, and a +quantity of plaster to spread, he could not go "unless he could get a +witness from God that it was absolutely necessary." In answer to his +inquiry of the Lord on the subject, David was told to go as soon as his +wheat was harrowed in. Setting to work, he found that at the end of the +first day the two days' harrowing had been completed, and, on going out +the next morning to spread the plaster, he found that work done also, +and his sister told him she had seen three unknown men at work in the +field the day before: so that the task had been accomplished by "an +exhibition of supernatural power."* + + + * "Biographical Sketches," Lucy Smith, p. 135. + + +The translation being ready for the press, in June, 1829 (I follow +Tucker's account of the printing of the work), Joseph, his brother +Hyrum, Cowdery, and Harris asked Egbert B. Grandin, publisher of the +Wayne Sentinel at Palmyra, to give them an estimate of the cost of +printing an edition of three thousand copies, with Harris as security +for the payment. Grandin told them he did not want to undertake the job +at any price, and he tried to persuade Harris not to invest his money +in the scheme, assuring him that it was fraudulent. Application was next +made to Thurlow Weed, then the publisher of the Anti-Masonic Inquirer, +at Rochester, New York. "After reading a few chapters," says Mr. Weed, +"it seemed such a jumble of unintelligent absurdities that we refused +the work, advising Harris not to mortgage his farm and beggar his +family." Finally, Smith and his associates obtained from Elihu F. +Marshall, a Rochester publisher, a definite bid for the work, and with +this they applied again to Grandin, explaining that it would be much +more convenient for them to have the printing done at home, and pointing +out to him that he might as well take the job, as his refusal would not +prevent the publication of the book. This argument had weight with him, +and he made a definite contract to print and bind five thousand copies +for the sum of $3000, a mortgage on Harris's farm to be given him as +security. Mrs. Harris had persisted in her refusal to be in any way a +party to the scheme, and she and her husband had finally made a legal +separation, with a division of the property, after she had entered a +complaint against Joe, charging him with getting money from her husband +on fraudulent representation. At the hearing on this complaint, Harris +denied that he had ever contributed a dollar to Joe at the latter's +persuasion. + +Tucker, who did much of the proof-reading of the new Bible, comparing it +with the manuscript copy, says that, when the printing began, Smith +and his associates watched the manuscript with the greatest vigilance, +bringing to the office every morning as much as the printers could set +up during the day, and taking it away in the evening, forbidding also +any alteration. The foreman, John H. Gilbert, found the manuscript +so poorly prepared as regards grammatical construction, spelling, +punctuation, etc., that he told them that some corrections must be made, +and to this they finally consented. + +Daniel Hendrix, in his recollections, says in confirmation of this:-- + +"I helped to read proof on many pages of the book, and at odd times set +some type.... The penmanship of the copy furnished was good, but the +grammar, spelling and punctuation were done by John H. Gilbert, who was +chief compositor in the office. I have heard him swear many a time at +the syntax and orthography of Cowdery, and declare that he would not set +another line of the type. There were no paragraphs, no punctuation and +no capitals. All that was done in the printing office, and what a +time there used to be in straightening sentences out, too. During the +printing of the book I remember that Joe Smith kept in the background." + +The following letter is in reply to an inquiry addressed by me to Albert +Chandler, the only survivor, I think, of the men who helped issue the +first edition of Smith's book:-- + +"COLDWATER, MICH., Dec. 22, 1898. + +"My recollections of Joseph Smith, Jr. and of the first steps taken in +regard to his Bible have never been printed. At the time of the printing +of the Mormon Bible by Egbert B. Grandin of the Sentinel I was an +apprentice in the bookbindery connected with the Sentinel office. I +helped to collate and stitch the Gold Bible, and soon after this was +completed, I changed from book-binding to printing. I learned my trade +in the Sentinel office. + +"My recollections of the early history of the Mormon Bible are vivid +to-day. I knew personally Oliver Cowdery, who translated the Bible, +Martin Harris, who mortgaged his farm to procure the printing, and +Joseph Smith Jr., but slightly. What I knew of him was from hearsay, +principally from Martin Harris, who believed fully in him. Mr. Tucker's +'Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism' is the fullest account I have +ever seen. I doubt if I can add anything to that history. + +"The whole history is shrouded in the deepest mystery. Joseph Smith Jr., +who read through the wonderful spectacles, pretended to give the scribe +the exact reading of the plates, even to spelling, in which Smith was +woefully deficient. Martin Harris was permitted to be in the room with +the scribe, and would try the knowledge of Smith, as he told me, saying +that Smith could not spell the word February, when his eyes were off the +spectacles through which he pretended to work. This ignorance of Smith +was proof positive to him that Smith was dependent on the spectacles for +the contents of the Bible. Smith and the plates containing the original +of the Mormon Bible were hid from view of the scribe and Martin Harris +by a screen. + +"I should think that Martin Harris, after becoming a convert, gave up +his entire time to advertising the Bible to his neighbors and the public +generally in the vicinity of Palmyra. He would call public meetings and +address them himself. He was enthusiastic, and went so far as to say +that God, through the Latter Day Saints, was to rule the world. I heard +him make this statement, that there would never be another President of +the United States elected; that soon all temporal and spiritual power +would be given over to the prophet Joseph Smith and the Latter Day +Saints. His extravagant statements were the laughing stock of the people +of Palmyra. His stories were hissed at, universally. To give you an idea +of Mr. Harris's superstitions, he told me that he saw the devil, in all +his hideousness, on the road, just before dark, near his farm, a little +north of Palmyra. You can see that Harris was a fit subject to carry out +the scheme of organizing a new religion. + +"The absolute secrecy of the whole inception and publication of the +Mormon Bible stopped positive knowledge. We only knew what Joseph Smith +would permit Martin Harris to publish, in reference to the whole thing. + +"The issuing of the Book of Mormon scarcely made a ripple of excitement +in Palmyra. + +"ALBERT CHANDLER."* + + + * Mr. Chandler moved to Michigan in 1835, and has been connected +with several newspapers in that state, editing the Kalamazoo Gazette, +and founding and publishing the Coldwater Sentinel. He was elected +the first mayor of Coldwater, serving several terms. He was in his +eighty-fifth year when the above letter was written. + + +The book was published early in 1830. On paper the sale of the first +edition showed a profit of $3250 at $1.25 a volume, that being the +lowest price to be asked on pain of death, according to a "special +revelation" received by Smith. By the original agreement Harris was to +have the exclusive control of the sale of the book. But it did not sell. +The local community took it no more seriously than they did Joe himself +and his family. The printer demanded his pay as the work progressed, +and it became necessary for Smith to spur Harris on by announcing a +revelation (Sec. 19, "Doctrine and Covenants"), saying, "I command thee +that thou shalt not covet thine own property, but impart it freely to +the printing of the Book of Mormon." Harris accordingly disposed of his +share of the farm and paid Grandin. + +To make the book "go," Smith now received a revelation which permitted +his father, soon to be elevated to the title of Patriarch, to sell it on +commission, and Smith, Sr., made expeditions through the country, taking +in pay for any copies sold such farm produce or "store goods" as he +could use in his own family. How much he "cut" the revealed price of the +book in these trades is not known, but in one instance, when arrested in +Palmyra for a debt of $5.63, he, under pledge of secrecy, offered seven +of the Bibles in settlement, and the creditor, knowing that the old man +had no better assets, accepted the offer as a joke.* + + + * "Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism," Tucker, p. 63. + + + +CHAPTER VII. -- THE SPAULDING MANUSCRIPT + +The history of the Mormon Bible has been brought uninterruptedly to this +point in order that the reader may be able to follow clearly each +step that had led up to its publication. It is now necessary to give +attention to two subjects intimately connected with the origin of this +book, viz., the use made of what is known as the "Spaulding manuscript," +in supplying the historical part of the work, and Sidney Rigdon's share +in its production. + +The most careful student of the career of Joseph Smith, Jr., and of his +family and his associates, up to the year 1827, will fail to find any +ground for the belief that he alone, or simply with their assistance, +was capable of composing the Book of Mormon, crude in every sense as +that work is. We must therefore accept, as do the Mormons, the statement +that the text was divinely revealed to Smith, or must look for some +directing hand behind the scene, which supplied the historical part and +applied the theological. The "Spaulding manuscript" is believed to have +furnished the basis of the historical part of the work. + +Solomon Spaulding, born in Ashford, Connecticut, in 1761, was graduated +from Dartmouth College in 1785, studied divinity, and for some years +had charge of a church. His own family described him as a peculiar +man, given to historical researches, and evidently of rather unstable +disposition. He gave up preaching, conducted an academy at Cherry +Valley, New York, and later moved to Conneaut, Ohio, where in 1812 he +had an interest in an iron foundry. His attention was there attracted to +the ancient mounds in that vicinity, and he set some of his men to work +exploring one of them. "I vividly remember how excited he became," +says his daughter, when he heard that they had exhumed some human +bones, portions of gigantic skeletons, and various relics. From these +discoveries he got the idea of writing a fanciful history of the ancient +races of this country. + +The title he chose for his book was "The Manuscript Found." He +considered this work a great literary production, counted on being able +to pay his debts from the proceeds of its sale, and was accustomed to +read selections from the manuscript to his neighbors with evident pride. +The impression that such a production would be likely to make on the +author's neighbors in that frontier region and in those early days, when +books were scarce and authors almost unknown, can with difficulty be +realized now. Barrett Wendell, speaking of the days of Bryant's early +work, says:-- + +"Ours was a new country...deeply and sensitively aware that it lacked a +literature. Whoever produced writings which could be pronounced adorable +was accordingly regarded by his fellow citizens as a public benefactor, +a great public figure, a personage of whom the nation could be proud."* +This feeling lends weight to the testimony of Mr. Spaulding's neighbors, +who in later years gave outlines of his work. + + + * "Literary History of America." + + +In order to find a publisher Mr. Spaulding moved with his family to +Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. A printer named Patterson spoke well of the +manuscript to its author, but no one was found willing to publish +it. The Spauldings afterward moved to Amity, Pennsylvania, where Mr. +Spaulding died in 1816. His widow and only child went to live with Mrs. +Spaulding's brother, W. H. Sabine, at Onondaga Valley, New York, taking +their effects with them. These included an old trunk containing Mr. +Spaulding's papers. "There were sermons and other papers," says his +daughter, "and I saw a manuscript about an inch thick, closely written, +tied up with some stories my father had written for me, one of which he +called 'The Frogs of Windham.' On the outside of this manuscript were +written the words 'Manuscript Found.' I did not read it, but looked +through it, and had it in my hands many times, and saw the names I +had heard at Conneaut, when my father read it to his friends." Mrs. +Spaulding next went to her father's house in Connecticut, leaving her +personal property at her brother's. She married a Mr. Davison in 1820, +and the old trunk was sent to her at her new home in Hartwick, Otsego +County, New York. The daughter was married to a Mr. McKinstry in +1828, and her mother afterward made her home with her at Monson, +Massachusetts, most of the time until her death in 1844. + +When the newly announced Mormon Bible began to be talked about in Ohio, +there were immediate declarations in Spaulding's old neighborhood of a +striking similarity between the Bible story and the story that Spaulding +used to read to his acquaintances there, and these became positive +assertions after the Mormons had held a meeting at Conneaut. The opinion +was confidently expressed there that, if the manuscript could be found +and published, it would put an end to the Mormon pretence. + +About the year 1834 Mrs. Davison received a visit at Monson from D. +P. Hurlbut, a man who had gone over to the Mormons from the Methodist +church, and had apostatized and been expelled. He represented that he +had been sent by a committee to secure "The Manuscript Found" in order +that it might be compared with the Mormon Bible. As he brought a letter +from her brother, Mrs. Davison, with considerable reluctance, gave him +an introduction to George Clark, in whose house at Hartwick she had left +the old trunk, directing Mr. Clark to let Hurlbut have the manuscript, +receiving his verbal pledge to return it. He obtained a manuscript from +this trunk, but did not keep his pledge.* + + + * Condensed from an affidavit by Mrs. McKinstry, dated April 3, +1880, in Scribner's Magazine for August, 1880. + + +The Boston Recorder published in May, 1839, a detailed statement by Mrs. +Davison concerning her knowledge of "The Manuscript Found." After giving +an account of the writing of the story, her statement continued as +follows:-- + +"Here [in Pittsburg] Mr. Spaulding found a friend and acquaintance in +the person of Mr. Patterson, who was very much pleased with it, and +borrowed it for perusal. He retained it for a long time, and informed +Mr. Spaulding that, if he would make out a title-page and preface, he +would publish it, as it might be a source of profit. This Mr. Spaulding +refused to do. Sidney Rigdon, who has figured so largely in the history +of the Mormons, was at that time connected with the printing office of +Mr. Patterson, as is well known in that region, and, as Rigdon himself +has frequently stated, became acquainted with Mr. Spaulding's manuscript +and copied it. It was a matter of notoriety and interest to all +connected with the printing establishment. At length the manuscript was +returned to its author, and soon after we removed to Amity where Mr. +Spaulding deceased in 1816. The manuscript then fell into my hands, and +was carefully preserved." + +This statement stirred up the Mormons greatly, and they at once +pronounced the letter a forgery, securing from Mrs. Davison a statement +in which she said that she did not write it. This was met with a counter +statement by the Rev. D. R. Austin that it was made up from notes of +a conversation with her, and was correct. In confirmation of this +the Quincy [Massachusetts] Whig printed a letter from John Haven of +Holliston, Massachusetts, giving a report of a conversation between his +son Jesse and Mrs. Davison concerning this letter, in which she stated +that the letter was substantially correct, and that some of the names +used in the Mormon Bible were like those in her husband's story. Rigdon +himself, in a letter addressed to the Boston Journal, under date of May +27, 1839, denied all knowledge of Spaulding, and declared that there +was no printer named Patterson in Pittsburg during his residence there, +although he knew a Robert Patterson who had owned a printing-office in +that city. The larger part of his letter is a coarse attack on Hurlbut +and also on E. D. Howe, the author of "Mormonism Unveiled," whose +whole family he charged with scandalous immoralities. If the use of +Spaulding's story in the preparation of the Mormon Bible could be proved +by nothing but this letter of Mrs. Davison, the demonstration would be +weak; but this is only one link in the chain. + +Howe, in his painstaking efforts to obtain all probable information +about the Mormon origin from original sources, secured the affidavits of +eight of Spaulding's acquaintances in Ohio, giving their recollections +of the "Manuscript Found."* Spaulding's brother, John, testified that +he heard many passages of the manuscript read and, describing it, he +said:-- + + + * Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," pp. 278-287. + + + "It was an historical romance of the first settlers of America, +endeavoring to show that the American Indians are the descendants of +the Jews, or the lost tribe. It gave a detailed account of their journey +from Jerusalem, by land and sea, till they arrived in America, under the +command of Nephi and Lehi. They afterwards had quarrels and contentions, +and separated into two distinct nations, one of which he denominated +Nephites, and the other Lamanites. Cruel and bloody Wars ensued, in +which great multitudes were slain.... I have recently read the "Book +of Mormon," and to my great surprise I find nearly the same historical +matter, names, etc., as they were in my brother's writings. I well +remember that he wrote in the old style, and commenced about every +sentence with 'and it came to pass,' or 'now it came to pass,' the +same as in the 'Book of Mormon,' and, according to the best of my +recollection and belief, it is the same as my brother Solomon wrote, +with the exception of the religious matter." + +John Spaulding's wife testified that she had no doubt that the +historical part of the Bible and the manuscript were the same, and she +well recalled such phrases as "it came to pass." + +Mr. Spaulding's business partner at Conneaut, Henry Lake, testified that +Spaulding read the manuscript to him many hours, that the story running +through it and the Bible was the same, and he recalls this circumstance: +"One time, when he was reading to me the tragic account of Laban, I +pointed out to him what I considered an inconsistency, which he promised +to correct, but by referring to the 'Book of Mormon,' I find that it +stands there just as he read it to me then.... I well recollect telling +Mr. Spaulding that the so frequent use of the words 'and it came to +pass,' 'now it came to pass,' rendered it ridiculous." + +John N. Miller, an employee of Spaulding in Ohio, and a boarder in his +family for several months, testified that Spaulding had written more +than one book or pamphlet, that he had heard the author read from the +"Manuscript Found," that he recalled the story running through it, and +added: "I have recently examined the 'Book of Mormon,' and find in it +the writings of Solomon Spaulding, from beginning to end, but mixed up +with Scripture and other religious matter which I did not meet with in +the 'Manuscript Found'.... The names of Nephi, Lehi, Moroni, and in fact +all the principal names, are brought fresh to my recollection by the +'Gold Bible.'" + +Practically identical testimony was given by the four other neighbors. +Important additions to this testimony have been made in later years. A +statement by Joseph Miller of Amity, Pennsylvania, a man of standing in +that community, was published in the Pittsburg Telegraph of February 6, +1879. Mr. Miller said that he was well acquainted with Spaulding when he +lived at Amity, and heard him read most of the "Manuscript Found," and +had read the Mormon Bible in late years to compare the two. On hearing +read, "he says," the account from the book of the battle between the +Amlicites (Book of Alma), in which the soldiers of one army had placed +a red mark on their foreheads to distinguish them from their enemies, +it seemed to reproduce in my mind, not only the narration, but the +very words as they had been impressed on my mind by the reading of +Spaulding's manuscript.... The longer I live, the more firmly I am +convinced that Spaulding's manuscript was appropriated and largely used +in getting up the "Book of Mormon." + +Redick McKee, a resident of Amity, Pennsylvania, when Spaulding lived +there, and later a resident of Washington, D. C., in a letter to the +Washington [Pennsylvania] Reporter, of April 21, 1869, stated that +he heard Spaulding read from his manuscript, and added: "I have an +indistinct recollection of the passage referred to by Mr. Miller about +the Amlicites making a cross with red paint on their foreheads to +distinguish them from enemies in battle." + +The Rev. Abner Judson, of Canton, Ohio, wrote for the Washington County, +Pennsylvania, Historical Society, under date of December 20, 1880, an +account of his recollections of the Spaulding manuscript, and it was +printed in the Washington [Pennsylvania] Reporter of January 7, 1881. +Spaulding read a large part of his manuscript to Mr. Judson's father +before the author moved to Pittsburg, and the son, confined to the house +with a lameness, heard the reading and the accompanying conversations. +He says: "He wrote it in the Bible style. 'And it came to pass,' +occurred so often that some called him 'Old Come-to-pass.' The 'Book of +Mormons' follows the romance too closely to be a stranger.... When it +was brought to Conneaut and read there in public, old Esquire Wright +heard it and exclaimed, 'Old Come-to-pass' has come to life again."* + + + * Fuller extracts from the testimony of these later witnesses +will be found in Robert Patterson's pamphlet, "Who wrote the Book of +Mormon," reprinted from the "History of Washington County, Pa." + + +The testimony of so many witnesses, so specific in its details, seems +to prove the identity of Spaulding's story and the story running through +the Mormon Bible. The late President James H. Fairchild of Oberlin, +Ohio, whose pamphlet on the subject we shall next examine, admits +that "if we could accept without misgiving the testimony of the eight +witnesses brought forward in Howe's book, we should be obliged to accept +the fact of another manuscript" (than the one which President Fairchild +secured); but he thinks there is some doubt about the effect on the +memory of these witnesses of the lapse of years and the reading of +the new Bible before they recalled the original story. It must be +remembered, however, that this resemblance was recalled as soon as they +heard the story of the new Bible, and there seems no ground on which to +trace a theory that it was the Bible which originated in their minds the +story ascribed to the manuscript. + +The defenders of the Mormon Bible as an original work received great +comfort some fifteen years ago by the announcement that the original +manuscript of Spaulding's "Manuscript Found" had been discovered in the +Sandwich Islands and brought to this country, and that its narrative +bore no resemblance to the Bible story. The history of this second +manuscript is as follows: E. D. Howe sold his printing establishment at +Painesville, Ohio, to L. L. Rice, who was an antislavery editor there +for many years. Mr. Rice afterward moved to the Sandwich Islands, and +there he was requested by President Fairchild to look over his old +papers to see if he could not find some antislavery matter that would be +of value to the Oberlin College library. One result of his search was +an old manuscript bearing the following certificate: 'The writings of +Solomon Spaulding,' proved by Aaron Wright, Oliver Smith, John N. +Miller and others. The testimonies of the above gentlemen are now in my +possession. + +"D. P. HURLBUT." + +President Fairchild in a paper on this subject which has been published* +gives a description of this manuscript (it has been printed by the +Reorganized Church at Lamoni, Iowa), which shows that it bears no +resemblance to the Bible story. But the assumption that this proves that +the Bible story is original fails immediately in view of the fact +that Mr. Howe made no concealment of his possession of this second +manuscript. Hurlbut was in Howe's service when he asked Mrs. Davison for +an order for the manuscript, and he gave to Howe, as the result of his +visit, the manuscript which Rice gave to President Fairchild. Howe +in his book (p. 288) describes this manuscript substantially as does +President Fairchild, saying:-- + + + * "Manuscript of Solomon Spaulding and the 'Book of Mormon,'" +Tract No. 77, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio. + + +"This is a romance, purporting to have been translated from the Latin, +found on twenty-four rolls of parchment in a cave on the banks of +Conneaut Creek, but written in a modern style, and giving a fabulous +account of a ship's being driven upon the American coast, while +proceeding from Rome to Britain, a short time pious to the Christian +era, this country then being inhabited by the Indians."* + + + * Howe says in his book, "The fact that Spaulding in the latter +part of his life inclined to infidelity is established by a letter in +his handwriting now in our possession." This letter was given by Rice +with the other manuscript to President Fairchild (who reproduces it), +thus adding to the proof that the Rice manuscript is the one Hurlbut +delivered to Howe. + +Mr. Howe adds this important statement:-- + +"This old manuscript has been shown to several of the foregoing +witnesses, who recognize it as Spaulding's, he having told them that he +had altered his first plan of writing, by going further back with dates, +and writing in the old scripture style, in order that it might appear +more ancient. They say that it bears no resemblance to the 'Manuscript +Found.'" + +If Howe had considered this manuscript of the least importance +as invalidating the testimony showing the resemblance between the +"Manuscript Found" and the Mormon Bible, he would have destroyed it (if +he was the malignant falsifier the Mormons represented him to be), and +not have first described it in his book; and then left it to be found +by any future owner of his effects. Its rediscovery has been accepted, +however, even by some non-Mormons, as proof that the Mormon Bible is an +original production.* + + + * Preface to "The Mormon Prophet," Lily Dugall. + + +Mrs. Ellen E. Dickenson, a great-niece of Spaulding, who has +painstakingly investigated the history of the much-discussed manuscript, +visited D. P. Hurlbut at his home near Gibsonburg, Ohio, in 1880 (he +died in 1882), taking with her Oscar Kellogg, a lawyer, as a witness to +the interview.* She says that her visit excited him greatly. He told of +getting a manuscript for Mr. Howe at Hartwick, and said he thought +it was burned with other of Mr. Howe's papers. When asked, "Was it +Spaulding's manuscript that was burned?" he replied: "Mrs. Davison +thought it was; but when I just peeked into it, here and there, and +saw the names Mormon, Moroni, Lamanite, Lephi, I thought it was all +nonsense. Why, if it had been the real one, I could have sold it for +$3000;** but I just gave it to Howe because it was of no account." +During the interview his wife was present, and when Mrs. Dickenson +pressed him with the question, "Do you know where the 'Manuscript Found' +is at the present time?" Mrs. Hurlbut went up to him and said, "Tell +her what you know." She got no satisfactory answer, but he afterward +forwarded to her an affidavit saying that he had obtained of Mrs. +Davison a manuscript supposing it to be Spaulding's "Manuscript Found," +adding: "I did not examine the manuscript until after I got home, when +upon examination I found it to contain nothing of the kind, but being +a manuscript upon an entirely different subject. This manuscript I left +with E. D. Howe." + +With this presentation of the evidence showing the similarity between +Spaulding's story and the Mormon Bible narrative, we may next examine +the grounds for believing that Sidney Rigdon was connected with the +production of the Bible. + + + * A full account of this interview is given in her book, "New +Light on Mormonism" (1885). + + + ** There have been surmises that Hurlbut also found the +"Manuscript Found" in the trunk and sold this to the Mormons. He sent a +specific denial of this charge to Robert Patterson in 1879. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. -- SIDNEY RIGDON + +The man who had more to do with founding the Mormon church than Joseph +Smith, Jr., even if we exclude any share in the production of the Mormon +Bible, and yet who is unknown even by name to most persons to whom the +names of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young are familiar, was Sidney Rigdon. +Elder John Hyde, Jr., was well within the truth when he wrote: "The +compiling genius of Mormonism was Sidney Rigdon. Smith had boisterous +impetuosity but no foresight. Polygamy was not the result of his +policy but of his passions. Sidney gave point, direction, and apparent +consistency to the Mormon system of theology. He invented its forms and +the manner of its arguments.... Had it not been for the accession of +these two men [Rigdon and Parley P. Pratt] Smith would have been lost, +and his schemes frustrated and abandoned."* + + + * "Mormonism: Its Leaders and Designs" (1857). Hyde, an +Englishman, joined the Mormons in that country when a lad and began to +preach almost at once. He sailed for this country in 1853 and joined the +brethren in Salt Lake City. Brigham Young's rule upset his faith, and he +abandoned the belief in 1854. Even H. H. Bancroft concedes him to have +been "an able and honest man, sober and sincere." + +Rigdon (according to the sketch of him presented in Smith's +autobiography,* which he doubtless wrote) was born in St. Clair +township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, on February 19, 1793. His +father was a farmer, and he lived on the farm, receiving only a limited +education, until he was twenty-six years old. He then connected himself +with the Baptist church, and received a license to preach. Selecting +Ohio as his field, he continued his work in rural districts in that +state until 1821, when he accepted a call to a small Baptist church in +Pittsburg. + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, Supt. + + +Twenty years before the publication of the Mormon Bible, Thomas and +Alexander Campbell, Scotchmen, had founded a congregation in Washington +County, Pennsylvania, out of which grew the religious denomination +known as Disciples of Christ, or Campbellites, whose communicants in +the United States numbered 871,017 in the year 1890. The fundamental +principle of their teaching was that every doctrine of belief, or +maxim of duty, must rest upon the authority of Scripture, expressed or +implied, all human creeds being rejected. The Campbells (who had been +first Presbyterians and then Baptists) were wonderful orators and +convincing debaters out of the pulpit, and they drew to themselves many +of the most eloquent exhorters in what was then the western border of +the United States. Among their allies was another Scotchman, Walter +Scott, a musician and schoolteacher by profession, who assisted them +in their newspaper work and became a noted evangelist in their +denomination. During a visit to Pittsburg in 1823, Scott made Rigdon's +acquaintance, and a little later the flocks to which each preached +were united. In August, 1824, Rigdon announced his withdrawal from his +church. Regarding his withdrawal the sketch in Smith's autobiography +says:-- + +"After he had been in that place [Pittsburg] some time, his mind was +troubled and much perplexed with the idea that the doctrines maintained +by that society were not altogether in accordance with the Scriptures. +This thing continued to agitate his mind more and more, and his +reflections on these occasions were particularly trying; for, according +to his view of the word of God, no other church with whom he could +associate, or that he was acquainted with, was right; consequently, +if he was to disavow the doctrine of the church with whom he was then +associated, he knew of no other way of obtaining a living, except by +manual labor, and at that time he had a wife and three children to +support." + +For two years after he gave up his church connection he worked as a +journeyman tanner. This is all the information obtainable about this +part of his life. We next find him preaching at Bainbridge, Ohio, as +an undenominational exhorter, but following the general views of the +Campbells, advising his hearers to reject their creeds and rest their +belief solely on the Bible. + +In June, 1826, Rigdon received a call to a Baptist church at Mentor, +Ohio, whose congregation he had pleased when he preached the funeral +sermon of his predecessor. His labors were not confined, however, to +this congregation. We find him acting as the "stated" minister of a +Disciples' church organized at Mantua, Ohio, in 1827, preaching with +Thomas Campbell at Shalersville, Ohio, in 1828, and thus extending the +influence he had acquired as early as 1820, when Alexander Campbell +called him "the great orator of the Mahoning Association". In 1828 he +visited his old associate Scott, was further confirmed in his faith in +the Disciples' belief, and, taking his brother-in-law Bentley back with +him, they began revival work at Mentor, which led to the conversion of +more than fifty of their hearers. They held services at Kirtland, Ohio, +with equal success, and the story of this awakening was the main subject +of discussion in all the neighborhood round about. The sketch of Rigdon +in Smith's autobiography closes with this tribute to his power as a +preacher: "The churches where he preached were no longer large enough +to contain the vast assemblies. No longer did he follow the old beaten +track,... but dared to enter on new grounds,... threw new light on the +sacred volume,... proved to a demonstration the literal fulfilment of +prophecy...and the reign of Christ with his Saints on the earth in the +Millennium." + +In tracing Rigdon's connection with Smith's enterprise, attention must +be carefully paid both to Rigdon's personal characteristics, and to the +resemblance between the doctrines he had taught in the pulpit and those +that appear in the Mormon Bible. + +Rigdon's mental and religious temperament was just of the character +to be attracted by a novelty in religious belief. He, with his +brother-in-law, Adamson Bentley, visited Alexander Campbell in 1821, and +spent a whole night in religious discussion. When they parted the next +day, Rigdon declared that "if he had within the last year promulgated +one error, he had a thousand," and Mr. Campbell, in his account of the +interview, remarked, "I found it expedient to caution them not to begin +to pull down anything they had builded until they had reviewed, again +and again, what they had heard; not even then rashly and without much +consideration."* + + + * Millennial Harbinger, 1848, p. 523. + + +A leading member of the church at Mantua has written, "Sidney Rigdon +preached for us, and, notwithstanding his extravagantly wild freaks, he +was held in high repute by many."* + + + * "Early History of the Disciples' Church in the Western +Reserve," by A: S. Hayden (1876), p. 239. + + +An important church discussion occurred at Warren, Ohio, in 1828. +Following out the idea of the literal interpretation of the Scriptures +taught in the Disciples' church, Rigdon sprung on the meeting an +argument in favor of a community of goods, holding that the apostles +established this system at Jerusalem, and that the modern church, which +rested on their example, must follow them. Alexander Campbell, who was +present, at once controverted this position, showing that the apostles, +as narrated in Acts, "sold their possessions" instead of combining them +for a profit, and citing Bible texts to prove that no "community system" +existed in the early church. This argument carried the meeting, +and Rigdon left the assemblage, embittered against Campbell beyond +forgiveness. To a brother in Warren, on his way home, he declared, "I +have done as much in this reformation as Campbell or Scott, and yet they +get all the honor of it." This claim is set forth specifically in the +sketch of Rigdon in Smith's autobiography. Referring to Rigdon and +Alexander Campbell, this statement is there made:-- + +"After they had separated from the different churches, these gentlemen +were on terms of the greatest friendship, and frequently met together to +discuss the subject of religion, being yet undetermined respecting the +principles of the doctrine of Christ or what course to pursue. However, +from this connection sprung up a new church in the world, known by the +name of 'Campbellites'; they call themselves 'Disciples.' The reason +why they were called Campbellites was in consequence of Mr. Campbell's +periodical, above mentioned [the Christian Baptist], and it being the +means through which they communicated their sentiments to the world; +other than this, Mr. Campbell was no more the originator of the sect +than Elder Rigdon." + +Rigdon's bitterness against the Campbells and his old church more +than once manifested itself in his later writings. For instance, in +an article in the Messenger and Advocate (Kirtland), of June, 1837, +he said: "One thing has been done by the coming forth of the Book of +Mormon. It has puked the Campbellites effectually; no emetic could have +done so half as well.... The Book of Mormon has revealed the secrets of +Campbellism and unfolded the end of the system." In this jealousy of the +Campbells, and the discomfiture as a leader which he received at their +hands, we find a sufficient object for Rigdon's desertion of his old +church associations and desire to build up something, the discovery of +which he could claim, and the government of which he could control. + +To understand the strength of the argument that the doctrinal teachings +of the Mormon Bible were the work of a Disciples' preacher rather +than of the ne'er-do-well Smith, it is only necessary to examine +the teachings of the Disciples' church in Ohio at that time. The +investigator will be startled by the resemblance between what was then +taught to and believed by Disciples' congregations and the leading +beliefs of the Mormon Bible. In the following examples of this the +illustrations of Disciples' beliefs and teachings are taken from +Hayden's "Early History of the Disciples' Church in the Western +Reserve." + +The literal interpretation of the Scriptures, on which the Mormon +defenders of their faith so largely depend,--as for explanations of +modern revelations, miracles, and signs,--was preached to so extreme a +point by Ohio Disciples that Alexander Campbell had to combat them in +his Millennial Harbinger. An outcome of this literal interpretation was +a belief in a speedy millennium, another fundamental belief of the early +Mormon church. "The hope of the millennial glory," says Hayden, "was +based on many passages of the Holy Scriptures.... Millennial hymns were +learned and sung with a joyful fervor.... It is surprising even now, +as memory returns to gather up these interesting remains of that mighty +work, to recall the thorough and extensive knowledge which the convert +quickly obtained. Nebuchadnezzar's vision... many portions of the +Revelation were so thoroughly studied that they became the staple of +the common talk." Rigdon's old Pittsburg friend, Scott, in his report +as evangelist to the church association at Warren in 1828, said: +"Individuals eminently skilled in the word of God, the history of the +world, and the progress of human improvements see reasons to expect +great changes, much greater than have yet occurred, and which shall give +to political society and to the church a different, a very different, +complexion from what many anticipate. The millennium--the millennium +described in the Scriptures--will doubtless be a wonder, a terrible +wonder, to all." + +Disciples' preachers understood that they spoke directly for God, just +as Smith assumed to do in his "revelations." Referring to the preaching +of Rigdon and Bentley, after a visit to Scott in March, 1828, Hayden +says, "They spoke with authority, for the word which they delivered was +not theirs, but that of Jesus Christ." The Disciples, like the Mormons, +at that time looked for the return of the Jews to Jerusalem. Scott* was +an enthusiastic preacher of this. "The fourteenth chapter of Zechariah," +says Hayden, "was brought forward in proof--all considered as +literal--that the most marvellous and stupendous physical and climatic +changes were to be wrought in Palestine; and that Jesus Christ the +Messiah was to reign literally in Jerusalem, and in Mount Zion, and +before his ancients, gloriously." + + + * "In a letter to Dr. Richardson, written in 1830, he [Scott] +says the book of Elias Smith on the prophecies is the only sensible +work on that subject he had seen. He thinks this and Crowley on the +Apocalypse all the student of the Bible wants. He strongly commends +Smith's book to the doctor. This seems to be the origin of millennial +views among us. Rigdon, who always caught and proclaimed the last word +that fell from the lips of Scott or Campbell, seized these views (about +the millennium and the Jews) and, with the wildness of his extravagant +nature, heralded them everywhere."--"Early History of the Disciples' +Church in the Western Reserve," p. 186. + + +Campbell taught that "creeds are but statements, with few exceptions, +of doctrinal opinion or speculators' views of philosophical or dogmatic +subjects, and tended to confusion, disunion, and weakness." Orson Pratt, +in his "Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon," thus stated the +early Mormon view on the same subject: "If any man or council, without +the aid of immediate revelation, shall undertake to decide upon such +subjects, and prescribe 'articles of faith' or 'creeds' to govern the +belief or views of others, there will be thousands of well-meaning +people who will not have confidence in the productions of these +fallible men, and, therefore, frame creeds of their own.... In this way +contentions arise." + +Finally, attention may be directed to the emphatic declarations of the +Disciples' doctrine of baptism in the Mormon Bible:-- + +"Ye shall go down and stand in the water, and in my name shall ye +baptize them.... And then shall ye immerse them in the water, and come +forth again out of the water."--3 Nephi Xi. 23, 26. + +"I know that it is solemn mockery before God that ye should baptize +little children.... He that supposeth that little children need baptism +is in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity; for he hath +neither faith, hope, nor charity; wherefore, should he be cut off while +in the thought, he must go down to hell. For awful is the wickedness to +suppose that God saveth one child because of baptism, and the other must +perish because he hath no baptism."--Moroni viii. 9, xc, 15. + +There are but three conclusions possible from all this: that the Mormon +Bible was a work of inspiration, and that the agreement of its doctrines +with Disciples' belief only proves the correctness of the latter; that +Smith, in writing his doctrinal views, hit on the Disciples' tenets by +chance (he had had no opportunity whatever to study them); or, finally, +that some Disciple, learned in the church, supplied these doctrines to +him. + +Advancing another step in the examination of Rigdon's connection with +the scheme, we find that even the idea of a new Bible was common belief +among the Ohio Disciples who listened to Scott's teaching. Describing +Scott's preaching in the winter of 1827-1828, Hayden says:-- + +"He contended ably for the restoration of the true, original apostolic +order which would restore to the church the ancient gospel as preached +by the apostles. The interest became an excitement;... the air was thick +with rumors of a 'new religion,' a 'new Bible.'" + +Next we may cite two witnesses to show that Rigdon had a knowledge +of Smith's Bible in advance of its publication. His brother-in-law, +Bentley, in a letter to Walter Scott dated January 22, 1841, said, +"I know that Sidney Rigdon told me there was a book coming out, the +manuscript of which had been found engraved on gold plates, as much as +two years before the Mormon book made its appearance or had been heard +of by me."* + + + * Millennial Harbinger, 1844, p. 39. The Rev. Alexander Campbell +testified that this conversation took place in his presence. + + +One of the elders of the Disciples' church was Darwin Atwater, a +farmer, who afterward occupied the pulpit, and of whom Hayden says, +"The uniformity of his life, his undeviating devotion, his high and +consistent manliness and superiority of judgment, gave him an undisputed +preeminence in the church." In a letter to Hayden, dated April 26, +1873, Mr. Atwater said of Rigdon: "For a few months before his professed +conversion to Mormonism it was noticed that his wild extravagant +propensities had been more marked. That he knew before the coming of the +Book of Mormon is to me certain from what he said during the first +of his visits at my father's, some years before. He gave a wonderful +description of the mounds and other antiquities found in some parts of +America, and said that they must have been made by the aborigines. He +said there was a book to be published containing an account of those +things. He spoke of these in his eloquent, enthusiastic style, as being +a thing most extraordinary. Though a youth then, I took him to task for +expending so much enthusiasm on such a subject instead of things of +the Gospel. In all my intercourse with him afterward he never spoke of +antiquities, or of the wonderful book that should give account of them, +till the Book of Mormon really was published. He must have thought I was +not the man to reveal that to."* + + + * "Early History of the Disciples' Church in the Western +Reserve," p. 239. + + +Dr. Storm Rosa, a leading physician of Ohio, in, a letter to the Rev. +John Hall of Ashtabula, written in 1841, said: "In the early part of +the year 1830 I was in company with Sidney Rigdon, and rode with him on +horseback for a few miles.... He remarked to me that it was time for +a new religion to spring up; that mankind were all right and ready for +it."* + + + * "Gleanings by the Way," p. 315. + + +Having thus established the identity of the story running through the +Spaulding manuscript and the historical part of the Mormon Bible, the +agreement of the doctrinal part of the latter with what was taught at +the time by Rigdon and his fellow-workers in Ohio, and Rigdon's previous +knowledge of the coming book, we are brought to the query: How did the +Spaulding manuscript become incorporated in the Mormon Bible? + +It could have been so incorporated in two ways: either by coming into +the possession of Rigdon and being by him copied and placed in Smith's +hands for "translation," with the theological parts added;* or by coming +into possession of Smith in his wanderings around the neighborhood of +Hartwick, and being shown by him to Rigdon. Every aspect of this matter +has been discussed by Mormon and non-Mormon writers, and it can only be +said that definite proof is lacking. Mormon disputants set forth that +Spaulding moved from Pittsburg to Amity in 1814, and that Rigdon's first +visit to Pittsburg occurred in 1822. On the other hand, evidence is +offered that Rigdon was a "hanger around" Patterson's printing-office, +where Spaulding offered his manuscript, before the year 1816, and the +Rev. John Winter, M.D., who taught school in Pittsburg when Rigdon +preached there, and knew him well, recalled that Rigdon showed him a +large manuscript which he said a Presbyterian minister named Spaulding +had brought to the city for publication. Dr. Winter's daughter wrote to +Robert Patterson on April 5, 1881: "I have frequently heard my father +speak of Rigdon having Spaulding's manuscript, and that he had gotten +it from the printers to read it as a curiosity; as such he showed it to +father, and at that time Rigdon had no intention of making the use of it +that he afterward did." Mrs. Ellen E. Dickenson, in a report of a talk +with General and Mrs. Garfield on the subject at Mentor, Ohio, in 1880, +reports Mrs. Garfield as saying "that her father told her that Rigdon +in his youth lived in that neighborhood, and made mysterious journeys to +Pittsburg."*** She also quotes a statement by Mrs. Garfield's** father, +Z. Rudolph, "that during the winter previous to the appearance of the +Book of Mormon, Rigdon was in the habit of spending weeks away from his +home, going no one knew where."**** Tucker says that in the summer of +1827 "a mysterious stranger appears at Smith's residence, and holds +private interviews with the far-famed money-digger.... It was observed +by some of Smith's nearest neighbors that his visits were frequently +repeated." Again, when the persons interested in the publication of the +Bible were so alarmed by the abstraction of pages of the translation +by Mrs. Harris, "the reappearance of the mysterious stranger at Smith's +was," he says, "the subject of inquiry and conjecture by observers from +whom was withheld all explanation of his identity or purpose."***** + + + * "Rigdon has not been in full fellowship with Smith for more +than a year. He has been in his turn cast aside by Joe to make room for +some new dupe or knave who, perhaps, has come with more money. He +has never been deceived by Joe. I have no doubt that Rigdon was the +originator of the system, and, fearing for its success, put Joe forward +as a sort of fool in the play."--Letter from a resident near Nauvoo, +quoted in the postscript to Caswall's "City of the Mormons". (1843) + + + * For a collection of evidence on this subject, see Patterson's +"Who Wrote the Mormon Bible?" + + + ** "Scribner's Magazine," October, 1881. + + + *** "New Light on Mormonism," p. 252. + + + ***** "Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism," pp. 28, 46. + + +In a historical inquiry of this kind, it is more important to establish +the fact that a certain thing WAS DONE than to prove just HOW or WHEN +it was done. The entire narrative of the steps leading up to the +announcement of a new Bible, including Smith's first introduction to +the use of a "peek-stone" and his original employment of it, the changes +made in the original version of the announcement to him of buried +plates, and the final production of a book, partly historical and partly +theological, shows that there was behind Smith some directing mind, and +the only one of his associates in the first few years of the church's +history who could have done the work required was Sidney Rigdon. + +President Fairchild, in his paper on the Spaulding manuscript already +referred to, while admitting that "it is perhaps impossible at this day +to prove or disprove the Spaulding theory," finds any argument against +the assumption that Rigdon supplied the doctrinal part of the new Bible, +in the view that "a man as self-reliant and smart as Rigdon, with a +superabundant gift of tongue and every form of utterance, would never +have accepted the servile task of mere interpolation; there could have +been no motive to it." This only shows that President Fairchild wrote +without knowledge of the whole subject, with ignorance of the motives +which did exist for Rigdon's conduct, and without means of acquainting +himself with Rigdon's history during his association with Smith. Some of +his motives we have already ascertained: We shall find that, almost from +the beginning of their removal to Ohio, Smith held him in a subjection +which can be explained only on the theory that Rigdon, the prominent +churchman, had placed himself completely in the power of the +unprincipled Smith, and that, instead of exhibiting self-reliance, he +accepted insult after insult until, just before Smith's death, he was +practically without influence in the church; and when the time came to +elect Smith's successor, he was turned out-of-doors by Brigham Young +with the taunting words, "Brother Sidney says he will tell our secrets, +but I would say, 'O don't, Brother Sidney! Don't tell our secrets--O +don't.' But if he tells our secrets we will tell his. Tit for tat!" +President Fairchild's argument that several of the original leaders of +the fanaticism must have been "adequate to the task" of supplying the +doctrinal part of the book, only furnishes additional proof of his +ignorance of early Mormon history, and his further assumption that +"it is difficult--almost impossible--to believe that the religious +sentiments of the Book of Mormon were wrought into interpolation" brings +him into direct conflict, as we shall see, with Professor Whitsitt,* +a much better equipped student of the subject. + + + * Post, pp. 92. 93. + + +If it should be questioned whether a man of Rigdon's church connection +would deliberately plan such a fraudulent scheme as the production of +the Mormon Bible, the inquiry may be easily satisfied. One of the first +tasks which Smith and Rigdon undertook, as soon as Rigdon openly joined +Smith in New York State, was the preparation of what they called a new +translation of the Scriptures. This work was undertaken in conformity +with a "revelation" to Smith and Rigdon, dated December, 1830 (Sec. 35, +"Doctrine and Covenants") in which Sidney was told, "And a commandment I +give unto thee, that thou shalt write for him; and the Scriptures shall +be given, even as they are in mine own bosom, to the salvation of mine +own elect." The "translating" was completed in Ohio, and the manuscript, +according to Smith, "was sealed up, no more to be opened till it arrived +in Zion."* This work was at first kept as a great secret, and Smith +and Rigdon moved to the house of a resident of Hiram township, Portage +County, Ohio, thirty miles from Kirtland, in September, 1831, to carry +it on; but the secret soon got out. The preface to the edition of the +book published at Plano, Illinois, in 1867, under the title, "The Holy +Scriptures translated and corrected by the Spirit of Revelation, by +Joseph Smith, Jr., the Seer," says that the manuscript remained in the +hands of the prophet's widow from the time of his death until 1866, when +it was delivered to a committee of the Reorganized Mormon conference for +publication. Some of its chapters were known to Mormon readers earlier, +since Corrill gives the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew in his +historical sketch, which was dated 1839. + + + * Millenial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 361. + + +The professed object of the translation was to restore the Scriptures to +their original purity and beauty, the Mormon Bible declaring that "many +plain and precious parts" had been taken from them. The real object, +however, was to add to the sacred writings a prediction of Joseph +Smith's coming as a prophet, which would increase his authority and +support the pretensions of the new Bible. That this was Rigdon's scheme +is apparent from the fact that it was announced as soon as he visited +Smith, and was carried on under his direction, and that the manuscript +translation was all in his handwriting.* + + + * Wyl's "Mormon Portraits," p.124. + + +Extended parts of the translation do not differ at all from the King +James version, and many of the changes are verbal and inconsequential. +Rigdon's object appears in the changes made in the fiftieth chapter +of Genesis, and the twenty-ninth chapter of Isaiah. In the King James +version the fiftieth chapter of Genesis contains twenty-six verses, and +ends with the words, "So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years +old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt." In +the Smith-Rigdon version this chapter contains thirty-eight verses, the +addition representing Joseph as telling his brethren that a branch of +his people shall be carried into a far country and that a seer shall +be given to them, "and that seer will I bless, and they that seek to +destroy him shall be confounded; for this promise I give unto you; for +I will remember you from generation to generation; and his name shall be +called Joseph. And he shall have judgment, and shall write the word of +the Lord." + +The twenty-ninth chapter of Isaiah is similarly expanded from +twenty-four short to thirty-two long verses. Verses eleven and twelve of +the King James version read:-- + +"And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is +sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I +pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed. + +"And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read +this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned." + +The Smith-Rigdon version expands this as follows:--"11. And it shall +come to pass, that the Lord God shall bring forth unto you the words of +a book; and they shall be the words of them which have slumbered. + +"12. And behold, the book shall be sealed; and in the book shall be +a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending +thereof. + +"13. Wherefore, because of the things which are sealed up, the things +which are sealed shall not be delivered in the day of the wickedness and +abominations of the people. Wherefore, the book shall be kept from them. + +"14. But the book shall be delivered unto a man, and he shall deliver +the words of the book, which are the words of those who have slumbered +in the dust; and he shall deliver these words unto another, but the +words that are sealed he shall not deliver, neither shall he deliver the +book. + +"15. For the book shall be sealed by the power of God, and the +revelation which was sealed shall be kept in the book until the own due +time of the Lord, that they may come forth; for, behold, they reveal all +things from the foundation of the world unto the end thereof." + +No one will question that a Rigdon who would palm off such a fraudulent +work as this upon the men who looked to him as a religious teacher would +hesitate to suggest to Smith the scheme for a new Bible. During the work +of translation, as we learn from Smith's autobiography, the translators +saw a wonderful vision, in which they "beheld the glory of the Son on +the right hand of the Father," and holy angels, and the glory of the +worlds, terrestrial and celestial. Soon after this they received an +explanation from heaven of some obscure texts in Revelation. Thus, the +sea of glass (iv. 6) "is the earth in its sanctified, immortal, and +eternal state"; by the little book which was eaten by John (chapter x) +"we are to understand that it was a mission and an ordinance for him to +gather the tribes of Israel." + +It may be added that this translation is discarded by the modern Mormon +church in Utah. The Deseret Evening News, the church organ at Salt Lake +City, said on February 21, 1900:-- + +"The translation of the Bible, referred to by our correspondents, has +not been adopted by this church as authoritative. It is understood +that the Prophet Joseph intended before its publication to subject +the manuscript to an entire examination, for such revision as might be +deemed necessary. Be that as it may, the work has not been published +under the auspices of this church, and is, therefore, not held out as a +guide. For the present, the version of the scriptures commonly known +as King James's translation is used, and the living oracles are the +expounders of the written word." + +We may anticipate the course of our narrative in order to show how much +confirmation of Rigdon's connection with the whole Mormon scheme is +furnished by the circumstances attending the first open announcement +of his acceptance of the Mormon literature and faith. We are first +introduced to Parley P. Pratt, sometime tin peddler, and a lay preacher +to rural congregations in Ohio when occasion offered. Pratt in his +autobiography tells of the joy with which he heard Rigdon preach, at +his home in Ohio, doctrines of repentance and baptism which were the +"ancient gospel" that he (Pratt) had "discovered years before, but +could find no one to minister in"; of a society for worship which he +and others organized; of his decision, acting under the influence of the +Gospel and prophecies "as they had been opened to him," to abandon the +home he had built up, and to set out on a mission "for the Gospel's +sake"; and of a trip to New York State, where he was shown the Mormon +Bible. "As I read," he says, "the spirit of the Lord was upon me, and I +knew and comprehended that the book was true." + +Pratt was at once commissioned, "by revelation and the laying on of +hands," to preach the new Gospel, and was sent, also by "revelation" +(Sec. 32, "Doctrine and Covenants"), along with Cowdery, Z. Peterson, +and Peter Whitmer, Jr., "into the wilderness among the Lamanites." Pratt +and Cowdery went direct to Rigdon's house in Mentor, where they stayed +a week. Pratt's own account says: "We called on Mr. Rigdon, my former +friend and instructor in the Reformed Baptist Society. He received us +cordially, and entertained us with hospitality."* + + + * "Autobiography of P. P. Pratt," p. 49. + + +In Smith's autobiography it is stated that Rigdon's visitors presented +the Mormon Bible to him as a revelation from God, and what followed is +thus described:-- + +"This being the first time he had ever heard of or seen the Book of +Mormon, he felt very much prejudiced at the assertion, and replied that +'he had one Bible which he believed was a revelation from God, and with +which he pretended to have some acquaintance; but with respect to the +book they had presented him, he must say HE HAD SOME CONSIDERABLE DOUBT' +Upon which they expressed a desire to investigate the subject and argue +the matter; but he replied, 'No, young gentlemen, you must not argue +with me on the subject. But I will read your book, and see what claim +it has upon my faith, and will endeavor to ascertain whether it be a +revelation from God or not'. After some further conversation on the +subject, they expressed a desire to lay the subject before the people, +and requested the privilege of preaching in Elder Rigdon's church, TO +WHICH HE READILY CONSENTED. The appointment was accordingly published, +and a large and respectable congregation assembled. Oliver Cowdery and +Parley P. Pratt severally addressed the meeting. At the conclusion Elder +Rigdon arose and stated to the congregation that the information +they that evening had received was of an extraordinary character, and +certainly demanded their most serious consideration; and, as the apostle +advised his brethren 'to prove all things and hold fast that which is +good,' so he would exhort his brethren to do likewise, and give the +matter a careful investigation, and NOT TURN AGAINST IT, WITHOUT BEING +FULLY CONVINCED OF ITS BEING AN IMPOSITION, LEST THEY SHOULD POSSIBLY +RESIST THE TRUTH." + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 47. + + +Accepting this as a correct report of what occurred (and we may consider +it from Rigdon's pen), we find a clergyman who was a fellow-worker with +men like Campbell and Scott expressing only "considerable doubt" of +the inspiration of a book presented to him as a new Bible, "readily +consenting" to the use of his church by the sponsors for this book, and, +at the close of their arguments, warning his people against rejecting +it too readily "lest they resist the truth"! Unless all these are +misstatements, there seems to be little necessity of further proof that +Rigdon was prepared in advance for the reception of the Mormon Bible. + +After this came the announcement of the conversion and baptism by the +Mormon missionaries of a "family" of seventeen persons living in some +sort of a "community" system, between Mentor and Kirtland. Rigdon, +who had merely explained to his neighbors that his visitors were "on +a curious mission," expressed disapproval of this at first, and took +Cowdery to task for asserting that his own conversion to the new belief +was due to a visit from an angel. But, two days later, Rigdon himself +received an angel's visit, and the next Sunday, with his wife, was +baptized into the new faith. + +Rigdon, of course, had to answer many inquiries on his return to Ohio +from a visit to Smith which soon followed his conversion, but his policy +was indignant reticence whenever pressed to any decisive point. To an +old acquaintance who, after talking the matter over with him at his +house, remarked that the Koran of Mohammed stood on as good evidence as +the Bible of Smith, Rigdon replied: "Sir, you have insulted me in my own +house. I command silence. If people come to see us and cannot treat us +civilly, they can walk out of the door as soon as they please."* Thomas +Campbell sent a long letter to Rigdon under date of February 4, 1831, +in which he addressed him as "for many years not only a courteous and +benevolent friend, but a beloved brother and fellow-laborer in the +Gospel--but alas! how changed, how fallen." Accepting a recent offer of +Rigdon in one of his sermons to give his reasons for his new belief, Mr. +Campbell offered to meet him in public discussion, even outlining the +argument he would offer, under nine headings, that Rigdon might be +prepared to refute it, proposing to take his stand on the sufficiency +of the Holy Scriptures, Smith's bad character, the absurdities of the +Mormon Bible and of the alleged miraculous "gifts," and the objections +to the "common property" plan and the rebaptizing of believers. Rigdon, +after glancing over a few lines of this letter, threw it into the fire +unanswered.** + + + * "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 112. + + + ** Ibid., p. 116-123. + + + +CHAPTER IX. -- "THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL" + +Having presented the evidence which shows that the historical part of +the Mormon Bible was supplied by the Spaulding manuscript, we may +now pay attention to other evidence, which indicates that the entire +conception of a revelation of golden plates by an angel was not even +original, and also that its suggestor was Rigdon. This is a subject +which has been overlooked by investigators of the Mormon Bible. + +That the idea of the revelation as described by Smith in his +autobiography was not original is shown by the fact that a similar +divine message, engraved on plates, was announced to have been received +from an angel nearly six hundred years before the alleged visit of an +angel to Smith. These original plates were described as of copper, and +the recipient was a monk named Cyril, from whom their contents passed +into the possession of the Abbot Joachim, whose "Everlasting Gospel," +founded thereon, was offered to the church as supplanting the New +Testament, just as the New Testament had supplanted the Old, and caused +so serious a schism that Pope Alexander IV took the severest measures +against it.* + + + * Draper's "Intellectual Development of Europe," Vol. II, Chap. +III. For an exhaustive essay on the "Everlasting Gospel," by Renan, +see Revue des Deux Mondes, June, 1866. For John of Parma's part in the +Gospel, see "Histoire Litteraire de la France" (1842), Vol. XX, p. 24. + + +The evidence that the history of the "Everlasting Gospel" of the +thirteenth century supplied the idea of the Mormon Bible lies not only +in the resemblance between the celestial announcement of both, but in +the fact that both were declared to have the same important purport--as +a forerunner of the end of the world--and that the name "Everlasting +Gospel" was adopted and constantly used in connection with their message +by the original leaders in the Mormon church. + +If it is asked, How could Rigdon become acquainted with the story of +the original "Everlasting Gospel," the answer is that it was just such +subjects that would most attract his attention, and that his studies had +led him into directions where the story of Cyril's plates would probably +have been mentioned. He was a student of every subject out of which he +could evolve a sect, from the time of his Pittsburg pastorate. Hepworth +Dixon said, "He knew the writings of Maham, Gates, and Boyle, writings +in which love and marriage are considered in relation to Gospel liberty +and the future life."* H. H. Bancroft, noting his appointment as +Professor of Church History in Nauvoo University, speaks of him as +"versed in history, belles-lettres, and oratory."** Mrs. James A. +Garfield told Mrs. Dickenson that Rigdon taught her father Latin and +Greek.*** David Whitmer, who was so intimately acquainted with the +early history of the church, testified: "Rigdon was a thorough biblical +scholar, a man of fine education and a powerful orator."**** A writer, +describing Rigdon while the church was at Nauvoo, said, "There is no +divine in the West more learned in biblical literature and the history +of the world than he."***** All this indicates that a knowledge of the +earlier "Everlasting Gospel" was easily within Rigdon's reach. We +may even surmise the exact source of this knowledge. Mosheim's +"Ecclesiastical History, Ancient and Modern" was at his disposal. +Editions of it had appeared in London in 1765, 1768, 1774, 1782, 1790, +1806, 1810, and 1826, and among the abridgments was one published in +Philadelphia in 1812. In this work he could have read as follows:-- + +"About the commencement of this [the thirteenth] century there were +handed about in Italy several pretended prophecies of the famous +Joachim, abbot of Sora in Calabria, whom the multitude revered as a +person divinely inspired, and equal to the most illustrious prophets of +ancient times. The greatest part of these predictions were contained in +a certain book entitled, 'The Everlasting Gospel,' and which was also +commonly called the Book of Joachim. This Joachim, whether a real or +fictitious person we shall not pretend to determine, among many other +future events, foretold the destruction of the Church of Rome, whose +corruptions he censured with the greatest severity, and the promulgation +of a new and more perfect gospel in the age of the Holy Ghost, by a set +of poor and austere ministers, whom God was to raise up and employ for +that purpose." + + + * "Spiritual Wives," p. 62. + + + ** "Utah," p. 146. + + + *** Scribner's Magazine, October, 1881. + + + **** "Address to All Believers in Christ;" p. 35. + + + ***** Letter in the New York Herald. + + +Here is a perfect outline of the scheme presented by the original +Mormons, with Joseph as the divinely inspired prophet, and an +"Everlasting Gospel," the gift of an angel, promulgated by poor men like +the travelling Mormon elders. + +The original suggestion of an "Everlasting Gospel" is found in +Revelation xiv. 6 and 7:-- + +"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the +everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to +every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud +voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is +come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the +fountains of water."** "Bisping (after Gerlach) takes Rev. xiv. 6-11 to +foretell that three great events at the end of the last world-week are +immediately to precede Christ's second advent (1) the announcement of +the 'eternal' Gospel to the whole world (Matt. xxiv. 14); (2)the Fall of +Babylon; (3)a warning to all who worship the beast.... Burger says +this vision can denote nothing but a last admonition and summons to +conversion shortly before the end."--Note in "Commentary by Bishops and +Other Clergy of the Anglican Church." + +This was the angel of Cyril; this the announcement of those "latter +days" from which the Mormon church, on Rigdon's motion, soon took its +name. + +That Rigdon's attention had been attracted to an "Everlasting Gospel" is +proved by the constant references made to it in writings of which he had +at least the supervision, from the very beginning of the church. Thus, +when he preached his first sermon before a Mormon audience--on the +occasion of his visit to Smith at Palmyra in 1830--he took as his text a +part of the version of Revelation xiv. which he had put into the Mormon +Bible (1 Nephi xiii. 40), and in his sermon, as reported by Tucker, who +heard it, holding the Scriptures in one hand and the Mormon Bible in the +other, he said, "that they were inseparably necessary to complete the +everlasting gospel of the Saviour Jesus Christ." In the account, in +Smith's autobiography, of the first description of the buried book given +to Smith by the angel, its two features are named separately, first, +"an account of the former inhabitants of this continent," and then "the +fulness of the Everlasting Gospel." That Rigdon never lost sight of the +importance, in his view, of an "Everlasting Gospel" may be seen from the +following quotation from one of his articles in his Pittsburg organ, +the Messenger and Advocate, of June 15, 1845, after his expulsion from +Nauvoo: "It is a strict observance of the principles of the fulness of +the Everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ, as contained in the Bible, +Book of Mormon, and Book of Covenants, which alone will insure a man an +inheritance in the kingdom of our God." + +The importance attached to the "Everlasting Gospel" by the founders +of the church is seen further in the references to it in the "Book of +Doctrine and Covenants," which it is not necessary to cite,* and further +in a pamphlet by Elder Moses of New York (1842), entitled "A Treatise +on the Fulness of the Everlasting Gospel, setting forth its First +Principles, Promises, and Blessings," in which he argued that the +appearance of the angel to Smith was in direct line with the Scriptural +teaching, and that the last days were near. + + + * For examples see Sec. 68, 1; Sec. 101, 22; Sec. 124, 88. + + + +CHAPTER X. -- THE WITNESSES TO THE PLATES + +In his accounts to his neighbors of the revelation to him of the golden +plates on which the "record" was written, Smith always declared that no +person but him could look on those plates and live. But when the +printed book came out, it, like all subsequent editions to this day, was +preceded by the following "testimonies":-- + + +"THE TESTIMONY OF THREE WITNESSES + +"Be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people unto whom +this work shall come, that we through the grace of God the Father, and +our Lord Jesus Christ, have seen the plates which contain this record, +which is a record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites, +their brethren, and also the people of Jared, who came from the tower of +which hath been spoken; and we also know that they have been translated +by the gift and power of God, for his voice hath declared it unto us; +wherefore we know of a surety that the work is true. And we also testify +that we have seen the engravings which are upon the plates; and they +have been shewn unto us by the power of God, and not of man. And we +declare with words of soberness, that an angel of God came down from +heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw +the plates, and the engravings thereon; and we know that it is by the +grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, that we beheld and +bear record that these things are true; and it is marvellous in our +eyes, nevertheless the voice of the Lord commanded us that we should +bear record of it; wherefore, to be obedient unto the commandments +of God, we bear testimony of these things. And we know that if we are +faithful in Christ, we shall rid our garments of the blood of all men, +and be found spotless before the judgment-seat of Christ, and shall +dwell with him eternally in the heavens. And the honour be to the +Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which is one God. Amen. + +"OLIVER COWDERY, DAVID WHITMER, MARTIN HARRIS. + +"AND ALSO THE TESTIMONY OF THE EIGHT WITNESSES + +"Be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people unto whom +this work shall come, that Joseph Smith, Jun., the translator of this +work, has shewn unto us the plates of which hath been spoken, which have +the appearance of gold; and as many of the leaves as the said Smith has +translated we did handle with our hands; and we also saw the engravings +thereon, all of which has the appearance of ancient work, and of curious +workmanship. And this we bear record with words of soberness, that the +said Smith has shewn unto us, for we have seen and hefted, and know of +a surety that the said Smith has got the plates of which we have spoken. +And we give our names unto the world, to witness unto the world that +which we have seen; and we lie not, God bearing witness of it. + +"CHRISTIAN WHITMER, HIRAM PAGE, JACOB WHITMER, JOSEPH SMITH, SEN., PETER +WHITMER, JUN., HYRUM SMITH, JOHN WHITMER, SAMUEL H. SMITH." + +In judging of the value of this testimony, we may first inquire, what +the prophet has to say about it, and may then look into the character +and qualification of the witnesses. + +We find a sufficiently full explanation of Testimony No. 1 in Smith's +autobiography and in his "revelations." Nothing could be more natural +than that such men as the prophet was dealing with should demand a sight +of any plates from which he might be translating. Others besides Harris +made such a demand, and Smith repeated the warning that to look on them +was death. This might satisfy members of his own family, but it did +not quiet his scribes, and he tells us that Cowdery, David Whitmer, and +Harris "teased me so much" (these are his own words) that he gave out a +"revelation" in March, 1829 (Sec. 5, "Doctrine and Covenants"), in which +the Lord was represented as saying that the prophet had no power over +the plates except as He granted it, but that to his testimony would +be added "the testimony of three of my servants, whom I shall call and +ordain, unto whom I will show these things, "adding," and to none else +will I grant this power, to receive this same testimony among this +generation." The Lord was distrustful of Harris, and commanded him not +to be talkative on the subject, but to say nothing about it except, "I +have seen them, and they have been shown unto me by the power of God." + +Smith's own account of the showing of the plates to these three +witnesses is so luminous that it may be quoted. After going out into +the woods, they had to stand Harris off by himself because of his evil +influence. Then:-- + +"We knelt down again, and had not been many minutes engaged in prayer +when presently we beheld a light above us in the air of exceeding +brightness; and behold an angel stood before us. In his hands he held +the plates which we had been praying for these to have a view of; +he turned over the leaves one by one, so that we could see them and +discover the engravings thereon distinctly. He then addressed himself +to David Whitmer and said, 'David, blessed is the Lord and he that keeps +his commandments'; when immediately afterward we heard a voice from out +of the bright light above us saying, 'These plates have been revealed by +the power of God, and they have been translated by the power of God. The +translation of them is correct, and I command you to bear record of what +you now see and hear.' + +"I now left David and Oliver, and went into pursuit of Martin Harris, +whom I found at a considerable distance, fervently engaged in prayer. He +soon told me, however, that he had not yet prevailed with the Lord, and +earnestly requested me to join him in prayer, that he might also realize +the same blessings which we had just received. We accordingly joined +in prayer, and immediately obtained our desires; for before we had yet +finished, the same vision was opened to our view, AT LEAST IT WAS +AGAIN TO ME [Joe thus refuses to vouch for Harris's declaration on the +subject]; and I once more beheld and heard the same things; whilst, at +the same moment, Martin Harris cried out, apparently in ecstasy of +joy, 'Tis enough, mine eyes hath beheld,' and, jumping up, he shouted +'Hosannah,' blessing God, and otherwise rejoiced exceedingly."* + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, Supt., p. 19. + + +If this story taxes the credulity of the reader, his doubts about the +value of this "testimony" will increase when he traces the history +of the three witnesses. Surely, if any three men in the church should +remain steadfast, mighty pillars of support for the prophet in his +future troubles, it should be these chosen witnesses to the actual +existence of the golden plates. Yet every one of them became an +apostate, and every one of them was loaded with all the opprobrium that +the church could pile upon him. + +Cowdery's reputation was locally bad at the time. "I was personally +acquainted with Oliver Cowdery," said Danforth Booth, an old resident of +Palmyra, in 1880. "He was a pettifogger; their (the Smiths') cat-paw to +do their dirty work."* Smith's trouble with him, which began during +the work of translating, continued, and Smith found it necessary to +say openly in a "revelation" given out in Ohio in 1831 (Sec. 69), when +preparations were making for a trip of some of the brethren to +Missouri, "It is not wisdom in me that he should be intrusted with the +commandments and the monies which he shall carry unto the land of Zion, +except one go with him who will be true and faithful." + + + * Among affidavits on file in the county clerk's office at +Canandaigua, New York. + + +By the time Smith took his final departure to Missouri, Cowdery and +David and John Whitmer had lost caste entirely, and in June, 1838, they +fled to escape the Danites at Far West. The letter of warning addressed +to them and signed by more than eighty Mormons, giving them three days +in which to depart, contained the following accusations:-- + +"After Oliver Cowdery had been taken by a state warrant for stealing, +and the stolen property found in the house of William W. Phelps; in +which nefarious transaction John Whitmer had also participated. Oliver +Cowdery stole the property, conveyed it to John Whitmer, and John +Whitmer to William W. Phelps; and then the officers of law found it. +While in the hands of an officer, and under an arrest for this vile +transaction, and, if possible, to hide your shame from the world +like criminals (which, indeed, you were), you appealed to our beloved +brethren, President Joseph Smith Jr. and Sidney Rigdon, men whose +characters you had endeavored to destroy by every artifice you could +invent, not even the basest lying excepted.... + +"The Saints in Kirtland having elected Oliver Cowdery to a justice of +the peace, he used the power of that office to take their most sacred +rights from them, and that contrary to law. He supported a parcel of +blacklegs, and in disturbing the worship of the Saints; and when the men +whom the church had chosen to preside over their meetings endeavored to +put the house to order, he helped (and by the authority of his justice's +office too) these wretches to continue their confusion; and threatened +the church with a prosecution for trying to put them out of the house; +and issued writs against the Saints for endeavoring to sustain their +rights; and bound themselves under heavy bonds to appear before his +honor; and required bonds which were both inhuman and unlawful; and one +of these was the venerable father, who had been appointed by the church +to preside--a man of upwards of seventy years of age, and notorious for +his peaceable habits. + +"Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Lyman E. Johnson, united with a gang +of counterfeiters, thieves, liars and blacklegs of the deepest dye, to +deceive, cheat and defraud the Saints out of their property, by every +art and stratagem which wickedness could invent; using the influence +of the vilest persecutions to bring vexatious lawsuits, villainous +prosecutions, and even stealing not excepted.... During the full career +of Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer's bogus money business, it got +abroad into the world that they were engaged in it, and several +gentlemen were preparing to commence a prosecution against Cowdery; he +finding it out, took with him Lyman E. Johnson, and fled to Far West +with their families; Cowdery stealing property and bringing it with him, +which has been, within a few weeks past, obtained by the owner by means +of a search warrant, and he was saved from the penitentiary by the +influence of two influential men of the place. He also brought notes +with him upon which he had received pay, and made an attempt to sell +them to Mr. Arthur of Clay County."* + + + * "Documents in Relation to the Disturbances with the Mormons," +Missouri Legislature (1841), p. 103. + + +Rigdon, who was the author of this arraignment, realizing that the +enemies of the church would not fail to make use of this aspersion of +the character of the witnesses, attempted to "hedge" by saying, in the +same document, "We wish to remind you that Oliver Cowdery and David +Whitmer were among the principal of those who were the means of +gathering us to this place by their testimony which they gave concerning +the plates of the Book of Mormon, that they were shown to them by an +angel; which testimony we believe now as much as before you had so +scandalously disgraced it." Could affrontery go to greater lengths? + +Cowdery and David Whitmer fled to Richmond, Missouri, where Whitmer +lived until his death in January, 1888. Cowdery went to Tiffin, Ohio, +where, after failing to obtain a position as an editor because of his +Mormon reputation, he practised law. While living there he renounced his +Mormon views, joined the Methodist church, and became superintendent of +a Sunday-school. Later he moved to Wisconsin, but, after being defeated +for the legislature there, he recanted his Methodist belief, and +rejoined the Saints while they were at Council Bluffs, in October, +1848, after the main body had left for Salt Lake Valley. He addressed +a meeting there by invitation, testifying to the truth of the Book of +Mormon, and the mission of Smith as a prophet, and saying that he wanted +to be rebaptized into the church, not as a leader, but simply as a +member.* He did not, however, go to Utah with the Saints, but returned +to his old friend Whitmer in Missouri, and died there in 1850. It has +been stated that he offered to give a full renunciation of the Mormon +faith when he united with the Methodists at Tiffin, if required, but +asked to be excused from doing so on the ground that it would invite +criticism and bring him into contempt.** One of his Tiffin acquaintances +afterward testified that Cowdery confessed to him that, when he signed +the "testimony," he "was not one of the best men in the world," using +his own expression.*** The Mormons were always grateful to him for his +silence under their persecutions, and the Millennial Star, in a notice +of his death, expressed satisfaction that in the days of his apostasy +"he never, in a single instance, cast the least doubt on his former +testimony," adding, "May he rest in peace, to come forth in the morning +of the first resurrection into eternal life, is the earnest desire of +all Saints." + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XI, p.14. + + + ** "Naked Truths about Mormonism," A. B. Demming, Oakland, +California, 1888. + + + *** "Gregg's History of Hancock County, Illinois," p. 257. + + +The Whitmers were a Dutch family, known among their neighbors as +believers in witches and in the miraculous generally, as has been shown +in Mother Smith's account of their sending for Joseph. A "revelation" to +the three witnesses which first promised them a view of the plates (Sec. +17) told them, "It is BY YOUR FAITH you shall obtain a view of them," +and directed them to testify concerning the plates, "that my servant +Joseph Smith, Jr., may not be destroyed." One of the converts who joined +the Mormons at Kirtland, Ohio, testified in later years that David +Whitmer confessed to her that he never actually saw the plates, +explaining his testimony thus: "Suppose that you had a friend whose +character was such that you knew it impossible that he could lie; then, +if he described a city to you which you had never seen, could you not, +by the eye of faith, see the city just as he described it?"* + + + * Mrs. Dickenson's "New Light on Mormonism." + + +The Mormons have found consolation in the fact that Whitmer continued to +affirm his belief in the authenticity of the Mormon Bible to the day of +his death. He declared, however, that Smith and Young had led the +flock astray, and, after the open announcement of polygamy in Utah, he +announced a church of his own, called "The Church of Christ," refusing +to affiliate even with the Reorganized Church because of the latter's +adherence to Smith. In his "Address to Believers in the Book of Mormon," +a pamphlet issued in his eighty-second year, he said, "Now, in 1849 the +Lord saw fit to manifest unto John Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery and myself +nearly all the remaining errors of doctrine into which we had been +led by the heads of the church." The reader from all this can form an +estimate of the trustworthiness of the second witness on such a subject. + +We have already learned a great deal about Martin Harris's mental +equipment. A lawyer of standing in Palmyra told Dr. Clark that, after +Harris had signed the "testimony," he pressed him with the question: +"Did you see the plates with your natural eyes, just as you see +this pencil case in my hand? Now say yes or no." Harris replied (in +corroboration of Joe's misgiving at the time): "Why, I did not see them +as I do that pencil case, yet I saw them with the eye of faith. I saw +them just as distinctly as I see anything around me--though at the time +they were covered over with a cloth."* + + + * "Gleanings by the Way." + + +Harris followed Smith to Ohio and then to Missouri, but was ever a +trouble to him, although Smith always found his money useful. In 1831, +in Missouri, it required a "revelation" (Sec. 58) to spur him to "lay +his monies before the Bishop." As his money grew scarcer, he received +less and less recognition from the Mormon leaders, and was finally +expelled from the church. Smith thus referred to him in the Elders' +Journal, July, 1837, one of his publications in Ohio: "There are negroes +who wear white skins as well as black ones, granny Parish, and others +who acted as lackeys, such as Martin Harris." + +Harris did not appear on the scene during the stay of the Mormons in +Illinois, having joined the Shakers and lived with them a year or two. +When Strang claimed the leadership of the church after Smith's death, +Harris gave him his support, and was sent by him with others to England +in 1846 to do missionary work. His arrival there was made the occasion +of an attack on him by the Millennial Star, which, among other things, +said:-- + +"We do not feel to warn the Saints against him, for his own unbridled +tongue will soon show out specimens of folly enough to give any person +a true index to the character of the man; but if the Saints wish to know +what the Lord hath said of him, they may turn to the 178th page of the +Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and the person there called a WICKED MAN +is no other than Martin Harris, and he owned to it then, but probably +might not now. It is not the first time the Lord chose a wicked man as +a witness. Also on page 193, read the whole revelation given to him, and +ask yourselves if the Lord ever talked in that way to a good man. Every +one can see that he must have been a wicked man."* + + + *Vol. VIII, p. 123. + + +Harris visited Palmyra in 1858. He then said that his property was all +gone, that he had declined a restoration to the Mormon church, but +that he continued to believe in Mormonism. He thought better of his +declination, however, and sought a reunion with the church in Utah +in 1870. His backslidings had carried him so far that the church +authorities told him it would be necessary for him to be rebaptized. +This he consented to with some reluctance, after, as he said, "he had +seen his father seeking his aid. He saw his father at the foot of a +ladder, striving to get up to him, and he went down to him, taking him +by the hand, and helped him up."* He settled in Cache County, Utah, +where he died on July 10, 1875, in his ninety-third year. "He bore his +testimony to the truth and divinity of the Book of Mormon a short time +before he departed," wrote his son to an inquirer, "and the last words +he uttered, when he could not speak the sentence, were 'Book,' 'Book,' +'Book.'" + + + * For an account of Harris's Utah experience, see Millennial +Star, Vol. XLVIII, pp.357-389. + + +The precarious character of Smith's original partners in the Bible +business is further illustrated by his statement that, in the summer of +1830, Cowdery sent him word that he had discovered an error in one of +Smith's "revelations,"* and that the Whitmer family agreed with him on +the subject. Smith was as determined in opposing this questioning of +his divine authority as he always was in stemming any opposition to his +leadership, and he made them all acknowledge their error. Again, when +Smith returned to Fayette from Harmony, in August, 1830 (more than a +year after the plates were shown to the witnesses), he found that "Satan +had been lying in wait," and that Hiram Page, of the second list of +witnesses, had been obtaining revelations through a "peek-stone" of his +own, and that, what was more serious, Cowdery and the Whitmer family +believed in them. The result of this was an immediate "revelation" +(Sec. 28) directing Cowdery to go and preach the Gospel to the Lamanites +(Indians) on the western border, and to take along with him Hiram Page, +and tell him that the things he had written by means of the "peek-stone" +were not of the Lord. + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 36. + + +Neither Smith's autobiography nor the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants" +contains any explanation of the second "testimony." The list of persons +who signed it, however, leaves little doubt that the prophet yielded to +their "teasing" as he did to that of the original three. The first four +signers were members of the Whitmer family. Hiram Page was a root-doctor +by calling, and a son-in-law of Peter Whitmer, Sr. The three Smiths were +the prophet's father and two of his brothers.* + + + * Christian Whitmer died in Clay County, Missouri, November 27, +1835; Jacob died in Richmond County, April 21, 1866; Peter died in Clay +County, September 22, 1836; Hiram Page died on a farm in Ray County, +August 12, 1852. + + +The favorite Mormon reply to any question as to the value of these +"testimonies" is the challenge, "Is there a person on the earth who can +prove that these eleven witnesses did not see the plates?" Curiously, +the prophet himself can be cited to prove this, in the words of the +revelation granting a sight of the plates to the first three, which +said, "And to none else will I grant this power, to receive this same +testimony among this generation." A footnote to this declaration in the +"Doctrine and Covenants" offers, as an explanation of Testimony No. +2; the statement that others "may receive a knowledge by other +manifestations." This is well meant but transparent. + +Mother Smith in later years added herself to these witnesses. She said +to the Rev. Henry Caswall, in Nauvoo, in 1842, "I have myself seen and +handled the golden plates." Mr. Caswall adds:-- + +"While the old woman was thus delivering herself, I fixed my eyes +steadily upon her. She faltered and seemed unwilling to meet my glances, +but gradually recovered her self-possession. The melancholy thought +entered my mind that this poor old creature was not simply a dupe of her +son's knavery, but that she had taken an active part in the deception." + +Two matters have been cited by Mormon authorities to show that there +was nothing so very unusual in the discovery of buried plates containing +engraved letters. Announcement was made in 1843 of the discovery near +Kinderhook, Illinois, of six plates similar to those described by Smith. +The story, as published in the Times and Seasons, with a certificate +signed by nine local residents, set forth that a merchant of the place, +named Robert Wiley, while digging in a mound, after finding ashes and +human bones, came to "a bundle that consisted of six plates of brass, of +a bell shape, each having a hole near the small end, and a ring through +them all"; and that, when cleared of rust, they were found to be +"completely covered with characters that none as yet have been able to +read." Hyde, accepting this story, printed a facsimile of one of these +plates on the cover of his book, and seems to rest on Wiley's statement +his belief that "Smith did have plates of some kind." Stenhouse,* who +believed that Smith and his witnesses did not perpetrate in the +new Bible an intentional fraud, but thought they had visions and +"revelations," referring to the Kinderhook plates, says that they were +"actually and unquestionably discovered by one Mr. R. Wiley." Smith +himself, after no one else could read the writing on them, declared that +he had translated them, and found them to be a history of a descendant +of Ham.** + + + * T. B. H. Stenhouse, a Scotchman, was converted to the Mormon +belief in 1846, performed diligent missionary work in Europe, and was +for three years president of the Swiss and Italian missions. Joining the +brethren in Utah with his wife, he was persuaded to take a second wife. +Not long afterward he joined in the protest against Young's dictatorial +course which was known as the "New Movement," and was expelled from the +church. His "Rocky Mountain Saints" (1873) contains so much valuable +information connected with the history of the church that it has been +largely drawn on by E. W. Tullidge in his "History of Salt Lake City and +Its Founders," which is accepted by the church. + + + **Millennial Star, January 15, 1859, where cuts of the plates +(here produced) are given. + + +[Illustration: + Stenhouse Plates + 124] + +But the true story of the Kinderhook plates was disclosed by an +affidavit made by W. Fulgate of Mound Station, Brown County, Illinois, +before Jay Brown, Justice of the Peace, on June 30, 1879. In this he +stated that the plates were "a humbug, gotten up by Robert Wiley, Bridge +Whitton, and myself. Whitton (who was a blacksmith) cut the plates out +of some pieces of copper Wiley and I made the hieroglyphics by making +impressions on beeswax and filling them with acid, and putting it on the +plates. When they were finished, we put them together with rust made +of nitric acid, old iron and lead, and bound them with a piece of hoop +iron, covering them completely with the rust." He describes the burial +of the plates and their digging up, among the spectators of the latter +being two Mormon elders, Marsh and Sharp. Sharp declared that the Lord +had directed them to witness the digging. The plates were borrowed and +shown to Smith, and were finally given to one "Professor" McDowell of +St. Louis, for his museum.* + + + * Wyl's "Mormon Portraits," p. 207. The secretary of the Missouri +Historical Society writes me that McDowell's museum disappeared some +years ago, most of its contents being lost or stolen, and the fate of +the Kinderhook plates cannot be ascertained. + + +In attacking Professor Anthon's statement concerning the alleged +hieroglyphics shown to him by Harris, Orson Pratt, in his "Divine +Authenticity of the Book of Mormon," thought that he found substantial +support for Smith's hieroglyphics in the fact that "Two years after the +Book of Mormon appeared in print, Professor Rafinesque, in his Atlantic +journal for 1832, gave to the public a facsimile of American glyphs,* +found in Mexico. They are arranged in columns.... By an inspection of +the facsimile of these forty-six elementary glyphs, we find all the +particulars which Professor Anthon ascribes to the characters which he +says 'a plain-looking countryman' presented to him. "These" elementary +glyphs of Rafinesque are some of the characters found on the famous +"Tablet of the Cross" in the ruins of Palenque, Mexico, since so fully +described by Stevens. A facsimile of the entire Tablet may be found +on page 355, Vol. IV, Bancroft's "Native Races of the Pacific States." +Rafinesque selected these characters from the Tablet, and arranged them +in columns alongside of other ancient writings, in order to sustain his +argument that they resembled an old Libyan alphabet. Rafinesque was a +voluminous writer both on archaeological and botanical subjects, but +wholly untrustworthy. Of his Atlantic Journal (of which only eight +numbers appeared) his biographer, R. E. Call, says that it had +"absolutely no scientific value." Professor Asa Gray, in a review of his +botanical writings in Silliman's Journal, Vol. XL, No. 2, 1841, said, +"He assumes thirty to one hundred years as the average time required for +the production of a new species, and five hundred to one thousand for +a new genus." Professor Gray refers to a paper which Rafinesque sent +to the editor of a scientific journal describing twelve new species +of thunder and lightning. He was very fond of inventing names, and his +designation of Palenque as Otolum was only an illustration of this. So +much for the 'elementary glyphs.'" + + + * "Glyph: A pictograph or word carved in a compact distinct +figure."--Standard Dictionary. + + + +CHAPTER XI. -- THE MORMON BIBLE + +The Mormon Bible,* both in a literary and a theological sense, is just +such a production as would be expected to result from handing over to +Smith and his fellow-"translators" a mass of Spaulding's material and +new doctrinal matter for collation and copying. Not one of these +men possessed any literary skill or accurate acquaintance with the +Scriptures. David Whitmer, in an interview in Missouri in his later +years, said, "So illiterate was Joseph at that time that he didn't know +that Jerusalem was a walled city, and he was utterly unable to +pronounce many of the names that the magic power of the Urim and Thummim +revealed." Chronology, grammar, geography, and Bible history were alike +ignored in the work. An effort was made to correct some of these errors +in the early days of the church, and Smith speaks of doing some of this +work himself at Nauvoo. An edition issued there in 1842 contains on +the title-page the words, "Carefully revised by the translator." Such +corrections have continued to the present day, and a comparison of +the latest Salt Lake edition with the first has shown more than three +thousand changes. + + + * The title of this Bible is "The Book of Mormon"; but as one of +its subdivisions is a Book of Mormon, I use the title "Mormon Bible," +both to avoid confusion and for convenience. + + +The person who for any reason undertakes the reading of this book sets +before himself a tedious task. Even the orthodox Mormons have found this +to be true, and their Bible has played a very much less considerable +part in the church worship than Smith's "revelations" and the discourses +of their preachers. Referring to Orson Pratt's* labored writings on this +Bible, Stenhouse says, "Of the hundreds of thousands of witnesses to +whom God has revealed the truth of the 'Book of Mormon,' Pratt knows +full well that comparatively few indeed have ever read that book, +know little or nothing intelligently of its contents, and take little +interest in it."** An examination of its contents is useful, therefore, +rather as a means of proving the fraudulent character of its pretension +to divine revelation than as a means of ascertaining what the members of +the Mormon church are taught. + + + * Orson Pratt was a clerk in a store in Hiram, Ohio, when he was +converted to Mormonism. He seems to have been a natural student, and he +rose to prominence in the church, being one of the first to expound and +defend the Mormon Bible and doctrines, holding a professorship in Nauvoo +University, publishing works on the higher mathematics, and becoming one +of the Twelve Apostles. + + + ** "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 553. + + +The following page (omitted in this etext) presents a facsimile of the +title-page of the first edition of this Bible. The editions of to-day +substitute "Translated by Joseph Smith, Jun.," for "By Joseph Smith, +junior, author and proprietor." + +The first edition contains 588 duodecimo pages, and is divided into 15 +books which are named as follows: "First Book of Nephi, his reign and +ministry," 7 chapters; "Second Book of Nephi," 15 chapters; "Book of +Jacob, the Brother of Nephi," 5 chapters; "Book of Enos," 1 chapter; +"Book of Jarom," 1 chapter; "Book of Omni," 1 chapter; "Words of +Mormon," 1 chapter; "Book of Mosiah," 13 chapters; "Book of Alma, a Son +of Alma," 30 chapters; "Book of Helaman," 5 chapters; "Third Book of +Nephi, the Son of Nephi, which was the son of Helaman," 14 chapters; +"Fourth Book of Nephi, which is the Son of Nephi, one of the Disciples +of Jesus Christ," 1 chapter; "Book of Mormon," 4 chapters; "Book of +Ether," 6 chapters; "Book of Moroni," 10 chapters. The chapters in +the first edition were not divided into verses, that work, with the +preparation of the very complete footnote references in the later +editions, having been performed by Orson Pratt. + +The historical narrative that runs through the book is so disjointedly +arranged, mixed up with doctrinal parts, and repeated, that it is not +easy to unravel it. The following summary of it is contained in a letter +to Colonel John Wentworth of Chicago, signed by Joseph Smith, Jr., which +was printed in Wentworth's Chicago newspaper and also in the Mormon +Times and Seasons of March 1, 1842:-- + +"The history of America is unfolded from its first settlement by a +colony that came from the Tower of Babel at the confusion of languages, +to the beginning of the 5th century of the Christian era. We are +informed by these records that America in ancient times has been +inhabited by two distinct races of people. The first were called +Jaredites, and came directly from the Tower of Babel. The second race +came directly from the city of Jerusalem about 600 years before Christ. +They were principally Israelites of the descendants of Joseph. The +Jaredites were destroyed about the time that the Israelites came from +Jerusalem, who succeeded them in the inhabitance of the country. The +principal nation of the second race fell in battle toward the close of +the fourth century. The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this +country." + +This history purports to have been handed down, on metallic plates, from +one historian to another, beginning with Nephi, from the time of the +departure from Jerusalem. Finally (4 Nephi i. 48, 49*), the people +being wicked, Ammaron, by direction of the Holy Ghost, hid these sacred +records "that they might come again unto the remnant of the house of +Jacob." + + + * All references to the Mormon Bible by chapter and verse refer +to Salt Lake City edition of 1888. + + +To bring the story down to a comparatively recent date, and account for +the finding of the plates by Smith, the Book of Mormon was written by +the "author." This subdivision is an abridgment of the previous records. +It relates that Mormon, a descendant of Nephi, when ten years old, was +told by Ammaron that, when about twenty-four years old, he should go to +the place where the records were hidden, take only the plates of Nephi, +and engrave on them all the things he had observed concerning the +people. The next year Mormon was taken by his father, whose name also +was Mormon, to the land of Zarahemla, which had become covered with +buildings and very populous, but the people were warlike and wicked. +Mormon in time, "seeing that the Lamanites were about to overthrow the +land," took the records from their hiding place. He himself accepted the +command of the armies of the Nephites, but they were defeated with great +slaughter, the Lamanites laying waste their cities and driving them +northward. + +Finally Mormon sent a letter to the king of the Lamanites, asking that +the Nephites might gather their people "unto the land of Cumorah, by +a hill which was called Cumorah, and there we would give them battle." +There, in the year 384 A.D., Mormon "made this record out of the plates +of Nephi, and hid up in the hill Cumorah all the records which have been +entrusted to me by the hand of the Lord, save it were those few plates +which I gave unto my son Moroni."* This hill, according to the Mormon +teaching, is the hill near Palmyra, New York, where Smith found the +plates, just as Mormon had deposited them. + + + * Hyde gives a list of twenty-four additional plates mentioned in +this Bible which must still await digging up in the hill near Palmyra. + + +In the battle which took place there the Nephites were practically +annihilated, and all the fugitives were killed except Moroni, the son of +Mormon, who undertook the completion of the "record." Moroni excuses +the briefness of his narrative by explaining that he had not room in the +plates, "and ore have I none" (to make others). What he adds is in the +nature of a defence of the revealed character of the Mormon Bible and of +Smith's character as a prophet. Those, for instance, who say that there +are no longer "revelations, nor prophecies, nor gifts, nor healing, nor +speaking with tongues," are told that they know not the Gospel of Christ +and do not understand the Scriptures. An effort is made to forestall +criticism of the "mistakes" that are conceded in the title-page +dedication by saying, "Condemn me not because of mine imperfection, +neither my father, because of his imperfection, neither them who have +written before him" (Book of Mormon ix. 31). + +Evidently foreseeing that it would be asked why these "records," written +by Jews and their descendants, were not in Hebrew, Mormon adds (chap. +ix. 32, 33):-- + +"And now behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, +in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being +handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech. + +"And if our plates had been sufficiently large, we should have written +in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also; and if we could +have written in Hebrew, behold, ye would have had no imperfection in our +record." + +Few parts of this mythical Bible approached nearer to the burlesque +than this excuse for having descendants of the Jews write in "reformed +Egyptian." + +The secular story of the ancient races running through this Bible is +so confused by the introduction of new matter by the "author"* and by +repetitions that it is puzzling to pick it out. The Book of Ether was +somewhat puzzling even to the early Mormons, and we find Parley P. +Pratt, in his analysis of it, printed in London in 1854, saying, "Ether +SEEMS to have been a lineal descendant of Jared." + + + *Professor Whitsitt, of the Southern Baptist Theological +Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, in his article on Mormonism in "The +Concise Dictionary of Religious Knowledge, and Gazetteer" (New York, +1891), divides the Mormon Bible into three sections, viz.: the first +thirteen books, presented as the works of Mormon; the Book of Ether, +with which Mormon had no connection; and the fifteenth book, which was +sent forth by the editor under the name of Moroni. He thus explains his +view of the "editing" that was done in the preparation of the work for +publication:-- + +"The editor undertook to rewrite and recast the whole of the abridgment +(of Nephi's previous history), but his industry failed him at the close +of the Book of Omni. The first six books that he had rewritten were +given the names of the small plates.... The book called the 'Words +of Mormon' in the original work stood at the beginning, as a sort of +preface to the entire abridgment of Mormon; but when the editor had +rewritten the first six books, he felt that these were properly his own +performance, and the 'Words of Mormon' were assigned a position just in +front of the Book of Mosiah, when the abstract of Mormon took its real +commencement.... + +"The question may now be raised as to who was the editor of the Book of +Mormon.... In its theological positions and coloring the Book of Mormon +is a volume of Disciple theology (this does not include the later +polygamous doctrine and other gross Mormon errors). This conclusion is +capable of demonstration beyond any reasonable question. Let notice also +be taken of the fact that the Book of Mormon bears traces of two several +redactions. It contains, in the first redaction, that type of doctrine +which the Disciples held and proclaimed prior to November 18, 1827, when +they had not yet formally embraced what is commonly considered to be +the tenet of baptismal remission. It also contains the type of doctrine +which the Disciples have been defending since November 18, 1827, under +the name of the ancient Gospel, of which the tenet of socalled baptismal +remission is a leading feature. All authorities agree that Mr. Smith +obtained possession of the work on September 22, 1827, a period of +nearly two months before the Disciples concluded to embrace this tenet. +The editor felt that the Book of Mormon would be sadly incomplete +if this notion were not included. Accordingly, he found means to +communicate with Mr. Smith, and, regaining possession of certain +portions of the manuscript, to insert the new item.... Rigdon was the +only Disciple minister who vigorously and continuously demanded that his +brethren should adopt the additional points that have been indicated." + + +Very concisely, this Bible story of the most ancient race that came to +America, the Jaredites, may be thus stated:-- + +This race, being righteous, were not punished by the Lord at Babel, but +were led to the ocean, where they constructed a vessel by direction of +the Lord, in which they sailed to North America. According to the +Book of Ether, there were eight of these vessels, and that they were +remarkable craft needs only the description given of them to show: "They +were built after a manner that they were exceeding tight, even that they +would hold water like unto a dish; and the bottom thereof was tight like +unto a dish; and the sides thereof were tight like unto a dish; and +the ends thereof were peaked; and the top thereof was tight like unto +a dish; and the length thereof was the length of a tree; and the door +thereof, when it was shut, was tight like unto a dish" (Book of Ether +ii. 17). This description certainly establishes the general resemblance +of these barges to some kind of a dish, but the rather careless +comparison of their length simply to that of a "tree" leaves this detail +of construction uncertain. + +Just before they embarked in these vessels, a brother of Jared went up +on Mount Shelem, where the Lord touched sixteen small stones that he had +taken up with him, two of which were the Urim and Thummim, by means of +which Smith translated the plates. These stones lighted up the vessels +on their trip across the ocean. Jared's brother was told by the spirit +on the mount, "Behold, I am Jesus Christ." A footnote in the modern +edition of this Bible kindly explains that Jared's brother "saw the +preexistent spirit of Jesus." + +When they landed (somewhere on the Isthmus of Darien), the Lord +commanded Nephi to make "plates of ore," on which should be engraved +the record of the people. This was the origin of Smith's plates. In time +this people divided themselves, under the leadership of two of Lehi's +sons--Nephi and Laman--into Nephites and Lamanites (with subdivisions). +The Lamanites, in the course of two hundred years, had become dark +in color and "wild and ferocious, and a bloodthirsty people; full of +idolatry and filthiness; feeding upon beasts of prey; dwelling in tents +and wandering about in the wilderness, with a short skin girdle about +their loins, and their heads shaven; and their skill was in the bow and +the cimeter and the ax" (Enos i, 20). The Nephites, on the other hand, +tilled the land and raised flocks. Between the two tribes wars waged, +the Nephites became wicked, and in the course of 320 years the worst of +them were destroyed (Book of Alma). + +Then the Lord commanded those who would hearken to his voice to depart +with him to the wilderness, and they journeyed until they came to the +land of Zarahemla, which a footnote to the modern edition explains "is +supposed to have been north of the head waters of the river Magdalena, +its northern boundary being a few days' journey south of the Isthmus" +(of Darien). There they found the people of Zarahemla, who had left +Jerusalem when Zedekiah was carried captive into Babylon. New teachers +arose who taught the people righteousness, and one of them, named Alma, +led a company to a place which was called Mormon, "where was a fountain +of pure water, and there Alma baptized the people." The Book of Alma, the +longest in this Bible, is largely an account of the secular affairs +of the inhabitants, with stories of great battles, a prediction of the +coming of Christ, and an account of a great migration northward, and the +building of ships that sailed in the same direction. + +Nephi describes the appearance of Christ to the people of the western +continent, preceded by a star, earthquakes, etc. On the day of His +appearance they heard "a small voice" out of heaven, saying, "Behold +my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my +name; hear ye him." Then Christ appeared and spoke to them, generally in +the language of the New Testament (repeating, for instance, the Sermon +on the Mount*), and afterward ascended into heaven in a cloud. The +expulsion of the Nephites northward, and their final destruction, in +what is now New York State, followed in the course of the next 384 +years. + + + * In the Mormon version of this sermon the words, "If thy right +eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee," and "If thy right +hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee," are lacking. The +Deseret Evening News of February 21, 1900, in explaining this omission, +says that the report by Mormon of the "discourse delivered by Jesus +Christ to the Nephites on this continent after his resurrection from the +dead... may not be full and complete." + + +There is throughout the book an imitation of the style of the Holy +Scriptures. Verse after verse begins with the words "and it came to +pass," as Spaulding's Ohio neighbors recalled that his story did. The +following extract, from 1 Nephi, chap. viii, will give an illustration +of the literary style of a large part of the work:-- + +"1.. And it came to pass that we had gathered together all manner of +seeds of every kind, both of grain of every kind, and also of the seeds +of fruit of every kind. + +"2. And it came to pass that while my father tarried in the wilderness, +he spake unto us, saying, Behold, I have dreamed a dream; or in other +words, I have seen a vision. + +"3. And behold, because of the thing which I have seen, I have reason to +rejoice in the Lord, because of Nephi and also of Sam; for I have reason +to suppose that they, and also many of their seed, will be saved. + +"4. But behold, Laman and Lemuel, I fear exceedingly because of you; for +behold, methought I saw in my dream, a dark and dreary wilderness. + +"5. And it came to pass that I saw a man, and he was dressed in a white +robe; and he came and stood before me. + +"6. And it came to pass that he spake unto me, and bade me follow him. + +"7. And it came to pass that as I followed him, I beheld myself that I +was in a dark and dreary waste. + +"8. And after I had travelled for the space of many hours in darkness, I +began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to +the multitude of his tender mercies. + +"9. And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord, I beheld a +large and spacious field. + +"10. And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable +to make one happy. + +"11. And it came to pass that I did go forth, and partake of the fruit +thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all that I ever +before tasted. Yea, and I beheld that the fruit thereof was white, to +exceed all the whiteness that I had ever seen." + +Whole chapters of the Scriptures are incorporated word for word. In the +first edition some of these were appropriated without any credit; in the +Utah editions they are credited. Beside these, Hyde counted 298 direct +quotations from the New Testament, verses or sentences, between pages 2 +to 428, covering the years from 600 B.C. to Christ's birth. Thus, Nephi +relates that his father, more than two thousand years before the King +James edition of the Bible was translated, in announcing the coming of +John the Baptist, used these words, "Yea, even he should go forth and +cry in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his +paths straight; for there standeth one among you whom ye know not; and +he is mightier than I, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose" +(1 Nephi x. 8). In Mosiah v. 8, King Benjamin is represented as saying, +124 years before Christ was born, "I would that you should take upon +you the name of Christ as there is no other name given whereby salvation +cometh." + +The first Nephi represents John as baptizing in Bethabara (the spelling +is Beathabry in the Utah edition), and Alma announces (vii. 10) that +"the Son of God shall be born of Mary AT JERUSALEM." Shakespeare is +proved a plagiarist by comparing his words with those of the second +Nephi, who, speaking twenty-two hundred years before Shakespeare was +born, said (2 Nephi i. 14), "Hear the words of a trembling parent, whose +limbs you must soon lay down in the cold and silent grave, from whence +no traveller can return." + +The chapters of the Scriptures appropriated bodily, and the places where +they may be found, are as follows:-- + +First Edition Utah Edition + +[Illustration: + "Scripture" Chapter headings + 142] + +Among the many anachronisms to be found in the book may be mentioned the +giving to Laban of a sword with a blade "of the most precious steel" (1 +Nephi iv. 9), centuries before the use of steel is elsewhere recorded. +and the possession of a compass by the Jaredites when they sailed +across the ocean (Alma xxxvii. 38), long before the invention of such +an instrument. The ease with which such an error could be explained is +shown in the anecdote related of a Utah Mormon who, when told that the +compass was not known in Bible times, responded by quoting Acts xxviii. +13, where Paul says, "And from thence we fetched a compass." When Nephi +and his family landed in Central America "there were beasts in the +forest of every kind, both the cow, and the ox, and the ass, and the +horse" (ix Nephi xviii. 25). If Nephi does not prevaricate, there must +have been a fatal plague among these animals in later years, for horses, +cows, and asses were unknown in America until after its discovery by +Europeans. Moroni, in the Book of Ether (ix. 18, 19), is still more +generous, adding to the possessions of the Jaredites sheep and swine* +and elephants and "cureloms and cumoms." Neither sheep nor swine are +indigenous to America; but the prophet is safe as regards the "cureloms +and cumoms," which are animals of his own creation. + + + * "And," it is added, "many other kinds of animals which were +useful for the use of man," thus ignoring the Hebrew antipathy to pork. + + +The book is full of incidental proofs of the fraudulent profession +that it is an original translation. For instance, in incorporating 1 +Corinthians iii. 4, in the Book of Moroni, the phrase "is not easily +provoked" is retained, as in the King James edition. But the word +"easily" is not found in any Greek manuscript of this verse, and it is +dropped in the Revised Version of 1881. + +Stenhouse calls attention to many phrases in this Bible which were +peculiar to the revival preachers of those days, like Rigdon, such as +"Have ye spiritually been born of God?" "If ye have experienced a change +of heart." + +The first edition was full of grammatical errors and amusing phrases. +Thus we are told, in Ether xv. 31, that when Coriantumr smote off the +head of Shiz, the latter "raised upon his hands and fell." Among other +examples from the first edition may be quoted: "and I sayeth"; "all +things which are good cometh of God"; "neither doth his angels"; and +"hath miracles ceased." We find in Helaman ix. 6, "He being stabbed by +his brother by a garb of secrecy." This remains uncorrected. + +Alexander Campbell, noting the mixture of doctrines in the book, says, +"He [the author] decides all the great controversies discussed in New +York in the last ten years, infant baptism, the Trinity, regeneration, +repentance, justification, the fall of man, the atonement, +transubstantiation, fasting, penance, church government, the call to the +ministry, the general resurrection, eternal punishment, who may baptize, +and even the questions of Freemasonry, republican government and the +rights of man."* + + + * "Delusions: an Analysis of the Book of Mormon" (1832). An +exhaustive examination of this Bible will be found in the "Braden and +Kelley Public Discussion." + + +Such is the book which is accepted to this day as an inspired work +by the thousands of persons who constitute the Mormon church. This +acceptance has always been rightfully recognized as fundamentally +necessary to the Mormon faith. Orson Pratt declared, "The nature of the +message in the Book of Mormon is such that, if true, none can be saved +who reject it, and, if false, none can be saved who receive it." Brigham +Young told the Conference at Nauvoo in October, 1844, that "Every spirit +that confesses that Joseph Smith is a prophet, that he lived and died +a prophet, and that the Book of Mormon is true, is of God, and every +spirit that does not is of Anti-Christ." There is no modification of +this view in the Mormon church of to-day. + + + +CHAPTER XII. -- ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH + +The director of the steps taken to announce to the world a new Bible and +a new church realized, of course, that there must be priests, under some +name, to receive members and to dispense its blessing. No person openly +connected with Smith in the work of translation had been a clergyman. +Accordingly, on May 15, 1829 (still following the prophet's own +account), while Smith and Cowdery were yet busy with the work of +translation, they went into the woods to ask the Lord for fuller +information about the baptism mentioned in the plates. There a messenger +from heaven, who, it was learned, was John the Baptist, appeared to them +in a cloud of light, "and having laid his hands on us, he ordained us, +saying unto us, 'Upon you, my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah, I +confer the priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering +angels, and of the Gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion +for the remission of sins.'" The messenger also informed them that "the +power of laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost" would be +conferred on them later, through Peter, James, and John, "who held the +keys of the priesthood of Melchisedec"; but he directed Smith to baptize +Cowdery, and Cowdery then to perform the same office for Smith. This +they did at once, and as soon as Cowdery came out of the water he "stood +up and prophesied many things" (which the prophet prudently omitted to +record). The divine authority thus conferred, according to Orson Pratt, +exceeds that of the bishops of the Roman church, because it came direct +from heaven, and not through a succession of popes and bishops.* + + + * Orson Pratt, in his "Questions and Answers on Doctrine" in his +Washington newspaper, the Seer (p. 205), thus defined the Mormon view of +the Roman Catholic church:-- + +Q."Is the Roman Catholic Church the Church of Christ?" A."No, for she +has no inspired priesthood or officers." + +Q."After the Church of Christ fled from earth to heaven what was left?" +A."A set of wicked apostates, murderers and idolaters," etc. + +Q."Who founded the Roman Catholic Church?" A."The devil, through the +medium of the apostates, who subverted the whole order of God by denying +immediate revelation, and substituting in place thereof tradition and +ancient revelations as a sufficient rule of faith and practice." + + +Smith and Cowdery at once began telling of the power conferred upon +them, and giving their relatives and friends an opportunity to become +members of the new church. Smith's brother Samuel was the first convert +won over, Cowdery baptizing him. His brother Hyrum came next,* and then +one J. Knight, Sr., of Colesville, New York.** Each new convert was +made the subject of a "revelation," each of which began, "A great and +marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men." Hyrum +Smith, and David and Peter Whitmer, Jr., were baptized in Seneca Lake in +June, and "from this time forth," says Smith, "many became believers and +were baptized, while we continued to instruct and persuade as many as +applied for information." + + + * Hyrum wanted to start in to preach at once, and a "revelation" +was necessary to inform him: "You need not suppose you are called to +preach until you are called.... Keep my commandments; hold your peace" +(Sec.11). + + + ** Colesville is the township in Broome County of which +Harpursville is the voting place. Smith organized his converts there +about two miles north of Harpursville. + + +By April 6, 1830, branches of the new church had been established at +Fayette, Manchester, and Colesville, New York, with some seventy members +in all, it has been stated. Section 20 of the "Doctrine and Covenants" +names April 6, 1830, as the date on which the church was "regularly +organized and established, agreeable to the laws of our country." This +date has been incorrectly given as that on which the first step was +taken to form a church organization. What was done then was to organize +in a form which, they hoped, would give the church a standing as a legal +body.* The meeting was held at the house of Peter Whitmer. Smith, +who, it was revealed, should be the first elder, ordained Cowdery, +and Cowdery subsequently ordained Smith. The sacrament was then +administered, and the new elders laid their hands on the others present. + + + * Whitmer's "Address to Believers in the Book of Mormon." + + +"The revelation" (Sec. 20) on the form of church government is dated +April, 1830, at least six months before Rigdon's name was first +associated with the scheme by the visit of Cowdery and his companions +to Ohio. If the date is correct, it shows that Rigdon had forwarded this +"revelation" to Smith for promulgation, for Rigdon was unquestionably +the originator of the system of church government. David Whitmer has +explained, "Rigdon would expound the Old Testament Scriptures of +the Bible and Book of Mormon, in his way, to Joseph, concerning the +priesthood, high priests, etc., and would persuade Brother Joseph to +inquire of the Lord about this doctrine and about that doctrine, and of +course a revelation would always come just as they desired it."* + + + * Whitmer's "Address to Believers in the Book of Mormon." + + +The "revelation" now announced defined the duty of elders, priests, +teachers, deacons, and members of the Church of Christ. An apostle was +an elder, and it was his calling to baptize, ordain, administer the +sacrament, confirm, preach, and take the lead in all meetings. A +priest's duty was to preach, baptize, administer the sacrament, and +visit members at their houses. Teachers and deacons could not baptize, +administer the sacrament, or lay on hands, but were to preach and invite +all to join the church. The elders were directed to meet in conference +once in three months, and there was to be a High Council, or general +conference of the church, by which should be ordained every President of +the high priesthood, bishop, high counsellor, and high priest. + +Smith's leadership had, before this, begun to manifest itself. He had, +in a generous mood, originally intended to share with others the honor +of receiving "revelations," the first of these in the "Book of Doctrine +and Covenants," saying, "I the Lord also gave commandments to others, +that they should proclaim these things to the world." In the +original publication of these "revelations," under the title "Book of +Commandments," we find such headings as, "A revelation given to Oliver," +"A revelation given to Hyrum," etc. These headings are all changed in +the modern edition to read, "Given through Joseph the Seer," etc. + +Cowdery was the first of his associates to seek an open share in the +divine work. Smith was so pleased with his new scribe when they first +met at Harmony, Pennsylvania, that he at once received a "revelation" +which incited Cowdery to ask for a division of power. Cowdery was told +(Sec. 6), "And behold, I grant unto you a gift, if you desire of me, to +translate even as my servant Joseph." Cowdery's desire manifested itself +immediately, and Joseph almost as quickly became conscious that he had +committed himself too soon. Accordingly, in another "revelation," dated +the same month of April, 1829 (Sec. 8), he attempted to cajole Oliver by +telling him about a "gift of Aaron" which he possessed, and which was a +remarkable gift in itself, adding, "Do not ask for that which you ought +not." But Cowdery naturally clung to his promised gift, and kept on +asking, and he had to be told right away in still another "revelation" +(Sec. 9), that he had not understood, but that he must not murmur, since +his work was to write for Joseph. If he was in doubt about a subject, +he was advised to "study it out in your mind"; and if it was right, the +Lord promised, "I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you"; +but if it was not right, "you shall have a stupor of thought, that shall +cause you to forget the thing which is wrong." To assist him until he +became accustomed to discriminate between this burning feeling and this +stupor, the Lord told him very plainly, "It is not expedient that you +should translate now." That all this rankled in Cowdery's heart was +shown by his attempt to revise one of Smith's "revelations," and the +support he gave to Hiram Page's "gazing." + +Cowdery continued to annoy the prophet, and Smith decided to get rid +of him. Accordingly in July, 1830, came a "revelation," originally +announced as given direct to Joseph's wife Emma, instructing her to +act as her husband's scribe, "that I may send my servant Oliver Cowdery +whithersoever I will." This occurred on a trip the Smiths had made +to Harmony. On their return to Fayette, Smith found Cowdery still +persistent, and he accordingly gave out a "revelation" to him, telling +him again that he must not "write by way of commandment," inasmuch as +Smith was at the head of the church, and directing him to "go unto the +Lamanites (Indians) and preach my Gospel unto them." This was the first +mention of the westward movement of the church which shaped all its +later history. + +A "revelation" in June, 1829 (Sec. 18), had directed the appointment of +the twelve apostles, whom Cowdery and David Whitmer were to select. The +organized members now began to inquire who was their leader, and Smith, +in a "revelation" dated April 6, 1830 (Sec. 21), addressed to himself, +announced: "Behold there shall be a record kept among you, and in it +thou shalt be called a seer, a translator, a prophet, an apostle of +Jesus Christ, an elder of the church through the will of God the Father, +and the grace of your Lord Jesus Christ"; and the church was directed in +these words, "For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, +in all patience and faith." Thus was established an authority which +Smith defended until the day of his death, and before which all who +questioned it went down. + +Some of the few persons who at this time expressed a willingness to join +the new church showed a repugnance to being baptized at his hands, +and pleaded previous baptism as an excuse for evading it. But Smith's +tyrannical power manifested itself at once, and he straightway announced +a "revelation" (Sec. 22), in which the Lord declared, "All old covenants +have I caused to be done away in this thing, and this is a new and +everlasting covenant, even that which was from the beginning." + +Five days after the formal organization, the first sermon to the Mormon +church was preached in the Whitmer house by Oliver Cowdery, Smith +probably concluding that it would be wiser to confine himself to the +receipt of "revelations" rather than to essay pulpit oratory too soon. +Six additional persons were then baptized. Soon after this the first +Mormon miracle was performed--the casting out of a devil from a young +man named, Newel Knight. + +The first conference of the organized church was held at Fayette, +New York, in June, 1830, with about thirty members present. In recent +"revelations" the prophet had informed his father and his brothers Hyrum +and Samuel that their calling was "to exhortation and to strengthen the +church," so that they were provided for in the new fold. + +The region in New York State where the Smiths had lived and were well +known was not favorable ground for their labors as church officers, +conducting baptisms and administering the sacrament. When they dammed a +small stream in order to secure a pool for an announced baptism, the dam +was destroyed during the night. A Presbyterian sister-in-law of Knight, +from whom a devil had been cast, announced her conversion to Smith's +church, and, when she would not listen to the persuasions of her pastor, +the latter obtained legal authority from her parents and carried her +away by force. She succeeded, however, in securing the wished-for +baptism. All this stirred up public feeling against Smith, and he was +arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct. + +At the trial testimony was offered to show that he had obtained a horse +and a yoke of oxen from his dupes, on the statement that a "revelation" +had informed him that he was to have them, and that he had behaved +improperly toward the daughters of one of these men. But the parties +interested all testified in his favor, and the prosecution failed. He +was immediately rearrested on a warrant and removed to Colesville, amid +the jeers of the people in attendance. Knight was subpoenaed to tell +about the miracle performed on him, and Smith's old character of a +money-digger was ventilated; but the court found nothing on which to +hold him. Mormon writers have dilated on these "persecutions", but the +outcome of the hearings indicated fair treatment of the accused by +the arbiters of the law, and the indignation shown toward him and his +associates by their neighbors was not greater than the conduct of such +men in assuming priestly rights might evoke in any similar community. + +Smith returned to his home in Pennsylvania after this, and endeavored +to secure the cooperation of his father-in-law in his church plans, but +without avail. It was four years later that Mr. Hale put on record his +opinion of his son-in-law already quoted. Failing to find other support +in Harmony, and perceiving much public feeling against him, Smith +prepared for his return to New York by receiving a "revelation" (Sec.20) +which directed him to return to the churches organized in that state +after he had sold his crops. "They shall support thee", declared the +"revelation"; "but if they receive thee not I shall send upon them a +cursing instead of a blessing". For Smith's protection the Lord further +declared: "Whosoever shall lay their hand upon you by violence ye +shall command to be smitten in my name, and behold, I will smite them +according to your words, IN MINE OWN DUE TIME. And whosoever shall go +to law with thee shall be cursed by the law." This threat, it will be +noted, was safeguarded by not requiring immediate fulfillment. + +Smith returned to Fayette in September, and continued church work +thereabouts in company with his brothers and John and David Whitmer. + +Meanwhile Parley P. Pratt had made his visit to Palmyra and returned +to Ohio, and in the early winter Rigdon set out to make his first open +visit to Smith, arriving in December. Martin Harris, on the ground that +Rigdon was a regularly authorized clergyman, tried to obtain the use of +one of the churches of the town for him, but had to content himself +with the third-story hall of the Young Men's Association. There Rigdon +preached a sermon to a small audience, principally of non-Mormons, +announcing himself as a "messenger of God". The audience regarded the +sermon as blasphemous, and no further attempt was made to secure this +room for Mormon meetings. Rigdon, however, while in conference with +Smith, preached and baptized the neighborhood, and Smith and Harris +tried their powers as preachers in barns and under a tree in the open +air. + +A well-authenticated story of the manner in which one of the Palmyra +Mormons received his call to preach is told by Tucker* and verified by +the principal actor. Among the first baptized in New York State were +Calvin Stoddard and his wife (Smith's sister) of Macedon. Stoddard told +his neighbors of wonderful things he had seen in the sky, and about +his duty to preach. One night, Steven S. Harding, a young man who was +visiting the place, went with a companion to Stoddard's house, and +awakening him with knocks on the door, proclaimed in measured tones that +the angel of the Lord commanded him to "go forth among the people +and preach the Gospel of Nephi." Then they ran home and went to bed. +Stoddard took the call in all earnestness, and went about the next +day repeating to his neighbors the words of the "celestial messenger," +describing the roaring thunder and the musical sounds of the angel's +wings that accompanied the words. Young Harding, who participated in +this joke, became Governor of Utah in 1862, and incurred the bitter +enmity of Brigham Young and the church by denouncing polygamy, and +asserting his own civil authority.** + + + * "Origin, Rise and Progress of Mormonism," pp. 80, 285 + + + **Stoddard and Smith had a quarrel over a lot in Kirtland in +1835, and Smith knocked down his brother-in-law and was indicted for +assault and battery, but was acquitted on the ground of self-defence. + + +AS a result of Smith's and Rigdon's conferences came a "revelation" to +them both (Sec. 35), delivered as in the name of Jesus Christ, defining +somewhat Rigdon's position. How nearly it met his demands cannot be +learned, but it certainly granted him no more authority than Smith +was willing to concede. It told him that he should do great things, +conferring the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, as did the apostles +of old, and promising to show miracles, signs, and wonders unto all +believers. He was told that Joseph had received the "keys of the +mysteries of those things that have been sealed," and was directed to +"watch over him that his faith fail not." This "revelation" ordered the +retranslation of the Scriptures. + +The most important result of Rigdon's visit to Smith was a decision to +move the church to Ohio. This decision was promulgated in the form of +"revelations" dated December, 1830, and January, 1831, which set forth +(Secs. 37, 38):-- + +"And that ye might escape the power of the enemy, and be gathered unto +me a righteous people, without spot and blameless: + +"Wherefore, for this cause I give unto you the commandment that ye +should go to the Ohio; and there I will give unto you my law; and there +you shall be endowed with power from on high; and from thence whomsoever +I will shall go forth among all nations, and it shall be told them what +they shall do; for I have a great work laid up in store, for Israel +shall be saved.... And they that have farms that cannot be sold, let +them be left or rented as seemeth them good." + +A sufficient reason for the removal was the failure to secure converts +where Smith was known, and the ready acceptance of the new belief among +Rigdon's Ohio people. The Rev. Dr. Clark says, "You might as well go +down in the crater of Vesuvius and attempt to build an icehouse amid +its molten and boiling lava, as to convince any inhabitant in either of +these towns [Palmyra or Manchester] that Joe Smith's pretensions are not +the most gross and egregious falsehood."* + + + * "Gleanings by the Way." + + +The Rev. Jesse Townsend of Palmyra, in a reply to a letter of inquiry +about the Mormons, dated December 24, 1833 (quoted in full by Tucker), +says: "All the Mormons have left this part of the state, and so palpable +is their imposture that nothing is here said or thought of the subject, +except when inquiries from abroad are occasionally made concerning them. +I know of no one now living in this section of the country that ever +gave them credence." + + + +CHAPTER XIII. -- THE MORMONS' BELIEFS AND DOCTRINES--CHURCH GOVERNMENT + +The Mormons teach that, for fourteen hundred years to the time of +Smith's "revelations," there had been "a general and awful apostasy from +the religion of the New Testament, so that all the known world have been +left for centuries without the Church of Christ among them; without a +priesthood authorized of God to administer ordinances; that every one +of the churches has perverted the Gospel."* As illustrations of this +perversion are cited the doing away of immersion for the remission of +sins by most churches, of the laying on of hands for the gift of the +Holy Ghost, and of the miraculous gifts and powers of the Holy +Spirit. The new church presented a modern prophet, who was in direct +communication with God and possessed power to work miracles, and who +taught from a Golden Bible which says that whoever asserts that there +are no longer "revelations, nor prophecies, nor gifts, nor healing, nor +speaking with tongues and the interpretation of tongues,... knoweth not +the Gospel of Christ" (Book of Mormon ix. 7, 8). + + + * Orson Pratt's "Remarkable Visions," No. 6. + + +It is impossible to decide whether the name "Mormon" was used by +Spaulding in his "Manuscript Found," or was introduced by Rigdon. It is +first encountered in the Mormon Bible in the Book of Mosiah xviii. 4, +as the name of a place where there was a fountain in which Alma baptized +those whom his admonition led to repentance. Next it occurs in 3 Nephi +v. 20: "I am Mormon, and a pure descendant of Lehi." This Mormon +was selected by the "author" of the Bible to stand sponsor for the +condensation of the "records" of his ancestors which Smith unearthed. It +was discovered very soon after the organization of the Mormon church was +announced that the word was of Greek derivation, + +[Illustration: Greek 153] + +meaning bugbear, hobgoblin. In the form of "mormo" it is Anglicized with +the same meaning, and is used by Jeremy Collier and Warburton.* The word +"Mormon" in zoology is the generic name of certain animals, including +the mandril baboon. The discovery of the Greek origin and meaning of the +word was not pleasing to the early Mormon leaders, and they printed +in the Times and Seasons a letter over Smith's signature, in which he +solemnly declared that "there was no Greek or Latin upon the plates from +which I, through the grace of God, translated the Book of Mormon," and +gave the following explanation of the derivation of the word: + + + * See "Century Dictionary." + + +"Before I give a definition to the word, let me say that the Bible, in +its widest sense, means good; for the Saviour says, according to the +Gospel of St. John, 'I am the Good Shepherd'; and it will not be beyond +the common use of terms to say that good is amongst the most important +in use, and, though known by various names in different languages, still +its meaning is the same, and is ever in opposition to bad. We say from +the Saxon, good; the Dane, god; the Goth, gods; the German, gut; the +Dutch, goed; the Latin, bonus; the Greek, kalos; the Hebrew, tob; the +Egyptian, mo. Hence, with the addition of more, or the contraction mor, +we have the word Mormon, which means literally more good." + +This lucid explanation was doubtless entirely satisfactory to the +persons to whom it was addressed. + +In the early "revelations" collected in the "Book of Commandments" the +new church was not styled anything more definite than "My Church," +and the title-page of that book, as printed in 1833, says that these +instructions are "for the government of the Church of Christ." The name +"Mormons" was not acceptable to the early followers of Smith, who looked +on it as a term of reproach, claiming the designation "Saints." This +objection to the title continues to the present day. It was not until +May 4, 1834, that a council of the church, on motion of Sidney Rigdon, +decided on its present official title, "Church of Jesus Christ of +Latter-Day Saints." + +The belief in the speedy ending of the world, on which the title +"Latter-Day Saints" was founded, has played so unimportant a part in +modern Mormon belief that its prominence as an early tenet of the church +is generally overlooked. At no time was there more widespread interest +in the speedy second coming of Christ and the Day of Judgment than +during the years when the organization of the Mormon church was taking +place. We have seen how much attention was given to a speedy millennium +by the Disciples preachers. It was in 1833 that William Miller began his +sermons in which he fixed on the year 1843 as the end of the world, and +his views not only found acceptance among his personal followers, but +attracted the liveliest interest in other sects. + +The Mormon leaders made this belief a part of their early doctrine. +Thus, in one of the first "revelations" given out by Smith, dated +Fayette, New York, September, 1830, Christ is represented as saying +that "the hour is nigh" when He would reveal Himself, and "dwell in +righteousness with men on earth a thousand years." In the November +following, another "revelation" declared that "the time is soon at hand +that I shall come in a cloud, with power and great glory." Soon +after Smith arrived in Kirtland a "revelation," dated February, 1831, +announced that "the great day of the Lord is nigh at hand." In January, +1833, Smith predicted that "there are those now living upon the earth +whose eyes shall not be closed in death until they shall see all these +things of which I have spoken" (the sweeping of the wicked from the +United States, and the return of the lost tribes to it). Smith declared +in 1843 that the Lord had promised that he should see the Son of Man +if he lived to be eighty-five (Sec. 130).* When Ferris was Secretary +of Utah Territory, in 1852-1853, he found that the Mormons were still +expecting the speedy coming of Christ, but had moved the date forward to +1870. All through Smith's autobiography and the Millennial Star will be +found mention of every portent that might be construed as an indication +of the coming disruption of this world. As late as December 6, 1856, an +editorial in the Millennial Star said, "The signs of the times clearly +indicate to every observing mind that the great day of the second advent +of Messiah is at hand." + + + * Speaking of W. W. Phelps's last years in Utah, Stenhouse says: +"Often did the old man, in public and in private, regale the Saints with +the assurance that he had the promise by revelation that he should not +taste of death until Jesus came." Phelps died on March 7, 1872. + + +As the devout Mohammedan* passes from earth to a heaven of material +bliss, so the Mormons are taught that the Saints, the sole survivors of +the day of judgment, will, with resurrected bodies, possess the purified +earth. The lengths to which Mormon preachers have dared to go in +illustrating this view find a good illustration in a sermon by arson +Pratt, printed in the Deseret News, Salt Lake City, of August 21, 1852. +Having promised that "farmers will have great farms upon the earth +when it is so changed," and foreseeing that some one might suggest a +difficulty in providing land enough to go round, he met that in this +way:-- + + + * The similarity between Smith's early life and visions and +Mohammed's has been mentioned by more than one writer. Stenhouse +observes that Smith's mother "was to him what Cadijah was to Mohammed," +and that "a Mohammedan writer, in a series of essays recently published +in London, treats of the prophecies concerning the Arabian Prophet, to +be found in the Old and New Testaments, precisely as Orson Pratt applied +them to the American Prophet." + + +"But don't be so fast, says one; don't you know that there are only +about 197,000,000 of square miles, or about 126,000,000,000 of +acres upon the surface of the globe? Will these accommodate all the +inhabitants after the resurrection? Yes; for if the earth should stand +8000 years, or 80 centuries, and the population should be a thousand +millions in every century, that would be 80,000,000,000 of inhabitants, +and we know that many centuries have passed that would not give the +tenth part of this; but supposing this to be the number, there would +then be over an acre and a half for each person upon the surface of the +globe." + +By eliminating the wicked, so that only one out of a hundred would share +this real estate, he calculated that every Saint "would receive over 150 +acres, which would be quite enough to raise manna, flax to make robes +of, and to have beautiful orchards of fruit trees." + +The Mormon belief is stated by the church leaders to rest on the Holy +Bible, the Mormon Bible, and the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants," +together with the teachings of the Mormon instructors from Smith's time +to the present day. Although the Holy Bible is named first in this list, +it has, as we have seen, played a secondary part in the church ritual, +its principal use by the Mormon preachers having been to furnish +quotations on which to rest their claims for the inspiration of their +own Bible and for their peculiar teachings. Mormon sermons (usually +styled discourses) rarely, if ever, begin with a text. The "Book of +Doctrine and Covenants" "containing," as the title-page declares, "the +revelations given to Joseph Smith, Jr., for the building up of the +Kingdom of God in the last days," was the directing authority in the +church during Smith's life, and still occupies a large place in the +church history. An examination of the origin and character of this work +will therefore shed much light on the claims of the church to special +direction from on high. + +There is little doubt that this system of "revelation" was an idea of +Rigdon. Smith was not, at that time, an inventor; his forte was making +use of ideas conveyed to him. Thus, he did not originate the idea of +using a "peek-stone," but used one freely as soon as he heard of it. +He did not conceive the idea of receiving a Bible from an angel, but +readily transformed the Spaniard-with-his-throat-cut to an angel when +the perfected scheme was presented to him. We can imagine how attractive +"revelations" would have been to him, and how soon he would concentrate +in himself the power to receive them, and would adapt them to his +personal use. + +David Whitmer says, "The revelations, or the Book of Commandments, up +to June, 1829, were given through the stone through which the Book of +Mormon was translated"; but that after that time "they came through +Joseph as a mouthpiece; that is, he would inquire of the Lord, pray and +ask concerning a matter, and speak out the revelation, which he thought +to be a revelation from the Lord; but sometimes he was mistaken about +its being from the Lord."* Who drew the line between truth and error has +never been explained, but Smith would certainly have resented any such +scepticism. + + + * "Address to Believers in the Book of Mormon." + + +Parley P. Pratt thus describes Smith's manner of receiving "revelations" +in Ohio, "Each sentence was uttered slowly and very distinctly, and +with a pause between each sufficiently long for it to be recorded by an +ordinary writer in long hand."* + + + + * Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 65. + + +These "revelations" made the greatest impression on Smith's followers, +and no other of his pretensions seems to have so convinced them of his +divine credentials. The story of Vienna Jaques well illustrates this. A +Yankee descendant of John Rodgers, living in Boston, she was convinced +by a Mormon elder, and joined the church members while they were in +Kirtland, taking with her her entire possession, $1500 in cash. This +money, like that of many other devoted members, found its way into +Smith's hands--and stayed there. But he had taken her into his family, +and her support became burdensome to him. So, when the Saints were +"gathering" in Missouri, he announced a "revelation" in these words +(Sec. 90):-- + +"And again, verily, I [the Lord] say unto you, it is my will that my +handmaid, Vienna Jaques, should receive money to bear her expenses, +and go up unto the land of Zion; and the residue of the money may be +consecrated unto me, and she be rewarded in mine own due time. Verily, +I say unto you, that it is meet in mine eyes that she should go up +unto the land of Zion, and receive an inheritance from the hand of the +Bishop, that she may settle down in peace, inasmuch as she is faithful, +and not to be idle in her days from thenceforth." + +The confiding woman obeyed without a murmur this thinly concealed scheme +to get rid of her, migrated with the church from Missouri to Illinois +and to Utah, and was in Salt Lake City in 1833, supporting herself as +a nurse, and "doubly proud that she has been made the subject of a +revelation from heaven."* + + + * "Utah and the Mormons," p. 182. + + +These "revelations" have been published under two titles. The first +edition was printed in Jackson, Missouri, in 1833, in the Mormon +printing establishment, under the title, "Book of Commandments for the +Government of the Church of Christ, organized according to Law on the +6th of April, 1830." This edition contained nothing but "revelations," +divided into sixty-five "chapters," and ending with the one dated +Kirtland, September, 1831, which forms Section 64 of the Utah edition of +"Doctrine and Covenants." David Whitmer says that when, in the spring +of 1832, it was proposed by Smith, Rigdon, and others to publish these +revelations, they were earnestly advised by other members of the church +not to do so, as it would be dangerous to let the world get hold of +them; and so it proved. But Smith declared that any objector should +"have his part taken out of the Tree of Life."* + + + * It has been stated that the "Book of Commandments" was never +really published, the mob destroying the sheets before it got out. But +David Whitmer is a very positive witness to the contrary, saying, "I say +it was printed complete (and copyrighted) and many copies distributed +among the members of the church before the printing press was +destroyed." + + +Two years later, while the church was still in Kirtland, the +"revelations" were again prepared for publication, this time under the +title, "Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints, +carefully selected from the revelations of God, and compiled by Joseph +Smith, Jr.; Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, F. G. Williams, proprietors." +On August 17, 1835, a general assembly of the church held in the +Kirtland Temple voted to accept his book as the doctrine and covenants +of their faith. Ebenezer Robinson, who attended the meeting, says that +the majority of those so voting "had neither time nor opportunity to +examine the book for themselves; they had no means of knowing whether +any alterations had been made in any of the revelations or not."* In +fact, many important alterations were so made, as will be pointed out in +the course of this story. One method of attempting to account for these +changes has been by making the plea that parts were omitted in the +Missouri editions. On this point, however, Whitmer is very positive, as +quoted. + + + * In his reminiscences in The Return. + + +At the very start Smith's revelations failed to "come true." An amusing +instance of this occurred before the Mormon Bible was published. While +the "copy" was in the hands of the printer, Grandin, Joe's brother Hyrum +and others who had become interested in the enterprise became impatient +over Harris's delay in raising the money required for bringing out +the book. Hyrum finally proposed that some of them attempt to sell the +copyright in Canada, and he urged Joe to ask the Lord about doing +so. Joe complied, and announced that the mission to Canada would be +a success. Accordingly, Oliver Cowdery and Hiram Page made a trip to +Toronto to secure a publisher, but their mission failed absolutely. This +was a critical test of the faith of Joe's followers. "We were all in +great trouble," says David Whitmer,* "and we asked Joseph how it was +that he received a 'revelation' from the Lord for some brethren to go to +Toronto and sell the copyright, and the brethren had utterly failed in +their undertaking. Joseph did not know how it was, so he inquired of the +Lord about it, and behold, the following 'revelation' came; through the +stone: 'Some revelations are from God, some revelations are of man, +and some revelations are of the Devil.'" No rule for distinguishing +and separating these revelations was given; but Whitmer, whose faith in +Smith's divine mission never cooled, thus disposes of the matter, "So we +see that the revelation to go to Toronto and sell the copyright was +not of God." Of course, a prophet whose followers would accept such an +excuse was certain of his hold upon them. This incident well illustrates +the kind of material which formed the nucleus of the church. + + + * "Address to All Believers in Christ," p. 30. + + +Smith never let the previously revealed word of the Lord protect any +of his flock who afterward came in conflict with his own plans. For +example: On March 8, 1831, he announced a "revelation" (Sec. 47), +saying, "Behold, it is expedient in me that my servant John [Whitmer] +should write and keep a regular history" of the church. John fell into +disfavor in later years, and, when he refused to give up his records, +Smith and Rigdon addressed a letter to him,* in connection with his +dismissal, which said that his notes required correction by them before +publication, "knowing your incompetency as a historian, that writings +coming from your pen could not be put to press without our correcting +them, or else the church must suffer reproach. Indeed, sir, we never +supposed you capable of writing a history." Why the Lord did not +consult Smith and Rigdon before making this appointment is one of the +unexplained mysteries. + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XVI, p. 133. + + +These "revelations," which increased in number from 16 in 1829 to 19 in +1830, numbered 35 in 1831, and then decreased to 16 in 1832, 13 in 1833, +5 in 1834, 2 in 1835, 3 in 1836, 1 in 1837, 8 in 1838 (in the trying +times in Missouri), 1 in 1839, none in 1840, 3 in 1841, none in 1842, +and 2, including the one on polygamy, in 1843. We shall see that in +his latter days, in Nauvoo, Smith was allowed to issue revelations only +after they had been censored by a council. He himself testified to the +reckless use which he made of them, and which perhaps brought about this +action. The following is a quotation from his diary:-- + +"May 19, 1842.--While the election [of Smith as mayor by the city +council] was going forward, I received and wrote the following +revelation: 'I Verily thus saith the Lord unto you my servant Joseph, +by the voice of the Spirit, Hiram Kimball has been insinuating evil and +forming evil opinions against you with others; and if he continue in +them, he and they shall be accursed, for I am the Lord thy God, and will +stand by thee and bless thee.' Which I threw across the room to Hiram +Kimball, one of the counsellors." + +Thus it seems that there was some limit to the extent of Joe's +effrontery which could be submitted to. + +We shall see that Brigham Young in Utah successfully resisted constant +pressure that was put upon him by his flock to continue the reception +of "revelations." While he was prudent enough to avoid the pitfalls that +would have surrounded him as a revealer, he was crafty enough not to +belittle his own authority in so doing. In his discourse on the occasion +of the open announcement of polygamy, he said, "If an apostle magnifies +his calling, his words are the words of eternal life and salvation to +those who hearken to them, just as much so as any written revelations +contained in these books" (the two Bibles and the "Doctrine and +Covenants"). + +Hiram Page was not the only person who tried to imitate Smith's +"revelations." A boy named Isaac Russell gave out such messages at +Kirtland; Gladdin Bishop caused much trouble in the same way at Nauvoo; +the High Council withdrew the hand of fellowship from Oliver Olney for +setting himself up as a prophet; and in the same year the Times and +Seasons announced a pamphlet by J. C. Brewster, purporting to be one of +the lost books of Esdras, "written by the power of God." + +In the Times and Seasons (p. 309) will be found a report of a conference +held in New York City on December 4, 1840, at which Elder Sydney Roberts +was arraigned, charged with "having a revelation that a certain brother +must give him a suit of clothes and a gold watch, the best that could be +had; also saluting the sisters with what he calls a holy kiss." He was +told that he could retain his membership if he would confess, but he +declared that "he knew the revelations which he had spoken were from +God." So he was thereupon "cut off." + +The other source of Mormon belief--the teachings of their leading +men--has been no more consistent nor infallible than Smith's +"revelations." Mormon preachers have been generally uneducated men, most +of them ambitious of power, and ready to use the pulpit to strengthen +their own positions. Many an individual elder, firm in his faith, has +travelled and toiled as faithfully as any Christian missionary; but +these men, while they have added to the church membership, have not made +its beliefs. + +Smith probably originated very little of the church polity, except the +doctrine of polygamy, and what is published over his name is generally +the production of some of his counsellors. Section 130 of the "Book of +Doctrine and Covenants," headed "Important Items of Instruction, given +by Joseph the Prophet, April 2, 1843," contains the following:-- + +"When the Saviour shall appear, we shall see him as he is. We shall see +that he is a man like ourselves.... + +"The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son +also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a +personage of spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in +us." + +An article in the Millennial Star, Vol. VI, for which the prophet +vouched, contains the following:-- + +"The weakest child of God which now exists upon the earth will possess +more dominion, more property, more subjects, and more power in glory +than is possessed by Jesus Christ or by his Father; while, at the same +time, Jesus Christ and his Father will have their dominion, kingdom and +subjects increased in proportion." + +One more illustration of Smith's doctrinal views will suffice. In +a funeral sermon preached in Nauvoo, March 20, 1842, he said: "As +concerning the resurrection, I will merely say that all men will come +from the grave as they lie down, whether old or young; there will not be +'added unto their stature one cubit,' neither taken from it. All will +be raised by the power of God, having spirit in their bodies but not +blood."* + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XIX, p. 213. + + +In "The Latter-Day Saints' Catechism or Child's Ladder," by Elder David +Moffat, Genesis v. 1, and Exodus xxxiii. 22, 23, and xxiv. 10 are cited +to prove that God has the form and parts of a man. + +The greatest vagaries of doctrinal teachings are found during Brigham +Young's reign in Utah. In the way of a curiosity the following +diagram and its explanation, by Orson Hyde, may be reproduced from the +Millennial Star, Vol. IX, p. 23:-- + +[Illustration: Order and Unity of the Kingdom of God + 162] + +"The above diagram (not included in this etext) shows the order and +unity of the Kingdom of God. The eternal Father sits at the head, +crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Wherever the other lines meet +there sits a king and priest under God, bearing rule, authority and +dominion under the Father. He is one with the Father because his Kingdom +is joined to his Father's and becomes part of it.... It will be seen +by the above diagram that there are kingdoms of all sizes, an infinite +variety to suit all grades of merit and ability. The chosen vessels +of God are the kings and priests that are placed at the heads of their +kingdoms. They have received their washings and anointings in the Temple +of God on earth." + +Young's ambition was not to be satisfied until his name was connected +with some doctrine peculiarly his own. Accordingly, in a long sermon +preached in the Tabernacle on April 9, 1852, he made this announcement +(the italics and capitals follow the official report):-- + +"Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gentile, saint and +sinner. When our father Adam came into the Garden of Eden, he came into +it with a CELESTIAL BODY, and brought Eve, ONE OF HIS WIVES, with him. +He helped to make and organize this world. He is MICHAEL, the ARCHANGEL, +the ANCIENT OF DAYS, about whom holy men have written and spoken.* HE +is our FATHER and our GOD, AND THE ONLY GOD WITH WHOM 'WE' HAVE TO DO... +Every man upon the earth, professing Christians or non-professing, must +hear it and WILL KNOW IT SOONER OR LATER.... I could tell you much more +about this; but were I to tell you the whole truth, blasphemy would be +nothing to it, in the estimation of the superstitious and over righteous +of mankind.... Jesus, our Elder Brother, was begotten in the flesh by +the same character that was in the Garden of Eden, and who is our Father +in heaven."** + + + * Young, in a public discourse on October 23, 1853, declared that +he rejected the story of Adam's creation as "baby stories my mother +taught me when I was a child." But the Mormon Bible (2 Nephi ii. 18-22) +tells the story of Adam's fall. + + + ** Journal of Discourses, VOL I, pp. 50, 51. + + +This doctrine was made a leading point of difference between the Utah +church and the Reorganized Church, when the latter was organized, but +it is no longer defended even in Utah. The Deseret Evening News of March +21, 1900, said on this point, "That which President Young set forth +in the discourse referred to is not preached either to the Latter-Day +Saints or to the world as a part of the creed of the church." + +Young never hesitated to rebuke an associate whose preaching did not +suit him. In a discourse in Salt Lake City, on March 8, 1857, he rebuked +Orson Pratt, one of the ablest of the church writers, declaring that +Pratt did not "know enough to keep his foot out of it, but drowns +himself in his philosophy." He ridiculed his doctrine that "the devils +in hell are composed of and filled with the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, +and possess all the knowledge, wisdom, and power of the gods," and said, +"When I read some of the writings of such philosophers they make me +think, 'O dear, granny, what a long tail our puss has got.'"* + + + * Ibid., Vol. IV, p. 297. + + +The Mormon church still holds that an existing head of that organization +can always interpret the divine will regarding any question. This was +never more strikingly illustrated than when Woodruff, by a mere dictum, +did away with the obligatory character of polygamy. + +When the Mormons were under a cloud in Illinois, in 1842, John +Wentworth, editor of the Chicago Democrat, applied to Smith for a +statement of their belief, and received in reply a list of 13 "Articles +of Faith" over Smith's signature. This statement was intended to win for +them sympathy as martyrs to a simple religious belief, and it has been +cited in Congress as proof of their soul purity. But as illustrating the +polity of the church it is quite valueless. + +The doctrine of polygamy and the ceremonies of the Endowment House will +be considered in their proper place. One distinctive doctrine of the +church must be explained before this subject is dismissed, namely, that +which calls for "baptism for the dead." This doctrine is founded on an +interpretation of Corinthians xv. 29: "Else what shall they do which are +baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then +baptized for the dead?" + +An explanation of this doctrine in the Times and Seasons of May 1, 1841, +says:--"This text teaches us the important and cheering truth that +the departed spirit is in a probationary state, and capable of being +affected by the proclamation of the Gospel.... Christ offers pardon, +peace, holiness, and eternal life to the quick and the dead, the living, +on condition of faith and baptism for remission of sins; the departed, +on the same condition of faith in person and baptism by a living kinsman +in his behalf. It may be asked, will this baptism by proxy necessarily +save the dead? We answer, no; neither will the same necessarily save the +living." + +This doctrine was first taught to the church in Ohio. In later years, in +Nauvoo, Smith seemed willing to accept its paternity, and in an article +in the Times and Seasons of April 15, x 842, signed "Ed.," when he was +its editor, he said that he was the first to point it out. The article +shows, however, that it was doubtless written by Rigdon, as it indicates +a knowledge of the practice of such baptism by the Marcionites in +the second century, and of Chrysostom's explanation of it. A note +on Corinthians xv. 29, in "The New Testament Commentary for English +Readers," edited by Lord Bishop Ellicott of Gloucester and Bristol +(London, 1878), gives the following historical sketch of the practice:-- + +"There have been numerous and ingenious conjectures as to the meaning +of this passage. The only tenable interpretation is that there existed +amongst some of the Christians at Corinth a practice of baptizing a +living person in the stead of some convert who had died before that +sacrament had been administered to him. Such a practice existed amongst +the Marcionites in the second century, and still earlier amongst a sect +called the Cerinthians. The idea evidently was that, whatever benefit +flowed from baptism, might be thus vicariously secured for the deceased +Christian. St. Chrysostom gives the following description of it:-- + +"After a catechumen (one prepared for baptism but not actually baptized) +was dead, they hid a living man under the bed of the deceased; then, +coming to the bed of the dead man, they spoke to him, and asked whether +he would receive baptism; and, he making no answer, the other replied in +his stead, and so they baptized the living for the dead: Does St. +Paul then, by what he here says, sanction the superstitious practice? +Certainly not. He carefully separated himself and the Corinthians, +to whom he immediately addresses himself, from those who adopted this +custom .... Those who do that, and disbelieve a resurrection, refute +themselves. This custom possibly sprang up among the Jewish converts, +who had been accustomed to something similar in their faith. If a Jew +died without having been purified from some ceremonial uncleanness, some +living person had the necessary ablution performed on him, and the dead +were so accounted clean." + +Other commentators have found means to explain this text without giving +it reference to a baptism for dead persons, as, for instance, that it +means, "with an interest in the resurrection of the dead."* Another +explanation is that by "the dead" is meant the dead Christ, as referred +to in Romans vi. 3, "Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized +into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?" + + + * "Commentary by Bishops and Other Clergy of the Anglican +Church." + + +This doctrine was a very taking one with the uneducated Mormon converts +who crowded into Nauvoo, and the church officers saw in it a means to +hasten the work on the Temple. At first families would meet on the bank +of the Mississippi River, and some one, of the order of the Melchisedec +Priesthood, would baptize them wholesale for all their dead relatives +whose names they could remember, each sex for relatives of the same. But +as soon as the font in the Temple was ready for use, these baptisms were +restricted to that edifice, and it was required that all the baptized +should have paid their tithings. At a conference at Nauvoo in October, +1841, Smith said that those who neglected the baptism of their dead "did +it at the peril of their own salvation."* + + + * Times and Seasons, Vol. II, p. 578. + + +The form of church government, as worked out in the early days, is +set forth in the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants." The first officers +provided for were the twelve apostles,* and the next the elders, +priests, teachers, and deacons, Edward Partridge being announced as +the first bishop in 1831. The church was loosely governed for the first +years after its establishment at Kirtland. A guiding power was provided +for in a revelation of March 8, 1833 (Sec. 90), when Smith was told by +the Lord that Rigdon and F. G. Williams were accounted as equal with him +"in holding the keys of this last kingdom." These three first held the +famous office of the First Presidency, representing the Trinity. + + + * (Sec. 18, June, 1829.) + + +On February 17, 1834 (Sec. 102), a General High Council of twenty-four +High Priests assembled at Smith's house in Kirtland and organized the +High Council of the church, consisting of Twelve High Priests, with +one or three Presidents, as the case might require. The office of +High Priest, and the organization of a High Council were apparently an +afterthought, and were added to the "revelation" after its publication +in the "Book of Commandments." Other forms of organization that were +from time to time decided on were announced in a revelation dated March +28, 1835 (Sec. 107), which defined the two priesthoods, Melchisedec and +Aaronic, and their powers. There were to be three Presiding High Priests +to form a Quorum of the Presidency of the church; a Seventy, called to +preach the Gospel, who would form a Quorum equal in authority to the +Quorum of the Twelve, and be presided over by seven of their number. +Smith soon organized two of these Quorums of Seventies. At the time of +the dedications of the Temple at Nauvoo, in 1844, there were fifteen of +them, and to-day they number more than 120. + +Each separate church organization, as formed, was called a Stake, +and each Stake had over it a Presidency, High Priests, and Council +of Twelve. We find the meaning of the word "Stake" in some of Smith's +earlier "revelations." Thus, in the one dated June 4, 1833, regarding +the organization of the church at Kirtland, it was said, "It is +expedient in me that this Stake that I have set for the strength of Zion +be made strong." Again, in one dated December 16, 1839, on the gathering +of the Saints, it is stated, "I have other places which I will appoint +unto them, and they shall be called Stakes for the curtains, or +the strength of Zion." In Utah, to-day, the Stakes form groups of +settlements, and are generally organized on county lines. + +The prophet made a substantial provision for his father, founding +for him the office of Patriarch, in accordance with an unpublished +"revelation." The principal business of the Patriarch was to dispense +"blessings," which were regarded by the faithful as a sort of charm, to +ward off misfortune. Joseph, Sr., awarded these blessings without charge +when he began dispensing them at Kirtland, but a High Council held there +in 1835 allowed him $10 a week while blessing the church. After his +formal anointing in 1836 he was known as Father Smith, and the next year +his salary was made $1.50 a day.* Hyrum became Patriarch when his father +died in 1840, his brother William succeeded him, his Uncle John came +next, and his Uncle Joseph after John. Patriarchal blessings were +advertised in the Mormon newspaper in Nauvoo like other merchandise. +They could be obtained in writing, and contained promises of almost +anything that a man could wish, such as freedom from poverty and +disease, life prolonged until the coming of Christ, etc.** In 1875 the +price of a blessing in Utah had risen to $2. The office of Patriarch +is still continued, with one chief Patriarch, known as Patriarch of the +Church, and subordinate Patriarchs in the different Stakes. The position +of Patriarch of the church has always been regarded as a hereditary one, +and bestowed on some member of the Smith family, as it is to-day. + + + * The departure of the Patriarch from Ohio was somewhat dramatic. +As his wife tells the story in her book, the old man was taken by a +constable before a justice of the peace on a charge of performing +the marriage service without any authority, and was fined $3000, +and sentenced to the penitentiary in default of payment. Through the +connivance of the constable, who had been a Mormon, the prisoner was +allowed to leap out of a window, and he remained in hiding at New +Portage until his family were ready to start for Missouri. The +revelation of January 19, 1841, announced that he was then sitting "with +Abraham at his right hand." + + + + * Ferris's "Utah and the Mormons," p. 314, and "Wife No. 19," p. +581. + + + + +BOOK II. -- IN OHIO + + + +CHAPTER I. -- THE FIRST CONVERTS AT KIRTLAND + +The four missionaries who had been sent to Ohio under Cowdery's +leadership arrived there in October, 1830. Rigdon left Kirtland on +his visit to Smith in New York State in the December following, and in +January, 1831, he returned to Ohio, taking Smith with him. + +The party who set out for Ohio, ostensibly to preach to the Lamanites, +consisted of Oliver Cowdery, Parley P. Pratt, Peter Whitmer, Jr., and +Ziba Peterson, the latter one of Smith's original converts, who, it may +be noted, was deprived of his land and made to work for others a year +later in Missouri, because of offences against the church authorities. +These men preached as they journeyed, making a brief stop at Buffalo to +instruct the Indians there. On reaching Ohio, Pratt's acquaintance with +Rigdon's Disciples gave him an opportunity to bring the new Bible to the +attention of many people. The character of the Smiths was quite unknown +to the pioneer settlers, and the story of the miraculously delivered +Bible filled many of them with wonder rather than with unbelief. + +The missionaries began the work of organizing a church at once. Some +members of Rigdon's congregation had already formed a "common stock +society," and were believers in a speedy millennium, and to these the +word brought by the new-comers was especially welcome. Cowdery baptized +seventeen persons into the new church. Rigdon at the start denied his +right to do this, and, in a debate between him and the missionaries +which followed at Rigdon's house, Rigdon quoted Scripture to prove that, +even if they had seen an angel, as they declared, it might have been +Satan transformed. Cowdery asked if he thought that, in response to +a prayer that God would show him an angel, the Heavenly Father would +suffer Satan to deceive him. Rigdon replied that if Cowdery made such +a request of the Heavenly Father "when He has never promised you such +a thing, if the devil never had an opportunity of deceiving you before, +you give him one now."* But after a brief study of the new book, Rigdon +announced that he, too, had had a "revelation," declaring to him that +Mormonism was to be believed. He saw in a vision all the orders of +professing Christians pass before him, and all were "as corrupt as +corruption itself," while the heart of the man who brought him the book +was "as pure as an angel." + + + * "It seemed to be a part of Rigdon's plan to make such a fight +that, when he did surrender, the triumph of the cause that had +defeated him would be all the more complete."--Kennedy, "Early Days of +Mormonism." + + +The announcement of Rigdon's conversation gave Mormonism an +advertisement and a support that had a wide effect, and it alarmed the +orthodox of that part of the country as they had never been alarmed +before. Referring to it, Hayden says, "The force of this shock was like +an earthquake when Symonds Ryder, Ezra Booth, and many others submitted +to the 'New Dispensation.'" Largely through his influence, the Mormon +church at Kirtland soon numbered more than one hundred members. + +During all that autumn and early winter crowds went to Kirtland to learn +about the new religion. On Sundays the roads would be thronged with +people, some in whatever vehicles they owned, some on horseback, and +some on foot, all pressing forward to hear the expounders of the new +Gospel and to learn the particulars of the new Bible. Pioneers in a +country where there was little to give variety to their lives, they were +easily influenced by any religious excitement, and the announcement of +a new Bible and prophet was certain to arouse their liveliest interest. +They had, indeed, inherited a tendency to religious enthusiasm, so +recently had their parents gone through the excitements of the early +days of Methodism, or of the great revivals of the new West at the +beginning of the century, when (to quote one of the descriptions given +by Henry Howe) more than twenty thousand persons assembled in one +vast encampment, "hundreds of immortal beings moving to and fro, some +preaching, some praying for mercy, others praising God. Such was the +eagerness of the people to attend, that entire neighborhoods were +forsaken, and the roads literally crowded by those pressing forward on +their way to the groves."* Any new religious leader could then make his +influence felt on the Western border: Dylkes, the "Leatherwood God," had +found it necessary only to announce himself as the real Messiah at +an Ohio campmeeting, in 1828, to build up a sect on that assumption. +Freewill Baptists, Winebrennerians, Disciples, Shakers, and +Universalists were urging their doctrines and confusing the minds of +even the thoughtful with their conflicting views. We have seen to what +beliefs the preaching of the Disciples' evangelists had led the people +of the Western Reserve, and it did not really require a much broader +exercise of faith (or credulity) to accept the appearance of a new +prophet with a new Bible. + + + * "Historical Collections of the Great West." + + +While the main body of converts was made up of persons easily +susceptible to religious excitement, and accustomed to have their +opinions on such subjects formed for them, men of education and more or +less training in theology were found among the early adherents to the +new belief. It is interesting to see how the minds of such men were +influenced, and this we are enabled to do from personal experiences +related by some of them. + +One of these, John Corrill, a man of intelligence, who stayed with the +church until it was driven out of Missouri, then became a member of the +Missouri Legislature, and wrote a brief history of the church to the +year 1839, in this pamphlet answered very clearly the question often +asked by his friends, "How did you come to join the Mormons?" A copy +of the new Bible was given to him by Cowdery when the missionaries, +on their Western trip, passed through Ashtabula County, Ohio, where he +lived. A brief reading convinced him that it was a mere money-making +scheme, and when he learned that they had stopped at Kirtland, he did +not entertain a doubt, that, under Rigdon's criticism, the pretensions +of the missionaries would be at once laid bare. When, on the contrary, +word came that Rigdon and the majority of his society had accepted the +new faith, Corrill asked himself: "What does this mean? Are Elder Rigdon +and these men such fools as to be duped by these impostors?" After +talking the matter over with a neighbor, he decided to visit Kirtland, +hoping to bring Rigdon home with him, with the idea that he might be +saved from the imposition if he could be taken from the influence of +the impostors. But before he reached Kirtland, Corrill heard of Rigdon's +baptism into the new church. Finding Kirtland in a state of great +religious excitement, he sought discussions with the leaders of the new +movement, but not always successfully. + +Corrill started home with a "heart full of serious reflections." Were +not the people of Berea nobler than the people of Thessalonica because +"they searched the Scriptures daily; whether these things were so?" +Might he not be fighting against God in his disbelief? He spent two or +three weeks reading the Mormon Bible; investigated the bad reports of +the new sect that reached him and found them without foundation; went +back to Kirtland, and there convinced himself that the laying on of +hands and "speaking with tongues" were inspired by some supernatural +agency; admitted to himself that, accepting the words of Peter (Acts ii. +17-20), it was "just as consistent to look for prophets in this age as +in any other." Smith seemed to have been a bad man, but was not Moses a +fugitive from justice, as the murderer of a man whose body he had hidden +in the sand, when God called him as a prophet? The story of the long +hiding and final delivery of the golden plates to Smith taxed his +credulity; but on rereading the Scriptures he found that books are +referred to therein which they do not contain--Book of Nathan the +Prophet, Book of Gad the Seer, Book of Shemaiah the Prophet, and Book +of Iddo the Seer (1 Chron. xxix. 29; 2 Chron. ix. 29 and xii. 15). This +convinced him that the Scriptures were not complete. Daniel and John +were commanded to seal the Book. David declared (Psalms xxxv.) "that +truth shall spring out of the earth," and from the earth Smith took +the plates; and Ezekiel (xxxvii. 15-21) foretold the existence of two +records, by means of which there shall be a gathering together of the +children of Israel. It finally seemed to Corrill that the Mormon Bible +corresponded with the record of Joseph referred to by Ezekiel, the Holy +Bible being the record of Judah. + +Not fully satisfied, he finally decided, however, to join the new +church, with a mental reservation that he would leave it if he ever +found it to be a deception. Explaining his reasons for leaving it when +he did, he says, "I can see nothing that convinces me that God has been +our leader; calculation after calculation has failed, and plan after +plan has been overthrown, and our prophet seemed not to know the event +till too late." + +The two other most prominent converts to the new church in Ohio were the +Rev. Ezra Booth, a Methodist preacher of more than ordinary culture, of +Mantua, and Symonds Ryder, a native of Vermont, whom Alexander Campbell +had converted to the Disciples' belief in 1828, and who occupied the +pulpit at Hiram when called on. Booth visited Smith in 1831, with some +members of his own congregation, and was so impressed by the miraculous +curing of the lame arm of a woman of his party by Smith, that he soon +gave in his allegiance. Ryder had always found one thing lacking in the +Disciples' theology--he looked for some actual "gift of the Holy Spirit" +in the way of "signs" that were to follow them that believed. He was +eventually induced to announce his conversion to the new church after +"he read in a newspaper, an account of the destruction of Pekin in +China, and remembered that, six weeks before, a young Mormon girl had +predicted the destruction of that city." This statement was made in +the sermon preached at his funeral. Both of these men confessed their +mistake four months later, after Booth had returned from a trip to +Missouri with Smith. + +Among the ignorant, even the most extravagant of the claims of the +Mormon leaders had influence. One man, when he heard an elder in the +midst of a sermon "speak with tongues," in a language he had never +heard before, "felt a sudden thrill from the back of his head down +his backbone," and was converted on the spot. John D. Lee, of Catholic +education, was convinced by an elder that the end of the world was near, +and sold his property in Illinois for what it would bring, and moved to +Far West, in order to be in the right place when the last day dawned. +Lorenzo Snow, the recent President of the church, says that he was +"thoroughly convinced that obedience to those [the Mormon] prophets +would impart miraculous powers, manifestations, and revelations," the +first manifestation of which occurred some weeks later, when he heard a +sound over his head "like the rustling of silken robes, and the spirit +of God descended upon me."* + + + * Biography of Snow, by his sister Eliza. + + +The arguments that control men's religious opinions are too varied even +for classification. In a case like Mormonism they range from the really +conscientious study of a Corrill to the whim of the Paumotuan, of whom +Stevenson heard in the South Seas, who turned Mormon when his wife died, +after being a pillar of the Catholic church for fifteen years, on the +ground that "that must be a poor religion that could not save a man his +wife." Any person who will examine those early defences of the Mormon +faith, Parley P. Pratt's "A Voice of Warning," and Orson Pratt's "Divine +Authenticity of the Book of Mormon," will find what use can be made of +an insistence on the literal acceptance of the Scriptures in defending +such a sect as theirs, especially with persons whose knowledge of the +Scriptures is much less than their reverence for them. + +Professor J. B. Turner,* writing in 1842, when the early teachings of +Mormonism had just had their effect in what is now styled the middle +West, observed that these teachings had made more infidels than Mormon +converts. This is accounted for by the fact that persons who attempted +to follow the Mormon argument by studying the Scriptures, found their +previous interpretation of parts of the Holy Bible overturned, and +the whole book placed under a cloud. W. J. Stillman mentions a similar +effect in the case of Ruskin. When they were in Switzerland, Ruskin +would do no painting on Sunday, while Stillman regarded the sanctity of +the first day of the week as a "theological fiction." In a discussion of +the subject between them, Stillman established to Ruskin's satisfaction +that there was no Scriptural authority for transferring the day of rest +from the seventh to the first day of the week. "The creed had so bound +him to the letter," says Stillman, "that the least enlargement of the +stricture broke it, and he rejected, not only the tradition of the +Sunday Sabbath, but the whole of the ecclesiastical interpretation +of the texts. He said, 'If they have deceived me in this, they have +probably deceived me in all.'" The Mormons soon learned that it was +more profitable for them to seek converts among those who would accept +without reasoning. + + + * "Mormonism in all Ages." + + + +CHAPTER II. -- WILD VAGARIES OF THE CONVERTS + +The scenes at Kirtland during the first winter of the church there +reached the limit of religious enthusiasm. The younger members outdid +the elder in manifesting their belief. They saw wonderful lights in the +air, and constantly received visions. Mounting stumps in the field, they +preached to imaginary congregations, and, picking up stones, they would +read on them words which they said disappeared as soon as known. At the +evening prayer-meetings the laying on of hands would be followed by a +sort of fit, in which the enthusiasts would fall apparently lifeless +on the floor, or contort their faces, creep on their hands or knees, +imitate the Indian process of killing and scalping, and chase balls of +fire through the fields.* + + + *Corrill's "Brief History of the Church," p. 16; Howe's +"Mormonism Unveiled," p. 104. + + +Some of the young men announced that they had received "commissions" to +teach and preach, written on parchment, which came to them from the sky, +and which they reached by jumping into the air. Howe reproduces one of +these, the conclusion of which, with the seal, follows:-- + +"That you had a messenger tell you to go and get the other night, you +must not show to any son of Adam. Obey this, and I will stand by you in +all cases. My servants, obey my commandments in all cases, and I will +provide. + +"Be ye always ready, Be ye always ready, Whenever I shall call, +Be ye always ready, My seal. + +[Illustration: + Seal + 175] + +"There shall be something of great importance revealed when I shall call +you to go: My servants, be faithful over a few things, and I will make +you a ruler over many. Amen, Amen, Amen." + +Foolishly extravagant as these manifestations appear (Corrill says that +comparatively few members indulged in them), there was nothing in them +peculiar to the Mormon belief. The meetings of the Disciples, in the +year of Smith's arrival in Ohio and later, when men like Campbell and +Scott spoke, were swayed with the most intense religious enthusiasm. A +description of the effect of Campbell's preaching at a grove meeting in +the Cuyahoga Valley in 1831 says:-- + +"The woods were full of horses and carriages, and the hundreds already +there were rapidly swelled to many thousands; all were of one race--the +Yankee; all of one calling, or nearly, the farmer.... When Campbell +closed, low murmurs broke and ran through the awed crowd; men and women +from all parts of the vast assembly with streaming eyes came forward; +young men who had climbed into small trees from curiosity, came down +from conviction, and went forward for baptism."* + + + * Riddle's "The Portrait." + +It is easy to cite very "orthodox" precedents for such manifestations. +One of these we find in the accounts of what were called "the jerks," +which accompanied a great revival in 1803, brought about by +the preaching of the Rev. Joseph Badger, a Yale graduate and a +Congregationalist, who was the first missionary to the Western Reserve. +J. S. C. Abbott, in his history of Ohio, describing the "jerks," says:-- + +"The subject was instantaneously seized with spasms in every muscle, +nerve and tendon. His head was thrown backward and forward, and from +side to side, with inconceivable rapidity. So swift was the motion that +the features could no more be discerned than the spokes of a wheel can +be seen when revolving with the greatest velocity.... All were impressed +with a conviction that there was something supernatural in these +convulsions, and that it was opposing the spirit of God to resist them." + +The most extravagant enthusiasm of the Kirtland converts, and the most +extravagant claims of the Mormon leaders at that time, were exceeded by +the manifestations of converts in the early days of Methodism, and +the miraculous occurrences testified to by Wesley himself,*--a cloud +tempering the sun in answer to his prayer; his horse cured of lameness +by faith; the case of a blind Catholic girl who saw plainly when her +eyes rested on the New Testament, but became blind again when she took +up the Mass Book. + + + * For examples see Lecky's "England in the Nineteenth Century," +Vol. III, Chap. VIII, and Wesley's "Journal." + + +These Mormon enthusiasts were only suffering from a manifestation to +which man is subject; and we can agree with a Mormon elder who, although +he left the church disgusted with its extravagances, afterward remarked, +"The man of religious feeling will know how to pity rather than upbraid +that zeal without knowledge which leads a man to fancy that he has found +the ladder of Jacob, and that he sees the angel of the Lord ascending +and descending before his eyes." + +When Smith and Rigdon reached Kirtland they found the new church in a +state of chaos because of these wild excitements, and of an attempt to +establish a community of possessions, growing out of Rigdon's previous +teachings. These communists held that what belonged to one belonged to +all, and that they could even use any one's clothes or other personal +property without asking permission. Many of the flock resented this, +and anything but a condition of brotherly love resulted. Smith, in his +account of the situation as they found it, says that the members were +striving to do the will of God, "though some had strange notions, and +false spirits had crept in among them. With a little caution and some +wisdom, I soon assisted the brothers and sisters to overcome them. +The plan of 'common stock,' which had existed in what was called 'the +family,' whose members generally had embraced the Everlasting Gospel, +was readily abandoned for the more perfect law of the Lord,"*--which the +prophet at once expounded. + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, Supt., p. 56. + + +Smith announced that the Lord had informed him that the ravings of the +converts were of the devil, and this had a deterring effect; but at an +important meeting of elders to receive an endowment, some three months +later, conducted by Smith himself, the spirits got hold of some of the +elders. "It threw one from his seat to the floor," says Corrill. "It +bound another so that for some time he could not use his limbs or +speak; and some other curious effects were experienced. But by a mighty +exertion, in the name of the Lord, it was exposed and shown to be of an +evil source." + + + +CHAPTER III. -- GROWTH OF THE CHURCH + +In order not to interrupt the story of the Mormons' experiences in Ohio, +leaving the first steps taken in Missouri to be treated in connection +with the regular course of events in that state, it will be sufficient +to say here that Cowdery, Pratt, and their two companions continued +their journey as far as the western border of Missouri, in the winter +of 1830 and 1831, making their headquarters at Independence, Jackson +County; that, on receipt of their reports about that country, Smith and +Rigdon, with others, made a trip there in June, 1831, during which the +corner-stones of the City of Zion and the Temple were laid, and officers +were appointed to receive money for the purchase of the land for the +Saints, its division; etc. Smith and Rigdon returned to Kirtland on +August 27, 1831. + +The growth of the church in Ohio was rapid. In two or three weeks after +the arrival of the four pioneer missionaries, 127 persons had been +baptized, and by the spring of 1831 the number of converts had increased +to 1000. Almost all the male converts were honored with the title of +elder. By a "revelation" dated February 9, 1831 (Sec. 42), all of these +elders, except Smith and Rigdon, were directed to "go forth in the power +of my spirit, preaching my Gospel, two by two, in my name, lifting up +your voices as with the voice of a trump." This was the beginning of +that extensive system of proselyting which was soon extended to Europe, +which was so instrumental in augmenting the membership of the church in +its earlier days, and which is still carried on with the utmost zeal +and persistence. The early missionaries travelled north into Canada and +through almost all the states, causing alarm even in New England by +the success of their work. One man there, in 1832, reprinted at his own +expense Alexander Campbell's pamphlet exposing the ridiculous features +of the Mormon Bible, for distribution as an offset to the arguments of +the elders. Women of means were among those who moved to Kirtland from +Massachusetts. In three years after Smith and Rigdon met in Palmyra, +Mormon congregations had been established in nearly all the Northern and +Middle states and in some of the Southern, with baptisms of from 30 to +130 in a place.* + +Smith had relaxed none of his determination to be the one head of +the church. As soon as he arrived in Kirtland he put forth a long +"revelation" (Sec. 43) which left Rigdon no doubt of the prophet's +intentions. It declared to the elders that "there is none other but +Smith appointed unto you to receive commandments and revelations until +he be taken," and that "none else shall be appointed unto his gift +except it be through him." Not only was Smith's spiritual power thus +intrenched, but his temporal welfare was looked after. "And again I +say unto you," continues this mouthpiece of the Lord, "if ye desire +the mysteries of the Kingdom, provide for him food and raiment and +whatsoever he needeth to accomplish the work wherewith I have commanded +him." In the same month came another declaration, saying (Sec. 41) "is +meet that my servant Joseph Smith, Jr., should have a house built, +in which to live and translate" (the Scriptures). With a streak of +generosity it was added, "It is meet that my servant Sidney Rigdon +should live as seemeth him good." + + + *Turner's "Mormonism in all Ages," p. 38. + + +The iron hand with which Smith repressed Rigdon from the date of their +arrival in Ohio affords strong proof of Rigdon's complicity in the +Bible plot, and of Smith's realization of the fact that he stood to his +accomplice in the relation of a burglar to his mate, where the burglar +has both the boodle and the secret in his possession. An illustration of +this occurred during their first trip to Missouri. Rigdon and Smith +did not agree about the desirability of western Missouri as a permanent +abiding-place for the church. The Rev. Ezra Booth, after leaving the +Mormons, contributed a series of letters on his experience with Smith +to the Ohio Star of Ravenna.* In the first of these he said: "On our +arrival in the western part of the state of Missouri we discovered that +prophecy and visions had failed, or rather had proved false. This fact +was so notorious that Mr. Rigdon himself says that 'Joseph's vision was +a bad thing.'" Smith nevertheless directed Rigdon to write a description +of that promised land, and, when the production did not suit him, he +represented the Lord as censuring Rigdon in a "revelation" (Sec. 63):-- + + + * Copied in Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled." + + +"And now behold, verily I say unto you, I, the Lord, am not pleased +with my servant Sidney Rigdon; he exalteth himself in his heart, and +receiveth not counsel, but grieveth the spirit. Wherefore his writing is +not acceptable unto the Lord; and he shall make another, and if the Lord +receiveth it not, behold he standeth no longer in the office which I +have appointed him." + +That the proud-minded, educated preacher, who refused to allow Campbell +to claim the foundership of the Disciples' church, should take such a +rebuke and threat of dismissal in silence from Joe Smith of Palmyra, and +continue under his leadership, certainly indicates some wonderful hold +that the prophet had upon him. + +While the travelling elders were doing successful work in adding new +converts to the fold, there was beginning to manifest itself at Kirtland +that "apostasy" which lost the church so many members of influence, and +was continued in Missouri so far that Mayor Grant said, in Salt Lake +City, in 1856, that "one-half at least of the Yankee members of this +church have apostatized."* The secession of men like Booth and Ryder, +and their public exposure of Smith's methods, coupled with rumors +of immoral practices in the fold, were followed by the tarring and +feathering of Smith and Rigdon on the night of Saturday, March 25, 1832. +The story of this outrage is told in Smith's autobiography, and the +details there given may be in the main accepted. + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. III, p. 201. + +Smith and his wife were living at the house of a farmer named Johnson +in Hiram township, while he and Rigdon were translating the Scriptures. +Mrs. Smith had taken two infant twins to bring up, and on the night in +question she and her husband were taking turns sitting up with these +babies, who were just recovering from the measles. While Smith was +sleeping, his wife heard a tapping on the window, but gave it no +attention. The mob, believing that all within were asleep, then burst +in the door, seized Smith as he lay partly dressed on a trundle bed, and +rushed him out of doors, his wife crying "murder." Smith struggled as +best he could, but they carried him around the house, choking him until +he became unconscious. Some thirty yards from the house he saw Rigdon, +"stretched out on the ground, whither they had dragged him by the +heels." When they had carried Smith some thirty yards farther, some of +the mob meantime asking, "Ain't ye going to kill him?" a council was +held and some one asked, "Simmons, where's the tarbucket?" When the +bucket was brought up they tried to force the "tarpaddle" into Smith's +mouth, and also, he says, to force a phial between his teeth. He adds: + +"All my clothes were torn off me except my shirt collar, and one man +fell on me and scratched my body with his nails like a mad cat. They +then left me, and I attempted to rise, but fell again. I pulled the tar +away from my lips, etc., so that I could breathe more freely, and after +a while I began to recover, and raised myself up, when I saw two lights. +I made my way toward one of them, and found it was father Johnson's. +When I had come to the door I was naked, and the tar made me look +as though I had been covered with blood; and when my wife saw me she +thought I was all smashed to pieces, and fainted. During the affray +abroad, the sisters of the neighborhood collected at my room. I called +for a blanket; they threw me one and shut the door; I wrapped it around +me and went in.... My friends spent the night in scraping and removing +the tar and washing and cleansing my body, so that by morning I was +ready to be clothed again.... With my flesh all scarified and defaced, +I preached [that morning] to the congregation as usual, and in the +afternoon of the same day baptized three individuals." + +Rigdon's treatment is described as still more severe. He was not only +dragged over the ground by the heels, but was well covered with tar +and feathers; and when Smith called on him the next day he found him +delirious, and calling for a razor with which to kill his wife. + +All Mormon accounts of this, as well as later persecutions, attempt to +make the ground of attack hostility to the Mormon religious beliefs, +presenting them entirely in the light of outrages on liberty of opinion. +Symonds Ryder (whom Smith accuses of being one of the mob), says that +the attack had this origin: The people of Hiram had the reputation of +being very receptive and liberal in their religious views. The Mormons +therefore preached to them, and seemed in a fair way to win a decided +success, when the leaders made their first trip to Missouri. Papers +which they left behind outlining the internal system of the new church +fell into the hands of some of the converts, and revealed to them the +horrid fact that a plot was laid to take their property from them and +place it under the control of Smith, the Prophet.... Some who had been +the dupes of this deception determined not to let it pass with impunity; +and, accordingly, a company was formed of citizens from Shalersville, +Garretsville, and Hiram, and took Smith and Rigdon from their beds and +tarred and feathered them.* + + + * Hayden's "Early History of the Disciples' Church in the Western +Reserve," p. 221. + + +This manifestation of hostility to the leaders of the new church was +only a more pronounced form of that which showed itself against Smith +before he left New York State. When a man of his character and previous +history assumes the right to baptize and administer the sacrament, he +is certain to arouse the animosity, not only of orthodox church members, +but of members of the community who are lax in their church duties. +Goldsmith illustrates this kind of feeling when, in "She Stoops to +Conquer," he makes one of the "several shabby fellows with punch and +tobacco" in the alehouse say, "I loves to hear him, the squire sing, +bekeays he never gives us nothing that's low," and another responds, "O, +damn anything that's low." The Anti-Mormon feeling was intensified +and broadened by the aggressiveness with which the Mormons sought for +converts in the orthodox flocks. + +Beliefs radically different from those accepted by any of the orthodox +denominations have escaped hostile opposition in this country, even when +they have outraged generally accepted social customs. The Harmonists, +in a body of 600, emigrated to Pennsylvania to escape the persecution to +which they were subjected in Germany, purchased 5000 acres of land and +organized a town; moved later to Indiana, where they purchased 25,000 +acres; and ten years afterward returned to Pennsylvania, and bought +5000 acres in another place,--all the time holding to their belief in a +community of goods and a speedy coming of Christ, as well as the duty of +practicing celibacy,--without exciting their neighbors or arousing +their enmity. The Wallingford Community in Connecticut, and the Oneida +Community in New York State, practised free love among themselves +without persecution, until their organizations died from natural causes. +The leaders in these and other independent sects were clean men within +their own rules, honest in their dealings with their neighbors, +never seeking political power, and never pressing their opinions upon +outsiders. An old resident of Wallingford writes to me, "The Community +were, in a way, very generally respected for their high standard of +integrity in all their business transactions." + +As we follow the career of the Mormons from Ohio to Missouri, and thence +to Illinois, we shall read their own testimony about the character of +their leading men, and about their view of the rights of others in each +of their neighborhoods. When Horace Greeley asked Brigham Young in Salt +Lake City for an explanation of the "persecutions" of the Mormons, his +reply was that there was "no other explanation than is afforded by the +crucifixion of Christ and the kindred treatment of God's ministers, +prophets, and saints in all ages"; which led Greeley to observe that, +while a new sect is always decried and traduced,--naming the Baptists, +Quakers, Methodists, and Universalists,--he could not remember "that +either of them was ever generally represented and regarded by the other +sects of their early days as thieves, robbers, and murderers."* + + + * "Overland Journey," p. 214. + + +Another attempt by Rigdon to assert his independence of Smith occurred +while the latter was still at Mr. Johnson's house and Rigdon was +in Kirtland. The fullest account of this is found in Mother Smith's +"History," pp. 204-206. She says that Rigdon came in late to a +prayer-meeting, much agitated, and, instead of taking the platform, +paced backward and forward on the floor. Joseph's father told him they +would like to hear a discourse from him, but he replied, "The keys of +the Kingdom are rent from the church, and there shall not be a prayer +put up in this house this day." This caused considerable excitement, and +Smith's brother Hyrum left the house, saying, "I'll put a stop to this +fuss pretty quick," and, mounting a horse, set out for Johnson's and +brought the prophet back with him. On his arrival, a meeting of the +brethren was held, and Joseph declared to them, "I myself hold the keys +of this Last Dispensation, and will forever hold them, both in time and +eternity, so set your hearts at rest upon that point. All is right." The +next day Rigdon was tried before a council for having "lied in the name +of the Lord," and was "delivered over to the buffetings of Satan," and +deprived of his license, Smith telling him that "the less priesthood he +had, the better it would be for him." Rigdon, Mrs. Smith says, according +to his own account, "was dragged out of bed by the devil three times in +one night by the heels," and, while she does not accept this literally, +she declares that "his contrition was as great as a man could well live +through." After awhile he got another license. + + + +CHAPTER IV. -- GIFTS OF TONGUES AND MIRACLES + +In January, 1833, Smith announced a revival of the "gift of tongues," +and instituted the ceremony of washing the feet.* Under the new system, +Smith or Rigdon, during a meeting, would call on some brother, or +sister, saying, "Father A., if you will rise in the name of Jesus Christ +you can speak in tongues." The rule which persons thus called on were +to follow was thus explained, "Arise upon your feet, speak or make some +sound, continue to make sounds of some kind, and the Lord will make +a language of it." It was not necessary that the words should be +understood by the congregation; some other Mormon would undertake their +interpretation. Much ridicule was incurred by the church because of +this kind of revelation. Gunnison relates that when a woman "speaking in +tongues" pronounced "meliar, meli, melee," it was at once translated by +a young wag, "my leg, my thigh, my knee," and, when he was called before +the Council charged with irreverence, he persisted in his translation, +but got off with an admonition.** At a meeting in Nauvoo in later years +a doubting convert delivered an address in real Choctaw, whereupon a +woman jumped up and offered as a translation an account of the glories +of the new Temple. + + + * This ceremony has fallen into disuse in Utah. + + + ** "The Mormons." p. 74. + + +At the conference of June 4, 1831, Smith ordained Elder Wright to the +high priesthood for service among the Indians, with the gift of tongues, +healing the sick, etc. Wright at once declared that he saw the Saviour. +At one of the sessions at Kirtland at this time, as described by an +eye-witness, Smith announced that the day would come when no man would +be permitted to preach unless he had seen the Lord face to face. Then, +addressing Rigdon, he asked, "Sidney, have you seen the Lord?" The +obedient Sidney made reply, "I saw the image of a man pass before my +face, whose locks were white, and whose countenance was exceedingly +fair, even surpassing all beauty that I ever beheld." Smith at once +rebuked him by telling him that he would have seen more but for his +unbelief. + +Almost simultaneously with Smith's first announcement of his prophetic +powers, while working his "peek-stone" in Pennsylvania and New York, he, +as we have seen, claimed ability to perform miracles, and he announced +that he had cast out a devil at Colesville in 1830.* The performance of +miracles became an essential part of the church work at Kirtland, and +had a great effect on the superstitious converts. The elders, who in +the early days labored in England, laid great stress on their miraculous +power, and there were some amusing exposures of their pretences. The +Millennial Star printed a long list of successful miracles dating +from 1839 to 1850, including the deaf made to hear, the blind to see, +dislocated bones put in place, leprosy and cholera cured, and fevers +rebuked. Smith, Rigdon, and Cowdery took a leading part in this work at +Kirtland.** To a man nearly dead with consumption Rigdon gave assurance +that he would recover "as sure as there is a God in heaven." The man's +death soon followed. When a child, whose parents had been persuaded +to trust its case to Mormon prayers instead of calling a physician,*** +died, Smith and Rigdon promised that it would rise from the dead, and +they went through certain ceremonies to accomplish that object.**** + + + * For particulars of this miracle, see Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, +pp. 28, 32. + + + ** While Smith was in Washington in 1840, pressing on the federal +authorities the claims of the Mormons for redress for their losses in +Missouri, he preached on the church doctrines. A member of Congress +who heard him sent a synopsis of the discourse to his wife, and Smith +printed this entire in his autobiography (Millennial Star, Vol. XVII, p. +583). Here is one passage: "He [Smith] performed no miracles. He did +not pretend to possess any such power." This is an illustration of +the facility with which Smith could lie, when to do so would serve his +purpose. + + + *** The Saints were early believers in faith cure. Smith, in a +sermon preached in 1841, urged them "to trust in God when sick, and live +by faith and not by medicine or poison" (Millennial Star, Vol. XVIII, +p. 663). A coroner's jury, in an inquest over a victim of this faith in +London, England, cautioned the sect against continuing this method of +curing (Times and Seasons, 1842, p. 813). + + + **** For further illustrations of miracle working, in Ohio, see +Kennedy's "Early Days of Mormonism," Chap. V. + + +The lengths to which Smith dared go in his pretensions are well +illustrated in an incident of these days. Among the curiosities of +a travelling showman who passed through Kirtland were some Egyptian +mummies. As the golden plates from which the Mormon Bible was translated +were written in "reformed Egyptian," the translator of those plates was +interested in all things coming from Egypt, and at his suggestion the +mummies were purchased by and for the church. On them were found some +papyri which Joseph, with the assistance of Phelps and Cowdery, set +about "translating." Their success was great, and Smith was able to +announce: "We found that one of these rolls contained the writings of +Abraham, another the writings of Joseph.* Truly we could see that the +Lord is beginning to reveal the abundance of truth." That there might +be no question about the accuracy of Smith's translation, he exhibited +a certificate signed by the proprietor of the show, saying that he had +exhibited the "hieroglyphic characters" to the most learned men in many +cities, "and from all the information that I could ever learn or meet +with, I find that of Joseph Smith, Jr., to correspond in the most minute +matters." * When the papyri were shown to Josiah Quincy and Charles +Francis Adams, on the occasion of their visit to Nauvoo in 1844, Joseph +Smith, pointing out the inscriptions, said: "That is the handwriting of +Abraham, the Father of the Faithful. This is the autograph of Moses, and +these lines were written by his brother Aaron. Here we have the earliest +account of the creation, from which Moses composed the first Book of +Genesis."--"Figures of the Past," p. 386. + +Smith's autobiography contains this memorandum: "October 1, 1835. This +afternoon I labored on the Egyptian alphabet in company with Brother +O. Cowdery and W. W. Phelps, and during the research the principals of +astronomy, as understood by Father Abraham and the Ancients, unfolded +to our understanding." When he was in the height of his power in +Nauvoo, Smith printed in the Times and Seasons a reproduction of these +hieroglyphics accompanied by this alleged translation, of what he called +"the Book of Abraham," and they were also printed in the Millennial +Star.* The translation was a meaningless jumble of words after this +fashion:-- + + + * See Vol. XIX, p. 100, etc., from which the accompanying +facsimile is taken. + +[Illustration: Egyptian Papyri + 188] + +"In the land of the Chaldeans, at the residence of my father, I, +Abraham, saw that it was needful for me to obtain another place of +residence, and finding there was greater happiness and peace and +rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the Fathers, and the right +whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same, having been +myself a follower of righteousness, desiring to be one also who +possessed great knowledge, and to possess greater knowledge, and to be a +greater follower of righteousness." + +Remy submitted a reproduction of these hieroglyphics to Theodule +Deveria, of the Museum of the Louvre, in Paris, who found, of course, +that Smith's purported translation was wholly fraudulent. For instance, +his Abraham fastened on an altar was a representation of Osiris coming +to life on his funeral couch, his officiating priest was the god Anubis, +and what Smith represents to indicate an angel of the Lord is "the soul +of Osiris, under the form of a hawk."* Smith's whole career offered no +more brazen illustration of his impostures than this. + + + * See "A Journey to Great Salt Lake City", by Jules Remy (1861), +Note XVII. + + +A visitor to the Kirtland Temple some years later paid Joseph's father +half a dollar in order to see the Egyptian curios, which were kept in +the attic of that structure. + +A well-authenticated anecdote, giving another illustration of Smith's +professed knowledge of the Egyptian language is told by the Rev. Henry +Caswall, M.A., who, after holding the Professorship of Divinity in +Kemper College, in Missouri, became vicar of a church in England. Mr. +Caswall, on the occasion of a visit to Nauvoo in 1842, having heard of +Smith's Egyptian lore, took with him an ancient Greek manuscript of the +Psalter, on parchment, with which to test the prophet's scholarship. The +belief of Smith's followers in his powers was shown by their eagerness +to have him see this manuscript, and their persistence in urging Mr. +Caswall to wait a day for Smith's return from Carthage that he might +submit it to the prophet. Mr. Caswall the next day handed the +manuscript to Smith and asked him to explain its contents. After a brief +examination, Smith explained: "It ain't Greek at all, except perhaps +a few words. What ain't Greek is Egyptian, and what ain't Egyptian +is Greek. This book is very valuable. It is a dictionary of Egyptian +hieroglyphics. These figures (pointing to the capitals) is Egyptian +hieroglyphics written in the reformed Egyptian. These characters are +like the letters that were engraved on the golden plates."* + + + * "The City of the Mormons," p. 36 (1842). + + + +CHAPTER V. -- SMITH'S OHIO BUSINESS ENTERPRISES + +When Rigdon returned to Ohio with Smith in January, 1831, it seems to +have been his intention to make Kirtland the permanent headquarters of +the new church. He had written to his people from Palmyra, "Be it known +to you, brethren, that you are dwelling on your eternal inheritance." +When Cowdery and his associates arrived in Ohio on their first trip, +they announced as the boundaries of the Promised Land the township +of Kirtland on the east and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Within two +months of his arrival at Kirtland Smith gave out a "revelation" (Sec. +45), in which the Lord commanded the elders to go forth into the western +countries and buildup churches, and they were told of a City of Refuge +for the church, to be called the New Jerusalem. No definite location of +this city was given, and the faithful were warned to "keep these things +from going abroad unto the world." Another "revelation" of the same +month (Sec. 48) announced that it was necessary for all to remain for +the present in their places of abode, and directed those who had lands +"to impart to the eastern brethren," and the others to buy lands, and +all to save money "to purchase lands for an inheritance, even the city." + +The reports of those who first went to Missouri induced Smith and +Rigdon, before they made their first trip to that state, to announce +that the Saints would pass one more winter in Ohio. But when they had +visited the Missouri frontier and realized its distance from even the +Ohio border line, and the actual privations to which settlers there must +submit, their zeal weakened, and they declared, "It will be many years +before we come here, for the Lord has a great work for us to do in +Ohio." The building of the Temple at Kirtland, and the investments +in lots and in business enterprises there showed that a permanent +settlement in Ohio was then decided on. + +Smith's first business enterprise for the church in Ohio was a general +store which he opened in Hiram. This establishment has been described as +"a poorly furnished country store where commerce looks starvation in the +face."* The difficulty of combining the positions of prophet, head of +the church, and retail merchant was naturally great. The result of the +combination has been graphically pictured by no less an authority than +Brigham Young. In a discourse in Salt Lake City, explaining why the +church did not maintain a store there, Young said:-- + + + * Salt Lake Herald, November 17, 1877. + + +"You that have lived in Nauvoo, in Missouri, in Kirtland, Ohio, can you +assign a reason why Joseph could not keep a store and be a merchant? Let +me just give you a few reasons; and there are men here who know just +how matters went in those days. Joseph goes to New York and buys $20,000 +worth of goods, comes into Kirtland and commences to trade. In comes +one of the brethren. Brother Joseph, let me have a frock pattern for my +wife: What if Joseph says, 'No, I cannot without money.' The consequence +would be, 'He is no Prophet,' says James. Pretty soon Thomas walks in. +'Brother Joseph, will you trust me for a pair of boots?' 'No, I cannot +let them go without money.' 'Well,' says Thomas, 'Brother Joseph is no +Prophet; I have found THAT out and I am glad of it.' After a while in +comes Bill and Sister Susan. Says Bill, 'Brother Joseph, I want a +shawl. I have not got any money, but I wish you to trust me a week or +a fortnight.' Well, Brother Joseph thinks the others have gone and +apostatized, and he don't know but these goods will make the whole +church do the same, so he lets Bill have a shawl. Bill walks of with +it and meets a brother. 'Well,' says he, 'what do you think of Brother +Joseph?' 'O, he is a first rate man, and I fully believe he is a +Prophet. He has trusted me with this shawl.' Richard says, 'I think +I will go down and see if he won't trust me some.' In walks Richard. +Brother Joseph, I want to trade about $20.' 'Well,'says Joseph, 'these +goods will make the people apostatize, so over they go; they are of less +value than the people.' Richard gets his goods. Another comes in the +same way to make a trade of $25, and so it goes. Joseph was a first rate +fellow with them all the time, provided he never would ask them to pay +him. And so you may trace it down through the history of this people."* + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1, p. 215. + + +If this analysis of the flock which Smith gathered in Ohio, and which +formed the nucleus of the settlements in Missouri, was not permanently +recorded in an official church record, its authenticity would be +vigorously assailed. + +Later enterprises at Kirtland, undertaken under the auspices of the +church, included a steam sawmill and a tannery, both of which were +losing concerns. But the speculation to which later Mormon authorities +attributed the principal financial disasters of the church at Kirtland +was the purchase of land and its sale as town lots.* The craze for land +speculation in those days was not confined, however, to the Mormons. +That was the period when the purchase of public lands of the United +States seemed likely to reach no limit. These sales, which amounted to +$2,300,000 in 1830, and to $4,800,000 in 1834, lumped to $14,757,600 in +1835, and to $24,877,179 in 1836. The government deposits (then made +in the state banks) increased from $10,000,000 on January 1, 1835, to +$41,500,000 on June 1, 1836, the increase coming from receipts from land +sales. This led to that bank expansion which was measured by the growth +of bank capital in this country from $61,000,000 to $200,000,000 between +1830 and 1834, with a further advance to $251,000,000. + + + * "Real estate rose from 100 to 800 per cent and in many cases +more. Men who were not thought worth $50 or $100 became purchasers +of thousands. Notes (sometimes cash), deeds and mortgages passed and +repassed, till all, or nearly all, supposed they had become wealthy, +or at least had acquired a competence."--Messenger and Advocate, June, +1837. + + +The Mormon leaders and their people were peculiarly liable to be led +into disaster when sharing in this speculators' fever. They were, +however, quick to take advantage of the spirit of the times. The Zion of +Missouri lost its attractiveness to them, and on February 23, 1833, the +Presidency decided to purchase land at Kirtland, and to establish there +on a permanent Stake of Zion. The land purchases of the church began at +once, and we find a record of one Council meeting, on March 23, 1833, +at which it was decided to buy three farms costing respectively $4000, +$2100, and $5000. Kirtland was laid out (on paper) with 32 streets, +cutting one another at right angles, each four rods wide. This provided +for 225 blocks of 20 lots each. Twenty-nine of the streets were named +after Mormons. Joseph and his family appear many times in the list of +conveyors of these lots. The original map of the city, as described +in Smith's autobiography, provided for 24 public buildings temples, +schools, etc.; no lot to contain more than one house, and that not to be +nearer than 25 feet from the street, with a prohibition against erecting +a stable on a house lot.* + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, pp. 438-439. + + +Of course this Mormon capital must have a grand church edifice, to meet +Smith's views, and he called a council to decide about the character +of the new meeting-house. A few of the speakers favored a modest frame +building, but a majority thought a log one better suited to their means. +Joseph rebuked the latter, asking, "Shall we, brethren, build a house +for our God of logs?" and he straightway led them to the corner of a +wheat field, where the trench for the foundation was at once begun.* +No greater exhibition of business folly could have been given than +the undertaking of the costly building then planned on so slender a +financial foundation. + + + * Mother Smith's "Biographical Sketches" p. 213. + + +The corner-stone was laid on July 23, 1833, and the Temple was not +dedicated until March 27, 1836. Mormon devotion certainly showed itself +while this work was going on. Every male member was expected to give +one-seventh of his time to the building without pay, and those who worked +on it at day's wages had, in most instances, no other income, and often +lived on nothing but corn meal. The women, as their share, knit and wove +garments for the workmen. + +The Temple, which is of stone covered with a cement stucco (it is still +in use), measures 60 by 80 feet on the ground, is 123 feet in height to +the top of the spire, and contains two stories and an attic. + +The cost of this Temple was $40,000, and, notwithstanding the sacrifices +made by the Saints in assisting its construction, and the schemes of +the church officers to secure funds, a debt of from $15,000 to $20,000 +remained upon it. That the church was financially embarrassed at +the very beginning of the work is shown by a letter addressed to the +brethren in Zion, Missouri, by Smith, Rigdon, and Williams, dated June +25, 1833, in which they said, "Say to Brother Gilbert that we have no +power to assist him in a pecuniary point, as we know not the hour when +we shall be sued for debts which we have contracted ourselves in New +York."* + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 450. + + +To understand the business crash and scandals which compelled Smith +and his associates to flee from Ohio, it is necessary to explain the +business system adopted by the church under them. This system began with +a rule about the consecration of property. As originally published +in the Evening and Morning Star, and in chapter xliv of the "Book +of Commandments," this rule declared, "Thou shalt consecrate all thy +properties, that which thou hast, unto me, with a covenant and a deed +which cannot be broken," with a provision that the Bishop, after he had +received such an irrevocable deed, should appoint every man a steward +over so much of his property as would be sufficient for himself and +family. In the later edition of the "Doctrine and Covenants" this +was changed to read, "And behold, thou wilt remember the poor, and +consecrate thy properties for their support," etc. + +By a "revelation" given out while the heads of the church were in +Jackson County, Missouri, in April, 1832 (Sec. 82), a sort of firm was +appointed, including Smith, Rigdon, Cowdery, Harris, and N. K. Whitney, +"to manage the affairs of the poor, and all things pertaining to the +bishopric," both in Ohio and Missouri. This firm thus assumed control of +the property which "revelation" had placed in the hands of the +Bishop. This arrangement was known as The Order of Enoch. Next came a +"revelation" dated April 23, 1834. (Sec. 104), by which the properties +of the Order were divided, Rigdon getting the place in which he was +living in Kirtland, and the tannery; Harris a lot, with a command +to "devote his monies for the proclaiming of my words"; Cowdery and +Williams, the printing-office, with some extra lots to Cowdery; and +Smith, the lot designed for the Temple, and "the inheritance on which +his father resides." The building of the Temple having brought the +Mormon leaders into debt, this "revelation," was designed to help them +out, and it contained these further directions, in the voice of +the Lord, be it remembered: "The covenants being broken through +transgression, by covetousness and feigned words, therefore you are +dissolved as a United Order with your brethren, that you are not bound +only up to this hour unto them, only on this wise, as I said, by loan +as shall be agreed by this Order in council, as your circumstances will +admit, and the voice of the council direct..... + +"And again verily I say unto you, concerning your debts, behold it is +my will that you should pay all your debts; and it is my will that you +should humble yourselves before me, and obtain this blessing by your +diligence and humility and the prayer of faith; and inasmuch as you are +diligent and humble, and exercise the prayer of faith, behold, I will +soften the hearts of those to whom you are in debt, until I shall send +means unto you for your deliverance.... I give you a promise that +you shall be delivered this once out of your bondage; inasmuch as you +obtained a chance to loan money by hundreds, or thousands even until you +shall loan enough [meaning borrow] to deliver yourselves from bondage, +it is your privilege; and pledge the properties which I have put into +your hands this once.... The master will not suffer his house to be +broken up. Even so. Amen." + +It does not appear that the Mormon leaders took advantage of this +authorization to borrow money on Kirtland real estate, if they could; +but in 1835 they set up several mercantile establishments, finding firms +in Cleveland, Buffalo, and farther east who would take their notes on +six months' time. "A great part of the goods of these houses," says +William Harris, "went to pay the workmen on the Temple, and many were +sold on credit, so that when the notes became due the houses were not +able to meet them." + +Smith's autobiography relates part of one story of an effort of his to +secure money at this trying time, the complete details of which have +been since supplied. He simply says that on July 25, 1836, in company +with his brother Hyrum, Sidney Rigdon, and Oliver Cowdery, he started +on a trip which brought them to Salem, Massachusetts, where "we hired a +house and occupied the same during the month, teaching the people from +house to house."* The Mormon of to-day, in reading his "Doctrine and +Covenants," finds Section 111 very perplexing. No place of its reception +is given, but it goes on to say:-- + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XV, p. 281. + + +"I, the Lord your God, am not displeased with your coming this journey, +notwithstanding your follies; I have much treasure in this city for you, +for the benefit of Zion;... and it shall come to pass in due time, that I +will give this city into your hands, that you shall have power over it, +insomuch that they shall not discover your secret parts; and its wealth +pertaining to gold and silver shall be yours. Concern not yourself +about your debts, for I will give you power to pay them.... And inquire +diligently concerning the more ancient inhabitants and founders of this +city; for there are more treasures than one for you in this city." + +"This city" was Salem, Massachusetts, and the "revelation" was put forth +to brace up the spirits of Smith's fellow-travellers. A Mormon named +Burgess had gone to Kirtland with a story about a large amount of money +that was buried in the cellar of a house in Salem which had belonged to +a widow, and the location of which he alone knew. Smith credited this +report, and looked to the treasure to assist him in his financial +difficulties, and he took the persons named with him on the trip. But +when they got there Burgess said that time had so changed the appearance +of the houses that he could not be sure which was the widow's, and he +cleared out. Smith then hired a house which he thought might be the +right one,--it proved not to be,--and it was when his associates +were--becoming discouraged that the ex-money-digger uttered the words +quoted, to strengthen their courage. "We speak of these things with +regret," says Ebenezer Robinson, who believed in the prophet's divine +calling to the last.* + + + * The Return, July, 1889. + + +Brought face to face with apparent financial disaster, the next step +taken to prevent this was the establishment of a bank. Smith told of a +"revelation" concerning a bank "which would swallow up all other banks." +An application for a charter was made to the Ohio legislature, but it +was refused. The law of Ohio at that time provided that "all notes and +bills, bonds and other securities [of an unchartered bank] shall be +held and taken in all courts as absolutely void." This, however, did not +deter a man of Smith's audacity, and soon came the announcement of the +organization of the "Kirtland Safety Society Bank," with an alleged +capital of $4,000,000. The articles of agreement had been drawn up on +November 2, 1836, and Oliver Cowdery had been sent to Philadelphia to +get the plates for the notes at the same time that Orson Hyde set out +to the state capital to secure a charter. Cowdery took no chances of +failure, and he came back not only with a plate, but with $200,000 in +printed bills. To avoid the inconvenience of having no charter, the +members of the Safety Society met on January 2, 1837, and reorganized +under the name of the "Kirtland Society Anti-banking Company," and, in +the hope of placing the bills within the law (or at least beyond +its reach), the word "Bank" was changed with a stamp so that it read +"Anti-BANK-ing Co.," as in the facsimile here presented. + +[Illustration: Bank-Note + 198] + +W. Harris thus describes the banking scheme:-- + +"Subscribers for stock were allowed to pay the amount of their +subscriptions in town lots at five or six times their real value; others +paid in personal property at a high valuation, and some were paid +in cash. When the notes were first issued they were current in the +vicinity, and Smith took advantage of their credit to pay off with them +the debts he and his brethren had contracted in the neighborhood for +land, etc. The Eastern creditors, however, refused to take them. This +led to the expedient of exchanging them for the notes of other banks. +Accordingly, the Elders were sent into the country to barter off +Kirtland money, which they did with great zeal, and continued the +operation until the notes were not worth twelve and a half cents to the +dollar."* + + + * "Mormonism Portrayed," p. 31 + + +Just how much of this currency was issued the records do not show. Hall +says that Brigham Young, who had joined the flock at Kirtland, disposed +of $10,000 worth of it in the States, and that Smith and other church +officers reaped a rich harvest with it in Canada, explaining, "The +credit of the bank here was good, even high."* Kidder quotes a gentleman +living near Kirtland who said that the cash capital paid in was only +about $5000, and that they succeeded in floating from $50,000 to +$100,000. Ann Eliza, Brigham's "wife No. 19," says that her father +invested everything he had but his house and shop in the bank, and lost +it all. + + + * "Abominations of Mormonism Exposed" (1852), pp. 19, 20. + + +Cyrus Smalling, one of the Seventy at Kirtland, wrote an account of +Kirtland banking operations under date of March 10, 1841, in which he +said that Smith and his associates collected about $6000 in specie, and +that when people in the neighborhood went to the bank to inquire about +its specie reserve, "Smith had some one or two hundred boxes made, and +gathered all the lead and shot the village had, or that part of it that +he controlled, and filled the boxes with lead, shot, etc., and marked +them $1000 each. Then, when they went to examine the vault, he had one +box on a table partly filled for them to see; and when they proceeded to +the vault, Smith told them that the church had $200,000 in specie; +and he opened one box and they saw that it was silver; and they were +seemingly satisfied, and went away for a few days until the elders were +packed off in every direction to pass their paper money."* + + + * "Mormons; or Knavery Exposed" (1841). + + +Smith believed in specie payments to his bank, whatever might be his +intentions as regards the redemption of his notes, for, in the Messenger +and Advocate (pp. 441-443), following the by-laws of the Anti-banking +Company, was printed a statement signed by him, saying:-- + +"We want the brethren from abroad to call on us and take stock in the +Safety Society, and we would remind them of the sayings of the Prophet +Isaiah contained in the 60th chapter, and more particularly in the 9th +and 17th verses which are as follows:-- + +"Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to +bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the +name of the Lord thy God. + +"For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, etc." + +The Messenger and Advocate (edited by W. A. Cowdery), of July, 1837, +contained a long article on the bank and its troubles, pointing out, +first, that the bank was opened without a charter, being "considered a +kind of joint stock association," and that "the private property of +the stockholders was holden in proportion to the amount of their +subscriptions for the redemption of the paper," and also that its notes +were absolutely void under the state law. The editor goes on to say:-- + +"Previously to the commencement of discounting by the bank, large debts +had been contracted for merchandise in New York and other cities, and +large contracts entered into for real estate in this and adjoining +towns; some of them had fallen due and must be met, or incur forfeitures +of large sums. These causes, we are bound to believe, operated to +induce the officers of the bank to let out larger sums than their better +judgments dictated, which almost invariably fell into or passed through +the hands of those who sought our ruin.... Hundreds who were enemies +either came or sent their agents and demanded specie, till the officers +thought best to refuse payment." + +This subtle explanation of the suspension of specie payments is followed +with a discussion of monopolies, etc., leading up to a statement of the +obligations of the Mormons in regard to the discredited bank-notes, most +of which were in circulation elsewhere. To the question; "Shall we unite +as one man, say it is good, and make it good by taking it on a par with +gold?" he replies, "No," explaining that, owing to the fewness of the +church members as compared with the world at large, "it must be confined +in its circulation and par value to the limits of our own society." +To the question, "Shall we then take it at its marked price for our +property," he again replies, "No," explaining that their enemies had +received the paper at a discount, and that, to receive it at par from +them, would "give them voluntarily and with one eye open just that +advantage over us to oppress, degrade and depress us." This combined +financial and spiritual adviser closes his article by urging the +brethren to set apart a portion of their time to the service of God, and +a portion to "the study of the science of our government and the news of +the day." + +A card which appeared in the Messenger and Advocate of August, 1837, +signed by Smith, warned "the brethren and friends of the church to +beware of speculators, renegades, and gamblers who are duping the unwary +and unsuspecting by palming upon them those bills, which are of no worth +here." + +The actual test of the bank's soundness had come when a request was made +for the redemption of the notes. The notes seem to have been accepted +freely in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where it was taken for granted that a +cashier and president who professed to be prophets of the Lord would not +give countenance to bank paper of doubtful value.* When stories about +the concern reached the Pittsburg banks, they sent an agent to Kirtland +with a package of the notes for redemption. Rigdon loudly asserted the +stability of the institution; but when a request for coin was repeated, +it was promptly refused by him on the ground that the bills were a +circulating medium "for the accommodation of the public," and that to +call any of them in would defeat their object.** + + + * "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 71. + + + ** "Early Days of Mormonism," p. 163. + + +Other creditors of the Mormons were now becoming active in their +demands. For failing to meet a note given to the bank at Painesville, +Smith, Rigdon, and N. K. Whitney were put under $8000 bonds. Smith, +Rigdon, and Cowdery were called into court as indorsers of paper for one +of the Mormon firms, and judgment was given against them. To satisfy a +firm of New York merchants the heads of the church gave a note for +$4500 secured by a mortgage on their interest in the new Temple and +its contents.* The Egyptian mummies were especially excepted from this +mortgage. Mother Smith describes how these relics were saved by "various +stratagems" under an execution of $50 issued against the prophet. + + + * Ibid., pp. 159-160. + + +The scheme of calling the bank corporation an "anti-banking" society did +not save the officers from prosecution under the state law. Informers +against violators of the banking law received in Ohio a share of the +fine imposed, and this led to the filing of an information against +Rigdon and Smith in March, 1837, by one S. D. Rounds, in the Caeuga +County Court, charging them with violating the law, and demanding a +penalty of $1000 They were at once arrested and held in bail, and were +convicted the following October. They appealed on the ground that the +institution was an association and not a bank; but this plea was never +ruled upon by the court, as the bank suspended payments and closed its +doors in November, 1837, and, before the appeal could be argued, Smith +and Rigdon had fled from the state to Missouri. + + + +CHAPTER VI. -- LAST DAYS AT KIRTLAND + +It is easy to understand that a church whose leaders had such views of +financial responsibility as Smith's and Rigdon's, and whose members were +ready to apostatize when they could not obtain credit at the prophet's +store, was anything but a harmonious body. Smith was not a man to +maintain his own dignity or to spare the feelings of his associates. +Wilford Woodruff, describing his first sight of the prophet, at +Kirtland, in 1834, said he found him with his brother Hyrum, wearing a +very old hat and engaged in the sport of shooting at a mark. Woodruff +accompanied him to his house, where Smith at once brought out a +wolfskin, and said, "Brother Woodruff, I want you to help me tan this," +and the two took off their coats and went to work at the skin.* Smith's +contempt for Rigdon was never concealed. Writing of the situation at +Kirtland in 1833, he spoke of Rigdon as possessing "a selfishness and +independence of mind which too often manifestly destroys the confidence +of those who would lay down their lives for him."** Smith was in the +habit of announcing, from his lofty pulpit in the Temple, "The truth is +good enough without dressing up, but brother Rigdon will now proceed to +dress it up."*** Some of the new converts backed out as soon as they got +a close view of the church. Elder G. A. Smith, a cousin of Joseph, in +a sermon in Salt Lake City, in 1855, mentioned some incidents of this +kind. One family, who had journeyed a long distance to join the church +in Kirtland, changed their minds because Joseph's wife invited them to +have a cup of tea "after the word of wisdom was given." Another family +withdrew after seeing Joseph begin playing with his children as soon +as he rested from the work of translating the Scriptures for the day. +A Canadian ex-Methodist prayed so long at family worship at Father +Johnson's that Joseph told him flatly "not to bray so much like a +jackass." The prayer thereupon returned to Canada. + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1, p. 101. + + + ** Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, pp. 584-585. + + + *** Lippincott's Magazine, August, 1880. + + +But the discontented were not confined to new-comers. Jealousy and +dissatisfaction were constantly manifesting themselves among Smith's old +standbys. Written charges made against Cowdery and David Whitmer, when +they were driven out of Far West, Missouri, told them: "You commenced +your wickedness by heading a party to disturb the worship of the Saints +in the first day of the week, and made the house of the Lord in Kirtland +to be a scene of abuse and slander, to destroy the reputation of those +whom the church had appointed to be their teachers, and for no other +cause only that you were not the persons." In more exact terms, their +offence was opposition to the course pursued by Smith. During the winter +and spring of 1837, these rebels included in their list F. G. Williams, +of the First Presidency, Martin Harris, D. Whitmer, Lyman E. Johnson, P. +P. Pratt, and W. E. McLellin. In May, 1837, a High Council was held in +Kirtland to try these men. Pratt at once objected to being tried by +a body of which Smith and Rigdon were members, as they had expressed +opinions against him. Rigdon confessed that he could not conscientiously +try the case, Cowdery did likewise, Williams very properly withdrew, and +"the Council dispersed in confusion."* It was never reassembled, but the +offenders were not forgotten, and their punishment came later. + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XVI, p. 10. + + +Mother Smith attributes much of the discord among the members at this +time to "a certain young woman," an inmate of David Whitmer's house, +who began prophesying with the assistance of a black stone. This seer +predicted Smith's fall from office because of his transgressions, and +that David Whitmer or Martin Harris would succeed him. Her proselytes +became so numerous that a written list of them showed that "a great +proportion of the church were decidedly in favor with the new party."* + + + * "Biographical Sketches," p. 221. + + +While Smith was thus fighting leading members of his own church, he +was called upon to defend himself against a serious charge in court. A +farmer near Kirtland, named Grandison Newell, received information from +a seceding Mormon that Smith had directed the latter and another Mormon +named Davis to kill Newell because he was a particularly open opponent +of the new sect. The affidavit of this man set forth that he and Davis +had twice gone to Newell's house to carry out Smith's order, and were +only prevented by the absence of the intended victim. Smith was placed +under $500 bonds on this charge, but on the formal hearing he was +discharged on the ground of insufficient evidence.* + + + * Fanny Brewer of Boston, in an affidavit published in 1842, +declared, "I am personally acquainted with one of the employees, Davis +by name, and he frankly acknowledged to me that he was prepared to do +the deed under the direction of the prophet, and was only prevented by +the entreaties of his wife." + + +A rebellious spirit had manifested itself among the brethren in Missouri +soon after Smith returned from his first visit to that state. W. W. +Phelps questioned the prophet's "monarchical power and authority," and +an unpleasant correspondence sprung up between them. As Smith did not +succeed by his own pen in silencing his accusers, a conference of twelve +high priests was called by him in Kirtland in January, 1833, which +appointed Orson Hyde and Smith's brother Hyrum to write to the Missouri +brethren. In this letter they were told plainly that, unless the +rebellious spirit ceased, the Lord would seek another Zion. To Phelps +the message was sent, "If you have fat beef and potatoes, eat them in +singleness of heart, and not boast yourself in these things." It was, +however, as a concession to this spirit of complaint, according to +Ferris, that Smith announced the "revelation" which placed the church in +the hands of a supreme governing body of three. + +Smith himself furnishes a very complete picture of the disrupted +condition of the Mormons in 1838, in an editorial in the Elders' +journal, dated August, of that year. The tone of the article, too, sheds +further light on Smith's character. Referring to the course of "a set +of creatures" whom the church had excluded from fellowship, he says they +"had recourse to the foulest lying to hide their iniquity;... and this +gang of horse thieves and drunkards were called upon immediately to +write their lives on paper." Smith then goes on to pay his respects to +various officers of the church, all of whom, it should be remembered, +held their positions through "revelation" and were therefore professedly +chosen directly by God. + +Of a statement by Warren Parish, one of the Seventy and an officer of +the bank, Smith says: "Granny Parish made such an awful fuss about +what was conceived in him that, night after night and day after day, +he poured forth his agony before all living, as they saw proper to +assemble. For a rational being to have looked at him and heard him groan +and grunt, and saw him sweat and struggle, would have supposed that his +womb was as much swollen as was Rebecca's when the angel told her +there were two nations there." He also accuses Parish of immorality and +stealing money. + +Here is a part of Smith's picture of Dr. W. A. Cowdery, a presiding high +priest: "This poor pitiful beggar came to Kirtland a few years since +with a large family, nearly naked and destitute. It was really painful +to see this pious Doctor's (for such he professed to be) rags flying +when he walked upon the streets. He was taken in by us in this pitiful +condition, and we put him into the printing-office and gave him enormous +wages, not because he could earn it, but merely out of pity.... A truly +niggardly spirit manifested itself in all his meanness." + +Smith's old friend Martin Harris, now a high priest, and Cyrus Smalling, +one of the Seventy, are lumped among Parish's "lackeys,", of whom Smith +says: "They are so far beneath contempt that a notice of them would be +too great a sacrifice for a gentleman to make." Of Leonard Rich, one +of the seven presidents of the seventy elders, Smith says that he "was +generally so drunk that he had to support himself by something to keep +from falling down." J. F. Boynton and Luke Johnson, two of the Twelve, +are called "a pair of young blacklegs," and Stephen Burnett, an elder, +is styled "a little ignorant blockhead, whose heart was so set on money +that he would at any time sell his soul for $50, and then think he had +made an excellent bargain." + +Smith's own personal character was freely attacked, and the subject +became so public that it received notice in the Elders' Journal. One +charge was improper conduct toward an orphan girl whom Mrs. Smith had +taken into her family. Smith's autobiography contains an account of +a council held in New Portage, Ohio, in 1834, at which Rigdon accused +Martin Harris of telling A. C. Russel that "Joseph drank too much liquor +when he was translating the Book of Mormon," and Harris set up as a +defence that "this thing occurred previous to the translating of the +Book."* + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XV, p. 12. + + +There was a good deal of talk concerning a confession "about a girl," +which Oliver Cowdery was reported to have said that Smith made to him. +Denials of this for Cowdery appeared in the Elders' Journal of July, +1838, one man's statement ending thus, "Joseph asked if he ever said to +him (Oliver) that he (Joseph) confessed to any one that he was guilty of +the above crime; and Oliver, after some hesitation, answered no." + +The Elders' Journal of August, 1838, contains a retraction by Parley P. +Pratt of a letter he had written, in which he censured both Smith +and Rigdon, "using great severity and harshness in regard to certain +business transactions." In that letter Pratt confessed that "the whole +scheme of speculation" in which the Mormon leaders were engaged was of +the "devil," and he begged Smith to make restitution for having sold +him, for $2000, three lots of land that did not cost Smith over $200. + +Not only was the moral character of Smith and other individual members +of the church successfully attacked at this time, but the charge was +openly made that polygamy was practised and sanctioned. In the "Book of +Doctrine and Covenants," published in Kirtland in 1835, Section 101 was +devoted to the marriage rite. It contained this declaration: "Inasmuch +as this Church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of +fornication and polygamy, we declare that we believe that one man should +have one wife, and one woman one husband, except in case of death, when +either is at liberty to marry again." The value of such a denial is seen +in the ease with which this section was blotted out by Smith's later +"revelation" establishing polygamy. + +An admission that even elders did practise polygamy at that time is +found in a minute of a meeting of the Presidents of the Seventies, held +on April 29, 1837, which made this declaration: "First, that we will +have no fellowship whatever with any elder belonging to the Quorum of +the Seventies, who is guilty of polygamy."* + + + * Messenger and Advocate, p. 511. + + +Again: The Elders' journal dated Far West, Missouri, 1838, contained +a list of answers by Smith to certain questions which, in an earlier +number, he had said were daily and hourly asked by all classes of +people. Among these was the following: "Q. Do the Mormons believe in +having more wives than one? A. No, not at the same time." (He condemns +the plan of marrying within a few weeks or months of the death of the +first wife.) The statement has been made that polygamy first suggested +itself to Smith in Ohio, while he was translating the so-called "Book of +Abraham" from the papyri found on the Egyptian mummies. This so-called +translation required some study of the Old Testament, and it is not at +all improbable that Smith's natural inclination toward such a doctrine +as polygamy secured a foundation in his reading of the Old Testament +license to have a plurality of wives. + +For the business troubles hanging over the community, Smith and Rigdon +were held especially accountable. The flock had seen the funds confided +by them to the Bishop invested partly in land that was divided among +some of the Mormon leaders. Smith and Rigdon were provided with a house +near the Temple, and a printing-office was established there, which was +under Smith's management. Naturally, when the stock and notes of the +bank became valueless, its local victims held its organizers responsible +for the disaster. Mother Smith gives us an illustration of the depth +of this feeling. One Sunday evening, while her husband was preaching at +Kirtland, when Joseph was in Cleveland "on business pertaining to the +bank," the elder Smith reflected sharply upon Warren Parish, on whom the +Smiths tried to place the responsibility for the bank failure. Parish, +who was present, leaped forward and tried to drag the old man out of +the pulpit. Smith, Sr., appealed to Oliver Cowdery for help, but Oliver +retained his seat. Then the prophet's brother William sprang to his +father's assistance, and carried Parish bodily out of the church. +Thereupon John Boynton, who was provided with a sword cane, drew his +weapon and threatened to run it through the younger Smith. "At this +juncture," says Mrs. Smith, "I left the house, not only terrified at the +scene, but likewise sick at heart to see the apostasy of which Joseph +had prophesied was so near at hand."* + + + * "Biographical Sketches," p. 221. + + +Eliza Snow gives a slightly different version of the same outbreak, +describing its wind-up as follows:-- + +"John Boynton and others drew their pistols and bowie knives and rushed +down from the stand into a congregation, Boynton saying he would blow +out the brains of the first man who dared lay hands on him.... Amid +screams and shrieks, the policemen in ejecting the belligerents knocked +down a stove pipe, which fell helter-skelter among the people; but, +although bowie knives and pistols were wrested from their owners and +thrown hither and thither to prevent disastrous results, no one was +hurt, and after a short but terrible scene to be enacted in a Temple +of God, order was restored and the services of the day proceeded as +usual."* + + + * "Biography of Lorenzo Snow," p. 20. + + +Smith made a stubborn defence of his business conduct. He attributed the +disaster to the bank to Parish's peculation, and the general troubles +of the church to "the spirit of speculation in lands and property of all +kinds," as he puts it in his autobiography, wherein he alleges that "the +evils were actually brought about by the brethren not giving heed to +my counsel." If Smith gave any such counsel, it is unfortunate for his +reputation that neither the church records nor his "revelations" contain +any mention of it. + +The final struggle came in December, 1837, when Smith and Rigdon made +their last public appearance in the Kirtland Temple. Smith was as +bold and aggressive as ever, but Rigdon, weak from illness, had to be +supported to his seat. An eye-witness of the day's proceedings says* +that "the pathos of Rigdon's plea, and the power of his denunciation, +swayed the feelings and shook the judgments of his hearers as never +in the old days of peace, and, when he had finished and was led out, a +perfect silence reigned in the Temple until its door had closed upon him +forever. Smith made a resolute and determined battle; false reports had +been circulated, and those by whom the offence had come must repent and +acknowledge their sin or be cut off from fellowship in this world, and +from honor and power in that to come." He not only maintained his right +to speak as the head of the church, but, after the accused had partly +presented their case, and one of them had given him the lie openly, he +proposed a vote on their excommunication at once and a hearing of their +further pleas at a later date. This extraordinary proposal led one of +the accused to cry out, "You would cut a man's head off and hear him +afterward." Finally it was voted to postpone the whole subject for a few +days. + + + * "Early Days of Mormonism," Kennedy, p. 169. + + +But the two leaders of the church did not attend this adjourned session. +Alarmed by rumors that Grandison Newell had secured a warrant for their +arrest on a charge of fraud in connection with the affairs of the bank +(unfounded rumors, as it later appeared), they fled from Kirtland on +horseback on the evening of January 12, 1838, and Smith never revisited +that town. In his description of their flight, Smith explained that they +merely followed the direction of Jesus, who said, "When they persecute +you in one city, flee ye to another." He describes the weather as +extremely cold, and says, "We were obliged to secrete ourselves +sometimes to elude the grasp of our pursuers, who continued their race +more than two hundred miles from Kirtland, armed with pistols, etc., +seeking our lives." There is no other authority for this story of an +armed pursuit, and the fact seems to be that the non-Mormon community +were perfectly satisfied with the removal of the mock prophet from their +neighborhood. + +Although Kirtland continued to remain a Stake of the church, the +real estate scheme of making it a big city vanished with the prophet. +Foreclosures of mortgages now began; the church printing-office was +first sold out by the sheriff and then destroyed by fire, and the +so-called reform element took possession of the Temple. Rigdon had +placed his property out of his own hands, one acre of land in Kirtland +being deeded by him and his wife to their daughter. + +The Temple with about two acres of land adjoining was deeded by the +prophet to William Marks in 1837, and in 1841 was redeeded to Smith as +trustee in trust for the church. In 1862 it was sold under an order of +the probate court by Joseph Smith's administrator, and conveyed the same +day to one Russel Huntley, who, in 1873, conveyed it to the prophet's +grandson, Joseph Smith, and another representative of the Reorganized +Church (nonpolygamist). The title of the latter organization was +sustained in 1880 by judge L. S. Sherman, of the Lake County Court of +Common Pleas, who held that, "The church in Utah has materially and +largely departed from the faith, doctrines, laws, ordinances and usages +of said original Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and +has incorporated into its system of faith the doctrines of celestial +marriage and a plurality of wives, and the doctrine of Adam-God worship, +contrary to the laws and constitution of said original church," and that +the Reorganized Church was the true and lawful successor to the original +organization. At the general conference of the Reorganized Church, +held at Lamoni, Iowa, in April, 1901, the Kirtland district reported a +membership of 423 members. + + + + +BOOK III. -- IN MISSOURI + + + +CHAPTER I. -- THE DIRECTIONS TO THE SAINTS ABOUT THEIR ZION + +The state of Missouri, to which the story of the Mormons is now +transferred, was, at the time of its admission to the Union, in 1821, +called "a promontory of civilization into an ocean of savagery." Wild +Indian tribes occupied the practically unexplored region beyond its +western boundary, and its own western counties were thinly settled. +Jackson County, which in 1900 had 195,193 inhabitants, had a population +of 2823 by the census of 1830, and neighboring counties not so many. +It was not until 1830 that the first cabin of a white man was built +in Daviess County. All this territory had been released from Indian +ownership by treaty only a few years when the first Mormons arrived +there. + +The white settler's house was a log hut, generally with a dirt floor, +a mudplastered chimney, and a window without glass, a board or quilt +serving to close it in time of storm or severe cold. A fireplace, with +a skillet and kettle, supplied the place of a well-equipped stove. Corn +was the principal grain food, and wild game supplied most of the meat. +The wild animals furnished clothing as well as food; for the pioneers +could not afford to pay from 15 to 25 cents a yard for calico, and from +25 to 75 cents for gingham.* Some persons indulged in homespun cloth for +Sunday and festal occasions, but the common outside garments were made +of dressed deerskins. Parley P. Pratt, in his autobiography, speaks of +passing through a settlement where "some families were entirely dressed +in skins, without any other clothing, including ladies young and old." + + + * "When the merchants sold a calico or gingham dress pattern they +threw in their profit by giving a spool of thread (two hundred yards), +hooks and eyes and lining. In the thread business, however, it was only +a few years after that thirty and fifty yard spools took the place of +the two hundred yards."--"History of Daviess County", p. 161. + + +The pioneer agriculturist of those days not only lacked the +transportation facilities and improved agricultural appliances which +have assisted the developers of the Northwest, but they did not even +understand the nature and capability of the soil. The newcomers in +western Missouri looked on the rich prairie land as worthless, and they +almost invariably directed their course to the timber, where the soil +was more easily broken up, and material for buildings was available. +The first attempts to plough the prairie sod were very primitive. David +Dailey made the first trial in Jackson County with what was called +a "barshear plough" (drawn by from four to eight yokes of oxen), the +"shear" of which was fastened to the beam. This cut the sod in one +direction pretty well, but when he began to cross-furrow, the sod piled +up in front of the plough and stopped his progress. Determined to see +what the soil would grow, he cut holes in the sod with an axe, and in +these dropped his seed. The first sod was broken in Daviess County in +1834, with a plough made to order, "to see what the prairies amounted +to in the way of raising a crop." Such was the country toward which the +first Mormon missionaries turned their faces. + +We have seen that the first intimation in the Mormon records of a +movement to the West was found in Smith's order to Oliver Cowdery in +1830 to go and establish the church among the Lamanites (Indians), and +that Rigdon expected that the church would remain in Ohio, when he wrote +to his flock from Palmyra. The four original missionaries--Cowdery, P. +P. Pratt, Peter Whitmer, and Peterson--did not stop long in Kirtland, +but, taking with them Frederick G. Williams, they pushed on westward to +Sandusky, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, preaching to some Indians on the +way, until they reached Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, early in +1831. That county forms a part of the western border of the state, +and from 1832, until the railroad took the place of wagon trains, +Independence was the eastern terminus of the famous Santa Fe trail, and +the point of departure for many companies destined both for Oregon and +California. Pratt, describing their journey west of St. Louis, says: "We +travelled on foot some three hundred miles, through vast prairies and +through trackless wilds of snow; no beaten road, houses few and far +between. We travelled for whole days, from morning till night, without a +house or fire. We carried on our backs our changes of clothing, several +books, and corn bread and raw pork."* + + + * "Autobiography of P. P. Pratt," p. 54. + + +The sole idea of these pioneers seemed to be to preach to the Indians. +Arriving at Independence, Whitmer and Peterson went to work to support +themselves as tailors, while Cowdery and Pratt crossed the border into +the Indian country. The latter, however, were at once pronounced by +the federal officers there to be violators of the law which forbade +the settlement of white men among the Indians, and they returned to +Independence, and preached thereabout during the winter. Early in +February the four decided that Pratt should return to Kirtland and make +a report, and he did so, travelling partly on foot, partly on horseback, +and partly by steamer. + +As early as March, 1830, Smith had conceived the idea (or some one else +for him) of a gathering of the elect "unto one place" to prepare for the +day of desolation (Sec. 29). In October, 1830, the four pioneers were +commanded to start "into the wilderness among the Lamanites," and on +January 2, 1831, while Rigdon was visiting Smith in New York State, +another "revelation" (Sec. 38) described the land of promise as "a land +flowing with milk and honey, upon which there shall be no curse when the +Lord cometh." This land they and their children were to possess, both +"while the earth shall stand, and again in eternity." A "revelation" +(Sec. 45), dated March 7, 1831, at Kirtland, called on the faithful to +assemble and visit the Western countries, where they were promised an +inheritance, to be called "the New Jerusalem, a land of peace, a city of +refuge, a place of safety for the saints of most High God." These things +they were to "keep from going abroad into the world" for the present. + +The manner in which the elect were told by "revelation" that they +should possess their land of promise has a most important bearing on the +justification of the opposition which the Missourians soon manifested +toward their new neighbors. In one of these "revelations," dated +Kirtland, February, 1831 (Sec. 42), Christ is represented as saying, "I +will consecrate the riches of the Gentiles unto my people which are of +the house of Israel." Another, in the following June (Sec. 52), which +directed Smith's and Rigdon's trip, promised the elect, "If ye are +faithful ye shall assemble yourselves together to rejoice upon the land +in Missouri, which is the land of your inheritance, WHICH IS NOW THE +LAND OF YOUR ENEMIES." Another, given while Smith was in Missouri, in +August, 1831 (Sec. 59), promised to those "who have come up into this +land with an eye single to My glory," that "they shall inherit the +earth," and "shall receive for their reward the good things of the +earth." On the same date the Saints were told that they should "open +their hearts even to purchase the whole region of country as soon as +time will permit,... lest they receive none inheritance save it be by the +shedding of blood." It seems to have been thought wise to add to +this last statement, after the return of the party to Ohio, and a +"revelation" dated August, 1831 (Sec. 63), was given out, stating that +the land of Zion could be obtained only "by purchase or by blood," and +"as you are forbidden to shed blood, lo, your enemies are upon you, and +ye shall be scourged from city to city." + + + * Tullidge, in his "History of Salt Lake City" (1886), defining +the early Mormon view of their land rights, after quoting Brigham +Young's declaration to the first arrivals in Salt Lake Valley, that he +(or the church) had "no land to sell," but "every man should have his +land measured out to him for city and family purposes," says: "Young +could with absolute propriety give the above utterances on the land +question. In the early days of the church they applied to land not only +owned by the United States, but within the boundaries of states of the +Union." After quoting from the above-cited "revelation" the words "save +they be by the shedding of blood," he explains, "The latter clause of +the quotation signifies that the Mormon prophet foresaw that, unless his +disciples purchased 'this whole region of country' of the unpopulated +Far West of that period, the land question held between them and +anti-Mormons would lead to the shedding of blood, and that they would be +in jeopardy of losing their inheritance; and this was realized." + +As to their obligation to pay for any of the "good things" purchased of +their enemies, a "revelation" dated September 11, 1831 (the month after +the return from Missouri), gave this advice:-- + +"Behold it is said in my laws, or forbidden, to get in debt to thine +enemies; + +"But behold it is not said at any time, that the Lord should not take +when he pleased, and pay as seemeth him good. + +"Wherefore as ye are agents, and ye are on the Lord's errand; and +whatever ye do according to the will of the Lord, it is the Lord's +business, and it is the Lord's business to provide for his Saints in +these last days, that they may obtain an inheritance in the land of +Zion."--"Book of Commandments," Chap. 65. + +In the modern version of this "revelation" to be found in Sec. 64 of the +"Doctrine and Covenants," the latter part of this declaration is changed +to read, "And he hath set you to provide for his saints in these last +days," etc. + +So eager were the Saints to occupy their land of Zion, when the movement +started, that the word of "revelation" was employed to give warning +against a hasty rush to the new possessions, and to establish a certain +supervision of the emigration by the Bishop and other agents of the +church. Notwithstanding this, the rush soon became embarrassing to +the church authorities in Missouri, and a modified view of the Lord's +promise was thus stated in the Evening and Morning Star of July, 1832, +"Although the Lord has said that it is his business to provide for the +Saints in these last days, he is not BOUND to do so unless we observe +his sayings and keep them." Saints in the East were warned against +giving away their property before moving, and urged not to come to +Missouri without some means, and to bring with them cattle and improved +breeds of sheep and hogs, with necessary seeds. + + + +CHAPTER II. -- SMITH'S FIRST VISITS TO MISSOURI--FOUNDING THE CITY AND THE TEMPLE + +On June 7, 1831, a "revelation" was given out (Sec. 52) announcing that +the next conference would be held in the promised land in Missouri, and +directing Smith and Rigdon to go thither, and naming some thirty elders, +including John Corrill, David Whitmer, P. P. and Orson Pratt, Martin +Harris, and Edward Partridge, who should also make the trip, two by two, +preaching by the way. Booth says: "Only about two weeks were allowed +them to make preparations for the journey, and most of them left what +business they had to be closed by others. Some left large families, with +the crops upon the ground."* + + + * Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled." + + +Smith's party left Kirtland on June 19, and arrived at Independence +in the following month, journeying on foot after reaching St. Louis, a +distance of about three hundred miles. Smith was delighted with the +new country, with "its beautiful rolling prairies, spread out like real +meadows; the varied timber of the bottoms; the plums and grapes and +persimmons and the flowers; the rich soil, the horses, cattle, and hogs, +and the wild game.... The season is mild and delightful nearly three +quarters of the year, and as the land of Zion is situated at about equal +distances from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, as well as from the +Alleghany and Rocky Mountains, it bids fair to become one of the most +blessed places on the earth."* The town of Independence then consisted +of a brick courthouse, two or three stores, and fifteen or twenty +houses, mostly of logs. + + + * Smith's "Autobiography," Millennial Star, Vol. XIV. + + +The usual "revelation" came first (Sec. 57), announcing that "this +is the land of promise and the place for the City of Zion," with +Independence as its centre, and the site of the Temple a lot near the +courthouse. It was also declared that the land should be purchased by +the Saints, "and also every tract lying westward, even unto the line +running directly between Jew and Gentile" (whatever that might mean), +"and also every tract bordering by the prairies." Sidney Gilbert was +ordered to "plant himself" there, and establish a store, "that he might +sell goods without fraud," to obtain money for the purchase of land. +Edward Partridge was "to divide the Saints their inheritance," and W. W. +Phelps* and Cowdery were to be printers to the church. + + + * Phelps came from Canandaigua, New York, where, Howe says, he +was an avowed infidel. He had been prominent in politics and had edited +a party newspaper. Disappointed in his political ambition, he threw in +his lot with the new church. + + +Marvellous stories were at once circulated of the grandeur that was to +characterize the new city, of the wealth that would be gathered there by +the faithful who would survive the speedy destruction of the wicked, and +of the coming of the lost tribes of Israel, who had been located near +the north pole, where they had become very rich. While not tracing these +declarations to Smith himself, Booth, who was one of the party, says +that they were told by persons in daily intercourse with him. It is +doing the prophet no injustice to say that they bear his imprint. + +The laying of the foundation of the City of Zion was next in order. +Rigdon delivered an address in consecrating the ground, in which he +enjoined them to obey all of Smith's commands. A small scrub oak +tree was then cut down and trimmed, and twelve men, representing the +Apostles, conveyed it to a designated place. Cowdery sought out the +best stone he could find for a corner-stone, removed a little earth, and +placed the stone in the excavation, delivering an address. One end of +the oak tree was laid on this stone, "and there," says Booth, "was laid +down the first stone and stick which are to form an essential part of +the splendid City of Zion." + +The next day the site of the Temple was consecrated, Smith laying the +cornerstone. When the ceremonies were over, the spot was merely marked +by a sapling, from two sides of which the bark was stripped, one side +being marked with a "T" for Temple, and the other with "ZOM," which +Smith stated stood for "Zomas," the original of Zion. At the foot of +this sapling lay the corner-stone--"a small stone, covered over with +bushes." + +Such ceremonies might have been viewed with indulgence if conducted in +some suburb of Kirtland. But when men had travelled hundreds of miles at +Smith's command, suffering personal privations as well as submitting to +pecuniary sacrifices, it was a severe test of their faith to have two +small trees and t wo round stones in the wilderness offered to them +as the only tangible indications of a land of plenty. Rigdon expressed +dissatisfaction with the outcome, as we have seen; Booth left the church +as soon as he got back to Ohio; members of the party called Cowdery +and Smith imperious, and the prophet and Rigdon incurred the charge of +"excessive cowardice" on the way. + +Smith made a second trip to Independence, leaving Ohio on April 2, +1832, and arriving there on his return the following June. His stay +in Missouri this time was marked by nothing more important than his +acknowledgment as President of the high priesthood by a council of the +church there, and a "revelation" which declared that Zion's "borders +must be enlarged, her Stakes must be strengthened." + + + +CHAPTER III. -- THE EXPULSION FROM JACKSON COUNTY--THE ARMY OF ZION + +The efforts of the church leaders to check too precipitate an emigration +to the new Zion were not entirely successful, and, according to the +Evening and Morning Star of July, 1833, the Mormons with their families +then numbered more than twelve hundred, or about one-third of the total +population of the county. The elders had been pushing their proselyting +work throughout the States and in Canada, and the idea of a land of +plenty appealed powerfully to the new believers, and especially to those +of little means. The branch of the church established at Colesville, +New York, numbering about sixty members, emigrated in a body and settled +twelve miles from Independence. Other settlements were made in the rural +districts, and the non-Mormons began to be seriously exercised over the +situation. The Saints boasted openly of their future possession of the +land, without making clear their idea of the means by which they would +obtain title to it. An open defiance in the name of the church appeared +in an article in the Evening and Morning Star for July, 1833, which +contained this declaration:-- + +"No matter what our ideas or notions may be on the subject; no matter +what foolish report the wicked may circulate to gratify an evil +disposition; the Lord will continue to gather the righteous and destroy +the wicked, till the sound goes forth, IT IS FINISHED." + +With even greater fatuity came the determination to publish the +prophet's "revelations" in the form of the "Book of Commandments." Of +the effect of this publication David Whitmer says, "The main reason why +the printing press [at Independence] was destroyed, was because they +published the 'Book of Commandments.' It fell into the hands of the +world, and the people of Jackson County saw from the revelations that +they were considered intruders upon the Land of Zion, as enemies of the +church, and that they should be cut off out of the Land of Zion and sent +away."* + + + * "Address to All Believers in Christ," p. 54. + + +Corrill says of the causes of friction between the Mormons and their +neighbors:--* + + + * Corrill's" Brief History of the Church," p. 19. + + +"The church got crazy to go up to Zion, as it was then called. The +rich were afraid to send up their money to purchase lands, and the poor +crowded up in numbers, without having any places provided, contrary to +the advice of the Bishop and others, until the old citizens began to +be highly displeased. They saw their country filling up with emigrants, +principally poor. They disliked their religion, and saw also that, if +let alone, they would in a short time become a majority, and of course +rule the county. The church kept increasing, and the old citizens became +more and more dissatisfied, and from time to time offered to sell their +farms and possessions, but the Mormons, though desirous, were too poor +to purchase them."* + + + * After the survey of Jackson County, Congress granted to the +state of Missouri a large tract of land, the sale of which should be +made for educational purposes, and the Mormons took title to several +thousand acres of this, west of Independence. + + +The active manifestation of hostility toward the new-comers by the +residents of Jackson County first took shape in the spring of 1832, in +the stoning of Mormon houses at night and the breaking of windows. Soon +afterward a county meeting was called to take measures to secure the +removal of the Mormons from that county, but nothing definite was done. +The burning of haystacks, shooting into houses, etc., continued until +July, 1833, when the Mormon opponents circulated a statement of their +complaints, closing with a call for a meeting in the courthouse at +Independence, on Saturday, July 20. The text of this manifesto, which +is important as showing the spirit as well as the precise grounds of the +opposition, is as follows:-- + +"We, the undersigned, citizens of Jackson County, believing that +an important crisis is at hand, as regards our civil society, in +consequence of a pretended religious sect of people that have settled, +and are still settling, in our county, styling themselves Mormons, and +intending, as we do, to rid our society, peaceably if we can, forcibly +if we must; and believing as we do, that the arm of the civil law does +not afford us a guarantee, or at least, a sufficient one, against the +evils which are now inflicted upon us, and seem to be increasing, by the +said religious sect, we deem it expedient and of the highest +importance to form ourselves into a company for the better and easier +accomplishment of our purpose--a purpose, which we deem it almost +superfluous to say, is justified as well by the law of nature, as by the +law of self preservation. + +"It is more than two years since the first of these fanatics, or knaves, +(for one or the other they undoubtedly are,) made their first appearance +amongst us, and, pretending as they did, and now do, to hold personal +communication and converse face to face with the Most High God; to +receive communications and revelations direct from heaven; to heal +the sick by laying on hands; and, in short, to perform all the +wonder-working miracles wrought by the inspired Apostles and Prophets of +old. + +"We believed them deluded fanatics, or weak and designing knaves, and +that they and their pretensions would soon pass away; but in this we +were deceived. The arts of a few designing leaders amongst them have +thus far succeeded in holding them together as a society; and, since +the arrival of the first of them, they have been daily increasing in +numbers; and if they had been respectable citizens in society, and +thus deluded, they would have been entitled to our pity rather than our +contempt and hatred; but from their appearance, from their manners, and +from their conduct since their coming among us, we have every reason to +fear that, with but few exceptions, they were of the very dregs of that +society from which they came, lazy, idle, and vicious. This we conceive +is not idle assertion, but a fact susceptible of proof, for with these +few exceptions above named, they brought into our county little or no +property with them, and left less behind them, and we infer that those +only yoked themselves to the Mormon car who had nothing earthly or +heavenly to lose by the change; and we fear that if some of the leaders +amongst them had paid the forfeit due to crime, instead of being chosen +ambassadors of the Most High, they would have been inmates of solitary +cells. + +"But their conduct here stamps their characters in their true colors. +More than a year since, it was ascertained that they had been tampering +with our slaves, and endeavoring to rouse dissension and raise seditions +amongst them. Of this their Mormon leaders were informed, and they said +they would deal with any of their members who should again in like case +offend. But how specious are appearances. In a late number of the +Star, published in Independence by the leaders of the sect, there is an +article inviting free negroes and mulattoes from other states to become +Mormons, and remove and settle among us. This exhibits them in still +more odious colors. It manifests a desire on the part of their society +to inflict on our society an injury, that they knew would be to us +entirely insupportable, and one of the surest means of driving us from +the county; for it would require none of the supernatural gifts that +they pretend to, to see that the introduction of such a caste amongst us +would corrupt our blacks, and instigate them to bloodshed. + +"They openly blaspheme the Most High God, and cast contempt on His holy +religion, by pretending to receive revelations direct from heaven, +by pretending to speak unknown tongues by direct inspirations, and +by divers pretences derogatory of God and religion, and to the utter +subversion of human reason. + +"They declare openly that their God hath given them this county of land, +and that sooner or later they must and will have the possession of our +lands for an inheritance; and, in fine, they have conducted themselves +on many other occasions in such a manner that we believe it a duty +we owe to ourselves, our wives, and children, to the cause of public +morals, to remove them from among us, as we are not prepared to give up +our pleasant places and goodly possessions to them, or to receive +into the bosom of our families, as fit companions for our wives and +daughters, the degraded and corrupted free negroes and mulattoes that +are now invited to settle among us. + +"Under such a state of things, even our beautiful county would cease to +be a desirable residence, and our situation intolerable! We, therefore, +agree that, if after timely warning, and receiving an adequate +compensation for what little property they cannot take with them, they +refuse to leave us in peace, as they found us--we agree to use such +means as may be sufficient to remove them, and to that end we each +pledge to each other our bodily powers, our lives, fortunes, and sacred +honors. + +"We will meet at the court-house, at the Town of Independence, on +Saturday next, the 20th inst., to consult ulterior movements."* + + + * Evening and Morning Star, p. 227; Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. +516. + + +Some hundreds of names were signed to this call, and the meeting of July +20 was attended by nearly five hundred persons. There is no doubt that +it was a representative county gathering. P. P. Pratt says that the +anti-Mormon organization, which he calls "outlaws," was "composed of +lawyers, magistrates, county officers, civil and military, religious +ministers, and a great number of the ignorant and uninformed portion of +the population."* The language of the address adopted shows that skilled +pens were not wanting in its preparation. + + + * Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 103. + + +The first business of the meeting was the appointment of a committee to +prepare an address stating the grievances of the people with somewhat +greater fulness than the manifesto above quoted. Like the latter, it +conceded at the start that there was no law under which the object in +view could be obtained. It characterized the Mormons as but little above +the negroes as regards property or education; charged them with having +exerted a "corrupting influence" on the slaves;* asserted that even the +more intelligent boasted daily to the Gentiles that the Mormons would +appropriate their lands for an inheritance, and that their newspaper +organ taught them that the lands were to be taken by the sword. Noting +the rapid increase in the immigration of members of the new church, the +address, looking to a near day when they would be in a majority in the +county, asked: "What would be the state of our lives and property in the +hands of jurors and witnesses who do not blush to declare, and would not +upon occasion hesitate to swear, that they have wrought miracles, +and have been the subjects of miraculous and supernatural cures, have +conversed with God and his angels, and possess and exercise the gifts +of divination and of unknown tongues, and are fired with the prospect +of obtaining inheritances without money and without price, may be better +imagined than described." That this apprehension was not without grounds +will be seen when we come to the administration of justice in Nauvoo and +in Salt Lake City. + + + * The Mormons never hesitated to change their position on the +slavery question. An elder's address, published in the Evening and +Morning Star of July, 1833, said: "As to slaves, we have nothing to +say. In connection with the wonderful events of this age, much is doing +toward abolishing slavery and colonizing the blacks in Africa." Three +years later, in April, 1836 the Messenger and Advocate published a +strong proslavery article, denying the right of the people of the North +to interfere with the institution, and picturing the happy condition of +the slaves. Orson Hyde, in the Frontier Guardian in 1850 (quoted in the +Millennial Star, Vol. XIII, p. 63), said: "When a man in the Southern +states embraces our faith and is the owner of slaves, the church says +to him, 'If your slaves wish to remain with you, and to go with you, put +them not away; but if they choose to leave you, and are not satisfied to +remain with you, it is for you to sell them or to let them go free, as +your own conscience may direct you. The church on this point assumes not +the responsibility to direct.'" Horace Greeley quoted Brigham Young +as saying to him in Salt Lake City, "We consider slavery of divine +institution and not to be abolished until the curse pronounced on Ham +shall have been removed from his descendants" ("Overland journey," p. +211). + +The address closed with these demands:-- + +"That no Mormon shall in future move and settle in this county. + +"That those now here, who shall give a definite pledge of their +intention within a reasonable time to remove out of the county, shall +be allowed to remain unmolested until they have sufficient time to sell +their property and close their business without any material sacrifice. + +"That the editor of the Star (W. W. Phelps) be required forthwith +to close his office and discontinue the business of printing in this +county; and, as to all other stores and shops belonging to the sect, +their owners must in every case strictly comply with the terms of +the second article of this declaration; and, upon failure, prompt and +efficient measures will be taken to close the same. + +"That the Mormon leaders here are required to use their influence in +preventing any further emigration of their distant brethren to this +county, and to counsel and advise their brethren here to comply with the +above regulations. + +"That those who fail to comply with the requisitions be referred to +those of their brethren who have the gifts of divination and of unknown +tongues, to inform them of the lot that awaits them"* + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, pp. 487-489. + + +A recess of two hours was taken in which to permit a committee of twelve +to call on Bishop Partridge, Phelps, and Gilbert, and present these +terms. This committee reported that these men "declined giving +any direct answer to the requisitions made of them, and wished an +unreasonable time for consultation, not only with their brethren here, +but in Ohio." The meeting thereupon voted unanimously that the Star +printing-office should be razed to the ground, and the type and press be +"secured." + +A report of the action of this meeting and its result was prepared by +the chairman and two secretaries, and printed over their signatures in +the Western Monitor of Fayette, Missouri, on August 2, 1833, and it is +transferred to Smith's autobiography. It agrees with the Mormon +account set forth in their later petition to Governor Dunklin. It +particularized, however, that the Mormon leaders asked the committee +first for three months, and then for ten days, in which to consider the +demands, and were told that they could have only fifteen minutes. + +What happened next is thus set forth in the chairman's report:-- + +"Which resolution (for the razing of the Star office) was with the +utmost order and the least noise and disturbance possible, forthwith +carried into execution, AS ALSO SOME OTHER STEPS OF A SIMILAR TENDENCY; +but no blood was spilled nor any blows inflicted." + +Mobs do not generally act with the "utmost order," and this one was not +an exception to the rule, as an explanation of the "other steps" will +make clear. The first object of attack was the printing office, a +two-story brick building. This was demolished, causing a loss of $6000, +according to the Mormon claims. The mob next visited the store kept by +Gilbert, but refrained from attacking it on receiving a pledge that the +goods would be packed for removal by the following Tuesday. They then +called at the houses of some of the leading Mormons, and conducted +Bishop Partridge and a man named Allen to the public square. Partridge +told his captors that the saints had been subjected to persecution in +all ages; that he was willing to suffer for Christ's sake, but that he +would not consent to leave the country. Allen refused either to agree +to depart or to deny the inspiration of the Mormon Bible. Both men were +then relieved of their hats, coats, and vests, daubed with tar, and +decorated with feathers. This ended the proceedings of that day, and an +adjournment as announced until the following Tuesday. + +On Tuesday, July 23 (the date of the laying of the corner-stone of the +Kirtland Temple), the Missourians gathered again in the town, carrying +a red flag and bearing arms. The Mormon statement to Governor Dunklin +says, "They proceeded to take some of the leading elders by force, +declaring it to be their intention to whip them from fifty to five +hundred lashes apiece, to demolish their dwelling houses, and let their +negroes loose to go through our plantations and lay open our fields for +the destruction of our crops."* The official report of the officers +of the meeting** says that, when the chairman had taken his seat, a +committee was appointed to wait on the Mormons at the request of the +latter. + + + * Greene, in his "Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons +from the State of Missouri" (1839), says that the mob seized a number of +Mormons and, at the muzzle of their guns, compelled them to confess that +the Mormon Bible was a fraud. + + + ** Millennial Star Vol. XIV, p. 500. + + +As a result of a conference with this committee, a written agreement was +entered into, signed by the committee and the Mormons named in it, to +this effect: That Oliver Cowdery, W. W. Phelps, W. E. McLellin, Edward +Partridge, John Wright, Simeon Carter, Peter and John Whitmer, and +Harvey Whitlock, with their families, should move from the county by +January 1 next, and use their influence to induce their fellow-Mormons +in the county to do likewise--one half by January 1 and all by April +1--and to prevent further immigration of the brethren; John Corrill +and A. S. Gilbert to remain as agents to wind up the business of the +society, Gilbert to be allowed to sell out his goods on hand; no Mormon +paper to be published in the county; Partridge and Phelps to be allowed +to go and come after January 1, in winding up their business, if their +families were removed by that time; the committee pledging themselves +to use their influence to prevent further violence, and assuring Phelps +that "whenever he was ready to move, the amount of all his losses in the +printing house should be paid to him by the citizens." In view of this +arrangement there was no further trouble for more than two months. + +The Mormon leaders had, however, no intention of carrying out their part +of this undertaking. Corrill, in a letter to Oliver Cowdery written in +December, 1833, said that the agreement was made, "supposing that before +the time arrived the mob would see their error and stop the violence, +or that some means might be employed so that we could stay in peace."* +Oliver Cowdery was sent at once to Kirtland to advise with the church +officers there. On his arrival, early in August, a council was convened, +and it was decided that legal measures should be taken to establish +the rights of the Saints in Missouri. Smith directed that they should +neither sell their lands nor move out of Jackson County, save those who +had signed the agreement.** It was also decided to send Orson Hyde and +John Gould to Missouri "with advice to the Saints in their unfortunate +situation through the late outrage of the mob."*** + + + * Evening and Morning Star, January, 1834 + + + ** Elder Williams's Letter, Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 519. + + + *** Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 504. + + +To strengthen the courage of the flock in Missouri, Smith gave forth at +Kirtland, under date of August 2, 1833, a "revelation" (Sec. 97), "in +answer to our correspondence with the prophet," says P. P. Pratt,* in +which the Lord was represented as saying, "Surely, Zion is the city of +our God, and surely Zion cannot fail, NEITHER BE MOVED OUT OF HER PLACE; +for God is there, and the hand of God is there, and he has sworn by the +power of his might to be her salvation and her high tower." The same +"revelation" directed that the Temple should be built speedily by +means of tithing, and threatened Zion with pestilence, plague, sword, +vengeance, and devouring fire unless she obeyed the Lord's commands. + + + *Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 100, + + +The outcome of all the deliberations at Kirtland was the sending of +W. W. Phelps and Orson Hyde to Jefferson City with a long petition to +Governor Dunklin, setting forth the charges of the Missourians against +the Mormons, and the action of the two meetings at Independence, and +making a direct appeal to him for assistance, asking him to employ +troops in their defence, in order that they might sue for damages, "and, +if advisable, try for treason against the government." + +The governor sent them a written reply under date of October 19, in +which, after expressing sympathy with them in their troubles, he said: +"I should think myself unworthy the confidence with which I have been +honored by my fellow citizens did I not promptly employ all the means +which the constitution and laws have placed at my disposal to avert the +calamities with which you are threatened.... No citizen, or number of +citizens, have a right to take the redress of their grievances, whether +real or imaginary, into their own hands. Such conduct strikes at the +very existence of society." He advised the Mormons to invoke the laws +in their behalf; to secure a warrant from a justice of the peace, and so +test the question "whether the law can be peaceably executed or not"; if +not, it would be his duty to take steps to execute it. + +The Mormons and their neighbors were thus brought face to face in a +manner which admitted of no compromise. The situation naturally seemed +rather a simple one to the governor, who was probably ignorant of the +intentions and ambition of the Mormons. If he had understood the nature +and weight of the objections to them, he would have understood also +that he could protect them in their possessions only by maintaining a +military force. + +His letter gave the Mormons of Jackson County new courage. They had been +maintaining a waiting attitude since the meeting of July 23, but now +they resumed their occupations, and began to erect more houses, and to +improve their places as if for a permanent stay, and meanwhile there +was no cessation of the immigration of new members from the East. Their +leaders consulted four lawyers in Clay County, and arranged with them to +look after their legal interests. + +This evident repudiation by the Mormons of their part of their agreement +with the committee incensed the Jackson County people, and hostilities +were resumed. On the night of October 31, a mob attacked a Mormon +settlement called Big Blue, some ten miles west of Independence, damaged +a number of houses, whipped some of the men, and frightened women +and children so badly that they fled to the outlying country for +hiding-places. On the night of November 1, Mormon houses were stoned +in Independence, and the church store was broken into and its goods +scattered in the street. The Mormons thereupon showed the governor's +letter to a justice of the peace, and asked him for a warrant, but their +accounts say that he refused one. When they took before the same officer +a man whom they caught in the act of destroying their property, the +justice not only refused to hold him, but granted a warrant in his +behalf against Gilbert, Corrill, and two other Mormons for false +imprisonment, and they were locked up.* Thrown on their own resources +for defence, the Mormons now armed themselves as well as they could, and +established a night picket service throughout their part of the county. +On Saturday night, November 2, a second attack was made by the mob on +Big Blue and, the Mormons resisting, the first "battle" of this campaign +took place. A sick woman received a pistolshot wound in the head, and +one of the Mormons a wound in the thigh. Parley P. Pratt and others were +then sent to Lexington to procure a warrant from Circuit Judge Ryland, +but, according to Pratt, he refused to grant one, and "advised us to +fight and kill the outlaws whenever they came upon us."** + + + * Corrill's letter, Evening and Morning Star, January, 1834. + + + ** Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 105. + + +On Monday evening, November 4, a body of Missourians who had been +visiting some of the Mormon settlements came in contact with a company +of Mormons who had assembled for defence, and an exchange of shots +ensued, by which a number on both sides were wounded, one of the Mormons +dying the next day. + +These conflicts increased the excitement, and the Mormons, knowing how +they were outnumbered, now realized that they could not stay in Jackson +County any longer, and they arranged to move. At first they decided to +make their new settlement only fifty miles south of Independence, in Van +Buren County, but to this the Jackson County people would not consent. +They therefore agreed to move north into Clay County, between which and +Jackson County the Missouri River, which there runs east, formed +the boundary. Most of them went to Clay County, but others scattered +throughout the other nearby counties, whose inhabitants soon let them +know that their presence was not agreeable. + +The hasty removal of these people so late in the season was accompanied +by great personal hardships and considerable pecuniary loss. The Mormons +have stated the number of persons driven out at fifteen hundred, and the +number of houses burned; before and after their departure, at from two +hundred to three hundred. Cattle and household effects that could not be +moved were sold for what they would bring, and those who took with them +sufficient provisions for their immediate wants considered themselves +fortunate. One party of six men and about one hundred and fifty women +and children, panic-stricken by the action of the mob, wandered for +several days over the prairie without even sufficient food. The banks of +the Missouri River where the fugitives were ferried across presented a +strange spectacle. In a pouring rain the big company were encamped +there on November 7, some with tents and some without any cover, their +household goods piled up around them. Children were born in this camp, +and the sick had to put up with such protection as could be provided. +So determined were the Jackson County people that not a Mormon +should remain among them, that on November 23 they drove out a little +settlement of some twenty families living about fifteen miles from +Independence, compelling women and children to depart on immediate +notice. + +The Mormons made further efforts through legal proceedings to assert +their rights in Jackson County, but unsuccessfully. The governor +declared that the situation did not warrant him in calling out the +militia, and referred them to the courts for redress for civil injuries. +In later years they appealed more than once to the federal authorities +at Washington for assistance in reestablishing themselves in Jackson +County,* but were informed that the matter rested with the state of +Missouri. Their future bitterness toward the federal government was +explained on the ground of this refusal to come to their aid. + + + * James Hutchins, a resident of Wisconsin, addressed a long +appeal "for justice" to President Grant in 1876, asking him to reinstate +the Mormons in the homes from which they had been driven. + + +Meanwhile Smith had been preparing to use the authority at his command +to make good his predictions about the permanency of the church in the +Missouri Zion. On December 6, 1833, he gave out a long "revelation" +at Kirtland (Sec. 101), which created a great sensation among his +followers. Beginning with the declaration that "I, the Lord," have +suffered affliction to come on the brethren in Missouri "in consequence +of their transgressions, envyings and stripes, and lustful and covetous +desires," it went on to promise them as follows:-- + +"Zion shall not be moved out of her place, notwithstanding her children +are scattered.... And, behold, there is none other place appointed than +that which I have appointed; neither shall there be any other place +appointed than that which I have appointed, for the work of the +gathering of my saints, until the day cometh when there is found no more +room for them." + +The "revelation" then stated the Lord's will "concerning the +redemption of Zion" in the form of a long parable which contained these +instructions:-- + +"And go ye straightway into the land of my vineyard, and redeem my +vineyard, for it is mine, I have bought it with money. + +"Therefore get ye straightway unto my land; break down the walls of mine +enemies; throw down their tower and scatter their watchmen; + +"And inasmuch as they gather together against you, avenge me of mine +enemies, that by and by I may come with the residue of mine house and +possess the land." + +This "revelation" was industriously circulated in printed form among the +churches of Ohio and the East, and so great was the demand for copies +that they sold for one dollar each. The only construction to be placed +upon it was that Smith proposed to make good his predictions by means +of an armed force led against the people of Missouri. This view soon had +confirmation. + +The arrival of P. P. Pratt and Lyman Wight in Kirtland in February, +1834, was followed by a "revelation" (Sec. 103) promising an outpouring +of God's wrath on those who had expelled the brethren from their +Missouri possessions, and declaring that "the redemption of Zion must +needs come by power," and that Smith was to lead them, as Moses led the +children of Israel. + +In obedience to this direction there was assembled a military +organization, known in church history as "The Army of Zion." Recruiters, +led by Smith and Rigdon, visited the Eastern states, and by May 1 some +two hundred men had assembled at Kirtland ready to march to Missouri to +aid their brethren.* + + + * There are three detailed accounts of this expedition, one in +Smith's autobiography, another in H. C. Kimball's journal in Times and +Seasons, Vol. 6, and another in Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," procured +from one of the accompanying sharpshooters. + + +The Army of Zion, as it called itself, was not an impressive one in +appearance. Military experience was not required of the recruits; but +no one seems to have been accepted who was not in possession of a weapon +and at least $5 in cash. The weapons ranged from butcher knives and +rusty swords to pistols, muskets, and rifles. Smith himself carried a +fine sword, a brace of pistols (purchased on six months' credit), and +a rifle, and had four horses allotted to him. He had himself elected +treasurer of the expedition, and to him was intrusted all the money of +the men, to be disbursed as his judgment dictated. + +According to his own account, they were constantly threatened by enemies +during their march; but they paid no attention to them, knowing that +angels accompanied them as protectors, "for we saw them." + +As they approached Clay County a committee from Ray County called +on them to inquire about their intention, and, when a few miles from +Liberty, in Clay County, General Atchison and other Missourians met +them and warned them not to defy popular feeling by entering that town. +Accepting this advice, they took a circuitous route and camped on Rush +Creek, whence Smith on June 25 sent a letter to General Atchison's +committee saying that, in the interest of peace, "we have concluded that +our company shall be immediately dispersed." + +The night before this letter was sent, cholera broke out in the camp. +Smith at once attempted to perform miraculous cures of the victims, but +he found actual cholera patients very different to deal with from old +women with imaginary ailments, or, as he puts it, "I quickly learned by +painful experience that, when the great Jehovah decrees destruction upon +any people, and makes known his determination, man must not attempt to +stay his hand."* There were thirteen deaths in camp, among the victims +being Sidney Gilbert. + + + * "Millennial Star, Vol. XV, p. 86. + + +Of course, some explanation was necessary to reconcile the prophet's +surrender without a battle with the "revelation" which directed the +army to march and promised a victory. This came in the shape of another +"revelation" (Sec. 105) which declared that the immediate redemption +of the people must be delayed because of their disobedience and lack of +union (especially excepting himself from this censure); that the Lord +did not "require at their hands to fight the battles of Zion"; that a +large enough force had not assembled at the Lord's command, and that +those who had made the journey were "brought thus far for a trial of +their faith." The brethren were directed not to make boasts of the +judgment to come on the Missourians, but to keep quiet, and "gather +together, as much in one region as can be, consistently with the +feelings of the people"; to purchase all the lands in Jackson County +they could, and then "I will hold the armies of Israel guiltless +in taking possession of their own lands, which they have previously +purchased with their monies, and of throwing down the powers of mine +enemies." But first the Lord's army was to become very great. + +It seems incredible that any set of followers could retain faith in +"revelations" at once so conflicting and so nonsensical. + + + +CHAPTER IV. -- FRUITLESS NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE JACKSON COUNTY PEOPLE + +Meanwhile, the Mormons in Clay County, with the assent of the natives +there, had opened a factory for the manufacture of arms "to pay the +Jackson mob in their own way,"* and it was rumored that both sides were +supplying themselves with cannon, to make the coming contest the more +determined. Governor Dunklin, fearing a further injury to the good name +of the state, wrote to Colonel J. Thornton urging a compromise, and on +June 10 Judge Ryland sent a communication to A. S. Gilbert, asking +him to call a meeting of Mormons in Liberty for a discussion of the +situation. + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XV, p. 68. + + +This meeting was held on June 16, and a committee from Jackson County +presented the following proposition: "That the value of the lands, +and the improvements thereon, of the Mormons in Jackson County, be +ascertained by three disinterested appraisers, representatives of the +Mormons to be allowed freely to point out the lands claimed and the +improvements; that the people of Jackson County would agree to pay the +Mormons the valuation fixed by the appraisers, WITH ONE HUNDRED PER CENT +ADDED, within thirty days of the award; or, the Jackson County citizens +would agree to sell out their lands in that county to the Mormons on the +same terms." The Mormon leaders agreed to call a meeting of their people +to consider this proposition. + +The fifteen Jackson County committeemen, it may be mentioned, in +crossing the river on their way home, were upset, and seven of them were +drowned, including their chairman, J. Campbell, who was reported to have +made threats against Smith. The latter thus reports the accident in +his autobiography, "The angel of God saw fit to sink the boat about +the middle of the river, and seven, out of the twelve that attempted +to cross were drowned, thus suddenly and justly went they to their own +place by water." + +On June 21 the Mormons gave written notice to the Jackson County people +that the terms proposed were rejected, and that they were framing +"honorable propositions" on their own part, which they would soon +submit, adding a denial of a rumor that they intended a hostile +invasion. Their objection to the terms proposed was thus stated in an +editorial in the Evening and Morning Star of July, 1834, "When it is +understood that the mob hold possession of a large quantity of land more +than our friends, and that they only offer thirty days for the payment +of the same, it will be seen that they are only making a sham to cover +their past unlawful conduct." This explanation ignores entirely the +offer of the Missourians to buy out the Mormons at a valuation double +that fixed by the appraisers, and simply shows that they intended to +hold to the idea that their promised Zion was in Jackson County, and +that they would not give it up.* + + + * The idea of returning to a Zion in Jackson County has never +been abandoned by the Mormon church. Bishop Partridge took title to the +Temple lot in Independence in his own name. In 1839, when the Mormons +were expelled from the state, still believing that this was to be +the site of the New Jerusalem, he deeded sixty-three acres of land in +Jackson County, including this lot, to three small children of Oliver +Cowdery. In 1848, seven years after Partridge's death, and when all the +Cowdery grantees were dead, a man named Poole got a deed for this land +from the heirs of the grantees, and subsequent conveyances were made +under Poole's deed. In 1851 a branch of the church, under a title +Church of Christ, known as Hendrickites, from Grandville Hendrick, its +originator, was organized in Illinois, with a basis of belief which +rejects most of the innovations introduced since 1835. Hendrick in 1864 +was favored with a "revelation" which ordered the removal of his church +to Jackson County. On arriving there different members quietly bought +parts of the old Temple lot. In 1887 the sole surviving sister and heir +of the Cowdery children executed a quit claim deed of the lot to Bishop +Blakeslee of the Reorganized Church in Iowa, and that church at once +began legal proceedings to establish their title. Judge Philips, of +the United States Circuit Court for the Western Division of Missouri, +decided the case in March, 1894, in favor of the Reorganized Church, but +the United States Court of Appeals reversed this decision on the ground +that the respondents had title through undisputed possession ("United +States Court of Appeals Reports," Vol. XVII, p. 387). The Hendrickites +in this suit were actively aided by the Utah Mormons, President Woodruff +being among their witnesses. This Church of Christ has now a membership +of less than two hundred. + +Two Mormon elders, describing their visit to Independence in 1888, +said that they went to the Temple lot and prayed as follows: "O +Lord, remember thy words, and let not Zion suffer forever. Hasten her +redemption, and let thy name be glorified in the victory of truth and +righteousness over sin and iniquity. Confound the enemies of the people +and let Zion be free:"--"Infancy of the Church," Salt Lake City, 1889. + + +On June 23 (the date of Smith's last quoted "revelation"), the Mormons +presented their counter proposition in writing. It was that a board +of six Mormons and six Jackson County non-Mormons should decide on the +value of lands in that county belonging to "those men who cannot consent +to live with us," and that they should receive this sum within a year, +less the amount of damage suffered by the Mormons, the latter to be +determined by the same persons. The Jackson County people replied that +they would "do nothing like according to their last proposition," and +expressed a hope that the Mormons "would cast an eye back of Clinton, to +see if that is not a county calculated for them." Clinton was the county +next north of Clay. + +Governor Dunklin, in his annual message to the legislature that year, +expressed the opinion that "conviction for any violence committed +against a Mormon cannot be had in Jackson County," and told the +lawmakers it was for them to determine what amendments were necessary +"to guard against such acts of violence for the future." The Mormons +sent a petition in their own behalf to the legislature, which was +presented by Corrill, but no action was taken. + + + + + +CHAPTER V. -- IN CLAY, CALDWELL, AND DAVIESS COUNTIES + +The counties in which the Mormons settled after leaving Jackson County +were thinly populated at that time, Clay County having only 5338 +inhabitants, according to the census of 1830, and Caldwell, Carroll, and +Daviess counties together having only 6617 inhabitants by the census +of 1840. County rivalry is always a characteristic of our newly settled +states and territories, and the Clay County people welcomed the Mormons +as an addition to their number, notwithstanding the ill favor in which +they stood with their southern neighbors. The new-comers at first +occupied what vacant cabins they could find in the southern part of +the county, until they could erect houses of their own, while the men +obtained such employment as was offered, and many of the women sought +places as domestic servants and school-teachers. The Jackson County +people were not pleased with this friendly spirit, and they not only +tried to excite trouble between the new neighbors, but styled the Clay +County residents "Jack Mormons," a name applied in later years in other +places to non-Mormons who were supposed to have Mormon sympathies. + +Peace was maintained, however, for about three years. But the Mormons +grew in numbers, and, as the natives realized their growth, they showed +no more disposition to be in the minority than did their southern +neighbors. The Mormons, too, were without tact, and they did not +conceal the intention of the church to possess the land. Proof of their +responsibility for what followed is found in a remark of W. W. Phelps, +in a letter from Clay County to Ohio in December, 1833, that "our people +fare very well, and, when they are discreet, little or no persecution is +felt."* + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 646. + + +The irritation kept on increasing, and by the spring of 1836 Clay County +had become as hostile to the Mormons as Jackson County had ever been. In +June, the course adopted in Jackson County to get rid of the new-comers +was imitated, and a public meeting in the court house at Liberty adopted +resolutions* setting forth that civil war was threatened by the rapid +immigration of Mormons; that when the latter were received, in pity and +kindness, after their expulsion across the river, it was understood that +they would leave "whenever a respectable portion of the citizens of this +county should require it," and that that time had now come. The reasons +for this demand included Mormon declarations that the county was +destined by Heaven to be theirs, opposition to slavery, teaching the +Indians that they were to possess the land with the Saints, and +their religious tenets, which, it was said, "always will excite deep +prejudices against them in any populous country where they may locate." +In explanations of the anti-Mormon feeling in Missouri frequent allusion +is made to polygamous practices. This was not charged in any of the +formal statements against them, and Corrill declares that they had done +nothing there that would incriminate them under the law. The Mormons +were urged to seek a new abiding-place, the territory of Wisconsin being +recommended for their investigation. The resolutions confessed that "we +do not contend that we have the least right, under the constitution and +laws of the country, to expel them by force"; but gave as an excuse +for the action taken the certainty of an armed conflict if the Mormons +remained. Newly arrived immigrants were advised to leave immediately, +non-landowners to follow as soon as they could gather their crops +and settle up their business, and owners of forty acres to remain +indefinitely, until they could dispose of their real estate without +loss. + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XV, p. 763. + + +The Mormons, on July 1, adopted resolutions denying the charges against +them, but agreeing to leave the county. The Missourians then appointed +a committee to raise money to assist the needy Saints to move. Smith and +his associates in Ohio had not at that time the same interest in a Zion +in Missouri that they had three years earlier, and they only expressed +sorrow over the new troubles, and advised the fugitives to stop short +of Wisconsin if they could. An appeal was again made by the Missouri +Mormons to the governor of that state, but he now replied that if they +could not convince their neighbors of their innocence, "all I can say to +you is that in this republic the vox populi is the vox dei." + +The Mormons selected that part of Ray County from which Caldwell County +was formed (just northeast of Clay County) for their new abode, and +on their petition the legislature framed the new county for their +occupancy. This was then almost unsettled territory, and the few +inhabitants made no objection to the coming of their new neighbors. +They secured a good deal of land, some by purchase, and some by entry +on government sections, and began its improvement. Many of them were +so poor that they had to seek work in the neighboring counties for +the support of their families. Some of their most intelligent members +afterward attributed their future troubles in that state to their +failure to keep within their own county boundaries. + +As the county seat they founded a town which they named Far West, and +which soon presented quite a collection of houses, both log and frame, +schools, and shops. Phelps wrote in the summer of 1837, "Land cannot +be had around town now much less than $10 per acre."* There were +practically no inhabitants but Mormons within fifteen or twenty miles of +the town,** and the Saints were allowed entire political freedom. Of the +county officers, two judges, thirteen magistrates, the county clerk, and +all the militia officers were of their sect. They had credit enough +to make necessary loans, and, says Corrill, "friendship began to be +restored between them and their neighbors, the old prejudices were fast +dying away, and they were doing well, until the summer of 1838." + + + * Messenger and Advocate, July, 1837. + + + ** Lee's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 53. + + +It was in January, 1838, that Smith fled from Kirtland. He arrived in +Far West in the following March; Rigdon was detained in Illinois a short +time by the illness of a daughter. Smith's family went with him, and +they were followed by many devoted adherents of the church, who, in +order to pay church debts in Ohio and the East, had given up their +property in exchange for orders on the Bishop at Far West. In other +words, they were penniless. + +The business scandals in Ohio had not affected the reputation of the +church leaders with their followers in Missouri (where the bank bills +had not circulated) and Smith and Rigdon received a hearty welcome, their +coming being accepted as a big step forward in the realization of their +prophesied Zion. It proved, however, to be the cause of the expulsion of +their followers from the state. + + + +CHAPTER VI. -- RADICAL DISSENSIONS IN THE CHURCH--ORIGIN OF THE DANITES--TITHING + +While the church, in a material sense, might have been as prosperous +as Corrill pictured, Smith, on his arrival, found it in the throes of +serious internal discord. The month before he reached Far West, W. W. +Phelps and John Whitmer, of the Presidency there, had been tried before +a general assembly of the church,* and almost unanimously deposed on +several charges, the principal one being a claim on their part to $2000 +of the church funds which they had bound the Bishop to pay to them. +Whitmer was also accused of persisting in the use of tea, coffee, and +tobacco. T. B. Marsh, one of the Presidents pro tem. selected in their +places, in a letter to the prophet on this subject, said:-- + + + * For the minutes of this General Assembly, and text of Marsh's +letter, see Elders' Journal, July, 1838. + +"Had we not taken the above measures, we think that nothing could have +prevented a rebellion against the whole High Council and Bishop; so +great was the disaffection against the Presidents that the people began +to be jealous that the whole authorities were inclined to uphold these +men in wickedness, and in a little time the church undoubtedly would +have gone every man his own way, like sheep without a shepherd." + +On April 11, Elder Bronson presented nine charges against Oliver Cowdery +to the High Council, which promptly found him guilty of six of them, +viz. urging vexatious lawsuits against the brethren, accusing the +prophet of adultery, not attending meeting, returning to the practice +of law "for the sake of filthy lucre," "disgracing the church by being +connected with the bogus [counterfeiting] business, retaining notes +after they had been paid," and generally "forsaking the cause of God." +On this finding he was expelled from the church. Two days later David +Whitmer was found guilty of unchristianlike conduct and defaming the +prophet, and was expelled, and Lyman E. Johnson met the same fate.* +Smith soon announced a "revelation" (Sec. 114), directing the places of +the expelled to be filled by others. + + + * For minutes of these councils, see Millennial Star, Vol. XVI, +pp. 130-134. + + +It was in the June following that the paper drawn up by Rigdon and +signed by eighty-three prominent members of the church was presented to +the recalcitrants, ordering them to leave the county, and painting their +characters in the blackest hues.* This radical action did not meet +the approval of the more conservative element, which included men like +Corrill, and he soon announced that he was no longer a Mormon. Not +long afterward Thomas B. Marsh, one of the original members of the High +Council of Twelve in Missouri, and now President of the Twelve, and +Orson Hyde, one of the original Apostles, also seceded, and both gave +testimony about the Mormon schemes in Caldwell and Daviess Counties. +Cowdery and Whitmer considered their lives in such danger that they fled +on horseback at night, leaving their families, and after riding till +daylight in a storm, reached the house of a friend, where they found +refuge until their families could join them. + + + * See p. 81 ante. For the full text of Rigdon's paper, see the +"Correspondence, Orders, etc., in Relation to the Mormon Disturbances in +Missouri," published by order of the Missouri legislature (1841). + + +The most important event that followed the expulsion of leading +members from the church by the High Council was the formation of that +organization which has been almost ever since known as the Danites, +whose dark deeds in Nauvoo were scarcely more than hinted at,* but +which, under Brigham Young's authority in Utah, became a band of +murderers, ready to carry out the most radical suggestion which might be +made by any higher authority of the church. + + + * Lee's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 158. + + +Corrill, an active member of the church in Missouri, writing in 1839 +with the events fresh in his memory, said* that the members of the +Danite society entered into solemn covenants to stand by one another +when in difficulty, whether right or wrong, and to correct each +other's wrongs among themselves, accepting strictly the mandates of the +Presidency as standing next to God. He explains that "many were opposed +to this society, but such was their determination and also their +threatenings, that those opposed dare not speak their minds on the +subject.... It began to be taught that the church, instead of God, or, +rather, the church in the hands of God, was to bring about these things +(judgments on the wicked), and I was told, but I cannot vouch for the +truth of it, that some of them went so far as to contrive plans how they +might scatter poison, pestilence, and disease among the inhabitants, +and make them think it was judgments sent from God. I accused Smith and +Rigdon of it, but they both denied it promptly." + + + * "Brief History of the Church," pp. 31, 32. + + +Robinson, in his reminiscences in the Return in later years, gave the +same date of the organization of the Danites, and said that their first +manifesto was the one directed against Cowdery, Whitmer, and others. + +We must look for the actual origin of this organization, however, to +some of the prophet's instructions while still at Kirtland. In his +"revelation" of August 6, 1833 (Sec. 98), he thus defined the treatment +that the Saints might bestow upon their enemies: "I have delivered thine +enemy into thine hands, and then if thou wilt spare him, thou shalt be +rewarded for thy righteousness;... nevertheless thine enemy is in thine +hands, and if thou reward him according to his works thou art justified, +if he has sought thy life, and thy life is endangered by him, thine +enemy is in thine hands and thou art justified." + +What such a license would mean to a following like Smith's can easily be +understood. + +The next step in the same direction was taken during the exercises +which accompanied the opening of the Kirtland Temple. Three days after +the dedicatory services, all the high officers of the church, and the +official members of the stake, to the number of about three hundred, met +in the Temple by appointment to perform the washing of feet. While this +was going on (following Smith's own account),* "the brethren began +to prophesy blessings upon each other's heads, and cursings upon the +enemies of Christ who inhabit Jackson County, Missouri, and continued +prophesying and blessing and sealing them, with hosannah and amen, until +nearly seven o'clock P. M. The bread and wine were then brought in. +While waiting, I made the following remarks, 'I want to enter into the +following covenant, that if any more of our brethren are slain or driven +from their lands in Missouri by the mob, we will give ourselves no rest +until we are avenged of our enemies to the uttermost.' This covenant was +sealed unanimously, with a hosannah and an amen." ** + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XV, pp. 727-728. + + + + * "The spirit of that covenant evidently bore fruit in the Fourth +of July oration of 1838 and the Mountain Meadow Massacre."--The Return, +Vol. II, p. 271. + + +The original name chosen for the Danites was "Daughters of Zion," +suggested by the text Micah iv. 13: "Arise and thresh, O daughter of +Zion; for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thine hoofs +brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many people; and I will consecrate +thy gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole +earth." "Daughters" of anybody was soon decided to be an inappropriate +designation for such a band, and they were next called "Destroying (or +Flying) Angels," a title still in use in Utah days; then the "Big Fan," +suggested by Jeremiah xv. 7, or Luke iii. 17; then "Brothers of Gideon," +and finally "Sons of Dan" (whence the name Danites,) from Genesis xlix. +17: "Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that +biteth the horse's heels, so that his rider shall fall backward."* + + + * Hyde's "Mormonism Exposed," pp. 104-105. + + +Avard presented the text of the constitution to the court at Richmond, +Missouri, during the inquiry before Judge King in November, 1838* It +begins with a preamble setting forth the agreement of the members "to +regulate ourselves under such laws as in righteousness shall be deemed +necessary for the preservation of our holy religion, and of our most +sacred rights, and the rights of our wives and children," and declaring +that, "not having the privileges of others allowed to us, we have +determined, like unto our fathers, to resist tyranny, whether it be in +kings or in the people. It is all alike to us. Our rights we must +have, and our rights we shall have, in the name of Israel's God." The +President of the church and his counsellors were to hold the "executive +power," and also, along with the generals and colonels of the society, +to hold the "legislative powers"; this legislature to "have power to +make all laws regulating the society, and regulating punishments to be +administered to the guilty in accordance with the offence." Thus was +furnished machinery for carrying out any decree of the officers of the +church against either life or property. + + + * Missouri "Correspondence, Orders, etc.," pp. 101-102. + + +The Danite oath as it was administered in Nauvoo was as follows:--"In +the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, I do solemnly obligate myself +ever to regard the Prophet and the First Presidency of the Church of +Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as the supreme head of the church on +earth, and to obey them in all things, the same as the supreme God; that +I will stand by my brethren in danger or difficulty, and will uphold +the Presidency, right or wrong; and that I will ever conceal, and never +reveal, the secret purposes of this society, called Daughters of Zion. +Should I ever do the same, I hold my life as the forfeiture, in a +caldron of boiling oil."* + + + * Bennett's "History of the Saints," p. 267. + + +John D. Lee, who was a member of the organization, explaining their +secret signs, says,* "The sign or token of distress is made by placing +the right hand on the right side of the face, with the points of the +fingers upward, shoving the hand upward until the ear is snug up between +the thumb and forefinger." + + + *Lee's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 57. + + +It has always been the policy of the Mormon church to deny to the +outside world that any such organization as the Danites existed, or at +least that it received the countenance of the authorities. Smith's +City Council in Nauvoo made an affidavit that there was no such society +there, and Utah Mormons have professed similar ignorance. Brigham Young, +himself, however, gave testimony to the contrary in the days when he was +supreme in Salt Lake City. In one of his discourses which will be found +reported in the Deseret News (Vol. VII, p. 143) he said: "If men come +here and do not behave themselves, they will not only find the Danites, +whom they talk so much about, biting the horses' heels, but the +scoundrels will find something biting THEIR heels. In my plain remarks +I merely call things by their own names." It need only be added that the +church authority has been powerful enough at any time in the history of +the church to crush out such an organization if it so desired. + +A second organization formed about the same time, at a fully attended +meeting of the Mormons of Daviess County, was called "The Host of +Israel." It was presided over by captains of tens, of fifties, and of +hundreds, and, according to Lee, "God commanded Joseph Smith to place +the Host of Israel in a situation for defence against the enemies of God +and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." + +Another important feature of the church rule that was established at +this time was the tithing system, announced in a "revelation" (Sec. +119), which is dated July 8, 1838. This required the flock to put all +their "surplus property" into the hands of the Bishop for the building +of the Temple and the payment of the debts of the Presidency, and that, +after that, "those who have thus been tithed, shall pay one-tenth of +all their interest annually; and this shall be a standing law unto them +forever." + +Ebenezer Robinson gives an interesting explanation of the origin of +tithing. *In May, 1838, the High Council at Far West, after hearing a +statement by Rigdon that it was absolutely necessary for the church to +make some provision for the support of the families of all those who +gave their entire time to church affairs, instructed the Bishop to deed +to Smith and Rigdon an eighty-acre lot belonging to the church, and +appointed a committee of three to confer with the Presidency concerning +their salary for that year. Smith and Rigdon thought that $1100 would be +a proper sum, and the committee reported in favor of a salary, but left +the amount blank. The council voted the salaries, but this action caused +such a protest from the church members that at the next meeting the +resolution was rescinded. Only a few days later came this "revelation" +requiring the payment of tithes, in which there was no mention of using +any of the money for the poor, as was directed in the Ohio "revelation" +about the consecration of property to the Bishop. + + + * The Return, Vol. 1, p. 136. + + +This tithing system has provided ever since the principal revenue of the +church. By means of it the Temple was built at Nauvoo, and under it vast +sums have been contributed in Utah. By 1878 the income of the church by +this source was placed at $1,000,000 a year,* and during Brigham Young's +administration the total receipts were estimated at $13,000,000. We +shall see that Young made practically no report of the expenditure +of this vast sum that passed into his control. To Horace Greeley's +question, "What is done with the proceeds of this tithing?" Young +replied, "Part of it is devoted to building temples and other places +of worship, part to helping the poor and needy converts on their way to +this country, and the largest portion to the support of the poor among +the Saints." + + + * Salt Lake Tribune, June 25, 1879. + + +As the authority of the church over its members increased, the +regulation about the payment of tithes was made plainer and more severe. +Parley P. Pratt, in addressing the General Conference in Salt Lake City +in October, 1849, said, "To fulfil the law of tithing, a man should make +out and lay before the Bishop a schedule of all his property, and pay +him one-tenth of it. When he hath tithed his principal once, he has no +occasion to tithe again; but the next year he must pay one-tenth of his +increase, and one-tenth of his time, of his cattle, money, goods, and +trade; and, whatever use we put it to, it is still our own, for the Lord +does not carry it away with him to heaven."* Millennial Star, Vol. +XII, p. 134. + + +The Seventh General Epistle to the church (September, 1851) made this +statement, "It is time that the Saints understood that the paying of +their tithing is a prominent portion of the labor which is allotted to +them, by which they are to secure a future residence in the heaven they +are seeking after."* This view was constantly presented to the converts +abroad. + + + * Ibid., Vol. XIV, p. 18. + + +At the General Conference in Salt Lake City on September 8, 1850, +Brigham Young made clear his radical view of tithing--a duty, he +declared, that few had lived up to. Taking the case of a supposed Mr. A, +engaged in various pursuits (to represent the community), starting with +a capital of $100,000 he must surrender $10,000 of this as tithing. With +his remaining $90,000 he gains $410,000; $41,000 of this gain must be +given into the storehouse of the Lord. Next he works nine days with his +team; the tenth day's work is for the church, as is one-tenth of the +wheat he raises, one-tenth of his sheep, and one-tenth of his eggs.* + + + * Ibid., Vol. XIII, p. 21. + + +Under date of July 18, came another "revelation" (Sec. 120), declaring +that the tithings "shall be disposed of by a Council, composed of the +First Presidency of my church, and of the Bishop and his council, and by +my High Council." The first meeting of this body decided "that the First +Presidency should keep all their property that they could dispose of to +advantage for their support, and the remainder be put into the hands +of the Bishop, according to the commandments."* The coolness of this +proceeding in excepting Smith and Rigdon from the obligation to pay a +tithe is worthy of admiration. + + + * Ibid., Vol. XVI, p. 204. + + + +CHAPTER VII. -- BEGINNING OF ACTIVE HOSTILITIES + +Smith had shown his dominating spirit as soon as he arrived at Far West. +In April, 1838, he announced a "revelation" (Sec. 115), commanding the +building of a house of worship there, the work to begin on July 4, the +speedy building up of that city, and the establishment of Stakes in the +regions round about. This last requirement showed once more Smith's lack +of judgment, and it became a source of irritation to the non-Mormons, +as it was thought to foreshadow a design to control the neighboring +counties. Hyde says that Smith and Rigdon deliberately planned the +scattering of the Saints beyond the borders of Clay County with a view +to political power.* + + + * Hyde's "Mormonism," p. 203. + + +In accordance with this scheme, a "revelation" of May 19 (Sec. 116), +directed the founding of a town on Grand River in Daviess County, +twenty-five miles northwest of Far West. This settlement was to be +called "Adam-ondi-Ahman," "because it is the place where Adam shall come +to visit his people, or the Ancient of Days shall sit, as spoken of by +Daniel the Prophet." The "revelation" further explains that, three years +before his death, Adam called a number of high priests and all of his +posterity who were righteous, into the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman, and +there blessed them. Lee (who, following the common pronunciation, writes +the name "Adam-on-Diamond") expresses the belief, which Smith instilled +into his followers, that it "was at the point where Adam came and +settled and blessed his posterity, after being driven from the Garden +of Eden. There Adam and Eve tarried for several years, and engaged in +tilling the soil." By order of the Presidency, another town was +started in Carroll County, where the Saints had been living in peace. +Immediately the new settlement was looked upon as a possible rival +of Gallatin, the county seat, and the non-Mormons made known their +objections. + + + * "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 91. + + +With Smith and Rigdon on the ground, if these men had had any tact, +or any purpose except to enforce Mormon supremacy in whatever part of +Missouri they chose to call Zion, the troubles now foreshadowed might +easily have been prevented. Every step they took, however, was in the +nature of a defiance. The sermons preached to the Mormons that +summer taught them that they would be able to withstand, not only the +opposition of the Missourians, but of the United States, if this should +be put to the test.* + + + * Corrill's "Brief History of the Church," p. 29. + + +The flock in and around Far West were under the influence of such advice +when they met on July 4 to lay the corner-stone of the third Temple, +whose building Smith had revealed, and to celebrate the day. There was a +procession, with a flagpole raising, and Smith embraced the occasion to +make public announcement of the tithing "revelation" (although it bears +a later date). + +The chief feature of the day, and the one that had most influence on the +fortunes of the church, was a sermon by Sidney Rigdon, known ever since +as the "salt sermon," from the text Matt. v. 13: "If the salt have lost +its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for +nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." He +first applied these words to the men who had made trouble in the church, +declaring that they ought to be trodden under foot until their bowels +gushed out, citing as a precedent that "the apostles threw Judas +Iscariot down and trampled out his bowels, and that Peter stabbed +Ananias and Sapphira." It was what followed, however, which made the +serious trouble, a defiance to their Missouri opponents in these words: +"It is not because we cannot, if we were so disposed, enjoy both the +honors and flatteries of the world, but we have voluntarily offered +them in sacrifice, and the riches of the world also, for a more durable +substance. Our God has promised a reward of eternal inheritance, and +we have believed his promise, and, though we wade through great +tribulations, we are in nothing discouraged, for we know he that has +promised is faithful. The promise is sure, and the reward is certain. +It is because of this that we have taken the spoiling of our goods. Our +cheeks have been given to the smiters, and our heads to those who have +plucked off the hair. We have not only, when smitten on one cheek, +turned the other, but we have done it again and again, until we are +weary of being smitten, and tired of being trampled upon. We have proved +the world with kindness; we have suffered their abuse, without cause, +with patience, and have endured without resentment, until this day, and +still their persecution and violence does not cease. But from this day +and this hour, we will suffer it no more. + +"We take God and all the holy angels to witness this day, that we warn +all men, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come on us no more for ever, +for, from this hour, we will bear it no more. Our rights shall no more +be trampled on with impunity. The man, or set of men, who attempt it, +DOES IT AT THE EXPENSE OF THEIR LIVES. And that mob that comes on us to +disturb us, it shall be between us and them A WAR OF EXTERMINATION, FOR +WE WILL FOLLOW THEM TO THE LAST DROP OF THEIR BLOOD IS SPILLED, OR ELSE +THEY WILL HAVE TO EXTERMINATE US; for we will carry the seat of war to +their own houses, and their own families, and one party or the other +SHALL BE UTTERLY DESTROYED. Remember it then, all men. + +"We will never be aggressors; we will infringe on rights of no people; +but shall stand for our own until death. We claim our own rights, and +are willing that all shall enjoy theirs. + +"No man shall be at liberty to come in our streets, to threaten us with +mobs, for if he does, he shall atone for it before he leaves the place; +neither shall he be at liberty to vilify or slander any of us, for +suffer it we will not in this place. + +"We therefore take all men to record this day, as did our fathers. And +we pledge this day to one another, our fortunes, our lives, and our +sacred honors, to be delivered from the persecutions which we have +had to endure for the last nine years, or nearly that. Neither will +we indulge any man, or set of men, in instituting vexatious lawsuits +against us to cheat us out of our just rights. If they attempt it we +say, woe be unto them. We this day then proclaim ourselves free, with +a purpose and a determination that never can be broken, no never, NO +NEVER, NO NEVER." + +Ebenezer Robinson in The Return (Vol I, p. 170) says:-- + +"Let it be distinctly understood that President Rigdon was not alone +responsible for the sentiment expressed in his oration, as that was a +carefully prepared document previously written, and well understood by +the First Presidency; but Elder Rigdon was the mouthpiece to deliver it, +as he was a natural orator, and his delivery was powerful and effective. + +"Several Missouri gentlemen of note, from other counties, were present +on the speaker's stand at its delivery, with Joseph Smith, Jr., +President, and Hyrum Smith, Vice President of the day; and at the +conclusion of the oration, when the president of the day led off with a +shout of 'Hosannah, Hosannah, Hosannah,' and joined in the shout by the +vast multitude, these Missouri gentlemen began to shout 'hurrah,' +but they soon saw that did not time with the other, and they ceased +shouting. A copy of the oration was furnished the editor, and printed in +the Far West, a weekly newspaper printed in Liberty, the county seat +of Clay county. It was also printed in pamphlet form, by the writer of +this, in the printing office of the Elders' Journal, in the city of Far +West, a copy of which we have preserved. + +"This oration, and the stand taken by the church in endorsing it, and +its publication, undoubtedly exerted a powerful influence in arousing +the people of the whole upper Missouri country." + +At the trial of Rigdon, when he was cast out at Nauvoo, Young and others +held him alone responsible for this sermon, and declared that it was +principally instrumental in stirring up the hostilities that ensued. + +A state election was to be held in Missouri early in August, and there +was a good deal of political feeling. Daviess County was pretty equally +divided between Whigs and Democrats, and the vote of the Mormons was +sought by the leaders of both parties. In Caldwell County the Saints +were classed as almost solidly Democratic. When election day came, the +Danites in the latter county distributed tickets on which the Presidency +had agreed, but this resulted in nothing more serious than some +criticism of this interference of the church in politics. But in Daviess +County trouble occurred. + +The Mormons there were warned by the Democrats that the Whigs would +attempt to prevent their voting at Gallatin. Of the ten houses in +that town at the time, three were saloons, and the material for an +election-day row was at hand. It began with an attack on a Mormon +preacher, and ended in a general fight, in which there were many broken +heads, but no loss of life; after which, says Lee, who took part in it, +"the Mormons all voted."* + + + * Smith's autobiography says, "Very few of the brethren voted." + + +Exaggerated reports of this melee reached Far West, and Dr. Avard, +collecting a force of 150 volunteers, and accompanied by Smith and +Rigdon, started for Daviess County for the support of their brethren. +They came across no mob, but they made a tactical mistake. Instead +of disbanding and returning to their homes, they, the next morning +(following Smith's own account)* "rode out to view the situation." Their +ride took them to the house of a justice of the peace, named Adam Black, +who had joined a band whose object was the expulsion of the Mormons. +Smith could not neglect the opportunity to remind the justice of his +violation of his oath, and to require of him some satisfaction, "so that +we might know whether he was our friend or enemy." With this view they +compelled him to sign what they called "an agreement of peace," which +the justice drew up in this shape:-- + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XVI, p. 229. + +"I, Adam Black, A Justice of the Peace of Davies County, do hereby +Sertify to the people called Mormin that he is bound to suport the +constitution of this state and of the United States, and he is not +attached to any mob, nor will not attach himself to any such people, and +so long as they will not molest me I will not molest them. This the 8th +day of August, 1838. + +"ADAM BLACK, J.P." + +When the Mormon force returned to Far West, the Daviess people secured +warrants for the arrest of Smith, L. Wight, and others, charging them +with violating the law by entering another county armed, and compelling +a justice of the peace to obey their mandate, Black having made an +affidavit that he was compelled to sign the paper in order to save +his life. Wight threatened to resist arrest, and this caused such a +gathering of Missourians that Smith became alarmed and sent for two +lawyers, General D. R. Atchison and General Doniphan, to come to +Far West as his legal advisers.* Acting on their advice, the accused +surrendered themselves, and were bound over to court in $500 bail for a +hearing on September 7. + + + * General Atchison was the major general in command of that +division of the state militia. His early reports to the governor must +be read in the light of his association with Smith as counsel. General +Douiphan afterward won fame at Chihuahua in the Mexican War. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. -- A STATE OF CIVIL WAR + +All peaceable occupations were now at an end in Daviess County. General +Atchison reported to the governor that, on arriving there on September +17, he found the county practically deserted, the Gentiles being +gathered in one camp and the Mormons in another. A justice of the peace, +in a statement to the governor, declared, "The Mormons are so numerous +and so well armed [in Daviess and Caldwell counties] that the judicial +power of the counties is wholly unable to execute any civil or criminal +process within the limits of either of the said counties against a +Mormon or Mormons, as they each and every one of them act in concert and +outnumber the other citizens." Lee says that an order had been issued +by the church authorities, commanding all the Mormons to gather in two +fortified camps, at Far West and Adam-ondi-Ahman. The men were poorly +armed, but demanded to be led against their foes, being "confident that +God was going to deliver the enemy into our hands."* + + + * "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 78. + + +Both parties now stood on the defensive, posting sentinels, and making +other preparations for a fight. Actual hostilities soon ensued. The +Mormons captured some arms which their opponents had obtained, and +took them, with three prisoners, to Far West. "This was a glorious day, +indeed," says Smith.* Citizens of Daviess and Livingston counties sent a +petition to Governor Boggs (who had succeeded Dunklin), dated September +12, declaring that they believed their lives, liberty, and property +to be "in the most imminent danger of being sacrificed by the hands of +those impostorous rebels," and asking for protection. The governor had +already directed General Atchison to "raise immediately four hundred +mounted men in view of indications of Indian disturbances on our +immediate frontier, and the recent civil disturbances in the counties +of Caldwell, Daviess, and Carroll." The calling out of the militia +followed, and General Doniphan found himself in command of about one +thousand militiamen. He seems to have used tact, and to have employed +his force only as peace preservers. On September 20 he reported to +Governor Boggs that he had discharged all his troops but two companies, +and that he did not think the services of these would be required +more than twenty days. He estimated the Mormon forces in the disturbed +counties at from thirteen hundred to fifteen hundred men, most of them +carrying a rifle, a brace of pistols, and a broadsword; "so that," he +added, "from their position, and their fanaticism, and their unalterable +determination not to be driven, much blood will be spilt and much +suffering endured if a blow is at once struck, without the interposition +of your excellency." + + + * Smith's autobiography, at this point, says: "President Rigdon +and I commenced this day the study of law under the instruction of +Generals Atchison and Doniphan. They think by diligent application we +can be admitted to the bar in twelve months." Millennial Star, Vol. XVI, +p. 246. + + +The people of Carroll County began now to hold meetings whose object was +the expulsion of the Mormons from their boundaries, and some hundreds +of them assembled in hostile attitude around the little settlement of +Dewitt. The Mormons there prepared for defence, and sent an appeal to +Far West for aid. Accordingly, one hundred Mormons, including Smith +and Rigdon, started to assist them, and two companies of militia, under +General Parks, were hurried to the spot. General Parks reported to +General Atchison on October 7 that, on arriving there the day before, +he found the place besieged by two hundred or three hundred Missourians, +under a Dr. Austin, with a field-piece, and defended by two hundred or +three hundred Mormons under G. M. Hinckle, "who says he will die before +he is driven from thence." Austin expected speedy reenforcements that +would enable him to take the place by assault. A petition addressed by +the Mormons of Dewitt to the governor, as early as September 22, having +been ignored, and finding themselves outnumbered, they agreed to abandon +their settlement on receiving pay for their improvements, and some fifty +wagons conveyed them and their effects to Far West. + +A period of absolute lawlessness in all that section of the state +followed. Smith declared that civil war existed, and that, as the state +would not protect them, they must look out for themselves. He and his +associates made no concealment of their purpose to "make clean work of +it" in driving the non-Mormons from both Daviess and Caldwell counties. +When warned that this course would array the whole state against them, +Smith replied that the "mob" (as the opponents of the Mormons were +always styled) were a small minority of the state, and would yield to +armed opposition; the Mormons would defeat one band after another, and +so proceed across the state, until they reached St. Louis, where +the Mormon army would spend the winter. This calculation is a fair +illustration of Smith's judgment. + +Armed bands of both parties now rode over the country, paying absolutely +no respect to property rights, and ready for a "brush" with any +opponents. At Smith's suggestion, a band of men, under the name of the +"Fur Company," was formed to "commandeer" food, teams, and men for the +Mormon campaign. This practical license to steal let loose the worst +element in the church organization, glad of any method of revenge on +those whom they considered their persecutors. "Men of former quiet," +says Lee, who was among the active raiders, "became perfect demons +in their efforts to spoil and waste away the enemies of the church."* +Cattle and hogs that could not be driven off were killed.** Houses were +burned, not only in the outlying country, but in the towns. A night +attack by a band of eighty men was made on Gallatin, where some of the +houses were set on fire, and two stores as well as private houses were +robbed. The house of one McBride, who, Lee says, had been a good friend +to him and to other Mormons, did not escape: "Every article of moveable +property was taken by the troops; he was utterly ruined." "It appeared +to me," says Corrill, "that the love of pillage grew upon them very +fast, for they plundered every kind of property they could get hold of, +and burnt many cabins in Daviess, some say 80, and some say 150." *** + + + * Lee naively remarks, "In justice to Joseph Smith I cannot say +that I ever heard him teach, or even encourage, men to pilfer or steal +little things."--"Mormonism Unveiled," p. 90. + + + ** W. Harris's "Mormonism Portrayed," p. 30. + + + *** "Brief History of the Church," p. 38. + +The Missourians retaliated in kind. Mormons were seized and whipped, and +their houses were burned. A lawless company (Pratt calls them banditti), +led by one Gilliam, embraced the opportunity to make raids in the Mormon +territory. It was soon found necessary to collect the outlying Mormons +at Far West and Adam-ondi-Ahman, where they were used for purposes both +of offence and defence. The movements of the Missourians were closely +watched, and preparations were made to burn any place from which a force +set out to attack the Saints. + +One of the Missouri officers, Captain Bogart, on October 23, warned some +Mormons to leave the county, and, with his company of thirty or forty +men, announced his intention to "give Far West thunder and lightning." +When this news reached Far West, Judge Higbee, of the county court, +ordered Lieutenant Colonel Hinckle to go out with a company, disperse +the "mob," and retake some prisoners. The Mormons assembled at midnight, +and about seventy-five volunteers started at once, under command of +Captain Patton, the Danite leader, whose nickname was "Fear Not," all on +horseback. When they approached Crooked River, on which Bogart's force +was encamped, fifteen men were sent in advance on foot to locate the +enemy. Just at dawn a rifle shot sounded, and a young Mormon, named +O'Barrion, fell mortally wounded. Captain Patton ordered a charge, and +led his men at a gallop down a hill to the river, under the bank of +which the Missourians were drawn up. The latter had an advantage, as +they were in the shade, and the Mormons were between them and the east, +which the dawn was just lighting. Exchanges of volleys occurred, and +then Captain Patton ordered his men to rush on with drawn swords--they +had no bayonets. This put the Missourians to flight, but just as they +fled Captain Patton received a mortal wound. Three Mormons in all were +killed as a result of this battle, and seven wounded, while Captain +Bogart reported the death of one man.* + + + * Ebenezer Robinson's account in The Return, p. 191. + + +The death of "Fear Not" was considered by the Mormons a great loss. He +was buried with the honors of war, says Robinson, "and at his grave a +solemn convention was made to avenge his death." Smith, in the funeral +sermon, reverted to his old tactics, attributing the Mormon losses to +the Lord's anger against his people, because of their unbelief and their +unwillingness to devote their worldly treasures to the church. + +The rout of Captain Bogart's force, which was a part of the state +militia, increased the animosity against the Mormons, and the wiser of +the latter believed that they would suffer a dire vengeance.* + + + * Corrill's "Brief History of the Church," p. 38. + + +This vengeance first made itself felt at a settlement called Hawn's Mill +(of which there are various spellings), some miles from Far West, where +there were a flour mill, blacksmith shop, and other buildings. The +Mormons there were advised, the day after the fight on Crooked River, +to move into Far West for protection, but the owners of the buildings, +knowing that these would be burned as soon as deserted, decided to +remain and defend their property. + +On October 30 a mounted force of Missourians appeared before the place. +The Mormons ran into the log blacksmith shop, which they thought would +serve them as a blockhouse, but it proved to be a slaughter-pen. The +Missourians surrounded it, and, sticking their rifles into every hole +and crack, poured in a deadly fire, killing, some reports say eighteen, +and some thirty-one, of the Mormons. The only persons in the town who +escaped found shelter in the woods. The Missourians did not lose a man. +When the firing ceased, they still showed no mercy, shooting a small boy +in the leg after dragging him out from under the bellows, and hacking to +death with a corn cutter an old man while he begged for his life. Dead +and wounded were thrown into a well, and some of the wounded, taken out +by rescuers from Far West, recovered. "I heard one of the militia tell +General Clark," says Corrill, "that a well twenty or thirty feet deep +was filled with their dead bodies to within three feet of the top."* + + + * Details of this massacre will be found in Lee's "Mormonism +Unveiled," pp. 78-80; in the Missouri "Correspondence, Orders, etc.," +p. 82; the Millennial Star, Vol. XVI, p. 507, and in Greene's "Facts +Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons from Missouri," pp. 21-24. + + +The Mormons have always considered this "massacre," as they called it, +the crowning outrage of their treatment in Missouri, and for many years +were especially bitter toward all participants in it. A letter from two +Mormons in the Frontier Guardian, dated October, 1849, describing the +disinterred human bones seen on their journey across the plains, said +that they recognized on the rude tombstone the names of some of their +Missouri persecutors: "Among others, we noted at the South Pass of the +Rocky Mountains the grave of one E. Dodd of Gallatin, Missouri. The +wolves had completely disinterred him. It is believed that he was the +same Dodd that took an active part as a prominent mobocrat in the +murder of the Saints at Hawn's Mill, Missouri; if so, it is a righteous +retribution." Two Mormon elders, describing a visit in 1889 to the +scenes of the Mormon troubles in Missouri, said, "The notorious Colonel +W. O. Jennings, who commanded the mob at the [Hawn's Mill] massacre, was +assaulted in Chillicothe, Missouri, on the evening of January 20, 1862, +by an unknown person, who shot him on the street with a revolver or +musket, as the Colonel was going home after dark." * They are silent as +to the avenger. + + + * "Infancy of the Church" (pamphlet). + + +Governor Boggs now began to realize the seriousness of the situation +that he was called to meet, and on October 26 he directed General John +B. Clark (who was not the ranking general) to raise, for the protection +of the citizens of Daviess County, four hundred mounted men. This order +he followed the next day with the following, which has become the most +famous of the orders issued during this campaign, under the designation +"the order of extermination":-- + +"HEADQUARTERS OF THE MILITIA, + +"CITY OF JEFFERSON, Oct. 27, 1838. + +"GEN. JOHN B. CLARK, + +"Sir:--Since the order of this morning to you, directing you to cause +four hundred mounted men to be raised within your Division, I have +received by Amos Rees, Esq., of Ray County and Wiley C. Williams, Esq., +one of my aids, information of the most appalling character, which +entirely changes the face of things, and places the Mormons in the +attitude of an open and avowed defiance of the laws, and of having made +war upon the people of this state. Your orders are, therefore, to hasten +your operations with all possible speed. + +"The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or +driven from the State if necessary for the public peace--their outrages +are beyond all description. If you can increase your force, you are +authorized to do so to any extent you may consider necessary. I have +just issued orders to Maj. Gen. Willock, of Marion County, to raise +five hundred men, and to march them to the northern part of Daviess, and +there unite with Gen. Doniphan, of Clay, who has been ordered with five +hundred men to proceed to the same point for the purpose of intercepting +the retreat of the Mormons to the north. They have been directed to +communicate with you by express; you can also communicate with them if +you find it necessary. + +"Instead therefore of proceeding, as at first directed, to reinstate +the citizens of Daviess in their homes, you will proceed immediately to +Richmond and then operate against the Mormons. Brig. Gen. Parks, of Ray, +has been ordered to have four hundred of his brigade in readiness to +join you at Richmond. The whole force will be placed under your command. + +"I am very respectfully, + +"Your ob't serv't, + +"L. W. Boggs, Commander-in-chief." + + +The "appalling information" received by the governor from his aids was +contained in a letter dated October 25, which stated that the Mormons +were "destroying all before them"; that they had burned Gallatin and +Mill Pond, and almost every house between these places, plundered the +whole country, and defeated Captain Bogart's company, and had determined +to burn Richmond that night. "These creatures," said the letter, "will +never stop until they are stopped by the strong hand of force, and +something must be done, and that speedily."* + + + * For text of letter, see "Correspondence, Orders, etc.," p. 59. + + +The language of Governor Boggs's letter to General Clark cannot be +defended. The Mormons have always made great capital of his declaration +that the Mormons "must be exterminated," and a man of judicial +temperament would have selected other words, no matter how necessary he +deemed it, for political reasons, to show his sympathy with the popular +cause. But, on the other hand, the governor was only accepting the +challenge given by Rigdon in his recent Fourth of July address, when +the latter declared that if a mob disturbed the Mormons, "it shall be +between us and them a war of extermination, for we will follow them +till the last drop of their blood is spilled, or else they will have to +exterminate us." What compromise there could have been between a band +of fanatics obeying men like Smith and Rigdon, and the class of settlers +who made up the early Missouri population, it is impossible to conceive. +The Mormons were simply impossible as neighbors, and it had become +evident that they could no more remain peaceably in the state than they +could a few years previously in Jackson County. + +General Atchison, of Smith's counsel, was not called on by the governor +in these latest movements, because, as the governor explained in a +letter to General Clark, "there was much dissatisfaction manifested +toward him by the people opposed to the Mormons." But he had seen his +mistake, and he united with General Lucas in a letter to the governor +under date of October 28, in which they said, "from late outrages +committed by the Mormons, civil war is inevitable," and urged the +governor's presence in the disturbed district. Governor Boggs excused +himself from complying with this request because of the near approach of +the meeting of the legislature. + +General Lucas, acting under his interpretation of the governor's order, +had set out on October 28 for Far West from near Richmond, with a force +large enough to alarm the Mormon leaders. Robinson, speaking of the +outlook from their standpoint at this time, says, "We looked for warm +work, as there were large numbers of armed men gathering in Daviess +County, with avowed determination of driving the Mormons from the +county, and we began to feel as determined that the Missourians should +be expelled from the county."* The Mormons did not hear of the approach +of General Lucas's force until it was near the town. Then the southern +boundary was hastily protected with a barricade of wagons and logs, +and the night of October 30-31 was employed by all the inhabitants in +securing their possessions for flight, in anticipation of a battle the +next day. + + + * The Return, Vol. I, p. 189. + + + +CHAPTER IX. -- THE FINAL EXPULSION FROM THE STATE + +At eight o'clock the next morning the commander of the militia sent a +flag of truce to the Mormons which Colonel Hinckle, for the Mormons, +met. General Lucas submitted the following terms, as necessary to carry +out the governor's orders: + +1. To give up their leaders to be tried and punished. + +2. To make an appropriation of their property, all who have taken up +arms, to the payment of their debts and indemnity for damage done by +them. + +3. That the balance should leave the State, and be protected out by +the militia, but be permitted to remain under protection until further +orders were received by the commander-in-chief. + +4. To give up the arms of every description, to be receipted for. + +While these propositions were under consideration, General Lucas asked +that Smith, Rigdon, Lyman Wight, P. P. Pratt, and G. W. Robinson be +given up as hostages, and this was done. Contemporary Mormon accounts +imputed treachery to Colonel Hinckle in this matter, and said that Smith +and his associates were lured into the militia camp by a ruse. +General Lucas's report to the governor says that the proposition for a +conference came from Hinckle. Hyrum Smith, in an account of the trial of +the prisoners, printed some years later in the Times and Seasons, +said that all the men who surrendered were that night condemned by +a court-martial to be shot, but were saved by General Doniphan's +interference. Lee's account agrees with this, but says that Smith +surrendered voluntarily, to save the lives of his followers. + +General Lucas received the surrender of Far West, on the terms named, in +advance of the arrival of General Clark, who was making forced marches. +After the surrender, General Lucas disbanded the main body of his force, +and set out with his prisoners for Independence, the original site +of Zion. General Clark, learning of this, ordered him to transfer the +prisoners to Richmond, which was done. + +Hearing that the guard left by General Lucas at Far West were committing +outrages, General Clark rode to that place accompanied by his field +officers. He found no disorder,* but instituted a military court of +inquiry, which resulted in the arrest of forty-six additional Mormons, +who were sent to Richmond for trial. The facts on which these arrests +were made were obtained principally from Dr. Avard, the Danite, who was +captured by a militia officer. "No one," General Clark says, "disclosed +any useful matter until he was captured." + + + * "Much property was destroyed by the troops in town during their +stay there, such as burning house logs, rails, corn cribs, boards, etc., +the using of corn and hay, the plundering of houses, the killing +of cattle, sheep, and hogs, and also the taking of horses not their +own."--"Mormon Memorial to Missouri Legislature," December 10, 1838. + +After these arrests had been made, General Clark called the other +Mormons at Far West together, and addressed them, telling them that they +could now go to their fields for corn, wood, etc., but that the terms of +the surrender must be strictly lived up to. Their leading men had +been given up, their arms surrendered, and their property assigned as +stipulated, but it now remained for them to leave the state forthwith. +On that subject the general said:-- + +"The character of this state has suffered almost beyond redemption, from +the character, conduct, and influence that you have exerted; and we deem +it an act of justice to restore her character to its former standing +among the states by every proper means. The orders of the governor to +me were that you should be exterminated and not allowed to remain in +the state. And had not your leaders been given up, and the terms of the +treaty complied with, before this time you and your families would have +been destroyed, and your houses in ashes. There is a discretionary +power vested in my hands, which, considering your circumstances, I shall +exercise for a season. You are indebted to me for this clemency. + +"I do not say that you shall go now, but you must not think of staying +here another season, or of putting in crops, for the moment you do this +the citizens will be upon you; and if I am called here again, in a case +of a non-compliance of a treaty made, do not think that I shall do as I +have done now. You need not expect any mercy, but extermination, for +I am determined the governor's orders shall be executed. As for your +leaders, do not think, do not imagine for a moment, do not let it enter +into your mind, that they will be delivered and restored to you again, +for their fate is fixed, their die is cast, their doom is sealed. + +"I am sorry, gentlemen, to see so many apparently intelligent men found +in the situation you are; and O! if I could invoke the great spirit, +the unknown God, to rest upon and deliver you from that awful chain of +superstition, and liberate you from those fetters of fanaticism with +which you are bound, that you no longer do homage to a man. I would +advise you to scatter abroad, and never organize yourselves with +bishops, presidents, etc., lest you excite the jealousies of the people, +and subject yourselves to the same calamities that have now come +upon you. You have always been the aggressors: you have brought upon +yourselves these difficulties by being disaffected, and not being +subject to rule. And my advice is that you become as other citizens, +lest by a recurrence of these events you bring upon yourselves +irretrievable ruin." + +General Clark then marched with his prisoners to Richmond, where the +trial of all the accused began on November 12, before Judge A. A. King. +By November 29 the called-out militia had been disbanded, and on that +date General Clark made his final report to the governor. In this +he asserted that the militia under him had conducted themselves as +honorable citizen soldiers, and enclosed a certificate signed by five +Mormons, including W. W. Phelps, Colonel Hinckle, and John Corrill, +confirming this statement, and saying, "We have no hesitation in saying +that the course taken by General Clark with the Mormons was necessary +for the public peace, and that the Mormons are generally satisfied with +his course." + +In his summing up of the results of the campaign, General Clark said: + +"It [the Mormon insurrection] had for its object Dominion, the ultimate +subjugation of this State and the Union to the laws of a few men called +the Presidency. Their church was to be built up at any rate, peaceably +if they could, forcibly if necessary. These people had banded themselves +together in societies, the object of which was to first drive from their +society such as refused to join them in their unholy purposes, and then +to plunder the surrounding country, and ultimately to subject the state +to their rule." + +"The whole number of the Mormons killed through the whole difficulty, so +far as I can ascertain, are about forty, and several wounded. There has +been one citizen killed, and about fifteen badly wounded."* + + + * "Correspondence, Orders, etc.," p. 92. + +Brigadier General R. Wilson was sent with his command to settle the +Mormon question in Daviess County. Finding the town of Adamondi-Ahman +unguarded, he placed guards around it, and gathered in the Mormons of +the neighborhood, to the number of about two hundred. Most of these, he +explained in his report, were late comers from Canada and the northern +border of the United States, and were living mostly in tents, without +any adequate provision for the winter. Those against whom criminal +charges had been made were placed under arrest, and the others were +informed that General Wilson would protect them for ten days, and would +guarantee their safety to Caldwell County or out of the state. "This +appeared to me," said General Wilson, in his report to General Clark, +"to be the only course to prevent a general massacre." In this report +General Wilson presented the following picture of the situation there +as he found it: "It is perfectly impossible for me to convey to you +anything like the awful state of things which exists here--language is +inadequate to the task. The citizens of a whole county first plundered, +and then their houses and other buildings burnt to ashes; without +houses, beds, furniture, or even clothing in many instances, to meet the +inclemency of the weather. I confess that my feelings have been shocked +with the gross brutality of these Mormons, who have acted more like +demons from the infernal regions than human beings. Under these +circumstances, you will readily perceive that it would be perfectly +impossible for me to protect the Mormons against the just indignation of +the citizens.... The Mormons themselves appeared pleased with the idea +of getting away from their enemies and a justly insulted people, and I +believe all have applied and received permits to leave the county; and +I suppose about fifty families have left, and others are hourly leaving, +and at the end of ten days Mormonism will not be known in Daviess +county. This appeared to me to be the only course left to prevent a +general massacre."* + + + * "Correspondence, Orders, etc.," p. 78. + +The Mormons began to depart at once, and in ten days nearly all had +left. Lee, who acted as guide to General Wilson, and whose wife and babe +were at Adamondi-Ahman, says: + +"Every house in Adamondi-Ahman was searched by the troops for stolen +property. They succeeded in finding very much of the Gentile property +that had been captured by the Saints in the various raids they made +through the country. Bedding of every kind and in large quantities was +found and reclaimed by the owners. Even spinning wheels, soap barrels, +and other articles were recovered. Each house where stolen property was +found was certain to receive a Missouri blessing from the troops. The +men who had been most active in gathering plunder had fled to Illinois +to escape the vengeance of the people, leaving their families to suffer +for the sins of the believing Saints."* + + + * "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 89. + +We may now follow the fortunes of the Mormon prisoners. On arriving at +Richmond, they were confined in the unfinished brick court-house. The +only inside work on this building that was completed was a partly laid +floor, and to this the prisoners were restricted by a railing, with a +guard inside and out. "Two three-pail iron kettles for boiling our meat, +and two or more iron bake kettles, or Dutch ovens, were furnished us," +says Robinson, "together with sacks of corn meal and meat in bulk. +We did our own cooking. This arrangement suited us very well, and we +enjoyed ourselves as well as men could under such circumstances."* + + + * The Return, Vol. I, p. 234. + +Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Rigdon, Lyman Wight, Caleb Baldwin, and A. McRea +were soon transferred to the jail at Liberty. The others were then put +into the debtor's room of Richmond jail, a two-story log structure which +was not well warmed, but they were released on light bail in a few days. + +A report of the testimony given at the hearing of the Mormon prisoners +before judge King will be found in the "Correspondence, Orders, etc.," +published by order of the Missouri legislature, pp. 97-149. Among the +Mormons who gave evidence against the prisoners were Avard, the Danite, +John Whitmer, W. W. Phelps, John Corrill, and Colonel Hinckle. There +were thirty-seven witnesses for the state and seven for the defence. As +showing the character of the testimony, the following selections will +suffice. + +Avard told the story of the origin of the Danites, and said that he +considered Joseph Smith their organizer; that the constitution was +approved by Smith and his counsellors at Rigdon's house, and that the +members felt themselves as much bound to obey the heads of the church as +to obey God. Just previous to the arrival of General Lucas at Far West, +Smith had assembled his force, and told them that, for every one they +lacked in numbers as compared with their opponents, the Lord would +send angels to fight for them. He presented the text of the indictment +against Cowdery, Whitmer, and others, drawn up by Rigdon. + +John Corrill testified about the effect of Rigdon's "salt sermon," and +also that he had attended meetings of the Danites, and had expressed +disapproval of the doctrine that, if one brother got into difficulty, it +was the duty of the others to help him out, right or wrong; that Smith +and Rigdon attended one of these meetings, and that he had heard Smith +declare at a meeting, "if the people would let us alone, we would preach +the Gospel to them in peace, but if they came on us to molest us, we +would establish our religion by the sword, and that he would become +to this generation a second Mohammed"; just after the expulsion of the +Mormons from Dewitt, Smith declared hostilities against their opponents +in Caldwell and Daviess counties, and had a resolution passed, looking +to the confiscation of the property of the brethren who would not join +him in the march; and on a Sunday he advised the people that they might +at times take property which at other times it would be wrong to take, +citing David's eating of the shew bread, and the Saviour's plucking ears +of corn.* Reed Peck testified to the same effect. + + + * Corrill, Avard, Hinckle, Marsh, and others were formally +excommunicated at a council held at Quincy, Illinois, on March 17, 1839, +over which Brigham Young presided. + +John Clemison testified to the presence of Smith at the early meetings +of the Danites; that Rigdon and Smith had advised that those who were +backward in joining his fighting force should be placed in the front +ranks at the point of pitchforks; that a great deal of Gentile property +was brought into Mormon camps, and that "it was frequently observed +among the troops that the time had come when the riches of the Gentiles +should be consecrated to the state." + +W. W. Phelps testified that in the previous April he had heard Rigdon +say, at a meeting in Far West, that they had borne persecution and +lawsuits long enough, and that, if a sheriff came with writs against +them, they would kill him, and that Smith approved his words. Phelps +said that the character of Rigdon's "salt sermon" was known and +discussed in advance of its delivery. + +John Whitmer testified that, soon after the preaching of the "salt +sermon," a leading Mormon told him that they did not intend to regard +any longer "the niceties of the law of the land," as "the kingdom spoken +of by the Prophet Daniel had been set up." + +The testimony concerning the Danite organization and Smith's threats +against the Missourians received confirmation in an affidavit by no +less a person than Thomas B. Marsh, the First President of the twelve +Apostles, before a justice of the peace in Ray County, in October, 1838. +In this Marsh said:-- + +"The plan of said Smith, the Prophet, is to take this state; and +he professes to his people to intend taking the United States and +ultimately the whole world. The Prophet inculcates the notion, and it is +believed by every true Mormon, that Smith's prophecies are superior +to the law of the land. I have heard the Prophet say that he would yet +tread down his enemies, and walk over their dead bodies; that, if he +was not let alone, he would be a second Mohammed to this generation, and +that he would make it one gore of blood from the Rocky Mountains to the +Atlantic Ocean." + +This affidavit was accompanied by an affidavit by Orson Hyde, who was +afterward so prominent in the councils of the church, stating that he +knew most of Marsh's statements to be true, and believed the others to +be true also. + +Of the witnesses for the defence, two women and one man gave testimony +to establish an alibi for Lyman Wight at the time of the last Mormon +expedition to Daviess County; Rigdon's daughter Nancy testified that +she had heard Avard say that he would swear to a lie to accomplish an +object; and J. W. Barlow gave testimony to show that Smith and Rigdon +were not with the men who took part in the battle on Crooked Creek. + +Rigdon, in an "Appeal to the American People," which he wrote soon +after, declared that this trial was a compound between an inquisition +and a criminal court, and that the testimony of Avard was given to save +his own life. "A part of an armed body of men," he says, "stood in the +presence of the court to see that the witnesses swore right, and another +part was scouring the country to drive out of it every witness they +could hear of whose testimony would be favorable to the defendants. If a +witness did not swear to please the court, he or she would be threatened +to be cast into prison.... A man by the name of Allen began to tell the +story of Bogart's burning houses in the south part of Caldwell; he was +kicked out of the house, and three men put after him with loaded guns, +and he hardly escaped with his life. Finally, our lawyers, General +Doniphan and Amos Rees, told us not to bring our witnesses there at +all, for if we did, there would not be one of them left for the final +trial.... As to making any impression on King, if a cohort of angels +were to come down and declare we were clear, Doniphan said it would be +all the same, for he had determined from the beginning to cast us into +prison." Smith alleged that judge King was biased against them because +his brother-in-law had been killed during the early conflicts in Jackson +County. + +Several of the defendants were discharged during or after the close of +the hearing. Smith, Rigdon, Lyman Wight, and three others were ordered +committed to the Clay County jail at Liberty on a charge of treason; +Parley P. Pratt and four others to the Ray County jail on a charge of +murder; and twenty-three others were ordered to give bail on a charge of +arson, burglary, robbery, and larceny, and all but eight of these were +locked up in default of bail. The prisoners confined at Liberty +secured a writ of habeas corpus soon after, but only Rigdon was ordered +released, and he thought it best for his safety to go back to the jail. +He afterward, with the connivance of the sheriff and jailer, made his +escape at night, and reached Quincy, Illinois, in February, 1839. + +P. P. Pratt, in his "Late Persecution," says that the prisoners were +kept in chains most of the time, and that Riodon, although ill, "was +compelled to sleep on the floor, with a chain and padlock round his +ankle, and fastened to six others." Hyrum Smith, in a "Communication to +the Saints" printed a year later, says; "We suffered much from want of +proper food, and from the nauseous cell in which I was confined." + +Joseph Smith remained in the Liberty jail until April, 1839. At one time +all the prisoners nearly made their escape, "but unfortunately for us, +the timber of the wall being very hard, our augur handles gave out, +which hindered us longer than we expected," and the plan was discovered. + +The prophet employed a good deal of his time in jail in writing long +epistles to the church. He gave out from there also three "revelations," +the chief direction of which was that the brethren should gather up all +possible information about their persecutions, and make out a careful +statement of their property losses. His letters reveal the character +of the man as it had already been exhibited--headlong in his purposes, +vindictive toward any enemy. He says in his biography that he paid his +lawyers about $50,000 "in cash, lands, etc." (a pretty good sum for the +refugee from Ohio to amass so soon), but got little practical assistance +from them, "for sometimes they were afraid to act on account of the mob, +and sometimes they were so drunk as to incapacitate them for business." +In one of his letters to the church he thus speaks of some of his recent +allies, "This poor man [W. W. Phelps] who professes to be much of a +prophet, has no other dumb ass to ride but David Whitmer, or to forbid +his madness when he goes up to curse Israel; but this not being of the +same kind as Balaam's, therefore, notwithstanding the angel appeared +unto him, yet he could not sufficiently penetrate his understanding but +that he brays out cursings instead of blessings."* + + + * Times and Seasons, Vol. I, p. 82. + + +On April 6, Smith and his fellow-prisoners were taken to Daviess +County for trial. The judge and jury before whom their cases came were, +according to his account, all drunk. Smith and four others were promptly +indicted for "murder, treason, burglary, arson, larceny, theft, and +stealing." They at once secured a change of venue to Boone County, +120 miles east, and set out for that place on April 15, but they never +reached there. Smith says they were enabled to escape because their +guard got drunk. In a newspaper interview printed many years later, +General Doniphan is quoted as saying that he had it on good authority +that Smith paid the sheriff and his guards $1100 to allow the prisoners +to escape. Ebenezer Robinson says that Joseph and Hyrum were allowed to +ride away on two fine horses, and that, a few Weeks later, he saw the +sheriff at Quincy making Joseph a friendly visit, at which time he +received pay for the animals.* The party arrived at Quincy, Illinois, +on April 22, and were warmly welcomed by the brethren who had preceded +them. Among these was Brigham Young, who was among those who had found +it necessary to flee the state before the final surrender was arranged. +The Missouri authorities, as we shall see, for a long time continued +their efforts to secure the extradition of Smith, but he never returned +to Missouri. + +As the Mormons had tried to set aside their original agreement with +the Jackson County people, so, while their leaders were in jail, they +endeavored to find means to break their treaty with General Lucas. +Their counsel, General Atchison, was a member of the legislature, and +he warmly espoused their cause. They sent in a petition,* which John +Corrill presented, giving a statement in detail of the opposition they +had encountered in the state, and asking for the enactment of a law +"rescinding the order of the governor to drive us from the state, and +also giving us the sanction of the legislature to inherit our lands in +peace"; as well as disapproving of the "deed of trust," as they called +the second section of the Lucas treaty. The petition was laid on +the table. An effort for an investigation of the whole trouble by a +legislative committee was made, and an act to that effect was passed +in 1839, but nothing practical came of it. When the Mormon memorial was +called up, its further consideration was postponed until July, and then +the Mormons knew that they had no alternative except to leave the state. + + + * For full text, see Millennial Star, Vol. XVI, pp. 586-589. + + +While the prisoners were in jail, things had not quieted down in the +Mormon counties. The decisive action of the state authorities had given +the local Missourians to understand that the law of the land was on +their side, and when the militia withdrew they took advantage of their +opportunity. Mormon property was not respected, and what was left to +those people in the way of horses, cattle, hogs, and even household +belongings was taken by the bands of men who rode at pleasure,* and who +claimed that they were only regaining what the Mormons had stolen +from them. The legislature appropriated $2000 for the relief of such +sufferers. + + + * See M. Arthur's letter, "Correspondence, Orders, etc.," p. 94. + + +Facing the necessity of moving entirely out of the state, the Mormons, +as they had reached the western border line of civilization, now turned +their face eastward to Quincy, Illinois, where some of their members +were already established. Not until April 20 did the last of them leave +Far West. The migration was attended with much suffering, as could not +in such circumstances be avoided. The people of the counties through +which they passed were, however, not hostile, and Mormon writers have +testified that they received invitations to stop and settle. These were +declined, and they pressed on to the banks of the Mississippi, where, +in February and March, there were at one time more than 130 families, +waiting for the moving ice to enable them to cross, many of them +without food, and the best sheltered depending on tents made of their +bedclothing.* + + + * Green's "Facts Relative to the Expulsion." + + +What the total of the pecuniary losses of the Mormons in Missouri was +cannot be accurately estimated. They asserted that in Jackson County +alone, $120,000 worth of their property was destroyed, and that fifteen +thousand of their number fled from the state. Smith, in a statement +of his losses made after his arrival in Illinois, placed them at +$1,000,000. In a memorial presented to Congress at this time the losses +in Jackson County were placed at $175,000, and in the state of Missouri +at $2,000,000. The efforts of the Mormons to secure redress were long +continued. Not only was Congress appealed to, but legislatures of other +states were urged to petition in their behalf. The Senate committee at +Washington reported that the matter was entirely within the jurisdiction +of the state of Missouri. One of the latest appeals was addressed by +Smith at Nauvoo in December, 1843, to his native state, Vermont, calling +on the Green Mountain boys, not only to assist him in attaining justice +in Missouri, "but also to humble and chastise or abase her for the +disgraces she has brought upon constitutional liberty, until she atones +for her sin." + +The final act of the Mormon authorities in Missouri was somewhat +dramatic. Smith in his "revelation" of April 8, 1838, directing the +building of a Temple at Far West, had (the Lord speaking) ordered the +beginning to be made on the following Fourth of July, adding, "in one +year from this day let them recommence laying the foundation of my +house." The anniversary found the latest Missouri Zion deserted, and +its occupants fugitives; but the command of the Lord must be obeyed. +Accordingly, the twelve Apostles journeyed secretly to Far West, +arriving there about midnight of April 26, 1839. A conference was at +once held, and, after transacting some miscellaneous business, including +the expulsion of certain seceding members, all adjourned to the selected +site of the Temple, where, after the singing of a hymn, the foundation +was relaid by rolling a large stone to one corner.* The Apostles +then returned to Illinois as quietly as possible. The leader of this +expedition was Brigham Young, who had succeeded T. B. Marsh as President +of the Twelve. + + + * The modern post-office name of Far West is Kerr. All the Mormon +houses there have disappeared. Traces of the foundation of the Temple, +which in places was built to a height of three or four feet, are still +discernible. + + +Thus ended the early history of the Mormon church in Missouri. + + + + +BOOK IV. -- IN ILLINOIS + + +CHAPTER I. -- THE RECEPTION OF THE MORMONS + +The state of Illinois, when the Mormons crossed the Missouri River to +settle in it, might still be considered a pioneer country. Iowa, to the +west of it, was a territory, and only recently organized as such. The +population of the whole state was only 467,183 in 1840, as compared +with 4,821,550 in 1900. Young as it was, however, the state had had some +severe financial experiences, which might have served as warnings to +the new-comers. A debt of more than $14,000,000 had been contracted for +state improvements, and not a railroad or a canal had been completed. +"The people," says Ford, "looked one way and another with surprise, +and were astonished at their own folly." The payment of interest on the +state debt ceased after July, 1841, and "in a short time Illinois became +a stench in the nostrils of the civilized world.... The impossibility +of selling kept us from losing population; the fear of disgrace or high +taxes prevented us from gaining materially."* The State Bank and the +Shawneetown Bank failed in 1842, and when Ford became governor in that +year he estimated that the good money in the state in the hands of the +people did not exceed one year's interest on the public debt. + + + * Ford's "History of Illinois," Chap. VII. + + +The lawless conditions in many parts of the state in those days can +scarcely be realized now. It was in 1847 that the Rev. Owen Lovejoy +(handwritten comment in the book says "Elijah P. Lovejoy." Transcriber) +was killed at Alton in maintaining his right to print there an abolition +newspaper. All over the state, settlers who had occupied lands as +"squatters" defended their claims by force, and serious mobs often +resulted. Large areas of military lands were owned by non-residents, +who were in very bad favor with the actual settlers. These settlers made +free use of the timber on such lands, and the non-residents, failing +to secure justice at law, finally hired preachers, who were paid by the +sermon to preach against the sin of "hooking" timber.* + + + * Ford's "History of Illinois," Chap. VI. + + +Bands of desperadoes in the northern counties openly defied the officers +of the law, and, in one instance, burned down the courthouse (in Ogle +County in 1841) in order to release some of their fellows who were +awaiting trial. One of these gangs ten years earlier had actually built, +in Pope County, a fort in which they defied the authorities, and against +which a piece of artillery had to be brought before it could be taken. +Even while the conflict between the Mormons was going on, in 1846, +there was vitality enough in this old organization, in Pope and Massac +counties, to call for the interposition of a band of "regulators," who +made many arrests, not hesitating to employ torture to secure from one +prisoner information about his associates. Governor Ford sent General +J. T. Davies there, to try to effect a peaceable arrangement of the +difficulties, but he failed to do so, and the "regulators," who found +the county officers opposed to them, drove out of the county the +sheriff, the county clerk, and the representative elect to the +legislature. When the judge of the Massac Circuit Court charged the +grand jury strongly against the "regulators," they, with sympathizers +from Kentucky, threatened to lynch him, and actually marched in such +force to the county seat that the sheriff's posse surrendered, and the +mob let their friends out of jail, and drowned some members of the posse +in the Ohio River. + +The reception and treatment of the Mormons in Illinois, and the success +of the new-comers in carrying out their business and political schemes, +must be viewed in connection with these incidents in the early history +of the state. + +The greeting of the Mormons in Illinois, in its practical shape, had +both a political and a business reason.* Party feeling ran very high +throughout the country in those days. The House of Representatives at +Washington, after very great excitement, organized early in December, +1839, by choosing a Whig Speaker, and at the same time the Whig National +Convention, at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, nominated General W. H. +Harrison for President. Thus the expulsion from Missouri occurred on the +eve of one of our most exciting presidential campaigns, and the Illinois +politicians were quick to appraise the value of the voting strength of +the immigrants. As a residence of six months in the state gave a man the +right to vote, the Mormon vote would count in the presidential election. + + + * "The first great error committed by the people of Hancock +County was in accepting too readily the Mormon story of persecution. +It was continually rung in their ears, and believed as often as +asserted."--Gregg, "History of Hancock County," p. 270. + + +Accordingly, we find that in February, 1839, the Democratic Association +of Quincy, at a public meeting in the court-house, received a report +from a committee previously appointed, strongly in favor of the +refugees, and adopted resolutions condemning the treatment of the +Mormons by the people and officers of Missouri. The Quincy Argus +declared that, because of this treatment, Missouri was "now so fallen +that we could wish her star stricken out from the bright constellation +of the Union." In April, 1839, Rigdon wrote to the "Saints in prison" +that Governor Carlin of Illinois and his wife "enter with all the +enthusiasm of their nature" into his plan to have the governor of each +state present to Congress the unconstitutional course of Missouri toward +the Mormons, with a view to federal relief. Governor Lucas of Iowa +Territory, in the same year (Iowa had only been organized as a territory +the year before, and was not admitted as a state until 1845), replying +to a query about the reception the Mormons would receive in his domain, +said: "Their religious opinions I consider have nothing to do with our +political transactions. They are citizens of the United States, and are +entitled to the same political rights and legal protection that other +citizens are entitled to." He gave Rigdon at the same time cordial +letters of introduction to President Van Buren and Governor Shannon +of Ohio, and Rigdon received a similar letter to the President, +recommending him "as a man of piety and a valuable citizen," signed by +Governor Carlin, United States Senator Young, County Clerk Wren, and +leading business men of Quincy. Thus began that recognition of the +Mormons as a political power in Illinois which led to concessions +to them that had so much to do with finally driving them into the +wilderness. + +The business reason for the welcome of the Mormons in Illinois and Iowa +was the natural ambition to secure an increase of population. In all of +Hancock County there were in 1830 only 483 inhabitants as compared with +32,215 in 1900. Along with this public view of the matter was a private +one. A Dr. Isaac Galland owned (or claimed title to) a large tract of +land on both sides of the border line between Illinois and Iowa, that in +Iowa being included in what was known as "the half-breed tract," an +area of some 119,000 acres which, by a treaty between the United States +government and the Sacs and Foxes, was reserved to descendants of Indian +women of those tribes by white fathers, and the title to much of which +was in dispute. As soon as the Mormons began to cross into Illinois, +Galland approached them with an offer of about 20,000 acres between the +Mississippi and Des Moines rivers at $2 per acre, to be paid in twenty +annual instalments, without interest. A meeting of the refugees was held +in Quincy in February, 1839, to consider this offer, but the vote was +against it. The failure of the efforts in Ohio and Missouri to establish +the Mormons as a distinct community had made many of Smith's followers +sceptical about the success of any new scheme with this end in view, and +at this conference several members, including so influential a man +as Bishop Partridge, openly expressed their doubt about the wisdom of +another gathering of the Saints. Galland, however, pursued the subject +in a letter to D. W. Rodgers, inviting Rigdon and others to inspect +the tract with him, and assuring the Mormons of his sympathy in their +sufferings, and "deep solicitude for your future triumphant conquest +over every enemy." Rigdon, Partridge, and others accepted Galland's +invitation, but reported against purchasing his land, and the refugees +began scattering over the country around Quincy. + + + +CHAPTER II. -- THE SETTLEMENT OF NAUVOO + +Smith's leadership was now to have another illustration. Others might be +discouraged by past persecutions and business failures, and be ready to +abandon the great scheme which the prophet had so often laid before them +in the language of "revelation"; but it was no part of Smith's character +to abandon that scheme, and remain simply an object of lessened respect, +with a scattered congregation. He had been kept advised of Galland's +proposal, and, two days after his arrival in Quincy, we find him, on +April 24, presiding at a church council which voted to instruct him with +two associates to visit Iowa and select there a location for a church +settlement, and which advised all the brethren who could do so to move +to the town of Commerce, Illinois. Thus were the doubters defeated, and +the proposal to scatter the flock brought to a sudden end. Smith and his +two associates set out at once to make their inspection. + +The town of Commerce had been laid out (on paper) in 1834 by two Eastern +owners of the property, A. White and J. B. Teas, and adjoining its +northern border H. R. Hotchkiss of New Haven, Connecticut, had mapped +out Commerce City. Neither enterprise had proved a success, and when the +Mormon agents arrived there the place had scarcely attained the dignity +of a settlement, the only buildings being one storehouse, two frame +dwellings and two blockhouses. The Mormon agents, on May 1, bought two +farms there, one for $5000 and one for $9000 (known afterward as the +White purchase), and on August 9 they bought of Hotchkiss five hundred +acres for the sum of $53,500. Bishop Knight, for the church, soon +afterward purchased part of the town of Keokuk, Iowa, a town called +Nashville six miles above, a part of the town of Montrose, four miles +above Nashville, and thirty thousand acres in the "half-breed tract," +which included Galland's original offer, and ten thousand acres +additional. + +Thus was Smith prepared to make another attempt to establish his +followers in a permanent abiding-place. But how, it may be asked, could +the prophet reconcile this abandonment of the Missouri Zion and this +new site for a church settlement with previous revelations? By further +"revelation," of course. Such a mouthpiece of God can always enlighten +his followers provided he can find speech, and Smith was not slow of +utterance. While in jail in Liberty he had advised a committee which was +sent to him from Illinois to sell all the lands in Missouri, and in a +letter to the Saints, written while a prisoner, he spoke favorably of +Galland's offer, saying, "The Saints ought to lay hold of every door +that shall seem to be opened unto them to obtain foothold on the earth." +In order to make perfectly clear the new purpose of the Lord in regard +to Zion he gave out a long "revelation" (Sec. 124), which is +dated Nauvoo, January 19, 1841, and which contains the following +declarations:-- + +"Verily, verily I say unto you, that when I give a commandment to any +of the sons of men to do a work under my name, and those sons of men go +with all their might and with all they have, to perform that work and +cease not their diligence, and their enemies come upon them and hinder +them from performing that work, behold, it behooveth me to require that +work no more at the hands of those sons of men, but to accept their +offerings. + +"And the iniquity and transgression of my holy laws and commandments I +will visit upon the heads of those who hindered my work, unto the third +and fourth generation, so long as they repent not and hate me, saith the +Lord God. + +"Therefore for this cause have I accepted the offerings of those whom I +commanded to build up a city and house unto my name in Jackson County, +Missouri, and were hindered by their enemies, saith the Lord your God." + +This announcement seems to have been accepted without question by +the faithful, as reconciling the failure in Missouri with the new +establishment farther east. + +The financiering of the new land purchases did credit to Smith's genius +in that line. For some of the smaller tracts a part payment in cash was +made. Hotchkiss accepted for his land two notes signed by Smith and his +brother Hyrum and Rigdon, one payable in ten, and the other in twenty +years. Galland took notes, and, some time later, as explained in a +letter to the Saints abroad, the Mormon lands in Missouri, "in payment +for the whole amount, and in addition to the first purchase we have +exchanged lands with him in Missouri to the amount of $80,000."* +Galland's title to the Iowa tract was vigorously assailed by Iowa +newspapers some years later. What cash he eventually realized from the +transaction does not appear.** Smith had influence enough over him +to secure his conversion to the Mormon belief, and he will be found +associated with the leaders in Nauvoo enterprises. + + + * Times and Seasons, Vol. II, p. 275. + + + ** "Galland died a pauper in Iowa."--"Mormon Portraits," p. 253. + + +The Hotchkiss notes gave Smith a great deal of trouble. Notwithstanding +the influx of immigrants to Nauvoo and the growth of the place, which +ought to have brought in large profits from the sale of lots, the +accrued interest due to Hotchkiss in two years amounted to about $6000. +Hotchkiss earnestly urged its payment, and Smith was in dire straits to +meet his demands. In a correspondence between them, in 1841, Smith told +Hotchkiss that he had agreed to forego interest for five years, and not +to "force payment" even then. Smith assured Hotchkiss that the part of +the city bought from him was "a deathly sickly hole" on which they had +been able to realize nothing, "although," he added, with unblushing +affrontery for the head of a church, "we have been keeping up +appearances and holding out inducements to encourage immigration that we +scarcely think justifiable in consequence of the mortality that almost +invariably awaits those who come from far distant parts."* In pursuance +of this same policy (in a letter dated October 12, 1841), the Eastern +brethren were urged to transfer their lands there to Hotchkiss in +payment of the notes, and to accept lots in Nauvoo from the church in +exchange. + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XVIII, p. 631. + + +The name of the town was changed to Nauvoo in April, 1840, with +the announcement that this name was of Hebrew origin, signifying "a +beautiful place."* + + + * In answer to a query about this alleged derivation of the name +of the city, a competent Hebrew scholar writes to me: "The nearest +approach to Nauvoo in Hebrew is an adjective which would be +transliterated Naveh, meaning pleasant, a rather rare word. The letter +correctly represented by v could not possibly do the double duty of uv, +nor could a of the Hebrew ever be au in English, nor eh of the Hebrew be +oo in English. Students of theology at Middletown, Connecticut, used +to have a saying that that name was derived from Moses by dropping +'iddletown' and adding 'mass.'" + + + +CHAPTER III. -- THE BUILDING UP OF THE CITY--FOREIGN PROSELYTING + +The geographical situation of Nauvoo had something in its favor. Lying +on the east bank of the Mississippi, which is there two miles wide, it +had a water frontage on three sides, because of a bend in the stream, +and the land was somewhat rising back from the river. But its water +front was the only thing in its favor. "The place was literally a +wilderness," says Smith. "The land was mostly covered with trees and +bushes, and much of it so wet that it was with the utmost difficulty a +foot man could get through, and totally impossible for teams. Commerce +was so unhealthy very few could live there, but, believing it might +become a healthy place by the blessing of heaven to the Saints, and no +more eligible place presenting itself, I considered it wisdom to make an +attempt to build up a city." + +Contemporary accounts say that most of the refugees from Missouri +suffered from chills and fevers during their first year in the new +settlement. Smith, in his autobiography, laments the mortality among the +settlers. The Rev. Henry Caswall, in his description of three days at +Nauvoo in 1842, says:-- + +"I was informed again and again in Montrose, Iowa, that nearly half +of the English who emigrated to Nauvoo in 1841 died soon after their +arrival... In his sermon at Montrose in May 9, 1841, the following words +of most Christian consolation were delivered by the Prophet to the poor +deluded English: 'Many of the English who have lately come here have +expressed great disappointment on their arrival. Such persons have every +reason to be satisfied in this beautiful and fertile country. If they +choose to complain, they may; but I don't want to be troubled with their +complaints. If they are not satisfied here, I have only this to say to +them, "Don't stay whining about me, but go back to England, and go to +h--l and be d--d."'"* + + + *"City of the Mormons," p. 55. + + +Brigham Young, in after years, thus spoke of Smith's exhibition of +miraculous healing during the year after their arrival in Illinois: +"Joseph commenced in his own house and dooryard, commanding the sick, +in the name of Jesus Christ, to arise and be made whole, and they were +healed according to his word. He then continued to travel from house +to house, healing the sick as he went."* Any attempt to reconcile +this statement by Young with the previously cited testimony about the +mortality of the place would be futile. + + + * "Life of Brigham Young" (Cannon & Son, publishers), p. 32. + + +The growth of the town, however, was more rapid than that of any of +the former Mormon settlements. The United States census shows that the +population of Hancock County, Illinois, increased from 483 in 1830 to +9946 in 1840. Statements regarding the population of Nauvoo during the +Mormon occupancy are conflicting and often exaggerated. In a letter +to the elders in England, printed in the Times and Seasons of January, +1841, Smith said, "There are at present about 3000 inhabitants in +Nauvoo." The same periodical, in an article on the city, on December +15, 1841, said that it was "a densely populated city of near 10,000 +inhabitants." A visitor, describing the place in a letter in the +Columbus (Ohio) Advocate of March, 1842, said that it contained about +7000 persons, and that the buildings were small and much scattered, log +cabins predominating. The Times and Seasons of October, 1842, said, "It +will be no more than probably correct if we allow the city to contain +between 7000 and 8000 houses, with a population of 14,000 or 15,000," +with two steam mills and other manufacturing concerns in operation. +W. W. Phelps estimated the population in 1844 at 14,000, almost all +professed Mormons. The Times and Seasons in 1845 said that a census +just taken showed a population of 11,057 in the city and one third more +outside the city limits. + +As soon as the Mormons arrived, Nauvoo was laid out in blocks measuring +about 180 by 200 feet, with a river frontage of more than three miles. +An English visitor to the place in 1843 wrote "The city is of great +dimensions, laid out in beautiful order; the streets are wide and cross +each other at right angles, which will add greatly to its order and +magnificence when finished. The city rises on a quick incline from the +rolling Mississippi, and as you stand near the Temple you may gaze on +the picturesque scenery round. At your side is the Temple, the wonder of +the world; round about and beneath you may behold handsome stores, large +mansions, and fine cottages, interspersed with varied scenery."* + + + * Mackay's "The Mormons," p. 128. + + +Whatever the exact population of the place may have been, its rapid +growth is indisputable. The cause of this must be sought, not in natural +business reasons, such as have given a permanent increase of population +to so many of our Western cities, but chiefly in active and aggressive +proselyting work both in this country and in Europe. This work was +assisted by the sympathy which the treatment of the Mormons had very +generally secured for them. Copies of Mormon Bibles were rare outside of +the hands of the brethren, and the text of Smith's "revelations" bearing +on his property designs in Missouri was known to comparatively few even +in the church. While the Nauvoo edition of the "Doctrine and Covenants" +was in course of publication, the Times and Seasons, on January 1, 1842, +said that it would be published in the spring, "but, many of our readers +being deprived of the privilege of perusing its valuable pages, we +insert the first section." Mormon emissaries took advantage of this +situation to tell their story in their own way at all points of the +compass. Meetings were held in the large cities of the Eastern states +to express sympathy with these victims of the opponents of "freedom of +religious opinion," and to raise money for their relief, and the voice +of the press, from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, was, without a +discovered exception, on the side of the refugees. + +This paved the way for a vast extension of that mission work which +began with the trip of Cowdery and his associates in 1830, was expanded +throughout this country while the Saints were at Kirtland, and was +extended to foreign lands in 1837. The missionaries sent out in the +early days of the church represented various degrees of experience and +qualification. There were among them men like Orson Hyde and Willard +Richards, who, although they gave up secular callings on entering the +church, were close students of the Scriptures and debaters who could +hold their own, when it came to an interpretation of the Scriptures, +before any average audience. Many were sent out without any especial +equipment for their task. John D. Lee, describing his first trip, +says:-- + +"I started forth an illiterate, inexperienced person, without purse or +scrip. I could hardly quote a passage of Scripture. Yet I went forth to +say to the world that I was a minister of the Gospel." He was among the +successful proselyters, and rose to influence in the church.* Of the +requirement that the missionaries should be beggars, Lorenzo Snow, who +was sent out on a mission from Kirtland in 1837, says, "It was a severe +trial to my natural feelings of independence to go without purse or +scrip especially the purse; for, from the time I was old enough to work, +the feeling that 'I paid my way' always seemed a necessary adjunct to +self respect." + + + * For an account of his travels and successes, see "Mormonism +Unveiled." + + +Parley P. Pratt, in a letter to Smith from New York in November, 1839, +describing the success of the work in the United States, says, "You +would now find churches of the Saints in Philadelphia, in Albany, in +Brooklyn, in New York, in Sing Sing, in Jersey, in Pennsylvania, on Long +Island, and in various other places all around us," and he speaks of the +"spread of the work" in Michigan and Maine. + +The importance of England as a field from which to draw emigrants to the +new settlement was early recognized at Nauvoo, and in 1840 such lights +of the church as Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, P. P. Pratt, Orson +Pratt, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and George A. Smith, of the Quorum +of the Twelve Apostles, were sent to cultivate that field. There they +ordained Willard Richards an Apostle, preached and labored for over a +year, established a printing-office which turned out a vast amount of +Mormon literature, including their Bible and "Doctrine and Covenants," +and began the publication of the Millennial Star. + +In 1840 Orson Hyde was sent on a mission to the Jews in London, +Amsterdam, Constantinople, and Jerusalem, and the same year missionaries +were sent to Australia, Wales, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the East +Indies. In 1844 a missionary was sent to the Sandwich Islands; in 1849 +others were sent to France, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland, Italy, +and Switzerland; in 1850 ten more elders were sent to the Sandwich +Islands; in 1851 four converts were baptized in Hindostan; in 1852 +a branch of the church was organized at Malta; in 1853 three elders +reached the Cape of Good Hope; and in 1861 two began work in Holland, +but with poor success. We shall see that this proselyting labor has +continued with undiminished industry to the present day, in all parts of +the United States as well as in foreign lands. + +England provided an especially promising field for Mormon missionary +work. The great manufacturing towns contained hundreds of people, +densely ignorant,* superstitious, and so poor that the ownership of a +piece of land in their own country was practically beyond the limit of +their ambition. These people were naturally susceptible to the Mormon +teachings, easily imposed upon by stories of alleged miracles, and ready +to migrate to any part of the earth where a building lot or a farm was +promised them. The letters from the first missionaries in England gave +glowing reports of the results of their labors. Thus Wilford Woodruff, +writing from Manchester in 1840, said, "The work has been so rapid it +was impossible to ascertain the exact number belonging to each branch, +but the whole number is 33 churches, 534 members, 75 officers, all of +which had embraced the work in less than four months." Lorenzo Snow, in +a letter from London in April, 1841, said: "Throughout all England, +in almost every town and city of any considerable importance, we have +chapels or public halls in which we meet for public worship. All over +this vast kingdom the laws of Zion are rolling onward with the most +astonishing rapidity." + + + * "It has been calculated that there are in England and Wales six +million persons who can neither read nor write, that is to say, about +one-third of the population, including, of course, infants; but of +all the children more than one-half attend no place of public +instruction."--Dickens, "Household Words." + + +The visiting missionaries began their work in England at Preston, +Lancashire, in 1836 or 1837, and soon secured there some five hundred +converts. Then they worked on each side of the Ribble, making converts +in all the villages, and gaining over a few farm owners and mechanics of +some means. Their method was first to drop hints to the villagers that +the Holy Bible is defective in translation and incomplete, and that the +Mormon Bible corrects all these defects. Not able to hold his own in +any theological discussion, the rustic was invited to a meeting. At that +meeting the missionary would announce that he would speak simply as the +Lord directed him, and he would then present the Mormon view of +their Bible and prophet. As soon as converts were won over, they were +immersed, at night, and given the sacrament. Then they were initiated +into the secret "church meeting," to which only the faithful were +admitted, and where the flock were told of visions and "gifts," and +exhorted to stand firm (along with their earthly goods) for the church, +and warned against apostasy. + +One way in which the prophetic gift of the missionaries was proved in +the early days in England was as follows: "Whenever a candidate was +immersed, some of the brethren was given a letter signed by Hyde and +Kimball, setting forth that 'brother will not abide in the spirit of the +Lord, but will reject the truth, and become the enemy of the people of +God, etc., etc.' If the brother did not apostatize, this letter +remained unopened; if he did, it was read as a striking verification of +prophecy."* + + + * Caswall's "City of the Mormons," appendix. + + +Miracles exerted a most potent influence among the people in England +with whom the early missionaries labored, and the Millennial Star +contains a long list of reported successes in this line. There are +accounts of very clumsy tricks that were attempted to carry out the +deception. Thus, at Newport, Wales, three Mormon elders announced that +they would raise a dead man to life. The "corpse" was laid out and +surrounded by weeping friends, and the elders were about to begin +their incantations, when a doubting Thomas in the audience attacked the +"corpse" with a whip, and soon had him fleeing for dear life.* + + + * Tract by Rev. F. B. Ashley, p. 22. + + +Thomas Webster, who was baptized in England in 1837 by Orson Hyde and +became an elder, saw the falsity of the Mormon professions through the +failure of their miracles and other pretensions, and, after renouncing +their faith, published a pamphlet exposing their methods. He relates +many of the declarations made by the first missionaries in Preston to +their ignorant hearers. Hyde declared that the apostles Peter, James, +and John were still alive. He and Kimball asserted that neither of +them would "taste death" before Christ's second coming. At one meeting +Kimball predicted that in ten or fifteen years the sea would be dried up +between Liverpool and America. "One of the most glaring things they +ever brought before the public," says Webster, "was stated in a letter +written by Orson Hyde to the brethren in Preston, saying they were on +the way to the promised land in Missouri by hundreds, and the wagons +reached a mile in length. They fell in with some of their brethren +in Canada, who told him the Lord had been raining down manna in rich +profusion, which covered from seven to ten acres of land. It was like +wafers dipped in honey, and both Saints and sinners partook of it. I was +present in the pulpit when this letter was read." + +However ridiculous such methods may appear, their success in Great +Britain was great.* In three years after the arrival of the first +missionaries, the General Conference reported a membership of 4019 in +England alone; in 1850 the General Conference reported that the Mormons +in England and Scotland numbered 27,863, and in Wales 4342. The report +for June, 1851, showed a total of 30,747 in the United Kingdom, and +said, "During the last fourteen years more than 50,000 have been +baptized in England, of which nearly 17,000 have migrated from her +shores to Zion." In the years between 1840 and 1843 it was estimated +that 3758 foreign converts settled in and around Nauvoo.** + + + * "There is no page of religious history which more proudly tells +its story than that which relates this peculiar phase of Mormon +experience. The excitement was contagious, even affecting persons in the +higher ranks of social life, and the result was a grand outpouring +of spiritual and miraculous healing power of the most astonishing +description. Miracles were heard of everywhere, and numerous +competent and most reliable witnesses bore testimony to their +genuineness."--"Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 10. + + + ** Two of the most intelligent English converts, who did +proselyting work for the church and in later years saw their error, have +given testimony concerning this work in Great Britain. John Hyde, Jr., +summing up in 1857 the proselyting system, said: "Enthusiasm is the +secret of the great success of Mormon proselyting; it is the universal +characteristic of the people when proselyted; it is the hidden and +strong cord that leads them to Utah, and the iron clamp that keeps them +there."--"Mormonism," p. 171. + + +Stenhouse says: "Mormonism in England, Scotland and Wales was a grand +triumph, and was fast ripening for a vigorous campaign in Continental +Europe" (when polygamy was pronounced). The emigration of Mormon +converts from Great Britain to the United States, in its earlier stages, +was thoroughly systemized by the church authorities in this country. The +first record of the movement of any considerable body tells of a company +of about two hundred who sailed for New York from Liverpool in August, +1840, on the ship North American, in charge of two elders. A second +vessel with emigrants, the Shefeld, sailed from Bristol to New York in +February, 1841. The expense of the trip from New York to Nauvoo proved +in excess of the means of many of these immigrants, some of whom were +obliged to stop at Kirtland and other places in Ohio. This led to a +change of route, by which vessels sailed from British ports direct to +New Orleans, the immigrants ascending the Mississippi to Nauvoo. + +The extent of this movement to the time of the departure of the Saints +from Nauvoo is thus given by James Linforth, who says the figures are +"as complete and correct as it is possible now to make them*":-- + + + * "Route from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake Valley," 1855. + + + + Year *** No. of Vessels *** No. of Emigrants + + + 1840 + 1 + 200 + + 1841 + 6 + 1177 + + 1842 + 8 + 1614 + + 1843 + 5 + 769 + + 1844 + 5 + 644 + + 1845-46 + 3 + 346 + + + Total + 3750 + +The Mormon agents in England would charter a vessel at an English port* +when a sufficient company had assembled and announce their intention to +embark. The emigrants would be notified of the date of sailing, and an +agent would accompany them all the way to Nauvoo. Men with money were +especially desired, as were mechanics of all kinds, since the one sound +business view that seems to have been taken by the leaders at Nauvoo was +that it would be necessary to establish manufactures there if the people +were to be able to earn a living. In some instances the passage money +was advanced to the converts. + + + * For Dickens's description of one of these vessels ready to +sail, see "The Uncommercial Traveller," Chap. XXII + + + +CHAPTER IV. -- THE NAUVOO CITY GOVERNMENT--TEMPLE AND OTHER BUILDINGS + +A tide of immigration having been turned toward the new settlement, the +next thing in order was to procure for the city a legal organization. +Several circumstances combined to place in the hands of the Mormon +leaders a scheme of municipal government, along with an extensive plan +for buildings, which gave them vast power without incurring the kind of +financial rocks on which they were wrecked in Ohio. + +Dr. Galland* should probably be considered the inventor of the general +scheme adopted at Nauvoo. He was at that time a resident of Cincinnati, +but his intercourse with the Mormons had interested him in their +beliefs, and some time in 1840 he addressed a letter to Elder R. B. +Thompson, which gave the church leaders some important advice.** First +warning them that to promulgate new doctrinal tenets will require not +only tact and energy, but moral conduct and industry among their people, +he confessed that he had not been able to discover why their +religious views were not based on truth. "The project of establishing +extraordinary religious doctrines being magnificent in its character," +he went on to say, would require "preparations commensurate with the +plan." Nauvoo being a suitable rallying-place, they would "want a temple +that for size, proportions and style shall attract, surprise and dazzle +all beholders"; something "unique externally, and in the interior +peculiar, imposing and grand." The "clergymen" must be of the best as +regards mental and vocal equipment, and there should be a choir such as +"was never before organized." A college, too, would be of great value if +funds for it could be collected. + + + * "In the year 1834 one Dr. Galland was a candidate for the +legislature in a district composed of Hancock, Adams, and Pike Counties. +He resided in the county of Hancock, and, as he had in the early part +of his life been a notorious horse thief and counterfeiter, belonging to +the Massac gang, and was then no pretender to integrity, it was +useless to deny the charge. In all his speeches he freely admitted the +fact."--"FORD's History of Illinois," p. 406. + + + ** Times and Seasons, Vol. II, pp. 277-278. The letter is signed +with eight asterisks Galland's usual signature to such communications. + + +These suggestions were accepted by Smith, with some important additional +details, and they found place in the longest of the "revelations" given +out by him in Illinois (Sec. I 24), the one, previously quoted from, in +which the Lord excused the failure to set up a Zion in Missouri. There +seemed to be some hesitation about giving out this "revelation." It +is dated after the meeting of the General Conference at Nauvoo which +ordered the building of a church there, and it was not published in the +Times and Seasons until the following June, and then not entire. The +"revelation" shows how little effect adversity had had in modifying the +prophet's egotism, his arrogance, or his aggressiveness. + +Starting out with, "Verily, thus with the Lord unto you, my +servant Joseph Smith, I am well pleased with your offerings and +acknowledgments," it calls on him to make proclamation to the kings of +the world, the President of the United States, and the governors of the +states concerning the Lord's will, "fearing them not, for they are +as grass," and warning them of "a day of visitation if they reject my +servants and my testimony." Various direct commands to leading members +of the church follow. Galland here found himself in Smith's clutches, +being directed to "put stock" into the boardinghouse to be built. + +The principal commands in this "revelation" directed the building of +another "holy house," or Temple, and a boardinghouse. With regard to the +Temple it was explained that the Lord would show Smith everything about +it, including its site. All the Saints from afar were ordered to come to +Nauvoo, "with all your gold, and your silver, and your precious stones, +and with all your antiquities,... and bring the box tree, and the fir +tree, and the pine tree, together with all the precious trees of the +earth, and with iron, with copper, and with brass, and with zinc, and +with all your most precious things of the earth." + +The boarding-house ordered built was to be called Nauvoo House, and was +to be "a house that strangers may come from afar to lodge therein... a +resting place for the weary traveler, that he may contemplate the glory +of Zion." It was explained that a company must be formed, the members of +which should pay not less than $50 a share for the stock, no subscriber +to be allotted more than $1500 worth. + +This "revelation" further announced once more that Joseph was to be "a +presiding elder over all my church, to be a translator, a revelator, a +seer and a prophet," with Sidney Rigdon and William Law his counsellors, +to constitute with him the First Presidency, and Brigham Young to be +president over the twelve travelling council. + +Legislation was, of course, necessary to carry out the large schemes +that the Mormon leaders had in mind; but this was secured at the state +capital with a liberality that now seems amazing. This was due to the +desire of the politicians of all parties to conciliate the Mormon vote, +and to the good fortune of the Mormons in finding at the capital a +very practical lobbyist to engineer their cause. This was a Dr. John C. +Bennett, a man who seems to have been without any moral character, but +who had filled positions of importance. Born in Massachusetts in 1804, +he practised as a physician in Ohio, and later in Illinois, holding a +professorship in Willoughby University, Ohio, and taking with him to +Illinois testimonials as to his professional skill. In the latter +state he showed a taste for military affairs, and after being elected +brigadier general of the Invincible Dragoons, he was appointed +quartermaster general of the state in 1840, and held that position at +the state capital when the Mormons applied to the legislature for a +charter for Nauvoo. + +With his assistance there was secured from the legislature an act +incorporating the city of Nauvoo, the Nauvoo Legion, and the University +of the City of Nauvoo. The powers granted to the city government +thus established were extraordinary. A City Council was authorized, +consisting of the mayor, four aldermen, and nine councillors, which was +empowered to pass any ordinances, not in conflict with the federal and +state constitutions, which it deemed necessary for the peace and order +of the city. The mayor and aldermen were given all the power of justices +of the peace, and they were to constitute the Municipal Court. The +charter gave the mayor sole jurisdiction in all cases arising under the +city ordinances, with a right of appeal to the Municipal Court. Further +than this, the charter granted to the Municipal Court the right to issue +writs of habeas corpus in all cases arising under the city ordinances. +Thirty-six sections were required to define the legislative powers of +the City Council. + +A more remarkable scheme of independent local government could not +have been devised even by the leaders of this Mormon church, and the +shortsightedness of the law makers in consenting to it seems nothing +short of marvellous. Under it the mayor, who helped to make the local +laws (as a member of the City Council), was intrusted with their +enforcement, and he could, as the head of the Municipal Court, give them +legal interpretation. Governor Ford afterward defined the system as "a +government within a government; a legislature to pass ordinances at +war with the laws of the state; courts to execute them with but little +dependence upon the constitutional judiciary, and a military force at +their own command." * + + + * A bill repealing this charter was passed by the Illinois House +on February 3, 1843, by a vote of fifty-eight to thirty-three, but +failed in the Senate by a vote of sixteen ayes to seventeen nays. + + +This military force, called the Nauvoo Legion, the City Council was +authorized to organize from the inhabitants of the city who were subject +to military duty. It was to be at the disposal of the mayor in executing +city laws and ordinances, and of the governor of the state for +the public defence. When organized, it embraced three classes of +troops--flying artillery, lancers, and riflemen. Its independence of +state control was provided for by a provision of law which allowed it +to be governed by a court martial of its own officers. The view of its +independence taken by the Mormons may be seen in the following general +order signed by Smith and Bennett in May, 1841, founded on an opinion by +judge Stephen A. Douglas:--"The officers and privates belonging to the +Legion are exempt from all military duty not required by the legally +constituted authorities thereof; they are therefore expressly inhibited +from performing any military service not ordered by the general +officers, or directed by the court martial."* + + + * Times and Seasons, Vol. II, p. 417. Governor Ford commissioned +Brigham Young to succeed Smith as lieutenant general of the Legion from +August 31, 1844. To show the Mormon idea of authority, the following is +quoted from Tullidge's "Life of Brigham Young," p. 30: "It is a singular +fact that, after Washington, Joseph Smith was the first man in America +who held the rank of lieutenant general, and that Brigham Young was the +next. In reply to a comment by the author upon this fact Brigham Young +said: 'I was never much of a military man. The commission has since been +abrogated by the state of Illinois; but if Joseph had lived when the +(Mexican) war broke out he would have become commander-in chief of the +United States Armies.'" + +In other words, this city military company was entirely independent +of even the governor of the state. Little wonder that the Presidency, +writing about the new law to the Saints abroad, said, "'Tis all we ever +claimed." In view of the experience of the Missourians with the Mormons +as directed by Smith and Rigdon, it would be rash to say that they would +have been tolerated as neighbors in Illinois under any circumstances, +after their actual acquaintance had been made; but if the state of +Illinois had deliberately intended to incite the Mormons to a reckless +assertion of independence, nothing could have been planned that would +have accomplished this more effectively than the passage of the charter +of Nauvoo. + +What next followed remains an unexplained incident in Joseph Smith's +career. Instead of taking the mayoralty himself, he allowed that office +to be bestowed upon Bennett, Smith and Rigdon accepting places among +the councillors, Bennett having taken up his residence in Nauvoo in +September, 1840. His election as mayor took place in February, 1841. +Bennet was also chosen major general of the Legion when that force was +organized, was selected as the first chancellor of the new university, +and was elected to the First Presidency of the church in the following +April, to take the place of Sidney Rigdon during the incapacity of +the latter from illness. Judge Stephen A. Douglas also appointed him a +master in chancery. + +Bennett was introduced to the Mormon church at large in a letter signed +by Smith, Rigdon, and brother Hyrum, dated January 15, 1841, as the +first of the new acquisitions of influence. They stated that his +sympathies with the Saints were aroused while they were still in +Missouri, and that he then addressed them a letter offering them his +assistance, and the church was assured that "he is a man of enterprise, +extensive acquirements, and of independent mind, and is calculated to be +a great blessing to our community." When his appointment as a master +in chancery was criticised by some Illinois newspapers, the Mormons +defended him earnestly, Sidney Rigdon (then attorney-at-law and +postmaster at Nauvoo), in a letter dated April 23, 1842, said, "He is a +physician of great celebrity, of great versatility of talent, of +refined education and accomplished manners; discharges the duties of his +respective offices with honor to himself and credit to the people." All +this becomes of interest in the light of the abuse which the Mormons +soon after poured out upon this man when he "betrayed" them. + +Bennett's inaugural address as mayor was radical in tone. He advised the +Council to prohibit all dram shops, allowing no liquor to be sold in a +quantity less than a quart. This suggestion was carried out in a city +ordinance. He condemned the existing system of education, which gave +children merely a smattering of everything, and made "every boarding +school miss a Plato in petticoats, without an ounce of genuine +knowledge," pleading for education "of a purely practical character." +The Legion he considered a matter of immediate necessity, and he +added, "The winged warrior of the air perches upon the pole of American +liberty, and the beast that has the temerity to ruffle her feathers +should be made to feel the power of her talons." + +Smith was commissioned lieutenant general of this Legion by Governor +Carlin on February 3, 1841, and he and Bennett blossomed out at once as +gorgeous commanders. An order was issued requiring all persons in +the city, of military obligation, between the ages of eighteen and +forty-five, to join the Legion, and on the occasion of the laying of +the corner-stone of the Temple, on April 6, 1841, it comprised fourteen +companies. An army officer passing through Nauvoo in September, 1842, +expressed the opinion that the evolutions of the Legion would do honor +to any militia in the United States, but he queried: "Why this exact +discipline of the Mormon corps? Do they intend to conquer Missouri, +Illinois, Mexico? Before many years this Legion will be twenty, perhaps +fifty, thousand strong and still augmenting. A fearful host, filled with +religious enthusiasm, and led on by ambitious and talented officers, +what may not be effected by them? Perhaps the subversion of the +constitution of the United States." * + + + * Mackay's "The Mormons," p. 121. + + +Contemporary accounts of the appearance of the Legion on the occasion +of the laying of the Temple corner-stone indicate that the display was a +big one for a frontier settlement. Smith says in his autobiography, +"The appearance, order, and movements of the Legion were chaste, grand, +imposing." The Times and Seasons, in its report of the day's doings, +says that General Smith had a staff of four aides-de-camp and twelve +guards, "nearly all in splendid uniforms. The several companies +presented a beautiful and interesting spectacle, several of them +being uniformed and equipped, while the rich and costly dresses of +the officers would have become a Bonaparte or a Washington." Ladies +on horseback were an added feature of the procession. The ceremonies +attending the cornerstone laying attracted the people from all the +outlying districts, and marked an epoch in the church's history in +Illinois. + +The Temple at Nauvoo measured 83 by 128 feet on the ground, and was +nearly 60 feet high, surmounted by a steeple which was planned to be +more than 100 feet in height. The material was white limestone, which +was found underlying the site of the city. The work of construction +continued throughout the occupation of Nauvoo by the Mormons, the laying +of the capstone not being accomplished until May 24, 1845, and the +dedication taking place on May 1, 1846. The cost of the completed +structure was estimated by the Mormons at $1,000,000.* Among the costly +features were thirty stone pilasters, which cost $3000 each. + + + * "The Temple is said to have cost, in labor and money, a million +dollars. It may be possible, and it is very probable, that contributions +to that amount were made to it, but that it cost that much to build +it few will believe. Half that sum would be ample to build a much more +costly edifice to-day, and in the three or four years in which it +was being erected, labor was cheap and all the necessaries of life +remarkably low."--GREGG'S "History of Hancock County," p. 367. + + +The portico of the Temple was surrounded by these pilasters of polished +stone, on the base of which was carved a new moon, the capital of each +being a representation of the rising sun coming from under a cloud, +supported by two hands holding a trumpet. Under the tower were the +words, in golden letters: "The House of the Lord, built by the Church of +Latter-Day Saints. Commenced April 6, 1841. Holiness to the Lord." The +baptismal font measured twelve by sixteen feet, with a basin four feet +deep. It was supported by twelve oxen "carved out of fine plank +glued together," says Smith, "and copied after the most beautiful +five-year-old steer that could be found." From the basement two +stairways led to the main floor, around the sides of which were small +rooms designed for various uses. In the large room on this floor were +three pulpits and a place for the choir. The upper floor contained a +large hall, and around this were twelve smaller rooms. + +The erection of this Temple was carried on without incurring such +debts or entering upon such money-making schemes as caused disaster at +Kirtland. Labor and material were secured by successful appeals to the +Saints on the ground and throughout the world. Here the tithing system +inaugurated in Missouri played an efficient part. A man from the +neighboring country who took produce to Nauvoo for sale or barter said, +"In the committee rooms they had almost every conceivable thing, from +all kinds of implements and men and women's clothing, down to baby +clothes and trinkets, which had been deposited by the owners as tithing +or for the benefit of the Temple." * + + + * Gregg's "History of Hancock County," p. 374 + + +Nauvoo House, as planned, was to have a frontage of two hundred feet +and a depth of forty feet, and to be three stories in height, with a +basement. Its estimated cost was $100,000.* A detailed explanation of +the uses of this house was thus given in a letter from the Twelve to the +Saints abroad, dated November 15, 1841:-- + + + * Times and Seasons, Vol. II, p. 369. + + +"The time set to favor the Stakes of Zion is at hand, and soon the kings +and the queens, the princes and the nobles, the rich and the honorable +of the earth, will come up hither to visit the Temple of our God, and to +inquire concerning this strange work; and as kings are to become nursing +fathers, and queens nursing mothers in the habitation of the righteous, +it is right to render honor to whom honor is due; and therefore +expedient that such, as well as the Saints, should have a comfortable +house for boarding and lodging when they come hither, and it is +according to the revelations that such a house should be built... All +are under equal obligations to do all in their power to complete the +buildings by their faith and their prayers; with their thousands and +their mites, their gold and their silver, their copper and their zinc, +their goods and their labors." + +Nauvoo House was not finished during the Prophet's life, the appeals in +its behalf failing to secure liberal contributions. It was completed in +later years, and used as a hotel. + +Smith's residence in Nauvoo was a frame building called the Mansion +House, not far from the r*iver side. It was opened as a hotel on October +3, 1843, with considerable ceremony, one of the toasts responded to +being as follows, "Resolved, that General Joseph Smith, whether we view +him as a prophet at the head of the church, a general at the head of the +Legion, a mayor at the head of the City Council, or a landlord at the +head of the table, has few equals and no superiors." + +Another church building was the Hall of the Seventies, the upper story +of which was used for the priesthood and the Council of Fifty. Galland's +suggestion about a college received practical shape in the incorporation +of a university, in whose board of regents the leading men of the +church, including Galland himself, found places. The faculty consisted +of James Keeley, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, as president; +Orson Pratt as professor of mathematics and English literature; Orson +Spencer, a graduate of Union College and the Baptist Theological +Seminary in New York, as professor of languages; and Sidney Rigdon as +professor of church history. The tuition fee was $5 per quarter. + + + +CHAPTER V. -- THE MORMONS IN POLITICS--MISSOURI REQUISITIONS FOR SMITH + +The Mormons were now equipped in their new home with large landed +possessions, a capital city that exhibited a phenomenal growth, and +a form of local government which made Nauvoo a little independency of +itself; their prophet wielding as much authority and receiving as much +submission as ever; a Temple under way which would excel anything that +had been designed in Ohio or Missouri, and a stream of immigration +pouring in which gave assurance of continued numerical increase. What +were the causes of the complete overthrow of this apparent prosperity +which so speedily followed? These causes were of a twofold character, +political and social. The two were interwoven in many ways, but we can +best trace them separately. + +We have seen that a Democratic organization gave the first welcome to +the Mormon refugees at Quincy. In the presidential campaign of 1836 the +vote of Illinois had been: Democratic, 17,275, Whig, 14,292; that of +Hancock County, Democratic, 260, Whig, 340. The closeness of this vote +explained the welcome that was extended to the new-comers. + +It does not appear that Smith had any original party predilections. But +he was not pleased with questions which President Van Buren asked him +when he was in Washington (from November, 1839, to February, 1840) +seeking federal aid to secure redress from Missouri, and he wrote to the +High Council from that city, "We do not say the Saints shall not vote +for him, but we do say boldly (though it need not be published in the +streets of Nauvoo, neither among the daughters of the Gentiles), that we +do not intend he shall have our votes."* + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XVII, p.452. + + +On his return to Illinois Smith was toadied to by the workers of both +parties. He candidly told them that he had no faith in either; but the +Whigs secured his influence, and, by an intimation that there was divine +authority for their course, the Mormon vote was cast for Harrison, +giving him a majority of 752 in Hancock County. In order to keep the +Democrats in good humor, the Mormons scratched the last name on the Whig +electoral ticket (Abraham Lincoln)* and substituted that of a Democrat. +This demonstration of their political weight made the Mormons an object +of consideration at the state capital, and was the direct cause of the +success of the petition which they sent there, signed by some thousands +of names, asking for a charter for Nauvoo. The representatives of both +parties were eager to show them favor. Bennett, in a letter to the Times +and Seasons from Springfield, spoke of the readiness of all the members +to vote for what the Mormons wanted, adding that "Lincoln had the +magnanimity to vote for our act, and came forward after the final vote +and congratulated me on its passage." + + + *This is mentioned in "Joab's" (Bermett's) letter, Times and +Seasons, Vol, II, p. 267. + + +In the gubernatorial campaign of 1841-1842 Smith swung the Mormon vote +back to the Democrats, giving them a majority of more than one thousand +in the county. This was done publicly, in a letter addressed "To my +friends in Illinois,"* dated December 20, 1841, in which the prophet, +after pointing out that no persons at the state capital were more +efficient in securing the passage of the Nauvoo charter than the heads +of the present Democratic ticket, made this declaration:-- + + + * Times and Seasons, Vol. III, p. 651. + + +"The partisans in this county who expect to divide the friends of +humanity and equal rights will find themselves mistaken. We care not a +fig for Whig or Democrat; they are both alike to us; but we shall go for +our friends, OUR TRIED FRIENDS, and the cause of human liberty which is +the cause of God.... Snyder and Moore are known to be our friends.... +We will never be justly charged with the sin of ingratitude,--they have +served us, and we will serve them." + +If Smith had been a man possessing any judgment, he would have realized +that the political course which he was pursuing, instead of making +friends in either party, would certainly soon arraign both parties +against him and his followers. The Mormons announced themselves +distinctly to be a church, and they were now exhibiting themselves as +a religious body already numerically strong and increasing in numbers, +which stood ready to obey the political mandate of one man, or at least +of one controlling authority. The natural consequence of this soon +manifested itself. + +A congressional and a county election were approaching, and a mass +meeting, made up of both Whigs and Democrats of Hancock County, was held +to place in the field a non-Mormon county ticket. The fusion was not +accomplished without heart-burnings on the part of some unsuccessful +aspirants for nominations. A few of these went over to Smith, and the +election resulted in the success of the state Democratic and the Mormon +local ticket, legislative and county, Smith's brother William being +elected to the House. It is easy to realize that this victory did not +lessen Smith's aggressive egotism. + +Some important matters were involved in the next political contest, +the congressional election of August, 1843. The Whigs nominated Cyrus +Walker, a lawyer of reputation living in McDonough County, and the +Democrats J. P. Hoge, also a lawyer, but a weaker candidate at the +polls. Every one conceded that Smith's dictum would decide the contest. + +On May 6, 1842, Governor Boggs of Missouri, while sitting near a window +in his house in Independence, was fired at, and wounded so severely that +his recovery was for some days in doubt. The crime was naturally +charged to his Mormon enemies,* and was finally narrowed down to O. P. +Rockwell,** a Mormon living in Nauvoo, as the agent, and Joseph Smith, +Jr., as the instigator. Indictments were found against both of them +in Missouri, and a requisition for Smith's surrender was made by the +governor of that state on the governor of Illinois. Smith was arrested +under the governor's warrant. Now came an illustration of the value +to him of the form of government provided by the Nauvoo charter. Taken +before his own municipal court, he was released at once on a writ of +habeas corpus. This assumption of power by a local court aroused +the indignation of non-Mormons throughout the state. Governor Carlin +characterized it somewhat later, in a letter to Smith's wife, as "most +absurd and ridiculous; to attempt to exercise it is a gross usurpation +of power that cannot be tolerated."*** + + + + * The hatred felt toward Governor Boggs by the Mormon leaders was +not concealed. Thus, an editorial in the Times and Seasons of January 1, +1841, headed "Lilburn W. Boggs," began, "The THING whose name stands at +the head of this article," etc. Referring to the ending of his term of +office, the article said, "Lilburn has gone down to the dark and dreary +abode of his brother and prototype, Nero, there to associate with +kindred spirits and partake of the dainties of his father's, the +devil's, table." + +Bennett afterward stated that he heard Joseph Smith say, on July 10, +1842, that Governor Boggs, "the exterminator, should be exterminated," +and that the Destroying Angels (Danites) should do it; also that in the +spring of that year he heard Smith, at a meeting of Danites, offer to +pay any man $500 who would secretly assassinate the governor. Bennett's +statement is only cited for what it may be worth; that some Mormon fired +the shot is within the limit of strict probability. + + + + ** Rockwell, who, in his latter days, was employed by General +Connor to guard stock in California, told the general that he fired +the shot at Governor Boggs, and was sorry it did not kill him.--"Mormon +Portraits," p. 255. + + + *** Millennial Star, Vol. XX, p. 23. + + +Notwithstanding his release, Smith thought it best to remain in hiding +for some time to escape another arrest, for which the governor ordered +a reward of $200. About the middle of August his associates in Nauvoo +concluded that the outlook for him was so bad, notwithstanding the +protection which his city court was ready to afford, that it might +be best for him to flee to the pine woods of the North country. Smith +incorporates in his autobiography a long letter which he wrote to his +wife at this time,* giving her directions about this flight if it should +become necessary. Their goods were to be loaded on a boat manned by +twenty of the best men who could be selected, and who would meet them +at Prairie du Chien: "And from thence we will wend our way like larks up +the Mississippi, until the towering mountains and rocks shall remind us +of the places of our nativity, and shall look like safety and home; +and there we will bid defiance to Carlin, Boggs, Bennett, and all their +whorish whores and motley clan, that follow in their wake, Missouri not +excepted, and until the damnation of Hell rolls upon them by the voice +and dread thunders and trump of the eternal God." + + + * Ibid., pp. 693-695. + + +In October Rigdon obtained from Justin Butterfield, United States +attorney for Illinois, an opinion that Smith could not be held on a +Missouri requisition for a crime committed in that state when he was +in Illinois. In December, 1842, Smith was placed under arrest and taken +before the United States District Court at Springfield, Illinois, under +a writ of habeas corpus issued by Judge Roger B. Taney of the State +Supreme Court. Butterfield, as his counsel, secured his discharge +by Judge Pope (a Whig) who held that Smith was not a fugitive from +Missouri. + +While these proceedings were pending, the Nauvoo City Council (Smith was +then mayor), passed two ordinances in regard to the habeas corpus powers +of the Municipal Court, one giving that court jurisdiction in any +case where a person "shall be or stand committed or detained for any +criminal, or supposed criminal, matter."* This was intended to make +Smith secure from the clutches of any Missouri officer so long as he was +in his own city. + + + * For text of these ordinances, see millennial Star, Vol. XX, p. +165. + + +But Smith's enemy, General Bennett (who before this date had been cast +out of the fold), was now very active, and through his efforts another +indictment against Smith on the old charges of treason, murder, etc., +was found in Missouri, in June, 1843, and under it another demand was +made on the governor of Illinois for Smith's extradition. Governor Ford, +a Democrat, who had succeeded Carlin, issued a warrant on June 17, 1843, +and it was served on Smith while he was visiting his wife's sister in +Lee County, Illinois. An attempt to start with him at once for Missouri +was prevented by his Mormon friends, who rallied in considerable numbers +to his aid. Smith secured counsel, who began proceedings against the +Missouri agent and obtained a writ in Smith's behalf returnable, the +account in the Times and Seasons says, before the nearest competent +tribunal, which "it was ascertained was at Nauvoo"--Smith's own +Municipal Court. The prophet had a sort of triumphal entry into Nauvoo, +and the question of the jurisdiction of the Municipal Court in his case +came up at once. Both of the candidates for Congress, Walker (who +was employed as his counsel) and Hoge, gave opinions in favor of such +jurisdiction, and, after a three hours' plea by Walker, the court +ordered Smith's release. Smith addressed the people of Nauvoo in the +grove after his return. From the report of his remarks in the journal of +Discourses (Vol. II, p. 163) the following is taken: + +"Before I will bear this unhallowed persecution any longer, before I +will be dragged away again among my enemies for trial, I will spill the +last drop of blood in my veins, and will see all my enemies in hell.... +Deny me the writ of habeas corpus, and I will fight with gun, sword, +cannon, whirlwind, thunder, until they are used up like the Kilkenny +cats.... If these [charter] powers are dangerous, then the constitutions +of the United States and of this state are dangerous. If the Legislature +has granted Nauvoo the right of determining cases of habeas corpus, it +is no more than they ought to have done, or more than our fathers fought +for." + +Smith expressed his gratitude to Walker for what the latter had +accomplished in his behalf, and the Whig candidate now had no doubt that +the Mormon vote was his. + +But the Missouri agent, indignant that a governor's writ should be set +aside by a city court, hurried to Springfield and demanded that Governor +Ford should call out enough state militia to secure Smith's arrest and +delivery at the Missouri boundary. The governor, who was not a man of +the firmest purpose, had no intention of being mixed up in the pending +congressional fight and struggle for the Mormon vote; so he asked for +delay and finally decided not to call out any troops. + +The Hancock County Democrats were quick to see an opportunity in this +situation, and they sent to Springfield a man named Backenstos (who +took an active part in the violent scenes connected with the subsequent +history of the Mormons in the state) to ascertain for the Mormons +just what the governor's intentions were. Backenstos reported that the +prophet need have no fear of the Democratic governor so long as the +Mormons voted the Democratic ticket.* + + + * Governor Ford, in his "History of Illinois," says that such a +pledge was given by a prominent Democrat, but without his own knowledge. + +When this news was brought back to Nauvoo, a few days before the +election, a mass meeting of the Mormons was called, and Hyrum Smith +(then Patriarch, succeeding the prophet's father, who was dead) +announced the receipt of a "revelation" directing the Mormons to vote +for Hoge. William Law, an influential business man in the Mormon circle, +immediately denied the existence of any such "revelation." The prophet +alone could decide the matter. He was brought in and made a statement +to the effect that he himself proposed to vote for Walker; that +he considered it a "mean business" to influence any man's vote +by dictation, and that he had no great faith in revelations about +elections; "but brother Hyrum was a man of truth; he had known brother +Hyrum intimately ever since he was a boy, and he had never known him to +tell a lie. If brother Hyrum said he had received such a revelation, he +had no doubt it was a fact. When the Lord speaks, let all the earth be +silent." * + + + * Ford's"History of Illinois," p. 318. + + +The election resulted in the choice of Hoge by a majority of 455! + + + +CHAPTER VI. -- SMITH A CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES + +Smith's latest triumph over his Missouri enemies, with the feeling that +he had the governor of his state back of him, increased his own and his +followers' audacity. The Nauvoo Council continued to pass ordinances +to protect its inhabitants from outside legal processes, civil and +criminal. One of these provided that no writ issued outside of Nauvoo +for the arrest of a person in that city should be executed until it had +received the mayor's approval, anyone violating this ordinance to be +liable to imprisonment for life, with no power of pardon in the governor +without the mayor's consent! The acquittal of O. P. Rockwell on the +charge of the attempted assassination of Governor Boggs caused great +delight among the Mormons, and their organ declared on January 1, 1844, +that "throughout the whole region of country around us those bitter and +acrimonious feelings, which have so long been engendered by many, are +dying away." + +Smith's political ideas now began to broaden. "Who shall be our next +President?" was the title of an editorial in the Times and Seasons of +October 1, 1843, which urged the selection of a man who would be +most likely to give the Mormons help in securing redress for their +grievances. + +The next month Smith addressed a letter to Henry Clay and John +C. Calhoun, who were the leading candidates for the presidential +nomination, citing the Mormons' losses and sufferings in Missouri, and +their failure to obtain redress in the courts or from Congress, and +asking, "What will be your rule of action relative to us as a people +should fortune favor your ascendancy to the chief magistracy? "Clay +replied that, if nominated, he could "enter into no engagements, make no +promises, give no pledges to any particular portion of the people of the +United States," adding, "If I ever enter into that high office, I must +go into it free and unfettered, with no guarantees but such as are to +be drawn from my whole life, character and conduct." He closed with +an expression of sympathy with the Mormons "in their sufferings under +injustice." Calhoun replied that, if elected President, he would try to +administer the government according to the constitution and the laws, +and that, as these made no distinction between citizens of different +religious creeds, he should make none. He repeated an opinion which he +had given Smith in Washington that the Mormon case against the state of +Missouri did not come within the jurisdiction of the federal government. + +These replies excited Smith to wrath and he answered them at length, +and in language characteristic of himself. A single quotation from his +letter to Clay (dated May 13, 1844) will suffice:-- + +"In your answer to my question, last fall, that peculiar trait of the +modern politician, declaring 'if you ever enter into that high office, +you must go into it unfettered, with no guarantees but such as are to be +drawn from your whole life, character and conduct,' so much resembles a +lottery vender's sign, with the goddess of good luck sitting on the +car of fortune, astraddle of the horn of plenty, and driving the +merry steeds of beatitude, without reins or bridle, that I cannot help +exclaiming, 'O, frail man, what have you done that will exalt you? Can +anything be drawn from your LIFE, CHARACTER OR CONDUCT that is worthy of +being held up to the gaze of this nation as a model of VIRTUE, CHARACTER +AND WISDOM?'... 'Your whole life, character and conduct' have been +spotted with deeds that causes a blush upon the face of a virtuous +patriot; so you must be contented with your lot, while crime, cowardice, +cupidity or low cunning have handed you down from the high tower of +a statesman to the black hole of a gambler.... Crape the heavens with +weeds of woe; gird the earth with sackcloth, and let hell mutter one +melody in commemoration of fallen splendor! For the glory of America has +departed, and God will set a flaming sword to guard the tree of liberty, +while such mint-tithing Herods as Van Buren, Boggs, Benton, Calhoun, +and Clay are thrust out of the realms of virtue as fit subjects for the +kingdom of fallen greatness--vox reprobi, vox Diaboli." + +Calhoun was admonished to read the eighth section of article one of +the federal constitution, after which "God, who cooled the heat of a +Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, or shut the mouths of lions for the honor of +a Daniel, will raise your mind above the narrow notion that the general +government has no power, to the sublime idea that Congress, with the +President as executor, is as almighty in its sphere as Jehovah is in +his." 1 + + + *For this correspondence in full, see Times and Seasons, January +1, and June 1, 1844, or Mackay's "The Mormons," p. 143. + + +Smith's next step was to have judge Phelps read to a public meeting in +Nauvoo on February 7, 1844, a very long address by the prophet, setting +forth his views on national politics.* He declared that "no honest man +can doubt for a moment but the glory of American liberty is on the wane, +and that calamity and confusion will sooner or later destroy the peace +of the people," while "the motto hangs on the nation's escutcheon, +`every man has his price.'" + + + * For its text, see Times and Seasons, May 15,1844, or Mackay's +"The Mormons," p.133. + + +Smith proposed an abundance of remedies for these evils: Reduce the +members of Congress at least one-half; pay them $2 a day and board; +petition the legislature to pardon every convict, and make the +punishment for any felony working on the roads or some other place where +the culprit can be taught wisdom and virtue, murder alone to be cause +for confinement or death; petition for the abolition of slavery by the +year 1850, the slaves to be paid for out of the surplus from the sale +of public lands, and the money saved by reducing the pay of Congress; +establish a national bank, with branches in every state and territory, +"whose officers shall be elected yearly by the people, with wages of +$2 a day for services," the currency to be limited to "the amount of +capital stock in her vaults, and interest"; "and the bills shall be par +throughout the nation, which will mercifully cure that fatal disorder +known in cities as brokery, and leave the people's money in their own +pockets"; give the President full power to send an army to suppress +mobs; "send every lawyer, as soon as he repents and obeys the ordinances +of heaven, to preach the Gospel to the destitute, without purse or +scrip"; "spread the federal jurisdiction to the west sea, when the red +men give their consent"; and give the right hand of fellowship to Texas, +Canada, and Mexico. He closed with this declaration: "I would, as the +universal friend of man, open the prisons, open the eyes, open the +ears, and open the hearts of all people to behold and enjoy freedom, +unadulterated freedom; and God, who once cleansed the violence of the +earth with a flood, whose Son laid down his life for the salvation of +all his father gave him out of the world, and who has promised that he +will come and purify the world again with fire in the last days, should +be supplicated by me for the good of all people. With the highest +esteem, I am a friend of virtue and of the people." + +It seems almost incomprehensible that the promulgator of such political +views should have taken himself seriously. But Smith was in deadly +earnest, and not only was he satisfied of his political power, but, in +the church conference of 1844, he declared, "I feel that I am in more +immediate communication with God, and on a better footing with Him, than +I have ever been in my life." + +The announcement of Smith's political "principles" was followed +immediately by an article in the Times and Seasons, which answered +the question, "Whom shall the Mormons support for President?" with the +reply, "General Joseph Smith. A man of sterling worth and integrity, and +of enlarged views; a man who has raised himself from the humblest walks +in life to stand at the head of a large, intelligent, respectable, and +increasing society;... and whose experience has rendered him every way +adequate to the onerous duty." The formal announcement that Smith was +the Mormon candidate was made in the Times and Seasons of February 15, +1844, and the ticket-- + + + FOR PRESIDENT, + + + GENERAL JOSEPH SMITH, + + + Nauvoo, Illinois. + +was kept at the head of its editorial page from March 1, until his +death. + +A weekly newspaper called the Wasp, issued at Nauvoo under Mormon +editorship, had been succeeded by a larger one called the Neighbor, +edited by John Taylor (afterward President of the church), who also had +charge of the Times and Seasons. The Neighbor likewise placed Smith's +name, as the presidential candidate, at the head of its columns, and on +March 6 completed its ticket with "General James A. Bennett of New York, +for Vice-President."* Three weeks later Bennett's name was taken down, +and on June 19, Sidney Rigdon's was substituted for it. There was +nothing modest in the Mormon political ambition. + + + * This General Bennett was not the first mayor of Nauvoo, as some +writers like Smucker have supposed, but a lawyer who gave his address as +"Arlington House," on Long Island, New York, and who in 1843 had offered +himself to Smith as "a most undeviating friend," etc. + + +Proof of Smith's serious view of his candidacy is furnished in his next +step, which was to send out a large body of missionaries (two or three +thousand, according to Governor Ford) to work-up his campaign in the +Eastern and Southern states. These emissaries were selected from among +the ablest of Smith's allies, including Brigham Young, Lorenzo Snow, and +John D. Lee. Their absence from Nauvoo was a great misfortune to Smith +at the time of his subsequent arrest and imprisonment at Carthage. + +The campaigners began work at once. Lorenzo Snow, to whom the state +of Ohio was allotted, went to Kirtland, where he had several thousand +pamphlets printed, setting forth the prophet's views and plans, and he +then travelled around in a buggy, distributing the pamphlets and making +addresses in Smith's behalf. "To many persons," he confesses, "who knew +nothing of Joseph but through the ludicrous reports in circulation, the +movement seemed a species of insanity."* John D. Lee was a most devout +Mormon, but his judgment revolted against this movement. "I would a +thousand times rather have been shut up in jail," he says. He began his +canvassing while on the boat bound for, St. Louis. "I told them," he +relates, "the prophet would lead both candidates. There was a large +crowd on the boat, and an election was proposed. The prophet received +a majority of 75 out of 125 votes polled. This created a tremendous +laugh."** + + + * "Biography of Lorenzo Snow." + + + ** "Mormonism Unveiled," p.149. + + +We have an account of one state convention called to consider Smith's +candidacy, and this was held in the Melodeon in Boston, Massachusetts, +on July 1, 1844, the news of Smith's death not yet having reached that +city. A party of young rowdies practically took possession of the hall +as soon as the business of the convention began, and so disturbed the +proceedings that the police were sent for, and they were able to +clear the galleries only after a determined fight. The convention +then adjourned to Bunker Hill, but nothing further is heard of +its proceedings. The press of the city condemned the action of the +disturbers as a disgrace. Mention is made in the Times and Seasons of +July 1, 1844, of a conference of elders held in Dresden, Tennessee, +on the 25th of May previous, at which Smith's name was presented as a +presidential candidate. The meeting was broken up by a mob, which the +sheriff confessed himself powerless to overcome, but it met later and +voted to print three thousand copies of Smith's views. + +The prophet's death, which occurred so soon after the announcement of +his candidacy, rendered it impossible to learn how serious a cause of +political disturbance that candidacy might have been in neighborhoods +where the Mormons had a following. + + + +CHAPTER VII. -- SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN NAUVOO + +Having followed Smith's political operations to their close, it is now +necessary to retrace our steps, and examine the social conditions which +prevailed in and around Nauvoo during the years of his reign--conditions +which had quite as much to do in causing the expulsion of the Mormons +from the state as did his political mistakes. + +It must be remembered that Nauvoo was a pioneer town, on the borders +of a thinly settled country. Its population and that of its suburbs +consisted of the refugees from Missouri, of whose character we have +had proof; of the converts brought in from the Eastern states and from +Europe, not a very intelligent body; and of those pioneer settlers, +without sympathy with the Mormon beliefs, who were attracted to the +place from various motives. While active work was continued by the +missionaries throughout the United States, their labors in this country +seem to have been more efficient in establishing local congregations +than in securing large additions to the population of Nauvoo, although +some "branches" moved bodily to the Mormon centre.* + + + * Lee's "Mormonism Unveiled;" p. 135. + + +Of the class of people reached by the early missionaries in England we +have this description, in a letter from Orson Hyde to his wife, +dated September 14,1837:--"Those who have been baptized are mostly +manufacturers and some other mechanics. They know how to do but little +else than to spin and weave cloth, and make cambric, mull and lace; and +what they would do in Kirtland or the city of Far West, I cannot say. +They are extremely poor, most of them not having a change of clothes +decent to be baptized in."* + + + * Elders' Journal, Vol. I, No. 2. + + +In a letter of instructions from Smith to the travelling elders in Great +Britain, dated October, 1840, he warned them that the gathering of +the Saints must be "attended to in the order that the Lord intends +it should"; and he explains that, as "great numbers of the Saints in +England are extremely poor,... to prevent confusion and disappointment +when they arrive here, let those men who are accustomed to making +machinery, and those who can command a capital, though it be small, come +here as soon as convenient and put up machinery, and make such other +preparations as may be necessary, so that when the poor come on they may +have employment to come to." + +The invitation to all converts having means was so urgent that it took +the form of a command. A letter to the Saints abroad, signed by Joseph +and Hyrum Smith, dated January 15, 1841, directed those "blessed of +heaven with the possession of this world's goods" to sell out as soon +as possible and move to Nauvoo, adding in italics: "This is agreeable to +the order of heaven, and the only principal (sic) on which the gathering +can be effected."* + + + + * The following is a quotation from a letter written by an +American living near Nauvoo, dated October 20, 1842, printed in the +postscript to Caswall's "The City of the Mormons":-- + + +"If an English Mormon arrives, the first effort of Joe is to get his +money. This in most cases is easily accomplished, under a pledge that he +can have it at any time on giving ten days' notice. The man after some +time calls for his money; he is treated kindly, and told that it is not +convenient to pay. He calls a second time; the Prophet cannot pay, +but offers a town lot in Nauvoo for $1000 (which cost perhaps as many +cents), or land on the 'half-breed tract' at $10 or $15 per acre.... +Finally some of the irresponsible Bishops or Elders execute a deed for +land to which they have no valid title, and the poor fellow dares not +complain. This is the history of hundreds of cases.... The history of +every dupe reaches Nauvoo in advance. When an Elder abroad wins one over +to the faith, he makes himself perfectly acquainted with all his family +arrangements, his standing in society, his ability, and (what is of most +importance) the amount of ready money and other property which he will +take to Nauvoo.... They make no converts in Nauvoo, and it appears to me +that they would never make another if all could witness their conduct at +Nauvoo for one month... . In regard to this communication, I prefer, +on account of my own safety, that you should not make known the author +publicly. You cannot appreciate these fears [in England]. You have no +idea what it is to be surrounded by a community of Mormons, guided by a +leader the most unprincipled." We have seen how hard-pressed Smith was +for money with which to meet his obligations for the payment of land +purchased. It was not necessary that a newcomer should be a Mormon +in order to buy a lot, special emphasis being laid on the freedom +of religious opinion in the city; but it was early made known that +purchasers were expected to buy their lots of the church, and not +of private speculators. The determination with which this rule was +enforced, as well as its unpopularity in some quarters, may be seen in +the following extract from Smith's autobiography, under date of February +13, 1843: "I spent the evening at Elder O. Hyde's. In the course of +conversation I remarked that those brethren who came here having money, +and purchased without the church and without counsel, must be cut off. +This, with other observations, aroused the feelings of Brother Dixon, +from Salem, Mass., and he appeared in great wrath." + +The Nauvoo Neighbor of December 27, 1843, contained an advertisement +signed by the clerk of the church, calling the attention of immigrants +to the church lands, and saying, "Let all the brethren, therefore, when +they move into Nauvoo, consult President Joseph Smith, the trustee in +trust, and purchase their land from him, and I am bold to say that God +will bless them, and they will hereafter be glad they did so." + +A good many immigrants of more or less means took warning as soon as +they discovered the conditions prevailing there, and returned home. A +letter on this subject from the officers of the church said:-- + +"We have seen so many who have been disappointed and discouraged when +they visited this place, that we would have imagined they had never been +instructed in the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God, and thought +that, instead of coming into a society of men and women, subject to all +the frailties of mortality, they were about to enjoy the society of the +spirits of just men made perfect, the holy angels, and that this place +should be as pure as the third heaven. But when they found that this +people were but flesh and blood... they have been desirous to choose +them a captain to lead them back." + +The additions to the Mormon population from the settlers whom they found +in the outlying country in Illinois and Iowa were not likely to be of +a desirable class. The banks of the Mississippi River had long been +hiding-places for pirate bands, whose exploits were notorious, and the +"half-breed tract" was a known place of refuge for the horse thief, the +counterfeiter, and the desperado of any calling. The settlement of the +Mormons in such a region, with an invitation to the world at large to +join them and be saved, was a piece of good luck for this lawless class, +who found a covering cloak in the new baptism, and a shield in the +fidelity with which the Mormon authorities, under their charter, +defended their flock. In this way Nauvoo became a great receptacle for +stolen goods, and the river banks up and down the stream concealed +many more, the takers of which walked boldly through the streets of +the Mormon city. The retaliatory measures which Smith encouraged his +followers to practise on their neighbors in Missouri had inculcated +a disregard for the property rights of non-Mormons, which became an +inciting cause of hostilities with their neighbors in Illinois. + +The complaints of thefts by Mormons became so frequent that the church +authorities deemed it necessary to recognize and rebuke the practice. +Lee quotes from an address by Smith at the conference of April, 1840, +in Nauvoo, in which the prophet said: "We are no longer at war, and you +must stop stealing. When the right time comes, we will go in force and +take the whole state of Missouri. It belongs to us as our inheritance; +but I want no more petty stealing. A man that will steal petty articles +from his enemies will, when occasion offers, steal from his brethren +too. Now I command you that have stolen must steal no more."* + + + * Lee's "Mormonism Unveiled;" p. 111. + + +The case of Elder O. Walker bears on this subject. On October 11, 1840, +he was brought before a High Council and accused of discourtesy to the +prophet, and "suggesting (at different places) that in the church at +Nauvoo there did exist a set of pilferers who were actually thieving, +robbing and plundering, taking and unlawfully carrying away from +Missouri certain goods and chattels, wares and property; and that the +act and acts of such supposed thieving, etc., was fostered and conducted +by the knowledge and approval of the heads and leaders of the church, +viz., by the Presidency and High Council."* + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XVIII, p. 185. + + +The action of the church authorities themselves shows how serious they +considered the reports about thieving. As early as December 1, 1841, +Hyrum Smith, then one of the First Presidency, published in the Times +and Seasons an affidavit denying that the heads of the church "sanction +and approbate the members of said church in stealing property from those +persons who do not belong to said church," etc. This was followed by a +long denial of a similar character, signed by the Twelve, and later by +an affidavit by the prophet himself, denying that he ever "directly or +indirectly encouraged the purloining of property, or taught the doctrine +of stealing." On March 25, 1843, Smith, as mayor, issued a proclamation +beginning with the declaration, "I have not altered my views on the +subject of stealing," reciting rumors of a secret band of desperadoes +bound by oath to self-protection, and pledging pardon to any one who +would give him any information about "such abominable characters." This +exhibition of the heads of a church solemnly protesting that they were +opposed to thieving is unique in religious history. + +The Patriarch, Hyrum Smith, made an announcement to the conference of +1843, which further confirms the charges of organized thieving made by +the non-mormons. While denouncing the thieves as hypocrites, he said he +had learned of the existence of a band held together by secret oaths and +penalties, "who hold it right to steal from anyone who does not belong +to the church, provided they consecrate one-third of it to the building +of the Temple. They are also making bogus money.... The man who told me +this said, 'This secret band referred to the Bible, Book of Doctrine and +Covenants, and Book of Mormon to substantiate their doctrines; and if +any of them did not remain steadfast, they ripped open their bowels and +gave them to the catfish.'" He named two men, inmates of his own house, +who, he had discovered, were such thieves. The prophet followed this +statement with some remarks, declaring, "Thieving must be stopped."* + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XX, pp. 757-758. + + +The Rev. Henry Caswall, in a description of a Sunday service in Nauvoo +in April, 1842 "City of the Mormons," (p. 15) says:-- + +"The elder who had delivered the first discourse now rose and said a +certain brother whom he named had taken a keg of white lead. 'Now,' said +he, 'if any of the brethren present has taken it by mistake, thinking it +was his own, he ought to restore it; but if any of the brethren present +have stolen a keg, much more ought he to restore it, or else maybe he +will get catched.'... Another person rose and stated that he had lost +a ten dollar bill. If any of the brethren had found it or taken it, +he hoped it would be restored." This introduction of calls for the +restoration of stolen property as a feature of a Sunday church service +is probably unique with the Mormons. + +That the Mormons did not do all the thieving in the counties around +Nauvoo while they were there would be sufficiently proved by the +character of many of the persons whom they found there on their arrival, +and also by the fact that their expulsion did not make those counties a +paradise.* The trouble with them was that, as soon as a man joined them, +no matter what his previous character might have been, they gave him +that protection which came with their system of "standing together." An +early and significant proof of this protection is found in the action of +the conference held in Nauvoo on October 3, 1840, two months before the +charter had given the city government its extended powers, which voted +that "no person be considered guilty of crime unless proved by the +testimony of two or three witnesses."** + + + * "Long afterward, while the writer was travelling through +Hancock, Pike and Adams Counties, no family thought of retiring at night +without barring and doublelocking every ingress."--Beadle, "Life in +Utah," p. 65. + + + ** Millennial Star, Vol. XVIII, p. 153. + + +It became notorious in all the country round that it was practically +useless for a non-Mormon to attempt the recovery of stolen property in +Nauvoo, no matter how strong the proof in his possession might be. S. J. +Clarke* says that a great deal of stolen stock was traced into Nauvoo, +but that, "when found, it was extremely difficult to gain possession of +it." He cites as an illustration the case of a resident of that county +who traced a stolen horse into Nauvoo, and took with him sixty witnesses +to identify the animal before a Mormon justice of the peace. He found +himself, however, confronted with seventy witnesses who swore that the +horse belonged to some Mormon, and the justice decided that the "weight +of evidence," numerically calculated, was against the non-Mormon. + + + * "History of McDonough County," p. 83. + + +A form of protection against outside inquirers for property, which is +well authenticated, was given by what were known as "whittlers." When a +non-Mormon came into the city, and by his questions let it be known +that he was looking for something stolen, he would soon find himself +approached by a Mormon who carried a long knife and a stick, and who +would follow him, silently whittling. Soon a companion would join this +whittler, and then another, until the stranger would find himself fairly +surrounded by these armed but silent observers. Unless he was a man of +more than ordinary grit, an hour or more of this companionship would +convince him that it would be well for him to start for home.* + + + * Lee's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 168. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. -- SMITH'S PICTURE OF HIMSELF AS AUTOCRAT + +Smith's autobiography gives incidentally many interesting glimpses of +the prophet as he exercised his authority of dictator during the height +of his power at Nauvoo. It is fortunate for the impartial student that +these records are at his disposal, because many of the statements, +if made on any other authority, would be met by the customary Mormon +denials, and be considered generally incredible. + +That Smith's life, aside from the constant danger of extradition which +the Missouri authorities held over him, was not an easy one at this time +may readily be imagined. He had his position to maintain as sole +oracle of the church. He was also mayor, judge, councillor, and +lieutenant-general. There were individual jealousies to be disposed +of among his associates, rivalries of different parts of the city over +wished-for improvements to be considered, demands of the sellers of +church lands for payment to be met, and the claims of politicians to +be attended to. But Smith rarely showed any indication of compromise, +apparently convinced that his position at all points was now more secure +than it had ever been. + +The big building enterprises in which the church was engaged were a +heavy tax on the people, and constant urging was necessary to keep them +up to the requirements. Thus we find an advertisement in the Wasp dated +June 25, 1842, and signed by the "Temple Recorder," saying, "Brethren, +remember that your contracts with your God are sacred; the labor is +wanted immediately." Smith referred to the discontent of the laborers, +and to some other matters, in a sermon on February 21, 1843. The +following quotations are from his own report of it. "If any man working +on the Nauvoo House is hungry, let him come to me and I will feed him +at my table... and then if the man is not satisfied I will kick his +backside.... This meeting was got up by the Nauvoo House committee. The +Pagans, Roman Catholics, Methodists and Baptists shall have place in +Nauvoo--only they must be ground in Joe Smith's mill. I have been in +their mill... and those who come here must go through my smut machine, +and that is my tongue."* The difficulty of carrying on these building +enterprises at this time was increased by the financial disturbance that +was convulsing the whole country. It was in these years that Congress +was wrestling with the questions of the deposits of the public funds, +the United States Bank, the subtreasury scheme, and the falling off of +customs and land-sale revenues, with a threatened deficit in the federal +treasury. The break-down of the Bank of the United States caused a +general failure of the banks of the Western and Southern states, and +money was so scarce at Nauvoo that one Mormon writer records the fact +that "when corn was brought to my door at ten cents a bushel, and sadly +needed, the money could not be raised." + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XX, p. 583. + + +The relations between Smith and Rigdon had been strained ever since the +departure of the Mormons from Missouri. The trouble between them was +finally brought before a special conference at Nauvoo, on October 7, +1843, at which Smith stated that he had received no material benefits +from Rigdon's labors or counsel since they had left Missouri. He +presented complaints against Rigdon's management of the post-office, +brought up a charge that Rigdon had been in correspondence with General +Bennett and Governor Carlin, and offered "indirect testimony" that +Rigdon had given the Missourians information of Smith's whereabouts at +the time of his last arrest. Rigdon met these accusations, some with +denials and some with explanations, closing with a pitiful appeal to +the all-powerful head of the church, whose nod would decide the verdict, +reciting their long associations and sufferings, and signifying +his willingness to resign his position as councillor to the First +Presidency, but not concealing the pain and humiliation that such a +step would cause him. Smith became magnanimous. "He expressed entire +willingness to have Elder Rigdon retain his station, provided he +would magnify his office, and walk and conduct himself in all honesty, +righteousness and integrity; but signified his lack of confidence in his +integrity and steadfastness."* This incident once more furnishes proof +of some great power which Smith held over Rigdon that induced the latter +to associate with the prophet on these terms. + + + * Times and Seasons, Vol. IV, p. 330. H. C. Kimball stated +afterward at Rigdon's church trial that Smith did not accept him as an +adviser after this, but took Amasa Lyman in his place, and that it was +Hyrum Smith who induced his brother to show some apparent magnanimity. + + +Smith's creditors finally pressed him so hard that he attempted to +secure aid from the bankruptcy act. In this he did not succeed,* and +he was very bitter in his denunciation of the law because it was +interpreted against him. It was about this time that Smith, replying +to reports of his wealth, declared that his assets consisted of one old +horse, two pet deer, ten turkeys, an old cow, one old dog, a wife and +child, and a little household furniture. On March 1, 1843, the Council +of the Twelve wrote to the outlying branches of the church, calling +on them "to bring to our President as many loads of wheat, corn, beef, +pork, lard, tallow, eggs, poultry, venison, and everything eatable, at +your command," in order that he might be relieved of business cares and +have time to attend to their spiritual interests. It was characteristic +of Smith to find him, at a conference held the following month, +lecturing the Twelve on their own idleness, telling them it was not +necessary for them to be abroad all the time preaching and gathering +funds, but that they should spend a part of their time at home earning a +living. + + + * See chapter on this subject in Bennett's "History of the +Saints." + + +At this same conference Smith was compelled to go into the details of +a transaction which showed of how little practical use to him were his +divining and prophetic powers. A man named Remick had come to him the +previous summer and succeeded in getting from him a loan of $200 by +misrepresentation. Afterward Remick offered to give him a quit-claim +deed for all the land bought of Galland, as well as the notes which +Smith had given to Galland, and one-half of all the land that Remick +owned in Illinois and Iowa, if Smith would use his influence to build up +the city of Keokuk, Iowa. Smith actually agreed to this in writing. At +the conference he had to explain this whole affair. After alleging that +Remick was a swindler, he said: "I am not so much of a 'Christian' as +many suppose I am. When a man undertakes to ride me for a horse I feel +disposed to kick up, and throw him off and ride him. David did so, and +so did Joshua." * + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XX, pp. 758-759. + + +The old Kirtland business troubles came up to annoy Smith from time to +time, but he always found a way to meet them. While his writ of habeas +corpus was under argument out of the city in 1841, a man presented to +him a five-dollar bill of the Kirtland Bank, and threatened to sue him +on it. As the easiest way to dispose of this matter, Smith handed the +man $5. + +Smith's Ohio experience did not lessen his estimation of himself as an +authority on finance. We find him, at the meeting of the Nauvoo City +Council on February 25, 1843, denouncing the state law of Illinois +making property a legal tender for the payment of debts; asserting that +their city charter gave them authority to enact such local currency +laws as did not conflict with the federal and state constitutions, and +continuing:-- + +"Shall we be such fools as to be governed by their [Illinois] laws which +are unconstitutional? No. We will make a law for gold and silver; then +their law ceases, and we can collect our debts. Powers not delegated +to the states, or reserved from the states, are constitutional. The +constitution acknowledges that the people have all power not reserved to +itself. I am a lawyer. I am a big lawyer, and comprehend heaven, earth +and hell, to bring forth knowledge that shall cover up all lawyers, +doctors and other big bodies."* + + + *Ibid., p. 616. + + +Smith had his way, as usual, and on March 4, the Council passed +unanimously an ordinance making gold and silver the only legal tender +in payment of debts and fines in Nauvoo, and fixing a punishment for +the circulation of counterfeit money. Perhaps this Council never took a +broader view of its legislative authority than in this instance. + +Smith never laid aside his natural inclination for good fellowship, nor +took himself too seriously while posing as a mouthpiece of the Lord. +Along with the entries recording his predictions he notes such matters +as these: "Played ball with the brethren." "Cut wood all day." A visitor +at Nauvoo, in 1843, describes him as "a jolly fellow, and one of the +last persons whom he would have supposed God would have raised up as a +Prophet."* Josiah Quincy said that Smith seemed to him to have a +keen sense of the humorous aspects of his position. "It seems to me, +General," Quincy said to him, "that you have too much power to be safely +trusted in one man." "In your hands or that of any other person," was +his reply, "so much power would no doubt be dangerous. I am the only man +in the world whom it would be safe to trust with it. Remember, I am a +prophet." "The last five words," says Quincy, "were spoken in a rich +comical aside, as if in hearty recognition of the ridiculous sound they +might have in the ears of a Gentile."** + + + * This same idea is presented by a writer in the Millennial Star, +Vol. XVII, p. 820: "When the fact of Smith's divine character shall +burst upon the nations, they will be struck dumb with wonder and +astonishment at the Lord's choice,--the last individual in the whole +world whom they would have chosen." + + + ** "Figures of the Past;" p. 397. + + +Smith makes this entry on February 20, 1843: "While the [Municipal] +Court was in session, I saw two boys fighting in the street. I left the +business of the court, ran over immediately, caught one of the boys and +then the other, and after giving them proper instruction, I gave the +bystanders a lecture for not interfering in such cases. I returned +to the court, and told them nobody was allowed to fight in Nauvoo but +myself." + +In January, 1842, Smith once more became a "storekeeper." Writing to +an absent brother on January 5, 1842, he described his building, with a +salesroom fitted up with shelves and drawers, a private office, etc. +He added that he had a fair stock, "although some individuals have +succeeded in detaining goods to a considerable amount. I have stood +behind the counter all day," he continued, "dealing out goods as +steadily as any clerk you ever saw."* + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XIX, p. 21. + + +The following entry is found under date of June 1, 1842: "Sent Dr. +Richards to Carthage on business. On his return, old Charley, while on +a gallop, struck his knees and breast instead of his feet, fell in the +street and rolled over in an instant, and the doctor narrowly escaped +with his life. It was a trick of the devil to kill my clerk. Similar +attacks have been made upon myself of late, and Satan is seeking our +destruction on every hand." + +Smith practically gave up "revealing" during his life in Nauvoo. At +Rigdon's church trial, after Smith's death, President Marks said, +"Brother Joseph told us that he, for the future, whenever there was a +revelation to be presented to the church, would first present it to the +Quorum, and then, if it passed the Quorum, it should be presented to +the church." Strong pressure must have been exerted upon the prophet +to persuade him to consent to such a restriction, and it is the only +instance of the kind that is recorded during his career. But if he did +not "reveal," he could not be prevented from uttering oral prophecies +and giving his interpretation of the Scriptures. That he had become +possessed with the idea of a speedy ending of this world seems +altogether probable. All through his autobiography he notes reports of +earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, etc., and he gives special emphasis to +accounts that reached him of "showers of flesh and blood." Under date +of February 18, 1843, he notes, "While at dinner I remarked to my family +and friends present that, when the earth was sanctified and became like +a sea of glass, it would be one great Urim and Thummim, and the Saints +could look in it and see as they are seen." Another of his wise sayings +is thus recorded, "The battle of Gog and Magog will be after the +Millennial." + +In some remarks, on April 2, 1843, Smith made the one prediction that +came true, and one which has always given the greatest satisfaction to +the Saints. This was: "I prophesy in the name of the Lord God that +the commencement of the difficulties which will cause much bloodshed +previous to the coming of the Son of man will be in South Carolina. +It may probably arise through the slave trade." This prediction was +afterward amplified so as to declare that the war between the Northern +and Southern states would involve other nations in Europe, and that the +slaves would rise up against their masters. It would have been better +for his fame had he left the announcement in its original shape. + +Such is the picture of Smith the prophet as drawn by himself. Of the +rumors about the Mormons, current in all the counties near Nauvoo, which +cannot be proved by Mormon testimony there were hundreds. + + + +CHAPTER IX. -- SMITH'S FALLING OUT WITH BENNETT AND HIGBEE + +Surprise has been expressed that Smith would permit the newcomer, +General John C. Bennett, to be elected the first mayor of Nauvoo under +the new charter. Much less surprising is the fact that a falling-out +soon occurred between them which led to the withdrawal of Bennett +from the church on May 17, 1842, and made for the prophet an enemy who +pursued him with a method and vindictiveness that he had not before +encountered from any of those who had withdrawn, or been driven, from +the church fellowship. + +The exact nature of the dispute between the two men has never been +explained. That personal jealousy entered into it there is little doubt. +Smith never had submitted to any real division of his supreme authority, +and when Bennett entered the fold as political lobbyist, mayor, major +general, etc., a clash seemed unavoidable. It was stated, during +Rigdon's church trial after Smith's death, that Bennett declared, at +the first conference he attended at Nauvoo, that he sustained the same +position in the First Presidency that the Holy Ghost does to the Father +and the Son; and that, after Smith's death, Bennett visited Nauvoo, and +proposed to Rigdon that the latter assume Smith's place in the church, +and let Bennett assume that which had been occupied by Rigdon.* + + + * Times and Seasons, Vol. V, p. 655. + + +The Mormon explanation given at the time of Bennett's expulsion was that +some of their travelling elders in the Eastern states discovered that +the general had a wife and family there while he was paying attention +to young ladies in Nauvoo; but a very slight acquaintance with Smith's +ideas on the question of morality at that time is needed to indicate +that this was an afterthought. The course of the church authorities +showed that they were ready to every way qualified to be a useful +citizen. Smith directed the clerk of the church to permit Bennett to +withdraw "if he desires to do so, and this with the best of feelings +toward you and General Bennett." But as soon as Bennett began his +attacks on Smith the church made haste to withdraw the hand of +fellowship from him, and framed a formal writ of excommunication, and +Smith could not find enough phials of wrath to pour upon him. Thus, in a +statement published in the Times and Seasons of July 1, 1842, he called +Bennett "an impostor and a base adulterer," brought up the story of +his having a wife in Ohio, and charged that he taught women that it was +proper to have promiscuous intercourse with men. + +As soon as Bennett left Nauvoo he began the publication of a series of +letters in the Sangamon (Illinois) Journal, which purported to give +an inside view of the Mormon designs, and the personal character and +practices of the church leaders. These were widely copied, and seem to +have given people in the East their first information that Smith was +anything worse than a religious pretender. Bennett also started East +lecturing on the same subject, and he published in Boston in the same +year a little book called "History of the Saints; or an Expose of +Joe Smith and Mormonism," containing, besides material which he had +collected, copious extracts from the books of Howe and W. Harris. + +Bennett declared that he had never believed in any of the Mormon +doctrines, but that, forming the opinion that their leaders were +planning to set up "a despotic and religious empire" over the territory +included in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri, he decided +to join them, learn their secrets, and expose them. Bennett's personal +rascality admits of no doubt, and not the least faith need be placed in +this explanation of his course, which, indeed, is disproved by his later +efforts to regain power in the church. It does seem remarkable, however, +that neither the Lord nor his prophet knew anything about Bennett's +rascality, and that they should select him, among others, for special +mention in the long revelation of January 19, 1841, wherein the Lord +calls him "my servant," and directs him to help Smith "in sending my +word to the kings of the people of the earth." There is no doubt +that Bennett obtained an inside view of Smith's moral, political, and +religious schemes, and that, while his testimony un-corroborated might +be questioned, much that he wrote was amply confirmed. + +According to Bennett's statements, Mormon society at Nauvoo was +organized licentiousness. There were "Cyprian Saints," "Chartered +Sisters of Charity," and "Cloistered Saints," or spiritual wives, all +designed to pander to the passions of church members. Of the system +of "spiritual wives" (which was set forth in the revelation concerning +polygamy), Bennett says in his book: + +"When an Apostle, High Priest, Elder or Scribe conceives an affection +for a female, and he has satisfactorily ascertained that she experiences +a mutual claim, he communicates confidentially to the Prophet his +affaire du coeur, and requests him to inquire of the Lord whether or not +it would be right and proper for him to take unto himself the said woman +for his spiritual wife. It is no obstacle whatever to this spiritual +marriage if one or both of the parties should happen to have a husband +or wife already united to them according to the laws of the land." + +Bennett alleged that Smith forced him, at the point of a pistol, to +sign an affidavit stating that Smith had no part in the practice of +the spiritual wife doctrine; but Bennett's later disclosures went into +minute particulars of alleged attempts of Smith to secure "spiritual +wives," a charge which the commandments to the prophet's wife in the +"revelation" on polygamy amply sustain. A leading illustration cited +concerned the wife of Orson Pratt.* According to the story as told +(largely in Mrs. Pratt's words), Pratt was sent to England on a mission +to get him out of the way, and then Smith used every means in his power +to secure Mrs. Pratt's consent to his plan, but in vain. Nancy Rigdon, +the eldest unmarried daughter of Sidney Rigdon, was another alleged +intended victim of the prophet, and Bennett said that Smith offered him +$500 in cash, or a choice lot, if he would assist in the plot. One day, +when Smith was alone with her, he pressed his request so hard that she +threatened to cry for help. The continuation of the story is not by +General Bennett, but is taken from a letter to James A. Bennett, he of +"Arlington House," dated Nauvoo, July 27, 1842, by George W. Robinson, +one of Smith's fellow prisoners in Independence jail, and one of the +generals of the Nauvoo Legion:-- + + + * Ebenezer Robinson says that when Orson Pratt returned from his +mission to England, and learned of the teaching of the spiritual wife +doctrine, his mind gave way. One day he disappeared, and a search party +found him five miles below Nauvoo, hatless, seated on the bank of the +river.--The Return, Vol. II, p. 363. + + +"She left him with disgust, and came home and told her father of the +transaction; upon which Smith was sent for. He came. She told the tale +in the presence of all the family, and to Smith's face. I was present. +Smith attempted to deny at first, and face her down with a lie; but she +told the facts with so much earnestness, and the fact of a letter being +proved which he had caused to be written to her on the same subject, the +day after the attempt made on her virtue, breathing the same spirit, and +which he had fondly hoped was destroyed, all came with such force that +he could not withstand the testimony; and he then and there acknowledged +that every word of Miss Rigdon's testimony was true. Now for his excuse. +He wished to ascertain if she was virtuous or not!" + +To offset this damaging attack on Smith, a man named Markham was induced +to make an affidavit assailing Miss Rigdon's character, which was +published in the Wasp. But Markham's own character was so bad, and the +charge caused so much indignation, that the editor was induced to say +that the affidavit was not published by the prophet's direction. + +Bennett's charges aroused great interest among the non-Mormons in all +the counties around Nauvoo, and increased the growing enmity against +Smith's flock which was already aroused by their political course and +their alleged propensity to steal. + +A minor incident among those leading up to Smith's final catastrophe was +a quarrel, some time later, between the prophet and Francis M. Higbee. +This resulted in a suit for libel against Smith, tried in May, 1844, +in which much testimony disclosing the rotten condition of affairs +in Nauvoo was given, and in the arrest of Smith in a suit for $5000 +damages. The hearing, on a writ of habeas corpus, in Smith's behalf, +is reported in Times and Seasons, Vol. V, No. 10. The court (Smith's +Municipal Court) ordered Smith discharged, and pronounced Higbee's +character proved "infamous." + + + +CHAPTER X. -- THE INSTITUTION OF POLYGAMY + +The student of the history of the Mormon church to this date, who seeks +an answer to the question, Who originated the idea of plural marriages +among the Mormons? will naturally credit that idea to Joseph Smith, +Jr. The Reorganized Church (non-polygamist), whose membership includes +Smith's direct descendants, defend the prophet's memory by alleging +that "in the brain of J. C. Bennett was conceived the idea, and in +his practice was the principle first introduced into the church." +In maintaining this ground, however, they contend that "the official +character of President Joseph Smith should be judged by his official +ministrations as set forth in the well authenticated accepted official +documents of the church up to June 27, 1844. His personal, private +conduct should not enter into this discussion."* The secular +investigator finds it necessary to disregard this warning, and in +studying the question he discovers an incontrovertible mass of testimony +to prove that the "revelation" concerning polygamy was a production of +Smith,** was familiar to the church leaders in Nauvoo, and was lived up +to by them before their expulsion from Illinois. + + + * Pamphlets Nos. 16 and 46 published by the Reorganized Church. + + + ** "Elder W. W. Phelps said in Salt Lake Tabernacle in 1862 that +while Joseph was translating the Book of Abraham in Kirtland, Ohio, +in 1835, from the papyrus found with the Egyptian mummies, the Prophet +became impressed with the idea that polygamy would yet become an +institution of the Mormon Church. Brigham Young was present, and was +much annoyed at the statement made by Phelps; but it is highly probable +that it was the real secret that the latter then divulged."--"Rocky +Mountain Saints," p. 182. + + +The Book of Mormon furnishes ample proof that the idea of plural +marriages was as far from any thought of the real "author" of the +doctrinal part of that book as it was from the mind of Rigdon's +fellow-Disciples in Ohio at the time. The declarations on the subject in +the Mormon Bible are so worded that they distinctly forbid any following +of the example of Old Testament leaders like David and Solomon. In the +Book of Jacob ii. 24-28, we find these commands: "Behold, David and +Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable +before me saith the Lord; wherefore, thus with the Lord, I have led this +people forth out of the land of Jerusalem, by the power of mine arm, +that I might raise up unto me a righteous branch from the fruit of the +loins of Joseph. + +"Wherefore, I, the Lord God, will not suffer that this people shall do +like unto them of old. Wherefore my brethren, hear me, and hearken to +the word of the Lord; for there shall not any man among you hath save +it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none; for I, the Lord God, +delighteth in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination +before me; thus saith the Lord of Hosts." + +The same view is expressed in the Book of Mosiah, where, among the sins +of King Noah, it is mentioned that "he spent his time in riotous living +with his wives and concubines," and in the Book of Ether x. 5, where it +is said that "Riplakish did not do that which was right in the sight of +the Lord, for he did have many wives and concubines." + +Smith, at the beginning of his career as a prophet, inculcated the same +views on this subject in his "revelations." Thus, in the one dated at +Kirtland, February 9, 1831, it was commanded (Sec. 42), "Thou shalt love +thy wife with all thy heart, and shall cleave unto her and none else; +and he that looketh upon a woman to lust after her shall deny the faith, +and shall not have the spirit, and if he repents not he shall be cast +out." In another "revelation," dated the following month (Sec. 49), it +was declared, "Wherefore it is lawful that he should have one wife, and +they twain shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might +answer the end of its creation."* These teachings may be with justness +attributed to Rigdon, and we shall see on how little ground rests a +carelessly made charge that he was the originator of the "spiritual +wife" notion. + +"It is the strongest proof of the firm hold of a party, whether +religious or political, upon the public mind, when it may offend with +impunity against its own primary principles." MILMAN, "History of +Christianity." + +That there was a loosening of the views regarding the marriage tie +almost as soon as Smith began his reign at Kirtland can be shown on +abundant proof. Booth in one of his letters said, "it has been made +known to one who has left his wife in New York State, that he is +entirely free from his wife, and he is at pleasure to take him a +wife from among the Lamanites" (Indians).* That reports of polygamous +practices among the Mormons while they were in Ohio were current was +conceded in the section on marriage, inserted in the Kirtland edition of +the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants"--"Inasmuch as this Church of Christ +has been reproached with the crime of fornication and polygamy," etc.; +and is further proved by Smith's denial in the Elders' Journal,** and +by the declaration of the Presidents of the Seventies, withholding +fellowship with any elder "who is guilty of polygamy." + + + * Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled." + + + ** p. 157, ante. + + +Of the enmity of the higher powers toward transgressors of the law +of morality of this time, we find an amusing (some will say shocking) +mention in Smith's "revelation" of October 25, 1831 (Sec. 66). This +"revelation" (announced as the words of "the Lord your Redeemer, the +Saviour of the world") was addressed to W. E. McLellin (who was soon +after "rebuked" by the prophet for attempting to have a "revelation" on +his own account). It declared that McLellin was "blessed for receiving +mine everlasting covenant," directed him to go forth and preach, gave +him power to heal the sick, and then added, "Commit no adultery, a +temptation with which thou hast been troubled." Could religious bouffe +go to greater lengths? + +Testimony as to the liberal Mormon view of the marriage relation while +the church was in Missouri is found in the case of one Lyon, reported +by Smith on page 148 of Vol. XVI of the Millennial Star. Lyon was the +presiding high priest of one of the outlying branches of the church. +Desiring to marry a Mrs. Jackson, whose husband was absent in the East, +Lyon announced a "revelation," ordering the marriage to take place, +telling her that he knew by revelation that her husband was dead. He +gained her consent in this way, but, before the ceremony was performed, +Jackson returned home, and, learning of Lyon's conduct, he had him +brought before the authorities for trial. The high priest was found +guilty enough to be deposed from his office, but not from his church +membership. + +There is abundant testimony from Mormon sources to show that the +doctrine of polygamy, with the "spiritual wife" adjunct, was practised +in Nauvoo for some time before Joseph Smith's death. A very orthodox +Mormon witness on this point is Eliza R. Snow. In her biography of her +brother, Lorenzo Snow,* the recent head of the church, she gives this +account of her connection with polygamy: + + + * "This biography and autobiography of my brother Lorenzo Snow +has been written as a tribute of sisterly affection for him, and as a +token of sincere respect to his family. It is designed to be handed down +in lineal descent, from generation to generation,--to be preserved as a +family memorial."--Extract from the preface. + + +"While my brother was absent on this [his first] mission to Europe +[1840-1843], changes had taken place with me, one of eternal import, +of which I supposed him to be entirely ignorant. The Prophet Joseph +had taught me the principle of plural or celestial marriage, and I was +married to him for time and eternity. In consequence of the ignorance of +most of the Saints, as well as people of the world, on this subject, +it was not mentioned, only privately between the few whose minds were +enlightened on the subject. Not knowing how my brother [he returned on +April 12, 1843] would receive it, I did not feel at liberty, and did not +wish to assume the responsibility, of instructing him in the principle +of plural marriage.... I informed my husband [the prophet] of the +situation, and requested him to open the subject to my brother. A +favorable opportunity soon presented, and, seated together on the bank +of the Mississippi River, they had a most interesting conversation. +The prophet afterward told me he found that my brother's mind had been +previously enlightened on the subject in question. That Comforter which +Jesus says shall I lead unto all truth had penetrated his understanding, +and, while in England, had given him an intimation of what at that time +was to many a secret. This was the result of living near the Lord. + +"It was at the private interview referred to above that the Prophet +Joseph unbosomed his heart, and described the trying ordeal he +experienced in overcoming the repugnance of his feelings, the natural +result of the force of education and social custom, relative to the +introduction of plural marriage. He knew the voice of God--he knew the +command of the Almighty to him was to go forward--to set the example and +establish celestial plural marriage.... Yet the prophet hesitated and +deferred from time to time, until an angel of God stood by him with a +drawn sword, and told him that, unless he moved forward and established +plural marriage, his priesthood would be taken from him and he should +be destroyed. This testimony he not only bore to my brother, but also to +others."* + + + * "Biography of Lorenzo Snow" (1884), pp. 68-70. Young married +some of Smith's spiritual widows after the prophet's death, and four +of them, including Eliza Snow, appear in Crockwell's illustrated +"Biographies of Young's Wives," published in Utah. + + +Catherine Lewis, who, after passing two years with the Mormons, escaped +from Nauvoo, after taking the preliminary degrees of the endowment, +says: "The Twelve took Joseph's wives after his death. Kimball and Young +took most of them; the daughter of Kimball was one of Joseph's wives. +I heard her say to her mother: 'I will never be sealed to my father +[meaning as a wife], and I would never have been sealed [married] to +Joseph had I known it was anything more than ceremony. I was young, and +they deceived me by saying the salvation of our whole family depended +on it.' The Apostles said they only took Joseph's wives to raise up +children, carry them through to the next world, and there deliver them +up to him; by so doing they would gain his approbation."--"Narrative +of Some of the Proceedings of the Mormons." Smith's versatility as a +fabricator seems to give him a leading place in that respect in the +record of mankind. Snow says that he asked the prophet to set him right +if he should see him indulging in any practice that might lead him +astray, and the prophet assured him that he would never be guilty of +any serious error. "It was one of Snow's peculiarities," observes his +sister, "to do nothing by halves"; and he exemplified this in this +instance by having two wives "sealed" to him at the same time in 1845, +adding two more very soon afterward, and another in 1848. "It was +distinctly understood," says his sister, "and agreed between them, that +their marriage relations should not, for the time being, be divulged to +the world." + +The testimony of John D. Lee in regard to the practice of polygamy in +Illinois is very circumstantial, and Lee was a conscientious polygamist +to the day of his death. He says* that he was directed in this matter by +principle and not by passion, and goes on to explain:-- + + + * "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 200 + + +"In those days I did not always make due allowance for the failings of +the weaker vessels. I then expected perfection in all women. I know now +that I was foolish in looking for that in anything human. I have, for +slight offences, turned away good-meaning young women that had been +sealed to me, and refused to hear their excuses, but sent them away +brokenhearted. In this I did wrong. I have regretted the same in sorrow +for many years .... Should my history ever fall into the hands of +Emeline Woolsey or Polly Ann Workman, I wish them to know that, with my +last breath, I asked God to pardon me the wrong I did them, when I drove +them from me, poor young girls as they were" + +Lee says that in the winter of 1843-1844 Smith set one Sidney Hay Jacobs +to writing a pamphlet giving selections from the Scriptures bearing on +the practice of polygamy and advocating that doctrine. The appearance +of this pamphlet created so much unfavorable comment (even Hyrum Smith +denouncing it "as from beneath") that Joseph deemed it best to condemn +it in the Wasp, although men in his confidence were busy advocating its +teachings. + +The "revelation" sanctioning plural marriages is dated July 12, 1843, +and Lee says that Smith "dared not proclaim it publicly," but taught it +"confidentially," urging his followers "to surrender themselves to God" +for their salvation; and "in the winter of 1845, meetings were held +all over the city of Nauvoo, and the spirit of Elijah was taught in the +different families, as a foundation to the order of celestial marriage, +as well as the law of adoption."* The Saints were also taught that +Gentiles had no right to perform the marriage ceremony, and that their +former marriage relations were invalid, and that they could be "sealed" +to new wives under the authority of the church. + + + *"Mormonism Unveiled," p. 165. + + +Lee gives a complete record of his plural marriages, which is +interesting, showing how the business was conducted at the start. His +second wife, the daughter of a wealthy farmer near Quincy, Illinois, was +"sealed" to him in Nauvoo in 1845, after she had been an inmate of his +house for three months. His third and fourth wives were "sealed" to him +soon after, but Young took a fancy to wife No. 3 (who had borne Lee a +son), and, after much persuasion, she was "sealed" to Young. At this +same "sealing" Lee took wife No. 4, a girl whom he had baptized in +Tennessee. In the spring of 1845 two sisters of his first wife AND THEIR +MOTHER were "sealed" to him; he married the mother, he says, "for the +salvation of her eternal state." At the completion of the Nauvoo Temple +he took three more wives. At Council Bluffs, in 1847, Brigham Young +"sealed" him to three more, two of them sisters, in one night, and he +secured the fourteenth soon after, the fifteenth in 1851, the sixteenth +in 1856, the seventeenth in 1858 ("a dashing young bride"), the +eighteenth in 1859, and the nineteenth and last in Salt Lake City. He +says he claimed "only eighteen true wives," as he married Mrs. Woolsey +"for her soul's sake, and she was nearly sixty years old." By these +wives he had sixty-four children, of whom fifty-four were living when +his book was written. + +Ebenezer Robinson, explaining in the Return a statement signed by him +and his wife in October, 1842, to offset Bennett's charges, in which +they declared that they "knew of no other form of marriage ceremony" +except the one in the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants," said that this +statement was then true, as the heads of the church had not yet taught +the new system to others. But they had heard it talked of, and the +prophet's brother, Don Carlos, in June, 1841, had said to Robinson, "Any +man who will teach and practise spiritual wifery will go to hell, no +matter if it is my brother Joseph." Hyrum Smith, who first opposed the +doctrine, went to Robinson's house in December, 1843, and taught the +system to him and his wife. Robinson was told of the "revelation" to +Joseph a few days after its date, and just as he was leaving Nauvoo on a +mission to New York. He, Law, and William Marks opposed the innovation. +He continues: "We returned home from that mission the latter part of +November, 1843. Soon after our return, I was told that when we were +gone the 'revelation' was presented to and read in the High Council in +Nauvoo, three of the members of which refused to accept it as from the +Lord, President Marks, Cowles, and Counsellor Leonard Soby." Cowles at +once resigned from the High Council and the Presidency of the church at +Nauvoo, and was looked on as a seceder. + +Robinson gives convincing testimony that, as early as 1843, the +ceremonies of the Endowment House were performed in Nauvoo by a secret +organization called "The Holy Order," and says that in June, 1844, he +saw John Taylor clad in an endowment robe. He quotes a letter to +himself from Orson Hyde, dated September 19, 1844, in which Hyde refers +guardedly to the new revelation and the "Holy Order" as "the charge +which the prophet gave us," adding, "and we know that Elder Rigdon does +not know what it was." * + + + * The Return, Vol. II, p. 252. + + +We may find the following references to this subject in Smith's diary: +"April 29, 1842. The Lord makes manifest to me many things which it is +not wisdom for me to make public until others can witness the proof of +them." + +"May 1. I preached in the grove on the Keys of the Kingdom, etc. +The Keys are certain signs and words by which the false spirits and +personages can be detected from true, and which cannot be revealed to +the Elders till the Temple is completed." + +"May 4. I spent the day in the upper part of my store... in council with +(Hyrum, Brigham Young and others) instructing them in the principles +and order of the Priesthood, attending to washings, anointings, +endowments.... The communications I made to this Council were of things +spiritual, and to be received only by the spiritually minded; and there +was nothing made known to these men but what will be made known to all +the Saints of the last days as soon as they are prepared to receive, and +a proper place is prepared to communicate them." * + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XIX, pp. 390-393. + + +In one of Smith's dissertations, which are inserted here and there in +his diary, is the following under date of August, 1842:-- + +"If we seek first the kingdom of God, all good things will be added. So +with Solomon. First he asked wisdom and God gave it to him, and with +it every desire of his heart, even things which might be considered +abominable to all who understand the order of heaven only in part, but +which in reality were right, because God gave and sanctioned them by +special revelation." * + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XIX, p. 774. + +While the Mormon leaders, Lorenzo Snow and others, were in the Utah +penitentiary after conviction under the Edmunds antipolygamy law, +refusing pardons on condition that they would give up the practice of +polygamy, the Deseret News of May 20, 1886, printed an affidavit made +on February 16, 1874, at the request of Joseph F. Smith, by William +Clayton, who was a clerk in the prophet's office in Nauvoo and temple +recorder, to show the world that "the martyred prophet is responsible to +God and the world for this doctrine." The affidavit recites that while +Clayton and the prophet were taking a walk, in February, 1843, Smith +first broached to him the subject of plural marriages, and told him +that the doctrine was right in the sight of God, adding, "It is your +privilege to have all the wives you want." He gives the names of a +number of the wives whom Smith married at this time, adding that his +wife Emma "was cognizant of the fact of some, if not all, of these being +his wives, and she generally treated them very kindly." He says that +on July 12, 1843, Hyrum offered to read the "revelation" to Emma if the +prophet would write it out, saying, "I believe I can convince her of its +truth, and you will hereafter have peace." Joseph smiled, and remarked, +"You do not know Emma as well as I do," but he thereupon dictated the +"revelation" and Clayton wrote it down. An examination of its text +will show how largely it was devoted to Emma's subjugation. When Hyrum +returned from reading it to the prophet's lawful wife, he said that "he +had never received a more severe talking to in his life; that Emma +was very bitter and full of resentment and anger." Joseph repeated +his remark that his brother did not know Emma as well as he did, and, +putting the "revelation" into his pocket, they went out. * + + + * Jepson's "Historical Record," Vol. VI, pp. 233-234, gives the +names of twenty-seven women who, "besides a few others about whom we +have been unable to get all the necessary information, were sealed to +the Prophet Joseph during the last three years of his life." + + +"At the present time," says Stenhouse ("Rocky Mountain Saints"), p. +185, "there are probably about a dozen sisters in Utah who proudly +acknowledge themselves to be the `wives of Joseph, 'and how many +others there may be who held that relationship no man knoweth.'" At +the conference in Salt Lake City on August 28, 1852, at which the first +public announcement of the revelation was made, Brigham Young said in +the course of his remarks: "Though that doctrine has not been preached +by the Elders, this people have believed in it for many years.* The +original copy of this revelation was burned up. William Clayton was the +man who wrote it from the mouth of the Prophet. In the meantime it was +in Bishop Whitney's possession. He wished the privilege to copy it, +which brother Joseph granted. Sister Emma burnt the original." The +"revelation," he added, had been locked up for years in his desk, on +which he had a patent lock.** + + + * As evidence that polygamy was not countenanced by Smith and his +associates in Nauvoo, there has been cited a notice in the Times and +Seasons of February, 1844, signed by Joseph and Hyrum Smith, cutting off +an elder named Brown for preaching "polygamy and other false and corrupt +doctrines," and a letter of Hyrum, dated March 15, 1844, threatening to +deprive of his license and membership any elder who preached "that a man +having a certain priesthood may have as many wives as he pleases." The +Deseret News of May 20, 1886, noticing these and other early denials, +justifies the falsehoods, saying that "Jesus enjoined his Disciples on +several occasions to keep to themselves principles that he made known +to them," that the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants" gave the same +instruction, and that the elders, as the "revelation" was not yet +promulgated, "were justified in denying those imputations, and at the +same time avoiding the avowal of such doctrines as were not yet intended +for this world." P. P. Pratt flatly denied, in England, in 1846, that +any such doctrine was known or practised by the Saints, and John Taylor +(afterward the head of the church), in a discussion in France in +July, 1850, declared that "these things are too outrageous to admit of +belief." The latter false statements would be covered by the excuse of +the Deseret News. + + + ** Deseret News, extra, September 14, 1852. Young declared in a +sermon in Salt Lake City in July, 1855, that he was among the doubters +when the prophet revealed the new doctrine, saying: "It was the first +time in my life that I desired the grave, and I could hardly get over +it for a long time.... And I have had to examine myself from that day to +this, and watch my faith and carefully meditate, lest I should be +found desiring the grave more than I ought to." His examinations proved +eminently successful. + + +Further proof is not needed to show that this doctrine was the +offspring of Joseph Smith, and that its original object was to grant him +unrestricted indulgence of his passions. + +Justice to Sidney Rigdon requires that his memory should be cleared +of the charge, which has been made by more than one writer, that the +spiritual wife doctrine was of his invention. There is the strongest +evidence to show that it was Smith's knowledge that he could not win +Rigdon over to polygamy which made the prophet so bitter against his old +counsellor, and that it was Rigdon's opposition to the new doctrine that +made Young so determined to drive him out of church after the prophet's +death. + +When Rigdon returned to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to establish his own +Mormon church there, he began in October, 1844, the publication of a +revived Latter-Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate. Stating "the +greater cause" of the opposition of the leaders of Nauvoo to him, in an +editorial, he said:-- + +"Know then that the so-called Twelve Apostles at Nauvoo are now teaching +the doctrine of what is called Spiritual Wives; that a man may have more +wives than one; and they are not only teaching it, but practising it, +and this doctrine is spreading alarmingly through that apostate branch +of the church of Latter-Day Saints. Their greatest objection to us was +our opposition to this doctrine, knowing, as they did, that we had got +the fact in possession. It created alarm, great alarm; every effort was +made while we were there to effect something that might screen them from +the consequence of exposure.... + +"This doctrine of a man having more wives than one is the cause which +has induced these men to put at defiance the ecclesiastical arrangements +of the church, and, what is equally criminal, to do despite unto the +moral excellence of the doctrine and covenants of the church, setting +up an order of things of their own, in violation of all the rules and +regulations known to the Saints." + +In the same editorial Rigdon prints a statement by a gentleman who was +at Nauvoo at the time, and for whose veracity he vouches, which said, +"It was said to me by many that they had no objection to Elder Rigdon +but his opposition to the spiritual wife system." + +Benjamin Winchester, who was one of the earliest missionaries sent out +from Kirtland, adds this testimony in a letter to Elder John Hardy of +Boston, Massachusetts, whose trial in 1844 for opposing the spiritual +wife doctrine occasioned wide comment: + +"As regards the trial of Elder Rigdon at Nauvoo, it was a forced affair, +got up by the Twelve to get him out of their way, that they might the +better arrogate to themselves higher authority than they ever had, or +anybody ever dreamed they would have; and also (as they perhaps hope) to +prevent a complete expose of the spiritual wife system, which they knew +would deeply implicate themselves." + + + +CHAPTER XI. -- PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE OF POLYGAMY + +Although there was practically no concealment of the practice of polygamy +by the Mormons resident in Utah after their arrival there, it was not +until five years from that date that open announcement was made by the +church of the important "revelation." This "revelation" constitutes Sec. +132 of the modern edition of the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants," +and bears this heading: "Revelation on the Eternity of the Marriage +Covenant, including Plurality of Wives. Given through Joseph, the Seer, +in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, July 12, 1843." All its essential +parts are as follows: + +"Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you, my servant Joseph, that inasmuch +as you have inquired of my hand, to know and understand wherein I, the +Lord, justified my servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; as also Moses, +David and Solomon, my servants, as touching the principle and doctrine +of their having many wives and concubines: + +"Behold! and lo, I am the Lord thy God, and will answer thee as touching +this matter: + +"Therefore, prepare thy heart to receive and obey the instructions which +I am about to give unto you; for all those who have this law revealed +unto them must obey the same; + +"For behold! I reveal unto you a new and an everlasting covenant; and +if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject +this covenant, and be permitted to enter into my glory; + +"For all who will have a blessing at my hands shall abide the law which +was appointed for that blessing, and the conditions thereof, as were +instituted from before the foundation of the world: + +"And as pertaining to the new and everlasting covenant, it was +instituted for the fullness of my glory; and he that receiveth a +fullness thereof, must and shall abide the law, or he shall be damned, +saith the Lord God. + +"And verily I say unto you, that the conditions of this law are these: +All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, +connections, associations, or expectations, that are not made, and +entered into, and sealed, by the Holy Spirit of promise, of him who is +anointed, both as well for time and for all eternity, and that too most +holy, by revelation and commandment through the medium of mine anointed, +whom I have appointed on the earth to hold this power (and I have +appointed unto my servant Joseph to hold this power in the last days, +and there is never but one on the earth at a time, on whom this power +and the keys of this Priesthood are conferred), are of no efficacy, +virtue, or force, in and after the resurrection from the dead; for all +contracts that are not made unto this end, have an end when men are +dead.... + +"I am the Lord thy God, and I give unto you this commandment, that no +man shall come unto the Father but by me, or by my word, which is my +law, saith the Lord;... + +"Therefore, if a man marry him a wife in the world, and he marry her not +by me, nor by my word; and he covenant with her so long as he is in the +world, and she with him, their covenant and marriage are not of force +when they are dead, and when they are out of the world; therefore, they +are not bound by any law when they are out of the world; + +"Therefore, when they are out of the world, they neither marry, nor are +given in marriage; but are appointed angels in heaven, which angels +are ministering servants, to minister for those who are worthy of a far +more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory; + +"For these angels did not abide my law, therefore they cannot be +enlarged, but remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in their +saved condition, to all eternity, and from henceforth are not Gods, but +are angels of God, for ever and ever. + +"And again, verily I say unto you, if a man marry a wife, and make a +covenant with her for time and for all eternity, if that covenant is +not by me, or by my word, which is my law, and is not sealed by the Holy +Spirit of promise, through him whom I have anointed, and appointed unto +this power--then it is not valid, neither of force when they are out of +the world, because they are not joined by me, saith the Lord, neither +by my word; when they are out of the world, it cannot be received there, +because the angels and the Gods are appointed there, by whom they cannot +pass; they cannot, therefore, inherit my glory, for my house is a house +of order, saith the Lord God. + +"And again, verily I say unto you, if a man marry a wife by my word, +which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant, and it is +sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise, by him who is anointed, +unto whom I have appointed this power, and the keys of this Priesthood; +and it shall be said unto them, ye shall come forth in the first +resurrection; and if it be after the first resurrection, in the next +resurrection; and shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and +powers, dominions, all heights and depths--then shall it be written in +the Lamb's Book of Life, that he shall commit no murder whereby to shed +innocent blood, and if ye abide in my covenant, and commit no murder +whereby to shed innocent blood, it shall be done unto them in all things +whatsoever my servant hath put upon them, in time, and through all +eternity, and shall be of full force when they are out of the world; +and they shall pass by the angels, and the Gods, which are set there, to +their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their +heads, which glory shall be a fullness and a continuation of the seeds +for ever and ever. + +"Then shall they be Gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they +be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall +they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall +they be Gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject +unto them. + +"Verily, verily I say unto you, except ye abide my law, ye cannot attain +to this glory;... + +"And verily, verily I say unto you, that whatsoever you seal on earth, +shall be sealed in Heaven; and whatsoever you bind on earth, in my +name, and by my word, with the Lord, it shall be eternally bound in +the heavens; and whosesoever sins you remit on earth shall be remitted +eternally in the heavens; and whosesoever sins you retain on earth, +shall be retained in heaven. + +"And again, verily I say, whomsoever you bless, I will bless, and +whomsoever you curse, I will curse, with the Lord; for I, the Lord, am +thy God.... + +"Verily I say unto you, a commandment I give unto mine handmaid, Emma +Smith, your wife, whom I have given unto you, that she stay herself, and +partake not of that which I commanded you to offer unto her; for I did +it, saith the Lord, to prove you all, as I did Abraham; and that I might +require an offering at your hand, by covenant and sacrifice. + +"And let mine handmaid, Emma Smith, receive all those that have been +given unto my servant Joseph, and who are virtuous and pure before +me; and those who are not pure, and have said they were pure, shall be +destroyed, with the Lord God; + +"For I am the Lord, thy God, and ye shall obey my voice; and I give unto +my servant Joseph that he shall be made ruler over many things, for +he hath been faithful over a few things, and from henceforth I will +strengthen him. + +"And I command mine handmaid, Emma Smith, to abide and cleave unto +my servant Joseph, and to none else. But if she will not abide this +commandment, she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord; for I am the Lord +thy God, and will destroy her, if she abide not in my law; + +"But if she will not abide this commandment, then shall my servant +Joseph do all things for her, even as he hath said; and I will bless him +and multiply him, and give unto him an hundred fold in this world, of +fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, houses and lands, wives and +children, and crowns of eternal lives in the eternal worlds. + +"And again, verily I say, let mine handmaid forgive my servant Joseph +his trespasses; and then shall she be forgiven her trespasses, wherein +she has trespassed against me; and I, the Lord thy God, will bless her, +and multiply her, and make her heart to rejoice.... + +"And again, as pertaining to the law of the priesthood, if any man +espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another, and the first give her +consent; and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins, and have +vowed to no other man, then is he justified; he cannot commit adultery, +for they are given unto him; for he cannot commit adultery with that +that belongeth unto him and to no one else. + +"And if he have ten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit +adultery, for they belong to him, and they are given unto him, therefore +is he justified. + +"But if one or either of the ten virgins, after she is espoused, shall +be with another man; she has committed adultery, and shall be destroyed; +for they are given unto him to multiply and replenish the earth, +according to my commandment, and to fulfill the promise which was +given by my Father before the foundation of the world; and for their +exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may bear the souls of men; +for herein is the work of my Father continued, that he may be glorified. + +"And again, verily, verily I say unto you, if any man have a wife who +holds the keys of this power, and he teacheth unto her the law of my +priesthood, as pertaining to these things, then shall she believe, and +administer unto him, or she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord your God, +for I will destroy her; for I will magnify my name upon all those who +receive and abide in my law. + +"Therefore, it shall be lawful in me, if she receive not this law, for +him to receive all things, whatsoever I, the Lord his God, will give +unto him, because she did not administer unto him according to my word; +and she then becomes the transgressor; and he is exempt from the law +of Sarah; who administered unto Abraham according to the law, when I +commanded Abraham to take Hagar to wife. + +"And now, as pertaining to this law, verily, verily I say unto you, I +will reveal more unto you, hereafter; therefore, let this suffice for +the present. Behold, I am Alpha and Omega. Amen." + +This jumble of doctrinal and family commands bears internal evidence of +the truth of Clayton's account of its offhand dictation with a view to +its immediate submission to the prophet's wife, who was already in a +state of rebellion because of his infidelities. + +The publication of the "revelation" was made at a Church Conference +which opened in Salt Lake City on August 28, 1852, and was called +especially to select elders for missionary work.* At the beginning of +the second day's session Orson Pratt announced that, unexpectedly, +he had been called on to address the conference on the subject of a +plurality of wives. "We shall endeavor," he said, "to set forth before +this enlightened assembly some of the causes why the Almighty has +revealed such a doctrine, and why it is considered a part and portion of +our religious faith." + + + *For text of the addresses at this conference, see Deseret News, +extra, September 14, 1852. + + +He then took up the attitude of the church, as a practiser of this +doctrine, toward the United States government, saying:-- + +"I believe that they will not, under our present form of government +(I mean the government of the United States), try us for treason for +believing and practising our religious notions and ideas. I think, if I +am not mistaken, that the constitution gives the privilege to all of +the inhabitants of this country, of the free exercise of their religious +notions, and the freedom of their faith and the practice of it. Then, +if it can be proved to a demonstration that the Latter-Day Saints have +actually embraced, as a part and portion of their religion, the doctrine +of a plurality of wives, it is constitutional. And should there ever be +laws enacted by this government to restrict them from the free exercise +of their religion, such laws must be unconstitutional." + +Thus, at this early date in the history of Utah, was stated the Mormon +doctrine of the constitutional foundation of this belief, and, in +the views then stated, may be discovered the reason for the bitter +opposition which the Mormon church is still making to a constitutional +amendment specifically declaring that polygamy is a violation of the +fundamental law of the United States. + +Pratt then spoke at great length on the necessity and rightfulness of +polygamy. Taking up the doctrine of a previous existence of all souls +and a kind of nobility among the spirits, he said that the most likely +place for the noblest spirits to take their tabernacles was among the +Saints, and he continued:--"Now let us inquire what will become of +those individuals who have this law taught unto them in plainness, if +they reject it." (A voice in the stand "They will be damned.") "I will +tell you. They will be damned, saith the Lord, in the revelation he hath +given. Why? Because, where much is given, much is required. Where there +is great knowledge unfolded for the exaltation, glory and happiness of +the sons and daughters of God, if they close up their hearts, if they +reject the testimony of his word and will, and do not give heed to the +principles he has ordained for their good, they are worthy of damnation, +and the Lord has said they shall be damned." + +After Brigham Young had made a statement concerning the history of the +"revelation," already referred to, the "revelation" itself was read. + +The Millennial Star (Liverpool) published the proceedings of this +conference in a supplement to its Volume XV, and the text of the +"revelation" in its issue of January 1, 1853, saying editorially in the +next number:-- + +"None [of the revelations] seem to penetrate so deep, or be so well +calculated to shake to its very center the social structure which has +been reared and vainly nurtured by this professedly wise and Christian +generation; none more conclusively exhibit how surely an end must come +to all the works, institutions, ordinances and covenants of men; none +more portray the eternity of God's purpose--and, we may say, none have +carried so mighty an influence, or had the power to stamp their divinity +upon the mind by absorbing every feeling of the soul, to the extent of +the one which has appeared in our last." + +With the Mormon church in England, however, the publication of the +new doctrine proved a bombshell, as is shown by the fact that 2164 +excommunications in the British Isles were reported to the semi-annual +conference of December 31, 1852, and 1776 to the conference of the +following June. + +The doctrine of "sealing" has been variously stated. According to one +early definition, the man and the woman who are to be properly mated are +selected in heaven in a pre-existent state; if, through a mistake in an +earthly marriage, A has got the spouse intended for B, the latter may +consider himself a husband to Mrs. A. Another early explanation which +may be cited was thus stated by Henry Rowe in the Boston Investigator +of, February 3, 1845:-- + +"The spiritual wife doctrine I will explain, as taught me by Elder W--e, +as taught by Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Elder Adams, William Smith, +and the rest of the Quorum, etc., etc. Joseph had a revelation from God +that there were a number of spirits to be born into the world before +their exaltation in the next; that Christ would not come until all these +spirits received or entered their 'tabernacles of clay'; that these +spirits were hovering around the world, and at the door of bad houses, +watching a chance of getting into their tabernacles; that God had +provided an honorable way for them to come forth--that was, by the +Elders in Israel sealing up virtuous women; and as there was no +provision made for woman in the Scriptures, their only chance of heaven +was to be sealed up to some Elder for time and eternity, and be a star +in his crown forever; that those who were the cause of bringing forth +these spirits would receive a reward, the ratio of which reward should +be the greater or less according to the number they were the means of +bringing forth." + +Brigham Young's definition of "spiritual wifeism" was thus expressed: +"And I would say, as no man can be perfect without the woman, so no +woman can be perfect without a man to lead her. I tell you the truth as +it is in the bosom of eternity; and I say to every man upon the face of +the earth, if he wishes to be saved, he cannot be saved without a +woman by his side. This is spiritual wifeism, that is, the doctrine of +spiritual wives."* + + + * Times and Seasons, Vol. VI, p. 955. + + +The Mormon, under polygamy, was taught that he "married" for time, +but was "sealed" for eternity. The "sealing" was therefore the more +important ceremony, and was performed in the Endowment House, with the +accompaniment of secret oaths and mystic ceremonies. If a wife disliked +her husband, and wished to be "sealed" to a man of her choice, the +Mormon church would marry her to the latter*--a marriage made actual in +every sense--if he was acceptable as a Mormon; and, if the first husband +also wanted to be "sealed" to her, the church would perform a mock +ceremony to satisfy this husband. "It is impossible," says Hyde, "to +state all the licentiousness, under the name of religion, that these +sealing ordinances have occasioned." ** + + + * One of Stenhouse's informants about the "reformation" of 1856 +in Utah writes: "It was hinted, and secretly taught by authority, that +women should form relations with more than one man." On this Stenhouse +says: "The author has no personal knowledge, from the present leaders +of the church, of this teaching; but he has often heard that something +would then be taught which 'would test the brethren as much as polygamy +had tried the sisters."'--"Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 301. + + + ** "Mormonism," p. 84. + + +A Mormon preacher never hesitated to go to any lengths in justifying +the doctrine of plural marriages. One illustration of this may suffice. +Orson Hyde, in a discourse in the Salt Lake Tabernacle in March, 1857, +made the following argument to support a claim that Jesus Christ was a +polygamist:-- + +"It will be borne in mind that, once on a time, there was a marriage in +Cana of Galilee; and on a careful reading of that transaction it will be +discovered that no less a person than Jesus Christ was married on that +occasion. If he was never married, his intimacy with Mary and Martha, +and the other Mary also, whom Jesus loved, must have been highly +unbecoming and improper, to say the best of it. I will venture to say +that, if Jesus Christ was now to pass through the most pious countries +in Christendom, with a train of women such as used to follow him, +fondling about him, combing his hair, anointing him with precious +ointments, washing his feet with tears and wiping them with the hair of +their heads, and unmarried, or even married, he would be mobbed, +tarred and feathered, and rode, not on an ass, but on a rail.... Did +he multiply, and did he see his seed? Did he honor his Father's law by +complying with it, or did he not? Others may do as they like, but I +will not charge our Saviour with neglect or transgression in this or any +other duty."* + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. IV, p. 259. + + +The doctrine of "adoption," referred to, taught that the direct line of +the true priesthood was broken with the death of Christ's apostles, and +that the rights of the lineage of Abraham could be secured only by being +"adopted" by a modern apostle, all of whom were recognized as lineal +descendants of Abraham. Recourse was here had to the Scriptures, and +Romans iv. 16 was quoted to sustain this doctrine. The first "adoptions" +took place in the Nauvoo Temple. Lee was "adopted to" Brigham Young, and +Young's and Lee's children were then "adopted" to their own fathers. + +With this necessary explanation of the introduction of polygamy, we may +take up the narrative of events at Nauvoo. + + + +CHAPTER XII. -- THE SUPPRESSION OF THE EXPOSITOR + +Smith was now to encounter a kind of resistance within the church that +he had never met. In all previous apostasies, where members had dared to +attack his character or question his authority, they had been summarily +silenced, and in most cases driven at once out of the Mormon community. +But there were men at Nauvoo above the average of the Mormon convert as +regards intelligence and wealth, who refused to follow the prophet in +his new doctrine regarding marriage, and whose opposition took the very +practical shape of the establishment of a newspaper in the Mormon city +to expose him and to defend themselves. + +In his testimony in the Higbee trial Smith had accused a prominent +Mormon, Dr. R. D. Foster, of stealing and of gross insults to women. Dr. +Foster, according to current report, had found Smith at his house, and +had received from his wife a confession that Smith had been persuading +her to become one of his spiritual wives.* + + + * "At the May, 1844, term of the Hancock Circuit Court two +indictments were found against Smith by the grand jury--one for adultery +and one for perjury. To the surprise of all, on the Monday following, +the Prophet appeared in court and demanded that he be tried on the +last-named indictment. The prosecutor not being ready, a continuance was +entered to the next term."--GREGG, "History of Hancock County," p. 301. + + +Among the leading members of the church at Nauvoo at this time were two +brothers, William and Wilson Law. They were Canadians, and had brought +considerable property with them, and in the "revelation" of January 19, +1841, William Law was among those who were directed to take stock in +Nauvoo House, and was named as one of the First Presidency, and was made +registrar of the University. Wilson Law was a regent of the University +and a major general of the Legion. General Law had been an especial +favorite of Smith. In writing to him while in hiding from the Missouri +authorities in 1842, Smith says, "I love that soul that is so nobly +established in that clay of yours." * At the conference of April, 1844, +Hyrum Smith said: "I wish to speak about Messrs. Law's steam mill. There +has been a great deal of bickering about it. The mill has been a great +benefit to the city. It has brought in thousands who would not have come +here. The Messrs. Law have sunk their capital and done a great deal of +good. It is out of character to cast any aspersions on the Messrs. Law." + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XX, p. 695. + + +Dr. Foster, the Laws, and Counsellor Sylvester Emmons became greatly +stirred up about the spiritual wife doctrine, and the effort of Smith +and those in his confidence to teach and enforce the doctrine of plural +wives; and they finally decided to establish in Nauvoo a newspaper that +would openly attack the new order of things. The name chosen for this +newspaper was the Expositor, and Emmons was its editor.* Its motto +was: "The Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth," and its +prospectus announced as its purpose, "Unconditional repeal of the +city charter--to correct the abuses of the unit power--to advocate +disobedience to political revelations." Only one number of this +newspaper was ever issued, but that number was almost directly the cause +of the prophet's death. + + + * Emmons went direct to Beardstown, Illinois, after the +destruction of the paper, and lived there till the day of his death, +a leading citizen. He established the first newspaper published in +Beardstown, and was for sixteen years the mayor of the city. + + +The most important feature of the Expositor (which bore date of June 7, +1844) was a "preamble" and resolutions of "seceders from the church at +Nauvoo," and affidavits by Mr. and Mrs. William Law and Austin Cowles +setting forth that Hyrum Smith had read the "revelation" concerning +polygamy to William Law and to the High Council, and that Mrs. Law had +read it.* + + + * These were the only affidavits printed in the Expositor. More +than one description of the paper has stated that it contained many +more. Thus, Appleton's "American Encyclopedia," under "Mormons," says, +"In the first number (there was only one) they printed the affidavits +of sixteen women to the effect that Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon and +others had endeavored to convert them to the spiritual wife doctrine." + + +The "preamble" affirmed the belief of the seceders in the Mormon Bible +and the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants," but declared their intention +to "explode the vicious principles of Joseph Smith," adding, "We +are aware, however, that we are hazarding every earthly blessing, +particularly property, and probably life itself, in striking this blow +at tyranny and oppression." Many of them, it was explained, had sought a +reformation of the church without any public exposure, but they had been +spurned, "particularly by Joseph, who would state that, if he had been +or was guilty of the charges we would charge him with, he would not make +acknowledgment, but would rather be damned, for it would detract from +his dignity and would consequently prove the overthrow of the church. +We would ask him, on the other hand, if the overthrow of the church were +not inevitable; to which he often replied that we would all go to hell +together and convert it into a heaven by casting the devil out; and, +says he, hell is by no means the place this world of fools supposes it +to be, but, on the contrary, it is quite an agreeable place." + +The "preamble" further set forth the methods employed by Smith to induce +women from other countries, who had joined the Mormons in Nauvoo, to +become his spiritual wives, reciting the arguments advanced, and thus +summing up the general result: "She is thunderstruck, faints, recovers +and refuses. The prophet damns her if she rejects. She thinks of the +great sacrifice, and of the many thousand miles she has travelled +over sea and land that she might save her soul from pending ruin, and +replies, 'God's will be done and not mine.' The prophet and his devotees +in this way are gratified." Smith's political aspirations were condemned +as preposterous, and the false "doctrine of many gods" was called +blasphemy. + +Fifteen resolutions followed. They declared against the evils named, +and also condemned the order to the Saints to gather in haste at Nauvoo, +explaining that the purpose of this command was to enable the men in +control of the church to sell property at exorbitant prices, "and thus +the wealth that is brought into the place is swallowed up by the one +great throat, from whence there is no return." The seceders asserted +that, although they had an intimate acquaintance with the affairs of +the church, they did not know of any property belonging to it except +the Temple. Finally, as speaking for the true church, they ordered all +preachers to cease to teach the doctrine of plural gods, a plurality of +wives, sealing, etc., and directed offenders in this respect to report +and have their licenses renewed. Another feature of the issue was a +column address signed by Francis M. Higbee, advising the citizens of +Hancock County not to send Hyrum Smith to the legislature, since to +support him was to support Joseph, "a man who contends all governments +are to be put down, and one established upon its ruins." + +The appearance of this sheet created the greatest excitement among the +Mormon leaders that they had experienced since leaving Missouri. +They recognized in it immediately a mouthpiece of men who were better +informed than Bennett, and who were ready to address an audience +composed both of their own flock and of their outlying non-Mormon +neighbors, whose antipathy to them was already manifesting itself +aggressively. To permit the continued publication of this sheet meant +one of those surrenders which Smith had never made. + +The prophet therefore took just such action as would have been expected +of him in the circumstances. Calling a meeting of the City Council, he +proceeded to put the Expositor and its editors on trial, as if that body +was of a judicial instead of a legislative character. The minutes of +this trial, which lasted all of Saturday, June 8, and a part of Monday, +June l0, 1844, can be found in the Neighbor of June 19, of that year, +filling six columns. The prophet-mayor occupied the chair, and the +defendants were absent. + +The testimony introduced aimed at the start to break down the characters +of Dr. Foster, Higbee, and the Laws. A mechanic testified that the Laws +had bought "bogus"--(counterfeit) dies of him. The prophet told how +William Law had "pursued" him to recover $40,000 that Smith owed him. +Hyrum Smith alleged that William Law had offered to give a man $500 if +he would kill Hyrum, and had confessed adultery to him, making a still +more heinous charge against Higbee. Hyrum referred "to the revelation +of the High Council of the church, which has caused so much talk about +a multiplicity of wives," and declared that it "concerned things which +transpired in former days, and had no reference to the present time." +Testimony was also given to show that the Laws were not liberal to the +poor, and that William's motto with his fellow-churchmen who owed him +was, "Punctuality, punctuality."* This was naturally a serious offence +in the eyes of the Smiths. + + + * The Expositor contained this advertisement: "The subscribers +wish to inform all those who, through sickness or other misfortunes, are +much limited is their means of procuring bread for their families, that +we have allotted Thursday of every week to grind toll free for them, +till grain becomes plentiful after harvest.--W. & W. Law." + + +The prophet declared that the conduct of such men, and of such papers +as the Expositor, was calculated to destroy the peace of the city. He +unblushingly asserted that what he had preached about marriage only +showed the order in ancient days, having nothing to do with the present +time. In regard to the alleged revelation about polygamy he explained +that, on inquiring of the Lord concerning the Scriptural teaching that +"they neither marry nor are given in marriage in heaven," he received a +reply to the effect that men in this life must marry in one of eternity, +otherwise they must remain as angels, or be single in heaven. + +Smith then proposed that the Council make some provision for putting +down the Expositor, declaring its allegations to be "treasonable against +all chartered rights and privileges." He read from the federal and state +constitutions to define his idea of the rights of the press, and quoted +Blackstone on private wrongs. Hyrum openly advocated smashing the +press and pieing the type. One councillor alone raised his voice for +moderation, proposing to give the offenders a few days' notice, and to +assess a fine of $300 for every libel. W. W. Phelps (who was back in the +fold again) held that the city charter gave them power to declare the +newspaper a nuisance, and cited the spilling of the tea in Boston harbor +as a precedent for an attack on the Expositor office. Finally, on June +10, this resolution was passed unanimously:-- + +"Resolved by the City Council of the City of Nauvoo that the printing +office from whence issues the Nauvoo Expositor is a public nuisance, +and also all of said Nauvoo Expositors which may be or exist in said +establishment; and the mayor is instructed to cause said printing +establishment and papers to be removed without delay, in such manner as +he shall direct." + +Smith, of course, made very prompt use of this authority, issuing the +following order to the city marshal:-- + +"You are hereby commanded to destroy the printing press from whence +issues the Nauvoo Expositor, and pi the type of said printing +establishment in the street, and burn all the Expositors and libellous +hand bills found in said establishment; and if resistance be offered to +the execution of this order, by the owners or others, destroy the house; +and if any one threatens you or the Mayor or the officers of the city, +arrest those who threaten you; and fail not to execute this order +without delay, and make due return thereon. + +"JOSEPH SMITH, Mayor." + +To meet any armed opposition which might arise, the acting major general +of the Legion was thus directed:-- + +"You are hereby commanded to hold the Nauvoo Legion in readiness +forthwith to execute the city ordinances, and especially to remove +the printing establishment of the Nauvoo Expositor; and this you are +required to do at sight, under the penalty of the laws, provided the +marshal shall require it and need your services." + +JOSEPH SMITH, + +"Lieutenant General Nauvoo Legion." + +The story of the compliance with the mayor's order is thus concisely +told in the "marshal's return," "The within-named press and type is +destroyed and pied according to order on this loth day of June, 1844, at +about eight o'clock P.M." The work was accomplished without any serious +opposition. The marshal appeared at the newspaper office, accompanied +by an escort from the Legion, and forced his way into the building. The +press and type were carried into the street, where the press was broken +up with hammers, and all that was combustible was burned. + +Dr. Foster and the Laws fled at once to Carthage, Illinois, under the +belief that their lives were in danger. The story of their flight and +of the destruction of their newspaper plant by order of the Nauvoo +authorities spread quickly all over the state, and in the neighboring +counties the anti-Mormon feeling, that had for some time been growing +more intense, was now fanned to fury. This feeling the Mormon leaders +seemed determined to increase still further. + +The owners of the Expositor sued out at Carthage a writ for the removal +to that place of Joseph Smith and the Nauvoo counsellors on a charge +of a riot in connection with the destruction of their plant. This writ, +when presented, was at once set aside by a writ of habeas corpus issued +by the Nauvoo Municipal Court, but the case was heard before a Mormon +justice of the peace on June 17, and he discharged the accused. As if +this was not a sufficient defiance of public opinion, Smith, as mayor, +published a "proclamation" in the Neighbor of June 19, reciting the +events in connection with the attack on the Expositor, and closing thus: + +"Our city is infested with a set of blacklegs, counterfeiters and +debauchees, and that the proprietors of this press were of that class, +the minutes of the Municipal Court fully testify, and in ridding our +young and flourishing city of such characters, we are abused by not only +villanous demagogues, but by some who, from their station and influence +in society, ought rather to raise than depress the standard of human +excellence. We have no disturbance or excitement among us, save what is +made by the thousand and one idle rumors afloat in the country. Every +one is protected in his person and property, and but few cities of a +population of twenty thousand people, in the United States, hath less of +dissipation or vice of any kind than the city of Nauvoo. + +"Of the correctness of our conduct in this affair, we appeal to every +high court in the state, and to its ordeal we are willing to appear at +any time that His Excellency, Governor Ford, shall please to call us +before it. I, therefore, in behalf of the Municipal Court of Nauvoo, +warn the lawless not to be precipitate in any interference in our +affairs, for as sure as there is a God in Israel we shall ride +triumphant over all oppression." + +JOSEPH SMITH, Mayor. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. -- UPRISING OF THE NON-MORMONS--SMITH'S ARREST + +The gauntlet thus thrown down by Smith was promptly taken up by his +non-Mormon neighbors, and public meetings were held in various places to +give expression to the popular indignation. At such a meeting in Warsaw, +Hancock County, eighteen miles down the river, the following was among +the resolutions adopted: + +"Resolved, that the time, in our opinion, has arrived when the adherents +of Smith, as a body, should be driven from the surrounding settlements +into Nauvoo; that the Prophet and his miscreant adherents should then be +demanded at their hands, and, if not surrendered, a war of extermination +should be waged, to the entire destruction, if necessary for our +protection, of his adherents." + +Warsaw was considered the most violent anti-Mormon neighborhood, the +Signal newspaper there being especially bitter in its attacks; but the +people in all the surrounding country began to prepare for "war" in +earnest. At Warsaw 150 men were mustered in under General Knox, and +$1000 was voted for supplies. In Carthage, Rushville, Green Plains, +and many other towns in Illinois men began organizing themselves into +military companies, cannon were ordered from St. Louis, and the near-by +places in Iowa, as well as some in Missouri, sent word that their +aid could be counted on. Rumors of all sorts of Mormon outrages were +circulated, and calls were made for militia, here to protect the +people against armed Mormon bands, there against Mormon thieves. +Many farmhouses were deserted by their owners through fear, and the +steamboats on the river were crowded with women and children, who +were sent to some safe settlement while the men were doing duty in the +militia ranks. Many of the alarming reports were doubtless started +by non-Mormons to inflame the public feeling against their opponents, +others were the natural outgrowth of the existing excitement. + +On June 17 a committee from Carthage made to Governor Ford so urgent a +request for the calling out of the militia, that he decided to visit +the disturbed district and make an investigation on his own account.* +On arriving at Carthage he found a considerable militia force already +assembled as a posse comitatus, at the call of the constables. This +force, and similar ones in McDonough and Schuyler counties, he placed +under command of their own officers. Next, the governor directed the +mayor and council of Nauvoo to send a committee to state to him their +story of the recent doings. This they did, convincing him, by their +own account, of the outrageous character of the proceedings against +the Expositor. He therefore arrived at two conclusions: first, that no +authority at his command should be spared in bringing the Mormon leaders +to justice; and, second, that this must be done without putting the +Mormons in danger of an attack by any kind of a mob. He therefore +addressed the militia force from each county separately, urging on them +the necessity of acting only within the law; and securing from them all +a vote pledging their aid to the governor in following a strictly legal +course, and protecting from violence the Mormon leaders when they should +be arrested. + + + * The story of the events just preceding Joseph Smith's death are +taken from Governor Ford's report to the Illinois legislature, and from +his "History of Illinois." + + +The governor then sent word to Smith that he and his associates would +be protected if they would surrender, but that arrested they should be, +even if it took the whole militia force of the state to accomplish this. +The constable and guards who carried the governor's mandate to Nauvoo +found the city a military camp. Smith had placed it under martial law, +assembled the Legion, called in all the outlying Mormons, and ordered +that no one should enter or leave the place without submitting to the +strictest inquiry. The governor's messengers had no difficulty, however, +in gaining admission to Smith, who promised that he and the members of +the Council would accompany the officers to Carthage the next morning +(June 23) at eight o'clock. But at that time the accused did not appear, +and, without any delay or any effort to arrest the men who were wanted, +the officers returned to Carthage and reported that all the accused had +fled. + +Whatever had been the intention of Smith when the constable first +appeared, he and his associates did surrender, as the governor had +expressed a belief that they would do.. Statements of the circumstances +of the surrender were written at the time by H. P. Reid and James W. +Woods of Iowa, who were employed by the Mormons as counsel, and were +printed in the Times and Seasons, Vol. V, No. 12. Mr. Woods, according +to these accounts, arrived in Nauvoo on Friday, June 21, and, after an +interview with Smith and his friends, went to Carthage the next evening +to assure Governor Ford that the Nauvoo officers were ready to obey the +law. There he learned that the constable and his assistants had gone to +Nauvoo to demand his clients' surrender; but he does not mention their +return without the prisoners. He must have known, however, that the +first intention of Smith and the Council was to flee from the wrath +of their neighbors. The "Life of Brigham Young," published by Cannon & +Sons, Salt Lake City, 1893, contains this statement:-- + +"The Prophet hesitated about giving himself up, and started, on the +night of June 22, with his brother Hyrum, W. Richards, John Taylor, and +a few others for the Rocky Mountains. He was, however, intercepted +by his friends, and induced to abandon his project, being chided with +cowardice and with deserting his people. This was more than he could +bear, and so he returned, saying: 'If my life is of no value to +my friends, it is of no value to myself. We are going back to be +slaughtered.'" + +It will be remembered that Young, Rigdon, Orson Pratt, and many others +of the leading men of the church were absent at this time, most of them +working up Smith's presidential "boom." Orson Pratt, who was then in New +Hampshire, said afterward, "If the Twelve had been here, we would not +have seen him given up." + +Woods received from the governor a pledge of protection for all who +might be arrested, and an assurance that if the Mormons would give +themselves up at Carthage, on Monday, the 24th, this would be accepted +as a compliance with the governor's orders. He therefore returned to +Nauvoo with this message on Sunday evening, and the next morning the +accused left that place with him for Carthage. They soon met Captain +Dunn, who, with a company of sixty men, was going to Nauvoo with an +order from the governor for the state arms in the possession of the +Legion.* Woods made an agreement with Captain Dunn that the arms +should be given up by Smith's order, and that his clients should place +themselves under the captain's protection, and return with him to +Carthage. The return trip to Nauvoo, and thence to Carthage, was not +completed until about midnight. The Mormons were not put under restraint +that night, but the next morning they surrendered themselves to the +constable on a charge of riot in connection with the destruction of the +Expositor plant. + + + * It was stated that on two hours' notice two thousand men +appeared, all armed, and that they surrendered their arms in compliance +with the governor's plans. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. -- THE MURDER OF THE PROPHET--HIS CHARACTER + +On Tuesday morning, Joseph and Hyrum Smith were arrested again in +Carthage, this time on a charge of treason in levying war against the +state, by declaring martial law in Nauvoo and calling out the Legion. In +the afternoon of that day all the accused, numbering fifteen, appeared +before a justice of the peace, and, to prevent any increase in the +public excitement, gave bonds in the sum of $500 each for their +appearance at the next term of the Circuit Court to answer the charge of +riot.* It was late in the evening when this business was finished, and +nothing was said at the time about the charge of treason. + + + * The trial of the survivors resulted in a verdict of acquittal. +"The Mormons," says Governor Ford, "could have a Mormon jury to be tried +by, selected by themselves, and the anti-Mormons, by objecting to the +sheriff and regular panel, could have one from the anti-Mormons. No one +could [then] be convicted of any crime in Hancock County."--"History of +Illinois," p. 369. + + +Very soon after their return to the hotel, however, the constable who +had arrested the Smiths on the new charge appeared with a mittimus from +the justice of the peace, and, under its authority, conveyed them to the +county jail. Their counsel immediately argued before the governor that +this action was illegal, as the Smiths had had no hearing on the charge +of treason, and the governor went with the lawyers to consult the +justice concerning his action. The justice explained that he had +directed the removal of the prisoners to jail because he did not +consider them safe in the hotel. The governor held that, from the time +of their delivery to the jailer, they were beyond his jurisdiction and +responsibility, but he granted a request of their counsel for a military +guard about the jail. He says, however, that he apprehended neither an +attack on the building nor an escape of the prisoners, adding that if +they had escaped, "it would have been the best way of getting rid of the +Mormons," since these leaders would never have dared to return to the +state, and all their followers would have joined them in their place of +refuge. + +The militia force in Carthage at that time numbered some twelve hundred +men, with four hundred or five hundred more persons under arms in the +town. There was great pressure on the governor to march this +entire force to Nauvoo, ostensibly to search for a counterfeiting +establishment, in order to overawe the Mormons by a show of force. The +governor consented to this plan, and it was arranged that the officers +at Carthage and Warsaw should meet on June 27 at a point on the +Mississippi midway between the latter place and Nauvoo. + +Governor Ford was not entirely certain about the safety of the +prisoners, and he proposed to take them with him in the march to Nauvoo, +for their protection. But while preparations for this march were still +under way, trustworthy information reached him that, if the militia once +entered the Mormon city, its destruction would certainly follow, the +plan being to accept a shot fired at the militia by someone as a signal +for a general slaughter and conflagration. He determined to prevent +this, not only on humane grounds,--"the number of women, inoffensive and +young persons, and innocent children which must be contained in such a +city of twelve hundred to fifteen thousand inhabitants"--but because he +was not certain of the outcome of a conflict in which the Mormons would +outnumber his militia almost two to one. After a council of the militia +officers, in which a small majority adhered to the original plan, the +governor solved the question by summarily disbanding all the state +forces under arms, except three companies, two of which would continue +to guard the jail, and the other would accompany the governor on a visit +to Nauvoo, where he proposed to search for counterfeiters, and to tell +the inhabitants that any retaliatory measures against the non-Mormons +would mean "the destruction of their city, and the extermination of +their people." + +The jail at Carthage was a stone building, situated at the northwestern +boundary of the village, and near a piece of woods that were convenient +for concealment. It contained the jailer's apartments, cells for +prisoners, and on the second story a sort of assembly room. At the +governor's suggestion, Joseph and Hyrum were allowed the freedom of this +larger room, where their friends were permitted to visit them, without +any precautions against the introduction of weapons or tools for their +escape. + +Their guards were selected from the company known as the Carthage Grays, +Captain Smith, commander. In this choice the governor made a mistake +which always left him under a charge of collusion in the murder of +the prisoners. It was not, in the first place, necessary to select +any Hancock company for this service, as he had militia from McDonough +County on the ground. All the people of Hancock County were in a fever +of excitement against the Mormons, while the McDonough County militia +had voted against the march into Nauvoo. Moreover, when the prisoners, +after their arrival at Carthage, had been exhibited to the McDonough +company at the request of the latter, who had never seen them, the Grays +were so indignant at what they called a triumphal display, that they +refused to obey the officer in command, and were for a time in revolt. +"Although I knew that this company were the enemies of the Smiths," +says the governor, "yet I had confidence in their loyalty and their +integrity, because their captain was universally spoken of as a most +respectable citizen and honorable man." The governor further excused +himself for the selection because the McDonough company were very +anxious to return home to attend to their crops, and because, as the +prisoners were likely to remain in jail all summer, he could not have +detained the men from the other county so long. He presents also the +curious plea that the frequent appeals made to him direct for the +extermination or expulsion of the Mormons gave him assurance that no act +of violence would be committed contrary to his known opposition, and he +observes, "This was a circumstance well calculated to conceal from me +the secret machinations on foot!" + +In this state of happy confidence the governor set out for Nauvoo on the +morning of June 27. On the way, one of the officers who accompanied him +told him that he was apprehensive of an attack on the jail because of +talk he had heard in Carthage. The governor was reluctant to believe +that such a thing could occur while he was in the Mormon city, exposed +to Mormon vengeance, but he sent back a squad, with instructions +to Captain Smith to see that the jail was safely guarded. He had +apprehensions of his own, however, and on arriving at Nauvoo simply made +an address as above outlined, and hurried back to Carthage without even +looking for counterfeit money. He had not gone more than two miles when +messengers met him with the news that the Smith brothers had been killed +in the jail. + +The Warsaw regiment (it is so called in the local histories), under +command of Colonel Levi Williams, set out on the morning of June 27 for +the rendezvous on the Mississippi, preparatory to the march to Nauvoo. +The resolutions adopted in Warsaw and the tone of the local press had +left no doubt about the feeling of the people of that neighborhood +toward the Mormons, and fully justified the decision of the governor in +countermanding the march proposed. His unexpected order disbanding the +militia reached the Warsaw troops when they had advanced about eight +miles. A decided difference of opinion was expressed regarding it. Some +of the most violent, including Editor Sharp of the Signal, wanted to +continue the march to Carthage in order to discuss the situation with +the other forces there; the more conservative advised an immediate +return to Warsaw. Each party followed its own inclination, those who +continued toward Carthage numbering, it is said, about two hundred. + +While there is no doubt that the Warsaw regiment furnished the men who +made the attack on the jail, there is evidence that the Carthage Grays +were in collusion with them. William N. Daniels, in his account of the +assault, says that the Warsaw men, when within four miles of Carthage, +received a note from the Grays (which he quotes) telling them of the +good opportunity presented "to murder the Smiths" in the governor's +absence. His testimony alone would be almost valueless, but Governor +Ford confirms it, and Gregg (who holds that the only purpose of the +mob was to seize the prisoners and run them into Missouri) says he is +"compelled" to accept the report. According to Governor Ford, one of the +companies designated as a guard for the jail disbanded and went home, +and the other was stationed by its captain 150 yards from the +building, leaving only a sergeant and eight men at the jail itself. "A +communication," he adds, "was soon established between the conspirators +and the company, and it was arranged that the guards should have their +guns charged with blank cartridges, and fire at the assailants when they +attempted to enter the jail." + +Both Willard Richards and John Taylor were in the larger room with the +Smith brothers when the attack was made (other visitors having recently +left), and both gave detailed accounts of the shooting, Richards soon +afterward, in a statement printed in the Neighbor and the Times and +Seasons under the title "Two Minutes in Gaol," and Taylor in his +"Martyrdom of Joseph Smith." * They differ only in minor particulars. + + + * To be found in Burton's "City of the Saints." + + +All in the room were sitting in their shirt sleeves except Richards, +when they saw a number of men, with blackened faces, advancing around +the corner of the jail toward the stairway. The door leading from the +room to the stairs was hurriedly closed, and, as it was without a lock, +Hyrum Smith and Richards placed their shoulders against it. Finding +their entrance opposed, the assailants fired a shot through the door +(Richards says they fired a volley up the stairway), which caused Hyrum +and Richards to leap back. While Hyrum was retreating across the room, +with his face to the door, a second shot fired through the door struck +him by the side of the nose, and at the same moment another ball, fired +through the window at the other side of the room, entered his back, and, +passing through his body, was stopped by the watch in his vest pocket, +smashing the works. He fell on his back exclaiming, "I am a dead man," +and did not speak again. + +One of their callers had left a six-shooting pistol with the prisoners, +and, when Joseph saw his brother shot, he advanced with this weapon to +the door, and opening it a few inches, snapped each barrel toward the +men on the other side. Three barrels missed fire, but each of the three +that exploded seems to have wounded a man; accounts differ as to the +seriousness of their injuries. While Joseph was firing, Taylor stood by +him armed with a stout hickory stick, and Richards was on his other +side holding a cane. As soon as Joseph's firing, which had checked the +assailants for a moment, ceased, the latter stuck their weapons through +the partly opened doorway, and fired into the room. Taylor tried to +parry the guns with his cudgel. "That's right, Brother Taylor, parry +them off as well as you can," said the prophet, and these are the last +words he is remembered to have spoken. The assailants hesitated to enter +the room, perhaps not knowing what weapons the Mormons had, and Taylor +concluded to take his chances of a leap through an open window opposite +the door, and some twenty-five feet from the ground. But as he was about +to jump out, a ball struck him in the thigh, depriving him of all power +of motion. He fell inside the window, and as soon as he recovered power +to move, crawled under a bed which stood in one corner of the room. +The men in the hallway continued to thrust in their guns and fire, and +Richards kept trying to knock aside the muzzles with his cane. Taylor +in this way, before he reached the bed, received three more balls, one +below the left knee, one in the left arm, and another in the left hip. + +Almost as soon as Taylor fell, the prophet made a dash for the window. +As he was part way out, two balls fired through the doorway struck him, +and one from outside the building entered his right breast. Richards +says: "He fell outward, exclaiming 'O Lord, my God.' As his feet went +out of the window, my head went in, the balls whistling all around. At +this instant the cry was raised, 'He's leaped the window,' and the mob +on the stairs and in the entry ran out. I withdrew from the window, +thinking it of no use to leap out on a hundred bayonets, then around +General Smith's body. Not satisfied with this, I again reached my head +out of the window and watched some seconds, to see if there were any +signs of life, regardless of my own, determined to see the end of him I +loved. Being fully satisfied that he was dead, with a hundred men near +the body and more coming round the corner of the gaol, and expecting a +return to our room, I rushed toward the prison door at the head of the +stairs." Finding the inner doors of the jail unlocked, Richards dragged +Taylor into a cell and covered him with an old mattress. Both expected +a return of the mob, but the lynchers disappeared as soon as they +satisfied themselves that the prophet was dead. Richards was not injured +at all, although his large size made him an ample target. + +Most Mormon accounts of Smith's death say that, after he fell, the +body was set up against a well curb in the yard and riddled with balls. +Taylor mentions this report, but Richards, who specifically says that he +saw the prophet die, does not. Governor Ford's account says that Smith +was only stunned by the fall and was shot in the yard. Perhaps the +original authority for this version was a lad named William N. Daniels, +who accompanied the Warsaw men to Carthage, and, after the shooting, +went to Nauvoo and had his story published by the Mormons in pamphlet +form, with two extravagant illustrations, in which one of the assailants +is represented as approaching Smith with a knife to cut off his head.* + + + *A detailed account of the murder of the Smiths, and events +connected with it, was contributed to the Atlantic Monthly for December, +1869, by John Hay. This is accepted by Kennedy as written by "one whose +opportunities for information were excellent, whose fairness cannot be +questioned, and whose ability to distinguish the true from the false is +of the highest order." H. H. Bancroft, whose tone is always pro-Mormon, +alludes to this article as "simply a tissue of falsehoods." In reply +to a note of inquiry Secretary Hay wrote to the author, under date +of November 17, 1900: "I relied more upon my memory and contemporary +newspapers for my facts than on certified documents. I will not take my +oath to everything the article contains, but I think in the main it +is correct." This article says that Joseph Smith was severely wounded +before he ran to the window, "and half leaped, half fell into the jail +yard below. With his last dying energies he gathered himself up, and +leaned in a sitting posture against the rude stone well curb. His +stricken condition, his vague wandering glances, excited no pity in the +mob thirsting for his life. A squad of Missourians, who were standing by +the fence, leveled their pieces at him, and, before they could see +him again for the smoke they made, Joe Smith was dead:" This is not an +account of an eye-witness. + + +The bodies of the two brothers were removed to the hotel in Carthage, +and were taken the next day to Nauvoo, arriving there about three +o'clock in the afternoon. They were met by practically the entire +population, and a procession made up of the City Council, the generals +of the Legion with their staffs, the Legion and the citizens generally, +all under command of the city marshal, escorted them to the Nauvoo +Mansion, where addresses were made by Dr. Richards, W. W. Phelps, the +lawyers Woods and Reid, and Colonel Markham. The utmost grief was shown +by the Mormons, who seemed stunned by the blow. + +The burial followed, but the bodies did not occupy the graves. Stenhouse +is authority for the statement that, fearing a grave robbery (which in +fact occurred the next night), the coffins were filled with stones, +and the bodies were buried secretly beneath the unfinished Temple. +Mistrustful that even this concealment would not be sufficient, they +were soon taken up and reburied under the brick wall back of the Mansion +House.* + + + * "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 174. + + +Brigham Young said at the conference in the Temple on October 8, 1845, +"We will petition Sister Emma, in the name of Israel's God, to let us +deposit the remains of Joseph according as he has commanded us, and +if she will not consent to it, our garments are clear." She did not +consent. For the following statement about the future disposition of +the bodies I am indebted to the grandson of the prophet, Mr. Frederick +Madison Smith, one of the editors of the Saints' Herald (Reorganized +Church) at Lamoni, Iowa, dated December 15, 1900:-- + +"The burial place of the brothers Joseph and Hyrum has always remained a +secret, being known only to a very few of the immediate family. In fact, +unless it has lately been revealed to others, the exact spot is known +only to my father and his brother. Others who knew the secret are now +silent in death. The reasons for the secrecy were that it was feared +that, if the burial place was known at the time, there might have been +an inclination on the part of the enemies of those men to desecrate +their bodies and graves. There is not now, and probably has not been for +years, any danger of such desecration, and the only reason I can see for +still keeping it a secret is the natural disinclination on the part of +the family to talk about such matters. + +"However, I have been on the ground with my father when I knew I was +standing within a few feet of where the remains were lying, and it is +known to many about where that spot is. It is a short distance from the +Nauvoo House, on the bank of the Mississippi. The lot is still owned by +the family, the title being in my father's name. There is not, that +I know, any intention of ever taking the bodies to Far West or +Independence, Missouri. The chances are that their resting places will +never be disturbed other than to erect on the spot a monument. In fact, +a movement is now underway to raise the means to do that. A monument +fund is being subscribed to by the members of the church. The monument +would have been erected by the family, but it is not financially able to +do it." + +In the October following, indictments were found against Colonel +Williams of the Warsaw regiment, State Senator J. C. Davis, Editor +Sharp, and six others, including three who were said to have been +wounded by Smith's pistol shots, but the sheriff did not succeed in +making any arrests. In the May following some of the accused appeared +for trial. A struck jury was obtained, but, in the existing state of +public feeling, an acquittal was a foregone conclusion. The guards at +the jail would identify no one, and Daniels, the pamphlet writer, and +another leading witness for the prosecution gave contradictory accounts. + +But the prophet, according to Mormon recitals, did not go unavenged. +Lieutenant Worrell, who commanded the detachment of the guards at the +jail, was shot not long after, as we shall see. Murray McConnell, who +represented the governor in the prosecution of the alleged lynchers, was +assassinated twenty-four years later. P. P. Pratt gives an account +of the fate of other "persecutors." The arm of one Townsend, who was +wounded by Joe's pistol, continued to rot until it was taken off, and +then would not heal. A colonel of the Missouri forces, who died in +Sacramento in 1849, "was eaten with worms, a large, black-headed kind of +maggot, seeming a half-pint at a time." Another Missourian's "face and +jaw on one side literally rotted, and half his face actually fell off."* + + + + *Pratt's "Autobiography," pp. 475-476. + + +It is difficult for the most fair-minded critic to find in the character +of Joseph Smith anything to commend, except an abundance of good-nature +which made him personally popular with the body of his followers. He has +been credited with power as a leader, and it was certainly little less +than marvellous that he could maintain his leadership after his business +failure in Ohio, and the utter break-down of his revealed promises +concerning a Zion in Missouri. The explanation of this success is to +be found in the logically impregnable position of his character as a +prophet, so long as the church itself retained its organization, and in +the kind of people who were gathered into his fold. If it was not true +that HE received the golden plates from an angel; if it was not true +that HE translated them with divine assistance; if it was not true that +HE received from on high the "revelations" vouchsafed for the guidance +of the church,--then there was no new Bible, no new revelation, no +Mormon church. If Smith was pulled down, the whole church structure must +crumble with him. Lee, referring to the days in Missouri, says, "Every +Mormon, if true to his faith, believed as freely in Joseph Smith and his +holy character as they did that God existed."* Some of the Mormons who +knew Smith and his career in Missouri and Illinois were so convinced of +the ridiculousness of his claims that they proposed, after the gathering +in Utah, to drop him entirely. Proof of this, and of Brigham Young's +realization of the impossibility of doing so, is found in Young's +remarks at the conference which received the public announcement of the +"revelation" concerning polygamy. Referring to the suggestion that had +been made, "Don't mention Joseph Smith, never mention the Book of Mormon +and Zion, and all the people will follow you," Young boldly declared: +"What I have received from the Lord, I have received by Joseph Smith; +he was the instrument made use of. If I drop him, I must drop these +principles. They have not been revealed, declared, or explained by any +other man since the days of the apostles." This view is accepted by the +Mormons in Utah to-day. + + + * "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 76. + + +If it seems still more surprising that Smith's associates placed so +little restraint on his business schemes, it must be remembered that +none of his early colaborers--Rigdon, Harris, Cowdery, and the rest--was +a better business man than he, and that he absolutely brooked no +interference. It was Smith who decided every important step, as, for +instance, the land purchases in and around Nauvoo; and men who would +let him originate were compelled to let him carry out. We have seen how +useless better business men like the Laws found it to argue with him +on any practical question. The length to which he dared go in +discountenancing any restriction, even regarding his moral ideas, is +illustrated in an incident related in his autobiography.* At a service +on Sunday, November 7, 1841, in Nauvoo, an elder named Clark ventured +to reprove the brethren for their lack of sanctity, enjoining them +to solemnity and temperance. "I reproved him," says the prophet, "as +pharisaical and hypocritical, and not edifying the people, and showed +the Saints what temperance, faith, virtue, charity, and truth were. I +charged the Saints not to follow the example of the adversary non-mormons +in accusing the brethren, and said, 'If you do not accuse each other, +God will not accuse you. If you have no accuser, you will enter heaven; +if you will follow the revelations and instructions which God gives you +through me, I will take you into heaven as my back load. If you will not +accuse me, I will not accuse you. If you will throw a cloak of charity +over my sins, I will over yours--for charity covereth a multitude of +sins. What many people call sin is not sin. I do many things to break +down superstition."' A congregation that would accept such teaching +without a protest, would follow their leader in any direction which he +chose to indicate. + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XVIII, p. 743. + + +Smith was the farthest possible from being what Spinoza has been called, +"a God-intoxicated man." Real reverence for sacred things did not enter +into his mental equipment. A story illustrating his lack of reverence +for what he called "long-faced" brethren was told by J. M. Grant in +Salt Lake City. A Baptist minister, who talked much of "my dee-e-ar +brethren," called on Smith in Nauvoo, and, after conversing with him for +a short time, stood up before Smith and asked in solemn tones if it were +possible that he saw a man who was a prophet and who had conversed with +the Saviour. "'Yes,' says the prophet, 'I don't know but you do; would +you not like to wrestle with me?' After he had whirled around a few +times, like a duck shot in the head, he concluded that his piety had +been awfully shocked."* + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. III, p. 67. + + +In manhood Smith was about six feet tall, weighing something over two +hundred pounds. From among a number of descriptions of him by visitors +at Nauvoo, the following may be cited. Josiah Quincy, describing his +arrival at what he calls "the tavern" in Nauvoo, in May, 1844, gives +this impression of the prophet: "Pre-eminent among the stragglers at +the door stood a man of commanding appearance, clad in the costume of +a journeyman carpenter when about his work. He was a hearty, athletic +fellow, with blue eyes standing prominently out on his light complexion, +a long nose, and a retreating forehead. He wore striped pantaloons, +a linen jacket which had not lately seen the wash-tub, and a beard of +three days' growth. A fine-looking man, is what the passer-by would +instinctively have murmured upon meeting the remarkable individual +who had fashioned the mould which was to shape the feelings of so many +thousands of his fellow-mortals." * + + + *" Figures of the Past," p. 380. + + +The Rev. Henry Caswall, M.A., who had an interview with the prophet at +Nauvoo, in 1842, thus describes him: "He is a coarse, plebeian, sensual +person in aspect, and his countenance exhibits a curious mixture of +the knave and the clown. His hands are large and fat, and on one of his +fingers he wears a massive gold ring, upon which I saw an inscription. +His eyes appear deficient in that open and straightforward expression +which often characterizes an honest man." + + + * Millennial Star, November 1, 1850. + + +John Taylor had death-casts taken of the faces of Joseph and Hyrum after +their murder. By the aid of these and of sketches of the brothers which +he had secured while they were living, he had busts of them made by a +modeller in Europe named Gahagan, and these were offered to the Saints +throughout the world, for a price, of course.* + +The proofs already cited of Smith's immorality are convincing. Caswall +names a number of occasions on which, he charges, the prophet was +intoxicated after his settlement in Nauvoo. He relates that on one of +these, when Smith was asked how it happened that a prophet of the Lord +could get drunk, Smith answered that it was necessary that he should do +so to prevent the Saints from worshipping him as a god!* + + + * "Mormonism and its Author," 1852. + + +No Mormon ever concedes that proof of Smith's personal failings affects +his character as a prophet. A Mormon doctor, with whom Caswall argued at +Nauvoo, said that Smith might be a murderer and an adulterer, and yet +be a true prophet. He cited St. Peter as saying that, in his time, David +had not yet ascended into heaven (Acts ii. 34); David was in hell as a +murderer; so if Smith was "as infamous as David, and even denied his own +revelations, that would not affect the revelations which God had given +him." + + + +CHAPTER XV. -- AFTER SMITH'S DEATH--RIGDON'S LAST DAYS + +The murder of the Smiths caused a panic, not among the Mormons, but +among the other inhabitants of Hancock County, who looked for summary +vengeance at the hands of the prophet's followers, with their famous +Legion to support them. The state militia having been disbanded, the +people considered themselves without protection, and Governor Ford +shared their apprehension. Carthage was at once almost depopulated, the +people fleeing in wagons, on horseback, and on foot, and most of the +citizens of Warsaw placed the river between them and their enemies. "I +was sensible," says Governor Ford, "that my command was at an end; that +my destruction was meditated as well as the Mormons', and that I +could not reasonably confide longer in one party or the other." The +panic-stricken executive therefore set out at once for Quincy, forty +miles from the scene of the murder. + +From that city the governor issued a statement to the people of the +state, reciting the events leading up to the recent tragedy, and, under +date of June 29, ordered the enlistment of as many men as possible in +the militia of Adams, Marquette, Pike, Brown, Schuyler, Morgan, Scott, +Cass, Fulton, and McDonough counties, and the regiments of General +Stapp's brigade, for a twelve days' campaign. The independent companies +of all sorts, in the same counties, were also told to hold themselves +in readiness, and the federal government was asked to station a force +of five hundred men from the regular army in Hancock County. This last +request was not complied with. The governor then sent Colonel Fellows +and Captain Jonas to Nauvoo by the first boat, to find out the +intentions of the Mormons as well as those of the people of Warsaw. + +Meanwhile the voice of the Mormon leaders was for peace. Willard +Richards, John Taylor, and Samuel H. Smith united in a letter (written +in the first person singular by Richards), on the night of the murders, +addressed to the prophet's widow, General Deming (commanding at +Carthage), and others, which said:-- + +"The people of the county are greatly excited, and fear the Mormons will +come out and take vengeance. I have pledged my word the Mormons will +stay at home as soon as they can be informed, and no violence will be on +their part. And say to my brethren in Nauvoo, in the name of the Lord, +be still, be patient; only let such friends as choose come here to +see the bodies. Mr. Taylor's wounds are dressed and not serious. I am +sound." + +This quieting advice was heeded without even a protest, and after the +funeral of the victims the Mormons voted unanimously to depend on the +law for retribution. + +While things temporal in Nauvoo remained quiet, there were deep feeling +and great uncertainty concerning the future of the church. The First +Presidency had consisted, since the action of the conference at Far West +in 1837, of Joseph and Hyrum Smith and Sidney Rigdon. Two of these were +now dead. Did this leave Rigdon as the natural head, did Smith's son +inherit the successorship, or did the supreme power rest with the Twelve +Apostles? Discussion of this matter brought out many plans, including a +general reorganization of the church, and the appointment of a trustee +or a president. Rigdon had been sent to Pittsburg to build up a church,* +and Brigham Young was electioneering in New Hampshire for Smith. +Accordingly, Phelps, Richards; and Taylor, on July 1 issued a brief +statement to the church at large, asking all to await the assembling of +the Twelve. + +John Taylor so stated at Rigdon's coming trial. This, perhaps, +contradicts the statement in the Cannons' "Life of Brigham Young" that +Rigdon had gone there "to escape the turmoils of Nauvoo." + +Rigdon arrived in Nauvoo on August 3, and preached the next day in the +grove. He said the Lord had shown him a vision, and that there must be a +"guardian" appointed to "build the church up to Joseph" as he had begun +it. Cannon's account, in the "Juvenile Instructor," says that at a +meeting at John Taylor's the next day Rigdon declared that the church +was in confusion and must have a head, and he wanted a special meeting +called to choose a "guardian." On the evening of August 6, Young, H. +C. Kimball, Lyman Wight, Orson Pratt, Orson Hyde, and Wilford Woodruff +arrived from the East. A meeting of the Twelve Apostles, the High +Council, and high priests was called for August 7, at 4 P.m., which +Rigdon attended. He declared that in a vision at Pittsburg it had been +shown to him that he had been ordained a spokesman to Joseph, and +that he must see that the church was governed in a proper manner. "I +propose," said he, "to be a guardian of the people. In this I have +discharged my duty and done what God has commanded me, and the people +can please themselves, whether they accept me or not." + +A special meeting of the church was held on the morning of August 8. +Rigdon had previously addressed a gathering in the grove, but he had not +been winning adherents. As we have seen, he had alienated himself from +the men who had accepted Smith's new social doctrines, and a plan which +he proposed, that the church should move to Pennsylvania, appealed +neither to the good judgment nor the pecuniary interests of those to +whom it was presented. Young made an address at this meeting which so +wrought up his hearers that they declared that they saw the mantle of +Joseph fall upon him. When he asked, "Do you want a guardian, a prophet, +a spokesman, or what do you want?" not a hand went up. Young then went +on to give his own view of the situation; his argument pointed to a +single result--the demolition of Rigdon's claim and the establishment of +the supreme authority of the Twelve, of whom Young himself was the head. +W. W. Phelps, P. P. Pratt, and others sustained Young's view. Before a +vote was taken, according to the minutes quoted, Rigdon refused to have +his name voted on as "spokesman" or guardian. The meeting then voted +unanimously in favor of "supporting the Twelve in their calling," and +also that the Twelve should appoint two Bishops to act as trustees for +the church, and that the completion of the Temple should be pushed.* + + + * For minutes of this church meeting, see Times and Seasons, Vol. +V, p. 637. For a full account of the happenings at Nauvoo, from August 3 +to 8, see "Historical Record" (Mormon), Vol VIII, pp.785-800. + + +On August 15 Young, as president of the Twelve, issued an epistle to the +church in all the world in which he said:-- + +"Let no man presume for a moment that his [the Prophet's] place will be +filled by another; for, remember he stands in his own place, and always +will, and the Twelve Apostles of this dispensation stand in their own +place, and always will, both in time and eternity, to minister, preside, +and regulate the affairs of the whole church." The epistle told the +Saints also that "it is not wisdom for the Saints to have anything to do +with politics, voting, or president-making at present." + +Rigdon remained in Nauvoo after the decision of the church in favor of +the Twelve, preaching as of old, declaring that he was with the brethren +heart and soul, and urging the completion of the Temple. But Young +regarded him as a rival, and determined to put their strength to a test. +Accordingly, on Tuesday, September 3, he had a notice printed in the +Neighbor directing Rigdon to appear on the following Sunday for trial +before a High Council presided over by Bishop Whitney. Rigdon did not +attend this trial, not only because he was not well, but because, after +a conference with his friends, he decided that the case against him was +made up and that his presence would do no good.* + + + * For the minutes of this High Council, see Times and Seasons, +Vol. V, pp. 647-655, 660-667. + + +When the High Council met, Young expressed a disbelief in Rigdon's +reported illness. He said that, having heard that Rigdon had ordained +men to be prophets, priests, and kings, he and Orson Hyde had obtained +from Rigdon a confession that he had performed the act of ordination, +and that he believed he held authority above any man in the church. That +evening eight of the Twelve had visited him at his house, and, getting +confirmation of his position, had sent a committee to him to demand his +license. This he had refused to surrender, saying, "I did not receive +it from you, neither shall I give it up to you." Then came the order for +his trial. + +Orson Hyde presented the case against Rigdon in detail. He declared +that, when they demanded the surrender of his license, Rigdon threatened +to turn traitor, "His own language was, 'Inasmuch as you have demanded +my license, I shall feel it my duty to publish all your secret meetings, +and all the history of the secret works of this church, in the public +journals.'* He intimated that it would bring a mob upon us." Parley P. +Pratt, the member of Rigdon's old church in Ohio, who, according to his +own account, first called Rigdon's attention to the Mormon Bible, next +spoke against his old friend. + + + * Lee thus explains one of these "secret works": "The same winter +[1843] he [Smith] organized what was called 'The Council of Fifty.' +This was a confidential organization. This Council was designated as a +lawmaking department, but no record was ever kept of its doings, or, if +kept, they were burned at the close of each meeting. Whenever anything +of importance was on foot, this Council was called to deliberate upon +it. The Council was called the 'Living Constitution.' Joseph said that +no legislature could enact laws that would meet every case, or attain +the ends of justice in all respells."--"Mormonism Unveiled," p.173. + + +After Amasa Lyman, John Taylor, and H. C. Kimball had spoken against +Rigdon, Brigham Young took the floor again, and in reply to the threat +that Rigdon would expose the secrets of the church, he denounced him in +the following terms:-- + +"Brother Sidney says, if we go to opposing him, he will tell our +secrets. But I would say, 'O, don't, brother Sidney! don't tell our +secrets--O, don't!' But if he tells our secrets, we will tell his. +Tit for tat. He has had long visions in Pittsburg, revealing to him +wonderful iniquity among the Saints. Now, if he knows of so much +iniquity, and has got such wonderful power, why don't he purge it out? +He professes to have the keys of David. Wonderful power and revelations! +And he will publish our iniquity. O, dear brother Sidney, don't publish +our iniquity! Now don't! If Sidney Rigdon undertakes to publish all our +secrets, as he says, he will lie the first jump he takes. If he knew of +all our iniquity why did he not publish it sooner? If there is so much +iniquity in the church as you talk of, Elder Rigdon, and you have known +of it so long, you are a black-hearted wretch because you have +not published it sooner. If there is not this iniquity, you are a +blackhearted wretch for endeavoring to bring a mob upon us, to murder +innocent men, women and children. Any man that says the Twelve are +bogus-makers, or adulterers, or wicked men is a liar; and all who say +such things shall have the fate of liars, where there is weeping and +gnashing of teeth. Who is there who has seen us do such things? No man. +The spirit that I am of tramples such slanderous wickedness under my +feet." * + + + * William Small, in a letter to the Pittsburg Messenger and +Advocate, p. 70, relates that when he met Rigdon on his arrival at St. +Louis by boat after this trial, Orson Hyde, who was also a passenger +and thought Small was with the Twelve, addressed Small, asking him to +intercede with Rigdon not to publish the secret acts of the church, +and telling him that if Rigdon would come back and stand equal with the +Twelve and counsel with them, he would pledge himself, in behalf of the +Twelve, that all they had said against Rigdon would be revoked. + + +At this point the proceedings had a rather startling interruption. +William Marks, president of the Stake at Nauvoo, and a member of the +High Council (who, as we have seen, had rebelled against the doctrine +of polygamy when it was presented to him) took the floor in Rigdon's +defence. But it was in vain. + +W. W. Phelps moved that Rigdon "be cut off from the church, and +delivered over to the buffetings of Satan until he repents." The vote +by the Council in favor of this motion was unanimous, but when it was +offered to the church, some ten members voted against it. Phelps at once +moved that all who had voted to follow Rigdon should be suspended +until they could be tried by the High Council, and this was agreed to +unanimously, with an amendment including the words, "or shall hereafter +be found advocating his principles." After compelling President Marks, +by formal motion, to acknowledge his satisfaction with the action of the +church, the meeting adjourned. + +Rigdon's next steps certainly gave substance to his brother's +theory that his mind was unbalanced, the family having noticed his +peculiarities from the time he was thrown from a horse, when a boy.* He +soon returned to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where his first step was to +"resuscitate" the Messenger and Advocate, which had died at Kirtland. In +a signed article in the first number he showed that he then intended +"to contend for the same doctrines, order of government, and discipline +maintained by that paper when first published at Kirtland," in other +words, to uphold the Mormon church as he had known it, with himself at +its head. But his old desire for original leadership got the better of +him, and after a conference of the membership he had gathered around +him, held in Pittsburg in April, 1845, at which he was voted "First +President, Prophet, Seer, Revelator, and Translator," he issued an +address to the public in which he declared that his Church of Christ +was neither a branch nor connection of the church at Nauvoo, and that it +received members of the Church of Latter-Day Saints only after baptism +and repentance.** In an article in his organ, on July 15, 1845, he made +assertions like these: "The Church of Christ and the Mormons are so +widely different in their respective beliefs that they are of necessity +opposed to one another, as far as religion is concerned.... There is +scarcely one point of similarity.... The Church of Christ has obtained a +distinctive character." + + + * Baptist Witness, March I, 1875. + + + **Pittsburg Messenger and Advocate, p, 220. + + +Rigdon told the April conference that he had one unceasing desire, +namely, to know whether God would accept their work. At the suggestion +of the spirit, he had taken some of the brethren into a room in his +house that morning, and had consecrated them. What there occurred he +thus described:-- + +"After the washing and anointing, and the patriarchal seal, as the Lord +had directed me, we kneeled and in solemn prayer asked God to accept +the work we had done. During the time of prayer there appeared over +our heads in the room a ray of light forming a hollow square, inside of +which stood a company of heavenly messengers, each with a banner in +his hand, with their eyes looking downward upon us, their countenance +expressive of the deep interest they felt in what was passing on the +earth. There also appeared heavenly messengers on horseback, with crowns +upon their heads, and plumes floating in the air, dressed in glorious +attire, until, like Elisha, we cried in our hearts, 'The chariots of +Israel and the horsemen thereof.' Even my little son of fourteen years +of age saw the vision, and gazed with great astonishment, saying that he +thought his imagination was running away with him. After which we arose +and lifted our hands to heaven in holy convocation to God; at which time +was shown an angel in heaven registering the acceptance of our work, +and the decree of the Great God that the kingdom is ours and we shall +prevail." + +While the conference was in session, Pittsburg was visited by a +disastrous conflagration. Rigdon prayed for the sufferers by the fire +and asked God to check it. "During the prayer" (this quotation is from +the official report of the conference in the Messenger and Advocate, p. +186), "an escort of the heavenly messengers that had hovered around +us during the time of this conference were seen leaving the room; the +course of the wind was instantly changed, and the violence of the flames +was stayed." + +Rigdon's attempt to build up a new church in the East was a failure. +Urgent appeals in its behalf in his periodical were made in vain. The +people addressed could not be cajoled with his stories of revelations +and miraculous visions, which both the secular and religious press held +up to ridicule, and he had no system of foreign immigration to supply +ignorant recruits. He soon after took up his residence in Friendship, +Allegheny County, New York, where he died at the residence of his +son-in-law, Earl Wingate, on July 14, 1876. In an obituary sketch of him +the Standard of that place said:-- + +"He was approached by the messengers of young Joseph Smith of Plano, +Ill., but he refused to converse or answer any communication which in +any way would bring him into notice in connection with the Mormon church +of to-day. It was his daily custom to visit the post-office, get the +daily paper, read and converse upon the chief topics of the day. He +often engaged in a friendly dispute with the local ministers, and always +came out first best on New Testament doctrinal matters. Patriarchal in +appearance, and kindly in address, he was often approached by citizens +and strangers with a view to obtaining something of the unrecorded +mysteries of his life; but citizen, stranger and persistent reporter +all alike failed in eliciting any information as to his knowledge of the +Mormon imposture, the motives of his early life, or the religious +faith, fears and hopes of his declining years. Once or twice he spoke +excitedly, in terms of scorn, of those who attributed to him the +manufacture of the Mormon Bible; but beyond this, nothing. His library +was small: he left no manuscripts, and refused persistently to have a +picture of himself taken. It can only be said that he was a compound of +ability, versatility, honesty, duplicity, and mystery." + +One person succeeded in drawing out from Rigdon in his later years a +few words on his relations with the Mormon church. This was Charles L. +Woodward, a New York bookseller, who some years ago made an important +collection of Mormon literature. While making this collection he sent +an inquiry to Rigdon, and received a reply, dated May 25, 1873. After +apologizing for his handwriting on account of his age and paralysis, the +letter says:-- + +"We know nothing about the people called Mormons now.* The Lord notified +us that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints were going to be +destroyed, and for us to leave. We did so, and the Smiths were killed a +few days after we started. Since that, I have had no connection with any +of the people who staid and built up to themselves churches; and chose +to themselves leaders such as they chose, and then framed their own +religion. + + + * The statement has been published that, after Young had +established himself in Utah, be received from Rigdon an intimation that +the latter would be willing to join him. I could obtain no confirmation +of this in Salt Lake City. On the contrary, a leading member of the +church informed me that Young invited Rigdon to join the Mormons is +Utah, but that Rigdon did not accept the invitation. + + +"The Church of Latter-Day Saints had three books that they acknowledged +as Canonical, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Commandments. +For the existence of that church there had to be a revelater, one who +received the word of the Lord; a spokesman, one inspired of God to +expound all revelation, so that the church might all be of one faith. +Without these two men the Church of Latter-Day Saints could not exist. +This order ceased to exist, being overcome by the violence of armed +men, by whom houses were beaten down by cannon which the assailents had +furnished themselves with. + +"Thus ended the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and it +never can move again till the Lord inspires men and women to believe it. +All the societies and assemblies of men collected together since then is +not the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, nor never can there +be such a church till the Lord moves it by his own power, as he did the +first. + +"Should you fall in with one who was of the Church [of] Christ, though +now of advanced age, you will find one deep red in the revelations of +heaven. But many of them are dead, and many of them have turned away, so +there are few left. + +"I have a manuscript paper in my possession, written with my own hands +while in my {30th. year}, but I am to poor to do anything with it; +and therefore it must remain where it [is]. During the great fight of +affliction I have had, I have lost all my property, but I struggle along +in poverty to which I am consigned. I have finished all I feel necessary +to write. + +"Respectfully, + +"SIDNEY RIGDON."* + + + + * The original of this letter is in the collection of Mormon +literature in the New York Public Library. An effort to learn from +Rigdon's descendants something about the manuscript paper referred to by +him has failed. + + +Rigdon's affirmation of his belief in Smith as a prophet and the Mormon +Bible when he returned to Pennsylvania was proclaimed by the Mormons as +proof that there was no truth in the Spaulding manuscript story, but +it carries no weight as such evidence. Rigdon burned all his old +theological bridges behind him when he entered into partnership with +Smith, and his entire course after his return to Pittsburg only adds to +the proof that he was the originator of the Mormon Bible, and that his +object in writing it was to enable him to be the head of a new church. +Surely no one would accept as proof of the divinity of the Mormon +Bible any declaration by the man who told the story of angel visits in +Pittsburg. + + + +CHAPTER XVI. -- RIVALRIES OVER THE SUCCESSION + +Rigdon was not alone in contending for the successorship to Joseph +Smith as the head of the Mormon church. The prophet's family defended +vigorously the claim of his eldest son to be his successor.* Lee says +that the prophet had bestowed the right of succession on his eldest +son by divination, and that "it was then [after his father's death] +understood among the Saints that young Joseph was to succeed his father, +and that right justly belonged to him," when he should be old enough. +Lee says further that he heard the prophet's mother plead with Brigham +Young, in Nauvoo, in 1845, with tears, not to rob young Joseph of his +birthright, and that Young conceded the son's claim, but warned her to +keep quiet on the subject, because "you are only laying the knife to the +throat of the child. If it is known that he is the rightful successor +of his father, the enemy of the Priesthood will seek his life."** Strang +says, "Anyone who was in Nauvoo in 1846 or 1847 knows that the majority +of those who started to the Western exodus, started in this hope," that +the younger Joseph would take his father's place.*** + + + * The prophet's sons were Joseph, born November 6, 1832; Fred G. +W., June 20, 1836; Alexander, June 2, 1838; Don Carlos, June 13, 1840; +and David H., November 18, 1844. + + + ** "Mormonism Unveiled," pp. 155, 161. + + + *** Strang's "Prophetic Controversy," p. 4. + + +At the last day of the Conference held in the Temple in Nauvoo, in +October, 1845, Mother Smith, at her request, was permitted to make +an address. She went over the history of her family, and asked for +an expression of opinion whether she was "a mother in Israel." One +universal "yes" rang out. She said she hoped all her children would +accompany the Saints to the West, and if they did she would go; but +she wanted her bones brought back to be buried beside her husband and +children. Brigham Young then said: "We have extended the helping hand +to Mother Smith. She has the best carriage in the city, and, while she +lives, shall ride in it when and where she pleases." * Mother Smith died +in the summer of 1856 in Nauvoo, where she spent the last two years +of her life with Joseph's first wife, Emma, who had married a Major +Bideman. + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. VII, p. 23. + + +Emma caused the Twelve a good deal of anxiety after her husband's death. +Pratt describes a council held by her, Marks, and others to endeavor to +appoint a trustee-in-trust for the whole church, the necessity of which +she vigorously urged. Pratt opposed the idea, and nothing was done about +it.* Soon after her husband's death the Times and Seasons noticed +a report that she was preparing, with the assistance of one of the +prophet's Iowa lawyers, an exposure of his "revelations," etc. James +Arlington Bennett, who visited Nauvoo after the prophet's death, acting +as correspondent for the New York Sun, gave in one of his letters the +text of a statement which he said Emma had written, to this effect, "I +never for a moment believed in what my husband called his apparitions or +revelations, as I thought him laboring under a diseased mind; yet they +may all be true, as a prophet is seldom without credence or honor, +excepting in his own family or country." Mrs. Smith, in a letter to the +Sun, dated December 30, 1845, pronounced this letter a forgery, while +Bennett maintained that he knew that it was genuine.** + + + *Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 373. + + + ** Emma Smith is described as "a tall, dark, masculine looking +woman" in "Sketches and Anecdotes of the Old Settlers." + + +The organization--or, as they define it, the reorganization of a church +by those who claim that the mantle of Joseph Smith, Jr., descended +on his sons, had its practical inception at a conference at Beloit, +Wisconsin, in June, 1852, at which resolutions were adopted disclaiming +all fellowship with Young and other claimants to the leadership of the +church, declaring that the successor of the prophet "must of necessity +be the seed of Joseph Smith, Jr." At a conference held in Amboy, +Illinois, in April, 1860, Joseph Smith's son and namesake was placed +at the head of this church, a position which he still holds. The +Reorganized Church has been twice pronounced by United States courts +to be the one founded under the administration of the prophet. Its +teachings may be called pure Mormonism, free from the doctrines +engrafted in after years. It holds that "the doctrines of a plurality +and community of wives are heresies, and are opposed to the law of God." +Its declaration of faith declares its belief in baptism by immersion, +the same kind of organization (apostles, prophets, pastors, etc.) that +existed in the primitive church, revelations by God to man from time +to time "until the end of time," and in "the powers and gifts of the +everlasting gospel, viz., the gift of faith, discerning of spirits, +prophesy, revelation, healing, visions, tongues, and the interpretation +of tongues." No one ever heard of this church having any trouble with +its Gentile neighbors. + +The Reorganized Church moved its headquarters to Lamoni, Iowa, in 1881. +It has a present membership of 45,381, according to the report of the +General Church Recorder to the conference of April, 1901. Of these +members, 6964 were foreign,--286 in Canada, 1080 in England, and 1955 in +the Society Islands. The largest membership in this country is 7952 in +Iowa, 6280 in Missouri, and 3564 in Michigan. Utah reported 685 members. + +The most determined claimant to the successorship of Smith was James J. +Strang. Born at Scipio, New York, in 1813, Strang was admitted to the +bar when a young man, and moved to Wisconsin. Some of the Mormons who +went into the north woods to get lumber for the Nauvoo Temple planted +a Stake near La Crosse, under Lyman Wight, in 1842. Trouble ensued very +soon with their non-Mormon neighbors, and after a rather brief career +the supporters of this Stake moved away quietly one night. Strang heard +of the Mormon doctrines from these settlers, accepted their truth, and +visiting Nauvoo, was baptized in February, 1844, made an elder, and +authorized to plant another Stake in Wisconsin. He first attempted to +found a city called Voree, where a temple covering more than two acres +of ground, with twelve towers, was begun. + +When Smith was killed, Strang at once came forward with a declaration +that the prophet's revelations indicated that, at the close of his own +prophetic office, another would be called to the place by revelation, +and ordained at the hands of angels; that not only had he (Strang) been +so ordained, but that Smith had written to him in June, 1844, predicting +the end of his own work, and telling Strang that he was to gather +the people in a Zion in Wisconsin. Strang began at once giving out +revelations, describing visions, and announcing that an angel had shown +him "plates of the sealed record," and given him the Urim and Thummim to +translate them. + +Although Strang's whole scheme was a very clumsy imitation of Smith's, +he drew a considerable number of followers to his Wisconsin branch, +where he published a newspaper called the Voree Herald, and issued +pamphlets in defence of his position, and a "Book of the Law," +explaining his doctrinal teachings, which included polygamy. He had five +wives. His Herald printed a statement, signed by the prophet's mother +and his brother William, his three married sisters, and the husband +of one of them, certifying that "the Smith family do believe in the +appointment of J. J. Strang." Among other Mormons of note who gave in +their allegiance to Strang were John E. Page, one of the Twelve (whom +Phelps had called "the sun-dial"), General John C. Bennett, and Martin +Harris. + +Strang gave the Mormon leaders considerable anxiety, especially when he +sent missionaries to England to work up his cause. The Millennial Star +of November 15, 1846, devoted a good deal of space to the subject. The +article began:-- + +"SKETCHES OF NOTORIOUS CHARACTERS: James J. Strang, successor of Sidney +Rigdon, Judius Iscariot, Cain & Co., Envoy Extraordinary and a Minister +Plenipotentiary to His Most Gracious Majesty Lucifer L, assisted by +his allied contemporary advisers, John C. Bennett, William Smith, G. T. +Adams, and John E. Page, Secretary of Legation." + +Strang announced a revelation which declared that he was to be "King +in Zion," and his coronation took place on July 8, 1850, when he was +crowned with a metal crown having a cluster of stars on its front. Burnt +offerings were included in the programme. + +This ceremony took place on Beaver Island, in Lake Superior, where +in 1847 Strang had gathered his people and assumed both temporal and +spiritual authority. Both of these claims got him into trouble. His +non-Mormon neighbors, fishermen and lumbermen, accused the Mormons of +wholesale thefts; his assumption of regal authority brought him before +the United States court, (where he was not held); and his advocacy of +the practice of polygamy by his followers aroused insubordination, and +on June 15, 1856, he was shot by two members of his flock whom he had +offended, and who were at once regarded as heroes by the people of the +mainland. A mob secured a vessel, visited Beaver Island, where Strang +had maintained a sort of fort, and compelled the Mormon inhabitants to +embark immediately, with what little property they could gather up. They +were landed at different places, most of them in Milwaukee. Thus ended +Strang's Kingdom.* + + + * "A Moses of the Mormons," by Henry E. Legler, Parkman Club +Publications, Nos. 15-16, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, May 11, 1897; "An +American Kingdom of Mormons," Magazine of Western History, Cleveland, +Ohio, April, 1886. + + +Another leader who "set up for himself" after Smith's death was Lyman +Wight, who had been one of the Twelve in Missouri, and was arrested with +Smith there. Wight did not lay claim to the position of President of the +church, but he resented what he called Brigham Young's usurpation. In +1845 he led a small company of his followers to Texas, where they first +settled on the Colorado River, near Austin. They made successive moves +from that place into Gillespie, Burnett, and Bandera counties. He died +near San Antonio in March, 1858. The fact that Wight entered into the +practice of polygamy almost as soon as he reached Texas, and still +escaped any conflict with his non-Mormon neighbors, affords proof of his +good character in other respects. The Galveston News, in its notice of +his death, said, "Mr. Wight first came to Texas in November, 1845, and +has been with his colony on our extreme frontier ever since, moving +still farther west as settlements formed around him, thus always being +the pioneer of advancing civilization, affording protection against the +Indians." + +After Wight's death his people scattered. A majority of them became +identified with the Reorganized Church, a few gave in their allegiance +to the organization in Utah, and others abandoned Mormonism entirely. + + + +CHAPTER XVII. -- BRIGHAM YOUNG + +Brigham Young, the man who had succeeded in expelling Rigdon and +establishing his own position as head of the church, was born in +Whitingham, Windham County, Vermont, on June 1, 1801. The precise +locality of his birth in that town is in dispute. His father, a native +of Massachusetts, is said to have served under Washington during the +Revolutionary War. The family consisted of eleven children, five sons +and six daughters, of whom Brigham was the ninth. The Youngs moved +to Whitingham in January, 1801. In his address at the centennial +celebration of that town in 1880, Clark Jillson said, "Henry Goodnow, +Esq., of this town says that Brigham Young's father came here the +poorest man that ever had been in town; that he never owned a cow, +horse, or any land, but was a basket maker." Mormon accounts represent +the elder Young as having been a farmer. + +His circumstances permitted him to give his children very little +education, and, when sixteen years old, Brigham seems to have started +out to make his own living, working as a carpenter, painter, and +glazier, as jobs were offered. He was living in Aurelius, Cayuga County, +New York, in 1824, working at his trade, and there, in October of that +year, he married his first wife, Miriam Works. In 1829 they moved to +Mendon, Monroe County, New York. + +Joseph Smith's brother, in the following year, left a copy of the Mormon +Bible at the house of Brigham's brother Phineas in Mendon, and there +Brigham first saw it. Occasional preaching by Mormon elders made the new +faith a subject of conversation in the neighborhood, and Phineas was an +early convert. Brigham stated in a sermon in Salt Lake City, on August +8, 1852, that he examined the new Bible for two years before deciding +to receive it. He was baptized into the Mormon church on April 14, 1832. +His wife, who also embraced the faith, died in September of that year, +leaving him two daughters. + +Young married his second wife, Mary A. Angel, in Kirtland on March 31, +1834. His application for a marriage license is still on file among the +records of the Probate Court at Chardon, now the shire town of Geauga +County, Ohio, and his signature is a proof of his illiterateness, +showing that he did not know how to spell his own baptismal name, +spelling it "Bricham." + +Young began preaching and baptizing in the neighborhood, having at once +been made an elder, and in the autumn of 1832, after Smith's second +return from Missouri, he visited Kirtland and first saw the prophet. +Mormon accounts of this visit say that Young "spoke in tongues," and +that Smith pronounced his language "the pure Adamic," and then predicted +that he would in time preside over the church. It is not at all +improbable that Joseph did not hesitate to interpret Brigham's +"tongues," but at that time he was thinking of everything else but a +successor to himself. + +Young, with his brother Joseph, went from Kirtland on foot to Canada, +where he preached and baptized, and whence he brought back a company of +converts. He worked at his trade in Kirtland (preaching as called upon) +from that time until 1834, when he accompanied the "Army of Zion" to +Missouri, being one of the captains of tens. Returning with the prophet, +he was employed on the Temple and other church buildings for the next +three years (superintending the painting of the Temple), when he was +not engaged in other church work. Having been made one of the original +Quorum of Twelve in 1835, he devoted a good deal of time in the warmer +months holding conferences in New York State and New England. + +When open opposition to Smith manifested itself in Kirtland, Young was +one of his firmest defenders. He attended a meeting in an upper room +of the Temple, the object of which was to depose Smith and place David +Whitmer in the Presidency, leading in the debate, and declaring that +he "knew that Joseph was a prophet." According to his own statement, he +learned of a plot to kill Smith as he was returning from Michigan in +a stage-coach, and met the coach with a horse and buggy, and drove the +prophet to Kirtland unharmed. When Smith found it necessary to flee from +Ohio, Young followed him to Missouri with his family, arriving at Far +West on March 14, 1838. He sailed to Liverpool on a mission in 1840, +remaining there a little more than a year. + +In all the discords of the church that occurred during Smith's life, +Young never incurred the prophet's displeasure, and there is no evidence +that he ever attempted to obtain any more power or honor for himself +than was voluntarily accorded to him. He gave practical assistance to +the refugees from Missouri as they arrived at Quincy, but there is no +record of his prominence in the discussions there over the future plans +for the church. The prophet's liking for him is shown in a revelation +dated at Nauvoo, July 9; 1841 (Sec. 126), which said:-- + +"Dear and beloved brother Brigham Young, verily thus saith the Lord unto +you, my servant Brigham, it is no more required at your hand to leave +your family as in times past, for your offering is acceptable to me; I +have seen your labor and toil in journeyings for my name. I therefore +command you to send my word abroad, and take special care of your family +from this time, henceforth, and forever. Amen." + +The apostasy of Marsh and the death of Patton had left Young the +President of the Twelve, and that was the position in which he found +himself at the time of Smith's death. + +One of the first subjects which Young had to decide concerned +"revelations." Did they cease with Smith's death, or, if not, who would +receive and publish them? Young made a statement on this subject at +the church conference held at Nauvoo on October 6 of that year, which +indicated his own uncertainty on the subject, and which concluded +as follows, "Every member has the right of receiving revelations for +themselves, both male and female." As if conscious that all this was +not very clear, he closed by making a declaration which was very +characteristic of his future policy: "If you don't know whose right it +is to give revelations, I will tell you. It is I."* We shall see that +the discontinuance of written "revelations" was a cause of complaint +during all of Young's subsequent career in Utah, but he never yielded to +the demand for them. + + + * Times and Seasons, Vol. V, pp. 682-683. + + +At the conference in Nauvoo Young selected eighty-five men from the +Quorum of high priests to preside over branches of the church in all +the congressional districts of the United States; and he took pains to +explain to them that they were not to stay six months and then return, +but "to go and settle down where they can take their families and tarry +until the Temple is built, and then come and get their endowments, and +return to their families and build up a Stake as large as this." Young's +policy evidently was, while not imitating Rigdon's plan to move the +church bodily to the East, to build up big branches all over the +country, with a view to such control of affairs, temporal and spiritual, +as could be attained. "If the people will let us alone," he said to this +same conference, "we will convert the world." + +Many members did not look on the Twelve as that head of the church +which Smith's revelations had decreed. It was argued by those who upheld +Rigdon and Strang, and by some who remained with the Twelve, that the +"revelations" still required a First Presidency. The Twelve allowed this +question to remain unsettled until the brethren were gathered at +Winter Quarters, Iowa, after their expulsion from Nauvoo, and Young had +returned from his first trip to Salt Lake valley. The matter was taken +up at a council at Orson Hyde's house on December 5, 1847, and it was +decided, but not without some opposing views, to reorganize the church +according to the original plan, with a First Presidency and Patriarch. +In accordance with this plan, a conference was held in the log +tabernacle at Winter Quarters on December 24, and Young was elected +President and John Smith Patriarch. Young selected Heber C. Kimball +and Willard Richards to be his counsellors, and the action of this +conference was confirmed in Salt Lake City the following October. Young +wrote immediately after his election, "This is one of the happiest days +of my life." + +The vacancies in the Twelve caused by these promotions, and by Wight's +apostasy, were not filled until February 12, 1849, in Salt Lake City, +when Lorenzo Snow, Erastus Snow, C. C. Rich, and F. D. Richards were +chosen. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. -- RENEWED TROUBLE FOR THE MORMONS--"THE BURNINGS" + +The death of the prophet did not bring peace with their outside +neighbors to the Mormon church. Indeed, the causes of enmity were too +varied and radical to be removed by any changes in the leadership, so +long as the brethren remained where they were. + +In the winter of 1844-1845 charges of stealing made against the Mormons +by their neighbors became more frequent. Governor Ford, in his message +to the legislature, pronounced such reports exaggerated, but it probably +does the governor no injustice to say that he now had his eye on the +Mormon vote. The non-Mormons in Hancock and the surrounding counties +held meetings and appointed committees to obtain accurate information +about the thefts, and the old complaints of the uselessness of tracing +stolen goods to Nauvoo were revived. The Mormons vigorously denied these +charges through formal action taken by the Nauvoo City Council and a +citizens' meeting, alleging that in many cases "outlandish men" had +visited the city at night to scatter counterfeit money and deposit +stolen goods, the responsibility for which was laid on Mormon shoulders. + +It is not at all improbable that many a theft in western Illinois in +those days that was charged to Mormons had other authors; but testimony +regarding the dishonesty of many members of the church, such as we have +seen presented in Smith's day, was still available. Thus, Young, in one +of his addresses to the conference assembled at Nauvoo about two months +after Smith's death, made this statement: "Elders who go to borrowing +horses or money, and running away with it, will be cut off from the +church without any ceremony. THEY WILL NOT HAVE SO MUCH LENITY AS +HERETOFORE."* + + + * Times and Seasons, Vol. V, p. 696. + + +A lady who published a sketch of her travels in 1845 through Illinois +and Iowa wrote:-- + +"We now entered a part of the country laid waste by the desperadoes +among the Mormons. Whole farms were deserted, fields were still covered +with wheat unreaped, and cornfields stood ungathered, the inhabitants +having fled to a distant part of the country.... Friends gave us a good +deal of information about the doings of these Saints at Nauvoo--said +that often, when their orchards were full of fruit, some sixteen of +these monsters would come with bowie knives and drive the owners into +their houses while they stripped their trees of the fruit. If these +rogues wanted cattle they would drive off the cattle of the Gentiles."* + + + * "Book for the Married and Single," by Ann Archbold. + + +A trial concerning the title to some land in Adams County in that year +brought out the fact that there existed in the Mormon church what was +called a "Oneness." Five persons would associate and select one of their +members as a guardian; then, if any of the property they jointly owned +was levied on, they would show that one or more of the other five was +the real owner. + +While the Mormons continued to send abroad glowing pictures of the +prosperity of Nauvoo, less prejudiced accounts gave a very different +view. The latter pointed out that the immigrants, who supplied the only +source of prosperity, had expended most of their capital on houses and +lots, that building operations had declined, because houses could be +bought cheaper than they could be built, and that mechanics had been +forced to seek employment in St. Louis. Published reports that large +numbers of the poor in the city were dependent on charity received +confirmation in a letter published in the Millennial Star of October 1, +1845, which said that on a fast-day proclaimed by Young, when the poor +were to be remembered, "people were seen trotting in all directions to +the Bishops of the different wards" with their contributions. + +We have seen that the gathering of the Saints at Nauvoo was an idea of +Joseph Smith, and was undertaken against the judgment of some of the +wiser members of the church. The plan, so far as its business features +were concerned, was on a par with the other business enterprises that +the prophet had fathered. There was nothing to sustain a population of +15,000 persons, artificially collected, in this frontier settlement, and +that disaster must have resulted from the experiment, even without the +hostile opposition of their neighbors, is evident from the fact that +Nauvoo to day, when fifty years have settled up the surrounding district +and brought it in better communication with the world, is a village of +only 1321 inhabitants (census of 1900). + +Politics were not eliminated from the causes of trouble by Smith's +death. Not only was 1844 a presidential year, but the citizens of +Hancock County were to vote for a member of Congress, two members of the +legislature, and a sheriff. Governor Ford urgently advised the Mormons +not to vote at all, as a measure of peace; but political feeling ran +very high, and the Democrats got the Mormon vote for President, and with +the same assistance elected as sheriff General Deming, the officer left +by Governor Ford in command of the militia at Carthage when the Smiths +were killed, as well as two members of the legislature who had voted +against the repeal of the Nauvoo city charter. + +The tone of the Mormons toward their non-Mormon neighbors seemed to +become more defiant at this time than ever. The repeal of the Nauvoo +charter, in January, 1845, unloosened their tongues. Their newspaper, +the Neighbor, declared that the legislature "had no more right to repeal +the charter than the United States would have to abrogate and make +void the constitution of the state, or than Great Britain would have +to abolish the constitution of the United States--and the man that says +differently is a coward, a traitor to his own rights, and a tyrant; no +odds what Blackstone, Kent or Story may have written to make themselves +and their names popular, to the contrary." + +The Neighbor, in the same article, thus defined its view of the +situation, after the repeal:-- + +"Nor is it less legal for an insulted individual or community to resist +oppression. For this reason, until the blood of Joseph and Hyrum Smith +has been atoned for by hanging, shooting or slaying in some manner every +person engaged in that cowardly, mean assassination, no Latter-Day Saint +should give himself up to the law; for the presumption is that they wilt +murder him in the same manner.... Neither should civil process come into +Nauvoo till the United States by a vigorous course, causes the State +of Missouri and the State of Illinois to redress every man that has +suffered the loss of lands, goods or anything else by expulsion. ... +If any man is bound to maintain the law, it is for the benefit he may +derive from it.... Well, our charter is repealed; the murderers of the +Smiths are running at large, and if the Mormons should wish to imitate +their forefathers and fulfil the Scriptures by making it 'hard to kick +against the pricks' by wearing cast steel pikes about four or five +inches long in their boots and shoes to kick with, WHAT'S THE HARM?" +Such utterances, which found imitation in the addresses of the leaders, +and were echoed in the columns of Pratt's Prophet in New York, made it +easy for their hostile neighbors to believe that the Mormons considered +themselves beyond the reach of any law but their own. Some daring +murders committed across the river in Iowa in the spring of +1845 afforded confirmation to the non-Mormons of their belief in +church-instigated crimes of this character, and in the existence and +activity of the Danite organization. The Mormon authorities had denied +that there were organized Danites at Nauvoo, but the weight of testimony +is against the denial. Gregg, a resident of the locality when the +Mormons dwelt there, gives a fair idea of the accepted view of the +Danites at that time:-- + +"They were bound together with oaths of the most solemn character, and +the punishment of traitors to the order was death. John A. Murrell's +Band of Pirates, who flourished at one time near Jackson, Tennessee, +and up and down the Mississippi River above New Orleans, was never so +terrible as the Danite Band, for the latter was a powerful organization, +and was above the law. The band made threats, and they were not +idle threats. They went about on horseback, under cover of darkness, +disguised in long white robes with red girdles. Their faces were covered +with masks to conceal their identity."* + + + * "History of Hancock County." See also "Sketches and Anecdotes +of the Old Settlers," p. 34. + + +Phineas Wilcox, a young man of good reputation, went to Nauvoo +on September 16, 1845, to get some wheat ground, and while there +disappeared completely. The inquiry made concerning him led his friends +to believe that he was suspected of being a Gentile spy, and was quietly +put out of the way.* + + + * See Lee's "Mormonism Unveiled," pp. 158-159, for accounts of +methods of disposing of objectionable persons at Nauvoo. + + +William Smith, the prophet's brother, contributed to the testimony +against the Mormon leaders. Returning from the East, where he had been +living for three years when Joseph was killed, he was warmly welcomed +by the Mormon press, and elevated to the position of Patriarch, and, +as such, issued a sort of advertisement of his patriarchal wares in the +Times and Seasons* and Neighbor, inviting those in want of blessings to +call at his residence. William was not a man of tact, and it required +but a little time for him to arouse the jealousy of the leaders, the +result of which was a notice in the Times and Seasons of November 1, +1845, that he had been "cut off and left in the hands of God." But +William was not a man to remain quiet even in such a retreat, and he +soon afterward issued to the Saints throughout the world "a proclamation +and faithful warning," which filled eight and a half columns of the +Warsaw Signal of October 29, 1845, in which, "in all meekness of spirit, +and without anger or malice" (William possessed most of the family +traits), he accused Young of instigating murders, and spoke of him in +this way:-- + + * Vol. VI, p. 904. + + +"It is my firm and sincere conviction that, since the murder of my two +brothers, usurpation, and anarchy, and spiritual wickedness in high +places have crept into the church, with the cognizance and acquiescence +of those whose solemn duty It was to guardedly watch against such +a state of things. Under the reign of one whom I may call a Pontius +Pilate, under the reign, I say, of this Brigham Young, no greater tyrant +ever existed since the days of Nero. He has no other justification than +ignorance to cover the most cruel acts--acts disgraceful to any one +bearing the stamp of humanity; and this being has associated around him +men, bound by oaths and covenants, who are reckless enough to commit +almost any crime, or fulfil any command that their self-crowned head +might give them." + +William was, of course, welcomed as a witness by the non-Mormons. He +soon after went to St. Louis, and while there received a letter from +Orson Hyde, which called his proclamation "a cruel thrust," but urged +him to return, pledging that they would not harm him. William did not +accept the invitation, but settled in Illinois, became a respected +citizen, and in later years was elected to the legislature. When invited +to join the Reorganized Church by his nephew Joseph, he declined, +saying, "I am not in sympathy, very strongly, with any of the present +organized bands of Mormons, your own not excepted." + +By the spring of 1845 the Mormons were deserted even by their Democratic +allies, some three hundred of whom in Hancock County issued an address +denying that the opposition to them was principally Whig, and declaring +that it had arisen from compulsion and in self-defence. Governor Ford, +anxious to be rid of his troublesome constituents, sent a confidential +letter to Brigham Young, dated April 8, 1845, saying, "If you can get +off by yourselves you may enjoy peace," and suggesting California as +opening "a field for the prettiest enterprise that has been undertaken +in modern times." + +An era of the most disgraceful outrages that marked any of the conflicts +between the Mormons and their opponents east of the Rocky Mountains +began in Hancock County on the night of September 9, when a schoolhouse +in Green Plain, south of Warsaw, in which the anti-Mormons were holding +a meeting, was fired upon. The Mormons always claimed that this was +a sham attack, made by the anti-Mormons to give an excuse for open +hostilities, and probabilities favor this view. Straightway ensued what +were known as the "burnings." A band of men, numbering from one hundred +to two hundred, and coming mostly from Warsaw, began burning the houses, +outbuildings, and grain stacks of Mormons all over the southwest part of +the county. The owners were given time to remove their effects, and were +ordered to make haste to Nauvoo, and in this way the country region was +rapidly rid of Mormon settlers.* + + + * Gregg's "History of Hancock County," p. 374. + + +The sheriff of the county at that time was J. B. Backenstos, who, Ford +says, went to Hancock County from Sangamon, a fraudulent debtor, and +whose brother married a niece of the Prophet Joseph.* He had been +elected to the legislature the year before, and had there so openly +espoused the Mormon cause opposing the repeal of the Nauvoo charter that +his constituents proposed to drive him from the county when he returned +home. Backenstos at once took up the cause of the Mormons, issued +proclamation after proclamation,** breathing the utmost hostility to the +Mormon assailants, and calling on the citizens to aid him as a posse in +maintaining order. + + + * Ford's "History of Illinois," pp. 407-408. + + + ** For the text of five of these proclamations, see Millennial +Star, Vol. VI. + + +A sheriff of different character might have secured the help that was +certainly his due on such an occasion, but no non-Mormon would respond +to a call by Backenstos. An occurrence incidental to these disturbances +now added to the public feeling. On September 16, Lieutenant Worrell, +who had been in command of the guard at the jail when the Smith brothers +were killed, was shot dead while riding with two companions from +Carthage to Warsaw. His death was charged to Backenstos and to O. P. +Rockwell,* the man accused of the attempted assassination of Governor +Boggs, and both were afterward put on trial for it, but were acquitted. +The sheriff now turned to the Nauvoo Legion for recruits, and in his +third proclamation he announced that he then had a posse of upward of +two thousand "well-armed men" and two thousand more ready to respond to +his call. He marched in different directions with this force, visiting +Carthage, where he placed a number of citizens under arrest and issued +his Proclamation No. 4., in which he characterized the Carthage Grays as +"a band of the most infamous and villanous scoundrels that ever infested +any community." + + + * "Who was the actual guilty party may never be known. We have +lately been informed from Salt Lake that Rockwell did the deed, under +order of the sheriff, which is probably the case."--Gregg, "History of +Hancock County," p. 341. + + +"During the ascendency of the sheriff and the absence of the +anti-Mormons from their homes," said Governor Ford,* "the people who had +been burnt out of their houses assembled at Nauvoo, from whence, with +many others, they sallied forth and ravaged the country, stealing and +plundering whatever was convenient to carry or drive away." Thus it +seems that the governor had changed his opinion about the honesty of +the Mormons. To remedy the chaotic condition of affairs in the +county, Governor Ford went to Jacksonville, Morgan County, where, in a +conference, it was decided that judge Stephen A. Douglas, General J. J. +Hardin, Attorney General T. A. McDougal, and Major W. B. Warren should +go to Hancock County with such forces as could be raised, to put an end +to the lawlessness. When the sheriff heard of this, he pronounced the +governor's proclamation directing the movement a forgery, and said, in +his own Proclamation No. 5, "I hope no armed men will come into Hancock +County under such circumstances. I shall regard them in the character of +a mob, and shall treat them accordingly." + + + *Ford's "History of Illinois," p. 410. + + +The sheriff labored under a mistake. The steps now taken resulted, not +in a demonstration of his authority, but in the final expulsion of all +the Mormons from Illinois and Iowa. + + + +CHAPTER XIX. -- THE EXPULSION OF THE MORMONS + +General Hardin announced the coming of his force, which numbered about +four hundred men, in a proclamation addressed "To the Citizens of +Hancock County," dated September 27. He called attention to the lawless +acts of the last two years by both parties, characterizing the recent +burning of houses as "acts which disgrace your county, and are a stigma +to the state, the nation, and the age." His force would simply see that +the laws were obeyed, without taking part with either side. He forbade +the assembling of any armed force of more than four men while his troops +remained in the county, urged the citizens to attend to their ordinary +business, and directed officers having warrants for arrests in +connection with the recent disturbances to let the attorney-general +decide whether they needed the assistance of troops. + +But the citizens were in no mood for anything like a restoration of +the recent order of things, or for any compromise. The Warsaw Signal of +September 17 had appealed to the non-Mormons of the neighboring counties +to come to the rescue of Hancock, and the citizens of these counties +now began to hold meetings which adopted resolutions declaring that the +Mormons "must go," and that they would not permit them to settle in any +of the counties interested. The most important of these meetings, held +at Quincy, resulted in the appointment of a committee of seven to +visit Nauvoo, and see what arrangements could be made with the Mormons +regarding their removal from the state. Notwithstanding their defiant +utterances, the Mormon leaders had for some time realized that their +position in Illinois was untenable. That Smith himself understood this +before his death is shown by the following entry in his diary:-- + +"Feb. 20, 1844. I instructed the Twelve Apostles to send out a +delegation, and investigate the locations of California and Oregon, +and hunt out a good location where we can remove to after the Temple is +completed, and where we can build a city in a day, and have a government +of our own, get up into the mountains, where the devil cannot dig us +out, and live in a healthy climate where we can live as old as we have a +mind to."* + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XX, p. 819. + + +The Mormon reply to the Quincy committee was given under date of +September 24 in the form of a proclamation signed by President Brigham +Young.* In a long preamble it asserted the desire of the Mormons "to +live in peace with all men, so far as we can, without sacrificing the +right to worship God according to the dictates of our own consciences"; +recited their previous expulsion from their homes, and the unfriendly +view taken of their "views and principles" by many of the people of +Illinois, finally announcing that they proposed to leave that country +in the spring "for some point so remote that there will not need to be a +difficulty with the people and ourselves." The agreement to depart was, +however, conditioned on the following stipulations: that the citizens +would help them to sell or rent their properties, to get means to assist +the widows, the fatherless, and the destitute to move with the rest; +that "all men will let us alone with their vexatious lawsuits"; that +cash, dry goods, oxen, cattle, horses, wagons, etc., be given in +exchange for Mormon property, the exchanges to be conducted by a +committee of both parties; and that they be subjected to no more house +burnings nor other depredations while they remained. + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. VI, p. 187. + + +The adjourned meeting at Quincy received the report of its committee on +September 26, and voted to accept the proposal of the Mormons to move in +the spring, but stated explicitly, "We do not intend to bring ourselves +under any obligation to purchase their property, nor to furnish +purchasers for the same; but we will in no way hinder or obstruct +them in their efforts to sell, and will expect them to dispose of their +property and remove at the time appointed." To manifest their sympathy +with the unoffending poor of Nauvoo, a committee of twenty was appointed +to receive subscriptions for their aid. The resignation of Sheriff +Backenstos was called for, and the judge of that circuit was advised to +hold no court in Hancock County that year. + +The outcome of the meetings in the different counties was a convention +which met in Carthage on October 1 and 2, and at which nine counties +(Hancock not included) were represented. This convention adopted +resolutions setting forth the inability of non-Mormons to secure justice +at the hands of juries under Mormon influence, declaring that the only +settlement of the troubles could be through the removal of the Mormons +from the state, and repudiating "the impudent assertion, so often and +so constantly put forth by the Mormons, that they are persecuted for +righteousness' sake." The counties were advised to form a military +organization, and the Mormons were warned that their opponents "solemnly +pledge ourselves to be ready to act as the occasion may require." + +Meanwhile, the commissioners appointed by Governor Ford had been in +negotiation with the Mormon authorities, and on October 1 they, too, +asked the latter to submit their intentions in writing. This they did +the same day. Their reply, signed by Brigham Young, President, and +Willard Richards, Clerk,* referred the commission to their response +to the Quincy committee, and added that they had begun arrangements +to remove from the county before the recent disturbances, one thousand +families, including the heads of the church, being determined to start +in the spring, without regard to any sacrifice of their property; +that the whole church desired to go with them, and would do so if the +necessary means could be secured by sales of their possessions, but that +they wished it "distinctly understood that, although we may not find +purchasers for our property, we will not sacrifice it or give it away, +or suffer it illegally to be wrested from us." To this the commissioners +on October 3 sent a reply, informing the Mormons that their proposition +seemed to be acquiesced in by the citizens of all the counties +interested, who would permit them to depart in peace the next spring +without further violence. They closed as follows:-- + + + * Text in Millennial Star, Vol. VI, p. 190. + + +"After what has been said and written by yourselves, it will be +confidently expected by us and the whole community, that you will remove +from the state with your whole church, in the manner you have agreed in +your statement to us. Should you not do so, we are satisfied, however +much we may deprecate violence and bloodshed, that violent measures +will be resorted to, to compel your removal, which will result in most +disastrous consequences to yourselves and your opponents, and that the +end will be your expulsion from the state. We think that steps should +be taken by you to make it apparent that you are actually preparing to +remove in the spring. + +"By carrying out, in good faith, your proposition to remove, as +submitted to us, we think you should be, and will be, permitted to +depart peaceably next spring for your destination, west of the Rocky +Mountains. For the purpose of maintaining law and order in this county, +the commanding general purposes to leave an armed force in this county +which will be sufficient for that purpose, and which will remain so long +as the governor deems it necessary. And for the purpose of preventing +the use of such force for vexatious or improper objects, we will +recommend the governor of the state to send some competent legal officer +to remain here, and have the power of deciding what process shall be +executed by said military force. + +"We recommend to you to place every possible restraint in your power +over the members of your church, to prevent them from committing acts +of aggression or retaliation on any citizens of the state, as a contrary +course may, and most probably will, bring about a collision which will +subvert all efforts to maintain the peace in this county; and we propose +making a similar request of your opponents in this and the surrounding +counties. + +"With many wishes that you may find that peace and prosperity in +the land of your destination which you desire, we have the honor to +subscribe ourselves, + +"JOHN J. HARDIN, W. B. WARREN. + +"S. A. DOUGLAS, J. A. MCDOUGAL." + +On the following day these commissioners made official announcement +of the result of their negotiations, "to the anti-Mormon citizens of +Hancock and the surrounding counties." They expressed their belief in +the sincerity of the Mormon promises; advised that the non-Mormons be +satisfied with obtaining what was practicable, even if some of their +demands could not be granted, beseeching them to be orderly, and at the +same time warning them not to violate the law, which the troops left in +the county by General Hardin would enforce at all hazards. The report +closed as follows:-- + +"Remember, whatever may be the aggression against you, the sympathy of +the public may be forfeited. It cannot be denied that the burning of +the houses of the Mormons in Hancock County, by which a large number +of women and children have been rendered homeless and houseless, in the +beginning of the winter, was an act criminal in itself, and disgraceful +to its perpetrators. And it should also be known that it has led many +persons to believe that, even if the Mormons are so bad as they are +represented, they are no worse than those who have burnt their houses. +Whether your cause is just or unjust, the acts of these incendiaries +have thus lost for you something of the sympathy and good-will of your +fellow-citizens; and a resort to, or persistence in, such a course +under existing circumstances will make you forfeit all the respect and +sympathy of the community. We trust and believe, for this lovely portion +of our state, a brighter day is dawning; and we beseech all parties not +to seek to hasten its approach by the torch of the incendiary, nor to +disturb its dawn by the clash of arms." + +The Millennial Star of December 1, 1845, thus introduced this +correspondence:-- + +THE END OF AMERICAN LIBERTY + +"The following official correspondence shows that this government +has given thirty thousand American citizens THE CHOICE OF DEATH or +BANISHMENT beyond the Rocky Mountains. Of these two evils they have +chosen the least. WHAT BOASTED LIBERTY! WHAT an honor to American +character!" + + + +CHAPTER XX. -- THE EVACUATION OF NAUVOO--"THE LAST MORMON WAR" + +The winter of 1845-1846 in Hancock County passed without any renewed +outbreak, but the credit for this seems to have been due to the firmness +and good judgment of Major W. B. Warren, whom General Hardin placed in +command of the force which he left in that county to preserve order, +rather than to any improvement in the relations between the two parties, +even after the Mormons had agreed to depart. + +Major Warren's command, which at first consisted of one hundred men, +and was reduced during the winter to fifty and later to ten, came +from Quincy, and had as subordinate officers James D. Morgan and B. M. +Prentiss, whose names became famous as Union generals in the war of the +rebellion. Warren showed no favoritism in enforcing his authority, and +he was called on to exercise it against both sides. The local newspapers +of the day contain accounts of occasional burnings during the winter, +and of murders committed here and there. On November 17, a meeting of +citizens of Warsaw, who styled themselves "a portion of the anti-Mormon +party," was held to protest against such acts as burnings and the murder +of a Mormon, ten miles south of Warsaw, and to demand adherence to +the agreement entered into. On February 5, Major Warren had to issue a +warning to an organization of anti-Mormons who had ordered a number of +Mormon families to leave the county by May 1, if they did not want to be +burned out. + +Governor Ford sent Mr. Brayman to Hancock County as legal counsel for +the military commander. In a report dated December 14, 1845, Mr. Brayman +said of the condition of affairs as he found them:-- + +"Judicial proceedings are but mockeries of the forms of law; juries, +magistrates and officers of every grade concerned in the civil affairs +of the county partake so deeply of the prevailing excitement that no +reliance, as a general thing, can be placed on their action. Crime +enjoys a disgraceful impunity, and each one feels at liberty to commit +any aggression, or to avenge his own wrongs to any extent, without +legal accountability.... Whether the parties will become reconciled or +quieted, so as to live together in peace, is doubted.... Such a series +of outrages and bold violations of law as have marked the history of +Hancock County for several years past is a blot upon our institutions; +ought not to be endured by a civilized people." * + + + * Warsaw Signal, December 24, 1845. + + +Meanwhile, the Mormons went on with their preparations for their +westward march, selling their property as best they could, and making +every effort to trade real estate in and out of the city, and such +personal property as they could not take with them, for cattle, oxen, +mules, horses, sheep, and wagons. Early in February the non-Mormons were +surprised to learn that the Mormons at Nauvoo had begun crossing the +river as a beginning of their departure for the far West. "We scarcely +know what to make of this movement," said the Warsaw Signal, the general +belief being that the Mormons would be slow in carrying out their +agreement to leave "so soon as grass would grow and water run." The date +of the first departure, it has since been learned, was hastened by the +fact that the grand jury in Springfield, Illinois, in December, 1845, +had found certain indictments for counterfeiting, in regard to which the +journal of that city, on December 25, gave the following particulars:-- + +"During the last week twelve bills of indictment for counterfeiting +Mexican dollars and our half dollars and dimes were found by the Grand +Jury, and presented to the United States Circuit Court in this city +against different persons in and about Nauvoo, embracing some of the +'Holy Twelve' and other prominent Mormons, and persons in league with +them. The manner in which the money was put into circulation was stated. +At one mill $1500 was paid out for wheat in one week. Whenever a land +sale was about to take place, wagons were sent off with the coin into +the land district where such sale was to take place, and no difficulty +occurred in exchanging off the counterfeit coin for paper.... So soon +as the indictments were found, a request was made by the marshal of the +Governor of this state for a posse, or the assistance of the military +force stationed in Hancock County, to enable him to arrest the alleged +counterfeiters. Gov. Ford refused to grant the request. An officer has +since been sent to Nauvoo to make the arrests, but we apprehend there +is no probability of his success." + +The report that a whole city was practically for sale had been widely +spread, and many persons--some from the Eastern states--began visiting +it to see what inducements were offered to new settlers, and what +bargains were to be had. Among these was W. E. Matlack, who on April +10 issued, in Nauvoo, the first number of a weekly newspaper called the +Hancock Eagle. Matlack seems to have been a fair-minded man, possessed +of the courage of his convictions, and his paper was a better one in, +a literary sense than the average weekly of the day. In his inaugural +editorial he said that he favored the removal of the Mormons as a peace +measure, but denounced mob rule and threats against the Mormons who had +not departed. The ultra-Antis took offence at this at once, and, so far +as the Eagle was supposed to represent the views of the new-comers,--who +were henceforth called New Citizens,--counted them little better than +the Mormons themselves. Among these, however, was a class whom the +county should have welcomed, the boats, in one week in May, landing four +or five merchants, six physicians, three or four lawyers, two dentists, +and two or three hundred others, including laborers. + +The people of Hancock and the surrounding counties still refused to +believe that the Mormons were sincere in their intention to depart, +and the county meetings of the year before were reassembled to warn +the Mormons that the citizens stood ready to enforce their order. The +vacillating course of Governor Ford did not help the situation. He +issued an order disbanding Major Warren's force on May 1, and on the +following day instructed him to muster it into service again. Warren was +very outspoken in his determination to protect the departing Mormons, +and in a proclamation which he issued he told them to "leave the +fighting to be done by my detachment. If we are overpowered, then +recross the river and defend yourselves and your property." + +The peace was preserved during May, and the Mormon exodus continued, +Young with the first company being already well advanced in his march +across Iowa. Major Warren sent a weekly report on the movement to the +Warsaw Signal. That dated May 14 said that the ferries at Nauvoo and +at Fort Madison were each taking across an average of 35 teams in +twenty-four hours. For the week ending May 22 he reported the departure +of 539 teams and 1617 persons; and for the week ending May 29, the +departure of 269 teams and 800 persons, and he said he had counted the +day before 617 wagons in Nauvoo ready to start. + +But even this activity did not satisfy the ultra element among the +anti-Mormons, and at a meeting in Carthage, on Saturday, June 6, +resolutions drawn by Editor Sharp of the Signal expressed the belief +that many of the Mormons intended to remain in the state, charged that +they continued to commit depredations, and declared that the time +had come for the citizens of the counties affected to arm and equip +themselves for action. The Signal headed its editorial remarks on this +meeting, "War declared in Hancock." + +When the news of the gathering at Carthage reached Nauvoo it created a +panic. The Mormons, lessened in number by the many departures, and with +their goods mostly packed for moving, were in no situation to repel +an attack; and they began hurrying to the ferry until the streets were +blocked with teams. The New Citizens, although the Carthage meeting had +appointed a committee to confer with them, were almost as much alarmed, +and those who could do so sent away their families, while several +merchants packed up their goods for safety. On Friday, June 12, the +committee of New Citizens met some 600 anti-Mormons who had assembled +near Carthage, and strenuously objected to their marching into Nauvoo. +As a sort of compromise, the force consented to rendezvous at Golden +Point, five miles south of Nauvoo, and there they arrived the next +day. This force, according to the Signal's own account, was a mere mob, +three-fourths of whom went there against their own judgment, and only to +try to prevent extreme measures. A committee was at once sent to Nauvoo +to confer with the New Citizens, but it met with a decided snubbing. The +Nauvoo people then sent a committee to the camp, with a proposition that +thirty men of the Antis march into the city, and leave three of their +number there to report on the progress of the Mormon exodus. + +On Sunday morning, before any such agreement was reached, word came from +Nauvoo that Sheriff Backenstos had arrived there and enrolled a posse +of some 500 men, the New Citizens uniting with the Mormons for the +protection of the place. This led to an examination of the war supplies +of the Antis, and the discovery that they had only five rounds +of ammunition to a man, and one day's provision. Thereupon they +ingloriously broke camp and made off to Carthage. + +After this nothing more serious than a war of words occurred until July +11, when an event happened which aroused the feeling of both parties +to the fighting pitch. Three Mormons from Nauvoo had been harvesting +a field of grain about eight miles from the city.* In some way they +angered a man living near by (according to his wife's affidavit, by +shooting around his fields, using his stable for their horses, and +feeding his oats), and he collected some neighbors, who gave the +offenders a whipping, more or less severe, according to the account +accepted. The men went at once to Nauvoo, and exhibited their backs, and +that night a Mormon posse arrested seventeen Antis and conveyed them +to Nauvoo. The Antis in turn seized five Mormons whom they held as +"hostages," and the northern part of Hancock County and a part of +McDonough were in a state of alarm. + + + * The Eagle stated that the farm where the Mormons were at work +had been bought by a New Citizen, who had sent out both Mormons and New +Citizens to cut the grain. + + +Civil chaos ensued. General Hardin and Major Warren had joined the +federal army that was to march against Mexico, and their cool judgment +was greatly missed. One Carlin, appointed as a special constable, called +on the citizens of Hancock County to assemble as his posse to assist in +executing warrants in Nauvoo, and the Mormons of that city at once +took steps to resist arrests by him. Governor Ford sent Major Parker of +Fulton County, who was a Whig, to make an inquiry at Nauvoo and defend +that city against rioting, and Mr. Brayman remained there to report to +him on the course of affairs. + +What was called at that time, in Illinois, "the last Mormon war" opened +with a fusillade of correspondence between Carlin and Major Parker. +Parker issued a proclamation, calling on all good citizens to return to +their homes, and Carlin declared that he would obey no authority which +tried to prevent him from doing his duty, telling the major that it +would "take something more than words" to disperse his posse. While +Parker was issuing a series of proclamations, the so-called posse was, +on August 25, placed under the command of Colonel J. B. Chittenden of +Adams County, who was superseded three days later by Colonel Singleton. +Colonel Singleton was successful in arranging with Major Parker terms of +peace, which provided among other things that all the Mormons should be +out of the state in sixty days, except heads of families who remained +to close their business; but the colonel's officers rejected this +agreement, and the colonel thereupon left the camp. Carlin at once +appointed Colonel Brockman to the chief command. He was a Campbellite +preacher who, according to Ford, had been a public defaulter and +had been "silenced" by his church. After rejecting another offer of +compromise made by the Mormons, Brockman, on September 11, with about +seven hundred men who called themselves a posse, advanced against +Nauvoo, with some small field pieces. Governor Ford had authorized +Major Flood, commanding the militia of Adams County, to raise a force to +preserve order in Hancock; but the major, knowing that such action would +only incense the force of the Antis, disregarded the governor's request. +At this juncture Major Parker was relieved of the command at Nauvoo and +succeeded by Major B. Clifford, Jr., of the 33rd regiment of Illinois +Volunteers. + +On the morning of September 12, Brockman sent into Nauvoo a demand for +its surrender, with the pledge that there would be no destruction of +property or life "unless absolutely necessary in self-defence." Major +Clifford rejected this proposition, advised Brockman to disperse his +force, and named Mayor Wood of Quincy and J. P. Eddy, a St. Louis +merchant then in Nauvoo, as recipients of any further propositions from +the Antis. + +The forces at this time were drawn up against one another, the Mormons +behind a breastwork which they had erected during the night, and the +Antis on a piece of high ground nearer the city than their camp. Brayman +says that an estimate which placed the Mormon force at five hundred or +six hundred was a great exaggeration, and that the only artillery they +had was six pieces which they fashioned for themselves, by breaking some +steamboat shafts to the proper length and boring them out so that they +would receive a six-pound shot. + +When Clifford's reply was received, the commander of the Antis sent out +the Warsaw riflemen as flankers on the right and left; directed the Lima +Guards, with one cannon, to take a position a mile to the front of the +camp and occupy the attention of the men behind the Mormon breastwork, +who had opened fire; and then marched the main body through a cornfield +and orchard to the city itself. Both sides kept up an artillery fire +while the advance was taking place. + +When the Antis reached the settled part of the city, the firing became +general, but was of an independent character. The Mormons in most cases +fired from their houses, while the Antis found such shelter as they +could in a cornfield and along a worm fence. After about an hour of such +fighting, Brockman, discovering that all of the sixty-one cannon balls +with which he had provided himself had been shot away, decided that +it was perilous "to risk a further advance without these necessary +instruments." Accordingly, he ordered a retreat and his whole force +returned to its camp. In this engagement no Antis were killed, and +the surgeon's list named only eight wounded, one of whom died. Three +citizens of Nauvoo were killed. The Mormons had the better protection +in their houses, but the other side made rather effective use of their +artillery. + +The Antis began at once intrenching their camp, and sent to Quincy for +ammunition. There were some exchanges of shots on Sunday and Monday, and +three Antis were wounded on the latter day. + +Quincy responded promptly to the request for ammunition, but the people +of that town were by no means unanimously in favor of the "war." On +Sunday evening a meeting of the peaceably inclined appointed a committee +of one hundred to visit the scene of hostilities and secure peace +"on the basis of a removal of the Mormons." The negotiations of this +committee began on the following Tuesday, and were continued, at times +with apparent hopelessness of success, until Wednesday evening, when +terms of peace were finally signed. It required the utmost effort of the +Quincy committee to induce the anti-Mormon force to delay an assault on +the city, which would have meant conflagration and massacre. The terms +of peace were as follows: + +"1. The city of Nauvoo will surrender. The force of Col. Brockman to +enter and take possession of the city tomorrow, the 17th of September, +at 3 o'clock P.m. + +"2. The arms to be delivered to the Quincy Committee, to be returned on +the crossing of the river. + +"3. The Quincy Committee pledge themselves to use their influence +for the protection of persons and property from all violence; and +the officers of the camp and the men pledge themselves to protect all +persons and property from violence. + +"4. The sick and helpless to be protected and treated with humanity. + +"5. The Mormon population of the city to leave the State, or disperse, +as soon as they can cross the river. + +"6. Five men, including the trustees of the church, and five clerks, +with their families (William Pickett not one of the number), to be +permitted to remain in the city for the disposition of property, free +from all molestation and personal violence. + +"7. Hostilities to cease immediately, and ten men of the Quincy +Committee to enter the city in the execution of their duty as soon as +they think proper." + +The noticeable features of these terms are the omission of any reference +to the execution of Carlin's writs, and the engagement that the Mormons +should depart immediately. The latter was the real object of the +"posse's" campaign. + +The Mormons had realized that they could not continue their defence, as +no reenforcements could reach them, while any temporary check to their +adversaries would only increase the animosity of the latter. They acted, +therefore, in good faith as regards their agreement to depart. How they +went is thus described in Brayman's second report to Governor Ford: * + + + * For Brayman's reports, see Warsaw Signal, October 20, 1846. + + +"These terms were not definitely signed until the morning of Thursday, +the 17th, but, confident of their ratification, the Mormon population +had been busy through the night in removing. So firmly had they been +taught to believe that their lives, their city, and Temple, would fall +a sacrifice to the vengeance of their enemies, if surrendered to them, +that they fled in consternation, determined to be beyond their reach at +all hazards. This scene of confusion, fright and distress was +continued throughout the forenoon. In every part of the city scenes of +destitution, misery and woe met the eye. Families were hurrying +away from their homes, without a shelter,--without means of +conveyance,--without tents, money, or a day's provision, with as much of +their household stuff as they could carry in their hands. Sick men and +women were carried upon their beds--weary mothers, with helpless babes +dying in the arms, hurried away--all fleeing, they scarcely knew or +cared whither, so it was from their enemies, whom they feared more than +the waves of the Mississippi, or the heat, and hunger and lingering life +and dreaded death of the prairies on which they were about to be cast. +The ferry boats were crowded, and the river bank was lined with anxious +fugitives, sadly awaiting their turn to pass over and take up their +solitary march to the wilderness." + +On the afternoon of the 17th, Brockman's force, with which the members +of the Quincy committee had been assigned a place, marched into Nauvoo +and through it, encamping near the river on the southern boundary. +Curiosity to see the Mormon city had swelled the number who entered at +the same time with the posse to nearly two thousand men, but there was +no disorder. The streets were practically deserted, and the few Mormons +who remained were busy with their preparations to cross the river. +Brockman, to make his victory certain, ordered that all citizens of +Nauvoo who had sided with the Mormons should leave the state, thus +including many of the New Citizens. The order was enforced on September +18, "with many circumstances of the utmost cruelty and injustice," +according to Brayman's report. "Bands of armed men," he said, "traversed +the city, entering the houses of citizens, robbing them of arms, +throwing their household goods out of doors, insulting them, and +threatening their lives." + + + +CHAPTER XXI. -- NAUVOO AFTER THE EXODUS + +Brockman's force was disbanded after its object had been accomplished, +and all returned to their homes but about one hundred, who remained +in Nauvoo to see that no Mormons came back. These men, whose number +gradually decreased, provided what protection and government the place +then enjoyed. Governor Ford received much censure from the state at +large for the lawless doings of the recent months. A citizens' meeting +at Springfield demanded that he call out a force sufficient "to restore +the supremacy of the law, and bring the offenders to justice." He did +call on Hancock County for volunteers to restore order, but a public +meeting in Carthage practically defied him. He, however, secured a force +of about two hundred men, with which he marched into Nauvoo, greatly to +the indignation of the Hancock County people. His stay there was marked +by incidents which showed how his erratic course in recent years had +deprived him of public respect, and which explain some of the bitterness +toward the county which characterizes his "History." One of these was +the presentation to him of a petticoat as typical of his rule. When Ford +was succeeded as governor by French, the latter withdrew the militia +from the county, and, in an address to the citizens, said, "I +confidently rely upon your assistance and influence to aid in preventing +any act of a violent character in future." Matters in the county then +quieted down. The Warsaw newspapers, in place of anti-Mormon literature, +began to print appeals to new settlers, setting forth the advantages of +the neighborhood. But a newspaper war soon followed between two factions +in Nauvoo, one of which contended that the place was an assemblage of +gamblers and saloon-keepers, while the other defended its reputation. +This latter view, however, was not established, and most of the houses +remained tenantless. + +Amid all their troubles in Nauvoo the Mormon authorities never lost +sight of one object, the completion of the Temple. To the non-Mormons, +and even to many in the church, it seemed inexplicable why so much zeal +and money should be expended in finishing a structure that was to be +at once abandoned. Before the agreement to leave the state was made, a +Warsaw newspaper predicted that the completion of the Temple would +end the reign of the Mormon leaders, since their followers were held +together by the expectation of some supernatural manifestation of power +in their behalf at that time* Another outside newspaper suggested that +they intended to use it as a fort. + + + * A man from the neighborhood who visited Nauvoo in 1843 to buy +calves called on a blind man, of whom he says: "He told me he had a nice +home in Massachusetts, which gave them a good support. But one of the +Mormon elders preaching in that country called on him and told him if he +would sell out and go to Nauvoo the Prophet would restore his sight. He +sold out and had come to the city and spent all his means, and was now +in great need. I asked why the Prophet did not open his eyes. He replied +that Joseph had informed him that he could not open his eyes till the +Temple was finished."--Gregg, "History of Hancock County," p. 375. + + +Orson Pratt, in a letter to the Saints in the Eastern states, written +at the time of the agreement to depart, answering the query why the Lord +commanded them to build a house out of which he would then suffer +them to be driven at once, quoted a paragraph from the "revelation" of +January 19, 1841, which commanded the building of the Temple "that +you may prove yourselves unto me, that ye are faithful in all things +whatsoever I command you, that I may bless you and cover you with honor, +immortality, and eternal life." + +The cap-stone of the Temple was laid in place early on the morning of +May 24, 1845, amid shouts of "Hosannah to God and the Lamb," music by +the band, and the singing of a hymn. + +The first meeting was held in the Temple on October 5, 1845, and from +that time the edifice was used almost constantly in administering the +ordinances (baptism, endowment, etc.). Brigham Young says that on one +occasion he continued this work from 5 P.M. to 3.30 A.M., and others of +the Quorum assisted. + +The ceremony of the "endowment," although considered very secret, +has been described by many persons who have gone through it. The +descriptions by Elder Hyde and I. McGee Van Dusen and his wife go into +details. A man and wife received notice to appear at the Temple at +Nauvoo at 5 A.m., he to wear white drawers, and she to bring her +nightclothes with her. Passing to the upper floor, they were told to +remove their hats and outer wraps, and were then led into a narrow hall, +at the end of which stood a man who directed the husband to pass through +a door on the right, and the wife to one on the left. The candidates +were then questioned as to their preparation for the initiation, and +if this resulted satisfactorily, they were directed to remove all their +outer clothing. This ended the "first degree." In the next room their +remaining clothing was removed and they received a bath, with some +mummeries which may best be omitted. Next they were anointed all over +with oil poured from a horn, and pronounced "the Lord's anointed," and +a priest ordained them to be "king (or queen) in time and eternity." The +man was now furnished with a white cotton undergarment of an original +design, over which he put his shirt, and the woman was given a somewhat +similar article, together with a chemise, nightgown, and white +stockings. Each was then conducted into another apartment and left there +alone in silence for some time. Then a rumbling noise was heard, and +Brigham Young appeared, reciting some words, beginning "Let there +be light," and ending "Now let us make man in our image, after our +likeness." Approaching the man first, he went through a form of making +him out of the dust; then, passing into the other room, he formed the +woman out of a rib he had taken from the man. Giving this Eve to the man +Adam, he led them into a large room decorated to represent Eden, and, +after giving them divers instructions, left them to themselves. + +Much was said in later years about the requirement of the endowment +oath. When General Maxwell tried to prevent the seating of Cannon as +Delegate to Congress in 1873, one of his charges was that Cannon had, in +the Endowment House, taken an oath against the United States government. +This called out affidavits by some of the leading anti-Young Mormons +of the day, including E. L. T. Harrison, that they had gone through the +Endowment House without taking any oath of the kind. But Hyde, in his +description of the ceremony, says:-- + +"We were sworn to cherish constant enmity toward the United States +Government for not avenging the death of Smith, or righting the +persecutions of the Saints; to do all that we could toward destroying, +tearing down or overturning that government; to endeavor to baffle its +designs and frustrate its intentions; to renounce all allegiance and +refuse all submission. If unable to do anything ourselves toward the +accomplishment of these objects, to teach it to our children from the +nursery, impress it upon them from the death bed, entail it upon them as +a legacy." * + + + * Hyde's "Mormonism," p. 97. + + +In the suit of Charlotte Arthur against Brigham Young's estate, to +recover a lot in Salt Lake City which she alleged that Young had +unlawfully taken possession of, her verified complaint (filed July +11, 1874) alleged that the endowment oath contained the following +declaration:--"To obey him, the Lord's anointed, in all his orders, +spiritual and temporal, and the priesthood or either of them, and all +church authorities in like manner; that this obligation is superior to +all the laws of the United States, and all earthly laws; that enmity +should be cherished against the government of the United States; that +the blood of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and Apostles slain in this +generation shall be avenged." + +As soon as the agreement to leave the state was made, the Mormons tried +hard to sell or lease the Temple, but in vain; and when the last Mormon +departed, the structure was left to the mercy of the Hancock County +"posse." Colonel Kane, in his description of his visit to Nauvoo soon +after the evacuation, says that the militia had defiled and defaced such +features as the shrines and the baptismal font, the apartment containing +the latter being rendered "too noisome to abide in." + +Had the building been permitted to stand, it would have been to Nauvoo +something on which the town could have looked as its most remarkable +feature. But early on the morning of November 19, 1848, the structure +was found to be on fire, evidently the work of an incendiary, and what +the flames could eat up was soon destroyed. The Nauvoo Patriot deplored +the destruction of "a work of art at once the most elegant in its +construction, and the most renowned in its celebrity, of any in the +whole West." + +When the Icarians, a band of French Socialists, settled in Nauvoo, they +undertook, in 1850, to rebuild the edifice for use as their halls of +reunion and schools. After they had expended on this work a good deal +of time and labor, the city was visited by a cyclone on May 27 of that +year, which left standing only a part of the west wall. Out of the stone +the Icarians then built a school house, but nothing original now remains +on the site except the old well. + +The Nauvoo of to-day is a town of only 1321 inhabitants. The people are +largely of German origin, and the leading occupation is fruit growing. +The site of the Temple is occupied by two modern buildings. A part of +Nauvoo House is still standing, as are Brigham Young's former residence, +Joseph Smith's "new mansion," and other houses which Mormons occupied. + +The Mormons in Iowa were no more popular with their non-Mormon neighbors +there than were those in Illinois, and after the murders by the Hodges, +and other crimes charged to the brethren, a mass meeting of Lee County +inhabitants was held, which adopted resolutions declaring that the +Mormons and the old settlers could not live together and that the +Mormons must depart, citizens being requested to aid in this movement +by exchanging property with the emigrants. In 1847 the last of these +objectionable citizens left the county. + + + + +BOOK V. -- THE MIGRATION TO UTAH + + + +CHAPTER I. -- PREPARATIONS FOR THE LONG MARCH + +Two things may be accepted as facts with regard to the migration of the +Mormons westward from Illinois: first, that they would not have moved +had they not been compelled to; and second, that they did not know +definitely where they were going when they started. Although Joseph +Smith showed an uncertainty of his position by his instruction that +the Twelve should look for a place in California or Oregon to which his +people might move, he considered this removal so remote a possibility +that he was at the same time beginning his campaign for the presidency +of the United States. As late as the spring of 1845, removal was +considered by the leaders as only an alternative. In April, Brigham +Young, Willard Richards, the two Pratts, and others issued an address +to President Polk, which was sent to the governors of all the states +but Illinois and Missouri, setting forth their previous trials, and +containing this declaration:--"In the name of Israel's God, and by +virtue of multiplied ties of country and kindred, we ask your friendly +interposition in our favor. Will it be too much for us to ask you to +convene a special session of Congress and furnish us an asylum where we +can enjoy our rights of conscience and religion unmolested? Or will you, +in special message to that body when convened, recommend a remonstrance +against such unhallowed acts of oppression and expatriation as this +people have continued to receive from the states of Missouri and +Illinois? Or will you favor us by your personal influence and by your +official rank? Or will you express your views concerning what is called +the Great Western Measure of colonizing the Latter-Day Saints in Oregon, +the Northwestern Territory, or some location remote from the states, +where the hand of oppression will not crush every noble principle +and extinguish every patriotic feeling?" After the publication of the +correspondence between the Hardin commission and the Mormon authorities, +Orson Pratt issued an appeal "to American citizens," in which, referring +to what he called the proposed "banishment" of the Mormons, he said: "Ye +fathers of the Revolution! Ye patriots of '76! Is it for this ye toiled +and suffered and bled? ... Must they be driven from this renowned +republic to seek an asylum among other nations, or wander as hopeless +exiles among the red men of the western wilds? Americans, will ye suffer +this? Editors, will ye not speak? Fellow-citizens, will ye not awake?"* + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. VI, p. 193. + + +Their destination could not have been determined in advance, because +so little was known of the Far West. The territory now embraced in the +boundaries of California and Utah was then under Mexican government, and +"California" was, in common use, a name covering the Pacific coast and +a stretch of land extending indefinitely eastward. Oregon had been heard +of a good deal, and it, as well as Vancouver Island, had been spoken +of as a possible goal if a westward migration became necessary. Lorenzo +Snow, in describing the westward start, said: "On the first of March, +the ground covered with snow, we broke encampment about noon, and soon +nearly four hundred wagons were moving to--WE KNEW NOT WHERE." * + + + * "Biography of Lorenzo Snow," p. 86. + + +The first step taken by the Mormon authorities to explain the removal to +their people was an explanation made at a conference in the new Temple, +three days after the correspondence with the commission closed. P. P. +Pratt stated to the conference that the removal meant that the Lord +designed to lead them to a wider field of action, where no one could say +that they crowded their neighbors. In such a place they could, in five +years, become richer than they then were, and could build a bigger and +a better Temple. "It has cost us," said he, "more for sickness, defence +against mob exactions, persecutions, and to purchase lands in this +place, than as much improvement will cost in another." It was then voted +unanimously that the Saints would move en masse to the West, and that +every man would give all the help he could to assist the poorer members +of the community in making the journey.* + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. VI, p. 196. Wilford Woodruff, in an +appeal to the Saints in Great Britain, asked them to buy Mormon books +in order to assist the Presidency with funds with which to take the poor +Saints with them westward. + + +Brigham Young next issued an address to the church at large, stating +that even the Mormon Bible had foretold what might be the conduct of the +American nation toward "the Israel of the last days," and urging all to +prepare to make the journey. A conference of Mormons in New York City on +November 12, 1845, attended by brethren from New York State, New Jersey, +and Connecticut, voted that "the church in this city move, one and all, +west of the Rocky Mountains between this and next season, either by land +or by water." + +Active preparations for the removal began in and around Nauvoo at once. +All who had property began trading it for articles that would be needed +on the journey. Real estate was traded or sold for what it would bring, +and the Eagle was full of advertisements of property to sell, including +the Mansion House, Masonic Hall, and the Armory. The Mormons would load +in wagons what furniture they could not take West with them, and trade +it in the neighborhood for things more useful. The church authorities +advertised for one thousand yokes of oxen and all the cattle and +mules that might be offered, oxen bringing from $40 to $50 a yoke. The +necessary outfit for a family of five was calculated to be one wagon, +three yokes of cattle, two cows, two beef cattle, three sheep, one +thousand pounds of flour, twenty pounds of sugar, a tent and bedding, +seeds, farming tools, and a rifle--all estimated to cost about $250. +Three or four hundred Mormons were sent to more distant points in +Illinois and Iowa for draft animals, and, when the Western procession +started, they boasted that they owned the best cattle and horses in the +country. + +In the city the men were organized into companies, each of which +included such workmen as wagonmakers, blacksmiths, and carpenters, +and the task of making wagons, tents, etc., was hurried to the utmost. +"Nauvoo was constituted into one great wagon shop," wrote John Taylor. +If any members of the community were not skilled in the work now in +demand, they were sent to St. Louis, Galena, Burlington, or some other +of the larger towns, to find profitable employment during the winter, +and thus add to the moving fund. + +On January 20, 1846, the High Council issued a circular announcing that, +early in March, a company of hardy young men, with some families, would +be sent into the Western country, with farming utensils and seed, to put +in a crop and erect houses for others who would follow as soon as the +grass was high enough for pasture. + +This circular contained also the following declaration:-- + +"We venture to say that our brethren have made no counterfeit money; and +if any miller has received $1500 base coin in a week from us, let him +testify. If any land agent of the general government has received wagon +loads of base coin from us in payment for lands, let him say so. Or if +he has received any at all, let him tell it. These witnesses against us +have spun a long yarn." + +This referred to the charges of counterfeiting, which had resulted in +the indictment of some of the Twelve at Springfield, and which hastened +the first departures across the river. That counterfeiting was common in +the Western country at that time is a matter of history, and the Mormons +themselves had accused such leading members of their church as Cowdery +of being engaged in the business. The persons indicted at Springfield +were never tried, so that the question of their guilt cannot be decided. +Tullidge's pro-Mormon "Life of Brigham Young" mentions an incident which +occurred when the refugees had gone only as far as the Chariton River in +Iowa, which both admits that they had counterfeit money among them, and +shows the mild view which a Bishop of the church took of the offence +of passing it:--"About this time also an attempt was made to pass +counterfeit money. It was the case of a young man who bought from a Mr. +Cochran a yoke of oxen, a cow and a chain for $50. Bishop Miller wrote +to Brigham to excuse the young man, but to help Cochran to restitution. +The President was roused to great anger, the Bishop was severely +rebuked, and the anathemas of the leader from that time were thundered +against thieves and 'bogus men,' and passers of bogus money.... The +following is a minute of his diary of a council on the next Sunday, with +the twelve bishops and captains: 'I told them I was satisfied the course +we were taking would prove to be the salvation, not only of the camp +but of the Saints left behind. But there had been things done which were +wrong. Some pleaded our sufferings from persecution, and the loss of our +homes and property, as a justification for retaliating on our enemies; +but such a course tends to destroy the Kingdom of God'." + +As soon as the leaders decided to make a start, they sent a petition +to the governor of Iowa Territory, explaining their intention to pass +through that domain, and asking for his protection during the temporary +stay they might make there. No opposition to them seems to have been +shown by the Iowans, who on the contrary employed them as laborers, sold +them such goods as they could pay for, and invited their musicians to +give concerts at the resting points. Lee's experience in Iowa confirmed +him, he says, in his previous opinion that much of the Mormons' trouble +was due to "wild, ignorant fanatics"; "for," he adds, "only a few years +before, these same people were our most bitter enemies, and, when +we came again and behaved ourselves, they treated us with the utmost +kindness and hospitality."* + + + * "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 179. + + +How much property the Mormons sacrificed in Illinois cannot be +ascertained with accuracy. An investigation of all the testimony +obtainable on the subject leads to the conclusion that a good deal of +their real estate was disposed of at a fair price, and that there were +many cases of severe individual loss. Major Warren, in a communication +to the Signal from Nauvoo, in May, 1846, said that few of the Mormons' +farms remained unsold, and that three-fourths of the improved property +on the flat in Nauvoo had been disposed of. + +A correspondent of the Signal, answering on April 11 an assertion that +the Mormons had a good deal of real estate to dispose of before they +could leave, replied that most of their farms were sold, and that there +were more inquiries after the others than there were farms. As to the +real estate in the city, he explained:-- + +"It is scattered over an area of eight or ten square miles, and contains +from 1500 to 2000 houses, four-fifths of which, at least, are wretched +cabins of no permanent value whatever. There are, however, 200 or 300 +houses, large and small, built of brick and other desirable material. +Such will mostly sell, though many of them, owing to the distance from +the river and other unfavorable circumstances, only at a very great +sacrifice." * + + + * "A score or more of chimneys on the northern boundary of the +city marked the site of houses deliberately burned for fuel during the +winter of 1845-1846."--Hancock Eagle, May 29,1846. + +A general epistle to the church from the Twelve, dated Winter Quarters, +December 23, 1847, stated that the property of the Saints in Hancock +County was "little or no better than confiscated." * + + + * See John Taylor's address, p. 411 post. + + + +CHAPTER II. -- FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE MISSOURI + +The first party to leave Nauvoo began crossing the Mississippi early +in February, 1846, using flatboats propelled by oars for the wagons and +animals, and small boats for persons and the lighter baggage. It soon +became colder and snow fell, and after the 16th those who remained were +able to cross on the ice. + +Brigham Young, with a few attendants, had crossed on February 10, and +selected a point on Sugar Creek as a gathering place.* He seems to +have returned secretly to the city for a few days to arrange for the +departure of his family, and Lee says that he did not have teams enough +at that time for their conveyance, adding, "such as were in danger of +being arrested were helped away first." John Taylor says that those who +crossed the river in February included the Twelve, the High Council, and +about four hundred families.** + + + * "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 171. + + + ** "February 14 I crossed the river with my family and teams, and +encamped not far from the Sugar Creek encampment, taking possession of +a vacant log house on account of the extreme cold."--P. P. Pratt, +"Autobiography," p. 378. + + +"Camp of Israel" was the name adopted for the camp in which President +Young and the Twelve might be, and this name moved westward with them. +The camp on Sugar Creek was the first of these, and there, on February +17, Young addressed the company from a wagon. He outlined the journey +before them, declaring that order would be preserved, and that all who +wished to live in peace when the actual march began "must toe the mark," +ending with a call for a show of hands by those who wanted to make the +move. The vote in favor of going West was unanimous.* + + + * "At a Council in Nauvoo of the men who were to act as the +captains of the people in that famous exodus, one after the other +brought up difficulties in their path, until the prospect was without +one poor speck of daylight. The good nature of George A. Smith was +provoked at last, when he sprang up and observed, with his quaint humor, +that had now a touch of the grand in it, 'If there is no God in Israel +we are a sucked-in set of fellows. But I am going to take my family and +the Lord will open the way.'"--Tullidge, "History of Salt Lake City," +p.17. + + +The turning out of doors in midwinter of so many persons of all ages +and both sexes, accustomed to the shelter of comfortable homes, entailed +much suffering. A covered wagon or a tent is a poor protection from +wintry blasts, and a camp fire in the open air, even with a bright sky +overhead, is a poor substitute for a stove. Their first move, therefore, +gave the emigrants a taste of the trials they were to endure. While they +were at Sugar Creek the thermometer dropped to 20 degrees below zero, +and heavy falls of snow occurred. Several children were born at this +point, before the actual Western journey began, and the sick and the +feeble entered upon their sufferings at once. Before that camp broke up +it was found necessary, too, to buy grain for the animals. + +The camp was directly in charge of the Twelve until the Chariton +River was reached. There, on March 27, it was divided into companies +containing from 50 to 60 wagons, the companies being put in charge of +captains of fifties and captains of tens--suggesting Smith's "Army of +Zion." The captains of fifties were responsible directly to the High +Council. There were also a commissary general, and, for each fifty, a +contracting commissary "to make righteous distribution of grains and +provisions." Strict order was maintained by day while the column was in +motion, and, whenever there was a halt, special care was taken to +secure the cattle and the horses, while at night watches were constantly +maintained. The story of the march to the Missouri does not contain a +mention of any hostile meeting with Indians. + +The company remained on Sugar Creek for about a month, receiving +constant accessions from across the river, and on the first of March +the real westward movement began. The first objective point was Council +Bluffs, Iowa, on the Missouri River, about 400 miles distant; but on +the way several camps were established, at which some of the emigrants +stopped to plant seeds and make other arrangements for the comfort +of those who were to follow. The first of these camps was located at +Richardson's Point in Lee County, Iowa, 55 miles from Nauvoo; the next +on Chariton River; the next on Locust Creek; the next, named by them +Garden Grove, on a branch of Grand River, some 150 miles from Nauvoo; +and another, which P. P. Pratt named Mt. Pisgah, on Grand River, 138 +miles east of Council Bluffs. The camp on the Missouri first made was +called Winter Quarters, and was situated just north of the present site +of Omaha, where the town now called Florence is located. It was not +until July that the main body arrived at Council Bluffs. + +The story of this march is a remarkable one in many ways. Begun +in winter, with the ground soon covered with snow, the travellers +encountered arctic weather, with the inconveniences of ice, rain, and +mud, until May. After a snowfall they would have to scrape the ground +when they had selected a place for pitching the tents. After a rain, or +one of the occasional thaws, the country (there were no regular roads) +would be practically impassable for teams, and they would have to remain +in camp until the water disappeared, and the soil would bear the weight +of the wagons after it was corduroyed with branches of trees. At one +time bad roads caused a halt of two or three weeks. Fuel was not always +abundant, and after a cold night it was no unusual thing to find wet +garments and bedding frozen stiff in the morning. Here is an extract +from Orson Pratt's diary:--"April 9. The rain poured down in torrents. +With great exertion a part of the camp were enabled to get about six +miles, while others were stuck fast in the deep mud. We encamped at +a point of timber about sunset, after being drenched several hours in +rain. We were obliged to cut brush and limbs of trees, and throw them +upon the ground in our tents, to keep our beds from sinking in the mud. +Our animals were turned loose to look out for themselves; the bark and +limbs of trees were their principal food." ** + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XI, p. 370. + + +Game was plenty,--deer, wild turkeys, and prairie hens,--but while the +members of this party were better supplied with provisions than their +followers, there was no surplus among them, and by April many families +were really destitute of food. Eliza Snow mentions that her brother +Lorenzo--one of the captains of tens--had two wagons, a small tent, a +cow, and a scanty supply of provisions and clothing, and that "he was +much better off than some of our neighbors." Heber C. Kimball, one of +the Twelve, says of the situation of his family, that he had the ague, +and his wife was in bed with it, with two children, one a few days old, +lying by her, and the oldest child well enough to do any household work +was a boy who could scarcely carry a two-quart pail of water. Mrs. F. +D. Richards, whose husband was ordered on a mission to England while the +camp was at Sugar Creek, was prematurely confined in a wagon on the +way to the Missouri. The babe died, as did an older daughter. "Our +situation," she says, "was pitiable; I had not suitable food for myself +or my child; the severe rain prevented our having any fire." + +The adaptability of the American pioneer to his circumstances was shown +during this march in many ways. When a halt occurred, a shoemaker might +be seen looking for a stone to serve as a lap stone in his repair work, +or a gunsmith mending a rifle, or a weaver at a wheel or loom. The women +learned that the jolting wagons would churn their milk, and, when a halt +occurred, it took them but a short time to heat an oven hollowed out of +a hillside, in which to bake the bread already "raised." Colonel Kane +says that he saw a piece of cloth, the wool for which was sheared, dyed, +spun, and woven during this march. + +The leaders of the company understood the people they had in charge, and +they looked out for their good spirits. Captain Pitt's brass band was +included in the equipment, and the camp was not thoroughly organized +before, on a clear evening, a dance--the Mormons have always been great +dancers--was announced, and the visiting Iowans looked on in amazement, +to see these exiles from comfortable homes thus enjoying themselves on +the open prairie, the highest dignitaries leading in Virginia reels and +Copenhagen jigs. + +John Taylor, whose pictures of this march, painted with a view to +attract English emigrants, were always highly colored, estimated that, +when he left Council Bluffs for England, in July, 1846, there were in +camp and on the way 15,000 Mormons, with 3000 wagons, 30,000 head of +cattle, a great many horses and mules, and a vast number of sheep. +Colonel Kane says that, besides the wagons, there was "a large number +of nondescript turnouts, the motley makeshifts of poverty; from the +unsuitable heavy cart that lumbered on mysteriously, with its sick +driver hidden under its counterpane cover, to the crazy two-wheeled +trundle, such as our own poor employ in the conveyance of their slop +barrels, this pulled along, it may be, by a little dry-dugged heifer, +and rigged up only to drag some such light weight as a baby, a sack of +meal or a pack of clothes and bedding." * + + + * "The Mormons," a lecture by Colonel T. L. Kane. + + +There was no large supply of cash to keep this army and its animals +in provisions. Every member who could contribute to the commissary +department by his labor was expected to do so. The settlers in the +territory seem to have been in need of such assistance, and were very +glad to pay for it in grain, hay, or provisions. A letter from one of +the emigrants to a friend in England* said that, in every settlement +they passed through, they found plenty of work, digging wells and +cellars, splitting rails, threshing, ploughing, and clearing land. Some +of the men in the spring were sent south into Missouri, not more than +forty miles from Far West, in search of employment. This they readily +secured, no one raising the least objection to a Mormon who was not to +be a permanent settler. Others were sent into that state to exchange +horses, feather beds, and other personal property for cows and +provisions. + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. VIII, p. 59. + + +A part of the plan of operations provided for sending out pioneers to +select the route and camping sites, to make bridges where they were +necessary, and to open roads. The party carried light boats, but a good +many bridges seem to have been required because of the spring freshets. +It was while resting after a march through prolonged rain and mud, late +in April, that it was decided to establish the permanent camp called +Garden Grove. Hundreds of men were at once set to work, making log +houses and fences, digging wells, and ploughing, and soon hundreds of +acres were enclosed and planted. + +The progress made during April was exasperatingly slow. There was soft +mud during the day, and rough ruts in the early morning. Sometimes camp +would be pitched after making only a mile; sometimes they would think +they had done well if they had made six. The animals, in fact, were so +thin from lack of food that they could not do a day's work even under +favorable circumstances. The route, after the middle of April, was +turned to the north, and they then travelled over a broken prairie +country, where the game had been mostly killed off by the Pottawottomi +Indians, whose trails and abandoned camps were encountered constantly. + +On May 16, as the two Pratts and others were in advance, locating the +route, P. P. Pratt discovered the site of what was called Mt. Pisgah +(the post-office of Mt. Pisgah of to-day) which he thus describes: +"Riding about three or four miles over beautiful prairies, I came +suddenly to some round sloping hills, grassy, and crowned with beautiful +groves of timber, while alternate open groves and forests seemed blended +into all the beauty and harmony of an English park. Beneath and beyond, +on the west, rolled a main branch of Grand River, with its rich bottoms +of alternate forest and prairie."* As soon as Young and the other high +dignitaries arrived, it was decided to form a settlement there, and +several thousand acres were enclosed for cultivation, and many houses +were built. + + + * Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 381. + + +Young and most of the first party continued their westward march through +an uninhabited country, where they had to make their own roads. But +they met with no opposition from Indians, and the head of the procession +reached the banks of the Missouri near Council Bluffs in June, other +companies following in quite rapid succession. + +The company which was the last to leave Nauvoo (on September 17), driven +out by the Hancock County forces, endured sufferings much greater than +did the early companies who were conducted by Brigham Young. The latter +comprised the well-to-do of the city and all the high officers of the +church, while the remnant left behind was made up of the sick and +those who had not succeeded in securing the necessary equipment for the +journey. Brayman, in his second report to Governor Ford, said:-- + +"Those of the Mormons who were wealthy or possessed desirable real +estate in the city had sold and departed last spring. I am inclined +to the opinion that the leaders of the church took with them all the +movable wealth of their people that they could control, without making +proper provision for those who remained. Consequently there was much +destitution among them; much sickness and distress. I traversed the +city, and visited in company with a practising physician the sick, and +almost invariably found them destitute, to a painful extent, of the +comforts of life."* + + + * Warsaw Signal, October 20, 1846. + + +It was on the 18th of September that the last of these unfortunates +crossed the river, making 640 who were then collected on the west bank. +Illness had not been accepted by the "posse" as an excuse for delay. +Thomas Bullock says that his family, consisting of a husband, wife, +blind mother-in-law, four children, and an aunt, "all shaking with the +ague," were given twenty minutes in which to get their goods into two +wagons and start.* The west bank in Iowa, where the people landed, was +marshy and unhealthy, and the suffering at what was called "Poor +Camp," a short distance above Montrose, was intense. Severe storms were +frequent, and the best cover that some of the people could obtain was a +tent made of a blanket or a quilt, or even of brush, or the shelter to +be had under the wagons of those who were fortunate enough to be thus +equipped. Bullock thus describes one night's experience: "On Monday, +September 23, while in my wagon on the slough opposite Nauvoo, a most +tremendous thunderstorm passed over, which drenched everything we +had. Not a dry thing left us--the bed a pool of water, my wife and +mother-in-law lading it out by basinfuls, and I in a burning fever and +insensible, with all my hair shorn off to cure me of my disease. A poor +woman stood among the bushes, wrapping her cloak around her three little +orphan children, to shield them from the storm as well as she could." +The supply of food, too, was limited, their flour being wheat ground +in hand mills, and even this at times failing; then roasted corn was +substituted, the grain being mixed by some with slippery elm bark to eke +it out.** The people of Hancock County contributed something in the way +of clothing and provisions and a little money in aid of these sufferers, +and the trustees of the church who were left in Nauvoo to sell property +gave what help they could. + + + *Millennial Star, Vol. X, p. 28. + + + ** Bancrofts "History of Utah," p. 233, + + +On October 9 wagons sent back by the earlier emigrants for their +unfortunate brethren had arrived, and the start for the Missouri began. +Bullock relates that, just as they were ready to set out, a great flight +of quails settled in the camp, running around the wagons so near that +they could be knocked over with sticks, and the children caught some +alive. One bird lighted upon their tea board, in the midst of the cups, +while they were at breakfast. It was estimated that five hundred of the +birds were flying about the camp that day, but when one hundred had been +killed or caught, the captain forbade the killing of any more, "as it +was a direct manifestation and visitation by the Lord." Young closes his +account of this incident with the words, "Tell this to the nations of +the earth! Tell it to the kings and nobles and great ones." + +Wells, in his manuscript, "Utah Notes" (quoted by H. H. Bancroft), says: +"This phenomenon extended some thirty or forty miles along the river, +and was generally observed. The quail in immense quantities had +attempted to cross the river, but this being beyond their strength, had +dropped into the river boats or on the banks."* + + + * Bancroft's "History of Utah," p. 234, note. + + +The westward march of these refugees was marked by more hardships than +that of the earlier bodies, because they were in bad physical condition +and were in no sense properly equipped. Council Bluffs was not reached +till November 27. + +The division of the emigrants and their progress was thus noted in an +interview, printed in the Nauvoo Eagle of July 10, with a person who +had left Council Bluffs on June 26, coming East. The advance company, +including the Twelve, with a train of 1000 wagons, was then encamped on +the east bank of the Missouri, the men being busy building boats. The +second company, 3000 strong, were at Mt. Pisgah, recruiting their cattle +for a new start. The third company had halted at Garden Grove. Between +Garden Grove and the Mississippi River the Eagle's informant counted +more than 1000 wagons on their way west. He estimated the total number +of teams engaged in this movement at about 3700, and the number of +persons on the road at 12,000. The Eagle added:-- + +"From 2000 to 3000 have disappeared from Nauvoo in various directions, +and about 800 or less still remain in Illinois. This comprises the +entire Mormon population that once flourished in Hancock County. In +their palmy days they probably numbered 15,000 or 16,000." + +The camp that had been formed at Mt. Pisgah suffered severely from the +start. Provisions were scarce, and a number of families were dependent +for food on neighbors who had little enough for themselves. Fodder for +the cattle gave out, too, and in the early spring the only substitute +was buds and twigs of trees. Snow notes as a calamity the death of his +milch cow, which had been driven all the way from Ohio. Along with their +destitution came sickness, and at times during the following winter +it seemed as if there were not enough of the well to supply the needed +nurses. So many deaths occurred during that autumn and winter that +a funeral came to be conducted with little ceremony, and even the +customary burial clothes could not be provided.* Elder W. Huntington, +the presiding officer of the settlement, was among the early victims, +and Lorenzo Snow, the recent head of the Mormon church, succeeded him. +During Snow's stay there three of his four wives gave birth to children. + + + * "Biography of Lorenzo Snow," p. 90. + + +Notwithstanding these depressing circumstances, the camp was by no means +inactive during the winter. Those who were well were kept busy repairing +wagons, and making, in a rude way, such household articles as were +most needed--chairs, tubs, and baskets. Parties were sent out to the +settlements within reach to work, accepting food and clothing as +pay, and two elders were selected to visit the states in search of +contributions. These efforts were so successful that about $600 was +raised, and the camp sent to Brigham Young at Council Bluffs a load of +provisions as a New Year's gift. + +The usual religious meetings were kept up during the winter, and the +utility of amusements in such a settlement was not forgotten. Ingenuity +was taxed to give variety to the social entertainments. Snow describes +a "party" that he gave in his family mansion--"a one-story edifice about +fifteen by thirty feet, constructed of logs, with a dirt roof, a ground +floor, and a chimney made of sod." Many a man compelled to house four +wives (one of them with three sons by a former husband) in such a +mansion would have felt excused from entertaining company. But the Snows +did not. For a carpet the floor was strewn with straw. The logs of the +sides of the room were concealed with sheets. Hollowed turnips provided +candelabras, which were stuck around the walls and suspended from the +roof. The company were entertained with songs, recitations, conundrums, +etc., and all voted that they had a very jolly time. + +In the larger camps the travellers were accustomed to make what they +called "boweries"--large arbors covered with a framework of poles, +and thatched with brush or branches. The making of such "boweries" was +continued by the Saints in Utah. + + + +CHAPTER III. -- THE MORMON BATTALION + +During the halt of a part of the main body of the Mormons at Mt. Pisgah, +an incident occurred which has been made the subject of a good deal of +literature, and has been held up by the Mormons as a proof both of +the severity of the American government toward them and of their own +patriotism. There is so little ground for either of these claims that +the story of the Battalion should be correctly told. + +When hostilities against Mexico began, early in 1846, the plan of +campaign designed by the United States authorities comprised an invasion +of Mexico at two points, by Generals Taylor and Wool, and a descent on +Santa Fe, and thence a march into California. This march was to be made +by General Stephen F. Kearney, who was to command the volunteers +raised in Missouri, and the few hundred regular troops then at Fort +Leavenworth. In gathering his force General (then Colonel) Kearney sent +Captain J. Allen of the First Dragoons to the Mormons at Mt. Pisgah, not +with an order of any kind, but with a written proposition, dated June +26, 1846, that he "would accept the service, for twelve months, of four +or five companies of Mormon men" (each numbering from 73 to 109), +to unite with the Army of the West at Santa Fe, and march thence to +California, where they would be discharged. These volunteers were to +have the regular volunteers' pay and allowances, and permission to +retain at their discharge the arms and equipments with which they would +be provided, the age limit to be between eighteen and forty-five years. +The most practical inducement held out to the Mormons to enlist was +thus explained: "Thus is offered to the Mormon people now--this year--an +opportunity of sending a portion of their young and intelligent men +to the ultimate destination of their whole people, and entirely at the +expense of the United States; and this advance party can thus pave the +way and look out the land for their brethren to come after them." + +There was nothing like a "demand" on the Mormons in this invitation, and +the advantage of accepting it was largely on the Mormon side. If it had +not been, it would have been rejected. That the government was in no +stress for volunteers is shown by the fact that General Kearney reported +to the War Department in the following August that he had more troops +than he needed, and that he proposed to use some of them to reenforce +General Wool.* + + + * Chase's "History of the Polk Administration," p. 16. + + +The initial suggestion about the raising of these Mormon volunteers came +from a Mormon source.* In the spring of 1846 Jesse C. Little, a +Mormon elder of the Eastern states, visited Washington with letters of +introduction from Governor Steele of New Hampshire and Colonel Thomas L. +Kane of Philadelphia, hoping to secure from the government a contract to +carry provisions or naval stores to the Pacific coast, and thus pay part +of the expense of conveying Mormons to California by water. According +to Little, this matter was laid before the cabinet, who proposed that +he should visit the Mormon camp and raise 1000 picked men to make a dash +for California overland, while as many more would be sent around Cape +Horn from the Eastern states. This big scheme, according to Mormon +accounts, was upset by one of the hated Missourians, Senator Thomas H. +Benton, whose Macchiavellian mind had designed the plan of taking from +the Mormons 500 of their best men for the Battalion, thus crippling them +while in the Indian country. All this part of their account is utterly +unworthy of belief. If 500 volunteers for the army "crippled" the +immigrants where they were, what would have been their condition if 1000 +of their number had been hurried on to California? ** + + + * Tullidge's "Life of Brigham Young," p. 47. + + + ** Delegate Berahisel, in a letter to President Fillmore +(December 1, 1851), replying to a charge by Judge Brocchus that the +24th of July orators had complained of the conduct of the government in +taking the Battalion from them for service against Mexico, said, +"The government did not take from us a battalion of men," the Mormons +furnishing them in response to a call for volunteers. + + +Aside from the opportunity afforded by General Kearney's invitation +to send a pioneer band, without expense to themselves, to the Pacific +coast, the offer gave the Mormons great, and greatly needed, pecuniary +assistance. P. P. Pratt, on his way East to visit England with Taylor +and Hyde, found the Battalion at Fort Leavenworth, and was sent back +to the camp* with between $5000 and $6000, a part of the Battalion's +government allowance. This was a godsend where cash was so scarce, as +it enabled the commissary officers to make purchases in St. Louis, where +prices were much lower than in western Iowa.** John Taylor, in a letter +to the Saints in Great Britain on arriving there, quoted the acceptance +of this Battalion as evidence that "the President of the United States +is favorably disposed to us," and said that their employment in the +army, as there was no prospect of any fighting, "amounts to the same as +paying them for going where they were destined to go without."*** + + + * "Unexpected as this visit was, a member of my family had been +warned in a dream, and had predicted my arrival and the day."--Pratt, +"Autobiography," p. 384. + + + ** "History of Brigham Young," Ms., 1846, p. 150. + + + *** Millennial Star, Vol. VIII, p. 117. + + +The march of the federal force that went from Santa Fe (where the Mormon +Battalion arrived in October) to California was a notable one, over +unexplored deserts, where food was scarce and water for long distances +unobtainable. Arriving at the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers +on December 26, they received there an order to march to San Diego, +California, and arrived there on January 29, after a march of over two +thousand miles. + +The war in California was over at that date, but the Battalion did +garrison duty at San Luis Rey, and then at Los Angeles. Various +propositions for their reenlistment were made to them, but their +church officers opposed this, and were obeyed except in some individual +instances. About 150 of those who set out from Santa Fe were sent back +invalided before California was reached, and the number mustered out +was only about 240. These at once started eastward, but, owing to news +received concerning the hardships of the first Mormons who arrived in +Salt Lake Valley, many of them decided to remain in California, and a +number were hired by Sutter, on whose mill-race the first discovery of +gold in that state was made. Those who kept on reached Salt Lake Valley +on October 16, 1847. Thirty-two of their number continued their march to +Winter Quarters on the Missouri, where they arrived on December 18. + +Mormon historians not only present the raising of the Battalion as a +proof of patriotism, but ascribe to the members of that force the credit +of securing California to the United States, and the discovery of gold.* + + + * "The Mormons have always been disposed to overestimate the +value of their services during this period, attaching undue importance +to the current rumors of intending revolt on the part of the +Californians, and of the approach of Mexican troops to reconquer the +province. They also claim the credit of having enabled Kearney to +sustain his authority against the revolutionary pretensions of Fremont. +The merit of this claim will be apparent to the readers of preceding +chapters."--Bancroft, "History of California," Vol. V, p. 487. + + +When Elder Little left Washington for the West with despatches for +General Kearney concerning the Mormon enlistments, he was accompanied by +Colonel Thomas L. Kane, a brother of the famous Arctic explorer. On his +way West Colonel Kane visited Nauvoo while the Hancock County posse were +in possession of it, saw the expelled Mormons in their camp across the +river, followed the trail of those who had reached the Missouri, and lay +ill among them in the unhealthy Missouri bottom in 1847. From that time +Colonel Kane became one of the most useful agents of the Mormon church +in the Eastern states, and, as we shall see, performed for them services +which only a man devoted to the church, but not openly a member of it, +could have accomplished. + +It was stated at the time that Colonel Kane was baptized by Young at +Council Bluffs in 1847. His future course gives every reason to accept +the correctness of this view. He served the Mormons in the East as a +Jesuit would have served his order in earlier days in France or Spain. +He bore false witness in regard to polygamy and to the character of men +high in the church as unblushingly as a Brigham Young or a Kimball could +have done. His lecture before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania +in 1850 was highly colored where it stated facts, and so inaccurate in +other parts that it is of little use to the historian. A Mormon writer +who denied that Kane was a member of the church offered as proof of this +the statement that, had Kane been a Mormon, Young would have commanded +him instead of treating him with so much respect. But Young was not a +fool, and was quite capable of appreciating the value of a secret agent +at the federal capital. + + + +CHAPTER IV. -- THE CAMPS ON THE MISSOURI + +Mormon accounts of the westward movement from Nauvoo represent that +the delay which occurred when they reached the Missouri River was an +interruption of their leaders' plans, attributing it to the weakening +of their force by the enlistment of the Battalion, and the necessity of +waiting for the last Mormons who were driven out of Nauvoo. But after +their experiences in a winter march from the Mississippi, with something +like a base of supplies in reach, it is inconceivable that the Council +would have led their followers farther into the unknown West that same +year, when their stores were so nearly exhausted, and there was no +region before them in which they could make purchases, even if they had +the means to do so. + +When the Mormons arrived on the Missouri they met with a very friendly +welcome. They found the land east of the river occupied by the +Pottawottomi Indians, who had recently been removed from their old home +in what is now Michigan and northern Illinois and Indiana; and the west +side occupied by the Omahas, who had once "considered all created things +as made for their peculiar use and benefit," but whom the smallpox and +the Sioux had many years before reduced to a miserable remnant. + +The Mormons won the heart of the Pottawottomies by giving them a concert +at their agent's residence. A council followed, at which their chief, +Pied Riche, surnamed Le Clerc, made an address, giving the Mormons +permission to cut wood, make improvements, and live where they pleased +on their lands. + +The principal camp on the Missouri, known as Winter Quarters, was on the +west bank, on what is now the site of Florence, Nebraska. A council was +held with the Omaha chiefs in the latter apart of August, and Big Elk, +in reply to an address by Brigham Young, recited their sufferings at the +hands of the Sioux, and told the whites that they could stay there for +two years and have the use of firewood and timber, and that the young +men of the Indians would watch their cattle and warn them of any danger. +In return, the Indians asked for the use of teams to draw in their +harvest, for assistance in housebuilding, ploughing, and blacksmithing, +and that a traffic in goods be established. An agreement to this effect +was put in writing. + +The arrival of party after party of Mormons made an unusually busy scene +on the river banks. On the east side every hill that helped to make up +the Council Bluffs was occupied with tents and wagons, while the bottom +was crowded with cattle and vehicles on the way to the west side. Kane +counted four thousand head of cattle from a single elevation, and says +that the Mormon herd numbered thirty thousand. Along the banks of the +river and creeks the women were doing their family washing, while men +were making boats and superintending in every way the passage of the +river by some, and the preparations for a stay on the east side +by others--building huts, breaking the sod for grain, etc. The +Pottawottomies had cut an approach to the river opposite a trading post +of the American Fur Company, and established a ferry there, and they now +did a big business carrying over, in their flat-bottom boats, families +and their wagons, and the cows and sheep. As for the oxen, they were +forced to swim, and great times the boys had, driving them to the bank, +compelling them to take the initial plunge, and then guiding them across +by taking the lead astride some animal's back. + +Sickness in the camps began almost as soon as they were formed. "Misery +Bottom," as it was then called, received the rich deposit brought down +by the river in the spring, and, when the river retired into its banks, +became a series of mud flats, described as "mere quagmires of black +dirt, stretching along for miles, unvaried except by the limbs of +half-buried carrion, tree trunks, or by occasional yellow pools of +what the children called frog's spawn; all together steaming up vapors +redolent of the savor of death." In the previous year--not an unusually +bad one--one-ninth of the Indian population on these flats had died in +two months. The Mormons suffered not only from the malaria of the river +bottom, but from the breaking up of many acres of the soil in their +farming operations. + +The illness was diagnosed as, the usual malarial fever, accompanied in +many cases with scorbutic symptoms, which they called "black canker," +due to a lack of vegetable food. In and around Winter Quarters there +were more than 600 burials before cold weather set in, and 334 out of a +population of 3483 were reported on the sick list as late as December. +The Papillon Camp, on the Little Butterfly River, was a deadly site. +Kane, who had the fever there, in passing by the place earlier in the +season had opened an Indian mound, leaving a deep trench through it. "My +first airing," he says, "upon my convalescence, took me to the mound, +which, probably to save digging, had been readapted to its original +purpose. In this brief interval they had filled the trench with bodies, +and furrowed the ground with graves around it, like the ploughing of a +field." + +But amid such affliction, in which cows went unmilked and corpses became +loathsome before men could be found to bury them, preparations continued +at all the camps for the winter's stay and next year's supplies. Brigham +Young, writing from Winter Quarters on January 6, 1847, to the elders in +England, said: "We have upward of seven hundred houses in our miniature +city, composed mostly of logs in the body, covered with puncheon, straw, +and dirt, which are warm and wholesome; a few are composed of turf, +willows, straw, etc., which are comfortable this winter, but will not +endure the thaws, rain, and sunshine of spring." * This city was divided +into twenty-two wards, each presided over by a Bishop. The principal +buildings were the Council House, thirty-two by twenty-four feet, and +Dr. Richard's house, called the Octagon, and described as resembling the +heap of earth piled up over potatoes to shield them from frost. In this +Octagon the High Council held most of their meetings. A great necessity +was a flouring mill, and accordingly they sent to St. Louis for the +stones and gearing, and, under Brigham Young's personal direction as +a carpenter, the mill was built and made ready for use in January. The +money sent back by the Battalion was expended in St. Louis for sugar and +other needed articles. + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. IX, p. 97. + + +As usual with the pictures sent to Europe, Young's description of the +comfort of the winter camp was exaggerated. P. P. Pratt, who arrived at +Winter Quarters from his mission to Europe on April 8, 1847, says:-- + +"I found my family all alive, and dwelling in a log cabin. They had, +however, suffered much from cold, hunger, and sickness. They had +oftentimes lived for several days on a little corn meal, ground in a +hand mill, with no other food. One of the family was then lying very +sick with the scurvy--a disease which had been very prevalent in camp +during the winter, and of which many had died. I found, on inquiry, that +the winter had been very severe, the snow deep, and consequently that +all my four horses were lost, and I afterward ascertained that out of +twelve cows, I had but seven left, and, out of some twelve or fourteen +oxen, only four or five were saved." + +If this was the plight in which the spring found the family of one of +the Twelve, imagination can picture the suffering of the hundreds who +had arrived with less provision against the rigors of such a winter +climate. + + + +CHAPTER V. -- THE PIONEER TRIP ACROSS THE PLAINS + +During the winter of 1846-1847 preparations were under way to send +an organization of pioneers across the plains and beyond the Rocky +Mountains, to select a new dwelling-place for the Saints. The only +"revelation" to Brigham Young found in the "Book of Doctrine and +Covenants" is a direction about the organization and mission of +this expedition. It was dated January 14, 1847, and it directed the +organization of the pioneers into companies, with captains of hundreds, +of fifties, and of tens, and a president and two counsellors at their +head, under charge of the Twelve. Each company was to provide its own +equipment, and to take seeds and farming implements. "Let every man," it +commanded, "use all his influence and property to remove this people to +the place where the Lord shall locate a Stake of Zion." The power of the +head of the church was guarded by a threat that "if any man shall seek +to build up himself he shall have no power," and the "revelation" ended, +like a rustic's letter, with the words, "So no more at present," "amen +and amen" being added. + +In accordance with this command, on April 14* a pioneer band of +volunteers set out to blaze a path, so to speak, across the plains and +mountains for the main body which was to follow. + + + * Date given in the General Epistle of December 23, 1847. Others +say April 7. + + +It is difficult to-day, when this "Far West" is in possession of the +agriculturist, the merchant, and the miner, dotted with cities and +flourishing towns, and cut in all directions by railroads, which have +made pleasure routes for tourists of the trail over which the pioneers +of half a century ago toiled with difficulty and danger, to realize +how vague were the ideas of even the best informed in the thirties +and forties about the physical characteristics of that country and +its future possibilities. The conception of the latter may be best +illustrated by quoting Washington Irving's idea, as expressed in his +"Astoria," written in 1836:-- + +"Such is the nature of this immense wilderness of the far West; which +apparently defies cultivation and the habitation of civilized life. +Some portion of it, along the rivers, may partially be subdued by +agriculture, others may form vast pastoral tracts like those of the +East; but it is to be feared that a great part of it will form a lawless +interval between the abodes of civilized man, like the wastes of the +ocean or the deserts of Arabia, and, like them, be subject to the +depredations of the marauders. There may spring up new and mongrel +races, like new formations in zoology, the amalgamation of the 'debris' +and 'abrasions' of former races, civilized and savage; the remains of +broken and extinguished tribes; the descendants of wandering hunters +and trappers; of fugitives from the Spanish-American frontiers; of +adventurers and desperadoes of every class and country, yearly ejected +from the bosom of society into the wilderness.... Some may gradually +become pastoral hordes, like those rude and migratory people, half +shepherd, half warrior, who, with their flocks and herds, roam the +plains of upper Asia; but others, it is to be apprehended, will become +predatory bands, mounted on the fleet steeds of the prairies, with the +open plains for their marauding grounds, and the mountains for their +retreats and lurking places. There they may resemble those great hordes +of the North, 'Gog and Magog with their bands,' that haunted the gloomy +imaginations of the prophets--'A great company and a mighty host, all +riding upon horses, and warring upon those nations which were at rest, +and dwelt peaceably, and had gotten cattle and goods."' + +"What about the country between the Missouri River and the Pacific," +asked a father living near the Missouri, of his son on his return from +California across the plains in 1851--"Oh, it's of no account," was the +reply; "the soil is poor, sandy, and too dry to produce anything but +this little short grass afterward learned to be so rich in nutriment, +and, when it does rain, in three hours afterward you could not tell that +it had rained at all."* + + + * Nebraska Historical Society papers. + + +But while this distant West was still so unknown to the settled parts +of the country, these Mormon pioneers were by no means the first to +traverse it, as the records of the journeyings of Lewis and Clark, +Ezekiel Williams, General W. H. Ashley, Wilson Price Hunt, Major S. H. +Long, Captain W. Sublette, Bonneville, Fremont, and others show. + +The pioneer band of the Mormons consisted of 143 men, three women (wives +of Brigham and Lorenzo Young and H. C. Kimball), and two children. They +took with them seventy-three wagons. Their chief officers were Brigham +Young, Lieutenant General; Stephen Markham, Colonel; John Pack, First +Major; Shadrack Roundy, Second Major, two captains of hundreds, and +fourteen captains of companies. The order of march was intelligently +arranged, with a view to the probability of meeting Indians who, if not +dangerous to life, had little regard for personal property. The Indians +of the Platte region were notorious thieves, but had not the reputation +as warriors of their more northern neighbors. The regulations required +that each private should walk constantly beside his wagon, leaving it +only by his officer's command. In order to make as compact a force as +possible, two wagons were to move abreast whenever this could be done. +Every man was to keep his weapons loaded, and special care was insisted +upon that the caps, flints, and locks should be in good condition. They +had with them one small cannon mounted on wheels. + +The bugle for rising sounded at 5 A.M., and two hours were allowed for +breakfast and prayers. At night each man was to retire into his wagon +for prayer at 8.30 o'clock, and for the night's rest at 9. The night +camp was formed by drawing up the wagons in a semicircle, with the river +in the rear, if they camped near its bank, or otherwise with the wagons +in a circle, a forewheel of one touching the hind wheel of the next. In +this way an effective corral for the animals was provided within. + +At the head of Grand Island, on April 30, they had their first sight +of buffaloes. A hunting party was organized at once, and a herd of +sixty-five of the animals was pursued for several miles in full view +of the camp (when game and hunters were not hidden by the dust), and so +successfully that eleven buffaloes were killed. + +The first alarm of Indians occurred on May 4, when scouts reported a +band of about four hundred a few miles ahead. The wagons were at once +formed five abreast, the cannon was fired as a means of alarm, and the +company advanced in close formation. The Indians did not attack them, +but they set fire to the prairie, and this caused a halt. A change of +wind the next morning and an early shower checked the flames, and +the column moved on again at daybreak. During the next few days the +buffaloes were seen in herds of hundreds of thousands on both sides of +the Platte. So numerous were they that the company had to stop at times +and let gangs of the animals pass on either side, and several calves +were captured alive.* With or near the buffaloes were seen antelopes and +wolves. + + + * "The vast herds of buffalo were often in our way, and we were +under the necessity of sending out advance guards to clear the track so +that our teams might pass." Erastus SNOW, "Address to the Pioneers," in +Mo. + + +At Grand Island the question of their further route was carefully +debated. There was a well-known trail to Fort Laramie on the south side +of the river, used by those who set out from Independence, Missouri, for +Oregon. Good pasture was assured on that side, but it was argued that, +if this party made a new trail along the north side of the river, +the Mormons would have what might be considered a route of their own, +separated from other westward emigrants. This view prevailed, and the +course then selected became known in after years as the Mormon Trail +(sometimes called the "Old Mormon Road"); the line of the Union Pacific +Railroad follows it for many miles. + +Their decision caused them a good deal of anxiety about forage for +their animals before they reached Fort Laramie. It had not rained at +the latter point for two years, and the drought, together with the vast +herds of buffaloes and the Indian fires, made it for days impossible +to find any pasture except in small patches. When the fort was reached, +they had fed their animals not only a large part of their grain, but +some of their crackers and other breadstuff, and the beasts were so weak +that they could scarcely drag the wagons. + +During the previous winter the church officers had procured for their +use from England two sextants and other instruments needed for taking +solar observations, two barometers, thermometers, etc., and these were +used by Orson Pratt daily to note their progress.* Two of the party +also constructed a sort of pedometer, and, after leaving Fort Laramie, a +mile-post was set up every ten miles, for the guidance of those who were +to follow. + + + * His diary of the trip will be found in the Millennial Star for +1849-1850, full of interesting details, but evidently edited for English +readers. + + +In the camp made on May 10 the first of the Mormon post-offices on the +plains was established. Into a board six inches wide and eighteen long, +a cut was made with a saw, and in this cut a letter was placed. After +nailing on cleats to retain the letter, and addressing the board to the +officers of the next company, the board was nailed to a fifteen-foot +pole, which was set firmly in the ground near the trail, and left to its +fate. How successful this attempt at communication proved is not stated, +but similar means of communication were in use during the whole period +of Mormon migration. Sometimes a copy of the camp journal was left +conspicuously in the crotch of a tree, for the edification of the next +camp, and scores of the buffaloes' skulls that dotted the plains were +marked with messages and set up along the trail. + +The weakness of the draught animals made progress slow at this time, and +marches of from 4 to 7 miles a day were recorded. The men fared better, +game being abundant. Signs of Indians were seen from time to time, and +precautions were constantly taken to prevent a stampede of the animals; +but no open attack was made. A few Indians visited the camp on May 21, +and gave assurances of their friendliness; and on the 24th they had +a visit from a party of thirty-five Dakotas (or Sioux who tendered a +written letter of recommendation in French from one of the agents of +the American Fur Company. The Mormons had to grant their request for +permission to camp with them over night, which meant also giving them +supper and breakfast--no small demand on their hospitality when the +capacity of the Indian stomach is understood). + +Little occurred during May to vary the monotony of the journey. On the +afternoon of June 1 they arrived nearly opposite Fort Laramie and the +ruins of old Fort Platte, a point 522 miles from Winter Quarters, and +509 from Great Salt Lake. The so-called forts were in fact trading +posts, established by the fur companies, both as points of supply for +their trappers and trading places with the Indians for peltries. On the +evening of their arrival at this point they had a visit from members of +a party of Mormons gathered principally from Mississippi and southern +Illinois, who had passed the winter in Pueblo, and were waiting to join +the emigrants from Winter Quarters. + +The Platte, usually a shallow stream, was at that place 108 yards wide, +and too deep for wading. Brigham Young and some others crossed over +the next morning in a sole-leather skiff which formed a part of their +equipment, and were kindly welcomed by the commandant. There they +learned that it would be impracticable--or at least very difficult--to +continue along the north bank of the Platte, and they accordingly hired +a flatboat to ferry the company and their wagons across. The crossing +began on June 3, and on an average four wagons were ferried over in an +hour. + +Advantage was taken of this delay to set up, a bellows and forge, and +make needed repairs to the wagons. At the Fort the Mormons learned that +their old object of hatred in Missouri, ex-Governor Boggs, had recently +passed by with a company of emigrants bound for the Pacific coast. +Young's company came across other Missourians on the plains; but no +hostilities ensued, the Missourians having no object now to interfere +with the Saints, and the latter contenting themselves by noting in their +diaries the profanity and quarrelsomeness of their old neighbors. + +The journey was resumed at noon on June 4, along the Oregon trail. A +small party of the Mormons was sent on in advance to the spot where the +Oregon trail crossed the Platte, 124 miles west of Fort Laramie. This +crossing was generally made by fording, but the river was too high for +this, and the sole-leather boat, which would carry from 1500 to 1800 +pounds, was accordingly employed. The men with this boat reached the +crossing in advance of the first party of Oregon emigrants whom they had +encountered, and were employed by the latter to ferry their goods across +while the empty wagons were floated. This proved a happy enterprise for +the Mormons. The drain on their stock of grain and provisions had by +this time so reduced their supply that they looked forward with no +little anxiety to the long march. The Oregon party offered liberal pay +in flour, sugar, bacon, and coffee for the use of the boat, and the +terms were gladly accepted, although most of the persons served were +Missourians. When the main body of pioneers started on from that point, +they left ten men with the boat to maintain the ferry until the next +company from Winter Quarters should come up.* + + + * "The Missourians paid them $1.50 for each wagon and load, and +paid it in flour at $2.50; yet flour was worth $10 per hundredweight, +at least at that point. They divided their earnings among the camp +equally."--Tullidge, "Life of Brigham Young," p. 165. + + +The Mormons themselves were delayed at this crossing until June 19, +making a boat on which a wagon could cross without unloading. During +the first few days after leaving the North Platte grass and water +were scarce. On June 21 they reached the Sweet Water, and, fording +it, encamped within sight of Independence Rock, near the upper end of +Devil's Gate. + + + +CHAPTER VI. -- FROM THE ROCKIES TO SALT LAKE VALLEY + +More than one day's march was now made without finding water or grass. +Banks of snow were observed on the near-by elevations, and overcoats +were very comfortable at night. On June 26 they reached the South Pass, +where the waters running to the Atlantic and to the Pacific separate. +They found, however, no well-marked dividing ridge-only, as Pratt +described it, "a quietly undulating plain or prairie, some fifteen or +twenty miles in length and breadth, thickly covered with wild sage." +There were good pasture and plenty of water, and they met there a +small party who were making the journey from Oregon to the states on +horseback. + +All this time the leaders of the expedition had no definite view of +their final stopping-place. Whenever Young was asked by any of his +party, as they trudged along, what locality they were aiming for, his +only reply was that he would recognize the site of their new home when +he saw it, and that they would surely go on as the Lord would direct +them.* + + + * Erastus Snow's "Address to the Pioneers," 1880. + + +While they were camping near South Pass, an incident occurred which +narrowly escaped changing the plans of the Lord, if he had already +selected Salt Lake Valley. One of the men whom the company met there +was a voyager whose judgment about a desirable site for a settlement +naturally seemed worthy of consideration. This was T. L. Smith, better +known as "Pegleg" Smith. He had been a companion of Jedediah S. Smith, +one of Ashley's company of trappers, who had started from Great Salt +Lake in August, 1826, and made his way to San Gabriel Mission in +California, and thence eastward, reaching the Lake again in the spring +of 1827. "Pegleg" had a trading post on Bear River above Soda Springs +(in the present Idaho). He gave the Mormons a great deal of information +about all the valley which lay before them, and to the north and south. +"He earnestly advised us," says Erastus Snow, "to direct our course +northwestward from Bridger, and make our way into Cache Valley; and he +so far made an impression upon the camp that we were induced to enter +into an engagement with him to meet us at a certain time and place two +weeks afterward, to pilot our company into that country. But for some +reason, which to this day never to my knowledge has been explained, he +failed to meet us; and I have ever recognized his failure to do so as a +providence of an all-wise God."* + + + * "Address to the Pioneers," 1880. + + +"Pegleg's" reputation was as bad as that of any of those reckless +trappers of his day, and perhaps, if the Mormons had known more about +him, they would have given less heed to his advice, and counted less on +his keeping his engagement. + +With the returning Oregonians they also made the acquaintance of Major +Harris, an old trapper and hunter in California and Oregon, who +gave them little encouragement about Salt Lake Valley, as a place of +settlement, principally because of the lack of timber. Two days later +they met Colonel James Bridger, an authority on that part of the +country, whose "fort" was widely known. Young told him that he proposed +to take a look at Great Salt Lake Valley with a view to its settlement. +Bridger affirmed that his experiments had more than convinced him that +corn would not grow in those mountains, and, when Young expressed doubts +about this, he offered to give the Mormon President $1000 for the first +ear raised in that valley. Next they met a mountaineer named Goodyear, +who had passed the last winter on the site of what is now Ogden, Utah, +where he had tried without success to raise a little grain and a few +vegetables. He told of severe cold in winter and drought in summer. +Irrigation had not suggested itself to a man who had a large part of a +continent in which to look for a more congenial farm site. + +Mormons in all later years have said that they were guided to the Salt +Lake Valley in fulfilment of the prediction of Joseph Smith that they +would have to flee to the Rocky Mountains. But in their progress across +the plains the leaders of the pioneers were not indifferent to any +advice that came in their way, and in a manuscript "History of Brigham +Young" (1847), quoted by H. H. Bancroft, is the following entry, which +may indicate the first suggestion that turned their attention from +"California" to Utah: "On the 15th of June met James H. Grieve, William +Tucker, James Woodrie, James Bouvoir, and six other Frenchmen, from whom +we learned that Mr. Bridger was located about three hundred miles west, +that the mountaineers could ride to Salt Lake from Fort Bridger in two +days, and that the Utah country was beautiful." * + + + * Bancroft's "History of Utah," p. 257. + + +The pioneers resumed their march on June 29, over a desolate country, +travelling seventeen miles without finding grass or water, until they +made their night camp on the Big Sandy. There they encountered clouds +of mosquitoes, which made more than one subsequent camping-place very +uncomfortable. A march of eight miles the next morning brought them to +Green River. Finding this stream 180 yards wide, and deep and swift, +they stopped long enough to make two rafts, on which they successfully +ferried over all their wagons without unloading them. + +At this point the pioneers met a brother Mormon who had made the journey +to California round the Horn, and had started east from there to meet +the overland travellers. He had an interesting story to tell, the points +of which, in brief, were as follows:--A conference of Mormons, held in +New York City on November 12, 1845, resolved to move in a body to the +new home of the Saints. This emigration scheme was placed in charge of +Samuel Brannan, a native of Maine, and an elder in the church, who was +then editing the New York Prophet, and preaching there. Why so important +a project was confided to Brannan seems a mystery, in view of P. +P. Pratt's statement that, as early as the previous January, he +had discovered that Brannan was among certain elders who "had been +corrupting the Saints by introducing among them all manner of false +doctrines and immoral practices"; he was afterward disfellowshipped +at Nauvoo. By Pratt's advice he immediately went to that city, and was +restored to full standing in the church, as any bad man always was +when he acknowledged submission to the church authorities.* Plenty of +emigrants offered themselves under Orson Pratt's call, but of the 300 +first applicants for passage only about 60 had money enough to pay their +expenses. + + + * Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 374. + + +Although it was estimated that $75 would cover the outlay for the trip. +Brannan chartered the Brooklyn, a ship of 450 tons, and on February 4, +1846, she sailed with 70 men, 68 women, and 100 children.* + + + * Bancrofts figures, "History of California," Vol. V, Chap. 20. + + +The voyage to San Francisco ended on July 31. Ten deaths and two births +occurred during the trip, and four of the company, including two elders +and one woman, had to be excommunicated "for their wicked and licentious +conduct." Three others were dealt with in the same way as soon as the +company landed.* On landing they found the United States in possession +of the country, which led to Brannan's reported remark, "There is that +d--d flag again." The men of the party, some of whom had not paid all +their passage money, at once sought work, but the company did not hold +together. Before the end of the year some 20 more "went astray," in +church parlance; some decided to remain on the coast when they learned +that the church was to make Salt Lake Valley its headquarters, and some +time later about 140 reached Utah and took up their abode there. + + + * Brannan's letter, Millennial Star, Vol. IX, pp. 306-307. + + +Brannan fell from grace and was pronounced by P. P. Pratt "a corrupt and +wicked man." While he was getting his expedition in shape, he sent to +the church authorities in the West a copy of an agreement which he said +he had made with A. G. Benson, an alleged agent of Postmaster General +Kendall. Benson was represented as saying that, unless the Mormon +leaders signed an agreement, to which President Polk was a "silent +partner," by which they would "transfer to A. G. Benson and Co., and to +their heirs and assigns, the odd number of all the lands and town lots +they may acquire in the country where they settle," the President would +order them to be dispersed. This seems to have been too transparent a +scheme to deceive Young, and the agreement was not signed. + +The march of the pioneers was resumed on July 3. That evening they were +told that those who wished to return eastward to meet their families, +who were perhaps five hundred miles back with the second company, could +do so; but only five of them took advantage of this permission. The +event of Sunday, July 4, was the arrival of thirteen members of the +Battalion, who had pushed on in advance of the main body of those who +were on the way from Pueblo, in order that they might recover some +horses stolen from them, which they were told were at Bridger's Fort. +They said that the main body of 140 were near at hand. This company had +been directed in their course by instructions sent to them by Brigham +Young from a point near Fort Laramie. + +The hardships of the trip had told on the pioneers, and a number of +them were now afflicted with what they called "mountain fever." They +attributed this to the clouds of dust that enveloped the column of +wagons when in motion, and to the decided change of temperature from +day to night. For six weeks, too, most of them had been without bread, +living on the meat provided by the hunters, and saving the little flour +that was left for the sick. + +The route on July 5 kept along the right bank of the Green River for +about three miles, and then led over the bluffs and across a sandy, +waterless plain for sixteen miles, to the left bank of Black's Fork, +where they camped for the night. The two following days took them +across this Fork several times, but, although fording was not always +comfortable, the stream added salmon trout to their menu. On the 7th the +party had a look at Bridger's Fort, of which they had heard often. +Orson Pratt described it at the time as consisting "of two adjoining log +houses, dirt roofs, and a small picket yard of logs set in the ground, +and about eight feet high. The number of men, squaws, and half-breed +children in these houses and lodges may be about fifty or sixty." + +At the camp, half a mile from the fort, that night ice formed. The next +day the blacksmiths were kept busy repairing wagons and shoeing horses +in preparation for a trail through the mountains. On the 9th and 10th +they passed over a hilly country, camping on Beaver River on the night +of the 10th. + +The fever had compelled several halts on account of the condition of the +patients, and on the 12th it was found that Brigham Young was too ill to +travel. In order not to lose time, Orson Pratt, with forty-three men +and twenty-three wagons, was directed to push on into Salt Lake Valley, +leaving a trail that the others could follow. From the information +obtainable at Fort Bridger it was decided that the canyon leading into +the valley would be found impassable on account of high water, and that +they should direct their course over the mountains. + +These explorers set out on July 14, travelling down Red Fork, a small +stream which ran through a narrow valley, whose sides in places were +from eight hundred to twelve hundred feet high,--red sandstone walls, +perpendicular or overhanging. This route was a rough one, requiring +frequent fordings of the stream, and they did well to advance thirteen +miles that day. On the 15th they discovered a mountain trail that had +been recommended to them, but it was a mere trace left by wagons that +had passed over it a year before. They came now to the roughest country +they had found, and it became necessary to send sappers in advance to +open a road before the wagons could pass over it. Almost discouraged, +Pratt turned back on foot the next day, to see if he could not find a +better route; but he was soon convinced that only the one before them +led in the direction they were to take. The wagons were advanced only +four and three-quarters miles that day, even the creek bottom being +so covered with a growth of willows that to cut through these was +a tiresome labor. Pratt and a companion, during the day, climbed a +mountain, which they estimated to be about two thousand feet high, +but they only saw, before and around them, hills piled on hills and +mountains on mountains,--the outlines of the Wahsatch and Uinta ranges. + +On Monday, the 18th, Pratt again acted as advance explorer, and went +ahead with one companion. Following a ravine on horseback for four +miles, they then dismounted and climbed to an elevation from which, in +the distance, they saw a level prairie which they thought could not +be far from Great Salt Lake. The whole party advanced only six and a +quarter miles that day and six the next. + +One day later Erastus Snow came up with them, and Pratt took him along +as a companion in his advance explorations. They discovered a point +where the travellers of the year before had ascended a hill to avoid +a canyon through which a creek dashed rapidly. Following in their +predecessors' footsteps, when they arrived at the top of this hill there +lay stretched out before them "a broad, open valley about twenty miles +wide and thirty long, at the north end of which the waters of the Great +Salt Lake glistened in the sunbeams." Snow's account of their first view +of the valley and lake is as follows:--"The thicket down the narrows, at +the mouth of the canyon, was so dense that we could not penetrate through +it. I crawled for some distance on my hands and knees through this +thicket, until I was compelled to return, admonished to by the rattle of +a snake which lay coiled up under my nose, having almost put my hand +on him; but as he gave me the friendly warning, I thanked him and +retreated. We raised on to a high point south of the narrows, where +we got a view of the Great Salt Lake and this valley, and each of us, +without saying a word to the other, instinctively, as if by inspiration, +raised our hats from our heads, and then, swinging our hats, shouted, +'Hosannah to God and the Lamb!' We could see the canes down in the +valley, on what is now called Mill Creek, which looked like inviting +grain, and thitherward we directed our course."* + + + * "Address to the Pioneers," 1880. + + +Having made an inspection of the valley, the two explorers rejoined +their party about ten o'clock that evening. The next day, with great +labor, a road was cut through the canyon down to the valley, and on +July 22 Pratt's entire company camped on City Creek, below the present +Emigration Street in Salt Lake City. The next morning, after sending +word of their discovery to Brigham Young, the whole party moved some two +miles farther north, and there, after prayer, the work of putting in a +crop was begun. The necessity of irrigation was recognized at once. "We +found the land so dry," says Snow, "that to plough it was impossible, +and in attempting to do so some of the ploughs were broken. We therefore +had to distribute the water over the land before it could be worked." +When the rest of the pioneers who had remained with Young reached the +valley the next day, they found about six acres of potatoes and other +vegetables already planted. + +While Apostles like Snow might have been as transported with delight +over the aspect of the valley as he professed to be, others of the party +could see only a desolate, treeless plain, with sage brush supplying the +vegetation. To the women especially the outlook was most depressing. + + + +CHAPTER VII. -- THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES--LAST DAYS ON THE MISSOURI + +When the pioneers set out from the Missouri, instructions were left for +the organization of similar companies who were to follow their trail, +without waiting to learn their ultimate destination or how they fared on +the way. These companies were in charge of prominent men like Parley P. +Pratt, John Taylor, Bishop Hunter, Daniel Spencer, who succeeded Smith +as mayor of Nauvoo, and J. M. Grant, the first mayor of Salt Lake City +after its incorporation. + +P. P. Pratt set out early in June, as soon as he could get his wagons +and equipment in order, for Elk Horn River, where a sort of rendezvous +was established, and a rough ferry boat put in operation. Hence started +about the Fourth of July the big company which has been called "the +first emigration." It consisted, according to the most trustworthy +statistics, of 1553 persons, equipped with 566 wagons, 2213 oxen, +124 horses, 887 cows, 358 sheep, 35 hogs, and 716 chickens. Pratt had +brought back from England 469 sovereigns, collected as tithing, which +were used in equipping the first parties for Utah. This company had at +its head, as president, Brigham Young's brother John, with P. P. Pratt +as chief adviser. + +Nothing more serious interrupted the movement of these hundreds of +emigrants than dissatisfaction with Pratt, upsets, broken wagons, and +the occasional straying of cattle, and all arrived in the valley in the +latter part of September, Pratt's division on the 25th. + +The company which started on the return trip with Young on August 26 +embraced those Apostles who had gone West with him, some others of the +pioneers, and most of the members of the Battalion who had joined them, +and whose families were still on the banks of the Missouri. The eastward +trip was made interesting by the meetings with the successive companies +who were on their way to the Salt Lake Valley. Early in September some +Indians stole 48 of their hoses, and ten weeks later 200 Sioux charged +their camp, but there was no loss of life. + +On the 19th of October the party were met by a mounted company who had +left Winter Quarters to offer any aid that might be needed, and were +escorted to that camp. They arrived there on October 31, where they were +welcomed by their families, and feasted as well as the supplies would +permit. + +The winter of 1847-1848 was employed by Young and his associates in +completing the church organization, mapping out a scheme of European +immigration, and preparing for the removal of the remaining Mormons to +Salt Lake Valley. + +That winter was much milder than its predecessor, and the health of the +camps was improved, due, in part, to the better physical condition of +their occupants. On the west side of the river, however, troubles +had arisen with the Omahas, who complained to the government that the +Mormons were killing off the game and depleting their lands of timber. +The new-comers were accordingly directed to recross the river, and it +was in this way that the camp near Council Bluffs in 1848 secured its +principal population. In Mormon letters of that date the name Winter +Quarters is sometimes applied to the settlement east of the river +generally known as Kanesville. + +The programme then arranged provided for the removal in the spring of +1848 to Salt Lake Valley of practically all Mormons who remained on +the Missouri, leaving only enough to look after the crops there and to +maintain a forwarding point for emigrants from Europe and the Eastern +states. The legislature of Iowa by request organized a county embracing +the camps on the east side of the river. There seems to have been +an idea in the minds of some of the Mormons that they might effect a +permanent settlement in western Iowa. Orson Pratt, in a general epistle +to the Saints in Europe, encouraging emigration, dated August 15, 1848, +said, "A great, extensive, and rich tract of country has also been, +by the providence of God, put in the possession of the Saints in the +western borders of Iowa," which the Saints would have the first chance +to purchase, at five shillings per acre. A letter from G. A. Smith and +E. T. Benson to O. Pratt, dated December 20 in that year, told of the +formation of a company of 860 members to enclose an additional tract of +11,000 acres, in shares of from 5 to 80 acres, and of the laying out +of two new cities, ten miles north and south. Orson Hyde set up a +printing-press there, and for some time published the Frontier Guardian. +But wiser counsel prevailed, and by 1853 most of the emigrants from +Nauvoo had passed on to Utah,* and Linforth found Kanesville in 1853 +"very dirty and unhealthy," and full of gamblers, lawyers, and dealers +in "bargains," the latter made up principally of the outfits of +discouraged immigrants who had given up the trip at that point. + + + * On September 21, 1851, the First Presidency sent a letter to +the Saints who were still in Iowa, directing them all to come to Salt +Lake Valley, and saying: "What are you waiting for? Have you any good +excuse for not coming? No. You have all of you unitedly a far +better chance than we had when we started as pioneers to find this +place."--Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 29. + + +Young himself took charge of the largest body that was to cross the +plains in 1848. The preparations were well advanced by the first of May, +and on the 24th he set out for Elk Horn (commonly called "The Horn") +where the organization of the column was to be made. The travellers were +divided into two large companies, the first four "hundreds" comprising +1229 persons and 397 wagons; the second section, led by H. C. Kimball, +662 persons and 226 wagons; and the third, under Elders W. Richards and +A. Lyman, about 300 wagons. A census of the first two companies, made +by the clerk of the camp, showed that their equipment embraced the +following items: horses, 131; mules, 44; oxen, 2012; cows and other +cattle, 1317; sheep, 654; pigs, 237; chickens, 904; cats, 54; dogs, +134; goats, 3; geese, 10; ducks, 5; hives of bees, 5; doves, 11; and one +squirrel.* + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. X, p. 319. + + +The expense of fitting out these companies was necessarily large, and +the heads of the church left at Kanesville a debt amounting to $3600, +"without any means being provided for its payment."* + + + * Ibid, Vol. XI, p. 14. + + +President Young's company began its actual westward march on June 5, and +the last detachment got away about the 25th. They reached the site of +Salt Lake City in September. The incidents of the trip were not more +interesting than those of the previous year, and only four deaths +occurred on the way. + + + + +BOOK VI. -- IN UTAH + +CHAPTER I. -- THE FOUNDING OF SALT LAKE CITY + +The first white men to enter what is now Utah were a part of the force +of Coronado, under Captain Garcia Lopez de Cardinas, if the reader of +the evidence decides that their journey from Zuni took them, in 1540, +across the present Utah border line.* A more definite account has been +preserved of a second exploration, which left Santa Fe in 1776, led +by two priests, Dominguez and Escalate, in search of a route to the +California coast. A two months' march brought them to a lake, called +Timpanogos by the natives--now Utah Lake on the map--where they were +told of another lake, many leagues in extent, whose waters were so salt +that they made the body itch when wet with them; but they turned to the +southwest without visiting it. Lahontan's report of the discovery of a +body of bad-tasting water on the western side of the continent in 1689 +is not accepted as more than a part of an imaginary narrative. S. A. +Ruddock asserted that, in 1821, he with a trading party made a journey +from Council Bluffs to Oregon by way of Santa Fe and Great Salt Lake.** + + + * See Bancroft's "History of Utah," Chap. I. + + + ** House Report, No. 213, 1st Session, 19th Congress. + + +Bancroft mentions this claim "for what it is worth," but awards the +honor of the discovery of the lake, as the earliest authenticated, to +James Bridger, the noted frontiersman who, some twelve years later, +built his well-known trading fort on Green River. Bridger, with a party +of trappers who had journeyed west from the Missouri with Henry and +Ashley in 1824, got into a discussion that winter with his fellows, +while they were camped on Bear River, about the course of that stream, +and, to decide a bet, Bridger followed it southward until he came to +Great Salt Lake. In the following spring four of the party explored the +lake in boats made of skins, hoping to find beavers, and they, it is +believed, were the first white men to float upon its waters. Fremont saw +the lake from the summit of a butte on September 6, 1843. "It was," he +says, "one of the great objects of the exploration, and, as we looked +eagerly over the lake in the first emotions of excited pleasure, I am +doubtful if the followers of Balboa felt more enthusiasm when, from +the heights of the Andes, they saw for the first time the great Western +Ocean." This practical claim of discovery was not well founded, nor was +his sail on the lake in an India-rubber boat "the first ever attempted +on this interior sea." + +Dating from 1825, the lake region of Utah became more and more familiar +to American trappers and explorers. In 1833 Captain Bonneville, of the +United States army, obtained leave of absence, and with a company of +110 trappers set out for the Far West by the Platte route. Crossing the +Rockies through the South Pass, he made a fortified camp on Green River, +whence he for three years explored the country. One of his parties, +under Joseph Walker, was sent to trap beavers on Great Salt Lake and +to explore it thoroughly, making notes and maps. Bonneville, in his +description of the lake to Irving, declared that lofty mountains rose +from its bosom, and greatly magnified its extent to the south.* Walker's +party got within sight of the lake, but found themselves in a desert, +and accordingly changed their course and crossed the Sierras into +California. In Bonneville's map the lake is called "Lake Bonneville or +Great Salt Lake," and Irving calls it Lake Bonneville in his "Astoria." + + + * Bonneville's "Adventures," p. 184. + + +The day after the first arrival of Brigham Young in Salt Lake Valley +(Sunday, July 25), church services were held and the sacrament was +administered. Young addressed his followers, indicating at the start his +idea of his leadership and of the ownership of the land, which was then +Mexican territory. "He said that no man should buy any land who came +here," says Woodruff; "that he had none to sell; but every man should +have his land measured out to him for city and farming purposes. He +might till it as he pleased, but he must be industrious and take care of +it." * + + + * "After the assignments were made, persona commenced the usual +speculations of selling according to eligibility of situation. This +called out anathemas from the spiritual powers, and no one was permitted +to traffic for fancy profit; if any sales were made, the first cost +and actual value of improvements were all that was to be allowed. All +speculative sales were made sub rosa. Exchanges are made and the records +kept by the register."--Gunnison, "The Mormons" (1852), p. 145. + + +The next day a party, including all the Twelve who were in the valley, +set out to explore the neighborhood. They visited and bathed in Great +Salt Lake, climbed and named Ensign Peak, and met a party of Utah +Indians, who made signs that they wanted to trade. On their return Young +explained to the people his ideas of an exploration of the country to +the west and north. + +Meanwhile, those left in the valley had been busy staking off fields, +irrigating them, and planting vegetables and grain. Some buildings, +among them a blacksmith shop, were begun. The members of the Battalion, +about four hundred of whom had now arrived, constructed a "bowery." +Camps of Utah Indians were visited, and the white men witnessed their +method of securing for food the abundant black crickets, by driving them +into an enclosure fenced with brush which they set on fire. + +On July 28, after a council of the Quorum had been held, the site of the +Temple was selected by Brigham Young, who waved his hand and said: +"Here is the 40 acres for the Temple. The city can be laid out perfectly +square, east and west."* The 40 acres were a few days later reduced to +10, but the site then chosen is that on which the big Temple now stands. +It was also decided that the city should be laid out in lots measuring +to by 20 rods each, 8 lots to a block, with streets 8 rods wide, and +sidewalks 20 feet wide; each house to be erected in the centre of a lot, +and 20 feet from the front line. Land was also reserved for four parks +of to acres each. + + + * Tullidge's "Life of Brigham Young," p. 178. + + +Men were at once sent into the mountains to secure logs for cabins, +and work on adobe huts was also begun. On August y those of the Twelve +present selected their "inheritances," each taking a block near the +Temple. A week later the Twelve in council selected the blocks on +which the companies under each should settle. The city as then laid out +covered a space nearly four miles long and three broad.* + + + * Tullidge says: "The land portion of each family, as a rule, was +the acre-and-a-quarter lot designated in the plan of the city; but the +chief men of the pioneers, who had a plurality of wives and numerous +children, received larger portions of the city lots. The giving of +farms, as shown is the General Epistle, was upon the same principle as +the apportioning of city lots. The farm of five, ten, or twenty acres +was not for the mechanic, nor the manufacturer, nor even for the farmer, +as a mere personal property, but for the good of the community at large, +to give the substance of the earth to feed the population.... While the +farmer was planting and cultivating his farm, the mechanic and tradesman +produced his supplies and wrought his daily work for the community." +He adds, "It can be easily understood how some departures were made from +this original plan." This understanding can be gained in no better way +than by inspecting the list of real estate left by Brigham Young in his +will as his individual possession. + + +On August 22 a General Conference decided that the city should be called +City of the Great Salt Lake. When the city was incorporated, in 1851, +the name was changed to Salt Lake City. In view of the approaching +return of Young and his fellow officers to the Missouri River, the +company in the valley were placed in charge of the prophet's uncle, John +Smith, as Patriarch, with a high council and other officers of a Stake. + +When P. P. Pratt and the following companies reached the valley in +September, they found a fort partly built, and every one busy, preparing +for the winter. The crops of that year had been a disappointment, having +been planted too late. The potatoes raised varied in size from that of +a pea to half an inch in diameter, but they were saved and used +successfully for seed the next year. A great deal of grain was sown +during the autumn and winter, considerable wheat having been brought +from California by members of the Battalion. Pratt says that the snow +was several inches deep when they did some of their ploughing, but that +the ground was clear early in March. A census taken in March, 1848, gave +the city a population of 1671, with 423 houses erected. + +The Saints in the valley spent a good deal of that winter working on +their cabins, making furniture, and carting fuel. They discovered that +the warning about the lack of timber was well founded, all the logs and +firewood being hauled from a point eight miles distant, over bad roads, +and with teams that had not recovered from the effect of the overland +trip. Many settlers therefore built huts of adobe bricks, some with +cloth roofs. Lack of experience in handling adobe clay for building +purposes led to some sad results, the rains and frosts causing the +bricks to crumble or burst, and more than one of these houses tumbled +down around their owners. Even the best of the houses had very flat +roofs, the newcomers believing that the climate was always dry; and +when the rains and melted snow came, those who had umbrellas frequently +raised them indoors to protect their beds or their fires. + +Two years later, when Captain Stansbury of the United States +Topographical Engineers, with his surveying party, spent the winter +in Salt Lake City, in "a small, unfurnished house of unburnt brick or +adobe, unplastered, and roofed with boards loosely nailed on," which let +in the rains in streams, he says they were better lodged than many of +their neighbors. "Very many families," he explains, "were obliged +still to lodge wholly or in part in their wagons, which, being covered, +served, when taken off from the wheels and set upon the ground, to +make bedrooms, of limited dimensions, it is true, but exceedingly +comfortable. In the very next enclosure to that of our party, a whole +family of children had no other shelter than one of these wagons, where +they slept all winter." + +The furniture of the early houses was of the rudest kind, since only +the most necessary articles could be brought in the wagons. A chest or a +barrel would do for a table, a bunk built against the side logs would be +called a bed, and such rude stools as could be most easily put together +served for chairs. + +The letters sent for publication in England to attract emigrants spoke +of a mild and pleasant winter, not telling of the privations of these +pioneers. The greatest actual suffering was caused by a lack of food as +spring advanced. A party had been sent to California, in November, for +cattle, seeds, etc., but they lost forty of a herd of two hundred on +the way back. The cattle that had been brought across the plains were +in poor condition on their arrival, and could find very little winter +pasturage. Many of the milk cows driven all the way from the Missouri +had died by midsummer. By spring parched grain was substituted for +coffee, a kind of molasses was made from beets, and what little flour +could be obtained was home-ground and unbolted. Even so high an officer +of the church as P. P. Pratt, thus describes the privations of his +family: "In this labor [ploughing, cultivating, and sowing] every +woman and child in my family, so far as they were of sufficient age +and strength, had joined to help me, and had toiled incessantly in the +field, suffering every hardship which human nature could well endure. +Myself and most of them were compelled to go with bare feet for several +months, reserving our Indian moccasins for extra occasions. We toiled +hard, and lived on a few greens, and on thistle and other roots." + +This was the year of the great visitation of crickets, the destruction +of which has given the Mormons material for the story of one of their +miracles. The crickets appeared in May, and they ate the country clear +before them. In a wheat-field they would average two or three to a +head of grain. Even ditches filled with water would not stop them. Kane +described them as "wingless, dumpy, black, swollen-headed, with bulging +eyes in cases like goggles, mounted upon legs of steel wire and clock +spring, and with a general personal appearance that justified the +Mormons in comparing them to a cross of a spider and the buffalo." When +this plague was at its worst, the Mormons saw flocks of gulls descend +and devour the crickets so greedily that they would often disgorge the +food undigested. Day after day did the gulls appear until the plague +was removed. Utah guide-books of to-day refer to this as a divine +interposition of Heaven in behalf of the Saints. But writers of that +date, like P. P. Pratt, ignore the miraculous feature, and the white +gulls dot the fields between Salt Lake City and Ogden in 1901 just +as they did in the summer of 1848, and as Fremont found them there in +September, 1843. Gulls are abundant all over the plains, and are +found with the snipe and geese as far north as North Dakota. Heaven's +interposition, if exercised, was not thorough, for, after the crickets, +came grasshoppers in such numbers that one writer says, "On one occasion +a quarter of one cloudy dropped into the lake and were blown on shore by +the wind, in rows sometimes two feet deep, for a distance of two miles." + +But the crops, with all the drawbacks, did better than had been deemed +possible, and on August 10 the people held a kind of harvest festival in +the "bowery" in the centre of their fort, when "large sheaves of wheat, +rye, barley, oats, and other productions were hoisted on poles for +public exhibition."* Still, the outlook was so alarming that word was +sent to Winter Quarters advising against increasing their population at +that time, and Brigham Young's son urged that a message be sent to +his father giving similar advice.** Nevertheless P. P. Pratt did not +hesitate in a letter addressed to the Saints in England, on September 5, +to say that they had had ears of corn to boil for a month, that he had +secured "a good harvest of wheat and rye without irrigation," and that +there would be from ten thousand to twenty thousand bushels of grain in +the valley more than was needed for home consumption. + + + * Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 406. + + + ** Bancroft's "History of Utah;" p. 281. + + + +CHAPTER II. -- PROGRESS OF THE SETTLEMENT + +With the arrival of the later companies from Winter Quarters the +population of the city was increased by the winter of 1848 to about five +thousand, or more than one-quarter of those who went out from Nauvoo. +The settlers then had three sawmills, one flouring mill, and a threshing +machine run by water, another sawmill and flour mill nearly completed, +and several mills under way for the manufacture of sugar from corn +stalks. + +Brigham Young, again on the ground, took the lead at once in pushing +on the work. To save fencing, material for which was hard to obtain, a +tract of eight thousand acres was set apart and fenced for the common +use, within which farmhouses could be built. The plan adopted for +fencing in the city itself was to enclose each ward separately, every +lot owner building his share. A stone council house, forty-five +feet square, was begun, the labor counting as a part of the tithe; +unappropriated city lots were distributed among the new-comers by a +system of drawing, and the building of houses went briskly on, the +officers of the church sharing in the labor. A number of bridges were +also provided, a tax of one per cent being levied to pay for them. + +Among the incidents of the winter mentioned in an epistle of the First +Presidency was the establishment of schools in the different wards, +in which, it was stated, "the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, German, +Tahitian and English languages have been taught successfully"; and the +organization of a temporary local government, and of a Stake of Zion, +with Daniel Spencer as president. It was early the policy of the church +to carry on an extended system of public works, including manufacturing +enterprises. The assisted immigrants were expected to repay by work +on these buildings the advance made to them to cover their travelling +expenses. Young saw at once the advantage of starting branches of +manufacture, both to make his people independent of a distant supply and +to give employment to the population. Writing to Orson Pratt on October +14, 1849, when Pratt was in England, he said that they would have the +material for cotton and woollen factories ready by the time men and +machinery were prepared to handle it, and urged him to send on cotton +operatives and "all the necessary fixtures." The third General Epistle +spoke of the need of furnaces and forges, and Orson Pratt, in an address +to the Saints in Great Britain, dated July 2, 1850, urged the officers +of companies "to seek diligently in every branch for wise, skilful and +ingenious mechanics, manufacturers, potters, etc."* + + + * The General Epistle of April, 1852, announced two potteries in +operation, a small woollen factory begun, a nail factory, wooden bowl +factory, and many grist and saw mills. The General Epistle of October, +1855, enumerated, as among the established industries, a foundery, a +cutlery shop, and manufactories of locks, cloth, leather, hats, cordage, +brushes, soap, paper, combs, and cutlery. + + +The General Conference of October, 1849, ordered one man to build +a glass factory in the valley, and voted to organize a company to +transport passengers and freight between the Missouri River and +California, directing that settlements be established along the route. +This company was called the Great Salt Lake Valley Carrying Company. Its +prospectus in the Frontier Guardian in December, 1849, stated that the +fare from Kanesville to Sutter's Fort, California, would be $300, and +the freight rate to Great Salt Lake City $12.50 per hundredweight, the +passenger wagons to be drawn by four horses or mules, and the freight +wagons by oxen. + +But the work of making the new Mormon home a business and manufacturing +success did not meet with rapid encouragement. Where settlements +were made outside of Salt Lake City, the people were not scattered in +farmhouses over the country, but lived in what they called "forts," +squalid looking settlements, laid out in a square and defended by a dirt +or adobe wall. The inhabitants of these settlements had to depend on the +soil for their subsistence, and such necessary workmen as carpenters and +shoemakers plied their trade as they could find leisure after working in +the fields. When Johnston's army entered the valley in 1858, the largest +attempt at manufacturing that had been undertaken there--a beet sugar +factory, toward which English capitalists had contributed more +than $100,000--had already proved a failure. There were tanneries, +distilleries, and breweries in operation, a few rifles and revolvers +were made from iron supplied by wagon tires, and in the larger +settlements a few good mechanics were kept busy. But if no outside +influences had contributed to the prosperity of the valley, and hastened +the day when it secured railroad communication, the future of the people +whom Young gathered in Utah would have been very different. + +A correspondent of the New York Tribune, on his way to California, +writing on July 8, 1849, thus described Salt Lake City as it presented +itself to him at that time:--"There are no hotels, because there had +been no travel; no barber shops, because every one chose to shave +himself and no one had time to shave his neighbor; no stores, because +they had no goods to sell nor time to traffic; no center of business, +because all were too busy to make a center. There was abundance of +mechanics' shops, of dressmakers, milliners and tailors, etc., but they +needed no sign, nor had they any time to paint or erect one, for they +were crowded with business. Besides their several trades, all must +cultivate the land or die; for the country was new, and no cultivation +but their own within 1000 miles. Everyone had his lot and built on it; +every one cultivated it, and perhaps a small farm in the distance. And +the strangest of all was that this great city, extending over several +square miles, had been erected, and every house and fence made, within +nine or ten months of our arrival; while at the same time good bridges +were erected over the principal streams, and the country settlements +extended nearly 100 miles up and down the valley."* + + + * New York Tribune, October 9, 1849. + + +The winter of 1848 set in early and severe, with frequent snowstorms +from December 1 until late in February, and the temperature dropping one +degree below zero as late as February 5. The deep snow in the canyons, +the only outlets through the mountains, rendered it difficult to bring +in fuel, and the suffering from the cold was terrible, as many families +had arrived too late to provide themselves with any shelter but their +prairie wagons. The apprehended scarcity of food, too, was realized. +Early in February an inventory of the breadstuffs in the valley, taken +by the Bishops, showed only three-quarters of a pound a day per head +until July 5, although it was believed that many had concealed stores +on hand. When the first General Epistle of the First Presidency was sent +out from Salt Lake City in the spring of 1849,* corn, which had sold for +$2 and $3 a bushel, was not to be had, wheat had ranged from $4 to $5 a +bushel, and potatoes from $6 to $20, with none then in market. + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XI, p. 227. + +The people generally exerted themselves to obtain food for those whose +supplies had been exhausted, but the situation became desperate before +the snow melted. Three attempts to reach Fort Bridger failed because of +the depth of snow in the canyons. There is a record of a winter hunt of +two rival parties of 100 men each, but they killed "varmints" rather +than game, the list including 700 wolves and foxes, 20 minks and skunks, +500 hawks, owls and magpies, and 1000 ravens.* Some of the Mormons, with +the aid of Indian guides, dug roots that the savages had learned to eat, +and some removed the hide roofs from their cabins and stewed them for +food. The lack of breadstuffs continued until well into the summer, and +the celebration of the anniversary of the arrival of the pioneers in the +valley, which had been planned for July 4, was postponed until the 24th, +as Young explained in his address, "that we might have a little bread to +set on our tables." + + + * General Epistle, Millennial Star, Vol. XI, p. 227. + + +Word was now sent to the states and to Europe that no more of the +brethren should make the trip to the valley at that time unless they had +means to get through without assistance, and could bring breadstuffs to +last them several months after their arrival. + +But something now occurred which turned the eyes of a large part of the +world to that new acquisition of the United States on the Pacific coast +which was called California, which made the Mormon settlement in Utah +a way station for thousands of travellers where a dozen would not have +passed it without the new incentive, and which brought to the Mormon +settlers, almost at their own prices, supplies of which they were +desperately in need, and which they could not otherwise have obtained. +This something was the discovery of gold in California. + +When the news of this discovery reached the Atlantic states and those +farther west, men simply calculated by what route they could most +quickly reach the new El Dorado, and the first companies of miners who +travelled across the plains sacrificed everything for speed. The first +rush passed through Salt Lake Valley in August, 1849. Some of the +Mormons who had reached California with Brannan's company had by that +time arrived in the valley, bringing with them a few bags of gold dust. +When the would-be miners from the East saw this proof of the existence +of gold in the country ahead of them, their enthusiasm knew no limits, +and their one wish was to lighten themselves so that they could reach +the gold-fields in the shortest time possible. Then the harvest of the +Mormons began. Pack mules and horses that had been worth only $25 or $30 +would now bring $200 in exchange for other articles at a low price, and +the travellers were auctioning off their surplus supplies every day. For +a light wagon they did not hesitate to offer three or four heavy +ones, with a yoke of oxen sometimes thrown in. Such needed supplies as +domestic sheetings could be had at from five to ten cents a yard, spades +and shovels, with which the miners were overstocked, at fifty cents +each, and nearly everything in their outfit, except sugar and coffee, at +half the price that would have been charged at wholesale in the Eastern +states.* + + + * Salt Lake City letter to the Frontier Guardian. + + +The commercial profit to the Mormons from this emigration was greater +still in 1850, when the rush had increased. Before the grain of that +summer was cut, the gold seekers paid $1 a pound for flour in Salt Lake +City. After the new grain was harvested they eagerly bought the flour +as fast as five mills could grind it, at $25 per hundredweight. Unground +wheat sold for $8 a bushel, wood for $10 a cord, adobe bricks for more +than seven shillings a hundred, and skilled mechanics were getting +twelve shillings and sixpence a day.* At the same time that the +emigrants were paying so well for what they absolutely required, they +were sacrificing large supplies of what they did not need on almost any +terms. Some of them had started across the plains with heavy loads of +machinery and miscellaneous goods, on which they expected to reap a big +profit in California. Learning, however, when they reached Salt Lake +City, that ship-loads of such merchandise were on their way around the +Horn, the owners sacrificed their stock where it was, and hurried on to +get their share of the gold. + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XII, p. 350. + + +This is not the place in which to tell the story of that rush of the +gold seekers. The clerk at Fort Laramie reported, "The total number of +emigrants who passed this post up to June 10, 1850, included 16,915 men, +235 women, 242 children, 4672 wagons, 14,974 horses, 4641 mules, 7475 +oxen, and 1653 cows." A letter from Sacramento dated September 10, 1850, +gave this picture of the trail left by these travellers: "Many believed +there are dead animals enough on the desert (of 45 miles) between +Humboldt Lake and Carson River to pave a road the whole distance. We +will make a moderate estimate and say there is a dead animal to every +five feet, left on the desert this season. I counted 153 wagons within +a mile and a half. Not half of those left were to be seen, many having +been burned to make lights in the night. The desert is strewn with all +kinds of property--tools, clothes, crockery, harnesses, etc." + +Naturally, in this rush for sudden riches, many a Mormon had a desire +to join. A dozen families left Utah for California early in 1849, and +in March, 1851, a company of more than five hundred assembled in Payson, +preparatory to making the trip. Here was an unexpected danger to the +growth of the Mormon population, and one which the head of the church +did not delay in checking. The second General Epistle, dated October 12, +1849,* stated that the valley of the Sacramento was unhealthy, and that +the Saints could do better raising grain in Utah, adding, "The true +use of gold is for paving streets, covering houses, and making culinary +dishes, and when the Saints shall have preached the Gospel, raised +grain, and built up cities enough, the Lord will open up the way for a +supply of gold, to the perfect satisfaction of his people." + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XII, p. 119. + + +Notwithstanding this advice, a good many Mormons acted on the idea that +the Lord would help those who helped themselves, and that if they +were to have golden culinary dishes they must go and dig the gold. +Accordingly, we find the third General Epistle, dated April 12, 1850, +acknowledging that many brethren had gone to the gold mines, but +declaring that they were counselled only "by their own wills and +covetous feelings," and that they would have done more good by staying +in the valley. Young did not, however, stop with a mere rebuke. He +proposed to check the exodus. "Let such men," the Epistle added, +"remember that they are not wanted in our midst. Let such leave their +carcasses where they do their work; we want not our burial grounds +polluted with such hypocrites." Young was quite as plain spoken in his +remarks to the General Conference that spring, naming as those who "will +go down to hell, poverty-stricken and naked," the Mormons who felt that +they were so poor that they would have to go to the gold mines.* +Such talk had its effect, and Salt Lake Valley retained most of its +population. + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XII, p. 274, + + +The progress of the settlement received a serious check some years later +in the failure of the crops in 1855, followed by a near approach to a +famine in the ensuing winter. Very little reference to this was made in +the official church correspondence, but a picture of the situation +in Salt Lake City that winter was drawn in two letters from Heber C. +Kimball to his sons in England.* In the first, written in February, he +said that his family and Brigham Young's were then on a ration of half +a pound of bread each per day, and that thousands had scarcely any +breadstuff at all. Kimball's family of one hundred persons then had on +hand about seventy bushels of potatoes and a few beets and carrots, +"so you can judge," he says, "whether we can get through until harvest +without digging roots." There were then not more than five hundred +bushels of grain in the tithing office, and all public work was stopped +until the next harvest, and all mechanics were advised to drop their +tools and to set about raising grain. "There is not a settlement in the +territory," said the writer, "but is also in the same fix as we are. +Dollars and cents do not count in these times, for they are the tightest +I have ever seen in the territory of Utah." In April he wrote: "I +suppose one-half the church stock is dead. There are not more than +one-half the people that have bread, and they have not more than +one-half or one quarter of a pound a day to a person. A great portion +of the people are digging roots, and hundreds and thousands, their teams +being dead, are under the necessity of spading their ground to put +in their grain." The harvest of 1856 also suffered from drought and +insects, and the Deseret News that summer declared that "the most rigid +economy and untiring, well-directed industry may enable us to escape +starvation until a harvest in 1857, and until the lapse of another year +emigrants and others will run great risks of starving unless they bring +their supplies with them." The first load of barley brought into Salt +Lake City that summer sold for $2 a bushel. + + + * Ibid., Vol. XVIII, pp. 395-476. + + +The first building erected in Salt Lake City in which to hold church +services was called a tabernacle. It was begun in 1851, and was +consecrated on April 6, 1852. It stood in Temple block, where the +Assembly Hall now stands, measuring about 60 by 120 feet, and providing +accommodation for 2500 people. The present Tabernacle, in which the +public church services are held, was completed in 1870. It stands just +west of the Temple, is elliptical in shape, and, with its broad gallery +running around the entire interior, except the end occupied by the organ +loft and pulpit, it can seat about 9000 persons. Its acoustic properties +are remarkable, and one of the duties of any guide who exhibits the +auditorium to visitors is to station them at the end of the gallery +opposite the pulpit, and to drop a pin on the floor to show them how +distinctly that sound can be heard. + +The Temple in Salt Lake City was begun in April, 1853, and was not +dedicated until April, 1893. This building is devoted to the secret +ceremonies of the church, and no Gentile is ever admitted to it. +The building, of granite taken from the near-by mountains, is +architecturally imposing, measuring 200 by 100 feet. Its cost is +admitted to have been about $4,000,000. The building could probably +be duplicated to-day for one-half that sum. The excuse given by church +authorities for the excessive cost is that, during the early years of +the work upon it, the granite had to be hauled from the mountains by ox +teams, and that everything in the way of building material was expensive +in Utah when the church there was young. The interior is divided into +different rooms, in which such ceremonies as the baptism for the dead +are performed; the baptismal font is copied after the one that was in +the Temple at Nauvoo. + +There are three other temples in Utah, all of which were completed +before the one in Salt Lake City, namely, at St. George, at Logan, and +at Manti. + + + +CHAPTER III. -- THE FOREIGN IMMIGRATION TO UTAH + +When the Mormons began their departure westward from Nauvoo, the +immigration of converts from Europe was suspended because of the +uncertainty about the location of the next settlement, and the +difficulty of transporting the existing population. But the necessity of +constant additions to the community of new-comers, and especially those +bringing some capital, was never lost sight of by the heads of the +church. An evidence of this was given even before the first company +reached the Missouri River. + +While the Saints were marching through Iowa they received intelligence +of a big scandal in connection with the emigration business in England, +and P. P. Pratt, Orson Hyde, and John Taylor were hurriedly sent to that +country to straighten the matter out. The Millennial Star in the early +part of 1846 had frequent articles about the British and American +Commercial Joint Stock Company, an organization incorporated to assist +poor Saints in emigrating. The principal emigration agent in Great +Britain at that time was R. Hedlock. He was the originator of the +Joint Stock Company, and Thomas Ward was its president. The Mormon +investigators found that more than 1644 pounds of the contributions of +the stockholders had been squandered, and that Ward had been lending +Hedlock money with which to pay his personal debts. Ward and Hedlock +were at once disfellowshipped, and contributions to the treasury of +the company were stopped. Pratt says that Hedlock fled when the +investigators arrived, leaving many debts, "and finally lived incog. +in London with a vile woman." Thus it seems that Mormon business +enterprises in England were no freer from scandals than those in +America. + +The efforts of the leaders of the church were now exerted to make the +prospects of the Saints in Utah attractive to the converts in England +whom they wished to add to the population of their valley. Young and his +associates seem to have entertained the idea, without reckoning on the +rapid settlement of California, the migration of the "Forty-niners," and +the connection of the two coasts by rail, that they could constitute a +little empire all by itself in Utah, which would be self-supporting as +well as independent, the farmer raising food for the mechanic, and the +mechanic doing the needed work for the farmer. Accordingly, the church +did not stop short of every kind of misrepresentation and deception in +belittling to the foreigners the misfortunes of the past, and picturing +to them the fruitfulness of their new country, and the ease with which +they could become landowners there. + +Naturally, after the expulsion from Illinois, in which so many foreign +converts shared, an explanation and palliation of the emigration thence +were necessary. In the United States, then and ever since, the +Mormons pictured themselves as the victims of an almost unprecedented +persecution. But as soon as John Taylor reached England, in 1846, he +issued an address to the Saints in Great Britain* in which he presented +a very different picture. Granting that, on an average, they had not +obtained more than one-third the value of their real and personal +property when they left Illinois, he explained that, when they settled +there, land in Nauvoo was worth only from $3 to $20 per acre, while, +when they left, it was worth from $50 to $1500 per acre; in the same +period the adjoining farm lands had risen in value from $1.25 and $5 +to from $5 to $50 per acre. He assured his hearers, therefore, that the +one-third value which they had obtained had paid them well for their +labor. Nor was this all. When they left, they had exchanged their +property for horses, cattle, provisions, clothing, etc., which was +exactly what was needed by settlers in a new country. As a further bait +he went on to explain: "When we arrive in California, according to the +provisions of the Mexican government, each family will be entitled to a +large tract of land, amounting to several hundred acres," and, if that +country passed into American control, he looked for the passage of a law +giving 640 acres to each male settler. "Thus," he summed up, "it will +be easy to see that we are in a better condition than when we were in +Nauvoo!" + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. VIII, p. 115. + + +The misrepresentation did not cease here, however. After announcing the +departure of Brigham Young's pioneer company, Taylor* wound up with +this tissue of false statements: "The way is now prepared; the roads, +bridges, and ferry-boats made; there are stopping places also on the way +where they can rest, obtain vegetables and corn, and, when they arrive +at the far end, instead of finding a wild waste, they will meet with +friends, provisions and a home, so that all that will be requisite for +them to do will be to find sufficient teams to draw their families, and +to take along with them a few woollen or cotton goods, or other articles +of merchandise which will be light, and which the brethren will require +until they can manufacture for themselves." How many a poor Englishman, +toiling over the plains in the next succeeding years, and, arriving in +arid Utah to find himself in the clutches of an organization from which +he could not escape, had reason to curse the man who drew this picture! + + + * John Taylor was born in England in 1808, and emigrated to +Canada in 1829, where, after joining the Methodists, he, like Joseph +Smith, found existing churches unsatisfactory, and was easily secured as +a convert by P. P. Pratt. He was elected to the Quorum, and was sent to +Great Britain as a missionary in 1840, writing several pamphlets while +there. He arrived in Nauvoo with Brigham Young in 1841, and there edited +the Times and Seasons, was a member of the City Council, a regent of the +university, and judge advocate of the Legion, and was in the room with +the prophet when the latter was shot. He was the Mormon representative +in France in 1849, publishing a monthly paper there, translating the +Mormon Bible into the French language, and preaching later at Hamburg, +Germany. He was superintendent of the Mormon church in the Eastern +states in 1857, when Young declared war against the United States, and +he succeeded Young as head of the church. + +In 1847, at the suggestion of Taylor, Hyde, and Pratt, who were still in +England, a petition bearing nearly 13,000 names was addressed to Queen +Victoria, setting forth the misery existing among the working classes +in Great Britain, suggesting, as the best means of relief, royal aid to +those who wished to emigrate to "the island of Vancouver or to the +great territory of Oregon," and asking her "to give them employment +in improving the harbors of those countries, or in erecting forts of +defence; or, if this be inexpedient, to furnish them provisions and +means of subsistence until they can produce them from the soil." These +American citizens did not hesitate to point out that the United States +government was favoring the settlement of its territory on the Pacific +coast, and to add: "While the United States do manifest such a strong +inclination, not only to extend and enlarge their possessions in the +West, but also to people them, will not your Majesty look well to +British interests in those regions, and adopt timely precautionary +measures to maintain a balance of power in that quarter which, in the +opinion of your memorialists, is destined at no very distant period to +participate largely in the China trade?" * + + + * See Linforth's "Route," pp. 2-5. + + +The Oregon boundary treaty was less than a year old when this petition +was presented. It was characteristic of Mormon duplicity to find their +representatives in Great Britain appealing to Queen Victoria on the +ground of self-interest, while their chiefs in the United States were +pointing to the organization of the Battalion as a proof of their +fidelity to the home government. Practically no notice was taken of this +petition. Vancouver Island, was, however, held out to the converts in +Great Britain as the one "gathering point of the Saints from the islands +and distant portions of the earth," until the selection of Salt Lake +Valley as the Saints' abiding place. + +On December 23, 1847, Young, in behalf of the Twelve, issued from Winter +Quarters a General Epistle to the church a which gave an account of his +trip to the Salt Lake Valley, directed all to gather themselves speedily +near Winter Quarters in readiness for the march to Salt Lake Valley, and +said to the Saints in Europe:-- + +"Emigrate as speedily as possible to this vicinity. Those who have but +little means, and little or no labor, will soon exhaust that means if +they remain where they are. Therefore, it is wisdom that they remove +without delay; for here is land on which, by their labor, they can +speedily better their condition for their further journey." The list of +things which Young advised the emigrants to bring with them embraced +a wide assortment: grains, trees, and vines; live stock and fowls; +agricultural implements and mills; firearms and ammunition; gold +and silver and zinc and tin and brass and ivory and precious stones; +curiosities, "sweet instruments of music, sweet odors, and beautiful +colors." The care of the head of the church, that the immigrants should +not neglect to provide themselves with cologne and rouge for use in +crossing the prairies, was most thoughtful. + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. X, p. 81. + + +The Millennial Star of February 1, 1848, made this announcement to the +faithful in the British Isles:-- + +"The channel of Saints' emigration to the land of Zion is now opened. +The resting place of Israel for the last days has been discovered. In +the elevated valley of the Salt and Utah Lakes, with the beautiful river +Jordan running through it, is the newly established Stake of Zion. There +vegetation flourishes with magic rapidity. And the food of man, or +staff of life, leaps into maturity from the bowels of Mother Earth with +astonishing celerity. Within one month from planting, potatoes grew from +six to eight inches, and corn from two to four feet. There the frequent +clouds introduce their fertilizing contents at a modest distance from +the fat valley, and send their humid influences from the mountain tops. +There the saline atmosphere of Salt Lake mingles in wedlock with the +fresh humidity of the same vegetable element which comes over the +mountain top, as if the nuptial bonds of rare elements were introduced +to exhibit a novel specimen of a perfect vegetable progeny in the +shortest possible time," etc. + +Contrast this with Brigham Young's letter to Colonel Alexander in +October, 1857,--"We had hoped that in this barren, desolate country we +could have remained unmolested." + +On the 20th of February, 1848, the shipment of Mormon emigrants began +again with the sailing of the Cornatic, with 120 passengers, for New +Orleans. + +In the following April, Orson Pratt was sent to England to take charge +of the affairs of the church there. On his arrival, in August, he issued +an "Epistle" which was influential in augmenting the movement. He said +that "in the solitary valleys of the great interior" they hoped to hide +"while the indignation of the Almighty is poured upon the nations"; and +urged the rich to dispose of their property in order to help the poor, +commanding all who could do so to pay their tithing. "O ye saints of +the Most High," he said, "linger not! Make good your retreat before the +avenues are closed up!" + +Many other letters were published in the Millennial Star in 1848-1849, +giving glowing accounts of the fertility of Salt Lake Valley. One from +the clerk of the camp observed: "Many cases of twins. In a row of seven +houses joining each other eight births in one week." + +In order to assist the poor converts in Europe, the General Conference +held in Salt Lake City in October, 1849, voted to raise a fund, to be +called "The Perpetual Emigrating Fund," and soon $5000 had been secured +for this purpose. In September, 1850, the General Assembly of the +Provisional State of Deseret incorporated the Perpetual Emigration Fund +Company, and Brigham Young was elected its first president. Collections +for this fund in Great Britain amounted to 1410 pounds by January, 1852, +and the emigrants sent out in that year were assisted from this fund. +These expenditures required an additional $5000, which was supplied +from Salt Lake City. A letter issued by the First Presidency in October, +1849, urged the utmost economy in the expenditure of this money, and +explained that, when the assisted emigrants arrived in Salt Lake City, +they would give their obligations to the church to refund as soon as +possible what had been expended on them.* In this way, any who were +dissatisfied on their arrival in Utah found themselves in the church +clutches, from which they could not escape. + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XII, p. 124. + + +There were outbreaks of cholera among the emigrant parties crossing the +plains in 1849, and many deaths. + +In October, 1849, an important company left Salt Lake City to augment +the list of missionaries in Europe. It included John Taylor and two +others, assigned to France; Lorenzo Snow and one other, to Italy; +Erastus Snow and one other, to Denmark;* F. D. Richards and eight +others, to England; and J. Fosgreene, to Sweden. + + + * Elder Dykes reported in October, 1851, that, on his arrival in +Aalborg, Denmark, he found that a mob had broken in the windows of the +Saints' meeting-house and destroyed the furniture, and had also broken +the windows of the Saints' houses, and, by the mayor's advice, he left +the city by the first steamer. Millennial Star, Vol. XIII, p. 346. + + +The system of Mormon emigration from Great Britain at that time seems to +have been in the main a good one. The rule of the agent in Liverpool was +not to charter a vessel until enough passengers had made their deposits +to warrant him in doing so. The rate of fare depended on the price paid +for the charter.* As soon as the passengers arrived in Liverpool they +could go on board ship, and, when enough came from one district, +all sailed on one vessel. Once on board, they were organized with +a president and two counsellors,--men who had crossed the ocean, if +possible,--who allotted the staterooms, appointed watchmen to serve in +turn, and looked after the sanitary arrangements. When the first through +passengers for Salt Lake City left Liverpool, in 1852, an experienced +elder was sent in advance to have teams and supplies in readiness at the +point where the land journey would begin, and other men of experience +accompanied them to engage river portation when they reached New +Orleans. The statistics of the emigration thus called out were as +follows:-- + + + * See Linforth's "Route," pp. to, 17-22; Mackay's "History of the +Mormons," pp. 298-302; Pratt's letter to the Millennial Star, Vol. XI, +p. 277. + + +YEAR VESSELS EMIGRANTS 1848 5 754 1849 9 2078 1850 6 1612 1851 4 1869 + +The Frontier Guardian at Kanesville estimated the Mormon movement across +the plains in 1850 at about 700 wagons, taking 5000 horses and cattle +and 4000 sheep. + +Of the class of emigrants then going out, the manager of the leading +shipping agents at Liverpool who furnished the ships said, "They are +principally farmers and mechanics, with some few clerks, surgeons, +and so forth." He found on the company's books, for the period between +October, 1849, and March, 1850, the names of 16 miners, 20 engineers, 19 +farmers, 108 laborers, 10 joiners, 25 weavers, 15 shoemakers, 12 smiths, +19 tailors, 8 watchmakers, 25 stone masons, 5 butchers, 4 bakers, 4 +potters, 10 painters, 7 shipwrights, and 5 dyers. + +The statistics of the Mormon emigration given by the British agency for +the years named were as follows:-- + + + YEAR + VESSELS + EMIGRANTS + + 1852 + 3 + 732 + + 1853 + 7 + 2312 + + 1854 + 9 + 2456 + + 1855 + 13 + 4425 + +In 1853 the experiment was made of engaging to send adults from +Liverpool to Utah for 10 pounds each and children for half price; but +this did not succeed, and those who embraced the offer had to borrow +money or teams to complete the journey. + +In 1853, owing to extortions practised on the emigrants by the merchants +and traders at Kanesville, as well as the unhealthfulness of the +Missouri bottoms, the principal point of departure from the river was +changed to Keokuk, Iowa. The authorities and people there showed the +new-comers every kindness, and set apart a plot of ground for their +camp. In this camp each company on its arrival was organized and +provided with the necessary teams, etc. In 1854 the point of departure +was again changed to Kansas, in western Missouri, fourteen miles west of +Independence, the route then running to the Big Blue River, and through +what are now the states of Kansas and Nebraska. + + + +CHAPTER IV. -- THE HAND-CART TRAGEDY + +In 1855 the crops in Utah were almost a failure, and the church +authorities found themselves very much embarrassed by their debts. A +report in the seventh General Epistle, of April 18, 1852, set forth +that, from their entry into the valley to March 27, of that year, there +had been received as tithing, mostly in property, $244,747.03, and in +loans and from other sources $145,513.78, of which total there had been +expended in assisting immigrants and on church buildings, city lots, +manufacturing industries, etc., $353,765.69. Young found it necessary +therefore to cut down his expenses, and he looked around for a method of +doing this without checking the stream of new-comers. The method which +he evolved was to furnish the immigrants with hand-carts on their +arrival in Iowa, and to let them walk all the way across the plains, +taking with them only such effects as these carts would hold, each party +of ten to drive with them one or two cows. + +Although Young tried to throw the result of this experiment on others, +the evidence is conclusive that he devised it and worked out its +details. In a letter to Elder F. D. Richards, in Liverpool, dated +September 30, 1855, Young said: "We cannot afford to purchase wagons +and teams as in times past. I am consequently thrown back upon MY OLD +PLAN--to make hand-carts, and let the emigration foot it." To show what +a pleasant trip this would make, this head of the church, who had three +times crossed the plains, added, "Fifteen miles a day will bring them +through in 70 days, and, after they get accustomed to it, they will +travel 20, 25, or even 30 with all ease, and no danger of giving out, +but will continue to get stronger and stronger; the little ones and +sick, if there are any, can be carried on the carts, but there will be +none sick in a little time after they get started."* + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. VII, p. 813. + + +Directions in accordance with this plan were issued in the form of a +circular in Liverpool in February, 1856, naming Iowa City, Iowa, as the +point of outfit. The charge for booking through to Utah by the Perpetual +Emigration Fund Company was fixed at 9 pounds for all over one year old, +and 4 pounds 10 shillings for younger infants. The use of trunks +or boxes was discouraged, and the emigrants were urged to provide +themselves with oil-cloth or mackintosh bags. + +About thirteen hundred persons left Liverpool to undertake this foot +journey across the plains, placing implicit faith in the pictures of +Salt Lake Valley drawn by the missionaries, and not doubting that the +method of travel would be as enjoyable as it seemed economical. Five +separate companies were started that summer from Iowa City. The first +and second of these arrived at Florence, Nebraska, on July 17, the +third, made up mostly of Welsh, on July 19, and the fourth on August 11. +The first company made the trip to Utah without anything more serious to +report than the necessary discomforts of such a march, and were received +with great acclaim by the church authorities, and welcomed with an +elaborate procession. It was the last companies whose story became a +tragedy.* + + + * The experiences of those companies were told in detail by a +member of one, John Chislett, and printed in the "Rocky Mountain +Saints." Mrs. Stenhouse gives additional experiences in her "Tell it +All." + + +The immigrants met with their first disappointment on arriving at Iowa +City. Instead of finding their carts ready for them, they were told that +no advance agent had prepared the way. The last companies were subjected +to the most delay from this cause. Even the carts were still to be +manufactured, and, while they were making, many a family had to camp in +the open fields, without even the shelter of a tent or a wagon top. The +carts, when pronounced finished, moved on two light wheels, the only +iron used in their construction being a very thin tire. Two projecting +shafts of hickory or oak were joined by a cross piece, by means of which +the owner propelled the vehicle. When Mr. Chislett's company, after +a three weeks' delay, made a start, they were five hundred strong, +comprising English, Scotch, and Scandanavians. They were divided, as +usual, into hundreds, to each hundred being allotted five tents, twenty +hand-carts, and one wagon drawn by three yokes of oxen, the latter +carrying the tents and provisions. Families containing more young men +than were required to draw their own carts shared these human draught +animals with other families who were not so well provided; but many +carts were pulled along by young girls. + +The Iowans bestowed on the travellers both kindness and commiseration. +Knowing better than did the new-comers from Europe the trials that +awaited them, they pointed out the lateness of the season, and they did +persuade a few members to give up the trip. But the elders who were in +charge of the company were watchful, the religious spirit was kept up by +daily meetings, and the one command that was constantly reiterated was, +"Obey your leaders in all things." + +A march of four weeks over a hot, dusty route was required to bring them +to the Missouri River near Florence. Even there they were insufficiently +supplied with food. With flour costing $3 per hundred pounds, and bacon +seven or eight cents a pound, the daily allowance of food was ten ounces +of flour to each adult, and four ounces to children under eight years +old, with bacon, coffee, sugar, and rice served occasionally. Some of +the men ate all their allowance for the day at their breakfast, and +depended on the generosity of settlers on the way, while there were any, +for what further food they had until the next morning. + +After a week's stay at Florence (the old Winter Quarters), the march +across the plains was resumed on August 18. The danger of making this +trip so late in the season, with a company which included many women, +children, and aged persons, gave even the elders pause, and a meeting +was held to discuss the matter. But Levi Savage, who had made the trip +to and from the valley, alone advised against continuing the march that +season. The others urged the company to go on, declaring that they were +God's people, and prophesying in His name that they would get through +the mountains in safety. The emigrants, "simple, honest, eager to go to +Zion at once, and obedient as little children to the 'servants of God,' +voted to proceed." * + + + * A "bond," which each assisted emigrant was required to sign in +Liverpool, contained the following stipulations: "We do severally +and jointly promise and bind ourselves to continue with and obey the +instructions of the agent appointed to superintend our passage thither +to [Utah]. And that, on our arrival in Utah, we will hold ourselves, +our time, and our labor, subject to the appropriation of the Perpetual +Emigration Fund Company until the full cost of our emigration is paid, +with interest if required." + + +As the teams provided could not haul enough flour to last the company to +Utah, a sack weighing ninety-eight pounds was added to the load of +each cart. One pound of flour a day was now allowed to each adult, and +occasionally fresh beef. Soon after leaving Florence trouble began with +the carts. The sand of the dry prairie got into the wooden hubs and +ground the axles so that they broke, and constant delays were caused by +the necessity of making repairs., No axle grease had been provided, and +some of the company were compelled to use their precious allowance of +bacon to grease the wheels. At Wood River, where the plains were alive +with buffaloes, a stampede of the cattle occurred one night, and thirty +of them were never recovered. The one yoke of oxen that was left to +each wagon could not pull the load; an attempt to use the milch cows +and heifers as draught animals failed, and the tired cart pullers had to +load up again with flour. + +While pursuing their journey in this manner, their camp was visited one +evening by Apostle F. D. Richards and some other elders, on their way +to Utah from mission work abroad. Richards severely rebuked Savage for +advising that the trip be given up at Florence, and prophesied that +the Lord would keep open a way before them. The missionaries, who were +provided with carriages drawn by four horses each, drove on, without +waiting to see this prediction confirmed. + +On arriving at Fort Laramie, about the first of September, another +evidence of the culpable neglect of the church authorities manifested +itself. The supply of provisions that was to have awaited them there was +wanting. They calculated the amount that they had on hand, and estimated +that it would last only until they were within 350 miles of Salt Lake +City; but, perhaps making the best of the situation, they voted to +reduce the daily ration and to try to make the supply last by travelling +faster. When they reached the neighborhood of Independence Rock, a +letter sent back by Richards informed them that supplies would meet them +at South Pass; but another calculation showed that what remained would +not last them to the Pass, and again the ration was reduced, working men +now receiving twelve ounces a day, other adults nine, and children from +four to eight. Another source of discomfort now manifested itself. In +order to accommodate matters to the capacity of the carts, the elders in +charge had made it one of the rules that each outfit should be limited +to seventeen pounds of clothing and bedding. As they advanced up the +Sweetwater it became cold. The mountains appeared snow-covered, and +the lack of extra wraps and bedding caused first discomfort, and +then intense suffering, to the half-fed travellers. The necessity of +frequently wading the Sweetwater chilled the stronger men who were +bearing the brunt of the labor, and when morning dawned the occupants +of the tents found themselves numb with the cold, and quite unfitted to +endure the hardships of the coming day. Chislett draws this picture of +the situation at that time:-- + +"Our old and infirm people began to droop, and they no sooner lost +spirit and courage than death's stamp could be traced upon their +features. Life went out as smoothly as a lamp ceases to burn when the +oil is gone. At first the deaths occurred slowly and irregularly, but in +a few days at more frequent intervals, until we soon thought it unusual +to leave a camp ground without burying one or more persons. Death was +not long confined in its ravages to the old and infirm, but the young +and naturally strong were among its victims. Weakness and debility were +accompanied by dysentery. This we could not stop or even alleviate, +no proper medicines being in the camp; and in almost every instance it +carried off the parties attacked. It was surprising to an unmarried +man to witness the devotion of men to their families and to their faith +under these trying circumstances. Many a father pulled his cart, with +his little children on it, until the day preceding his death. These +people died with the calm faith and fortitude of martyrs." + +An Oregonian returning East, who met two of the more fortunate of these +handcart parties, gave this description to the Huron (Ohio) Reflector in +1857:-- + +"It was certainly the most novel and interesting sight I have seen for +many a day. We met two trains, one of thirty and the other of fifty +carts, averaging about six to the cart. The carts were generally drawn +by one man and three women each, though some carts were drawn by women +alone. There were about three women to one man, and two-thirds of the +women single. It was the most motley crew I ever beheld. Most of them +were Danes, with a sprinkling of Welsh, Swedes, and English, and were +generally from the lower classes of their countries. Most could not +understand what we said to them. The road was lined for a mile behind +the train with the lame, halt, sick, and needy. Many were quite aged, +and would be going slowly along, supported by a son or daughter. Some +were on crutches; now and then a mother with a child in her arms and +two or three hanging hold of her, with a forlorn appearance, would +pass slowly along; others, whose condition entitled them to a seat in a +carriage, were wending their way through the sand. A few seemed in good +spirits." + +The belated company did not meet anyone to carry word of their condition +to the valley, but among Richard's party who visited the camp at Wood +River was Brigham Young's son, Joseph A. He realized the plight of the +travellers, and when his father heard his report he too recognized the +fact that aid must be sent at once. The son was directed to get together +all the supplies he could obtain in the city or pick up on the way, +and to start toward the East immediately. Driving on himself in a light +wagon, he reached the advanced line, as they were toiling ahead through +their first snowstorm. The provisions travelled slower, and could not +reach them in less than one or two days longer. There was encouragement, +of course, even in the prospect of release, but encouragement could not +save those whose vitality was already exhausted. Camp was pitched that +night among a grove of willows, where good fires were possible, but in +the morning they awoke to find the snow a foot deep, and that five of +their companions had been added to the death list during the night. + +To add to the desperate character of the situation came the announcement +that the provisions were practically exhausted, the last of the flour +having been given out, and all that remained being a few dried apples, a +little rice and sugar, and about twenty-five pounds of hardtack. Two of +the cattle were killed, and the camp were informed that they would have +to subsist on the supplies in sight until aid reached them. The best +thing to do in these circumstances, indeed, the only thing, was to +remain where they were and send messengers to advise the succoring party +of the desperateness of their case. Their captain, Mr. Willie, and one +companion acted as their messengers. They were gone three days, and +in their absence Mr. Chislett had the painful duty of doling out +what little food there was in camp. He speaks of his task as one that +unmanned him. More cattle were killed, but beef without other food did +not satisfy the hungry, and the epidemic of dysentery grew worse. The +commissary officer was surrounded by a crowd of men and women imploring +him for a little food, and it required all his power of reasoning to +make them see that what little was left must be saved for the sick. + +The party with aid from the valley had also encountered the snowstorm, +and, not appreciating the desperate condition of the hand-cart +immigrants, had halted to wait for better weather. As soon as Captain +Willie took them the news, they hastened eastward, and were seen by the +starving party at sunset, the third day after their captain's departure. +"Shouts of joy rent the air," says Chislett. "Strong men wept till tears +ran freely down their furrowed and sunburnt cheeks, and little children +partook of the joy which some of them hardly understood, and fairly +danced around with gladness. Restraint was set aside in the general +rejoicing, and, as the brethren entered our camp, the sisters fell upon +them and deluged them with kisses." + +The timely relief saved many lives, but the end of the suffering had not +been reached. A good many of the foot party were so exhausted by what +they had gone through, that even their near approach to their Zion and +their prophet did not stimulate them to make the effort to complete the +journey. Some trudged along, unable even to pull a cart, and those who +were still weaker were given places in the wagons. It grew colder, too, +and frozen hands and feet became a common experience. Thus each day +lessened by a few who were buried the number that remained. + +Then came another snowstorm. What this meant to a weakened party like +this dragging their few possessions in carts can easily be imagined. +One family after another would find that they could not make further +progress, and when a hill was reached the human teams would have to +be doubled up. In this way, by travelling backward and forward, some +progress was made. That day's march was marked by constant additions to +the stragglers who kept dropping by the way. When the main body had +made their camp for the night, some of the best teams were sent back +for those who had dropped behind, and it was early morning before all of +these were brought in. + +The next morning Captain Willie was assigned to take count of the dead. +An examination of the camp showed thirteen corpses, all stiffly frozen. +They were buried in a large square hole, three or four abreast and three +deep. "When they did not fit in," says Chislett, "we put one or two +crosswise at the head or feet of the others. We covered them with +willows and then with the earth." Two other victims were buried before +nightfall. Parties passing eastward by this place the following summer +found that the wolves had speedily uncovered the corpses, and that their +bones were scattered all over the neighborhood. + +Further deaths continued every day until they arrived at South Pass. +There more assistance from the valley met them, the weather became +warmer, and the health of the party improved, so that when they arrived +at Salt Lake City they were in better condition and spirits. The date of +their arrival there was November 9. The company which set out from Iowa +City numbered about 500, of whom 400 set out from Florence across the +plains. Of these 400, 67 died on the way, and there were a few deaths +after they reached the end of their journey. + +Another company of these hand-cart travellers left Florence still later +than the ones whose sufferings have been described. They were in charge +of an elder named Martin. Like their predecessors, they were warned +against setting out so late as the middle of August, and many of them +tried to give up the trip, but permission to do so was refused. Their +sufferings began soon after they crossed the Platte, near Fort Laramie, +and snow was encountered sixty miles east of Devil's Gate. When they +reached that landmark, they decided that they could make no further +progress with their hand-carts. They accordingly took possession of half +a dozen dilapidated log houses, the contents of the wagons were placed +in some of these, the hand-carts were left behind, and as many people as +the teams could drag were placed in the wagons and started forward. One +of the survivors of this party has written: "The track of the emigrants +was marked by graves, and many of the living suffered almost worse than +death. Men may be seen to-day in Salt Lake City, who were boys then, +hobbling around on their club-feet, all their toes having been frozen +off in that fearful march." * Twenty men who were left at Devil's Gate +had a terrible experience, being compelled, before assistance reached +them, to eat even the pieces of hide wrapped round their cart-wheels, +and a piece of buffalo skin that had been used as a door-mat. Strange to +say, all of these men reached the valley alive. + + + * "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 337. + + +We have seen that Brigham Young was the inventor of this hand-cart +immigration scheme. Alarmed by the result of the experiment, as soon as +the wretched remnant of the last two parties arrived in Salt Lake City, +he took steps to place the responsibility for the disaster on other +shoulders. The idea which he carried out was to shift the blame to F. D. +Richards on the ground that he allowed the immigrants to start too +late. In an address in the Tabernacle, while Captain Willie's party was +approaching the city, he told the returned missionaries from England +that they needed to be careful about eulogizing Richards and Spencer, +lest they should have "the big head." When these men were in Salt Lake +City he cursed them with the curse of the church. E. W. Tullidge, who +was an editor of the Millennial Star in Liverpool under Richards when +the hand-cart emigrants were collected, proposed, when in later years he +was editing the Utah Magazine, to tell the facts about that matter; but +when Young learned this, he ordered Godbe, the controlling owner of the +magazine, to destroy that issue, after one side of the sheets had been +printed, and he was obeyed.* Fortunately Young was not able to destroy +the files of the Millennial Star. + + + * "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 342. + + +There is much that is thoroughly typical of Mormonism in the history of +these expeditions. No converts were ever instilled with a more confident +belief in the divine character of the ridiculous pretender, Joseph +Smith. To no persons were more flagrant misrepresentations ever made by +the heads of the church, and over none was the dictatorial authority of +the church exercised more remorselessly. Not only was Utah held out to +them as "a land where honest labor and industry meet with a suitable +reward, and where the higher walks of life are open to the humblest and +poorest," * but they were informed that, if they had not faith enough +to undertake the trip to Utah, they had not "faith sufficient to endure, +with the Saints in Zion, the celestial law which leads to exaltation +and eternal life." Young wrote to Richards privately in October, 1855, +"Adhere strictly to our former suggestion of walking them through across +the plains with hand-carts";** and Richards in an editorial in the Star +thereupon warned the Saints: "The destroying angel is abroad. Pestilence +and gaunt famine will soon increase the terrors of the scene to an +extent as yet without a parallel in the records of the human race. If +the anticipated toils of the journey shake your faith in the promises of +the Lord, it is high time that you were digging about the foundation +of it, and seeing if it be founded on the root of the Holy Priesthood," +etc. + + + * Thirteenth General Epistle, Millennial Star, Vol. XVIII, p. 49. + + + ** Millennial Star, Vol. XVIII, p, 61. + + +The direct effect of such teaching is shown in two letters printed in +the Millennial Star of June 14, 1856. In the first of these, a sister, +writing to her brother in Liverpool from Williamsburg, New York, +confesses her surprise on learning that the journey was to be made with +hand-carts, says that their mother cannot survive such a trip, and +that she does not think the girls can, points out that the limitation +regarding baggage would compel them to sell nearly all their clothes, +and proposes that they wait in New York or St. Louis until they could +procure a wagon. In his reply the brother scorns this advice, says that +he would not stop in New York if he were offered 10,000 pounds besides +his expenses, and adds "Brothers, sisters, fathers or mothers, when they +put a stumbling block in the way of my salvation, are nothing more to me +than Gentiles. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, and when +we start we will go right up to Zion, if we go ragged and barefoot." + +Young found himself hard put to meet the church obligations in 1856, +notwithstanding the economy of the hand-cart system; and the Millennial +Star of December 27 announced that no assisted emigrants would be sent +out during the following year. Saints proposing to go through at their +own expense were informed, however, that the church bureau would supply +them with teams. Those proposing to use hand-carts were told of the +"indispensable necessity" of having their whole outfit ready on their +arrival at Iowa City, and the bureau offered to supply this at an +estimated cost of 3 pounds per head, any deficit to be made up on their +arrival there.* + + + * "The agency of the Mormon emigration at that time was a very +profitable appointment. By arrangement with ship brokers at Liverpool, +a commission of half a guinea per head was allowed the agent for every +adult emigrant that he sent across the Atlantic, and the railroad +companies in New York allowed a percentage on every emigrant ticket. But +a still larger revenue was derived from the outfitting on the frontiers. +The agents purchased all the cattle, wagons, tents, wagon-covers, flour, +cooking utensils, stoves, and the staple articles for a three +months' journey across the Plains, and from them the Saints supplied +themselves."--"Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 340. + + + +CHAPTER V. -- EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY + +We have seen that Joseph Smith's desire was, when he suggested a +possible removal of the church to the Far West, that they should have, +not only an undisturbed place of residence, but a government of their +own. This idea of political independence Young never lost sight of. Had +Utah remained a distant province of the Mexican government, the Mormons +might have been allowed to dwell there a long time, practically without +governmental control. But when that region passed under the +government of the United States by the proclamation of the Treaty of +Guadalupe-Hidalgo, on July 4, 1848, Brigham Young had to face anew +situation. He then decided that what he wanted was an independent state +government, not territorial rule under the federal authorities, and he +planned accordingly. Every device was employed to increase the number +of the Saints in Utah, to bring the population up to the figure required +for admission as a state, and he encouraged outlying settlements at +every attractive point. In this way, by 1851, Ogden and Provo had become +large enough to form Stakes, and in a few years the country around Salt +Lake City was dotted with settlements, many of them on lands to which +the "Lamanites," who held so deep a place in Joseph Smith's heart, +asserted in vain their ancestral titles. + +The first General Epistle sent out from Great Salt Lake City, in 1849, +thus explained the first government set up there, "In consequence of +Indian depredations on our horses, cattle, and other property, and the +wicked conduct of a few base fellows who came among the Saints, the +inhabitants of this valley, as is common in new countries generally, +have organized a temporary government to exist during its necessity, or +until we can obtain a charter for a territorial government, a petition +for which is already in progress." + +On March 4, 1849, a convention, to which were invited all the +inhabitants of upper California east of the Sierra Nevadas, was held in +Great Salt Lake City to frame a system of government. The outcome was +the adoption of a constitution for a state to be called the State +of Deseret, and the election of a full set of state officers. The +boundaries of this state were liberal. Starting at a point in what is +now New Mexico, the line was to run down to the Mexican border, then +west along the border of lower California to the Pacific, up the coast +to 118 degrees 30 minutes west longitude, north to the dividing ridge +of the Sierra Nevadas, and along their summit to the divide between the +Columbia River and the Salt Lake Basin, and thence south to the place of +beginning, "by the dividing range of mountains that separate the waters +flowing into the Gulf of Mexico from the waters flowing into the Gulf of +California." The constitution adopted followed the general form of such +instruments in the United States. In regard to religion it declared, +"All men have a natural and inalienable right to worship God according +to the dictates of their own consciences; and the General Assembly shall +make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the +free exercise thereof, or disturb any person in his religious worship or +sentiments." * + + + *For text of this constitution and the memorial to Congress, see +Millennial Star, January 15, 1850. + + +An epistle of the Twelve to Orson Pratt in England, explaining this +subject, said, "We have petitioned the Congress of the United States for +the organization of a territorial government here. Until this petition +is granted, we are under the necessity of organizing a local government +for the time being."* The territorial government referred to was that +of the State of Deseret. The local government mentioned was organized on +March 12, by the election of Brigham Young as governor, H. C. Kimball as +chief justice, John Taylor and N. K. Whitney as associate justices, +and the Bishops of the wards as city magistrates, with minor positions +filled. Six hundred and seventy-four votes were polled for this ticket. + + + * Millennial Star, Vol. XI, p. 244. + + +The General Assembly, chosen later, met on July 2, and adopted a +memorial to Congress setting forth the failure of that body to provide +any form of government for the territory ceded by Mexico,* declaring +that "the revolver and the bowie knife have been the highest law of the +land," and asking for the admission of the State of Deseret into +the Union. That same year the Californians framed a government for +themselves, and a plan was discussed to consolidate California and +Deseret until 1851, when a separation should take place. The governor +of California condemned this scheme, and the legislature gave it no +countenance. + + + * "When Congress adjourned on March 4, 1849, all that had been +done toward establishing some form of government for the immense domain +acquired by the treaty with Mexico was to extend over it the revenue +laws and make San Francisco a port of entry."--Bancroft's "Utah," p. +446. + + +The Mormons had a confused idea about the government that they had set +up. In the constitution adopted they called their domain the State +of Deseret, but they allowed their legislature to elect their +representative in Congress, sending A. W. Babbitt as their delegate to +Washington, with their memorial asking for the admission of Deseret, or +that they be given "such other form of civil government as your wisdom +and magnanimity may award to the people of Deseret." The Mormons' +old political friend in Illinois, Stephen A. Douglas, presented this +memorial in the Senate on December 27, 1849, with a statement that it +was an application for admission as a state, but with the alternative of +admission as a territory if Congress should so direct. The memorial was +referred to the Committee on Territories. + +On the 31st of December, a counter memorial against the admission of the +Mormon state was presented by Mr. Underwood of Kentucky, a Whig. This +was signed by William Smith, the prophet's brother, and Isaac Sheen (who +called themselves the "legitimate presidents" of the Mormon church), and +by twelve other members. This memorial alleged that fifteen hundred of +the emigrants from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City, before their departure for +Illinois, took the following oath:-- + +"You do solemnly swear, in the presence of Almighty God, his holy +angels, and these witnesses, that you will avenge the blood of Joseph +Smith upon this nation; and so teach your children; and that you will +from this day henceforth and forever begin and carry out hostility +against this nation, and keep the same a profound secret now and ever. +So help you God." + +This memorial also set forth that the Mormons were practising polygamy +in the Salt Lake Valley; that since their arrival there they had tried +two Indian agents on a charge of participation in the expulsion of +the Mormons from Missouri, and that they were, by their own assumed +authority, imposing duties on all goods imported into the Salt Lake +region from the rest of the United States. Senator Douglas, in an +explanation concerning the latter charge, admitted that Delegate Babbitt +acknowledged the levying of duties, the excuse being that the Mormons +had found it necessary to set up a government for themselves, pending +the action of Congress, and as a means of revenue they had imposed +duties on all goods brought into and sold within the limits of Great +Salt Lake City, but asserted that goods simply passing through were not +molested. This tax seems to have been established entirely by the church +authorities, the first of the "ordinances" of the Deseret legislature +being dated January 15, 1850. + +The constitution of Deseret was presented to the House of +Representatives by Mr. Boyd, a Kentucky Democrat, on January 28, +1850, and referred to the Committee on Territories. On July 25, John +Wentworth, an Illinois Democrat, presented a petition from citizens +of Lee County, in his state, asking Congress to protect the rights of +American citizens passing through the Salt Lake Valley, and charging on +the organizers of the State of Deseret treason, a desire for a kingly +government, murder, robbery, and polygamy. + +The Mormon memorial was taken up in the House of Representatives on July +18, after the committee had unanimously reported that "it is inexpedient +to admit Almon W. Babbitt, Esq., to a seat in this body from the alleged +State of Deseret." A long debate on the admission of the delegate from +New Mexico had deferred action. The chairman of the committee, Mr. +Strong, a Pennsylvania Whig, explained that their report was founded +on the terms of the Mormon memorial, which did not ask for Babbitt's +reception as a delegate until some form of government was provided for +them. Mr. McDonald, an Indiana Whig, offered an amendment admitting +Babbitt, and a debate of considerable length followed, in which the +slavery question received some attention. The Committee of the Whole +voted to report to the House the resolution against seating Babbitt, and +then the House, by a vote of 104 yeas to 78 nays, laid the resolution +on the table (on motion of its friends), and tabled a motion for +reconsideration. On the 9th of September following, the law for the +admission of Utah as a territory was signed. The boundaries defined were +California on the west, Oregon on the north, the summit of the Rocky +Mountains on the east, and the 37th parallel of north latitude on the +south. + + + +CHAPTER VI. -- BRIGHAM YOUNG'S DESPOTISM + +There is no reason to believe that, to the date of Joseph Smith's +death, Brigham Young had inspired his fellow-Mormons with an idea of his +leadership. This was certified to by one of the most radical of them, +Mayor Jedediah M. Grant of Salt Lake City, in 1852, in these words:-- + +"When Joseph Smith lived, a man about whose real character and +pretensions we differ, Joseph was often and almost invariably imposed +upon by those in whom he placed his trust. There was one man--only one +of his early adherents--he could always rely upon to stick to him closer +than a brother, steadfast in faith, clear in counsel, and foremost in +fight. He seemed a plain man in those days, of a wonderful talent for +business and hundred horse-power of industry, but least of everything +affecting cleverness or quickness. 'Honest Brigham Young,' or +'hard-working Brigham Young,' was nearly as much as you would ever hear +him called, though he was the almost universal executor and trustee of +men's wills and trusteed estates, and a confidential manager of our most +intricate church affairs."* + + + * Grant's pamphlet, "Truth about the Mormons." + + +When the Saints found themselves in Salt Lake Valley they had learned +something from experience. They could not fail to realize that, distant +as they now were from outside interference, union among themselves was +an essential to success. The body of the church was soon composed of two +elements--those who had constituted the church in the East, and the +new members who were pouring in from Europe. Young established his +leadership with both of these parties in the early days. There was +much to discourage in those days--a soil to cultivate that required +irrigation, houses to build where material was scarce, and starvation +to fight year after year. Young encouraged everybody by his talk at +the church meetings, shared in the manual labor of building houses and +cultivating land, and devised means to entertain and encourage those +who were disposed to look on their future darkly. No one ever heard +him, whatever others might say, doubt the genuineness of Joseph Smith's +inspiration and revelations, and he so established his own position +as Smith's successor that he secured the devout allegiance of the +old flock, without making such business mistakes as weakened Smith's +reputation. "I believed," says John D. Lee, one of the most trusted and +prominent of the church members almost to the day of his death, "that +Brigham Young spoke by the direction of the God of heaven. I would have +suffered death rather than have disobeyed any command of his." Said +Young's associate in the First Presidency, Heber C. Kimball, "To me the +word comes from Brother Brigham as the word of God," and again, "His +word is the word of God to his people."* + +The new-comers from Europe were simply helpless. They were, in the first +place, religious enthusiasts, who believed, when they set out on their +journey, that they were going to a real Zion. Large numbers of them were +indebted to the church for at least a part of their passage money +from the day of their arrival. Few of those who had paid their own way +brought much cash capital, all depending on the representations about +the richness of the valley which had been held out to them. Once, there, +they soon realized that all must sustain the same policy if the church +was to be a success. They were, too, of that superstitious class +which was ready, not only to believe in modern miracles, "signs," and +revelations, but actually hungered for such manifestations, and, once +accepting membership in the church, they accepted with it the dictation +of the head of the church in all things. Secretary Fuller has told me +that, after he ascertained the existence of gold near Salt Lake City, +he said to an intelligent goldsmith there, "Why do you not look for the +gold you need in your business in the mountains?" "Why," was the reply, +"if I went to the mountains and found gold, and put it into my pouch, +the pouch would be empty when I got back to the city. I know this is so, +because Brigham Young has told me so." + + + * Journal of Discourses, VOL IV, p. 47. + + +The extent of the dictatorship which Young prescribed and carried out +in all matters, spiritual and commercial, might be questioned if we +were not able to follow the various steps taken in establishing his +authority, and to illustrate its scope, by the testimony, not of men +who suffered from it, but by his own words and those of his closest +associates. With a blindness which seems incomprehensible, the sermons, +or "discourses," delivered in the early days in Salt Lake City were +printed under church authority, and are preserved in the journal of +Discourses. The student of this chapter of the church's history can +obtain what information he wants by reading the volumes of this Journal. +The language used is often coarse, but there is never any difficulty in +understanding the speakers. + +Young referred to his own plain speaking in a discourse on October 6, +1855. He said that he had received advice about bridling his tongue--a +wheelbarrow load of such letters from the East, especially on the +subject of his attacks on the Gentiles. "Do you know," he asked, "how I +feel when I get such communications? I will tell you. I feel just like +rubbing their noses with them."* In a discourse on February 17, 1856, he +vouchsafed this explanation, "If I were preaching abroad in the world, +I should feel myself somewhat obliged, through custom, to adhere to the +wishes and feelings of the people in regard to pursuing the thread of +any given subject; but here I feel as free as air." ** + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. III, p. 48. + + + ** Ibid., p. 211. + + +Mention has already been made of Young's refusal to continue Smith's +series of "revelations." In doing this he never admitted for a moment +any lack of authority as spokesman for the Almighty. A few illustrations +will make clear his position in this matter. Defining his view of his +own authority, before the General Conference in Salt Lake City, on +April 6, 1850, he said, "It is your privilege and it is mine to receive +revelation; and my privilege to dictate to the church." * + + + * Millennial Star, VOL XII, p, 273. + + +When the site of the Temple was consecrated, in 1853, there were many +inquiries whether a revelation had been given about its construction. +Young said, "If the Lord and all the people want a revelation, I can +give one concerning this Temple"; but he did not do so, declaring that +a revelation was no more necessary concerning the building of a temple +than it was concerning a kitchen or a bedroom.* We must certainly +concede to this man a dictator's daring. + + + * Ibid., Vol. XV, p. 391. + + +An early illustration of Young's policy toward all Mormon offenders was +given in the case of the so-called "Gladdenites." There were members +of the church even in Utah who were ready to revolt when the open +announcement of the "revelation" regarding polygamy was made in 1852, +and they found a leader in Gladden Bishop, who had had much experience +in apostasy, repentance, and readmission.* These men held meetings +and made considerable headway, but when the time came for Brigham to +exercise his authority he did it. + + + * "This Gladden gave Joseph much trouble; was cut off from the +church and taken back and rebaptized nine times."--Ferris, "Utah and the +Mormons," p. 326. + + +On Sunday, March 20, 1853, a meeting, orderly in every respect, +which the Gladdenites were holding in front of the Council House, was +dispersed by the city marshal, and another, called for the next Sunday, +was prohibited entirely. Then Alfred Smith, a leading Gladdenite, who +had accused Young of robbing him of his property, was arrested and +locked up until he gave a promise to discontinue his rebellion. On the +27th of March Young made the Gladdenites the subject of a large part +of his discourse in the Tabernacle. What he said is thus stated in the +church report of the address:-- + +"I say to those persons: You must not court persecution here, lest you +get so much of it you will not know what to do with it. Do not court +persecution. We have known Gladden Bishop for more than twenty years, +and know him to be a poor, dirty curse.... I say again, you Gladdenites, +do not court persecution, or you will get more than you want, and it +will come quicker than you want it. I say to you Bishops, do not allow +them to preach in your wards." (After telling of a dream he had had, +in which he saw two men creep into the bed where one of his wives +was lying, whereupon he took a large bowie knife and cut one of +their throats from ear to ear, saying, "Go to hell across lots," he +continued:) "I say, rather than that apostates should flourish here I +will unsheath my bowie knife and conquer or die." (Great commotion in +the congregation, and a simultaneous burst of feeling, assenting to the +declaration.) "Now, you nasty apostates, clear out, or judgment will be +put to the line and righteousness to the plummet." (Voices generally, +"Go it," "go it.") "If you say it is all right, raise your hand." (All +hands up.) "Let us call upon the Lord to assist us in this and every +good work." * + + + *Journal of Discourses, Vol. I, p. 82. + + +This was the practical end of Gladdenism. + +Young's dictatorship was quite as broad and determined in things +temporal as in things spiritual. He made no concealment of the fact that +he was a money-getter, only insisting on his readiness to contribute +to the support of church enterprises. The canyons through the mountains +which shut in the valley were the source of wood supply for the city, +and their control was very valuable. Young brought this matter before +the Conference of October 9, 1852, speaking on it at length, and finally +putting his own view in the form of a resolution that the canyons be +placed in the hands of individuals, who should make good roads through +them, and obtain their pay by taking toll at the entrance. After getting +the usual unanimous vote on his proposition, he said: "Let the Judges +of the County of Great Salt Lake take due notice and govern themselves +accordingly.... This is my order for the judges to take due notice +of. It does not come from the Governor, but from the President of the +church. You will not see any proclamation in the paper to this effect, +but it is a mere declaration of the President of the Conference."* The +"declaration," of course, had all the effect of a law, and Young got one +of the best canyons. + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. I, pp. 217, 218. + + +Very early in his rule Young defined his views about the property rights +of the Saints. "A man," he declared in the Tabernacle on June 5, 1853, +"has no right with property which, according to the laws of the land, +legally belongs to him, if he does not want to use it.... When we first +came into the valley, the question was asked me if men would ever be +allowed to come into this church, and remain in it, and hoard up their +property. I say, no." * + + + * Ibid., Vol. I, pp. 252-253 + + +Another view of property rights was thus set forth in his discourse of +December 5, 1853:-- + +"If an Elder has borrowed [a hundred or a thousand dollars from you], +and you find he is going to apostatize, then you may tighten the screws +on him. But if he is willing to preach the Gospel without purse or +scrip, it is none of your business what he does with the money he has +borrowed from you." * + + + * Ibid, Vol. I, p. 340. + +Addressing the people in the trying business year of 1856, when his own +creditors were pushing him hard, Young said: + +"I wish to give you one text to preach upon, 'From this time henceforth +do not fret thy gizzard.' I will pay you when I can and not before. Now +I hope you will apostatize if you would rather do it."* + + + * Ibid., Vol. III, p. 4. + + +Kimball, in giving Young's order to some seventy men, who had displeased +him, to leave the territory, used these words: "When a man is appointed +to take a mission, unless he has a just and honorable reason for not +going, if he does not go he will be severed from the church. Why? +Because you said you were willing to be passive, and, if you are not +passive, that lump of clay must be cut off from the church and laid +aside, and a lump put on that will be passive." * + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. III, p. 242. + + +With this testimony of men inside the church may be placed that of +Captain Howard Stansbury, of the United Stated Topographical Engineers, +who arrived in the valley in August, 1849, under instructions from the +government to make a survey of the lakes of that region. The Mormons +thought that it was the intention of the government to divide the land +into townships and sections, and to ignore their claim to title by +occupation. In his official report, after mentioning his haste to +disabuse Young's mind on this point, Captain Stansbury says, "I was +induced to pursue this conciliatory course, not only in justice to the +government, but also because I knew, from the peculiar organization +of this singular community, that, unless the 'President' was fully +satisfied that no evil was intended to his people, it would be useless +for me to attempt to carry out my instructions." The choice between +abject conciliation or open conflict was that which Brigham Young +extended to nearly every federal officer who entered Utah during his +reign. + +The Mormons of Utah started in to assert their independence of the +government of the United States in every way. The rejection of +the constitution of Deseret by Congress did not hinder the elected +legislature from meeting and passing laws. The ninth chapter of the +"ordinances," as they were called, passed by this legislature (on +January 19, 1851) was a charter for Great Salt Lake City. This charter +provided for the election of a mayor, four aldermen, nine councillors, +and three judges, the first judges to be chosen viva voce, and their +successors by the City Council. The appointment of eleven subordinate +officers was placed in the Council's hands. The mayor and aldermen were +to be the justices of the peace, with a right of appeal to the municipal +court, consisting of the same persons sitting together, and from that +to the probate court. The first mayor, aldermen, and councillors were +appointed by the governor of the State of Deseret. Similar charters were +provided for Ogden, Provo City, and other settlements. + +As soon as Salt Lake City was laid off into wards, Young had a Bishop +placed over each of these, and, always under his direction, these +Bishops practically controlled local affairs to the date of the city +charter. Each Bishop came to be a magistrate of his ward,* and under +them in all the settlements all public work was carried on and all +revenue collected. The High Council of ten is defined by Tullidge as "a +quorum of judges, in equity for the people, at the head of which is the +President of the state." + + + * Brigham Young testified in the Tabernacle as to the kind of +justice that was meted out in the Bishops' courts. In his sermon of +March 6, 1856, he said: "There are men here by the score who do not know +their right hands from their left, so far as the principles of justice +are concerned. Does our High Council? No, for they will let men throw +dirt in their eyes until you cannot find the one hundred millionth part +of an ounce of common sense in them. You may go to the Bishops' courts, +and what are they? A set of old grannies. They cannot judge a case +pending between two old women, to say nothing of a case between man and +man." Journal of Discourses, Vol. III, p. 225. + + +These men did not hesitate to attempt a currency of their own. On the +arrival of the Mormons in the valley, they first made their exchanges +through barter. Paper currency was issued in 1849 and some years later. +When gold dust from California appeared in 1849, some of it was +coined in Salt Lake City by means of homemade dies and crucibles. The +denominations were $2.50, $5, $10, and $20. Some of these coins, made +without alloy, were stamped with a bee-hive and eagle on one side, and +on the reverse with the motto, "Holiness to the Lord" in the so-called +Deseret alphabet. This alphabet was invented after their arrival in Salt +Lake Valley, to assist in separating the Mormons from the rest of the +nation, its preparation having been intrusted to a committee of the +board of regents in 1853. It contained thirty-two characters. A primer +and two books of the Mormon Bible were printed in the new characters, +the legislature in 1855 having voted $2500 to meet the expense; but the +alphabet was never practically used, and no attempt is any longer made +to remember it. Early in 1849 the High Council voted that the Kirtland +bank-bills (of which a supply must have remained unissued) be put out +on a par with gold, and in this they saw a fulfilment of the prophet's +declaration that these notes would some day be as good as gold. + +Another early ordinance passed by the Deseret legislature incorporated +"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints," authorizing the +appointment of a trustee in trust to hold and manage all the property +of the church, which should be free from tax, and giving the church +complete authority to make its own regulations, "provided, however, that +each and every act or practice so established, or adopted for law +or custom, shall relate to solemnities, sacraments, ceremonies, +consecrations, endowments, tithing, marriages, fellowship, or the +religious duties of man to his Maker, inasmuch as the doctrines, +principles, practices, or performances support virtue and increase +morality, and are not inconsistent with or repugnant to the constitution +of the United States or of this State, and are founded on the +revelations of the Lord." Thus early was the ground taken that the +practice of polygamy was a constitutional right. Brigham Young was +chosen as the trustee. + +The second ordinance passed by this legislature incorporated the +University of the State of Deseret, at Salt Lake City, to be governed by +a chancellor and twelve regents. + +The earliest non-Mormons to experience the effect of that absolute +Mormon rule, the consequences of which the Missourians had feared, +were the emigrants who passed through Salt Lake Valley on their way to +California after the discovery of gold, or on their way to Oregon. The +complaints of the Californians were set forth in a little book, written +by one of them, Nelson Slater, and printed in Colona, California, in +1851, under the title, "Fruits of Mormonism." The general complaints +were set forth briefly in a petition to Congress containing nearly two +hundred and fifty signatures, dated Colona, June 1, 1851, which asked +that the territorial government be abrogated, and a military government +be established in its place. This petition charged that many emigrants +had been murdered by the Mormons when there was a suspicion that they +had taken part in the earlier persecutions; that when any members of +the Mormon community, becoming dissatisfied, tried to leave, they were +pursued and killed; that the Mormons levied a tax of two per cent on the +property of emigrants who were compelled to pass a winter among them; +that it was nearly impossible for emigrants to obtain justice in +the Mormon courts; that the Mormons, high and low, openly expressed +treasonable sentiments against the United States government; and that +letters of emigrants mailed at Salt Lake City were opened, and in many +instances destroyed. + +Mr. Slater's book furnishes the specifications of these general charges. + + + +CHAPTER VII. -- THE "REFORMATION" + +Young soon had occasion to make practical use of the dictatorial power +that he had assumed. The character which those members of the flock +who had migrated from Missouri and Illinois had established among their +neighbors in those states was not changed simply by their removal to +a wilderness all by themselves. They had no longer the old excuse that +their misdeeds were reprisals on persecuting enemies, but this did not +save them from the temptation to exercise their natural propensities. +Again we shall take only the highest Mormon testimony on this subject. + +One of the first sins for which Young openly reproved his congregation +was profane swearing. He brought this matter pointedly to their +attention in an address to the Conference of October 9, 1852, when +he said: "You Elders of Israel will go into the canyons, and curse and +swear--damn and curse your oxen, and swear by Him who created you. I +am telling the truth. Yes, you rip and curse and swear as bad as any +pirates ever did."* + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. I, p. 211. + + +Possibly the church authorities could have overlooked the swearing, but +a matter which gave them more distress was the insecurity of property. +This became so great an annoyance that Young spoke out plainly on the +subject, and he did not attempt to place the responsibility outside of +his own people. A few citations will illustrate this. + +In an address in the Tabernacle on June 5, 1853, noticing complaints +about the stealing and rebranding of cattle, he said: "I will propose a +plan to stop the stealing of cattle in coming time, and it is this--let +those who have cattle on hand join in a company, and fence in about +fifty thousand acres of land, and so keep on fencing until all the +vacant land is substantially enclosed. Some persons will perhaps say, 'I +do not know how good or how high a fence it will be necessary to build +to keep thieves out.' I do not know either, except you build one +that will keep out the devil."* On another occasion, with a personal +grievance to air, he said in the Tabernacle: "I have gone to work and +made roads to get wood, and have not been able to get it. I have cut +it down and piled it up, and still have not got it. I wonder if anybody +else can say so. Have any of you piled up your wood, and, when you have +gone back, could not find it? Some stories could be told of this kind +that would make professional thieves ashamed."** + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. I, p. 252. + + + ** Ibid., Vol. I, p. 213. + + +Young made no concealment of the fact that men high in the councils of +the church were among the peculators. In his discourse of June 15, +1856, he said: "I have proof ready to show that Bishops have taken in +thousands of pounds in weight of tithing which they have never reported +to the General Tithing Office. We have documents to show that Bishops +have taken in hundreds of bushels of wheat, and only a small portion of +it has come into the General Tithing Office. They stole it to let their +friends speculate upon."* + + + * Ibid., Vol. III, p. 342. + + +The new-comers from Europe also received his attention. Referring to +unkept promises of speedy repayment by assisted immigrants of advances +made to them, Young said, in 1855: "And what will they do when they get +here? Steal our wagons, and go off with them to Canada, and try to steal +the bake-kettles, frying-pans, tents, and wagon-covers; and will borrow +the oxen and run away with them, if you do not watch them closely. Do +they all do this? No, but many of them will try to do it."* And again, +a month later: "What previous characters some of you had in Wales, in +England, in Scotland, and perhaps in Ireland. Do not be scared if it +is proven against some one in the Bishop's court that you did steal the +poles from your neighbor's garden fence. If it is proven that you have +been to some person's wood pile and stolen wood, don't be frightened, +for if you will steal it must be made manifest." ** J. M. Grant was +quite as plain spoken. In an address in the bowery in Salt Lake City in +September, 1856, he declared that "you can scarcely find a place in this +city that is not full of filth and abominations."*** + + + * Ibid., Vol. III, p. 3. + + + ** Ibid., Vol. III, p. 49. + + + *** Ibid., Vol. IV, p. 51. + + +Young's denunciations were not quietly accepted, but protests and +threats were alike wasted upon him. Referring to complaints of some +of the flock that his denunciation was more than they could bear, he +replied, "But you have got to bear it, and, if you will not, make up +your minds to go to hell at once and have done with it." * On another +occasion he said, "You need, figuratively, to have it rain pitchforks, +tines downward, from this pulpit, Sunday after Sunday." On another +occasion, alluding to letters he had received, warning him against +attacking men's characters, he said, "When such epistles come to me, I +feel like saying, I ask no advice of you nor of all your clan this side +of hell."** + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. III, p. 49. + + + ** Ibid, p. 50. + + +When mere denunciation did not reform his followers, Young became still +plainer in his language, and began to explain to them the latitude which +the church proposed to take in applying punishment. In a remarkable +sermon on October 6, 1855, on the "stealing, lying, deceiving, +wickedness, and covetousness" of the elders in Israel, he spoke as +follows:-- + +"Live on here, then, you poor miserable curses, until the time of +retribution, when your heads will have to be severed from your +bodies. Just let the Lord Almighty say, Lay judgment to the line and +righteousness to the plummet,* and the time of thieves is short in +this community. What do you suppose they would say in old Massachusetts +should they hear that the Latter-day Saints had received a revelation +or commandment to 'lay judgment to the line and righteousness to the +plummet'? What would they say in old Connecticut? They would raise a +universal howl of, 'How wicked the Mormons are. They are killing the +evil doers who are among them. Why, I hear that they kill the wicked +away up yonder in Utah.'... What do I care for the wrath of man? No more +than I do for the chickens that run in my door yard. I am here to teach +the ways of the Lord, and lead men to life everlasting; but if they have +not a mind to go there, I wish them to keep out of my path."** + + + * These words, from Isaiah xxviii. 17, are constantly used by +Young to denote the extreme punishment which the church might inflict on +any offender. + + + ** Journal of Discourses, Vol. III, p. 50. + + +From this time Young and his closest associates seemed to make no +concealment of their intention to take the lives of any persons whom +they considered offenders. One or two more citations from his discourses +may be made to sustain this statement. On February 24, 1856, he +declared, "I am not afraid of all hell, nor of all the world, in laying +judgment to the line when the Lord says so."* In the following month he +told his congregation: "The time is coming when justice will be laid to +the line and righteousness to the plummet; when we shall take the old +broadsword and ask, Are you for God? And if you are not heartily on +the Lord's side, you will be hewn down."** Heber C. Kimball was equally +plain spoken. A year earlier he had said in the Tabernacle: "If a man +rebels, I will tell him of it, and if he resents a timely warning, HE IS +UNWISE.... I have never yet shed man's blood, and I pray to God that I +never may, unless it is actually necessary."*** Sultans and doges have +freely used assassination as a weapon, but it seems to have remained for +the Mormon church under Brigham Young to declare openly its intention +to make whatever it might call church apostasy subject to capital +punishment. + + + *Journal of Discourses, Vol. III, p. 241. + + + ** Ibid., p. 266. + + + *** Ibid., pp, 163-164. + + +Out of the lawless condition of the Mormon flock, as we have thus seen +it pictured, and out of this radical view of the proper punishment of +offenders, resulted, in 1856, that remarkable movement still known in +Mormondon as "The Reformation "--a movement that has been characterized +by one writer as "a reign of lust and fanatical fury unequalled +since the Dark Ages," and by another as "a fanaticism at once blind, +dangerous, and terrible." During its continuance the religious zealot, +the amorous priest, the jealous lover, the man covetous of worldly +goods, and the framers of the church policy, from acknowledged Apostle +to secret Danite, all had their own way. "Were I counsel for a Mormon +on trial for a crime committed at the time under consideration, I should +plead wholesale insanity," said J. H. Beadle. It was during this period +that that system was perfected under which the life of no man,--or +company of men,--against whom the wrath of the church was directed, was +of any value; no household was safe from the lust of any aged elder; +no person once in the valley could leave it alive against the church's +consent. + +The active agent in starting "The Reformation" was the inventor of +"blood atonement," Jedediah M. Grant.* That his censure of a Bishop and +his counsellors at Kayesville was the actual origin of the movement, +as has been stated,** cannot be accepted as proven, in view of the +preparation made for the era of blood, as indicated in the church +discourses. Lieutenant Gunnison, for whom the Mormons in later years +always asserted their friendship, writing concerning his observations as +early as 1852, said:-- + + + * A correspondent of the New York Times at this date described +Grant as "a tall, thin, repulsive-looking man, of acute, vigorous +intellect, a thorough-paced scoundrel, and the most essential blackguard +in the pulpit. He was sometimes called Brigham's sledge hammer." + + + ** "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 293. + + +"Witnesses are seldom put on oath in the lower courts, and there is +nothing known of the 'law's delay,' and the quibbles whereby the ends of +truth and justice may be defeated. But they have a criminal code called +'The Laws of the Lord,' which has been given by revelation and not +promulgated, the people not being able quite to bear it, or the +organization still too imperfect. It is to be put in force, however, +before long, and when in vogue, all grave crimes will be punished and +atoned for by cutting off the head of the offender. This regulation +arises from the fact that without shedding of blood there is no +remission."* + + + * "History of the Mormons," Book 1, Chapter X. + + +Gunnison's statement furnishes indisputable proof that this legal system +was so generally talked of some four years before it was put in force +that it came to the ears of a non-Mormon temporary resident. + +After the condemnation of the Kayesville offenders and their rebaptism, +the next move was the appointment of missionaries to hold services +in every ward, and the sending out of what were really confessors, +appointed for every block, to inquire of all--young and old--concerning +the most intimate details of their lives. The printed catechism given +to these confessors was so indelicate that it was suppressed in later +years. These prying inquisitors found opportunity to gain information +for their superiors about any persons suspected of disloyalty, and one +use they made of their visitations was to urge the younger sisters to +be married to the older men, as a readier means of salvation than union +with men of their own age. That there was opposition to this espionage +is shown by some remarks of H. C. Kimball in the Tabernacle, in March, +1856, when he said: "I have heard some individuals saying that, if the +Bishops came into their houses and opened their cupboards, they would +split their heads open. THAT WOULD NOT BE A WISE OR SAFE OPERATION." * + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. III, p. 271. + + +Some of the information secured by the church confessional was +embarrassing to the leaders. At a meeting of male members in Social +Hall, Young, Grant, and others denounced the sinners in scathing terms, +Young ending his remarks by saying, "All you who have been guilty of +committing adultery, stand up." At once more than three-quarters of +those present arose.* For such confessors a way of repentance was +provided through rebaptism, but the secretly accused had no such avenue +opened to them. + + + * "A leading Bishop in Salt Lake City stated to the author that +Brigham was as much appalled at this sight as was Macbeth when he beheld +the woods of Birnam marching on to Dunsinane. A Bishop arose and asked +if there were not some misunderstanding among the brethren concerning +the question. He thought that perhaps the elders understood Brigham's +inquiry to apply to their conduct before they had thrown off the works +of the devil and embraced Mormonism; but upon Brigham reiterating that +it was the adultery committed since they had entered the church, the +brethren to a man still stood up:"--"Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 296. + + +One of the first victims of the reformers was H. J. Jarvis, a reputable +merchant of Salt Lake City. He was dragged over his counter one evening +and thrown into the street by men who then robbed his store and defiled +his household goods, giving him as the cause of the visitation the +explanation that he had spoken evil of the authorities, and had invited +Gentiles to supper. His two wives could not secure even a hearing from +Young in his behalf.* This, however, was a minor incident. + + + * "Rocky Mountain Saints;" p. 297. + + +That Young's rule should be objected to by some members of the church +was inevitable. There were men in the valley at that early day who +would rebel against such a dictatorship under any name; others--men of +means--who were alarmed by the declarations about property rights, and +others to whom the announcement concerning polygamy was repugnant. +When such persons gave expression to their discontent, they angered the +church officers; when they indicated their purpose to leave the valley, +they alarmed them. Anything like an exodus of the flock would +have broken up all of Young's plans, and have undone the scheme of +immigration that had cost so much time and money. Accordingly, when +this movement for "reform" began, the church let it be known that any +desertion of the flock would be considered the worst form of apostasy, +and that the deserter must take the consequences. To quote Brigham +Young's own words: "The moment a person decides to leave this people, +he is cut off from every object that is desirable for time and eternity. +Every possession and object of affection will be taken from those who +forsake the truth, and their identity and existence will eventually +cease."* + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. IV, p. 31. + + +The almost unbreakable hedge that surrounded the inhabitants of the +valley at this time, under the system of church espionage, has formed a +subject for the novelist, and has seemed to many persons, as described, +a probable exaggeration. But, while Young did not narrate in his +pulpit the tales of blood which his instructions gave rise to, there +is testimony concerning them which leaves no reasonable doubt of their +truthfulness. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. -- SOME CHURCH-INSPIRED MURDERS + +The murders committed during the "Reformation" which attracted most +attention, both because of the parties concerned, the effort made by a +United States judge to convict the guilty, and the confessions of +the latter subsequently obtained, have been known as the Parrish, or +Springville, murders. The facts concerning them may be stated fairly as +follows:-- + +William R. Parrish was one of the most outspoken champions of the Twelve +when the controversy with Rigdon occurred at Nauvoo after Smith's death, +and he accompanied the fugitives to Salt Lake Valley. One evening, early +in March, 1857, a Bishop named Johnson (husband of ten wives), with two +companions, called at Parrish's house in Springville, and put to him +some of the questions which the inquisitors of the day were wont to +ask--if he prayed, something about his future plans, etc. It had been +rumored that Parrish's devotion to the church had cooled, and that +he was planning to move with his family--a wife and six children--to +California; and at a meeting in Bishop Johnson's council house a +letter had been read from Brigham Young directing them to ascertain the +intention of certain "suspicious characters in the neighborhood,"* and +if they should make a break and, being pursued, which he required, he +'would be sorry to hear a favorable report; but the better way is to +lock the stable door before the horse is stolen.' This letter was over +Brigham's signature.** This letter was the real cause of the Bishop's +visit to Parrish. At a meeting about a week later, A. Durfee and G. +Potter were deputed to find out when the Parrishes proposed to leave the +territory. Accordingly, Durfee got employment with Parrish, and both of +them gave him the idea that they sympathized with his desire to depart. +One morning, about a week later, Parrish discovered that his horses had +been stolen, and efforts to recover them were fruitless. + + + * "There had been public preaching in Springville to the effect +that no Apostles would be allowed to leave; if they did, hog-holes +in the fences would be stopped up with them. I heard these +sermons."--Affidavit of Mrs. Parrish; appendix to "Speech of Hon. John +Cradlebaugh". + + + ** Confession of J. M. Stewart, one of the Bishop's counsellors +and precinct magistrate. + + +Meanwhile, Parrish, unsuspicious of Potter and Durfee,* was telling them +of his continued plans to escape, how constantly his house was watched, +and how difficult it was for him to get out the few articles required +for the trip. Finally, at Parrish's suggestion, it was arranged that he +and Durfee should walk out of the village in the daytime, as the method +best calculated to allay suspicion. + + + * Durfee's confession, appendix to Cradlebaugh's speech. + + +They carried out this plan, and when they got to a stream called Dry +Creek, Parrish asked Durfee to go back to the house and bring his two +sons, Beason and Orrin, to join him. When Durfee returned to the house, +at about sunset, he found Potter there, and Potter set off at once for +the meeting-place, ostensibly to carry some of the articles needed for +the journey. + +Potter met Parrish where he was waiting for Durfee's return, and they +walked down a lane to a fence corner, where a Mormon named William +Bird was lying, armed with a gun. Here occurred what might be called +an illustration of "poetic justice." In the twilight, Bird mistook his +victim, and fired, killing Potter. As Bird rose and stepped forward, +Parrish asked if it was he who had fired the unexpected shot. For a +reply Bird drew a knife, clenched with Parrish, and, as he afterward +expressed it, "worked the best he could in stabbing him." He "worked" +so well that, as afterward described by one of the men concerned in the +plot,* the old man was cut all over, fifteen times in the back, as well +as in the left side, the arms, and the hands. But Bird knew that his +task was not completed, and, as soon as the murder of the elder Parrish +was accomplished, taking his own and Potter's gun, he again concealed +himself in the fence corner, awaiting the appearance of the Parrish +boys. They soon came up in company with Durfee, and Bird fired at Beason +with so good aim that he dropped dead at once. Turning the weapon on +Orrin, the first cap snapped, but he tried again and put a ball through +Orrin's cartridge box. The lad then ran and found refuge in the house of +an uncle. + + + * Affidavit of J. Bartholemew before Judge Cradlebaugh. + + +The outcome of this crime? The arrest of ORRIN and Durfee as the +murderers by a Mormon officer; a farcical hearing by a coroner's jury, +with a verdict of assassins unknown; distrusted participants in the +crime themselves the object of the Mormon spies and would-be assassins; +the robbery of a neighbor who dared to condemn the crime; a vain appeal +by Mrs. Parrish to Brigham Young, who told her he "would have stopped it +had he known anything about it," and who, when she persisted in seeking +another interview, had her advised to "drop it," and a failure by the +widow to secure even the stolen horses. "The wife of Mr. Parrish told +me," said Judge Cradlebaugh, when he charged the jury concerning this +case, "that since then at times she had lived on bread and water, and +still there are persons in this community riding about on those horses." + +The effort to have the men concerned in this and similar crimes +convicted, forms a part of the history of Judge Cradlebaugh's judicial +career after the "Mormon War," but it failed. When the grand jury would +not bring in indictments, he issued bench warrants for the arrest of +the accused, and sent the United States marshal, sustained by a +military posse, to serve the papers. It was thus that the affidavits +and confessions cited were obtained. Then followed a stampede among the +residents of the Springville neighborhood, as the judge explained in his +subsequent speech, in Congress, the church officials and civil officers +being prominent in the flight, and, when their houses were reached, they +were occupied only by many wives and many children. "I am justified," +he told the House of Representatives, "in charging that the Mormons are +guilty, and that the Mormon church is guilty, of the crimes, of murder +and robbery, as taught in their books of faith."* + + + * "I say as a fact that there was no escape for any one that the +leaders of the church in southern Utah selected as a victim.... It was a +rare thing for a man to escape from the territory with all his property +until after the Pacific Railroad was built through Utah."--LEE, +"Mormonism Unveiled," pp. 275, 287. + + +Charles Nordhoff, in a Utah letter to the New York Evening Post in May, +1871, said: "A friend said to me this afternoon, 'I saw a great change +in Salt Lake since I was there three years ago. The place is free; the +people no longer speak in whispers. Three years ago it was unsafe to +speak aloud in Salt Lake City about Mormonism, and you were warned to be +cautious.'" + +Another of the murders under this dispensation, which Judge Cradlebaugh +mentioned as "peculiarly and shockingly prominent," was that of the +Aikin party, in the spring of 1857. This party, consisting of six men, +started east from San Francisco in May, 1857, and, falling in with a +Mormon train, joined them for protection against the Indians. When they +got to a safer neighborhood, the Californians pushed on ahead. Arriving +in Kayesville, twenty-five miles north of Salt Lake City, they were at +once arrested as federal spies, and their animals (they had an outfit +worth in all, about $25,000) were put into the public corral. When their +Mormon fellow-travellers arrived, they scouted the idea that the men +even knew of an impending "war," and the party were told that they would +be sent out of the territory. But before they started, a council, held +at the call of a Bishop in Salt Lake City, decided on their death. + +Four of the party were attacked in camp by their escort while asleep; +two were killed at once, and two who escaped temporarily were shot +while, as they supposed, being escorted back to Salt Lake City. The +two others were attacked by O. P. Rockwell and some associates near the +city; one was killed outright, and the other escaped, wounded, and +was shot the next day while under the escort of "Bill" Hickman, and, +according to the latter, by Young's order. * + + + * Brigham's "Destroying Angel," p. 128. + + +A story of the escape of one man from the valley, notwithstanding +elaborate plans to prevent his doing so, has been preserved, not in the +testimony of repentant participants in his persecution, but in his own +words.* + + + * Leavenworth, Kansas, letter to New York Times, published May 1, +1858. + + +Frederick Loba was a prosperous resident of Lausanne, Switzerland, +where for some years he had been introducing a new principle in gas +manufacture, when, in 1853, some friends called his attention to the +Mormons' professions and promises. Loba was induced to believe that all +mankind who did not gather in Great Salt Lake Valley would be given over +to destruction, and that, not only would his soul be saved by moving +there, but that his business opportunities would be greatly advanced. +Accordingly he gave up the direction of the gas works at Lausanne, and +reached St. Louis in December, 1853, with about $8000 worth of property. +There he was made temporary president of a Mormon church, and there he +got his first bad impression of the Mormon brotherhood. On the way to +Utah his wife died of cholera, leaving six children, from six to twelve +years old. Welcomed as all men with property were, he was made Professor +of Chemistry in the University, and soon learned many of the church +secrets. "These," to quote his own words, "opened my eyes at once, and I +saw at a glance the terrible position in which I was placed. I now found +myself in the midst of a wicked and degraded people, shut up in the +midst of the mountains, with a large family, and deprived of all +resources with which to extricate myself. The conviction had been +forced upon my mind that Brigham himself was at the bottom of all the +clandestine assassinations, plundering of trains, and robbing of mails." +The manner, too, in which polygamy was practised aroused his intense +disgust. + +He married as his second wife an English woman, and his family relations +were pleasant; but the church officers were distrustful of him. He was +again and again urged to marry more wives, being assured that with +less than three he could not rise to a high place in the church. "This +neglect on my part," he explained, "and certain remarks that I made with +respect to Brigham's friends, determined the prophet to order my private +execution, as I am able to prove by honest and competent witnesses." +Loba adopted every precaution for his own safety, night and day. Then +came the news of the Parrish murders, and there was so much alarm among +the people that there was talk of the departure of a great many of +the dissatisfied. To check this, when the plain threats made in the +Tabernacle did not avail, Young had a band of four hundred organized +under the name of "Wolf Hunters" (borrowed from their old Hancock County +neighbors), whose duty it was to see that "the wolves" did not stray +abroad. + +Loba now communicated his fears to his wife, and found that she also +realized the danger of their position, and was ready to advise the risk +of flight. The plan, as finally decided on, was that they two should +start alone on April 1, leaving the children in care of the wife's +mother and brother, the latter a recent comer not yet initiated in the +church mysteries. + +At ten o'clock on the appointed night Loba and his wife--the latter +dressed in men's clothes--stole out of their house. Their outfit +consisted of one blanket, twelve pounds of crackers, a little tea and +sugar, a double-barrelled gun, a sword, and a compass. They were without +horses, and their route compelled them to travel the main road for +twenty-five miles before they reached the mountains, amid which +they hoped to baffle pursuit. They were fortunate enough to gain the +mountains without detention. There they laid their course, not with a +view to taking the easiest or most direct route, but one so far up +the mountain sides that pursuit by horsemen would be impossible. This +entailed great suffering. The nights were so cold that sometimes they +feared to sleep. Add to this the necessity of wading through creeks in +ice-cold water, and it is easy to understand that Loba had difficulty to +prevent his companion from yielding to despair. + +Their objective point was Greene River (170 miles from Salt Lake City by +road, but probably almost 300 by the route taken), where they expected +to find Indians on whose mercy they would throw themselves. Two days +before that river was reached they ate the last of their food, and they +kept from freezing at night by getting some sage wood from underneath +the snow, and using Loba's pocket journal for kindling. Mrs. Loba had to +be carried the whole of the last six miles, but this effort brought them +to a camp of Snake Indians, among whom were some Canadian traders, and +there they received a kindly welcome. News of their escape reached Salt +Lake City, and Surveyor General Burr sent them the necessary supplies +and a guide to conduct them to Fort Laramie, where, a month later, +all the rest of the family joined them, in good health, but entirely +destitute. + +They then learned that, as soon as their flight was discovered, the +church authorities sent out horsemen in every direction to intercept +them, but their route over the mountains proved their preservation.* + + + * Referring to the frequent Mormon declarations that there were +fewer deeds of violence in Utah than in other pioneer settlements of +equal population, the Salt Lake Tribune of January 25, 1876, said: "It +is estimated that no less than 600 murders have been committed by the +Mormons, in nearly every case at the instigation of their priestly +leaders, during the occupation of the territory. Giving a mean average +of 50,000 persons professing that faith in Utah, we have a murder +committed every year to every 2500 of population. The same ratio of +crime extended to the population of the United States would give 16,000 +murders every year." + + +The Messenger, the organ of the Reorganized Church in Salt Lake City, +said in November, 1875: "While laying the waste pipes in front of the +residence of Brigham Young recently the skeleton of a man--a white +man--was dug up. A similar discovery was made last winter in digging a +cellar in this city. What can have been the necessity of these secret +burials, without coffins, in such places?" + + + +CHAPTER IX. -- BLOOD ATONEMENT + +As early as 1853 intimations of the doctrine that an offending member +might be put out of the way were given from the Tabernacle pulpit. Orson +Hyde, on April 9 of that year, spoke, in the form of a parable, of the +fate of a wolf that a shepherd discovered in his flock of sheep, saying +that, if let alone, he would go off and tell the other wolves, and they +would come in; "whereas, if the first should meet with his just deserts, +he could not go back and tell the rest of his hungry tribe to come and +feast themselves on the flock. If you say the priesthood, or authorities +of the church here, are the shepherd, and the church is the flock, you +can make your own application of this figure." + +In September, 1856, there was a notable service in the bowery in Salt +Lake City at which several addresses were made. Heber C. Kimball urged +repentance, and told the people that Brigham Young's word was "the word +of God to this people." Then Jedediah M. Grant first gave open utterance +to a doctrine that has given the Saints, in late years, much trouble +to explain, and the carrying out of which in Brigham Young's days has +required many a Mormon denial. This is, what has been called in Utah the +doctrine of "blood atonement," and what in reality was the doctrine of +human sacrifice. + +Grant declared that some persons who had received the priesthood +committed adultery and other abominations, "get drunk, and wallow in the +mire and filth." "I say," he continued, "there are men and women that I +would advise to go to the President immediately, and ask him to appoint +a committee to attend to their case; and then let a place be selected, +and let that committee shed their blood. We have those amongst us that +are full of all manner of abominations; those who need to have their +blood shed, for water will not do; their sins are too deep for that."* +He explained that he was only preaching the doctrine of St. Paul, and +continued: "I would ask how many covenant breakers there are in this +city and in this kingdom. I believe that there are a great many; and if +they are covenant breakers, we need a place designated where we can shed +their blood.... If any of you ask, Do I mean you, I answer yes. If any +woman asks, Do I mean her, I answer yes.... We have been trying long +enough with these people, and I go in for letting the sword of the +Almighty be unsheathed, not only in word, but in deed."** + + + * Elder C. W. Penrose made an explanation of the view taken by +the church at that time, in an address in Salt Lake City on October +12, 1884, that was published in a pamphlet entitled "Blood Atonement +as taught by Leading Elders." This was deemed necessary to meet the +criticisms of this doctrine. He pleaded misrepresentation of the Saints' +position, and defined it as resting on Christ's atonement, and on +the belief that that atonement would suffice only for those who have +fellowship with Him. He quoted St. Paul as authority for the necessity +of blood shedding (Hebrews ix. 22), and Matthew xii. 31, 32, and Hebrews +x. 26, to show that there are sins, like blasphemy against the Holy +Ghost, which will not be forgiven through the shedding of Christ's +blood. He also quoted 1 John v. 16 as showing that the apostle and +Brigham Young were in agreement concerning "sins unto death," just as +Young and the apostle agreed about delivering men unto Satan that +their spirits might be saved through the destruction of their flesh (1 +Corinthians v. 5). Having justified the teaching to his satisfaction, +he proceeded to challenge proof that any one had ever paid the penalty, +coupling with this a denial of the existence of Danites. + +Elder Hyde, in his "Mormonism," says (p. 179): "There are several men +now living in Utah whose lives are forfeited by Mormon law, but spared +for a little time by Mormon policy. They are certain to be killed, and +they know it. They are only allowed to live while they add weight and +influence to Mormonism, and, although abundant opportunities are given +them for escape, they prefer to remain. So strongly are they infatuated +with their religion that they think their salvation depends on their +continued obedience, and their 'blood being shed by the servants of +God.' Adultery is punished by death, and it is taught, unless the +adulterer's blood be shed, he can have no remission for this sin. +Believing this firmly, there are men who have confessed this crime to +Brigham, and asked him to have them killed. Their superstitious fears +make life a burden to them, and they would commit suicide were not that +also a crime." + + + ** Journal of Discourses, Vol. IV, pp. 49, 50. + + +Brigham Young, who followed Grant, said that he would explain how +judgment would be "laid to the line." "There are sins," he explained, +"that men commit, for which they cannot receive forgiveness in this +world nor in that which is to come; and, if they had their eyes open to +see their true condition, they would be perfectly willing to have their +blood spilt upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might ascend to +heaven for their sins...I know, when you hear my brethren telling +about cutting people off from the earth, that you consider it a strong +doctrine; but it is to save them, not to destroy them." + +That these were not the mere expressions of a sudden impulse is shown +by the fact that Young expounded this doctrine at even greater length +a year later. Explaining what Christ meant by loving our neighbors as +ourselves, he said: "Will you love your brothers and sisters likewise +when they have committed a sin that cannot be atoned for without the +shedding of blood? Will you love that man or woman well enough to shed +their blood? That is what Jesus Christ meant.... I have seen scores and +hundreds of people for whom there would have been a chance (in the last +resurrection there will be) if their lives had been taken, and their +blood spilled on the ground as a smoking incense to the Almighty, but +who are now angels to the devil."* + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. IV, pp. 219, 220. + + +Stenhouse relates, as one of the "few notable cases that have properly +illustrated the blood atonement doctrine," that one of the wives of +an elder who was sent on a mission broke her marriage vows during his +absence. On his return, during the height of the "Reformation," she +was told that "she could not reach the circle of the gods and goddesses +unless her blood was shed," and she consented to accept the punishment. +Seating herself, therefore, on her husband's knee, she gave him a last +kiss, and he then drew a knife across her throat. "That kind and +loving husband still lives near Salt Lake City (1874), and preaches +occasionally with great zeal."* + + + * "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 470. + + +John D. Lee, who says that this doctrine was "justified by all the +people," gives full particulars of another instance. Among the Danish +converts in Utah was Rosmos Anderson, whose wife had been a widow with +a grown daughter. Anderson desired to marry his step-daughter also, and +she was quite willing; but a member of the Bishop's council wanted the +girl for his wife, and he was influential enough to prevent Anderson +from getting the necessary consent from the head of the church. Knowing +the professed horror of the church toward the crime of adultery, +Anderson and the young woman, at one of the meetings during the +"Reformation," confessed their guilt of that crime, thinking that in +this way they would secure permission to marry. But, while they were +admitted to rebaptism on their confession, the coveted permit was not +issued and they were notified that to offend would be to incur death. +Such a charge was very soon laid against Anderson (not against the +girl), and the same council, without hearing him, decided that he +must die. Anderson was so firm in the Mormon faith that he made no +remonstrance, simply asking half a day for preparation. His wife +provided clean clothes for the sacrifice, and his executioners dug his +grave. At midnight they called for him, and, taking him to the place, +allowed him to kneel by the grave and pray. Then they cut his throat, +"and held him so that his blood ran into the grave." His wife, obeying +instructions, announced that he had gone to California.* + + + * "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 282. + + +As an illustration of the opportunity which these times gave a +polygamous priesthood to indulge their tastes, may be told the story of +"the affair at San Pete." Bishop Warren Snow of Manti, San Pete County, +although the husband of several wives, desired to add to his list a +good-looking young woman in that town When he proposed to her, she +declined the honor, informing him that she was engaged to a younger man. +The Bishop argued with her on the ground of her duty, offering to have +her lover sent on a mission, but in vain. When even the girl's parents +failed to gain her consent, Snow directed the local church authorities +to command the young man to give her up. Finding him equally obstinate, +he was one evening summoned to attend a meeting where only trusted +members were present. Suddenly the lights were put out, he was beaten +and tied to a bench, and Bishop Snow himself castrated him with a bowie +knife. In this condition he was left to crawl to some haystacks, where +he lay until discovered "The young man regained his health," says Lee, +"but has been an idiot or quiet lunatic ever since, and is well known +by hundreds of Mormons or Gentiles in Utah."* And the Bishop married +the girl. Lee gives Young credit for being very "mad" when he learned of +this incident, but the Bishop was not even deposed.** + + + * Ibid., p. 285. + + + ** Stenhouse quotes the following as showing that the San Pete +outrage was scarcely concealed by the Mormon authorities: "I was at a +Sunday meeting, in the spring of 1857, in Provo, when the news of the +San Pete incident was referred to by the presiding Bishop, Blackburn. +Some men in Provo had rebelled against authority in some trivial matter, +and Blackburn shouted in his Sunday meeting--a mixed congregation of all +ages and both sexes: 'I want the people of Provo to understand that the +boys in Provo can use the knife as well as the boys in San Pete. Boys, +get your knives ready.'" "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 302. + + + +CHAPTER X. -- THE TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT--JUDGE BROCCHUS'S EXPERIENCE + +In March, 1851, the two houses of the legislature of Deseret, sitting +together, adopted resolutions "cheerfully and cordially" accepting the +law providing a territorial government for Utah, and tendering Union +Square in Salt Lake City as a site for the government buildings. The +first territorial election was held on August 4, and the legislative +assembly then elected held its first meeting on September 22. An act was +at once passed continuing in force the laws passed by the legislature of +Deseret (an unauthorized body) not in conflict with the territorial +law, and locating the capital in the Pauvan Valley, where the town +was afterward named Fillmore* and the county Millard, in honor of the +President. + + + * Only one session of the legislature was held at Fillmore +(December, 1855). The lawmakers afterward met there, but only to adjourn +to Salt Lake City. + + +The federal law, establishing the territory, provided that the governor, +secretary, chief justice and two associate justices of the Supreme +Court, the attorney general, or state's attorney, and marshal should be +appointed by the President of the United States. President Fillmore on +September 22, 1850, filled these places as follows: governor, Brigham +Young; secretary, B. D. Harris of Vermont; chief justice, Joseph +Buffington of Pennsylvania; associate justices, Perry E. Brocchus and +Zerubbabel Snow; attorney general, Seth M. Blair of Utah; marshal, J. +L. Heywood of Utah, Young, Snow, Blair, and Heywood being Mormons. L. G. +Brandebury was later appointed chief justice, Mr. Buffington declining +that office. + +The selection of Brigham Young as governor made him, in addition to +his church offices, ex-officio commander-in-chief of the militia and +superintendent of Indian affairs, the latter giving him a salary of +$1000 a year in addition to his salary of $1500 as governor. Had the +character of the Mormon church government been understood by President +Fillmore, it does not seem possible that he would, by Young's +appointment, have so completely united the civil and religious authority +of the territory in one man; or, if he had had any comprehension of +Young's personal characteristics, it is fair to conclude that the +appointment would not have been made. + +The voice which the President listened to in the matter was that of that +adroit Mormon agent, Colonel Thomas L. Kane. Kane's part in the business +came out after these appointments were announced, and after the Buffalo +(New York) Courier had printed a communication attacking Young's +character on the ground of his record both in Illinois and Utah. +President Fillmore sent these charges to Kane (on July 4, 1851) with a +letter in which he said, "You will recollect that I relied much upon you +for the moral character of Mr. Young," and asking him to "truly state +whether these charges against the moral character of Governor Young are +true." Kane sent two letters in reply, dated July 11. In a short open +one he said: "I reiterate without reserve the statement of his +excellent capacity, energy, and integrity, which I made you prior to the +appointment. I am willing to say that I VOLUNTEERED to communicate to +you the facts by which I was convinced of his patriotism and devotion +to the Union. I made no qualification when I assured you of his +irreproachable moral character, because I was able to speak of this from +my own intimate personal knowledge." + +The second letter, marked "personal," went into these matters much more +in detail. It declared that the tax levied by Young on non-Mormons who +sold goods in Salt Lake City was a liquor tax, creditable to Mormon +temperance principles. Had the President consulted the report of the +debate on Babbitt's admission as a Delegate, he would have discovered +that this was falsehood number one. The charges against Young while in +Illinois, including counterfeiting, Kane swept aside as "a mere rehash +of old libels," and he cited the Battalion as an illustration of Mormon +patriotism. The extent to which he could go in falsifying in Young's +behalf is illustrated, however, most pointedly in what he had to say +regarding the charge of polygamy: "The remaining charge connects itself +with that unmixed outrage, the spiritual wife story; which was fastened +on the Mormons by a poor ribald scamp whom, though the sole surviving +brother and representative of their Jo. Smith, they were literally +forced to excommunicate for licentiousness, and who therefore revenged +himself by editing confessions and disclosures of savor to please +the public that peruses novels in yellow paper covers."* In regard to +William Smith, the fact was that he opposed polygamy both before and +after his expulsion from the church. Kane's stay among the Mormons on +the Missouri must have acquainted him with the practically open practice +of polygamy at that time. His entire correspondence with Fillmore stamps +him as a man whose word could be accepted on no subject. It would have +been well if President Buchanan had availed himself of the existence of +these letters. Fillmore stated in later years that at that time neither +he nor the Senate knew that polygamy was an accepted Mormon doctrine. + + + * For correspondence in full, see Millennial Star, Vol. XIII, pp. +341-344. + + +Young took the oath of office as governor in February, 1851. The +non-Mormon federal officers arrived in June and July following, and +with them came Babbitt, bringing $20,000 which had been appropriated by +Congress for a state-house, and J. M. Bernhisel, the first territorial +Delegate to Congress, with a library purchased by him in the East for +which Congress had provided. The arrival of the Gentile officers gave +a speedy opportunity to test the temper of the church in regard to any +interference with, or even discussion of, their "peculiar" institutions +or Young's authority. + +Their first welcome was cordial, with balls and dinners at the Bath +House at the Hot Springs at which, for their special benefit, says a +local historian, was served "champagne wine from the grocery," with +home-brewed porter and ale for the rest. When Judge Brocchus reached +Salt Lake City, his two non-Mormon associates had been there long enough +to form an opinion of the Mormon population and of the aims of the +leading church officers. They soon concluded that "no man else could +govern them against Brigham Young's influence, without a military +force,"* and they heard many expressions, public and private, indicating +the contempt in which the federal government was held. The anniversary +of the arrival of the pioneers, July 24, was always celebrated with much +ceremony, and that year the principal addresses were made by "General" +D. H. Wells and Brigham Young. Some of the new officers occupied seats +on the platform. Wells attacked the government for "requiring" the +Battalion to enlist. Young paid especial attention to President Taylor, +who had recently died, and whose course toward the Mormons did not +please them, closing this part of his remarks with the declaration, "but +Zachary Taylor is dead and in hell, and I am glad of it," adding, "and +I prophesy in the name of Jesus Christ, by the power of the priesthood +that's upon me, that any President of the United States who lifts his +finger against this people, shall die an untimely death, and go to +hell." + + + * Report of the three officers to President Fillmore, Ex. Doc. +No. 25, 1st Session, 32d Congress. + + +Judge Brocchus had been commissioned by the Washington Monument +Association to ask the people of the territory for a block of stone +for that structure, and, on signifying a desire to make known his +commission, he was invited to do so at the General Conference to be +held on September 7 and 8. The judge thought that, with the life of +Washington as a text, he could read these people a lesson on their duty +toward the government, and could correct some of the impressions under +which they rested. The idea itself only showed how little he understood +anything pertaining to Mormonism. + +There was no newspaper in Salt Lake City in that time, and for a report +of the judge's address and of Brigham Young's reply, we must rely on the +report of the three federal officers to President Fillmore, on a letter +from Judge Brocchus printed in the East, and on three letters on the +subject addressed to the New York Herald (one of which that journal +printed, and all of which the author published in a pamphlet entitled +"The Truth for the Mormons",) by J. M. Grant, first mayor of Salt Lake +City, major general of the Legion, and Speaker of the house in the +Deseret legislature. + +Judge Brocchus spoke for two hours. He began with expressions of +sympathy for the sufferings of the Mormons in Missouri and Illinois, +and then referred to the unfriendliness of the people toward the federal +government, pointing out what he considered its injustice, and alluding +pointedly to Brigham Young's remarks about President Taylor. He defended +the President's memory, and told his audience that, "if they could not +offer a block of marble for the Washington Monument in a feeling of full +fellowship with the people of the United States, as brethren and fellow +citizens, they had better not offer it at all, but leave it unquarried +in the bosom of its native mountain." The officers' report to President +Fillmore says that the address "was entirely free from any allusions, +even the most remote, to the peculiar religion of the community, or to +any of their domestic or social customs." Even if the Mormons had so +construed it, the rebuke of their lack of patriotism would have aroused +their resentment, and Bernhisel, in a letter to President Fillmore, +characterized it as "a wanton insult." + +But the judge did make, according to other reports, what was construed +as an uncomplimentary reference to polygamy, and this stirred the church +into a tumult of anger and indignation. According to Mormon accounts,* +the judge, addressing the ladies, said: "I have a commission from the +Washington Monument Association, to ask of you a block of marble, as +a test of your citizenship and loyalty to the government of the United +States. But in order to do it acceptably you must become virtuous, and +teach your daughters to become virtuous, or your offering had better +remain in the bosom of your native mountains." + + + * The report of what follows, including Young's address, is taken +from Grant's pamphlet... + + +Mild as this language may seem, no Mormon audience, since the marrying +of more wives than one had been sanctioned by the church, had ever +listened to anything like it. To permit even this interference with +their "religious belief" was entirely foreign to Young's purpose, and he +took the floor in a towering rage to reply. "Are you a judge," he asked, +"and can't even talk like a lawyer or a politician?" George Washington +was first in war, but he was first in peace, too, and Young could handle +a sword as well as Washington. "But you [addressing the judge] standing +there, white and shaking now at the howls which you have stirred up +yourself--you are a coward.... Old General Taylor, what was he?* A mere +soldier with regular army buttons on; no better to go at the head of +brave troops than a dozen I could pick out between here and Laramie." He +concluded thus:-- + + + * In a discourse on June 19, 1853, Young said that he never heard +of his alleged expression about General Taylor until Judge Brocchus made +use of it, but he added: "When he made the statement there, I surely +bore testimony to the truth of it. But until then I do not know that it +ever came into my mind whether Taylor was in hell or not, any more +than it did that any other wicked man was there," etc.--Journal of +Discourses, Vol. 1, p. 185. + + +"What you have been afraid to intimate about our morals I will not +stoop to notice, except to make my particular personal request to every +brother and husband present not to give you back what such impudence +deserves. You talk of things you have on hearsay since your coming among +us. I'll talk of hearsay then--the hearsay that you are discontented, +and will go home, because we cannot make it worth your while to stay. +What it would satisfy you to get out of us I think it would be hard to +tell; but I am sure that it is more than you'll get. If you or any one +else is such a baby-calf, we must sugar your soap to coax you to wash +yourself of Saturday nights. Go home to your mammy straight away, and +the sooner the better." + +This was the language addressed by the governor of the territory and the +head of the church, to one of the Supreme Court judges appointed by the +President of the United States! + +Young alluded to his reference to the judge's personal safety in a +discourse on June 19, 1853, in which, speaking of the judge's remarks, +he said: "They [the Mormons] bore the insult like saints of God. It is +true, as it was said in the report of these affairs, if I had crooked my +little finger, he would have been used up, but I did not bend it. If +I had, the sisters alone felt indignant enough to have chopped him in +pieces." A little later, in the same discourse, he added: "Every man +that comes to impose on this people, no matter by whom they are sent, or +who they are that are sent, lay the axe at the root of the tree to kill +themselves. I will do as I said I would last conference. Apostates, or +men who never made any profession of religion, had better be careful how +they come here, lest I should bend my little finger."* + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. I, p. 187. + + +If the records of the Mormon church had included acts as well as words, +how many times would we find that Young's little finger was bent to a +purpose? + +Bold as he was, Young seems to have felt that he had gone too far in his +abuse of Judge Brocchus, and on September 19 he addressed a note to him, +inviting him to attend a public meeting in the bowery the next Sunday +morning, "to explain, satisfy, or apologize to the satisfaction of the +ladies who heard your address on the 8th," a postscript assuring the +judge that "no gentleman will be permitted to make any reply." The judge +in polite terms declined this offer, saying that he had been, at the +proper time, denied a chance to explain, "at the peril of having my +hair pulled or my throat cut." He added that his speech was deliberately +prepared, that his sole design was "to vindicate the government of +the United States from those feelings of prejudice and that spirit of +defection which seemed to pervade the public sentiment," and that he +had had no intention to offer insult or disrespect to his audience. This +called out, the next day, a very long reply from Young, of which the +following is a paragraph: "With a war of words on party politics, +factions, religious schisms, current controversy of creeds, policy +of clans or state clipper cliques, I have nothing to do; but when the +eternal principles of truth are falsified, and light is turned into +darkness by mystification of language or a false delineation of facts, +so that the just indignation of the true, virtuous, upright citizens of +the commonwealth is aroused into vigilance for the dear-bought +liberties of themselves and fathers, and that spirit of intolerance and +persecution which has driven this people time and time again from their +peaceful homes, manifests itself in the flippancy of rhetoric for female +insult and desecration, it is time that I forbear to hold my peace, lest +the thundering anathemas of nations, born and unborn, should rest upon +my head, when the marrow of my bones shall be ill prepared to sustain +the threatened blow."* + + + * For correspondence in full, see Tullidge's "History of Salt +Lake City," pp. 86--91. + + +Judge Brocchus wrote to a friend in the East, on September 20: "How it +will end, I do not know. I have just learned that I have been denounced, +together with the government and officers, in the bowery again to-day by +Governor Young. I hope I shall get off safely. God only knows. I am in +the power of a desperate and murderous sect." + +The non-Mormon federal officers now announced their determination to +abandon their places and return to the East. Young foresaw that so +radical a course would give his conduct a wide advertisement, and +attract to him an unpleasant notoriety. He, therefore, called on the +offended judges personally, and urged them to remain.* Being assured +that they would not reconsider their determination, and that Secretary +Harris would take with him the $24,000 appropriated for the pay and +mileage of the territorial legislature, Young, on September 18, issued a +proclamation declaring the result of the election of August 4, which +he had neglected to do, and convening the legislature in session on +September 22. "So solicitous was the governor that the secretary and +other non-Mormon officers should be kept in ignorance of this step," +says the report of the latter to President Fillmore, "that on the 19th, +two days after the date of a personal notice sent to members, he most +positively and emphatically denied, as communicated to the secretary, +that any such notice had been issued." + + + * Young to the President, House Doc. No. 25, 1st Session, 32d +Congress. + + +As soon as the legislature met, it passed resolutions directing the +United States marshal to take possession of all papers and property +(including money) in the hands of Secretary Harris, and to arrest him +and lock him up if he offered any resistance. On receipt of a copy of +this resolution, Secretary Harris sent a reply, giving several reasons +for refusing to hand over the money appropriated for the legislature, +among them the failure of the governor to have a census taken before the +election, as provided by the territorial act, the defective character +of the governor's proclamation ordering the election, allowing aliens to +vote, and the governor's failure to declare the result of the election, +his delayed proclamation being pronounced "worthless for all legal +purposes." + +On September 28 the three non-Mormon officers took their departure, +carrying with them to Washington the disputed money, which was turned +over to the proper officer.* + + + * Tullidge, in his "History of Salt Lake City," says: "Under the +censure of the great statesman, Daniel Webster, and with ex-Vice +President Dallas and Colonel Kane using their potent influence against +them, and also Stephen A. Douglas, Brandebury, Brocchus, and Harris were +forced to retire." As these officers left the territory of their own +accord, and contrary to Brigham Young's urgent protest, this statement +only furnishes another instance of the Mormon plan to attack the +reputation of any one whom they could not control. The three officers +were criticized by some Eastern newspapers for leaving their post +through fear of bodily injury, but Congress voted to pay their salaries. + + +All the correspondence concerning the failure of this first attempt to +establish non-Mormon federal officers in Utah was given to Congress in +a message from President Fillmore, dated January 9, 1852. The returned +officers made a report which set forth the autocratic attitude of the +Mormon church, the open practice of polygamy,* and the non-enforcement +of the laws, not even murderers being punished. Of one of the +allegations of murder set forth,--that a man from Ithaca, New York, +named James Munroe, was murdered on his way to Salt Lake City by a +member of the church, his body brought to the city and buried without +an inquest, the murderer walking the streets undisturbed, H. H. Bancroft +says, "There is no proof of this statement."** On the contrary, Mayor +Grant in his "Truth for the Mormons" acknowledges it, and gives the +details of the murder, justifying it on the ground of provocation, +alleging that while Egan, the murderer, was absent in California, +Munroe, "from his youth up a member of the church, Egan's friend too, +therefore a traitor," seduced Egan's wife. + + + * J. D. Grant, following the example of Colonel Kane, had the +effrontery to say of the charge of polygamy, in one of his letters to +the New York Herald: "I pronounce it false.... Suppose I should admit it +at once? Whose business is it? Does the constitution forbid it?" + + + ** "History of Utah," p. 460, note. + + +Young, in a statement to the President, defended his acts and the acts +of the territorial legislature, and attacked the character and motives +of the federal officers. The legislature soon after petitioned President +Fillmore to fill the vacancies by appointing men "who are, indeed, +residents amongst us." + + + +CHAPTER XI. -- MORMON TREATMENT OF FEDERAL OFFICERS + +The next federal officers for Utah appointed by the President (in +August, 1852) were Lazarus H. Reid of New York to be chief justice, +Leonidas Shaver, associate justice, and B. G. Ferris, secretary. Neither +of these officers incurred the Mormon wrath. Both of the judges died +while in office, and the next chief justice was John F. Kinney, who +had occupied a seat on the Iowa Supreme Bench, with W. W. Drummond of +Illinois, and George P. Stiles, one of Joseph Smith's counsel at the +time of the prophet's death, as associates. A. W. Babbitt received the +appointment of secretary of the territory.* + + + * Some years later Babbitt was killed. Mrs. Waite, in "The Mormon +Prophet" (p. 34) says: "In the summer of 1862 Brigham was referring to +this affair in a tea-table conversation at which judge Waite and the +writer of this were present. After making some remarks to impress +upon the minds of those present the necessity of maintaining friendly +relations between the federal officers and the authorities of the +church, he used language substantially as follows: 'There is no need of +any difficulty, and there need be none if the officers do their duty and +mind their affairs. If they do not, if they undertake to interfere with +affairs that do not concern them, I will not be far off. There was Almon +W. Babbitt. He undertook to quarrel with me, but soon afterward was +killed by Indians." + + +The territorial legislature had continued to meet from time to time, +Young having a seat of honor in front of the Speaker at each opening +joint session, and presenting his message. The most important measure +passed was an election law which practically gave the church authorities +control of the ballot. It provided that each voter must hand his ballot, +folded, to the judge of election, who must deposit it after numbering +it, and after the clerk had recorded the name and number. This, of +course, gave the church officers knowledge concerning the candidate for +whom each man voted. Its purpose needs no explanation. + +In August, 1854, a force of some three hundred soldiers, under command +of Lieutenant Colonel E. J. Steptoe of the United States army, on their +way to the Pacific coast, arrived in Salt Lake City and passed the +succeeding winter there. Young's term as governor was about to expire, +and the appointment of his successor rested with President Pierce. +Public opinion in the East had become more outspoken against the +Mormons since the resignation of the first federal officers sent to the +territory, the "revelation" concerning polygamy having been publicly +avowed meanwhile, and there was an expressed feeling that a non-Mormon +should be governor. Accordingly, President Pierce, in December, 1854, +offered the governorship to Lieutenant Colonel Steptoe. + +Brigham Young, just before and after this period, openly declared that +he would not surrender the actual government of the territory to any +man. In a discourse in the Tabernacle, on June 19, 1853, in which +he reviewed the events of 1851, he said, "We have got a territorial +government, and I am and will be governor, and no power can hinder it, +until the Lord Almighty says, 'Brigham, you need not be governor any +longer.'"* In a defiant discourse in the Tabernacle, on February 18, +1855, Young again stated his position on this subject: "For a man to +come here [as governor] and infringe upon my individual rights and +privileges, and upon those of my brethren, will never meet my sanction, +and I will scourge such a one until he leaves. I am after him." Defining +his position further, and the independence of his people, he said: "Come +on with your knives, your swords, and your faggots of fire, and destroy +the whole of us rather than we will forsake our religion. Whether +the doctrine of plurality of wives is true or false is none of your +business. We have as good a right to adopt tenets in our religion as +the Church of England, or the Methodists, or the Baptists, or any other +denomination have to theirs."** + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1, p. 187. + + + ** Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 187-188. + + +Having thus defied the federal appointing power, the nomination of +Colonel Steptoe as Young's successor might have been expected to cause +an outbreak; but the Mormon leaders were always diplomatic--at least, +when Young did not lose his temper. The outcome of this appointment was +its declination by Steptoe, a petition to President Pierce for Young's +reappointment signed by Steptoe himself and all the federal officers in +the territory, and the granting of the request of these petitioners. + +Mrs. C. B. Waite, wife of Associate Justice C. B. Waite, one of +Lincoln's appointees, gives a circumstantial account of the manner in +which Colonel Steptoe was influenced to decline the nomination and sign +the petition in favor of Young.* Two women, whose beauty then attracted +the attention of Salt Lake City society, were a relative by marriage +of Brigham Young and an actress in the church theatre. The federal army +officers were favored with a good deal of their society. When Steptoe's +appointment as governor was announced, Young called these women to +his assistance. In conformity with the plan then suggested, Young one +evening suddenly demanded admission to Colonel Steptoe's office, which +was granted after considerable delay. Passing into the back room, he +found the two women there, dressed in men's clothes and with their faces +concealed by their hats. He sent the women home with a rebuke, and then +described to Steptoe the danger he was in if the women's friends learned +of the incident, and the disgrace which would follow its exposure. +Steptoe's declination of the nomination and his recommendation of Young +soon followed. + +President Pierce's selection of judicial officers for Utah was not made +with proper care, nor with due regard to the dignity of the places to +be filled. Chief Justice Kinney took with him to Utah a large stock of +goods which he sold at retail after his arrival there, and he also kept +a boarding-house in Salt Lake City. With his "trade" dependent on Mormon +customers, he had every object in cultivating their popularity. Known as +a "Jack-Mormon" in Iowa, Mrs. Waite declared that his uniform course, to +the time about which she wrote, had been "to aid and abet Brigham Young +in his ambitious schemes," and that he was then "an open apologist +and advocate of polygamy." Judge Drummond's course in Utah was in many +respects scandalous. A former member of the bench in Illinois writes to +me: "I remember that when Drummond's appointment was announced there was +considerable comment as to his lack of fitness for the place, and, after +the troubles between him and the Mormon leaders got aired through the +press, members of the bar from his part of the state said they did not +blame the Mormons--that it was an imposition upon them to have sent him +out there as a judge. I never heard his moral character discussed." +If the Mormon leaders had shown any respect for the government at +Washington, or for the reputable men appointed to territorial offices, +more attention might be paid to their hostility manifested to certain +individuals. + + + * "The Mormon Prophet," p. 36, confirmed by Beadle's "Life in +Utah," p. 171. + + +A few of the leading questions at issue under the new territorial +officers will illustrate the nature of the government with which they +had to deal. The territorial legislature had passed acts defining the +powers and duties of the territorial courts. These acts provided that +the district courts should have original jurisdiction, both civil and +criminal, wherever not otherwise provided by law. Chapter 64 (approved +January 14, 1864) provided as follows: "All questions of law, the +meaning of writings other than law, and the admissibility of testimony +shall be decided by the court; and no laws or parts of laws shall be +read, argued, cited, or adopted in any courts, during any trial, +except those enacted by the governor and legislative assembly of this +territory, and those passed by the Congress of the United States, WHEN +APPLICABLE; and no report, decision, or doings of any court shall be +read, argued, cited, or adopted as precedent in any other trial." +This obliterated at a stroke the whole body of the English common law. +Another act provided that, by consent of the court and the parties, any +person could be selected to act as judge in a particular case. As the +district court judges were federal appointees, a judge of probate +was provided for each county, to be elected by joint ballot of the +legislature. These probate courts, besides the authority legitimately +belonging to such tribunals, were given "power to exercise original +jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, as well in chancery as at common +law." Thus there were in the territory two kinds of courts, to one of +which alone a non-Mormon could look for justice, and to the other of +which every Mormon would appeal when he was not prevented. + +The act of Congress organizing the territory provided for the +appointment of a marshal, approved by the President; the territorial +legislature on March 3, 1852, provided for another marshal to be elected +by joint ballot, and for an attorney general. A non-Mormon had succeeded +the original Mormon who was appointed as federal marshal, and he took +the ground that he should have charge of all business pertaining to the +marshal's office in the United States courts. Judge Stiles having issued +writs to the federal marshal, the latter was not able to serve them, and +the demand was openly made that only territorial law should be enforced +in Utah. When the question of jurisdiction came before the judge, three +Mormon lawyers appeared in behalf of the Mormon claim, and one of them, +James Ferguson, openly told the judge that, if he decided against him, +they "would take him from the bench d--d quick." Judge Stiles adjourned +his court, and applied to Governor Young for assistance; but got only +the reply that "the boys had got their spunk up, and he would not +interfere," and that, if Judge Stiles could not enforce the United +States laws, the sooner he adjourned court the better.* All the records +and papers of the United States court were kept in Judge Stiles's +office. In his absence, Ferguson led a crowd to the office, seized and +deposited in a safe belonging to Young the court papers, and, piling up +the personal books and papers of the judge in an outhouse, set fire to +them. The judge, supposing that the court papers were included in the +bonfire, innocently made that statement in an affidavit submitted on his +return to Washington in 1857. + + + * This account is given in Mrs. Waite's "The Mormon Prophet." +Tullidge omits the incident in his "History of Salt Lake City." + + +Judge Drummond, reversing the policy of Chief Justice Kinney and Judge +Shaver, announced, before the opening of the first session of his court, +that he should ignore all proceedings of the territorial probate courts +except such as pertained to legitimate probate business. This position +was at once recognized as a challenge of the entire Mormon judicial +system,* and steps were promptly taken to overthrow it. There are +somewhat conflicting accounts of the method adopted. Mrs. Waite, in +her "Mormon Prophet," Hickman, in his confessions, and Remy, in his +"Journey," have all described it with variations. All agree that a +quarrel was brought about between the judge and a Jew, which led to the +arrest of both of them. "During the prosecution of the case," says Mrs. +Waite, "the judge gave some sort of a stipulation that he would not +interfere any further with the probate courts." + + + * A member of the legislature wrote to his brother in England, of +Drummond: He has brass to declare in open court that the Utah laws +are founded in ignorance, and has attempted to set some of the most +important ones aside,... and he will be able to appreciate the merits of +a returned compliment some day." + + + * Tullidge, "History of Salt Lake City," p. 412. + + +Judge Stiles left the territory in the spring of 1857, and gave the +government an account of his treatment in the form of an affidavit when +he reached Washington. Judge Drummond held court a short time for Judge +Stiles in Carson County (now Nevada)* in the spring of 1857, and then +returned to the East by way of California, not concealing his opinion +of Mormon rule on the way, and giving the government a statement of the +case in a letter resigning his judgeship. + + + * The settlement of what is now Nevada was begun by both Mormons +and non-Mormons in 1854, and, the latter being in the majority, the Utah +legislature organized the entire western part of the territory as one +county, called Carson, and Governor Young appointed Orson Hyde +its probate judge. Many persons coming in after the settlement of +California, as miners, farmers, or stock-raisers, the Mormons saw their +majority in danger, and ordered the non-Mormons to leave. Both sides +took up arms, and they camped in sight of each other for two weeks. The +Mormons, learning that their opponents were to receive reenforcements +from California, agreed on equal rights for all in that part of the +territory; but when the legislature learned of this, it repealed the +county act, recalled the judge, and left the district without any legal +protection whatever. Thus matters remained until late in 1858, when a +probate judge was quietly appointed for Carson Valley. After this an +election was held, but although the non-Mormons won at the polls, the +officers elected refused to qualify and enforce Mormon statutes.--Letter +of Delegate-elect J. M. Crane of Nevada, "The Mormon Prophet," pp. +4l-45. + +After the departure of the non-Mormon federal judges from Utah, the only +non-Mormon officers left there were those belonging to the office of +the surveyor general, and two Indian agents. Toward these officers the +Mormons were as hostile as they had been toward the judges, and the +latest information that the government received about the disposition +and intentions of the Mormons came from them. + +The Mormon view of their title to the land in Salt Lake Valley appeared +in Young's declaration on his first Sunday there, that it was theirs and +would be divided by the officers of the church.* Tullidge, explaining +this view in his history published in 1886, says that this was simply +following out the social plan of a Zion which Smith attempted in Ohio, +Missouri, and Illinois, under "revelation." He explains: "According to +the primal law of colonization, recognized in all ages, it was THEIR +LAND if they could hold and possess it. They could have done this so far +as the Mexican government was concerned, which government probably never +would even have made the first step to overthrow the superstructure of +these Mormon society builders. At that date, before this territory was +ceded to the United States, Brigham Young, as the master builder of the +colonies which were soon to spread throughout these valleys, could with +absolute propriety give the above utterances on the land question."** + + + * "They will not, however, without protest, buy the land, and +hope that grants will be made to actual settlers or the state, +sufficient to cover their improvements. If not, the state will be +obliged to buy, and then confirm the titles already given."--Gunnison. +"The Mormons," 1852, p. 414. + + + ** Captain Gunnison, who as lieutenant accompanied Stansbury's +surveying party and printed a book giving his personal observations, was +murdered in 1853 while surveying a railroad route at a camp on +Sevier River. His party were surprised by a band of Pah Utes while at +breakfast, and nine of them were killed. The charge was often made that +this massacre was inspired by Mormons, but it has not been supported by +direct evidence. + + +When the act organizing the territory was passed, very little of the +Indian title to the land had been extinguished, and the Indians made +bitter complaints of the seizure of their homes and hunting-grounds, and +the establishment of private rights to canyons and ferries, by the +people who professed so great a regard for the "Lamanites." Congress, +in February, 1855, created the office of surveyor general of Utah and +defined his duties. The presence of this officer was resented at once, +and as soon as Surveyor General David H. Burr arrived in Salt Lake City +the church directed all its members to convey their lands to Young as +trustee in trust for the church, "in consideration of the good will +which ---- have to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." +Explaining this order in a discourse in the Tabernacle on March 1, 1857, +H. C. Kimball said: "I do not compel you to do it; the trustee in trust +does not; God does not. But He says that if you will do this and the +other things which He has counselled for our good, do so and prove +Him.... If you trifle with me when I tell you the truth, you will trifle +with Brother Brigham, and if you trifle with him you will also trifle +with angels and with God, and thus you will trifle yourselves down to +hell."* + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. IV, pp. 249, 252. + + +The Mormon policy toward the surveyors soon took practical shape. On +August 30, 1856, Burr reported a nearly fatal assault on one of his +deputies by three Danites. Deputy Surveyor Craig reported efforts of +the Mormons to stir up the Indians against the surveyors, and quoted a +suggestion of the Deseret News that the surveyors be prosecuted in the +territorial court for trespass. In February, 1857, Burr reported a visit +he had had from the clerk of the Supreme Court, the acting district +attorney, and the territorial marshal, who told him plainly that the +country was theirs. + +They showed him a copy of a report that he had made to Washington, +charging Young with extensive depredations, warned him that he could +not write to Washington without their knowledge, and ordered that such +letter writing should stop. "The fact is," Burr added, "these people +repudiate the authority of the United States in this country, and are in +open rebellion against the general government.... So strong have been +my apprehensions of danger to the surveyors that I scarcely deemed it +prudent to send any out.... We are by no means sure that we will be +permitted to leave, for it is boldly asserted we would not get away +alive."* He did escape early in the spring. + + + * For text of reports, see House Ex. Doc. No. 71, 1st Session, +35th Congress. + + +The reports of the Indian agents to the commissioner at Washington at +this time were of the same character. Mormon trespasses on Indian land +had caused more than one conflict with the savages, but, when there was +a prospect of hostilities with the government, the Mormons took steps to +secure Indian aid. In May, 1855, Indian Agent Hurt called the attention +of the commissioner at Washington to the fact that the Mormons at their +recent Conference had appointed a large number of missionaries to preach +among the "Lamanites"; that these missionaries were "a class of lawless +young men," and, as their influence was likely to be in favor of +hostilities with the whites, he suggested that all Indian officers +receive warning on the subject. Hurt was added to the list of fugitive +federal officers from Utah, deeming it necessary to flee when news came +of the approach of the troops in the fall of 1857. His escape was quite +dramatic, some of his Indian friends assisting him. They reached General +Johnston's camp about the middle of October, after suffering greatly +from hunger and cold. + +The Mormon leaders could scarcely fail to realize that a point must be +reached when the federal government would assert its authority in +Utah territory, but they deemed a conflict with the government of less +serious moment than a surrender which would curtail their own civil and +criminal jurisdiction, and bring their doctrine of polygamy within reach +of the law. A specimen of the unbridled utterances of these leaders +in those days will be found in a discourse by Mayor Grant in the +Tabernacle, on March 2, 1856:-- + +"Who is afraid to die? None but the wicked. If they want to send troops +here, let them come to those who have imported filth and whores, though +we can attend to that class without so much expense to the Government. +They will threaten us with United States troops! Why, your impudence and +ignorance would bring a blush to the cheek of the veriest camp-follower +among them. We ask no odds of you, you rotten carcasses, and I am not +going to bow one hair's breadth to your influence. I would rather be cut +into inch pieces than succumb one particle to such filthiness .... If +we were to establish a whorehouse on every corner of our streets, as in +nearly all other cities outside of Utah, either by law or otherwise, we +should doubtless then be considered good fellows."* + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. III, pp. 234-235 + + +Two weeks later Brigham Young, in a sermon in the same place, said, "I +said then, and I shall always say, that I shall be governor as long as +the Lord Almighty wishes me to govern this people."* + + + * Ibid., p. 258. + + +In January, 1853, Orson Pratt, as Mormon representative, began the +publication in Washington, D.C., of a monthly periodical called The +Seer, in which he defended polygamy, explained the Mormon creed, and set +forth the attitude of the Mormons toward the United States government. +The latter subject occupied a large part of the issue of January, +1854, in the shape of questions and answers. The following will give an +illustration of their tone:-- + +"Q.--In what manner have the people of the United States treated the +divine message contained in the Book of Mormon? + +"A.--They have closed their eyes, their ears, their hearts and their +doors against it. They have scorned, rejected and hated the servants of +God who were sent to bear testimony of it. + +"Q.--In what manner has the United States treated the Saints who have +believed in this divine message? + +"A.--They have proceeded to the most savage and outrageous +persecutions;... dragged little children from their hiding-places, and, +placing the muzzles of their guns to their heads, have blown out their +brains, with the most horrid oaths and imprecations. They have taken +the fair daughters of American citizens, bound them on benches used for +public worship, and there, in great numbers, ravished them until death +came to their relief." + +Further answers were in the shape of an argument that the federal +government was responsible for the losses of the Saints in Missouri and +Illinois. + + + +CHAPTER XII. -- THE MORMON "WAR" + +The government at Washington and the people of the Eastern states knew a +good deal more about Mormonism in 1856 than they did when Fillmore gave +the appointment of governor to Young in 1850. The return of one federal +officer after another from Utah with a report that his office +was untenable, even if his life was not in danger, the practical +nullification of federal law, and the light that was beginning to be +shed on Mormon social life by correspondents of Eastern newspapers had +aroused enough public interest in the matter to lead the politicians to +deem it worthy of their attention. Accordingly, the Republican National +Convention, in June, 1856, inserted in its platform a plank declaring +that the constitution gave Congress sovereign power over the +territories, and that "it is both the right and the duty of Congress to +prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism--polygamy and +slavery." + +A still more striking proof of the growing political importance of the +Mormon question was afforded by the attention paid to it by Stephen A. +Douglas in a speech in Springfield, Illinois, on June 12, 1856, when +he was hoping to secure the Democratic nomination for President. +This former friend of the Mormons, their spokesman in the Senate, now +declared that reports from the territory seemed to justify the belief +that nine-tenths of its inhabitants were aliens; that all were bound by +horrid oaths and penalties to recognize and maintain the authority of +Brigham Young; and that the Mormon government was forming alliances +with the Indians, and organizing Danite bands to rob and murder American +citizens. "Under this view of the subject," said he, "I think it is the +duty of the President, as I have no doubt it is his fixed purpose, to +remove Brigham Young and all his followers from office, and to fill +their places with bold, able, and true men; and to cause a thorough and +searching investigation into all the crimes and enormities which are +alleged to be perpetrated daily in that territory under the direction +of Brigham Young and his confederates; and to use all the military force +necessary to protect the officers in discharge of their duties and to +enforce the laws of the land. When the authentic evidence shall arrive, +if it shall establish the facts which are believed to exist, it will +become the duty of Congress to apply the knife, and cut out this +loathsome, disgusting ulcer."* + + + * Text of the speech in New York Times of June 23, 1856. + + +This, of course, caused the Mormons to pour out on Judge Douglas the +vials of their wrath, and, when he failed to secure the presidential +nomination, they found in his defeat the verification of one of Smith's +prophecies. + +The Mormons, on their part, had never ceased their demands for +statehood, and another of their efforts had been made in the preceding +spring, when a new constitution of the State of Deseret was adopted by a +convention over which the notorious Jedediah M. Grant presided, and sent +to Washington with a memorial pleading for admission to the Union, "that +another star, shedding mild radiance from the tops of the mountains, +midway between the borders of the Eastern and Western civilization, may +add its effulgence to that bright light now so broadly illumining the +governmental pathway of nations"; and declaring that "the loyalty of +Utah has been variously and most thoroughly tested." Congress treated +this application with practical contempt, the Senate laying the memorial +on the table, and the chairman of the House Committee on Territories, +Galusha A. Grow, refusing to present the constitution to the House. + +Alarmed at the manifestations of public feeling in the East, and the +demand that President Buchanan should do something to vindicate at least +the dignity of the government, the Mormon leaders and press renewed +their attacks on the character of all the federal officers who had +criticized them, and the Deseret News urged the President to send to +Utah "one or more civilians on a short visit to look about them and see +what they can see, and return and report." The value of observations by +such "short visitors" on such occasions need not be discussed. + +President Buchanan, instead of following any Mormon advice, soon after +his inauguration directed the organization of a body of troops to march +to Utah to uphold the federal authorities, and in July, after several +persons had declined the office, appointed as governor of Utah Alfred +Cumming of Georgia. The appointee was a brother of Colonel William +Cumming, who won renown as a soldier in the War of 1812, who was a Union +party leader in the nullification contest in Jackson's time, and who was +a participant in a duel with G. McDuffie that occupied a good deal of +attention. Alfred Cumming had filled no more important positions than +those of mayor of Augusta, Georgia, sutler in the Mexican War, and +superintendent of Indian affairs on the upper Missouri. A much more +commendable appointment made at the same time was that of D. R. Eckles, +a Kentuckian by birth, but then a resident of Indiana, to be chief +justice of the territory. John Cradlebaugh and C. E. Sinclair were +appointed associate justices, with John Hartnett as secretary, and Peter +K. Dotson as marshal. The new governor gave the first illustration of +his conception of his duties by remaining in the East, while the troops +were moving, asking for an increase of his salary, a secret service +fund, and for transportation to Utah. Only the last of these requests +was complied with. + +President Buchanan's position as regards Utah at this time was thus +stated in his first annual message to Congress (December 8, 1857):-- + +"The people of Utah almost exclusively belong to this [Mormon] church, +and, believing with a fanatical spirit that he [Young] is Governor of +the Territory by divine appointment, they obey his commands as if these +were direct revelations from heaven. If, therefore, he chooses that his +government shall come into collision with the government of the United +States, the members of the Mormon church will yield implicit obedience +to his will. Unfortunately, existing facts leave but little doubt that +such is his determination. Without entering upon a minute history of +occurrences, it is sufficient to say that all the officers of the United +States, judicial and executive, with the single exception of two Indian +agents, have found it necessary for their own safety to withdraw from +the Territory, and there no longer remained any government in Utah but +the despotism of Brigham Young. This being the condition of affairs in +the Territory, I could not mistake the path of duty. As chief executive +magistrate, I was bound to restore the supremacy of the constitution and +laws within its limits. In order to effect this purpose, I appointed a +new governor and other federal officers for Utah, and sent with them a +military force for their protection, and to aid as a posse comitatus in +case of need in the execution of the laws. + +"With the religious opinions of the Mormons, as long as they remained +mere opinions, however deplorable in themselves and revolting to the +moral and religious sentiments of all Christendom, I have no right to +interfere. Actions alone, when in violation of the constitution and +laws of the United States, become the legitimate subjects for the +jurisdiction of the civil magistrate. My instructions to Governor +Cumming have, therefore, been framed in strict accordance with these +principles." + +This statement of the situation of affairs in Utah, and of the duty of +the President in the circumstances, did not admit of criticism. But +the country at that time was in a state of intense excitement over the +slavery question, with the situation in Kansas the centre of attention; +and it was charged that Buchanan put forward the Mormon issue as a part +of his scheme to "gag the North" and force some question besides +slavery to the front; and that Secretary of War Floyd eagerly seized +the opportunity to remove "the flower of the American army" and a vast +amount of munition and supplies to a distant place, remote from Eastern +connections. The principal newspapers in this country were intensely +partisan in those days, and party organs like the New York Tribune could +be counted on to criticise any important step taken by the Democratic +President. Such Mormon agents as Colonel Kane and Dr. Bernhisel, the +Utah Delegate to Congress, were doing active work in New York and +Washington, and some of it with effect. Horace Greeley, in his "Overland +journey," describing his call on Brigham Young a few years later, +says that he was introduced by "my friend Dr. Bernhisel." The "Tribune +Almanac" for 1859, in an article on the Utah troubles, quoted as "too +true" Young's declaration that "for the last twenty-five years we have +trusted officials of the government, from constables and justices to +judges, governors, and presidents, only to be scorned, held in derision, +insulted and betrayed."* Ulterior motives aside, no President ever had +a clearer duty than had Buchanan to maintain the federal authority in +Utah, and to secure to all residents in and travellers through +that territory the rights of life and property. The just ground for +criticising him is, not that he attempted to do this, but that he +faltered by the way.** + + + * Greeley's leaning to the Mormon side was quite persistent, +leading him to support Governor Cumming a little later against the +federal judges. The Mormons never forgot this. A Washington letter +of April 24, 1874, to the New York Times said: "When Mr. Greeley was +nominated for President the Mormons heartily hoped for his election. The +church organs and the papers taken in the territory were all hostile to +the administration, and their clamor deceived for a time people far more +enlightened than the followers of the modern Mohammed. It is said +that, while the canvass was pending, certain representatives of the +Liberal-Democratic alliance bargained with Brigham Young, and that he +contributed a very large sum of money to the treasury of the Greeley +fund, and that, in consideration of this contribution, he received +assurances that, if he should send a polygamist to Congress, no +opposition would be made by the supporters of the administration that +was to be, to his admission to the House. Brigham therefore sent Cannon +instead of returning Hooper." + + + ** It is curious to notice that the Utah troubles are entirely +ignored in the "Life of James Buchanan" (1883) by George Ticknor Curtis, +who was the counsel for the Mormons in the argument concerning polygamy +before the United States Supreme Court in 1886. + + +Early in 1856 arrangements were entered into with H. C. Kimball for a +contract to carry the mail between Independence, Missouri, and Salt Lake +City. Young saw in this the nucleus of a big company that would maintain +a daily express and mail service to and from the Mormon centre, and he +at once organized the Brigham Young Express Carrying Company, and had +it commended to the people from the pulpit. But recent disclosures +of Mormon methods and purposes had naturally caused the government to +question the propriety of confiding the Utah and transcontinental mails +to Mormon hands, and on June 10, 1857, Kimball was notified that the +government would not execute the contract with him, "the unsettled state +of things at Salt Lake City rendering the mails unsafe under present +circumstances." Mormon writers make much of the failure to execute this +mail contract as an exciting cause of the "war." Tullidge attributes +the action of the administration to three documents--a letter from Mail +Contractor W. M. F. Magraw to the President, describing the situation in +Utah, Judge Drummond's letter of resignation, and a letter from Indian +Agent T. S. Twiss, dated July 13, 1856, informing the government that a +large Mormon colony had taken possession of Deer Creek Valley, only one +hundred miles west of Fort Laramie, driving out a settlement of Sioux +whom the agent had induced to plant corn there, and charging that the +Mormon occupation was made with a view to the occupancy of the country, +and "under cover of a contract of the Mormon church to carry the +mails."* Tullidge's statement could be made with hope of its acceptance +only to persons who either lacked the opportunity or inclination to +ascertain the actual situation in Utah and the President's sources of +information. + + + * All these may be found in House Ex. Doc. No. 71, 1st Session, +35th Congress. + + +As to the mails, no autocratic government like that of Brigham Young +would neglect to make what use it pleased of them in its struggle with +the authorities at Washington. As early as November, 1851, Indian Agent +Holman wrote to the Indian commissioner at Washington from Salt Lake +City: "The Gentiles, as we are called who do not belong to the Mormon +church, have no confidence in the management of the post-office here. It +is believed by many that there is an examination of all letters coming +and going, in order that they may ascertain what is said of them and +by whom it is said. This opinion is so strong that all communications +touching their character or conduct are either sent to Bridger or +Laramie, there to be mailed. I send this communication through a friend +to Laramie, to be there mailed for the States." + +Testimony on this point four years later, from an independent source, is +found in a Salt Lake City letter, of November 3, 1855, to the New York +Herald. The writer said: "From September 5, to the 27th instant the +people of this territory had not received any news from the States +except such as was contained in a few broken files of California +papers.... Letters and papers come up missing, and in the same mail come +papers of very ancient dates; but letters once missing may be considered +as irrevocably lost. Of all the numerous numbers of Harper's, Gleason's, +and other illustrated periodicals subscribed for by the inhabitants of +this territory, not one, I have been informed, has ever reached here." +The forces selected for the expedition to Utah consisted of the Second +Dragoons, then stationed at Fort Leavenworth in view of possible trouble +in Kansas; the Fifth Infantry, stationed at that time in Florida; the +Tenth Infantry, then in the forts in Minnesota; and Phelps's Battery of +the Fourth Artillery, that had distinguished itself at Buena Vista--a +total of about fifteen hundred men. Reno's Battery was added later. + +General Scott's order provided for two thousand head of cattle to +be driven with the troops, six months' supply of bacon, desiccated +vegetables, 250 Sibley tents, and stoves enough to supply at least the +sick. General Scott himself had advised a postponement of the expedition +until the next year, on account of the late date at which it would +start, but he was overruled. The commander originally selected for this +force was General W. S. Harney; but the continued troubles in Kansas +caused his retention there (as well as that of the Second Dragoons), +and, when the government found that the Mormons proposed serious +resistance, the chief command was given to Colonel Albert Sidney +Johnston, a West Point graduate, who had made a record in the Black Hawk +War; in the service of the state of Texas, first in 1836 under General +Rusk, and eventually as commander-in-chief in the field, and later as +Secretary of War; and in the Mexican War as colonel of the First Texas +Rifles. He was killed at the battle of Shiloh during the War of the +Rebellion. + +General Harney's letter of instruction, dated June 29, giving the +views of General Scott and the War Department, stated that the civil +government in Utah was in a state of rebellion; he was to attack no body +of citizens, however, except at the call of the governor, the judges, or +the marshals, the troops to be considered as a posse comitatus; he was +made responsible for "a jealous, harmonious, and thorough cooperation" +with the governor, accepting his views when not in conflict with +military judgment and prudence. While the general impression, both at +Washington and among the troops, was that no actual resistance to this +force would be made by Young's followers, the general was told that +"prudence requires that you should anticipate resistance, general, +organized, and formidable, at the threshold." + +Great activity was shown in forwarding the necessary supplies to Fort +Leavenworth, and in the last two weeks of July most of the assigned +troops were under way. Colonel Johnston arrived at Fort Leavenworth +on September 11, assigned six companies of the Second Dragoons, under +Lieutenant Colonel P. St. George Cooke, as an escort to Governor +Cumming, and followed immediately after them. Major (afterward General) +Fitz John Porter, who accompanied Colonel Johnston as assistant adjutant +general, describing the situation in later years, said:-- + +"So late in the season had the troops started on this march that fears +were entertained that, if they succeeded in reaching their destination, +it would be only by abandoning the greater part of their supplies, and +endangering the lives of many men amid the snows of the Rocky Mountains. +So much was a terrible disaster feared by those acquainted with the +rigors of a winter life in the Rocky Mountains, that General Harney was +said to have predicted it, and to have induced Walker [of Kansas] to ask +his retention." + +Meanwhile, the Mormons had received word of what was coming. When A. O. +Smoot reached a point one hundred miles west of Independence, with the +mail for Salt Lake City, he met heavy freight teams which excited his +suspicion, and at Kansas City obtained sufficient particulars of the +federal expedition. Returning to Fort Laramie, he and O. P. Rockwell +started on July 18, in a light wagon drawn by two fast horses, to carry +the news to Brigham Young. They made the 513 miles in five days and +three hours, arriving on the evening of July 23. Undoubtedly they gave +Young this important information immediately. But Young kept it to +himself that night. On the following day occurred the annual celebration +of the arrival of the pioneers in the valley. To the big gathering of +Saints at Big Cottonwood Lake, twenty-four miles from the city, Young +dramatically announced the news of the coming "invasion." His position +was characteristically defiant. He declared that "he would ask no odds +of Uncle Sam or the devil," and predicted that he would be President +of the United States in twelve years, or would dictate the successful +candidate. Recalling his declaration ten years earlier that, after ten +years of peace, they would ask no odds of the United States, he declared +that that time had passed, and that thenceforth they would be a free and +independent state--the State of Deseret. + +The followers of Young eagerly joined in his defiance of the government, +and in the succeeding weeks the discourses and the editorials of the +Deseret News breathed forth dire threats against the advancing foe. +Thus, the News of August 12 told the Washington authorities, "If you +intend to continue the appointment of certain officers,"--that is, if +you do not intend to surrender to the church federal jurisdiction in +Utah--"we respectfully suggest that you appoint actually intelligent and +honorable men, who will wisely attend to their own duties, and send +them unaccompanied by troops"--that is, judges who would acknowledge the +supremacy of the Mormon courts, or who, if not, would have no force to +sustain them. This was followed by a threat that if any other kind +of men were sent "they will really need a far larger bodyguard +than twenty-five hundred soldiers."* The government was, in another +editorial, called on to "entirely clear the track, and accord us the +privilege of carrying our own mails at our own expense," and was accused +of "high handedly taking away our rights and privileges, one by one, +under pretext that the most devilish should blush at." + + + * An Englishman, in a letter to the New York Observer, dated +London, May 26, 1857, said, "The English Mormons make no secret of +their expectation that a collision will take place with the American +authorities," and he quoted from a Mormon preacher's words as follows: +"As to a collision with the American Government, there cannot be two +opinions on the matter. We shall have judges, governors, senators and +dragoons invading us, imprisoning and murdering us; but we are prepared, +and are preparing judges, governors, senators and dragoons who will +know how to dispose of their friends. The little stone will come into +collision with the iron and clay and grind them to powder. It will be in +Utah as it was in Nauvoo, with this difference, we are prepared now for +offensive or defensive war; we were not then." Young in the pulpit was +in his element. One example of his declarations must suffice:-- + +"I am not going to permit troops here for the protection of the priests +and the rabble in their efforts to drive us from the land we possess.... +You might as well tell me that you can make hell into a powder house as +to tell me that they intend to keep an army here and have peace.... I +have told you that if there is any man or woman who is not willing to +destroy everything of their property that would be of use to an enemy +if left, I would advise them to leave the territory, and I again say so +to-day; for when the time comes to burn and lay waste our improvements, +if any man undertakes to shield his, he will be treated as a traitor; +for judgment will be laid to the line and righteousness to the +plummet."* + + + * Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 160. + + +The official papers of Governor Young are perhaps the best illustrations +of the spirit with which the federal authorities had to deal. + +Words, however, were not the only weapons which the Mormons employed +against the government at the start. Daniel H. Wells, "Lieutenant +General" and commander of the Nauvoo Legion, which organization had +been kept up in Utah, issued, on August 1, a despatch to each of twelve +commanding officers of the Legion in the different settlements in the +territory, declaring that "when anarchy takes the place of orderly +government, and mobocratic tyranny usurps the powers of the rulers, they +[the people of the territory] have left the inalienable right to defend +themselves against all aggression upon their constitutional privileges"; +and directing them to hold their commands ready to march to any part +of the territory, with ammunition, wagons, and clothing for a winter +campaign. In the Legion were enrolled all the able-bodied males between +eighteen and forty-five years, under command of a lieutenant general, +four generals, eleven colonels, and six majors. + +The first mobilization of this force took place on August 15, when +a company was sent eastward over the usual route to aid incoming +immigrants and learn the strength of the federal force. By the +employment of similar scouts the Mormons were thus kept informed of +every step of the army's advance. A scouting party camped within half a +mile of the foremost company near Devil's Gate on September 22, and did +not lose sight of it again until it went into camp at Harris's Fort, +where supplies had been forwarded in advance. + +Captain Stewart Van Vliet, of General Harney's staff, was sent ahead +of the troops, leaving Fort Leavenworth on July 28, to visit Salt Lake +City, ascertain the disposition of the church authorities and the people +toward the government, and obtain any other information that would be of +use. Arriving in Salt Lake City in thirty three and a half days, he was +received with affability by Young, and there was a frank interchange of +views between them. Young recited the past trials of the Mormons farther +east, and said that "therefore he and the people of Utah had determined +to resist all persecution at the commencement, and that the TROOPS NOW +ON THE MARCH FOR UTAH SHOULD NOT ENTER THE GREAT SALT LAKE VALLEY. As he +uttered these words, all those present concurred most heartily."* Young +said they had an abundance of everything required by the federal troops, +but that nothing would be sold to the government. When told that, +even if they did succeed in preventing the present military force from +entering the valley the coming winter, they would have to yield to a +larger force the following year, the reply was that that larger force +would find Utah a desert; they would burn every house, cut down every +tree, lay waste every field. "We have three years' provisions on hand," +Young added, "which we will cache, and then take to the mountains and +bid defiance to all the powers of the government." + + + * The quotations are from Captain Van Vliet's official report in +House Ex. Doc. No. 71, previously referred to. Tullidge's "History of +Salt Lake City" (p. 16l) gives extracts from Apostle Woodruff's private +journal of notes on the interview between Young and Captain Van Vliet, +on September 12 and 13, in which Young is reported as saying: "We do not +want to fight the United States, but if they drive us to it we shall do +the best we can. God will overthrow them. We are the supporters of the +constitution of the United States. If they dare to force the issue, +I shall not hold the Indians by the wrist any longer for white men to +shoot at them; they shall go ahead and do as they please." + + +When Young called for a vote on that proposition by an audience of four +thousand persons in the Tabernacle, every hand was raised to vote yes. +Captain Van Vliet summed up his view of the situation thus: that it +would not be difficult for the Mormons to prevent the entrance of the +approaching force that season; that they would not resort to actual +hostilities until the last moment, but would burn the grass, stampede +the animals, and cause delay in every manner. + +The day after Captain Van Vliet left Salt Lake City, Governor Young gave +official expression to his defiance of the federal government by issuing +the following proclamation:-- + +"Citizens of Utah: We are invaded by a hostile force, who are evidently +assailing us to accomplish our overthrow and destruction. + +"For the last twenty-five years we have trusted officials of the +government, from constables and justices to judges, governors, and +Presidents, only to be scorned, held in derision, insulted, and +betrayed. Our houses have been plundered and then burned, our fields +laid waste, our principal men butchered, while under the pledged faith +of the government for their safety, and our families driven from their +homes to find that shelter in the barren wilderness and that protection +among hostile savages, which were denied them in the boasted abodes of +Christianity and civilization. + +"The constitution of our common country guarantees unto us all that we +do now or have ever claimed. If the constitutional rights which pertain +unto us as American citizens were extended to Utah, according to the +spirit and meaning thereof, and fairly and impartially administered, it +is all that we can ask, all that we have ever asked. + +"Our opponents have availed themselves of prejudice existing against +us, because of our religious faith, to send out a formidable host to +accomplish our destruction. We have had no privilege or opportunity of +defending ourselves from the false, foul, and unjust aspersions against +us before the nation. The government has not condescended to cause an +investigating committee, or other persons, to be sent to inquire into +and ascertain the truth, as is customary in such cases. We know those +aspersions to be false; but that avails us nothing. We are condemned +unheard, and forced to an issue with an armed mercenary mob, which has +been sent against us at the instigation of anonymous letter writers, +ashamed to father the base, slanderous falsehoods which they have given +to the public; of corrupt officials, who have brought false accusations +against us to screen themselves in their own infamy; and of hireling +priests and howling editors, who prostitute the truth for filthy lucre's +sake. + +"The issue which has thus been forced upon us compels us to resort to +the great first law of self-preservation, and stand in our own defence, +a right guaranteed to us by the genius of the institutions of our +country, and upon which the government is based. Our duty to ourselves, +to our families, requires us not to tamely submit to be driven and +slain, without an attempt to preserve ourselves; our duty to our +country, our holy religion, our God, to freedom and liberty, requires +that we should not quietly stand still and see those fetters forging +around us which were calculated to enslave and bring us in subjection to +an unlawful, military despotism, such as can only emanate, in a country +of constitutional law, from usurpation, tyranny, and oppression. + +"Therefore, I, Brigham Young, Governor and Superintendent of Indian +Affairs for the Territory of Utah, in the name of the people of the +United States in the Territory of Utah, forbid: + +"First. All armed forces of every description from coming into this +Territory, under any pretence whatever. + +"Second. That all forces in said Territory hold themselves in readiness +to march at a moment's notice to repel any and all such invasion. + +"Third. Martial law is hereby declared to exist in this Territory from +and after the publication of this proclamation, and no person shall be +allowed to pass or repass into or through or from this Territory without +a permit from the proper officer. + +"Given under my hand and seal, at Great Salt Lake City, Territory of +Utah, this 15th day of September, A.D. 1857, and of the independence of +the United States of America the eighty-second. + +"BRIGHAM YOUNG." + +The advancing troops received from Captain Van Vliet as he passed +eastward their first information concerning the attitude of the +Mormons toward them, and Colonel Alexander, in command of the foremost +companies, accepted his opinion that the Mormons would not attack them +if the army did not advance beyond Fort Bridger or Fort Supply, this +idea being strengthened by the fact that one hundred wagon loads of +stores, undefended, had remained unmolested on Ham's Fork for three +weeks. The first division of the federal troops marched across Greene +River on September 27, and hurried on thirty five miles to what was +named Camp Winfield, on Ham's Fork, a confluent of Black Fork, which +emptied into Greene River. Phelps's and Reno's batteries and the Fifth +Infantry reached there about the same time, but there was no cavalry, +the kind of force most needed, because of the detention of the Dragoons +in Kansas. + +On September 30 General Wells forwarded to Colonel Alexander, from Fort +Bridger, Brigham Young's proclamation of September 15, a copy of +the laws of Utah, and the following letter addressed to "the officer +commanding the forces now invading Utah Territory": + +"GOVERNOR'S OFFICE, UTAH TERRITORY, + +"GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, September 29, 1857. + +"Sir: By reference to the act of Congress passed September 9, 1850, +organizing the Territory of Utah, published in a copy of the laws of +Utah, herewith forwarded, pp. 146-147, you will find the following:-- + +"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, that the executive power and +authority in and over said Territory of Utah shall be vested in a +Governor, who shall hold his office for four years, and until his +successor shall be appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the +President of the United States. The Governor shall reside within said +Territory, shall be Commander-in-chief of the militia thereof', etc., +etc. + +"I am still the Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs for this +Territory, no successor having been appointed and qualified, as provided +by law; nor have I been removed by the President of the United States. + +"By virtue of the authority thus vested in me, I have issued, and +forwarded you a copy of, my proclamation forbidding the entrance of +armed forces into this Territory. This you have disregarded. I now +further direct that you retire forthwith from the Territory, by the same +route you entered. Should you deem this impracticable, and prefer to +remain until spring in the vicinity of your present encampment, +Black's Fork or Greene River, you can do so in peace and unmolested, on +condition that you deposit your arms and ammunition with Lewis Robinson, +Quartermaster General of the Territory, and leave in the spring, as soon +as the condition of the roads will permit you to march; and, should you +fall short of provisions, they can be furnished you, upon making the +proper applications therefor. General D. H. Wells will forward this, and +receive any communications you may have to make. + +"Very respectfully, + +"BRIGHAM YOUNG, + +"Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Utah Territory." + +General Wells's communication added to this impudent announcement the +declaration, "It may be proper to add that I am here to aid in carrying +out the instructions of Governor Young." + +On October 2 Colonel Alexander, in a note to Governor Young, +acknowledged the receipt of his enclosures, said that he would submit +Young's letter to the general commanding as soon as he arrived, and +added, "In the meantime I have only to say that these troops are here +by the orders of the President of the United States, and their future +movements and operations will depend entirely upon orders issued by +competent military authority." + +Two Mormon officers, General Robinson and Major Lot Smith, had been sent +to deliver Young's letter and proclamation to the federal officer in +command, but they did not deem it prudent to perform this office in +person, sending a Mexican with them into Colonel Alexander's camp.* In +the same way they received Colonel Alexander's reply. + + + * Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 171. + + +The Mormon plan of campaign was already mapped out, and it was thus +stated in an order of their commanding general, D. H. Wells, a copy +of which was found on a Mormon major, Joseph Taylor, to whom it was +addressed:-- + +"You will proceed, with all possible despatch, without injuring your +animals, to the Oregon road, near the bend of Bear River, north by east +of this place. Take close and correct observations of the country on +your route. When you approach the road, send scouts ahead to ascertain +if the invading troops have passed that way. Should they have passed, +take a concealed route and get ahead of them, express to Colonel Benton, +who is now on that road and in the vicinity of the troops, and effect +a junction with him, so as to operate in concert. On ascertaining the +locality or route of the troops, proceed at once to annoy them in every +possible way. Use every exertion to stampede their animals and set fire +to their trains. Burn the whole country before them and on their flanks. +Keep them from sleeping by night surprises; blockade the road by felling +trees or destroying river fords, where you can. Watch for opportunities +to set fire to the grass on their windward, so as if possible to envelop +their trains. Leave no grass before them that can be burned. Keep your +men concealed as much as possible, and guard against surprise. Keep +scouts out at all times, and communications open with Colonel Benton, +Major McAllster and O. P. Rockwell, who are operating in the same way. +Keep me advised daily of your movements, and every step the troops take, +and in which direction. + +"God bless you and give you success. Your brother in Christ." + +The first man selected to carry out this order was Major Lot Smith. +Setting out at 4 P.M., on October 3, with forty-four men, after an all +night's ride, he came up with a federal supply train drawn by oxen. The +captain of this train was ordered to "go the other way till he reached +the States." As he persistently retraced his steps as often as the +Mormons moved away, the latter relieved his wagons of their load and +left him. Sending one of his captains with twenty men to capture or +stampede the mules of the Tenth Regiment, Smith, with the remainder of +his force, started for Sandy Fork to intercept army trains. + +Scouts sent ahead to investigate a distant cloud of dust reported that +it was made by a freight train of twenty-six wagons. Smith allowed +this train to proceed until dark, and then approached it undiscovered. +Finding the drivers drunk, as he afterward explained, and fearing that +they would be belligerent and thus compel him to disobey his instruction +"not to hurt any one except in self-defence," he lay concealed until +after midnight. His scouts meanwhile had reported to him that the train +was drawn up for the night in two lines. + +Allowing the usual number of men to each wagon, Smith decided that his +force of twenty-four was sufficient to capture the outfit, and, mounting +his command, he ordered an advance on the camp. But a surprise was in +store for him. His scouts had failed to discover that a second train had +joined the first, and that twice the force anticipated confronted them. +When this discovery was made, the Mormons were too close to escape +observation. Members of Smith's party expected that their leader would +now make some casual inquiry and then ride on, as if his destination +were elsewhere. Smith, however, decided differently. As his force +approached the camp-fire that was burning close to the wagons, he +noticed that the rear of his column was not distinguishable in the +darkness, and that thus the smallness of their number could not be +immediately discovered. He, therefore, asked at once for the captain of +the train, and one Dawson stepped forward. Smith directed him to have +his men collect their private property at once, as he intended to "put +a little fire" into the wagons. "For God's sake, don't burn the trains," +was the reply. Dawson was curtly told where his men were to stack their +arms, and where they were themselves to stand under guard. Then, making +a torch, Smith ordered one of the government drivers to apply it, in +order that "the Gentiles might spoil the Gentiles," as he afterward +expressed it. The destruction of the supplies was complete. Smith +allowed an Indian to take two wagon covers for a lodge, and some flour +and soap, and compelled Dawson to get out some provisions for his own +men. Nothing else was spared. + +The official list of rations thus destroyed included 2720 pounds of ham, +92,700 of bacon, 167,900 of flour, 8910 of coffee, 1400 of sugar, 1333 +of soap, 800 of sperm candles, 765 of tea, 7781 of hard bread, and +68,832 rations of desiccated vegetables. Another train was destroyed +by the same party the next day on the Big Sandy, besides a few sutlers' +wagons that were straggling behind. + +On October 5 Colonel Alexander assumed command of all the troops in the +camp. He found his position a trying one. In a report dated October +8, he said that his forage would last only fourteen days, that no +information of the position or intentions of the commanding officer +had reached him, and that, strange as it may appear, he was "in utter +ignorance of the objects of the government in sending troops here, or +the instructions given for their conduct after reaching here." In +these circumstances, he called a council of his officers and decided to +advance without waiting for Colonel Johnston and the other companies, as +he believed that delay would endanger the entire force. He selected as +his route to a wintering place, not the most direct one to Salt Lake +City, inasmuch as the canyons could be easily defended, but one twice as +long (three hundred miles), by way of Soda Springs, and thence either +down Bear River Valley or northeast toward the Wind River Mountains, +according to the resistance he might encounter. + +The march, in accordance with this decision, began on October 11, and a +weary and profitless one it proved to be. Snow was falling as the column +moved, and the ground was covered with it during their advance. There +was no trail, and a road had to be cut through the greasewood and sage +brush. The progress was so slow--often only three miles a day--and the +supply train so long, that camp would sometimes be pitched for the night +before the rear wagons would be under way. Wells's men continued to +carry out his orders, and, in the absence of federal cavalry, with +little opposition. One day eight hundred oxen were "cut out" and driven +toward Salt Lake City. + +Conditions like these destroyed the morale of both officers and men, and +there were divided counsels among the former, and complaints among the +latter. Finally, after having made only thirty-five miles in nine days, +Colonel Alexander himself became discouraged, called another council, +and, in obedience to its decision, on October 19 directed his force to +retrace their steps. They moved back in three columns, and on November +2 all of them had reached a camp on Black's Fork, two miles above Fort +Bridger. + +Colonel Johnston had arrived at Fort Laramie on October 5, and, after +a talk with Captain Van Vliet, had retained two additional companies +of infantry that were on the way to Fort Leavenworth. As he proceeded, +rumors of the burning of trains, exaggerated as is usual in such times, +reached him. Having only about three hundred men to guard a wagon train +six miles in length, some of the drivers showed signs of panic, and the +colonel deemed the situation so serious that he accepted an offer of +fifty or sixty volunteers from the force of the superintendent of the +South Pass wagon road. He was fortunate in having as his guide the well +known James Bridger, to whose knowledge of Rocky Mountain weather signs +they owed escapes from much discomfort, by making camps in time to avoid +coming storms. + +But even in camp a winter snowstorm is serious to a moving column, +especially when it deprives the animals of their forage, as it did now. +The forage supply was almost exhausted when South Pass was reached, and +the draught and beef cattle were in a sad plight. Then came another big +snowstorm and a temperature of l6 deg., during which eleven mules and +a number of oxen were frozen to death. In this condition of affairs, +Colonel Johnston decided that a winter advance into Salt Lake Valley was +impracticable. Learning of Colonel Alexander's move, which he did not +approve, he sent word for him to join forces with his own command on +Black's Fork, and there the commanding officer arrived on November 3. + +Lieutenant Colonel Cooke, of the Second Dragoons, with whom Governor +Cumming was making the trip, had a harrowing experience. There was +much confusion in organizing his regiment of six companies at Fort +Leavenworth, and he did not begin his march until September 17, with a +miserable lot of mules and insufficient supplies. He found little grass +for the animals, and after crossing the South Platte on October 15, they +began to die or to drop out. From that point snow and sleet storms were +encountered, and, when Fort Laramie was reached, so many of the animals +had been left behind or were unable to travel, that some of his men were +dismounted, the baggage supply was reduced, and even the ambulances +were used to carry grain. After passing Devil's Gate, they encountered +a snowstorm on November 5. The best shelter their guide could find was a +lofty natural wall at a point known as Three Crossings. Describing their +night there he says: "Only a part of the regiment could huddle behind +the rock in the deep snow; whilst, the long night through, the storm +continued, and in fearful eddies from above, before, behind, drove the +falling and drifting snow. Thus exposed, for the hope of grass the poor +animals were driven, with great devotion, by the men once more across +the stream and three-quarters of a mile beyond, to the base of a granite +ridge, which almost faced the storm. There the famished mules, crying +piteously, did not seek to eat, but desperately gathered in a mass, +and some horses, escaping guard, went back to the ford, where the lofty +precipice first gave us so pleasant relief and shelter." + +The march westward was continued through deep snow and against a cold +wind. On November 8 twenty-three mules had given out, and five wagons +had to be abandoned. On the night of the 9th, when the mules were tied +to the wagons, "they gnawed and destroyed four wagon tongues, a number +of wagon covers, ate their ropes, and getting loose, ate the sage fuel +collected at the tents." On November 10 nine horses were left dying on +the road, and the thermometer was estimated to have marked twenty-five +degrees below zero. Their thermometers were all broken, but the freezing +of a bottle of sherry in a trunk gave them a basis of calculation. + +The command reached a camp three miles below Fort Bridger on November +19. Of one hundred and forty-four horses with which they started, only +ten reached that camp. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. -- THE MORMON PURPOSE + +When Colonel Johnston arrived at the Black's Fork camp the information +he received from Colonel Alexander, and certain correspondence with the +Mormon authorities, gave him a comprehensive view of the situation; and +on November 5 he forwarded a report to army headquarters in the East, +declaring that it was the matured design of the Mormons "to hold and +occupy this territory independent of and irrespective of the authority +of the United States," entertaining "the insane design of establishing +a form of government thoroughly despotic, and utterly repugnant to our +institutions." + +The correspondence referred to began with a letter from Brigham Young +to Colonel Alexander, dated October 14. Opening with a declaration of +Young's patriotism, and the brazen assertion that the people of Utah +"had never resisted even the wish of the President of the United States, +nor treated with indignity a single individual coming to the territory +under his authority," he went on to say:-- + +"But when the President of the United States so far degrades his high +position, and prostitutes the highest gift of the people, as to make use +of the military power (only intended for the protection of the people's +rights) to crush the people's liberties, and compel them to receive +officials so lost to self-respect as to accept appointments against the +known and expressed wish of the people, and so craven and degraded as to +need an army to protect them in their position, we feel that we should +be recreant to every principle of self-respect, honor, integrity, and +patriotism to bow tamely to such high-handed tyranny, a parallel for +which is only found in the attempts of the British government, in its +most corrupt stages, against the rights, liberties, and lives of our +forefathers." + +He then appealed to Colonel Alexander, as probably "the unwilling agent" +of the administration, to return East with his force, saying, "I have +yet to learn that United States officers are implicitly bound to +obey the dictum of a despotic President, in violating the most sacred +constitutional rights of American citizens." + +On October 18 Colonel Alexander, acknowledging the receipt of Young's +letter, said in his reply that no one connected with his force had any +wish to interfere in any way with the religion of the people of Utah, +adding: "I repeat my earnest desire to avoid violence and bloodshed, +and it will require positive resistance to force me to it. But my +troops have the same right of self-defence that you claim, and it rests +entirely with you whether they are driven to the exercise of it." + +Finding that he could not cajole the federal officer, Young threw off +all disguise, and in reply to an earlier letter of Colonel Alexander, +he gave free play to his vituperative powers. After going over the old +Mormon complaints, and declaring that "both we and the Kingdom of God +will be free from all hellish oppressors, the Lord being our helper," he +wrote at great length in the following tone:-- + +"If you persist in your attempt to permanently locate an army in this +Territory, contrary to the wishes and constitutional rights of the +people therein, and with a view to aid the administration in their +unhallowed efforts to palm their corrupt officials upon us, and to +protect them and blacklegs, black-hearted scoundrels, whoremasters, +and murderers, as was the sole intention in sending you and your troops +here, you will have to meet a mode of warfare against which your tactics +furnish you no information.... + +"If George Washington was now living, and at the helm of our government, +he would hang the administration as high as he did Andre, and that, +too, with a far better grace and to a much greater subserving the best +interests of our country.... + +"By virtue of my office as Governor of the Territory of Utah, I command +you to marshal your troops and leave this territory, for it can be of +no possible benefit to you to wickedly waste treasures and blood in +prosecuting your course upon the side of a rebellion against the general +government by its administrators.... Were you and your fellow officers +as well acquainted with your soldiers as I am with mine, and did +they understand the work they were now engaged in as well as you may +understand it, you must know that many of them would immediately revolt +from all connection with so ungodly, illegal, unconstitutional and +hellish a crusade against an innocent people, and if their blood is +shed it shall rest upon the heads of their commanders. With us it is the +Kingdom of God or nothing." + +To this Colonel Alexander replied, on the 19th, that no citizen of +Utah would be harmed through the instrumentality of the army in the +performance of its duties without molestation, and that, as Young's +order to leave the territory was illegal and beyond his authority, it +would not be obeyed. + +John Taylor, on October 21, added to this correspondence a letter to +Captain Marcy, in which he ascribed to party necessity the necessity of +something with which to meet the declaration of the Republicans against +polygamy--the order of the President that troops should accompany the +new governor to Utah; declared that the religion of the Mormons was +"a right guaranteed to us by the constitution"; and reiterated their +purpose, if driven to it, "to burn every house, tree, shrub, rail, every +patch of grass and stack of straw and hay, and flee to the mountains." +"How a large army would fare without resources," he added, "you can +picture to yourself."* + + + * Text of this letter in House Ex. Doc. No. 71, 1st Session, 35th +Congress, and Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City." + + +The Mormon authorities meant just what they said from the start. +Young was as determined to be the head of the civil government of the +territory as he was to be the head of the church. He had founded a +practical dictatorship, with power over life and property, and had +discovered that such a dictatorship was necessary to the regulation of +the flock that he had gathered around him and to the schemes that he had +in mind. To permit a federal governor to take charge of the territory, +backed up by troops who would sustain him in his authority, meant an end +to Young's absolute rule. Rather than submit to this, he stood ready to +make the experiment of fighting the government force, separated as that +force was from its Eastern base of supplies; to lay waste the Mormon +settlements, if it became necessary to use this method of causing a +federal retreat by starvation; and, if this failed, to withdraw his +flock to some new Zion farther south. + +In accordance with this view, as soon as news of the approach of the +troops reached Salt Lake Valley, all the church industries stopped; war +supplies weapons and clothing were manufactured and accumulated; all the +elders in Europe were ordered home, and the outlying colonies in Carson +Valley and in southern California were directed to hasten to Salt Lake +City. A correspondent of the San Francisco Bulletin at San Bernardino, +California, reported that in the last six months the Mormons there had +sent four or five tons of gunpowder and many weapons to Utah, and +that, when the order to "gather" at the Mormon metropolis came, they +sacrificed everything to obey it, selling real estate at a reduction of +from 20 to 50 per cent, and furniture for any price that it would bring. +The same sacrifices were made in Carson Valley, where 150 wagons were +required to accommodate the movers. In Salt Lake City the people were +kept wrought up to the highest pitch by the teachings of their leaders. +Thus, Amasa W. Lyman told them, on October 8, that they would not be +driven away, because "the time has come when the Kingdom of God should +be built up."* Young told them the same day, "If we will stand up as men +and women of God, the yoke shall never be placed upon our necks again, +and all hell cannot overthrow us, even with the United States troops to +help them."** Kimball told the people in the Tabernacle, on October 18: +"They [the United States] will have to make peace with us, and we never +again shall make peace with them. If they come here, they have got +to give up their arms." Describing his plan of campaign, at the same +service, after the reading of the correspondence between Young and +Colonel Alexander, Young said: "Do you want to know what is going to be +done with the enemies now on our border? As soon as they start to come +into our settlements, let sleep depart from their eyes and slumber from +their eyelids until they sleep in death. Men shall be secreted here and +there, and shall waste away our enemies in the name of Israel's God."*** + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. V, p. 319. + + + ** Ibid., Vol. V, p. 332 + + + *** Ibid., Vol. V, p. 338. + + +Young was equally explicit in telling members of his own flock what they +might expect if they tried to depart at that time. In a discourse in the +Tabernacle, on October 25, he said:-- + +"If any man or woman in Utah wants to leave this community, come to me +and I will treat you kindly, as I always have, and will assist you to +leave; but after you have left our settlements you must not then depend +upon me any longer, nor upon the God I serve. You must meet the doom +you have labored for.... After this season, when this ignorant army has +passed off, I shall never again say to a man, 'Stay your rifle ball,' +when our enemies assail us, but shall say, 'Slay them where you find +them."'* + + + * Ibid, Vol. V, p. 352. + + +Kimball, on November 8, spoke with equal plainness on this subject:-- + +"When it is necessary that blood should be shed, we should be as ready +to do that as to eat an apple. That is my religion, and I feel that our +platter is pretty near clean of some things, and we calculate to keep +it clean from this time henceforth and forever .... And if men and women +will not live their religion, but take a course to pervert the hearts +of the righteous, we will 'lay judgment to the line and righteousness to +the plummet,' and we will let you know that the earth can swallow you +up as did Koran with his hosts; and, as Brother Taylor says, you may dig +your graves, and we will slay you and you may crawl into them."* + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. VI, p. 34. + + +The Mormon songs of the day breathed the same spirit of defiance to +the United States authorities. A popular one at the Tabernacle services +began:-- + + + "Old Uncle Sam has sent, I understand, + + Du dah, + + A Missouri ass to rule our land, + + Du dah! Du dah day. + + But if he comes we'll have some fun, + + Du dah, + + To see him and his juries run, + + Du dah! Du dah day. + + + Chorus: + + Then let us be on hand, + + By Brigham Young to stand, + + And if our enemies do appear, + + We'll sweep them from the land." + +Another still more popular song, called "Zion," contained these words:-- + + + "Here our voices we'll raise, and will sing to thy praise, + + Sacred home of the Prophets of God; + + Thy deliverance is nigh, thy oppressors shall die, + + And the Gentiles shall bow 'neath thy rod." + +When the Mormons found that the federal forces had gone into winter +quarters, the Nauvoo Legion was massed in a camp called Camp Weber, +at the mouth of Echo canyon. This canyon they fortified with ditches +and breastworks, and some dams intended to flood the roadway; but they +succeeded in erecting no defences which could not have been easily +overcome by a disciplined force. A watch was set day and night, so that +no movement of "the invaders" could escape them, and the officer in +charge was particularly forbidden to allow any civil officer appointed +by the President to pass. + +This careful arrangement was kept up all winter, but Tullidge says that +no spies were necessary, as deserting soldiers and teamsters from the +federal camp kept coming into the valley with information. + +The territorial legislature met in December, and approved Governor +Young's course, every member signing a pledge to maintain "the rights +and liberties" of the territory. The legislators sent a memorial to +Congress, dated January 6, 1858, demanding to be informed why "a hostile +course is pursued toward an unoffending people," calling the officers +who had fled from the territory liars, declaring that "we shall not +again hold still while fetters are being forged to bind us," etc. This +offensive document reached Washington in March, and was referred in +each House to the Committee on Territories, where it remained. When the +federal forces reached Fort Bridger, they found that the Mormons +had burned the buildings, and it was decided to locate the winter +camp--named Camp Scott--on Black's Fork, two miles above the fort. The +governor and other civil officers spent the winter in another camp near +by, named "Ecklesville," occupying dugouts, which they covered with +an upper story of plastered logs. There was a careful apportionment of +rations, but no suffering for lack of food. + +An incident of the winter was the expedition of Captain Randolph B. +Marcy across the Uinta Mountains to New Mexico, with two guides and +thirty-five volunteer companions, to secure needed animals. The story of +his march is one of the most remarkable on record, the company pressing +on, even after Indian guides refused to accompany them to what they +said was certain death, living for days only on the meat supplied by +half-starved mules, and beating a path through deep snow. This march +continued from November 27 to January 10, when, with the loss of only +one man, they reached the valley of the Rio del Norte, where supplies +were obtained from Fort Massachusetts. Captain Marcy started back on +March 17, selecting a course which took him past Long's and Pike's +Peaks. He reached Camp Scott on June 8, with about fifteen hundred +horses and mules, escorted by five companies of infantry and mounted +riflemen. + +During the winter Governor Cumming sent to Brigham Young a proclamation +notifying him of the arrival of the new territorial officers, and +assuring the people that he would resort to the military posse only +in case of necessity. Judge Eckles held a session of the United States +District Court at Camp Scott on December 30, and the grand jury of that +court found indictments for treason, resting on Young's proclamation +and Wells's instructions, against Young, Kimball, Wells, Taylor, Grant, +Locksmith, Rockwell, Hickman, and many others, but of course no arrests +were made. + +Meanwhile, at Washington, preparations were making to sustain the +federal authority in Utah as soon as spring opened.* Congress made +an appropriation, and authorized the enlistment of two regiments of +volunteers; three thousand regular troops and two batteries were ordered +to the territory, and General Scott was directed to sail for the Pacific +coast with large powers. But General Scott did not sail, the army +contracts created a scandal,** and out of all this preparation for +active hostilities came peace without the firing of a shot; out of all +this open defiance and vilification of the federal administration by the +Mormon church came abject surrender by the administration itself. + + + * For the correspondence concerning the camp during the winter of +1858, see Sen. Doc., 2d Session, 35th Congress, Vol. II. + + + ** Colonel Albert G. Brown, Jr., in his account of the Utah +Expedition in the Atlantic Monthly for April, 1859, said: "To the shame +of the administration these gigantic contracts, involving an amount of +more than $6,000,000, were distributed with a view to influence votes in +the House of Representatives upon the Lecompton Bill. Some of the lesser +ones, such as those for furnishing mules, dragoon horses, and forage, +were granted arbitrarily to relatives or friends of members who were +wavering upon that question." + + +The principal contract, that for the transportation of all the supplies, +involving for the year 1858 the amount of $4,500,000, was granted, +without advertisement or subdivision, to a firm in Western Missouri, +whose members had distinguished themselves in the effort to make Kansas +a slave state, and now contributed liberally to defray the election +expenses of the Democratic party." + + + +CHAPTER XIV. -- COLONEL KANE'S MISSION + +When Major Van Vliet returned from Utah to Washington with Young's +defiant ultimatum, he was accompanied by J. M. Bernhisel, the +territorial Delegate to Congress, who was allowed to retain his seat +during the entire "war," a motion for his expulsion, introduced soon +after Congress met, being referred to a committee which never reported +on it, the debate that arose only giving further proof of the ignorance +of the lawmakers about Mormon history, Mormon government, and Mormon +ambition. + +In Washington Bernhisel was soon in conference with Colonel T. L. +Kane, that efficient ally of the Mormons, who had succeeded so well in +deceiving President Fillmore. In his characteristically wily manner, +Kane proposed himself to the President as a mediator between the federal +authorities and the Mormon leaders.* At that early date Buchanan was +not so ready for a compromise as he soon became, and the Cabinet did not +entertain Kane's proposition with any enthusiasm. But Kane secured from +the President two letters, dated December 3.** The first stated, in +regard to Kane, "You furnish the strongest evidence of your desire to +serve the Mormons by undertaking so laborious a trip," and that "nothing +but pure philanthropy, and a strong desire to serve the Mormon +people, could have dictated a course so much at war with your private +interests." If Kane presented this credential to Young on his arrival in +Salt Lake City, what a glorious laugh the two conspirators must have had +over it! The President went on to reiterate the views set forth in his +last annual message, and to say: "I would not at the present moment, +in view of the hostile attitude they have assumed against the United +States, send any agent to visit them on behalf of the government." The +second letter stated that Kane visited Utah from his own sense of duty, +and commended him to all officers of the United States whom he might +meet. + + + * H. H. Bancroft ("History of Utah," p. 529) accepts the +ridiculous Mormon assertion that Buchanan was compelled to change his +policy toward the Mormons by unfavorable comments "throughout the United +States and throughout Europe." Stenhouse says ("Rocky Mountain Saints," +p. 386): "That the initiatory steps for the settlement of the Utah +difficulties were made by the government, as is so constantly repeated +by the Saints, is not true. The author, at the time of Colonel Kane's +departure from New York for Utah, was on the staff of the New +York Herald, and was conversant with the facts, and confidentially +communicated them to Frederick Hudson, Esq., the distinguished manager +of that great journal." + + + ** Sen. Doc., 2d Session. 35th Congress, Vol. II, pp. 162-163. + + +Kane's method of procedure was, throughout, characteristic of the secret +agent of such an organization as the Mormon church. He sailed from New +York for San Francisco the first week in January, 1858, under the name +of Dr. Osborn. As soon as he landed, he hurried to Southern California, +and, joining the Mormons who had been called in from San Bernardino, he +made the trip to Utah with them, arriving in Salt Lake City in February. +On the evening of the day of his arrival he met the Presidency and the +Twelve, and began an address to them as follows: "I come as ambassador +from the Chief Executive of our nation, and am prepared and duly +authorized to lay before you, most fully and definitely, the feelings +and views of the citizens of our common country and of the Executive +toward you, relative to the present position of this territory, and +relative to the army of the United States now upon your borders." This +is the report of Kane's words made by Tullidge in his "Life of Brigham +Young." How the statement agrees with Kane's letters from the President +is apparent on its face. The only explanation in Kane's favor is that he +had secret instructions which contradicted those that were written and +published. Kane told the church officers that he wished to "enlist their +sympathies for the poor soldiers who are now suffering in the cold +and snow of the mountains!" An interview of half an hour with Young +followed--too private in its character to be participated in even by the +other heads of the church. An informal discussion ensued, the following +extracts from which, on Mormon authority, illustrate Kane's sympathies +and purpose:-- + +"Did Dr. Bernhisel take his seat?" + +Kane--"Yes. He was opposed by the Arkansas member and a few others, +but they were treated as fools by more sagacious members; for, if the +Delegate had been refused his seat, it would have been TANTAMOUNT TO A +DECLARATION OF WAR." + +"I suppose they [the Cabinet] are united in putting down Utah?" + +Kane--"I think not."* + + + * Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 203. + + +Kane was placed as a guest, still incognito, in the house of an elder, +and, after a few days' rest, he set out for Camp Scott. His course on +arriving there, on March 10, was again characteristic of the crafty +emissary. Not even recognizing the presence of the military so far as to +reply to a sentry's challenge, the latter fired on him, and he in turn +broke his own weapon over the sentry's head. When seized, he asked to be +taken to Governor Cumming, not to General Johnston.* "The compromise," +explains Tullidge, "which Buchanan had to effect with the utmost +delicacy, could only be through the new governor, and that, too, by his +heading off the army sent to occupy Utah." A fancied insult from General +Johnston due to an orderly's mistake led Kane to challenge the general +to a duel; but a meeting was prevented by an order from Judge Eckles to +the marshal to arrest all concerned if his command to the contrary was +not obeyed. + +"Governor Cumming," continued Tullidge, "could do nothing less than +espouse the cause of the `ambassador' who was there in the execution of +a mission intrusted to him by the President of the United States."** + + + * Colonel Johnston was made a brigadier general that winter. + + + ** Kane brought an impudent letter from Young, saying that he had +learned that the United States troops were very destitute of provisions, +and offering to send them beef cattle and flour. General Johnston +replied to Kane that he had an abundance of provisions, and that, no +matter what might be the needs of his army, he "would neither ask nor +receive from President Young and his confederates any supplies while +they continued to be enemies of the government" Kane replied to this the +next day, expressing a fear that "it must greatly prejudice the public +interest to refuse Mr. Young's proposal in such a manner," and begging +the general to reconsider the matter. No farther notice seems to have +been taken of the offer. + + +Kane did not make any mistake in his selection of the person to approach +in camp. Judged by the results, and by his admissions in after years, +the most charitable explanation of Cumming's course is that he was +hoodwinked from the beginning by such masters in the art of deception +as Kane and Young. A woman in Salt Lake City, writing to her sons in +the East at the time, described the governor as in "appearance a very +social, good-natured looking gentleman, a good specimen of an old +country aristocrat, at ease in himself and at peace with all the +world."* Such a man, whom the acts and proclamations and letters of +Young did not incite to indignation, was in a very suitable frame of +mind to be cajoled into adopting a policy which would give him the +credit of bringing about peace, and at the same time place him at the +head of the territorial affairs. + + + * New York Herald, July 2, 1858. For personal recollections of +Cumming, see Perry's "Reminiscences of Public Men," p. 290. What is said +by Governor Perry of Cumming's Utah career is valueless. + + +In looking into the causes of what was, from this time, a backing down +by both parties to this controversy, we find at Washington that lack of +an aggressive defence of the national interests confided to him by his +office which became so much more evident in President Buchanan a few +years later. Defied and reviled personally by Young in the latter's +official communications, there was added reason to those expressed in +the President's first message why this first rebellion, as he called it, +"should be put down in such a manner that it shall be the last." But a +wider question was looming up in Kansas, one in which the whole nation +recognized a vital interest; a bigger struggle attracted the attention +of the leading members of the Cabinet. The Lecompton Constitution was a +matter of vastly more interest to every politician than the government +of the sandy valley which the Mormons occupied in distant Utah. + +On the Mormon side, defiant as Young was, and sincere as was his +declaration that he would leave the valley a desert before the advance +of a hostile force, his way was not wholly clear. His Legion could not +successfully oppose disciplined troops, and he knew it. The conviction +of himself and his associates on the indictments for treason could be +prevented before an unbiased non-Mormon jury only by flight. Abjectly as +his people obeyed him,--so abjectly that they gave up all their gold and +silver to him that winter in exchange for bank notes issued by a company +of which he was president,--the necessity of a reiteration of the +determination to rule by the plummet showed that rebellion was at least +a possibility? That Young realized his personal peril was shown by some +"instructions and remarks" made by him in the Tabernacle just after +Kane set out for Fort Bridger, and privately printed for the use of +his fellow-leaders. He expressed the opinion that if Joseph Smith had +"followed the revelations in him" (meaning the warnings of danger), he +would have been among them still. "I do not know precisely," said +Young, "in what manner the Lord will lead me, but were I thrown into +the situation Joseph was, I would leave the people and go into the +wilderness, and let them do the best they could.... We are in duty bound +to preserve life--to preserve ourselves on earth--consequently we must +use policy, and follow in the counsel given us." He pointed out the sure +destruction that awaited them if they opened fire on the soldiers, and +declared that he was going to a desert region in the territory which he +had tried to have explored "a desert region that no man knows anything +about," with "places here and there in it where a few families could +live," and the entire extent of which would provide homes for five +hundred thousand people, if scattered about. In these circumstances "a +way out" that would free the federal administration from an unpleasant +complication, and leave Young still in practical control in Utah, was +not an unpleasant prospect for either side. + +A long Utah letter to the Near York Herald (which had been generally +pro-Mormon in tone) dated Camp Scott, May 22, 1858, contained the +following: "Some of the deceived followers of the latest false Prophet +arrived at this post in a most deplorable condition. One mater familiar +had crossed the mountains during very severe weather in almost a state +of nudity. Her dress consisted of a part of a single skirt, part of a +man's shirt, and a portion of a jacket. Thus habited, without a shoe or +a thread more, she had walked 157 miles in snow, the greater part of the +way up to her knees, and carried in her arms a sucking babe less than +six weeks old. The soldiers pulled off their clothes and gave them to +the unfortunate woman. The absconding Saints who arrive here tell a +great many stories about the condition and feeling of their brethren +who still remain in the land of promise.... Thousands and thousands of +persons, both men and women, are represented to be exceedingly desirous +of not going South with the church, but are compelled to by fear of +death or otherwise." + +Governor Cumming, in his report to Secretary Cass on the situation as +he found it when he entered Salt Lake City, said that, learning that +a number of persons desirous of leaving the territory "considered +themselves to be unlawfully restrained of their liberty," he decided, +even at the risk of offending the Mormons, to give public notice of his +readiness to assist such persons. In consequence, 56 men, 38 women, and +71 children sought his protection in order to proceed to the States. +"The large majority of these people;" he explained, "are of English +birth, and state that they leave the congregation from a desire to +improve their circumstances and realize elsewhere more money for their +labor." + +Kane having won Governor Cumming to his view of the situation, and +having created ill feeling between the governor and the chief military +commander, the way was open for the next step. The plan was to have +Governor Cumming enter Salt Lake Valley without any federal troops, and +proceed to Salt Lake City under a Mormon escort of honor, which was to +meet him when he came within a certain distance of that city. This he +consented to do. Kane stayed in "Camp Eckles" until April, making one +visit to the outskirts to hold a secret conference with the Mormons, +and, doubtless, to arrange the details of the trip. + +On April 3 Governor Cumming informed General Johnston of his decision, +and he set out two days later. General Johnston's view of the policy +to be pursued toward the Mormons was expressed in a report to army +headquarters, dated January 20:-- + +"Knowing how repugnant it would be to the policy or interest of the +government to do any act that would force these people into unpleasant +relations with the federal government, I have, in conformity with the +views also of the commanding general, on all proper occasions manifested +in my intercourse with them a spirit of conciliation. But I do not +believe that such consideration of them would be properly appreciated +now, or rather would be wrongly interpreted; and, in view of the +treasonable temper and feeling now pervading the leaders and a greater +portion of the Mormons, I think that neither the honor nor the dignity +of the government will allow of the slightest concession being made to +them." + +Judge Eckles did not conceal his determination not to enter Salt Lake +City until the flag of his country was waving there, holding it a shame +that men should be detained there in subjection to such a despot as +Brigham Young. + +Leaving camp accompanied only by Colonel Kane and two servants, Governor +Cumming found his Mormon guard awaiting him a few miles distant. His own +account of the trip and of his acts during the next three weeks of his +stay in Mormondom may be found in a letter to General Johnston and a +report to Secretary of State Cass.* As Echo canyon was supposed to +be thoroughly fortified, and there was not positive assurance that a +conflict might not yet take place, the governor was conducted through it +by night. He says that he was "agreeably surprised" by the illuminations +in his honor. Very probably he so accepted them, but the fires lighted +along the sides and top of the canyon were really intended to appear to +him as the camp-fires of a big Mormon army. This deception was further +kept up by the appearance of challenging parties at every turn, who +demanded the password of the escort, and who, while the governor was +detained, would hasten forward to a new station and go through the form +of challenging again: Once he was made the object of an apparent +attack, from which he was rescued by the timely arrival of officers of +authority.** + + + * For text, see Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," +pp. 108-212. + + + ** "In course of time Cumming discovered how the Mormon leaders +had imposed upon him and amused themselves with his credulity, and to +the last hour that he was in the Territory he felt annoyed at having +been so absurdly deceived, and held Brigham responsible for the +mortifying joke."--"Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 390. + + +The trip to Salt Lake City occupied a week, and on the 12th the governor +entered the Mormon metropolis, escorted by the city officers and other +persons of distinction in the community, and was assigned as a guest +to W. C. Staines, an influential Mormon elder. There Young immediately +called on him, and was received with friendly consideration. Asked by +his host, when the head of the church took his leave, if Young appeared +to be a tyrant, Governor Cumming replied: "No, sir. No tyrant ever had +a head on his shoulders like Mr. Young. He is naturally a good man. +I doubt whether many of your people sufficiently appreciate him as +a leader."* This was the judgment of a federal officer after a few +moments' conversation with the reviler of the government and a month's +coaching by Colonel Kane. + +Three days later, Governor Cumming officially notified General Johnston +of his arrival, and stated that he was everywhere recognized as +governor, and "universally greeted with such respectful attentions" +as were due to his office. There was no mention of any advance of +the troops, nor any censure of Mormon offenders, but the general was +instructed to use his forces to recover stock alleged to have been +stolen from the Mormons by Indians, and to punish the latter, and he was +informed that Indian Agent Hurt (who had so recently escaped from Mormon +clutches) was charged by W. H. Hooper, the Mormon who had acted as +secretary of state during recent months, with having incited Indians to +hostility, and should be investigated! Verily, Colonel Kane's work was +thoroughly performed. General Johnston replied, expressing gratification +at the governor's reception, requesting to be informed when the Mormon +force would be withdrawn from the route to Salt Lake City, and saying +that he had inquired into Dr. Hurt's case, and had satisfied himself +"that he has faithfully discharged his duty as agent, and that he has +given none but good advice to the Indians." + + + * Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 206. + + +On the Sunday after his arrival Young introduced Governor Cumming to the +people in the Tabernacle, and then a remarkable scene ensued. Stenhouse +says that the proceedings were all arranged in advance. Cumming was +acting the part of the vigilant defender of the laws, and at the same +time as conciliator, doing what his authority would permit to keep +the Mormon leaders free from the presence of troops and from the +jurisdiction of federal judges. But he was not all-powerful in this +respect. General Johnston had orders that would allow him to dispose of +his forces without obedience to the governor, and the governor could +not quash the indictments found by Judge Eckles's grand jury. Young's +knowledge of this made him cautious in his reliance on Governor Gumming. +Then, too, Young had his own people to deal with, and he would lose +caste with them if he made a surrender which left Mormondom practically +in federal control. + +When Governor Cumming was introduced to the congregation of nearly four +thousand people he made a very conciliatory address, in which, however, +according to his report to Secretary Cass,* he let them know that he +had come to vindicate the national sovereignty, "and to exact an +unconditional submission on their part to the dictates of the law"; +but informed them that they were entitled to trial by their +peers,--intending to mean Mormon peers,--that he had no intention of +stationing the army near their settlements, or of using a military posse +until other means of arrest had failed. After this practical surrender +of authority, the governor called for expressions of opinion from the +audience, and he got them. That audience had been nurtured for years on +the oratory of Young and Kimball and Grant, and had seen Judge Brocchus +vilified by the head of the church in the same building; and the +responses to Governor Cumming's invitation were of a kind to make an +Eastern Gentile quail, especially one like the innocent Cumming, who +thought them "a people who habitually exercised great self-control." +One speaker went into a review of Mormon wrongs since the tarring of the +prophet in Ohio, holding the federal government responsible, and naming +as the crowning outrage the sending of a Missourian to govern them. This +was too much for Cumming, and he called out, "I am a Georgian, sir, +a Georgian." The congregation gave the governor the lie to his face, +telling him that they would not believe that he was their friend +until he sent the soldiers back. "It was a perfect bedlam," says an +eyewitness, "and gross personal remarks were made. One man said, 'You're +nothing but an office seeker.' The governor replied that he obtained +his appointment honorably and had not solicited it."** If all this was +a piece of acting arranged by Young to show his flock that he was making +no abject surrender, it was well done.*** + + + * Ex. Doc. No. 67, 1st Session, 35th Congress. + + + ** Coverdale's statement in Camp Scott letter, June 4, 1858, to +New York Herald. + + + *** "Brigham was seated beside the governor on the platform, and +tried to control the unruly spirits. Governor Cumming may for the moment +have been deceived by this apparent division among the Mormons, but +three years later he told the author that it was all of a piece with +the incidents of his passage through Echo canyon. In his characteristic +brusque way he said: 'It was all humbug, sir, all humbug; but never +mind; it is all over now. If it did them good, it did not hurt +me.'"--"Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 393. + + +Young's remarks on March 21 had been having their effect while Cumming +was negotiating, and an exodus from the northern settlements was under +way which only needed to be augmented by a movement from the valley to +make good Young's declaration that they would leave their part of +the territory a desert. No official order for this movement had been +published, but whatever direction was given was sufficient. Peace +Commissioners Powell and McCullough, in a report to the Secretary of War +dated July 3, 1858, said on this subject: "We were informed by various +(discontented) Mormons, who lived in the settlements north of Provo, +that they had been forced to leave their homes and go to the southern +part of the Territory.... We were also informed that at least one-third +of the persons who had removed from their homes were compelled to do +so. We were told that many were dissatisfied with the Mormon church, and +would leave it whenever they could with safety to themselves. We are of +opinion that the leaders of the Mormon church congregated the people +in order to exercise more immediate control over them." Not only were +houses deserted, but growing crops were left and heavier household +articles abandoned, and the roads leading to the south and through Salt +Lake City were crowded day by day with loaded wagons, their owners--even +the women, often shoeless trudging along and driving their animals +before them. These refugees were, a little later, joined by Young and +most of his associates, and by a large part of the inhabitants of Salt +Lake City itself. It was estimated by the army officers at the time that +25,000 of a total population of 45,000 in the Territory, took part in +this movement. When they abandoned their houses they left them tinder +boxes which only needed the word of command, when the troops advanced, +to begin a general conflagration. By June 1 the refugees were collected +on the western shore of Utah Lake, fifty miles south of Salt Lake City. +What a picture of discomfort and positive suffering this settlement +presented can be partly imagined. The town of Provo near by could +accommodate but a few of the new-comers, and for dwellings the rest had +recourse to covered wagons, dugouts, cabins of logs, and shanties of +boards--anything that offered any protection. There was a lack of food, +and it was the old life of the plains again, without the daily variety +presented when the trains were moving. + +In his report to Secretary Cass, dated May 2, Governor Cumming, after +describing this exodus as a matter of great concern, said:-- + +"I shall follow these people and try to rally them. Our military force +could overwhelm most of these poor people, involving men, women, and +children in a common fate; but there are among the Mormons many brave +men accustomed to arms and horses, men who could fight desperately +as guerillas; and, if the settlements are destroyed, will subject the +country to an expensive and protracted war, without any compensating +results. They will, I am sure, submit to 'trial by their peers,' but +they will not brook the idea of trial by 'juries' composed of 'teamsters +and followers of the camp,' nor any army encamped in their cities or +dense settlements." + +What kind of justice their idea of "trial by their peers" meant was +disclosed in the judicial history of the next few years. This report, +which also recited the insults the governor had received in the +Tabernacle, was sent to Congress on June 10 by President Buchanan, with +a special message, setting forth that he had reason to believe that "our +difficulties with the territory have terminated, and the reign of the +constitution and laws been restored," and saying that there was no +longer any use of calling out the authorized regiments of volunteers. + + + +CHAPTER XV. -- THE PEACE COMMISSION + +Governor Cumming's report of May 2 did not reach Washington until June +9, but the President's volte-face had begun before that date, and +when the situation in Utah was precisely as it was when he had assured +Colonel Kane that he would send no agent to the Mormons while they +continued their defiant attitude. Under date of April 6 he issued a +proclamation, in which he recited the outrages on the federal officers +in Utah, the warlike attitude and acts of the Mormon force, which, he +pointed out, constituted rebellion and treason; declared that it was a +grave mistake to suppose that the government would fail to bring them +into submission; stated that the land occupied by the Mormons belonged +to the United States; and disavowed any intention to interfere with +their religion; and then, to save bloodshed and avoid indiscriminate +punishment where all were not equally guilty, he offered "a free and +full pardon to all who will submit themselves to the just authority of +the federal government." + +This proclamation was intrusted to two peace commissioners, L. W. Powell +of Kentucky and Major Ben. McCullough of Texas. Powell had been governor +of his state, and was then United States senator-elect. McCullough had +seen service in Texas before the war with Mexico, and been a daring +scout under Scott in the latter war. He was killed at the battle of Pea +Ridge, Arkansas, in 1862, in command of a Confederate corps. + +These commissioners were instructed by the Secretary of War to give the +President's proclamation extensive circulation in Utah. Without entering +into any treaty or engagements with the Mormons, they were to "bring +those misguided people to their senses" by convincing them of the +uselessness of resistance, and how much submission was to their +interest. They might, in so doing, place themselves in communication +with the Mormon leaders, and assure them that the movement of the +army had no reference to their religious tenets. The determination was +expressed to see that the federal officers appointed for the territory +were received and installed, and that the laws were obeyed, and Colonel +Kane was commended to them as likely to be of essential service. + +The commissioners set out from Fort Leavenworth on April 25, travelling +in ambulances, their party consisting of themselves, five soldiers, five +armed teamsters, and a wagon master. They arrived at Camp Scott on May +29, the reenforcements for the troops following them. The publication +of the President's proclamation was a great surprise to the military. +"There was none of the bloodthirsty excitement in the camp which was +reported in the States to have prevailed there," says Colonel Brown, +"but there was a feeling of infinite chagrin, a consciousness that the +expedition was only a pawn on Mr. Buchanan's political chessboard; and +reproaches against his folly were as frequent as they were vehement."* + + + * Atlantic Monthly, April, 1859. + + +The commissioners were not long in discovering the untrustworthy +character of any advices they might receive from Governor Cumming. +In their report of June 1 to the Secretary of War, they mentioned his +opinion that almost all the military organizations of the territory had +been disbanded, adding, "We fear that the leaders of the Mormon people +have not given the governor correct information of affairs in the +valley." They also declared it to be of the first importance that the +army should advance into the valley before the Mormons could burn the +grass or crops, and they gave General Johnston the warmest praise. + +The commissioners set out for Salt Lake City on June 2, Governor Cumming +who had returned to Camp Scott with Colonel Kane following them. On +reaching the city they found that Young and the other leaders were with +the refugees at Provo. A committee of three Mormons expressed to the +commissioners the wish of the people that they would have a conference +with Young, and on the 10th Young, Kimball, Wells, and several of the +Twelve arrived, and a meeting was arranged for the following day. + +There are two accounts of the ensuing conferences, the official reports +of the commissioners,* which are largely statements of results, and a +Mormon report in the journal kept by Wilford Woodruff.** At the +first conference, the commissioners made a statement in line with the +President's proclamation and with their instructions, offering pardon +on submission, and declaring the purpose of the government to enforce +submission by the employment of the whole military force of the nation, +if necessary. Woodruff's "reflection" on this proposition was that the +President found that Congress would not sustain him, and so was seeking +a way of retreat. While the conference was in session, O.P. Rockwell +entered and whispered to Young. The latter, addressing Governor Cumming, +asked, "Are you aware that those troops are on the move toward the +city?" The compliant governor replied, "It cannot be."*** What followed +Woodruff thus relates:-- + + + * Sen. Doc., 2d Session, 35th Congress, Vol. II, p. 167. + + + ** Quoted in Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 214. + + + *** Governor Cumming on June 15 despatched a letter to General +Johnston saying that he had denied the report of the advance of the +army, and that the general was pledged not to advance until he had +received communications from the peace commissioners and the governor. +The general replied on the 19th that he did say he would not advance +until he heard from the governor, but that this was not a pledge; that +his orders from the President were to occupy the territory; that his +supplies had arrived earlier than anticipated, and that circumstances +required an advance at once. + + +"'Is Brother Dunbar present?' enquired Brigham. + +"'Yes, sir,' responded someone. What was coming now? + +"'Brother Dunbar, sing Zion.' The Scotch songster came forward and sang +the soul-stirring lines by C. W. Penrose."* + + + * See p. 498, ante. + + +Interpreted, this meant, "Stop that army or our peace conference is +ended." Woodruff adds:-- + +"After the meeting, McCullough and Gov. Cumming took a stroll together. +'What will you do with such a people?' asked the governor, with a +mixture of admiration and concern. 'D--n them, I would fight them if +I had my way,' answered McCullough. 'Fight them, would you? You might +fight them, but you would never whip them. They would never know when +they were whipped.'" + +At the second day's conference Brigham Young uttered his final defiance +and then surrendered. Declaring that he had done nothing for which +he desired the President's forgiveness, he satisfied the pride of his +followers with such declarations as these:-- + +"I can take a few of the boys here, and, with the help of the Lord, +can whip the whole of the United States. Boys, how do you feel? Are you +afraid of the United States? (Great demonstration among the brethren.) +No. No. We are not afraid of man, nor of what he can do." + +"The United States are going to destruction as fast as they can go. If +you do not believe it, gentlemen, you will soon see it to your sorrow." + +But here was the really important part of his remarks: "Now, let me say +to you peace commissioners, we are willing those troops should come into +our country, but not to stay in our city. They may pass through it, if +needs be, but must not quarter less than forty miles from us." + +Impudent as was this declaration to the representatives of the +government, it marked the end of the "war". The commissioners at once +notified General Johnston that the Mormon leaders had agreed not to +resist the execution of the laws in the territory, and to consent that +the military and civil officers should discharge their duties. They +suggested that the general issue a proclamation, assuring the people +that the army would not trespass on the rights or property of peaceable +citizens, and this the general did at once. + +The Mormon leaders, being relieved of the danger of a trial for treason, +now stood in dread of two things, the quartering of the army among +them, and a vigorous assault on the practice of polygamy. Judge Eckles's +District Court had begun its spring term at Fort Bridger on April 5, and +the judge had charged the grand jury very plainly in regard to plural +marriages. On this subject he said:-- + +"It cannot be concealed, gentlemen, that certain domestic arrangements +exist in this territory destructive of the peace, good order, and morals +of society--arrangements at variance with those of all enlightened and +Christian communities in the world; and, sapping as they do the very +foundation of all virtue, honesty, and morality, it is an imperative +duty falling upon you as grand jurors diligently to inquire into this +evil and make every effort to check its growth. + +"There is no law in this territory punishing polygamy, but there is one, +however, for the punishment of adultery; and all illegal intercourse +between the sexes, if either party have a husband or wife living at the +time, is adulterous and punishable by indictment. The law was made +to punish the lawless and disobedient, and society is entitled to the +salutary effects of its execution." + +No indictments were found that spring for this offence, but the Mormons +stood in great dread of continued efforts by the judge to enforce the +law as he interpreted it. Of the nature of the real terms made with the +Mormons, Colonel Brown says:-- + +"No assurances were given by the commissioners upon either of these +subjects. They limited their action to tendering the President's +pardon, and exhorting the Mormons to accept it. Outside the conferences, +however, without the knowledge of the commissioners, assurances were +given on both these subjects by the Governor and Superintendent of +Indian Affairs, which proved satisfactory to Brigham Young. The exact +nature of their pledges will, perhaps, never be disclosed; but from +subsequent confessions volunteered by the superintendent, who appears +to have acted as the tool of the governor through the whole affair, it +seems probable that they promised explicitly to exert their influence to +quarter the army in Cache Valley, nearly one hundred miles north of Salt +Lake City, and also to procure the removal of Judge Eckles."* + + + * Atlantic Monthly, April, 1859. Young told the Mormons at Provo +on June 27, 1858: "We have reason to believe that Colonel Kane, on his +arrival at the frontier, telegraphed to Washington, and that orders were +immediately sent to stop the march of the army for ten days."--Journal +of Discourses, Vol. VII, p. 57. + + +Captain Marcy had reached Camp Scott on June 8, with his herd of horses +and mules, and Colonel Hoffman with the first division of the supply +train which left Fort Laramie on March 18; on the 10th Captain +Hendrickspn arrived with the remainder of the trains; and on the 13th +the long-expected movement from Camp Scott to the Mormon city began. To +the soldiers who had spent the winter inactive, except as regards their +efforts to keep themselves from freezing, the order to advance was a +welcome one. Late as was the date, there had been a snowfall at Fort +Bridger only three days before, and the streams were full of water. The +column was prepared therefore for bridge-making when necessary. When the +little army was well under way the scene in the valley through which ran +Black's Fork was an interesting one. The white walls of Bridger's Fort +formed a background, with the remnants of the camp in the shape of sod +chimneys, tent poles, and so forth next in front, and, slowly leaving +all this, the moving soldiers, the long wagon trains, the artillery +carriages and caissons, and on either flank mounted Indians riding here +and there, satisfying their curiosity with this first sight of a white +man's army. The news that the Mormons had abandoned their idea of +resistance reached the troops the second day after they had started, +and they had nothing more exciting to interest them on the way than the +scenery and the Mormon fortifications. Salt Lake City was reached on +the 26th, and the march through it took place that day. To the soldiers, +nothing was visible to indicate any abandonment of the hostile attitude +of the Mormons, much less any welcome. + +Their leaders had returned to the camp at Provo, and the only civilians +in the city were a few hundred who had, for special reasons, been +granted permission to return. The only woman in the whole city was Mrs. +Cumming. The Mormons had been ordered indoors early that morning by the +guard; every flag on a public building had been taken down; every window +was closed. The regimental bands and the creaking wagons alone disturbed +the utter silence. The peace commissioners rode with General Johnston, +and the whole force encamped on the river Jordan, just within the city +limits. Two days later, owing to a lack of wood and pasturage there, +they were moved about fifteen miles westward, near the foot of the +mountains. Disregarding Young's expressed wishes, and any understanding +he might have had with Governor Cumming, General Johnston selected +Cedar Valley on Lake Utah for one of the three posts he was ordered to +establish in the territory, and there his camp was pitched on July 6. + +Governor Cumming prepared a proclamation to the inhabitants of the +territory, announcing that all persons were pardoned who submitted +to the law, and that peace was restored, and inviting the refugees to +return to their homes. The governor and the peace commissioners made a +trip to the Mormon camps, and addressed gatherings at Provo and Lehi. +The governor bustled about everywhere, assuring every one that all +the federal officers would "hold sacred the amnesty and pardon by the +President of the United States, by G-d, sir, yes," and receiving from +Young the sneering reply, "We know all about it, Governor." On July 4., +no northward movement of the people having begun, Cumming told Young +that he intended to publish his proclamation. "Do as YOU please," was +the contemptuous reply; "to-morrow I shall get upon the tongue of my +wagon, and tell the people that I am going home, and they can do as THEY +please."* + + + * Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 226. + + +Young did so, and that day the backward march of the people began. The +real governor was the head of the church. + + + +CHAPTER XVI. -- THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE + +We may here interrupt the narrative of events subsequent to the +restoration of peace in the territory, with the story of the most +horrible massacre of white people by religious fanatics of their own +race that has been recorded since that famous St. Bartholemew's night in +Paris--the story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Committed on Friday, +September 11, 1857,--four days before the date of Young's proclamation +forbidding the United States troops to enter the territory--it was a +considerable time before more than vague rumors of the crime reached +the Eastern states. No inquest or other investigation was held by Mormon +authority, no person participating in the slaughter was arrested by +a Mormon officer; and, when officers of the federal government first +visited the scene, in the spring of 1859, all that remained to tell +the tale were human skulls and other bones lying where the wolves and +coyotes had left them, with scraps of clothing caught here and there +upon the vines and bushes. Dr. Charles Brewer, the assistant army +surgeon who was sent with a detail to bury the remains in May, 1859, +says in his gruesome report:-- + +"I reached a ravine fifty yards from the road, in which I found portions +of the skeletons of many bodies,--skulls, bones, and matted hair,--most +of which, on examination, I concluded to be those of men. Three hundred +and fifty yards further on another assembly of human remains was found, +which, by all appearance, had been left to decay upon the surface; +skulls and bones, most of which I believed to be those of women, some +also of children, probably ranging from six to twelve years of age. +Here, too, were found masses of women's hair, children's bonnets, such +as are generally used upon the plains, and pieces of lace, muslin, +calicoes, and other materials. Many of the skulls bore marks of +violence, being pierced with bullet holes, or shattered by heavy blows, +or cleft with some sharp-edged instrument."* + + + * Sen. Doc. No. 42, 1st Session, 36th Congress. + + +More than seventeen years passed before officers of the United States +succeeded in securing the needed evidence against any of the persons +responsible for these wholesale murders, and a jury which would bring in +a verdict of guilty. Then a single Mormon paid the penalty of his crime. +He died asserting that he was the one victim surrendered by the Mormon +church to appease the public demand for justice. The closest students +of the Mountain Meadows Massacre and of Brigham Young's rule will always +give the most credence to this statement of John D. Lee. Indeed, to +acquit Young of responsibility for this crime, it would be necessary to +prove that the sermons and addresses in the journal of Discourses are +forgeries. + +In the summer of 1857 a party was made up in Arkansas to cross the +plains to Southern California by way of Utah, under direction of a +Captain Fancher.* This party differed from most emigrant parties of +the day both in character and equipment. It numbered some thirty +families,--about 140 individuals,--men, women, and children. They were +people of means, several of them travelling in private carriages, and +their equipment included thirty horses and mules, and about six hundred +head of cattle, when they arrived in Utah. Most of them seem to have +been Methodists, and they had a preacher of that denomination with +them. Prayers were held in camp every night and morning, and they never +travelled on Sundays. They did not hurry on, as the gold seekers were +wont to do in those days, but made their trip one of pleasure, sparing +themselves and their animals, and enjoying the beauties and novelties of +the route.** + + + * Stenhouse says that travelling the same route, and encamping +near the Arkansans, was a company from Missouri who called themselves +"Missouri Wildcats," and who were so boisterous that the Arkansans +were warned not to travel with them to Utah. Whitney says that the two +parties travelled several days apart after leaving Salt Lake City. No +mention of a separate company of Missourians appears in the official and +court reports of the massacre. + + + ** Jacob Forney, in his official report, says that he made the +most careful inquiry regarding the conduct of the emigrants after they +entered the territory, and could testify that the company conducted +themselves "with propriety." In the years immediately following the +massacre, when the Mormons were trying to attribute the crime to +Indians, much was said about the party having poisoned a spring and +caused the death of Indians and their cattle. Forney found that one ox +did die near their camp, but that its death was caused by a poisonous +weed. Whitney, the church historian, who of course acquits the church of +any responsibility for the massacre, draws a very black picture of the +emigrants, saying, for instance, that at Cedar Creek "their customary +proceeding of burning fences, whipping the heads off chickens, or +shooting them in the streets or private dooryards, to the extreme danger +of the inhabitants, was continued. One of them, a blustering fellow +riding a gray horse, flourished his pistol in the face of the wife +of one of the citizens, all the time making insulting proposals and +uttering profane threats."--"History of Utah," Vol. I, p. 696. + + +Every emigrant train for California then expected to restock in +Utah. The Mormons had profited by this traffic, and such a thing as +non-intercourse with travellers in the way of trade was as yet unheard +of. But Young was now defying the government, and his proclamation of +September 15 had declared that "no person shall be allowed to pass or +repass into or through or from this territory without a permit from +the proper officer." To a constituency made up so largely of dishonest +members, high and low, as Young himself conceded the Mormon body politic +to be, the outfit of these travellers was very attractive. There was a +motive, too, in inflicting punishment on them, merely because they were +Arkansans, and the motive was this:-- + +Parley P. Pratt was sent to explore a southern route from Utah to +California in 1849. He reached San Francisco from Los Angeles in the +summer of 1851, remaining there until June, 1855. He was a fanatical +defender of polygamy after its open proclamation, challenging debate +on the subject in San Francisco, and issuing circulars calling on the +people to repent as "the Kingdom of God has come nigh unto you." +While in San Francisco, Pratt induced the wife of Hector H. McLean, +a custom-house official, the mother of three children, to accept the +Mormon faith and to elope with him to Utah as his ninth wife. The +children were sent to her parents in Louisiana by their father, and +there she sometime later obtained them, after pretending that she had +abandoned the Mormon belief. When McLean learned of this he went East, +and traced his wife and Pratt to Houston, Texas, and thence to Fort +Gibson, near Van Buren, Arkansas. There he had Pratt arrested, but there +seemed to be no law under which he could be held. As soon as Pratt was +released, he left the place on horseback. McLean, who had found letters +from Pratt to his wife at Fort Gibson which increased his feeling +against the man,* followed him on horseback for eight miles, and then, +overtaking him, shot him so that he died in two hours.** It was in +accordance with Mormon policy to hold every Arkansan accountable +for Pratt's death, just as every Missourian was hated because of the +expulsion of the church from that state. + + + * Van Buren Intelligencer, May 15, 1857. + + + ** See the story in the New York Times of May 28, 1857, copied +from the St. Louis Democrat and St. Louis Republican. + + +When the company pitched camp on the river Jordan their food supplies +were nearly exhausted, and their draught animals needed rest and a +chance to recuperate. They knew nothing of the disturbed relations +between the Mormons and the government when they set out, and they +were astonished now to be told that they must break camp and move on +southward. But they obeyed. At American Fork, the next settlement, they +offered some of their worn-out animals in exchange for fresh ones, and +visited the town to buy provisions. There was but one answer--nothing to +sell. Southward they continued, through Provo, Springville, Payson, +Salt Creek, and Fillmore, at all settlements making the same effort to +purchase the food of which they stood in need, and at all receiving the +same reply. + +So much were their supplies now reduced that they hastened on until Corn +Creek was reached; there they did obtain a little relief, some Indians +selling them about thirty bushels of corn. But at Beaver, a larger +place, nonintercourse was again proclaimed, and at Parowan, through +which led the road built by the general government, they were forbidden +to pass over this directly through the town, and the local mill would +not even grind their own corn. At Cedar Creek, one of the largest +southern settlements, they were allowed to buy fifty bushels of wheat, +and to have it and their corn ground at John D. Lee's mill. After a +day's delay they started on, but so worn out were their animals that it +took them three days to reach Iron Creek, twenty miles beyond, and two +more days to reach Mountain Meadows, fifteen miles farther south. + +These "meadows" are a valley, 350 miles south of Salt Lake City, about +five miles long by one wide. They are surrounded by mountains, and +narrow at the lower end to a width of 400 yards, where a gap leads out +to the desert. A large spring near this gap made that spot a natural +resting-place, and there the emigrants pitched their camp. Had they been +in any way suspicious of Indian treachery they would not have stopped +there, because, from the elevations on either side, they were subject to +rifle fire. Their anxiety, however, was not about the Indians, whom they +had found friendly, but about the problem of making the trip of seventy +days to San Bernardino, across a desert country, with their wornout +animals and their scant supplies. Had Mormon cruelty taken only the form +of withholding provisions and forage from this company, its effect would +have satisfied their most evil wishers. + +On the morning of Monday, September 7, still unsuspicious of any form of +danger, their camp was suddenly fired upon by Indians, (and probably by +some white men disguised as Indians). Seven of the emigrants were +killed in this attack and sixteen were wounded. Unexpected as was this +manifestation of hostility, the company was too well organized to be +thrown into a panic. The fire was returned, and one Indian was killed, +and two chiefs fatally wounded. The wagons were corralled at once as +a sort of fortification, and the wheels were chained together. In the +centre of this corral a rifle pit was dug, large enough to hold all +their people, and in this way they were protected from shots fired +at them from either side of the valley. In this little fort they +successfully defended themselves during that and the ensuing three +days. Not doubting that Indians were their only assailants, two of their +number succeeded in escaping from the camp on a mission to Cedar City to +ask for assistance. These messengers were met by three Mormons, who shot +one of them dead, and wounded the other; the latter seems to have made +his way back to the camp. + +The Arkansans soon suffered for water, as the spring was a hundred yards +distant. Two of them during one day made a dash, carrying buckets, and +got back with them safely, under a heavy fire. + + + * Lee denies positively a story that the Mormons shot two little +girls who were dressed in white and sent out for water. He says that +when the Arkansans saw a white man in the valley (Lee himself) they +ran up a white flag and sent two little boys to talk with him; that he +refused to see them, as he was then awaiting orders, and that he kept +the Indians from shooting them. "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 231. + + +With some reenforcements from the south, the Indians now numbered about +four hundred. They shot down some seventy head of the emigrants' cattle, +and on Wednesday evening made another attack in force on the camp, +but were repulsed. Still another attack the next morning had the same +result. This determined resistance upset the plans of the Mormons who +had instigated the Indian attacks. They had expected that the travellers +would be overcome in the first surprise, and that their butchery would +easily be accounted for as the result of an Indian raid on their camp. +But they were not to be balked of their object. To save themselves from +the loss of life that would be entailed by a charge on the Arkansans' +defences, they resorted to a scheme of the most deliberate treachery. + +On Friday, the 11th, a Mormon named William Bateman was sent forward +with a flag of truce. The other undisguised Mormons remained in +concealment, and the Indians had been instructed to keep entirely out of +sight. The beleaguered company were delighted to see a white man, and at +once sent one of their number to meet him. Their ammunition was almost +exhausted, their dead were unburied in their midst, and their situation +was desperate. Bateman, following out his instructions, told the +representative of the emigrants that the Mormons had come to their +assistance, and that, if they would place themselves in the white men's +hands and follow directions, they would be conducted in safety to +Cedar City, there to await a proper opportunity for proceeding on their +journey.* This plan was agreed to without any delay, and John D. Lee +was directed by John M. Higbee, major of the Iron Militia, and chief +in command of the Mormon party, to go to the camp to see that the plot +agreed upon was carried out, Samuel McMurdy and Samuel Knight following +him with two wagons which were a part of the necessary equipment. + + + * This account follows Lee's confession, "Mormonism Unveiled," p. +236. + + +Never had a man been called upon to perform a more dastardly part than +that which was assigned to Lee. Entering the camp of the beleaguered +people as their friend, he was to induce them to abandon their defences, +give up all their weapons, separate the adults from the children and +wounded, who were to be placed in the wagons, and then, at a given +signal, every one of the party was to be killed by the white men who +walked by their sides as their protectors. Lee draws a picture of +his feelings on entering the camp which ought to be correct, even if +circumstances lead one to attribute it to the pen of a man who naturally +wished to find some extenuation for himself: "I doubt the power of +man being equal to even imagine how wretched I felt. No language can +describe my feelings. My position was painful, trying, and awful; +my brain seemed to be on fire; my nerves were for a moment unstrung; +humanity was overpowering as I thought of the cruel, unmanly part that +I was acting. Tears of bitter anguish fell in streams from my eyes; +my tongue refused its office; my faculties were dormant, stupefied and +deadened by grief. I wished that the earth would open and swallow me +where I stood." + +When Lee entered the camp all the people, men, women, and children, +gathered around him, some delighted over the hope of deliverance, while +others showed distrust of his intentions. Their position was so strong +that they felt some hesitation in abandoning it, and Lee says that, if +their ammunition had not been so nearly exhausted, they would never have +surrendered. But their hesitation was soon overcome, and the carrying +out of the plot proceeded. + +All their arms, the wounded, and the smallest children were placed in +the two wagons. As soon as these were loaded, a messenger from Higbee, +named McFarland, rode up with a message that everything should be +hastened, as he feared he could not hold back the Indians. The wagons +were then started at once toward Cedar City, Lee and the two drivers +accompanying them, and the others of the party set out on foot for the +place where the Mormon troops were awaiting them, some two hundred yards +distant. First went McFarland on horseback, then the women and larger +children, and then the men. When, in this order, they came to the place +where the Mormons were stationed, the men of the party cheered the +latter as their deliverers. + +As the wagons passed out of sight over an elevation, the march of the +rest of the party was resumed. The women and larger children walked +ahead, then came the men in single file, an armed Mormon walking by the +side of each Arkansan. This gave the appearance of the best possible +protection. When they had advanced far enough to bring the women and +children into the midst of a company of Indians concealed in a growth of +cedars, the agreed signal the words, "Do your duty"--was given. As these +words were spoken, each Mormon turned and shot the Arkansan who was +walking by his side, and Indians and other Mormons attacked the women +and children who were walking ahead, while Lee and his two companions +killed the wounded and the older of the children who were in the wagons. + +The work of killing the men was performed so effectually that only +two or three of them escaped, and these were overtaken and killed soon +after.* Indeed, only the nervousness natural to men who were assigned +to perform so horrible a task could prevent the murderers from shooting +dead the unarmed men walking by their sides. With the women and children +it was different. Instead of being shot down without warning, they first +heard the shots that killed their only protectors, and then beheld the +Indians rushing on them with their usual whoops, brandishing tomahawks, +knives, and guns. There were cries for mercy, mothers' pleas for +children's lives, and maidens' appeals to manly honor; but all in vain. +It was not necessary to use firearms; indeed, they would have endangered +the assailants themselves. The tomahawk and the knife sufficed, and in +the space of a few moments every woman and older child was a corpse. + + + * This is Judge Cradlebaugh's and Lee's statement. Lee said he +could have given the details of their pursuit and capture if he had had +time. An affidavit by James Lynch, who accompanied Superintendent Forney +to the Meadows on his first trip there in March 1859 (printed in Sen. +Doc. No. 42), says that one of the three, who was not killed on the +spot, "was followed by five Mormons who through promises of safety, +etc., prevailed upon him to return to Mountain Meadows, where they +inhumanly butchered him, laughing at and disregarding his loud and +repeated cries for mercy, as witnessed and described by Ira Hatch, one +of the five. The object of killing this man was to leave no witness +competent to give testimony in a court of justice but God." + + +When Lee and the men in charge of the two wagons heard the firing, they +halted at once, as this was the signal agreed on for them to perform +their part. McMurdy's wagon, containing the sick and wounded and the +little children, was in advance, Knight's, with a few passengers and +the weapons, following. We have three accounts of what happened when the +signal was given, Lee's own, and the testimony of the other two at Lee's +trial. Lee says that McMurdy at once went up to Knight's wagon, and, +raising his rifle and saying, "O Lord my God, receive their spirits; +it is for Thy Kingdom I do this," fired, killing two men with the first +shot. Lee admits that he intended to do his part of the killing, but +says that in his excitement his pistol went off prematurely and narrowly +escaped wounding McMurdy; that Knight then shot one man, and with the +butt of his gun brained a little boy who had run up to him, and that +the Indians then came up and finished killing all the sick and wounded. +McMurdy testified that Lee killed the first person in his wagon--a +woman--and also shot two or three others. When asked if he himself +killed any one that day, McMurdy replied, "I believe I am not upon +trial. I don't wish to answer." Knight testified that he saw Lee strike +down a woman with his gun or a club, denying that he himself took any +part in the slaughter: Nephi Johnson, another witness at Lee's second +trial, testified that he saw Lee and an Indian pull a man out of one of +the wagons, and he thought Lee cut the man's throat. The only persons +spared in this whole company were seventeen children, varying in age +from two months to seven years. They were given to Mormon families in +southern Utah--"sold out," says Forney in his report, "to different +persons in Cedar City, Harmony, and Painter Creek. Bills are now in +my possession from different individuals asking payment from +the government. I cannot condescend to become the medium of even +transmitting such claims to the department." The government directed +Forney in 1858 to collect these children, and he did so. Congress in +1859 appropriated $10,000 to defray the expense of returning them to +their friends in Arkansas, and on June 27 of that year fifteen of them +(two boys being retained as government witnesses) set out for the East +from Salt Lake City in charge of a company of United States dragoons and +five women attendants. Judge Cradlebaugh quotes one of these children, a +boy less than nine years old, as saying in his presence, when they were +brought to Salt Lake City, "Oh, I wish I was a man. I know what I would +do. I would shoot John D. Lee. I saw him shoot my mother." + +The total number in the Arkansas party is not exactly known. The victims +numbered more than 120. Jacob Hamblin testified at the Lee trial that, +the following spring, he and his man buried "120 odd" skulls, counting +them as they gathered them up. + +A few young women, in the confusion of the Indian attack, concealed +themselves, but they were soon found. Hamblin testified at Lee's +second trial that Lee, in a long conversation with him, soon after the +massacre, told him that, when he rejoined the Mormon troops, an Indian +chief brought to him two girls from thirteen to fifteen years old, whom +he had found hiding in a thicket, and asked what should be done with +them, as they were pretty and he wanted to save them. Lee replied that +"according to the orders he had, they were too old and too big to let +go." + +Then by Lee's direction the chief shot one of them, and Lee threw the +other down and cut her throat. Hamblin said that an Indian boy conducted +him to the place where the girls' bodies lay, a long way from the rest, +up a ravine, unburied and with their throats cut. One of the little +children saved from the massacre was taken home by Hamblin, and she said +the murdered girls were her sisters. Richard F. Burton, who visited Utah +in 1860, mentions, as one of the current stories in connection with the +massacre, that, when a girl of sixteen knelt before one of the Mormons +and prayed for mercy, he led her into the thicket, violated her, and +then cut her throat.* + + + * "City of the Saints," p. 412. + + +As soon as the slaughter was completed the plundering began. Beside +their wagons, horses, and cattle,* they had a great deal of other +valuable property, the whole being estimated by Judge Cradlebaugh +at from $60,000 to $70,000. When Lee got back to the main party, the +searching of the bodies of the men for valuables began. "I did hold the +hat awhile," he confesses, "but I got so sick that I had to give it to +some other person." He says there were more than five hundred head of +cattle, a large number of which the Indians killed or drove away, while +Klingensmith, Haight, and Higbee, leaders in the enterprise, drove +others to Salt Lake City and sold them. The horses and mules were +divided in the same way. The Indians (and probably their white comrades) +had made quick work with the effects of the women. Their bodies, young +and old, were stripped naked, and left, objects of the ribald jests of +their murderers. Lee says that in one place he counted the bodies of ten +children less than sixteen years old. + + + * Superintendent Forney, in his report of March, 1859, said: +"Facts in my possession warrant me in estimating that there was +distributed a few days after the massacre, among the leading church +dignitaries, $30,000 worth of property. It is presumable they also had +some money." + + +When the Mormons had finished rifling the dead, all were called together +and admonished by their chiefs to keep the massacre a secret from the +whole world, not even letting their wives know of it, and all took the +most solemn oath to stand by one another and declare that the killing +was the work of Indians. Most of the party camped that night on the +Meadows, but Lee and Higbee passed the night at Jacob Hamblin's ranch. + +In the morning the Mormons went back to bury the dead. All these lay +naked, "making the scene," says Lee, "one of the most loathsome and +ghastly that can be imagined." The bodies were piled up in heaps in +little depressions, and a pretence was made of covering them with dirt; +but the ground was hard and their murderers had few tools, and as a +consequence the wild beasts soon unearthed them, and the next spring the +bones were scattered over the surface. + +This work finished, the party, who had been joined during the night by +Colonel Dame, Judge Lewis, Isaac C. Haight, and others of influence, +held another council, at which God was thanked for delivering their +enemies into their hands; another oath of secrecy was taken, and all +voted that any person who divulged the story of the massacre should +suffer death, but that Brigham Young should be informed of it. It was +also voted, according to Lee, that Bishop Klingensmith should take +charge of the plunder for the benefit of the church. + +The story of this slaughter, to this point, except in minor particulars +noted, is undisputed. No Mormon now denies that the emigrants were +killed, or that Mormons participated largely in the slaughter. What the +church authorities have sought to establish has been their own ignorance +of it in advance, and their condemnation of it later. In examining this +question we have, to assist us, the knowledge of the kind of government +that Young had established over his people--his practical power of life +and death; the fact that the Arkansans were passing south from Salt Lake +City, and that their movements had been known to Young from the start +and their treatment been subject to his direction; the failure of Young +to make any effort to have the murderers punished, when a "crook of +his finger" would have given them up to justice; the coincidence of the +massacre with Young's threat to Captain Van Vliet, uttered on September +9, "If the issue continues, you may tell the government to stop all +emigration across the continent, for the Indians will kill all who +attempt it"; Young's failure to mention this "Indian outrage" in his +report as superintendent of Indian affairs, and the silence of the +Mormon press on the subject.* If we accept Lee's plausible theory that, +at his second trial, the church gave him up as a sop to justice, and +loosened the tongues of witnesses against him, this makes that part of +the testimony in confirmation of Lee's statement, elicited from them, +all the stronger. + + + * H. H. Bancroft, in his "Utah," as usual, defends the Mormon +church against the charge of responsibility for the massacre, and calls +Judge Cradlebaugh's charge to the grand jury a slur that the evidence +did not excuse. + + +Let us recall that Lee himself had been an active member of the church +for nearly forty years, following it from Missouri to Utah, travelling +penniless as a missionary at the bidding of his superiors, becoming +a polygamist before he left Nauvoo, accepting in Utah the view that +"Brigham spoke by direction of the God of heaven," and saying, as he +stood by his coffin looking into the rifles of his executioners, "I +believe in the Gospel that was taught in its purity by Joseph Smith in +former days." How much Young trusted him is seen in the fact that, by +Young's direction, he located the southern towns of Provo, Fillmore, +Parowan, etc., was appointed captain of militia at Cedar City, was +president of civil affairs at Harmony, probate judge of the county +(before and after the massacre), a delegate to the convention which +framed the constitution of the State of Deseret, a member of the +territorial legislature (after the massacre), and "Indian farmer" of the +district including the Meadows when the massacre occurred. + +Lee's account of the steps leading up to the massacre and of what +followed is, in brief, that, about ten days before it occurred, General +George A. Smith, one of the Twelve, called on him at Washington City, +and, in the course of their conversation, asked, "Suppose an emigrant +train should come along through this southern country, making threats +against our people and bragging of the part they took in helping kill +our prophet, what do you think the brethren would do with them?" Lee +replied: "You know the brethren are now under the influence of the +'Reformation,' and are still red-hot for the Gospel. The brethren +believe the government wishes to destroy them. I really believe that +any train of emigrants that may come through here will be attacked and +probably all destroyed. Unless emigrants have a pass from Brigham Young +or some one in authority, they will certainly never get safely through +this country." Smith said that Major Haight had given him the same +assurance. It was Lee's belief that Smith had been sent south in advance +of the emigrants to prepare for what followed. + +Two days before the first attack on the camp, Lee was summoned to Cedar +City by Isaac Haight, president of that Stake, second only to Colonel +Dame in church authority in southern Utah, and a lieutenant colonel in +the militia under Dame. To make their conference perfectly secret, they +took some blankets and passed the night in an old iron works. There +Haight told Lee a long story about Captain Fancher's party, charging +them with abusing the Mormons, burning fences, poisoning water, +threatening to kill Brigham Young and all the apostles, etc. He said +that unless preventive measures were taken, the whole Mormon population +were likely to be butchered by troops which these people would bring +back from California. Lee says that he believed all this. He was also +told that, at a council held that day, it had been decided to arm the +Indians and "have them give the emigrants a brush, and, if they killed +part or all, so much the better." When asked who authorized this, Haight +replied, "It is the will of all in authority," and Lee was told that he +was to carry out the order. The intention then was to have the Indians +do the killing without any white assistance. On his way home Lee met a +large body of Indians who said they were ordered by Haight, Higbee, and +Bishop Klingensmith, to kill and rob the emigrants, and wanted Lee to +lead them. He told them to camp near the emigrants and wait for him; +but they made the attack, as described, early Monday morning, without +capturing the camp, and drove the whites into an intrenchment from which +they could not dislodge them. Hence the change of plan. + +During the early part of the operations, Lee says, a messenger had been +sent to Brigham Young for orders. On Thursday evening two or three wagon +loads of Mormons, all armed, arrived at Lee's camp in the Meadows, the +party including Major Higbee of the Iron Militia, Bishop Klingensmith, +and many members of the High Council. When all were assembled, Major +Higbee reported that Haight's orders were that "all the emigrants must +be put out of the way"; that they had no pass (Young could have given +them one); that they were really a part of Johnston's army, and, if +allowed to proceed to California, they would bring destruction on all +the settlements in Utah. All knelt in prayer, after which Higbee gave +Lee a paper ordering the destruction of all who could talk. After +further prayers, Higbee said to Lee, "Brother Lee, I am ordered by +President Haight to inform you that you shall receive a crown of +celestial glory for your faithfulness, and your eternal joy shall be +complete." Lee says that he was "much shaken" by this offer, because +of his complete faith in the power of the priesthood to fulfil such +promises. The outcome of the conference was the adoption of the plan of +treachery that was so successfully carried out on Friday morning. The +council had lasted so long that the party merely had time for breakfast +before Bateman set out for the camp with his white flag.* + + + * Bishop Klingensmith, one of the indicted, in whose case the +district attorney entered a nolle prosequi in order that he might be a +witness at Lee's first trial, said in his testimony: "Coming home the +day following their [emigrants'] departure from Cedar City, met Ira +Allen four miles beyond the place where they had spoken to Lee. Allen +said, 'The die is cast, the doom of the emigrants is sealed.'" (This +was in reference to a meeting in Parowan, when the destruction of the +emigrants had been decided on.) He said John D. Lee had received orders +from headquarters at Parowan to take men and go, and Joel White would be +wanted to go to Pinto Creek and revoke the order to suffer the emigrants +to pass. The third day after, Haight came to McFarland's house and told +witness and others that orders had come in from camp last night. Things +hadn't gone along as had been expected, and reenforcements were wanted. +Haight then went to Parowan to get instructions, and received orders +from Dame to "decoy the emigrants out and spare nothing but the small +children who could not tell the tale." In an affidavit made by +this Bishop in April, 1871, he said: "I do not know whether said +'headquarters' meant the spiritual headquarters at Parowan, or the +headquarters of the commander-in-chief at Salt Lake City." (Affidavit in +full in "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 439.) + + +Several days after the massacre, Haight told Lee that the messenger sent +to Young for instructions had returned with orders to let the emigrants +pass in safety, and that he (Haight) had countermanded the order for +the massacre, but his messenger "did not go to the Meadows at all." All +parties were evidently beginning to realize the seriousness of their +crime. Lee was then directed by the council to go to Young with a +verbal report, Haight again promising him a celestial reward if he would +implicate more of the brethren than necessary in his talk with Young.* +On reaching Salt Lake City, Lee gave Young the full particulars of the +massacre, step by step. Young remarked, "Isaac [Haight] has sent me +word that, if they had killed every man, woman, and child in the outfit, +there would not have been a drop of innocent blood shed by the brethren; +for they were a set of murderers, robbers, and thieves." + + + * "At that time I believed everything he said, and I fully +expected to receive the celestial reward that he promised me. But now +[after his conviction] I say, 'Damn all such celestial rewards as I am +to get for what I did on that fatal day'." "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 251. + + +When the tale was finished, Young said: "This is the most unfortunate +affair that ever befell the church. I am afraid of treachery among the +brethren who were there. If any one tells this thing so that it will +become public, it will work us great injury. I want you to understand +now that you are NEVER to tell this again, not even to Heber C. Kimball. +IT MUST be kept a secret among ourselves. When you get home, I want +you to sit down and write a long letter, and give me an account of the +affair, charging it to the Indians. You sign the letter as farmer to +the Indians, and direct it to me as Indian agent. I can then make use of +such a letter to keep off all damaging and troublesome inquirers." Lee +did so, and his letter was put in evidence at his trial. + +Lee says that Young then dismissed him for the day, directing him to +call again the next morning, and that Young then said to him: "I have +made that matter a subject of prayer. I went right to God with it, and +asked him to take the horrid vision from my sight if it was a righteous +thing that my people had done in killing those people at the Mountain +Meadows. God answered me, and at once the vision was removed. I have +evidence from God that he has overruled it all for good, and the action +was a righteous one and well intended."* + + + * For Lee's account of his interview with Young, see "Mormonism +Unveiled," pp. 252-254. + + +When Lee was in Salt Lake City as a member of the constitutional +convention, the next winter, Young treated him, at his house and +elsewhere, with all the friendliness of old. No one conversant with +the extent of Young's authority will doubt the correctness of Lee's +statement that "if Brigham Young had wanted one man or fifty men or five +hundred men arrested, all he would have had to do would be to say so, +and they would have been arrested instantly. There was no escape for +them if he ordered their arrest. Every man who knows anything of affairs +in Utah at that time knows this is so." + +At the second trial of Lee a deposition by Brigham Young was read, Young +pleading ill health as an excuse for not taking the stand. He admitted +that "counsel and advice were given to the citizens not to sell grain to +the emigrants for their stock," but asserted that this did not include +food for the parties themselves. He also admitted that Lee called on +him and began telling the story of the massacre, but asserted that he +directed him to stop, as he did not want his feelings harrowed up with +a recital of these details. He gave as an excuse for not bringing the +guilty to justice, or at least making an investigation, the fact that +a new governor was on his way, and he did not know how soon he would +arrive. As Young himself was keeping this governor out by armed force, +and declaring that he alone should fill that place, the value of his +excuse can be easily estimated. Hamblin, at Lee's trial, testified that +he told Brigham Young and George A. Smith "everything I could" about the +massacre, and that Young said to him, "As soon as we can get a court of +justice we will ferret this thing out, but till then don't say anything +about it." + +Both Knight and McMurphy testified that they took their teams to +Mountain Meadows under compulsion. Nephi Johnson, another participant, +when asked whether he acted under compulsion, replied, "I didn't +consider it safe for me to object," and when compelled to answer the +question whether any person had ever been injured for not obeying such +orders, he replied, "Yes, sir, they had." + +Some letters published in the Corinne (Utah) Reporter, in the early +seventies, signed "Argus," directly accused Young of responsibility for +this massacre. Stenhouse discovered that the author had been for thirty +years a Mormon, a high priest in the church, a holder of responsible +civil positions in the territory, and he assured Stenhouse that "before +a federal court of justice, where he could be protected, he was prepared +to give the evidence of all that he asserted." "Argus" declared that +when the Arkansans set out southward from the Jordan, a courier preceded +them carrying Young's orders for non-intercourse; that they were +directed to go around Parowan because it was feared that the military +preparations at that place, Colonel Dame's headquarters, might arouse +their suspicion; and he points out that the troops who killed the +emigrants were called out and prepared for field operations, just as the +territorial law directed, and were subject to the orders of Young, their +commander-in-chief. + +Not until the so-called Poland Bill of 1874 became a law was any one +connected with the Mountain Meadows Massacre even indicted. Then the +grand jury, under direction of Judge Boreman, of the Second Judicial +District of Utah, found indictments against Lee, Dame, Haight, Higbee, +Klingensmith, and others. Lee, who had remained hidden for some years +in the canyon of the Colorado,* was reported to be in south Utah at the +time, and Deputy United States Marshal Stokes, to whom the warrant for +his arrest was given, set out to find him. Stokes was told that Lee had +gone back to his hiding-place, but one of his assistants located the +accused in the town of Panguitch, and there they found him concealed in +a log pen near a house. His trial began at Beaver, on July 12, 1875. The +first jury to try his case disagreed, after being out three days, eight +Mormons and the Gentile foreman voting for acquittal, and three Gentiles +for conviction. The second trial, which took place at Beaver, in +September, 1876, resulted in a verdict of "guilty of murder in the first +degree." Beadle says of the interest which the church then took in +his conviction: "Daniel H. Wells went to Beaver, furnished some new +evidence, coached the witnesses, attended to the spiritual wants of +the jury, and Lee was convicted. He could not raise the money ($1000) +necessary to appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, although +he solicited it by subscription from wealthy leading Mormons for several +days under guard."** + + + * Inman's "Great Salt Lake Trail," p. 141 + + + ** "Polygamy," p. 507. + + +Criminals in Utah convicted of a capital crime were shot, and this was +Lee's fate. It was decided that the execution should take place at the +scene of the massacre, and there the sentence of the court was carried +out on March 23, 1877. The coffin was made of rough pine boards after +the arrival of the prisoner, and while he sat looking at the workmen +a short distance away. When all the arrangements were completed, the +marshal read the order of the court and gave Lee an opportunity to +speak. A photographer being ready to take a picture of the scene, Lee +asked that a copy of the photograph be given to each of three of his +wives, naming them. He then stood up, having been seated on his coffin, +and spoke quietly for some time. He said that he was sacrificed to +satisfy the feelings of others; that he died "a true believer in the +Gospel of Jesus Christ," but did not believe everything then taught by +Brigham Young. He asserted that he "did nothing designedly wrong in +this unfortunate affair," but did everything in his power to save the +emigrants. Five executioners then stepped forward, and, when their +rifles exploded, Lee fell dead on his coffin. + +Major (afterward General) Carlton, returning from California in 1859, +where he had escorted a paymaster, passed through Mountain Meadows, and, +finding many bones of the victims still scattered around, gathered them, +and erected over them a cairn of stones, on one of which he had engraved +the words: "Here lie the bones of 120 men, women, and children from +Arkansas, murdered on the 10th day of September, 1857." In the centre of +the cairn was placed a beam, some fifteen feet high, with a cross-tree, +on which was painted: "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and I will +repay it." It was said that this was removed by order of Brigham Young.* + + + * "Humiliating as it is to confess, in the 42d Congress there +were gentlemen to be found in the committees of the House and in +the Senate who were bold enough to declare their opposition to all +investigation. One who had a national reputation during the war, from +Bunker Hill to New Orleans, was not ashamed to say to those who sought +the legislation that was necessary to make investigation possible, that +it was 'too late.'" "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 456. + + + +CHAPTER XVII. -- AFTER THE "WAR" + +With the return of the people to their homes, the peaceful avocations +of life in Utah were resumed. The federal judges received assignments to +their districts, and the other federal officers took possession of their +offices. Chief Justice Eckles selected as his place of residence Camp +Floyd, as General Johnston's camp was named; Judge Sinclair's district +included Salt Lake City, and Judge Cradlebaugh's the southern part of +the state. + +Judge Cradlebaugh, who conceived it to be a judge's duty to see +that crime was punished, took steps at once to secure indictments +in connection with the notorious murders committed during the +"Reformation," and we have seen in a former chapter with what poor +results. He also personally visited the Mountain Meadows, talked with +whites and Indians cognizant with the massacre, and, on affidavits sworn +to before him, issued warrants for the arrest of Haight, Higbee, Lee, +and thirty-four others as participants therein. In order to hold +court with any prospect of a practical result, a posse of soldiers was +absolutely necessary, even for the protection of witnesses; but Governor +Cumming, true to the reputation he had secured as a Mormon ally, +declared that he saw no necessity for such use of federal troops, and +requested their removal from Provo, where the court was in session; and +when the judge refused to grant his request, he issued a proclamation +in which he stated that the presence of the military had a tendency "to +disturb the peace and subvert the ends of justice." Before this dispute +had proceeded farther, General Johnston received an order from Secretary +Floyd, approved by Attorney General Black, directing that in future +he should instruct his troops to act as a posse comitatus only on the +written application of Governor Cumming. Thus did the church win one of +its first victories after the reestablishment of "peace." + +An incident in Salt Lake City at this time might have brought about a +renewal of the conflict between federal and Mormon forces. The engraver +of a plate with which to print counterfeit government drafts, when +arrested, turned state's evidence and pointed out that the printing of +the counterfeits had been done over the "Deseret Store" in Salt Lake +City, which was on Young's premises. United States Marshal Dotson +secured the plate, and with it others, belonging to Young, on which +Deseret currency had been printed. This seemed to bring the matter so +close to Young that officers from Camp Floyd called on Governor Cumming +to secure his cooperation in arresting Young should that step be decided +on. The governor refused with indignation to be a party to what +he called "creeping through walls," that is, what he considered a +roundabout way to secure Young's arrest; and, when it became rumored +in the city that General Johnston would use his troops without the +governor's cooperation Cumming directed Wells, the commander of the +Nauvoo Legion, who had so recently been in rebellion against the +government, to hold his militia in readiness for orders. Wells is quoted +by Bancroft as saying that he told Cumming, "We would not let them [the +soldiers] come; that if they did come, they would never get out alive if +we could help it."* The decision of the Washington authorities in favor +of Governor Cumming as against the federal judges once more restored +"peace." The only sufferer from this incident was Marshal Dotson, +against whom Young, in his probate court, obtained a judgment of $2600 +for injury to the Deseret currency plates, and a house belonging to +Dotson, renting for $500 year, was sold to satisfy this judgment, and +bought in by an agent of Young. + + + * "History of Utah," p. 573, note. + + +To complete the story of this forgery, it may be added that Brewer, the +engraver who turned state's evidence, was shot down in Main Street, Salt +Lake City, one evening, in company with J. Johnson, a gambler who had +threatened to shoot a Mormon editor. A man who was a boy at the time +gave J. H. Beadle the particulars of this double murder as he received +it from the person who lighted a brazier to give the assassin a sure +aim.* The coroner's jury the next day found that the men shot one +another! + + + * "Polygamy," p. 192. + + +Soon all public attention throughout the country was centred in the +coming conflict in the Southern states. In May, 1860, the troops at Camp +Floyd departed for New Mexico and Arizona, only a small guard being left +under command of Colonel Cooke. In May, 1861, Governor Cumming left Salt +Lake City for the east so quietly that most of the people there did not +hear of his departure until they read it in the local newspapers. He +soon after appeared in Washington, and after some delay obtained a pass +which permitted his passage through the Confederate lines. When the +Southern rebellion became a certainty, Colonel Cooke and his force +were ordered to march to the East in the autumn, after selling vast +quantities of stores in Camp Floyd, and destroying the supplies and +ammunition which they could not take away. Such a slaughter of prices +as then occurred was, perhaps, without precedent. It was estimated +that goods costing $4,000,000 brought only $100,000. Young had preached +non-intercourse with the Gentile merchants who followed the army, but +he could not lose so great an opportunity as this, when, for instance, +flour costing $28.40 per sack sold for 52 cents, and he invested $4,000. +"For years after," says Stenhouse, "the 'regulation blue pants' were +more familiar to the eye, in the Mormon settlements, than the Valley Tan +Quaker gray." + +When Governor Cumming left the territory, the secretary, Francis H. +Wooton, became acting governor. He made himself very offensive to the +administration at Washington, and President Lincoln appointed Frank +Fuller, of New Hampshire, secretary of the territory in his place, and +Mr. Fuller proceeded at once to Salt Lake City, where he became acting +governor. Later in the year the other federal offices in Utah were +filled by the appointment of John W. Dawson, of Indiana, as governor, +John F. Kinney as chief justice, and R. P. Flenniken and J. R. Crosby as +associate justices. + +The selection of Dawson as governor was something more than a political +mistake. He was the editor and publisher of a party newspaper at Fort +Wayne, Indiana, a man of bad morals, and a meddler in politics, who +gave the Republican managers in his state a great deal of trouble. +The undoubted fact seems to be that he was sent out to Utah on the +recommendation of Indiana politicians of high rank, who wanted to get +rid of him, and who gave no attention whatever to the requirements +of his office. Arriving at his post early in December, 1861, the new +governor incurred the ill will of the Mormons almost immediately +by vetoing a bill for a state convention passed by the territorial +legislature, and a memorial to Congress in favor of the admission of the +territory as a state (which Acting Governor Fuller approved). They were +very glad, therefore, to take advantage of any mistake he might make; +and he almost at once gave them their opportunity, by making improper +advances to a woman whom he had employed to do some work. She, as Dawson +expressed it to one of his colleagues, "was fool enough to tell of it," +and Dawson, learning immediately that the Mormons meditated a severe +vengeance, at once made preparations for his departure. + +The Deseret News of January 1, 1862, in an editorial on the departure +of the governor, said that for eight or ten days he had been confined to +his room and reported insane; that, when he left, he took with him his +physician and four guards, "to each of whom, as reported last evening, +$100 is promised in the event that they guard him faithfully, and +prevent his being killed or becoming qualified for the office of +chamberlain in the King's palace, till he shall have arrived at and +passed the eastern boundary of the territory." After indicating that he +had committed an offence against a lady which, under the common law, +if enforced, "would have caused him to have bitten the dust," the News +added: "Why he selected the individuals named for his bodyguard no one +with whom we have conversed has been able to determine. That they will +do him justice, and see him safely out of the territory, there can be no +doubt." + +The hints thus plainly given were carried out. Beadle's account says, +"He was waylaid in Weber canyon, and received shocking and almost +emasculating injuries from three Mormon lads."* Stenhouse says: "He was +dreadfully maltreated by some Mormon rowdies who assumed, 'for the fun +of the thing,' to be the avengers of an alleged insult. Governor Dawson +had been betrayed into an offence, and his punishment was heavy."** Mrs. +Waite says that the Mormons laid a trap for the governor, as they had +done for Steptoe; but the evidence indicates that, in Dawson's case, the +victim was himself to blame for the opportunity he gave. + + + * "Polygamy," p. 195. + + + ** "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 592. + + +Stenhouse says that the Mormon authorities were very angry because of +the aggravated character of the punishment dealt out to the governor, +as they simply wanted him sent away disgraced, and that they had all his +assailants shot. This is practically confirmed by the Mormon historian +Whitney, who says that one of the assailants was a relative of the woman +insulted, and the others "merely drunken desperadoes and robbers who," +he explains, "were soon afterward arrested for their cowardly and brutal +assault upon the fleeing official. One of them, Lot Huntington, was shot +by Deputy Sheriff O. P. Rockwell [so often Young's instrument in such +cases] on January 26, in Rush Valley, while attempting to escape from +the officers, and two others, John P. Smith and Moroni Clawson, were +killed during a similar attempt next day by the police of Salt Lake +City. Their confederates were tried and duly punished."* + + + * "History of Utah," Vol. II, p. 38. + + +The departure of Governor Dawson left the executive office again in +charge of Secretary Fuller. Early in 1862 the Indians threatened the +overland mail route, and Fuller, having received instruction from +Montgomery Blair to keep the route open at all hazards, called for +thirty men to serve for thirty days. These were supplied by the Mormons. +In the following April, the Indian troubles continuing, Governor Fuller, +Chief Justice Kinney, and officers of the Overland Mail and Pacific +Telegraph Companies united in a letter to Secretary Stanton asking that +Superintendent of Indian Affairs Doty be authorized to raise a regiment +of mounted rangers in the territory, with officers appointed by him, +to keep open communication. These petitioners, observes Tullidge, "had +overrated the federal power in Utah, as embodied in themselves, for such +a service, when they overlooked ex-Governor Young" and others.* Young +had no intention of permitting any kind of a federal force to supplant +his Legion. He at once telegraphed to the Utah Delegate in Washington +that the Utah militia (alias Nauvoo Legion) were competent to furnish +the necessary protection. As a result of this presentation of the +matter, Adjutant General L. L. Thomas, on April 28, addressed a reply to +the petition for protection, not to any of the federal officers in +Utah, but to "Mr. Brigham Young," saying, "By express direction of the +President of the United States you are hereby authorized to raise, arm, +and equip one company of cavalry for ninety days' service."* The order +for carrying out these instructions was placed by the head of the Nauvoo +Legion, "General" Wells--who ordered the burning of the government +trains in 1857--in the hands of Major Lot Smith, who carried out that +order! + + + * Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 252. + + + ** Vol. II, Series 3, p. 27, War of the Rebellion, official +records. + + +Judges Flenniken and Crosby took their departure from the territory a +month later than Dawson, and Thomas J. Drake of Michigan and Charles +B. Waite of Illinois* were named as their successors, and on March 31 +Stephen S. Harding of Milan, Indiana, a lawyer, was appointed governor. +The new officers arrived in July. + + + * After leaving Utah Judge Waite was appointed district attorney +for Idaho, was elected to Congress, and published "A History of the +Christian Religion," and other books. His wife, author of "The Mormon +Prophet," was a graduate of Oberlin College and of the Union College of +Law in Chicago, a member of the Illinois bar, founder of the Chicago Law +Times, and manager of the publishing firm of C. W. Waite & Co. + +At this time the Mormons were again seeking admission for the State +of Deseret. They had had a constitution prepared for submission to +Congress, had nominated Young for governor and Kimball for lieutenant +governor, and the legislature, in advance, had chosen W. H. Hooper +and George Q. Cannon the United States senators. But Utah was not +then admitted, while, on the other hand, an anti-polygamy bill (to be +described later) was passed, and signed by President Lincoln on July 2. + +During the month preceding the arrival of Governor Harding, another +tragedy had been enacted in the territory. Among the church members +was a Welshman named Joseph Morris, who became possessed of the belief +(which, as we have seen, had afflicted brethren from time to time) that +he was the recipient of "revelations." One of these "revelations" having +directed him to warn Young that he was wandering from the right course, +he did this in person, and received a rebuke so emphatic that it quite +overcame him. He betook himself, therefore, to a place called Kington +Fort, on the Weber River, thirty-five miles north of Salt Lake City, and +there he found believers in his prophetic gifts in the local Bishop, +and quite a settlement of men and women, almost all foreigners. Young's +refusal to satisfy the demand for published "revelations" gave some +standing to a fanatic like Morris, who professed to supply that +long-felt want, and he was so prolific in his gift that three clerks +were required to write down what was revealed to him. Among his +announcements were the date of the coming of Christ and the necessity of +"consecrating" their property in a common fund. Having made a mistake +in the date selected for Christ's appearance, the usual apostates sprang +up, and, when they took their departure, they claimed the right to carry +with them their share of the common effects. In the dispute that ensued, +the apostates seized some Morrisite grain on the way to mill, and the +Morrisites captured some apostates, and took them prisoners to Kington +Fort. + +Out of these troubles came the issue of a writ by Judge Kinney for the +release of the prisoners, the defiance of this writ by the Morrisites, +and a successful appeal to the governor for the use of the militia to +enable the marshal to enforce the writ. On the morning of June 13 +the Morrisites discovered an armed force, in command of General R. T. +Burton, the marshal's chief deputy, on the mountain that overlooked +their settlement, and received from Burton an order to surrender in +thirty minutes. Morris announced a "revelation," declaring that the Lord +would not allow his people to be destroyed. When the thirty minutes +had expired, without further warning the Mormon force fired on the +Morrisites with a cannon, killing two women outright, and sending the +others to cover. But the devotees were not weak-hearted. For three +days they kept up a defence, and it was not until their ammunition was +exhausted that they raised a white flag. When Burton rode into their +settlement and demanded Morris's surrender, that fanatic replied, +"Never." Burton at once shot him dead, and then badly wounded John +Banks, an English convert and a preacher of eloquence, who had joined +Morris after rebelling against Young's despotism. Banks died "suddenly" +that evening. Burton finished his work by shooting two women, one of +whom dared to condemn his shooting of Morris and Banks, and the other +for coming up to him crying.* + + + * For accounts of this slaughter, see "Rocky Mountain Saints," +pp. 593-606, and Beadle's "Life in Utah," pp. 413-420. + + +The bodies of Morris and Banks were carried to Salt Lake City +and exhibited there. No one--President of the church or federal +officer--took any steps at that time to bring their murderers to +justice. Sixteen years later District Attorney Van Zile tried Burton +for this massacre, but the verdict was acquittal, as it has been in all +these famous cases except that of John D. Lee. Ninety-three Morrisites, +few of whom could speak English, were arraigned before Judge Kinney and +placed under bonds. In the following March seven of the Morrisites were +convicted of killing members of the posse, and sentenced by Judge Kinney +to imprisonment for from five to fifteen years each, while sixty-six +others were fined $100 each for resisting the posse. Governor Harding +immediately pardoned all the accused, in response to a numerously signed +petition. Beadle says that Bishop Wooley advised the governor to be +careful about granting these pardons, as "our people feel it would be +an outrage, and if it is done, they might proceed to violence"; but +that Bill Hickman, the Danite captain, rode thirty miles to sign the +petition, saying that he was "one Mormon who was not afraid to sign." +The grand jury that had indicted the Morrisites made a presentment to +Judge Kinney, in which they said, "We present his Excellency Stephen S. +Harding, governor of Utah, as we would an unsafe bridge over a dangerous +stream, jeopardizing the lives of all those who pass over it; or as +we would a pestiferous cesspool in our district, breathing disease and +death." And the chief justice assured this jury that they addressed him +"in no spirit of malice," and asked them to accept his thanks "for your +cooperation in the support of my efforts to maintain and enforce the +law." It is to the credit of the powers at Washington that this judge +was soon afterward removed.* + + + + * Even the Mormon historian has only this to say on this subject: +"Of the relative merit or demerit of the action of the United States and +territorial authorities concerned in the Morrisite affair the historian +does not presume to touch, further than to present the record itself and +its significance."--Tullidge, "History of Salt Lake City," p. 320. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. -- ATTITUDE OF THE MORMONS DURING THE SOUTHERN REBELLION + +The attitude of the Mormons toward the government at the outbreak +of hostilities with the Southern states was distinctly disloyal. The +Deseret News of January 2, 1861, said, "The indications are that the +breach which has been effected between the North and South will continue +to widen, and that two or more nations will be formed out of the +fragmentary portions of the once glorious republic." The Mormons in +England had before that been told in the Millennial Star (January 28, +1860) that "the Union is now virtually destroyed." The sermons in Salt +Lake City were of the same character. "General" Wells told the people +on April 6, 1861, that the general government was responsible for +their expulsion from Missouri and Illinois, adding: "So far as we are +concerned, we should have been better without a government than such a +one. I do not think there is a more corrupt government upon the face of +the earth."* Brigham Young on the same day said: "Our present President, +what is his strength? It is like a rope of sand, or like a rope made of +water. He is as weak as water.... I feel disgraced in having been born +under a government that has so little power, disposition and influence +for truth and right. Shame, shame on the rulers of this nation. I feel +myself disgraced to hail such men as my countrymen."** + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. VIII, pp. 373-374. + + + ** Ibid., Vol. IX, p. 4. + + +Elder G. A. Smith, on the same occasion, railing against the non-Mormon +clergy, said, "Mr. Lincoln now is put into power by that priestly +influence; and the presumption is, should he not find his hands full by +the secession of the Southern States, the spirit of priestly craft would +force him, in spite of his good wishes and intentions, to put to death, +if it was in his power, every man that believes in the divine mission of +Joseph Smith."* On August 31, 1862, Young quoted Smith's prediction of +a rebellion beginning in South Carolina, and declared that "the nation +that has slain the prophet of God will be broken in pieces like a +potter's vessel," boasting that the Mormon government in Utah was "the +best earthly government that was ever framed by man." + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. IX, p. 18. + + +Tullidge, discussing in 1876 the attitude of the Mormon church toward +the South, said:-- + +"With the exception of the slavery question and the policy of secession, +the South stood upon the same ground that Utah had stood upon just +previously.... And here we reach the heart of the Mormon policy and +aims. Secession is not in it. Their issues are all inside the Union. The +Mormon prophecy is that that people are destined to save the Union and +preserve the constitution.... The North, which had just risen to power +through the triumph of the Republican party, occupied the exact position +toward the South that Buchanan's administration had held toward Utah. +And the salient points of resemblance between the two cases were so +striking that Utah and the South became radically associated in the +Chicago platform that brought the Republican party into office. Slavery +and polygamy--these 'twin relics of barbarism'--were made the two chief +planks of the party platform. Yet neither of these were the real ground +of the contest. It continues still, and some of the soundest men of the +times believe that it will be ultimately referred in a revolution so +general that nearly every man in America will become involved in the +action.... The Mormon view of the great national controversy, then, is +that the Southern States should have done precisely what Utah did, +and placed themselves on the defensive ground of their rights and +institutions as old as the Union. Had they placed themselves under the +political leadership of Brigham Young, they would have triumphed, for +their cause was fundamentally right; their secession alone was the +national crime."** + + + ** Tullidge's "Life of Brigham Young," Chap. 24. + + +Knowledge of the spirit which animated the Saints induced the Secretary +of War to place them under military supervision, and in May, 1862, the +Third California Infantry and a part of the Second California Cavalry +were ordered to Utah. The commander of this force was Colonel P. E. +Connor, who had a fine record in the Mexican War, and who was among the +first, at the outbreak of the Rebellion, to tender his services to the +government in California, where he was then engaged in business. On +assuming command of the military district of Utah, which included Utah +and Nevada, Colonel Connor issued an order directing commanders of +posts, camps, and detachments to arrest and imprison, until they took +the oath of allegiance, "all persons who from this date shall be guilty +of uttering treasonable sentiments against the government," adding, +"Traitors shall not utter treasonable sentiments in this district with +impunity, but must seek some more genial soil, or receive the punishment +they so richly deserve." + +When Connor's force arrived at Fort Crittenden (the Camp Floyd of +General Johnston), the Mormons supposed that it would make its camp +there. Persons having a pecuniary interest in the reoccupation of the +old site, where they wanted to sell to the government the buildings they +had bought for a song, tried hard to induce Colonel Connor to accept +their view, even warning him of armed Mormon opposition to his passage +through Salt Lake City. But he was not a man to be thus deterred. Among +the rumors that reached him was one that Bill Hickman, the Danite chief, +was offering to bet $500 in Salt Lake City that the colonel could not +cross the river Jordan. Colonel Connor is said to have sent back the +reply that he "would cross the river Jordan if hell yawned below him." + +On Saturday, October 18, Connor marched twenty miles toward the Mormon +capital, and the next day crossed the Jordan at 2 P.M., without finding +a person in sight on the eastern shore. The command, knowing that +the Nauvoo Legion outnumbered them vastly, and ignorant of the real +intention of the Mormon leaders, advanced with every preparation to meet +resistance. They were, as an accompanying correspondent expressed it, +"six hundred miles of sand from reinforcements." The conciliatory policy +of so many federal officers in Utah would have induced Colonel Connor to +march quietly around the city, and select some place for his camp where +it would not offend Mormon eyes. What he did do was to halt his command +when the city was two miles distant, form his column with an advance +guard of cavalry and a light battery, the infantry and commissary +wagons coming next, and in this order, to the bewilderment of the +Mormon authorities, march into the principal street, with his two bands +playing, to Emigrants' Square, and so to Governor Harding's residence. + +The only United States flag displayed on any building that day was the +governor's. The sidewalks were packed with men, women, and children, +but not a cheer was heard. In front of the governor's residence the +battalion was formed in two lines, and the governor, standing in the +buggy in which he had ridden out to meet them, addressed them, saying +that their mission was one of peace and security, and urging them to +maintain the strictest discipline. The troops, Colonel Connor leading, +gave three cheers for the country and the flag, and three for Governor +Harding, and then took up their march to the slope at the base of +Wahsatch Mountain, where the Camp Douglas of to-day is situated. This +camp was in sight of the Mormon city, and Young's residence was in range +of its guns. Thus did Brigham's will bend before the quiet determination +of a government officer who respected his government's dignity. + +But the Mormon spirit was to be still further tested. On December 8 +Governor Harding read his first message to the territorial legislature. +It began with a tribute to the industry and enterprise of the people; +spoke of the progress of the war, and of the application of the +territory for statehood, and in this connection said, "I am sorry to +say that since my sojourn amongst you I have heard no sentiments, either +publicly or privately expressed, that would lead me to believe that much +sympathy is felt by any considerable number of your people in favor +of the government of the United States, now struggling for its very +existence." He declared that the demand for statehood should not be +entertained unless it was "clearly shown that there is a sufficient +population" and "that the people are loyal to the federal government and +the laws." He recommended the taking of a correct census to settle the +question of population. All these utterances were gall and wormwood to a +body of Mormon lawmakers, but worse was to come. Congress having +passed an act "to prevent and punish the practice of polygamy in the +territories," the governor naturally considered it his duty to call +attention to the matter. Prevising that he desired to do so "in no +offensive manner or unkind spirit," he pointed out that the practice was +founded on no territorial law, resting merely on custom; and laid, down +the principle that "no community can happily exist with an institution +so important as that of marriage wanting in all those qualities that +make it homogeneal with institutions and laws of neighboring civilized +countries having the same spirit." He spoke of the marriage of a mother +and her daughter to the same man as "no less a marvel in morals than in +matters of taste," and warned them against following the recommendation +of high church authorities that the federal law be disregarded. This +message, according to the Mormon historian, was "an insult offered to +their representatives."* + + + * Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 305. + + +These representatives resented the "insult" by making no reference in +the journal to the reading of the message, and by failing to have it +printed. When this was made known in Washington, the Senate, on January +16, 1863, called for a report by the Committee on Territories concerning +the suppression of the message, and they got one from its chairman, +Benjamin Wade, pointing out that Utah Territory was in the control of "a +sort of Jewish theocracy," affording "the first exhibition, within +the limits of the United States, of a church ruling the state," and +declaring that the governor's message contained "nothing that should +give offence to any legislature willing to be governed by the laws of +morality," closing with a recommendation that the message be printed by +Congress. The territorial legislature adjourned on January 16 without +sending to Governor Harding for his approval a single appropriation +bill, and the next day the so-called legislature of the State of Deseret +met and received a message from the state governor, Brigham Young. + +Next the new federal judges came under Mormon displeasure. We have +seen the conflict of jurisdiction existing between the federal and the +so-called probate courts and their officers. Judge Waite perceived the +difficulties thus caused as soon as he entered upon his duties, and he +sent to Washington an act giving the United States marshal authority +to select juries for the federal courts, taking from the probate courts +jurisdiction in civil actions, and leaving them a limited criminal +jurisdiction subject to appeal to the federal court, and providing for a +reorganization of the militia under the federal governor. Bernhisel +and Hooper sent home immediate notice of the arrival of this bill in +Washington. + +Now, indeed, it was time for Brigham to "bend his finger." If a governor +could openly criticise polygamy, and a judge seek to undermine Young's +legal and military authority, without a protest, his days of power were +certainly drawing to a close. Accordingly, a big mass-meeting was held +in Salt Lake City on March 3, 1863, "for the purpose of investigating +certain acts of several of the United States officials in the +territory." Speeches were made by John Taylor and Young, in which the +governor and judges were denounced.* A committee was appointed to ask +the governor and two judges to resign and leave the territory, and a +petition was signed requesting President Lincoln to remove them, the +first reason stated being that "they are strenuously endeavoring to +create mischief, and stir up strife between the people of the territory +and the troops in Camp Douglas." The meeting then adjourned, the band +playing the "Marseillaise." + + + * Reported in Mrs. Waite's "Mormon Prophet," pp. 98-102. + + +The committee, consisting of John Taylor, J. Clinton, and Orson Pratt, +called on the governor and the judges the next morning, and met with a +flat refusal to pay any attention to the mandate of the meeting. "You +may go back and tell your constituents," said Governor Harding, "that I +will not resign my office, and will not leave this territory, until it +shall please the President to recall me. I will not be driven away. I +may be in danger in staying, but my purpose is fixed." Judge Drake told +the committee that he had a right to ask Congress to pass or amend any +law, and that it was a special insult for him, a citizen, to be asked +by Taylor, a foreigner, to leave any part of the Republic. "Go back to +Brigham Young, your master," said he, "that embodiment of sin, shame, +and disgust, and tell him that I neither fear him, nor love him, +nor hate him--that I utterly despise him. Tell him, whose tools and +tricksters you are, that I did not come here by his permission, and that +I will not go away at his desire nor by his direction.... A horse thief +or a murderer has, when arrested, a right to speak in court; and, unless +in such capacity or under such circumstances, don't you even dare to +speak to me again." Judge Waite simply declined to resign because to +do so would imply "either that I was sensible of having done something +wrong, or that I was afraid to remain at my post and perform my duty."** + + + * Text of replies in Mrs. Waite's "Mormon Prophet," pp. 107-109. + + +As soon as the action of the Mormon mass-meeting became known at Camp +Douglas, all the commissioned officers there signed a counter petition +to President Lincoln, "as an act of duty we owe our government," +declaring that the charge of inciting trouble between the people and the +troops was "a base and unqualified falsehood," that the accused officers +had been "true and faithful to the government," and that there was no +good reason for their removal. + +Excitement in Salt Lake City now ran high. Young, in a violent harangue +in the Tabernacle on March 8, after declaring his loyalty to the +government, said, "Is there anything that could be asked that we would +not do? Yes. Let the present administration ask us for a thousand men, +or even five hundred, and I'd see them d--d first, and then they could +not have them. What do you think of that?' (Loud cries of 'Good, Good,' +and great applause.)"* + + + * Correspondence of the Chicago Tribune. + + +Young expected arrest, and had a signal arranged by which the citizens +would rush to his support if this was attempted. A false alarm of this +kind was given on March 9, and in an hour two thousand armed men +were assembled around his house.* Steptoe, who in an earlier year had +declined the governorship of the territory and petitioned for Young's +reappointment, took credit for what followed in an article in the +Overland Monthly for December, 1896. Being at Salt Lake City at the +time, he suggested to Wells and other leaders that they charge Young +with the crime of polygamy before one of the magistrates, and have him +arraigned and admitted to bail, in order to place him beyond the +reach of the military officers. The affidavit was sworn to before the +compliant Chief Justice Kinney by Young's private secretary, was served +by the territorial marshal, and Young was released in $5000 bail. +Colonel Connor was informed of this arrest before he arrived in the +city, and retraced his steps; the citizens dispersed to their homes; +the grand jury found no indictment against Young, and in due time he was +discharged from his recognizance. + + + * "On the inside of the high walls surrounding Brigham's premises +scaffolding was hastily erected in order to enable the militia to fire +down upon the passing volunteers. The houses on the route which occupied +a commanding position where an attack could be made upon the troops were +taken possession of, and the small cannon brought out."--"Rocky Mountain +Saints," p. 604. + + +"In the meantime," says a Mormon chronicler, "our 'outside' friends in +this city telegraphed to those interested in the mail* and telegraph +lines that they must work for the removal of the troops, Governor +Harding, and Judges Waite and Drake, otherwise there would be +'difficulty,' and the mail and telegraph lines would be destroyed. Their +moneyed interest has given them great energy in our behalf."** This +"work" told Governor Harding was removed, leaving the territory on +June 11 and, as proof that this was due to "work" and not to his own +incapacity, he was made Chief Justice of Colorado Territory.*** With +him were displaced Chief Justice Kinney and Secretary Fuller.**** Judges +Waite and Drake wrote to the President that it would take the support +of five thousand men to make the federal courts in Utah effective. +Waite resigned in the summer of 1863. Drake remained, but his court did +practically no business. + + + * The first Pony Express left Sacramento and St. Joseph, +Missouri, on April 3, 1860. Major General M. B. Hazen in an official +letter dated February, 1807 (House Misc. Doc. No. 75, 2d Session, +39th Congress), said: "Ben Holiday I believe to be the only outsider +acceptable to those people, and to benefit himself I believe he would +throw the whole weight of his influence in favor of Mormonism. By the +terms of his contract to carry the mails from the Missouri to Utah, all +papers and pamphlets for the newsdealers, not directed to subscribers, +are thrown out. It looks very much like a scheme to keep light out of +that country, nowhere so much needed." + + + ** D. O. Calder's letter to George Q. Cannon, March 13, 1863, in +Millennial Star. + + + *** "Every attempt was made to seduce him from the path of duty, +not omitting the same appliances which had been brought to bear upon +Steptoe and Dawson, but all in vain."--"The Mormon Prophet," p. 109. + + + **** Whitney, the Mormon historian, says that while the President +was convinced that Harding was not the right man for the place, "he +doubtless believed that there was more or less truth in the charges of +'subserviency' to Young made by local anti-Mormons against Chief +Justice Kinney and Secretary Fuller. He therefore removed them as +well."--"History of Utah," Vol. II, p. 103. + + +Lincoln's policy, as he expressed it then, was, "I will let the Mormons +alone if they will let me alone."* He had war enough on his hands +without seeking any diversion in Utah. J. D. Doty, the superintendent +of Indian affairs, succeeded Harding as governor, Amos Reed of Wisconsin +became secretary, and John Titus of Philadelphia chief justice. + + + * Young's letter to Cannon, "History of Salt Lake City," p. 325. + + +Affairs in Utah now became more quiet. General Connor (he was made a +brigadier general for his service in the Bear River Indian campaign in +1862-1863) yielded nothing to Mormon threats or demands. A periodical +called the Union Vidette, published by his force, appeared in November, +1863, and in it was printed a circular over his name, expressing belief +in the existence of rich veins of gold, silver, copper, and other metals +in the territory, and promising the fullest protection to miners and +prospectors; and the beginning of the mining interests there dated from +the picking up of a piece of ore by a lady member of the camp while +attending a picnic party. Although the Mormons had discouraged mining +as calculated to cause a rush of non-Mormon residents, they did not show +any special resentment to the general's policy in this respect. With +the increasing evidence that the Union cause would triumph, the church +turned its face toward the federal government. We find, accordingly, a +union of Mormons and Camp Douglas soldiers in the celebration of Union +victories on March 4, 1865, with a procession and speeches, and, when +General Connor left to assume command of the Department of the Platte, +a ball in his honor was given in Salt Lake City; and at the time +of Lincoln's assassination church and government officers joined in +services in the Tabernacle, and the city was draped in mourning. + + + +CHAPTER XIX. -- EASTERN VISITORS TO SALT LAKE CITY--UNPUNISHED MURDERERS + +In June, 1865, a distinguished party from the East visited Salt Lake +City, and their visit was not without public significance. It included +Schuyler Colfax, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Lieutenant +Governor Bross of Illinois, Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield +(Massachusetts) Republican, and A. D. Richardson of the staff of the New +York Tribune. Crossing the continent was still effected by stage-coach +at that time, and the Mormon capital had never been visited by civilians +so well known and so influential. Mr. Colfax had stated publicly that +President Lincoln, a short time before his death, had asked him to +make a thorough investigation of territorial matters, and his visit +was regarded as semiofficial. The city council formally tendered to +the visitors the hospitality of the city, and Mr. Bowles wrote that the +Speaker's reception "was excessive if not oppressive." + +In an interview between Colfax and Young, during which the subject of +polygamy was brought up by the latter, he asked what the government +intended to do with it, now that the slavery question was out of the +way. Mr. Colfax replied with the expression of a hope that the prophets +of the church would have a new "revelation" which would end the +practice, pointing out an example in the course of Missouri and Maryland +in abolishing slavery, without waiting for action by the federal +government. "Mr. Young," says Bowles, "responded quietly and frankly +that he should readily welcome such a revelation; that polygamy was +not in the original book of the Mormons; that it was not an essential +practice in the church, but only a privilege and a duty, under special +command of God."* + + + * "Across the Continent," p. 111. + + +It is worth while to note Mr. Bowles's summing up of his observations +of Mormondom during this visit. "The result," he wrote, "of the whole +experience has been to increase my appreciation of the value of +their material progress and development to the nation; to evoke +congratulations to them and to the country for the wealth they have +created, and the order, frugality, morality (sic), and industry they +have organized in this remote spot in our continent; to excite wonder at +the perfection of their church system, the extent of its ramifications, +the sweep of its influence, and to enlarge my respect for the personal +sincerity and character of many of the leaders in the organization."* +These were the expressions of a leading journalist, thought worthy to be +printed later in book form, on a church system and church officers about +which he had gathered his information during a few hours' visit, and +concerning which he was so fundamentally ignorant that he called their +Bible--whose title is, "Book of Mormon"--"book of the Mormons!" It +is reasonably certain that he had never read Smith's "revelations," +doubtful if he was acquainted with even the framework of the Mormon +Bible, and probable that he was wholly ignorant of the history of their +recent "Reformation." Many a profound opinion of Mormonism has been +founded on as little opportunity for accurate knowledge.** + + + * "Across the Continent," p. 106. + + + ** As another illustration of the value of observations by such +transient students may be cited the following, from Sir Charles +Wentworth Dilke's "Greater Britain," Vol. I, p. 148: "Brigham's deeds +have been those of a sincere man. His bitterest opponents cannot dispute +the fact that, in 1844, when Nauvoo was about to be deserted owing to +attacks by a ruffianly mob, Brigham Young rushed to the front and took +command. To be a Mormon leader was then to be the leader of an outcast +people, with a price set on his head, in a Missouri country in which +almost every man who was not a Mormon was by profession an assassin." + + +The Eastern visitors soon learned, however, how little intention the +Mormon leaders had to be cajoled out of polygamy. Before Mr. Bowles's +book was published, he had to add a supplement, in which he explained +that "since our visit to Utah in June, the leaders among the Mormons +have repudiated their professions of loyalty to the government, and +denied any disposition to yield the issue of polygamy." Tullidge sneers +at Colfax "for entertaining for a while the pretty plan" of having the +Mormons give up polygamy as the Missourians did slavery. The Deseret +News, soon after the Colfax party left the territory, expressed the +real Mormon view on this subject, saying: "As a people we view every +revelation from the Lord as sacred. Polygamy was none of our seeking. It +came to us from Heaven, and we recognized it, and still do, the voice of +Him whose right it is not only to teach us, but to dictate and teach +all men.... They [Gentiles] talk of revelations given, and of receiving +counter revelations to forbid what has been commanded, as if man was the +sole author, originator, and designer of them.... Do they wish to +brand a whole people with the foul stigma of hypocrisy, who, from their +leaders to the last converts that have made the dreary journey to these +mountain wilds for their faith, have proved their honesty of purpose and +deep sincerity of faith by the most sublime sacrifices? Either that is +the issue of their reasoning, or they imagine that we serve and worship +the most accommodating Deity ever dreamed of in the wildest vagaries of +the most savage polytheist." + +This was a perfectly consistent statement of the Mormon position, a +simple elaboration of Young's declaration that, to give up belief in +Smith as a prophet, and in his "revelations," would be to give up +their faith. Just as truly, any later "revelation," repealing the one +concerning polygamy, must be either a pretence or a temporary expedient, +in orthodox Mormon eyes. The Mormons date the active crusade of the +government against polygamy from the return of the Colfax party to +the East, holding that this question did not enter into the early +differences between them and the government.* + + + * Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 358. + + +In the year following Colfax's visit, there occurred in Utah two murders +which attracted wide notice, and which called attention once more to the +insecurity of the life of any man against whom the finger of the church +was crooked. The first victim was O. N. Brassfield, a non-Mormon, who +had the temerity to marry, on March 20, 1866, the second polygamous +wife of a Mormon while the husband was in Europe on a mission. As he was +entering his house in Salt Lake City, on the third day of the following +month, he was shot dead. An order that had been given to disband the +volunteer troops still remaining in the territory was countermanded +from Washington, and General Sherman, then commander of that department, +telegraphed to Young that he hoped to hear of no more murders of +Gentiles in Utah, intimating that, if he did, it would be easy to +reenlist some of the recently discharged volunteers and march them +through the territory. + +The second victim was Dr. J. King Robinson, a young man who had come +to Utah as assistant surgeon of the California volunteers, married the +daughter of a Mormon whose widow and daughters had left the church, and +taken possession of the land on which were some well-known warm +springs, with the intention of establishing there a sanitarium. The +city authorities at once set up a claim to the warm springs property, +a building Dr. Robinson had erected there was burned, and, as he became +aggressive in asserting his legal rights, he was called out one night, +ostensibly to set a broken leg, knocked down, and shot dead. The +audacity of this crime startled even the Mormons, and the opinion +has been expressed that nothing more serious than a beating had been +intended. There was an inquest before a city alderman, at which some +non-Mormon lawyers and judges Titus and McCurdy were asked to assist. +The chief feature of this hearing was the summing up by Ex-Governor J. +B. Weller, of California, in which he denounced such murders, asked if +there was not an organized influence which prevented the punishment +of their perpetrators, and confessed that the prosecution had not been +permitted "to lift the veil, and show the perpetrators of this horrible +murder." * + + + * Text in "Rocky Mountain Saints," Appendix I. + + +General W. B. Hazen, in his report of February, 1867, said of these +victims: "There is no doubt of their murder from Mormon church +influences, although I do not believe by direct command. Principles +are taught in their churches which would lead to such murders. I have +earnestly to recommend that a list be made of the Mormon leaders, +according to their importance, excepting Brigham Young, and that the +President of the United States require the commanding officer at Camp +Douglas to arrest and send to the state's prison at Jefferson City, Mo., +beginning at the head of the list, man for man hereafter killed as +these men were, to be held until the real perpetrators of the deed, +with evidence for their conviction, be given up. I believe Young for the +present necessary for us there"* + + + * Mis. House Doc. No. 75, 2d Session, 39th Congress. + + +Had this policy been adopted, Mormon prisoners would soon have started +East, for very soon afterward three other murders of the same character +occurred, although the victims were not so prominent.* Chief Justice +Titus incurred the hatred of the Mormons by determined, if futile, +efforts to bring offenders in such cases to justice, and to show their +feeling they sent him a nightgown ten feet long, at the hands of a +negro. + + + * See note 70, p. 628, Bancroft's "History of Utah." When, in +July, 1869, a delegation from Illinois, that included Senator Trumbull, +Governor Oglesby, Editor Medill of the Chicago Tribune, and many +members of the Chicago Board of Trade, visited Salt Lake City, they were +welcomed by and affiliated with the Gentile element;* and when, in the +following October, Vice President Colfax paid a second visit to the +city, he declined the courtesies tendered to him by the city officers.** +He made an address from the portico of the Townsend House, of which +polygamy was the principle feature, and was soon afterward drawn into a +newspaper discussion of the subject with John Taylor. + + + * In an interview between Young and Senator Trumbull during this +visit (reported in the Alta California), the following conversation took +place:--"Young--We can take care of ourselves. Cumming was good enough +in his way, for you know he was simply Governor of the Territory, while +I was and am Governor of the people." + + +"Senator Trumbull--Mr. Young, may I say to the President that you intend +to observe the laws under the constitution?" + +"Young-Well-yes--we intend to." + +"Senator Trumbull--But may I say to him that you will do so?" + +"Young--Yes, yes; so far as the laws are just, certainly." + + + ** "Mr. Colfax politely refused to accept the proffered +courtesies of the city. Brigham was reported to have uttered abusive +language in the Tabernacle towards the Government and Congress, and to +have charged the President and Vice President with being drunkards. +One of the Aldermen who waited upon Mr. Colfax to tender to him the +hospitality of the city could only say that he did not hear Brigham say +so."--"Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 638. + + + +CHAPTER XX. -- GENTILE IRRUPTION AND MORMON SCHISM + +The end of the complete seclusion of the Mormon settlement in Utah from +the rest of the country--complete except so far as it was interrupted +by the passage through the territory of the California emigration--dates +from the establishment of Camp Floyd, and the breaking up of that camp +and the disposal of its accumulation of supplies, which gave the first +big impetus to mercantile traffic in Utah.* Young was ever jealous of +the mercantile power, so openly jealous that, as Tullidge puts it, "to +become a merchant was to antagonize the church and her policies, so that +it was almost illegitimate for Mormon men of enterprising character to +enter into mercantile pursuits." This policy naturally increased the +business of non-Mormons who established themselves in the city, and +their prosperity directed the attention of the church authorities to +them, and the pulpit orators hurled anathemas at those who traded with +them. Thus Young, in a discourse, on March 28, 1858, urging the people +to use home-made material, said: "Let the calicoes lie on the shelves +and rot. I would rather build buildings every day and burn them down at +night, than have traders here communing with our enemies outside, and +keeping up a hell all the time, and raising devils to keep it going. +They brought their hell with them. We can have enough of our own without +their help."** A system of espionage, by means of the city police, +was kept on the stores of non-Mormons, until it required courage for a +Mormon to make a purchase in one of these establishments. To trade with +an apostate Mormon was, of course, a still greater offence. + + + * "The community had become utterly destitute of almost +everything necessary to their social comfort. The people were poorly +clad, and rarely ever saw anything on their tables but what was prepared +from flour, corn, beet-molasses, and the vegetables and fruits of their +gardens.... It was at Camp Floyd, indeed, where the principal Utah +merchants and business men of the second decade of our history may be +said to have laid the foundation of their fortunes, among whom were the +Walker Brothers."--Tullidge, "History of Salt Lake City," pp. 246-247. + + + ** Journal of Discourses, Vol. VII, p. 45. + + +Among the mercantile houses that became strong after the establishment +of Camp Floyd was that of Walker Brothers. There were four of them, +Englishmen, who had come over with their mother, and shared in the +privations of the early Utah settlement. Possessed of practical business +talent and independence of thought, they rebelled against Young's +dictatorial rule and the varied trammels by which their business was +restricted. Without openly apostatizing, they insisted on a measure +of independence. One manifestation of this was a refusal to contribute +one-tenth of their income as a tithe for the expenditure of which no +account was rendered. One year, when asked for their tithe, they gave +the Bishop of their ward a check for $500 as "a contribution to the +poor." When this form of contribution was reported to Young, he refused +to accept it, and sent the brothers word that he would cut them off from +the church unless they paid their tithe in the regular way. Their reply +was to tear up the check and defy Young. + +The natural result followed. Brigham and his lieutenants waged an open +war on these merchants, denouncing them in the Tabernacle, and keeping +policemen before their doors. The Walkers, on their part, kept on +offering good wares at reasonable prices, and thus retained the custom +of as many Mormons as dared trade with them openly, or could slip +in undiscovered. Even the expedient of placing a sign bearing an +"all-seeing eye" and the words "Holiness to the Lord" over every Mormon +trader's door did not steer away from other doors the Mormon customers +who delighted in bargains. But the church power was too great for any +one firm to fight. Not only was a business man's capital in danger in +those times, when the church was opposed to him, but his life was +not safe. Stenhouse draws this picture of the condition of affairs in +1866:--"After the assassination of Dr. Robinson, fears of violence were +not unnatural, and many men who had never before carried arms buckled +on their revolvers. Highly respectable men in Salt Lake City forsook +the sidewalks after dusk, and, as they repaired to their residences, +traversed the middle of the public street, carrying their revolvers in +their hands." + +With such a feeling of uneasiness, nearly all the non-Mormon merchants +joined in a letter to Brigham Young, offering, if the church would +purchase their goods and estates at twenty-five per cent less than +their valuation, they would leave the Territory. Brigham answered them +cavalierly that he had not asked them to come into the Territory, did +not ask them to leave it, and that they might stay as long as they +pleased. + +"It was clear that Brigham felt himself master of the situation, and the +merchants had to bide their time, and await the coming change that was +anticipated from the completion of the Pacific Railroad. As the great +iron way approached the mountains, and every day gave greater evidence +of its being finished at a much earlier period than was at first +anticipated, the hope of what it would accomplish nerved the +discontented to struggle with the passing day." * + + + * "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 625. + + +The Mormon historian incorporates these two last paragraphs in his book, +and says: "Here is at once described the Gentile and apostate view of +the situation in those times, and, confined as it is to the salient +point, no lengthy special argument in favor of President Young's +policies could more clearly justify his mercantile cooperative movement. +IT WAS THE MOMENT OF LIFE OR DEATH TO THE TEMPORAL POWER OF THE +CHURCH.... The organization of Z. C. M. I. at that crisis saved the +temporal supremacy of the Mormon commonwealth."* It was to meet outside +competition with a force which would be invincible that Young conceived +the idea of Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution, which was +incorporated in 1869, with Young as president. In carrying out this idea +no opposing interest, whether inside the church or out of it, received +the slightest consideration. "The universal dominance of the head of the +church is admitted," says Tullidge, "and in 1868, before the opening +of the Utah mines and the existence of a mixed population, there was no +commercial escape from the necessities of a combination."** + + + * Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 385. + + + ** "Cooperation is as much a cardinal and essential doctrine of +the Mormon church as baptism for the remission of sin."--Tullidge, +"History of Salt Lake City." + + +Young is said to have received the idea of the big Cooperative +enterprise from a small trader who asked permission to establish a +mercantile system on the Cooperative plan, of moderate dimensions, +throughout the territory. He gave it definite shape at a meeting of +merchants in October, 1868, which was followed by + +a circular explaining the scheme to the people. A preamble asserted +"the impolicy of leaving the trade and commerce of this territory to be +conducted by strangers." The constitution of the concern provided for a +capital of $3,000,000 in $100 shares. Young's original idea was to have +all the merchants pool their stocks, those who found no places in +the new establishment to go into some other business,--farming for +instance,--renting their stores as they could. Of course this meant +financial ruin to the unprovided for, and the opposition was strong. But +Young was not to be turned from the object he had in view. One man told +Stenhouse that when he reported to Young that a certain merchant would +be ruined by the scheme, and would not only be unable to pay his debts, +but would lose his homestead, Young's reply was that the man had no +business to get into debt, and that "if he loses his property it serves +him right." Tullidge, in an article in Harpers Magazine for September, +1871 (written when he was at odds with Young), said, "The Mormon +merchants were publicly told that all who refused to join the +cooperation should be left out in the cold; and against the two most +popular of them the Lion of the Lord roared, 'If Henry Lawrence don't +mind what's he's about I'll send him on a mission, and W. S. Godbe I'll +cut off from the church."' + +After the organization of the concern in 1869 some of the leading Mormon +merchants in Salt Lake City sold their goods to it on favorable terms, +knowing that the prices of their stock would go down when the opening +of the railroad lowered freight rates. The Z. C. M. I. was started as a +wholesale and retail concern, and Young recommended that ward stores +be opened throughout the city which should buy their goods of the +Institution. Local cooperative stores were also organized throughout the +territory, each of which was under pressure to make its purchases of the +central concern. Branches were afterward established at Ogden, at Logan, +and at Soda Springs, Idaho, and a large business was built up and is +still continued.* The effect of this new competition on the non-Mormon +establishments was, of course, very serious. Walker Brothers' sales, for +instance, dropped $5000 or $6000 a month, and only the opportunity to +divert their capital profitably to mining saved them and others from +immediate ruin. + +Bancroft says that in 1883 the total sales of the Institution exceeded +$4,000,000, and a half yearly dividend of five per cent was paid in +October of that year, and there was a reserve fund of about $125,000; he +placed the sales of the Ogden branch, in 1883, at about $800,000, and of +the Logan branch at about $600,000. The thirty-second annual statement +of the Institution, dated April 5,1901, contains the following figures: +Capital stock, $1,077,144.89; reserve, $362,898.95; undivided +profits, $179,042.88; cash receipts, February 1 to December 31, 1900, +$3,457,624.44, sales for the same period, $3,489.571.84. The branch +houses named is this report are at Ogden City and Provo, Utah, and at +Idaho Falls, Idaho. + +But at this time an influence was preparing to make itself felt in Utah +which was a more powerful opponent of Brigham Young's authority than any +he had yet encountered. This influence took shape in what was known as +the "New Movement," and also as "The Reformation." Its original leaders +were W. S. Godbe and E. L. T. Harrison. Godbe was an Englishman, who saw +a good deal of the world as a sailor, embraced the Mormon faith in his +own country when seventeen years of age, and walked most of the way from +New York to Salt Lake City in 1851. He became prominent in the Mormon +capital as a merchant, making the trip over the plains twenty-four +times between 1851 and 1859. Harrison was an architect by profession, a +classical scholar, and a writer of no mean ability. + +With these men were soon associated Eli B. Kelsey, a leading elder in +the Mormon church, a president of Seventies, and a prominent worker +in the English missions; H. W. Lawrence, a wealthy merchant who was +a Bishop's counsellor; Amasa M. Lyman, who had been one of the Twelve +Apostles and was acknowledged to be one of the most eloquent preachers +in the church; W. H. Sherman, a prominent elder and a man of literary +ability, who many years later went back to the church; T. B. H. +Stenhouse, a Scotchman by birth, who was converted to Mormonism in 1846, +and took a prominent part in missionary work in Europe, for three years +holding the position of president of the Swiss and Italian missions; +he emigrated to this country with his wife and children in 1855, +practically penniless, and supported himself for a time in New York City +as a newspaper writer; in Salt Lake City he married a second wife by +Young's direction, and one of his daughters by his first wife married +Brigham's eldest son. Stenhouse did not win the confidence of either +Mormons or non-Mormons in the course of his career, but his book, "The +Rocky Mountain Saints," contains much valuable information. Active with +these men in the "New Movement" was Edward W. Tullidge, an elder and +one of the Seventy, and a man of great literary ability. In later years +Tullidge, while not openly associating himself with the Mormon church, +wrote the "History of Salt Lake City" which the church accepts, a "Life +of Brigham Young," which could not have been more fulsome if written by +the most devout Mormon, and a "Life of Joseph the Prophet," which is a +valueless expurgated edition of Joseph's autobiography which ran through +the Millennial Star. + +The "New Movement" was assisted by the advent of non-Mormons to the +territory, by Young's arbitrary methods in starting his cooperative +scheme, by the approaching completion of the Pacific Railroad, and, in +a measure, by the organization of the Reorganized Church under the +leadership of the prophet Joseph Smith's eldest son. Two elders of that +church, who went to Salt Lake City in 1863, were refused permission +to preach in the Tabernacle, but did effective work by house-to-house +visitations, and there were said to be more than three hundred of the +"Josephites," as they were called, in Salt Lake City in 1864.* + + + * "Persecution followed, as they claimed; and in early summer +about one-half of the Josephites in Salt Lake City started eastward, so +great being the excitement that General Connor ordered a strong escort +to accompany them as far as Greene River. To those who remained, +protection was also afforded by the authorities."--Bancroft, "History of +Utah," p. 645. + + +Harrison and Tullidge had begun the publication of a magazine called the +Peep o' Day at Camp Douglas, but it was a financial failure. Then Godbe +and Harrison started the Utah Magazine, of which Harrison was editor. +This, too, was only a drain on their purses. Accordingly, some time in +the year 1868, giving it over to the care of Tullidge, they set out on +a trip to New York by stage. Both were in doubt on many points regarding +their church; both were of that mental make-up which is susceptible to +"revelations" and "callings"; by the time they reached New York they +realized that they were "on the road to apostasy." + +Long discussions of the situation took place between them, and the +outcome was characteristic of men who had been influenced by such +teachings as those of the Mormons. Kneeling down in their room, they +prayed earnestly, and as they did so "a voice spoke to them." For +three weeks, while Godbe transacted his mercantile business, his friend +prepared questions on religion and philosophy, "and in the evening, by +appointment, 'a band of spirits' came to them and held converse with +them, as friends would speak with friends. One by one the questions +prepared by Mr. Harrison were read, and Mr. Godbe and Mr. Harrison, with +pencil and paper, took down the answers as they heard them given by the +spirits."* The instruction which they thus received was Delphic in its +clearness--that which was true in Mormonism should be preserved and the +rest should be rejected. + + + * "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 631. + + +When they returned to Utah they took Elder Eli B. Kelsey, Elder H. W. +Lawrence, a man of wealth, and Stenhouse into their confidence, and it +was decided to wage open warfare on Young's despotism, using the Utah +Magazine as their mouthpiece. Without attacking Young personally, or the +fundamental Mormon beliefs, the magazine disputed Young's doctrine +that the world was degenerating to ruin, held up the really "great +characters" the world has known, that Young might be contrasted with +them, and discussed the probabilities of honest errors in religious +beliefs. When the Mormon leaders read in the magazine such doctrine as +that, "There is one false error which possesses the minds of some in +this, that God Almighty intended the priesthood to do our thinking," +they realized that they had a contest on their hands. Young got into +trouble with the laboring men at this time. He had contracts for +building a part of the Pacific Railroad, which were sublet at a profit. +An attempt by him to bring about a reduction of wages gave the magazine +an opportunity to plead the laborers' cause which it gladly embraced.* + + + * Harpers Magazine, Vol. XLIII, p. 605. + + +In the summer of 1869 Alexander and David Hyrum Smith, sons of the +prophet, visited Salt Lake City in the interest of the Reorganized +Church. Many of Young's followers still looked on the sons of the +prophet as their father's rightful successor to the leadership of the +Church, as Young at Nauvoo had promised that Joseph III should be. +But these sons now found that, even to be acknowledged as members of +Brigham's fold, they must accept baptism at the hands of one of his +elders, and acknowledge the "revelation" concerning polygamy as coming +from God. They had not come with that intent. But they called on +Young and discussed with him the injection of polygamy into the church +doctrines. Young finally told them that they possessed, not the spirit +of their father, but of their mother Emma, whom Young characterized as +"a liar, yes, the damnedest liar that lived," declaring that she tried +to poison the prophet * He refused to them the use of the Tabernacle, +but they spoke in private houses and, through the influence of the +Walker brothers, secured Independence Hall. The Brighamites, using a son +of Hyrum Smith as their mouthpiece,** took pains that a goodly number +of polygamists should attend the Independence Hall meetings, and +interruptions of the speakers turned the gatherings into something like +personal wrangles. + + + * For Alexander Smith's report, see True Latter-Day Saints' +Herald, Vol. XVI, pp. 85-86. + + + ** Hyrum's widow went to Salt lake City, and died there in +September, 1852, at the house of H. C. Kimball, who had taken care of +her. + + +The presence of the prophet's sons gave the leaders of "The Reformation" +an opportunity to aim a thrust at what was then generally understood +to be one of Brigham Young's ambitions, namely, the handing down of +the Presidency of the church to his oldest son; and an article in +their magazine presented the matter in this light: "If we know the true +feeling of our brethren, it is that they never intend Joseph Smith's +nor any other man's son to preside over them, simply because of their +sonship. The principle of heirship has cursed the world for ages, and +with our brethren we expect to fight it till, with every other relic of +tyranny, it is trodden under foot." Young accepted this challenge, and +at once ordered Harrison and two other elders in affiliation with him to +depart on missions. They disobeyed the order. + +Godbe and Harrison told their friends in Utah that they had learned from +the spirits who visited them in New York that the release of the people +of the territory from the despotism of the church could come only +through the development of the mines. So determined was the opposition +of Young's priesthood to this development that its open advocacy in the +magazine was the cause of more serious discussion than that given to any +of the other subjects treated. As "The Reformation" did not then embrace +more than a dozen members, the courage necessary to defy the church +on such a question was not to be belittled. Just at that time came the +visit of the Illinois party and of Vice President Colfax, and the latter +was made acquainted with their plans and gave them encouragement. Ten +days later the magazine, in an article on "The True Development of +the Territory," openly advised paying more attention to mining. Young +immediately called together the "School of the Prophets." This was an +organization instituted in Utah, with the professed object of discussing +doctrinal questions, having the "revelations" of the prophet elucidated +by his colleagues, etc. It was not open to all church members, the +"scholars" attending by invitation, and it soon became an organization +under Young's direction which took cognizance of the secular doings of +the people, exercising an espionage over them. The school is no longer +maintained. Before this school Young denounced the "Reformers" in his +most scathing terms, going so far as to intimate that his rule was +itself in danger. Consequently the leaders of the "New Movement" were +notified to appear before the High Council for a hearing. + +When this hearing occurred, Young managed that Godbe and Harrison should +be the only persons on trial. Both of them defied him to his face, +denying his "right to dictate to them in all things spiritual and +temporal,"--this was the question put to them,--and protesting against +his rule. They also read a set of resolutions giving an outline of +their intended movements. They were at once excommunicated, and the +only elder, Eli B. Kelsey, who voted against this action was immediately +punished in the same way. Kelsey was not granted even the perfunctory +hearing that was customarily allowed in such cases, and he was "turned +over to the devil," instead of being consigned by the usual formula "to +the buffetings of Satan." + +But this did not silence the "Reformers." Their lives were considered +in danger by their acquaintances, and the assassination of the most +prominent of them was anticipated;* but they went straight ahead on +the lines they had proclaimed. Their first public meetings were held on +Sunday, December 19, 1869. The knowledge of the fact that they claimed +to act by direct and recent revelation gave them no small advantage with +a people whose belief rested on such manifestations of the divine +will, and they had crowded audiences. The services were continued every +Sunday, and on the evening of one week day; the magazine went on with +its work, and they were the founders of the Salt Lake Tribune which +later, as a secular journal, has led the Gentile press in Utah. + + + * "In August my husband sent a respectful and kindly letter to +the Bishop of our ward, stating that he had no faith in Brigham's claim +to an Infallible Priesthood; and that he considered that he ought to be +cut off from the church. I added a postscript stating that I wished to +share my husband's fate. A little after ten o'clock, on the Saturday +night succeeding our withdrawal from the church, we were returning home +together.. . when we suddenly saw four men come out from under some +trees at a little distance from us.... As soon as they approached, they +seized hold of my husband's arms, one on each side, and held him firmly, +thus rendering him almost powerless. They were all masked.... In an +instant I saw them raise their arms, as if taking aim, and for one brief +second I thought that our end had surely come, and that we, like so many +obnoxious persons before us, were about to be murdered for the great sin +of apostasy. This I firmly believe would have been my husband's fate +if I had not chanced to be with him or had I run away.... The wretches, +although otherwise well armed, were not holding revolvers in their hands +as I at first supposed. They were furnished with huge garden syringes, +charged with the most disgusting filth. My hair, bonnet, face, clothes, +person--every inch of my body, every shred I wore--were in an instant +saturated, and my husband and myself stood there reeking from head to +foot. The villains, when they had perpetrated this disgusting and brutal +outrage, turned and fled."--Mrs. Stenhouse, "Tell it All," pp. 578-581. + + +But the attempt to establish a reformed Mormonism did not succeed, and +the organization gradually disappeared. One of the surviving leaders +said to me (in October, 1901): "My parents had believed in Mormonism, +and I believed in the Mormon prophet and the doctrines set forth in his +revelations. We hoped to purify the Mormon church, eradicating evils +that had annexed themselves to it in later years. But our study of the +question showed us that the Mormon faith rested on no substantial +basis, and we became believers in transcendentalism." Mr. Godbe and Mr. +Lawrence still reside in Utah. The former has made and lost more than +one fortune in the mines. The Mormon historian Whitney says of the +leaders in this attempted reform: "These men were all reputable and +respected members of the community. Naught against their morality or +general uprightness of character was known or advanced."* Stenhouse, +writing three years before Young's death, said:-- + + + * Whitney's "History of Utah," Vol. II, p. 332. + + +"But for the boldness of the Reformers, Utah to-day would not have been +what it is. Inspired by their example, the people who have listened to +them disregarded the teachings of the priesthood against trading with +or purchasing of the Gentiles. The spell was broken, and, as in all such +like experience, the other extreme was for a time threatened. Walker +Brothers regained their lost trade.... Reference could be made to +elders, some of whom had to steal away from Utah, for fear of violent +hands being laid upon them had their intended departure been made known, +who are to-day wealthy and respected gentlemen in the highest walks of +life, both in the United States and in Europe." + + + ** For accounts of "The Reformation" by leaders in it, +see Chap. 53 of Stenhouse's "Rocky Mountain Saints," and Tullidge's +article, Harper's Magazine, Vol. XLIII, p. 602. + + + +CHAPTER XXI. -- THE LAST YEARS OF BRIGHAM YOUNG + +Governor Doty died in June, 1865, without coming in open conflict with +Young, and was succeeded by Charles Durkee, a native of Vermont, but +appointed from Wisconsin, which state he had represented in the United +States Senate. He resigned in 1869, and was succeeded by J. Wilson +Shaffer of Illinois, appointed by President Grant at the request of +Secretary of War Rawlins, who, in a visit to the territory in 1868, +concluded that its welfare required a governor who would assert his +authority. Secretary S. A. Mann, as acting governor, had, just +before Shaffer's arrival, signed a female suffrage bill passed by the +territorial legislature. This gave offence to the new governor, and Mann +was at once succeeded by Professor V. H. Vaughn of the University of +Alabama, and Chief Justice C. C. Wilson (who had succeeded Titus) by +James B. McKean. The latter was a native of Rensselaer County, New York; +had been county judge of Saratoga County from 1854 to 1858, a member +of the 36th and 37th Congresses, and colonel of the 72nd New York +Volunteers. + +Governor Shaffer's first important act was to issue a proclamation +forbidding all drills and gatherings of the militia of the territory +(which meant the Nauvoo Legion), except by the order of himself or the +United States marshal. Wells, signing himself "Lieutenant General," sent +the governor a written request for the suspension of this order. The +governor, in reply, reminded Wells that the only "Lieutenant General" +recognized by law was then Philip H. Sheridan, and declined to assist +him in a course which "would aid you and your turbulent associates to +further convince your followers that you and your associates are more +powerful than the federal government." Thus practically disappeared this +famous Mormon military organization. + +Governor Shaffer was ill when he reached Utah, and he died a few days +after his reply to Wells was written, Secretary Vaughn succeeding him +until the arrival of G. A. Black, the new secretary, who then became +acting governor pending the arrival of George L. Woods, an ex-governor +of Oregon, who was next appointed to the executive office. + +As soon as the new federal judges, who were men of high personal +character, took their seats, they decided that the United States +marshal, and not the territorial marshal, was the proper person to +impanel the juries in the federal courts, and that the attorney general +appointed by the President under the Territorial Act, and not the +one elected under that act, should prosecute indictments found in the +federal courts. The chief justice also filled a vacancy in the office of +federal attorney. The territorial legislature of 1870, accordingly, made +no appropriation for the expenses of the courts; and the chief justice, +in dismissing the grand and petit juries on this account, explained to +them that he had heard one of the high priesthood question the right of +Congress even to pass the Territorial Act. + +In September, 1871, the United States marshal summoned a grand jury from +nine counties (twenty-three jurors and seventeen talesmen) of whom only +seven were Mormons. All the latter, examined on their voir dire, +declared that they believed that polygamy was a revelation to the +church, and that they would obey the revelation rather than the law, and +all were successfully challenged. This grand jury, early in October, +found indictments against Brigham Young, "General" Wells, G. Q. Cannon, +and others under a territorial statute directed against lewdness and +improper cohabitation. This action caused intense excitement in the +Mormon capital. Prosecutor Baskin was quoted as saying that the troops +at Camp Douglas would be used to enforce the warrant for Young's arrest +if necessary, and the possible outcome has been thus portrayed by the +Mormon historian:--"It was well known that he [Young] had often declared +that he never would give himself up to be murdered as his predecessor, +the Prophet Joseph, and his brother Hyrum had been, while in the hands +of the law, and under the sacred pledge of the state for their safety; +and, ere this could have been repeated, ten thousand Mormon Elders would +have gone into the jaws of death with Brigham Young. In a few hours the +suspended Nauvoo Legion would have been in arms."* + + + * Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 527. + + +The warrant was served on Young at his house by the United States +marshal, and, as Young was ill, a deputy was left in charge of him. On +October 9 Young appeared in court with the leading men of the church, +and a motion to quash the indictment was made before the chief justice +and denied. + +The same grand jury on October 28 found indictments for murder against +D. H. Wells, W. H. Kimball, and Hosea Stout for alleged responsibility +for the killing of Richard Yates during the "war" of 1857. The fact that +the man was killed was not disputed; his brains were knocked out with +an axe as he was sleeping by the side of two Mormon guards.* The defence +was that he died the death of a spy. Wells was admitted to bail in +$50,000, and the other two men were placed under guard at Camp Douglas. +Indictments were also found against Brigham Young, W. A. Hickman, O. +P. Rockwell, G. D. Grant, and Simon Dutton for the murder of one of the +Aikin party at Warm Springs. They were all admitted to bail. + + + * Hickman tells the story in his "Brigham's Destroying Angel," p. +122. + + +When the case against Young, on the charge of improper cohabitation, was +called on November 20, his counsel announced that he had gone South for +his health, as was his custom in winter, and the prosecution thereupon +claimed that his bail was forfeited. Two adjournments were granted at +the request of his counsel. On January 3 Young appeared in court, and +his counsel urged that he be admitted to bail, pleading his age and ill +health. The judge refused this request, but said that the marshal could, +if he desired, detain the prisoner in one of Young's own houses. This +course was taken, and he remained under detention until released by the +decision of the United States Supreme Court. + +In April, 1872, that court decided that the territorial jury law +of Utah, in force since 1859, had received the implied approval of +Congress; that the duties of the attorney and marshal appointed by the +President under the Territorial Act "have exclusive relation to cases +arising under the laws and constitution of the United States," and +"the making up of the jury list and all matters connected with the +designation of jurors are subject to the regulation of territorial +law."* This was a great victory for the Mormons. + + + * Chilton vs. Englebrech, 13 Wallace, p. 434. + + +In October, 1873, the United States Supreme Court rendered its decision +in the case of "Snow vs. The United States" on the appeal from Chief +Justice McKean's ruling about the authority of the prosecuting officers. +It overruled the chief justice, confining the duties of the attorney +appointed by the President to cases in which the federal government was +concerned, concluding that "in any event, no great inconvenience +can arise, because the entire matter is subject to the control and +regulation of Congress." * + + + * Wallace's "Reports," Vol. XVIII, p. 317. + + +The following comments, from three different sources, will show the +reader how many influences were then shaping the control of authority in +Utah:--"At about this time [December, 1871] a change came in the action +of the Department of justice in these Utah prosecutions, and fair-minded +men of the nation demanded of the United States Government that it +should stop the disgraceful and illegal proceedings of Judge McKean's +court. The influence of Senator Morton was probably the first and +most potent brought to bear in this matter, and immediately thereafter +Senator Lyman Trumbull threw the weight of his name and statesmanship +in the same direction, which resulted in Baskin and Maxwell being +superseded,... and finally resulted in the setting aside of two years +of McKean's doings as illegal by the august decision of the Supreme +Court."--Tullidge, "History of Salt Lake City," p. 547. + +"The Attorney for the Mormons labored assiduously at Washington, and, +contrary to the usual custom in the Supreme Court, the forthcoming +decision had been whispered to some grateful ears. The Mormon +anniversary conference beginning on the sixth of April was continued +over without adjournment awaiting that decision."--"Rocky Mountain +Saints," p. 688. + +"Thus stood affairs during the winter of 1870-71. The Gentiles had the +courts, the Mormons had the money. In the spring Nevada came over to run +Utah. Hon. Thomas Fitch of that state had been defeated in his second +race for Congress; so he came to Utah as Attorney for the Mormons. +Senator Stewart and other Nevada politicians made heavy investments in +Utah mines; litigation multiplied as to mining titles, and Judge McKean +did not rule to suit Utah.... The great Emma mine, worth two or three +millions, became a power in our judicial embroglio. The Chief Justice, +in various rulings, favored the present occupants. Nevada called upon +Senator Stewart, who agreed to go straight to Long Branch and see that +McKean was removed. But Ulysses the Silent... promptly made reply that +if Judge McKean had committed no greater fault than to revise a little +Nevada law, he was not altogether unpardonable."--Beadle, "Polygamy," p. +429. + +The Supreme Court decisions left the federal courts in Utah practically +powerless, and President Grant understood this. On February 14, 1873, +he sent a special message to Congress, saying that he considered it +necessary, in order to maintain the supremacy of the laws of the United +States, "to provide that the selection of grand and petit jurors for +the district courts [of Utah], if not put under the control of federal +officers, shall be placed in the hands of persons entirely independent +of those who are determined not to enforce any act of Congress obnoxious +to them, and also to pass some act which shall deprive the probate +courts, or any court created by the territorial legislature, of any +power to interfere with or impede the action of the courts held by the +United States judges." + +In line with this recommendation Senator Frelinghuysen had introduced a +bill in the Senate early in February, which the Senate speedily passed, +the Democrats and Schurz, Carpenter, and Trumbull voting against it. +Mormon influence fought it with desperation in the House, and in the +closing hours of the session had it laid aside. The diary of Delegate +Hooper says on this subject, "Maxwell [the United States Marshal for +Utah] said he would take out British papers and be an American citizen +no longer. Claggett [Delegate from Montana] asserted that we had spent +$200,000 on the judiciary committee, and Merritt [Delegate from Idaho] +swore that there had been treachery and we had bribed Congress."* + + + * The Mormons do not always conceal the influences they employ to +control legislation in which they are interested. Thus Tullidge, +referring to the men of whom their Cooperative Institution buys goods, +says: "But Z. C. M. I. has not only a commercial significance in the +history of our city, but also a political one. It has long been the +temporal bulwark around the Mormon community. Results which have been +seen in Utah affairs, preservative of the Mormon power and people, +unaccountable to 'the outsider' except on the now stale supposition that +'the Mormon Church has purchased Congress,' may be better traced to the +silent but potent influence of Z. C. M. I. among the ruling business men +of America, just as John Sharp's position as one of the directors of U. +P. R---r,--a compeer among such men as Charles Francis Adams, Jay Gould +and Sidney Dillon--gives him a voice in Utah affairs among the railroad +rulers of America."--"History of Salt Lake City;" p. 734. + +In the election of 1872 the Mormons dropped Hooper, who had long served +them as Delegate at Washington, and sent in his place George Q. Cannon, +an Englishman by birth and a polygamist. But Mormon influence in +Washington was now to receive a severe check. On June 23, 1874, the +President approved an act introduced by Mr. Poland of Vermont, and +known as the Poland Bill,* which had important results. It took from the +probate courts in Utah all civil, chancery, and criminal jurisdiction; +made the common law in force; provided that the United States attorney +should prosecute all criminal cases arising in the United States courts +in the territory; that the United States marshal should serve and +execute all processes and writs of the supreme and district courts, and +that the clerk of the district court in each district and the judge of +probate of the county should prepare the jury lists, each containing two +hundred names, from which the United States marshal should draw the +grand and petit juries for the term. It further provided that, when a +woman filed a bill to declare void a marriage because of a previous +marriage, the court could grant alimony; and that, in any prosecution +for adultery, bigamy, or polygamy, a juror could be challenged if he +practised polygamy or believed in its righteousness. + + + * Chap. 469, 1st Session, 43d Congress. + + +The suit for divorce brought by Young's wife "No. 19,"--Ann Eliza +Young--in January, 1873, attracted attention all over the country. Her +bill charged neglect, cruel treatment, and desertion, set forth that +Young had property worth $8,000,000 and an income of not less than +$40,000 a year, and asked for an allowance of $1000 a month while the +suit was pending, $6000 for preliminary counsel fees, and $14,000 more +when the final decree was made, and that she be awarded $200,000 for +her support. Young in his reply surprised even his Mormon friends. +After setting forth his legal marriage in Ohio, stating that he and the +plaintiff were members of a church which held the doctrine that "members +thereto might rightfully enter into plural marriages," and admitting +such a marriage in this case, he continued: "But defendant denies that +he and the said plaintiff intermarried in any other or different sense +or manner than that above mentioned or set forth. Defendant further +alleges that the said complainant was then informed by the defendant, +and then and there well knew that, by reason of said marriage, in the +manner aforesaid, she could not have and need not expect the society or +personal attention of this defendant as in the ordinary relation between +husband and wife." He further declared that his property did not exceed +$600,000 in value, and his income $6000 a month. + +Judge McKean, on February 25, 1875, ordered Young to pay Ann Eliza $3000 +for counsel fees and $500 a month alimony pendente lite, and, when he +failed to obey, sentenced him to pay a fine of $25 and to one day's +imprisonment. Young was driven to his own residence by the deputy +marshal for dinner, and, after taking what clothing he required, was +conducted to the penitentiary, where he was locked up in a cell for a +short time, and then placed in a room in the warden's office for the +night. + +Judge McKean was accused of inconsistency in granting alimony, because, +in so doing, he had to give legal sanction to Ann Eliza's marriage +to Brigham while the latter's legal wife was living. Judge McKean's +successor, Judge D. P. Loew, refused to imprison Young, taking the +ground that there had been no valid marriage. Loew's successor, Judge +Boreman, ordered Young imprisoned until the amount due was paid, but he +was left at his house in custody of the marshal. Boreman's successor, +Judge White, freed Young on the ground that Boreman's order was void. +White's successor, Judge Schaeffer, in 1876 reduced the alimony to $100 +per month, and, in default of payment, certain of Young's property was +sold at auction and rents were ordered seized to make up the deficiency. +The divorce case came to trial in April, 1877, when Judge Schaeffer +decreed that the polygamous marriage was void, annulled all orders for +alimony, and assessed the costs against the defendant. + +Nothing further of great importance affecting the relations of the +church with the federal government occurred during the rest of Young's +life. Governor Woods incurred the animosity of the Mormons by asserting +his authority from time to time ("he intermeddled," Bancroft says). In +1874 he was succeeded by S. B. Axtell of California, who showed such +open sympathy with the Mormon view of his office as to incur the +severest censure of the non-Mormon press. Axtell was displaced in the +following year by G. B. Emery of Tennessee, who held office until the +early part of 1880, when he was succeeded by Eli H. Murray.* + + + * Governor Murray showed no disposition to yield to Mormon +authority. In his message in 1882 be referred pointedly, among other +matters, to the tithing, declaring that "the poor man who earns a dollar +by the sweat of his brow is entitled to that dollar," and that "any +exaction or undue influence to dispossess him of any part of it, in any +other manner than in payment of a legal obligation, is oppression," and +he granted a certificate of election as Delegate to Congress to Allan G. +Campbell, who received only 1350 votes to 18,568 for George Q. Cannon, +holding that the latter was not a citizen. Governor Murray's resignation +was accepted in March, 1886, and he was succeeded in the following May +by Caleb W. West, who, in turn, was supplanted in May, 1889, by A. L. +Thomas, who was territorial governor when Utah was admitted as a state. + + + +CHAPTER XXII. -- BRIGHAM YOUNG'S DEATH--HIS CHARACTER + +Brigham Young died in Salt Lake City at 4 P.M. on Wednesday, August 29, +1877. He was attacked with acute cholera morbus on the evening of the +23rd, after delivering an address in the Council House, and it was +followed by inflammation of the bowels. The body lay in state in the +Tabernacle from Saturday, September 1, until Sunday noon, when the +funeral services were held. He was buried in a little plot on one of the +main streets of Salt Lake City, not far from his place of residence. + +The steps by which Young reached the position of head of the Mormon +church, the character of his rule, and the means by which he maintained +it have been set forth in the previous chapters of this work. In the +ruler we have seen a man without education, but possessed of an iron +will, courage to take advantage of unusual opportunities, and a thorough +knowledge of his flock gained by association with them in all their +wanderings. In his people we have seen a nucleus of fanatics, including +some of Joseph Smith's fellow-plotters, constantly added to by new +recruits, mostly poor and ignorant foreigners, who had been made to +believe in Smith's Bible and "revelations," and been further lured to a +change of residence by false pictures of the country they were going to, +and the business opportunities that awaited them there. Having made +a prominent tenet of the church the practice of polygamy, which Young +certainly knew the federal government would not approve, he had an +additional bond with which to unite the interests of his flock with his +own, and thus to make them believe his approval as necessary to their +personal safety as they believed it to be necessary to their salvation. +The command which Young exercised in these circumstances is not +an illustration of any form of leadership which can be held up to +admiration. It is rather an exemplification of that tyranny in church +and state which the world condemns whenever an example of it is +afforded. + +Young was the centre of responsibility for all the rebellion, +nullification, and crime carried on under the authority of the church +while he was its head. He never concealed his own power. He gloried in +it, and declared it openly in and out of the Tabernacle. Authority +of this kind cannot be divided. Whatever credit is due to Young for +securing it, is legitimately his. But those who point to its acquisition +as a sign of greatness, must accept for him, with it, responsibility for +the crimes that were carried on under it. + +The laudators of Young have found evidence of great executive ability in +his management of the migration from Nauvoo to Utah. But, in the first +place, this migration was compulsory; the Mormons were obliged to move. +In the second place its accomplishment was no more successful than the +contemporary migrations to Oregon, and the loss of life in the camps +on the Missouri River was greater than that incurred in the great rush +across the plains to California; while the horrors of the hand-cart +movement--a scheme of Young's own device--have never been equalled in +Western travel. In Utah, circumstances greatly favored Young's success. +Had not gold been discovered when it was in California, the Mormon +settlement would long have been like a dot in a desert, and its ability +to support the stream Of immigrants attracted from Europe would have +been problematic, since, in more than one summer, those already there +had narrowly escaped starvation while depending on the agricultural +resources of the valley. + +J. Hyde, writing in 1857, said that Young "by the native force and vigor +of a strong mind" had taken from beneath the Mormon church system "the +monstrous stilts of a miserable superstition, and consolidated it into +a compact scheme of the sternest fanaticism."* In other words, he might +have explained, instead of relying on such "revelations" as served +Smith, he refused to use artificial commands of God, and substituted +the commands of Young, teaching, and having his associates teach, that +obedience to the head of the church was obedience to the Supreme Power. +Both Hyde and Stenhouse, writing before Young's death, and as witnesses +of the strength of his autocratic government, overestimated him. This +is seen in the view they took of the effect of his death. Hyde declared +that under any of the other contemporary leaders: Taylor, Kimball, Orson +Hyde, or Pratt: "Mormonism will decline. Brigham is its tun; this is +its daytime." Stenhouse asserted that, "Theocracy will die out with +Brigham's flickering flame of life; and, when he is laid in the tomb, +many who are silent now will curse his memory for the cruel suffering +that his ambition caused them to endure." But all such prophecies remain +unfulfilled. Young's death caused no more revolution or change in the +Mormon church than does the death of a Pope in the Church of Rome. +"Regret it who may," wrote a Salt Lake City correspondent less than +three months after his burial, "the fact is visible to every intelligent +person here that Mormonism has taken a new lease of life, and, instead +of disintegration, there never was such unity among its people; and in +the place of a rapidly dying consumptive, whose days were numbered, the +body of the church is the picture of pristine health and vigor, with all +the ambition and enthusiasm of a first love."** The new leadership has, +grudgingly, traded polygamy for statehood; but the church power is +as strong and despotic and unified to-day on the lines on which it is +working as it was under Young, only exercising that power on the more +civilized basis rendered necessary by closer connection with an outside +civilization. + + + * "Mormonism," p.151. + + + ** New York Times, November 23, 1877. + + +Young was a successful accumulator of property for his own use. A poor +man when he set out from Nauvoo, his estate at his death was valued at +between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000. This was a great accumulation for a +pioneer who had settled in a wilderness, been burdened with a polygamous +family of over twenty wives and fifty children, and the cares of a +church denomination, without salary as a church officer. "I am the only +person in the church," Young said to Greeley in 1859, "who has not a +regular calling apart from the church service"; and he added, "We think +a man who cannot make his living aside from the ministry of the church +unsuited to that office. I am called rich, and consider myself worth +$250,000; but no dollar of it ever was paid me by the church, nor for +any service as a minister of the Everlasting Gospel." * Two years after +his death a writer in the Salt Lake Tribune** asserted that Young had +secured in Utah from the tithing $13,000,000, squandered about $9,000 +on his family, and left the rest to be fought for by his heirs and +assigns.*** Notwithstanding the vast sums taken by him in tithing for +the alleged benefit of the poor, there was not in Salt Lake City, at +the time of his death, a single hospital or "home" creditable to that +settlement. + + + * "Overland Journey," p. 213. + + + ** June 25, 1879. + + + *** "Having control of the tithing, and possessing unlimited +credit, he has added 'house to house and field to field,' while every +one knew that he had no personal enterprises sufficient to enable him +to meet anything like the current expenses of his numerous wives and +children. As trustee in trust he renders no account of the funds that +come into his hands, but tells the faithful that they are at perfect +liberty to examine the books at any moment."--"Rocky Mountain Saints," +p. 665. + + +The mere acquisition of his wealth no more entitled Young to be held up +as a marvellous man of business than did Tweed's accumulations give him +this distinction in New York. Beadle declares that "Brigham never made +a success of any business he undertook except managing the Mormons," +and cites among his business failures the non-success of every distant +colony he planted, the Cottonwood Canal (whose mouth was ten feet +higher than its source), his beet-sugar manufactory, and his Colorado +Transportation Company (to bring goods for southern Utah up the Colorado +River).* + + + * "Polygamy," p. 484. + + +The reports of Young's discourses in the Temple show that he was as +determined in carrying out his own financial schemes as he was in +enforcing orders pertaining to the church. Here is an almost humorous +illustration of this. In urging the people one day to be more regular +in paying their tithing, he said they need not fear that he would make a +bad use of their money, as he had plenty of his own, adding:--"I believe +I will tell you how I get some of it. A great many of these elders in +Israel, soon after courting these young ladies, and old ladies, and +middle-aged ladies, and having them sealed to them, want to have a bill +of divorce. I have told them from the beginning that sealing men and +women for time and all eternity is one of the ordinances of the House +of God, and that I never wanted a farthing for sealing them, nor for +officiating in any of the ordinances of God's house. But when you ask +for a bill of divorce, I intend that you shall pay for it. That keeps +me in spending money, besides enabling me to give hundreds of dollars +to the poor, and buy butter, eggs, and little notions for women and +children, and otherwise use it where it does good. You may think this a +singular feature of the Gospel, but I cannot exactly say that this is in +the Gospel."* + + + * Deseret News, March 20, 1861. For such an openly jolly old +hypocrite one can scarcely resist the feeling that he would like to pass +around the hat. + + +We have seen how Young gave himself control of a valuable canyon. That +was only the beginning of such acquisitions. The territorial legislature +of Utah was continually making special grants to him. Among them may +be mentioned the control of City Creek canyon (said to have been worth +$10,000 a year) on payment of $500; of the waters of Mill Creek; +exclusive right to Kansas Prairie as a herd-ground; the whole of Cache +Valley for a herd-ground; Rush Valley for a herd-ground; rights to +establish ferries; an appropriation of $2500 for an academy in Salt Lake +City (which was not built), etc.* + + + * Here is the text of one of these acts: "Be it ordained by the +General Assembly of the State of Deseret that Brigham Young has the +sole control of City Creek and canyon; and that he pay into the public +treasury the sum of $500 therefore. Dec. 9, 1850." + + +Young's holdings of real estate were large, not only in Salt Lake City, +but in almost every county in the territory.* Besides city lots and farm +lands, he owned grist and saw mills, and he took care that his farms +were well cultivated and that his mills made fine flour.** + + + * "For several years past the agent of the church, A. M. Musser, +has been engaged in securing legal deeds for all the property the +prophet claims, and by this he will be able to secure in his lifetime to +his different families such property as will render them independent at +his death. The building of the Pacific Railroad is said to have yielded +him about a quarter of a million."--"Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 666. + + + ** "His position secured him also many valuable presents. From a +barrel of brandy down to an umbrella, Brigham receives courteously and +remembers the donors with increased kindness. I saw one man make him a +present of ten fine milch cows."--Hyde, "Mormonism," p. 165. + + +As trustee in trust for the church Young had control of all the church +property and income, practically without responsibility or oversight. +Mrs. Waite (writing in 1866) said that attempts for many years by +the General Conference to procure a balance sheet of receipts and +expenditures had failed, and that the accounts in the tithing office, +such as they were, were kept by clerks who were the leading actors in +the Salt Lake Theatre, owned by Young.* It was openly charged that, in +1852, Young "balanced his account" with the church by having the clerk +credit him with the amount due by him, "for services rendered," and +that, in 1867, he balanced his account again by crediting himself with +$967,000. A committee appointed to investigate the accounts of Young +after his death reported to the Conference of October, 1878, that "for +the sole purpose of preserving it from the spoliation of the enemy," he +"had transferred certain property from the possession of the church to +his own individual possession," but that it had been transferred back +again. + + + * "The Mormon Prophet," pp. 148-149, + + +Young's will divided his wives and children into nineteen "classes," and +directed his executors to pay to each such a sum as might be necessary +for their comfortable support; the word "marriage" in the will to mean +"either by ceremony before a lawful magistrate, or according to the +order of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or by their +cohabitation in conformity to our custom." + +On June 14, 1879, Emmeline A. Young, on behalf of herself and the heirs +at law, began a suit against the executors of Young's estate, charging +that they had improperly appropriated $200,000; had improperly allowed +nearly $1,000,000 to John Taylor as trustee in trust to the church, +less a credit of $300,000 for Young's services as trustee; and that they +claimed the power, as members of the Apostles' Quorum, to dispose of +all the testator's property and to disinherit any heir who refused to +submit. This suit was compromised in the following September, the seven +persons joining in it executing a release on payment of $75,000. A suit +which the church had begun against the heirs and executors was also +discontinued. The Salt Lake Herald (Mormon) of October 5, 1879, said, +"The adjustment is far preferable to a continuance of the suit, which +was proving not only expensive, but had become excessively annoying to +many people, was a large disturbing element in the community, and was +rapidly descending into paths that nobody here cares to see trodden." + +Just how many wives Brigham Young had, in the course of his life, would +depend on his own and others' definition of that term. He told Horace +Greeley, in 1859: "I have fifteen; I know no one who has more. But some +of those sealed to me are old ladies, whom I regard rather as mothers +than wives, but whom I have taken home to cherish and support."* In +1869, he informed the Boston Board of Trade, when that body visited Salt +Lake City, that he had sixteen wives living, and had lost four, and +that forty-nine of his children were living then. "He was," says Beadle, +"sealed on the spiritual wife system to more women than any one can +count; all over Mormondom are pious old widows, or wives of Gentiles and +apostates, who hope to rise at the last day and claim a celestial share +in Brigham." J. Hyde said that he knew of about twenty-five wives with +whom Brigham lived. The following list is made up from "Pictures +and Biographies of Brigham Young and his Wives," published by J. H. +Crockwell of Salt Lake City, by authority of Young's eldest son and of +seven of his wives, but is not complete:-- + + + * "Overland journey," p. 215. + +[Illustration: + List of Wives] + +NAME************* DATE OF MARRIAGE *** NUMBER OF CHILDREN*** Mary Ann +Angell * February, 1834. Ohio 6 Louisa Beman ** April, 1841. Nauvoo 4 +Mrs. Lucy Decker Seely June, 1842. Nauvoo 7 H. E. C. Campbell November, +1843.Nauvoo 1 Augusta Adams November, 1843. Nauvoo 0 Clara Decker +May, 1844. Nauvoo 5 Clara C. Ross September, 1844. Nauvoo 4 Emily Dow +Partridge** September, 1844. Nauvoo 7 Susan Snively November, 1844. +Nauvoo 0 Olive Grey Frost** February, 1845. Nauvoo 0 Emmeline Free +April, 1845. Nauvoo 0 Margaret Pierce April, 1845. Nauvoo 1 N. K. T. +Carter January, 1846. Nauvoo 0 Ellen Rockwood January, 1846. Nauvoo 0 +Maria Lawrence** January, 1846. Nauvoo 0 Martha Bowker January, 1846. +Nauvoo 0 Margaret M. Alley January, 1846. Nauvoo 2 Lucy Bigelow March, +1847. (?) 3 Z. D. Huntington ** March, 1847 (?). Nauvoo 1 Eliza K. +Snow** June, 1849. S. L. C. 0 Eliza Burgess October, 1850. S. L. C. +1 Harriet Barney October, 1850. S. L. C. 1 Harriet A. Folsom January, +1863. S. L. C. 0 Mary Van Cott January, 1865. S. L. C. 1 Ann Eliza Webb +April, 1868. S. L. C. 0 + + + * His first wife died 1832. +** Joseph Smith's widows. + +Young's principal houses in Salt Lake City stood at the southeastern +corner of the block adjoining the Temple block, and designated on the +map as block 8. The largest building, occupying the corner, was called +the Beehive House; connected with this was a smaller building in which +were Young's private offices, the tithing office, etc; and next to this +was a building partly of stone, called the Lion House, taking its name +from the figure of a lion sculptured on its front, representing Young's +title "The Lion of the Lord." When J. Hyde wrote, seventeen or eighteen +of Young's wives dwelt in the Lion House, and the Beehive House became +his official residence.* Individual wives were provided for elsewhere. +His legal wife lived in what was called the White House, a few hundred +yards from his official home. His well-beloved Amelia lived in another +house half a block distant; another favorite, just across the street; +Emmeline, on the same block; and not far away the latest acquisition to +his harem. + + + * The Beehive House is still the official residence of the head +of the church, and in it President Snow was living at the time of his +death. The office building is still devoted to office uses, and the +Lion House now furnishes temporary quarters to the Latter-Day Saints' +College. + + +Young's life in his later years was a very orderly one, although he was +not methodical in arranging his office hours and attending to his many +duties. Rising before eight A.m., he was usually in his office at +nine, transacting business with his secretary, and was ready to receive +callers at ten. So many were the people who had occasion to see him, and +so varied were the matters that could be brought to his attention, that +many hours would be devoted to these callers if other engagements did +not interfere. Once a year he made a sort of visit of state to all the +principal settlements in the territory, accompanied by counsellors, +apostles, and Bishops, and sometimes by a favorite wife. Shorter +excursions of the same kind were made at other times. Each settlement +was expected to give him a formal greeting, and this sometimes took the +form of a procession with banners, such as might have been prepared for +a conquering hero. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. -- SOCIAL ASPECTS OF POLYGAMY + +There was something compulsory about all phases of life in Utah during +Brigham Young's regime--the form of employment for the men, the domestic +regulations of the women, the church duties each should perform, and +even the location in the territory which they should call their home. +Not only did large numbers of the foreign immigrants find themselves in +debt to the church on their arrival, and become compelled in this way +to labor on the "public works" as they might be ordered, but the skilled +mechanics who brought their tools with them in most cases found on their +arrival that existence in Utah meant a contest with the soil for food. +Even when a mechanic obtained employment at his trade it was in the +ruder branches. + +Mormon authorities have always tried to show that Americans have +predominated in their community. Tullidge classes the population in this +order: Americans, English, Scandinavian (these claim one-fifth of the +Mormon population of Utah), Scotch, Welsh, Germans, and a few Irish, +French, Italians, and Swiss. The combination of new-comers and the +emigrants from Nauvoo made a rude society of fanatics,* before whom +there was held out enough prospect of gain in land values (scarcely one +of the immigrants had ever been a landowner) to overcome a good deal +of the discontent natural to their mode of life, and who, in religious +matters, were held in control by a priesthood, against whom they could +not rebel without endangering that hope of heaven which had induced them +to journey across the ocean. There are roughness and lawlessness in all +frontier settlements, but this Mormon community differed from all other +gatherings of new population in the American West. It did not migrate +of its own accord, attracted by a fertile soil or precious ores; it was +induced to migrate, not without misrepresentation concerning material +prospects, it is true, but mainly because of the hope that by doing so +it would share in the blessings and protection of a Zion. The gambling +hell and the dance hall, which form principal features of frontier +mining settlements, were wanting in Salt Lake City, and the absence of +the brothel was pointed to as evidence of the moral effect of polygamy. + + + * "I have discovered thus early (1852) that little deference is +paid to women. Repeatedly, in my long walk to our boarding house, I was +obliged to retreat back from the [street] crossing places and stand on +one side for men to cross over. There are said to be a great many of +the lower order of English here, and this rudeness, so unusual with +our countrymen, may proceed from them."--Mrs. Ferris. "Life among the +Mormons." + + +The system of plural marriages left its impress all over the home life +of the territory. Many of the Mormon leaders, as we have seen, had more +wives than one when they made their first trip across the plains, and +the practice of polygamy, while denied on occasion, was not concealed +from the time the settlement was made in the valley to the date of its +public proclamation. In the early days, a man with more than one wife +provided for them according to his means. Young began with quarters +better than the average, but modest in their way, and finally occupied +the big buildings which cost him many thousands of dollars. If a man +with several wives had the means to do so, he would build a long, low +dwelling, with an outside door for each wife, and thus house all under +the same roof in a sort of separate barracks. When Gunnison wrote, in +1852, there were many instances in which more than one wife shared the +same house when it contained only one apartment, but he said: "It is +usual to board out the extra ones, who most frequently pay their own way +by sewing, and other female employments." Mrs. Ferris wrote: "The mass +of the dwellings are small, low, and hutlike. Some of them literally +swarmed with women and children, and had an aspect of extreme want of +neatness.... One family, in which there were two wives, was living in a +small hut--three children very sick [with scarlet fever]--two beds and a +cook-stove in the same room, creating the air of a pest-house."* + + + * "Life among the Mormons," pp. 111, 145. + + +Hyde, describing the city in 1857, thus enumerated the home +accommodations of some of the leaders:--"A very pretty house on the east +side was occupied by the late J. M. Grant and his five wives. A large +barrack-like house on the corner is tenanted by Ezra T. Benson and his +four ladies. A large but mean-looking house to the west was inhabited by +the late Parley P. Pratt and his nine wives. In that long, dirty row of +single rooms, half hidden by a very beautiful orchard and garden, lived +Dr. Richard and his eleven wives. Wilford Woodruff and five wives reside +in another large house still further west. O. Pratt and some four or +five wives occupy an adjacent building. Looking toward the north, we +espy a whole block covered with houses, barns, gardens, and orchards. +In these dwell H. C. Kimball and his eighteen or twenty wives, their +families and dependents."* + + + * "Mormonism," p. 34. The number of wives of the church leaders +decreased in later years. Beadle, giving the number of wives "supposed +to appertain to each" in 1882, credits President Taylor with four (three +having died), and the Apostles with an average of three each, Erastus +Snow having five, and four others only two each. + + +Horace Greeley, prejudiced as he was in favor of the Mormons when he +visited Salt Lake City in 1859, was forced to observe:--"The degradation +(or, if you please, the restriction) of woman to the single office of +childbearing and its accessories is an inevitable consequence of the +system here paramount. I have not observed a sign in the streets, an +advertisement in the journals, of this Mormon metropolis, whereby a +woman proposes to do anything whatever. No Mormon has ever cited to me +his wife's or any woman's opinion on any subject; no Mormon woman has +been introduced or spoken to me; and, though I have been asked to +visit Mormons in their houses, no one has spoken of his wife (or +wives) desiring to see me, or his desiring me to make her (or their) +acquaintance, or voluntarily indicated the existence of such a being or +beings."* + + + * "Overland journey," p. 217. + + +Woman's natural jealousy, and the suffering that a loving wife would +endure when called upon to share her husband's affection and her +home with other women, would seem to form a sort of natural check to +polygamous marriages. But in Utah this check was overcome both by the +absolute power of the priesthood over their flock, and by the adroit +device of making polygamy not merely permissive, but essential to +eternal salvation. That the many wives of even so exalted a prophet as +Brigham Young could become rebellious is shown by the language employed +by him in his discourse of September 21, 1856, of which the following +will suffice as a specimen:--"Men will say, 'My wife, though a most +excellent woman, has not seen a happy day since I took my second wife; +no, not a happy day for a year.'... I wish my women to understand that +what I am going to say is for them, as well as all others, and I want +those who are here to tell their sisters, yes, all the women in this +community, and then write it back to the states, and do as you please +with it. I am going to give you from this time till the 6th day of +October next for reflection, that you may determine whether you wish to +stay with your husbands or not, and then I am going to set every woman +at liberty, and say to them, 'Now go your way, my women with the rest; +go your way.' And my wives have got to do one of two things; either +round up their shoulders to endure the afflictions of this world, and +live their religion, or they may leave, for I will not have them +about me. I will go into heaven alone, rather than have scratching and +fighting all around me. I will set all at liberty. What, first wife +too?' Yes, I will liberate you all. I know what my women will say; they +will say, 'You can have as many women as you please, Brigham.' But I +want to go somewhere and do something to get rid of the whiners... . +Sisters, I am not joking."* + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. IV, p. 55. + + +Grant, on the same day, in connection with his presentation of the +doctrine of blood atonement, declared that there was "scarcely a mother +in Israel" who would not, if they could, "break asunder the cable of +the Church in Christ; and they talk it to their husbands, to their +daughters, and to their neighbors, and say that they have not seen a +week's happiness since they became acquainted with that law, or since +their husbands took a second wife."* The coarse and plain-spoken H. +C. Kimball, in a discourse in the Tabernacle, November 9, 1856, thus +defined the duty of polygamous wives, "It is the duty of a woman to be +obedient to her husband, and, unless she is, I would not give a damn +for all her queenly right or authority, nor for her either, if she +will quarrel and lie about the work of God and the principles of +plurality."** + + + * Ibid, P. 52. + + + ** Deseret News, Vol. VI, p. 291. + + +Gentile observers were amazed, in the earlier days of Utah, to see to +what lengths the fanatical teachings of the church officers would be +accepted by women. Thus Mrs. Ferris found that the explanation of the +willingness of many young women in Utah to be married to venerable +church officers, who already had harems, was their belief that they +could only be "saved" if married or sealed to a faithful Saint, and that +an older man was less likely to apostatize, and so carry his wives to +perdition with him, than a young one; therefore "it became an object +with these silly fools to get into the harems of the priests and +elders." + +If this advantage of the church officers in the selection of new wives +did not avail, other means were employed,*as in the notorious San Pete +case. The officers remaining at home did not hesitate to insist on a +fair division of the spoils (that is, the marriageable immigrants), +as is shown by the following remarks of Heber C. Kimball to some +missionaries about starting out: "Let truth and righteousness be your +motto, and don't go into the world for anything but to preach the +Gospel, build up the Kingdom of God, and gather the sheep into the fold. +You are sent out as shepherds to gather the sheep together; and remember +that they are not your sheep; they belong to Him that sends you. Then +don't make a choice of any of those sheep; don't make selections before +they are brought home and put into the fold. You understand that. Amen." +Mr. Ferris thus described the use of his priestly power made by Wilford +Woodruff, who, as head of the church in later years, gave out the advice +about abandoning polygamy: "Woodruff has a regular system of changing +his harem. He takes in one or more young girls, and so manages, after he +tires of them, that they are glad to ask for a divorce, after which he +beats the bush for recruits. He took a fresh one, about fourteen years +old, in March, 1853, and will probably get rid of her in the course of +the ensuing summer." ** + + + * Conan Doyle's story, "A Study in scarlet," is founded on the +use of this power. + + + ** "Utah and the Mormons," p. 255. + + +Mrs. Waite thus relates a conversation she had with a Mormon wife about +her husband going into polygamy:--"'Oh, it is hard,' she said, 'very +hard; but no matter, we must bear it. It is a correct principle, and +there is no salvation without it. We had one [wife] but it was so hard, +both for my husband and myself, that we could not endure it, and she +left us at the end of seven months. She had been with us as a servant +several months, and was a good girl; but as soon as she was made a wife +she became insolent, and told me she had as good a right to the house +and things as I had, and you know that didn't suit me well. But,' +continued she, 'I wish we had kept her, and I had borne everything, for +we have GOT TO HAVE ONE, and don't you think it would be pleasanter to +have one you had known than a stranger?'"* + + + * "The Mormon Prophet," p. 260. Many accounts of the feeling +of first wives regarding polygamy may be found in this book and in Mrs. +Stenhouse's "Tell it All." + + +The voice which the first wife had in the matter was defined in the +Seer (Vol. I, p. 41). If she objected, she could state her objection to +President Young, who, if he found the reason sufficient, could forbid +the marriage; but if he considered that her reason was not good, then +the marriage could take place, and "he [the husband] will be justified, +and she will be condemned, because she did not give them unto him as +Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham, and as Rachel and Leah gave Bilhah and +Zilpah to their husband, Jacob." Young's dictatorship in the choice of +wives was equally absolute. "No man in Utah," said the Seer (Vol. I, p. +31), "who already has a wife, and who may desire to obtain another, has +any right to make any proposition of marriage to a lady until he has +consulted the President of the whole church, and through him obtained a +revelation from God as to whether it would be pleasing in His sight." + +The authority of the priesthood was always exerted to compel at least +every prominent member of the church to take more wives than one. "For +a man to be confined to one woman is a small business," said Kimball in +the Tabernacle, on April 4, 1857. This influence coerced Stenhouse to +take as his second wife a fourteen-year-old daughter of Parley P. Pratt, +although he loved his legal wife, and she had told him that she would +not live with him if he married again, and although his intimate friend, +Superintendent Cooke, of the Overland Stage Company, to save him, +threatened to prosecute him under the law against bigamy if he yielded.* +Another illustration, given by Mrs. Waite, may be cited. Kimball, +calling on a Prussian immigrant named Taussig one day, asked him how he +was doing and how many wives he had, and on being told that he had two, +replied, "That is not enough. You must take a couple more. I'll send +them to you." The narrative continues:-- + + + * When Mr. and Mrs. Stenhouse left the church at the time of the +"New Movement" their daughter, who was a polygamous wife of Brigham +Young's son, decided with the church and refused even to speak with her +parents. + + +"On the following evening, when the brother returned home, he found two +women sitting there. His first wife said, 'Brother Taussig' (all the +women call their husbands brother), 'these are the Sisters Pratt.' They +were two widows of Parley P. Pratt. One of the ladies, Sarah, then said, +'Brother Taussig, Brother Kimball told us to call on you, and you know +what for.' 'Yes, ladies,' replied Brother Taussig, 'but it is a very +hard task for me to marry two' The other remarked, 'Brother Kimball told +us you were doing a very good business and could support more women.' +Sarah then took up the conversation, 'Well, Brother Taussig, I want to +get married anyhow.' The good brother replied, 'Well, ladies, I will see +what I can do and let you know."* + + + * "The Mormon Prophet," p. 258. + + +Brother Taussig compromised the matter with the Bishop of his ward by +marrying Sarah, but she did not like her new home, and he was allowed to +divorce her on payment of $10 to Brigham Young! + +Each polygamous family was, of course, governed in accordance with the +character of its head: a kind man would treat all his wives kindly, +however decided a preference he might show for one; and under a brute +all would be unhappy. Young, in his earlier days at Salt Lake City, used +to assemble all his family for prayers, and have a kind word for each of +the women, and all ate at a common table after his permanent residences +were built. "Brigham's wives," says Hyde, "although poorly clothed and +hard worked, are still very infatuated with their system, very devout in +their religion, very devoted to their children. They content themselves +with his kindness as they cannot obtain his love."* He kept no servants, +the wives performing all the household work, and one of them acting as +teacher to her own and the others' children. As the excuse for marriage +with the Mormons is childbearing, the older wives were practically +discarded, taking the place of examples of piety and of spiritual +advisers. + + + * "Mormonism," p. 164. + + + ** How far this doctrine was not observed may be noted in the +following remarks of H. C. Kimball in the Tabernacle, on February 1, +1857: "They [his wives] have got to live their religion, serve their +God, and do right as well as myself. Suppose that I lose the whole of +them before I go into the spiritual world, but that I have been a good, +faithful man all the days of my life, and lived my religion, and had +favor with God, and was kind to them, do you think I will be destitute +there? No. The Lord says there are more there than there are here. They +have been increasing there; they increase there a great deal faster than +they do here, because there is no obstruction. They do not call upon the +doctors to kill their offspring. In this world very many of the doctors +are studying to diminish the human race. In the spiritual world... we +will go to Brother Joseph... and he will say to us, 'Come along, my +boys, we will give you a good suit of clothes. Where are your wives?' +'They are back yonder; they would not follow us.' 'Never mind,' +says Joseph, 'here are thousands; have all you want.'"--Journal of +Discourses, Vol. IV, p. 209. + + +A summing up of the many-sided evils of polygamy was thus presented by +President Cleveland in his first annual message:--"The strength, +the perpetuity, and the destiny of the nation rests upon our homes, +established by the law of God, guarded by parental care, regulated by +parental authority, and sanctified by parental love. These are not the +homes of polygamy. + +"The mothers of our land, who rule the nation as they mould the +characters and guide the actions of their sons, live according to God's +holy ordinances, and each, secure and happy in the exclusive love of +the father of her children, sheds the warm light of true womanhood, +unperverted and unpolluted, upon all within her pure and wholesome +family circle. These are not the cheerless, crushed, and unwomanly +mothers of polygamy. + +"The fathers of our families are the best citizens of the Republic. Wife +and children are the sources of patriotism, and conjugal and parental +affection beget devotion to the country. The man who, undefiled with +plural marriage, is surrounded in his single home with his wife and +children, has a status in the country which inspires him with respect +for its laws and courage for its defence. These are not the fathers of +polygamous families." + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. -- THE FIGHT AGAINST POLYGAMY--STATEHOOD + +The first measure "to punish and prevent the practice of polygamy in +the Territories of the United States" was introduced in the House of +Representatives by Mr. Morrill of Vermont (Bill No. 7) at the first +session of the 36th Congress, on February 15, 1860. It contained clauses +annulling some of the acts of the territorial legislature of Utah, +including the one incorporating the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day +Saints. This bill was reported by the Judiciary Committee on March 14, +the committee declaring that "no argument was deemed necessary to prove +that an act could be regarded as criminal which is so treated by +the universal concurrence of the Christian and civilized world," and +characterizing the church incorporation act as granting "such monstrous +powers and arrogant assumptions as are at war with the genius of our +government." The bill passed the House on April 5, by a vote of 149 +to 60, was favorably reported to the Senate by Mr. Bayard from the +Judiciary Committee on June 13, but did not pass that House. + +Mr. Morrill introduced his bill by unanimous consent in the next +Congress (on April 8, 1862), and it was passed by the House on April 28. +Mr. Bayard, from the judiciary Committee, reported it back to the Senate +on June 3 with amendments. He explained that the House Bill punished +not only polygamous marriages, but cohabitation without marriage. The +committee recommended limiting the punishment to bigamy--a fine not +to exceed $500 and imprisonment for not more than five years. Another +amendment limited the amount of real estate which a church corporation +could hold in the territories to $50,000. The bill passed the Senate +with the negative votes of only the two California senators, and the +House accepted the amendments. Lincoln signed it. + +Nothing practical was accomplished by this legislation, In 1867 +George A. Smith and John Taylor, the presiding officers of the Utah +legislature, petitioned Congress to repeal this act, setting forth as +one reason that "the judiciary of this territory has not, up to the +present time, tried any case under said law, though repeatedly urged to +do so by those who have been anxious to test its constitutionality." The +House Judiciary Committee reported that this was a practical request for +the sanctioning of polygamy, and said: "Your committee has not been +able to ascertain the reason why this law has not been enforced. The +humiliating fact is, however, apparent that the law is at present +practically a dead letter in the Territory of Utah, and that the +gravest necessity exists for its enforcement; and, in the opinion of +the committee, if it be through the fault or neglect of the judiciary +of that territory that the laws are not enforced, the judges should +be removed without delay; and that, if the failure to execute the law +arises from other causes, it becomes the duty of the President of the +United States to see that the law is faithfully executed."* + + + * House Report No. 27, 2nd Session, 39th Congress. + + +In June, 1866, Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio obtained unanimous consent +to introduce a bill enacting radical legislation concerning such +marriages as were performed and sanctioned by the Mormon church, but it +did not pass. Senator Cragin of New Hampshire soon introduced a similar +bill, but it, too failed to become a law. + +In 1869, in the first Congress that met under President Grant, Mr. +Cullom of Illinois introduced in the House the bill aimed at +polygamy that was designated by his name. This bill was the practical +starting-point of the anti-polygamous legislation subsequently enacted, +as over it was aroused the feeling--in its behalf in the East and +against it in Utah--that resulted in practical legislation. + +Delegate Hooper made the leading speech against it, summing up his +objections as follows:-- + +"(1) That under our constitution we are entitled to be protected in the +full and free enjoyment of our religious faith. + +"(2) That our views of the marriage relation are an essential portion of +our religious faith. + +"(3) That, in conceding the cognizance of the marriage relation as +within the province of church regulations, we are practically in accord +with all other Christian denominations. + +"(4) That in our view of the marriage relation as a part of our +religious belief we are entitled to immunity from persecution under the +constitution, if such views are sincerely held; that, if such views are +erroneous, their eradication must be by argument and not by force." + +The bill, greatly amended, passed the House on March 23, 1870, by a +vote of 94 to 32. The news of this action caused perhaps the greatest +excitement ever known in Utah. There was no intention on the part of +the Mormons to make any compromise on the question, and they set out to +defeat the bill outright in the Senate. Meetings of Mormon women were +gotten up in all parts of the territory, in which they asserted +their devotion to the doctrine. The "Reformers," including Stenhouse, +Harrison, Tullidge, and others, and merchants like Walker Brothers, +Colonel Kahn, and T. Marshall, joined in a call for a mass-meeting at +which all expressed disapproval of some of its provisions, like the +one requiring men already having polygamous wives to break up their +families. Mr. Godbe went to Washington while the bill was before the +House, and worked hard for its modification. The bill did not pass the +Senate, a leading argument against it being the assumed impossibility of +convicting polygamists under it with any juries drawn in Utah. + +The arrest of Brigham Young and others under the act to punish +adulterers, and the proceedings against them before Judge McKean in +1871, have been noted. At the same term of the court Thomas Hawkins, an +English immigrant, was convicted of the same charge on the evidence of +his wife, and sentenced to imprisonment for three years and to pay a +fine of $500. In passing sentence, Judge McKean told the prisoner that, +if he let him off with a fine, the fine would be paid out of other +funds than his own; that he would thus go free, and that "those men who +mislead the people would make you and thousands of others believe that +God had sent the money to pay the fine; that, by a miracle, you had been +rescued from the authorities of the United States." + +After the passage of the Poland law, in 1874, George Reynolds, Brigham +Young's private secretary, was convicted of bigamy under the law of +1862, but was set free by the Supreme Court of the territory on the +ground of illegality in the drawing of the grand jury. In the following +year he was again convicted, and was sentenced to imprisonment for two +years and to pay a fine of $500. The case was appealed to the United +States Supreme Court, which rendered its decision in October, 1878, +unanimously sustaining the conviction, except that Justice Field +objected to the admission of one witness's testimony. + +In its decision the court stated the question raised to be "whether +religious belief can be accepted as a justification for an overt act +made criminal by the law of the land." Next came a discussion of views +of religious freedom, as bearing on the meaning of "religion" in the +federal constitution, leading up to the conclusion that "Congress was +deprived of all legislative power over mere opinion, but was left free +to reach actions which were in violation of social duties, or subversive +of good order." The court then traced the view of polygamy in England +and the United States from the time when it was made a capital offence +in England (as it was in Virginia in 1788), declaring that, "in the +face of all this evidence, it is impossible to believe that the +constitutional guaranty of religious freedom was intended to prohibit +legislation in respect to this most important feature of social +life." The opinion continued as follows:--"In our opinion, the statute +immediately under consideration is within the legislative power of +Congress. It is constitutional and valid as prescribing a rule of action +for all those residing in the Territories, and in places over which the +United States has exclusive control. This being so, the only question +which remains is, whether those who make polygamy a part of their +religion are excepted from the operation of the statute. If they are, +then those who do not make polygamy a part of their religious belief may +be found guilty and punished, while those who do, must be acquitted and +go free. This would be introducing a new element into criminal law. Laws +are made for the government of actions, and, while they cannot interfere +with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices. +Suppose one believed that human sacrifices were a necessary part of +religious worship, would it be seriously contended that the civil +government under which he lived could not interfere to prevent a +sacrifice? Or, if a wife religiously believed it was her duty to burn +herself on the funeral pile of her dead husband, would it be beyond the +power of the civil government to prevent her carrying her belief into +practice? + +"So here, as a law of the organization of society under the exclusive +dominion of the United States, it is provided that plural marriages +shall not be allowed. Can a man excuse his practices to the contrary +because of his religious belief? To permit this would be to make the +professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, +and in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself. +Government could exist only in name under such circumstances. + +"A criminal intent is generally an element of crime, but every man is +presumed to intend the necessary and legitimate consequences of what he +knowingly does. Here the accused knew he had been once married, and that +his first wife was living. He also knew that his second marriage was +forbidden by law. When, therefore, he married the second time, he is +presumed to have intended to break the law, and the breaking of the law +is the crime. Every act necessary to constitute the crime was knowingly +done, and the crime was therefore knowingly committed.* + + + * United States Reports, Otto, Vol. III, p. 162. + + +P. T. Van Zile of Michigan, who became district attorney of the +territory in 1878, tried John Miles, a polygamist, for bigamy, in 1879, +and he was convicted, the prosecutor taking advantage of the fact that +the territorial legislature had practically adopted the California +code, which allowed challenges of jurors for actual bias. The principal +incident of this trial was the summoning of "General" Wells, then a +counsellor of the church, as a witness, and his refusal to describe +the dress worn during the ceremonies in the Endowment House, and the +ceremonies themselves. He gave as his excuse, "because I am under +moral and sacred obligations to not answer, and it is interwoven in my +character never to betray a friend, a brother, my country, my God, or +my religion." He was sentenced to pay a fine, of $100, and to two days' +imprisonment. On his release, the City Council met him at the prison +door and escorted him home, accompanied by bands of music and a +procession made up of the benevolent, fire, and other organizations, and +delegations from every ward. + +Governor Emery, in his message to the territorial legislature of 1878, +spoke as plainly about polygamy as any of his predecessors, saying that +it was a grave crime, even if the law against it was a dead letter, and +characterizing it as an evil endangering the peace of society. + +There was a lull in the agitation against polygamy in Congress for some +years after the contest over the Cullom Bill. In 1878 a mass-meeting +of women of Salt Lake City opposed to polygamy was held there, and +an address "to Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes and the women of the United +States," and a petition to Congress, were adopted, and a committee +was appointed to distribute the petition throughout the country for +signatures. The address set forth that there had been more polygamous +marriages in the last year than ever before in the history of the Mormon +church; that Endowment Houses, under the name of temples, and costing +millions, were being erected in different parts of the territory, in +which the members were "sealed and bound by oaths so strong that even +apostates will not reveal them"; that the Mormons had the balance of +power in two territories, and were plotting to extend it; and asking +Congress "to arrest the further progress of this evil." + +President Hayes, in his annual message in December, 1879, spoke of the +recent decision of the United States Supreme Court, and said that there +was no reason for longer delay in the enforcement of the law, urging +"more comprehensive and searching methods" of punishing and preventing +polygamy if they were necessary. He returned to the subject in his +message in 1880, saying: "Polygamy can only be suppressed by taking away +the political power of the sect which encourages and sustains it.. .. I +recommend that Congress provide for the government of Utah by a Governor +and judges, or Commissioners, appointed by the President and confirmed +by the Senate, (or) that the right to vote, hold office, or sit on +juries in the Territory of Utah be confined to those who neither +practise nor uphold polygamy." + +President Garfield took up the subject in his inaugural address on March +4, 1881. "The Mormon church," he said, "not only offends the moral sense +of mankind by sanctioning polygamy, but prevents the administration of +justice through ordinary instrumentalities of law." He expressed the +opinion that Congress should prohibit polygamy, and not allow "any +ecclesiastical organization to usurp in the smallest degree the +functions and power, of the national government." President Arthur, in +his message in December, 1881, referred to the difficulty of securing +convictions of persons accused of polygamy--"this odious crime, +so revolting to the moral and religious sense of Christendom"--and +recommended legislation. + +In the spirit of these recommendations, Senator Edmunds introduced in +the Senate, on December 12, 1881, a comprehensive measure amending +the antipolygamy law of 1862, which, amended during the course of +the debate, was passed in the Senate on February 12, 1882, without a +roll-call,*and in the House on March 13, by a vote of 199 to 42, and +was approved by the President on March 22. This is what is known as the +Edmunds law--the first really serious blow struck by Congress against +polygamy. + + + * Speeches against the bill were made in the Senate by Brown, +Call, Lamar, Morgan, Pendleton, and Vest. + + +It provided, in brief, that, in the territories, any person who, having +a husband or wife living, marries another, or marries more than one +woman on the same day, shall be punished by a fine of not more than +$500, and by imprisonment, for not more than five years; that a +male person cohabiting with more than one woman shall be guilty of a +misdemeanor, and be subject to a fine of not more than $300 or to six +months' imprisonment, or both; that in any prosecution for bigamy, +polygamy, or unlawful cohabitation, a juror may be challenged if he is +or has been living in the practice of either offence, or if he believes +it right for a man to have more than one living and undivorced wife at +a time, or to cohabit with more than one woman; that the President +may have power to grant amnesty to offenders, as described, before the +passage of this act; that the issue of so-called Mormon marriages born +before January 1, 1883, be legitimated; that no polygamist shall be +entitled to vote in any territory, or to hold office under the United +States; that the President shall appoint in Utah a board of five persons +for the registry of voters, and the reception and counting of votes. + +To meet the determined opposition to the new law, an amendment (known +as the Edmunds-Tucker law) was enacted in 1887. This law, in any +prosecution coming under the definition of plural marriages, waived the +process of subpoena, on affadavit of sufficient cause, in favor of an +attachment; allowed a lawful husband or wife to testify regarding each +other; required every marriage certificate in Utah to be signed by the +parties and the person performing the ceremony, and filed in court; +abolished female suffrage, and gave suffrage only to males of proper age +who registered and took an oath, giving the names of their lawful wives, +and promised to obey the laws of the United States, and especially the +Edmunds law; disqualified as a juror or officeholder any person who had +not taken an oath to support the laws of the United States, or who +had been convicted under the Edmunds law; gave the President power to +appoint the judges of the probate courts;* provided for escheating to +the United States for the use of the common schools the property of +corporations held in violation of the act in 1862, except buildings held +exclusively for the worship of God, the parsonages connected therewith, +and burial places; dissolved the corporation called the Perpetual +Emigration Company, and forbade the legislature to pass any law to +bring persons into the territory; dissolved the corporation known as the +Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and gave the Supreme Court +of the territory power to wind up its affairs; and annulled all +laws regarding the Nauvoo Legion, and all acts of the territorial +legislature. + + + * The first territorial legislature which met after the passage +of this law passed an act practically nullifying such appointments of +probate judges, but the governor vetoed it. In Beaver County, as soon as +the appointment of a probate judge by the President was announced, the +Mormon County Court met and reduced his salary to $5 a year. + + +The first members of the Utah commission appointed under the Edmunds +law were Alexander Ramsey of Minnesota, A. B. Carleton of Indiana, A. +S. Paddock of Nebraska, G. L. Godfrey of Iowa, and J. R. Pettigrew of +Arkansas, their appointments being dated June 23, 1882. + +The officers of the church and the Mormons as a body met the new +situation as aggressively as did Brigham Young the approach of United +States troops. Their preachers and their newspapers reiterated the +divine nature of the "revelation" concerning polygamy and its obligatory +character, urging the people to stand by their leaders in opposition +to the new laws. The following extracts from "an Epistle from the First +Presidency, to the officers and members of the church," dated October +6, 1885, will sufficiently illustrate the attitude of the church +organization:--"The war is openly and undisguisedly made upon our +religion. To induce men to repudiate that, to violate its precepts, and +break its solemn covenants, every encouragement is given. The man who +agrees to discard his wife or wives, and to trample upon the most sacred +obligations which human beings can enter into, escapes imprisonment, and +is applauded: while the man who will not make this compact of dishonor, +who will not admit that his past life has been a fraud and a lie, who +will not say to the world, 'I intended to deceive my God, my brethren, +and my wives by making covenants I did not expect to keep,' is, beside +being punished to the full extent of the law, compelled to endure the +reproaches, taunts, and insults of a brutal judge.... + +"We did not reveal celestial marriage. We cannot withdraw or renounce +it, God revealed it, and he has promised to maintain it and to bless +those who obey it. Whatever fate, then, may threaten us, there is but +one course for men of God to take; that is, to keep inviolate the holy +covenants they have made in the presence of God and angels. For the +remainder, whether it be life or death, freedom or imprisonment, +prosperity or adversity, we must trust in God. We may say, however, if +any man or woman expects to enter into the celestial kingdom of our +God without making sacrifices and without being tested to the very +uttermost, they have not understood the Gospel.... + +"Upward of forty years ago the Lord revealed to his church the principle +of celestial marriage. The idea of marrying more wives than one was as +naturally abhorrent to the leading men and women of the church, at that +day, as it could be to any people. They shrank with dread from the bare +thought of entering into such relationship. But the command of God +was before them in language which no faithful soul dare disobey, 'For, +behold, I reveal unto you a new and everlasting covenant; and if ye +abide not that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this +covenant, and be permitted to enter into my glory.'... Who would suppose +that any man, in this land of religious liberty, would presume to say +to his fellow-man that he had no right to take such steps as he thought +necessary to escape damnation? Or that Congress would enact a law which +would present the alternative to religious believers of being consigned +to a penitentiary if they should attempt to obey a law of God which +would deliver them from damnation?" + +There was a characteristic effort to evade the law as regards political +rights. The People's Party (Mormon), to get around the provision +concerning the test oath for voters, issued an address to them which +said: "The questions that intending voters need therefore ask themselves +are these: Are we guilty of the crimes of said act; or have we THE +PRESENT INTENTION of committing these crimes, or of aiding, abetting, +causing or advising any other person to commit them. Male citizens who +can answer these questions in the negative can qualify under the laws as +voters or office-holders." + +Two events in 1885 were the cause of so much feeling that United States +troops were held in readiness for transportation to Utah. The first of +these was the placing of the United States flag at half mast in Salt +Lake City, on July 4, over the city hall, county court-house, theatre, +cooperative store, Deseret News office, tithing office, and President +Taylor's residence, to show the Mormon opinion that the Edmunds law had +destroyed liberty. When a committee of non-Mormon citizens called at the +city hall for an explanation of this display, the city marshal said that +it was "a whim of his," and the mayor ordered the flag raised to its +proper place. + +In November of that year a Mormon night watchman named McMurrin was shot +and severely wounded by a United States deputy marshal named Collin. +This caused great feeling, and there were rumors that the Mormons +threatened to lynch Collin, that armed men had assembled to take him +out of the officers' hands, and that the Mormons of the territory were +arming themselves, and were ready at a moment's notice to march into +Salt Lake City. Federal troops were held in readiness at Eastern points, +but they were not used. The Salt Lake City Council, on December 8, made +a report denying the truth of the disquieting rumors, and declaring that +"at no time in the history of this city have the lives and property of +its non-Mormon inhabitants been more secure than now." + +The records of the courts in Utah show that the Mormons stood ready to +obey the teachings of the church at any cost. Prosecutions under the +Edmunds law began in 1884, and the convictions for polygamy or unlawful +cohabitation (mostly the latter) were as follows in the years named: 3 +in 1884, 39 in 1885, 112 in 1886, 214 in 1887, and 100 in 1888, with +48 in Idaho during the same period. Leading men in the church went into +hiding--"under ground," as it was called--or fled from the territory. +As to the actual continuance of polygamous marriages, the evidence was +contradictory. A special report of the Utah Commission in 1884 expressed +the opinion that there had been a decided decrease in their number +in the cities, and very little decrease in the rural districts. Their +regular report for that year estimated the number of males and females +who had entered into that relation at 459. The report for 1888 stated +that the registration officers gave the names of 29 females who, they +had good reason to believe, had contracted polygamous marriages since +the lists were closed in June, 1887. As late as 1889 Hans Jespersen +was arrested for unlawful cohabitation. As his plural marriage was +understood to be a recent one, the case attracted wide attention, since +it was expected to prove the insincerity of the church in making the +protest against the Edmunds law principally on the ground that it broke +up existing families. Jespersen pleaded guilty of adultery and polygamy, +and was sentenced to imprisonment for eight years. In making his plea he +said that he was married at the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, that +he and his wife were the only persons there, and that he did not know +who married them. His wife testified that she "heard a voice pronounce +them man and wife, but didn't see any one nor who spoke." * Such were +some of the methods adopted by the church to set at naught the law. + + + * Report of the Utah Commission for 1890, p. 23. + + +But along with this firm attitude, influences were at work looking to a +change of policy. During the first year of the enforcement of the law +it was on many sides declared a failure, the aggressive attitude of +the church, and the willingness of its leaders to accept imprisonment, +hiding, or exile, being regarded by many persons in the East as proof +that the real remedy for the Utah situation was yet to be discovered. +The Utah Commission, in their earlier reports, combated this idea, and +pointed out that the young men in the church would grow restive as they +saw all the offices out of their reach unless they took the test oath, +and that they "would present an anomaly in human nature if they should +fail to be strongly influenced against going into a relation which thus +subjects them to political ostracism, and fixes on them the stigma of +moral turpitude." How wide this influence was is seen in the political +statistics of the times. When the Utah Commission entered on their +duties in August, 1882, almost every office in the territory was held by +a polygamist. By April, 1884, about 12,000 voters, male and female, had +been disfranchised by the act, and of the 1351 elective officers in +the territory not one was a polygamist, and not one of the municipal +officers of Salt Lake City then in office had ever been "in polygamy." + +The church leaders at first tried to meet this influence in two ways, by +open rebuke of all Saints who showed a disposition to obey the new laws, +and by special honors to those who took their punishment. Thus, the +Deseret News told the brethren that they could not promise to obey the +anti-polygamy laws without violating obligations that bound them to time +and eternity; and when John Sharp, a leading member of the church in +Salt Lake City, went before the court and announced his intention to +obey these laws, he was instantly removed from the office of Bishop of +his ward. + +The restlessness of the flock showed itself in the breaking down of the +business barriers set up by the church between Mormons and Gentiles. +This subject received a good deal of attention in the minority report +signed by two of the commissioners in 1888. They noted the sale of real +estate by Mormons to Gentiles against the remonstrances of the church, +the organization of a Chamber of Commerce in Salt Lake City in which +Mormons and Gentiles worked together, and the union of both elements in +the last Fourth of July celebration. + +In the spring of 1890, at the General Conference held in Salt Lake City, +the office of "Prophet, Seer and Revelator and President" of the church, +that had remained vacant since the death of John Taylor in 1887, was +filled by the election of Wilford Woodruff, a polygamist who had refused +to take the test oath, while G. Q. Cannon and Lorenzo Snow, who were +disfranchised for the same cause, were made respectively counsellor +and president of the Twelve.* Woodruff was born in Connecticut in 1807, +became a Mormon in 1832, was several times sent on missions to England, +and had gained so much prominence while the church was at Nauvoo that +he was the chief dedicator of the Temple there. While there, he signed +a certificate stating that he knew of no other system of marriage in the +church but the one-wife system then prescribed in the "Book of Doctrine +and Covenants." Before the date of his promotion, Woodruff had declared +that plural marriages were no longer permitted, and, when he was +confronted with evidence to the contrary brought out in court, he denied +all knowledge of it, and afterward declared that, in consequence of the +evidence presented, he had ordered the Endowment House to be taken down. + + + * Lorenzo Snow was elected president of the church on September +13, 1898, eleven days after the death of President Woodruff, and he held +that position until his death which occurred on October 10, 1901. + + +Governor Thomas, in his report for 1890, expressed the opinion that +the church, under its system, could in only one way define its position +regarding polygamy, and that was by a public declaration by the head +of the church, or by action by a conference, and he added, "There is no +reason to believe that any earthly power can extort from the church +any such declaration." The governor was mistaken, not in measuring the +purpose of the church, but in foreseeing all the influences that were +now making themselves felt. + +The revised statutes of Idaho at this time contained a provision (Sec. +509) disfranchising all polygamists and debarring from office all +polygamists, and all persons who counselled or encouraged any one to +commit polygamy. The constitutionality of this section was argued before +the United States Supreme Court, which, on February 3, 1890, decided +that it was constitutional. The antipolygamists in Utah saw in this +decision a means of attacking the Mormon belief even more aggressively +than had been done by means of the Edmunds Bill. An act was drawn +(Governor Thomas and ex-Governor West taking it to Washington) providing +that no person living in plural or celestial marriage, or teaching +the same, or being a member of, or a contributor to, any organization +teaching it, or assisting in such a marriage, should be entitled to +vote, to serve as a juror, or to hold office, a test oath forming a part +of the act. Senator Cullom introduced this bill in the upper House and +Mr. Struble of Iowa in the House of Representatives. The House Committee +on Territories (the Democrats in the negative) voted to report the +bill, amended so as to make it applicable to all the territories. This +proposed legislation caused great excitement in Mormondom, and petitions +against its passage were hurried to Washington, some of these containing +non-Mormon signatures. + +As a further menace to the position of the church, the United States +Supreme Court, on May 19, affirmed the decision of the lower court +confiscating the property of the Mormon church, and declaring that +church organization to be an organized rebellion; and on June 21, the +Senate passed Senator Edmunds's bill disposing of the real estate of the +church for the benefit of the school fund.* + + + * After the admission of Utah as a state, Congress passed an act +restoring the property to the church. + + +The Mormon authorities now realized that the public sentiment of the +country, as expressed in the federal law, had them in its grasp. They +must make some concession to this public sentiment, or surrender +all their privileges as citizens and the wealth of their church +organization. Agents were hurried to Washington to implore the aid of +Mr. Blaine in checking the progress of the Cullom Bill, and at home +the head of the church made the concession in regard to polygamy which +secured the admission of the territory as a state. + +On September 25, 1890, Woodruff, as President of the church, issued a +proclamation addressed "to whom it may concern," which struck out of the +NECESSARY beliefs and practices of the Mormon church, the practice of +polygamy. + +This important step was taken, not in the form of a "revelation," +but simply as a proclamation or manifesto. It began with a solemn +declaration that the allegation of the Utah Commission that plural +marriages were still being solemnized was false, and the assertion that +"we are not preaching polygamy nor permitting any person to enter into +its practice." The closing and important + +part of the proclamation was as follows:-- + +"Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress, which laws have been +pronounced constitutional by the court of last resort, I hereby declare +my intention to submit to these laws, and to use my influence with the +members of the church over which I preside to have them do likewise. + +"There is nothing in my teachings to the church, or in those of my +associates, during the time specified, which can be reasonably construed +to inculcate or encourage polygamy, and when any elder of the church has +used language which appeared to convey any such teachings he has been +promptly reproved. + +"And now I publicly declare that my advice to the Latter-Day Saints is +to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the +land." + +On October 6, the General Conference of the church, on motion of Lorenzo +Snow, unanimously adopted the following resolution:-- + +"I move that, recognizing Wilford Woodruff as President of the Church of +Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and the only man on the earth at the +present time who holds the keys of the sealing ordinances, we consider +him fully authorized, by virtue of his position, to issue the manifesto +that has been read in our hearing, and which is dated September 24, +1890, and as a church in general conference assembled we accept his +declaration concerning plural marriages as authoritative and binding." + +This action was reaffirmed by the General Conference of October 6, 1891. + +Of course the church officers had to make some explanation to the +brethren of their change of front. Cannon fell back on the "revelation" +of January 19, 1841, which Smith put forth to excuse the failure to +establish a Zion in Missouri, namely, that, when their enemies prevent +their performing a task assigned by the Almighty, he would accept their +effort to do so. He said that "it was on this basis" that President +Woodruff had felt justified in issuing the manifesto. Woodruff +explained: "It is not wisdom for us to make war upon 65,000,000 +people.... The prophet Joseph Smith organized the church; and all that +he has promised in this code of revelations the "Book of Doctrine and +Covenants" has been fulfilled as fast as time would permit. THAT WHICH +IS NOT FULFILLED WILL BE." Cannon did explain that the manifesto was the +result of prayer, and Woodruff told the people that he had had a great +many visits from the Prophet Joseph since his death, in dreams, and also +from Brigham Young, but neither seems to have imparted any very valuable +information, Joseph explaining that he was in an immense hurry preparing +himself "to go to the earth with the Great Bridegroom when he goes to +meet the Bride, the Lamb's wife." + +Two recent incidents have indicated the restlessness of the Mormon +church under the restriction placed upon polygamy. In 1898, the +candidate for Representative in Congress, nominated by the Democratic +Convention of Utah, was Brigham H. Roberts. It was commonly known in +Utah that Roberts was a violator of the Edmunds law. A Mormon elder, +writing from Brigham, Utah, in February, 1899, while Roberts's case was +under consideration at Washington, said, "Many prominent Mormons foresaw +the storm that was now raging, and deprecated Mr. Roberts's nomination +and election."* This statement proves both the notoriety of Roberts's +offence, and the connivance of the church in his nomination, because no +Mormon can be nominated to an office in Utah when the church authorities +order otherwise. When Roberts presented himself to be sworn in, in +December, 1899, his case was referred to a special committee of nine +members. The report of seven members of this committee found that +Roberts married his first wife about the year 1878; that about 1885 he +married a plural wife, who had since born him six children, the last +two twins, born on August 11, 1897; that some years later he married a +second plural wife, and that he had been living with all three till the +time of his election; "that these facts were generally known in Utah, +publicly charged against him during his campaign for election, and +were not denied by him." Roberts refused to take the stand before the +committee, and demurred to its jurisdiction on the ground that the +hearing was an attempt to try him for a crime without an indictment and +jury trial, and to deprive him of vested rights in the emoluments of +the office to which he was elected, and that, if the crime alleged was +proved, it would not constitute a sufficient cause to deprive him of +his seat, because polygamy is not enumerated in the constitution as +a disqualification for the office of member of Congress. The majority +report recommended that his seat be declared vacant. Two members of the +committee reported that his offence afforded constitutional ground for +expulsion, but not for exclusion from the House, and recommended that +he be sworn in and immediately expelled. The resolution presented by the +majority was adopted by the House by a vote of 268 to 50.** + + + * New York Evening Post, February 20, 1899. + + + ** Roberts was tried in the district court in Salt Lake City, on +April 30, 1900, on the charge of unlawful cohabitation. The case was +submitted to the jury of eight men, without testimony, on an agreed +statement of facts, and the jury disagreed, standing six for conviction +and two for acquittal. + + +The second incident referred to was the passage by the Utah legislature +in March, 1901, of a bill containing this provision: + +"No prosecution for adultery shall be commenced except on complaint of +the husband or wife or relative of the accused with the first degree of +consanguinity, or of the person with whom the unlawful act is alleged to +have been committed, or of the father or mother of said person; and +no prosecution for unlawful cohabitation shall be commenced except on +complaint of the wife, or alleged plural wife of the accused; but this +provision shall not apply to prosecutions under section 4208 of the +Revised Statutes, 1898, defining and punishing polygamous marriages." + +This bill passed the Utah senate by a vote of 11 to 7, and the house +by a vote of 174 to 25. The excuse offered for it by the senator who +introduced it was that it would "take away from certain agitators the +opportunity to arouse periodic furors against the Mormons"; that more +than half of the persons who had been polygamists had died or dissolved +their polygamous relations, and that no good service could be subserved +by prosecuting the remainder. This law aroused a protest throughout the +country, and again the Mormon church saw that it had made a mistake, and +on the 14th of March Governor H. M. Wells vetoed the bill, on grounds +that may be summarized as declaring that the law would do the Mormons +more harm than good. The most significant part of his message, as +indicating what the Mormon authorities most dread, is contained in the +following sentence: "I have every reason to believe its enactment would +be the signal for a general demand upon the national Congress for a +constitutional amendment directed solely against certain conditions +here, a demand which, under the circumstances, would assuredly be +complied with." + +The admission of Utah as a state followed naturally the promulgation by +the Mormon church of a policy which was accepted by the non-Mormons as +putting a practical end to the practice of polygamy. For the seventh +time, in 1887, the Mormons had adopted a state constitution, the +one ratified in that year providing that "bigamy and polygamy, being +considered incompatible with 'a republican form of government,' each of +them is hereby forbidden and declared a misdemeanor." The non-Mormons +attacked the sincerity of this declaration, among other things pointing +out the advice of the Church organ, while the constitution was before +the people, that they be "as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves." +Congress again refused admission. + +On January 4, 1893, President Harrison issued a proclamation granting +amnesty and pardon to all persons liable to the penalty of the Edmunds +law "who have, since November 1, 1890, abstained from such unlawful +cohabitation," but on condition that they should in future obey the laws +of the United States. Until the time of Woodruff's manifesto there had +been in Utah only two political parties, the People's, as the Mormon +organization had always been known, and the Liberal (anti-Mormon). +On June 10, 1894, the People's Territorial Central Committee adopted +resolutions reciting the organization of the Republicans and Democrats +of the territory, declaring that the dissensions of the past should be +left behind and that the People's party should dissolve. The Republican +Territorial Committee a few days later voted that a division of the +people on national party lines would result only in statehood controlled +by the Mormon theocracy. The Democratic committee eight days later took +a directly contrary view. At the territorial election in the following +August the Democrats won, the vote standing: Democratic, 14,116; +Liberal, 7386; Republican, 6613. + +It would have been contrary to all political precedent if the +Republicans had maintained their attitude after the Democrats had +expressed their willingness to receive Mormon allies. Accordingly, in +September, 1891, we find the Republicans adopting a declaration that it +would be wise and patriotic to accept the changes that had occurred, +and denying that statehood was involved in a division of the people on +national party lines. + +All parties in the territory now seemed to be manoeuvring for position. +The Morman newspaper organs expressed complete indifference about +securing statehood. In Congress Mr. Caine, the Utah Delegate, +introduced what was known as the "Home Rule Bill," taking the control of +territorial affairs from the governor and commission. This was known +as a Democratic measure, and great pressure was brought to bear on +Republican leaders at Washington to show them that Utah as a state would +in all probability add to the strength of the Republican column. When, +at the first session of the 53d Congress, J. L. Rawlins, a Democrat who +had succeeded Caine as Delegate, introduced an act to enable the people +of Utah to gain admission for the territory as a state, it met with no +opposition at home, passed the House of Representatives on December +13, 1893, and the Senate on July 10, 1894 (without a division in either +House), and was signed by the President on July 16. The enabling +act required the constitutional convention to provide "by ordinance +irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people +of that state, that perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be +secured, and that no inhabitant of said state shall ever be molested in +person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship; +PROVIDED, that polygamous or plural marriages are forever prohibited." + +The constitutional convention held under this act met in Salt Lake City +on March 4, 1895, and completed its work on May 8, following. In the +election of delegates for this convention the Democrats cast about +19,000 votes, the Republicans about 21,000 and the Populists about 6500. +Of the 107 delegates chosen, 48 were Democrats and 59 Republicans. The +constitution adopted contained the following provisions:-- + +"Art. 1. Sec. 4. The rights of conscience shall never be infringed. +The state shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion +or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; no religious test shall be +required as a qualification for any office of public trust, or for any +vote at any election; nor shall any person be incompetent as a witness +or juror on account of religious belief or the absence thereof. There +shall be no union of church and state, nor shall any church dominate the +state or interfere with its functions. No public money or property shall +be appropriated for or applied to any religious worship, exercise, or +instruction, or for the support of any ecclesiastical establishment. + +"Art. 111. The following ordinance shall be irrevocable without the +consent of the United States and the people of this state: Perfect +toleration of religious sentiment is guaranteed. No inhabitant of this +state shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or +her mode of religious worship; but polygamous or plural marriages are +forever prohibited." + +This constitution was submitted to the people on November 5, 1895, and +was ratified by a vote of 31,305 to 7687, the Republicans at the same +election electing their entire state ticket and a majority of +the legislature. On January 4, 1896, President Cleveland issued +a proclamation announcing the admission of Utah as a state. The +inauguration of the new state officers took place at Salt Lake City +two days later. The first governor, Heber M. Wells,* in his inaugural +address made this declaration: "Let us learn to resent the absurd +attacks that are made from time to time upon our sincerity by ignorant +and prejudiced persons outside of Utah, and let us learn to know and +respect each other more, and thus cement and intensify the fraternal +sentiments now so widespread in our community, to the end that, by a +mighty unity of purpose and Christian resolution, we may be able to +insure that domestic tranquillity, promote that general welfare, +and secure those blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity +guaranteed by the constitution of the United States." + + + * Son of "General" Wells of the Nauvoo Legion. + + +The vote of Utah since its admission as a state has been cast as +follows:-- + + + REPUBLICAN **** DEMOCRAT + + 1895. Governor 20,833 18,519 + + 1896. President 13,491 64,607 + + 1900. Governor 47,600 44,447 + + 1900. President 47,089 44,949 + + + +CHAPTER XXV. -- THE MORMONISM OF TO-DAY + +An intelligent examination of the present status of the Mormon church +can be made only after acquaintance with its past history, and the +policy of the men who have given it its present doctrinal and political +position. The Mormon power has ever in view objects rather than methods. +It always keeps those objects in view, while at times adjusting methods +to circumstances, as was the case in its latest treatment of the +doctrine of polygamy. The casual visitor, making a tour of observation +in Utah, and the would-be student of Mormon policies who satisfies +himself with reading their books of doctrine instead of their early +history, is certain to acquire little knowledge of the real Mormon +character and the practical Mormon ambition, and if he writes on the +subject he will contribute nothing more authentic than does Schouler +in his "History of the United States" wherein he calls Joseph Smith "a +careful organizer," and says that "it was a part of his creed to manage +well the material concerns of his people, as they fed their flocks and +raised their produce." Brigham Young's constant cry was that all the +Mormons asked was to be left alone. Nothing suits the purposes of the +heads of the church today better than the decrease of public attention +attracted to their organization since the Woodruff manifesto concerning +polygamy. In trying to arrive at a reasonable decision concerning their +future place in American history, one must constantly bear in mind the +arguments which they have to offer to religious enthusiasts, and the +political and commercial power which they have already attained and +which they are constantly strengthening. + +The growth of Utah in population since its settlement by the Mormons has +been as follows, accepting the figures of the United States census:-- + + + 1850 11,380 + 1860 40,273 + 1870 86,786 + 1880 143,963 + 1890 207,905 + 1900 276,749 + +The census of 1890 (the religious statistics of the census of 1900 are +not yet available) shows that, of a total church membership of 128,115 +in Utah, the Latter-Day Saints numbered 118,201. + +What may be called the Mormon political policy embraces these objects: +to maintain the dictatorial power of the priesthood over the present +church membership; to extend that membership over the adjoining states +so as to acquire in the latter, first a balance of power, and later +complete political control; to continue the work of proselyting +throughout the United States and in foreign lands with a view to +increasing the strength of the church at home by the immigration to Utah +of the converts. + +That the power of the Mormon priesthood over their flock has never been +more autocratic than it is to-day is the testimony of the best witnesses +who may be cited. A natural reason for this may be found in the strength +which always comes to a religious sect with age, if it survives the +period of its infancy. We have seen that in the early days of the church +its members apostatized in scores, intimate acquaintance with Smith and +his associates soon disclosing to men of intelligence and property their +real objects. But the church membership in and around Utah to-day is +made up of the children and the grandchildren of men and women who +remained steadfast in their faith. These younger generations are +therefore influenced in their belief, not only by such appeals as what +is taught to them makes to their reason, but by the fact that these +teachings are the teachings which have been accepted by their ancestors. +It is, therefore, vastly more difficult to convince a younger Mormon +to-day that his belief rests on a system of fraud than it was to enforce +a similar argument on the minds of men and women who joined the Saints +in Ohio or Illinois. We find, accordingly, that apostasies in Utah are +of comparatively rare occurrence; that men of all classes accept orders +to go on missions to all parts of the world without question; and that +the tithings are paid with greater regularity than they have been since +the days of Brigham Young. + +The extension of the membership of the Mormon church over the states and +territories nearest to Utah has been carried on with intelligent +zeal. The census of 1890 gives the following comparison of members +of Latter-Day Saints churches and of "all bodies" in the states and +territories named:-- + + + ******* L.D. SAINTS **** ALL BODIES *** + Idaho******* 14,972 **** 24,036 + Arizona***** 6,500 **** 26,972 + Nevada****** 525 **** 5,877 + Wyoming***** 1,336 **** 11,705 + Colorado**** 1,762 **** 86,837 + New Mexico** 456 **** 105,749 + +The political influence of the Mormon church in all the states and +territories adjacent to Utah is already great, amounting in some +instances to practical dictation. It is not necessary that any body +of voters should have the actual control of the politics of a state to +insure to them the respect of political managers. The control of certain +counties will insure to them the subserviency of the local politicians, +who will speak a good word for them at the state capital, and the +prospect that they will have greater influence in the future will be +pressed upon the attention of the powers that be. We have seen how +steadily the politicians of California at Washington stood by the +Mormons in their earlier days, when they were seeking statehood and +opposing any federal control of their affairs. The business reasons +which influenced the Californians are a thousand times more effective +to-day. The Cooperative Institution has a hold on the Eastern firms from +which it buys goods, and every commercial traveller who visits Utah to +sell the goods of his employers to Mormon merchants learns that a good +word for his customers is always appreciated. The large corporations +that are organized under the laws of Utah (and this includes the Union +Pacific Railroad Company) are always in some way beholden to the Mormon +legislative power. All this sufficiently indicates the measures quietly +taken by the Mormon church to guard itself against any further federal +interference. + +The mission work of the Mormon church has always been conducted +with zeal and efficiency, and it is so continued to-day. The church +authorities in Utah no longer give out definite statistics showing the +number of missionaries in the field, and the number of converts brought +to Utah from abroad. The number of missionaries at work in October, +1901, was stated to me by church officers at from fourteen hundred to +nineteen hundred, the smaller number being insisted upon as correct by +those who gave it. As nearly as could be ascertained, about one-half +this force is employed in the United States and the rest abroad. The +home field most industriously cultivated has been the rural districts of +the Southern states, whose ignorant population, ever susceptible to +"preaching" of any kind, and quite incapable of answering the Mormon +interpretation of the Scriptures, is most easily lead to accept the +Mormon views. When such people are offered an opportunity to improve +their worldly condition, as they are told they may do in Utah, at the +same time that they can save their souls, the bait is a tempting one. +The number of missionaries now at work in these Southern states is said +to be much smaller than it was two years ago. Meanwhile the work of +proselyting in the Eastern Atlantic states has become more active. The +Mormons have their headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, and their +missionaries make visits in all parts of Greater New York. They leave a +great many tracts in private houses, explaining that they will make +another call later, and doing so if they receive the least +encouragement. They take great pains to reach servant girls with their +literature and arguments, and the story has been published* of a Mormon +missionary who secured employment as a butler, and made himself so +efficient that his employer confided to him the engagement of all the +house servants; in time the frequent changes which he made aroused +suspicion, and an investigation disclosed the fact that he was a Mormon +of good education, who used his position as head servant to perform +effective proselyting work. By promise of a husband and a home of her +own on her arrival in Utah, this man was said to have induced sixty +girls to migrate from New York City to that state since he began his +labors. + + + * New York Sun, January 27, 1901. + + +The Mormons estimate the membership of their church throughout the world +at a little over 300,000. The numbers of "souls" in the church abroad +was thus reported for the year ending December 31, 1899, as published in +the Millennial Star:-- + + + Great Britain + 4,588 + + Scandinavia + 5,438 + + Germany + 1,198 + + Switzerland + 1,078 + + Netherlands + 1,556 + +These figures indicate a great falling off in the church constituency +in Europe as compared with the year 1851, when the number of Mormons +in Great Britain and Ireland was reported at more than thirty thousand. +Many influences have contributed to decrease the membership of the +church abroad and the number of converts which the church machinery +has been able to bring to Utah. We have seen that the announcement +of polygamy as a necessary belief of the church was a blow to the +organization in Europe. The misrepresentation made to converts abroad to +induce them to migrate to Utah, as illustrated in the earlier years +of the church, has always been continued, and naturally many of the +deceived immigrants have sent home accounts of their deception. A book +could be filled with stories of the experiences of men and women who +have gone to Utah, accepting the promises held out to them by the +missionaries,--such as productive farms, paying business enterprises; or +remunerative employment,--only to find their expectations disappointed, +and themselves stranded in a country where they must perform the hardest +labor in order to support themselves, if they had not the means with +which to return home. The effect of such revelations has made some parts +of Europe an unpleasant field for the visits of Mormon missionaries. + +The government at Washington, during the operation of the Perpetual +Emigration Fund organization, realized the evil of the introduction of +so many Mormon converts from abroad. On August 9, 1879, Secretary of +State William M. Evarts sent out a circular to the diplomatic officers +of the United States throughout the world, calling their attention to +the fact that the organized shipment of immigrants intended to add to +the number of law-defying polygamists in Utah was "a deliberate and +systematic attempt to bring persons to the United States with the intent +of violating their laws and committing crimes expressly punishable under +the statute as penitentiary offences," and instructing them to call +the attention of the governments to which they were accredited to this +matter, in order that those governments might take such steps as were +compatible with their laws and usages "to check the organization of +these criminal enterprises by agents who are thus operating beyond the +reach of the law of the United States, and to prevent the departure of +those proposing to come hither as violators of the law by engaging +in such criminal enterprises, by whomsoever instigated." President +Cleveland, in his first message, recommended the passage of a law +to prevent the importation of Mormons into the United States. The +Edmunds-Tucker law contained a provision dissolving the Perpetual +Emigration Company, and forbidding the Utah legislature to pass any law +to bring persons into the territory. Mormon authorities have informed +me that there has been no systematic immigration work since the +prosecutions under the Edmunds law. But as it is conceded that the +Mormons make practically no proselytes among then Gentile neighbors, +they must still look largely to other fields for that increase of their +number which they have in view. + +As a part of their system of colonizing the neighboring states and +territories, they have made settlements in the Dominion of Canada and +in Mexico. Their Canadian settlement is situated in Alberta. A report +to the Superintendent of Immigration at Ottawa, dated December 30, 1899, +stated that the Mormon colony there comprised 1700 souls, all coming +from Utah; and that "they are a very progressive people, with good +schools and churches." When they first made their settlement they gave +a pledge to the Dominion government that they would refrain from the +practice of polygamy while in that country. In 1889 the Department of +the Interior at Ottawa was informed that the Mormons were not observing +this pledge, but investigation convinced the department that this +accusation was not true. However, in 1890, an amendment to the criminal +law of the Dominion was enacted (clause 11, 53 Victoria, Chap. 37), +making any person guilty of a misdemeanor, and liable to imprisonment +for five years and a fine of $500, who practises any form of polygamy +or spiritual marriage, or celebrates or assists in any such marriage +ceremony. + +The Secretario de Fomento of Mexico, under date of May 4, 1901, informed +me that the number of Mormon colonists in that country was then 2319, +located in seven places in Chihuahua and Sonora. He added: "The laws of +this country do not permit polygamy. The government has never encouraged +the immigration of Mormons, only that of foreigners of good character, +working people who may be useful to the republic. And in the contracts +made for the establishment of those Mormon colonies it was stipulated +that they should be formed only of foreigners embodying all the +aforesaid conditions." + +No student of the question of polygamy, as a doctrine and practice of +the Mormon church, can reach any other conclusion than that it is simply +held in abeyance at the present time, with an expectation of a removal +of the check now placed upon it. The impression, which undoubtedly +prevails throughout other parts of the United States, that polygamy was +finally abolished by the Woodruff manifesto and the terms of statehood, +is founded on an ignorance of the compulsory character of the doctrine +of polygamy, of the narrowness of President Woodruff's decree, and +of the part which polygamous marriages have been given, by the church +doctrinal teachings, in the plan of salvation. The sketch of the various +steps leading up to the Woodruff manifesto shows that even that slight +concession to public opinion was made, not because of any change of +view by the church itself concerning polygamy, but simply to protect +the church members from the loss of every privilege of citizenship. That +manifesto did not in any way condemn the polygamous doctrine; it simply +advised the Saints to submit to the United States law against polygamy, +with the easily understood but unexpressed explanation that it was to +their temporal advantage to do so. How strictly this advice has since +been lived up to--to what extent polygamous practices have since been +continued in Utah--it is not necessary, in a work of this kind, to try +to ascertain. The most intelligent non-Mormon testimony obtainable in +the territory must be discarded if we are to believe that polygamous +relations have not been continued in many instances. This, too, would +be only what might naturally be expected among a people who had so long +been taught that plural marriages were a religious duty, and that the +check to them was applied, not by their church authorities, but by an +outside government, hostility to which had long been inculcated in them. + +It must be remembered that it is a part of the doctrine of polygamy +that woman can enter heaven only as sealed to some devout member of the +Mormon church "for time and eternity," and that the space around the +earth is filled with spirits seeking some "tabernacles of clay" by +means of which they may attain salvation. Through the teaching of this +doctrine, which is accepted as explicitly by the membership of the +Mormon church at large as is any doctrine by a Protestant denomination, +the Mormon women believe that the salvation of their sex depends on +"sealed" marriages, and that the more children they can bring into the +world the more spirits they assist on the road to salvation. In the +earlier days of the church, as Brigham Young himself testified, +the bringing in of new wives into a family produced discord and +heartburnings, and many pictures have been drawn of the agony endured +by a wife number one when her husband became a polygamist. All the +testimony I can obtain in regard to the Mormonism of today shows that +the Mormon women are now the most earnest advocates of polygamous +marriages. Said one competent observer in Salt Lake City to me, "As +the women of the South, during the war, were the rankest rebels, so the +women of Mormondom are to-day the most zealous advocates of polygamy." + +By precisely what steps the church may remove the existing prohibition +of polygamous marriages I shall not attempt to decide. It is easy, +however, to state the one enactment which would prevent the success of +any such effort. This would be the adoption by Congress and ratification +by the necessary number of states of a constitutional amendment making +the practice of polygamy an offence under the federal law, and giving +the federal courts jurisdiction to punish any violators of this law. The +Mormon church recognizes this fact, and whenever such an amendment +comes before Congress all its energies will be directed to prevent its +ratification. Governor Wells's warning in his message vetoing the Utah +Act of March, 1901, concerning prosecutions for adultery, that its +enactment would be the signal for a general demand for the passage of a +constitutional amendment against polygamy, showed how far the executive +thought it necessary to go to prevent even the possibility of such an +amendment. One of the main reasons why the Mormons are so constantly +increasing their numbers in the neighboring states is that they may +secure the vote of those states against an anti-polygamy amendment. +Whenever such an amendment is introduced at Washington it will be found +that every Mormon influence--political, mercantile, and railroad--will +be arrayed against it, and its passage is unlikely unless the church +shall make some misstep which will again direct public attention to it +in a hostile manner. + +The devout Mormon has no more doubt that his church will dominate this +nation eventually than he has in the divine character of his prophet's +revelations. Absurd as such a claim appears to all non-Mormon citizens, +in these days when Mormonism has succeeded in turning public attention +away from the sect, it is interesting to trace the church view of this +matter, along with the impression which the Mormon power has made on +some of its close observers. The early leaders made no concealment of +their claim that Mormonism was to be a world religion. "What the world +calls 'Mormonism' will rule every nation," said Orson Hyde. "God has +decreed it, and his own right arm will accomplish it."* Brigham Young, +in a sermon in the Tabernacle on February 15, 1856, told his people that +their expulsion from Missouri was revealed to him in advance, as well as +the course of their migrations, and he added: "Mark my words. Write them +down. This people as a church and kingdom will go from the west to the +east." + + + * Journal of Discourses, Vol. VII, pp. 48-53. + + +Tullidge, whose works, it must be remembered, were submitted to church +revision, in his "Life of Brigham Young" thus defines the Mormon view +of the political mission of the head of the church: "He is simply an +apostle of a republican nationality, manifold in its genius; or, +in popular words, he is the chief apostle of state rights by divine +appointment. He has the mission, he affirms, and has been endowed with +inspiration to preach the gospel of a true democracy to the nation, as +well as the gospel for the remission of sins, and he believes the United +States will ultimately need his ministration in both respects.... +They form not, therefore, a rival power as against the Union, but an +apostolic ministry to it, and their political gospel is state rights and +self-government. This is political Mormonism in a nutshell."* + + + * p. 244. + + +Tullidge further says in his "History of Salt Lake City" (writing in +1886): "The Mormons from the first have existed as a society, not as a +sect. They have combined the two elements of organization--the social +and the religious. They are now a new society power in the world, and an +entirety in themselves. They are indeed the only religious community in +Christendom of modern birth."* + + + * p. 387. + + +Some of the closest observers of the Mormons in their earlier days took +them very seriously. Thus Josiah Quincy, after visiting Joseph Smith at +Nauvoo, wrote that it was "by no means impossible" that the answer to +the question, "What historical American of the nineteenth century has +exerted the most powerful influence upon the destiny of his countrymen," +would not be, "Joseph Smith." Governor Ford of Illinois, who had to do +officially with the Mormons during most of their stay in that state, +afterward wrote concerning them: "The Christian world, which has +hitherto regarded Mormonism with silent contempt, unhappily may yet have +cause to fear its rapid increase. Modern society is full of material for +such a religion.... It is to be feared that, in the course of a century, +some gifted man like Paul, some splendid orator who will be able by his +eloquence to attract crowds of the thousands who are ever ready to hear +and be carried away by the sounding brass and tinkling cymbal of +sparkling oratory, may command a hearing, may succeed in breathing a new +life into this modern Mohammedanism, and make the name of the martyred +Joseph ring as loud, and stir the souls of men as much, as the mighty +name of Christ itself."* + + + * Ford, "History of Illinois," p. 359. + + +The close observers of Mormonism in Utah, who recognize its aims, but +think that its days of greatest power are over, found this opinion +on the fact that the church makes practically no converts among the +neighboring Gentiles; and that the increasing mining and other business +interests are gradually attracting a population of non-Mormons which +the church can no longer offset by converts brought in from the East and +from foreign lands. Special stress is laid on the future restriction on +Mormon immigration that will be found in the lack of further government +land which may be offered to immigrants, and in the discouraging stories +sent home by immigrants who have been induced to move to Utah by the +false representations of the missionaries. Unquestionably, if the Mormon +church remains stationary as regards wealth and membership, it will be +overshadowed by its surroundings. What it depends on to maintain its +present status and to increase its power is the loyal devotion of the +body of its adherents, and its skill in increasing their number in the +states which now surround Utah, and eventually in other states. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Story of the Mormons, by William Alexander Linn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE MORMONS *** + +***** This file should be named 2443.txt or 2443.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/4/2443/ + +Produced by Several Anonymous Volunteers, Dianne Bean, and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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