Utah and the Mormons/Chapter 6

CHAPTER VI.

HISTORY CONTINUED.

• Nauvoo.
• Revelation to build Temple and Tavern.
• Nauvoo Legion.
• Letter-writers.
• Joseph a candidate for the Presidency.
• Letter to Clay and Calhoun.

The Illinoisans received the Saints with an extraordinary degree of favor, and under the unceasing cry of persecution, converts, old and new, flocked in from all quarters. They established themselves in a bend of the Mississippi, in the county of Hancock, where the village of Commerce had been laid out by its proprietor, the name of which they afterward changed to Nauvoo. Nauvoo was one of the names of one of the numerous petty chiefs in British India. About a year. after their involuntary exode from Missouri, something like fifteen thousand Saints were supposed to be settled in and around the new city. To give an impetus to the gathering, Joseph, after an unusual interval, again mounted the tripod, and put forth an elaborate revelation (January, 1841), in which, among other things, Nauvoo was duly appointed one of the stakes, and a temple ordered to be built; to which end, the Saints far and near were commanded to come with their gold, silver, precious stones, and other materiel, of which a goodly enumeration was made.

One of the most powerful levers which he had invented for moving his disciples in temple building was the doctrine of baptism for the dead—that is, that the MORMON BAPTISM. living could be baptized for, and thus save their dead friends—which baptism must be performed in the temple; no other place would give it the requisite efficacy. The Mormon divinity, however, was becoming impatient at the various delays in constructing a residence for him on this mundane sphere, and, to stimulate and encourage his followers, he concluded to revise this doctrine, to suit the emergencies of the period, in the following terms:

"But I command you all, ye my saints, to build a house unto me; and I grant unto you a sufficient time to build a house unto me, and during this time your baptisms shall be acceptable unto me. But behold, at the end of this appointment, your baptisms shall not be acceptable unto me; and if you do not these things at the end of the appointment, ye shall be rejected as a Church with your dead, saith the Lord your God. For verily I say unto you, that after you have had sufficient time to build a house to me, wherein the ordinance of baptizing for the dead belongeth, and for which the same was instituted from before the foundation of the world, your baptisms for your dead can not be acceptable unto me; for therein are the keys of the holy priesthood, ordained, that you may receive honor and glory."

It was quite as essential that the Mormon prophet should be provided for as the Mormon Deity. Accordingly, this same revelation provides for the erection of a tavern, in which Joseph was to have his head-quarters.

"Therefore let my servant Joseph, and his seed after him, have place in that house from generation to generation, forever and ever, saith the Lord; and let the name of that house be called the Nauvoo House; and let it be a delightful habitation for man, and a resting-place for the weary traveler," &c.

This change in the character of the prophet's residence is significant of his growing habits of intemperance and licentiousness—it was only two years subsequent that his revelation in favor of polygamy was concocted—and a tavern, with its bar, and multiplicity of rooms, closets, and passages, would seem to be a fit and characteristic residence for the chief of Mormondon at this period. But alas for the prediction! In a few years from this time, the prophet slept in a bloody grave, and his family and followers were driven from the place which he and his seed, from generation to generation, were to occupy "forever and ever."

Under the influence of fanaticism, fiercely stimulated by persecution, the gathering Saints were active in all departments of industry, and soon became a thriving community. Buildings were erected, farms cultivated, the tavern was built, the temple progressed apace, and Nauvoo rapidly increased. The free people of Illinois, indignant that so peaceable, industrious, and virtuous a community should have been persecuted and driven into exile by the slaveholders of Missouri, extended to them a friendly and fostering hand. Nauvoo received from the Legislature a charter with extraordinary privileges, among which was the power to organize a military force, armed by the state, and under the command of the prophet as lieutenant-general. A formidable band, amounting, ultimately, to 4000 men, called the Nauvoo Legion, was organized, armed, and drilled, ready for any emergency, however desperate, to which the ambition or necessities of their leader might give rise.

Reviews were held from time to time, and flags presented, and Joseph appeared on all those occasions with a splendid staff, in all the pomp and circumstance of a full-blown military commander. The singular spectacle was presented of an independent military power growing and perfecting itself within the state, and rendered fierce and dangerous by religious fanaticism, and the recollections of persecutions suffered. This legion is described by an officer of the U. S. SMITH REVIEWING THE NAUVOO LEGION. army, in September, 1842, as approximating, in regard to appointments and discipline, "very closely to our regular forces." The Mormons at this time, in the United States and Great Britain, were supposed to number about one hundred and fifty thousand, and were on the increase; and this standing army was capable of an indefinite increase. Why was the military organization necessary? The idea of playing the part of Mohammed, and marching back in triumph to the Mecca of the Saints in Jackson county, which had already floated through the brain of the prophet, had probably never been abandoned. Joseph, as the mouthpiece of the Mormon Deity, had predicted, that unless justice were speedily done to his persecuted followers, "the Lord God himself would arise and come forth out of his hiding-place, and in his fury vex the nation;" and the idea of being the executioner of the celestial vengeance may furnish a reason for the organization of so formidable a band. But, fortunately, he was too much engaged in pandering to his animal propensities to be capable of using efficiently the means of mischief within his grasp. To organize and conduct a violent and treasonable revolution in this country requires a larger reach of intellect, greater self-denial, and more determined energy than belonged to the Mormon chief.

Joseph was a skillful tactician. Among the ways and means by which he and his community became favorably known to the world was that of newspaper correspondence, which forms so large a portion of the journals of the day. Strangers would suddenly appear at Nauvoo, and the columns of the widely-circulated New York dailies were often garnished with glowing accounts of the prosperity of the city, the fascinations of the society, and, above all, the extraordinary character of the prophet and his nobility. One, a correspondent of the New York Herald, tells us that

"Joseph Smith, the President of the Church, prophet, seer, and revelator, is thirty-six years of age, six feet high in his pumps, weighing two hundred and twelve pounds. He is a man of the highest talent, and great independence of character, firm in his integrity, and devoted to his religion; in a word, he is a per se, as President Tyler would say. As a speaker, he is bold, powerful, and convincing, possessing both the suaviter in modo and the fortiter in re; as a leader, wise and prudent, yet fearless; as a military commander, brave and determined; as a citizen, worthy, affable, and kind—bland in his manners, and of noble bearing."

Hyrum Smith and other lions in the Nauvoo menagerie are described in equally flattering terms.

Another says: "Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, is a singular character; he lives at the 'Nauvoo Mansion House,' which is, I understand, intended to become a home for the stranger and traveler. The prophet is a kind, cheerful, sociable companion; and as I saw the prophet and his brother Hyrum conversing together one day, I thought I beheld two of the greatest men of the nineteenth century."

These were the palmy days of Mormondom. Missionaries had been sent into all accessible parts of the world, and their zealous efforts were drawing multitudes of credulous people within the Latter-day vortex. Joseph seemed to be in the full tide of prosperity, and in a fair way of realizing all his predictions. He was prophet and seer, commander-in-chief, mayor, and tavern-keeper within his dominions, and as absolute in these several capacities as the Grand Lama of Thibet. He became also a politician, and on the 15th of February, 1844, was duly put forth as a candidate for the presidency by the Times and Seasons, accompanied with a few columns of editorial, in which he was highly lauded for his great qualities. To give eclat to this movement, he published a long address, written in a dashing, devil-may-care style, containing some shrewd suggestions, and curiously illustrating the character of the man, in making cunning appeals to the class of minds which he had gathered around him. At this period, he was ambitious of being considered as a learned man, and the document is queerly interlarded with scraps of almost all the known and unknown languages, dead and living. He goes on to extol the patriotism of the early presidents down to, and including, the administration of General Jackson, quoting from their inaugurals and messages, and commending their policy. General Jackson's administration he regards as the "acme of American glory, liberty, and prosperity;" but the advent of Mr. Van Buren changes the scene:

"At the age, then, of sixty years, our blooming republic began to decline under the withering touch of Martin Van Buren. Disappointed ambition, thirst for power, pride, corruption, party-spirit, faction, patronage, perquisites, fame, tangling alliances, priestcraft, and spiritual wickedness in high places, struck hands, and reveled in midnight splendor. Trouble, vexation, perplexity, and contention, mingled with hope, fear, and murmuring, rumbled through the union, and agitated the whole nation as would an earthquake at the centre of the earth the world, heaving the sea beyond its bounds, and shaking the everlasting hills."

He is particularly severe on Mr. Van Buren's opinion in reference to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia:

"Poor little Matty made his rhapsodical sweep with the fact before his eyes that the State of New York, his native state, had abolished slavery without a struggle or a groan. Great God! how independent! From henceforth slavery is tolerated where it exists, Constitution or no Constitution, people or no people, right or wrong—'vox Matti,' 'vox diaboli'—'the voice of Matty,' 'the voice of the devil;' and, peradventure, his great 'sub-treasury' scheme was a piece of the same mind; but the man and his measures have such a striking resemblance to the anecdote of the Welshman and his cart-tongue, that, when the Constitution was so long that it allowed slavery at the Capitol of a free people, it could not be cut off; but when it was so short that it needed a sub-treasury to save the funds of the nation, it could be spliced. Oh, granny, what a long tail our puss has got! As a Greek might say, hysteron proteron, the cart before the horse; but his mighty whisk through the great national fire for, the presidential chestnuts burned the locks of his glory with the blaze of his folly!"

General Harrison appeared "as a star among the storm-clouds for better weather," but was soon taken away; and "subsequent events, all things considered—Van Buren's downfall, Harrison's exit, and Tyler's selfsufficient turn to the whole—go to show, as a Chaldean might exclaim, Beram etai elauh beshmayaugh gauhah rauzeen—Certainly there is a God in heaven to reveal secrets.

"No honest man can doubt for a moment but the glory of American liberty is on the wane, and that calamity and confusion will sooner or later destroy the peace of the people."

He winds up characteristically with a long list of what he would do if placed in the presidential chair.

In the November previous, Joseph had written to Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, in anticipation that they would be candidates for the presidency, to ascertain what would be their rule of action in relation to the alleged wrongs which the Saints had sustained in Missouri. He received answers from both these distinguished men. Mr. Clay, in general terms, sympathized with the sufferings which they had sustained under injustice, but declined giving any pledges or promises; and Mr. Calhoun reiterated that which he had already stated in an interview with the Mormon chief at Washington, to the effect that the case did not come within the jurisdiction of the federal government. The prophet replied to both; and a few extracts from his letter to Mr. Clay, written May 15th, 1844, will exhibit his aptitude for wordy vituperation:

"In your answer to my questions last fall, that peculiar tact of modern politicians, declaring, 'if you ever enter into that high office, you must go into it free and unfettered, with no guarantee but such as are to be drawn from your whole life, character, and conduct,' so much resembles a lottery-vender's sign, with the goddess of good luck sitting on the car of fortune astraddle of the horn of plenty, and driving the merry steeds of beatitude without rein or bridle, that I can not help exclaiming, O frail man! what have you done that will exalt you?"

"Crape the heavens with weeds of woe, gird the earth with sackcloth, and let hell mutter one melody in commemoration of fallen splendor! for the glory of America has departed, and God will set a flaming sword to guard the tree of liberty, while such minttithing Herods as Van Buren, Boggs, Benton, Calhoun, and Clay are thrust out of the realms of virtue as fit subjects for the kingdom of fallen greatness."

"Why, sir, the condition of the whole earth is lamentable. Texas dreads the teeth and toe-nails of Mexico; Oregon has the rheumatism, brought on by a horrid exposure to the heat and cold of British and American trappers; Canada has caught a bad cold from extreme fatigue in the patriot war; South America has the headache, caused by bumps against the beams of Catholicity and Spanish sovereignty; Spain has the gripes from age and inquisition; France trembles and wastes under the effects of contagious diseases; England groans with the gout, and wiggles with wine; Italy and the German States are pale with the consumption; Prussia, Poland, and the little contiguous dynasties, duchies, and domains, have the mumps so severely, that 'the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint;' Russia has the cramp by lineage; Turkey has the numb palsy; Africa, from the curse of God, has lost the use of her limbs; China is ruined by the Queen's evil, and the rest of Asia fearfully exposed to the small-pox the natural way from British peddlers; the Islands of the Sea are almost dead with the scurvy; the Indians are blind and lame; and the United States, which ought to be the good physician, with 'balm from Gilead' and an 'asylum for the oppressed,' has boosted, and is boosting up into the council-chamber of the government a clique of political gamblers, to play for the old clothes and old shoes of a sick world, and 'no pledge, no promise to any particular portion of the people' that the rightful heirs will ever receive a cent of their fathers' legacy! Away with such self-important, self-aggrandizing, and self-willed demagogues! their friendship is colder than polar ice, and their professions meaner than the damnation of hell."

These letters, published far and wide, served their intended purpose of increasing the notoriety which he already enjoyed.

The query very naturally arises, Had this notorious individual any idea that he could be elected to the presidency? Probably not at the then impending campaign. But the frog in the fable, which was ambitious of the size of the ox, acted in good faith in trying to magnify his dimensions; and why doubt the bona fides of Joseph Smith? The unceasing tide of Mormon emigration had borne him upon its flood to a height of power and grandeur little dreamed of by him at the outset of his career, and he began to fancy himself to be at least in possession of the balance of political power. He had a firm faith in the unbounded credulity of mankind; and having already succeeded far beyond his most sanguine expectations, he became confident of success in any thing he might undertake. In his letter to General Bennett, he says, "I combat the errors of ages; I meet the violence of mobs; I cope with illegal proceedings from executive authority; I cut the Gordian knot of powers, and I solve the mathematical problems of universities, with truth, diamond truth, and God is my right-hand man." But, whatever may have been his own hopes or expectations, there are those among his followers in Utah who firmly believe he would have been elected in 1844 had not his career been cut short by an untimely death. It certainly affords matter for curious speculation, in regard to the state of society at Washington, with Joseph at the head of the nation, and the fashionable hospitalities of the White House in the keeping of his forty wives; to say nothing of his cabinet, composed of Elders Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, &c., with their respective harems. This, to use one of the prophet's pedantic phrases, would have been a pretty fair instance of the prevalence of the "vox diaboli."