I II! H "" iH im-7 Mr M¥M\ FRANK J. CANNON ■ GEORGE L. KNAPP Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924028917313 Cornell University Library F 826Y68 C22 Brigham Young and his Mormon empire (by) II Clin 3 1924 028 917 313 BRIGHAM YOUNG AND HIS MORMON EMPIRE Brigham Young And His Mormon Empire FRANK J, CANNON AND GEORGE L. KNAPP ILLUSTRATED New York Chicago Toronto Fleming H. Revell Company London and Edinburgh Copyright, 1913, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 125 N. Wabash Ave. Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street CONTENTS Introduction: The Man Who Went from a Puritan Farm to Found a Mohammedan Empire in the Desert . 9 I. Birth and Ancestry of Brigham — ^A Sultan's Small Beginnings 13 II. Mormonism Finds Its Field in the Spiritual Chaos of the Mississippi Valley 18 III. Joseph and Brigham — Prophet vs. Business Manager 28 IV. Growth of Brigham's Influence — Climbing the Tower of Faith 33 V. The Original Garden of Eden is Found in Missouri — And Abandoned 39 VI. TProphecy and Finance Fail to Mix — Conflicts with Gentiles 44 VII. Nauvoo the Beautiful— Brigham's British Mission . S4 VIII. Polygamy Made Known for the Glory of the __Prophets 63 IX. Growth of Church and Clash with Civil Power . 75 X. Joseph Smith Seeks the Presidency of the United States, and Finds a Death at the Hands of a Mob 84 XI. Brigham Takes Command as the New Priest-King . 96 XII. The Persecuted Saints Start on Their Last Exile . 103 XIII. Brigham Issues the One Revelation of His Career 115 XIV. Across the Great American Desert to the Inland Sea 127 XV. Zion is Founded by Salt Lake Because the Saints Can Go No Farther 142 XVI. Signs and Miracles Attend the Colony of the Saints 152 XVII. The Church Political Begins Building Its Empire . 159 6 6 CONTENTS XVIII. The Gentile Rush for Gold Brings Riches to the Faithful 167 XIX. The Way of a Sultan — Brighamized Industry . 179 XX. Brigham as a Patron of Art 189 XXI. The Church Dukes 197 XXII. The Church Organizes the State of " Deseret " . 212 XXIII. ^^ublic Proclamation of Polygamy .... 224 XXIV. Analysis of the Plural Wife System . . .237 XXV. Troubles of the Saints— The King Can Admit __No Wrong 248 XXVI. Shedding of Blood as a Means of Salvation . 261 XXVII. Massacre of Emigrants at Mountain Meadows . 273 XXVIII. Clash with Federal Government — ^The Mormon War 284 XXIX. Disgraceful Ending of the Mormon War . . 295 XXX. The Church Keeps Its Power— A Profit-Seeking Prophet . 309 XXXI. Spoiling the Gentiles— Utah During the Civil War 319 XXXII. Building Trusts and Crushing Heresies . . 338 XXXIII. The First Crusade Against the Saints Defeated . 355 XXXIV. Brigham's Closing Years— "Lion of the Lord" to the Last— His Death 374 XXXV. And Afterwards — The Polygamous Despotism Founded by Brigham Young Still Survives . 386 Index . ~. 393 ILLUSTRATIONS Brigham Young in 1877 His Earliest Known Photograph . Mormon Temples Built by Young The Imperial Offices and Residences in Salt Lake City Assembly Hall, Tabernacle and Temple Interior of Great Tabernacle, Where Brigham Scolded the Saints . Brigham Young About 1865 A Mormon Family . Brigham Young and Some of His Wives Brigham Young in 1870 Modern Capital of the Empire Main Street, Salt Lake City Ann Eliza, the Nineteenth Wife His Grave His Monument . Frontispiece TACING PAGE 36 148 180 198 222 242 272 322 344 368 378 386 INTRODUCTION IN the middle decades of the nineteenth century, there arose in America a man destined to a career more strange and incredible than most romancers have dared to imagine for their heroes. That man was Brigham Young. Bom on a soil saturated with New England Puri- tanism, he became a follower and then a leader of the Mohammedanism of the West. Born in a community which held that Heaven had withdrawn from man, and which admitted no revelation less than eighteen centuries old, he was accepted by half a million people as the mouthpiece and representative of God. Born of a race in which monogamy has been the accustomed form of marriage since before the dawn of history, he is famous to-day as having been husband of a score of wives, and sire of half a hundred offspring. Brigham Young was not one of those children of fortune who move with the current of the age, and draw greatness from the greatness of their country. Good fortune did not pass him by altogether, but neither did she embarrass him with favours. Brigham never came in contact with the real life of the nation, save to defy it, and flout it, and do his best to change it. He set up an Asiatic despotism on Ameri- can soil. He maintained a Mohammedan marriage system in a Puritanical land. He built a theocracy in an age which already had witnessed the birth of Renan and Ingersoll. He took a broken and dispirited people, led them across a thousand miles of desert, and 9 10 INTRODUCTION with them founded his kingdom in the fertile valley by an inland sea. The man who could achieve these things, even with some aid from fortune, was a man of no common calibre. Without a day of military training, he be- came a very efficient general-in-chief to his people. Without an hour's reading of law, he made himself judge and lawgiver — and in the main a just one — for a whole community. Where his own knowledge was deficient, he had skill to use the ability of others; and to this day, the finances, the government, the merchan- dising, the architecture, the social life, and even the agriculture of the Mormon community bear the stamp put upon them by Brigham Young. He matched his wits against the might of the United States government, and did not come off second- best. He yielded in outward seeming to federal power; but in reality he was emperor of his little realm to the hour of his death, and his subjects never doubted his supremacy. He drove federal appointees in disgrace from his kingdom, and took their positions for himself and his favourites. No matter how over- whelming the power with which he was dealing, Brigham Young never was a suppliant. He stormed, bullied, lied, intrigued, fiinessed, cajoled; he never pleaded for mercy nor owned himself in need of mercy. He met chastisement with fresh provocation. Knowing polygamy to be the most offensive of his sins in the eyes of the nation, he lived openly with a score of wives, sent his most honoured polygamous apostle to Congress as a territorial delegate, and per- mitted his subordinate priests to debate with Christian clergymen on the divinity of plural marriage. He has become a central figure of weird and dis- INTRODUCTION 11 torted legends. He has been made the target of num- berless, invectives. He has been made the idol of a worshipping people. But never has he taken his place in calm, impartial history; never has the story of his life been told, save by some one more anxious to curse or to bless than to understand and set forth. In the hope of performing this belated service, of setting out in true perspective one of the most romantic and in- teresting characters of American history, this book is written. I A SULTAN'S SMALL BEGINNINGS BRIGHAM YOUNG was born in Whitingham, Windham county, Vermont, on the first day of June, 1 80 1. He was the ninth child in a family of eleven. His mother's maiden name was Nabbie Howe. His father was John Young, who had been a farmer in Massachusetts, and who moved to Ver- mont a few months before the birth of his ninth child. Both parents belonged to old New England stock, and probably were of unmixed English descent. The Youngs at this time were very poor. Linn quotes a second-hand tradition which makes a town patriarch say : " Brigham Young's father came here the poorest man that had ever been in town; . . . he never owned a cow, horse or any land, but was a basket-maker." Passing the probable exaggeration of such tradition, we may remark that John Young raised eleven children to be competent, self-supporting mem- bers of society. Children were less expensive in those days than now; but surely even then the father of such a family did not deserve reproach merely for his pov- erty. Though poor, the Youngs had little in common with the family from which Joseph Smith sprung. John Young had served in the Revolutionary army under Washington. His father, Brigham's grandfather, was a surgeon in the colonial forces in the French and Indian war. The surgical knowledge of the 13 14. BRIGHAM YOUNG eighteenth century did not make a very bulky package, but at that time it was not easy to get. The elder Young's occupation at least is proof of more than ordinary ambition, and probably of a fairly high order of intelligence and courage. Such tradition as deals with the family of Brigham's mother tells little but vague rumors of " good connec- tions," which may or may not be truth. Altogether, Brigham seems to have sprung from sound, thrifty stock, which had been faring rather hardly for at least one generation. In him the capacities of the breed rose to their highest level — indeed, he well-nigh monopolized them. This history will furnish abundant proof that Brigham Young was a man of remarkable intelligence and character, and several of his descend- ants have shown unusual abilities. But of his brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieces, few have risen above mediocrity. When Brigham was a child of three years, his par- ents moved to Chenango county, New York. They were still poor, though perhaps less destitute than dur- ing their stay in Vermont, and John Young could give his numerous offspring little in the way of education. Brigham started in life for himself at the age of six- teen, and without doubt he had contributed to the fam- ily treasury before that time. He was by turns a car- penter, painter, and glazier — a Jack-of-all-trades, like any other bright Yankee boy of that unspecialized period. He learned the glazier's trade thoroughly, and his knowledge of practical carpentry was useful to him on more than one important occasion in later life. There is little authentic information about Brig- ham's movements for the next few years. He located in another county; tradition says he spent a season in A SULTAN'S SMALL BEGINNINGS 15 wandering, like other restless youngsters before and since. His parents were Methodists, and at the age of twenty-one he united with that church. Three years later, he married a Miss Miriam Works. She bore him two children, — both daughters, — followed him into the Mormon church, and died not long after, in 1832. In a sermon in Salt Lake years afterwards, Brig- ham Young declared that he studied the Book of Mor- mon two years before accepting it as the word of God, and ordering his life by its teachings. The period of two years between his first acquaintance with the new religion and his acceptance of the same is undoubted; but the deep study implied must not be taken too literally. Neither then nor later was Brigham Young a great student of books, and the Book of Mormon is no exception. At no time in his career do we find him basing his conduct in a crisis on the texts in Joseph Smith's sup- plementary scripture. When supporting Smith against the rebels within the fold, when fighting Sid- ney Rigdon for mastery, and when unquestioned ruler of the church and all within its grasp. Young's pro- nunciamentos are always practical and immediate, never didactic and argumentative. They deal with men and things, never with fine-drawn interpretations and learned expositions of written guides to duty. In 1829, Brigham moved to Mendon, Monroe county, New York, where his father and brother Phineas were living, and there first came into con- tact with the teachings of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon faith. Phineas was already a devotee of the new prophet, and at his house, in 1830, Brigham made acquaintance with the Book of Mor- 16 BRIGHAM YOUNG mon. The daring creed attracted him from the be- ginning, though there is nothing to indicate that the chief centre of attraction was found in the new sacred book. Reading, discussing, arguing, and on rare occasions hearing a Mormon sermon, Brigham grad- ually dropped his lightly held Methodism, and accepted the divine mission of Joseph Smith. There is a story that after making up his mind to join the church, he went to Canada and brought his brother Joseph into the fold before offering himself for baptism. The tale is at least characteristic of the man. On April 14, 1832, Brigham Young was baptized into the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by one Eleazur Miller, at Mendon, New York. Miller evidently thought he had obtained a prize, for he or- dained his new convert an elder at the water's edge. The next day, Heber C. Kimball, already Brigham's devoted friend and adherent, followed his leader into the water to testify his faith that Joseph Smith was the prophet of God — and his yet more certain faith that Brigham Young knew what was best for both of them. Henceforth, the fate of Brigham is bound up with the fate of Mormonism. His trials are the trials of a new religion; his successes the triumphs of the new theocracy. He spent the summer preaching to his friends and neighbours around Mendon, and early in the fall started for Kirtland, Ohio, to meet the new prophet to whom he had sworn allegiance. Legend has busied itself for more than seventy years with that meeting, and the exact date and many other circumstances of the occasion are buried from sight. In the presence of the prophet, the gift of tongues descended upon Brigham, and he spoke in A SULTAN'S SMALL BEGINNINGS 17 strange sounds. Thereupon, the gift of interpreta- tion was vouchsafed to Prophet Smith, who declared that his new disciple was speaking in the "pure Adamic language " — a dialect even more remote from the ken of scholars than " reformed Egyptian," and having the further merit of variety. The Prophet of Mormonism had met its Business Manager. II A SPIRITUAL CHAOS IN 1830, there was published at Palmyra, New York, the Book of Mormon, a work which claims to set forth the dealings of God with the peoples of the Western Hemisphere, and which has given its name to the most unique of modern religions. The person who offered the Book of Mormon for publication was a young man named Joseph Smith. His story of its origin has an interest which few persons have discovered in the book itself. Accord- ing to his account, the Book of Mormon was a trans- lation of an ancient scripture, written in a lost lan- guage on golden plates. An angel had come from heaven to give these plates to Joseph for translation, and to inform him that he had been chosen by the Most High to restore true religion to a lost and cor- rupted world. Joseph had but little knowledge of his own language, and was totally ignorant of any other; but the Divine mission was not balked by that slight obstacle. Buried with the plates were two trans- parent stones, " Urim and Thummin ! " The golden plates were written in " Reformed Egyptian." By looking through " Urim and Thummin," Joseph was enabled to translate this mysterious dialect into Eng- lish which any lover of that tongue will agree is in need of reform. The plates were " revealed unto Joseph " in 1823, given into his hands in 1827, and the translation was 18 A SPIRITUAL CHAOS 19 ready for the printer in 1829. The Mormon Church — whose official title is "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints " — was organized April 6, 1830, at Fayette, New York. During most of this time, Joseph had been putting forth divers " revelations," some of a very practical import, and generally claim- ing the powers and prerogatives of a prophet. Recog- nizing — or being informed — ^that his tale was a tax on credulity, Joseph provided himself with " wit- nesses." The first group, known as the " Three Wit- nesses," signed a statement declaring that they had seen both the golden plates and the angel who brought them. The second group, known as the " Eight Wit- nesses," couched their affirmation in a closer approach to legal language, and bore record " with words of soberness " that they had seen and " hefted " the won- derful plates, which " had the appearance of gold." In spite of these testimonials, Smith's claims were not accepted by most of his neighbours, who declared that he had been a " money-digger " and " crystal- gazer" from boyhood. The prophet was without honour in his own country, and — it may be added — his religion had not found its proper habitat. Not until Joseph's missionaries pushed their way into the settlements of the Mississippi valley did the new re- ligion meet any considerable measure of success. Then for a time its progress was amazing. At the prophet's death, in 1844, from 50,000 to 100,000 peo- ple accepted him as the spokesman and vicegerent of God. To-day probably not less than a million persons hold the same faith. No one can understand the rise of Mormonism without some knowledge of the time and place in which it arose. Human movements which achieve 20 BRIGHAM YOUNG even partial success usually have had help from cir- cumstances; and never v^^as such help more manifest than in the early years of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Joseph Smith was not the man to surmount great obstacles and compel great and last- ing changes by his own unaided force. He lacked energy, diplomacy, and steadfastness for such a task. In a less favouring age and society than that of Arabia in the seventh century, Mohammed might not have founded a world religion; but he would have made his mark as a notable schismatic or reformer. In a less favouring age and society than that which was ready to his hand, Joseph Smith would have been lost to sight. He could play his part only on a pre- pared stage; and such a stage was the Mississippi val- ley in the early decades of the nineteenth century. The great valley was then a social, political, and religious chaos. It was part of the territory of a civilized nation, it had been settled by civilized men; but in manners, customs, and institutions, it was very imperfectly civilized. Subjected to primitive condi- tions, wrestling with a formidable wilderness, and for a long time engaged in warfare with a barbaric enemy, the western settlers brought with them the strength and tenacity of civilization, and left its refinements and restraints to follow as they might. Rifles and axes stocked the first emigrant wagons that crossed the Alleghanies; plows and spinning-wheels came next; mahogany and fine linen had to wait for a quieter day and an easier trail. It was much the same with those intellectual and spiritual matters which more nearly concern this his- tory. In 1830, the Mississippi valley presented the singular spectacle of a community which had escaped A SPIRITUAL CHAOS 21 the bonds of religion without outgrowing its doctrines. Practically all the people came of religious ancestry, even of devout ancestry. They had a deep reverence for " things of the Spirit." They were fond of theolog- ical speculations. They deemed it a matter of vital import to learn what had become of the Lost Tribes of Israel; and they went insane formulating data on the second coming of Christ. As far as any scientific scepticism was concerned, they were innocent as the followers of Godfrey de Bouillon. But of definite religious standards, or organizations and teachers, to satisfy the prevailing interest in religious matters, they had almost none. Dorchester computes that in the year 1830, the Mississippi valley contained 4,000,000 inhabitants. He reckons 348,490 of these as communicants of divers Protestant churches. Perhaps half as many more may be classed as Catholics. In Kentucky and to a less extent in other states were little groups of rational freethinkers, inheritors of Rousseau and Vol- taire, men who had worked their way to a reasonably stable frame of mind on religious matters, however unsatisfactory their conclusions were deemed by the orthodox. ^l^^j^'^^f^S.^h'' r^pnlatrQii n f_the va lley=^ five-sixths of the whol e — were religious wi thout hav- c^g"airo"fpIIfZg(lTeHgi6n; were hungry tor spirit ual guidance w|thourkn owing how to g et it TheiFlaith " wi ^~Tn"~scJution, ready to crystallize abouTany i rer- sgnali ty, any o rgan'7:atinn^ any, doctrine t hat could give point and pur pose to their spiritual strivin gs, and lead 't"^m to the_peace_oi..assui:€d-ee«victio£ TheTeligTous instability of the time and region, and the feeble hold of existing churches on social life cannot be expressed by figures. They can be illus- 22 BRIGHAM YOUNG trated only. In many places of considerable popula- tion, no sermon had been preached by an authorized clergyman for ten, twelve, or fifteen years. When a minister appeared in some of the back settlements, it was not uncommon for him to be asked to perform the marriage ceremony for couples who had been liv- ing together for years, and who, perchance, had chil- dren old enough to be interested in the novel occasion. The distances covered by some early circuit riders in their efforts to reach every part of the land are down- right appalling, when the primitive modes of travel are considered. The Methodist clergyman stationed at Detroit, in 1822, had the whole territory of Michi- gan for his circuit, except one town in the upper peninsula, and was expected to minister to Maumee, Ohio, as well. It took four weeks to make his round, even in good weather. In Danville, Kentucky, in 18 18, there were two churches, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic. The Catholic membership is unknown, but it cannot have been large. The Presbyterian church did not have a single male member. The churches were weak not only in numbers, but weak in learning, weak in organization, weak in the narrowness of their appeal. Most of the institutions which now bring the church into close contact with the workaday life of a community did not then exist — at least, not west of the Alleghanies. There were no church gymnasiums, social settlements, debating societies, Young Men's Christian Associations. The preachers, who with incredible toil and splendid cour- age made their way to and fro through the half wilderness, preached virtue as well as doctrine. But they had no organic plan of helping men to be either moral or devout; and, with few exceptions, their lack A SPIRITUAL CHAOS 23 of learning and authority restricted them to a purely emotional appeal. Under such conditions, religious exercises came to consist in chief measure of gathering in crowds to hear about the lost state of one's soul. The pioneer attended a meeting, and listened to the Word. His heart was touched, he was convicted of sin, converted, and sincerely believed that he had en- tered upon a new life. But there was nothing to keep him in the new life. When the novelty had worn off and the emotional crisis had passed, the convert backslid; to remain in outer darkness till converted again. One exception must be made to this rather sweeping statement of church weakness. The Roman Catholic church, then as now, had all the varied machinery which enables a shepherd to watch over his flock.,. But the Puritan heritage of most American settlers in the great valley was so strong that conversion to Catholicism was practically out of the question. The prejudice against " Romanizing " was invincible. A man of Protestant lineage might transgress every dis- ciplinary rule of his ancestral church, and nearly every rule of morality. He might never go near a church nor hear a sermon; or, on the other hand, he might run after every ragged street preacher who lifted the banner of a freakish faith. These things reflected in some measure on his repute as a man of sense and good conduct, but they did not cost him that inde- finable and invaluable thing best expressed by the word " caste." But if such a man turned to the oldest and most opulent of all forms of Christianity, he was beyond the pale. The church which had crowned Charlemagne and blessed Columbus and planted the Cross on the Great River was deemed somehow un- M BRIGHAM YOUNG worthy of the ragged squatters along that river's banks. The gulf which divided Roman Catholic and Protestant churches was the deepest and most nearly impassable barrier in the religious field, but not the only one. The age was an age of schism ; and almost every new sect on the continent had a branch in the Mississippi valley. To give but a few instances, the Disciples of Christ took their rise in 1810. The Cum- berland Presbyterians began a separate existence in the same year. The Reformed Methodists followed in 1 8 14. The Hicksite Quakers broke away from the main body in 1827. The Methodist Protestant church was organized in 1830, and the Millerites discovered the exact date of the end of the world in 1831. Since the aforesaid ending was to come March 23, 1844, it will be seen that Miller and his disciples did not allow themselves very much time to effect the world's con- version. This point is worth noting when studying the claims and expectations of Mormon leaders at about the same period. Into this chaos of churched and unchurched, this welter of formless fears and unformed faiths, came Mormonism. It was as arrogant as the teachings of Mohammed; as eclectic as the advertising of a quack doctor. It appealed, not to argument, but to author- ity; an angel of God had come down from heaven to re-establish His lost religion on earth, and make plain to His chosen prophet the way of salvation for man- kind. It was ready to meet all doubts and to solve all problems. It had a prompt, specific answer for every question. It was willing to explain at length whence a man came, why he was here, and whither he was going. The definiteness of its answers appealed with A SPIRITUAL CHAOS 25 irresistible force to that type of mind which cannot refrain from questioning and cannot endure suspense. The magnitude of its claims took the place of evidence. A man who merely claimed to have found a new and true meaning in a well-known Bible text might be asked for his authority. But the man who noncha- lantly offered the world a whole new scripture, and proposed to retranslate the old one, who told what the pre-existing spirits of men were doing before creation and where Christ spent the three days between cruci- fixion and resurrection, found his audacity accepted as proof of divine guidance in inspiration. The new religion was as catholic as it was audacious. It left nothing out of its revelations which could at- tract any one of whom its prophet had ever heard. To the curious, it proffered an authentic history of some part of those Lost Tribes, whose fate was so perplexing to our grandfathers. To the devout, it supplied a record of the dealings of God with the peoples of the Western Hemisphere. To the ambitious, it gave the companionship of a man who had con- versed with angels, and who bore the seal of the Most High. To the humble, it offered enlistment in the literal army of God. It copied the grips and signs and passwords of secret societies ; it mirrored the very health fads of the hour. " Hot drinks are not good for the body or for the belly," declared the prophet on one occasion — ^perhaps when a Thompsonian "draught" was racking his internal economy; and from that day to this, the Mormon who indulges in tea or coffee is counted a dangerous latitudinarian. The very mechanism of the new propaganda wasj made ready in advance. Revivals had done little to provide permanent church homes for the devout, but 26 BRIGHAM YOUNG they had accustomed the people to the phenomena of conversions in mass, and to trusting that ecstatic im- pulse known to Quakers as the " inner light." When Joseph Smith conversed with spirits, he did only what hundreds of others had done; what thousands hoped some day to do. When he found mysterious books and magic gems, he had merely succeeded in a search which engaged the attention of many. When he de- clared hysterical convulsions were caused by the pres- ence of devils, the whole community agreed with his diagnosis; and who should dispute him when he as- sumed to drive those devils away ? There was nothing in Smith's most extravagant claims to offend the aver- age understanding in the society which heard those claims; and there was everything to excite curiosity. Had there been a state church in the western coun- try, or even a close-knit and well-appointed church system without state alliance, Mormonism would have progressed slowly if at all. Had there been a strong and stable government in the valley, Mormonism would have dropped some of its most characteristic features, or been suppressed as treason. Mormon writers have complained — and justly — of the barba- rous mob violence which afflicted their church in Missouri and Illinois. But if there had been a gov- ernment capable of suppressing the mob, the new re- ligion might have prospered less, even if it had suf- fered less. Assuredly, no government with well-de- fined traditions of sovereignty would have granted such a charter as that given to the city of Nauvoo; and no state of European firmness of fiber would have looked on complacently at the efforts of Smith and Young to establish a boundless theocracy. And here we touch the reason why Mormonism, A SPIRITUAL CHAOS 27 with all its elements of attractiveness, roused furious and unreasoning opposition wherever it came in con- tact with non-Mormon communities. I^^.^ught to establish not nnlv a rhnrrh hnt ^ p;rmej3»m<>nt, and a govenune«t-whO§e character was opposed to every in- stinct and tradition of American life. The pioneer of the Mississippi valley saw no reason why Joseph Smith might not talk with angels; and the idea of a scripture showing God's workings on the Western Hemisphere appealed to his r^xt^menta] jrnrlp But when asked to renounce his liberty of action, and when told that he must yield implicit obedience to the de- crees of an irresponsible ruler, the pioneer rebelled; and he denounced those who did not rebel as traitors to the principles of American life. The democracy of the land was rough and chaotic; but it was deep and vital and it revolted instinctively at the idea of a theocratic despotism. The troubles of Mormonism always have sprung from two sources; its claims to despotic and exclusive authority in civil affairs, and its teaching and practice of polygamy. The pioneer communities of 183045 resented most sharply the threat against their liberties. The nation to-day reprobates most severely the viola- tion of its accepted social order. To the thoughtful student of affairs, the two offenses are one. Ill PROPHET VS. BUSINESS MANAGER BRIGHAM YOUNG was thirty-one years old when he came to Kirtland, Ohio, nearly four years the senior of his accepted prophet. The two men now were adherents of the same religion; they were alike in being of New England birth and ancestry; alike in their physical vigour, their love of the good things of life, their boundless faith in the future. There the resemblance ended. The twelve years which Brigham and Joseph spent in the common cause but emphasized the difference in their natures. Joseph was a prophet of pronunciamentos. Brig- ham was an apostle of work. Joseph indulged in revelations on every commonplace topic. Brigham put forth but one revelation in his life. Joseph was sometimes impressive, sometimes jocular, but he was destitute of real seriousness and real humour. Brig- ham had plenty of both. Joseph was a scatterer. Brigham was a collector. Joseph turned aside after everything that crossed his path. Brigham never left his appointed trail. Joseph dreamed of being ruler of the United States. Brigham made himself czar of a desert empire; small, to be sure, but unique among modern communities — and his own. Both men were necessary to the creed they sup- ported. Brigham could not have founded a church. Joseph could not have preserved one. Joseph and his earlier aids had gathered a thousand planks of doc- 28 PROPHET VS. BUSINESS MANAGER 29 trine. Brigham built these planks into a compact house of faith which endures to this day. In 1832, Mormonism consisted of a supplementary scripture, the Book of Mormon; a quantity of un- assorted revelations; a number of unconferred ecclesiastical titles ; an inchoate theory of communism ; and — the claim of direct communication with the Most High through the prophet, Joseph Smith. This last was the basic asset of the new religion; the other things were but its trappings and suits. Other creeds derived authority from doubtfully interpreted texts, concerning which theologues had wrangled for six- teen centuries. Mormonism claimed a new revelation, which would make plain whatever the older scriptures had left uncertain; a continuous revelation, which would guide the faithful in every trial of their lives. It was this claim which made Mormonism a unique creed when Brigham Young came to Kirtland; and — after more than fourscore years — it is this claim which interposes the strongest barrier to the political or religious assimilation of the Mormon community with the rest of mankind. There is a basic difiference between religions of argument and religions of revelation. Revelation is despotic; argument is democratic. Of all world re- ligions, Mohammedanism rests most completely on revelation; and by the same token, it has been asso- ciated in all ages with unblinking despotism. Calvin- ism is the most argumentative — not to say the most disputatious — type of Christianity; and for more than three centuries Calvinism has been the creed most intimately connected with struggles for liberty. In its claim of a new and directly inspired prophet, Mormonism was closely akin to the religion of Mo- 30 BRIGHAM YOUNG hammed. It was destined to copy its Oriental proto- type in political and domestic matters, as well as in theological ones. But with the best will in the world to be a pasha as well as a prophet, Smith in 1832 lacked the ma- chinery to carry out his own wishes and the logic of his church. He had been dealing in revelations for about five years. He had enjoyed the companionship of several men far abler and immeasurably more learned than himself. But up to this time, their joint labours had resulted chiefly in words, words, words. They had made converts — times and conditions were isuch that any one could make converts to anything. They had at hand a vast body of material from which a skilful organizer could construct much. But of themselves, they could build nothing that did not need to be shored up afresh each day by a new dispensa- tion from heaven. The church was so loosely or- ganized that Smith had to have a special revelation from the Lord before he could settle the most trifling dispute or proceed with the most obvious work. If cities could be built by revelations alone. Smith would have peopled the continent. But city-building re- quires hard work and sound sense; and until Brigham Young came on the scene, these qualities were con- spicuously lacking in Mormon leadership. Mormon writers always assume that the personality of Joseph Smith and the authenticity of the Book of Mormon are as important to their religion as the per- sonality of Christ and the authenticity of the Bible are to Christianity. Opposing writers tacitly grant that claim by learned philological and archaeological dissertations on the fraud of the Book of Mormon, and verbose affidavits to prove that Smith was not PROPHET VS. BUSINESS MANAGER 31 the sort of person the Lord would choose for a prophet. The controversy is worse than absurd. The claim to act as social mentor for the Almighty, and to pick out the people with whom He may deal is as presumptuous as the claim to be the bearer of His message to mankind, and deserves not a whit more consideration. As for the Book of Mormon, the case is purely a question of evidence. Its detractors never have proved that the book was revamped from "Manu- script Found." Its believers never have proved that the book was written on golden plates and mirac- ulously translated by the prophet; and this would seem to be the greater lapse of the two. Without going so far as to adopt the maxim that miracles never can be proved, since the credibility of the wit- nesses must always be less than the improbability of the event, we may ask at least as much evidence to establish a new revelation as would be required to establish title to a contested piece of real estate. Such evidence never has been offered for the Book of Mor- mon. The testimony of the so-called " witnesses " is not convincing — better testimonials and more of them can be had any day to confirm the merits of any quack medicine on the market. We may add that the " reformed Egyptian " in which the book was supposed to be written is a language wholly unknown to scholars, one of which no trace is preserved on monuments or papyrus. The religion Smith founded, as well as his recorded history, shows him to have been a facile borrower. His mind was too untrained, his habits of thought too loose, to permit of plodding devotion to any of the ideas which in succession possessed him. He ac- 32 BRIGHAM YOUNG quired the patter of a dozen subjects, and solid in- formation about none. Under the influence of Orson Hyde, whose scholarship was limitless by comparison with Smith's ignorance, the prophet affected a devo- tion to learning, and for a time seemed to study violently. Sidney Rigdon inspired Smith with dreams of illimitable wealth and power; but Sidney's mind was as loose as Smith's. It was Brigham Young who brought care and method to the grandiose projects of the church leaders. It was Brigham who knew how to move by practical ways to a desired result. Smith had revelations that a temple should be built. Brig- ham went to work to build one. Smith and others tried to call wealth into existence by fiat, as in the " Bank " at Kirtland. Brigham laid plans to accumu- late wealth by commonplace toil and thrift. What- ever he may have thought of the prophet at their first meeting, before his twelve years of probation were over, Brigham was planted on the bedrock of his native Yankee common sense, and had returned to the original New England gospel of work — hard work for everybody. It is thus that the real history of Mormonism came to be the biography of Brigham Young. Less bril- liant, and far less learned than many devotees of the new faith, he excelled them all in his capacity for ordered, practical work. The prophet borrowed from the words and thoughts of others; but more and more as the years passed, he leaned on the works and deeds of Brigham. Without Smith — and probably without Sidney Rigdon — Mormonism could not have been founded. But without Brigham Young, the work of all his predecessors and colleagues would have been scattered and brought to naught. IV CLIMBING THE TOWER OF FAITH BRIGHAM had shown missionary zeal, even be- fore visiting the prophet. It was not likely that his ardour would be lessened by personal acquaintance with the source of divine light and wis- dom. In December, 1832, shortly after the death of his first wife, Brigham and his brother started for Upper Canada on a mission. They went on foot. Men of that day were better accustomed to hardship than city dwellers of our own time; but even with this allowance, questions of the sincerity of Brig- ham's conversion seem rather idle in the face of such an expedition. In February, 1833, the brothers re- turned to Mendon, New York, where they stayed un- til spring. On the first of April, Brigham was afoot for Canada once more. He was not only a per- suasive missionary but a good colonization agent; in July of the same year he arrived in Kirtland, bring- ing with him a number of Canadian families whom he had converted to the faith. After establishing his Canadian recruits at Kirt- land, Brigham went back to Mendon, settled his af- fairs there, and then with his two little daughters and his warm friend, Heber Kimball, rejoined the prophet at the Kirtland " stake of Zion." Here he settled down to his trade of glazier, preaching from time to time as requested; and here on March 31, 1834, he married his second wife, Mary Ann Angell. A 83 34 BRIGHAM YOUNG month later, he joined in another expedition, this time of a warlike rather than a religious char- acter. The Mormon settlements in Missouri had been en- during trials which will be sketched at greater length in a subsequent chapter. They had been driven from Jackson county in November, 1833, under circum- stances calculated to anger the gentlest people alive. In the spring of 1834, Joseph Smith organized an " army " for the purpose of chastising the Jackson county mob, and restoring the Missouri Saints to their homesteads. Brigham was asked to go along, receiving the prophet's promise that not a hair of his head should be harmed. The assurance was grateful, though hardly necessary with a man like Brigham Young, and he was one of the prophet's party which set out from Kirtland in May. This performance illustrates in striking fashion the looseness of social organization and the weakness of governmental authority in that day and region. Here were two hundred and five men, more or less equipped with weapons and fully equipped with military titles, bound on a martial invasion of a community in a dis- tant state. Yet the federal government seems to have taken no notice of the matter, neither did the state authorities of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, or even Missouri. With heavenly signs and wonders about them, and very human squabbles among them, the army of the Saints crossed three states and penetrated well into Missouri without molestation. Not far from Liberty, Clay county, however. Smith received a friendly warning to come no further. With a promptitude which goes far to acquit him of the charge of rashness, he heeded the advice, turned CLIMBING THE TOWER OF FAITH 35 aside, and after stopping for a revelation on Fishing river, camped on the bottom lands of Rush creek. Here on June 22, 1834, the expedition was at- tacked by cholera. Smith undertook to heal the sick by prayers and laying on of hands, but he found — as many a similar practitioner has found since — that such remedies work best in the presence of imaginary ailments. " 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," he writes with engaging frankness. Over sixty members of the ex- pedition were smitten with the disease, and at least thirteen died. This much punishment having been in- flicted for the unspecified sins of the brethren, prayer became efficacious, and the plague was stayed. The abortive expedition soon returned to Kirtland. The trip had not harmed the Jackson county mob, but it seems to have been of decided help to the ad- vancement of Brigham Young. Two events with their respective dates are very enlightening in this regard. On February 17, 1834, — ^before the expedi- tion to Missouri, — there was organized at Kirtland the " high council " of the church. It consisted of twelve members; and both its name and the circum- stances of its choosing indicate that it was intended as a sort of church senate, a governing body supreme under the prophet. Brigham was not chosen one of the high council. He was not deemed important enough for such an office. One I year later, in February, 1835, there was chosen the Quorum, or Twelve Apostles, which was raised above the high council, and made second only to the prophet. Brigham was named one of the 36 BRIGHAM YOUNG Twelve Apostles; and not only this, but he was made third in order of seniority. A single year, marked by genuine hardship and struggle, had brought the quiet man from comparative obscurity to a place near the top of the strongest council of the church. There is ground for suspecting that the Quorum of Apostles became a substantial part of church govern- ment at Brigham's suggestion. Other signs that an organizing mind was at work in the church followed. In the same month of February, the Seventies were organized. This was a very important step for it pro- vided the working machinery to manage the church, and to arouse and direct religious enthusiasm. Prior to the coming of Brigham Young, whenever Joseph wanted anything done, he had a revelation. He had a revelation urging the printer not to press for his bill when getting out the first edition of the Book of Mormon, and another revelation fixing the price at which the work was to be sold. He had a revela- tion telling a convert to sell a tannery, and turn the proceeds over to the church. He had a revelation telling people to lend him money, and other revela- tions indicating when and where he would pay the debt. Young's practical mind thought that such mat- ters could be managed without troubling the Al- mighty, and he seems to have pressed this view to some purpose. Not for nothing, however, does one bring order out of chaos. Herbert Spencer's dictum that some minds hate exact measurements is as true in theology as in cookery — though less frequently put to the test. Sidney Rigdon had been Smith's chief counsellor in the days before the coming of Brigham; and the bril- liant but unstable orator could not view with any BRIGHAM YOUNG'S EARLIEST KNOWN PHOTOGRAPH This portrait is pronounced by well-informed members of Brigham Young's family to be the earliest known ** photograph." No date is assigned to it. It represents the prophet as wearing a Masonic emblem in his shirt front. There is a legend that Brigham was ambitious to be a Mason before he met Joseph Smith and that he carried a Masonic emblem. This picture may be of that period but it is probable that it was taken after Brigham became a Mason at Nauvoo. The Masonic Grand Lodge of Illinois granted a charter for a Masonic lodge at Nauvoo. Smith immediatelj' inducted all his chief men into the order, making Masons at sight. For violation of Masonic rules, the Grand Lodge re- scinded the charter. Joseph Smith thereupon denounced Masonry as an errone- ous tradition, an unholy imitation of the priesthood, and he invented what has since been known as the " Endowment Rite," which he called the " true Masonry as known to Seth and Solomon *' and revealed to Smith direct from the Almighty. This rite was administered in Smith's *' Endowment " rooms over his brick store at Nauvoo. CLIMBING THE TOWER OF FAITH 37 pleasure the steady advance of his unassuming, bull- chested, practical-minded competitor. Direct infor- mation as to the rivalry of this pair for influence with Smith is wanting; but the indirect evidence is plentiful and convincing. There is the central fact that Rigdon lost ground while Young was gaining it, from the beginning of their acquaintance to their final struggle for mastery after the death of Joseph. There is the steady disparagement of Rigdon by Mormon writers, a fashion set by Young and plainly agreeable to him. Lastly, and most amusing of all, there is the peculiar alternation between instances of the Prophet Smith's increasing trust in Brigham, and the calls which came for Brigham to go on missions. Brigham's elevation to the quorum of the Apostles came on February 14, 1835. In May of the same year, he was ordered to go on a mission to the " La- manites," or Indians. Joseph promised the mission- ary that his work in this particular field would " open the doors to all the seed of Joseph." The cryptic phrase was never tested, for it is not of record that Brigham ever reached the Indian country. Had he done so, and there left his scalp in the lodge of some heathen " Lamanite," it is a reasonable guess that Sidney Rigdon's grief would have been purely official. In September of 1835, Brigham was back in Kirt- land, working at his trade, working on the temple, preaching from time to time, pitting his sturdy com- mon sense against whatever intrigues his rivals may have devised. This quiet life continued through the winter. The temple was dedicated March 27, 1836. Such an occasion in that day could not pass without miracles. There were visions, and outpourings, and the gift of tongues; and, perhaps in deference to this 38 BRIGHAM YOUNG last phenomenon, the occasion was called the Latter- Day Pentecost. The elders of the church gathered for anointings; the quorum of the Twelve Apostles was present; and the prophet himself conferred on Brigham Young the signal honour of washing his feet. It is not likely that Brigham expected this favour to pass unnoticed; but this time he was not required to take chances with the Lamanites. He was sent on a mission to New York and New England; passed the summer in the East, and returned to Kirtland in the fall. V AN UNTENABLE EDEN BEFORE going farther with the history of Brig- ham Young, it is necessary to trace the course of Mormon settlement in Missouri. In the fall of 1830, Oliver Cowdery, Parley P. Pratt, Peter Whitmer, and a man named Peterson were sent by Smith to preach to the " Lamanites," or Indians west of the Missouri river. They went, afoot and carrying their scanty packs on their shoul- ders much of the way, and reached Independence, Missouri, in the spring of 1831. Two of them went to work as tailors in the settlement. The other two crossed the river and began to preach to the Indians, but were turned back by the Indian agent. Balked of their original purpose, the four pioneers preached Mormonism to the settlers, and apparently made some converts. But the preachers became more enamoured of the new land than their hearers did of the new doctrine; and after a short time, Pratt was sent back by the other three to carry an account of this western paradise to the faithful in Kirtland. The message found a ready audience. The west- ward flow of population had been the dominant note in American life for a generation, and was to remain such for more than a generation to come. Besides, the Mormons were already drawing apart as a pecu- liar people, and beginning to gather in compact com- munities. Kirtland was their Mecca for the time; 89 40 BRIGHAM YOUNG but Kirtland was in the midst of a comparatively well-settled country. Missouri would offer more freedom if equally suitable otherwise. The prophet and some thirty of his disciples started on a visit of inspection to Missouri. Smith and his followers arrived at Independence in July, 1 83 1. The prophet approved the site, de- clared it was the original location of the Garden of Eden, issued a revelation setting forth the grandeur of the community which the Saints were to build there, and staked out a site for a temple. Some of his followers took up land from the government or from the state, which had a considerable grant in Jackson county. Others bought of the original set- tlers. The prophet returned to Kirtland in time to meet Brigham Young; and word went abroad that the city of the Saints was to be built in western Missouri, on ground hallowed by the footsteps of Adam and Eve, before their primal innocence was sullied by worldly wisdom derived from the Tree. The tide of Mormon emigration which set west- ward seems to have surprised even the prophet. The roving tendency which even yet marks the American was then at its strongest; and the idea of settling on the site of the Garden of Eden might appeal to any one. Mormons flocked to Missouri — most of them very poor — but a few with possessions enough to secure a comfortable establishment in the new home. By July, 1833, there were 1,200 Mormons in Jack- son County — one-third of the total population; and destruction was at hand. Much ingenuity has been wasted explaining, or rather, assigning blame for the quarrel between Mor- mons and " Gentiles " in Jackson county. The real AN UNTENABLE EDEN 41 cause of the difficulty is not far to seek. A rude but aspiring democracy was brought in contact with a rude but aggressive theocracy; and the two systems flew at each other's throats Hke strange dogs. Had the civilization of the day and place been less imper- fect, the conflict might have taken a gentler form, but it could not have been suppressed. Men who be- lieve that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed cannot work in harmony with men who accept the despotic rule of a prophet appointed by the Most High God. Men accustomed to divide and cross-divide on public questions as their whims or principles or interests dictate, do not love men who take their political opinions ready-made from a secret conclave of priests. Mormonism and Ameri- canism have clashed wherever they have met; and they will continue to clash so long as the church tries to occupy the field set apart in our land for the state. Trouble began in Jackson county early in 1832; and from beginning to end, the " Gentiles " seem to have been the aggressors. By 1833, matters had reached an acute stage. A mass-meeting was called July 20 at the court-house in Independence, and reso- lutions were passed ordering the Mormons to leave the county, pledging the purchase of their property at a fair price. This manifesto, even now, does not inspire the reader with much faith in the high honour of those who framed it; and the Mormon disciples, given ^fteen minutes to consent to exile, very prop- erly refused compliance. The mob thereupon tarred and feathered Bishop Partridge and one of his co- workers, wrecked the office of the church paper. The Millennial Star, and repeated their order for all Mormons to leave the county on pain of indefinite 42 BRIGHAM YOUNG but assumedly dire penalties. Three days later, the Mormons accepted the terms of their enemies, and moved or signed an agreement for moving. It was a treaty extorted from a weaker party by lawless force; and no great casuistry was used to argue away its binding force on the Mormons. They appealed to the governor for aid, and received a per- fectly correct statement of their legal rights. They appealed to Joseph Smith, and received a revelation. Thus encouraged by the law and the prophet, the Mormons stayed on, and thereby tempted a fate which was eager for temptation. Troubles recommenced. Armed bullies raided isolated Mormon communities, flogged the men, and drove out the women. There were a few skirmishes, and then the Mormons gave up, and fled across the Missouri river into Clay county, early in November. The sudden move was marked by much hardship and more pecuniary loss, and was the first of a long series of events which embittered the leaders of the church against Ameri- can institutions in general and the state of Missouri in particular. The revelation marking Jackson county as the site chosen by the Lord for His city of Zion has never been recalled, superseded, nor forgotten. After four emigrations and fourscore years, yellow parchment deeds to property in Independence may be found in Utah homes; and more than one man high in the councils of the church to-day boasts that neither he nor his forbears ever relinquished title to their hold- ings in the City of God in western Missouri. The people of Clay county received the fugitives kindly, and condemned — as all law-abiding men must — the actions of the Jackson county mob. Joseph AN UNTENABLE EDEN 43 Smith issued several revelations pertaining to the case, and organized the expedition whose story was told in the last chapter. Mormons flocked into Clay county, which at least had the advantage of being near to the "Garden of Eden"; and with the growth of the church came trouble. The old, irrepressible conflict rose to view as the Saints gained numbers and con- fidence. Fortunately, there were men in Clay county of higher character than those who had dominated the councils of Jackson; and the Mormon leaders had learned that fear of the mob is sometimes the begin- ning of safety. A mass-meeting of Gentiles was held in June, 1836; and the Mormons were asked to leave the county. " We do not contend," says the remark- able document drawn up on this occasion, " that we have the least right, under the constitution and laws of the country, to expel them [the Mormons] by force." But, pointing out the growth of bitterness, and the certainty of armed conflict if the Mormons remained, the resolutions asked them to leave while their exit could be made in peaceable fashion. The Mormons consented. A committee of Clay county Gentiles was appointed to raise money with which to buy at a fair price the lands and property of such Mormons as had anything to sell, and to help the needy in their emigration. The affair was con- ducted with honour and self-control, and is a credit to the leaders of both sides. Moving north by east, the Mormons entered an unsettled region. Caldwell county was organized for their benefit; the town of Far West was founded, another stake of Zion was set; and for the third time, the weary Saints of Mis- souri pitched their tents in temporary peace. VI PROPHECY AND FINANCE WHILE the prophet's empire was being builded amid trials in Missouri, his career in Ohio was drawing to an inglorious close. There, Smith had tried to establish not only a church and a political organization, but divers commercial enterprises, including a " bank." Much information on many subjects has been vouchsafed to prophets at one time or another; but financiering is too sordid, or perhaps too exact, a business to be conducted by revelation. Smith's " bank " eked out a troubled ex- istence for less than a year, and finally closed its doors in November, 1837. Many better and more wisely managed institutions than this at Kirtland went to the wall in that dis- astrous year; but Smith's bank failed under circum- stances which no glozing can render creditable. He had been refused a banking charter by the state legis- lature, and then, to evade the law, reorganized his financial association as the " Kirtland Society Anti- banking Company." The notes with this queer name on them were printed with " Bank " very large and the rest of the name very small — " Anti-BANKing " — by which trick it was hoped to make ordinary peo- ple think that the institution was a bank and convince courts that it was not. Worse — if possible — than this deceit was the recklessness with which notes were issued and the affairs of the bank conducted. With 44 PROPHECY AND FINANCE 45 a nominal capital of $4,000,000 and an actual paid-up cash capital of something under $10,000, Smith's bank was marked for destruction from its birth. But the prophet had other troubles than financial ones that year. It was impossible that a chance gath- ering of new believers, drawn in chief part from the most independent and undisciplined population on earth, should dwell together in perfect harmony, even under the rule of a prophet. That would have been a miracle indeed; and such proof of Divine grace was lacking. Dissensions broke out, which ripened into quarrels, and in 1837 there was open insurrec- tion. Various grievances were put forth by the malcon- tents at this time. Some objected to Smith's business enterprises, or rather to his conduct of them. Some complained of his arbitrary rule. Some accused him of dissolute habits. Probably most of the accusations were true, but such complaints are the signs of dis- affection, not its cause. Smith was undergoing the experience which sooner or later comes to almost every prophet, that of seeing at least part of his fol- lowers regard him with the disillusioned gaze of ex- perience instead of the fervid eyes of faith; and he could not well endure the new method of inspection. A young girl, who had discovered the art of extract- ing visions from a black stone, prophesied that Smith would be deposed for his transgressions, and that David Whitmer or Martin Harris would succeed him in the prophetic office. Martin Harris had printed the Book of Mormon at his own expense, and David Whitmer had made oath that he saw the golden plates from which Smith had translated that scrip- ture; yet there is not a doubt but they were working 46 BRIGHAM YOUNG for the fulfilment of the young woman's predictions. Rebellion had come in high places. Left to his own devices, Smith might have made terms with the malcontents — thereby ruining himself and forfeiting his prophetic character. Under the counsels of Sidney Rigdon, the prophet would have stood firm enough, but helpless except for cursings and revelations. It was Brigham Young whom Joseph needed, and Brigham was at hand. He was at least as despotic in natural temper as his chief, and he had the wit to see that one who rules by direct authoriza- tion of God must be all or nothing. No terms were made with the disaffected. Some escaped immediate excommunication, on account of the disturbed state of business affairs in the community. Others who repented were received back into the fold. But of concession on the part of the church authorities there was none then — ^and save in the presence of superior force, there never has been any since. Of all eccle- siastical organizations in the Western Hemisphere, the Mormon church is the most consistently des- potic. Financial troubles thickened fast around the Kirt- land stake of Zion. The " Anti-banking Company " was organized in January, 1837; with Joseph as president and Sidney Rigdon as secretary. In March, Smith and Rigdon were arrested on the charge of violating the banking laws of the state. They were tried and convicted in October, but appealed to a higher court on the ground that their institution was not a bank. There was more truth in this plea than either of them realized; but the court never gave a- ruling upon it. The " bank " closed its doors in November, 1837. PROPHECY AND FINANCE 47 This open failure and the overhanging sentence of the trial court emboldened Smith's enemies within the church, and they made a determined effort to depose him. Brigham left Kirtland in December. Accord- ing to the Mormon account, he was driven away by the mob; but in view of the consistent way in which he had defied and flouted the mob all the year, that story is unsatisfactory. It is all we have, however. Smith and Rigdon stayed on, fighting the malcon- tents with no great success; and in January, 1838, they, too, fled from Kirtland, and started to the Zion in Missouri. Young joined the prophet on the way, and they entered Far West together, March 14, 1838. The first care of Joseph and Brigham was to purge the church of those sinners who had dared to raise their voices against the Lord's chosen prophet. Thomas B. Marsh, David W. Patton, and Brigham Young were appointed a committee of three to drive apostasy from the tents of Israel, and tighten the reins of church government. They performed the task in a manner which had at least the merit of sim- plicity; they excommunicated every one of importance who dared to protest against the absolute authority of the prophet. Hildebrand was not more reckless of consequences in asserting the supremacy of the church than this committee. Two of Joseph's " wit- nesses to the plates," four members of the Twelve Apostles, several men high among the Seventies, and others of scarcely less irpportance in the church were excommunicated and cast into outer darkness. Marsh himself weakened and apostatized before the work was through, and was excommunicated as promptly as if he were but an ordinary backslider. The un- yielding tenacity and intolerant mastership which 48 BRIGHAM YOUNG marked Brigham all through his life were never more apparent than during this purging of the church in Missouri. Another piece of work of this summer may fairly be ascribed to Brigham. This is the tithing law which for three-quarters of a century has been the source of the church's financial strength. Smith and Rigdon had devised a chaotic scheme of " consecration " of property, which was a sort of religious communism, neither clearer nor more workable than other schemes of the same class. But on July 8, 1838, the rule of contributions was fixed at one-tenth of the property owned by the convert when he came into the church or when the law was announced, and thereafter one-tenth of his increase each year. It was drastic; but Brig- ham never shrank from drastic measures; it was prac- ticable; and his was the practical mind in the councils of the church. The working out of this plan can hardly be other than his. But even as the government and finances of the church were improved, the storm was brewing which which should sweep it from the state. Up to the prophet's coming, the Mormon settlement in Caldwell county had roused little antagonism. Within that county, the Saints had nearly everything to them- selves; and without, they were too few to be esteemed dangerous. Smith's arrival brought a large increase of Mormon immigration, much of which was colo- nized in Carroll and Daviess counties — thereby in- suring the social contact which was bound to insure hostility. Smith's grandiloquent pretensions did not calm the rising alarm of the Gentiles as they saw the increase of the Saints; and the drastic church dis- cipline enforced by Brigham Young's " commission PROPHECY AND FINANCE 49 of faith" could not have helped matters. Sidney Rigdon was much blamed by some of the Mormons at a later day for his famous " salt sermon," in which he vowed that the Mormons would not be driven from their homes again without bloodshed; but the present writers are unable to see that this sermon had any- thing to do with the resulting trouble. Rigdon ex- pressed a perfectly proper sentiment in a needlessly provocative way. But a peace so tenuous that it is shattered by such a trifling indiscretion cannot be pre- served long in a world where everything must bide the stress of circumstance — or fail altogether. Trouble began on August 6, at Gallatin. The state election then took place on that date; and some Mor- mons, going to Gallatin to vote, were stopped by a group of Gentiles. There was language and breaking of heads, but no serious injury was done; and the Mormons seem to have voted at the end of the fray. Instead of ignoring the disturbance, as any sensible man in his position would have done, Smith collected at Far West a band of one hundred and fifty on horse- back, and went to the " relief " of the brethren in Daviess county. The brethren did not need relief; but Smith came across a justice of the peace who had been active in opposition to the Mormons, and bullied him into signing a paper which nothing less than prophetic wisdom is competent to interpret. As soon as Smith had returned to Far West, the Daviess county Gentiles swore out warrants for him and some of his followers on the ground of entering another county in armed array and threatening a judicial offi- cer — ^Adam Black. After some demur, the accused surrendered and were bound over in bail to a hearing, September 7. 50 BRIGHAM YOUNG But the mischief was done. The county divided into two armed camps. Skirmishes took place with the usual great cry and little wool of militia opera- tions, and the newly elected Governor Boggs called out the state troops. These were placed under Gen- eral Doniphan, who afterwards won fame in the Mexican war, and his tact and skill soon brought about a more quiet feeling in Daviess county. Then the Gentiles of Carroll county began to arm and form plans for expelling the Mormons. An at- tack was made on the Mormon settlement of De- witt. After a comic opera bombardment and a Venezuela-like exchange of proclamations, the Mor- mons agreed to evacuate Dewitt on condition of re- ceiving payment for their improvements, and permis- sion to return to Far West. This was granted. It is worth noting that the governor had refused to pro- tect the Mormons of this settlement. The Mormons now were gathered in two chief settlements. Far West and another town which stag- gered under the title of " Adam-ondi-Ahman." The Gentiles had retired from the open countryside to a number of towns which were regularly patrolled by sentries. Society had dissolved in a border war like that which, perchance, the common ancestors of both parties once waged across the Tweed; or that which sons of the Gentiles concerned were destined to wage a generation later on the Kansas line. Three com- panies of regulars would have driven both camps into the Missouri river; but the regulars were not to be had. Captain David W. Patten at the head of a little troop of Mormons performed the only noteworthy exploit of the " war " by routing a much superior force of Gentiles at Crooked River; but he was killed PROPHECY AND FINANCE 61 in the fight, and the resentment roused at the defeat of state troops by Mormon partisans far outbalanced the advantages of the victory. The " battle " of Crooked River was fought Octo- ber 25, 1838. Two days later, Governor Boggs issued his famous order to General Clark, commanding a part of the militia, telling him that the Mormons must " be exterminated or driven from the state." It was not necessary to carry out these sanguinary orders. After some time spent in parley. Far West sur- rendered to General Lucas before Clark could arrive. Smith, Rigdon, and several other prominent Mor- mons were given up as " hostages," and were thrown into jail. Forty-six others were arrested a little later by General Clark, who informed the Mormon colo- nists that they must leave the state at once, on pain of " extermination." That word seems to have been a favourite among the statesmen and soldiers who had charge of affairs in Missouri at this time. Before Far West surrendered, there occurred a massacre which gave a sinister meaning to the ver- bose threats of Governor Boggs and his militia officer. On October 30, a considerable party of Missourians attacked the Mormon settlement at Hawn's Mill. The Mormons took refuge in a log blacksmith shop. The Missourians surrounded the shop, and poured a fire through the cracks between the logs, until every one within the enclosure was dead or wounded. Then they broke in the door, butchered some of the sur- vivors with any implement handy, and ended by throwing dead and wounded together into a nearby well. Some of the wounded were rescued from the well by friends from Far West, and they ultimately recovered; but all told, more than twenty Mormons 52 BRIGHAM YOUNG lost their lives in this afifair. The Missourians did not lose a man. It was an utterly unjustifiable massacre. The men who perpetrated it were legitimate progenitors of those " border ruffians " who established a reign of terror along the Kansas line twenty years later. The historical responsibility for this massacre must rest on Governor Boggs. He was justified in calling out the militia to restore order; he was justified in taking any measures necessary to break up the theocracy which Smith had established in one county of the state, and was endeavouring to extend to all neigh- bouring districts. But the governor's inflammatory language and open partisanship were a direct incite- ment to such multiple murders as this of Hawn's Mill, and a direct encouragement to the lawlessness which remained so long the curse of Missouri. The Mormons and their un-American theocracy vanished; but the anarchy excused and, indeed, commended, in high places, endured for more than a generation. Brigham Young passed unscathed through all these stirring scenes. He was a consistent champion of the prophet, a prominent figure in the church, and neither then nor later did he shirk his due share of danger. Yet for the moment Gentile hostility almost neglected him. He was not shot, he was not named in any list of proscribed exiles, he was not even thrown into jail. Dozens of less important men among the Saints were awarded this honour, but somehow Young was passed by. He was present when Joseph Smith and others were given up as " hostages," but the eyes of the Gentile commander were held, and he did not see that a greater than Joseph remained at large. Small wonder that a people like the Mormons, who lived in PROPHECY AND FINANCE 5S the midst of signs and wonders and interpositions of Providence, came to believe that Brigham Young was miraculously preserved to be the leader and saviour of his persecuted people in the yet greater trials which lay before thm. VII NAUVOO THE BEAUTIFUL JOSEPH SMITH was not only prophet, seer, and revelator, but president of the church. Hyrum Smith and Sidney Rigdon were at this time coun- sellors to the president, the three forming what is known as the First Presidency. With this supreme governing body in jail, active control of church affairs fell to the Twelve Apostles, and at this same time, Brigham Young succeeded to the headship of that body. Of his two seniors, Thomas B. Marsh had apostatized and David Patten had been killed at Crooked River. Brigham, protected by good fortune and immune from apostasy, was for the moment the active head of the church. To a man who cared for ecclesiastical preferment and believed in the future of Mormonism, it was a fine opportunity. Brigham never doubted the per- manency and glory of the church, and priestly power had become the breath of his nostrils. But he had no notion of using his chance to secure rulership of Zion. From the day when he spoke in tongues at Kirtland, Brigham had been the firm upholder of Joseph's power, prerogatives, and prophetic dignity; and he did not weaken, even under this temptation. He worked with the Saints in Missouri, doing all he could to lessen their suffering and organize the exodus, — and spent his spare moments consulting with Joseph and devising plans for the prophet's release. 64 NAUVOO THE BEAUTIFUL 66 These plans came to nothing. Sidney Rigdon was freed on a writ of habeas corpus — ^perhaps because his captors had learned how unimportant the fiery ex- horter was — and he lost no time in puttting the Miss- issippi river between himself and " Missouri jus- tice." Later in the same month, Brigham was obliged to make a hurried exit, and joined his old rival at Quincy, Illinois. An informal meeting of such members of the Twelve as remained faithful and such other Saints as were within reach was held at Quincy, March 17, 1839. The condition of the church was desperate. Its prophet was in prison, its western home was in the hands of its enemies, apostasy within and assault without threatened the whole structure of faith. The people had lost nearly all their property, and were, making their escape from an inhospitable state under conditions of suffering seldom equalled in a civilized land in time of peace. Marching without supplies in the dead of winter, making tents of their bedcloth- ing — when they had any — straggling over the Iowa line, crossing the Mississippi on the ice — ^the followers of the prophet who remained true to his cause seemed more in condition to plead for charity than to assert dominion. But Brigham, who was real chief of the meeting in spite of the presence of Rigdon, never wavered. His priestly pride was as fierce and intolerant as if he had behind him a hierarchy of immemorial an- tiquity, instead of the disheartened followers of a backwoods crystal-gazer, who had gone into the rev- elation business a scant dozen years before. Brigham advised the people to find some spot in Illinois where they could build their Zion, urged and carried the ex- 56 BRIGHAM YOUNG communication of some members who had failed in recent trials, sent aid to the faithful still in Missouri, and generally took charge of everything. The Saints were well served that in this hour of difficulty the supreme command was held by the clear-headed, prac- tical Brigham, rather than by the eruptive Joseph, or the discouraged Sidney. On April 6, 1839, the ninth anniversary of the church, Smith was taken from jail for trial, secured a change of venue, and shortly after was permitted to escape. He reached Quincy April 22, and at once assumed leadership. Plans for a new Zion were forthcoming without delay. The town of Commerce, Illinois, was chosen as a site, its name was changed to Nauvoo — after a non-existent Hebrew word sup- posed to mean " beautiful " — large land purchases were made, and the fourth eternal stake of Zion was set. Smith had the active support of Young in this project for a new Zion. Bishop Partridge advised strongly against trying to collect the Saints together into one place. Sidney Rigdon seems to have agreed with Partridge, and certainly advised against the land purchases actually made. In this emergency, Rigdon was for once a better counsellor than Brigham. The reason is not far to seek. Rigdon knew when he was whipped. Brigham did not. Almost the moment that Smith arrived at Quincy, Brigham and his companions of the Quorum of Apostles were off to Missouri on a secret mission. Smith had given a revelation the year before that on April 26, 1839, the Twelve Apostles should meet at Far West, recommence laying the foundations of the temple, and from that point start across the great waters to convert the world. Brigham and his fellow NAUVOO THE BEAUTIFUL 67 Apostles were determined that this revelation should be fulfilled. Hiding in a nearby grove till night, the Apostles then slipped into the deserted town of Far West and proceeded to the temple block. They " re- commenced laying the foundations " by rolling a big stone to one corner of the temple, had prayers, sang a few hymns, excommunicated a few sinners — for that was an important part of a hierarch's duties in those trying days — and then vanished before the bel- ligerent Gentiles were awake. The tale is told by Mormon writers as a striking fulfilment of prophecy, and a proof of the courage and loyalty of the Twelve. To us, it seems rather to illustrate the extent to which sensible men can trick themselves with words; and the meagre returns that are accepted, as payment of golden promises, when those promises are made in the name of supernatural authority. After this episode, which was saved from absurdity only by the deadly seriousness of those concerned in it, the Twelve returned to Nauvoo. But they did not proceed at once on their mission across the waters. The beginnings of a new Zion were not propitious. The lower part of the town site was swampy, afford- ing harbour to innumerable mosquitoes, and these of course, carried malaria. Deaths among the new- comers were numerous, and there were times in late summer when half the population were shaking or burning in the alternations of the disease. Joseph tried his hand at faith-healing, and Brigham testified that he was made whole at the prophet's command. The value of this testimony may be gauged by the well- proven fact that a little later he was carried on a mattress to the house of his friend, Heber Kimball, 58 BRIGHAM YOUNG and remained there four days in bed, constantly nursed by his wife. The Plasmodium mdarice knows no prophet but quinine. If Brigham was wrong in countenancing the build- ing of Nauvoo, he was right in seeing that to make a workable Zion the prophet must have less disputa- tious and refractory converts than those gathered from the turbulent settlements of the Mississippi valley. Heber Kimball had achieved remarkable suc- cess in his British mission of 1837, and he longed to have Brigham accompany him to that land again. The time had come to put Heber 's judgment to the test. While still so weak with fever that the first stage of the journey was made on a mattress, Brigham started in September, 1839, ^^ his delayed mission, accompanied by six other members of the Quorum. They stopped by the way, especially in Kirtland; and Brigham spent the winter in New York. On April 6, 1840, — ^the great church anniversary once more — he landed in England. During Kimball's mission in 1837, it was claimed that nearly two thousand persons had been converted to the faith of Joseph Smith. This record was quickly surpassed by the mission of Brigham and his fellow Apostles. From whatever cause, there was in Britain a large element in a state of waiting. If their re- ligious instability was less than that of people in the Mississippi valley, their religious eagerness was even greater, and distance lent enchantment to the view. They accepted the Mormon message as an answer to their prayers and hopes. The zeal of the exhorter met the zeal of the devotee; and instead of waiting to be argued into acceptance of the new faith, scores and NAUVOO THE BEAUTIFUL 59 hundreds boasted of their instant conversions. To this day, when other reasons fail, the descendants of these same people fall back on the family claim that their ancestors had a revelation from God that the gospel preached by the missionaries of Joseph was the truth. A few instances may help to set the picture of that mission before the reader. John Taylor, an English- man of good birth and breeding, was reared in the Anglican church. Wishing a more active organiza- tion, he joined the Methodists while in his teens, and became a well-known preacher of that denomination in Canada. There he heard the Mormon gospel, be- came converted, and returned to carry the message to his old friends in England. Taylor's wife was the daughter of an old Manx family; and in the Isle of Man, legends and tradi- tions of the supernatural are a necessary part of the household furniture. This family had a legend to fit the case. A sister-in-law of Taylor accepted his preaching of Mormonism as fulfilment of a tra- dition of her race that some day a messenger under the command of God should bring the true gospel out of the west, and that the same should raise their house to great power and glory. This strong-minded lady brought her whole family into the church, and with her surplus means, she emigrated a large number of the poorer Saints. Another anecdote of the early times : John Lamont, a Scotch miner well versed in the " metapheesics " of Calvinism, and noted all through the region for his continuity as well as skill in debate, was present at a meeting addressed by one of the Mormon mission- aries. One over-zealous Calvinist was rude in his 60 BRIGHAM YOUNG opposition to the new gospel. Lamont rebuked him for violating the rules of discussion, and in turn was twitted by his fellow miners : " Jock, ye're in a fair way o' becoming a Mormon yoursel' ! " " I ? Never ! " shouted Lamont. " I'll deny me God first!" A week later, Lamont was baptized in the Mormon faith, and gave his testimony in the Mormon meet- ing. Then some of his friends taunted him : " Did ye no say, Jock, that before ye'd join the Mormons, ye'd deny your God ? " " I did," retorted the unabashed controversialist. " My God was a useless, helpless figment o' man's mind, without body, parts, or passions. I have de- nied that devilish error. I now have the one true God, the Father o' all mankind, a glorious personage who was once a man like myself ! " That conversion of John Lamont and his quick reply to his former companions were counted among the latter-day miracles. In fact, to those early work- ers in the British field everything was a miracle. If a man were converted from some other church, God had miraculously opened his eyes to the truth. If he had been an infidel and blasphemer of all churches, that but made more manifest the power and purpose of the Almighty to make Joseph Smith at once pope and emperor of the world. Under pressure of this con- tagious excitement, families and neighbourhoods be- gan to vie with each other in having miraculous conversions; and the chief work of some Mormon missionaries was to baptize and instruct the droves who came to offer themselves as disciples of the un- seen prophet. But Brigham's mission was more than an effort to NAUVOO THE BEAUTIFUX. 61 secure converts. It was also a most efficient coloniza- tion agency. Up to the time a man was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the church had worked for him. It was now his turn to work for the church — and so long as Brigham had anything to do with Mormon affairs, that work was performed. The proper place to perform this redeem- ing labour, of course, was in the chosen Zion, which for the moment was Nauvoo. Brigham began send- ing his converts to America almost at once. The first company, forty-one in number, sailed exactly two months after Brigham landed. Two hundred more followed in September, one hundred and thirty ac- companied Brigham on his return, and several com- panies came during the year 1841. Zion was being built by the works of the faithful, rather than by the dreams of the prophet. The result of Brigham's missionary activity is best told in his own words: "We landed ... as strangers in a strange land, and penniless, but through the mercy of God we have gained many friends, established churches in almost every noted city and town of Great Britain, baptized between 7,000 and 8,000 souls, printed 5,000 Books of Mormon, 3,000 hymn books, 2,500 volumes of The Mil- lennial Star and 50,000 tracts, emigrated to Zion 1,000 souls, establishing a permanent shipping agency which will be a great blessing to the Saints, and have left sown in the hearts of many thousands the seeds of eternal life which shall bring forth fruit to the honour and glory of God; and yet we have lacked nothing to eat, drink or wear; in all these things I acknowledge the hand of God." After the fervid tales of miracles and instantaneous 62 BRIGHAM YOUNG conversions, this report comes like a refreshing breath of cold air. In spite of the pious language with which it is besprinkled, this is not the rhapsody of a zealot, nor the " testimony " of an enraptured vision- ary. It is the report of a business agent to the cor- poration which sent him forth on a difficult task, which he has performed in superb fashion. Brigham with five companions and one hundred and thirty converts sailed for New York on April 20, 1841. On July I, they arrived at Nauvoo. Brig- ham made his report, and had his season of com- munion with the prophet. Eight days later, Joseph had the following significant revelation: " Dear and well-beloved brother, Brigham Young, verily thus saith the Lord unto you, my servant Brig- ham, it is no more required at your hands to leave your family as in times past, for your offering is ac- ceptable to me; I have seen your labours and toil in journeying 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 most contumacious Gentile will admit that this is one revelation which Brigham never transgressed. His family received his very especial care to the last hour of his life. What Sidney Rigdon thought of this Divine authority for Brigham to stay at home is not re- corded. VIII THE GLORY OF MANY WIVES DURING the sojourn at Nauvoo, the best- known feature of the new religion was made known to the church — or at least to a few of its members. This is the doctrine of polygamy. From the hour that polygamy became a recognized part of Mormonism, it has almost monopolized Gen- tile discussion of that creed; and to-day, when the religion of Joseph Smith is mentioned, the responding thought in the mind of nearly every hearer is plurality of wives. The present writers consider this tenet merely one of several which make the Mormon church a thing apart; but it is an important one, and well worthy of careful study. Mormon polygamy cannot be understood, except in connection with the doctrine of " celestial mar- riage," of which plurality of wives is a part. J/lor- monism is ances tor worship. In the Church of^esus Clirist ot Latter Day bamts, salvation depends not upon faith, but upon offspring. The following sum- mary of the doctrine of " celestial marriage " is as nearly exact as any statement can be made on a sub- ject with which theologians are yet busy. 1. Marriage must be contracted for eternity, or it is not binding in the spirit world. 2. Persons who have not married for eternity on earth cannot be so married hereafter. Such persons occupy inferior places as "ministering angels," i.e., 64 BRIGHAM YOUNG heavenly clerks and waiters, to their more fortunate fellows who have fulfilled the "new and everlasting covenant " of celestial marriage. 3. Persons who have married for time and eter- nity under a sealing by the prophet's authority, retain their marital relations in the next world. They be- come, not "as" gods, but actual gods unto the fruit of their loins. 4. As illustrating the last statement, Brigham Young said in a sermon that the only god who con- cerned mankind was Adam, of whose seed are all the generations of the earth. Adam was a polygamist. 5. The highest salvation — or true godship — is re- served for those who have entered the practice of polygamy. Since a man becomes a god to his de- scendants, the more descendants, the higher the god- ship. Women who have helped him attain this higher estate shine in the heavens by his reflected glory. 6. Women who have not married and borne chil- dren occupy an inferior place in the next world, lower than that assigned to celibate men. 7. Marriage is not only a means of heavenly ad- vancement, but it is a duty. Space is peopled with spirits waiting to put on a tabernacle of flesh. This is necessary to their progress, and they are willing to enter the gates of birth by the most ignoble route, rather than not be born at all. They even haunt houses of ill-fame, hoping to receive the endowments of flesh. The revelation establishing polygamy is dated at Nauvoo, Ju ly I2,_ i£4^ This, however, is merely the da'Ce till ^Tuch this peculiar word of the Lord was re- duced to writing, not the time at which it was first made known. Joseph F. Smith, present head of the THE GLORY OF MANY WIVES 65 Mormon church, and nephew of the prophet, declares that the original revelation on polygamy was given to his inspired uncle about the year 1831. At about that date, Joseph often remarked that the brethren would take his life if he dared to tell them the new truths which God was making plain unto him. This may mean that he was already incubating the scheme of polygamy, or it may mean only that Joseph thought this mysterious phrase would sound well, and help to keep his followers in awe. His patter was as ready and clever as that of an experienced conjurer, and often had about as much connection with the matter in hand. There is good ground for believing that the practice of polygamy began at Kirtland. The charge was freely circulated against the Saints in that region; and — unlike such a commonplace matter as horse- stealing — it is not the kind of accusation that jealous neighbours would be likely to invent. In 1835, the church put forth at Kirtland a formal denial of polyg- amy; itself rather suspicious in the light of recent events. Two years later, April 29, 1837, the presi- dents of Seventies passed a resolution that they would not hold fellowship with any elder who was guilty of polygamy. This would imply that some elders were admittedly guilty of polygamous practices at this time, unless we make the rather far-fetched assumption that the high-sounding term of " polygamy " was applied to chance cases of sexual irregularity. The more important parts of the revelation are as follows : (Verses quoted as in book) I. Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you, my servant 66 BRIGHAM YOUNG 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 prin- ciple and doctrine of their having many wives and concubines ; 2. Behold ! and lo, I am the Lord thy God, and will answer thee as touching this matter: 15. Therefore, if a man marry himself 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; 16. Therefore, when they are out of the world, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are ap- pointed 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; 17. 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. 19. 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 . . . THE GLORY OF MANY WIVES 61 20. Then shall they be Gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to ever- lasting, 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. 21. Verily, I say unto you, except ye abide my law, ye cannot attain to this glory; 37. Abraham received concubines, and they bare him children, and it was accounted unto him for righteous- ness, because they were given unto him, and he abode in my law, as Isaac also, and Jacob did none other things than that which they were commanded ; and because they did none other things than that which they were com- manded, they have entered into their exaltation, accord- ing to the promises, and sit upon thrones, and are not angels, but are Gods. 52. 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 de- stroyed, saith the Lord God; 53. 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 faith- ful over a few things, and from henceforth I will strengthen him. 54. 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 ; 55. But if she will not abide this commandment, then shall my servant Joseph do all things for her, even as 68 BRIGHAM YOUNG 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. 56. 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. 57. And again, I say, let not my servant Joseph put his property out of his hands, lest an enemy come and destroy him, for Satan seeketh to destroy ; for I am not the Lord thy God, and he is my servant; and behold! and lo, I am with him, as I was with Abraham, thy father, even unto his exaltation and glory. 61. And again, as pertaining to the law of the Priest- hood : 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 he is justified; he cannot commit adul- tery, for they are given unto him ; for he cannot commit adultery with that that belongeth unto him and to no one else. 62. 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. 64. And again, verily, verily I say unto you, if any man have a wife, who holds the keys of this power, and he teaches unto her the law of my Priesthood, as per- taining to these things, then shall she believe, and ad- minister unto him, or she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord, your God, for I will destroy her; for I will mag- nify my name upon all who receive and abide my law. THE GLORY OF MANY WIVES 69 Taken by itself the revelation seems wordy and in- volved. By comparison with many other revelations, it is clear and concise, and bears unconscious witness that Smith had it in mind long before he reduced it to paper. The pains taken to bring the prophet's wife, — Emma Hale Smith, — into line are noticeable and amusing. What prompted Smith to make this strange depart- ure from the accepted traditions, laws, and ideals of the country in which he lived, and of all other coun- tries from which even a shred of his ancestral blood was derived? The question is inevitable, but an authoritative answer is wanted — unless we are ready to accept his own explanation of direct revelation from God. New creeds are habitually fruitful in sexual vagaries; but these commonly run towards celibacy, rather than to greater license. The defences of a custom given by Mormon theologues are excuses after the fact. The plea that polygamy is necessary to give every woman a chance to fulfil her undoubted right of wifehood and motherhood might be urged with some show of reason in England or Massachu- setts to-day; but it did not apply in the pioneer com- munities of the Mississippi valley. Probably Smith never lived in a settlement where there was not a sur- plus of men, rather than of women. Did he put forward this revelation merely to con- done and legalize his own peccadilloes? Mohammed had a matrimonial sudra after being caught in a com- promising position. Did Joseph, all unconsciously, follow this august example? His life needed some such endorsement; verses 52 and 56 of the document quoted above give evidence that his practice of polyg- amy antedated the revelation. A "new and ever- 70 BRIGHAM YOUNG lasting " marriage covenant which entitled the prophet to do as he pleased would be quite handy under such circumstances. One suppositious explanation may be put forward for what it is worth. Like all other creeds in modern times, Mormonism was more successful in appealing to women than to men. While males outnumber fe- 'males in most American communities, the proportions of the sexes are reversed in practically every church. A system of church-limited polygamy would utilize this wealth of potential motherhood, with no danger of the offspring being led astray by an heretic father. This consideration undoubtedly appealed to Brigham Young and to some of his counsellors in Utah; but there is no reason to assert that it had any weight with Smith. Most of his recorded approaches were to women already married. The first of these was the wife of one of the Twelve Apostles, a handsome woman whom Smith seems to have coveted before her marriage. He had enjoined the Apostle against marrying her, and found that even a prophet's advice does not count for much in matri- monial affairs. In 1840 this Apostle was sent on a mission which kept him away for more than a year, and during his absence, Joseph took the woman as his " spiritual wife." This means that she was to be Joseph's wife in the next world, though the wife of another man in this. This was Joseph's first authenticated adventure in spiritual wifery. Others followed not much later He informed John Taylor that the Lord had given Mrs. Taylor to Joseph for his spiritual wife in the next world. Taylor and his wife united in strenuous protest, and the prophet laughingly said that he was THE GLORY OF MANY WIVES 71 only testing their faith and love. He gave a similar explanation of his pursuit of the daughter of Sidney Rigdon — but it is not of record that he made any such advances in the household of Brigham Young. Mormon tradition has it that Joseph was sealed to twenty-seven wives before his death in Carthage jail. How many of these sustained marital relations with him is a question. The marriage ceremony for spirit- ual weddings differs not at all from that for marriages to be consummated on earth; and there was nothing to keep the persons so united from anticipating the heavenly nuptials. The matter is shrouded with un-, certainty now because it was covered with secrecy during the prophet's lifetime. The reasons for this secrecy are not far to seek. The mere rumour of polygamy had been cited as a grave offence, which the prophet found it necessary to repudiate. The formal announcement of such a doctrine would have precipitated disaster. It is prob-' able that even Smith was equal to that much prevision, and certainly there were men around him not wholly lost in prophetic ecstasy. Another and almost as com- pelling a reason is to be found in Smith's awe of his legal wife. Emma Hale Smith was a woman of considerable intelligence, decided firmness of character, and excel- lent conversational powers. She had loved Joseph in his vagabond youth, and she never lost her fondness for him. She had shared his wanderings and his hardships, she had acted as his amanuensis, she knew to the last decimal the sort of clay of which her prophet was made. This did not keep her from at- taching a certain importance to his revelations, but 72 BRIGHAM YOUNG it did lead her to scrutinize them rather carefully. When the revelation on plural marriage was at last written down, some one said it must be shown to Emma. Joseph, with one of the few gleams of real humour displayed in his whole lifetime, said: " Hyrum, you take it to her ! " Hyrum obeyed. The story is that Emma snatched the manuscript from his hand, threw it into the fire, and wrathfully declared it was a revelation from the devil, not from God. In spite of Emma's opposition, polygamy was prac- tised; and she must have known it. Very possibly her knowledge was moral certainty, rather than legal proof; and she was willing to have it so. There is little basis for the church claim that Emma formally gave several women to be " sealed " to her husband as his plural wives. The truth rather seems to be that she endured what she could not cure, and pre- tended not to see things that she could not sanction. At one time, indeed, Emma made vigorous war on plural marriages. She forced Joseph publicly to repudiate the doctrine, and she procured the publica- tion of a card signed by several women, alleging that there was no such thing as polygamy among Latter Day Saints. At the moment this card was published, Eliza R. Snow, one of the signers, was the plural wife of Joseph Smith. This illustrates the practice which began probably at Kirtland, certainly as early as Nauvoo; the custom of systematic lying for the glory of God and the safety of the Saints. From that day to this, Mor- mons periodically have denied polygamy in the most solemn language, only to admit it the moment such admission was deemed safe, or politic, or unavoidable. In 1850, at Boulogne-sur-mer, John Taylor denounced THE GLORY OF MANY WIVES 7S as a monstrous lie the tale that the Saints practised polygamy. John Taylor at that moment was the husband of four wives, some of whom had already borne children to him. Admissions of polygamy from Mormons may be accepted as good evidence, for they have never been found to admit any cases that were not true. But denials of polygamy by Mormons mean only that the church authorities think denial good policy for the moment. After Joseph's death, Emma declared and later taught her son that the prophet had not established, taught, or practised polygamy, that this was the in- vention of Brigham Young or of John C. Bennett. In view of the family tradition that the original revelation was given in 183 1, of the stories in circula- tion at Kirtland, of the positive testimony of many women that they were married to Joseph Smith as his plural wives, and of a world of collateral testi- mony, Emma's denial — however natural — deserves no more than this passing notice. Polygamy made the Mormon church a thing apart socially, as its despotic prophet set it apart in re- ligious and political matters. It is perhaps one cause of the comparative failure of the church as a prose- lyting agency. It has brought manifold 'suffering on the Saints, and it was the direct .occasion of the prophet's death. But it has never been abandoned. At times it has been repressed; at times it has been held in abeyance ; and even a revelation was pub- lished recalling God's mistake in giving this covenant to a sinful world — but the covenant goes on. The present head of the church has at least five known plural wives and forty-three children — twelve of whom were born to him after he pledged his honour 74 BRIGHAM YOUNG to abstain from plural marriage living. As despotic, as tenacious, and on occasion as secretive as its proto- type of Arabia, Mormonism remains an unsolved rid- dle, and maintains an unassimilated polygamous prin- cipality in the heart of the American republic. IX GROWTH OF A SULTANATE IN the fall of 1839, Brigham had left Nauvoo, a settlement in its raw beginning. In the summer of 1 84 1, he returned to find it a considerable town, booming along under the weirdest government which up to that time ever afflicted an American city. Smith and Rigdon had secured from the Illinois legislature a charter which in substance legalized the theocratic despotism of the prophet's church, and gave him a military force to execute his decrees. Save for the power of the legislature to repeal the charter it had given, Nauvoo was hardly a part of Illinois at all. The executive powers of the city were vested in a mayor; the legislative powers in a council of four aldermen and nine councillors. The mayor and the four aldermen were likewise justices of the peace and, sitting together, they constituted the municipal court. The council had power to pass any ordinances it wished which were not contrary to the state or fed- eral constitutions. This was a practically unlimited grant of legislative authority within the city limits. The mayor, as judge, had sole jurisdiction in all cases arising under these ordinances; but an aggrieved liti- gant or prisoner might appeal from the mayor to the municipal court, presided over by the mayor. The municipal court had powers to grant writs of habeas corpus in all cases arising under the ordinances ; which again amounted to a practically unlimited grant of 75 76 BRIGHAM YOUNG judicial authority within the city limits. Finally, there was a military organization, the Nauvoo Legion; a city militia subject to the sole orders of the mayor of Nauvoo, and not affiliated with the regular state militia. Within the bounds of a municipality, all powers possessed by the state of Illinois were handed over to the city of Nauvoo — which meant to Smith and his associates. Much ingenuity has been wasted in search of the " author " of this amazing charter. Its real " author " stands plain in view — the doctrine and experience of the Mormon church. Adhering to a centralized des- potism in religious and social affairs, why should the Mormons do other than try to mould their political organization on the same model ? They had been har- ried and hounded by the militia of Missouri; what more natural than that they should demand an or- ganized militia of their own? Rigdon had enjoyed and Smith had longed for the benefits of a writ of habeas corpus; it was inevitable that they should seek to get this potent instrument into their own hands. Neither at Nauvoo nor at Springfield were there per- sons in authority who could foresee that this grant of vast powers would rouse the jealous hostility of the state. Short-sighted experience demanded the charter, and short-sighted expediency granted it. Mormon votes were needed by the small Democratic majority then in control of the state; and until re- ligious and social antagonism swept party distinctions aside, the prophet could have nearly everything he wanted. No place was reserved in the political organization of Nauvoo for the ablest man among the Saints, now returned after nearly two years' absence and unex- GROWTH OF A SULTANATE 77 ampled service to the church. This of itself would show that Sidney Rigdon made good use of Brigham's absence; and that Joseph's loyalty to his best and wisest friend depended in large measure on that friend's constant presence. Other indications point- ing the same way are not wanting. Rigdon was again made one of Joseph's counsellors, William Law being the other, and the three constituting the first presi- dency. About this time, too, Sidney Rigdon became postmaster of Nauvoo, and hung out his sign in that city as attorney-at-law. The relation between Rigdon and Smith was a puzzling one throughout their asso- ciation. Smith in a way despised, and perhaps dis- trusted, Rigdon; yet in the absence of stronger coun- sels, Rigdon seldom failed to shape the prophet's course. But Brigham Young did not need an office to make him a power among his people. He had been con- firmed in his position as president of the Twelve Apostles; and that was enough. Eight days after his return, he had re-established his influence far enough to secure the revelation commanding him to stay at home and take care of his family. His practical wis- dom and mechanical knowledge and skill were in de- mand on the temple which was rising to be a mo- mentary wonder of the West. Sidney Rigdon might be professor of church history in the " small uni- versity," but Brigham Young was professor of church policy in those religious conclaves which really gov- erned the city. There was plenty of work for a level-headed, prac- tical man in the throng gathering at Nauvoo. The site of that latest Zion had no particular advantages. No one had built a town of any importance there be- 78 BRIGHAM YOUNG fore; and no one has done it since. But converts from all points of the compass were flocking to the standard of the prophet, and human industry can build a city anywhere. Some of the converts had money, more had not. But though there were much hardship and some downright privation in the settle- ment of Nauvoo, the sojourn there was comparatively a placid and prosperous time in the stormy career of the Saints. The unhealthfulness of the place has been noted. There was a heavy death-rate among the gathering converts for a season or two; especially among those from England whose systems had not acquired partial immunity to malarial poison. The clearing and drain- ing, incident to building the city, rid the place of most of its mosquitoes, and malaria fell away in conse- quence. Manufactures of divers sorts were estab- lished with varying success. One of the most pros- perous of these was a steam sawmill built by William and Wilson Law, two Canadian converts of much greater wealth than was usual among the immigrants to Nauvoo, and apparently of high character. We shall hear of the Laws later. Aside from the very practical matter of getting a living, the chief industry at Nauvoo was temple- building. The foundations of this structure were laid April 6, 1 841; and the mere statement of its dimen- sions shows that Smith planned in this case to " as- tonish the natives " as he never had done before. The ground plan measured eighty-three by one hundred and twenty-eight feet; the body of the structure con- tained two stories and a basement, and was about sixty feet high. The steeple — never finished — to sur- mount this edifice was planned to be one hundred GROWTH OF A SULTANATE 79 and twenty feet in height. Architecturally, the work was a hodge-podge, neither better nor worse than most of the half-baked, half-borrowed structures with which our land is dotted; but at least it expressed devotion, rather than mere dollars. It was built by contributions from the people in the form of tithes, by donations of labour, materials, and money in ex- cess of tithing, by sacrifices which only a profoundly earnest people would make. In spite of the contrast in artistic and structural merit, the temple at Nauvoo was as truly a work of faith as the cathedral at Char- tres; and the words Lowell spoke of one may apply to the other: " By suffrage universal was it built, . . . E^ch vote a block of stone securely laid Obedient to the builders' deep mused plan." In a work like this Brigham Young was indispen- sable. He was the only man high in the councils of the church who had any mechanical training or apti- tude; and he was easily foremost in his ability to handle men and plan large labours. In more subtle ways, his influence was soon quite as pervasive. Be- fore Brigham came to Kirtland, Smith had a revela- tion with every change of the wind, and sometimes when the wind held constant. After Brigham re- turned to Nauvoo from England, Smith gave up " re- vealing" almost altogether. The plan was evolved that when the prophet had one of these spiritual visi- tations, he should first present it to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. If the Quorum thought well of the matter, it would be presented to the church. This remarkable scheme for saving the Lord and his prophet from the evil of hasty speaking is ascribed by 80 BRIGHAM YOUNG tradition to Brigham Young — ^and, indeed, it could have come from no other source. The mere fact that the revelations were to be vised by the Quorum, of which Brigham was head, would be enough to clinch the truth of the tradition. We may anticipate enough to say that in all his rule of the church, Brigham Young gave but one revelation, though the brethren were clamorous for him to take up that prophetic habit. The first election under the new charter was held in February, 1841. A new convert to the church. Dr. John C. Bennett, was chosen mayor — in com- pliance with some of the political bargains made in granting the charter. Rigdon and Smith " accepted " places in the municipal council, and Smith was made commander of the Nauvoo Legion. Napoleon con- quered Italy as colonel of arattsry; but Joseph Smith could not endure to command the Legion with any less title than that of " Lieutenant-General." A lit- tle over a year later — May 17, 1842, — Bennett left the Saints after a quarrel with Smith, and made a campaign against the church with all the ardour of an apostate; but it does not appear that his philippics had much to do with the final outcome. He annoyed the faithful, angered the prophet, and drew from both an amazing flow of that kind of speech known among Gentiles as billingsgate; but so far as can be told, he accomplished little more. Other annoyances were more potent. A few days before Bennett shook the dust of Nauvoo from his feet. Governor Boggs of Missouri was shot, and it was thought mortally wounded. The Mormons hated Boggs — with perfect justice — and the instant thought in the mind of every Missourian was that the shot GROWTH OF A SULTANATE 81 was fired by some one among the Saints. Smith him- self could prove an alibi; so the natural inference of his enemies was that he had sent one of his subordi- nates to perform the deed. On this charge of being an accessory before the fact, the state of Missouri issued a requisition on the governor of Illinois for Joseph Smith, and the prophet was arrested at Nau- \'oo, August 8, 1842, on the governor's warrant. He immediately demanded to be taken before his own municipal court; and was released forthwith on a writ of habeas corpus issued by that body. No one can blame Smith for not wanting to go back to Missouri. His experiences there warranted the suspicion that if he entered that state again, he would never leave it alive. But Smith assuredly did not have Socrates' reverence for " The Laws " when he perpetrated this grotesque travesty upon them. The clamour resulting was so great that after some weeks of hiding Smith submitted to arrest. This time his defence was made in accordance with law, and the United States district court at Springfield, Illinois, freed him on a writ of habeas corpus. His Missouri enemies had failed once before to get him across the river; they made still another attempt; and failing in that left him alone. The actual shooting in the Boggs case was charged against " Port " Rockwell, a picturesque character of the church, long famous in a later period throughout Utah for his unshorn hair, his unrivalled skill in breeding and training horses, and the hair-raising, soul-satisfying thoroughness of his drunken sprees. He was arrested at St. Louis and tried for the crime in 1843, and was acquitted. In spite of the jury's yer^ict — which seemed to show that Smith need not 82 BRIGHAM YOUNG have feared a Missouri trial — ^there is a well-defined tradition in the church that " Port " Rockwell fired the shot at the enemy of the Saints, and never ceased to mourn that the bullet did not do its desired work. If the Missouri enemies of Zion were discouraged, the Saints were having their usual success in raising a crop of enemies nearer home. Before they had been long at Nauvoo, charges began to circulate that they were systematically robbing their Gentile neighbours. Accusations of theft are made in all border feuds, and need not be taken seriously in the absence of cor- roborating evidence. Such evidence, for the most part, is absent in this case of the Mormons. There were some thieves among them, and some zealots not normally thievish had been soured by sufferings until they were ready to spoil the Egyptians at the first good chance. But generally speaking, the Mormons were as honest in financial matters as their neighbours ; though, as Huckleberry Finn might say, " that ain't no flattery, neither." In one way, however, the Saints had themselves to thank for their unsavoury reputation. In their eager- ness for converts, they would baptize any one into the church; and if the newcomer remained obedient to the prophet and faithful to his religious duties, they would stand by him through thick and thin. The Mississippi bottoms in those days were haunted by regular gangs of thieves ; and some of those operating near Nauvoo soon saw the advantage of a fellowship which gave them standing and helped to protect them from the outside world. Many of these joined the Mormons for strictly utilitarian purposes. They were Saints by day and horse-thieves by night; but unless their rascality became too notorious, their new assQ- GROWTH OF A SULTANATE 83 ciates would protect them. The Gentile who came to Nauvoo on a mission that might trouble the brethren " whittled out." Groups of men and boys with sticks and long knives would surround the undesirable intruder, and whittle, whittle — occasionally letting the knife slip towards him in a harmless but unpleasant sweep. Wherever he went, the whittlers would fol- low; and at the end of an hour or two of this enter- tainment, almost any one was anxious to emigrate from the city of the whittling Saints. X MURDER OF THE PROPHET IT now becomes necessary to devote a chapter to the fortunes of Joseph Smith, rather than to those of Brigham Young. Brigham was going quietly about his business, doing whatever work came to hand, " taking care of his family " — which by this time had been increased by four plural wives — and supplying counsel and advice to his erratic chief. Smith, drunk with the adulation of his little world, was dreaming of limitless political power while yet scarcely through dodging Missouri sheriffs. But Smith, with all his vagaries, was head of the church; and his movements determined those of his far more able disciple, even as the whims of the stupid Philip Second overrode the " cribbed and cabined " genius of Parma. Under pressure of public opinion. Smith had sub- mitted to arrest in the charge connected with the at- tempted murder of Governor Boggs, and had been freed by the federal court. But he did not for a mo- ment renounce his claim of independent, judicial sovereignty for his handy little municipal court of Nauvoo. It was this municipal court which foiled the last attempt of the Missourians to drag the prophet back for trial; and belief in the right of this court to issue writs of habeas corpus became the shibboleth by which Smith tested the friendship of those non-Mor- mons who sought his political influence. Walker, the 84 MURDER OF THE PROPHET 85 Whig candidate for congress in that district in 1843, had vehemently upheld the right of the municipal court to issue such writs, and expected to receive in return the Mormon vote and a consequent election to congress. But Governor Ford of Illinois was a Demo- crat who, by virtue of his office, could call out the militia, arrest Smith, and deliver him up to the Mis- souri authorities. A Democratic politician came to Nauvoo, and speaking in Ford's name, though not with his authorization, informed Smith that he was safe so long as his followers voted the Democratic ticket. The result of this message was as fine a demonstra- tion of ecclesiastical subtlety as anything that can be shown in the annals of Italy or Scotland. Joseph had bound himself to vote for Walker. But Hyrum, the prophet's brother, now announced that he had a revelation directing the Saints to vote for Hoge, Walker's Democratic opponent. William Law chal- lenged Hyrum's claim to a revelation, and Joseph was called in to settle the dispute. " I am going to vote for Walker," said Joseph solemnly. " But Brother Hyrum is a man of truth; I have never known him to tell a lie. If he says he has a revelation from the Lord telling the Saints to vote the Democratic ticket, no doubt it is a fact; and I would advise you that in this matter, Hyrum is a safer guide than I am. When the Lord speaks, let all the earth keep silence before him!" The congregation took the hint, and Hoge was elected by a majority of four hundred and fifty-five votes. The trick arrayed the whole Whig party of Illinois against the Mormons and inspired the Democrats with 86 BRIGHAM YOUNG apprehension of the time when a similar cross-circuit revelation would be turned against themselves. Also, it inspired Smith with an added sense of power, and set him to asking what that power might get for him. His answer to this self-questioning is rather startling. He decided to become President of the United States. At this distance of time. Smith's ambition seems a wild and uncanny dream. To him and to his follow- ers, it was the most serious of realities. Smith had demanded from Clay and Calhoun, the two chief candidates for Presidential nominations, what would be their course toward the Latter Day Saints if nomi- nated and elected to this high office. Both men an- swered with very proper refusals to take cognizance of any church as such. Clay declined to make any pledges save those implied by his life and record. Calhoun pointed out that the federal authority could give no help to the Mormons in securing redress from Missouri for wrongs suffered while they were resi- dents of that state. These rebuffs roused Joseph to something as near righteous wrath as his inconsequential good-nature permitted him to feel. He answered with open letters whose windy nonsense has been equalled but rarely even in the political history of our own good and elo- quent land. "Crape the heavens with weeds of woe," he exclaims in the epistle to Henry Clay; " gird the earth with sackcloth, and let hell mutter one melody in com- memoration of fallen splendour! 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, Cal- houn, and Clay are thrust out of the realms of virtue MURDER OF THE PROPHET 87 as fit subjects for the kingdom of fallen greatness — vox reprohi, vox Diaholi." " He opens his mouth, shines his eyes, and leaves the result to God," said Abraham Lincoln of a ranting orator some years later. The description might be dated back to apply to Joseph Smith. Smith had not waited on the hatching of this bird of eloquence before proceeding with his quest of the White House. On January 29, 1844, he was nomi- nated at Nauvoo for President of the United States. The exact composition of this nominating body is un- certain. May 17 of the same year — ^just a few days after publishing the letters to Clay and Calhoun — ^this nomination was confirmed by something which passed for a state convention, also assembled at Nauvoo. In between these two events, Smith had published his " views " on national politics. He declared for the abolition of slavery by empowering the general gov- ernment to purchase and liberate the slaves; for the annexation, not merely of Texas but of Canada and Mexico when they should ask for that blessing; and for a scheme of national banking that only another Urim and Thummim can make understandable. He wanted the pay of congressmen cut to $2.00 per day and board; but he suggested no reduction in the pay accorded to the President. On the contrary, the Presidential powers were to be exalted, not by chang- ing the Constitution so much as by merely " taking " such powers as an inspired prophet in the White House might think worth having. " Congress, with the President as executor, is as almighty in its sphere as Jehovah. is in his," he had stated in his letter to Calhoun; a statement which, coupled with his other outpourings, goes far to substantiate the claim that 88 BRIGHAM YOUNG Joseph Smith was the forerunner of Populism, and the great original New Nationalist. . There was no notion on Smith's part of trusting his campaign to letters and proclamations alone. He immediately organized — or some one organized for him — a campaign designed to reach every part of the United States. All the most able and aggressive offi- cers of the church were sent out to drum up votes for the prophet, as formerly they had been sent to find recruits for Zion. Brigham Young, the sane coun- sellor; Orson Pratt, the ready orator; John D. Lee, unthinking fighter — all these and scores of others were sent through the nation to organize support for the prophet's ambitions at the very hour when they were most needed to temper his course and protect his life at home. William and Wilson Law, already mentioned in this history, were two of the wealthiest and most powerful members of the Mormon church. They had establish a saw-mill and flour-mill at Nauvoo, con- tributed to the building of the city and temple, and loaned the prophet a large sum of money. They were high in his favour for some years. William Law was made counsellor to Joseph and a member of the First Presidency, besides being registrar of the Nauvoo University. Wilson Law was regent of the university and major-general in the Nauvoo Legion. It was this pair, of all men in Nauvoo, whom Joseph had to quar- rel with at this critical moment. The revelation establishing polygamy was written down, as we have seen, July 12, 1843. The practice of polygamy antedated the revelation by at least two years. Brigham Young was married to one of his plural wives in June, 1842, and tradition agrees that MURDER OF THE PROPHET 89 the spouse then taken was the second to be received into this " new and everlasting covenant." The Laws were among the select number to whom the new doc- trine was imparted; and they seem to have rejected it with indignation from the first. They pointed out that polygamy is directly reprobated in the Book of Mormon, and combated what they claimed was vicious heresy. How long their opposition would have been confined to expostulation within the church cannot be known, for Joseph seems to have made the capital error of trying to secure Mrs. William Law as one of his spiritual wives. By this time there must have been quite a collection of husbands at Nauvoo whose wives Joseph had sought to secure as stars in his spiritual crown. Such advances are deemed cause for personal vengeance in five American communities out of seven, even to this day. Had William Law taken a shotgun and scat- tered the prophet's brains on the pavement of the temple, he would have done only what dozens of men similarly ofifended have done before and since, with no worse penalty than that of being obliged to hear their own virtues set forth to a sympathetic jury. But the Laws were Canadians, trained in that strict discipline and stern obedience to law which are the glory of the British Empire; and they took what they deemed a milder course — though it proved quite as effective a one. Joining with Sylvester Emmons, one of the few non-Mormons in Nauvoo, and Dr. R. D. Foster, who had a similar score to settle with the prophet, the Law brothers determined to start a newspaper to expose the misdeeds of Smith, and secure a reform of the church. They protested themselves firm believers in 90 BRIGHAM YOUNG the Book of Mormon and the Divine mission of the prophet at the beginning of his work, but they held that he had given himself over to the devil, and was now working iniquity. They chose the name Ex- positor for their paper, and its first and only issue justified the title. It told the story of the revelation establishing polygamy, and the prophet's method of teaching this doctrine to women converts. It con- demned Smith's political aspirations. It charged him with financial crookedness. It demanded the imme- diate and unconditional repeal of the Nauvoo charter; and it pleaded with Mormons in general to abandon the false teachings of a plurality of gods and wives, and return to the primitive purity of the faith. Mormon historians speak of the Expositor's charges as " filthy lies." The phrase is not a happy one. Aside from the fact that the Expositor merely charged Smith with practising doctrines set forth in a revela- iton still contained in the church's official book of faith, we may point out that lies alone never stirred up such a storm as was raised by the tales in the Expositor. The first and likewise the last number of this paper was issued June 7, 1844. The next day, Smith called the city council together, and proceeded to put the Expositor, and its editors on trial before that body. Zealous souls who condemn that separation of ex- ecutive, judicial, and legislative functions which is the keynote of our government may read with profit the results of having those powers joined in the same per- son. Smith was mayor and president of the court; the council, aldermen, and councillors alike, were his disciples, and wholly obedient to his wish. Dr. Foster, Mr. Emmons, and the Law brothers were not present MURDER OF THE PROPHET 91 at this " trial " affecting their property and perhaps their safety. Evidence, argument, and hearsay were jumbled together. The session of this beautiful legis- lative-executive-judicial body lasted all day Saturday, June 8, and was continued to the following Monday. Finally, a resolution was passed declaring the Ex- positor a public nuisance, and " directing " Mayor Smith to abate that nuisance in any manner he might choose ! The beggars were on horseback, and they rode as beggars have been wont to do since before the proverb was coined. The destruction of which they had justly complained when it overtook their own Millennial Star in Missouri was to be visited on a printing-office which happened to offend them instead of the Gentiles. Smith issued an order to the city marshal, command- ing him to destroy the press, " pi " the type, and burn all copies of the Expositor. The marshal took an escort from the Nauvoo Legion, broke into the Ex- positor building, and carried out his orders with joy- ous thoroughness. " The within-named press and type is destroyed and ' pied ' according to order on this loth day of June, 1844, at about 8 o'clock p.m.," he wrote on his return of the order. In only one particular was the prophet's action better than that of the mob which had driven the Mor- mons from Independence, Missouri. That gathering had tarred and feathered a Mormon elder. Foster and the Laws were not hurt in any way, but they did not wait to see whether this immunity would last. That same night, June 10, they fled to Carthage, the county seat of Hancock county, where they swore out a complaint charging Smith and others with riot. Smith was arrested on this charge June 12, — ^and im- 92 BRIGHAM YOUNG mediately released on a writ of habeas corpus issued by his own municipal court. Had Smith surrendered himself and been tried in the ordinary way, the result might have been dam- aging to his political aspirations, but in all probability his life would have been safe. His efforts to escape the courts led, as might have been expected, to an appeal to the mob. Mass-meetings were held in vari- ous parts of Hancock county, and at one of these, resolutions were passed calling for a war of extermi- nation if the prophet were not surrendered. Mun- chausen-like stories of Mormon outrages ran from mouth to ear through all the surrounding country, armed men gathered at various places, cannon were ordered from larger towns, and an appeal was made to Governor Ford to call out the militia. Governor Ford was a man of considerable intelli- gence and fair intentions, but wholly unfitted for deal- ing with a crisis like that which now confronted him. He arrived at Carthage June 21, heard the tales of the more rabid Gentiles, and sent to Nauvoo for the Mormons to send some one to make him acquainted with their side of the case. Both accounts agreed in the essential facts of the destruction of the Expositor and the release of Smith in defiance of the state courts. The governor put proper officials in command of the assembled militia, harangued the men, and received from them pledges that they would obey his com- mands and aid him in upholding the law. Upon this he sent word to Nauvoo that the prophet and those of his followers accused of riot would be protected if they surrendered, and be pursued by the whole force of the state if they did not. Smith preferred flight; but was persuaded by his followers to trust MURDER OF THE PROPHET 93 to the governor's promises. About midnight of June 24y Joseph, Hyrum, and the other Mormons named in the complaint reached Carthage, and surrendered themselves to the law. All were admitted to bail the next noon, but the prophet and brother were imme- diately re-arrested on the charge of treason, and lodged in the county jail. By this time the anti-Mormon sentiment of Han- cock county had become so bitter that no legal prosecu- tions and penalties could satisfy it. A considerable number of Gentiles openly demanded the death of the prophet, and that his followers should be driven from the state by military force. The governor resisted this outrageous demand, but he took no effective measures to secure the safety of his prisoners, claim- ing afterwards that they were not in his custody, but in that of the sheriff. He disbanded all the militia except a company known as the " Carthage Grays " who, being residents of Hancock county and involved in the quarrel, were among the prophet's bitterest enemies. Setting this company to " guard " the jail in which the Smiths were confined, the governor, on June 27, set out to visit Nauvoo, and talk the Mor- mons into a right appreciation of the beauties of peace and submission to the law. The same morning, several hundred militia from Warsaw, known as rabid Mormon haters, started to march to Carthage ; from which point they expected to accompany other state troops in the occupation and, perhaps, the sack of Nauvoo. On the way, they were met by a message from the governor ordering them to return to their homes, as the Nauvoo expedition had been given up. The more moderate men of the militia obeyed the order; the more violent continued 94 BRIGHAM YOUNG their march toward Carthage. A few miles from town they received a note sent by the Carthage Grays, telHng them that now was the time to kill the Smiths, and that the way for that killing would be made easy. Joseph, Hyrum, and two visiting brethren (Willard Richards and John Taylor) were sitting in a large room on the second floor of the jail when the armed mob approached. Only eight men and a sergeant had been left at the jail, and these made no resistance. Climbing the stairs and firing through the door of the room, the mob killed Hyrum Smith. Joseph had a six-shooter pistol which he emptied at the assailants, wounding three of them, and, a moment or two later, he made a rush to the window, and tried to leap out. His appearance brought a volley from the mob out- side, and at the same time the attacking party burst into the room, and fired at the prophet from behind. He made the Masonic sign of distress, and then pitched headlong to the ground. Whether he was dead when he fell, or was killed in the yard by a final volley is a disputed point. If Governor Ford meant to have the Mormon prophet murdered or kidnapped, his movements on the 26th and 27th of June are intelligible. If he meant to avert such a crime, his behaviour becomes a mystery. He disbanded troops on whose loyalty he could rely, and left the prisoners in charge of the Carthage Grays, who had already mutinied at the favours shown the imprisoned prophet. He took no pains to see that the yet more violent men from War- saw were turned back to their homes. He did not, as he might have done, send the prisoners to a distant county for safe-keeping until the excitement had sub- sided. He went to Nauvoo the day of the murder, MURDER OF THE PROPHET 95 stayed long enough to establish an alibi, made a mean- ingless speech to the assembled Mormons, and hurried away without doing anything to justify or explain his trip. Though a pitifully weak man, Ford was by no means a fool. Either he was smitten with blindness, or he had been bullied and wheedled into leaving the coast clear for the mob — ^probably on the pretext that the Smiths would not be harmed, but seized and sent over to Missouri. The death of Smith was designed to destroy the Mormon church. That crime failed of its purpose, as mob outrages always fail. It removed an indolent, dreamy visionary from the head of Mormon affairs, and put in his place a grimly practical captain, with despotic temper and a will of flint. There has been on earth no better measure of the folly of a mob than the destruction of Joseph Smith to make room for Brigham Young. XI THE NEW PRIEST-KING THE death of Joseph was an unspeakable shock to the anxious Mormons at Nauvoo. He was at once their prince and prophet; bearer of the Word and the sceptre of the Most High. His speech had been counsel of disaster, and his rule a kingdom of strife. Toil, hardship, exile, battle, murder, and sudden death had been the lot of his followers, and this lot had now overtaken their chief. The man who claimed to be divinely appointed ruler of the earth had fallen before a mob of lynchers in a back prairie town. But " faith, fanatic faith " was as tenacious in Illinois of the nineteenth century as in Persia of the eleventh; and for the moment, at least, the tragic death of Joseph does not seem to have cost him a dis- ciple. It was plain that the flock needed a new shepherd; and a shepherd was ready. The foregoing chapters of this history have been useless if it is needful at this time to make any extended presentation of the claims of Brigham Young. He occupied a strong, strategic position as president of the Quorum of Apostles. He occupied a yet stronger position in the public mind of the church because of his known loy- alty and tried common sense. Of all prominent Mor- mons, Brigham had been most steadfast in upholding the prophet's authority, and most practical in guiding his people. He had rallied the church when Joseph 96 THE NEW PRIEST-KING 97 was in prison in Missouri; he was to rally it again now that Joseph was dead. Brigham Young was in New Hampshire, elec- tioneering in Smith's campaign for the Presidency, when word came of the prophet's death. Shocked but not dismayed, his practical mind leaped at once to the question of the continuance of Joseph's work. Strik- ing his hand on his knee he exclaimed to a fellow- Apostle sitting by him : " The keys of the Kingdom are right here with the Church ! " The language was accurate, though needlessly theological. The keys of the only kingdom with which he was really concerned were in his own strong right fist, and were to stay there till he followed Joseph across a greater Divide than the one over which he led Joseph's people. The strong men of the church who had been sent away in furtherance of Smith's political ambition now turned toward Nauvoo. Brigham and most of the Twelve arrived on August 6. Sidney Rigdon, Brig- ham's only rival, was three days before him. Sidney as the only surviving member of the First Presidency, claimed rulership of the church in Joseph's place. Brigham's partisans answered that the First Presi- dency had ceased to exist at Joseph's death, and that the next highest body, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, succeeded to control. A special conference of the church was called for the 8th of August. Sid- ney presented his claims in an eloquent plea which left the people cold. Brigham swept Rigdon and his pretensions aside in a coarse, contemptuous harangue which set the congregation wild with enthusiasm. His rough confidence and overbearing assurance were proof that these masterless men had found their proper chief. When he arose to speak, a miracle of second 98 BRIGHAM YOUNG sight was vouchsafed to hundreds, who saw before them on the platform, not Brigham, but Joseph; Joseph as he was before the vile mob had pierced his body with lead and spilled his sacred blood on the pro- fane soil of an heretical state. They saw the face of Joseph, heard the voice of Joseph; and they went to their graves believing that on this occasion, the dead prophet was enabled to use the person and voice of the living, and that in some mysterious manner, Brigham and Joseph were melted and mingled until " the twain were as one." By a unanimous vote, the congregation " sustained " the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles with Brigham at their head as high senate and rulers over the desolate church. Before Young had arrived from the East — almost before the body of the martyred chief was cold — the Mormons had voted to abstain from all efforts of vengeance, and leave their wrongs to be righted by the law. There was as much fear as forbearance in this resolution, but it was adhered to even after the first panic had passed; and Brigham not only sanctioned it, but did his best to abolish whatever excuse for hos- tility might have been afforded by the Mormon com- munity before the catastrophe. The same meeting which made Brigham and the Twelve rulers of the church voted to complete the great temple. Mis- sionaries were sent out as if nothing had happened. Everything showed that the Mormons meant to stay at Nauvoo, and wished to be on as good terms as possible with their more powerful neighbours. If at this juncture the people of Illinois had been wise enough to proffer peace and friendship to the Mormons, the history of some parts of our country might have been changed. The prophet was dead; THE NEW PRIEST-KING 99 and with him died his claim to direct and exclusive revelation which was an insurmountable barrier to fellowship with other religious bodies. His successor at first made no claim to prophetic authority; indeed, he then expressly disclaimed it. On August 15, Brig- ham issued his first letter to the church, warning all good Mormons that the place which Joseph Smith had occupied could never be filled by another, and that the Twelve ruled the church by right of their ordination from Joseph. With peace and friendly social inter- course, the Mormon theocracy would have dissolved before it got out of the gristle. It required persecu- tion, multiplied wrongs, undeserved exile, and, above all, the isolation which exile brought, to harden the Mormon people into a veritable kingdom, and set the church theocracy in a mould which endures to this day. Brigham issued his letter to the church, despatched some missionaries, organized the work on the temple, and then turned to a task that must have given him heartfelt satisfaction, the task of settling old scores with Sidney Rigdon. On September 8, a High Coun- cil was held to try Rigdon for divers churchly crimes and misdemeanours. The accused was not present but the trial went on without him, and ended, of course, in his excommunication. When this verdict was carried to the general conference for confirma- tion, those who dared to vote in Rigdon's favour were themselves suspended. Brigham "gavelled" through his will with as high a hand as ever was displayed by a political chairman in a " close " convention. This is one of the many incidents which detract from Brigham's claims to greatness; yet even here, the man's courage is as sharply outlined as his tyran- 100 BRIGHAM YOUNG nical temper. Sidney Rigdon had a large part in forming Mormonism. He held a host of secrets of the church, and some of them were dangerous secrets. He threatened openly to tell all he knew, and bring down the Gentiles in a destroying mob if he were driven from the fold. Brigham picked up the glove on the instant, dared Rigdon to tell whatever he pleased, promised that the Saints had a few tales of their own which Sidney would not care to hear shouted from the housetops; and in the most insult- ing language he could command, invited his old foe to do his worst. It was scarce ten weeks since the prophet's death, his murderers were still at large, the countryside was ready to spring to new aggressions at far slighter provocation than Sidney Rigdon could furnish. Many of the Apostles were trembling in their boots — but not Brigham. It is worthy of note that Rigdon's threat to turn state's evidence was never carried into effect. The same month which witnessed Brigham's final triumph over his former rival saw him increase his family by two more plural wives. One of these, Emily Partridge, was one of the polygamous widows of Joseph Smith. She was seventh or eighth of Brig- ham's spiritual and likewise terrestrial partners, and she bore Brigham seven children. In November of the same year, Brigham took another wife; and in February, 1845, he married another of the widows of Joseph Smith. All told, six of Joseph's widows be- came wives of Brigham. It is not recorded, however, that he made any matrimonial advances to the legal widow of Joseph, Emma Hale Smith. Her alliance would have been worth having in an ecclesiastical sense; but Emma THE NEW PRIEST-iaNG 101 was bitterly opposed to polygamy, and, altogether, not the kind of woman Brigham wished to add or could have won to his expanding household. The fall and winter of 1844-45 passed with little excitement and less good-will between Mormons and Gentiles around Nauvoo. The charter of that city was repealed in January, 1845. In April, the gov- ernor wrote to Young urging him to take his people to California. In the same month, Brigham and most of the Twelve as a committee addressed a dig- nified though somewhat magniloquent appeal to President Polk — an appeal which was never answered. In reality, events were waiting on the trial of the prophet's murderers. Nine men accused of this crime were put on trial May 19, 1845. The case lasted twelve days. There was not a man nor woman in the county who did not know that these accused persons had participated in killing the Smiths; but that knowledge had nothing to do with the outcome of the case. Throughout the trial, armed friends of the defendants occupied the court-room, browbeat the judge, influenced the jury, and intimidated the wit- nesses. The defending lawyers made as brazen a plea for mob rule as ever was heard in a meeting of Molly McGuires. The verdict of " Not guilty " was a pre- destined thing. That verdict, however, was official notice that it was safe to bait and kill Mormons in Illinois, pro- vided one took along enough friends for aids and wit- nesses. Friction between the two parties increased steadily through the summer, and on September 10 began a series of outrages still known as the "burn- ings." Armed bands of Gentiles descended on out- lying Mormon farms, drove the occupants into Nau- 102 BRIGHAM YOUNG voo with only the scantiest personal property, and burned their buildings and grain-stacks. Two weeks of this work sufficed to concentrate the entire Mor- mon population of Hancock county in Nauvoo; while the Gentiles, fearing reprisals, remained constantly under arms. Only one Gentile seems to have suffered; Lieutenant Worrell of the Carthage Grays was killed very handily by " Port " Rockwell. Finally a com- mittee of four prominent citizens, one of whom was Stephen A. Douglas, was sent by the governor to re- store peace in Hancock county. The committee found the Mormon leaders weary of the struggle, and willing to emigrate. Some ar- rangements, probably tentative in character, had been made for removal prior to the " burnings." Brigham Young promised, in behalf of the church, that at least a thousand families, numbering between five and six thousand persons, would move the following spring, without regard to whether their property was sold or not; and that the entire community would go if sales could be effected so as to raise the money. The com- mittee transmitted this pledge to the governor and to the militant Gentile party of Hancock county; the gov- ernor stationed a militia force at Nauvoo to guard the Saints during their preparations for exile, and preparations for the Great Trek began. XII THE LAST EXILE THE rest of autumn and the early months of winter were spent in making ready for the long march. The exact destination of the Saints was uncertain; but all knew that they were to journey beyond the Rocky Mountains. Such a trip required more preparation than had preceded the hasty jumps from county to county and from state to state which had constituted the earlier Mormon migrations. The grim leader now at their head was determined that this should be the last exile his people need endure. He meant to go so far that the new Zion would have time to grow to independent strength before Gentile hostility could again threaten it. The great difficulty in preparing for the trek was poverty. The Mormon community was poor. Most converts were poor when they joined, and the cease- less hostility of their neighbours had kept them so. From Ohio to Missouri, from Jackson county to Clay county, from Clay county to Caldwell county, from Missouri to Illinois — no people could gather much gear while driven from pillar to post in this fashion. The Mormons had to make three guineas do the work of much more than five. Appeals were sent to the brethren in England and the eastern states, and quite a sum was raised in this way. Farms in the country round Nauvoo, and houses, stores and lots in town, were thrown on a stagnant market for sale. The 103 104 BRIGHAM YOUNG proceeds went to buy horses, oxen, wagons, and supplies. The varied industry of the time made partial amends for the lack of ready money. Much that the Mormons could not buy they could make. Nauvoo was turned into a vast wagon shop and tent manu- factory. Such of the brethren as had no skill in these labours were sent to other towns, to find any work that offered, and to send their wages to the emigration fund at Nauvoo. It is at such times that the primitive theocracy or the yet more primitive tribal organization shows to greatest advantage. The Mormon church had lost many adherents in the recent schisms. But among those who remained, there was loyalty and singleness of purpose. They gave unanimous consent to the westward march, leaving their leaders to fix the date and destination. They accepted with equal solidarity the word that those who had wealth must assist those who had none to reach the new Zion. They did not bicker, they did not argue, they did not complain. They worked, obeyed, and were cheerful. The social and political order in which they were enmeshed is death to individuality and progress. But as a means of giving purpose and unity to a motley clan, and of holding it firm in defiance to a world and an age, Mormonism never has been surpassed. In all the activities of Nauvoo, Brigham Young bore a part. He was captain, preacher, counsellor, foreman and, on occasion, skilled labourer. He worked with his own hands on the boats which were to take the people across the great river in the spring, and on the temple, which the Mormons were deter- mined to finish though they knew it must be left to O o n B w w o o THE LAST EXILE 105 their enemies. He sent young men into distant parts of Iowa, Illinois, and even Missouri to buy cattle and horses at cheaper prices than the neighbouring towns were trying to wrest from the needs of Nauvoo, and studied maps of the western country, which con- sisted chiefly of the conventional signs for mountains, with vacant spaces marked " desert " in between. Heber Kimball was Brigham's most constant com- panion in work and study. Brigham wanted support, not advice; a lieutenant, not a counsellor; and in Heber Kimball, the Mormon leader had a follower whose loyalty was akin to worship. There were other and tenderer duties for the Mor- mon chief to perform before starting on the westward trek. Brigham was not yet sufficiently married. He had begun collecting wives shortly after his return from England in 1841. He was the humble possessor of at least five by the end of 1843. He had taken four wives, among them one of Joseph Smith's widows, in 1844; and three wives, including another Widow Smith, in 1845. ^^t there were still at Nau- voo comely maids and matrons willing to be stars in the crown of the prophet's successor; and Brigham gathered five of these to his capacious bosom in the single month of January, 1846. One of the five was another widow of Joseph, of course; it was hardly possible to collect that many eligibles at Nauvoo with- out finding at least one desolate widow of the prophet in the number. Brigham consoled two more of these sad ones for their loss of the fractional currency of matrimony before the sum of his weddings was com- plete. On February 4, 1846, the Mormons began their exodus from Illinois. The season was open — for the 106 BRIGHAM YOUNG moment; and the first passengers were carried across the river on boats which were kept busy day and night until stopped by the ice. On February 5, camp was formed on Sugar creek, in the then territory of Iowa, nine miles west of the point of crossing. By the middle of the month, a thousand persons had gathered at this rendezvous with wagons, cattle, and equipment for the march. The weather had changed, heavy snows were falling, the mercury dropped to twenty degrees below zero, and teams were crossing the Mississippi on ice. Camp life at such a season would have been a severe trial for seasoned soldiers; and women and children as well as men were huddled on Sugar creek. Nine babies were born in tents and wagons in this camp during this frightful weather. American pioneers have been of hardy stock from the first; and never was that hardihood better shown than in this exodus of the Mormons. On February 15, Young arrived at Sugar creek, bringing with him several apostles, and Captain Pitt's Nauvoo band. The campers were given two days to sing and dance themselves into forgetfulness of their troubles, and then Brigham assembled them to receive information and orders. He sketched in outline part of the journey which lay ahead; reminded them that only by discipline and co-operation could they hope to ac- complish such a trip ; and warned them that he meant to keep good order on the march, and that those who took part in it would have to " toe the mark." After this characteristic homily, Brigham returned to Nau- voo, and held a parting service in the almost completed temple, but in a few days he was back at Sugar creek, organizing the campaign. A letter was sent to the governor of Iowa, telling the persecutions which the THE LAST EXILE 107 Mormons had endured, and asking for protection dur- ing the march across the territory. At last, on March I, while snow still covered the ground and bitter nights were still the rule, that march was begun. No people not accustomed to the emergency-filled existence of pioneers could have made that journey. There were no roads. Snows and frost gave way to torrents of spring rain and seas of mud. The emigrants had scarcely half enough cattle for their wagons. Sometimes they covered five miles in a day ; sometimes ten, sometimes not even three. At Chariton river, in a tent pitched on ground covered ankle deep with water, the wife of one of the elders gave birth to a child, who carried through life the name of the stream by which he was born. The emigrants had to ford or bridge streams, and corduroy their way across soft bottom-lands. Food was scarce, and only good discipline and communistic sharing saved the ex- pedition from disaster in the first stage of its journey. At Chariton river, during the halt enforced by floods, the camp was divided into companies with a semi-military organization. Fifty or sixty wagons constituted a company, each with a captain and second in command, and each provided with a commissary. This last was an indispensable officer, for the emi- grants had to buy much of their supplies by the way. They had little money, and little to spare in the way of trade; but what they had was thrown into the com- mon stock, and bartered on the best terms available. Brigham insisted on absolutely honest dealing. Coun- terfeit money was plentiful in those days, and one Mormon passed some of it to an Iowa farmer. Brig- ham' descended in a hurricane of wrath on the culprit, 108 BRIGHAM YOUNG and on the bishop who had pleaded for leniency in the case, and insisted on restitution. His anger was not more a matter of offended morality than of out- raged common sense. He knew that if the first com- pany of Mormons travelling through Iowa passed bad money, the following companies might count them- selves lucky if left to starve. From time to time along the road the Mormons established " travelling stakes of Zion " where some of the emigrants stopped and renting or " taking up " land, planted a crop to be harvested by those who came later on the trail. Other Mormons scattered among the pioneer settlements to work on the farms, taking their pay in flour, grain, and other provisions and sup- plies which went into the common treasury. Not all who thus went down among the Philistines returned safe to Israel; all across Iowa to-day may be found families whose forbears left Nauvoo with the Mor- mons, and stopped by the wayside. But a surprising proportion of these sorely tried men held true to the project of establishing another Zion beyond the deserts and mountains, where wicked men no more could persecute the chosen Saints of God. It must not be thought from this tale of Mormon hardships that their march was a creeping procession of gloom. The emigration had its brighter side; and the Mormons, with their utter trust in the Lord and His regents, were of all people best fitted to gather such brightness as might be had. By the end of April, the rains had ceased. Thenceforward the journey lay across a smiling prairie country, with numerous wooded streams where game was plentiful. By this time, too, the people, grown accustomed to travelling, ordered their life by conditions of the camp, rather THE LAST EXILE 109 than of the home. Many of the better circumstanced families brought cows which were driven along with the teams. The cream thus afforded was hung from axles to be churned by the jolting of the wagons. Bread would be set and raised on the road, and when a halt was made for the night a little dugout in the hillside furnished an oven in which the loaves were baked. When any considerable stop was made, the whole male population of the camp engaged in work for the neighbouring farmers, or planted grain for the later companies to harvest, or made articles for sale or for use in the camp. The handicraft thus practised might not gain approval from modern aesthetes, but it served. The leading party, with Brigham in direct com- mand, reached the Missouri river the middle of June, camped at Council Bluffs, and began building boats for the crossing. The main body, following slowly, stopped at the " travelling stake " of Mount Pisgah, one hundred and thirty-eight miles farther east. Here, on June 26, they were overtaken by Captain Allen, of the regular army, who offered to enlist five hun- dred of their young men for service in the Mexican war which had begun that April. Such Mormons as volunteered were to serve for twelve months, and would form part of the expedition against California. It was believed in Washington that the Mormons in- tended to settle on the Pacific Coast, and Captain Allen mentioned this in his call for recruits. " 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 this entirely at the expense of the United States, and this advance party can thus pave 110 BRIGHAM YOUNG the way and look out the land for their brethren to come after them." Apostle Woodruff, in command at Mount Pisgah, referred the matter to Brigham Young at Council Bluffs. Brigham closed with the proposition at once, and five hundred and forty-nine young Mormons were enlisted. The fighting was ended in California long before they arrived, but they did a certain amount of garrison duty before the expiration of their term. A few remained in California, a few re-enlisted and were lost to the church; but practically all who lived to be mustered out rejoined their brethren. Mormon writers describe this call for troops as a tyrannical demand made upon a weakened and dis- tressed people ; and at the same point to the enlistment of the battalion as proof of the unexampled loyalty of the Saints. Both tales could not be true, and it happens there is not a fraction of truth in either. Captain Allen came, not with a demand for services but with an offer of help, which was seized with eager- ness by a people needing nothing so much as steady employment at cash wages. The government be- lieved it was conferring a favour on the Mormons when it made this offer; they believed they were con- ferring a favor on themselves when they accepted it; and the historian, looking back on the incident, can find no reason to reverse these contemporary judg- ments. The talk about ardent patriotism is a pe- culiarly irritating bit of ecclesiastical hypocrisy, and one which could find currency only among a people singularly untrained in all that patriotism means. Meanwhile, the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo con- tinued unchecked. Major Warren, on guard with a small squad of militia, reported in May that the ferries THE LAST EXILE 111 were carrying across thirty-five teams and a propor- tionate number of human beings every twenty-four hours. As fast as companies could be organized and assembled on the Iowa side, they took the trail for the unknown land of refuge in the West. An inde- pendent witness who rode from Council Bluffs to the Mississippi in July declared that 12,000 Mormons were then moving westward across Iowa. Any hon- ourable antagonism among the Gentiles around Nau- voo would have been satisfied by this wholesale mi- gration; but there were malcontents in the neighbour- hood who had little understanding of honour, and who did not scruple to rouse mob violence against the helpless Mormons who remained behind. Foremost of these counsellors of strife was one T. C. Sharp, editor of the Warsaw Signal. Sharp had been implicated in the murder of Joseph and Hyrum, and had not ceased his efforts to stir up further war against the Mormon community. He brought to the work an energy and perhaps a fanatical sincerity worthy of a better cause; and his credulity or imagi- nation was equal to accepting and circulating any tale of Mormon villainy. So long as Major Warren re- mained at Nauvoo, his cool courage and skilful tact kept the peace. But Warren marched to Mexico that summer, and there was no one to take his place. Sharp managed to stir up the Warsaw militia to a move against Nauvoo early in June; but the heroes found they had forgotten their powder, and returned without making an attack. Next month came a more serious disturbance. A number of Mormons harvest- ing some distance from Nauvoo became involved in a quarrel with a neighbouring farmer, who gathered allies, tied up the Mormons and flogged them. The 112 BRIGHAM YOUNG row spread like a prairie fire; each side seized prison- ers to hold as " hostages " ; the militia officer whom Governor Ford sent to protect Nauvoo found himself opposed by a larger force of militia commanded by the sheriff of Hancock county, who was bent on driv- ing the Mormons across the river forthwith. A little later, the sheriff's posse, now known as " regulators," was placed under command of another militia officer, so that the visible authority of the state was seen on both sides of the controversy. The Mormons asked sixty days in which to complete their migration. This was refused. A Campbellite preacher named Brock- man, a man whose unsavoury reputation gave promise of the evil deeds that followed, was placed at the head of the regulators, and the last " Mormon war " of Illinois was begun. Brockman advanced to the attack of Nauvoo, Sep- tember 12, 1846, with about 700 men. The_ entire Mormon population left in the town hardly exceeded this number; but many so-called "New Citizens," Gentiles from the east and south who had moved in and bought property, took part in the defense. Brock- man scattered his riflemen in the adjacent cornfields, and kept up a noisy fire of artillery. The defenders had no artillery, but they made a substitute by boring out some steamboat shafts, and fired six-pound shots from these impromptu cannon. The town was wholly unfortified; a company of regulars would have en- tered it in fifteen minutes; but after burning powder for an hour or more, Brockman's forces retired, and settled down to a siege. The Mormons lost three men killed and several wounded in the engagement; the regulators lost ten or a dozen wounded, of whom one died. THE LAST EXILE 113 There was no hope of protection from Governor Ford, nor of justice from regulators commanded by Brockman and hounded to activity by T. C. Sharp. But a committee of citizens from Quincy came out to see if they could prevent further bloodshed. After some days of negotiation, a treaty was signed, pro- viding that the Mormons should leave as soon as they could cross the river, except ten men, who were to see to the disposal of the unsold property. Brock- man was to enter the city, but pledged himself not to molest the citizens or the departing Mormons. He kept his word just as long as the presence of a crowd of sight-seers from Quincy put a constraint upon him. The moment he was left in full control, he or- dered all " New Citizens " who had sided with the Mormons to leave at once, and the riffraff under his command enforced the order with the usual aimless brutality of a mob. The wretched remnant of the Mormons fled before their enemies as ih older days the villagers of Italy might have fled before the Huns. Sick men and women were carried away on their beds, sick babies were clutched in their mother's arms as the whole population struggled for the ferries. No one stopped to gather his property; few even halted to seize a day's provisions. They had no tents, no money, and many of them had no horses or wagons. Still they fled; for they believed, and with some show of justice, that any exile was better than to be held prisoners by Brockman's mob. By night of September i8, some seven hundred helpless fugitives were camping on the malarial flats across the river from Nauvoo. Of all attacks by Gentiles on the Mormon com- munity this was the last and the least defensible. It 114. BRIGHAM YOUNG stands without a shred of palliation or excuse. The Mormons were leaving Nauvoo; nearly all of them had already gone. Love of cruelty for its own sake, or desire to plunder the property which might other- wise be sold to the " New Citizens," were the sole rational reasons for violence at this time. Doubtless both motives were present in the leaders of the mob. But that men like Sharp and Brockman could rouse hundreds of citizens to follow them in such a senseless and conscienceless crusade shows once more how thin is the mantle of civilization that drapes the naked savagery of the primeval caves. American citizens did this thing, and American in- stitutions permitted it. By so much, therefore, do our citizenship and our institutions fall short of the democratic ideal of orderly freedom. The raid on Nauvoo repeats the lesson that the great and all but fatal lack in American life is discipline; not the dis- cipline which kings and priests impose on subjects and worshippers, but which free and just-minded men impose on themselves. Had democracy been less riotous, theocracy had been less attractive. But democracy can claim at least the negative merit that it does not train people to work together for ill. Its worst deeds are mild when set beside those of any temporal or spiritual despotism that history knows. The attack on Nauvoo was a crime which the present writers can neither palliate nor deny — but the attack on Nauvoo fades into insig- nificance in the shadow of Mountain Meadows. XIII A LONESOME REVELATION THE wretched victims of mob intolerance re- mained on the malarial flats opposite Nauvoo from September i8, 1846, to October 9. The place of their sojourn was well named " Poor Camp." Many were sick before leaving Nauvoo; and after a few days in camp there were none who could be ac- counted well. Without supplies, without tents, with- out clothing, without cattle, without strong leaders to arouse and lead them on, they huddled in misery, and waited to see whether help or destruction would reach them first. Crazy shelters were rigged to pro- tect the sickest of their number, and tents made of bedquilts gave some screening to women in child- birth — for such there were, even in this gathering of desolation. The elders who remained at Nauvoo to sell property did all they could; a small subscription was taken up for the Poor Camp fugitives at Quincy ; but nothing effective was done until messengers who had been sent West could return with wagons and sup- pHes. Help arrived from the west October 9; and with it a miracle. As the Saints were preparing to take up their westward march with but the scantiest of pro- visions, the Lord sent great flocks of quail which fell among the wagons and boats of the refugees, so ex- hausted that they could be knocked over with sticks or picked up alive with the hands. " Tell this to the 115 116 BRIGHAM YOUNG nations of the earth! Tell it to the kings and nobles and great ones ! " exults Brigham in recounting this instance of Divine favour. It is worthy of remark that the leaders of the party would not permit indis- criminate slaughter of the food supply thus mirac- ulously placed in their hands; and after enough quails had been gathered to vary and replenish their scanty larder, the rest of the birds were allowed to go free. " If we kill when we cannot eat, we shall want to eat when we cannot kill," said Brigham on another, but similar, occasion. It is regrettable that the Indian philosophy thus expressed did not become current among other white men than Mormons. There were now nearly twelve thousand Mormons scattered across Iowa, or in camp across the Missouri river in what is now Nebraska. About four thousand Saints were at this latter place, under the direct com- mand of Brigham Young. Nearly as many more were gathered at Mount Pisgah; and the rest of the total given were distributed at other and smaller camps, some being as far east as Garden Grove. In addition to these, some of the eastern brethren had assembled at New York, to sail for California by sea, and there join the overland migration; for there was a general though not authoritative impression that the Mormons would colonize the Pacific coast. Finally, there were hundreds of young Mormons who had gone down among the Gentiles in search of work, and whose wages, aside from the pittance needed to sup- port their families, went into the emigration chest. Finer or more steadfast loyalty to a cause and a chief- tain never was seen than these exiled, outcast men gave to Mormonism and Brigham Young. The chief camp on the Missouri was known as A LONESOME REVELATION 117 "Winter Quarters." It was the winter home of a scant third of the Mormons on the march; but it housed Brigham Young; and that was enough to make it seem a dwelling of a host. It occupied the ground where now stands the town of Florence, Nebraska. So long as the Saints remained in any region where unhealthful sites existed, they managed to find one; and Winter Quarters was no exception. The low- lying ground along the Missouri was christened " Misery Bottoms " ; and the illness there engendered was not slow in spreading to the slightly higher ground where the camp was pitched. Stagnant pools near the stream were a choice breeding-ground for mosquitoes; and malaria greeted the travellers almost at once. Be- sides malaria, there was another disorder, obscure in nature though resembling scurvy, which the Mormons called " black canker." Indeed, there may have been many different infections in this unlucky camp, for descriptions of disease written by laymen are no great help in historical diagnosis. For three centuries, it is doubtful if any English- speaking lad has received a proper education in the doings of his race without wishing he might have been with Drake, or Hawkins, when they sailed to " barter bold their English steel for Spanish gold " on the shores of the Caribbean. Strong-hearted youth can encounter with a laugh such dangers of those early adventures as are commonly recounted in history. The brave but inept Spaniards were victims, rather than enemies. The real foe of the buccaneers was disease. It was so with the migrating Mormons. The Gentiles who bombarded them with cannon and proc- lamations killed, all told, barely twoscore of their number; the Indians, whom the Mormons held in no 118 BRIGHAM YOUNG small awe, did not dangle the scalp of a single Saint from their belts for years. But at Nauvoo, at Poor Camp, at Winter Quarters, disease slew them by hun- dreds. Colonel Thomas L. Kane says that there were more than six hundred deaths in Winter Quarters before the beginning of winter, and that even so late as De- cember one-tenth of the population of the camp were on the sick-list. At Papillon camp, on the Little But- terfly river, the sickness was even worse. Kane him- self was ill with the fever at this point, and at one time in August a third of the people in camp were sick. There were not enough well persons to bury the dead; and not enough lumber to supply coffins. On the Missouri river, as in a few cases during the march across Iowa, the Mormons adopted the Indian plan of winding their dead in bark stripped from a tree. Before his illness at Papillon, Colonel Kane had opened an old Indian burial mound. When he re- covered, he found that his Mormon host had put the mound to its ancient uses. The trench he had cut through was filled with loosely-covered bodies, and the ground around was furrowed with graves like a ploughed field. Colonel Kane was destined to perform the classic function of a diplomat for his friends, the Saints, on more than one future occasion. His accounts of Mor- mon trials and virtues never suffer from lack of either rhetoric or figures. But we know from other sources that the loss and suffering were frightful, and that the sickness had its way unrestrained until cold weather partially checked its ravages. Faith cure was one of the stock properties of Mormonism when it began; and some leaven of it lingers even to this day. Faith A LONESOME REVELATION 119 may have moved mountains, and certainly has moved multitudes; but plague and cholera and yellow fever and typhoid and malaria seem still to require grosser material means for their eradication. In the matter of safeguarding health, Brigham Young at this time was as ignorant as any of his fol- lowers. But in every other varied need and duty, he was a master. " He sleeps with one eye open and one foot out of bed," declared his admiring follow- ers; and the description seemed true. His finger was on every move the Saints made; and nearly always, it was his finger that pointed the movement. A little city of seven hundred log and turf huts was thrown up at Winter Quarters. The impromptu town was divided into twenty-two wards, each presided over by a bishop. Schools were established — whatever their attitude towards higher learning, the Mormons have been as insistent on primary education as the old New Englanders. Missionaries were sent to England and a few — a very few — to promising points in the eastern states. Machinery for a carding-mill was ordered from Savannah, and later was carried across the plains. Materials for a flour-mill were bought at St. Louis; and when they arrived at Winter Quarters Brigham, as carpenter, superintended the mill's con- struction. The forty-horsepower working capacity which had won him his supremacy never was better shown than in this death-haunted camp on the banks of the Missouri. It is as much a tribute to his watchful foresight and keen knowledge of human nature, as to the compelling power of religious zeal, that despair never seems to have visited a Mormon camp during this heart-search- ing winter. If there was a desertion at this time of 120 BRIGHAM YOUNG Saints who had remained faithful hitherto, the fact has escaped record. Work and prayer, dancing and schooling, alternated in regular order throughout the cold season. Every camp had some sort of musical organization, and the post of musician in a Mormon community entailed steady work, then as now. At Mount Pisgah, Lorenzo Snow was in command most of the winter, and during his term of office he gave a grand party. Snow rejoiced in the possession of a log cabin, fifteen feet by thirty, " with a dirt roof, ground floor, and sod chimney." Here he housed his family of four wives, three of whom bore him chil- dren during their stay at this place. For the party, sheets were hung to cover the walls; clean straw was strewn on the floor; and turnips, hollowed out to hold candles, furnished the required candelabra. There were music, recitations, and at the end a dance. This tale has been told as evidence of a lack of delicacy among the Mormon exiles. The implication may be true, so far as it concerns the giving of a grand ball in such quarters at such a time — a hovel housing a husband and four wives, of whom three were about to become mothers or had just emerged from that travail. But the tale shows as well a determined cour- age, an habitual cheerfulness, and a serene confidence in the outcome of their adventure, despite the troubles that lay so close behind their adventure and towered visibly ahead. These qualities, on an expedition of the sort that engaged the Mormons, are worth more than even a modest reticence and a nice perception of the proper time to give parties to friends. Ever since Brigham had taken command of the church, he had been asked to give revelations, after the manner of Joseph. He had resisted this demand A LONESOME REVELATION 121 at Nauvoo, he had resisted it during the march across Iowa. But now, in Winter Quarters, with spring ap- proaching, in which the next stage of their migration must be undertaken, Brigham had things to say which he thought best to cast in the form of a revelation. It was the only one he gave during his life, and we present it here entire : The word and will of the Lord, given through Presi- dent Brigham Young, at the Winter Quarters of the Camp of Israel, Omaha Nation, West Bank of Missouri River, near Council Bluffs, January 14th, 1847. 1. The word and will of the Lord concerning the Camp of Israel in their journeyings to the West. 2. Let all the people of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and those who journey with them, be organized into companies, with a covenant and promise to keep all the commandments and statutes of the Lord our God. 3. Let the companies be organized with captains of hundreds, captains of fifties, and captains of tens, with a president and his two counsellors at their head, under the direction of the Twelve Apostles ; 4. And this shall be our covenant, that we will walk in all the ordinances of the Lord. 5. Let each company provide themselves with all the teams, wagons, provisions, clothing, and other necessaries for the journey that they can. 6. When the companies are organized, let them go to with their might, to prepare for those who are to tarry. 122 BRIGHAM YOUNG 7. Let each company with their captains and presidents decide how many can go next spring ; then choose out a sufficient number of able-bodied and expert men, to take teams, seeds, and farming utensils, to go as pioneers to prepare for putting in spring crops. 8. Let each company bear an equal proportion, accord- ing to the dividend of their property, in taking the poor, the widows, the fatherless, and the families of those who have gone into the army, that the cries of the widow and the fatherless come not up into the ears of the Lord against this people. 9. Let each company prepare houses, and fields for raising grain, for those who are to remain behind this season, and this is the will of the Lord concerning his people. 10. Let every man use all his influence and property to remove this people to the place where the Lord shall locate a stake of Zion. 11. And if ye do this with a pure heart, in all faithful- ness, ye shall be blessed; you shall be blessed in your flocks, and in your herds, and in your fields, and in your houses, and in your families. 12. Let my servants, Ezra T. Benson and Erastus Snow, organize a company; 13. And let my servants, Orson Pratt and Wilford Woodruff, organize a company. 14. Also, let my servants, Amasa Lyman and George A. Smith, organize a company; 15. And appoint presidents, and captains of hundreds, and of fifties and of tens, A LONESOME REVELATION 123 1 6. And let my servants that have been appointed go and teach this my will to the Saints, that they may be ready to go to a land of peace. 17. Go thy way and do as I have told you, and fear not thine enemies ; for they shall not have power to stop my work. 18. Zion shall be redeemed in mine own due time. 19. And if any man shall seek to build up Himself, and seeketh not my counsel, he shall have no power, and his folly shall be made manifest, 20. Seek ye and keep all your pledges one with an- other, and covet not that which is thy brother's. 21. Keep yourselves from evil to take the name of the Lord in vain, for I am the Lord your God, even the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. 22. I am he who led the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, and my arm is stretched out in the last days to save my people Israel. 23. Cease to contend one with another, cease to speak evil of one another. 24. Cease drunkenness, and let your words tend to edifying one another. 25. If thou borrowest of thy neighbor, thou shalt re- turn that which thou borrowed; and if thou canst not repay, then go straightway and tell thy neighbor, lest he condemn thee. 124 BRIGHAM YOUNG 26. If thou shalt find that which thy neighbor has lost, thou shalt make diligent search till thou shalt deliver it to him again. 27. Thou shalt be diligent in preserving what thou hast, that thou mayest be a wise steward ; for it is the free gift of the Lord thy God, and thou art the steward. 28. If thou art merry, praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving. 29. If thou art sorrowful, call on the Lord thy God with supplication, that your souls may be joyful. 30. Fear not thine enemies, for they are in mine hands, and I will do my pleasure with them. 31. My people must be tried in all things, that they may be prepared to receive the glory that I have for them, even the glory of Zion, and he that will not hear chastisement, is not worthy of my kingdom. 32. Let him that is ignorant learn wisdom by humbling himself and calling upon the Lord his God, that his eyes may be opened that he may see, and his ears opened that he may hear, 33. For my Spirit is sent forth into the world to en- lighten the humble and contrite, and to the condemnation of the ungodly. 34. Thy brethren have rejected you and your testi- mony, even the nation has driven you out; 35. And now cometh the day of their calamity, even the days of sorrow, like a woman that is taken in travail; A LONESOME REVELATION U5 and their sorrow shall be great, unless they speedily re- pent, yea, very speedily; 36. For they killed the prophets, and them that were sent unto them, and they have shed innocent blood, which crieth from the ground against them : 37. Therefore marvel not at these things, for ye are not pure ; ye cannot yet bear my glory ; but ye shall behold it if ye are faithful in keeping all my words that I have given you from the days of Adam to Abraham; from Abraham to Moses ; from Moses to Jesus and his apostles ; and from Jesus and his apostles to Joseph Smith, whom I did call upon by mine angels, my ministering servants ; and by mine own voice out of the heavens to bring forth my work, 38. Which foundation he did lay, and was faithful and I took him to myself. 39. Many have marvelled because of his death, but it was needful that he should seal his testimony with his blood, that he might be honored, and the wicked might be condemned. 40. Have I not delivered you from your enemies, only in that I have left a witness of my name? 41. Now, therefore, hearken, O ye people of my church ; and ye elders, listen together ; you have received my kingdom. 42. Be diligent in keeping all my commandments, lest judgment come upon you, and your faith fail you, and your enemies triumph over you. — so no more at present. Amen, and Amen. 126 BRIGHAM YOUNG It will repay a little study, this revelation. The first eighteen verses, aside from the necessary pre- lude, constitute a military order; and a very wise, keen-eyed, and comprehensive one. The nineteenth verse contains a thinly veiled warning against any am- bitious creatures who might seek to infringe Brig- ham's monopoly of communion with the Lord, and his yet more cherished monopoly of dictating to the Saints. The twentieth to thirtieth verses, inclusive, give some sound social directions, interlarded with a little whole- some grandiloquence, and closing with a counsel of good cheer. From the thirty-first verse to the end, the tone, if not the style, is Joseph's. The explanation of this reversion to type is not far to seek. The same scribes who took down the multifarious outpourings of Joseph now sat to receive and write down the sparing sentences of Brigham. When he had finished the matters about which he really cared, they added the frills without which the document would not have looked like a revelation to them — nor, perhaps, to those for whom it was in- tended. XIV ACROSS THE DESERT JOHN FISKE headed his chapter on early ex- plorations in America with the truthful and al- luring title, " Strange Coasts." But even Fiske did not recognize how wide was the application of the enchanting legend. The tale he told of Balboa and the Cabots and Frobisher and Magellan was true in some degree even to his own day. For three and a half centuries, each generation of dwellers on American soil sent forth a portion of its sons to explore strange coasts; to seek for " something lost behind the ranges "; to push back a little farther the edge of the wilderness, and found new cities or find new graves as fate might decree. Each year the field of exploration dwindled, but until a generation ago something of it endured; and with it endured the spirit of romance and ad- venture. The Mormons were now to take their turn at ex- ploring strange coasts, and adventuring into new lands. Much information — ^most of it untrue — had been brought back by earlier travellers concerning the west- ern country. Little of this knowledge was accessible to the Mormons, and less dealt with things they needed to know. Beyond the Missouri lay the short grass country, beyond that the mountains, farther yet were awesome deserts and still more rugged hills; and after these the coastlands and the sea. Less than nothing was known of the agricultural possibilities of the land, 127 128 BRIGHAM YOUNG even in California; less than nothing of the chances of finding a place where the Latter Day Saints might build a new Zion, and dwell in prosperous aloofness from the world. The first and last recorded revelation of Brigham Young — quoted in the last chapter — was given Jan- uary 14, 1847. Therein is outhned the general plan of the expedition; a pioneer company was to go ahead to spy out the land and plant spring crops, either at the final destination or at some convenient point by the way. Other companies were to follow as they could on the trail blazed by the pioneers. Some were expected to remain at least another season at Winter Quarters, and these would be occupied in reaping the grain left planted for them by the brethren of the advance. From the time the revelation was given, more active and detailed preparations for the move went forward; and by conference time in the spring, the first company was nearly ready to start. Brigham was to lead this pioneer company. He had made every preparation for the trip that could be made with the limited means at his command, including one oblation that was all his own. The Greeks offered sacrifice when setting out on a distant journey. The mediaeval Catholic offered vows; the Puritan offered prayers; but Brigham Young offered marriage. He had added five stars to his celestial crown before start- ing on the trip from Nauvoo; now, in March, 1847, he conferred on two more women the fractional joys of his husbandship. One of these — what need to write it ? — was another widow of the martyred Joseph. She was the last of that sorrowing sisterhood to be comforted on the broad bosom of the prophet's suc- cessor. ACROSS THE DESERT 129 On April 6, 1847, the seventeenth anniversary of the founding of the church, general conference was held at Winter Quarters. The day before, Heber Kimball had taken cattle and wagons and established a camp some miles west on the Elkhorn river, whence the start was to be made. Immediately after the conference, chosen pioneers began to gather at the rendezvous; but Brigham delayed to hear news of the Saints in Britain. Parley P. Pratt was first of the returning missionaries to reach the Missouri, bringing word that some brethren whose peculations had disgraced the church were excommunicated, and that the affairs of Zion were once more prosperous in England. A couple of days later, John Taylor came in, bringing $2,250 in gold contributed by English members of the church. It arrived too late to be of use in outfitting the leading company; but at least it sent them off with good news ringing in their ears. April 14, 1847, the pioneer squadron got away. One hundred and forty-three men — three of whom were negroes — were included in this company. They had seventy-two wagons, ninety-three horses, fifty-two mules, sixty-six oxen, nineteen cows, seventeen dogs, an indeterminate number of chickens — and a six- pound cannon. The company had been picked to in- clude blacksmiths, carpenters, wheelwrights, and sev- eral of those handy Jacks-of-all-trades whom settled industrialism professes to despise but on whom a pio- neer community leans as on a staff. Brigham Young, as commander of the expedition, rejoiced in the title of lieutenant-general; and from this elevation the titles graduated down through captains of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens to the captain of artillery, who was also chief blacksmith. Two historians, Willard Rich- 130 BRIGHAM YOUNG ards and William Clayton, were chosen to preserve for future generations the story of the Great Trek. There were three women and two children in the party. Brigham, his brother Lorenzo, and his friend and lieutenant, Heber Kimball, each brought a selected spouse. Brigham, strange to say, did not choose one of his most recent acquisitions for a travelling help- mate. He took Clara Decker Young, who was No. 6 in his collection, a beautiful girl who had married him at Nauvoo three years before when only sixteen years old. Her mother, Harriet Young ( formerly the Widow Decker), secured permission to accompany the leader's brother, Lorenzo; and Heber Kimball brought along one of his wives, Ellen Sanders Kim- ball. Not least strange among the experiences of these good women on the journey was that of being for a time an only wife. The children were the son and stepson of Lorenzo Young. Discipline of the pioneer company was strict and practical. The bugle blew at five in the morning, when all were to rise, assemble for prayers, feed the cattle, and get breakfast. At seven o'clock the second bugle gave signal for starting. Wherever practical, two wagons moved abreast; and in case an Indian attack was threatened, they were to move five or six abreast. Each man was required to walk beside his wagon, loaded gun in hand, and never to leave the wagon nor lay down the gun without permission of his captain. If his musket had a cap-lock, he was required to re- move the cap and cover the point with a leather casing to protect it from dust and the weather; if a flint- lock, care of equal measure but different nature was enjoined. At half-past eight in the evening, another ACROSS THE DESERT 131 bugle sent every man to his wagon for prayers, and at nine o'clock all save the sentries were to be in bed. There were two watches each night. Early in the journey, after an exciting day, some of the unpractised sentinels slept at their posts — to have their hats and guns taken away from them by their more wake- ful comrades. The ridicule thus pointed helped to tighten the reins of discipline; it was reinforced by the voice of the chief, and the offence was not repeated. They were enlisted for no light adventure. Other pioneers had crossed the plains before, bound even on longer journeys than the Saints were destined to make. But other pioneers took time for preparation, moved when they were ready, and unless they thought their equipment was sufficient, did not move at all. The Mormons timed their journey by the law of grim necessity, and their equipment was anything which harried exiles could save from the wreck of their Nauvoo fortunes, or collect from more fortunate brethren during the sojourn at Winter Quarters. Other pioneers came as the mere overflow of an ad- venturous community. The Mormons were preparing to migrate, not their surplus, but their entire popula- tion. They had no permanent base of supplies, no way open for retreat in case of disaster — save at the price of giving up the church organization which they had come to value more than their lives. They be- lieved — and with some show of reason — that every man's hand was against them. They feared the Mis- sourians who were trekking toward Oregon on the south side of the Platte. They feared the Indians who roamed over rather than occupied the plains. Both terrors were in a large measure groundless; but 132 BRIGHAM YOUNG the Mormons could learn this only by experience ; and until that experience was gained, the pioneer company was more heavily freighted with apprehensions than with provisions. There was another peculiar feature of the Mormon migration. They did not know where they were go- ing. Some had talked of California and some of Ore- gon, and all had recalled Smith's prophecy that his people would be driven beyond the Rocky Muntains. They meant to make that prophecy true; but further than that, their destination was sealed. Brigham gave no information; he possessed none. They were going to build a new Zion in a new land, he said; just where he did not know; but he would know the right place when he came to it. Mormon piety has construed this to mean that Brig- ham had seen the destination of his people in a vision, and that he meant to travel until the place of that vision was reached. Critical history may hesitate at this pious interpretation; but it must accord Brigham a control of his people more wonderful than many clairvoyant trances. Joseph would have described the appointed place in a series of revelations; and had another series to explain the Lord's change of plan if the first visions became impracticable. Brigham en- gaged in no claptrap. He simply said : " Follow me, and I will lead you to a place where you will be safe " — and they followed. They moved by slow stages at first, until men and cattle should be hardened to the trail. Camp was made by the usual plains formula of drawing up the wagons in a circle or oval, tongues pointing outward, with a hind wheel of each wagon locked to the fore wheel of its neighbour to the rear. When camp was ACROSS THE DESERT 133 made by a stream, the wagons were formed in a semi- circle, resting on the water. One or two openings usually were left in the cordon to drive stock in and out. April 21, a week after starting, the emigrants had the pleasure of feeding a visiting troop of Pawnees. Considering the capacity of the Indian commissary department and the scantiness of Mormon supplies, this was quite a task; but the Mormons were glad to come through it without bloodshed. They expected an attack that night, but it did not come. As already intimated, the Indians were a source of awe, rather than of danger. They had had little experience with the white man as yet, and did not view him with any great animosity. They coveted his horses and guns, and their socialistic ideas of property were liable to become active at night — particularly in the dark of the moon; but they had no special desire for paleface scalps. Some years later, when hoodlums en route for California gold-fields tried to prove the white man's superior civilization by shooting an inoffensive squaw, there was serious trouble. Nine days after the visit of the Pawnees the Mor- mons had their first interview with buffaloes. A herd of sixty-five animals was sighted near Grand Island, and an impromptu hunting party killed eleven with little difficulty. Instead of selecting the young and tender beasts, as they learned to do later, these amateur sportsmen took anything from a sucking calf to a patriarchal bull whose flesh would test the jaws of a hyena. Some even tried to kill the old bulls by shoot- ing them in the forehead. A modern rifle would drive a steel-jacketed ball through even a buffalo's head, but the soft lead bullets of that day, fired with a small 134 BRIGHAM YOUNG charge of black powder, simply recoiled from the matted hair and iron skulls. Ever suspicious of mar- vels, the Mormons were inclined to look for some black magic in this, but when a bull was brought down by a shot in some more vulnerable portion of his anatomy, the explanation was clear. The Mormons were travelling up the left, or north, bank of the Platte. The Oregon trail lay south of the river; a well-broken route for those days, on which good pasture and company for protection from the Indians were assured. But south of the river, also, were companies of their old enemies of Missouri, and Brigham feared it would not be well for the Saints of the Lord and the sinners of Governor Boggs to come together. He decided that the Mormons would keep north of the Platte, at least until they reached Fort Laramie. They were a peculiar people, seeking a place to build a peculiar Zion, and they would go by their own peculiar trail. Thus it came that Brigham broke the "Old Mormon Road" — now followed mile after mile by the Union Pacific Railroad. For many days after their first hunt, the Mormons moved among the herds of buffalo. Often the stupid, shaggy brutes were so numerous and close that horse- men had to be sent in advance to scare them out of the path of the wagons. The men feasted in such surroundings, but Brigham forbade needless killing. Coyotes followed the buffalo herd, waiting for a chance to hamstring a calf; and on May 4, the Mor- mons encountered other pensioners of the bison — the Indians. A band of four hundred was reported to be in the trail ahead, and manifesting warlike intent. The party advanced with wagons five abreast and every one on the qui vive till a good camping-place was reached. ACROSS THE DESERT 135 Double sentries were posted that night. Again their expectations of attack were disappointed, though had they been less cautious, the danger might have de- scended. The Indians contented themselves with set- ting fire to the prairie grass. Naturally, the Mormons beHeved this illumination was intended for their an- noyance, but it was a well-known habit of both Paw- nees and Sioux to burn the dry prairie in the spring, that the fresh grass which followed might attract the buffalo. A change of wind and a shower checked the flames and the party advanced next morning as usual. They met no opposition, but the wily Indians man- aged to steal some of their horses during the next few nights. The party were breaking trail for those left behind at Winter Quarters, and much ingenuity was expended in conveying information to the host that should fol- low. Two of the pioneers had devised a cyclometer, which measured distances by the revolutions of the wheels of a wagon; and every ten miles they set up a guide post. The cyclometer was probably not very accurate, but its records were checked by solar obser- vations. Sextants had been brought from England the winter before for this very purpose, and Orson Pratt attended to " taking the sun." Later, when the moun- tains were reached, he made many measurements of altitude. A large packet of letters was sent back to Winter Quarters by Charles Beaumont, a French fur- trader who forded the Platte to visit the Mormon camp. Buffalo skulls were common along the route, and messages were marked on these, and left con- spicuously on the trail. On May lo, the company went still farther in this line, and established the first of the "Mormon post-offices"; leaving a letter in a 136 BRIGHAM YOUNG box fastened to a stout pole. This " post-office " was about three hundred miles from Winter Quarters. They had experienced no serious danger, and the human members of the party were well fed, though on more of a meat diet than would be recommended by starvation specialists to-day. But draught animals cannot eat game, and during this month of May, it seemed as if there were little else to eat. The Indians had continued their prairie-burning tactics. Whether this was done to call the buffalo or to drive away the white man, its results were the same. What grass was left by the flames was eaten by buffaloes. In- creased rations of grain were given the animals, than a part of the slender supply of crackers and bread- stuffs; and still the oxen and horses lost flesh, and often the night would find them only five or six miles from their starting place. On June i, when they lumbered into camp opposite Fort Laramie, it was clear that they would have to find a better trail, or their cattle would never carry them to the Rocky Mountains. Brigham and some elders ferried the river in a skin boat brought along for such uses, and were told by the commander of the fort that to travel farther on the north side of the Platte was well-nigh impossible. They were ready now to listen to the word. A ferryboat was procured, and the entire party crossed to the south side. Even before crossing, however, they had received a band of reinforcements. A party of Mormons from Mississippi had gone west on the Santa Fe trail to Pueblo, where they passed the winter along with the invalids who had been left behind from the Mormon battalion. Seventeen of these Mississippians, most of them belonging to two families, had come to Fort ACROSS THE DESERT 137 Laramie, to intercept and join the general westward emigration of the Saints. They brought word that members of the battalion expected to be ordered to California, though their term of enlistment would expire before they could reach the coast. As it hap- pened, the order was not given. The invalided mem- bers of the Mormon battalion were already marching north to join their brethren. Fort Laramie was a trading-post maintained by the American Fur Company; and naturally was com- manded by a Frenchman. Fur companies must deal with natives on friendly terms, and that is an art the French learned from their coureurs de bois while our Puritan ancestors were burning Pequods in their camp in New England. Captain Bordeaux compli- mented the Mormons on the good behaviour of their party, and gave them information of the difficult route ahead. A halt was made to mend the wagons; but while this was going on, Brigham did a shrewd stroke of business for the necessitous Saints. A party of Missourians, among them no less a per- son than former Governor Boggs, had just passed Fort Laramie, on the Oregon trail. One hundred and twenty-four miles west of the fort, the trail crossed the river once more; and the stream was much too high to be forded. Since he must needs travel by the same route as the Gentiles, Brigham determined to turn the fact to account, and sent on a trusty party with the skin boat to the next crossing. Going light, the boat crew reached the crossing ahead of the Mis- souri party, and the Gentiles were glad to be ferried across. They paid for this service in provisions—* flour, sugar, and bacon — and at Missouri prices. Flour was worth $io per hundred at Fort Laramie; 138 BRIGHAM YOUNG but the ferrymen were paid in, flour rated at $2.50 per hundred, with other provisions marked down on a similar scale. " These supplies were as timely as they were totally unexpected," says the church historian, Whitney. " Their [the Mormons'] provisions were well-nigh exhausted, and to have their flour and meal bags re- plenished in this far-off region, and at the hands of their old enemies, the Missourians, was regarded by them as little less than a miracle. Apostle Woodruff compared it to the feeding of Israel with manna in the wilderness." With the usual partiality of zealots, the Mormons thanked the Lord for this windfall, rather than the Missourians. Amasa Lyman and three companions were sent on horseback to Pueblo to bring on the main body of the Mississippi Mormons, while the seventeen at Fort Laramie went forward with Brigham and his com- pany. They started again June 4, and went by easy stages to allow their famished cattle to graze and pick up a little strength before reaching the mountains. It was June 19 before they had again crossed the Platte. The ferry had done such good work that nine men were left to keep it going until the next company of Saints came along, when the ferrymen were to leave their boat in other hands, and continue the march. It proved a profitable venture. Now began the final climb up the Continental Divide to South Pass. The nights grew cool, and the trail was steep; but the tales which had been told them of deep snows proved untrue, and for days after leaving the Platte they had plenty of grass. On June 26, they crossed South Pass, and seemed sur- prised to find that instead of a steep, walled cleft, ACROSS THE DESERT 139 the famous pass was no more than a " quietly undulat- ing plain, or prairie." Two days later, they reached the point where the Oregon and California trails sep- arated, and taking the left-hand trail, they once more parted company with the road travelled by the migrat- ing Missourians. That evening they met Colonel James Bridger, who maintained a " fort," or trading- post, of his own on Black's Fork, some hundred miles or more east of Salt Lake. Brigham questioned the colonel about the Salt Lake country with a persistence indicating that he had al- ready formed some notion of settling there. Bridger gave emphatic judgment that the region was of no agricultural use. Farther south, the country was more promising, he said; and if they would make slaves of the Indians instead of killing them, they might rub along somehow; but he would give $i,ooo for the first ear of corn they raised in the Salt Lake valley. Colonel Bridger was not much happier as a geo- graphical prophet and agricultural surveyor than Daniel Webster. Travelling was hard, and sickness had begun to show in the company; but few days passed without some enlivening event. On July i, they met Elder Samuel Brannan, who in February of the year before had led a party of two hundred and thirty-eight Mor- mons to California by sea. Things had not gone al- together well with these Saints on the Coast, Brannan reported, but he believed that California was the right place in which to build the new Zion, and had come eastward with a few companions to convert Brigham to the same opinion. That he did not succeed is per- haps due as much to the impossibility of moving the 140 BRIGHAM YOUNG whole church across the continent to California as to Brigham's prophetic disinclination to go there. July 4, the advance guard of thirteen members of the Mormon battalion from Pueblo came into camp, reporting that the rest of the party, one hundred and forty in number, were not far behind. Three days later, the pioneers reached Fort Bridger. The post, famous across a continent, consisted of two incom- parably dirty log-houses on one of the islands of Black's Fork. The Mormons camped a half mile be- yond Bridger, and that night ice formed at their camp. They must have recalled the colonel's dismal prophecies as they gazed on this token of midsummer frosts. Making slow progress when in motion and stopping frequently to shoe horses, repair wagons, and rest the sick, the party struggled forward. Bad as the roads were, sickness had now become their chief difficulty. They were in the grip of "mountain fever"; an un- identified malady whose name has since been applied to mild cases of typhoid occurring in those high alti- tudes. July 12, Young, who had been ailing for some days, was too sick to travel, and an advance guard of forty-three men and twenty-two wagons was sent ahead to break trail. Orson Pratt was put in com- mand of this Scouting party-^if the term scout can be applied to an explorer who travels with ox-teams. They were now fairly engaged in the country of deep-cut canons and tumbled mountains. They crossed one creek thirteen times in going eight miles. Some days, though travelling light, they rested at night only four miles from their starting place. Or- son Pratt and Erastus Snow climbed several eleva- tions and explored in vain for a more promising trail. ACROSS THE DESERT 141 At last, on July 19, Pratt and Snow caught a glimpse of the valley; and three days later their party was camped where now stands Salt Lake City. While still entangled in the mountains, a messenger from Brigham overtook them, telling them to halt and be- gin putting in a crop as soon as they reached the val- ley. When the sick chief joined them, July 24, quite a field had been irrigated, ploughed, and planted. " This is the right place," he said when they halted on a summit to give him his first glimpse of the valley. "Drive on!" XV FOUNDING OF ZION " T T was no Garden of the Hesperides upon which I the Pioneers gazed upon that memorable July morning," remarks the church historian, Whit- ney, in a burst of pious rhapsody which Mark Twain would have hailed with delight. The remark contained rather more sound than sense, but such meaning as it does hold is true. Brigham might declare this the right place to stop — for the obvious reason that he could lead his people no farther; Erastus Snow might indulge in wild hurrahs as he looked down from the hills. But the plain fact was that the Salt Lake Val- ley, viewed with eyes which had been accustomed to the verdure of Illinois, seemed a gray, desolate waste, parching under a midsummer sun. At the foothills was rich grass; on the banks of the few and slender streams was a promising growth of trees. The sky above was that deep, glorious, vital, shimmering blue which only the western mountain-lands can show; a blue varying from palest turquoise to deepest azure, and always with a warm, living quality which the skies of moister lands never possess. The mountains that rimmed this basin were as splendid then as now; and then as now the great lake lay like a change- ful mirror in the sun. But instead of the fertile fields, prosperous farms, rich orchards, and avenues of trees that the valley holds to-day, the chief feature was the sombre sage growing out of an ashen soil. 143 FOUNDING OF ZION 143 " Weak and weary as I am, I would rather go a thousand miles farther than remain in such a for- saken place as this," declared Harriet Young, wife of Brigham's brother Lorenzo, and mother of his own present spouse. She saw the place as it was. Her brother-in-law-son-in-law — relationships are apt to be a bit complicated in Mormon households — saw the place as he hoped to make it; and he knew, moreover, that Mormon resources were not equal to moving on to the next place where settlement was known to be possible. Brigham arrived in the valley to find several acres already planted to crops. The pioneers began plough- ing on City Creek July 23, the day after their arrival, but they found the work very diiferent from what they had known it on the moist prairies of the Missis- sippi valley. Several ploughs were broken in the hard, sun-baked soil, and then some genius suggested flooding it with water from the creek. A rude dam, such as boys use to make a " swimming-hole," was thrown across City creek, and several acres of the low-lying bottoms were drenched. After that, plough- ing went better. Such were the humble beginnings of American irrigation. So far as known, the Mormons were the first men of English speech to carry water to the soil. They did it in a crude awkward way at first, for such is the manner of early greatness. But they started a system of agriculture which has grown until, to-day, fifteen million acres in the United States are under irrigation. Rivers have been turned from their courses, streams have been carried across the Con- tinental Divide, artificial lakes have been created back of dams so gigantic as to seem rather like works of 144 BRIGHAM YOUNG nature than upbuildings of man, to bring the life-giving waters to the thirsty earth. Cities are fed from lands whose natural rainfall would scarcely raise a fair crop of sage brush; and thousands of miles of rail- roads derive their revenue from the products of irri- gated fields. When the Mormon of to-day boasts that his ancestors turned a desert into a garden, and pointed the way in which the aching desolation of the Ameri- can Sahara might be made to yield sustenance for man, he is treading on safe ground. The boast is true. The honour of having turned the first furrow in the Salt Lake valley is claimed by several. The hon- our of planting the first potatoes seems to belong to Wilford Woodruff, already one of the Twelve Apostles, and destined to become president of the church. He had some potatoes which he was saving for seed; and though hungry and thirsty when he reached the newly ploughed field, vowed that he would neither eat nor drink until he had started a crop. Wheat and buckwheat were planted that day, as well as potatoes. The first company of pioneer Mormons, as already stated, reached the valley on Thursday, July 22, 1847. Brigham did not arrive until Saturday, but Pioneers' Day in Utah falls on the twenty- fourth of the month, rather than on the twenty-second. Not the arrival of the leading company, not even the planting of the first crop, is so significant in the eyes of the Mormon people as the arrival of the pioneer prince and priest, who ruled them with a rod of iron for their good and his own satisfaction. At religious services next day, Orson Pratt was preacher. His text was from Isaiah : " How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet FOUNDING OP ZION 145 of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that pub- lisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth ! "Thy watchman shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion." Difficult as it may be for the reader to-day to grasp the fact, this learned man and sunburned pioneer held that the words of his text were a prophecy, applying directly and exclusively to the company assembled be- fore him, and their followers who should join in the building of the new City of God. When Pratt had finished expounding his theme, Brigham addressed a few words to the congregation. He was too weak to stand, and spoke from his arm- chair, but his words were those of a master. Wilford Woodruff reports that speech as follows: " He told the brethren that they must not work on Sunday; that they would lose five times as much as they would gain by doing it. None were to hunt or fish on that day, and there should not any man dwell among us who would not observe these rules. They might go and dwell where they pleased, but should not dwell with us. He also said that no man who came here should buy any land; 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." The italics are ours, and we think they are de- served. The confident, complacent despotism of those italicised words has never been surpassed. Brigham's assurance is too great to be called impudence, too 146 BRIGHAM YOUNG great even to be classified under the irregular but ex- pressive title of " nerve." It approaches the sublime. This sick exile at the head of a band of expatriated ragamuffins proceeds to lay down a law for them and for all who should come after them. He does not ask their advice nor seek their consent. He tells them what the law is. He serves notice that he is the czar of the region in which their tents are pitched; and that any who question his authority or break his rules must leave. He assumes not merely rulership of the valley but ownership of its soil, declares himself ready to share that ownership on terms and conditions, but not for money; and announces that he will distribute acres as seemeth good in his sight, and that those who receive land of his favour must till it in such manner as to win his approval. If anything is more amazing than the colossal as- surance of this speech, it is the fact that to all intents and purposes Brigham made it good. It is worth while, also, to notice Brigham's insist- ence on Sabbath observance and the utilitarian reason he gave for the same — that Sunday work could not prosper. The essential Calvinism of the man's nature never showed more clearly than here. Brigham Young was a son of New England, albeit a son whom New England only mentions in a whisper when call- ing the roll of her great ones. He built an empire and sustained a faith on which New England looks with abhorrence; he extended and perpetuated, though he did not originate, a marriage system of which New England deems it almost a sin to speak. But deep down in his heart, Brigham Young remained a New England Puritan to the day of his death. His was the Puritan's domineering temper, the Puritan's self- FOUNDING OF ZION 147 righteousness, the Puritan's impatience with other peo- ple's sins; and his, lilsewise, the Puritan's abiding faith in the virtue of work, the advantage of thrift, and the necessity of keeping on the good side of a testy-tem- pered Providence. On Monday, July 26, three exploring parties were organized to spy out the land. Brigham told them to search diligently, warning them that they would not find any place so good as the one where the camp was pitched. He was well enough to accompany one of these parties, resting in a carriage. His little prophecy proved correct. On July 28, this party re- turned, Brigham left his carriage, struck his cane on the ground, and said : " Here will be the temple of our God. Here are the forty acres for the temple. The city can be laid out perfectly square, north and south, east and west." This was not a prophecy, it was an order; and the order was obeyed. The forty acres originally spoken of for the temple block were cut down to ten; but the temple stands where Brigham struck with his cane; and north, south, east, and west, the regular squares of Salt Lake City offer perhaps the most perfect example of checkerboard city archi- tecture in America. Other parties came in later; but all agreed that the site selected by Brigham was the proper one for their city. They would have yielded to his will in any event; but, as was usually the case, Brigham had made the right decision. While exploring was going on, other pioneers were ploughing and planting, and all in all, eighty-three acres of grain and potatoes were planted within a few days. The season was too late, and the cultivators were too unskilled in the new science of irrigation, to allow any crops to be a sue- 148 BRIGHAM YOUNG cess; but at least they raised potatoes that made splen- did seed for the next season. July 29, Captain James Brown came into camp, bringing with him that part of the Mormon battalion which had been left at Pueblo and the Mississippi Mormons who had camped there through the previous winter. Men, women, and children, the newcomers numbered two hundred and forty persons, and brought with them sixty wagons, a hundred horses and mules, and some three hundred head of cattle. The term for which the battalion had enlisted had now expired, and after a stay of some days in camp. Captain Brown went on to California with a small guard, to collect the pay due his soldiers. The men themselves re- mained in the valley, or took the backward trail to join their families on the road or in Winter Quarters. Brigham had already decided that a fort was neces- sary for protection. Indians of the Ute and Shoshone tribes had come to the Mormon camp. Though they seemed good-natured enough, they showed the same thieving propensities as their brethren on the plains, and Brigham had all a New Englander's distrust of the red man. The fort, he decided, should be built in the form of a quadrangle — in reality a succession of log or adobe cabins, joined end to end, and built around a square. Elder Brannan, who had been for a season in California, advocated adobe, or sun-dried bricks, for construction; but the men from the east preferred logs. Both materials were used. Several members of the company reported themselves as brick- makers; and every full-grown man those days could swing an axe and notch a log for building. August 2, Orson Pratt began surveying the " city foursquare," < H 1-1 W U 2; w Q m ■£>. Elemental Forces in Home Missions i2mo, cloth, net 75c. By the author of that popular missionary text-book, "Two Thousand Years of Missions Before Carey." 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