Utah and the Mormons/Chapter 8

CHAPTER VIII.

HISTORY CONTINUED.

• Excitement at Nauvoo.
• Struggle for the Succession.
• Rigdon excommunicated.
• Brigham Young elected.
• Further Troubles with the Gentiles.
• The Saints resolve to quit the United States.
• Arrangements for that Purpose.
• Nauvoo besieged, and Mormons driven out.
• Character of Mormon Community, and alleged Persecutions.

The news of the violent death of the prophet produced the wildest state of grief, apprehension, and indignation among the Saints at Nauvoo. Some were exasperated, others terror-stricken, and there was imminent danger of total disorganization. The members of the "Nauvoo Legion" were for avenging the outrage by the strong hand, which, had it been attempted in the then excited state of the public mind, would have led to their entire destruction. The Mormon leaders—of whom one of the most influential was Brigham Young, president of the twelve apostles—exerted themselves successfully to quiet the exasperation of some and the fears of others. Under their advice and management, the wise resolution was adopted to remain peaceable, and trust to the laws for redress. The effect of this movement was immediate. Not only were the Saints in Illinois brought into a state of order and quiet, but two addresses sent forth to those abroad, one of which was signed by Brigham Young, as president of the twelve, dated August 15th, 1844, and both of which manifested much tact and ability, and were well calculated to produce the intended effect.

Order being restored, the next step was to provide a head for the decapitated Church. Young was, of course, a prominent candidate; but the ambitious spirit of Sidney Rigdon was now aroused into activity to reach that position in the hierarchy to which he believed himself entitled, and it soon became evident that the succession was to be contested. In this game Brigham proved himself the better politician. A meeting of the Saints was held, in which it was determined, for the present, that the twelve "held the keys of the priesthood, and the authority to set in order and regulate the Church in all the world." This, in effect, gave Young the control of the Church organization, an important advantage in all political maneuvers.

Sidney, in the mean time, made a bold push for the vacant seat. He got up a revelation, constituting himself the prophet, seer, and revelator of the Church, and giving much new light in regard to its future organization and government, under which he proceeded to ordain "men to be prophets, priests, and kings." But he miscalculated his power. He was immediately brought to trial; and although Joseph had pronounced upon his head one of the choicest of his prophetic blessings, yet a new light now broke into the minds of his judges; his revelations were pronounced to be "from the devil;" his name was loaded with vituperative epithets; and, finally, he was cut off from the Church, and "delivered over to the buffetings of Satan in the name of the Lord, and all the people said Amen."

Sidney Rigdon being thus fairly out of the way, Brigham Young succeeded to the presidency of the Church, without further opposition, on the 7th of October, 1844; and, under his vigorous management, the internal affairs of the Mormons settled down into a state of comparative quiet. The Saints were urged to furnish the necessary means for the completion of the Temple; the work rapidly progressed, and there seemed to be a prospect of returning prosperity. Says the Times and Seasons of December 15th, 1844: "The Temple has progressed with greater rapidity since the death of Joseph Smith than ever it has done before, and things in this city never looked more prosperous."

Nauvoo, at this period, contained a population of 14,000, nine tenths of whom were Mormons (Times and Seasons, p. 759). The following is a description of the Temple, from the same paper:

"The Temple is erected from white limestone, wrought in a superior style; is 128 by 88 feet square; near 60 feet high; two stories in the clear, and two half stories in the recesses over the arches; four tiers of windows—two Gothic, and two round. The two great stories will each have two pulpits, one at each end, to accommodate the Melchisedek and Aaronic priesthoods, graded into four rising seats: the first for the president of the elders and his two counselors; the second for the president of the high priesthood and his two counselors; the third for the Melchisedek president and his two counselors; and the fourth for the president over the whole Church (the first president) and his two counselors. This highest seat is where the scribes and Pharisees used to crowd in 'to Moses' seat.' The Aaronic pulpit at the other end the same.

TEMPLE AT NAUVOO.

"The fount in the basement story is for the baptism of the living, for health, for remission of sin, and for the salvation of the dead, as was the case in Solomon's Temple, and all temples that God commands to be built. You know I am no Gentile, and, of course, do not believe that a monastery, cathedral, chapel, or meeting-house erected by the notions and calculations of men, has any more sanction from God than any common house in Babylon.

"The steeple of our Temple will be high enough to answer for a tower—between 100 and 200 feet high. But I have said enough about the Temple; when finished, it will show more wealth, more art, more science, more revelation, more splendor, and more God, than all the rest of the world, and that will make it a Mormon temple—'God and liberty'—patterned somewhat after the order of our forefathers, which were after the order of eternity."

But, though the Saints could be brought into a state of comparative quiet in obedience to the advice of their rulers, yet it was quite another thing to control the popular feeling in Illinois. After the death of the prophet, there was a short calm, but it was only a lull in the tempest. It was extensively believed that the Mormons had not only resisted the regular administration of the laws, but that they had made their capital city a vast depository for stolen goods, and that within its walls they were guilty of almost every conceivable outrage upon the institutions and decencies of civilized life.

The Mormons endeavored to purge themselves from these charges by holding meetings, and passing preambles and resolutions, avowing their innocence, and expressing their determination to enforce the laws. These measures, however, only produced a temporary cessation of hostilities, and were succeeded by mobs, riots, and other scenes of violence, more or less public or private, until it became quite manifest that Saint and Gentile could not live much longer in peaceable contiguity. Matters were approaching a crisis. A convention of delegates from the surrounding counties was held, in which it was resolved to expel the Mormons from the state—peaceably, if they could; forcibly, if they must; and it became the all-absorbing question with the presidency of the Church, whether to oppose the popular fury, temporize until it should abate, or yield to circumstances and quit the state. Young had sagacity enough to see that the constitution of the Church over which he presided was such that it could never peaceably sustain itself in the States, and that it would be in vain to indulge the Mohammedan dream of conquest which once floated through the brain of the prophet Joseph. He accordingly made diligent efforts to prepare the minds of the Saints for removal beyond the bounds and out of the jurisdiction of the United States.

This was no difficult task. The Mormons had become in some degree a nomadic race; they had broken the ties of kindred and home to gather around their fancied Zion; many of them had left one part of Missouri for another, and then had removed to Nauvoo; some had wandered from beyond the broad Atlantic, and could not, within a few years, form very strong local attachments. Superadded to all this was an intense hatred to the United States, some of whose citizens had inflicted upon them the sufferings, losses, and persecutions of which they complained, and whose government had failed to afford them redress. So intense was this feeling, that they looked exultingly forward to the fulfillment of prophecy, which remorselessly consigned the country to one vast and common ruin, under the visitations of earthquakes, fires, famine, pestilence, and civil wars, from the offended majesty of heaven. There was only one tie difficult to be severed—the Temple. It was a proud monument of architectural grandeur and beauty, reared, beautified, and finally completed by the toil and contributions of all the Saints, in which all had a property—in which all were to pay their devotions, baptize for their dead, and perform the secret ceremonies by which they are initiated into the different degrees and orders of their faith. But the mass were, notwithstanding, ready to go, at the advice or dictation of their rulers. A conference was held in the Temple on the 6th of October, at which the matter was debated and resolved upon, and an epistle was put forth by Brigham Young to the Saints throughout the United States, announcing the determination to remove as early as the next spring; and they were urged to come forward and finish the Temple, and receive their endowments, before bidding a farewell to their beloved city. The place of destination at first contemplated was Vancouver's Island, near the mouth of the Columbia.

Among the curious things to be noted at this period was the excommunication from the Church of William Smith, the sole surviving brother of the prophet. This man, it seems, was ambitious of the succession, and, in the bitterness of his disappointment, had let out some unwholesome secrets in regard to the conduct of the twelve apostles, for which they consigned him over to the "buffetings of Satan;" and the language of the prophet Joseph, while pronouncing a blessing upon his brother, contrasts strangely enough with the denunciations subsequently showered upon the same subject. He became, in Mormon phraseology, an apostate, and spoke in utter condemnation of the designs of the leaders, representing "that it is their design to set up an independent government somewhere in the neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains, or near California; that the plan has been maturing for a long time; and that, in fact, with hate in their hearts, skillfully kept up by the Mormon leaders, whose pockets are to be enriched by their toil, the mass of the Mormons will be alike purged of American feelings, and shut out by a barrier of mountains and Church restrictions from any other than Mormon freedom."

In January, 1846, the plan for removal became more fully developed, as appears by a circular of the High Council of the 20th of that month, in which they say: "We, the members of the High Council of the Church, by the voice of all her authorities, have unitedly and unanimously agreed, and embrace this opportunity to inform you that we intend to send out into the Western country from this place, some time in the early part of the month of March, a company of pioneers, consisting mostly of young, hardy men, with some families. These are destined to be furnished with an ample outfit, taking with them a printing-press, farming utensils of all kinds, with mill-irons and bolting-cloths, seeds of all kinds, grain, &c.

"The object of this early move is to put in a spring crop, to build houses, and to prepare for the reception of families, who will start so soon as grass shall be sufficiently grown to sustain teams and stock. Our pioneers are instructed to proceed west until they find a good place to make a crop, in some good valley in the neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains, where they will infringe upon no one, and be not likely to be infringed upon. Here we will make a resting-place until we can determine a place for a permanent location. In the event of the President's recommendation to build block-houses and stockade forts on the route to Oregon becoming a law, we have encouragements of having that work to do; and, under our peculiar circumstances, we can do it with less expense to the government than any other people."

In the same paper they make strong professions of loyalty to the government, notwithstanding the various injuries they had sustained, and deny that they have been guilty of the crimes laid to their charge. In reference to their property to be left behind, they say, "Much of our property will be left in the hands of competent agents for sale at a low rate, for teams, for goods, and for cash. The funds arising from the sale of property will be applied to the removal of families from time to time, as fast as consistent; and it now remains to be proven whether those of our families and friends who are necessarily left behind for a season, to obtain an outfit through the sale of property, shall be mobbed, burned, and driven away by force."

In reference to the conditions upon which they agreed to leave, they say, "We agreed to leave the county for the sake of peace, upon the condition that no more vexatious prosecutions be instituted against us. In good faith we have labored to fulfill this engagement. Governor Ford has also done his duty to further our wishes in this respect. But there are some who are unwilling that we should have any existence any where."

Brigham Young manifested much ability and forecast in the arrangements to remove a population of some 15,000 souls to a new home beyond the Rocky Mountains. The Saints were divided into different companies, which were to emigrate at different times, so as not to be in each other's way. Places were selected in the Indian country, among the Omahas and Potawatomies, where different sections could make temporary settlements, as resting and recruiting points, until their final removal could be practicable. Especial pains were taken to conciliate the Indians on the entire route; and so perfect were the arrangements in LEAVING NAUVOO. detail, that the degree of suffering was comparatively trifling, except what resulted from the persevering hostility of the people of Illinois. The first band, consisting of something less than 2000, crossed the Mississippi on the ice, in February, 1846. "To see," says the Times and Seasons, "such a large body of men, women, and children, compelled by the inefficiency of the law, and potency of mobocracy, to leave a great city in the month of February, for the sake of the enjoyment of pure religion, fills the soul with astonishment, and gives the world a sample of fidelity and faith, brilliant as the sun, and forcible as a tempest, and as enduring as eternity."

This pioneer band encountered much severe weather and suffering. Other detachments followed from time to time during the season. The Great Salt Lake Valley being ultimately fixed upon as the new Mormon Zion, an advance colony of about 4000 arrived there in July, 1847, and went to work diligently to irrigate the land and put in crops. They laid the foundation of Great Salt Lake City.

Those who still remained in Nauvoo continued their work upon the Temple, deeming the completion of that edifice as essential to the fulfillment of prophecy. This excited the jealousy of the people that they really did not intend to leave the state, and a thousand rumors were put into circulation that the main body would return with a horde of Indian warriors, and take signal vengeance for all their wrongs. But little was wanting to fan into a flame fiercer than ever the hatred which burned in the popular mind. One form of violence succeeded to another, still more flagrant, and finally the luckless Saints who yet lingered within the walls of Nauvoo were regularly besieged in September, 1846, and, after fighting for two or three days, were driven from the place. They made their way in the best manner they could, under circumstances of much difficulty and suffering, to the temporary settlements west of the Missouri. It can never be too deeply regretted that such disgraceful scenes were permitted to occur. The Mormons had manifested their good faith by leaving as fast as practicable, and it was in the last degree cruel, cowardly, and brutal to attack a feeble remnant left behind. These lamentable occurrences gave some plausibility to the charge of religious persecution, which the Saints have not failed to make heard in all lands, and which has contributed so largely to an augmentation of their numbers.

Once more, then, we find these strange people fugitives from their homes, and now seeking an abiding-place deep in the recesses of savage life. The question naturally occurs, Were they really persecuted on account of their religion, or were their habits and practices such as made them intolerable in any civilized community? They had essayed to establish themselves in different states of the Union, and the result would seem to prove that, for some reason, they can not exist in contact with republican institutions—that they present a combination of the elements of popular superstition and fanaticism, which, in its constitution and government, must necessarily interfere with the rights of the citizen, and come into collision with the laws of the land. It was, in fact, the strange anomaly of an independent power within the bosom of the state, which, like a camp of soldiers, believed itself entitled to live at free quarters upon the surrounding population.

At Palmyra, the character of Smith and his family were held in such light esteem, that he could make no proselytes, and he left voluntarily. At Kirtland, Ohio, the popular indignation on account of his alleged swindling operations, to say nothing of other things, reduced him to the vulgar necessity of running away. His disciples became fugitives from Missouri, because, in the language of Governor Boggs, "they had instituted a government of their own, independent of, and in opposition to, the government of the state." They were received in Illinois with open arms, and treated with an extraordinary degree of favor; but, in the end, were driven from the state, after the violent death of their prophet, and compelled to seek shelter behind the Rocky Mountains. And what was the true character of the community at Nauvoo? They admit themselves that their city had become the common resort of thieves, counterfeiters, &c., who sheltered their misdeeds under the bad name of the Saints. The most conclusive evidence, however, is furnished by their own apologist, Colonel T. L. Kane, who delivered a discourse before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania on the subject of the Mormon exode. He says:

"When the persecution triumphed there, and no alternative remained for the steadfast in the faith but flight out of Egypt into the wilderness, as it was termed, all their fair-weather friends forsook them. Priests and elders, scribes and preachers, deserted by whole councils at a time; each talented knave, of whose craft they had been the victims. finding his own pretext for abandoning them, without surrendering the money-bag of which he was the holder. One of these, for instance, bore with him so considerable a congregation, that he was able to found quite a thriving community in Northern Wisconsin, which I believe he afterward transplanted entire to an island in one of the lakes. Other speculative heresiarchs folded for themselves credulous sheep all through the Western country. One Rigdon, not long since, held a cure of them in our own state (Pennsylvania). Quite recently, an abandoned clergyman, who, shortly before the exode, was excommunicated for improper conduct, has presented a memorial to Congress, in which he charges the Mormons with very much more than he himself appears to have been guilty of. This abusive person, a former intimate of the Major-general James Arlington Bennett, lately on trial in New York, in company with a one-eyed Thompson of that city, is also the only surviving brother of the prophet Joseph Smith, and, as such, still claims to be the sole, true president, and genuine arch high-priest" (p. 86).

If the design of the author had been to prove that this community was composed of impostors and dupes, organized and systematized for mischief, like a prowling band of wolves, he could not have stated facts more germain to the matter. Here were, it seems, "whole councils," composed of "priests and elders, scribes and preachers," including William, the prophet's brother—leaders and rulers in Israel—high in office, and high in the confidence of the prophet, and who turn out to be the veriest knaves and villains in Christendom. This would seem to involve a pretty thorough impeachment of Joseph's pretensions, who, as prophet-seer, had no right to be imposed upon by such "fair-weather friends;" and the contiguous population of Gentiles, who claimed neither the gift of prophecy nor seership, may well be excused for believing themselves cheated and robbed by the neighboring Saints.

It is a misnomer to say the Mormons have been persecuted on account of their religion. Religious persecution does not belong to the American mind. Aside from constitutional and statutory protection, all forms and creeds are tolerated, however ridiculous and absurd, provided their practical ultimation do not interfere with the rights of others. Here, however, lies one branch of the difficulty. Mormonism, unhappily, furnishes a justification to the conscience of the fanatical believer for the commission of all the crimes which have been charged to its account. But it is suggested, Why not bring the criminal to justice by indictment and trial? Why resort to force? Here lies another branch of the difficulty. A community like that at Nauvoo possessed almost unlimited facilities for the concealment of crime, in the first instance, and, in the end, for screening the detected offender from justice. A Gentile, whose horse had been feloniously taken from his stable, might trace it to the Mormon capital, but, once within its periphery, and all further trace would be lost: it was then as fruitless a task as hunting Indians in the everglades of Florida without the aid of bloodhounds.

It has been claimed that the hostility against the Saints was stimulated by mercenary men, who coveted their lands and improvements. That it had no such incentive in Jackson county, is evident from the fact that a proposition was fairly made to purchase their property at double its value. The Mormons having rejected this proposition, and being finally compelled to remove under adverse circumstances, it is quite probable that selfish men took advantage of the emergency, in many cases, to buy out their titles at a cheap rate. Such things would happen in any community, and we can not suppose that a Western border population are any more free from unconscientious and grasping spirits than more refined societies. There is probably more foundation for the charge in the break-up at Nauvoo. Cases of individual wrong will always occur in civil commotions. Marauders will always be found, hovering, like carrion crows, around a field of battle, or a besieged city, watching their opportunity for plunder; but it would be short-sighted enough to believe that the war was instigated by them. These occurrences, however much to be regretted, are not to divert our attention from the original causes of the trouble, and these are to be found in the Mormon system itself—in its arrogant religious pretensions, its reeking licentiousness, and its general license to plunder the goods, and trample upon the rights of all "Gentile" communities with which it may happen to be in contact; and the authors and upholders of the imposture must be held accountable, as well for its remote and collateral, as its immediate consequences. It is not for them to complain that, in making war upon the social morality, and the civil and religious institutions of the country, they have not only lost the battle, but come out of the contest with diminished resources.