Utah and the Mormons/Chapter 10

CHAPTER X.

GOVERNMENT.

• Priesthoods.
• The President is Prophet and Seer: his Power.
• Tithing.
• Individual cases.
• Tithing-office.

The government of the Mormon Church, like its doctrines, has been a matter of after-thought. At first it was simple enough, consisting of the prophet as the supreme head, and the leading men as priests under him, without division into particular orders. As the tide of success, however, began to elevate him upon its swelling flood, and visions of ambition and power floated through his brain, his ideas of government rapidly swelled and expanded, like an anaconda in swallowing a captive tiger. As multitudes gathered into the new Zion and its numerous stakes, they could not be moulded to the prophet's will and controlled without a regular system. This has given rise to a very singular machinery of Church government, part of which is apparent, and part, consisting of secret initiatory ceremonies, is sedulously guarded from profane curiosity.

That which is open to observation has been duly established by revelation, and consists of complicated and imposing machinery; and there is probably no government in the world so well calculated to concentrate despotic power in the hands of a few. There are two priesthoods in the Church—the Melchisedek and the Aaronic (which latter includes the Levitical). All other authorities are appendages to one or the other of these priesthoods. Each priesthood holds the keys of the peculiar mysteries which it has in charge. The key is an important emblem in Mormon symbolics. All heavenly mysteries are duly locked up, and can not be opened except by the agent who is authorized to hold and use the key.

The Melchisedek is the superior priesthood, and consists of high priests and elders; the Aaronic is inferior, and made up of bishops, priests, teachers, and deacons. The Melchisedek priesthood is clustered about with holy sanctions and sublime mysteries, which strike awe into the minds of the simple-minded believers:

"And the sons of Moses, according to the holy priesthood which he received under the hand of his father-in-law Jethro, and Jethro received it under the hand of Caleb, and Caleb received it under the hand of Elihu, and Elihu under the hand of Jeremy, and Jeremy under the hand of God, and God under the hand of Esaias, and Esaias received it under the hand of God; Esaias also lived in the days of Abraham, and was blessed of him; which Abraham received the priesthood from Melchisedek, who received it through the lineage of his fathers, even till Noah; and from Noah till Enoch, through the lineage of their fathers; and from Enoch to Abel, who was slain by the conspiracy of his brother, who received the priesthood, by the commandments of God, by the hand of his father Adam, who was the first man; which priesthood continueth in the Church of God in all generations, and is without beginning of days or end of years."

"The power and authority of the Melchisedek priesthood is to hold the keys of all the spiritual blessings of the Church, to have the privilege of receiving the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, to have the heavens opened unto them, and to enjoy the communion and presence of God the Father, and Jesus Christ the Mediator of the new covenant." (Doctrines and Covenants, p. 101.)

"The power and authority of the lesser, or Aaronic priesthood, is to hold the keys of the ministering of angels, and to administer in outward ordinances—the letter of the Gospel—the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, agreeably to the covenants and commandments." (P. 102.)

These priesthoods have their presidencies, which control them and all below them. The bishopric is the presidency of the Aaronic priesthood, and hold the keys of the same.

The very apex of the pyramid is the presidency of the Melchisedek, priesthood, and consequently of the whole Church. This is the quorum of three, and is commonly called the first presidency, which is the highest authority for the final decision of all questions, and to whom all persons in the Church are subject.

There are also twelve apostles, called also a quorum, who are, in theory, equal in power to the presidency of three; though this is by no means the case in practice. Their decisions, to be of equal weight, must be unanimous, and of the whole body; and as it is their more especial business to go into all the world and preach, under the direction of the first presidency, it is very seldom that they can exercise much effective power.

There are also quorums of seventies, who, in theory, may decide matters for the Church, under the same qualification of unanimity. These seventies are traveling quorums for preaching under the direction of the twelve, as the latter are under the direction of the three. A general assembly of all the quorums constitute the spiritual authorities of the Church.

In extraordinary cases, a high council is convened. This tribunal was organized in 1834 by revelation, as follows:

"1. This day a general council of twenty-four high priests assembled at the house of Joseph Smith, Jr., by revelation, and proceeded to organize the high council of the Church of Christ, which was to consist of twelve high priests, and one or three presidents, as the case might require. The high council was appointed by revelation for the purpose of settling important difficulties which might arise in the Church, which could not be settled by the Church or the bishop's council to the satisfaction of the parties.

"2. Joseph Smith, Jr., Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams, were acknowledged presidents by the voice of the council; and Joseph Smith, Sen., John Smith, Joseph Coe, John Johnson, Martin Harris, John S. Carter, Jared Carter, Oliver Cowdry, Samuel H. Smith, Orson Hyde, Sylvester Smith, and Luke Johnson, high priests, were chosen to be a standing council for the Church, by the unanimous voice of the council."

Each quorum has its president; and the president of the quorum of three is the president of the high council, and over all the Church, from whom "comes the administration of ordinances and blessings upon the Church, by the laying on of hands." Joseph Smith was the first president; Brigham Young is the present one.

The president is "the seer, revelator, and prophet, having all the gifts of God, which he bestows upon the head of the Church." As president of the high council, he may, "in cases of difficulty respecting doctrine or principle, inquire and obtain the mind of the Lord by revelation."

The prophet Joseph was very careful to secure this feature of absolute power, the obedient oracle, of course, always giving the requisite response. In April, 1830, it uttered as follows:

"Behold, there shall be a record kept among you, and in it thou shalt be called a seer, a translator, a prophet, an apostle of Jesus Christ, an elder of the Church, through the will of God the Father, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, being inspired of the Holy Ghost to lay the foundation thereof, and to build it up unto the most holy faith." (Doctrines and Covenants, p. 265.)

And in September, 1830, the following important enunciation was given on this point:

"But behold, verily, verily, I say unto thee, no one shall be appointed to receive commandments and revelations in this Church excepting my servant Joseph Smith, Jr., for he receiveth them even as Moses; and thou shalt be obedient unto the things which I shall give unto him, even as Aaron, to declare faithfully the commandments and revelations with power and authority unto the Church. And if thou art led at any time by the Comforter to speak or teach, or at all times by the way of commandment unto the Church, thou mayest do it; but thou shalt not write by way of commandment, but by wisdom. And thou shalt not command him who is at thy head, and at the head of the Church; for I have given him the keys of the mysteries, and the revelations, which are sealed, until I shall appoint unto them another in his stead." (Doctrines and Covenants, p. 272.)

The Church assemble in conference every half year, and go through with the ceremony of re-electing the prophet as president of the Church; but this is the merest formality in the world, as nobody dreams of trying to reverse the Lord's appointment. Like the parishioners of Knocktarlittie, who always elected the candidate of the Duke of Argyle, the Saints are equally ready to ratify the nomination of the celestial caucus.

By reason of these exalted gifts, the president, in fact, controls and governs the whole Church, the several quorums being the mere instruments of his will. The government of the Mormons has, therefore, from the beginning, been a species of absolute theocracy, or very nearly so. This absolutism has been preserved by various expedients, as the putting forth of revelations from time to time, the performance of miracles by healing the sick, preaching in unknown tongues, and other forms of popular imposition; keeping up a prying system of espionage; sending off turbulent spirits on distant missions; and, more especially, the absorption of nearly all the wealth of the members, under an improved system of tithing and other forms of ecclesiastical appropriation. Some idea of the power claimed by and for the reigning prophet may be gathered from their own statements.

"Who gives me power that, 'at the pointing of my finger,' the hosts of Israel move, and at my request the inhabitants of this great territory are displaced? that at my command they are here? Who gives me that power? Let the world inquire. It is the God of heaven; it is the Spirit of the holy Gospel; it is not of myself; it is the Lord Jesus Christ trying to save the inhabitants of the earth." (Remarks of Brigham Young, Deseret News, August 26th, 1852.)

"When God calls a man to preside, he gives him wisdom to preside, so heap the balance on to me." "I have not the least fear of any division in this Church, for I can turn them whithersoever I will, Amen." (Same, Deseret News, November 6th, 1852.)

"Jesus sought to do the will of his Father in heaven; so it was our duty to do the will of Joseph; and now it is the duty of us all to do the will of Brother Brigham, for he reveals to us the will of God, which is his will. We will do his will as an elder, as a prophet, as an apostle of Jesus Christ, holding the same keys that Peter of old held, the same that Joseph Smith held as an apostle. You all believe this, don't you, without an exception? Well, if this is your faith, if this is your determination, I want you should manifest it by raising your right hands, and saying Av. [A literal forest of hands was the result of this call, and the spacious hall trembled when a simultaneous 'ay' burst from the mouths of over 2000 persons.] There it is, and it can not be any other way." (Speech of Eld. Kimball, Des. News extra, Sept. 14th, 1852, p. 1, 2.)

Those turbulent and ambitious spirits who are restive under superior authority, human or divine, are generally disposed of by sending them as missionaries into foreign countries; and as the most troublesome of these are from the United States, there is not the same effort as formerly to make converts in this country. Of the eighty missionaries sent away in the fall of 1852, only three were sent to the States—one to Texas, one to Washington, and one to St. Louis; the last two being rather intended as resident agents than missionaries. It has been found that the English laboring classes are more amenable to authority, and submit more quietly to tithing and other burdens, and are less startled at the innovations upon the common rules of morality, than the more astute, enterprising, and self-reliant Yankee. And as the South Sea Islanders and Chinese are supposed to be exceedingly plastic on all these points, so important to the welfare of Mormondom, considerable efforts have been made to make proselytes among them.

Tithing, in the Mormon hierarchy, is a regular system of the appropriation of the mass of individual property for the support and aggrandizement of the prophet and his priesthood. In the Jewish Church it was the devotion of a tenth of the increase to sacerdotal purposes. We shall see how much the system has been improved upon by the modern prophet and his coadjutors. By a revelation of February, 1831, Smith discovered that those having property should convey it to the bishop and his counselors for the support of the poor, for the purchase of lands for the public benefit of the Church, and building of houses of worship, &c. In August, 1831, it was revealed that "all the moneys which can be spared, it mattereth not whether it be little or much, be sent up unto the land of Zion, unto them whom I have appointed to receive."

In July, 1838, this important branch of the new dispensation assumed a more definite shape as follows: "In answer to the question, O Lord, show unto thy. servants how much thou requirest of the properties for a tithing?

"1. Verily, thus saith the Lord, I require all their surplus property to be put into the hands of the bishop of my Church of Zion, for the building of mine house, and for the laying the foundation of Zion, and for the priesthood, and for the debts of the presidency of my Church; and this shall be the beginning of the tithing of my people; and after that, those who have been thus tithed shall pay one tenth of all their interest annually, and this shall be a standing law unto them forever, for my holy priesthood, saith the Lord.

"2. Verily, I say unto you, it shall come to pass, that all those who gather unto the land of Zion shall be tithed of their surplus properties, and shall observe this law, or they shall not be found worthy to abide among you." (Doctrines and Covenants, p. 430.)

The key of this riddle very much depended on the true meaning of the words "surplus properties;" and as the point has been construed by those whose pockets were to be replenished from this source, it has been found to signify the complete stripping of the Latter-day dupe of nearly all his available means. On this subject, Elder Phelps, at the September Conference, 1851, discoursed as follows:

"I stand before you to address you on one of the most important acts of life that tends to salvation. Pay your tithing. Yes, from this day, and from this place, let every elder of Israel carry this glad tidings with the Gospel of repentance, that all that pay their tithing shall not be burned, if they obey the ordinances of the Lord. Let every elder, as soon as a convert to the truth of Jehovah is washed from his sins, teach this standing law." Here he quotes the above revelation, and then proceeds thus: "This is plain language; all the 'surplus property' of a Saint belongs to the Lord, or, in other words, to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Then, if an elder baptizes a person worth $10,000, and he only needs $5000 to bring him and his family to the valley, and situate himself with a house and farm, and the necessary appendages to obtain his living, $5000 is the amount of his surplus property to be consecrated to the work of the Lord. So with the man worth $100,000, that needs only $10,000 for himself, $90,000 belongs to the Lord, or to the Church for the public works, as directed by the presidency. What next? In the first case of the $5000 for individual benefit, that comes under the head of 'interest' to be tithed annually, and actually means my portion, my part or lot, and is the 'increase.' Grain, hay, cattle, swine, stock of every description, poultry, fruit, yea, every thing animal or vegetable, together with all the time not employed in producing these commodities, are to be tithed annually while the Saints occupy the earth in the flesh. If he has no property, and is sound in body, then every tenth labor-day belongs to the Lord." (Deseret Almanac, 1852.)

How much a man needs for himself is a question to be decided by "council;" in other words, by the reigning prophet, who, being guided by revelation, can not err. If all is taken, he has no right to complain, because it is revealed to the prophet that property is an injury to him, and he promotes his temporal and future welfare by taking it from him. All good Saints bear this denuding process with exemplary patience. The discontented are made to feel the ten thousand annoyances which may be brought to bear upon them in a community so secluded and so organized; and if they prove too refractory, they are handed over to the tender mercies of the Danites.

This system of plucking, under one pretext or another, has been a distinguishing trait of Mormonism from its commencement. Any number of cases are related at Salt Lake City, a few of which will suffice for the present purpose.

A woman by the name of Vienna Jaques—a square-built, angular Yankee, claiming to be a lineal descendant of John Rogers, of Smithfield memory—was a resident of the city of notions, when she was made a hopeless captive by one of the earliest Mormon missionaries. She "gathered," as in duty bound, at Kirtland, then one of Zion's stakes, with her little fortune, consisting of about $1500 in ready money. The prophet Joseph was, of course, always in want of money; and, like the sink of Mary's River, which absorbs the confluent waters, had a ready skill in extracting from his followers both moieties of their goods and chattels. In due time, the treasures of Sister Vienna were transferred to Joseph's coffers, and she became his creditor, and enjoyed the superior unction of becoming a resident in his family. He, however, tired of her presence, and unceremoniously got rid of her and the debt too by one of those celestial responses which never failed him in time of need. The divine rescript ran as follows:

"And again, verily, verily, I say unto you, it is my will that my handmaid, Vienna Jaques, should receive money to bear her expenses, and go up unto the land of Zion; and the residue of the money may be consecrated unto me, and she be rewarded in mine own due time. Verily, I say unto you, that it is meet in mine eyes that she should go up unto the land of Zion, and receive an inheritance from the hand of the bishop, that she may settle down in peace, inasmuch as she is faithful, and not be idle in her days from thenceforth." (Doctrines and Covenants, p. 332.)

Vienna, in obedience to this command, straightway gathered with the Saints in Missouri; and, as her health was good, and her habits industrious, she managed to gain a livelihood. She has since followed the fortunes of the Saints in all their varying phases, and is now industriously earning her living as a nurse at Salt Lake City—proud that her means have been devoted to Joseph's use—doubly proud that she has been made the subject of a revelation from heaven, and ready to do vigorous battle with any one who ventures to intimate that the whole concern is a veritable humbug.

The case of Captain R****l attracted some attention in the winter and spring of 1853. This gentleman had been a sea-captain, was a resident of one of the British North American provinces, and had amassed a large fortune. His mind, being afloat on religious subjects, was excited with the idea that the last days were at hand, and that the Latter-day Saints enjoyed open communication with heaven, through the medium of their prophet. So rich a galleon was a tempting prize for missionary privateering; and a few extra broadsides, in the shape of miracles, and other et cetera, reduced the gallant captain to submission. Among the many inducements held out for his gathering with the Saints was, that a project was on foot to establish the business of manufacturing sugar from the beet root, on a large scale, in the valley, which would furnish a favorable opportunity for the profitable investment of his capital. Seduced by these representations, he was induced to make heavy advances for the purchase and transportation of the sugar machinery, with the understanding that he was to have a joint-stock interest in the concern, in proportion to the amount invested. His advances are said to have amounted to over $20,000. He repaired to the valley in the fall of 1852, for the double purpose of gathering with the Saints, and looking after his interest in the sugar business. The machinery came, too, but was unceremoniously turned into the public works as the property of the Church; and the captain was given to understand that, instead of making himself the member of a joint-stock company, he had only obeyed a law of tithing, which required an appropriation of his "surplus properties." This did not at first satisfy him, and it was generally understood that he would leave the valley in the spring in disgust; but, as he had other "surplus properties," he was in some way prevented from going; whether by a revelation to suit his case, as in the instance of Sister Jaques, or how, has not been permitted to transpire.

A Mr. C****d, an Englishman of fair fortune, is a fellow-sufferer in the sugar business, and is understood to have advanced large sums; but he is in a much more disagreeable fix. In an unguarded moment, he was seduced to enter more deeply into the mysteries and privileges of the Saints by taking a wife. This, however, would not be worthy of notice, were it not for the material fact, that he has a wife living in England, where there are sharp laws against bigamy. He is from henceforth as helpless a prisoner at Salt Lake as the poor whale stranded upon the beach, which can neither fight nor swim.

A large building has been erected at the capital for a tithing-office, in which one tenth of the grain, beef, pork, butter, and every other product of labor, is received and stored; and in the same building are kept accounts with every member of the Church, in which the amount of the produce of each one is carefully ascertained, and he is charged with one tenth of every thing, including his labor, and credited with what he pays. Branch offices are kept at the principal villages and settlements, from which reports are made. In this manner the presiding prophet is kept perfectly posted up, not only in regard to the condition and prospects of each one, but made speedily aware of the growth and extent of any sentiments of disloyalty to the Mormon rule.

This complete reduction of all its parts to a dependence on its head runs through all the ramifications of the Mormon hierarchy, and probably forms a more perfect blending of Church and State than the world has ever yet seen. The temporal affairs of the community and all its members are governed by its ecclesiastical organization, which, in practice, is absolute, stern, unrelenting, and cruel. A Saint can neither marry, or get divorced, or sell his property, or successfully transact business, or leave the Great Basin, without the consent or against the advice of "council." The laws of Japan are not more minute and searching in their operations.