Early days of Mormonism : Palmyra, Kirtland, and Nauvoo

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EARLY DAYS OF MORMONISM.

Early Days of Mormonism

PALMYRA, KIRTLAND, AND NAUVOO

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OCT 30 1919

A

J. H. KENNEDY

EDITOR OF THE MAGAZINE OF WESTEKN HISTORY

NEW YORK

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

1 888

COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.

PRtSS OF

EDWARD O. JENKINS' SONS
NEW YORK.

PREFACE

Among the many books that have been written
upon Mormonism, there is not one that purports to
be a plain, concise, complete, and unbiased history of
the early days of the Mormon Church, where no
tinge of personal interest existed, and no theory was
to be advanced or defended. The main body of
writers upon polygamy and Salt Lake, have only
referred incidentally to the days of Palmyra, Kirt-
land, and Nauvoo, that they might properly intro-
duce and explain the main topics it was their purpose
to discuss. In these pages the author has simply
told the story of the inception and growth of that
remarkable body of misleading and misled men, from
the birth of Joseph Smith to his tragic death in
Carthage jail, — a story so full of incident and inter-
est that it becomes worthy of narration by itself, as
detached from the final journey across the wilderness,
and the founding of Brigham Young's empire in the
valley of Salt Lake.

The gathering of material upon which this nar-
rative is based has not been the hurried work of a
few weeks or months, but has been carried through
years of unusual opportunity. While all available
authorities who speak in print have been carefully
searched and freely used, their statements have been
supplemented or corrected by many personal inter-

(v)

vi Preface.

views, by search of musty records in county court-
houses, and the examination of files of newspapers
published in the days of Joseph Smith. In deference
to the modern conclusion that even theological his-
tory should not be controversial, no attempt has
been made at argument ; no statement of fact has
been shaded to the color of a personal belief ; no
open question has been decided perforce against the
Mormon creed ; and no conclusion has been reached
that the facts of the case did not seem to warrant.
There has been but one aim in mind : to tell the
story as directly and truthfully as it can be told ; and
to leave the issues that make Mormonism one of the
problems of the age, to those who have studied it from
the moral, religious, or political point of view.

The universal interest of the American people in
all that pertains to Mormonism, and the fact that no
such narration as this exists in print, seem to warrant
its appearance at this date.

CONTENTS.

I. — A Rapid Growth in Fruitful Soil,
II. — The Evolution of the Book,
III. — Sidney Rigdon and the Kirtland Haven, .
IV. — The Life of the Transplanted Tree,
V. — Miracles, and the Gift of Tongues, .
VI.— Kirtland Stake of Zion, and Brigham Young,
VII. — Enemies Without and Within,
VIII. — The Army of Ziox,
IX. — Far West and Nauvoo, .
X.— At the High-Tide of Power,
XI. — Downfall and Death,
XII. — The Scattered Flock, .

PAGE

I

19

60

III

131
153
174
189
210

233
254

Appendix,

265

(vii)

EARLY DAYS OF MORMONISM.

A RAPID GROWTH IN FRUITFUL SOIL.

THERE was no premeditated preparation for the
advent of Mormonism, yet none the less was the
way made straight before it, and all the conditions to
insure its life abundantly supplied. Smith its creator,
Rigdon its evangelist, and Young who saved it in its
supreme hour of fate at Nauvoo, held no divine com-
mission for the founding of a creed, yet each was well
equipped by nature and circumstances in all the essen-
tials for the part he was to play. Had the first failed
at Palmyra, the second at Kirtland, or the third on
the banks of the Mississippi, the complex and dan-
gerous problem of the Salt Lake valley would not
now demand solution at the hands of the nineteenth
century.

The outlines of this great drama of human life and
human folly were unconsciously prepared long before
the lines were written or the parts assigned. The
atmosphere in which Joseph Smith was reared was
saturated with ignorant superstition. The ease with
which his parents and himself were duped, proved to

2 Early Days of Mormonism.

his low cunning that others could be duped as well.
The phases of social and religious life with which he
was surrounded were such as to nourish within him
the grossest germs of spiritual thought with which
he had been endowed. His mother dreamed strange
dreams, had visions, and sold to others the knowledge
of the future which she believed she had received
from celestial sources. For many years she had re-
peated the announcement that a seer was to be born
of her family, and upon Joseph this doubtful honor
was at last laid. He passed through childhood and
into youth under the burden of this annunciation,
and whether or not he wholly believed it in his heart,
it must have colored his mental vision to some de-
gree, and he was shrewd enough to see that it was
not unheeded by many about him, and that it might
be made to serve him in material things. It became
one of the currents of impulse along which he at last
drifted into the creation of a creed. I use the word
drifted advisedly, as all the evidence obtainable shows
that the Mormon scheme grew from one small fraud
set upon another, and that no definite and determin-
ing intention held control in the heart of Smith, until'
he saw by experience the amount of nonsense that
fanatical ignorance would enable mankind to accept
and digest.

That this crude and cumbersome rehgion should
find such ready root, can only be accounted for by
an analysis of the soil in which it was set. The early
years of the nineteenth century were filled with doc-
trinal jousts, in which denomination set itself against
denomination, and creed made war upon creed. The re-
ligious crusades of new and aggressive churches were

A Rapid Growth in Fruitful Soil. 3

waged upon the older organizations with unusual fury,
and with that relentless purpose that is possible only to
ignorance well armed with zeal. There had been no
period yet seen in America, and there has been none
since, in which fanaticism and spiritual fervor took
so close a hold upon the life and thought of the peo-
ple. It was a season of revivals, and the spirit that
was moving the theologians was felt in the lowest
stratum of home and rural life. In illustration it may
be noted that the extended era of the great revivalist,
Lorenzo Dow, commenced in 1796. The works that
for a third of a century came in the wake of his
preaching, were possible only in a season when the
ignorant and over- wrought fear of the people partook
of the surrendering haste that is born of panic. Those
remarkable nervous manifestations known as " the
falling," " the jerking," " the rolling," and " the danc-
ing " exercises, were yet other evidences of the mood
in which certain of the more emotional sections of
America were preparing to receive whatever of truth,
or alleged truth, might be spoken unto them. Very
many of the religious meetings of the day were at-
tended by these remarkable physical and mental
phenomena, that were looked upon by the ignorant
mass as the moving of a divine power upon the bodies
and minds of men.

It was not until 1799 that the great revivals of re-
ligion that afterward so stirred and wrought upon the
West were inaugurated, and the first of an innumer-
able series of ** camp-meetings " held. This method
of reaching men found such favor and became so
popular, that by 1801 we are told that over twenty
thousand people were at times seen in one open-aif

4 Early Days of Monnonism,

gathering. ** In consequence of such a vast assem-
blage of people," says one historian,* " it was impos-
sible for one person to address them ; hence they
were divided into several groups, and addressed by as
many different speakers, while the whole grove at
times became vocal with the praises of God, and at
others pierced with the cries of distressed penitents.
.... The effect was peculiarly striking at night. The
range of tents ; the fires, reflecting light through the
branches of the trees ; the candles and lamps, illumin-
ating the entire encampment ; hundreds of immortal
beings moving to and fro, some preaching, some pray-
ing for mercy, others praising God — all presented a
scene indescribably solemn and affecting. These
meetings soon spread through all the settlements in
the West, and such was the eagerness of the people
to attend, that entire neighborhoods were forsaken,
and the roads literally crowded by those pressing for-
ward on their way to the groves."

A striking and grotesque example of frenzied zeal,
and of arrogant assumption accepted with humble
faith, was furnished by the " Pilgrims " who made
their appearance in the valleys of the Ohio and Mis-
sissippi in 1817. Commencing with a few fanatics in
Canada, they gained in numbers as they moved
across Vermont and New York, and from thence
drifted into the far Southwest, where they finally
dwindled to extinction. They preached a common
stock of property ; they had a prophet who received
advice direct from heaven, and ruled with arbitrary
power, and all things great and small were done in

* " Historical Collections of the Great West." By Henry Howe,
Cincinnati, 1857, page 205.

A Rapid Growth in Fruitful Soil. 5

direct obedience to the inspired voice ; they enjoined
penance for sin ; wore their garments without chang-
ing as long as they would hold together; made of
raggedness and uncleanness a virtue ; and left their
dead unburied where they fell. Yet even they won
followers, and many who heard them were persuaded
that the message they conveyed was divine.

Isolated evidences of this religious trend of the
public conscience and thought might be advanced in
abundance. It was only in 1832 that John Jay Ship-
herd and Philo Penfield Stewart founded the Oberlin
Colony in a forest of Northern Ohio, and promul-
gated the Oberlin Covenant, declaring their purpose
above all things to serve God, and to hold no more
property than each could manage for His interest.
Even such episodes as that of Dylks, the Leather-
wood God, were possible, when a mysterious stranger,
whose antecedents have not yet been discovered,
suddenly appeared in the midst of a Southern Ohio
camp-meeting, in 1828, announced himself as the
real Messiah, whose coming was the beginning of
the thousand years of peace, was soon surrounded
by a sect which accepted him as divine, and would
hardly be driven from him by exposure and public
disgrace.

Rebellion and contention found their way into
many of the churches. The Free-Will Baptists be-
gan, during the closing years of the eighteenth cen-
tury, to make their inroads upon the parent church,
and their doctrine was preached with spirit and
fervor. The Church of God, or Winebrennarian, was
growing and preparing for that great revival of 1825
which set its mark upon portions of Pennsylvania,

6 Early Days of Mormonism,

and was felt to the north and west in isolated
preachings and conversions. The Disciples, who un-
wittingly aided in preparing Eastern Ohio for Mor-
monism, found in this period their field-day of vic-
tory over the older creeds. Thomas Campbell and
his brilliant son Alexander, had set forth to build up
that Christian union which they thought so needed,
and of which the Bible alone should be the founda-
tion. It was at Brush Run, Pennsylvania, on Sep-
tember 7, 1 8 10, that they organized their first effort,
and set the fire of their fervor running through the
West, with results which 'have left their mark upon
the age. The Methodist Church was still feeling the
personal influence of Wesley and Asbury, and its
fervid and aggressive growth was one of the moving
factors of the time. The Reformed Presbyterians had
gained a foothold upon these shores. The Restoration-
ists were preaching the doctrine that all men would
ultimately become holy and happy; to which Hosea
Ballou, in i8i8, added that equally pleasant after-
thought, that all punishment for sin is confined to this
world.

Mother Ann Lee and the Shakers had commenced
their work in America, and it was not until 1784 that
their leader, who claimed to be the revealed Christ in
female form, had departed into that death from which
so many of her followers had believed she was to be
exempt ; but Joseph Meacham and Lucy Wright, to
whom she had yielded the keys of her kingdom,
used all the power of their strong individuality to hold
the society up to the level of its faith, and to add to
its membership and influence. It was in 1831, when
Mormonism was beginning to gain a hold on the

A Rapid Growth in Fruitful Soil. y

minds of men, that William Miller was preaching
the Second Advent and offering to the world that
wonderful drama of superstition that has hardly been
paralleled in the annals of the world — a movement
that strikingly illustrates the grotesque and unrest-
ing spirit of the times. Unitarian and Universalist
were making their inroads on the older faiths and
adding to the theological din and disturbance of the
day, and many believed that the Millennial year had
already dawned.

A spirit, not so much of inquiry as of positive
declaration and assumed revelation, had taken hold
upon the people, and through it ran an expectation
that the times were ripe for some grand change in
man's condition. Whether it should be the second
advent of Christ upon the earth, the destruction of
the world by fire, or the fulfillment of Daniel or
Revelation in the movements of nations or the deeds
of men, could not be clearly read by many ; but that
something strange and marvellous was at hand, was
agreed upon by the mass. A declaration of divine
power or apostolic commission that to-day would be
assigned to the mental derangement or speculative
quackery that had been its cause, was at that period
in danger of finding enough who would believe it,
and be spiritually elated or depressed by the message
it conveyed. No surprise need therefore be felt when
we see men of shrewd business cunning and fair
intelligence in worldly affairs, giving of their faith,
influence, and money to set an audacious charlatan
upon a pedestal of spiritual power, or listening with
rapt attention to the revelations of a youth who was
their inferior in every relation of worldly life.

8 Early Days of Mormonism.

That branch of the Smith family of which Joseph
the founder of Mormonism, was a part, came origi-
nally from Scotland, although his immediate ances-
tors showed few of those strong and industrious
qualities to which the sons of Scotia are natural
heirs. The origin of the future prophet was suffi-
ciently humble to make his later elevation all the
more marked. The obtainable facts concerning his
ancestry are meagre ; but the following statements
can be relied upon, as they are made upon authority
that can hardly be gainsaid. " I have recently been
upon the ground where Joe Smith first saw the light,"
writes Daniel Woodward, Judge of the County Court
of Windsor, Vermont."^ '' The house was upon the
top of the high ridge of land between Royalton and
Sharon ; and the buildings were located in Royalton.
It is a beautiful place in summer, and is secluded
from disturbance by the outside world. Joe's mother
was the daughter of Solomon Mack, an infirm man,
who used to ride about the country on horseback,
using a woman's saddle, or what was termed a side-
saddle. Joseph Smith, Sr., was at times engaged in
hunting for Captain Kidd's buried treasure ; and he
also became implicated with one Jack Downing in
counterfeiting money, but turned State's evidence
and escaped the penalty. The Smith family moved
from the old farm farther into Royalton, about one-
half or three-fourths of a mile from my father's, and
was living there while our house was building, and
Joe came to the raising. I think it was in 1812, and
Joe was then about eight years of age." Anothei

* The Historical Magazine, 1870, p. 316.

A Rapid Growth iii Friiitftil Soil. 9

authority in the same article states that his recollec-
tions of Mr. Mack are very distinct, and that '' his
business on horseback was selling an autobiography
of himself."

The first point of personal interest to which this
narrative can with profit attach itself, is found in
1 8 16, when Joseph Smith, Sr., and his wife Lucy
Mack, and their family migrated from their Vermont
home to Palmyra, New York. Their worldly goods
were few and their children many, Joseph coming
fourth in a line of six sons and three daughters.
Upon reaching their new home in the semi-wilderness
of Western New York, the father gave himself to the
pursuits that had been a part of the old New Eng-
land life. Like others who can be found in any new
and growing community, he was content to make cer-
tain of enough for the day, with no effort toward a
better means of livelihood, and no ambition to have
part in the material advancement and development
going on about him. He gave a day here and there
to manual labor as it came to hand, and filled in the
intervals by attendance upon a small cake-shop he
had found means to open. On rare occasions when
the country people were gathered to the town by
some holiday or political demonstration, the future
Patriarch of the Mormon Church would load his
hand-cart with specimens of his art and go forth
upon the streets, to find such patronage as might
come to hand.

This precarious course of life was followed at
Palmyra some two and a half years, when he de-
cided upon a venture that would have been of
promise had he and his sons been as well supplied

10 Early Days of M or monism.

tvith industry and ambition as they were with skill
for the evasion of sustained toil. He moved his fam-
ily to Manchester, two miles to the south, and took
possession of a piece of timbered land which be-
longed to parties living at a distance. A small log-
house was erected, containing two rooms and a loft ;
and in this the whole family made their residence.
After seven years of squatter possession Smith made
a nominal purchase of the land upon which he was
located, but never paid for it in full, and it passed
out of hi^ hands when he followed the fortunes of his
son to Ohio, and cast his lot in with the Mormon
Church.

The work upon this little farm was done in a care-
less, half-hearted manner. No serious effort was
made for the cultivation of the land, and the forest
was cleared away only as there was demand for its
product. Wood-chopping, the growing of small
crops, the manufacture of baskets and brooms, and
the making of maple sugar in season, were inter-
spersed with occasional forays with the peddler's cart.
Many intervals of lazy lounging occurred on the
part of father and sons, and one keen-eyed neighbor
has left on record the declaration that " the propor-
tionate time given by the Smiths to work of any
kind was largely exceeded by that devoted to hunt-
ing and fishing, trapping muskrats, digging wood-
chucks, and lounging about the stores and shops of
the village." The v/atchful attention of a neighbor
hood where goods v/ere few and the absence of even
a little was missed, caused special attention to be
paid the habits of the Smiths, and it was not long
before their half-vagrant course of life laid them un-

A Rapid Groivth in Fruitful Soil. 1 1

dcr suspicion of all the small thefts of the vicinity.
How much of actual guilt belonged to them it would
be difficult to determine at this late day, but the life
of Joseph and his father in after-years was such as to
deprive them of the benefit of the doubt. As one
has borne vehement and perhaps biased witness :
'* The Smith family (at this period) were popularly
regarded as an illiterate, whiskey-drinking, shiftless,
irreligious race of people," Joseph " being unani-
mously voted the laziest and most worthless of the
generation." *

Joseph, Jr., was born on December 23, 1805, in
Sharon, Vermont,f and was well along in boyhood
when the family migrated to the West. There is lit-
tle in his early days of sufficient importance to attract
historical attention, except the powerful influence his
mother exerted upon him. She was of a morbidly
sensitive nature in reference to matters of religion,
and was no doubt a fanatic rather than a fraud. She
was given to deep reveries, told fortunes, and claimed
to have been miraculously cured of a mortal com-
plaint. She felt the influence of the theological dis-
cussions that were being carried on about her, but in
their complexity she found distraction rather than
relief. She could not surrender her heart and obedi-
ence to any one doctrine, and the nearest she ever

* " Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism." By Pomeroy
Tucker, New York, 1867, p. 16.

f Judge Woodward, in the foregoing statement, locates Smith's
birthplace in Royalton; but as Smith himself gives Sharon, and the
authorities all follow his lead in that respect, the above will be
allowed to stand. The buildings may be in Royalton, but the
Smiths always considered themselves as a part of the other town-
ship.

1 2 Early Days of Mormonistn.

came to naving a fixed religion was when she allowed
herself to be baptized by a minister of the Presbyte-
rian Church, but declined to place her name upon the
roll of church membership. She was convinced that
one of her daughters had been restored to life by a
direct dispensation of divine power, and long before
the removal to New York she had announced the ad-
vent of a prophet in her family, and on the death of
Alvah, the first born, the commission that had been
intended for him was laid upon Joseph.*

The entire training of the youth was in the direc-
tion of his mother's wish. Perhaps the seed of an
actual belief in this destiny was so deeply planted in

*LittelVs Living Age, vol. 30, p. 429 : " The elder Smith had
been a Universalist, and subsequently a Methodist; was a good
deal of a smatterer in Scriptural knowledge, but the seed of revela-
tion was sown on weak ground; ha was a great babbler, credulous,
not especially industrious, a money-digger, prone to the marvel-
lous; and, withal, a little given to difficulties with neighbors and
petty lawsuits Mrs. Smith was a woman of strong, un-
cultivated intellect; artful and cunning; imbued with an ill-regu-
lated religious enthusiasm. The incipient hints, the first givings
out that a prophet was to spring from her humble household, came
from her; and when matters were maturing for denouement, she
gave out that such and such ones — always fixing upon those who
had both money and credulity — were to be instruments in some
great work of new revelation. The old man was rather her faithful
co-worker, or executive exponent. Their son Alvah was originally
intended or designated, by fireside consultations and solemn and
mysterious outdoor hints, as the forthcoming prophet. The mother
and the father said he was the chosen one; but Alvah, however spir-
itual he may have been, had a carnal appetite; ate too many green
turnips, sickened and died. Thus the world lost a prophet, and

Mormonism a leader The mantle of the prophet which

Mrs. and Mr. Joseph Smith and one Oliver Cowdery had wove
themselves, — every thread of it, — fell upon their next eldest son,
Joseph Smith, Jr."

A Rapid Growth in Fruitful Soil. 13

his soul that it bore fruit in all the years of his career,
and was never altogether destroyed by the enlarged
education and knowledge of later years, giving the
key to some things in his character not otherwise
made plain. That he was an immense imposition
upon the credulity of man, and knew himself to be
such, can hardly be questioned; yet under all quack-
ery there usually lies a stratum of self-deception. The
boy's education, or rather the rude smattering of
learning that went by that name, was but added
preparation for that which lay before him ; he was
not given to books, and the few he was persuaded to
read were of vicious tendency, and set his imagination
in the wrong direction. His favorites have been
described as the "■ Life of Stephen Burroughs," a
scoundrel dressed in the garb of the church, and the
autobiography of the pirate Kidd. Smith afterward
made confession that the book last named made a
deep impression upon him, and owned to a special
fascination in these lines found therein :

" My name was Robert Kidd,
As I sailed, as I sailed ;
And most wickedly I did,
God's laws I did forbid,
As I sailed, as I sailed."

A description of young Smith in these days was
afterward written by one who saw him on many
occasions : ** He was lounging, idle (not to say vicious),
and possessed of less than ordinary intelligence. He
used to come into the village of Palmyra with little
jags of wood from his backwoods home ; sometimes
patronizing a village grocery too freely ; sometimes

14 Early Days of Monnonism.

finding an odd job to do about the store of Seymour
Scoville, and once a week he would stroll into the
office of the old Palmyra Register for his father's
paper. How impious in us young dare-devils to
once in a while blacken the face of the then med-
dling, inquisitive lounger, but afterward prophet,
with the old-fashioned balls, when he used to put
himself in the way of working of the old-fashioned
Rammage press But Joseph had a little am-
bition, and some very laudable aspirations. The
mother's intellect occasionally shone out in him
feebly, especially when he used to help us solve some
portentous questions of moral or political ethics in
our juvenile debating club, which we moved .down to
the old red school-house on Durfee street to get rid
of the annoyance of critics that used to drop in on
us in the village ; and subsequently, after catching a
spark of Methodism in the camp-meeting away down
in the woods, on the Vienna road, he was a very
passable exhorter in evening meetings." *

An even less pleasing picture has been drawn by
another, who perhaps studied the boy at closer range
and from a more intimate personal acquaintance.
Between twelve and thirteen years of age he is re-
membered by this witness as '* a dull-eyed, flaxen-
haired, prevaricating boy, noted only for his indolent
and vagabondish character, and his habits of exagger-
ation and untruthfulness He seldom spoke to

any one outside of his intimate associates, except
when first addressed by another, and then, by reason
of his extravagances of statement, his word was

* " Origin of the Mormon Imposture." LittelVs Living Age, vol
30, p. 429.

A Rapid Growth in Fruitful Soil, 15

received with the least confidence by those who
knew him best. He could utter the most palpable
exaggeration or marvellous absurdity with the utmost
apparent gravity. He nevertheless evidenced the
rapid development of a thinking, plodding, evil-
brewing mental composition — largely given to in-
ventions of low cunning, schemes of mischief and
deception, and false and mysterious pretensions.
. . . . He was, however, proverbially good-natured,
very rarely, if ever, indulging in any combative spirit
toward any one, whatever might be the provocation." *
As the boy advanced in years he developed a men-
tal aptitude that, amid more favoring circumstances
and under the stress of seme moral encouragement,
might have grown to usefulness. As he grew away
from the period in which his fancy yielded to Captain
Kidd, the real desire for food of some kind that his
mother had bequeathed him, led him into the nearest
and most open channel that was before him. He
listened to the battle of religious controversy that
was then being waged in Western New York, and
was controlled by its influence as a boy of 1849 niight
have been won to the golden fields of California, or
one of 1856 to the denunciation or defense of slavery.
His reading took a theological turn, and the Bible
became a matter of almost daily study. His mind
was retentive ; he was possessed of a rude eloquence
of speech, and had that rare power of expression that
to the stranger or the simple would seem the outward
form of a sincere belief within. The more mysterious
and complex the chapter of Scripture to which he

* " Origin, Rise, and Progress 01 Mormonism," p.* 16.

1 6 Early Days of Mormonism.

gave attention, the more open and bold his explana-
tion and application when surrounded by auditors
who did not surpass him in knowledge. He was an
attendant upon many of the revivals in the churches
of the neighborhood, and upon one occasion was so
far led as to make a profession of faith, and to join,
upon probation, the Methodist church of Palmyra.
Whether he took this step through the excitement of
the moment or really sought for spiritual light, can
hardly be determined, and in either case the result
was the same. He abandoned even this slight church
connection, and was soon afterward heard denouncing
sectarianism as an evif, and to declare that all the
churches were built upon a false foundation.

That Joseph was led at an early age to hold a
hearty contempt for manual labor, and resolved to
make cunning take the place of muscle, is proved by
every discoverable portion of his record. There was an
almost brutal frankness upon this point by some who
thrived upon his scheming, and it has been again and
again quoted that even Brigham Young declared that
" The Prophet was of mean birth ; that he was wild,
intemperate, even dishonest and tricky in his youth."
We have eminent authority for believing that a prophet
is not often honored in his own country, yet it is sel-
dom that a prophet, even of Mormonism, is sent be-
fore the world with such certificate of character as
was awarded Joseph Smith and his family by eleven
of the most prominent and respectable citizens of
Manchester, who, under date of November 3, 1833,
affixed their names to this emphatic declaration : *

* "Mormonism and the Mormons," By Daniel P. Kidder, New
York, 1842, p. 20.

A Rapid GrowtJi in Friiitficl Soil. ly

" We, the undersigned, being personally acquainted
with the family of Jc^seph Smith, Sr., with whom the
Gold Bible, so called, originated, state: That they
were not only a lazy, indolent set of men, but also in-
temperate, and their word was not to be depended
upon ; and that we are truly glad to dispense with
their society."

As if the above did not cover the ground with
sufficient force and exactness, a supplemental declara-
tion was made on December 4, 1833, and signed by
sixty-two residents of Palmyra ; "^

" We, the undersigned, have been acquainted with
the Smith family for a number of years, while they
resided near this place, and we have no hesitation in
saying that we consider them destitute of that moral
character which ought to entitle them to the confi-
dence of any community. They were particularly
famous for visionary projects ; spent much of their
time in digging for money which they pretended was
hid in the earth, and to this day large excavations
maybe seen in the earth, not far from their residence,
where they used to spend their time in digging for
hidden treasures. Joseph Smith, Sr., and his son
Joseph were, in particular, considered entirely desti-
tute of moral character, and addicted to vicious
habits."

Some portion of this may have been dictated by
envy, malice, or that form of righteousness which
controls men at times when their neighbors have been
more successful than themselves, but the allegations
had a foundation in fact.

* " Mormonism and the Mormons," pp. 20, 21.

1 8 Early Days of Mormonism.

It was by such people, and amid such surroundings,
that Mormonism had birth, an^ was nurtured in its
early days. In an extended and honestly intended
quest along this line of information, I have been un-
able to find that one of the Mormon leaders in the
early days was an earnest, honest-minded believer in
the creed he advocated. Not one of them would
have met martyrdom for conscience' sake. There was
not one who did not value it for the gain there was
to be had of it. This does not hold true of their
followers and dupes, among whom were many who
beggared themselves that their church might live, and
bravely and lovingly met scorn and injustice that
their faith might be made manifest in their works.
It was through them that the church gained all the
stability of which it was possessed ; and it was through
their efforts that Smith and his co-conspirators were
enabled to live in the ease and comfort of which they
made such ready use.

II.

THE EVOLUTION OF TflE BOOK.

THE first venture made by young Smith in the h'ne
of mystification was as a " Water Witch." Armed
with the forked hazel rod he moved from point to
point over the country, successfully locating some
hidden streams, and gaining reputation thereby : and
meeting with many failures, of which all mention was
discreetly omitted by himself and followers. His
father had laid claim to a like power, and contented
himself with its practice ; but the more ambitious boy
soon discovered that a success equal to his expecta-
tions must come from enlarged claims and more
ample powers.

From locating subterranean veins of water he ad-
vanced to the discovery of hidden riches, and was
soon practicing the new profession as zealously as
he had pursued the old. Of his career as a seeker
after hidden wealth many stories have been told,
some of which no doubt are pure fabrications,
while others may have a narrow foundation in fact.
Others are well authenticated. When the Smith
family lived at Manchester, Joseph assisted his father
in well-digging. In September, 1 8 19, they were en-
gaged in such occupation upon the premises of Clark
Chase, near Palmyra, and the famous " Peek Stone "
of ante-Mormon fame was brought to light. With
the earth thrown to the surface, there appeared a

(19)

20 Early Days of Morrnonism.

small stone, shaped something like a human foot,
opaque, and of a clear, whitish appearance.

The children of Mr. Chase claimed it as a matter of
natural possession, but young Joe advanced the claim
of discovery, and carried it home in his hands. Under
the encouragement of his mother, in whose eyes all
things took on a supernatural tinge, the stone became
a fossilized miracle that had been awaiting his coming
for many years. With a bandage over his eyes he
would fall upon his knees and bury his face in the
depths of an old white hat, where the stone was al-
ready hidden. Out of these oracular depths he would
tell his gaping audience where the treasures of Kidd
and others lay concealed ; locate the trail of wander-
ing flocks ; point out the deposit of stolen goods ;
and perform other wonderful things which only those
of that faith which asked no questions could believe.
His father and brothers accepted his claims with a
confidence suggestive of a charming simplicity of
mind, or a purpose of making his cunning of sub-
stantial benefit to the family. The cupidity of neigh-
bors was excited, and they were determined that no
fault of theirs should compel the wealth of the old
buccaneers to longer corrode and rust in the bosom
of the earth.

Companies of diggers were organized, and the
spade and lantern made nocturnal raids in com-
pany. Such faith had arisen in Joseph and the
•' Peek Stone " that in 1820 he was enabled to raise a
small sum of money from his dupes to defray the ex-
pense of reaching a vast deposit of wealth he had
located during one of his explorations of the wonder-
ful hat. At the mid-hour of the chosen night the

The Evolution of the Book. 21

little company, with Joseph in the lead, repaired to a
small hill near his father's house. A mysterious
ceremony was performed by Smith, and the spades
were driven sharply into the earth, in the midst of
profound silence, stirred only by the nervous excite-
ment of those who were there in obedience to an
actual faith. Not a word was spoken, else the magic
of those with whom Joseph was in commune and by
whose sufferance he was present, should whisk the
treasure to some far corner of the earth.

The labor was carried on for two hours, Joseph
standing by with a wand in hand, directing along
what line the shaft should be sent. As the crisis
approached and it was felt that a few strokes more
would crown the venture with success and place
them all beyond the reach of want, the devil made
an inopportune visit and prevailed upon some mem-
ber of the party to speak. The riches that were so
close at hand took unto themselves wings, and were
beyond the reach of spade and peek stone forever.

There were those among the skeptical of Man-
chester who affirmed that one of the Smiths had
spoken at the opportune moment, to relieve Joseph
of an embarrassing dilemma, but those who had set
out to be duped were consistent in their purpose and
refuted all counter argument by declaring that there
was a heavy odor of brimstone at the moment the
speech was heard, and that the very earth vibrated
under their feet, as the iron money-chests were mag-
ically hurled from beneath them.

One other occasion of like character has been placed
on record. After Joseph had pointed out the posi-
tion of the treasure, it was announced that a black

22 Early Days of Mormonism.

sheep must be slain as a blood-offering, upon the
spot, before work could be commenced with any hope
of success. By a coincidence that would be remark-
able to one who did not know the Smiths, a neigh-
bor, William Stafford, who in early life had been a
sailor, and never overcame the superstition of an
ocean life, possessed a fine black ewe that he had
been fattening for the market. The statement of
conditions being made in his presence, he promptly
offered the sacrifice, on condition that he should be a
sharer in the spoils. When the diggers reached the
designated spot a circle was described, the sheep
killed, and the blood sprinkled under Joseph's direc-
tion. The work went on in silence for some hours,
when Satan again made his appearance, and the
scheme was frustrated. Stafford was compelled to
console himself with the belief that the remains of
his sheep had been taken by the Devil as a trophy of
war, and the fact that one of the Smiths had disap-
peared with it some time after the work commenced,
may have been suggested to him, although he was
discreet enough to hold his peace.

This money-digging fraud of the Smiths was kept
up at irregular intervals from 1820 to 1827. The ex-
perience Joseph gained in handling his dupes was of
great aid to him in the larger operations of later
years. He had a natural power over men, and could
gain and hold an ascendency in cases where most im-
postors would have failed. No story that he could
invent seemed too wild for belief, and no failure of
to-day stood in the way of a ready and willing obe-
dience to-morrow. It was this success that led him
on, by gradual stages, to schemes of audacious false-

The Evolutio7i of the Book. 23

hood that even he would have refused to sanction in
the start.

Joseph's own statement as to how he came to turn
his attention to spiritual things, widely differs from
the facts furnished by those about him. His mind,
he says, had been prepared by the incidental reading
of a portion of the New Testament during a great
revival excitement ; and he believed that to ask for
heavenly wisdom was to make certain of an answer.
The Methodists had inaugurated the movement in
the neighborhood, and had received the aid of the
other denominations. When the converts that had
been made by this union movement began to choose
their future church homes, they were naturally con-
fused and perplexed by the special claims of superior
right and safety put forward by each. His mother
gave a nominal adhesion to the Presbyterians, whither
she was followed by two sons and one daughter.
Joseph confesses to a leaning on his own side toward
the Methodists.

Uncertain as to which way he should go, and
torn by conflicting emotions, he was led to retire
to a solitary place in the forest, for prayer and
meditation. ** After I had retired into the place," he
writes, " where I had previously designed to go, hav-
ing looked around me, and finding myself alone, I
kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of
my heart to God. I had scarcely done so when I was
seized upon by some power which entirely overcame
me, and had such astonishing influence over me as to
bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick
darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me
for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.

24 Early Days of Mormonism.

But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to de-
liver me out of the power of this enemy which had
seized upon me, and, at the very moment when I was
ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to de-
struction^— not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power
of some actual being from the unseen world, who had
such a marvellous power as I had never before felt in
any being — just at this moment of great alarm, I saw
a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the
brightness of the sun, which descended gradually
until it fell upon me. It no sooner approached than
I found myself delivered from the power of the
enemy which had held me bound. When the light
rested upon me I saw two personages whose bright-
ness and glory defy all description, standing above
me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling
me by name, and said, pointing to the other, ' This
is my beloved Son — hear him ! ' " *

Burdened with his difficulty as to which church he
should join, he asked his heavenly visitor his duty in
the premises, and was told to attach himself to none,
as all creeds were an abomination. Darkness then
passed upon his vision, and when he came once more
to his normal condition he found himself prone upon
his back, with his gaze turned heavenward.

Pursuing his narrative, Joseph states that he con-
tinued at his farm work, and in three years, on the
2 1 St of September, 1823, was granted another and
far more important visit from the upper world. Upon
retiring in the evening of the day last mentioned, he
betook himself to prayer, asking forgiveness for his

* " The Rocky Mountain Saints." By T. B. H. Stenhouse, New
York, 1873, p. 15.

The Evolution of the Book. 25

many sins and follies, and also for a manifestation,
that he might know of his religious standing. He
felt "full confidence" in receiving a response, and
while thus in the act of calling upon God, discovered
a light in the room, "which continued to increase
until the room was lighter than at noonday."

A person appeared at his bedside, " standing in the
air, for his feet did not touch the floor. He had on a
loose robe of most exquisite whiteness." His hands
and feet were naked ; his head and neck bare. The
youth felt no fear. The visitor called him by name,
and said that he was a messenger from God ; that
God had a work for him to do, and that his name
should be had for good or evil among all nations,
kindreds, and tongues. He said there was a book
deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account
of the former inhabitants of this continent and the
source from whence they sprung. That the fullness
of the everlasting gospel was contained in it as de-
livered by the Saviour to the ancient races of the
world.

Also that " there were two stones in silver bows
(and these stones fastened to a breastplate, con-
stituted what is called the Urim and Thummim) de-
posited with the plates, and the possession and
use of these stones was what constituted seers in
ancient or former times, and that God had prepared
them for the purpose of translating the book." After
relating these things the angel quoted many proph-
ecies of the Old Testament, declaring that they were
not yet fulfilled. He aftenvard told Joseph that
Avhen he was given the plates he should not show
them, nor the breastplate, to any person excepting to

26 Early Days of Mormonisni.

those to whom he should be commanded to show
them. If he did he should be destroyed. Twice
more during the night the messenger approached in
the same manner, rehearsing the same thing, and on
the third visit added a caution that Satan, on account
of the poverty of the Smiths, would tempt Joseph to
get the plates for mercenary uses, but that he must
be influenced by no other purpose than a desire to
build up a kingdom.

The mental excitement attendant upon this inter-
view was such that when Joseph went to his labor
on the following day he was so exhausted that his
father insisted upon his returning home. In doing so
he attempted to cross a fence, but his strength failed
him, and he fell to the ground in an unconscious con-
dition. The first thing he recollected was hearing
his name called, and when he looked up he beheld
the same messenger standing over his head and
surrounded by light. All that had been related dur-
ing the night was again told him, and he was instruct-
ed to tell his father of the visions and the command-
ments he had received. He returned and did so, and
his father replied that it was of God, and bade him
go and do as directed. Joseph immediately repaired
to the locality where he had been told the plates
were deposited, and at once recognized it.

Smith's statement continues : "■ On the west side
of this hill, not far from the top, under a stone of
considerable size, lay the plates, deposited in a stone
box. This stone was thick and rounded in the middle
on the upper side, and thinner toward the edges, so
that the middle part of it was visible above the
ground, but the edge all around was covered with

The Evolution of the Book. 2J

earth. Having removed the earth and obtained a
lever which I got fixed under the edge of the stone,
and with a Httle exertion, raised it up, I looked
in and there, indeed, did I behold the plates ; the
Urim and Thummim and breastplate as stated by the
messenger.

" The box in which they lay, was formed by laying
stones together in some kind of cement. In the
bottom of the box were laid two stones crossways
of the box, and on these stones laid the plates, and
the other things with them. I made an attempt
to take them out, but was forbidden by the messen-
ger. I was again informed that the time for bringing
them out had not yet arrived, neither would until
four years from that time ; but he told me that I
should come to that place precisely in one year from
that time, and that he would there meet with me, and
that I should continue to do so until the time should
come for obtaining the plates." *

Joseph obeyed the command of the angel, and
every year met him at the appointed spot to receive
his instructions as to what the Lord wished done, as
well as revelations as to the manner in which His
kingdom was to be governed in the latter days.

Joseph's father attempted to describe the beginning

*One mile from the Smith residence was the farm of Alonzo
Saunders, four miles south of Palmyra. It includes the now fam-
ous hill, which rises abruptly to the height of one hundred and
fifty feet ; the ridge runs almost due north and south, and from the
summit thereof beautiful views of the hills surrounding Canan-
daigua and Seneca Lakes may be obtained. It is known to the
present generation as "Gold Bible Hill." To Joseph it was the
Hill Cumorah.

28 Early Days of Mormonism.

of these things, in an interview in 1830,* when the
claims of the young man had begun to be noised
abroad. He declared that when the son was fourteen
years of age, and yet very illiterate, he happened one
day to be present when a man was '* looking" intQ a
dark stone, and informing people where money and
other buried treasures could be found. Joseph asked
permission to look also, and when the request was
granted, placed his face in the hat where the stone
was deposited. It did not prove to be the special
seer-stone gauged to his vision, but he was enabled
to discern a few things, and among them was the
stone that was meant for him, and its location at the
time. The place was not far from their house, and
under pretence of digging a well, they reached it at
the depth of some twenty feet. After this, the father
added, Joseph made use of it, and spent a couple of
years in the money-searching adventures already
described.

Despite the attractive ingenuity of these stories,
there is substantial grounds for the belief that the
whole fabrication of the golden plates grew out of an
impromptu jest on the part of young Smith, which
was received in such earnest, that his subtle cunning
saw in it a new way to distinction and possible gain.
The story is told plainly and fully by Peter Ingersol,f
a near neighbor to the Smiths, and at that time one
of Joseph's most intimate friends. He declares that
one day the future Prophet of Mormonism called

* " Interview with the father of Joseph Smith, the Mormon
Prophet, forty years ago," by Fayette Laphain. — The Historical
Magazine, 1870, p. 305.

f "Mormonism and the Mormons," p. 23.

The Evolution of the Book. 29

upon him, and that his countenance and manner be-
trayed evident enjoyment of some hidden jest. Upon
being questioned, he made the following statement :
" As I was passing yesterday across the woods after
a heavy shower of rain, I found in a hollov/ some
beautiful white sand that had been washed _up by the
water. I took off my frock and tied up several quarts
of it and then went home.

*' On my entering the house, I found the family at
the table eating dinner. They were all anxious to
know the contents of my frock. At that moment I
happened to think of what I had heard about a his-
tory found in Canada called the Golden Bible, so I
very gravely told them it was the Golden Bible.
To my surprise, they were credulous enough to
believe what I said. Accordingly, I told them I
had received a commandment to let no one see it ;
* for,' says I, * no man can see it with the naked eye
and live.* However, I offered to take out the book
and show it to them, but they refused to see it,
and left the room. Now," said Jo., ^^ I have got the
d d fools fixed^ and will carry out the f 1111.''

And carry it out he did, with results far beyond his
own expectations or the imaginings of others. His
family may have continued their belief in his story,
or discovered its falsity, but in either case the result
was the same. They professed their adherence be-
fore others, and aided Joseph in the advancement of
his claims. Neighbors heard of the wonderful dis-
covery, and came to verify rumor by investigation.
Smith was equal to the emergency. He gravely re-
iterated his declaration that no man but himself could
look upon the Golden Book and live. As he saw the

30 Early Days of Mormonism.

impression his invention had made, he took steps to
keep it alive. Willard Chase, a neighbor, in after-
years made affidavit to the following effect : '^ " In
the fore-part of September, I believe 1827, the
Prophet requested me to make him a chest, inform-
ing me that he designed to move back to Pennsyl-
vania, and, expecting soon to get his Gold Book, he
wanted a chest to lock it up, giving me to understand
at the same time that if I would make the chest, he
would give me a share in the book. I told him that
my business was such that I could not make it, but
if he would bring the book to me I would lock it up
for him. He said that would not do, as he was com-
manded to keep it two years without letting it come
to the eye of any one but himself. I told him to get
it and convince me of its existence and I would make
him a chest ; but he said that would not do, as he
must have a chest to lock the book in as soon as he
took it out of the ground. I saw him a few days
after, when he told me that I must make the chest.
I told him plainly that I could not, upon which he
told me that I could have no share in the book."

Unable to swindle his neighbor, he fashioned for
himself a box of clapboards, in which he deposited
whatever he made fill the mission of the golden
plates. His mother's memoirs declare that there
was not enough money in the family purse to pay
for a fitting receptacle, and that Joseph went to well-
digging in order to supply the lacking sum.

The excitement created in the neighborhood by the
alleged discovery of the young man caused investiga-

* '* Mormonism and the Mormons," p. 23.

The Evohition of the Book. 31

tion on the part of some who had no faith in Smith
or his claims. The account of a visit paid Smith by
two young men * possesses a touch of such genuine
human nature, that one cannot hesitate to accept it
as true in every detail. It aptly illustrates the crude
and clumsy character of the whole swindle. William
T. Hussey and Asel Van Druver, young fellows well
known for their waggish habits, and intimates of
Smith, made their appearance and strongly impor-
tuned for at least one glance at the famous and mys-
terious book. Joseph declared that he could not
yield, as even one look would be the end of earth for
both.

Their pleading was in vain, as was also their offer
to take upon themselves all responsibility for what
might occur. Smith offered them what was in his
power — they might go with him to the hiding-place
of the treasure and look upon its shape through the
canvas in which it was wrapped. They accepted and
were led to a remote corner of the garret, where
Smith solemnly opened the box and showed them a
bag hidden within it. As he still persisted in his re-
fusal, Hussey dexterously whipped off the cover with

the exclamation, *' By , I will see the critter, live

or die 1 " and exposed to view a large brick.

Most men would have been abashed when con-
fronted with this ridiculous conclusion. But Joseph
was made of readier stuff. He was equal to the
emergency. He declared that the supernatural
power with which he was endov/ed had enabled him
to see the daring purpose in their minds, and that he

* *' Origin, Rise, and Progress of Morraonism," p. 3i«

32 Early Days of M or' monism.

had purposely misled them. But he was of suffi-
cient worldly-mindedness to understand the effect
of an exposure before the people, and when the trio
had passed down-stairs, he treated his guests liberally
to whiskey, and asked them to make no mention of
what had occurred.

According to Joseph's narration, it was on Sep-
tember 22,* 1827, that the plates and the instru-
ment by which they were to be deciphered were
delivered to him by the angel who had them in
charge. They were yielded only upon condition
that he would preserve them with the greatest care
until their return should be demanded at his hands.
His account of the final surrender of the book on the
part of its angelic custodian, as related to Willard
Chase, was as follows if "■ On the 22d of September
he arose early in the morning and took a one-horse
wagon of some one that had stayed overnight at their
house, without leave or license, and together with his
wife, repaired to the hill which contained the book.
He left his wife in the wagon by the road, and went
alone to the hill, a distance of thirty or forty rods
from the road. He said he then took the book out
of the ground and hid it in a tree-top, and returned
home. He then went to the town of Macedon to
work.

*' After about ten days' time, it having been sug-
gested that some one had got his book, his wife
went after him. He hired a horse and went home in -
the afternoon. Stayed long enough to drink one

*This was subsequent to his removal to Pennsylvania, and mar-
riage, as related hereafter.

t A continuation of Chase's statement, related above.

The Evolution of the Book. ^i

cup of tea, and then went for his book. Found it
safe. Took off his frock and wrapped it around it. put
it under his arm and ran all the way home, a distance
of about two miles. He said he should think it
would weigh sixty pounds, and was sure it would
weigh forty. On his return home he said he was
attacked by two men in the woods, and knocked
them both down and made his escape. Arrived safe
and secured his treasure."

To this narration Mr. Chase somewhat bitterly
adds this choice portion of personal biography: ''A
few days afterward he told one of my neighbors that
he had not got any such book, and never had, but

that he had told the story to deceive the d d fool

(meaning me), to get him to make a chest."

The Prophet's mother* has left an elaborate de-
scription of the Urim and Thummim,f by aid of

*In that unique book, " Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith,
the Prophet, and his progenitors for many generations." By Lucy
Smith, mother of the Prophet.

f " ' Urim ' means ' light,' and ' Thummim ' ' perfection.' The
mysterious words meet us for the first time, as if they needed
no explanation, in the description of the high priest's apparel.
.... Inside the breastplate, as the tables of the covenant were
placed inside the ark, are to be placed ' the Urim and the
Thummim'; .... and they, too, are to be on Aaron's heart
when he goes in before the Lord. Not a word describes them.
They are mentioned as things already familiar both to Moses and
the people, connected naturally with the functions of the high-
priest, as mediating between Jehovah and his people In

what way the Urim and Thummim were consulted is quite uncer-
tain. Josephus and the rabbis supposed that the stones gave out
the oracular answer by preternatural illumination ; but it seems to
be far simpler .... to suppose that the answer was given simply
by the word of the Lord to the high-priest .... when, clothed
with the ephod and the breastplate, he had enquired of the Lord."

34 Early Days of Mormonism.

which the translation of the golden plates was to be
made, and also of the book itself. The former con-
sisted of two transparent stones, clear as crystal, and
set in rims of silver. *' The plates had the appear-
ance of gold. They were about seven inches wide by
eight long, and their thickness was not quite that of
an ordinary sheet of tin. Egyptian characters were
engraved on both sides of each plate, and the whole
was bound in one volume, like the leaves of a book,
closed by three clasps. Its thickness was six inches.
One portion of the plate was sealed up. On those
which were not sealed there were small characters
skilfully cut. The breastplate was of bright gold.
It had four golden straps, of which two were intended
to attach it to the shoulders, and the other two to fix
it onto the hips. These straps were exactly the
breadth of two female fingers, and were pierced with
several holes at the ends, by which to fasten them."
This article, the mother declares, was worth at least
five hundred dollars.

The chief object had in mind by the Smiths in the
early days of the Gold-Bible delusion was the making
of money, to which was doubtless added a desire for
local notoriety. The foundation of a new sect was
an after-thought. When speculation had worked itself
to a point where the possibilities of the future began
to foreshadow themselves, and the popular belief in
his new Bible had so grown that he was filled with
the belief that a pretended translation of the plates

" Smith's Bible Dictionary," p. 723. Many of the Jews believe that
since the captivity of Babylon, God has ceased to make known His
will by this means, and that the instrument has disappeared fof-»
ever. Some look for its reappearance, but others do not.

The Evohitio7i of the Book. 35

would sell, Joseph naturally cast about for some one
who would furnish the needed capital. Other help
he could command in abundance. He seemed to
have already been placed in quiet communication
with Sidney Rigdon, or some one who had the means
of furnishing him with the basis for this great fraud,
in the book of Solomon Spaulding, of whom more
anon, or in some other manner supplied the literary
skill and scholarship he lacked. Other help was at
hand in the person of Oliver Cowdery, a schoolmaster
of the neighborhood, who was prepared to listen to
such overtures as Smith was likely to make.*

How many men of means were approached before
the victim was finally secured has not been placed on
record by any confession of those concerned. In one
case the rebuff was of a character that would have
cooled the ardor of a less vehement man than Smith.
Calling upon a Mr. Crane, a prominent Quaker,
Joseph asked him for the needed assistance, and de-
clared that he was *' moved by the Spirit " to make
the call. The response was prompt, and to the
point. Smith was advised to cease his money-digging
and golden-Bible schemes, and to make a living in
some honest way, lest the doors of a prison should
open to receive him.

The part played by Martin Harris in the Mormon
scheme was one of great importance, and had he
failed in supplying the funds needed at an important
crisis of affairs, Mormonism would probably have
found an end in its very beginning. He was a

* Oliver Cowdery was born on October 3d, 1806 ; and the best
authority I can discover gives his birth-place as Wells, Rutland
County, Vermont.

36 Early Days of Mormonism.

farmer of Palmyra, and bore the reputation of an
honest, hard-working man, who loved money a little
too well, and inclined to be too easily moved by any
form of religious frenzy that took possession of his
mind. He was at first a Quaker, then in turn a
Universalist, Restrictionist, Baptist, and Presbyterian.
He owned a good farm, and had never been in-
volved in any questionable transaction. He has been
described as proverbially peaceful, and it was said of
him that he lived as closely to his religion as the con-
ditions about him would allow. This illustration of
his character has been placed on record : when he
was fully committed to the Mormon-Bible scheme he
was "urging the sale of the book with great confi-
dence in the genuineness of its revelations, and fell
into a debate about its character with a neighbor of
hasty temperament. His opponent became angry
and struck him a severe blow on the side of his
face. Instantly turning toward his assailant his
other cheek, he quoted the Christian maxim, reading
it from the book in his hand, ' If thine enemy shall
smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other
also.' "

There were those who gave him a reputation less
favorable than that suggested above. One of his
neighbors, Jesse Townsend,* speaks of him as a
'' visionary fanatic," although " an industrious farmer
.... who had been unfortunate in the choice of a
wife, or she had been in that of a husband." ** He
had whipped his wife," Mr. Townsend adds, " and
beaten her so cruelly and frequently that she was

* In a letter written by Jesse Townsend, under date of Palmyra,
N. Y., Dec. 24, 1833.

The Evohitio7t of the Book. 37

obliged to seek refuge in separation He is

considered here to this day a brute in his domestic
relations, a fool and a dupe to Smith in religion, and
an unlearned, conceited hypocrite generally. He
paid for printing the Book of Mormon, which ex-
hausted all of his money and most of his property.
Since he went to Ohio he has attempted to get
another wife, though it is believed he was frus-
trated in this design by the discovery of his having a
wife living here." This was written after the hegira
to Kirtland.

Smith seems to have known his man thoroughly,
and to have planned the attack with a strategy sure
to win. Harris prided himself upon his unassailable
honesty, and when Smith approached him with a
declaration that the Lord had revealed the fact that
Harris and himself were the only two honest men in
the world, the battle was half won. By that subtle
influence which Joseph exerted to an almost unlim-
ited degree over men of a certain mould, he soon had
Harris fully committed to the Gold-Bible scheme.
Harris was at that time considered wealthy, while
the Smith family possessed practically nothing at all.

When young Joseph was near sixteen years of age,
he accompanied his father and a number of others to
the village of Harmony, on the north bank of the
Susquehanna River, in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Their object was to locate and open a mine which
they affirmed had once belonged to Spanish adven-
turers, and long since abandoned. His stay in this
neighborhood was extended from 1 821 to 1829, va-
ried by occasional visits to his old home in Northern
New York. His reputation among his new associ-

■ 3^ Barty Days of Mormonism.

ates tallied in a remarkable manner v/ith that he had
won in the old home, and we hear him graphically
described as " an idle, plausible schemer, who made
his living by his wits, was a general favorite with the
women, and had considerable influence over a certain
class of men."

Upon his first appearance he was compelled per-
force to engage in manual labor to a certain ex-
tent, but the time was not long distant before he
sought an easier road to a maintenance. As he dis-
covered dupes he began the old practice of the
Manchester days. He set up as a revelator of hid-
den riches, and once more brought the famous peek
stone into use. He occasionally blessed a neighbor's
crops in return for the cash in hand ; and when one
piece which he had contracted to insure was the only
one in the vicinity laid under blight, he adroitly
turned the exception to his own advantage by declar-
ing that he had made a mistake and placed the field
under a curse rather than a blessing. Men were act-
ually found who believed his professions and made
it worth his while to put them into practice.

While here the Smiths and their accomplices in the
search for hidden riches, boarded for a time with
Isaac Hale, whose daughter Emma afterward became
Joseph's wife, and played a part of no small importance
in the early days of Mormonism. Mr. Hale, against
whose bitter protest the marriage occurred, made a
statement under date of March 20, 1834, in which he
used the following language, in description of young
Smith and the occurrences of which he was a part :

" I first became acquainted with Joseph Smith, Jr.,
in November, 1825. He was at that time in the em-

The Evolution of the Book. 39

ploy of a set of men who were called money-di gers ;
and his occupation was that of seeing-, or pretending
to see, by means of a stone placed in his hat, and his
hat closed over his face. In this way he pretended
to discover minerals and hidden treasure. His ap-
pearance at this time was that of a careless young
man, not very well educated, and very saucy and in-
solent to his father. Smith and his father, with
several other money-diggers, boarded at my house
while they were employed in digging for a mine that
they supposed had been opened and worked by the
Spaniards many years since. Young Smith gave the
money-diggers great encouragement at first, but when
they had arrived in digging to near the place where
he had stated an immense treasure would be found,
he said the enchantment was so powerful that he
could not see. They then became discouraged, and

soon after dispersed [Here follows an account

of Smith's marriage, related below.]

" Smith stated to me that he had given up what he
called glass-looking, and that he expected to work
hard for a living, and was willing to do so. Soon
after this, I was informed they had brought a
wonderful book of plates down with them. I was
shown a box, in which it is said they were contained,
which had, to all appearance, been used as a glass
box, of the common-sized window-glass. I was al-
lowed to feel the weight of the box, and they gave
me to understand that the book of plates was then
in the box, into which, however, I was not allowed to
look. I inquired of Joseph Smith, Jr., who was to
be the first that would be allowed to see the book of
plates? He said it was a young child. After this I

40 Early Days of Mormonism.

became dissatisfied and informed him that if there
was anything in my house of that description, which
I could not be allowed to see, he must take it away ;
if he did not, I was determined to see it. After that
the plates were said to be hid in the woods.

" About this time Martin Harris made his appear-
ance upon the stage, and Smith began to interpret the
characters or hieroglyphics, which he said were en-
graven upon the plates, while Harris wrote down the
interpretation. It was said that Harris wrote down
one hundred and sixteen pages, and lost them. Soon
after this happened, Martin Harris informed me that
he must have a greater witness^ and said that he had
talked with Joseph about it; Joseph informed him
that he could not or durst not show him the plates,
but that he (Joseph) would go into the woods where
the book of plates was, and that after he came back,
Harris should follow his track in the snow, and find
the book, and examine it for himself. Harris in-
formed me afterward that he followed Smith's direc-
tions, and could not find the plates, and was still
dissatisfied. The next day after this happened, I
went to the house where Joseph Smith, Jr., lived, and
where he and Harris were engaged in their transla-
tion of the book. Each of them had a written piece
of paper which they were comparing, and some of
the words were : My servant seeketh a greater witness^
but no greater witness can be given to him. There was
also something said about Three that were to see the
thing — meaning, I suppose, the book of plates ; and
til at if the three did not go exactly accordi7tg to orders,
the thing would be taken from the^n. I inquired whose
words they were, and was informed by Joseph or

The Evoliiiio7i of the Book. 41

Emma (I rather think it was the former) that they
were the words of Jesus Christ. I told them then
that I considered the whole of it a delusion, and ad-
vised them to abandon it.

" The manner in which he pretended to read and
interpret, was the same as when he looked for the
money-diggers, with the stone in his hat and his
hat over his face, while the book of plates was at
the same time hid in the woods ! After this Martin
Harris went away, and Oliver Cowdery came and
wrote for Smith, while he interpreted, as above
described. This is the same Oliver Cowdery whose
name may be found in the Book of Mormon.
Cowdery continued a scribe for Smith until the Book
of Mormon was completed, as I supposed and under-
stood. Joseph Smith, Jr., resided near me for some
time after this, and I had a good opportunity of be-
coming acquainted with him, and somewhat ac-
quainted with his associates ; and I conscientiously
believe, from the facts I have detailed, and from
many other circumstances which I do not deem it
necessary to relate, that the whole Book of Mormon
(so-called) is a silly fabrication of falsehood and
wickedness, got up for speculation, and with a design
to dupe the credulous and unwary, and in order that
its fabricators might live upon the spoils of those
who swallowed the deception. Isaac Hale." *

* For this statement see "Gleanings by the Way," by Rev. John
A. Clark, New York, 1842, p. 242. This is one of the most reliable
and interesting of the early publications on Mormonism, and is
now quite rare. Mr. Clark was rector of St. Andrew's Church,
Philadelphia, in 1842, but had previously been a resident of West-
ern New York, Only a portion of his work is devoted to Mormon-
ism, the greater part being given to his travels in various directions.

42 Early Days of Mcrmonism.

Smith was a frequent visitor at the Hale homestead,
even after the abandonment of the money-digging
above described. He found ready acceptance on the
part of Emma, the second-born of three daughters,
and the only one yet unmarried. When the father
was approached by Smith with a request for the hand
of his daughter, he answered with a prompt and stern
refusal, giving as a reason the fact that Smith was a
stranger, and that his methods of earning a living
were such as no honest man could approve. Joseph
departed, but only to return in secret and accompany
the willing young woman across the line into New
York State, where they were married at Windsor in
February, 1826.

From Palmyra, to which they had proceeded, Em-
ma addressed her father by letter, and, although his
anger had been such that he had threatened to shoot

The degree of reliance which may be placed upon Mr. Hale's state-
ment can be learned from the following, which precedes it in Mr.
Clark's book : " While at Palmyra, I met with a respectable clerg\'-
man of the Episcopal Church, who had formerly belonged to the
Methodist connection, that was acquainted with Mr. Hale. He
represented him to be a distinguished hunter, living near Great
Bend, in Pennsylvania. He was professedly a religious man and
a very zealous member of the Methodist Church. The letter to
which I have referred "is accompanied with a statement declaring
that Mr. Hale resides in Harmony, Penn. Appended to the letter
also is Mr, Hale's affirmation or affidavit of the truth of the state-
ment there made, taken before Charles Damon, Justice of the
Peace ; and there is also subjoined the certificate of William
Thompson and Davis Dimock, Associate Judges of the Court of
Common Pleas, in the County of Susquehanna, declaring that they
have for many years been personally acquainted with Isaac Hale,
of Harmony township, who has attested the foregoing statement,
or letter, and that he is a man of excellent moral character, and of
undoubted veracity."

The Evolution of the Book. 43

his half-vagrant son-m-law on sight, he decided to
make the best of a bad bargain, and met the couple
on their return to Pennsylvania upon a basis of
outward peace. They took possession of a small
place near the Hale residence, and Joseph made
solemn assertion that he had abandoned his days of
idleness forever, and intended to settle down and
work for a living. Hale's son was sent to Palmyra
after such effects as Joseph and his wife possessed,
and, for a while, the future Mormon leader seems to
have given his time and physical strength to a manly
use, and raised in the minds of his new friends the
hope that he intended to make a man of himself at
last.

But the poison that had entered his veins was not
to be thus lightly driven out. The hoe and the axe
became heavy in his unwonted hands, as he dreamed
still of the fortune that might come could he but com-
mand the publication of the Golden Bible of which he
had said so much. For by this time a book had act-
ually taken some sort of shape."^' The impromptu lie,
of which he had boasted to Peter Ingersol, had been
transformed into a fact. Over that book and its or-
igin there hangs yet a mystery which many able men
and women have sought to solve, which some have
solved to their own satisfaction, but which none have
removed altogether from the region of doubt. The
box in which the golden plates were claimed to have
been hidden came to Pennsylvania with the other
household goods, and hints concerning it began to
be heard in greater numbers as the scheme, which

* See Appendix A.

44 Early Days of Mormoiiism.

was soon fully under way, developed. The designs
upon the credulity and cupidity of Martin Harris had
already been accomplished, and he stood ready to fur-
nish the needed means.^

It was upon September 22, 1827, that Smith
claims to have received the plates from the hands of
the angel. When the work of transcribing was fully
decided upon, Harris for a time wrote as Smith dic-
tated. The latter still insisted that no one could see
the plates but himself, which was a convenient method
of keeping up his romance as to there being any plates
at all. Smith would hang a curtain between Harris
and himself, and from behind it dictate the words

* A newspaper writer under date of October 2, 1883, in the Cin-
cinnati Enquiter, describes the scene of these events in the follow-
ing language : " I paid a visit to the old home of Joe Smith. The
house stands at the north bank of the Susquehanna, two miles west
of the Twin River, and is distant about sixty feet from the New
York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad. The house is one story
high, and, with its kitchen, is about twenty-four by fourteen feet.
At present it is occupied by ex-Sheriff McCune, who was born in
the room in which the Book of Mormon was transcribed. Mr. Mc-
Cune's father bought the house and farm from Joe Smith, and to
the former he built a two-story addition. The buildings are very
rickety at present, and look as though they would tumble down
from rot and age in a few years. They are often visited by tourists
from abroad, who generally ask Mr. McCune for a small bit of
w^ood or shingle as a memento of their visit. The money-holes
Smith had made in his search for the buried treasure are about
half a mile from the house. Though their sides have caved in,
they are still visible, and one of them is filled with water ; an end-
less spring having been tapped during the excavations. Not many
rods from the house is a country graveyard, in which are interred
the remains of one of Joe Smith's children. No slab or headstone
marks it, and its precise location is known to only a few of the older
people. Many of Smith's wife's kinsfolk still reside in and about
this county."

The Evolutio7i of the Book. 45

that Martin was to write. He claimed to accomplish
his translation by means of the Urim and Thummim,
but it is needless to say that they were also hidden
from the secretary's view. After a time Harris gave
way to Cowdery, who remained with Smith until the
task was at an end. The use of the curtain must be
regarded only as a dramatic accessory for the purpose
of duping Harris ; and, as Cowdery was beyond ques-
tion in the confidence of Smith, it is reasonable to
suppose that this mysterious method of work was by
no means employed when the accomplices were by
themselves.

It was a serious trouble through which Harris
passed before he arrived at a decision to bear the
expense of publication, and incur all the financial
risks of the enterprise. Had he not been spurred on
by two powerful incentives, his faith in Mormonism
and the belief that he would make money from the
sale of the book, he would never have reached that
conclusion. His natural caution in the expenditure
of money was supplemented by the active opposition
of his wife, a woman of sound sense and very positive
views as to Smith's character and his designs upon
her husband's property.* Doubt has been thrown

* Extract from an affirmation made by Abigail Harris, a relative
of Martin's, at Palmyra. November 28, 1883, (Kidder p. 28):

" In the early part of the winter in 1828 I made a visit to Martin
Harris's and was joined in company by Joseph Smith, Sr., and his
wife. The Gold-Bible business, so called, was the topic of conver-
sation, to which I paid particular attention, that I might learn the
truth of the whole matter. They told me that the report that
Joseph, Jr., had found golden plates was true, and that he was in
Harmony, Pa., translating them. The old lady said, also, that
after the book was translated, the plates were to be publicly exhib-

46 Early Days of Mormonism.

upon the genuineness of Harris's profession of faith,
by that answer to his wife's declaration as to the lack
of truth in Mormonism, " What if it is a lie ! if you
will let me alone I will make money out of it." But
his whole course in connection with Smith, and many
positive acts upon his part, show him to have been a
dupe from the beginning to the end.

ited — admittance twenty-five cents. She calculated it would bring
in annually an enormous sum of money — that money would then
be very plenty, and the book would also sell for a great price, as it
was something entirely new. That they had been commanded to
obtain all the money they could borrow for present necessity, and
to repay with gold. The remainder was to be kept in store for the
benefit of their family and cnildren. This and the like conversa-
tion detained me till about eleven o'clock. Early the next morning
the mystery of the Spirit (being myself one of the order called
Friends) was revealed by the following circumstance. The old
lady took me into another room, and after closing the door she
said. ' Have you four or five dollars in money that you can lend
until our business is brought to a close ? The Spirit has said you
shall receive fourfold.' I told her that when I gave I did it not
expecting to receive again; as for money, I had none to lend, I
then asked her what her particular want of money was; to which
she replied, ' Joseph wants to take the stage and come home from
Pennsylvania to see what we are all about.' To wh'ch I replied he
might look in his stone, and save his time and money. The old
lady seemed contused and left the room, and thus ended the visit."
Joseph Capron, a neighbor of good character, throws added light
on this point. " At length," says he, "Joseph pretended to find the
gold plates. This scheme, he believed, would relieve the family
from ail pecuniary embarrassment. His father told me that when
the book was published they would be enabled, from the profits of
the work, to carry into successful operation the money-digging
business. He gave me no intimation, at that time, that the book
was to be of a religious character He declared it to be a specu-
lation, and, said he, ' When it is completed my family will be
placed on a level above the generality of mankind !' " This testi-
mony strengthens the belief that the later developments of Smith's
*' speculations " were undreanied of in the beginning.

TJie Evolution of the Book. 47

When a number of the pages of manuscript had
been prepared, Harris insisted that he should have a
chance to prove the truth or falsity of Smith's claims
before proceeding further. They were delivered to
him, and he showed them to certain neighbors, all of
whom told him that he was the victim of a swindle.
He also exhibited them to his wife, who proceeded
to prompt measures. While Martin slept she con-
fided the paper to the flames. She made no confes-
sion as to her action, and thereby placed both Harris
and Smith in a dilemma. The former could not ac-
count to Smith for the lost property, and naturally
fell under suspicion of concealing it for purposes of
his own.

A coolness between the two for a time was the
result, but as Harris was too essential a part of the
scheme to be offended, his story was accepted, and he
was again taken into favor. Smith believed that if
Harris did not still have the manuscript it must have
been purloined by his wife. Should that portion be
rewritten from memory, it could not of course be
identical with the original draft. Should he print
the new version, Mrs. Harris, a determined and ener-
getic foe to his schemes and himself, might produce
the old, and prove by comparison the juggling that
had taken place. Smith pondered long over this
serious problem, but that ingenuity which had never
failed him, came to his relief. He boldly announced
that the Lord had revealed his displeasure toward
Smith for allowing the manuscript to pass into Har-
ris's hands, and in punishment of that act had de-
clared that so much of the golden plates should not
again be translated. This left a clear track, and

48 Early Days of Mormonism.

Smith again hid himself behind the curtain and went
to work.*

Doubt still worked its way up from the lower stra-
tum of Harris's business sense, and shovved itself

* The following appeared as a preface to the first edition of the
book, but was subsequently omitted. It proves the clumsy charac-
ter of the whole scheme:
" To the Reader.

"As many false reports have been circulated respecting the follow-
ing work, and also many unlawful measures taken by evil design-
ing persons to destroy me, and also the work, I would inform you
that I translated, by the gift and power of God, and caused to be
written, one hundred and sixteen pages, the which I took from the
book of Lehi, which was an account abridged from the plates of
Lehi, by the hand of Mormon; which said account, some person or
persons have stolen and kept from me, notwithstanding my utmost
efforts to recover it again — and being commanded of the Lord that
I should not translate the same over again , for Satan had put it
into their hearts to tempt the Lord their God, by altering the words;
that they did read contrary from that which I translated and caused
to be written; and if I should bring forth the same words again, or,
in other words, if I should translate the same over again, they
would publish that which they had stolen, and Satan would stir up
the hearts of this generation, that they might not receive this work,
but behold, the Lord said unto me, I will not suffer that Satan shall
accomplish his evil design in this thing; therefore thou shalt trans-
late from the plates of Nephi until ye come to that which ye have
translated, which ye have retained; and behold, ye shall publish it
as the record of Nephi; and thus I will confound those who have
altered my words. I will not suffer that they shall destroy my
work; yea, I will show unto them that my wisdom is greater than
the cunning of the Devil. Wherefore, to be obedient unto the
commandments of God, I have, through His grace and mercy
accomplished that which He hath commanded me respecting this
thing. I would also inform you that the plates of which hath been
spoken, were found in the township of Manchester, Ontario County,
New York.— The Author."

In the later editions Smith is not referred to as " The Author"
of the book, but only as translator.

TJie Evolution of the Book, 49

again, to the vexation of Smith. A demand was
made upon the latter for a copy of the characters
upon the plates, in order that they might be submit-
ted to the examination of learned men. Afraid to
refuse, Joseph set himself to work, and evolved from
his imagination certain crude and complex characters
unlike any alphabet yet seen by man. These were
set down upon a paper, with which Harris proceeded
to New York City, where he exhibited it to several
scientific gentlemen, who pronounced the whole thing
a meaningless jumble of marks, that expressed no
language of either ancient or modern times. "^ Yet
such was the influence of Smith over him, that on
Harris's return home, he was persuaded that the
learned men were all in fault, and that once more —
to make use of his own version of Scripture — " God had
chosen the foolish things of the world to convince the
wise."

It was in July, 1828, that the '^ translation " was
suspended because of the prompt action of Mrs. Har-
ris and the writing was not resumed until April 17,
1829. The Mormons claim that after this renewal
Smith made use of a dark cave he had dug in a
hillside near his home, but the fact doubtless is that
the work was carried on in the same manner and at
the same place as in the beginning.

The clerical work completed, the next need was a
publisher. The negotiations that ensued have been
carefully recorded by Mr. Pomeroy Tucker.f who
was connected with the printing house at Palmyra
where the work was done. As early as January,

* See Appendix B.

f "Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism," p. 50.

50 Early Days of Mormonism.

1829, before the whole of the manuscript was pre-
pared, a call was made at the office of the Sentinel,
at Palmyra, by Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Oliver
Cowdery, and Martin Harris. A few sheets were
shown Mr. Egbert B. Grandin, the publisher, and he
was asked the price at which he would print three
thousand copies. Harris offered himself as security
for the payment.

Mr. Grandin hesitated, as he believed that Harris
was being used by designing men. As Martin was
his friend he quietly took him aside and advised him
to that effect. But persuasion was of no avail ; and
after a number of interviews of the same tenor, and
fruitless negotiations with other publishers, the con-
tract was made. Five thousand copies were to be
printed for three thousand dollars, Harris giving his
bond, and a mortgage on his farm, for that amount.
As Mrs. Harris refused to be a party to the trans-
action, an agreement of separation between herself
and husband was arranged. She received her share
of the estate, some eighty acres of land and the
farm-house ; and the two who had lived so long
together, became as strangers, and the breach, thus
made remained through life. The dismemberment of
this family was the first-fruit of the new creed that
Joe Smith had given to the world.

The book was completed and offered to the public
in the early summer of 1830. " In the beginning of
the printing," says Mr. Tucker, who read a portion
of the proof,* " the Mormons professed to hold their
manuscripts as sacred, and insisted upon maintaining

* " Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism," p. 53.

THE

BOOK OF MORMON:

AN ACCOUNT WRITTElSr BY THE HAND OF

MORMON, UPON PLATES TAKEN FROM

THE PLATES OF NEPHL

Wherefore it is an abridg:meDt of the Record of the People of Nephi ; and also
of the Laraanites ; written to the Lamanites, which are a remnant of the
House of Israel ; and also to Jew and Gentile ; written by way of command-
ment, and also by the spirit of Prophesy and of Revelation. Written, and
sealed up, and hid up unto the Lord, that they might not be destroyed ; to
come forth by the gift and power of God unto the interpretation thereof ;
sealed by the hand of Moroni, and hid up unto the Lord, to come forth in
due time by the way of Gentile; the interpretation thereof by the gift
of God ; an abridgment taken from the Book of Ether.

Also, which is a Record of the People of Jared, which were scattered at the time
the Lord confounded the language of the people when they were building
a tower to get to Heaven ; which is to shew unto the remnant of the House
of Israel how great things the Lord hath done for their fathers ; and that
they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever;
and also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ,
the Eternal God, manifesting Himself unto all nations. And now if there
be fault, it be the mistake of men; wherefore condeu)n not the things of God,
that ye may be found spotless at the judgment seat of Christ.

BV JOSEPH SMITH, JUNIOR,

AUTHOR AND PROPRIETOR.

PALMYRA :

PRINTED BY E. B. GRANDIN, FOR THE AUTHOR.

i8;^o.

[Title-Page of the Mormon Bible.'\

THE FIRST BOOK OF NEPHL

HIS REIGN AND MINISTRY.

CHAPTEE I.

An account of Lehi and his wife Sariah^ and his four Sons^
heing called, {beginning at the eldest^) Laman^ Lemuel^
Sam, and Nephi. The Lord warns Lehi to dejjart out of
the land of Jerusalem,, because he prophesieth unto the
people concerning their iniquity j and they seek to destroy
his life. LLe taketh three days' journey into the wilder-
ness with his family. Nephi taketh his brethren and re-
turns to the land of Jerusalem after the record of the Jews.
The account of their sufferings. They take the daughters
of Lshmael to wife. They take their families and depart
into the wilderness. Their sufferings and afflictions in
the wilderness. The course of their travels, they come to
the large waters. Nephis brethren rebelleth against him.
He confcnmdeth them, and buildeth a Ship. They call the
place 'Bountiful. They cross the large waters into the
promised land, <&c. This is according to the account of
Nephi J or, in other words, 1 Nephi wrote this record.

I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore T
was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father ; and
having seen many aflflictions in the course of my days — never-
theless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days;
yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the
mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my procee-
dings in my days ; yea, I make a record in the languaore of
ray father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the
language of the Egyptians. And I know that the record
which I make, to be true ; and I make it with mine own
hand ; and I make it according to my knowledge.

For it came to pass, in the commencement of the first year
of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, (my father Lehi hav-
ing dwelt at Jerusalem in all his days ;) and in that same year
there came many prophets, prophesying unto the people, that
they must repen t. or the great city Jerusalem must be destroyed

\Fac-si7nile Page 0/ Text of the Mornicn Bible. \

The Evolution of the Book. 5 1

constant vigilance for their safety during the progress
of the work, each morning carrying to the printing-
office the installment required for the day, and with-
drawing the same at evening. No alteration from
copy in any manner was to be made. These things
were 'strictly commanded,' as they said. Mr. John
H. Gilbert, as printer, had the chief operative trust
of the type-setting and presswork of the job. After
the first day's trial he found the manuscript in so
very imperfect a condition, especially in regard to
grammar, that he became unwilling further to obey
the * command,' and so announced to Smith and his
party ; when, finally, upon much friendly expostu-
lation, he was given a limited discretion in correcting,
which was exercised in the particulars of syntax, or-
thography, punctuating, capitalizing, paragraphing,
etc. Many errors under these heads, nevertheless,
escaped correction, as appear in the first edition of
the printed book. Very soon, too — after some ten
days--the constant vigilance by the Mormons over
the manuscripts was relaxed by reason of the con-
fidence they came to repose in the printers."

The great desire of Smith's heart was at last ac-
complished. He had a new bible as the foundation
for the new creed he had formulated and was about
to preach to men. With a deep knowledge of the
weak side of human nature, he had not declared a
gospel in opposition to that of Christendom, nor one
that should make war upon it, but, emulating the ex-
ample of Mother Ann Lee, and the Shakers, declared
the Book of Mormon supplemental to Holy Writ,
and a later revelation of the same grand truths. In
that manner he could win converts without taking

52 Early Days of Mor monism.

them from the strong moorings of the old faith. He
could give them range in new pastures without asking
them to forsake the church homes they had known
and loved so long. One need not repudiate David
and John in order to accept Nephi and his brethren.
To the other sides of human weakness through which
he sought access to their hearts and purses, he added
also that of novelty, and the natural desire of men to
go out after strange gods.

Smith was now twenty-five years of age, with his
natural cunning so sharpened by experience and so
encouraged by successful trading on the credulity of
his fellows, that he had little difficulty in meeting any
emergency that might arise, and shaping it to the
desired ends. He had taken the leadership in the
small coterie of accomplices and dupes that had
gathered about him, and anything he might propose
was sure to be seconded by his father and all his
brothers. His mastery of men was ever one of his
strong points of character, and his facility and adapt-
ability were such that he would have won success
as a lawyer or in any minor post of diplomatic re-
sponsibility. In later days he would have made his
mark in the world of politics.

He had used such opportunities for education as
had fallen in his way in the latter years of enlarged
ambition, had read such books as could be of special
use to him, and made a marked improvement both
in the manner and matter of literary composition.
Claim what one may as to the aid or suggestions he
received from Sidney Rigdon or Oliver Cowdery,
Smith owed the greater share of such success as
life awarded him, to his own force of character and

The Evolution of the Book. 53

the Scotch-American shrewdness with which he had
been endowed. By this time he had decided upon a
definite plan and assumed the risk of its operation,
and nothing was to be allowed to stand in the way.
How far that purpose then outran the primal desire
to live well and in idleness at the expense of others,
no one can ever know.

Of the character and purport of this Book of Mor-
mon,* fresh from the press of Grandin, I need say
little. The world has already had many descriptions
thereof, and the book itself, in this, or later editions,
is open to inspection in almost every public library of
the land. That it can be of divine origin is proved
impossible upon an examination of its errors, crudi-
ties, stupid imitations of scriptural language, and its
betrayal of ignorance upon many facts of history.

If, as many believe, it is but the unpublished romance
of Solomon Spaulding, put to a use of which its author
never dreamed, the impress of Smith has been placed

* Smith's own definition of the word Mormon, as given in after-
years, in The Ti??ies and Seasons, was as follows : "I may safely
say that the word Mormon stands independent of the learning and
wisdom of this generation. Before I give a definition, however, to
the word, let me say that the Bible in its widest sense, means
' good,' for the Saviour says, according to the Gospel of St. John,
' I am the good shepherd,' and it will not be beyond the common
use of terms to say that good is amongst the most important in use
and, though known by various names in different languages, still
its meaning is the same, and is ever in opposition to bad. We say
from the Saxon, Good; the Dane, God; the Goth, Goda; the Ger-
man, Gut; the Dutch, Goed; the Latin, Bonus; the Greek, Kalos;
the Hebrew, Tob ; the Egyptian, Mon ; hence with the addition of
more^ or the contraction, mo7\ we have the word Mormon, which
means literally, more goody Notwithstanding all this learned
parade, scholars have expressed the opinion that the word was de-
rived from the Greek, meaning a spectre, or hideous shape.

54 Early Days of Mormonism.

upon it with a freedom and to a purpose that has
added atrocity to the meanness of the original theft.
This first edition consisted of 588 pages, divided into
fourteen separate books, of one hundred and fifteen
chapters, as follows : The first book of Nephi ; the
second book of Nephi ; the book of Jacob, the
brother of Nephi ; the book of Enos ; the book of
Jarom ; the book of Omni ; the Words of Mormon ;
the book of Mosiah ; the book of Alma ; the book of
Helaman ; the book of Nephi, the son of Nephi,
which was the son of Helaman ; book of Mormon ;
bo-ok of Ether; the book of Moroni. It would be
profitless to undertake a compilation of the long and
very tedious narratives found in these several hun-
dreds of pages, but a brief synopsis from the pen of
no less a person than Joseph Smith himself, would
not be out of place. In "An Original History of the
Religious Denominations at present Existing in the
United States," by I. Daniel Rupp, Philadelphia,
1844, P- 404^ "^ay be found an article on *' The Latter-
Day Saints," prepared by Smith, in which he speaks
as follows of the historical portion of the book :

" In this important and interesting book the history
of Ancient America is unfolded, from its first settle-
ment by a colony that came from the Tower of Babel,
at the confusion of languages, to the beginning of the
fifth century of the Christian Era. We are informed
by these records that America in ancient times has
been inhabited by two distinct races of people. The
first were Jaredites, and came directly from the Tower
of Babel. The second race came directly from the
city of Jerusalem, about six hundred years before
Christ. They were principally Israelites, of the de-

The Evolution of the Book. 55

scendants of Joseph. The Jaredites were destroyed
about the time that the Israehtes came from Jerusa-
lem, who succeeded them in the inheritance of the
country.

''The principal nation of the second race fell in bat-
tle toward the close of the fourth century. The
remnant are the Indians, who now inhabit this country.
This book also tells us that our Saviour made His ap-
pearance upon this continent after His resurrection ;
that He planted the gospel here in all its fullness and
richness, and power, and blessing; that they had
apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and evangelists ;
the same order, the same priesthood, the same ordi-
nances, gifts, powers, and blessing, as was enjoyed on
the Eastern continent ; that the people were cut off
in consequence of their transgressions; that the last
of their prophets who existed among them was com-
manded to write an abridgment of their prophecies,
history, etc., and to hide it up in the earth, and that
it should come forth and be united with the Bible,
for the accomplishment of the purposes of God in the
last days. For a more particular account, I would
refer to the Book of Mormon, which can be purchased
at Nauvoo, or from any of our travelling elders."
The manner in which Mormon came to be selected as
the one whose name should be attached to a work in
which so many eminent ancients had a hand, is thus
explained by the Rev. Mr. Clark : *

" These records were engraven upon plates, and the
plates handed down from one prophet to another, or
from one king to another, or from one judge to another

* " Gleanings by the Way," p. 285.

$6 Early Days of Mor monism.

— the Lord always having raised up some one to receive
these plates. When the person in whose hands they
had been previously placed was about to die, Mor-
mon, who lived about four hundred years after the
coming of Christ, while yet a child, received a com-
mand in relation to these sacred deposits.

" The metallic plates which contained the record of
all the generations of his fathers, from the flight of
Lehi to Jerusalem, to his own time, ultimately came
into his hands. From these plates he made an abridged
record, which, taken together, in connection with the
record of his own times, constitutes the Book of Mor-
mon. Thus we see why the book bears this title.
For Mormon was a sort of Ezra who compiled the
entire sacred canon contained in this volume. He
lived at a very eventful period, when almost all his
people had fallen into a fearful apostasy, and he lived
to see them all destroyed, except twenty-four persons.
Himself, and these sole survivors of his race, were
afterward cut off, v/ith a single exception. His son,
Moroni, one of the survivors, lived to tell the mourn-
ful tale, and deposit the plates under the hill where
Jo. Smith found them."

When the books were delivered from the hands of
the binder, Martin Harris promptly took possession
of them, and proceeded to realize such portion as
he might of that evangelization of the world and
financial profit, of which he had dreamed. They cost
him dearly enough, as he was compelled to sell his
portion of the farm in 1 831, to meet the bond he
gave Grandin.*'^ It had been a part of the agreement

* The powers that were invoked to lead Harris into the scheme,
were again resorted to in holding him to his contract. A special

The Evolution of the Book. 57

with Harris that he alone should have the right of
sale ; which was made doubly secure to him by a
special revelation to Smith, in which was also found
an added command that no copy should be sold for
less than one dollar and twenty-five cents.

Despite all these commands, and that high moun-
tain of expectation which the Smiths had aided poor
Martin to pile up, the enterprise as a source of
money-making was a dismal failure from the start.
Harris himself went forth as a canvasser, and met
more scoffers than purchasers. Ridicule was show-
ered upon him from all sides, and he soon discovered
that some other means must be taken to return even
a small part of the outlay.

A new revelation was received by Joseph, which
allowed his father also to act as salesman, retaining
a commission upon each copy sold. He met v/ith
a certain share of success, but went forth unmoved
by any of the fears that had held Martin to the ex-
press stipulation of the revelation. He bartered
books for whatever he could get in return, and cut
prices with a lofty contempt for that death which
Joseph had declared would befall any who should,
so offend. He would load his books into the old cart
that had carried root-beer and ginger-bread in the
less ambitious days, and start on a peddling tour
through the country lying adjacent to Palmyra ;
returning, home with side-pork, bacon, corn, or such
other goods as he could secure from farmers along

revelation was directed to him in March, 1830: "And again I com-
mand thee that thou shalt not covet thine own property, but im-
part it freely to the printing of the Book of Mormon, which con-
tains the truth and the word of God. Pay the debt thou hast
contracted ivith the printer. Release thyself from bondage."

58 Early Days of M or monism,

the route. He made the books for which Harris
had so dearly paid, a source of income wherever
they could be of avail. When he was preparing for
his final removal to Ohio, after Joseph and Hyrum
had set their first " stake of Zion " at Kirtland, he
fell back upon the new gospel as his base of sup-
plies. '' He took," says one narration,* " a basket
of bibles in his hand and walked to Palmyra vil-
lage, .... where sundry unadjusted little scores
were ready to confront him. By the then prevailing
legal system for the collection of debts, residing as
he did over the county line from Palmyra, he made
himself liable to suit by warrant and also detention
in imprisonment for non-payment. But necessity be-
ing his master, he had taken the incautious venture
and soon found himself in the constable's custody at
the suit of a creditor for a small book account.

" The parties appeared before a Justice of the Peace
for Wayne County, by whom the warrant had been
issued. After some preliminary parleying by the
debtor, he invited and enjoyed a private interview
with the creditor in an adjoining room. The debt
and costs had now reached the aggregate of $5.63.
The embarrassments of the case, after some brief dis-
cussion, were found to be of a difficult nature. At
last, laying the good-natured claimant under strict
confidential injunction, and referring with solemn air
to the command by which he was empowered to sell his
Mormon work only at the price of $1.25 per copy,
the crafty patriarch proposed, nevertheless, on the
express condition that his perfidy should not be

* * "Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism," p. 62.

The Evolution of the Book. 5g

exposed, the offer of seven books in full for the de-
mand, being a fraction more than eighty cents
apiece. The joke was relished as too good to go un-
patronized, and though the books were not regarded
as possessing any value,* the claimant, more in a
spirit of mischief than otherwise, accepted the com-
promise willingly."

Smith delivered the books, and then made his exit
from a side door, and shook the dust of Palmyra
from his feet with such rapidity as his age would per-
mit, lest some other creditor should spy him by the
way. He was seen in Palmyra no more, but soon
bade farewell to a neighborhood that lost him and
his without regret, and that troubled itself concern-
ing him only long enough to formulate the unique
certificate of character that has already been quoted
in these pages. f

*Time and curiosity which deface and destroy much, will also
accomplish much. A copy of this edition of the Book of Mormon
cannot now be obtained for twenty times its original price. It has
become one of the rare and unique things in American literature.

f "Gleanings by the Way," p. 346: "One thing, however, is
distinctly to be noted in the history of this imposture. There are
no Mormons in Manchester or Palmyra, the place where this Book
of Mormon was pretended to be found. You might as well go
down into the crater of Vesuvius and attempt to build an ice-house
amid its molten and boiling lava, as to convince any inhabitant in
either of these towns, that Joe Smith's pretensions are not the
most gross and egregious falsehood. It was indeed a wise stroke
of policy, for those who got up this imposture, and who calculated
to make their fortune by it, to emigrate to a place where they were
wholly unknown."

III.

SIDNEY RIGDON AND THE KIRTLAND HAVEN.

IT will be necessary, before proceeding further in
the personal history ^of Joseph Smith and his
earliest coadjutors, to trace the outlines of a remark-
able man who gave to Mormonism a powerful impe-
tus, and without whom it might never have been
heard of outside of the neighborhood in which it
found life.

The occasional visits of an unnamed stranger to
the residence of Smith prior to 1830 were noted by
the neighbors with comment, and much circumstan-
tial evidence could be produced to prove that this
visitor was no other than Sidney Rigdon, who has
never been charged with the full measure of. his re-
sponsibility in this melodrama of religion, as his part
has been lost sight of in the overshadowing import-
ance of Joseph Smith, and the strong personality of
Brigham Young. He possessed a power as a preacher,
and an influence as a teacher equalled by few even in
those days of revival excitement. And the education
he had acquired by much reading and a constant mov-
ing about among men was of a character that made
him a valuable ally to the new religion when he at
last threw off all show of allegiance to the orthodox
creeds and gave his voice and talents to the Mormon
faith.

It would not be too much to say that Rigdon was
(60)

Sidney Rigdon and the Kirtlaiid Havetu Cn

the intellect of Mormoiilsm in its cradle-days, even as
Smith was its bodily force, and Harris its financial
foundation. Those who have the most closely studied
his connection with the scheme are the most strongly
inclined to identify him with those measures that
gave it the most tenacious hold on life, and he cer-
tainly secured it a welcome in Ohio that few other
men could have commanded. Hepworth Dixon says
of him in ** Spiritual Wives": "He had already
changed his religion more than once, as he afterward
changed it again more than once. He had been a
loud ranter, a hot revivalist ; and after his conversion
to the Mormon faith he labored in his district among
the more exalted members of the most exalted sects.
He knew the writings of Mahan, Gates, and Boyle ;
writings in which love and marriage are considered
in relation to gospel liberty and a future life." *

His personal appearance has been thus described
by an acquaintance: " He was an orator of no incon-
siderable abilities. In person he was full medium
height ; rotund in form ; of countenance, while
speaking, open and winning, with a little cast of mel-
ancholy. His action was graceful, his language copi-
ous, fluent in utterance, with articulation clear and
musical. Yet he was an enthusiast, and unstable.
His personal influence with an audience was very
great ; but many with talents far inferior surpassed
him in judgment and permanent power with the

people He possessed an imagination at once

fertile, glowing, and wild to extravagance, with tem-
perament tinged with sadness and bordering on

•"Spiritual Wives." By W. H. Dixon, London, 1868, p. 62.

62 Early Days of Mor monism.

credulity."* In a pen portrait of him in later life, a
visitor to Nauvoo makes use of the following lan-
guage : " Sidney Rigdon, one of the councillors,
prophet, seer, and revelator, is 42 years of age, five
feet nine and a half inches high, weighing one hundred
and sixty-five pounds. His former weight, reduced
by sickness produced by the Missouri prosecution,
was two hundred and twelve pounds. He is a mighty
man in Israel, of varied learning, and extensive and
laborious research. There is no divine in the West
more learned in Biblical literature and the history of
the world than he : an eloquent orator, chaste in his
language, and conclusive in his reasoning."!

This is overdrawn somewhat, but points in the direc-
tion of truth. He was an eager disputant all through
life, and seldom missed an opportunity for theological
debate. He seems to have depended upon his elo-
quence as a preacher and quickness of mental action
for success in life, rather than upon any deep force of
character or hard work. He was petulant when
affairs did not run in a desired groove ; naturally full
of self-assertion ; and his passionate temper too often
gained headway against the sober intention of his
judgment. He had an ungoverned ambition, and
unless full measure of praise was awarded him on the
instant, he was disposed to destroy all he had done,
and abandon the work he had in hand, whether it
was bad or good.

Rigdon was born near the present village of
Library, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, on Febru-

* " Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve." By
A. S. Hayden, Cincinnati, 1876, p. 191.

f In a letter signed "Veritas," published in the New York Herald.

Sidney Rigdon and the Kirtlaiid Haven. 63

ary 19, 1793. An accident which occurred in his
early boyhood may have had something to do
with his erratic course in after-Hfe, if we adopt the
theory of his brother,"^ Dr. L. Rigdon, of Hamilton,
Ohio, who said of him that '' when quite a boy, living
with his father some fifteen miles south of Pittsburgh,
he was thrown from a horse. His foot entangling in
a stirrup he was dragged some distance before re-
lieved. In this accident he received such a contusion
of the brain as ever afterward seriously affected his
character, and in some respects his conduct." Dr.
Rigdon was of the opinion that Sidney was a little
deranged ever after this mishap. '* His mental
powers did not seem to be impaired, but the equi-
librium of his intellectual exertions seems thereby to
have been sadly affected. He still manifested great
mental activity and power, but was to an equal de-
gree inclined to run into wild and visionary views on
almost every question ; hence he was a fit subject for
any new movement in the religious world."

Sidney attended the common school of his neigh-
borhood, and was early accounted of promise by
those about him. He became a member of the Bap-
tist church when quite young, and possessing marked
natural powers of oratory, was encouraged toward
the ministry. Even then there was uncertainty con-
cerning his genuineness of faith, and many doubted
his conversion, as there was " so much miracle " about
it, and " so much parade about his profession " that
his pastor was in serious doubt as to how far he
should be accepted in good faith ; and this same good

* Baptist Witness, date of March i, 1875.

64 Early Days of Mormonism.

man, David Phillips, became unconsciously prophetic
when he expressed the belief that " as long as Sidney
lived he would be a curse to the Church of Christ."
When, in later days, Harmon Sumner expostulated
with Rigdon as to his teaching and said to him, *' Broth-
er Rigdon, you never go into a Baptist church without
relating your Christian experience," he was met by
the cool and characteristic rejoinder, '* When I joined
the church I knew I could not be admitted without
an experience: so I made up one to suit the purpose,
but it was all made up, and was of no use, or true."

Some portion of Rigdon's early career was devoted
to the printer's trade, but little of detail is known
concerning him until 18 18 and 18 19, when he studied
divinity under a minister named Clark, of Beaver
County, Pennsylvania. On March 4th, of the year last
named, he was received into membership by the Bap-
tist church at Warren, Ohio, and was licensed to
preach on April ist of the same year, v

It was at this period of life that he was first brought
under the influence of Alexander Campbell, through
which he was afterward led to forsake the Baptist
church and become a Disciple. Mr. Campbell has him-
self (in Millennial Harbinger, 1848, page 523) described
the occasion upon which the two were brought to-
gether : " In the summer of 1821, while sitting in my
portico after dinner, two gentlemen in the costume of
clergymen, as they are technically called, appeared in
my yard, advancing to the house. The elder of them,
on approaching me, first introduced himself, saying,
' My name, sir, is Adamson Bentley ; this is Elder Sid-
ney Rigdon, both of Warren, Ohio.' .... After tea
in the evening, we commenced, and prolonged, our

Sidney Rigdon and the Kirtland Haven. 65

discourse till the next morning On parting the

next day, Sidney Rigdon, with all apparent candor,
said if he had within the last year taught and pro-
mulgated from the pulpit one error, he had a thousand.

''At that time he was the great orator of the
Mahoning Association, though in authority with the
people second always to Adamson Bentley. I found
it expedient [did the keen eye already see the fatal
flaw in Rigdon ?] to caution them not to begin to pull
down anything they had built until they had reviewed
again and again what they had heard ; nor even then
rashly and without much consideration. Fearing
they might undo their influence with the people, I
felt constrained to restrain rather than to urge them

on in the work of reformation They went on

their way rejoicing, and in the course of a single
year prepared the whole association to hear us with
earnestness and candor."

Rigdon was married, while residing in Warren, to
Phoebe Brooks, a sister to Mrs. Bentley, wife of the
minister referred to above. Through the influence of
Mr. Campbell* he was chosen to the pastorate of the
First Baptist church of Pittsburgh, which comprised
a membership of over one hundred, and assumed his
new and important duties on January 28, 1822. Some
uncertainty exists as to his movements from 1823 to
1826, but at the later date we again find him in Ohio,t

* When Thomas and Alexander Campbell renounced Presbyte-
rianism, they joined the Redstone Baptist Association in 1S12, and
for a number of years worked in harmony with that church.

f He had family connections of some prominence in that State,
his cousin, Thomas Rigdon, a Baptist minister, serving for a time
in the Ohio Legislature — a position which at that time conferred
considerable honor upon its possessor.

66 Early Days of Mormonism.

the pastor of a small church at Bainbridge, Geauga
County. In June of the year last named, he was
called to Mentor to preach the funeral sermon of
Elder Warner Goodall, pastor of the Baptist church
of that village, and acquitted himself in such manner
that he was employed as successor of the deceased,
beginning the engagement in the fall.

It was at this period that the Disciple Church was
making its persistent and courageous fight for recog-
nition and position upon the Western Reserve, and
many earnest men under the direct leadership of
Thomas and Alexander Campbell, were preaching the
new light of the Gospel truth as it had seemed to
come to them. The success of their preaching was
of the most signal character, and within five years of
the commencement of their work, the foundations of
many Disciple churches were laid. One congrega-
tion that had no fixed connection, but called itself by
the general name Christian, listened to a Disciple
missionary and surrendered to his teaching as one
man. In a Methodist congregation the minister was
converted, and we read that the flock " became an
easy and willing prey," and that every member ac-
cepted the new doctrine and came into the new
fold.

In March, 1828, Rigdon paid a visit to Warren, and
listened to the preaching of Walter Scott, an elo-
quent Disciple leader, who had been associated with
Rigdon in the Baptist church. The latter was im-
pressed to conviction, and on his return to Mentor
commenced to preach the new doctrine with such
effect that he soon led his home flock across the line
over which he had himself been led. In addition to

Sidney Rigdon and the Kirtland Haven, 67

his Mentor connection, he was also pastor of a small
church at Kirtland, some four miles to the south.

During the two succeeding years Rigdon was one
of the leading preachers of the Disciple faith upon
the Western Reserve, prominent in all the councils
of the church, listened to with love and respect, and
in close personal fellowship with the great men of
that denomination. He preached for a time at Man-
tua, founded the Disciple church at Perry, and is
spoken of as a zealous and hard-working man in al-
most every chapter of Mr. Hayden's book, and in
one place in that able history it is remarked that
" among the seniors present were Thomas Campbell
and his son Alexander, Adamson Bentley, and Sidney
Rigdon, with Walter Scott, to whom most of the
young disciples looked with the affection of children
to a spiritual father." Rigdon made himself felt with
brilliant personality wherever he had a right to be
heard, and was happy only when events were in motion.
On one occasion, when weary with long discussion upon
a proposed measure, he sprang to his feet and thun-
dered out, " You are consuming too much time on this
question ! One of the old Jerusalem preachers would
start out with his hunting-shirt and moccasins, and con-
vert half the world, while you are discussing and settling
plans ! " A sharp thrust which had its effect, winding
up the long debate and producing immediate action.

Just when Mr. Rigdon decided to take part in the
Golden-Bible scheme can never be known, but he
seemed preparing himself and those about him for
its reception some time before its advent in Ohio.
He began in 1829 or early in 1830 to preach a com-
mon stock of goods and a community of interests, as

6S Early Days of Mormonism.

right and apostolic* The idea did not gain rapid
ground against the New England sense and traditions
of the early settlers of the Reserve. In Mentor it
was rejected altogether, but a more promising field
was found at Kirtland, where results of a practical
character were witnessed, when one Isaac Morley
threw open the doors of his home and offered wel-
come to all who would come. The response was im-
mediate from those who believed a living was due
them from the world, and we are told that ''a num-
ber of ignorant and profligate, and others of means"
responded, until fully one hundred became members
of the communistic society there formed.

Rigdon made a bold and determined efTort to en-
graft the communistic principle upon the Disciple
faith, but met with failure. At a notable gathering
of the church leaders at Austintown, in 1830, there
occurred a passage-at-arms between Alexander Camp-

* The various co-operative movements that occurred in Europe
and America at about this period were of a nature to win the
attention and attract the desire of a man of Rigdon's mental mould.
Success of an unprecedented character had attended the experi-
ments for the bettering of the condition of the working classes, by-
David Dale, at the New Lanark Mills, Scotland ; Charles Fourier
was astonishing France by his fascinating and ingenious theory of
Communism ; Robert Owen was at his work of moulding public
sentiment in favor of co-operative societies, and operations under
his stimulus had already been commenced at Kendal, Stark County,
Ohio, New Harmony, Indiana, and other points ; George Rapp
was prospering with his Harmony Society at Economy, Pennsyl-
vania ; the Separatists had already made the wilderness blossom
as a rose in their prosperous community of Zoar ; Shaker societies
had been successfully founded in several portions of the country :
and other trials by which the visions of the dreamers were to be-
come the experiments of practice, were being put to the test in vari-
ous portions of the land.

Sidney Rigdon and the Kirtlmid Haven, 69

bell and himself upon this question, that discomfited
Rigdon, and may have had something to do with his
easy descent into Mormonism a few months later.
In that meeting, Mr. Rigdon made a speech in which
he argued that their pretension to follow the apostles
in all the New Testament teachings required a com-
munity of goods, and that, '* as they established this
order in the model church at Jerusalem, the church
of to-day was required to imitate their example."
Mr. Campbell saw immediately the danger of allow-
ing such doctrine from one as prominent as Rigdon
to go unchallenged, and he made a vehement speech
in opposition. A half-hour's debate ensued between
the two, in which Rigdon was put utterly to rout.
Chagrined and hurt at the cool reception of his
theory, he withdrew from the meeting, and was seen
in the Disciple gatherings no more. On his way
home to Mentor he passed through Warren, and said
bitterly to Mr. Austin, his host, " I have done as
much in this reformation as Campbell or Scott, and
yet they get all the honor of it."

How Smith and Rigdon were brought together
first, no man will ever know. Many believe that
Parley Pratt, who was a wandering tin-peddler and a
friend of Rigdon's, was the means through which the
one was led to the other, and the need that each had
for the other made known. Be this as it may, these
master-minds of religious invention had been, beyond
doubt, brought together, had concocted their scheme,
prepared their Mormon Bible from Spaulding's manu-
script or other source, and arranged a plan by which
they could make a living by imposing upon the
credulity of others, for no one who knew the men

yo Early Days of Mormonism.

ever imagined they had a higher object in view.
Rigdon at first played his part in the background ; yet
his occasional business calls from Kirtland and Men-
tor tallied, as was afterward discovered, with the visits
of the mysterious stranger at the Smith residence.

Mr. Z. Rudolph, the father of Mrs. James A.
Garfield, recently declared '' that during the win-
ter previous to the appearance of the Book of Mor-
mon, Rigdon was in the habit of spending weeks
away from his home, going no one knew where; and
that he often appeared very preoccupied and would
indulge in dreamy, imaginative talks which puzzled
those who listened. When the Book of Mormon
appeared and Rigdon joined in the advocacy of the
new religion, the suspicion was at once aroused that
he was one of the framers of the new doctrines and
probably was not ignorant of the authorship of the
book.""^ That something was stirring in the mind
of Sidney long before he made open profession of
conversion to the new creed, is established on author-
ity that cannot be disputed. " When I was quite a
child," wrote Mrs. Amos Dunlap, of Warren, Ohio,
in 1879, "I visited Mr. Rigdon's family. During my
visit Mr. Rigdon went to his bedroom and took from
his trunk, which he kept locked, certain manuscript.
He came out into the other room and seating himself
by the fire-place began reading it. His wife at that
moment exclaimed, 'You are studying that thing
again,' or something to that effect. She then added,

* From a statement made by R. Patterson, author of "Who
Wrote the Book of Mormon?" Philadelphia, 1882 ; and published
in " New Light on Mormonism," by Ellen E. Dickenson, New
York, 1885, p. 252.

Sidney Rigdon and the Kir t land Haven. 7 1

* I mean to burn that paper.' He said, * No indeed
you won't. This will be a great thing some day.'
When he was reading this he was so thoroughly occu-
pied that he seemed entirely unconscious of anything
else around him." We have the following significant
statement from Mr. D. Atwater, who sat under Rig-
don's preaching in the Mantua church:* ''For a
few months before his professed conversion to Mor-
monism it was noticed that his wild, extravagant
propensities had been more marked. That he knew
before of the coming of the Book of Mormon is to
me certain from what he said during the first of his
visits at my father's, some years before. He gave a
wonderful description of the mounds and other an-
tiquities found in some parts of America, and said
that they must have been made by the aborigines.
He said there was a book to be published containing
an acount of those things. He spoke of these in his
eloquent, enthusiastic style, as being a thing most
extraordinary."

The foundation of the Mormon Church organiza-
tion was laid and its machinery set in motion by
Smith and his followers in the same year that saw
the publication of their book. With that ease he
ever possessed for making the circumstances of the
case fit into his purpose, Joseph announced that the
ministry had been already prepared in Cowdery
and himself, to whom formal ordination had come on
May 15, 1829, by the hands of no less a personage
than John the Baptist. "• He commanded us," pro-
ceeds his narration, " to go and be baptized, and gave
us directions that I should baptize Oliver Cowdery

* " History of the Disciples on the Western Reserve," p. 239.

J 2 Early Days of Mormonism,

and afterwards that he should baptize me." In this
message John assured Joseph that he was acting under
the direction of the Disciples Peter, James, and John.

In accordance with this command, if we may be-
lieve Smith, Cowdery and himself went into the
water* together and administered the sacred rite un-
to each other; the one laying his hands upon the
head of the other and pronouncing solemn words of
ordination. And '' as they came out of the water
they experienced great and glorious blessings, and
the Holy Ghost fell upon Oliver, and he prophesied,
and then Joseph stood up and he prophesied." In
this story, that Smith no doubt fabricated entirely
for the occasion, one can see only a clumsy imitation
of that grand scene by the. Jordan, where Jesus came
from Galilee to be baptized of John. In that very
resemblance Smith discerned a new hold upon the
credulity of those who believed that mysterious
things were at hand, and that that which had been
done in the days of the prophets or the apostles was
about to be repeated in their own.

On Tuesday, April 6, 1830, the Mormon Church
was organized in the house of Peter Whitmer,f in

* This baptism is said by Smith to have occurred at Harmony,
Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania.

f The six members of this new church were Joseph Smith, Sr.,
Hyrum Smith, Joseph Smith, Jr., Samuel Smith, Oliver Cowdery,
and Joseph Knight. The Whitmers had no small part in the be-
ginnings of Mormonism, and were apparently honest in their pro-
fessions of belief. Peter was a " Pennsylvania Dutchman," in the
colloquial language of the day — a plain, honest, simple-minded man.
His sons John, Christian, Jacob, and Peter, Jr., were among the
famous "eight witnesses," while his son David was one of the
famous "three." Hiram Paige, also one of the eight, was an itin-
erant root-doctor, who had married a daughter of Peter, Sr. When

Sidney Rigdon and the Kir 1 1 and Haven. 73

Fayette, Seneca County, New York — an event which,
according to the ingenuity of Orson Pratt, was after-
ward figured out as happening exactly eighteen hun-
dred years, to a day, from the resurrection of Christ.
Those who were placed upon the roll of church
membership entered into a covenant to serve the
Lord, and partook of the sacrament. On the Sab-
bath following, Covvdery preached the first public ser-
mon of Mormondom, dwelling upon the new dispensa-
tion and the principles of the gospel as they had
been newly revealed to Joseph. Events moved for-
ward rapidly. In June the first convention of the
church was held in Fayette, at which thirty members
were present. From this date forward Smith threw^
off all reserve, and claimed in public everywhere full
possession of the powers and responsibilities that he
held to through all his after-life. Angels constantly
visited him and ministered unto him ; the will of the
Lord was ever present to him in special revelations ;
men were called, ordained, and sent hither and thither
at command ; and he became, in the language of a
Mormon hymn, *' the mouthpiece of God." And

it became noised abroad that the honest old German was being led
dupe by Smith, his pastor, Rev. Diedrich Villers, of the German
Reformed Church, called upon him to remonstrate against his folly.
The only reply he could gain from the old farmer was, "Jesus Christ,
yesterday, to-day, and forever." All the property he possessed was
finally turned over to the use of the church. David Whitmer claimed
to have been converted by a miracle. He was laden with sap, and
on his way from the woods sat down to rest. After much thinking
upon the wonderful things that had been recently told him, he sud-
denly knelt in prayer, and asked God, in case Mormonism was true,
to make his load lighter in token thereof. He then shouldered his
burden, and found it one no longer : the buckets weighing no more
than a feather. All doubt was forever gone.

74 Early Days of Mormonism.

whatsoever he uttered was carried to the ear of his
believer with the awful weight of meaning that could
have been laid upon a message sent by angel messen-
gers from the great white throne itself. Men who
wonder at the obedience and unquestioning loyalty
of the dupes of Mormonism in these early days, should
ponder well this fact before they ridicule and condemn.
During the winter preceding the advent of the
book, Rigdon had absented him.self from his com-
munistic community at Kirtland for several weeks,
explaining to no one his whereabouts, and carrying
himself with a mysterious manner on his return. That
he was with Smith during this absence, and engaged
in the promotion of their scheme, there can be little
doubt. In his preaching after this absence he seemed
to be paving the way for some new change in the
spiritual life of his community ; and much in his
course that was not then understood became as clear
as noontide in the light of after-events. He prepared
the ground with great care, so that the transplanted
tree, whem it was brought into their midst, would take
sure root. He declared to his people that he did not
possess the full comfort of his religion as he desired,
and stood in the attitude of one seeking new light.
He so shaped the thought of those who looked up to
him as a spiritual guide, that they were watching
night and morning for the coming of a sign, and were
prepared for any new trend of belief to which their
ignorant credulity should be directed. Always fervent,
and by nature a powerful actor, Rigdon played upon
their souls with such power and to such purpose as
he willed, and carried them a long way toward the new
creed, before they had knowledge of its existence.

Sidney Rigdon and the Kir t land Have?i. 75

The deft hand of Parley Pratt was not wanting in
these manipulations of many things toward a com-
mon end, nor was his part one of minor importance.
A tin-peddler who at times ascended the pulpit, he
represented a combination of business shrewdness and
theological investigation that made him a powerful
factor in this scheme that had for its foundation
faith and the making of money. Such pen pictures
of his character as have been preserved show him to
have been of baser instincts, and one to whom the
later adjuncts of Mormonism made powerful appeal.
Mrs. B. G. Ferris, wife of the Secretary for Utah, in
one of her letters from that remote point,* writes
under date of February, 1853 : " The man (Pratt) has
a very even flow of language, and converses with
great ease." She describes him as of burly figure,
with a bland manner, and a readiness to borrow money
that was not duplicated when it came time to pay.
He was at that date in the possession of five wives.

That Pratt had acquaintance with Smith before the
two had anything of common in public, there can be
no doubt ; although Pratt himself suggests, rather
than declares, to the contrary. His own account of his
conversion to Mormonism is given in the following
words : t *' I took a journey to the State of New
York, partly on a visit, .... and partly for the pur-
pose of administering the word. This journey was
undertaken in August, 1830. I had no sooner reached
Ontario County, than I came in contact with the
Book of Mormon, which had then been published

* " The Mormons at Home." By Mrs. B. G. Ferris, New York,
1856, p. i6g.
f " Mormonism and the Mormons," p. 67.

^6 Early D.iys of Mormonism.

about six months, and had gathered about fifty dis-
ciples, which were all that then constituted the Church
of Latter-Day Saints. [That name was not adopted
until some years after.] I was greatly prejudiced
against the book, but, remembering the caution of
Paul— -'Prove all things, and hold fast to that which
is good ' — I sat down to read it, and, after carefully
comparing it with the other Scriptures, and praying
to God, He gave me knowledge of its truth by the
power of the Holy Ghost ; and what was I that I
should withstand God ?

*' I accordingly obeyed the ordinances, and was com-
missioned by revelation and the laying on of hands
to preach the fullness of the Gospel. Then, after fin-
ishing my visit to Columbia County, I returned to the
brethren in Ontario County, where, for the first time,
I saw Mr. Joseph Smith, Jr., who had just returned
from Pennsylvania to his father's house in Manchester.
About the 15th of October I took my journey in com-
pany with Elder O. Cowdery and Peter Whitmer to
Ohio. We called on Elder S. Rigdon, and then, for
the first time, his eyes beheld the Book of Mormon.
I myself had the happiness to present it to him in
person. He was much surprised, and it was with
much persuasion and argument that he was prevailed
upon to read it."

This apparently candid statement does not suggest
the deeper current of quiet arrangement that lay be-
neath it. The fact is, that a few months of earnest pro-
pagation of the new gospel in and about Palmyra, Man-
chester, Fayette, and the vicinity, convinced Smith
and his accomplices that the seed they had sown was
fallen upon barren ground, and that a more fertile

Sidney Rigdon and the Kir t land Haven. yy

field must be laid under cultivation. Smith and oth-
ers went forth to preach, but with meagre results ; and it
is recorded that Joseph's personal efforts were so little
appreciated, that, instead of converts, he won much ad-
vice touching an immediate abandonment of the field.

When all the arrangements for the migration west-
ward were completed, the first open movement in that
direction was made.

In the latter part of October, 1830, four men — Ol-
iver Cowdery, Parley Pratt, Ziba Peterson, and Peter
Whitmer, Jr.* — were sent forth on an ostensible mis-
sion to the Indians of the far West: a people for
whose salvation Smith declared the new revelation
had been largely made.

En route they made it convenient to call at Kirt-
land, where Pratt already had acquaintance. They
boldly went among the members of Rigdon's Disciple
communistic congregation, exhibiting the Book of
Mormon and preaching its new plan of salvation.
To the narrow life and hedged-in hearts and intel-
lect of the people to whom their appeal was made,
the sensation was like the sparkle and exhilaration
of new wine, and the whole community opened
mouth and stood waiting, as men perpetually athirst.f

* When Whitmer and his associates arrived in Ohio, they were
greeted with this welcome from the Painesville Telegraph: "But
the more important part of the mission was to inform the brethren
that the boundaries of the Promised Land, made known to Smith
from God — the township of Kirtland, a few miles west of this, is the
eastern line, and the Pacific Ocean the western line ; if the north
and south lines have been described, we have not learned them."

I There were many at that time who believed the millennium was
at hand, and in 1830 there were those who were convinced it had
dawned, and that, to again quote from Mr. Hayden ("History of
the Disciples in the Western Reserve," p. 183), " The long-expected

yS Early Days of Monnonism.

Rigdon played his part with consummate skill, and
to the complete success of the programme. Although
he no doubt had a hand in the making of the book,
he received it with apparent amazement, and as one
to whom it was all a matter of surprise.

Two of the missionaries sent into Kirtland spent
the night of their arrival at Rigdon's house. All that
passed in their interview has been kept a secret by
those whom it most concerned. On the morning fol-
lowing, as the family of Judge Clapp, a neighbor, sat
at their breakfast, Rigdon came in, laboring under
apparent excitement. Hardly waiting for the usual
salutations, he burst forth with the information, " Two
men came to my house last night on a curious mission."

When all looked up, and some one voiced the gen-
eral desire to hear, he proceeded to relate in an im-
pressive and dramatic manner how the Book of Mor-
mon had been found, and how wonder after wonder
of a supernatural character had befallen one Joseph
Smith, a country boy of Northern New York. 1 he
story was told with such an air of wonder and belief
that all who heard were amazed, while one to whom
the fallacy of much of it was suggested, cried out in
contempt, ^^ It is all a lie."

There were many, however, more ready to surren-

day of gospel glory would very soon be ushered in These

glowing expectations formed the staple of many sermons. They
were the continued and exhaustless topic of conversation. They
animated the hope and inspired the zeal to a high degree of the con-
verts and many of the advocates of the gospel. Millennial hymns
were learned and sung with a joyful fervor and hope surpassing the
conception of worldly and carnal professors." It was amid a peo-
ple full of these expectations, and with hearts fired with these things,
that Mormonism was brought, and there is small wonder that it
found a welcome.

Sidney Rigdon and the Kirtland Haven. 79

der to the strangers and their book. Rigdon was
soon openly confronted with their claims, and com-
pelled to meet them in such manner as he should
deem best. He promised to read the book, and car-
ried a copy to his home. He returned, and strongly
condemned a portion of its doctrines ; and the de-
bate between himself on the one hand, and Pratt and
Cowdery on the other, was carried on with earnest-
ness and vehemence. It seemed to be a part of Rig-
don's plan to make such fight that when he did sur-
render, the triumph of the cause that had defeated
him, would be all the more complete.

Many openly sided with Rigdon, while others
accepted the doctrine and the book. In a few days
a Mormon society was formed, and Cowdery rebap-
tized its members to the number of seventeen. Rig-
don denied the right to do this, and declared that
they were proceeding contrary to the Scriptures.

When they called upon him at his residence on the
day following this important move, he told them
they had acted '' without precedent," and demanded
proof of the divine authority of their mission. Each
of the four in response related his experience. They
had '' obtained faith by praying for a sign, and an
angel was shown unto them."

Rigdon responded by proving from Scripture the
possibility of their being deceived, as Satan had
power to transform himself into an angel of light.

'' But," responded Cowdery, " do you think if I
should go to my Heavenly Father, with all sincerity,
and pray to Him, in the name of Jesus Christ, that
He would not show me an angel ; that He would
suffer Satan to deceive me ? "

8o Early Days of Mormonism.

" If the Heavenly Father," was Rigdon's reply,
" has ever promised to show you an angel, to con-
firm anything, He would not suffer you to be de-
ceived, ' for,' says John, ' this is the confidence we
have with Him, if we ask things according to His will
He hearkens to us.' But if you should ask the
Heavenly Father to show you an angel when He has
never promised you such a thing — if the devil had
never had an opportunity of deceiving you before,
you give him one now." Rigdon was finally pre-
vailed upon to promise that he would also ask God
for a sign, but would not then further commit him-
self in the direction of Mormonism.

This discussion, and others of the same tenor, were
carried on in the presence of the gaping populace,
and each point made by the visitors had its weight
and effect in preparing the way for many future con-
versions. The excitement was at a fever heat, and
was by no means lessened when Rigdon appeared
after a seclusion of a couple of days and announced
his complete surrender. With an apparent earnest-
ness of manner, and with such eloquent words as he
could so surely command, he declared that he had
asked for a sign, and had received a revelation from
heaven that Mormonism was true. He said that he
had prayed for the sign, and explained the response
that was vouchsafed him, in the following language :
" To my astonishment, I saw the different orders of
professing Christians passing before my eyes, with
their hearts exposed to view, and they were as cor-
rupt as corruption itself. That society to which I
belonged also passed before my eyes, and to my
astonishment it was as corrupt as the others. Last

Sidney Rigdoii and the Kir t land Haven. 81

of all that little man, who brought me the Book of
Mormon, passed before me with his heart open, and it
was as pure as an angel ; and this was a testimony from
God that the Book of Mormon was a divine revelation."

Imagination can well measure the effect of this
surrender upon Rigdon's simple followers. The
last stay upon which their doubt hung gave way,
and they went into the new fold almost en masse.
Rigdon and his wife were publicly baptized by Cow-
dery on the Sabbath following. He seemed to be
altered in demeanor to such an extent that his wife
said, ** The religrion must be of divine origin, else it
could not have produced so wonderful an effect."

The results of this surrender far outran the
changes of temper and feeling in one man. New
life was given to the struggling and uncertain Mor-
mon Church by the accession within a short period
of over one hundred members ; and a house of ref-
uge was provided in its days of weakness and need.
The Prophet, as Smith was now called, was in honor
among his new disciples, who had not known him as
he was known at home ; and when Rigdon made his
preparation for a formal pilgrimage to Manchester,
he carried with him many messages of affection and
respect. He was absent two months, and had not
been long at the home of the Prophet before he was
accepted in full fellowship, and honored by Smith
with all the means at his command. He became the
first regular minister of the Mormon Church. He
was announced to speak in Palmyra soon after his
arrival in New York, and Martin Harris attempted to
secure the use of a church building, but met with
failure. Harris's good name and evident sincerity of

S2 Early Days of Mormonism.

purpose finally obtained for him access to a public
hall.

At the designated hour a small but well-behaved
audience assembled. Rigdon introduced himself as
the messenger of God, and declared that he was
under command from on high to preach the new
revelation. In his opening prayer he gave fervent
thanks for the new gospel that had been given to
man. His text was chosen from the Mormon Book;
and in opening he declared that '' the Book of Mor-
mon and the Bible were one in inspiration and im-
portance." With the one held aloft in his right hand
and the other in his left, he suddenly brought them
together with force, and pronounced them the re-
vealed word of God. His sermon was preached with
unusual earnestness and eloquence, yet it so far failed
of its intended effect that it not only won no con-
verts, but caused Harris to be refused the use of the
hall for the future. The first Mormon sermon in
Palmyra was also the last.

It was not possible for Rigdon to remain altogeth-
er in the background when perseverance and asser-
tion would carry him toward the front, and ere long
Smith found it necessary to unburden himself of a
revelation that gave his partner a recognized position
of spiritual authority second only to his own. In
December he addressed to his followers a lengthy
document in which Rigdon was favored with special
mention ; and of which the following constitutes the
opening clause :

*' A commandment to Joseph and Sidney, Decem-
ber 7, 1830: saying, Listen to the voice of the Lord
your God even Alpha and Omega, the beginning and

Sidney Rigdon and the Kir t land Haven. 83

the end, whose course is one eternal round; the same
to-day as yesterday and forever. I am Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, who was crucified for the sins of the
world, even as many as will believe on my name, that
they may become the sons of God, even one in me, as
I am in the Father, as the Father is one in me, that
we may be one. Behold, verily, verily, I say unto my
servant Sidney, I have iooked upon thee and thy
works ; I have heard thy prayers, and prepared thee
for a greater work — thou art blessed, for thou shalt
do great things. Behold, thou wast sent forth, even
as John, to prepare the w^ay before me and before
Elijah which should come, and thou knewest it not ;
thou didst baptize by water unto repentance, but they
received not the Holy Ghost ; but now I give unto
thee a commandment, that thou shalt baptize by
water, and they shall receive the Holy Ghost by the
laying on of hands, even as the apostles of old."

This special indorsement of Rigdon was not with-
out its purpose. It gave him authority among those
who had accepted Mormonism, and aided him in his
preparations for Smith's removal to Kirtland.

A step was taken toward that removal, when John
Whitmer was detailed to take charge of the new
church at Kirtland. He was one of the four Whit-
mers of those eight witnesses who made declaration
that they had in reality seen the plates of gold from
which the Book of Mormon had been translated. He
carried to Kirtland an autographic letter from Rigdon
to the waiting brethren, which said : "■ I send you
this letter by John Whitmer. Receive him, for he is
a brother greatly beloved, and an apostle of this
church. Wit'i him we send al! the revelations we
have received ; for the Lord has declared unto us

84 Early Days of Mornio7iism,

that you pray unto him that Joseph Smith and my-
self go speedily unto you ; but at present it is not
expedient for him to send us. He has required of us,
therefore, to send unto you our beloved brother
John, and with him the revelations which he has
given unto us, by which you will see the reason why
we cannot come at this time."

" The Lord has made known unto us," continues
the writer, desiring to make what points he may
against those upon whose credulity he is at work,
" some of his great things which he has laid up for
them that love him, among which the fact (a glory
of wonders it is) that you are living on the land of
promise and that there (at Kirtland) is the place of
gathering, and from that place to the Pacific Ocean,
God has declared to himself, not only in time but
through eternity, and he has given it to us and our
children, not only while time lasts, but we shall
have it again in eternity, as you will see by one of
the commandments received day before yesterday.
Therefore, be it known to you, brethren, that you
are dwelling on your eternal inheritance ; for which
cease not to give ceaseless glory, praise, and thanks-
giving to the God of Heaven."

Bearing such astonishing news, how could John
Whitmer fail of welcome ?

Smith had by this time commenced a new trans-
lation of the Old Testament, in which he was assisted
by Rigdon. In December this work was temporarily
suspended by the revelation to which reference is
made in the above. Kirtland was declared to be the
Promised Land for Mormonism, and Smith was told to
remove himself and church to that favored spot, where ,

Sidney Rigdon a7id the Kir t laud Have7i. 85

the way had been already prepared. These orders
indeed came at an opportune time, for the fact had
been already demonstrated that there was no place for
him amonor his old neig-hbors in Western New York.

Rigdon returned to Kirtland, to make ready for
the Prophet and the church. The story of his con-
version had spread far and wide, and as he was known
all through Northeastern Ohio and Northwestern
Pennsylv^ania as a man of brilliant although erratic
powers, and had preached from many of the most
prominent Baptist and Disciple pulpits in his wander-
ings to and fro, his adhesion to the new faith gave it
an advertisement that few other things could have as
effectually accomplished. The almost passionate at-
tention which the mass of the people we.re then giv-
ing to spiritual phenomena, and the expectations of
many that the days for the fulfilment of Scriptural
prophecy were at hand, gave the stories and rumors
that were afloat a meaning and power that to-day
would be beyond their possible reach.

Many eyes were therefore turned with expectation
or scepticism toward Kirtland. Upon Rigdon's re-
turn he found the fame of his doings and the knowl-
edge of Smith had preceded him. Many came to
question him, and to learn the truth from his own
lips. While to those who questioned in a sincere desire
for knowledge, he was gentle and willing to reply, he
was met by much which was only curiosity or a veiled
purpose of placing him in a corner for the confusion
of himself and the condemnation of the new doctrine.

Two of his callers, friends of former days, who had
sat under his preaching at Mentor, were among the
first to engage him after his return. They asked him

86 Early Days of Mor monism.

the reason for his new hope, and why he had re-
nounced the Disciple for the Mormon, as he had
renounced the Baptist for the Disciple. He declined
to be questioned, saying that he was weary from his
long journey from New York.

They continued their solicitation, and he his re-
fusal. At last one of the two said : " Mr. Rigdon,
you have no more evidence to confirm the Book of
Mormon than there is to the Koran of Mohammed."
With that his patience came to an end, and springing
to his feet he said with anger, '' Sir, you have insulted
me in my own house. I command silence. If people
come to see us and cannot treat us with civility they
may walk out of the door as soon as they please."

An apology was made by the offender, whereupon
Rigdon explained the reason of his deep feeling. He
had been " trampled upon and insulted by old and
young " since his conversion, and he had stood about all
that one man's patience would bear. A few days later
Mr. Rigdon was in dispute with a Methodist Elder,
when a caller approached the former and asked him
for a candid reason for the faith that was within him.

His answer was given with patience, and an evi-
dent desire to justify the course of himself and fol-
lowers. To quote the language of a listener,'^ he
" commenced a long detail of his researches after the
character of Joseph Smith — he declared that even his
enemies had nothing to say against his character.
He had brought a transcript from the dockets of two
magistrates, where Smith had been tried as a dis-
turber of the peace, which testified that he was honor-

* "M. S. C," who tells the story in the Painesville Telegraph
of February i, 1831.

Sidney Rigdoii and tJic Kir t land Haven. S7

ably acquitted. But this was no evidence to us that
the Book of Mormon was divine.

" He then spoke of the supernatural gifts with which
he said Smith was endowed ; he said he could translate
the Scriptures from any language in which they were
now extant, and could lay his finger upon every inter-
polation in the sacred writings ; adding that he had
proven him in all these things. But my friend, know-
ing that Mr. Rigdon had no knowledge of any lan-
guage but his own vernacular tongue, asked him how
he knew these things, to which Mr. Rigdon made no

direct reply We then asked Mr. Rigdon what

object we could have in receiving the Book of Mormon
— whether it enjoined a single virtue that the Bible did
not, or whether it mentioned or prohibited a single
additional vice, or whether it exhibited a new attribute
of Deity. He said it did not. ' The Book of Mor-
mon,* said he, ' is to form and govern the Millennial
church ; the old revelation was never calculated for
that, nor would it accomplish that object ; and with-
out receiving the Book of Mormon there is no sal-
vation for any one unto whose hands it shall come.'
He said faith in the Book of Mormon was only to be
obtained by asking the Lord concerning it. To this,
Scriptural objections were made. He then said: 'If
we have not familiarity enough with our Creator to
ask of Him a sign, we were no Christians'; and that
if God would not condescend to His creatures in this
way. He was no better than Juggernaut."*

* With all deference to the honesty of the narrator, one would
like to have seen Mr. Rigdon's account of this contest He was
hardly the man to let an argument go altogether against him,
whether right or wrong in his premises.

IV.

THE LIFE OF THE TRANSPLANTED TREE.

SMITH and his family made their final departure
for Kirtland in January, 1831. They were ac-
companied by others who had accepted the Mormon
faith. The gospel of the golden plates was preached
by the wayside as they went, to such as would con-
sent to hear. Some converts were thus made. Their
destination was not reached until February, and the
new-comers were welcomed with earnest zeal by their
disciples, and with great curiosity by the surrounding
unbelievers."^ The full machinery of the church and
its attendant commune was set in operation as rap-
idly as circumstances would admit ; some of the de-
velopments that followed each other in rapid succes-
sion had no doubt been planned from the beginning,
while others grew from the suggestions of experience.
Revelation followed revelation, according to the hu-

* The Painesville Telegi-aph of March 15, 1831, states that Martin
Harris arrived from the East on the Saturday previous, and imme-
diately planted himself in " the bar-room of the Painesville tavern,"
and commenced to expound and explain the Mormon Bible in a
loud and aggressive manner. All who offered a denial of any sort,
to any of his statements, were denounced as infidels. The hotel-
keeper finally asked him to vacate the premises, and as he obeyed
he declared that all who accepted Mormonism and believed, would
see Christ in fifteen years, and all who did not would be damned,
The manner in which this incident is related gives some idea of the
spirit in which Mormonism was received by the mass.
(88)

The Life of the Transplanted Tree. 89

mor of Joseph, or the needs of the cause.* With a
shrewdness suggestive of the money-digging exploits
of earlier days, the Prophet had already made it im-
possible for any of his followers to aspire to commu-
nications from on high.

In a revelation uttered in September, 1830, for the
benefit of Oliver Cowdery, that point had been dis-
posed of in the following words : *' Behold, I say
unto thee, Oliver, that it shall be given unto thee
that thou shalt be heard by the church in all things
whatsoever thou shalt teach them by the Comforter,
concerning the revelations and commandments which
I have given. But behold, verily, verily, I say unto
thee, no 07te shall be appointed to receive commandments
and revelations in this church excepting my servant
Joseph Smithj 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 de-
clare faithfully the commandments and the revela-
tions, with power and authority unto the church."

At a subsequent point in this remarkably trans-
parent document it is ordered of Oliver that he shall
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."
Others seem to have attempted something in the

* Of the revelations thought worthy of record in the official his-
tory of the Mormon Church, fourteen were given in 1829; twenty
in 1830; thirty-seven in 1831; thirteen in 1832; and thirteen in 1833.
In addition to these, the Prophet had frequent celestial orders upon
minor things, that were not thought of sufficient importance to
place upon the record.

90 Early Days of Mormonism.

line of prophecy, and Joseph found it necessary to
limit the power, for in this same document Oliver is
ordered to "take thy brother Hirum Page between
him and thee alone, and tell him that those things
which he hath written from that stone are not of me,
and that Satan deceiveth him, for behold, these things
have not been appointed unto him, neither shall any-
thing be appointed to any of this church."

A communication was addressed about the same
time to Emma Smith, the wife of Joseph, which
made her support one of the material charges upon
the church, and instructing her to act as the Prophet's
scribe. Therein it was declared to her that '^ thy
time shall be given to writing and to learning much ;
and thou needst not fear, for thy husband shall sup-
port thee from the church^

These commands had been given before the migra-
tion to Kirtland. Among those received first after
that transfer was one commanding the Mormons to
build Smith a house, which was obeyed. Then came
another ordering all the faithful except Rigdon and
Smith to go forth and preach the Mormon gospel.
In a short time still another directed John Whitmer
to write the annals of the church, for the benefit of
posterity.

These things were not occurring at Kirtland with-
out determined and aggressive opposition. As the
ministers of the orthodox churches saw their mem-
bers drawn under an influence that could do only
harm materially and spiritually, they made vehement
protests, and at times put Mormonism upon such de-
fense as became a struggle for life itself. While the
several denominations joined in this onset, the brunt

The Life of the Transplanted Tree. 91

of the battle naturally fell upon the Disciples, because
of Rigdon's former high standing in their church.
From the moment that his defection became known,
Alexander Campbell threw himself into the breach
with all the vehemence and energy of his nature, to
thwart Rigdon's purpose, and to prevent his leading
any astray. He published an expos6 of the Book of
Mormon, showing its many absurdities, and laying
bare the pretensions of those by whom it was brought
into the world. In June he proceeded to Ohio, and
spent twenty-two days in combating the new creed.

Under date of February 4, 183 1, the venerable
Thomas Campbell wrote to Rigdon, his old friend
and fellow-laborer. His letter"^ was full of sadness
over the fall of one whom he had esteemed, and con-
tained a challenge for a public debate as to the truth
or falsity of Mormonism, at any time or place Mr.
Rigdon might select. Therein he said : " It may
seem strange that instead of a confidential and friendly
visit, after so long an absence, I should thus address
by letter one w^hom for many years I have considered
not only as a courteous and benevolent friend, but as
a beloved brother and fellow-laborer in the Gos-
pel ; but alas, how changed, how fallen ! " When the
epistle was received, Rigdon read until he came to a
passage wherein Mormonism was characterized as
'' infernal," when he arose in anger, and threw the
letter into the fire. He made no answer, and the
challenge was never accepted.

Despite this opposition from many sources, the
new religion grew. The love of the marvellous to

* " Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve,"
p. 217.

92 Early Days of Mornwnism.

which men are heir, the preaching of the many mis-
sionaries sent hither and thither, and the personal
efforts of Rigdon and Smith, had their natural results,
and by May numerous additions had been made to
the little church. Converts came from all directions,
many of them from New York and the New England
States. Some fifty families had come froxii the vicin-
ity of Smith's old home. The lines along which the
founders of the creed had done their work were found
to be those most nearly allied to human superstition
and fear, and each successful venture gave new en-
couragement for another trial in the same direction.

The preaching of Rigdon in these early missionary
days was marked by an unwonted power and fervor,
whether from an ambitious desire to make a success
of the strange cause he had espoused, or because his
heart had in reality been touched by some new ray
of spiritual light. In illustration of this point, the
following from the pen of the late John Barr, of
Cleveland — an authority upon matters of Western
Reserve history — will be found of exceeding interest.
Said he:"^ " In 1830 I was deputy sheriff, and being
at Willoughby on official business determined to go
to Mayfield, which is seven or eight miles up the
Chagrin River, and hear Cowdery and Rigdon on the
revelations of Mormonism. Varnem J. Card, the
lawyer, and myself started early Sunday morning on
horseback. We found the roads crowded with peo-
ple going in the same direction.

*' Services in the church were opened by Cowdery,
with prayer and singing, in which he thanked God

*" The Early Days of Mormonism." By Frederick G. Mather,
Lippincott's Magazine ^ 1880, p. 206.

The Life of the Transplanted Tree. 93

fervently for the new revelation. He related the man-
ner of finding the golden plates of Nephi. He was
followed by Rigdon, a famous Baptist preacher, well
known throughout the eastern part of the Western
Reserve, and also in Western Pennsylvania. His
voice and manner were always imposing. He was
regarded as an eloquent man at all times, and now
he seemed fully aroused. He said he had not been
satisfied in his religious yearnings until now. At
night he had often been unable to sleep, walking and
praying for more light and comfort in his religion.
While in the midst of this agony, he heard of the
revelation of Joe Smith, which brother Cowdery had
explained. Under this his soul suddenly found peace.
It filled all his aspirations.

"At the close of along harangue in this earnest
manner, during which every one present was silent,
though very much affected, he inquired whether
any one desired to come forward and be immersed.
Only one man arose. This was an aged dead-beat
by the name of Cahoon, who occasionally joined the
Shakers, and lived on the country generally.

" The place selected for immersion was in a clear
pool in the river above the bridge, around which was
a beautiful rise of ground on the west side for the
audience. On the east bank was a sharp bluff and
some stumps, where Mr. Card and myself stationed
ourselves. The time of baptism was fixed at two P.M.
Long before this hour the spot was surrounded by as
many people as could have a clear view. Rigdon
went into the pool, which, at the deepest, was about
four feet, and after a suitable address with prayer,
Cahoon came forward and was immersed. Standing

94 Early Days of Mornionisni.

in the water Rigdon gave one of his most powerful
exhortations. The assembly became greatly affected.
As he proceeded he called for the converts to step
forward. They came through the crowd in rapid suc-
cession to the number of thirty and were immersed,
with no intermission of the discourse on the part of
Rigdon.

'' Mr. Card was apparently the most radical, stoical
of men — of a clear, unexcitable temperament, with
unorthodox and vague religious ideas. While the
exciting scene was transpiring below us in the valley
and in the pool, the faces of the crowd expressing
the most intense emotion, Mr. Card suddenly seized
my arm and said, ' Take me away.' Taking his arm I
saw his face was so pale that he seemed to be about
to faint. His frame trembled as we walked away and
mounted our horses. We rode a mile toward Wil-
loughby before a word was said. Rising the hill out
of the valley he seemed to recover and said : ^ Mr.
Barr, if you had not been there I certainly should
have gone into the water.' He said the impulse was
irresistible."

When Cowdery and his friends had performed
the work assigned them in Kirtland, they pro-
ceeded westward in obedience to Smith's com-
mand that they should convert the Indian tribes and
bring them to a belief in the Mormon creed. Upon
reaching the frontier, they were stopped from further
progress by the officers of the general government,
under the law preventing the white man from enter-
ing the Indian reservations for trading or other pur-
poses. As winter was well upon them, they turned
aside and located at Independence, Missouri, where

The Life of the Transplanted Tree. 95

they obtained sufficient employment to enable them
to live, and preach Mormonism as occasion offered.
In the spring of 183 1, one of their number returned
to Kirtland, where he rendered such report as led
Smith to look upon the frontier as the proper place
for the founding and permanent location of the great
church, and perhaps temporal kingdom, of which he
had come to dream. He had already been made
aware that Ohio was too near civilization for an easy
or safe fulfillment of his plans.

Early in June there was a formal meeting of all the be-
lievers in Mormonism at Kirtland. In the call there-
to an intimation was given that a revelation of vital
interest to the church was to be promulgated, and the
believers assembled in expectant hope and half-fear.
Smith solemnly made known the decree of which he
was the messenger. All the leading men and elders
were commanded to forsake whatever they had in
hand and proceed forthwith to Missouri, which God
had chosen as the promised land. Each was desig-
nated by name, and there was no room for refusal or
excuse. They were to go by twos, each twain choos-
ing a separate road, and all preaching by the way.
Only two weeks' preparation for the long journey and
exile were given.

On June 19th, Smith, in company with several of
his disciples, set out upon the route he had chosen,
others taking the roads assigned them. He passed
through Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis, and
from the latter city onward on foot to Independence,
which he reached in the middle of July.

Upon reaching his destination he ordered the pur-
chase of a tract of land, upon which the foundations

96 Early Days of Monnonism.

of his new city of Zion should be laid. The work
was put under way in a manner that proved Smith a
man of action as well as of words. The Rev. Ezra
Booth, a Methodist preacher of Mantua, who had
been converted in the previous May, and who was at
that time still under the influence of Mormonism, but
afterward broke his bonds and warned men against
it with all the power there was within him, has given
us this description of the events that there transpired,
in a series of letters to Rev. Ira Eddy, his presiding
elder: "The laying of the foundation of Zion was
attended with considerable parade, and an ostenta-
tious display of talents, both by Rigdon and Cow-
dery. The place being designated as the site where
the city was to commence, on the day appointed we
repaired to the spot, not only as spectators, but each
one to act the part assigned him in the great work of
laying the foundation of the 'glorious city of the
new Jerusalem.'

" Rigdon consecrated the ground by an address,
in the first place, to the God whom the Mormons
professed to worship, and then making some re-
marks respecting the extraordinary purpose for
which we were assembled, prepared the way for
administering the oath of allegiance to those who
were to receive their ' everlasting inheritance ' in that
city. He laid them under the most solemn obliga-
tions to constantly obey all the commandments of
Smith. He enjoined it upon them to express a great
degree of gratitude for the free donation, and then,
as the Lord's vicegerent, he gratuitously bestowed
upon them that for which they had paid an exorbi-
tant price in money.

The Life of the Transplanted Tree, 97

" These preliminaries being ended, a shrub oak,
about ten inches in diameter at the butt, the best
that could be obtained near at hand, was prostrated,
trimmed, and cut off at a suitable length ; and
'twelve men, answering to the twelve apostles, by
means of hand-spikes conveyed it to the place. Cow-
dery craved the privilege of laying the corner-stone.
He selected a small rough stone, the best he could
find, carried it in one hand to the spot, removed the
surface of the earth to prepare a place for its recep-
tion, and then displayed his oratorical powers in
delivering an address suited to the important occasion.
The stone being placed, one end of the shrub oak
stick was laid upon it ; and there was laid down the
first stone and stick, which are to form an essential
part of the splendid city of Zion."

Wonderful stories were told by Smith and his
immediate accomplices as to the greatness that should
befall this city chosen of God, and built under His
command, as was Jerusalem of old, and of the mar-
vellous things that should be witnessed in its streets.
It should, in future time, exceed all that the world
had ever seen. Its streets would be paved with gold
— '^ all who escaped the general destruction, which
was soon to take place, would there assemble with all
their wealth ; the ten lost tribes of Israel had been
discovered in their retreat, in the vicinity of the
North Pole, where they had for ages been secluded
by immense barriers of ice, and became vastly rich ;
the ice in a few years was to be melted away, when
those tribes, with St. John and some of the Neph-
ites, which the Book of Mormon had immortalized,
would be seen making their appearance in the new

98 Early Days of Mormonism.

city, loaded with immense quantities of gold and
silver."

Under the quickening effects of this generous prom-
ise of help and riches, the poor dupes dug and delved
and carried as Smith ordered, and counted pain and'
isolation and exile as nothing in comparison with the
spiritual and temporal rewards that were to be.

The day after the foundation of the city was thus
formally marked, the ground upon which the temple
was to stand was consecrated. Smith reserved to
himself the honor of laying the corner-stone. Mr.
Booth, whose testimony was placed on record almost
immediately after the occurrence of the events he
describes, wrote as follows : " Should the inhabitants
of Independence feel a desire to visit this place, des-
tined at some future time to become celebrated,
they will have only to walk one-half of a mile out of
the town, to a rise of ground, a short distance south
of the road. They will be able to ascertain the spot
by the means of a sapling, distinguished from the
others by the bark being broken off on the north and
on the east side. On the south side of the sapling
will be found the letter T, which stands for temple ;
and on the east side Zom, for Zomas, which Smith
says is the original word for Zion. Near the foot of
the sapling they will find a small stone covered over
with bushes, which were cut for that purpose. This is
the corner-stone of the temple. They can there have
the privilege of beholding the mighty work accom-
plished by about thirty men, who left their homes,
travelled one thousand miles, most of them on foot,
and expended more than one thousand dollars in cash."

There was so much of ridiculous failure connected

T]ie Life of the Transplanted Tree. 99

with this attempt to build a city and erect a temple
out of nothing, that some of the less credulous among
Smith's followers began to question the divinity of
his mission and the correctness of his claims. Tur-
moils and dissensions broke out, in the midst of
which Smith found it convenient to be delivered of a
revelation commanding himself and a majority of his
followers to return to Ohio. A portion of the com-
pany set out to sail down the Missouri River in a
canoe, which Smith determined to manage according
to his own idea. The result was an overturn and a
ducking, which was the culminating point of the
storms already gathering, which broke in open rup-
ture among the leading spirits of the campaign, and
open charges of cowardice in the hour of danger were
made against both Rigdon and Smith. An encamp-
ment was made upon the river bank, and after the
dripping and disheartened little party had dried their
clothing and effects, and partaken of such refresh-
ment as the situation would allow, the better judg-
ment of those most concerned resumed its sway, and
an attempt was made to patch up a peace.

Sharp words and many recriminations ensued, before
the desired end was reached. Cowdery, Rigdon, and
even Smith himself, were roundly censured for things
they had done since the departure from Kirtland.

Joseph showed symptoms of a recourse at last
to his old weapon of a special revelation, with
which to beat down rebellion and opposition, but
when a grim "None of your threats!" issued from
one of the opposing faction, he withheld his purpose,
and depended only upon his diplomacy and such
human arguments as he could command. A recon-

J 00 Early Days of Mormonism,

ciliation was not finally effected until toward day«
break, and even then there were doubts not set at
rest, and grudges and heart-burnings left unsatisfied,
that made themselves felt in the rebellions and seces-
sions of later days. Smith had already discovered
that he held in leash many discordant elements, and
that the role of "prophet, seer, revealer, and transla-
tor," which titles he had now assumed, was one of
worry, perplexity, and even personal danger.

In the morning Smith showed a strong dislike to
further journeying upon the dangerous river, and to
silence the opposition of those who still desired to
proceed by canoe, he gave utterance to a command-
ment from on high, laying an awful curse upon the
waters, and forbidding the faithful to navigate them.
The name of the stream was changed to " The river
of destruction," and Joseph and his band proceeded
forward on foot.

It was decided, when the nearest town was reached,
that Smith, Rigdon, and Cowdery should proceed
rapidly forward by stage, while the rest of the weary,
homesick, and discouraged band should reach Kirt-
land on foot, preaching as they went. " The method
by which Joseph and company designed to proceed
home," writes Mr. Booth, " it was discovered would
be very expensive. ' The Lord don't care how much
money it takes to get us home,* said Sidney. Not
satisfied with the money they received from the
bishop, they used their best endeavors to exact
money from others, who had but little compared
with what they had ; telling them, in substance, ' You
can beg your passage on foot, but as we are to travel
in the stage, we must have money.*

TJie Life of the Transplanted Tree. loi

'' The expense of these three men was one hundred
dollars more than three of our company expended
while on our journey home ; and for the sake of truth
and honesty let these men never again open their
mouths to insult the common sense of mankind, by
contending for equality and the community of goods
in society, until there is a thorough alteration in
their method of proceeding. It seems, however,
they had drained their pockets when they arrived
at Cincinnati, for there they were under the necessity
of pawning their trunk, in order to continue their
journey home.

" Here they violated the commandment by not
preaching; and when an inquiry was made respecting
the cause of that neglect, at one time they said they
could get no house to preach in ; at another time
they stated that they could have had the court-house
had they stayed a day or two longer, but the Lord
made it known to them that they should go on ; and
other similar excuses, involving like contradictions."

While in Missouri, under date of " Zion, August
1st, 1 83 1," Smith was delivered of a new revelation
which was sent forth to the Mormons East and West
as the will of the Lord concerning the purchase of
land in Missouri, and the building up of Zion. After
explaining to the Elders and their followers why they
had been brought so far from home — " that you might
be obedient, and that your hearts might be prepared
to bear testimony of the things which are to come,
and also that you might be honored of laying the
foundation, and bearing record of the land upon
which the Zion of God shall stand," — he proceeds to
restrenf^then the faith of Martin Harris, so that he

102 Early Days of Mormonisnt.

might devote yet more of his money to the Mormon
cause, in the following warning words : " It is wisdom
in me that my servant Martin Harris should be an
example unto the church, in laying his monies before
the bishop of the church ; . . . . and let him repent
of his sins, for he seeketh the praise of the world."

In that remarkable document it was further ordered
that "it is wisdom also, that there should be Ian 's
purchased in Independence for the place of the store-
house, and also for the house of printing"; that Rig-
don should " write a description of Zion, and a state-
ment of the will of God, as it shall be made known
by the Spirit unto him, and an epistle and a subscrip-
tion unto all the churches to obtain moneys to put
into the hands of the bishop, to purchase lands for
an inheritance for the children of God."

Smith's desire at this time was to secure enough
money to carry forward his ambitious purposes, as
without that he could do nothing.

Upon his return to Kirtland, on August 27th,
Smith found sufificient work in holding his follow-
ers to their faith, in meeting the sharp assaults of
the many and strong enemies who had sprung up on
all sides, in translating an " inspired " edition of the
Bible, in looking after the commercial and mercantile
ventures he had attempted, and in seeking for con-
verts wherever they were to be found. In an attempt
to set a stake of Zion in Hiram, a small village half
a dozen miles to the south, famous now as the seat
of the college over which James A. Garfield presided,
the Mormon leader met with such fierce hostility,
which at last culminated in physical attack and per-
sonal indignity, that he was more than ever per ji.aded

The Life of the Transplanted Tree. 103

there was sufficient room for Mormonism and him-
self only in the far West. He opened a general store
in Hiram, which he was commanded to continue in
operation for five years, in order to make money for
the upbuilding of Zion, and it was as a clerk in that
store that he first knew Orson Pratt, who was con-
verted to Mormonism, and became a leader in the
church.

The history of the attempted conversion of this
sedate little village upon the hill, is one of failure
and of many mishaps. Rev. Ezra Booth, the Meth-
odist minister whom we have already quoted, had
given his adhesion to the Mormon faith, and was
filled with zeal for the warning of others. He at-
tended service on Sabbath in May, 183 1, and lis-
tened to an address by Symonds Ryder — an Elder
in the Disciple church, and a strong man, with an
ancestry running back to the Mayflozver. Upon its
conclusion, he asked permission to speak. It was
granted, whereupon he explained *^ in strong, clear
language of impassioned enthusiasm, the ground of
his new faith, and the inspiring hopes which it gave
him."

A deep impression was made upon the minds
of all who heard. Mr. Ryder was so much wrought
upon that he did not dare deny, while he was as yet
unable to accept and believe. In a stern determina-
tion to discover the truth at a point as near the
fountain-head as it was possible to attain, he went
direct to Kirtland, and talked with Smith, Rigdon,
and others. He hesitated as to his course until in
June, when he saw in a public journal a description
of the destruction of Pekin, China, which a Mormon

104 Early Days of Mormojtism.

girl had announced by prophecy six weeks before.
This appeal to the superstitious part of his nature
was the final weight in the balance, and he threw the
whole power of his influence upon the side of Mormon-
ism. His surrender caused an excitement almost
equal to that which followed the fall of Rigdon.

A saving clause, however, was inserted in his ac-
ceptance, that would leave him free to desert the
new as speedily as he had abandoned the old, in case
it should prove to be a snare. A pledge was given
by Booth and himself to each other, that they would
often compare notes out of their experience, and be
of mutual aid in discerning the false from the true.

Ryder was speedily fastened by those bonds of
self-interest and ambition which Smith had so well
learned to lay upon men. He was made an Elder of
the Mormon Church ; but as his name was wrongly
spelled in his official commission, doubt as to the
Mormon truth found in that fact a slight resting-
place ; and he was still in this uncertain mood when
he again met Booth, upon the return of the latter
from the fiasco at Zion. Each then gave to the
other such information as led to the complete over-
throw of all belief in the new creed, in the minds of
both. The effort made by these two men to defeat
the purpose of Smith and Rigdon was of a deter-
mined and effective kind, and bore abundant fruit.
They made public acknowledgment of error, and were
taken again into full fellowship with the churches to
which they had before given their faith.

Smith had personally appeared at Hiram early in
the winter of 1 83 1, and many eloquent sermons were
preached by Sidney Rigdon and others, in a school-

The Life of the Transplanted Tree. 105

house to the south of the town. '' Such was tlie ap-
parent piety, sincerity, and humiHty of the speakers,"
wrote Mr. Ryder to a friend, *' that many of the hear-
ers were greatly affected, and thought it impossible
that such preachers should lie in wait to deceive.
During the next spring and summer several converts
were made, and their success seemed to indicate an
immediate triumph in Hiram." This movement
toward the evangelization of the town came to a sud-
den end, when Ryder and Booth joined forces in
opposition ; and the feelings of distrust and hate that
were engendered in this conflict of moral forces cul-
minated in an open attack upon Rigdon and Smith,
on the night of the 25th of March, 1832. If we
accept the declaration of Mr. Ryder, the foray was by
''citizens of Shalersville, Garrettsville, and Hiram,"
who " proceeded to headquarters in the darkness of
night, and took Smith and Rigdon from their beds,
and tarred and feathered them both and let them
go." And if we accept the evidence of Smith, Ryder
himself was numbered among his assailants.

Smith had been holding a series of meetings, at
which great excitement was manifest, and some con-
versions made. On the night of the attack he was
domiciled with his wife and family in the house of
John Johnson, a worthy man, who had been brought
fully under the Prophet's influence. Joseph and his
wife had been up with a sick child, and when she told
him to take some rest he lay down upon a trundle-
bed and soon fell asleep. He was suddenly awakened
by her scream of ''murder!" and almost instantly
found himself going out of the door in the hands of
several stalwart men, some having him by the hair,

io6 Early Days of Mormonism.

some by the throat, and others by the legs. He made
a desperate struggle, as he was forced out, to extri-
cate himself, but only cleared one leg, with which he
made a kick at one man and knocked him off the
doorstep. They again gained control of him, and de-
clared they would kill him if he did not be still,
which quieted him.

" As they passed around the house with me,"
said Smith, in an after-description of the occurrence,*
*' the fellow I kicked came to me and thrust his
hand into my face all covered with blood (for I hit
him on the nose), and with an exulting, hoarse laugh
muttered, ' Gee ! Gee ! I'll fix you.* Then they
seized my throat and held on till I lost my breath.
After I came to, as they passed along with me about
thirty rods from the house, I saw Elder Rigdon
stretched Dut on the ground whither they had
dragged him by the heels. I supposed he was dead."

Smith began to plead with them, saying, "You will
have mercy and spare my life." At this point a num-
ber of people came from several directions. He was
carried some thirty rods further, when a man cried
out, "Ain't you going to kill him ? Ain't you going
to kill him ? " While several held him, others went
to one side and held a council, the conclusion of
which was shown by subsequent events.

One man was heard to cry, " Symonds, Symonds,
where is the tar bucket?"

" I do not know," came the answer, " it*s where
Eli left it."

They ran back and brought the bucket, when one

* '* History of the Mormons." By Samuel M. Smucker, New
York, p. 78.

TJie Life of tJic Transplanted Tree. 107

exclaimed, "■ Let's tar up his mouth." And the sug-
gestion was carried into effect.

Accounts differ at this point. Those who had a
hand in it declared that Smith was stripped naked,
coated with tar, and covered with feathers from head
to foot. Smith's account is that he was only " cov-
ered with the feathers in places." When the mob
left him he found his way as rapidly as he might to
Johnson's house, and when he appeared at the door
covered with tar and feathers, his wife thought it was
blood, and fainted.

About this time a number of Mormon sisters had
reached the house and were collected in Mrs. Smith's
room. Joseph discreetly called for a blanket. Some
one threw one to him, and closed the door. He
wrapped it around him and went in. The night was
spent in scrubbing and removing the tar, and in
washing and cleaning his body, so that by morning
he was able once more to don his clothes. It was
the Sabbath, and nothing daunted he led service as
usual, and in the afternoon baptized three people.

Rigdon was even more harshly treated than Smith.
He was dragged by his heels over the frozen ground,
and then furnished with a coat of feathers taken from
the pillows in the room in which he had been found
asleep. He was delirious for some time, and in con-
sequence a small difficulty arose between Smith and
himself. Smith afterward declared that Rigdon was
innocent in all that was said or done, but Joseph's
mother publicly charged that Sidney " contrived to
be out of his mind, in order to mislead the saints into
the belief that the goods of the kingdom had been
taken from the church and must not be restored, as

io8 Early Days of M or monism.

he said, until they had built him a new house. This
gave rise to great scandal, which Joseph, however,
succeeded in silencing."

Rigdon repented and was forgiven, and declared
that in punishment of his fault the devil had three
times thrown him out of bed in one night.

Partly that this episode might be forgotten, and
partly that the affairs of Zion might receive due
attention. Smith again visited Missouri in April,
where in a general council of the church he was pro-
claimed president of the high-priests. During that
visit he was very busy both in spiritual and temporal
things, ordering the printing of three thousand copies
of the '' Book of Doctrines and Covenants," and a
selection of hymns made by his wife Emma to be
published. He then returned to Kirtland, where many
fresh labors and not a few new troubles awaited him.

During this mission effort at Hiram and before its
failure had become apparent, affairs had not been idle
at Kirtland, where Smith and Rigdon spent most of
their time, and which was their official headquarters.
The zeal of the missionaries at various points had
been prolific of results, and almost every day saw an
accession of new members to the little community.
Many came from a distance, and among them were
families of character and wealth. Smith was treated
with the consideration due one to whom the mantle
of Elijah and the rod of Aaron had fallen in the
direct line of prophetic heirship, and was loved by
many and feared by all. One who was present dur-
ing these scenes declares that " Kirtland presented
the appearance of a modern religious Mecca. Like
Eastern pilgrims, they came full of zeal for their new

The Life of the Transplanted Tree, 109

religion. They came in rude vehicles, on horseback,
on foot. They came almost any way, filling, on their
arrival, every house, shop, and barn to the utmost
capacity."

While the "common stock" principle may not
have been entirely adopted, a course so akin thereto
was pursued that the results were the same. The
plan which the ingenuity of the leaders pointed out
as the safest and most effective, can be best under-
stood by a quotation of the revelation through which
it was imposed upon the church : *' If thou lovcst me,
thou shalt serve me and keep my commandments ;
and behold, thou shalt consecrate all thy proper-
ties, that which thou hast, unto me, with a covenant
and a deed which cannot be broken ; * and they shall
be laid before the bishop of thy church, and two of
the elders such as he shall appoint and set apart for
that purpose.

"And it shall come to pass, that the bishop of
my church, after that he has received the proper-
ties of my church, that it cannot be taken from the
church, he shall appoint every man a steward over
his own property, or that which he has received, in-
asmuch as shall be sufficient for himself and family;

* With a worldly wisdom that did not leave all to love and faith,
Smith was careful that these papers of transfer were so made that
they would hold good under the laws of Ohio. John Hyde says
in relation to this question of the support of the church : " Smith,
in the beginning of the church, attempted to establish communism,
each giving their all to the bishop, and only drawing out of the
office sufficient to live upon. This, however, was not more prac-
ticable for Smith than for Fourier or Cabet, and it was silently per
mitted to glide into the payment of tithing. In 1854, however,
Brigham attempted to revive the old law in an improved shape."

no Early Days of Mornionism.

and the residue shall be kept to administer to him
who has not, that every man may receive accordingly
as he stands in need ; and the residue shall be kept
in my storehouse, to administer to the poor and needy,
as shall be appointed by the elders of the church, and
bishop ; and for the purpose of purchasing land, and
the building up of the New Jerusalem, which is here-
after to be revealed ; that my covenant people be
gathered in one, in the day that I shall come to my
temple ; and this I do for the salvation of my people.
And it shall come to pass, that he that sinneth and
repenteth not, shall be cast out, and shall not receive
again that which he has consecrated unto me ; for it
shall come to pass, that which I spoke by the mouth
of my prophet shall be fulfilled, for I will consecrate
the riches of the Gentiles unto my people, which are
of the house of Israel."

V.

MIRACLES, AND THE GIFT OF TONGUES.

THE desire to make the best possible financial use
of the enlarging opportunities that chance and
circumstances had thrown into their hands, led the
Mormon leaders to establish a bank, through which
the final overthrow of their power at Kirtland was
largely brought about. An application was made
to the Ohio Legislature for a charter, but the re-
quest was refused. As the enterprise had been an-
nounced and commanded in a special revelation,
which declared that this bank would ultimately
" swallow up all other banks," nothing remained ex-
cept to go forward as a private institution and take
the chances of success. A nominal capital of four
million dollars, based upon a large amount of real
estate of not much value and by no means paid for,
was announced, and the doors of the institution
opened. Through much labor, begging,, and borrow-
ing, an actual capital of five thousand dollars was
finally raised, and upon the strength of this, paper
money, or rather mere printed promissory notes, to
the amount of from fifty to one hundred thousand
dollars, were set afloat.

This bank, of course, had no bonds or other se-
curities anywhere upon deposit, and depended solely
for its strength and credit upon the financial responsi-

(III)

112 Early Days of Mormonism.

billty and honesty of Its managers. These were
sufficient for the Mormons, who accepted the paper
notes without suspicion, and soon came to look upon
them as the safest and best medium of commercial
transactions, the more especially as many of them
were looking daily for an overturn and destruction of
all things outside of Mormonism.

Their example was an encouragement to the people
elsewhere in Northeastern Ohio, and it was not long
before the paper was in general circulation. A Pitts-
burg banker thus described the situation: ''As this
man (Smith) professes to be a prophet of the Lord, hav-
ing daily communion with angels, .... no one sup-
posed that they would leave things to a fraudulent
issue of bank paper. Those who saw the notes sup-
posed the bank to be simply a savings institution in
which the Saints could deposit their earnings, while
they would be invested so as to pay interest and that
the notes represented actual money in bank, or the
paper of good men." Smith announced that the
bank was not established for the making of money
for the use of its managers, but that all profits were
to be devoted to the propagation of the faith, and
the building up of the City of the Saints in Missouri.

The narration of events transpiring in the West
will be deferred for the present, and the history of
Kirtland continued until the close.

During the summer of 1832 Smith was very busy,
making sure of that which he had already established,
and laying plans for greater gains and achievements
in the future. He continued the translation of the
Scriptures, established a School of the Prophets, and
attended to the publication of The Evening and

Miracles, and the Gift of Tongues. 1 1 3

Morni7ig Star. Everything was made tributary to
his cause, and even the cholera, which had made its
appearance in America and was doing its fatal work
in a number of the larger cities, was cited as a warn-
ing to the world to turn from the error of its ways
and accept the new prophet and his creed. Step after
step was taken along the road of fraud and delusion
to which he had become so thoroughly committed,
and in which his success had already exceeded his
wildest dreams. When firm in one position, he ad-
vanced to another. Having visible proof that his
power for divine things was accepted, he added a
newphaseof belief on January 22, i833,when the ''Gift
of tongues " was made manifest. It was of a nature
to appeal with personal force to the most ignorant
and insignificant of his followers, as it allowed any
one of them to claim connection direct with the
power on high, and to deliver themselves of any
jargon of nonsense to which their imagination might
be moved, or their ingenuity be able to compass.

The manner in which this '' gift " was displayed
was original and unique. A meeting would be called,
and previous thereto the announcement made that
some one would be moved to '' speak with tongues "
before dismissal. Each believer who attended carried
with him the solemn possibility of being the chosen
mouthpiece of the Most High, and was in a mood to
accept and obey any emotional impulse by which he
might be moved. Rigdon or Smith would be in at-
tendance, and call upon some one to arise and deliver
the message with which he was charged, saying,
'* Father A, if you will rise in the name of Jesus
Christ, you can speak in tongues."

114 Early Days of Mor monism.

The old gentleman would stand up in a startled,
half-scared mood, and perhaps say, " My faith fails
me, I have not faith enough."

" Oh, yes, you have," from the leader ; " speak in the
name of Jesus Christ, make some sound without fur-
ther thought, and God will make it a language."

The old gentleman would therefore mutter any un-
intelligible sounds that came to his aid, and no matter
what he said, it would be called a tongue. Others
would follow in the same strain, some talking, some
singing, and others furnishing a mixture of the two.
The rule given to believers was as follows : " Arise
upon your feet, speak or make some sound, continue
to make sounds of some kind, and the Lord will make
a tongue or language of it." The interpretation of
what was said was to be given in the same way.
After the nonsense had been voiced, some other
brother was to arise and translate it, and whatever he
happened to utter on the spur of the moment, was to
be regarded as the true exposition of that which had
been previously heard.

The description of one of these meetings will sufifice
for all, and convey to the reader of modern days some
idea of the manner in which Joe Smith controlled
and directed the flock that had intrusted itself to his
care. The account has been furnished by an eye-wit-
ness,* who was at that time a believer in Mormonism,
but afterward forsook it. The gathering was held in
a small upper room, and some fifteen elders and high-
priests were present.

Exhortations, something after the style of the

* " Mormonism and the Mormons," p. 88.

Miracles^ and the Gift of Tojigues. 115

backwoods camp-meeting, were delivered by several
of the elders, when the Prophet himself arose. With
much seeming earnestness he warned his hearers to be
zealous, and to remain faithful to their duties, saying,
'' It is our privilege to see God face to face — yes, I
will prophesy unto you, in the name of the Lord, that
the day will come when no man will be permitted to
preach unless he has seen the Lord. People will ask
each teacher, * Have you seen the face of the Lord ? '
and if he say * Nay,' they will say, ' Away with this
fellow, for we will have a man to teach us that has
seen the face of the Lord.' "

After a few moments of solemn pause the Prophet
resumed : " The Lord is willing we should see his
glory to-day, and all that will exercise faith, shall see
the Lord of glory."

There was a moment of longing expectancy among
those who had laid their simple faith at the feet of
Joseph, and who bore patiently in their hearts the
hope that at last the long wish and desire was to be
granted, and that their souls would be rested and sus-
tained by one glance from the Most High. All sat
silent in their seats, with eyes bent upon the floor.

Then Joseph turned to Rigdon, and in a voice full
of solemn earnestness, asked, " Sidney, have you seen
the Lord?"

Then came the slow-spoken answer : " I saw the
image of a man pass before my face, whose locks
were white, and whose countenance was exceedingly
fair, even surpassing all beauty that I ever beheld."

" I knew you had seen a vision, Sidney, but would
have seen more, were it not for unbelief."

With penitent air Rigdon confessed that his faith

ii6 Early Days of Mor monism.

was indeed weak that day ; while others away down
upon the back seats were sad in heart because even that
much of Heaven's blessing had been denied them.

Hyrum Smith described a vision like that granted
unto Rigdon, which Joseph pronounced to have been
the appearance of the Son of Man himself.

Then one of the leaders, R. Cahoon, fell upon his
knees, holding his hands heavenward. In ten minutes
he arose, and declared that he " had seen the temple
of Zion, filled with disciples, while the top was cov-
ered with the glory of the Lord, in the form of a
cloud." Others who essayed to follow his experience
declared they could see nothing, and were duly re-
buked because of weakness of faith.

Joseph next passed about the room, and laid his
hand upon the head of each one present, uttering a
series of unmeaning sounds which to the ear of the
narrator ran something like this: ''^ Ah man oh son oh
man ah ne commene eji holle goste en esac milkea, Jere-
miah, Ezekielj Nephi, Lehi, St. John^' etc.

Sacrament was administered, after which there was
more speaking in tongues, which at timxcs elicited ap-
plause. The narrator was himself finally called upon
to give an exhibition of his faith, and was told to
speak or sing as suited him best. Feeling no divine
supply of words, he set, to the tune of '' Bruce's Ad-
dress," a combination of such sounds as came to him
first — a performance, he remarks, that '* astonished all
present." The whole day was given up to the ser-
vices of this character, accompanied with fasting.

This attempt to engraft upon Mormonism a weak
imitation of the wonders that befell the disciples of
Jesus of Nazareth upon the day of Pentecost, was

Miracles, and the Gift of Tongues. 1 1 J

probably of more injury than aid to the cause, as it
opened the road to ridicule and exposure, which was
made of good use by the Gentile world. One apos-
tate from the church at Nauvoo, in later days, dates
the first growth of doubt in his mind from attend-
ance upon a meeting where this ceremony was being
performed. Having thorough acquaintance with the
Choctaw language he suddenly arose and delivered a
long address in that tongue and was followed by a
brother Mormon, who gravely translated it into an
account of the glories of the great temple then in
course of construction. Lieutenant Gunnison" relates
the story of a boy who had become so famous in the
interpretation of these strange addresses that he was
called upon by the elders when any very difficult case
presented itself. On one occasion when a woman
arose suddenly in the meeting and called out, " O
mela, meli, melee," the lad was requested to reduce
the exclamation to English. He promptly gave the
translation, " O my leg, my thigh, my knee," and even
when the angry and disgusted elders had him before
the council, he persisted that he had given the right
translation. As the woman herself did not know what
she had been aiming at, they were compelled to give
him an admonition, and let him go.

EHza R. Snow,t the Mormon poetess who afterward

* " History of the Mormons." By J. W. Gunnison, Philadelphia,
1852 ; in Lovell's late edition, on p. 74.

f The following, from the Satt Lake Herald oi December 8, 1887,
records the end of the long and eventful life of this earnest believer in
Mormonism : " Eliza R. Snow Smith died in the Lion House a few
minutes past one o'clock Monday morning, .... being at the time
of her death eighty-three years old She had been closely

Ii8 Early Days of Mormonism.

won some sort of fame by her doleful muse, and who
had been lured from her home in Mantua by the elo-
quence of Rigdon in the early Morm'on days, was sup-
posed to be unusually favored in the gift of tongues,
and often in the days of early wanderings would rush
into the room of some woman and cry, " Sister, I
want to bless you." She would then lay her hands
upon the head of the other, and pour forth a stream
of jargon in unlimited length.

All through the earlier days of his career. Smith
made a persistent endeavor to repeat the mysteries
and even the miracles of Bible times, and many
stories might be related of his attempts. When he
met with failure, as he usually did, he found some
cause in the depth of his ingenuity, and dismissed
the matter with as few words as possible. When
through happy accident, legerdemain, or the uncon-
scious nervous co-operation of his subject, he was
able to accomplish that which was out of the usual
line, he gave credit to divine power, and saw that the
fact was duly heralded to the world.

The case of Newell Knight has been often cited in
support of Smith's claims, and is dwelt upon at length
in his autobiography. It was in the early days of
Mormonism, and Smith was exciting attention by
his performances in his old home in the East.

Knight had been greatly exercised over his spirit-
identified with the church in its early history, and was with the
leaders during the troublous scenes in Missouri and other places,

and in 1847 came to Salt Lake Before and since that time

her life has been prominently before the public, and to enlarge upon
her kindly qualities, her literary abilities, or her worth as a woman,
would be simply to repeat facts that nearly every one is cognizant
of."

Miracles^ and tJic Gift of Ton^i^nrs. 1 1 9

ual condition, and often went into the forest to pray
for enlightenment. He became mentally and phys-
ically sick, and while in this pliable and receptive
condition, his wife sent for Smith. The world has
Joseph's own story * concerning what next happened :
" I went, and found him suffering very much in his
mind, and his body acted upon in a very strange
manner, his visage and limbs distorted and twisted in
every shape and appearance possible to imagine, and
finally he was caught up off the floor of the apart-
ment and tossed about most fearfully.

" His situation was soon made known to the neigh-
bors and relatives, and in a short time as many as
eight or nine grown persons had got together to wit-
ness the scene. After he had thus suffered for a time,
I succeeded in getting hold of him by the hand, when
almost immediately he spoke to me, and with very
great earnestness required of me that I should cast
the devil out of him, saying that he knew that he was
in him, and that he also, knew I could cast him out.
I replied, * If you know that I can, it shall be done,'
and then almost unconsciously I rebuked the devil
and commanded him in the name of Jesus Christ to
depart from him, when immediatel Newell spoke out
and said that he saw the devil leave him, and vanish
from his sight. This was the first miracle that was
done in this church." Newell was '' overwhelmed with
the good spirit and joyous beyond expression," and
was lifted up by invisible power from the floor to the
roof, until " the beams would allow him to go no
further."

He afterward declared that when the devil departed

* " Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 33.

120 Early Days of Mormonism.

from him, he bore the form of a black cat and ran
into the bush.

Before Smith left Palmyra, one Green, who had
joined the Mormon Church and deeded it his property
to aid in the removal to Kirtland, was suddenly called
out of life. His widow refused to sanction the con-
tract until prayers had been offered for the return of
his soul to its tenement of clay. As the petitions
met no response, she still refused to yield her pos-
sessions, but failed to retain them. Several reputable
people who resided in Minerva declared that Smith
set a day for the village to sink, but afterward re-
pented of his curse and withdrew it.

Upon another occasion, while still in New York, he
made announcement that in the twilight of a certain
evening he would walk upon the water. The unbe-
lieving boys of the village kept close watch, and saw
one of his adherents construct a bridge of boards just
beneath the surface of the pond. When the accom-
plice had gone, the urchins removed the outer plank ;
and when the time of exhibition came and Smith went
down, he swam ashore, and said to his followers, '' Woe
unto ye of little faith ! Your faith would not hold me
up!"-^

Upon one occasion when John Morse, an aged
convert to Mormonism, had been called to his last
account, Smith was asked by his weeping and believ-
ing friends to recall him to life. The Prophet looked
upon the body long and steadily, and then remarked
that he should let him rest — he would not return him
to his suffering, as he was so old that he would soon

* I confess to no good authority for this anecdote ; but it is char-
acteristic, and may be true.

Miracles y and the Gift of Tongues, 121

die again ! "This," it has been said, " was something
like Brigham's refusal to restore a lost leg to one of
his Mormons, on the ground that if he did it the man
would be obliged to walk on three legs all through
eternity" — his new one, and the two original legs
that would be raised with him in the resurrection day.*

The chief claim for the possession of miraculous
power put forward by Smith, and the one most often
and effectually quoted by the Mormon missionaries
in the days in which it occurred, is the remarkable
cure of Mrs, Johnson, of Hiram. The case is well
authenticated ; and those who seek to explain it away
will be compelled to base themselves upon mesmeric
influence or the unconscious nervous co-operation of
the lady affected, rather than in cunning upon the
part of Smith. It seems to have been simply a case
where his audacity was rewarded with an accident of
fortune it by no means deserved.

When Ezra Booth and Symonds Ryder were inves-
tigating Mormonism, and the latter had not yet fully
committed himself thereto, they determined to put
Smith's claims to a crucial test. Their neighbor, Mrs.
Johnson, had been unable to use her right arm for six
years, because of a stroke of paralysis. Accompanied
by this lady, her husband, and a physician, the two
orthodox ministers set out for Kirtland, and made a
call upon Smith. Nothing was said to him concern-

* Smith's reputation as a Prophet, which had spread through all
the land, brought him many annoyances that had their grotesque
side. In November, 1S35, another " Prophet," named Matthias,
from the East, called upon him, but was not made as welcome as he
expected. He soon departed, declaring that Smith was a false
prophet, and possessed of a devil ; which exactly tallied with a
description of himself, as already given by Smith.

122 Early Days of Mormonisnt.

ing the main purpose of their visit, but a discussion
was opened as to the truth of the new doctrine that
had created such turmoil in their midst. Smith held
his own with unusual eloquence. In the course of
the conversation Ryder asked him if it was true that
he pretended to the performance of miracles.

" / cannot work miracles," was the response, '' but
I beheve that God, working through me, can do so."

At a signal from one of the party, Mrs. Johnson
stood before him. Said Mr. Ryder, " Here is Mrs.
Johnson with a lame arm ; has God given any power
to men now upon earth to cure her?"

Smith must have felt that it was the moment to try
the soul of any man not grounded in a perfect knowl-
edge as to the power at his command, but to the eyes
of those present he betrayed no fear. A calm assur-
ance upheld him. Moving backward a few steps he
looked intently into the eyes of the lady, as if to get
her under his mental control.

Then he moved to her side, and taking hold of
her palsied hand, said in a deep and solemn tone,
" Woman, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I
command thee to be whole!" With no further word
or look, he abruptly turned, and left the room. The
hand that he had lifted did not fall. The lady at-
tempted to move it, and found that it was once more
under her control. Upon her return home she dis-
covered that she could use it equally with the other,
and thus it remained until her death, fifteen years
later.*

* From a sermon preached in Hiram, O., on August 3, 1870, by
B. A. Hinsdale, then President of Hiram College, after a narra ion
of the above circumstance : "The company were awe-stricken at

Miracles, and the Gift of Tongues. 123

Fanatic zeal, credulity, and imposition seemed to
be in the very air; and even yet the visitor who
crosses the narrow Chagrin and stands before the old
temple, can find men and women to whom many
strange things seemed real, and who remember the
vagaries of hundreds whose simple faith was worthy
of a nobler shrine. In the days immediately follow-
ing the advent of the four apostles from Palmyra and
the conversion of Rigdon, the excitement and the
expectation of marvellous spiritual gifts grew to so in-
tense a pitch that Smith, upon his arrival, was com-
pelled to resort to repressive measures of the most
rigid character.

If we may accept without hesitation the testi-
mony of Mr. Eber D. Howe,* the scenes among
the new converts were of a character hardly sur-
passed by the devotees of Oriental lands. " They
pretended," says he, "that the power of miracles was
about to be given to all those who embraced the new

the infinite presumption of the man, and the calm assurance with
which he spoke. The sudden mental and moral shock— I know not
how better to explain the well-attested fact — electrified the rheu-
matic arm. Mrs. Johnson at once lifted it up with ease, and on her
return home the next day she was able to do her washing without
difficulty or pain."

* Mr. Howe was the descendant of a well-known New England
family, and was born in Clifton Park, New York, on June 9, 179S,
and died at Painesville, Ohio, on November 10, 1885. He founded
the Painesville Telegraph in 1822. When the Mormons made their
appearance in Ohio in 1830, Mr. Howe chronicled all their move-
ments, and in 1834 published a book, entitled " Mormonism Un-
veiled," which caused wrath and confusion among the Saints, and
opened the eyes of the people to the proceedings at Kirtland. The
volume has now been out of print for over forty years. For above
account, see page 104.

124 Early Days of Mor monism.

faith, and commenced communicating the Holy Spirit
by laying their hands upon the heads of the converts,
which operation at first produced an instantaneous
prostration of body and mind. Many would fall upon
the floor, where they would lay for a long time ap-
parently lifeless. They thus continued these enthusi-
astic exhibitions for several weeks. The fits usually
came on during or after their prayer-meetings, which
were held nearly every evening. The young men and
women were more particularly subject to this delirium.
They would exhibit all the apish actions imaginable,
making the most ridiculous grimaces, creeping upon
their hands and feet, rolling upon the frozen ground,
go through with all the Indian modes of warfare, such
as knocking down, scalping, ripping open, and tearing
out the bowels.

*' At other times they would run through the fields,
get upon stumps, preach to imaginary congregations,
enter the water and perform all the ceremony of
baptizing, etc. Many would have fits of speaking
all the different Indian dialects, which none could
understand. Again, at the dead hour of night, the
young men might be seen running over the fields
and hills in pursuit, as they said, of the balls of fire,
lights, etc., which they saw moving through the at-
mosphere Three of them pretended to have

received commissions to preach, from the skies

One of the young men referred to freely acknowledged
some months afterward that he knew not what he did
for two or three weeks."

These half-insane vagaries caused such adverse com-
motion in the neighborhood, that Smith saw he must
put his foot squarely down upon them if he hoped his

Miracles, and the Gift of Tongues. 125

scheme would succeed, and it soon became known that
no one must pretend to have communications with
the upper powers but himself.

The men who had been sent into the Gentile world
to warn it against the wrath to come, did not hesitate
to work when possible upon the superstitious fears of
their hearers. Many who listened made haste to escape
the threatened wrath, and sold their possessions for
such price as they could command, and hurrying to
Kirtland, cast their lot in with the Mormon Church.
It was preached through Western New York that the
State would be sunk within two years, and that only
such places as were designated as Stakes of Zion would
escape. Even Martin Harris began to prophesy, and
the following samples of his new art have been pre-
served to the world :

"Within four years from September, 1832, there
will not be one wicked person left in the United
States ; that the righteous will be gathered to Zion
(Missouri), and that there will be no President over
these United States after that time." Second : " I
do hereby assert and declare that within four years
from the date hereof, every sectarian and religious de-
nomination in the United States shall be broken down,
and every Christian shall be gathered unto the Mor-
monites, and the rest of the human race shall perish.
If these things do not take place, I will hereby con-
sent to have my hands separated from my body.".

With these prophecies, and one attempt at a mira-
cle, Martin seems to have remained content. While
marching westward as a member of Smith's famous
army of relief, he discovered in the road a black snake,
some five feet in length. Declaring that power had

126 Early Days of Mormojiism.

been giv^en him to ''take up serpents" unharmed, he
took off his shoes and stockings and offered his toes
to the mouth of the serpent. As the reptile made no
effort to harm him, he made boast of his success, and
was looked upon by his associates as favored above
most men. Not content with this much of victory, he
repeated the experiment with the next serpent of
the same variety, a few rods further on. The snake
promptly bit him in the leg, drawing blood, and mak-
ing an ugly but not dangerous wound.

The subjoined prophecy, issued by Smith in 1832,
may be taken as an illustration of the many random
expressions to which he gave utterance in the early
days, but which afterward confronted him because of
their non-fulfillment : '' Let the bishop go into the
City of New York, and also to the City of Albany,
and also to the City of Boston, and warn the people
of these cities, with the sound of the Gospel, with a
loud voice, of the desolation and the dread affliction
which awaits them, if they do reject this thing; for if
they do reject these things, the hour of their judgment
is nigh, and their houses shall be left unto them deso-
late."

Oliver Cowdery at one time essayed the role of a
miraculous healer, but the results of his experiment
were not of a character to encourage him to further
efforts. He was called to the relief of a young woman
who had been confined to her bed for two years. He
prayed over her, laid hands upon her, and in the name
of Jesus bade her arise and walk. There was no move-
ment upon her part. On the day following he per-
suaded her to leave her bed at the repetition of the
command, and make the attempt. She had hardly

Miracles, a7id the Gift of Tongues. 12/

taken two steps when she fell in a fainting fit, and
being removed to her couch, remained there. In ex-
planation of his failure the disciple followed the course
of the Prophet when in close quarters, and explained
it all to the satisfaction of Mormondom— he first de-
nied the trial, and upon being confronted with wit-
nesses, explained that if he did order her to walk, it
was only as a joke.

A Painesville man was in the last stages of con-
sumption. Cowder>' declared he could cure him, while
the more vehement Rigdon made declaration that he
would get well—" as sure as there was a God in
heaven! " The man soon afterward died. The decla-
ration of Rigdon in this case was equalled by that
made by him at another time, when he stated that an
angel had appeared to him and commanded him to
visit Queen Victoria, and - hurl her from her throne "
if she should refuse to embrace Mormonism. There
is no evidence of any attempt upon his part to carry
out these instructions.

Some of the Saints believed they had no need of
physicians or medicines, as all diseases could be cured
by the laying on of hands. One poor young dupe,
named Doty, who was but twenty years of age, was
made a martyr to his belief. He had deluded himself
into the idea that he was to live a thousand years, and
when laid low with fever refused all medical aid, say-
ing he would be about in a few days. Several of the
Mormon elders called upon him, and encouraged him
in his delusion by telling him that he was improving,
when even they could see that he was dying, and soon
left him to his fate. Smith came once, and sat for a
time with his hands upon the head of the poor boy,

128 Early Days of Mor monism.

and then went away. When Doty at last reah'zed his
condition, his delusion fell away from him like a rot-
ten garment, and he lost all faith in the Mormon creed.
Said he to one of his callers, " What a wonderful mis-
take I have made ! You may profit by my experience,
but for me it is too late ! "

The hand of an elder was badly twisted out of
shape as the result of an accident, and the Prophet
was asked to straighten it. Taking the injured
member in his hand, he said: ''Brother Murdock,
in the name of the Lord I command you to straighten
your hand," at the same time using all his muscular
strength to open the other palm. The result was
an utter failure. The command was repeated in a
still louder voice, but the hand remained set, and
Smith was compelled to abandon the attempt.

Another elder was lame. Smith told him to arise
and be whole. The man had sufficient faith for the
attempt, but when he endeavored to walk he hobbled
as badly as ever, and continued to for the remainder
of his life. The child of a Mormon was taken sick.
The father was anxious to procure a physician, but
the elders persuaded him to the contrary, and de-
clared the little one would recover. They laid hands
upon it, and repeated many mummeries over it, and
ordered it to improve ; but it rapidly sank, and was
soon no more. Rigdon told the parents it would
be raised again, and he and Smith actually prepared
to make the attempt. The father was even yet full
of faith, but when he saw all Mormondom stand help-
less as the beloved form was laid away in the tomb,
the shadows passed from his vision, and he turned his
back upon Mormonism forever.

Miracles, and the Gift of Tongues. 129

Smith made his power felt in ever^ movement, and
at every turn of public affairs. He was unburdened
of revelations almost daily, ofttimes concerning the
most trivial things. When he uttered his fiat, that
decision must be regarded as the word of the Lord,
and end all controversy. For instance, two elders
who had been splitting theological hairs equal to the
abstruse absurdities of the Middle Ages, approached
him with a request that he would decide this ques-
tion : Will a bucket of water grow heavier when a live
fish is placed in it? He promptly decided in the
negative, adding the conclusion, '^ I know by the spirit
that it will be no heavier." * He claimed to have con-
stant access to the inhabitants of the upper world,
seeing them with his spiritual rather than his natural
vision, and with his eyes shut or open. He was once
heard to describe an angel as a " tall, slim, well-built,

*John Hyde, the Mormon apostate, has related an instance
which may be quoted in connection with the above. He says :
" One very striking illustration of this mental abnegation occurred in
the late Doctor Richards' office in 1854. Mr. Thomas Bullock, Mr.
Leo Hawkins, and some others were talking to Kimball about the
resurrection. The Mormons believe m a literal physical resurrec-
tion, and were desirous to learn ' whether, when the body came
forth from the grave, it would leave a visible hole in the ground ? '
' No,' said Kimball, ' not at all, the atoms would be reunited, and
they won't leave no hole.' He proceeded to explain his reasons
for this opinion, and presently Brigham came in, when this import-
ant question was referred to him, for his prophetic decision.

" ' Why, yes, certainly it will,' was his verdict. ' Christ is the
pattern, you know ; and He had to have the stone rolled away from
the sepulchre, and that left the hole visible, for did not the soldiers
see it? '

" 'Brother Brigham !' immediately cried Kimball, 'that is just
my opinion / '" — " Mormonism : Its Leaders and Designs," by John
Hyde, Jr., formerly a Mormon Elder. New York, 1857, page 126.

1 30 Early Days of Mor^nonisni.

handsome man, with a bright pillar upon his head ";
and the devil came once in the same form, except that
the pillar upon his head was coal black. The shoot-
ing stars of November, 1833, were declared by him
to be signs of the second coming of Christ, and he
returned thanks for their appearance.

Never free from the influence of the old money-
<^jggi^g days, Smith would at times encourage his
followers by wonderful tales of hidden riches in New
York State, which the Mormons would be able to
discover and appropriate, as soon as they became
sufificiently pure.

VI.

KIRTLAND STAKE OF ZION, AND BRIGHAM YOUNG.

ON February 15, 1833, Smith announced that his
translation of the New Testament was complete,
but that he had been commanded to seal it up, and
so keep it until they should arrive at Zion. Three
days later, when the high-priests were assembled in
the school of the Prophets, Joseph laid hands on
Rigdon and Frederick Williams, and ordained them
councillors of the presidency ; and these two, with
the Prophet, constituted the government of the high-
priests. On the 23d of this same month, at a meet-
ing of these governing powers, it was decided to pur-
chase all the land at Kirtland that their resources
could command, and build a branch of Zion.

The building of a grand temple at Kirtland, in
which the power and prosperity of the Mormon
Church were to be shown, was among the earliest
desires of Smith, and he made use of every means
and power at his command for the accomplishment
of that end. Its construction was made the subject
of a special revelation, received upon May 6th. Be-
sides the tithes that were to be paid into the treasury
as a building fund, each Mormon was compelled to
give one-seventh of his time in labor. It was at first
ordered that it should be of brick, but as some diffi-
culty was experienced on this point, .. change was
made to rough stone, plastered over, painted blue,

(131)

132 Early Days of M or monism.

and marked to imitate regular courses in masonry.
The first stone was laid on July 24th. Joseph Bump,
of Silver Creek, N. Y., was appointed master builder,
and each night was handed a special revelation con-
cerning the work of the following day. The struc-
ture as finally decided upon was sixty by eighty
feet in size, and one hundred and twenty feet from
its base to the top of the spire. The work of con-
struction was pushed forward as rapidly as circum-
stances and means would permit, but two years
elapsed before its completion.

The growth of the church was rapid during these
days, and while many were still coming to Kirtland,
or joining the settlement in the West, zealous and
hard-working missionaries were preaching the new
faith in all corners of the land. Their success was
such, that within three years after the arrival of Smith
in Ohio, Mormon societies had been organized in
nearly all of the Eastern and Middle States. Smith
found occupation for every moment of his time, and
his powers seemed to enlarge with the demands upon
them. We see him returning from still another visit
to the West, to take up with renewed vigor the in-
ternal administration of the church. He delivers a
message defining the orders of Melchisedek and Aaron ;
orders the twelve apostles forth to new missionary
efforts ; collects money for the building of the tem-
ple; and at a meeting of the council it is declared
that these and like labors shall have some recognition,
and it is therefore ordered that he shall not only have
his expenses paid, but a salary of ten dollars per week
— a like sum being voted him for the payment of his
private secretary.

Kirtland Stake of Ziofi, and Brigham Young. 133

An episode that possessed a grotesque side, and
proved something concerning the ignorance and cre-
dulity of the Mormon rank and file, had its beginning
in July of this year, when one Michael H. Chandler,
who was travelling through America exhibiting a col-
lection of curiosities, of which several Egyptian mum-
mies were a part, made a halt at Kirtland. His goods
were for sale, and as Smith had evinced a desire to
possess these ancient strangers from the land made
famous by Joseph and his brethren, his wish was
gratified by the church, and the purchase made.

Upon the bodies were discovered papyri, which Jo-
seph had no sooner seen than he proceeded to read
the writings thereon with ease. The *' genial show-
man," who probably knew as much ancient Egyptian
as Smith himself, and no more, recognized in the
Mormon leader a kindred spirit, and unhesitatingly
endorsed his translation of the scroll, in the following
somewhat remarkable certificate :

" This is to make known to all who may be desir-
ous concerning the knowledge of Mr. Jos. Smith, Jr.,
in deciphering the ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic
characters in my possession, which I have in many
cities shown to the most learned, and from all the in-
formation that I could ever learn or meet with, I find
that of Joseph Smith, Jr., to correspond in the most
minute matters.

'' Michael H. Chandler,
" Travelmg with^ a7id proprietor of
Egyptian Mummies.'^

If Joseph's information was correct, a bargain of
rare character had indeed been made in this purchase.

134 Early Days of Mornionism.

Assisted by W. W. Phelps and Oliver Covvdery as
secretaries, he immediately set himself to work upon
the translation, and *' much to our joy," he writes,
" we found that one of these rolls contained the
writings of Abraham ; another the writings of Joseph.
Truly we could see that the Lord is beginning to re-
veal the abundance of truth."

The fact that Smith's translations were altogether
different in language and meaning, from those after-
ward made by an eminent European scholar, does not
seem to have disturbed the Mormons in the least. A
gentleman who called at the temple, accompanied by
a couple of ladies, soon after the mummies were re-
ceived, tells me that he was compelled to pay the
Patriarch, to which title the elder Joseph Smith was
ordained in December, 1833, a half-dollar for a sight
of these precious relics. A dingy scroll hung on the
wall. " That," said their aged guide, " is the hand-
writing of Abraham." Near by was a picture, in
which a ladder was represented leaning against a wall.
" This is Jacob's ladder," was his explanation. " But
I thought," said one of the ladies, " that his ladder
was much longer than that — reaching clear to Heav-
en " — at which the Patriarch was greatly offended,
and marched the party out of the temple.

These ancient additions to the curious things already
found in Kirtland, gave the enemies of the surround-
ing country and neighboring towns further food for
ridicule and contempt. The half-jocular and good-
natured spirit with which the new religion and its
Prophet had been at first received, gave place to anger
and fear, as the demands and boasts of the Saints as to
their intentions, and final victory over all non-believ-

Kirtland Stake of Zion, and Brighaiii Young, 135

ers, grew more loud and frequent. Many visitors
came to Kirtland, and the prying curiosity of some
of these, and the open criticisms of others, added fuel
to the growing flame ; and it needs no close investi-
gation to see the wisdom of the Mormon leaders, as
they laid their plans and carried forward their pur-
pose, of an early migration to a less settled portion
of the country.

The world has hardly dealt justly by the Mormons
in its treatment of this portion of their early history.
It is difficult now, after the lapse of half a century,
to enter into the home life and personal experiences
of the members of this little community, so strange-
ly set apart from the current course of the world,
alien from the homes and churches to which they
had formerly belonged, and counted as foes by the
people located round about them. The impres-
sions and incidents, few at best, placed upon rec-
ord by such as did look in upon them, were mainly
printed with some purpose against them, or insensi-
bly colored by the prejudices of those through whom
the narration came. One visitor, who doubtless met
with a hospitality not altogether requited in his free
expressions of opinion after his departure, has left in
the O : AG Atlas {^2iXz\i 16, 1836) a letter which may
be profitably quoted in this connection :

" I have been to Kirtland, and witnessed the opera-
tions of that most deluded set of visionaries that our
land, or any other enlightened, has ever witnessed.
You would naturally suppose that the Mormons
were the most ignorant, degraded, and stupid set of
beings on the earth. This is true of some of them ;
but there are not wanting men of sagacity and in-

1 36 Early Days of Mormonism,

formation and some men of strong powers of mind.
From what I saw I should suppose that they were
generally real believers in the doctrines of their
Prophet. They are quite polite and affable to stran-
gers I was introduced to the Immortal Proph-
et, Joe Smith, and his renowned coadjutor, Sidney
Rigdon, and a host of inferior satellites, and could
scarcely suppress a laugh during the formality of
making acquaintance and shaking hands with the ex-
alted dignitaries, high-priests, etc., of Mormonism. I
have no doubt that Joe Smith's character is an
equal compound of the impostor and fanatic, and
that Rigdon has but a small spice of the latter, with
an extraordinary portion of the former ; while the
mass of the disciples are men of perverted intellect
and disordered piety, with no sound principles of relig-
ion, with minds unbalanced and unfurnished, but
active and devout, inclined to the mystical and dreary,
and ready to believe any extraordinary announcement
as a revelation from God.

" None of them appeared to be within reach of ar-
gument on the subject of religion. They profess to
have the gift of tongues; and one individual, after be-
coming very much excited in conversation, offered to
give me a specimen ; but I shuddered at the proposal
to exhibit such blasphemy and mockery of a mirac-
ulous gift, and he desisted. The Mormons have in-
creased with astonishing rapidity. They say, and
they are probably not far from the truth, that their
numbers in the United States amount to forty-five
thousand."

Another visitor,* who made his call at about the

♦Interview with Col. W. H. Leffingwell, in St. Louis Republican.

Kirtland Stake of Zion, and Brigham Young. 137

same date, paid his respects to Rigdon, whom he
seems to have known, and then asked to see the
Prophet, of whom he had heard so much.

Mr. Rigdon repHed, " It is our dinner-time. You
cannot see him now, as he is up the street, marking
goods " — forty wagon-loads of merchandise having
been received from the East the previous day.

The caller was afterward introduced to Smith, and
his narration continues : ^' Smith had a round face,
and his hair was cut short down on his forehead.
The color of his hair was between a deep brown and
a dark red. He sent a young man with us into the
temple, which was but newly finished. We entered
the portico, when the young man, our guide, said,
' Take off your hats.* I replied, ' Our hats are al-
ready off, sir. We have a long way to drive, and want
you to hurry up, sir.' We were then conducted into
the interior of the temple. A broad aisle ran through
the middle of the temple with a cross aisle in the
centre, above which a curtain hung dividing the tem-
ple into two parts, Sidney Rigdon occupying, we were
told, the eastern portion, and Joe Smith the western
portion, which included the grand altar. The arrange-
ments seemed to be thus made in consequence of the
still incomplete state of the temple. By mounting
on one another's shoulders we were enabled to pull
ourselves up through the hole into the attic, where
we were shown several mummies, including that of
Joseph and other patriarchs mentioned in the Bible.
After visiting the temple we were invited into the
tent, where we were provided with a good dinner."

Smith had his troubles to meet, and cares to carry,
from within as well as from without. The fanatical

138 Early Days of Morjnonism.

character of his followers made his burdens all the
more annoying. There was a grotesque, if not a
comical side, to these troubles. Elder George A.
Smith, a cousin of the Prophet, delivered a now for-
gotten sermon at the Salt Lake Tabernacle in 1855,*
in which he solemnly related a few of the annoyances
Joseph was compelled to meet. Speaking of a cer-
tain class of converts, he said : *' In a few weeks some
of them apostatized ; the trials were too great, the
troubles too severe. I know persons who apostatized
because they supposed they had reasons ; for instance,
a certain family, after having travelled a long journey,
arrived at Kirtland, and the Prophet asked them to
stop with him until they could find a place. Sister
Emma (Joseph's wife), in the meantime, asked the old
lady if she would have a cup of tea to refresh her after
the fatigue of the journey, or a cup of coffee. The
whole family apostatized because they were invited
to take a cup of tea or coffee after the word of wis-
dom was given. Another family, about the same
time, apostatized because Joseph Smith came down
out of the translating-room, where he had been trans-
lating by the gift of the power of God, and com-
menced playing with his little children. Some such
trials as these, you know, had to be encountered. I
recollect a gentleman that came from Canada, and
who had been a Methodist, and had always been in
the habit of praying to a god who had no ears, and
as a matter of course had to shout and halloo pretty
loud to make him hear.

*' Father Johnson asked him to pray in their fam-

* Cleveland Herald of July 18, 1855, copied from the Deserei

News.

Kirtland Stake of Zion, and Brigham Young. 1 39

ily worship in the evening, and he got on such a
high key, and hallooed so loud, that he alarmed
the whole village. Among others Joseph came run-
ning out, saying, 'What is the matter? I thought
by the noise that the heavens and the earth were
coming together'; and to the man, that 'he ought
not to give way to such an enthusiastic spirit, and
bray so much like a jackass.' Because Joseph said
that, the poor man put back to Canada, and apos-
tatized ; he thought he would not pray to a god
who did not want to be screamed at with all one's
might. Four hundred and sixteen elders, priests,
teachers, and deacons met in Kirtland temple on the
evening of its dedication. I can see faces here that
were in that assembly. The Lord poured His Spirit
upon us, and gave us some little idea of the law of
anointing, and conferred upon us some blessings. He
taught us how to shout hosanna ; gave Joseph the
keys of the gathering together of Israel, and revealed
to us — what ? Why, the fact of it was, he dare not yet
trust us with the first keys of the priesthood. He told
us to wash ourselves, and that almost made the wom-
en mad, and they said, as they were not admitted into
the temple while this washing was being performed,
that some mischief was going on, and some of them
were right huffy about it."

An accession to the little colony that meant far
more to Mormonism than any for a moment dreamed,
came in November of this year, when Joseph Smith
and Brigham Young were for the first time brought
face to face. The new-comer was one who by no
means gave promise of the personal strength and
leadership he developed in later days. He came of

140 Early Days of Mornwnism^

a family of average character and ability. His grand-
father was in belief a New England Methodist, and
his father performed patriotic service in the Rev-
olutionary war, removing in 1804 from Vermont
to Sherburne, Chenango County, New York. Brig-
ham was the ninth of a family of eleven children, and
was born at Whitingham, Windham County, Ver-
mont, on June i, 1801. No detailed account has
been left by himself or his family of his early days,
which were spent upon a farm until he was old
enough to care for himself, when he learned the
painting and glazing trade. In 1832, in his thirty-
first year, he was brought under the influence of Mor-
monism, and was either converted thereto, or was
moved to announce a conversion. He gave his alle-
giance to the church under the ministration of Samuel
H. Smith, the Prophet's brother, and was baptized by
Eleazer Miller. It may be remarked in passing that all
of his father's family became Mormons eventually, fol-
lowing Brigham to Nauvoo, and onward to Salt Lake.
Young proceeded directly to Kirtland upon his ad-
mission to the church, and almost immediately be-
came the close friend and companion of Smith. He
was the counsellor needed by the latter, and no doubt
his influence was often exerted for the prevention of
mistakes which the erratic Rigdon would have led
Joseph to commit. Young was ordained an elder,
and commenced preaching. His native ability and
deep knowledge of character, added to an intense
earnestness, and a zeal that did not lead him to over-
look the practical side of things, gave him a leader-
ship almost from the first. His advancement was
rapid and certain. On February 14, 1835, he was

Kirtland Stake of Zio7i, and Brigham Yoimg. 141

ordained one of the newly-organized quorum of the
twelve apostles. When Thomas P. Marsh apostatized
in 1836, Young was chosen to succeed him as presi-
dent of the twelve.

It has been claimed by some that when Joseph first
beheld Young, he prophesied the time would come
when Brigham should preside over the church ; while
others have been heard to relate that some time before
his death Smith made the remark : " If Brigham
Young ever becomes president of the church, he will
lead it to hell." It certainly cannot be shown that
Young ever made an attempt to supplant Smith in
any respect, but stood firmly by him, upholding his
authority, and never challenging his right to do as he
pleased — possessed, possibly, by the very legitimate
ambition of gaining the succession if Joseph should
fall by the way. He supplied many points of strength
where Smith was lacking, aiding in the executive de-
partment even as Rigdon performed the brilliant
work of the pulpit. " As an official or political lead-
er," it has been said, " he was far superior to Smith,
while as a religious leader he was much his inferior.
He was a good speaker, using oratory, however, as a
means to accomplish certain ends. His manner in
the pulpit was impressive and authoritative, his illus-
trations apt, his sentences to the point, and often sar-
castic. His lack of education passed unnoticed in
the ignorance which surrounded him." Of his per-
sonal appearance in mature years, a keen observer
(Hepworth Dixon, in "■ New America,") has said :
" A large head, broad, fair face, with blue eyes, light
brown hair, good nose, and merry mouth."

Young's first wife was Marion Works, to v/hom he

142 Early Days of Mormonism.

was married in 1824. She died eight years later,
leaving two children. His second wife was found in
Kirtland. He was married on March 31, 1834, to
Mary Ann Angel, whose parents lived a mile and a
half from the Mormon village. Kirtland was at that
time a part of Geauga County, and in the old and
time-worn records of the Probate Court at Chardon,
may still be seen his application for a marriage li-
cense, as well as the license itself, as follows :

"The State of Ohio, Geauga County, ss. : Per-
sonally appeared Brigham Young and made applica-
tion for a marriage license for himself and Mary Ann
Angel, of the township of Kirtland, in said County,
and made solemn oath that he, the said Brigham
Young, is of the age of twenty-one years, and the said
Mary Ann Angel "^ is of the age of eighteen years.
That they are both single, and no nearer of kin than
first cousins. That he knows of no legal impediment
against their being joined in marriage.

" Sworn and subscribed this tenth day of February,
1834, before me, Ralph Cowles, Deputy Clerk."

Following the above is this :

" Be it remembered that on the thirty-first day of

* Hepworth Dixon, in speaking in after-years of his visit to Salt
Lake City, says of this wife : ' ' The queen of all is the first wife,
Mary Ann Angel, an aged lady, whose five children, three sons
and two daughters, are now grown up. She lives in a white cottage,
the first house ever built in Salt Lake Valley." When Young was
sued for divorce and alimony by Ann Eliza, the nineteenth, he paid
a Geauga County attorney fifty dollars for furnishing him with an
official copy of the above certificate, and with it coolly proceeded
to show that, as he was already married to Mary Ann, he could not
legally be the husband of Ann Eliza.

Kirtland Stake of Zion, and BrigJiam Young. 143

March, in the year of our Lord, 1834, Brigham Young
and Mary Ann Angel, of the County of Geauga, were
legally joined in marriage by competent authority, in
conformity with the provisions of the statute of the
State of Ohio, in such cases made and provided, and
a certificate of the said marriage signed by Sidney
Rigdon, the minister who solemnized same, has been
filed in the office of the Clerk of Common Pleas of
the said County of Geauga, this third day of April,
A.D. 1834. A. D. Aiken, Clerk."

The signature of Young appears to the above ap-
plication, and, according to his own spelling, stands
*' Brickham," and the "Young" commences with a
small y.

No very definite or fixed form of government for
the Mormon Church had as yet been adopted, affairs,
spiritual and ecclesiastical, being largely left to
the Prophet and his immediate advisers. The time
had now arrived when even Smith could see that
something more adhesive and restrictive than his
personal authority was needed, to control and hold in
check the many and diverse elements now composing
the Mormon Church. In accordance with that con-
clusion the leading men of the church were com-
manded to assemble at Kirtland, on February 17,
1834. The meeting was held in the house of the
Prophet, and its result was the organization of " The
High Council of the Church of Christ." This body
was to consist of twelve high-priests, and one or
three presidents, as the case might require. As we
are told by the Mormon record, '' the High Council
was appointed by revelation, for the purpose of set-

144 Early Days of Mormonism,

tling important difficulties which might arise in the
church, which could not be settled by the church or
the Bishops* Council to the satisfaction of the par-
ties."

As early as March of 1832, Smith had been acknowl-
edged President of the High-Priests, while one year
later the Quorum of three High-Priests, consisting of
Joseph Smith, Jr., Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G.
Williams, was organized as a presidency of the church.
These three were chosen also to be presidents of the
new High Council, while the Council itself consisted
of Joseph Smith, Sr., John Smith, Joseph Coe, John
Johnson, Martin Harris, John S. Carter, Jared Car-
ter, Oliver Cowdery, Samuel H. Smith, Orson Hyde,
Sylvester Smith, and Luke Johnson, all High-Priests.
As the first President of the Council and also of the
church, Smith saw no abridgment of his power, nor
any portion of it delegated to other hands. He had
simply added the force of organization to the author-
ity already held by a supposed commission from on
high.

On May 3d, at a conference of the elders, the
name of " The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints" was formally chosen. The remaining im-
portant ecclesiastical measures adopted at Kirtland
may be summarized in a few words. On February 14,
1835, a quorum of twelve Apostles* was organized,

* The first twelve Apostles were as follows, selected in the order
named : Lyman E. Johnson, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball,
Orson Hyde, David W. Patten, Luke Johnson, William E. McLel-
lin, John F. Boynton, Orson Pratt, William Smith, Thomas B.
Marsh, and Parley P. Pratt. As constituted at Nauvoo. at a later
date, when changes were made by death or defection, the twelve
were named as follows, the added designation of each bcinp be-

Kirt land Stake of Zion, ajid Brighaui Yotiiig. 145

among whom were Brigham Young and Heber C.
Kimball, then two of the coming men of the church.
Seven days later the first meeting of the twelve apos-
tles was held ; and on February 28th, the organiza-
tion of the Quorum of Seventies began. At a gen-
eral assembly of the church, on August 17th, the
" Book of Doctrines and Covenants " was accepted
as a rule of faith and practice, including Rigdon's
" Lectures on Faith." On January 4, 1836, a He-
brew professorship was established; and on June 12,
1837, the first foreign mission was established, Heber
C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, and four others being sent
to convert England.

That dissensions and backslidings should occur
in a community or congregation drawn together as
had been the Kirtland ** Stake of Zion," and bound
by the ties in which its members were held, follows
almost as a matter of natural law. The attacks from
without had become more frequent and determined,
and any discontented or aggrieved Mormon found no
lack of sympathizers and advisers in the communities
surrounding the little village. Among those who had
given their adhesion to Mormonism when it was first
preached in Ohio, was " Doctor " D. P. Hurlburt, a
man of fine address and excellent personal appearance.
Many believed that he had become a Mormon simply

stowed upon them by the poetic W. W. Phelps : Brigham Young,
the Lion of the Lord; Parley P. Pratt, the Archer cf Paradise;
Orson Hyde, the Olive Branch of Israel ; Willard Richards, the
Keeper of the Rolls ; John Taylor, the Cha}?tpion of Right ; William
Smith, the Patriarchal Jacob's Staff; Wilford Woodruff, the Banner
of the Gospel ; George A. Smith, the Entablature of Truth ; Orson
Pratt, the Gauge of Philosophy; John E. Page, the Sun Dial ; and
Lyman Wight, the Wild Ram of the Mountains.

146 Early Days of Mormoitism.

in the hope of pecuniary gain through some channel
that might be opened by opportunity, or that his un-
doubted natural shrewdness should open.

Be that as it may, he soon forsook the doctrines and
church he had so readily espoused, and became one of
the most active enemies of Smith and the Mormon
cause. Joining hands with Eber D. Howe and others
who were engaged in an exposure of the Mormon
scheme, he became a thorn in the side of his old ene-
mies, and hurt them whenever and wherever he could.
He was among the first, if not the first, to couple the
Book of Mormon with the unpublished romance of
Solomon Spaulding, and made a strong effort to es-
tablish a logical connection between the two.

Naturally, a personal enmity arose between the
Prophet and himself. Charges and counter-charges
soon ran into threats of personal violence, and a point
was finally reached when Smith found it necessary,
or at least expedient, to seek the aid of the Gentile
courts. Going before a Justice of the Peace, in
April, 1834, he made complaint that Hurlburt had
made such threats that he was in fear of his life. The
defendant was arrested, ordered to give bonds to
keep the peace, and cited to appear before the Court
of Common Pleas. The case was heard in Chardon*
a few days later. The fact that Hurlburt had him-
self been a Mormon elder, and had been baptized by
Smith, made the occasion one of rare interest to the
surrounding country.

The house was filled with spectators, among them

* Kirtland was then in Geauga County, the County of Lake be-
ing created on March 6, 1840, out of portions of Geauga and
Cuyahoga.

Kirtland Stake of ZiGii, and Brigham Yojivg. 147

many Mormons who were outspoken in their champion-
ship of their leader. It was shown in the trial that
Hurlburt had been excommunicated from the church
for alleged misconduct, and in revenge had denounced
Smith as a false prophet, and made threats against him.
Many witnesses made oath to the latter charge ; and
when Hurlburt's lawyer asked one of them why he did
not tell Smith of his danger, the response was that he
did not think it necessary, as he could not believe the
man lived who could do physical harm to the person
of Joseph Smith. This abundant faith did not seem
to possess the one most concerned, as Smith went
upon the witness-stand and swore that he was in daily
bodily fear of an attack from his late convert. The
court was possessed of no special love for Smith and
his friends, but as a matter of public justice and
peace, ordered Hurlburt to find security in the sum
of two hundred dollars to keep the peace for six
months.*

During the remainder of his life in Kirtland, Smith
had occasion to make many weary and vexatious
journeys to Chardon, and hardly a term of court was
held that did not see him or some of his followers
moving down over the hills of Geauga to make answer
to some charge evolved from the ingenuity, or through
the unrequited wrongs, of some individual who held
no love for the Mormons or their creed.

These journeyings to and fro were not all because
of troubles from without. The natural heart of man
was also present in Kirtland, and its promptings were

* Hurlburt never returned to the Mormon fold. He spent the
closing years of his life in Gibsonburgh, Ohio, where he died in
1882.

148 Early Days of Mormo7iisni.

not always those of peace. In June, 1835, we find
an indictment pending against Smith himself, on
complaint of a brother Mormon, who occupied, in
addition, the close relation of brother-in-law. The
charge was that of assault and battery upon the per-
son of Calvin W. Stoddard. The case was set for
hearing on the twenty-fourth of the month above
named, and Smith was bound over to the Court of
Common Pleas, and upon the final hearing, the
Prophet, his mother, and other members of the
family appeared in force. The assault was not
denied, but the plea of self-defense advanced in justi-
fication.

It was developed by the testimony that the two
had fallen into dispute concerning the water in
a certain lot. As the contention waxed warmer
and still more warm, the wrath of Stoddard gain-
ed the better of his loyalty and discretion, and he
shouted out so that the curious and waiting neigh-
borhood could hear: "I don't fear you, nor no other
man!"

As Smith made no pretension to physical prowess,
he received this challenge in silence, but as Stoddard
added the declaration that he was but a false prophet
at best, and emphasized it with an oath, patience gave
way, and he felled his defamer to the earth, and while
he was down gave him a lesson not soon forgotten.
When questioned in court, Smith stated that Stod-
dard had asked his pardon, which had been freely
granted. A case of self-defense was made out and
Smith acquitted ; although it was noticed that Stod-
dard's allegations upon the first hearing were far more
vehement and pointed than upon the last. Family

Kirtland Stake of Zion, and BrigJia}n Young. 149

and church influence had no doubt been brought to
bear for the heahng of the feud.'^

The first formal attempt on the part of the oppo-
nents of Mormonism to bring the machinery of the
law to bear upon any of its leaders, occurred in June
of the same year, when such statements were made
before the grand jury of Geauga County, as led it to
return a bill of indictment on the sixteenth against
Sidney Rigdon. Quoting the language of that an-
cient document direct from the record, we are told
that "Sidney Rigdon, of Kirtland, on the fourth of
September, 1834, attempted to solemnize the mar-
riage contract between Orson Hyde and Miranda N.
Johnson," when not legally authorized to perform
such service. Reuben Hitchcock, afterward one of
Ohio's most eminent jurists, was prosecuting attor-
ney, and after the jury had been sworn, in the Octo-
ber term of the court, decided to nolle the case ;
doubtless concluding that as Rigdon had for years
been a regular minister in the Baptist and Disciple
churches, his right in the premises was hardly to be
questioned.

A brief season of renewed comfort and hope was

* Upon the conclusion of the suit, Smith made his way into print
through the following card :

Kirtland, June, 1835.
Editor " Painesville Telegraph ";

In a late number of your paper the fact was noticed of my being
bound over to Common Pleas Court to keep the peace, for an as-
sault upon the person of my brother-in-law. Since my honorable
acquittal before said court last week, there being no evidence to
prove the same, I believe you will do me the justice to make the
last as public as the former, and oblige,

Your obedient servant,

Joseph Smith, Jr.

1 50 Early Days of M or monism.

granted the Saints in the early days of 1836, when
their first temple was completed and ready for dedi-
cation. The work had been prosecuted in the face
of many difficulties and discouragements, and when
the last stone was laid and the last curtain hung, the
burden upon the souls of the devout was lifted, as
they hoped that their willing obedience and severe
toil in the completion of this house of worship would
bring a season of fruitful revival, and place upon them
and theirs the blessings so long promised and so long
deferred.

The structure had cost them nearly forty thousand
dollars — a sum of no small magnitude considering
their resources and the scale of prices of those days.
Devoid of architectural beauty, it was still imposing,
and not without a dignity of the rigid and angular
sort. Making use of a description of the temple
penned a short time after its erection,* we obtain the
following :

"In front, over the large window, is a tablet, bear-
ing the inscription :

' House of the Lord

Built by the Church

of the Latter-Day Saints.

A.D. 1834.'

" The first and second stories are divided into two
grand rooms for public worship. The attic is par-
titioned off into about a dozen small apartments.
The lower grand room is fitted up with seats as an
ordinary church, with canvas curtains hanging from
the ceiling, which, on the occasion of prayer-meetings,

* " Ohio -Historical Collections," p. 282.

Kir t land Stake of Zioft, and Brigham Young. 1 5 i

are let down to the top of the sHps, dividing the room
into severaldifferent apartments, for the use of the
separate collections of worshippers. At each end of
the room is a set of pulpits, four in number, rising
behind each other. Each pulpit is calculated for
three persons, so that when they are full, twelve per-
sons occupy each set, or twenty-four persons the two
sets. These pulpits were for the officers of the
priesthood. The set at the farther end of the room
are for the Melchisedek priesthood, or those who
minister in spiritual concerns. The set opposite, near
the entrance of the room, are for the Aaronic priest-
hood, whose duty it is to simply attend to temporal
affairs of the society. These pulpits all bear initials,
signifying the rank of the occupants."

The temple was dedicated on March 27th. That
occasion may be regarded as the culminating point
of Mormon success and influence in Ohio. The lead-
ers used every means within their power to raise it
above the level of temporal things, and to impress
upon it an apparent stamp of special divine accept-
ance and favor. The ceremonies of dedication and
consecration were conducted with a mysterious so-
lemnity intended to impress believers and mark itself
with effect upon spectators from the outer world.
The various quorums of the church officially recog-
nized Smith as their Prophet and Seer ; and if Jo-
seph's word is to be taken as conclusive, there were
august visitors in attendance — Moses, Elias, and Eli-
sha appearing unto him, and surrendering into his
possession the Keys of the Priesthood, which con-
ferred upon him great power in spiritual and material
things. He also saw angels, which came down and

152 Early Days of Mor monism.

held converse with him, but were seen not by the dull
eyes of those about him.

Brigham Young, not to be too far behind Joseph
in the manifestations of spiritual power, was fa-
vored with an eloquent outburst of tongues, and
made an address which neither he nor any one
else could understand, but which some brother made
an effort to translate. A pillar of fire was seen above
the temple, and supernatural sounds heard in the
air. Many who had heretofore been content to re-
main in the background, arose and gave utterance
to prophecy. The brethren shut themselves in the
temple, and washed and anointed themselves. This
exaltation of spirit, and the excitement of which it
was a part, continued several days. On the evening
of March 29th the ceremony of washing feet was
performed, each Saint humbling himself in the service
of another. Hundreds, we are told in the Mormon
records, remained in the building all night, "glorify-
ing God and prophesying." At daybreak they par-
took of the sacramental bread and wine.

The excitement continued until March 31st. Dur-
ing this time all business of a secular character was
suspended. Many spectators were drawn from the
neighboring towns and farms. No such season had
been witnessed at Kirtland even in the early days of
spiritual riot, and none was possible in the times of
gloom and trouble that were even now closing in
from every side.

VII.

ENEMIES WITHOUT AND WITHIN.

THE problems that Mormonism was now set to
solve were no longer confined to the polemic
challenges of Thomas Campbell and an allied ortho-
doxy, nor to the newspaper attacks of Hurlburt and
Howe. Nor were they all resultant from envyings and
dislikes among the Saints themselves, — of which there
never was a lack, and which increased in noise and
turmoil as the storm of financial difficulty gathered
about the head of Smith and his immediate associates
in the government of the church. It was from this
last-named source that the overthrow finally came.
Bad management ; a haste for riches that outran the re-
sources of capital at command ; a bank that, in defiance
of law, issued a worthies? scrip that was hardly meant
to be redeemed ; over-confidence that was the natural
result of placing an almost autocratic power in untrain-
ed hands, and numerous speculations based upon an op-
timistic view of the future, combined to a ruinous con-
clusion, which the financial panic of 1837 precipitated.
Looked at from the dispassionate ground of a busi-
ness view alone, one can hardly criticise the Mormon
leaders for many of the ventures into which they were
led. It was a time when the canals of New York
and Ohio, the waters of Lake Erie and the Ohio
River, and the highways between the East and the
great unsettled West, were filled with people bent
upon the founding of new homes in the new lands,

(153)

154 Early Days of M or monism.

and lured by a future that, however bright it might
have seemed, has been far outrun by the magnificent
developments of the half-century past. Cities were
springing up as if by magic. Settlements were made
to-day where the forest had stood untenanted and
unbroken but yesterday. Farms were marked out in
lands that were on the far frontier a year before. With
any advantage in natural gift or commercial creation,
one spot seemed equal to the rest in a hope for the
future, and those whose interests were staked upon it
felt justified in calling the attention of the world to
their possessions, and in offering to others a part of
the harvest they hoped to reap.

Kirtland lay upon one of the roadways the hand ot
the pioneer had cut through the forests of Northern
Ohio, while the waters of Lake Erie could be seen
from her temple roof. The nucleus of a large town
seemed to have been formed in the settlement of so
many strangers about the temple, and the limits to
which it might yet grow could only be defined by
the future. Those who had seen that which had al-
ready been done, had a reason for their hope of yet
greater things in times to come. As there was a
material and financial side to Mormonism, — a thing
needless to note in the presence of such men as Brig-
ham Young and Parley P. Pratt, — it was but natural
that advantage should be taken of the chances offered
from day to day. Speculation in land was indulged
in. All through 1836 and 1837, as shown by the
books of the County Recorder at Chardon, sales in
abundance were made by the Smiths and other lead-
ing Mormons. The multiplicity of these transac-
tions in realty on the part of the two Josephs and

Enemies Without and Within.

I5S

their kin, suggests a curious change from the money-
digging and root-beer selling Palmyra days of only a
half-dozen years before.

In fact, a great city was laid out, of which the
temple was to be the centre, and around which the
Saints were to live in happiness and content until the

KIRTLAND CITY.

Peter Street

John Street.

Luke Street

Lyman Street

Gilbert Street ....
Whitmer Street...

Hyrum Street

Whitney Street...
Joseph Street . . . .
Cahoon Street. . . .

Carter Street

Kimball Street . ..
Boynton Street...

Pratt Street

Hyde Street

Harris Street

I I

I I

I i

«3 .2

.2 .js 'S o .a
&. O S U ^

c S

o «

(5 ^

CO «

cj :§

millennium should dawn and the whole earth be de-
livered into their hands. All that remains of that
Utopian dream to-day is a finely-executed plat upon
the county books, forgotten of men and scarcely seen
by the eyes of this generation."'*'

* The history of Kirtland City as told in the record, is brief, and
of official terseness. The plat is the handiwork of Willard W

156 Early Days of Mormonism.

The building of Kirtland City was interrupted by
the financial and personal difficulties that rapidly
gathered about the Prophet and the church. In his
autobiography Smith speaks of his troubles in the
following words : "■ At this time the spirit of specu-
lation in lands and property of all kinds, which was
so prevalent throughout the whole nation, was tak-
ing deep root in the church ; as the fruits of this
spirit, evil surmisings, fault-finding, disunion, dissen-
sion, and apostasy followed in quick succession, and
it seemed as though all the powers of earth and
hell were combining their influence in an especial
manner to overthrow the church at once, and make

a final end The enemy abroad and apostates

in our midst united in their schemes; flour and pro-
visions were turned toward other markets ; and many
became disaffected toward me, as though I were the
sole cause of those very evils I was most strenuously
striving against, and which were actually brought
upon us by the brethren not giving heed to my coun-

Beals, surveyor of Geauga County. Proceedings attested by F. G.
Williams, a Mormon Justice of the Peace. Among those by whom
the allotment was made were Emma Smith, the Prophet's wife ;
Eliza R. Snow, the Mormon poetess ; Reynolds Gaboon, Hyrum
Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Heber C. Kimball, Joseph Smith, Sr.,
Joseph Smith, Jr., and Sidney Rigdon. The plat was made in
April, 1837, and recorded May 24th. There were to be thirty-two
streets, all laid at right angles, and each four rods wide. There
were two hundred and twenty-five blocks, each containing twenty
lots of equal size. In the naming of the streets the new dispensa-
tion, which stood sponsor, had an advantage over the old, twenty-
nine being allotted to the Mormons, while the disciples of Holv
Writ were forced to be content with three ; or were even Petci,
John, and Luke numbered among the Whitmers and others of the
Mormon flock?

Ejiemies Without and Within. 157

sel. No quorum in the church was entirely exempt
from the influence of those false spirits who were
striving against me for the mastery ; even some of the
Twelve were so far lost to their high and responsible
calling, as to begin to take sides, secretly, with the
enemy."

An occurrence that had its culmination in the early
days of this year, did not allay the feeling of enmity
and distrust already prevalent in the outer world.
Grandison Newell, a prominent farmer of Kirtland
township, who lived a mile and a half from the vil-
lage, had for a long time been an avowed enemy of
Smith and the Mormons, and lost no chance to make
his dislike apparent in his acts. A young man who
had been a member of the Mormon Church, but had
departed from and denounced it, gave Newell such
information as led him, on April 13, 1837, to lodge a
complaint before Justice Flint, of Painesville, charg-
ing Smith with conspiring to take his life. Giving
form and substance to the grave rumors that had
been for a long time afloat as to the dangers to be
apprehended from the Mormon Church, this charge
caused the wildest excitement. The hearing was
awaited with the deepest interest. It occurred on
June 3d. The young man above referred to — whose
name appears in none of the records — made oath that
Smith had directed himself and a fellow Mormon
named Davis, to take Newell's life, declaring him to
be an avowed enemy to the true faith, who ought to
be put out of the way, and that on two occasions
they had gone to the complainant's residence at
night, with a purpose of carrying out their instruc-
tions, but had not found him at home.

158 Early Days of Monnonism.

This evidence made a sensation, and the Mormons
used every means in their power to break its effect.
Rigdon, Cowdery, Hyde, and other prominent mem-
bers of their church were phiced upon the stand, and
made as good a case for Smith as the circumstances
would admit.* The court appears to have beHeved
there was some foundation for the charge, as Smith
was placed under bonds of five hundred dollars to
keep the peace, and appear at the next term of court.
Rigdon, L. W, Denton, and Orson Hyde were ac-
cepted as bail. On the final hearing, Smith was dis-
charged, the evidence not being considered sufficient
to make good the charge.

The business troubles that accumulated with such
rapidity during the year of which we write, made
their influence felt with malign dexterity at almost
every point. An illustrative incident can be related.
One Samuel Brown, a shrewd money-lender of Kirt-
land, had reason to believe that a financial crash
would naturally follow in the wake of wild specula-
tion, and as he had loaned three thousand dollars to
the Mormons, determined on a plan by which to
make himself secure. Going to Smith, he declared
that he was in sudden need of money for a short
time, but would re-loan it to Smith, and with it a
much larger sum. The Prophet greedily swallowed

* In this trial, Gen. J. H. Payne, of Painesville, appeared for
Newell, and in a quizzical way asked each of the Mormon witnesses
if he believed Joe Smith to be a true prophet. The answer upon
each occasion was an emphatic "Yes." When Rigdon was reached
with the same inquiry, he sat back in his chair and coolly respond-
ed: "Well, I guess he is as much of a Prophet as you are, Gen-
eral, or Eber D. Howe " — the latter's book against Mormonisra
having already appeared.

Enemies Without and Within. 159

the bait, and by much effort secured the three thou-
sand dollars, which he gave Brown. In a few weeks
he again called on Brown, and suggested that he
would like to borrow the promised larger sum. Brown
laughed in his face, and dismissed the Prophet with
the remark: '' Now that I have got my money safe,
do you suppose that I am so big a fool as to throw it
away?"

Other creditors were possessed of a like fear, and
attempt after attempt was made to force collec-
tions. As many persuasions and appeals had failed,
a resort to the courts of law was the natural result.
A promissory note for several thousand dollars, given
on January 2d, to the Bank of Geauga, at Painesville,
was the starting-point of many troubles, and the first
point of attack. In default of its payment, Joseph
Smith, Jr., Newell K. Whitney, and Sidney Rigdon
were brought into court and compelled to give bonds
for eight thousand dollars. The case never came to
trial, but was settled out of court. The members of
the mercantile firm of Rigdon, Smith & Cowdery,
which had done a large business of late years, and
purchased East and West, wherever credit could be
obtained, were called to the bar of county justice at
about the same time, to answer to one Hezekiah Kel-
ley, as indorsers of paper issued by the firm of R.
Cahoon, J. Carter & Co. — Hyrum Smith being the
company. Judgment to the full extent of the claim
was allowed.

Other suits of a like character were heard at
the same term of court, and in each the award
was to the plaintiff. Such indeed became their need
of money in a time of financial stringency, that in

i6o Early Days of M or monism.

July we find Sidney Rigdon, Joseph Smith, Oliver
Cowdery, Hyrum Smith, Reynolds Cahoon, and Ja-
red Carter — members of the two firms mentioned
above — joining in a promissory note of forty-five hun-
dred dollars to Mead, Stafford & Co., wholesale mer-
chants of New York, for which they gave as security
nothing less than a mortgage upon the interest they
severally and jointly held in the temple — described in
the instrument as "The Stone Temple, called also
the Chapel House." The conveyance covered the
land upon which the building stood, all furniture
** used in or about said house," and " all ancient curi-
osities, writings, paintings, and sculpture therein," *
all claims held by them against the temple, and in
particular one of sixteen thousand dollars due for ad-
vances at the time of its erection.

Even this assignment did not prevent the stream
of claims from pouring steadily in. Some were set-
tled out of court, while others went to trial. Nor did
their troubles end here. A proceeding which must
have caused both Smith and Rigdon great uneasiness,
and promised worse disaster than all the suits for debt
yet entered, was commenced against them during
this year of culminating ruin. It was an action for
the unlawful assumption of banking powers, without
the charter rights the law required.

As has been already related, the so-called bank that
was established, in the face of a refusal of the Ohio
Legislature to grant a charter for the same, had issued
an unlimited number of bills, and performed all the

* With an unwillingness, perhaps, to make merchandise of the bear-
ers of the rolls of Abraham, the mummies in the temple were named
as exempt from the provisions of this deed.

Enemies Without and Within. i6i

functions incident to a bank. As the law then stood
in Ohio, informers in certain cases were granted a
portion of the fines imposed. The penalty incurred
in unlawful banking was of this character, and accord-
ingly, one Samuel D. Rounds decided to enrich him-
self, harass the Mormons, and vindicate the law by
one bold stroke. In the March term of court, he
caused the arrest of Rigdon and Smith, and demanded
from each, in the name of himself and the State, " a
penalty of one thousand dollars, incurred by acting
on the fourth day of January, 1837, as an officer of a
bank not incorporated by the law of this State, de-
nominated 'The Kirtland Safety Society Anti- Bank-
ing Company,' contrary to the statute in such case
made and provided." The offenders were brought
into court, and once more compelled to call upon
their friends and partners for bail, which was fur-
nished.

The case was called in the June term of court, when
a desperate effort was made to clear them by a de-
murrer, which was overruled, and a continuance
granted. In October they were tried by a jury, ad-
judged guilty as charged, and ordered to pay the fine.
Their defense was based upon the claim that they
had acted for an association instead of a bank, and
that the bills they had issued were individual notes
in effect and not money. Upon that ground an ap-
peal was taken, and measures set on foot to carry the
matter to a higher court ; but before a decision could
be reached, the bank was a thing of the past, Its notes
no longer money in law or in fact, and its president
and cashier safe in the Mormon fold of the far West.

Specimens of these bills were introduced in evi-

1 62 Early Days of Mormonisfn.

dence in the above cases, and becoming a part of the
record can be found neatly wafcred in an ancient vol-
ume of the Geauga Criminal Records. They are al-
most as fresh and crisp as when first issued. Even
a casual examination will show upon their face an
attempt at evasion. The bill as originally issued
bore, in large, bold letters, the inscription : " The
Kirtland Safety Society Bank will pay on demand to
W. Parrish or bearer, three dollars." As danger un-
der the law began to threaten, an addition was stamped
upon the engraved bill, in very small letters, so that
the anti-banking clause would be inserted, in this
form :

Anti-BANK-ing Co.

At first glance one would not see the added words
because of their diminutive size. The evasion was of
no use, however, when placed to the crucial test of
the law. The personal signatures of Smith and Rig-
don appeared upon each bill.

While the bank was one of the main avenues
through which these tribulations came, it was by no
means without its uses in the days when doubt and
suspicion had not filtered into the public mind. Its
notes were taken by every one, and by many were
regarded as preferable to the '' wildcat " currency with
which the West was flooded. Free use of this confi-
dence was made in the fitting out of emigrant trains
to the West, in the purchase of horses, wagons, farm-
ing and mechanical tools, and other needed supplies.
More than one keen Yankee farmer and trader, who
had sold his wares at the full market price, had occa-
sion ere long to regret that the suspicion he had at-

Enemies Without and Within. 163

tached to the Mormon's religion and patriotism, had
not been extended to his printed notes as well.

The printing-press was, indeed, kept so busy, that
the genuine banks of neighboring cities became sus-
picious, and began to investigate the solidity of the
foundation upon which so great a business was done.
A practical test was decided upon by the Pittsburg
bankers, w^ho sent one of their number, Mr. Jones, to
Kirtland upon a tour of investigation. Loading a
hand-satchel with the " Safety Society " notes, he
took the stage to Ohio, and made an early morning
call upon Rigdon and Smith.

He questioned them in a general way as to the
prosperity of Mormonism spiritually and materially,
and received such glowing responses as only these
two adepts in the art of impressing men, could give.
The conversation was then adroitly turned by the
visitor to the bank, and its solidity and usefulness
extolled by its president and cashier.

Mr. Jones expressed his pleasure thereat, and con-
fessed to a personal interest of no small extent. Pro-
ducing his bundle of notes, he asked for their imme-
diate redemption in coin.

The response of president Rigdon was prompt and
to the point. He declined to exchange, politely sug-
gesting that the paper had been put forth as '' a cir-
culating medium for the accommodation of the peo-
ple," and that he would be thwarting that purpose to
call any of it in. In short, he dishonored the express
promise of the note, and Mr. Jones carried home a
bundle of bills that had no value beyond that of the
paper of which they were composed.

The long-foreshadowed end could not be long de-

164 Early Days of Mormonism,

layed. Early in November, 1837, the bank formally
suspended payment, and its doors were closed. The
knell of Mormonism in Ohio was sounded ; and even
had peace and harmony reigned inside the church,
the feeling of the outer world was such that continu-
ance in Kirtland would have been impossible. Thou-
sands held the worthless promises to pay, and the
feeling everywhere was that of anger, distrust, and
hatred. It was, indeed, time that the Prophet was
going, since prestige, business success, and the last
remnant of public confidence had already gone.

Smith made such defense of his course as the cir-
cumstances would admit. He declared that the bank
itself was victim rather than offender, and charged a
defalcation of twenty-five thousand dollars upon War-
ren Parrish, a clerk of the institution^ who had left
Kirtland some time before. Be this as it may, the
defense was not accepted by the world, and the blame
was laid upon those to whom, beyond all question, it
belonged. The failure was denounced by many of
the Mormons themselves, and served to open still
wider the breach already existing in the church. One
Boynton, an elder, met Smith, and publicly upbraided
him for his course, telling him that, as the bank had
been established " by the will of God," he did not
see how it could fail, no matter what men might do
against it.

Smith's response was characteristic. He threw all
the blame upon those who had been associated with
him in its management, and declared that the bless-
ings had been promised only on the condition that
the bank should be conducted on business principles.

The majority of those who held an unshaken and

Enemies Without atid Within. 165

devout belief in the divine commission of Smith, had
already departed to the new field of labor in the West,
while among those who remained, were many who
were his enemies, secretly or openly, as their fear or
policy might suggest. Although the acknowledged
prophet, seer, and revelator of the church, and chosen
its president by a unanimous vote, his authority was
often questioned by rebellious acts, while opposing
claims were even set up against it. Almost daily re-
nunciations of the church on the part of the disgusted
or dissatisfied, were occurring, while excommunica-
tions followed as a matter of course. Men high in
the councils of the church to-day, might find them-
selves outcast and given over to the buffetings of
Satan on the morrow. A girl, almost a mere child,
began suddenly to utter prophecies, and deliver her-
self of spiritual revelations in opposition to the com-
mands of Smith, and even his prompt and emphatic
denunciation of her works as those of the devil, hardly
saved her from a following that would have caused
division and contentions in the church.

The final blow at the authority of the Prophet
came when a faction calling themselves '* Reformers,"
sought to take control into their own hands, and op-
posed him and his in every quarter and at every
point. The closing months of 1837 were filled with
contentions, and as Saint warred against Saint, and
prophecy was uttered in refutation of other prophecy,
the Gentile world stood not aloof, but used all means
withm command to fan the enmity into still more
open war, and cause the breach to widen so that it
might be put forever beyond repair.

Smith, Rigdon, and Young stood side by side in

1 66 Early Days of Mormonism.

these tempestuous times, and gave blow for blow,
and shot their shafts into the opposing ranks with
such power and to such effect as still lay within their
command. The magic of such belief as was still held
in Smith's prophetic mission, w^as used to frighten
and dismay the opposition. Thunderbolts of anath-
ema were hurled at the rebellious, and many were no
doubt held to the church by no loftier emotion than
a servile and superstitious fear.

I have received from the mouth of a witness yet
living* an account of the final public appearance of
Smith and Rigdon in the temple which their influence
and energy had done so much to create. It was in
December, on a Sabbath directly preceding their wild
flight by night. Schism, apostasy, secret enmity, mal-
ice, and even outspoken opposition confronted them
in the church, while debt, revenge, arrest, prosecu-
tion, and punishment threatened from the world with-
out. The faithful, many upon whom dependence
could be placed at all times, were already far away in
the West, while here were left the hostile few. A
demand had been made by the Prophet that condem-
nation and excommunication should be pronounced
upon several in revolt, and it became apparent ere
long that the votes by which the behest w^as to be
obeyed, were not forthcoming.

Such natural power as Smith held for the control
of men, answered to the demand now made upon it.
He came into the gathering with a resolution and
courage that the situation seemed to demand, and
carried himself as one who felt that his soul and be-

* L. E. Miller, an aged resident of Painesville, O.

Enemies Without and Within. 167

ing had found themselves set firmly on the rock,
while all else was but the shifting of sand or the
swaying of reeds in the summer wind. The deep
experiences of nearly a decade of spiritual and mate-
rial command, had given power and play to every
faculty, and carried him far outward from the un-
couth and flimsy experiences and assertions of the
early days. The natural grain of greatness, which no
honest and watchful man could deny as a part of his
endowment, had seen much smoothing and polishing
in his constant contact with the world ; and he was
no longer the ungainly boy who looked into the
white stone for lost money or straying flocks, but the
clear-sighted and ambitious man, who aspired to a
place with Mohammed as the founder of a vast relig-
ious empire. There could be no show of weakness
on his part now that was not fraught with danger,
and he played his game with boldness and courage
clear on to its tragic end.

Rigdon had been sick, and was aided to his seat
by the steadying arms of friends. The debate was
long and stormy. Three hours of the Sabbath passed
away, and no decision had been reached. Rigdon's
address was not soon forgotten by those who heard
it. Physical weakness was upon him, but the pathos
of his plea and the power of his denunciation swayed
the feelings and shook the judgment of his hearers as
never in the old days of peace, and when he had fin-
ished and was led out, a perfect silence reigned in the
temple until its door had closed upon him forever.

Smith made a resolute and determined battle;
false reports had been circulated, he declared, and
those by whom the offense had come must repent

1 68 Early Days of Monnonism.

and acknowledge their sin, or be cut off from fellow-
ship in this world, ancj from honor and power in that
to come. He made his demand as head of the
church, for the sake of the church, and he would
abate not one jot therefrom.

The accused plead their case, and many who had
done faithful and obedient service for Joseph in the
past, spoke boldly in opposition to the Prophet's will.
As the contest grew to a white heat, one of those
who had fallen under the Prophet's displeasure gave
him the lie to his face, and fire from heaven did not
consume him, nor the earth open to receive him.

At last Joseph, impatient with opposition, and
tired with the long turmoil of argument, suggested
that a vote upon excommunication should be taken,
and further pleas for the victims heard at a later date.
"Yes," shouted one of the latter, who was immedi-
ately upon his feet, " you would cut a man's head off
and hear him afterward ! "

Lyman Cowdery, a Mormon lawyer, suggested a
postponement of the whole matter for a few days,
and was sustained by vote.

Further proceedings had little interest for Smith.
There came to his ears one day a rumor that Grandi-
son Newell, his old enemy, was on his way to Char-
don for a warrant for Rigdon and himself on a charge
of fraud in connection with the late bank.* With no
heart for further contests in the arena of public jus-
tice, he made hurried and secret arrangements for

* The rumor had no foundation in fact, although there were
many who desired such arrests made. Newell used to relate the
story with great gusto, and tell at length how he " run the Mormons
out of the country."

Eyiemies Withotit and Within. 169

flight. Young had gone some weeks before. Fleet
and stout horses were secured, and late in the evening
of the I2th of January, 1838, Smith and Rigdon bade
their few devoted friends farewell, and galloped over
the frozen roads and through the snow toward the
West. There was much outcry, but no legal action
when they were gone, and in due season they were
welcomed as heroes and hailed as martyrs by that
portion of the Mormon world to which their coming
was a blessing and surprise.

As one may suppose, Smith's version of this un-
fortunate episode in his life and of misfortune to the
church, varied from that furnished by his opponents,
the more especially as he was compelled to justify him-
self and companion before the main body of the church.
" A new year," he writes,* ** dawned upon the church
at Kirtland in all the bitterness of the spirit of apos-
tate mobocracy, which continued to rage and grow
hotter and hotter, until Elder Rigdon and myself were
obliged to flee from its deadly influence, as did the
apostles and prophets of old, and as Jesus said, * When
they persecute you in one city, flee ye to another.'
And on the evening of the 12th of January, about
ten o'clock, we left Kirtland on horseback, to escape
mob violence, which was about to burst upon us under
the color of legal process, to cover their hellish de-
signs and save themselves from the just judgment
of the law. The weather was extremely cold, and
we were obliged to secrete ourselves sometimes to
elude the grasp of our pursuers, who continued their

* From The Evening and Morning Siar, the organ of the Mormon
Church.

I/O Early Days of Mormonism.

race more than two hundred miles from Kirtland,
armed with pistols, etc., seeking our lives."

It is perhaps needless to say that the conclusion of
the above quotation must be charged to Smith's im-
agination, which was compelled to aid him out of the
dilemma in which he had been placed. Before leav-
ing Kirtland, Smith had said to his enemies, "You
will see me again, whatever happens. God has prom-
ised me that nothing shall prevail against me, and
that my life is safe for five years to come."

The sheriff was now an almost daily visitor at
Kirtland. The dream of a great city was gone, and
those who had the most at stake thought only of
how they might save something from the wreck.
The foreclosure of mortgages followed each other
in quick succession. On January 14th the printing-
office of the church, containing many books and a
large amount of paper, was disposed of at sheriff's
sale, the purchaser being one of the Reformers or
seceders from Smith. During the night the building
and contents, and a small Methodist chapel standing
near, were burned to the ground, and stories were
put afloat that Mormons of the old school had be-
come incendiaries, in the hope that the blaze would
extend to the temple, which they did not wish to
see left in the hands of their enemies.*

Referring once more to the records of Geauga
County, we find the last transfer of property by

* Extract from the Cleveland Herald and Gazette of January 25,
1838: "The Mormon Society of Kirtland is breaking up. Smith
and Rigdon, after prophesying the destruction of the town, left in
the night. The Reformers are in possession of the temple, and
have excluded the Smith and Rigdon party."

Enemies WitJwut and Within. 171

Smith occurring in July, 1838, after he had been in the
West some months. The deed was made in Caldwell
County, Mo. Rigdon had not hesitated to secure
safety from creditors by placing his property out of
his hands before the final crash, and in April, 1837,
had joined with his wife in deeding an acre of land
in Kirtland to their daughter Nancy. Only one sale
on the part of Brigham Young can be found on the
books of the county — that of a plat valued at six
hundred dollars, disposed of in July, 1837, to Solomon
Angel, no doubt the father-in-law of the grantor.

Before closing the Kirtland chapter of Mormonism,
the testimony of Dr. Storm Rosa, one of the then lead-
ing physicians of Ohio, upon a number of points touch-
ing which he had personal knowledge, can be profit-
ably introduced. It appears in the form of a letter
to the Rev. John Hall, rector of St. Peter's church,
of Ashtabula, Ohio, under date of Painesville, Ohio,
June 3, 1 841,* from which the following is extracted :

" I think the history of Mormonism as published
by E. D. Howe, a copy of which can be obtained
in our place, contains all the material truths con-
nected with the rise and progress of that miser-
able deception. There are occasionally new doc-
trines introduced and incorporated with their faith,
such as being baptized for the dead. This is a
common custom here. When a member is satisfied
that his father, mother, or brother, or any other friend
is in hell, he steps forward and offers himself to the
church in baptism for that individual, and when
properly baptized, the tormented individual will in-

* " Gleanings by the Way," p. 315.

172 Early Days of Mormojiism.

stantaneously emerge from his misery into perfect
happiness. There are many such folhes which the
simple-hearted are ready and wilHng to believe. There
is no permanent separation in the society. There
were a few seceders a few years since, some of whom
left them entirely, and became infidels, and others
held to the original purity of the doctrines, as they
termed it. As to Martin Harris, of late I have heard
but little of him. My acquaintance with him induces
me to believe him a monomaniac ; he is a man of
great loquacity and very unmeaning, ready at all
times to dispute the ground of his doctrines with
any one. He was one of the seceders, and for a
time threatened the Mormons with exposure, as I
have been informed. [It will be remembered that
Dr. Rosa penned this letter some time after Smith
had commenced his operations in the West.] But
where he is now I cannot say.

" Joe Smith is regarded as an inspired man by all the
Mormons. Sidney Rigdon is at the western settlement.
He embraced the Mormon religion in the latter part of
October, 1830 (see page 102 of the book as published
by E. D. Howe, above referred to). In the early part
of the year, either in May or June, I was in company
with Sidney Rigdon, and rode with him on horse-
back a few miles. Our conversation was principally
upon the subject of religion, as he was at that time a
very popular preacher of the denomination calling
themselves Disciples, or Campbellites. He remarked
to me that it was time for a new religion to spring
up ; that mankind were all rife and ready for it. I
thought he alluded to the Campbellite doctrine ; he
said it would not be long before something would

Enemies Withojii and Within. 173

make its appearance ; he also said that he thought of
leaving for Pennsylvania, and should be absent for
some months. I asked him, how long ? — he said it
would depend upon circumstances. I began to think
a little strange of his remarks, as he was a minister of
the gospel. I left Ohio that fall, and went to the State
of New York, to visit my friends, who lived in Water-
loo, not far from the mine of Golden Bibles.

" In November I was informed that my old neighbor,
E. Partridge, and the Rev. Sidney Rigdon were in
Waterloo, and that they both had become the dupes
of Joe Smith's necromancies ; it then occurred to me
that Rigdon's new religion had made its appearance,
and when I became informed of the Spaulding manu-
script I was confirmed in the opinion that Rigdon
was at least accessory, if not the principal in getting
up this farce. Any information that I can give shall
be done cheerfully.

" Respectfully, your obedient servant,

" S. Rosa."

VIII.

THE ARMY OF ZION.

THE story of Joseph Smith's first visit to Missouri,
and the founding of Zion, has been already told.
His second trip Westward was made in April, 1832,
the month following his severe personal experiences
at Hiram. Between one and two thousand Mormons
had by that time gathered at Zion, and forebodings
of the troubles that afterward befell them, were found
in the dislike and suspicion of the non-Mormon set-
tlers about them.

The emphatic announcements made some time
before by the Prophet, that his people were soon
to possess all that land to the exclusion or de-
struction of such as did not believe, had not added
to the welcome of the new community, while the
continued accessions to the Mormon population by
emigration from the East, had turned to fear that
which in another case would have been scorn or con-
tempt. The Mormons had pursued a policy hardly
in accord with the ideal of a chosen race, but perhaps
natural to an ignorant community that lived in the
belief that it alone found favor in the sight of God.
They assumed a superiority of manner and conduct
that did not accord with their professions, and lent
color to some of the grave but often groundless
charges which enemies set afloat against them. There
was much to confront Smith, and cause him anxiety
(174)

The Army of Zion. 175

on this visit, not only from the Gentiles, but through
the mistakes of judgment or waywardness of purpose
on the part of many under his spiritual care. But he
met it all with an even countenance and a dexterity
of management that showed no trace of anxiety or
alarm. He transacted such business as came to hand,
and on May ist presided at a grand council of the
church, where many matters of moment were trans-
acted. Five days later he set out upon his journey
home. In June, in pursuit of arrangements made
while he was present, the publication of TJic Even-
ing and Morjiiug Star wdiS comrnQnc^d at Independ-
ence, under the direction of W. W. Phelps, formerly
a printer at Canandaigua, New York, and reputed
author of all Smith's political letters and speeches.

Early in 1833, the difficulties that had for a long
time disturbed the relations between the Mormons
and their neighbors, began to take the form of open
hostilities, and muttered threats were changed to act-
ual attacks by voice, by pen, and finally by physical
force. A meeting of Missourians was held in April,
which some three hundred attended, and at which an
emphatic resolution was adopted ordering the Mor-
mons to leave the country. Defiant replies to this
autocratic demand were made by the Mormon press.
A counter response came from the Missourians, in a
series of meetings of a character similar to that de-
scribed above, where a decision to exclude, by force
if necessary, was on each occasion reached.* Finally,

* The publication of an article in the Mormon organ, in June,
1833, entitled " Free People of Color," probably had something to
do with this sudden anger of a community in which the strongest
pro-slavery principles prevailed.

176 Early Days of Mormonis7n.

a general meeting of the citizens of Jackson County
was held, on July 20th, at which between four and
five hundred made their appearance. An address had
been prepared, and was read and adopted unani-
mously. After a statement of causes leading to
this conclusion, the following specific demands were
made :

"• That no Mormon shall, in future, move and settle
in this country.

" That those now here, who shall give a definite
pledge of their intention, within a reasonable time,
to remove out of the country, shall be allowed to re-
main unmolested until they have sufficient time to
sell their property and close their business without
any material sacrifice.

" That the editor of the Star be required forthwith
to close his office, and discontinue the business of
printing in this country ; and, as to all other stores
and shops belonging to the sect, their owners must,
in every case, comply with the terms of the second
article of this declaration, and upon failure, prompt
and efficient measures will be taken to close the same.

" That the Mormon leaders here are required to
use their influence in preventing any further emigra-
tion of their distant brethren to this country, and to
counsel and advise their brethren here to comply with
the above requisitions.

" That those who fail to comply with these requi-
sitions, be referred to those of their brethren who
have the gifts of divination and of unknown tongues,
to inform them of the lot that awaits them."

The meeting adjourned for two hours, w^hile a
committee of twelve resolute and well-armed men

TJic Army of Zion. \yy

presented this unwarranted and impudent demand to
the Mormon leaders, among whom were Bishop Par-
tridge, and Mr. Phelps, the editor of the Star. Nat-
urally, they were not prepared to quietly submit, nor
did they feel strong enough to answer with defiance,
and threaten blow for blow. They asked for delay,
which the committee promptly refused. When re-
port was made to the meeting upon its reassembling,
it was determined that active measures should be
commenced at once.

The building in which the Star was published
was razed to the ground, while Bishop Partridge
and a fellow-Mormon were caught, stripped of their
clothing, and treated to a coat of tar and feathers.
The mob then announced three days for reflection
on the part of the Mormons, in which they must
decide as to their future course. When the ad-
journed meeting was held on July 23d, and the de-
mand repeated, the Saints had no alternative but to
submit. An agreement was made and signed, that
one-half the Mormons should depart by January i,
1834, and the rest by the first of the following April.
The offending newspaper was to be discontinued, and
no new members should be allowed to join the soci-
ety in Zion during the nine months of truce.

Advice was sought of the Prophet and rulers of
the church at ^irtland, while an appeal for protection
was made to the Governor of Missouri. The re-
sponse of the latter was plain and direct. He de-
clared that the attack upon them had been made
without reason or justice, and advised them to re-
main where they were. Word to the same effect
came from Kirtland. Believing that an agreement

178 Early Days of Mormonism.

wrung from them by physical force was not binding
morally, as it certainly was not in law, the Mormons
felt it no wrong to refuse to carry out its provisions,
and announced their purpose to that effect.

The Missourians were as good as their word. On
October 31st, an attack was made upon the Mormons
by a body of armed men, several houses were de-
stroyed, and a fight ensued in which two Missourians
were killed. For the sake of appearances the author-
ities called out the militia, but as the troops were
enemies of the Saints almost to a man, the latter saw
no other alternative but to go, and made hurried
preparations to leave the State. They crossed the
Missouri River in November, with great loss of prop-
erty and no small degree of suffering, the majority
finding a temporary resting-place in Clay County,
some going to Van Buren, and others to other parts
of the State.

While Smith made little haste to take a personal
part in these difificulties and dangers, he was by no
means idle, nor forgetful to turn the troubles of his
followers to such good to himself and his creed as
they might be made to yield. He could write bet-
ter than fight, and such consolation as he could give
the persecuted Saints by revelation was forthcoming.
He was first unburdened of a message that he should
retain Henry Clay for the legal defense of Mormon
rights, and next issued a command of a character
that caused no small degree of excitement in the
church, and was virtually a declaration of war against
their persecutors. He promised the Saints a final
and eternal possession of the Zion from which they
had been expelled, and did not fail to tell them that

The Army of Zion. 179

they had been stricken because of their sins — ** Verily
I say unto you, concerning your brethren who have
been afflicted, and persecuted, and cast out from the
land of your inheritance — I the Lord hath suffered
the affliction to come upon them, wherewith they
have been afflicted, in consequence of their trans-
gressions ; yet I will own them, and they shall be
mine in that day when I shall come to make up my
jewels."

The command to Joseph himself, in this revelation,
was direct, personal, and as full of war as some of the
Hebraic commands of old : '' Therefore get ye straight-
way unto my land ; break down the walls of mine ene-
mies ; throw down their tower and scatter their watch-
men ; and inasmuch as they gather together against
you, avenge me of mine enemies, that by and by I
may come with the residue of my house and possess
the land." *

* From an address delivered by the Apostle Wilford Woodruff,
at the celebration of the entrance of the pioneers into Great Salt
Lake Valley, on the thirty-third anniversary of that event, July 24,
1880; in the pamphlet publication, " The Utah Pioneers," Salt Lake
City, 1880, p. 17 : " In 1833 the Saints of God were driven out
of Jackson County, Missouri, by a lawless mob, into Clay County.
Some were massacred, some whipped with hickory goads, and
others were tarred and feathered. Their houses were burned, and
their property was destroyed, and they were driven, penniless and

destitute, across the river Parley P. Pratt, who, with his

famjly, was now destitute of all earthly means of support, and
Lyman Wight, with his wife lying beside a log in the woods, with a
babe three days old, and without food, raiment, or shelter, volun-
teered to go to visit the Prophet of God When Elders Pratt

and Wight arrived in Kirtland, they told their tale of woe to the
Prophet Joseph, who asked the Lord what he should do. The Lord
told him to go to and gather up the strength of the Lord's house,
the young men and middle-aged, and go up and redeem Zion. It

i8o ' Early Days of Mormonism.

Mormondom was immediately placed upon a war
footing. Men and money were asked for, and Joseph
announced that he intended to head the army of res-
cue and relief in person, and lead it against the offend-
ing Missourians. This bold stand gave hope and
courage to his followers. He set forth and preached
the new crusade to the Mormon churches. The
High-Priests and Elders took up the war-cry and
repeated it everywhere. Mormons old and young
responded, some through a high and genuine devo-
tion to their faith, others because they did not dare
refuse, and still others from a love of excitement and
adventure. The army was rendezvoused in Kirtland
in May, 1834, and numbered one hundred and thirty
men, which increased to two hundred and five by ac-
cessions on the way. Among its members were Brig-
ham Young, Heber C. Kimball, George A. Smith,
Orson Hyde, Orson and Parley P. Pratt, and many
other leading officers of the church."^

The rank and file, taken collectively, were hardly of
a character to strike terror to any brave or organized
foe, but the army looked upon itself as invincible,
and certain to carry the day of battle in triumph.

was the will of God that they should gather up five hundred men,

but they were not to go with less than one hundred I have

not time to repeat the history of that journey here to-day, but the
counsel and the word of the Lord, through the Prophet of the Lord,
and its fulfillment, with our joys and our sorrows in connection with
those scenes and events, are engraven upon our hearts as with an
iron pen upon a rock, and the history thereof will live through all
time and in eternity."

* The particulars of this march are taken from the account of
"An Eye-Witness, one of the Sharp-Shooters" of the Army of
Zion, given in " Mormonism and the Mormons," pp. iii to 116.

The Army of Ziort. i8i

The men were a motley lot, if we may take the word
of some who saw them pass by, and of others who
were among their numbers. Some who had offered
themselves were rejected because they could not fur-
nish weapons and show themselves in the possession
of five dollars. Their arms were of a mixed charac-
ter. Some had rifles, some pistols, and others old
muskets. A few had swords that had been bequeathed
by Revolutionary grandsires, while others wore huge
butcher-knives. Many weapons were borrowed, others
secured on credit and never paid for, while a few had
been manufactured to order in the Mormon black-
smith-shop.

The army left Kirtland on Monday, May 5th. Be-
fore its departure Joseph delivered a lengthy speech
full of fire and wrath for his enemies, and glory and
honor for his friends, and ending with the expectation
that his own bones would be left to bleach upon the
field of battle. The line of march was taken In the
direction of Summit County, and on the second night
an encampment was made at New Portage, forty
miles from Kirtland and just below Akron. Here
they were joined by more men. Smith organized
them into bands of fourteen each, and assigned to
each a captain, baggage-wagon, and a tent.

Smith was so far true to his old self that he looked
carefully after the matter of finances. Before they
left New Portage he said to his men, *' I have this to
propose : That you shall appoint a treasurer to take
charge of whatever money you may have with you,
and to pay it out as our general necessities may re-
quire."

They agreed. Smith was, of course, named as

1 82 Early Days of M or monism,

treasurer, and elected. He pocketed the cash, and
ordered the army to move on. Their flag was of
white, with the word " Peace " upon it in letters of
red.

Smith made his men behave themselves on the line
of march, and molest no one of the country through
which they travelled. They tramped by day and
camped at night. There were twenty baggage-wag-
ons in all, carrying food, clothing, and goods for the
use of the destitute brethren in the West. Each of
the bands above mentioned had its own cook, two
firemen, two tent-makers, two watermen, one com-
missary, and two wagoners. At night there was a
blast on the trumpet, at which sound, worship was
held in every tent. In the morning this order of
exercises was repeated. They crossed Ohio and Indi-
ana, and the first halting-place of which special men-
tion is made, was at Salt Creek, Illinois, where Lyman
Wight and the Prophet's brother, Hyrum Smith,
joined them, with a reinforcement of twenty men.

Those who have discerned the true character of
Smith, need hardly be told that he made the most of
each occasion and incident found by the way, and of
every possible turn and feature of the campaign.
While the majority tramped through mud and sand,
he had four fine horses for his special use. He car-
ried an elegant brace of pistols that had been pur-
chased on credit, a rifle, and a sword four feet in
length, in the use of which he became quite expert.
He had the usual number of revelations. In speak-
ing of his army, he afterward said : " Their enemies
were continually breathing threats of violence; the
Saints did not fear, neither did they hesitate to pros-

The Army of Zion. 183

ecute their journey, for God was with them, and His
angels were before them, and the faith of the Httle
band was unwavering. We knew that the angels
were our companions, for we saw them." On reach-
ing the borders of Illinois, a large mound or tumulus
was discovered, and Smith ordered it to be opened.
A foot from the top the bones of a human skeleton
were discovered, and taken out and laid upon aboard.

The chance here given to make an impression was
not overlooked. The Prophet gathered his men
about him, and made a speech. '' He was," said Jo-
seph, pointing to the bones, *' a Lamanite, a large,
thick-set man, and a man of God. He was a warrior
and chieftain under the great prophet Omandagus,
who was known from the hill Cumorah, to the Rocky
Mountains. His name was Selph. He was killed in
battle by the arrow found among his ribs, during the
last great struggle of the Lamanites and Nephites."

One cannot but admire the wonderful power of
Smith in meeting each event as it came, and in fit-
ting the circumstances of any extraordinary occur-
rence to his own purpose. Nothing was so unex-
pected that it could take advantage of him ; no truth
so mighty that it could unhorse him or put his im-
agination to shame.

At Salt Creek the army remained in camp three
days. The men were drilled in the use of the gun
and sword. Their arms were inspected and put in
repair. Lyman Wight was made second in command,
with the title of " Fighting General." Smith and
Wight each had an ''Armor-Bearer," who was ex-
pected to be in constant attendance on his chief.
Two companies of rangers or sharpshooters were

184 Early Days of Mormonism.

organized, who were to act as scouts or flankers when
they should arrive upon the field of battle. Hyrum
Smith was given charge of the battle-flag, which he
kept constantly unfurled.

The march toward Missouri was resumed, and at
the end of several days a halt was taken, and the sol-
diers ordered to go through a sham battle, in order
to learn more fully the art of war before engaging the
enemy. Four divisions were formed, and assigned to
positions. The battle opened on true scientific prin-
ciples, but as the men came to close quarters they
began to do their work on a personal plan, and each
fought as was the bent of his mind and his previous
training. Some got behind trees, and fought Indian
fashion. Some ran away. Some dropped their guns,
and went back to the natural fist. Some noses were
tapped, and one or two men wounded, while a num-
ber of guns and swords were broken. Smith warmly
complimented his men on their courage and skill, and
everybody was full of happiness and pride.

The Mississippi was reached, and here some of the
enemy came in sight. They were certain people of
Missouri who wanted no more Mormonism over there.
But Smith determined to push ahead. As the river
was a mile and a half wide, and the army possessed
of one ferryboat, it took two days to get everybody
across. Once over, the army was placed on a war
footing; scouts on horseback kept a lookout several
miles in advance. Smith, who knew how to take care
of himself as well as any man alive, dressed in dis-
guise, changing his disguises frequently, riding a great
deal of the time in the baggage-wagons, and, as one
of the men has since said, "looking as though he ex-

TJie Army of Zion. 185

pected every moment to be his last." One night they
approached a large prairie, on which could be seen
no sign of a habitation. Smith insisted that they
must move on, or the enemy would attack them where
they were. Wight refused to enter the prairie, as the
men were tired, and no water or wood could be found
for miles ahead. " Well," said Smith, *' if we can
cook nothing, I will show the men how to eat raw
pork."

''I will not go ahead," said Wight.

" We must go on," said Hyrum Smith, the standard-
bearer. '* 1 know by the spirit that it is dangerous
to remain here."

"■ But I will not go on," said Wight. " This is the
place where we should remain."

Finally Joseph fell back on his weapon of last
resort. He had a revelation, and exclaimed : " Thus
saith the Lord God, march on !" And on they marched.

They tramped for fifteen miles, which brought
them ne^r the middle of the prairie, and encamped
beside a muddy pool. Mere the squabble broke out
afresh, and Smith became especially arrogant. He de-
clared : " I know exactly when to pray, when to sing,
and when to laugh, by the Spirit of God."

Wight and his supporters retorted, and before
morning broke there was serious danger of mutiny
in the camp.

Smith, as another safeguard to his person, kept an
ugly bulldog that was especially cross at night, and
had attempted to bite a number of people. One of
the captains, who was also high-priest, said to Smith :
" If that dog ever attempts to bite me, I v/ill shoot
him on the instant."

1 86 Early Days of Mormonism.

" If you continue in that spirit," was the retort,
" and do not repent, the dog will yet eat your flesh
off your bones, and you will not have power to re-
sist." * Whether or not the man repented, the ful-
fillment of the prophecy was made impossible a few
nights later, when a sentinel to whom the dog was
too attentive, ended its career forever.

On June 3d the Prophet, who may have had in-
formation not open to his followers, of a new danger
ahead, mounted a wagon, and calling his men about
him, declared that he would deliver a prophecy.
After an exhortation to faithfulness and humility, he
said that the Lord had revealed to him the coming of
a scourge upon the camp, " in consequence of the
fractious and unruly spirits " that had appeared among
them.

This warning was made good a few days later,
when the cholera appeared in the camp with such
virulence that thirteen men died before its ravages
were stayed. Smith remained in camp through it
all, and did what lay in his power to relieve suffering
and make the visitation add to the hold he already
had upon his followers. He made attempts at cure
by " the laying on of hands and prayer," but as no
miracle was wrought in response, he abandoned the
effort, declaring that he had learned ** by painful
experience " that " when the Great Jehovah decrees

* "This was the commencement of a controversy between the
Prophet and his High-Priest which was not settled till some time
after their return to headquarters, at Kirtland, when the former
underwent a formal trial on divers serious charges, before his
priests, honorably acquitted, and the latter made to acknowledge
that he had been possessed of several devils for many weeks."
From the above account, " Mormonism and the Mormons," p. 115.

The Army of Zion. 187

destruction, man must not attempt to stay His
hand."

When the advance onward was resumed Smith
discovered that exciting times and uncertain results
awaited him if he persisted until a collision with
armed enemies was precipitated, and that an over-
powering force could be raised against him. Many
of those who followed him were full of faith that a
miracle would be wrought to give them victory in all
cases, but Smith had reason for grave doubts upon
that point. He soon came to the conclusion that a
diplomatic retrogression from his high ground of de-
fiance was needed to help him out of the position he
had assumed.

When within a few miles of Liberty, Clay County,
a deputation from the body of citizens who had
already collected called on Smith and asked him the
meaning of his warlike array. On his response, they
very decidedly warned him that any overt act on his
part would get himself and his followers into trouble.
They showed him that the people of several counties
were acting in concert, and that the consequences of
any action on the part of his followers would be upon
his own head.

The Prophet saw that the time had come to fight
or back down, and that the former course would give
him more risk and danger than he had bargained for.
But another course would lay him open to the charge
from his followers that he had disobeyed the heavenly
orders under which they had come forth. He found
a way out of the dilemma. He had an "annex" to
his first revelation, soon after the deputation left,
which declared that they "had been tried even as

1 88 Early Days of Monnonisin,

Abraham was tried, and the offering was accepted by
the Lord ; and when Abraham received his reward
they would receive theirs." In short, the war was
at an end, and the promise of spoHation of their ene-
mies was postponed until such time as the case of
Abraham was taken up for consideration. The army
of Zion, as Joseph had called his troops, was dis-
banded.^ Such as could get home and wished to,
departed for the East, but the main body remained
and became afterward a part of Nauvoo. Each re-
ceived a formal discharge from General Wight, and
that was all he did receive from Smith or any one
else. Not a cent of the money that had been given
the Prophet as treasurer ever saw its way back to the
pockets of the men who gave it.

Smith and his soldiers had been warmly received
by the homeless refugees in Clay County, and the
supplies of food and clothing they had brought were
doubly welcome. The Prophet and his lieutenants
went to work with vigor, and soon established the
discouraged and chaotic community upon a new
basis, and gave courage and hope where only fear and
despair had before existed. On July 9th, Joseph
started upon his return trip to Kirtland, reaching
home on August 2d.

* Brigham Young never lost siglit of his old companions-in-arms
in this bloodless foray. Years afterward, at the close of each Mor-
mon conference in Salt Lake City, he would call together the rem-
nants of " Zion's army," with their families, and entertain them
with a feast ; speeches, songs, and "campfire" memories served to
enliven the occasion.

IX.

FAR WEST AND NAUVOO.

THE exiles who had been so relentlessly driven
across the Missouri into Clay County, were for a
time allowed to rest in peace, and make some attempt
to repair their broken fortunes. But the causes that
had led to their persecution upon one side of the
river, were soon at work upon the other, although no
overt act against them occurred until in June, 1836,
when they were formally requested by the residents
of Clay to move still further on. The demands and
replies were similar in purpose and temper to those
already heard in Jackson County, and the final result
was of a like character. Disposing of their posses-
sions at such figures as they could command, the wan-
derers once more turned their faces toward the north,
and in the semi-wilderness that afterward became
Caldwell County, founded the town of Far West.

While the hostility of their old enemies was by no
means appeased, nor the popular fear of Mormon de-
signs removed, a season of comparative quiet ensued,
in which their settlement grew in size and business,
until at one time its population reached into the
thousands. Log and frame houses were erected, as if
by magic, shops and factories built, and schools
opened. An air of thrift and a spirit of industry
were everywhere apparent. It was in this young and
energetic community that Smith and Rigdon found

(189)

1 90 Early Days of Mormonism.

welcome and safety at the termination of their hur-
ried flight from Kirtland, in January, 1838.

The Prophet had saved from the Kirtland wreck
his dream of a great city, and almost immediately
ordered such measures as would create in Far West
that which had proved impossible in Ohio. A map
was constructed after the Kirtland plan, surveys
made, and in the centre of the proposed town a grand
square laid out, upon which a second temple was to
be erected.

Work upon the building was commenced in the
summer of 1838, and ceremonies of consecration per-
formed on July 4th. The structure was carried for-
ward, until the walls were two feet high, when the
storm of persecution and anger once more broke
forth, and the third temple dream of Joseph came to
an untimely end.*

Smith was as active in the new home as he had
been in the old. In April he published a revelation
commanding the Saints in the East to join their breth-
ren in the West. On May 1 8th he directed the
founding of a new city, several miles from Far West,
to be called Adam-Ondi-Ahman, or '' The Valley of

* " All that remains of this temple to-day is a depression in the
earth three or four feet deep, the size of the original excavation,
and some fragments of crumbling walls. Only one building re-
mains in the city, said by some of the older settlers to have been
occupied by Smith and his first wife. It is on a slight eminence, of
log and frame, one and a half stories high, contains four rooms, has
a large fire-place, and chimney of rude home-made bricks. It is
now occupied as a farm-house. Two or three of the buildings of
Far West were hauled to Kingston after they were abandoned by
the Mormons, and are still in use there as shops and dwellings." —
Judge William A. Wood, in Magazine of American History, July,
18S6.

Far West and Nauvoo. 191

God, in which Adam placed his children." * Among
the commands issued in rapid succession was one re-
quiring the Saints to give the surplus of their prop-
erty for the construction of a temple, for the found-
ing of Zion, for the support of the clergy, and for the
payment of the debts of the presidency; another es-
tablishing a permanent ten per cent, income tax;
and still another prohibiting the sale of spirituous
liquors in Far West.

Yet the course of authority here, as in Ohio, was
full of thorns for the Prophet's feet. Internal dis-
sensions that struck at the very root of Smith's
power, had found their way into the church at Far
West. None but extreme measures were possible
on his part, and he proved himself equal to the emer-
gency. Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris were cut
off from the church, while Orson Hyde and others f

* Extract from " Mormonism Unveiled ; or, The Life and Con-
fessions of the late Mormon Bishop, John D. Lee," page 91 :
"Adam-on-Diamond (the popular pronunciation of the word) was at
the point where Adam came and settled and blest his posterity,
after being driven from the Garden of Eden. This was revealed to
the people through Joseph Smith, the Prophet. The temple-block,
in Jackson County, Missouri, stands on the identical spot where
once stood the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve were driven
from the Garden, they travelled in a northwesterly course until
they came to a valley on the east side of Grand River. There they

tarried for se/eral years, and engaged in tilling the soil On

the top of this range of hills Adam erected an altar of stone, on
which he offered sacrifice unto the Lord. There was at that time
(in 1838) a pile of stones there, which the Prophet said was a por-
tion of the altar on which Adam offered sacrifice. Although these
stones had been exposed to the elements for many generations of
time, still the traces remained to show the dimensions and design
of the altar."

f In the concluding pages of the original edition of the Book of

1.92 Early Days of Mormonism.

apostatized and used their influence to fan into new
flame the hatred and suspicious fear already smoul-
dering in Gentile breasts. Thomas B. Marsh, no less

Mormon may be found the certificate of three men, — Oliver Cow-
dery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris, — who made express
declaration that they had seen the plates from which the book had
been translated : " And we declare with words of soberness that an
angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid
before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates, and the en-
gravings thereon," with more to the same effect. Following this
is another ceriificate of the same character, signed by eight wit-
nesses, among whom were John Whitmer, Joseph Smith, Sr., and
Hyrum Smith. The fate of the three first named in their con-
nection with Mormonism is remarkable. All left the church at
about the period of trouble above described. Oliver Cowdery
went to Richmond, Ray County, Missouri, where he died on March
3, 1850. He never repudiated the Mormon faith as originally
adopted and practiced, but, on the contrary, defended it on his
death-bed. Trouble occurred between Smith and himself, as early
as 1837, caused, according to the declarations of the latter, by the
Prophet's selfish disposition and desire to gain the possessions of
others. David Whitmer decided, in 1838, to cut loose from the
church, having no liking for the course things were then taking,
and proceeded also to Richmond, which he made his home, and
where he died on January 25, 1888. He was a useful and respected
member of the community, and a faithful believer in Mormonism
to the end, declaring during the last few hours of his life, "1 want
to say to you all, the Bible and the record of the Nephites (the
Book of Mormon) is true, so you can say that you have heard me
bear my testimony on my death-bed." Whitmer always claimed to
have the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon in his pos-
session, refusing all offers made for it by the Salt Lake Mormons —
whose claims and practices he repudiated. The third of the three,
Martin Harris, had made repeated efforts to gain advancement in the
church, but Smith had no further need of him now that his money
was gone, and finally answered his demands and threats by expelling
him from the church. He was afterward offered a restoration, which
he declined, although still holding to his faith in Mormonism. He
deserved far better treatment than he received. With property and

Far West and Naiivoo, 193

a personage than the President of the Twelve Apos-
tles, also seceded, and united with others in publicly
charging Smith and the Mormons with many crimes
and misdemeanors — treason against the State, con-
spiracy with the Indians, counterfeiting, cattle steal-
ing, immorality, and other offences of less degree.

While the Mormons would have been justified in
attempting such defense as was possible to these
charges, they did not content themselves with the
exercise of that right, but repeated the mistakes
that had been the main cause of their troubles in
Jackson County. Their boldness grew with their
numbers, and their defiance increased with their pros-
perity. Their arrogant claims of spiritual superiority,
and confession of a purpose to ultimately possess all
that land, stirred up the old enmity, which was by no
means allayed when Sidney Rigdon, on July 4th of
this year of trouble, preached a sermon that was full
of vengeance and death, not only to the Gentiles, but
to all who dissented from the doctrine of fire and the
sword that he enunciated. Brigham Young, in speak-
ing of this episode in after-years, said i"^ " Elder Rig-
don was the prime cause of our troubles in Missouri,
by his Fourth of July oration "; while another Mor-
mon f referred to it as " a flaming speech, which had

reputation gone, the wife of his youth forever sundered from him,
and faith in those about him shattered, he returned to Ohio, and
lived in Painesville, where, as rumor declares, he was sought out
by an agent of Brigham Young, who gave him money with which
to go to Utah, where he ended his days in peace. He died at
Clarkston, Cache County, Utah, on July lo, 1875, at the age of
ninety-three,

*" Times and Seasons," vol. v., p. 667.

f The apostle Woodruff. " Times and Seasons," p. 698.

194 Early Days of Mormonism.

a tendency to bring persecution upon the whole
church, especially the head of it/' The text was from
Matthew v. 13: "If the salt have lost its savor,
wherewith shall it be salted ? It is thenceforth good
for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden
under foot of men."

The significant passage in this address — which has
passed into history as " Sidney's Salt Sermon " — was
as follows :

" We take God and all the holy angels to witness
this day that we warn all men, in the name of Jesus
Christ, to come on us no more forever. The man, or
the set of men, who attempts it, does so at the ex-
pense of their lives; and the mob that comes on to
disturb us, it shall be between us and them a war of
extermination, for we will follow them till the last
drop of blood is spilled, or else they will have to ex-
terminate us ; for we will carry the seat of war to
their own houses and their own families, and one part
or the other shall be utterly destroyed. Remember
it then, all men ! "

The exasperation caused by this impolitic outburst ;
political contests in which the Mormons took a vig-
orous part, and sowed the seed of new and fruitful
enmities ; quarrels among individuals of the opposing
factions ; collisions of armed Mormons and Missouri-
ans equally well armed, in which life was lost and
property destroyed ; the calling out of the State mi-
litia— these events followed each other in rapid suc-
cession.* That deep blame lay upon both sides is a
conclusion easily proved by the facts ; but a relation
of all that occurred during these direful days of Far

* Appendix C.

Far West and Nativoo. 195

West, would be a profitless task, and, in the main,
foreign to the purpose of this sketch.

The one important result of it all was the arrest,
on October 31st, of Joseph Smith, Lyman Wight,
Hyrum Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Parley P. Pratt,
and a number of Mormons of lesser degree, who
were taken to Independence, and afterward to
Richmond, where they were lodged in jail upon
various charges, among which were treason against
the State, and murder — men having been killed in a
number of the collisions between the Mormons and
the troops.^ The lack of any substantial grounds upon
which a conviction could be had, is clearly shown in
the course now pursued by the authorities, as Smith
would have been brought to a speedy trial, and pun-
ished to the full extent of the law, if it could have
been done without committing an outrage upon jus-
tice. The prisoners were held in Richmond till April,
1839, ^vhen they were indicted upon the charges of
treason, murder, theft, and arson. They asked for a
change of venue to Marion County. The request was
granted, but Boone rather than Marion designated.

*" Document containing the Correspondence, Orders, etc., in
relation to the Disturbances with the Mormons ; and the Evidence
given before the Hon. Austin A. King, Judge of the Fifth Judicial
Circuit of the State of Missouri, at the Court-house in Richmond,
in a Criminal Court of Inquiry, begun November 12, 1838, on the
trial of Joseph Smith, Jr., and others, for High Treason and
other crimes against the State. Published by order of the General
Assembly. Printed at the office of the Boon's Lick Democrat,
Fayette, Missouri. 1841." Page 97 : "State vs. Joseph Smith, Jr.,
Hiram -Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Parley P. Pratt, Lyman Wight,
[and forty-eight others] who were charged with the several crimes
of high treason against the State, murder, burglary, arson, robbery,
and larceny."

196 Early Days of Mormonism,

As they were being conveyed to the seat of Boone
County, the sheriff solved a vexatious problem for the
authorities by allowing the prisoners to make their
escape. As the main body of the Mormons had now
left the State, public feeling was so far allayed, that
the departure of Smith and his companions caused
little excitement and no general protest.*

While Joseph and Hyrum were being carried away
by the officers of the law, and ruin and death threat-
ened from every side, the Mormons naturally turned
for help and leadership to Brigham Young. His cool
head, sound judgment, and steady nerves were of far
more practical benefit at this crisis of affairs than all
the revelations of Smith, or the eloquence of Rigdon
or Pratt. To remain in Missouri was impossible. A
deliberate plan of extermination had been announced

* From "Document" above quoted, page 157: "A change of
venue was granted by our said court at said April term, to Jos.
Smith, Jr., Lyman Wight, Hiram Smith, Caleb Baldwin, and Alex.
McRay, in all the foregoing: cases in which they are parties, to the
circuit court of Boone County, in this State, the last named defend-
ents being in the custody of the Sheriff of Daviess County, who
was commanded by our said court to convey the said defendents to
the jail of said county of Boone, and the said Sheriff returned the
several orders of commitment into our said court, at the next en-
suing term thereof, with a certificate of the escape of the said
Joseph Smith, Jr., Lyman Wight, Hiram Smith, Caleb Baldwin,
and Alex. McRay endorsed thereon. And writs of capies were is-
sued against all the other defendents in the foregoing indictments,
immediately after the finding of the same, and they were all re-
turned at the next succeeding term of our said court without any
service, none of the aforesaid defendents being found in the county
of Daviess, and the said causes were all continued until the next
succeeding December term, 1839, ^^ which time a nolle prosequi
was entered in each of the above causes, except those in which a
change of venue, as aforesaid, were taken."

Far West and Nauvoo. 197

by so high an authority as the Governor of the State,
and all classes of citizens had shown by their works '^*
a grim purpose of carrying that policy into effect.
Young rallied about him such men as could act as
well as advise, and a speedy and permanent departure
from the inhospitable soil of Missouri was agreed
upon. An asylum had been offered by the people of
Quincy, Illinois, and that point v/as selected as the
haven toward which the church should direct itself.
The burden of travel was once more resumed, and
forsaking their homes at Far West, as they had those
in Clay County and in Zion, the faithful band jour-
neyed across Eastern Missouri, put the broad Missis-
sippi between themselves and their old enemies, and
with such courage and hope as their faith could give,
began the building of a new habitation in a new land.
Young had been compelled to flee for his life from
Far West, in February, and proceeding to Quincy,
where the majority had preceded him, worked day
and night to restore order, inspire confidence, and re-
lieve distress. The condition of the exiles was pitia-
ble in the extreme. Their property had been de-

* On October 27, 1838, Governor L. W. Boggs, in an order to
General Clark, who had charge of the State troops operating in
Caldwell County and vicinity, used these words : " The Mormons
must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated, or driven
from the State, if necessary for the public peace— their outrages
are beyond all description." Above "Documents," page 61. Gen-
eral Clark, in an address delivered to the Mormons at Far West,
on November 6lh, made use of the following remarkable language :
" The Governor has commanded me to exterminate you, and not to
permit you to remain in the State ; and had you not delivered up
your leaders, and executed the conditions of our treaty, you would
have been massacred, you yourselves, and your families ; and your
houses would have been reduced to ashes."

198 Early Days of Mormo7iisin.

stroyed or confiscated, and the land they had reclaimed
and improved in Caldwell County, became a total
loss.

Smith was permitted to again meet with his driven
and disheartened followers at their temporary refuge
in Quincy, on April 26, 1839. ^^ ^^^s welcomed as
one given back from the grave, and hope and courage
made their appearance in his company. With the
Prophet of the Lord once more among them, the de-
vout were persuaded that Heaven's favor was not
altogether withdrawn, and that at last the long-de-
layed promises were to be fulfilled.

For a few succeeding years of wonderful growth
and prosperity it indeed seemed as if that belief had its
foundation upon a sure resting-place. In Nauvoo,
" the place beautiful," that soon arose as by magic,
and was filled with thrift and the works thereof, the
dream of a great city seemed sure of realization ; and
for a time there fell upon it no shadow of the tragedy
and ruin in which it should end. The inner history
of this strangely created and ill-fated town, if written
with reference to all that was accomplished or at-
tempted within it, would touch upon the borders of
romance. Much of that history the world will never
know, as it was buried in the graves of the chief act-
ors therein.

There was need of resolution and prompt action
upon the part of the Mormon leaders, if they would
hold their following together, and prevent the break-
ing up of the church under misfortunes that might
well have shaken the boldest, and unsettled the faith
of the most devout. That need was fully supplied.
Immediate preparations were carried forward for the

Far West and Naiivoo. 199

founding of yet another Mormon capital. After va-
rious proffered sites had been examined, a selection
was made in a bend of the Mississippi River, in Han-
cock County, some sixty miles above Quincy. The
situation was one of natural beauty and advantage,
the soil fertile, and adapted to the growth of various
products, with the prairie stretching away as far as
the eye could reach. The ground was undulating,
and the point chosen as the immediate site of the city
was bounded upon three sides by the river. A small
settlement called Commerce, containing only a few
rude houses, had already been commenced upon it.

On May ist, a purchase was made by Smith, in be-
half of the Mormon Church, of a tract of land, for
which he paid fourteen thousand dollars. The ground-
work of the city was speedily laid out, the name
Commerce giving place to Nauvoo — a word furnished
by Smith, who explained its meaning as *' A beauti-
ful site," conveying, at the same time, the idea of re-
pose. The persecution by the Missourians had one
result by no means intended — sympathy for the Mor-
mons had been excited through the North and East,
their missionaries were given hearings that would
otherwise have been denied, and many pilgrims were
soon wending their way toward Nauvoo. So rapid
was the city's advance that by June, 1840, it con-
tained two hundred and fifty buildings, with many
more in course of construction. The wisdom dis-
played in the choice of its location was made still
further apparent when the builders founJ a few feet
below the surface a vast bed of limestone suitable for
their purpose, so that all the needed material of that
character was quarried within the limits of the city

200 Early Days of Mormonism.

itself. Within a short period, steam saw-mills, a
steam flour-mill, a tool-factory, foundry, and a manu-
factory for chinaware, were in busy operation. A
steamboat owned by the Mormons made its appear-
ance upon the Mississippi, giving means of transport-
ation from Nauvoo to points above and below. Many
of the dwelling-houses were small, and of wood, with
more imposing structures scattered here and there
among them. The plan of the city was similar to
that proposed at Kirtland, and afterward at Far West,
with wide streets crossing each other at right angles.
The dimensions of Nauvoo were four miles by three
in its widest measurements, narrowing as it ap-
proached the river.

Smith learned wisdom with age and experience,
and the freedom with which revelations were issued
in the early days, was cautiously restricted in these
times of enlarged responsibility and world-wide at-
tention. The decrees of Heaven, as sent through
Joseph, were restricted to measures of importance,
and issued only when some work of moment was in
contemplation, some rebellious or doubting Mormon
to be persuaded, or an especial favor granted or
promised. One of the most important messages of
which the Prophet was ever unburdened, was issued
on January 19, 1841, when Nauvoo had gained a fair
start in a prosperous career, and was giving promise
of the more important things yet to come. , It was a
revelation of general direction and blessing, confirm-
ing some thin^^s already done, directing the begin-
nings of others, promising rewards to certain men
whose faith may have needed stimulation, and speak-
ing with grim meaning to such as had openly rebelled.

Far West and Nauvoo. 201

Beginning with the assuring annunciation that
Joseph Smith, Sr., the first Patriarch of the church,
whose earthly race had now been run, was sitting in
honor at Abraham's right hand, the revelation pro-
ceeded directly to the consideration of material things
by commanding the immediate erection of a hotel.
The structure was to be " such an one as my servant
Joseph shall show to them ; upon the place which he
shall show unto them also. And it shall be a house
for boarding, a house that strangers may come from
afar to lodge therein." The orders as to the manner
of construction and finances were explicit, and left
little to the ofificials of the church except obedience —
a prime virtue of Mormonism from the days of Palmyra
to those of Salt Lake. " And now I say unto you, as
pertaining to my boarding-house which I have com-
manded you to build for the boarding of strangers, let
it be built unto my name, and let my name be named
upon it, and let my servant Joseph and his house have
place therein from generation to generation." This
advantageous provision for his family and himself
was by no means left dependent by the Prophet upon
the love and faith of his followers, but made a good
claim in law — it being distinctly stated in the char-
ter under which the building was erected, that as
Smith had furnished the land upon which the house
was to be built, a suite of rooms in said house should
be set aside by the trustees for his use.*

* From " An Act to incorporate the Nauvoo House Association,"
approved by the Illinois General Assembly, February 23. 1841 :
"Section 10. And whereas Joseph Smith has furnished the said
association with the ground whereon to erect said house, it is
further declared, that the said Smith and his heirs shall hold by
perpetual succession a suite of rooms in the said house, to be set

202 Early Days of Mormonism,

Express directions were given in the revelation that
George Miller, Lyman Wight, John Snider, and Peter
Haws should form a society and receive stock subscrip-
tions ; no one man to subscribe less than fifty dollars
nor over fifteen thousand, and no one to be accepted
unless he paid cash down. Nor was any one to be
enrolled among the stockholders who was not a
member of the Mormon Church. Special orders were
given Vinson Knight, William Marks, William Law,
and others, that they should subscribe according to
their means.

The command was also given — now for the fourth
time, — that a temple should be erected. That at
Kirtland had been already sold under the sheriff's
hammer, and was in the hands of the enemy. The
foundation commenced with such flourish of promises
and outpouring of prophecies at Zion was weed-grown
and forgotten. A heap of rubbish marked .the site at
Far West. A new plea and promise found incorpora-
tion in this fourth command — that a dedicated tem-
ple should be erected in which might be performed
baptism for the dead.* The directions in this case
were as minute as in the others, and Smith's orders
were to be followed in everything: " And I will show
unto my servant Joseph all things pertaining unto

apart and conveyed in due form of law to him and his heirs by said
trustees, as soon as the same are completed."

* This seems to have been an ingenious device for hastening the
building's erection. The new doccrine announced that the living
might be baptized for the salvation of the dead who had died out of
Mormonism But as this could be done only in a consecrated
temple, one can see how great a leverage was secured for labor
upon the ignorant, who would gladly give of their means to release
their friends from torment.

Far West and Nauvoo. 203

this house, and the priesthood thereof; and the place
whereon it shall be built."

The revelation having thus disposed of the building
question, proceeded to promote Hyrum Smith to the
position of Patriarch, left vacant by his father's death ;
warned Sidney Rigdon to humb4e himself, to become
counsellor to Joseph, and renounce his purpose of re-
moving his family to the East ; declared that if Rob-
ert D. Foster " will obey my voice " he must "" build a
house for my servant Joseph according to the con-
tract which he has made with him " — a neat stroke of
diplomacy on the part of Smith that probably saved
him the expense of a lawsuit ; and proceeded to the
appointment of a large company of apostles, high-
priests, and missionaries. In this wholesale appor-
tionment of honors Brigham Young was made Presi-
dent of the Twelve Apostles, in place of Thomas B,
Marsh, who had renounced Mormonism and become
one of its bitterest foes.

That portion of the " Book of Doctrines and Cove-
nants" of the Mormon Church which belongs to Nau-
voo, contains but a few recorded revelations that can
be traced with certainty to Smith. In March of the
year last named he uttered one which ordered the
Saints in Iowa to build a city upon the river bank
across from Nauvoo to be christened " Zarahemlaf"
In July one was published which declared that Brig-
ham Young need travel abroad no more, that he had
well earned a rest, and should henceforth ''stay at
home and take care of his family." One more, and
only one, of these unique utterances will we quote —
that delivered a short period before his death, in
which he gave the following formula for distinguish-

204 Early Days of Mormonism.

ing a good angel from a bad : '' When a messenger
comes, saying he has a message from God, offer him
your hand, and request him to shake hands with you.

" If he be an angel, he will do so, and you will feel

his hand If it be the Devil as an angel of

light, when you ask him to shake hands, he will offer
you his hand, and you will not feel anything: You
may therefore detect him."

As has been remarked in an earlier portion of this
work. Smith was a natural adept in politics, and now
that he had control of the votes of at least three thou-
sand men ^ he was not slow to turn that power to the
use of the church and himself. Even in 1840 his influ-
ence had reached a point where he could not be
safely ignored by the political parties in any event,
and certainly not in a close election. An illustration
of that point is clearly given in Nicolay and Hay's
" Life of Lincoln," where we find this statement : " In
the same letter (to Congressman Stuart, in March,
1840) Mr. Lincoln gives a long list of names to which
he wants documents to be sent. It shows a remark-
able personal acquaintance with the minutest needs
of the canvass : This one is a doubtful Whig; that one
is an inquiring Democrat ; that other a zealous young
fellow who would be pleased by the attention ; three
brothers are mentioned who * fell out with us about
Early and are doubtful now'; and finally he tells
Stuart that Joe Smith is an admirer of his, and that
a few documents had better be mailed to the Mor-
mons."

The Mormon power in the local elections of Han-

* At one election in Nauvoo only six votes were cast in opposi-
tion to Smith's wishes.

Far West and Nauvoo, 205

cock County was absolute, and the Congressional dis-
trict of which Nauvoo was a part may well be placed
in the same category. By the coming election it
might be left to Smith to give the final vote in the
choice of a Governor of the State. The influence
which he would thus wield is well described by J. H.
Beadle, in his admirable work: *

*' For the first time since its organization, the
Whig party had a fair prospect of carrying the State
and the nation, but Illinois was doubtful. If Henry
Clay should again be the nominee of the Whigs, Ken-
tucky, Louisiana, and other Southern States were con-
sidered certain for that party, and in certain very
probable contingencies, Illinois would turn the scale
one way or the other. It was quite certain the Mor-
mons would, by 1844, give the casting vote in Illi-
nois, and Joe Smith had perfect control of the Mor-
mon vote The Harrison campaign of 1840

was in full tide, and the politicians gathered thick
around Joe Smith."

The Mormon leader shrewdly made sure of his re-
ward before committal to either side. After secret
consultations with prominent party leaders, and a
conference with his advisers at Nauvoo, he was deliv-
ered of a revelation directing that the church should
support the Whig ticket, which was elected. In pay-
ment for this service the Whigs in the Illinois Legis-
lature made haste to grant the Mormons a special
charter for their new city, in which were conveyed
powers to an almost unlimited extent. The Mor-
mons dictated the provisions of that remarkable docu-
ment, and at a church conference, Smith, Doctor J.
• "Life in Utah." By J. H. Beadle, Philadelphia, 1870, p. 68.

2o6 Early Days of Mormonism,

C. Bennett, and R. B. Thompson were directed to
prepare a charter which should fulfill their purposes,
and place the whole city government absolutely in
Mormon control. They did so, and Bennett was depu-
tized to proceed to Springfield, and see it safely
through the Legislature. He found his task one of
uncommon ease, neither Democrat nor Whig caring
to oppose his desire, lest the Mormon vote should be
driven over to the other side to permanently remain.

When the desired charter was reported to the As-
sembly by the judiciary committee which had it in
charge, with a recommendation for its passage, the
party leaders crowded upon each other in their haste
to vote in the affirmative. Not a dissenting vote
was cast ; and in that one act the Legislature of
Illinois did more to foster a spirit of ambition and
arrogance on the part of the Mormon leaders, and to
hasten and intensify the bitter quarrels already upon
their way, than was ever done by any act of Joseph
Smith, or the bloodiest outrage by any Mormon or
Missourian in the dark days of Independence and Far
West. The politician saw only the small advantage
of the day, and gave no thought of the evil seed he
was sowing, to be garnered in the blood and disorder
of the future.

The charter for Nauvoo was passed on December
i6, 1840. It conferred almost unlimited powers,
the language employed being as follows : " The City
Council shall have power and authority to make,
ordain, establish, and execute, all such ordinances,
fiot repugnant to the Constitution of the United States
or of this State, as they may deem necessary for the
peace, benefit, good order, regulation, convenience,

Far West a?id Nauvoo. 207

and cleanliness of said city." So wide was this grant
of power, that the Mormons, at one time, felt justi-
fied in the claim that under it they could pass laws in
opposition to those of Illinois! The officials allowed
were a mayor, a vice-mayor, four aldermen, and nine
councillors. A municipal court was organized, with
the mayor as chief-justice, and four aldermen as his
associates. This strangely-constituted and highly-
centralized judicial body could not only issue writs of
habeas corpus, but could try the sufficiency of those
issued by other courts, and even go on and try the
original cause of action — an arrangement by which
Smith and his followers more than once profited.

The Mormons were not slow to make use of this
plenitude of power, and eventually went so far as
to establish a recorder's office at Nauvoo, in which
alone could transfers of land be recorded ; and also
an office for the issuing of marriage licenses — a
direct ignoring of the rights and perquisites of the
county in which Nauvoo was situated. The munic-
ipal council at one time proceeded so far along the
line of audacity as to petition Congress to set the
city aside as a territory until Missouri should make
good the losses she had caused the Mormons to suf-
fer ; and that the mayor of the city be given the
power to call in and use the United States troops
whenever he should feel the need of protection for
himself or his followers.

Governor Ford refers to that remarkable document
in the following w^ords : *

" The powers conferred were expressed in language
at once ambiguous and undefined, as if on purpose to
*'* History of Illinois," p. 265.

2o8 Early Days of Mormonism.

allow of misconstruction. The great law of the sep-
aration of the powers of government was wholly dis-
regarded. The mayor was at once the executive
power, the judiciary, and part of the Legislature. The
common council, in passing ordinances, were re-
strained only by the Constitution. One would have
thought that these charters (the city, the Legion, and
the Nauvoo house) stood a poor chance of passing
the legislature of a republican people, jealous of their
liberties. Nevertheless, they did pass unanimously
through both houses. Messrs. Little and Douglas
managed with great dexterity with their respective
parties. Each party was afraid to object to them,
for fear of losing the Mormon vote, and each believed
that it had secured their favor.

" A city government under the charter was organ-
ized in 1 841, and Joe Smith was elected mayor.*
In this capacity he presided in the common coun-
cil, and assisted in making the laws for the gov-
ernment of the city, and as mayor, also, he was
to see these laws put into force. He was ex officio
judge of the mayor's court, and chief-justice of the
municipal court, and in these capacities he was to
interpret the laws which he had assisted to make.
The Nauvoo Legion was also organized, with a great
multitude of high oflficers. It was divided into di-

* From this, the conclusion would be reached that Smith was
elected first mayor of Nauvoo, which was not the case. The char-
ter was passed in December, 1840, and on February i, 1841, John
C. Bennett was elected to that office, and received a commission as
justice of the peace from Governor Carlin, in which was the follow-
ing reference to that fact : " Know ye, that John C. Bennett, having
been duly elected to the office of mayor of the city of Nauvoo, in
the county of Hancock, I, Thomas Carlin," etc, as above related.

Far West and Nauvoo. 209

visions, brigades, cohorts, regiments, battalions, and
companies. Each division, brigade, and cohort had
its general, and over the whole, as commander-in-
chief, Joe Smith was appointed lieutenant-general.
.... Thus, it was proposed to re-establish for the
Mormons a government within a government ; a leg-
islature, with power to pass ordinances at war with
the laws of the State ; courts to execute them, with
but little dependence upon the constitutional judi-
ciary ; and a military force at their own command, to
be governed by its own laws and ordinances, and sub-
ject to no State authority but that of the Governor."

X.

AT THE HIGH-TIDE OF POWER.

THE city government of Nauvoo was promptly or-
ganized, and among the chosen officials we find
many leaders in the old Kirtland days. John C. Ben-
nett,"^ an Ohio physician, who had removed to Illinois,
became quartermaster-general of the State ; and then
joined the Mormons, and was elected mayor, with
Joseph Smith in the position of vice-mayor.

* This remarkable person seems to have captivated the Mormons
by his ability and address, and was rapidly advanced from one
position of authority to another. In the same month that
saw his elevation to the chief municipal office of the city, he was
made major-general of the Nauvoo Legion, second only in com-
mand to Smith ; was soon afterward elected chancellor of the Nau-
voo University ; and during the illness of Sidney Rigdon became a
temporary member of the First Presidency. He also held the office
of Master in Chancery for Hancock County, under personal ap-
pointment from no less a person than Judge Stephen A. Douglas.
He afterward forsook the church, declaring that he had only joined
it for the purpose of discovering its secrets, and exposing them,
and became one of Smith's most determined and outspoken ene-
mies. Governor Ford's opinion of the first mayor of Nauvoo is
expressed with considerable frankness : " This Bennett was proba-
bly the greatest scamp in the Western country. I have made par-
ticular inquiries concerning him, and have traced him in several
places, in which he has lived before he had joined the Mormons —
in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois — and he was everywhere accounted
the same debauched, unprincipled, and profligate character. He
was a man of some little talent, and had the confidence of the Mor-
mons, and particularly that of their leaders." — " History of Illi-
nois," p. 263.

(210)

At the HigJi-Tide of Power, 211

In addition to the charter for the city, the Legisla-
ture also granted one for the formation of the Nau-
voo Legion ; another for the incorporation of the
Nauvoo Agricultural and Manufacturing Association,
v/ith a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars
— its object being the promotion of agriculture and
the manufacture of flour, lumber, etc. ; and still an-
other for the building of the Nauvoo House, with a
capital stock of one hundred and fifty thousand dol-
lars.

The city government was soon busy with mat-
ters of internal policy, and no lack of energy was dis-
played in meeting all questions as they arose, and
disposing of them in accordance with what seemed to
be for the best interests of tlie city and the church.
Among the first measures acted upon was the crea-
tion of the University of Nauvoo, in which the chil-
dren of the Saints were to be given an education that
should ground them well in the Mormon faith. An-
other of the early steps taken was the passage of an
ordinance to prevent the sale of whiskey in amounts
less than one gallon, or of other spirits less than one
quart — a step considered in those days as a long ad-
vance toward prohibition of the liquor traffic.

The Nauvoo Legion, to which incidental reference
has been already made, occupied an unique position,
forming upon one hand a part of the general militia
of the State, and serving upon the other as a military
police force under the direct control of the municipal
officers of Nauvoo — in other words, the church. The
formation of the Legion in the manner described
was a part of the ill-advised and unseemly bid for
Mormon support made by the politicians of Illi-

212 Early Days of Mormonisnu

nois, and proved no small factor in arousing the
fear and jealousy with which the Gentile portion of
Hancock County had already come to regard their
neighbors at Nauvoo. These troops were under con-
trol of no State officer except the Governor himself,
which in fact took it out of the militia except in
name. The courts martial of the Legion were to be
formed altogether of its own officers. It was composed
of divisions, brigades, and regiments, and was in fact
a Mormon army concealed in the guise of State
troops, and yet so illy hidden that the enemies of the
church could well persuade their hearers that it was
a perpetual insult and menace to the people and
boded no good for the peace and prosperity of Illi-
nois. The stories of intended Mormon aggressions
were revived, and the Legion with its showy uniform,
good equipment, and boastful parades, was cited as
proof of the darkest and deepest plots to which
imagination could give creation.

Suggestions of this character found their way into
public print, and gained general belief. An *' officer of
the United States army " * who claimed to have vis-
ited Nauvoo in its palmy days thus describes a parade
of the Legion, which he witnessed :

*' Yesterday was a great day among the Mormons.
Their Legion, to the number of two thousand men,
was paraded by Generals Smith, Bennett, and others,

* This letter was published in the New York Herald, under date
of "City of Nauvoo, Illinois, May 8, 1842." and was signed "An
Officer of the U. S. Artillery." As it was largely devoted to the
praise of " Major General Bennett," and the service he was doing
the Mormons by abiding with them, I suspect the pen of none other
than Bennett himself. It is given in full (on page 155) in Bennett's
anti-Mormon book, referred to hereafter.

At the High-Tide of Poiver. 213

and certainly made a very noble and imposing ap-
pearance. The evolutions of the troops directed by
Major-General Bennett would do honor to any body
of armed militia in any of the States, and approxi-
mates very closely to our regular forces. What does
all this mean ? Why this exact discipline of the Mor-
mon Corps ? Do they intend to conquer Missouri, Illi-
nois, Mexico ? It is true they are a part of the militia of
the State of Illinois by the charter of their Legion ;
but then there are no troops in the States like them
in point of enthusiasm and warlike aspect, yea, war-
like character They have appointed Captain

Bennett, late of the Army of the United States,
Inspector-General of their Legion, and he is com-
missioned as such by Governor Carlin. This gentle-
man is known to be well skilled in fortification,
gunnery, ordnance, castramentation, and military en-
gineering generally, and I am assured that he is now
under pay derived from the tithings of this warlike
people. I have seen his plans for fortifying Nauvoo,
which are equal to any of Vauban's."

That the Mormon leaders had some purpose of
their own in all this preparation, or at least desired
their followers to believe they had, is vouched for on
eminent Mormon authority. Bishop John D. Lee,*
who was executed in Utah on March 23, 1877, ^or
the Mountain Meadows Massacre, wrote a history of
his life while in jail, in which he says : " At the con-
ference in April, 1840, the Prophet delivered a lengthy
address upon the history and condition of the Saints.
. . . . * When the right time comes, we will go in
force and take the whole State of Missouri. It be-

* " Mormonism Unveiled." By John D. Lee, p. no.

214 Early Days of Mormonism.

longs to us as our inheritance.* .... The people
were regularly drilled and taught military tactics, so
that they would be ready to act when the time came
for returning to Jackson County, the promised land
of our inheritance."

The year 1841 was one of hard labor blessed with
abundant prosperity for the church, and all its plans
and undertakings seemed to thrive. The command
for the erection of a temple had been cheerfully re-
ceived, and the work almost immediately entered
upon. The corner-stone of this imposing and ambi-
tious structure was laid on April 6, 1 841, the eleventh
anniversary of the founding of the Mormon Church,
amid a pomp and show of power that was in striking
contrast to the crude and impromptu ceremonies at
the first temple in Zion, or even the more elaborate
services in Kirtland and Far West in later years.
The means and men at Smith's command, with all
their wonderful increase, had not grown more rapidly
than his ambition, or his desire to occupy a large
place in the public view. The occasion was one of
pride to the proud, and of thankfulness to those
who accepted the prosperity of the day as a gift from
God to His chosen church. The preparations had
been carefully made, and no untoward or ill-omened
event occurred to mar the joy and happiness that
had taken possession of all Nauvoo.

At an early hour of the beautiful spring morning,
the Legion, to the number of fourteen companies,
in the full strength and panoply of war, was drawn
up in line, and word conveyed to its General that it
awaited his commands. Escorted by an elegantly
arrayed and mounted staff. Smith galloped along the

A I the High-Tide of Power. 21 5

crowded streets, where uncovered thousands stood
ready to receive him with cheers. It was naturally a
moment of pride to the well-digger's son ; and those
who had seen him in the early days of poverty and
contempt, could indeed feel that he had been won-
derfully prospered, whether by an especial providence
of God, or the happy evolution of circumstances.
Met by a martial band, and saluted by the thunder
of cannon, he moved rapidly to the grand-stand that
had been erected for his special use.

When he reached it, the first event upon the
well-arranged programme was introduced. A number
of ladies drove up in carriages and presented the
Legion, through its General, with a stand of colors.
Joseph responded in a speech characteristic of the oc-
casion and himself, and then handed the flag to Gen-
eral Bennett, with the usual suggestions as to the uses
to which it should be put, and the care with which it
should be guarded. The band again filled the air
with music, the guns added their deep bass, and the
Legion proudly marched before Smith in review.

A procession was formed, and a line of march taken
to the site of the temple, the foundation walls of
which had been already laid. The singing of hymns, an
hour's sermon from Rigdon, and dedication and prayer
by the Prophet, were the main-features of the occasion.
The first of the corner-stones laid in place, that at the
southeast, was blessed by Smith, who represented the
first presidency; the president of the high-priests laid
that at the southwest ; the high council that at the
northwest ; and the bishops that at the northeast.*

•"From Times and Seasons, vol. ii., p. 380: "However anxious
we are to portray the grandeur and majesty of the celebrations, the

2i6 Early Days of M or monism.

The site of the temple was on a hill that com-
manded a view of the Mississippi on one hand, and
the rolling country on the other. It was a location
of rare natural beauty, and calculated to call atten-
tion to the consecrated structure as the traveller
should come to Nauvoo either by boat or overland.
Its material was a polished white limestone, nearly
as hard as marble. It was calculated that its cost,
when completed, would be in the neighborhood of
one million dollars. The manner in which it was
viewed by Mormon eyes can be learned from the fol-
lowing, penned by W. W. Phelps,* when it was well
under course of erection :

** The temple is up as high as the caps of the pi-
lasters, and it looks majestic This splendid

model of Mormon grandeur exhibits thirty hewn-

union and order which every way prevailed, we are confident we
shall come very far short of doing them justice. For some days
prior to the sixth, the accession of strangers to our city was great,
and on the wide-spread prairie, which bounds our city, might be
seen various kinds of vehicles wending their way from different
points of the compass to the city of Nauvoo, while the ferry-boats
on the Mississippi were constantly employed in wafting travellers
across its rolling and extensive bosom At length the long-
expected morn arrived, and before the king of day had tipped the
eastern horizon with his rays, were preparations for the celebration

of the day going on The assembly then separated with

cheerful hearts, and thanking God for the great blessings of peace
and prosperity by which they were surrounded, and hearts burning
with affection for their favorite and adopted State. It was indeed
a gladsome sight, and extremely affecting, to see the old revolution-
ary patriots who had been driven from their homes in Missouri,
strike hands and rejoice together, in a land where they knew they
would be protected from mobs, and where they could again enjoy
the liberty for which they had fought many a hard battle."
* Times and Seasons, p. 759.

At the High-Tide of Power. 21 y

stone pilasters, which cost about three thousand dol-
lars apiece. The base is a crescent new moon ; the
capitals, near fifty feet high; the sun, with a human
face in bold relief, about two and a half feet broad,
ornamented with rays of light and waves, surmounted
by two hands holding two trumpets The in-
side work is now going forward as fast as possible.
. . . . The temple is erected from white limestone,
wrought in superior style ; is one hundred and twenty-
eight feet by eighty-three feet square ; near sixty 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 ac-
commodate the Melchizedek and Aaronic priest-
hoods 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 vvas the case
in Solomon's temple, and all temples that God com-
mands to be built The steeple of our tem-
ple will be high enough to answer for a tower —
between one hundred and two hundred 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."* The same

* Fate did not deal kindly with this great and costly structure.
On the lyth of November, 1848, it was seriously injured by fire ;
and when, in 1850, it was about to be rebuilt and used for school
purposes by the colony of Icarians, into wnose possession it had
passed, a severe tornado completed the work of the flames, and
left it little more than a heap of ruins. " There now remains,"
says the Hancock Patriot, in May, 1850, " nothing of the gigantic

2i8 Early Days of Mormonism,

writer describes the other public buildings at Nauvoo,
at that time, as the Seventies Hall, the Masonic Hall,
and Concert Hall, "all spacious, and well calculated
for their designated purposes."

The Joseph Smith of Kirtland was also the Joseph
Smith of Nauvoo, and the returning prosperity of the
church was reflected in his bearing and the means by
which he made his own shoulders bear as few of the
burdens of life as the circumstances surrounding him
would allow. If we can safely accept the testimony
of one, he " revelled in luxury, played the gentle-
man and the Saint, hospitably entertained his friends,
and became exceedingly popular in the church
and outside world." An intelligent Englishman
who paid a visit to Nauvoo, and not only heard
Smith preach, but conversed with him in private,
describes him as '* a person of rude manners, fond of
low jocularity, but sharp, and of great power in the
pulpit."

In conversation, at the Prophet's house, the visitor
asked which of the Trinity had appeared to him, on
the occasion of the first revelation.

*'It was the Father," was the response, "with the
Son on His right hand, and He said, * I am the Fa-
ther, and this being on my right hand is my Son,
Jesus Christ.' "

" There was nothing in his appearance," wrote the
visitor, in description of Smith, "to indicate any ab-
erration of intellect, or that he gave himself to any

work of the Mormons, except the west face, strongly united by its
sides to another wall in the interior part and surmounted by an
arch ; between the two walls at the north and south are the two
towers, or seat, of the staircases."

At the High-Tide of Power, 219

great degree of mental abstraction. My conclusion
was that he was an impostor."

As at Kirtland, Smith was still a part of every-
thing, and nothing could be done without his knowl-
edge, if not with his consent. "It was the policy of
Joseph Smith," says John D. Lee, who was a resident
of Nauvoo at the time,* " to hold the city lots in
Nauvoo at a high price, so as to draw money from
the rich, but not so high as to prevent the poor from
obtaining hom.es. The poor who lost all their prop-
erty in following the church were presented with a

lot free, in the centre of the city All classes,

Jews and Gentiles, were allowed to settle there — one
man's money was as good as another's."

He pursued such a policy that none in the city
might purchase real estate to sell again but himself;
permitted no one but himself to have a license for
the sale of spirituous liquors ; and in many ways un-
dertook to regulate and control the business of the
Mormons.

The growth of the city and church was largely ac-
celerated by the addition of converts from the old
world. The Mormon creed had been first preached in
England in 1837, by missionaries under the direction
of Orson Hyde and Heber C Kimball. In 1840 the
first company of emigrants, to the number of forty,
left Liverpool under direction of Brigham Young,
then president of the English mission. On Septem-
ber 7th of the same year another vessel, with two
hundred converts on board, left the same place, and
the whole company were eventually safely added to

* ** Mormonism Unveiled," p. 109,

220 Early Days of Mormonism.

the Mormon flock in Nauvoo. In explanation of one
reason by which Mormonism grew so rapidly in the
early days, it may be noted that the accessions from
foreign lands alone reached a total of thirty thousand
eight hundred and fifty-four by 1859; the years 1840
to 1844, adding them as follows: 1840 — 240; 1841 —
1,135; 1842—1,614; 1843—769. By 1843 the sect
in England alone had reached ten thousand.

The prosperity of the Mormon city naturally at-
tracted the attention of the old enemies across the
river, and led to constant threatenings and new en-
deavors for the revival of old grudges, and the setting
in motion of legal charges already made. The initi-
ative in this putting of words into acts occurred in
the fall of 1 841, when the Governor of Missouri made
formal requisition upon the Governor of Illinois for
the arrest and surrender of Smith, who had never
been tried upon the indictments recited heretofore.
The first part of the demand was complied with. The
Prophet was taken into custody without resistance,
but steps were immediately taken to prevent his
transfer to the dangerous soil of Missouri. Applica-
tion was made to the home courts for a writ of habeas
corpus, which was promptly granted, and Smith was
soon released and returned to his friends by Stephen
A. Douglas, who then occupied a seat upon the
bench. Other attempts of like character were made
from time to time, but as none of them resulted in
conviction or even trial, no reference to them is
needed, except as showing the spirit of deep hostility
and permanent enmity that was increasing with each
passing day, between the Mormons and the unbeliev-
ing world about them.

Af the High-Tide of Power. 221

In the early days of May, 1842, General Bennett re-
signed his office of mayor, and Smith was promptly
elected to the place, Hyrum Smith becoming vice-
mayor. The Prophet may be regarded at this point
as having reached the culmination of his career, and
gained a plenitude of power far beyond his wildest
dreams. The spiritual and temporal head of a church
numbered by tens of thousands, and established in
almost every State in America, as well as in portions
of Europe ; the chief municipal and judicial officer
of a great city in which his wish was the law ; Gen-
eral of an army obedient to his slightest word and
sworn to do his bidding ; chief editor of the Times
and Seasons, the organ of the Mormon Church ; abso-
lute dictator of the movements and almost of the
thoughts of those who constituted the membership
of his church ; with a fame known from one end of
the land to the other ; with hundreds of missionaries
everywhere preaching him as the favored of the Most
High ; and sought eagerly by the leaders of the two
great political parties, who flattered and praised him
that they might win his support — is there wonder
that his judgment should at times be led astray, and
that he should hope for even greater things in the
years to come ?

The closing portion of 1841 and the early months
of 1842 may be regarded as the high-tide of Mormon
prosperity in Illinois, and as the season of peaceful
sunshine that preceded the storm.

After John C. Bennett retired from his office and
withdrew from the church, there grew up a deep
bitterness and hatred between Smith and himself.
Whatever its cause, and how much of unfairness or

222 Early Days of Mormonisfn.

wrong may have been done upon either hand, the re-
sults were of a damaging and dangerous character to
the church, and the feud had much to do with what
afterward occurred. There was outward peace upon
his departure, and the church and its organ spoke fair
words concerning him * ; which were recalled and re-
placed with the most bitter denunciation when it was
known that his purpose was to wage war upon Mor-
monism in all possible ways, at all times and in all

* Extract from a revelation given Joseph Smith, Jr., on January
19, 1841 : "Again, let my servant, John C. Bennett, help you in
your labor, in sending my word to the kings and people of the
earth, and stand by you, even you, my servant, Joseph Smith, in
the hour of affliction, and his reward shall not fail if he receive
counsel ; and for his love, he shall be great ; for he shall be mine
if he does this, saith the Lord. I have seen the work he hath done,
which I accept, if he continue ; and I will crown him with blessings
and great glory." — Times and Seasons, vol. ii., p. 425. And
again : " General Bennett's character as a gentleman, an officer, a
scholar, and physician, stands too high to need defending by us."
— Times and Seasons, vol. ii., p. 431. When Bennett prepared
to withdraw from the Mormon Church, he was given the subjoined
documents :

" May 17, 1842.

" Brother James Sloan : You will be so good as to permit
General Bennett to withdraw his name from the church record, if
he desire to do so, and this with the best of feelings towards you
and General Bennett. Joseph Smith."

"In accordance with the above I have permitted General Ben-
nett to withdraw his membership from the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-Day Saints, this lyth day of May, 1842 ; the best of feel-
ings subsisting between all parties.

"James Sloan,
" General Church Clerk and Recorder."

When Bennett made war upon the church, this certificate was
replaced by a bull of excommunication, and a severe attack upon
his character record, and motives.

A I the High-Tide of Power, 223

places. His attacks were open and direct. He found
ready entrance to the leading journals of the land,
and for a time the Mormon Church filled a large
share of public attention. He charged treason and
treasonable purposes upon the Mormon leaders,
made grave attacks upon the personal character of
Smith and those directly associated with him, and
cited so much of fact in his denunciation as to lead
an excited and hostile community to accept his whole
stor>' as the truth. His charges were taken up and
repeated in all corners of Missouri and Illinois, gain-
ing in power and coloring as they went, until many
honest and intelligent men began to believe that
Nauvoo was a second Sodom, and a foul spot that it
would be patriotism to blot out.

Not content with his letters and interviews in the
public press, Bennett published a book,* in which all
his charges were repeated, with much from Howe and
other anti-Mormon writers of the day. The mood in
which these exposures were received by the public can
be judged somewhat from the following, which ap-
peared editorially in the New York Sun of August 5,
1842:

" We watch the further movements of the Mormon
expounded, and the anti-Mormon expounder, with

* " The History of the Saints ; or, An Expos6 of Joe Smith, and
Mormonism." By John C. Bennett ; Leland & Whiting, Boston,
1842. This work is one of the curiosities of anti-Mormon litera-
ture. It contains full-page portraits of Generals Smith and Ben-
nett in uniform, and is made up of a vast amount of documents
and other material "pitchforked" together in the most amazing
confusion — a condition of things explained by its author in the
declaration, " I have been more solicitous about the matter than
the manner of it."

224 Early Days of Mormonism.

some degree of anxiety, as affording a thorough ex-
planation to the philosophy of fanaticism, whose vic-
tims we so frequently find recorded in the history of

civilization The rule of our male Cassandra,

our modern Jacob — a combined Prophet and Patri-
arch— could not last forever. He has degenerated
from the religious moralist and priest into the lowest
grades of chicanery and vice ; he stands before us a
swindler of his community, an impious dictator over
free will, and now in his most glaring and even hide-
ous aspect — a libertine, unequalled in private life —
a Giovanni of some dozens of mistresses, and these

acquired under the garb of prophetic zeal

The state of these revelations, although not contained
in the Book of Mormon, or viewed by the divine in-
spiration of Joe's stone spectacles, will soon assume
the settled principles of truth, and must bear convic-
tion to the misled and ill-treated sect."

The Louisville y<9?/r;2^/, then under editorial control
of George D. Prentice, in its issue of July 23, 1842,
voiced the general feeling of the West in the follow-
ing words : *' This exposition, as far as we have read
it, is one of the most startling things of the kind
we ever saw. Moreover, it is deeply interesting to
the public. Joe Smith is generally regarded as a
mere miserable fanatic ; but although he may be a
fanatic, he is something more ; he is the Prophet and
the commander-in-chief of thirty thousand Mormons,
all of whom regard him as a leader sent from heaven,
and look upon his commands as emanating from the
Most High. Backed by his multitudinous and de-
luded hosts, he already attempts to control the poli-
tics of Illinois, and defies both the civil and military

At the High-Tide of Power. 225

authorities of that State to call him to account for
anything that he has done or may do."

The storm had so increased in volume and power,
and the threats of legal prosecution on the part of
Missouri had grown so loud, that in September the
Prophet found it convenient to hide himself for a
time, doubtless proceeding to some small Mormon
settlement where he knew there was no danger of
betrayal. From this covert he issued several ad-
dresses to his people, of which the following may be
taken as a characteristic sample: '' Forasmuch as the
Lord has revealed unto me that my enemies, both in
Missouri and this State, were again in the pursuit of
me ; inasmuch as they pursue me without a cause,
and have not the least shadow or coloring of justice
or right on their side, in the getting up of their
prosecutions against me; and inasmuch as their pre-
tensions are all founded in falsehood of the blackest
dye, I have thought it expedient and wisdom in me
to leave the place for a short season, for my own
safety and the safety of this people. I would say to
all those with whom I have business that I have left
my affairs with agents and clerks who will transact
all business in a prompt and proper manner, and will
see that all my debts are cancelled in due time, by
turning out property, or otherwise, as the case may
require, or as the circumstances may admit of. When
I learn that the storm is fully blown over, then I will
return to you again."

Following the above were minute directions as to
how the records should be kept of those who might
desire baptism for the salvation of their unbelieving
dead. He was very explicit in these instructions, as

226 Early Days of M or monism.

the books thus kept at Nauvoo would be opened on
the judgment day, and a clerical error might be of
serious moment to some poor soul whose passage had
been paid into the Kingdom.

In May, 1843, there occurred an incident that was
unfortunate for the Mormons, whether they were con-
nected with it or not.

As Governor L. W. Boggs, of Missouri, was sitting
by his window he was shot at, and very narrowly es-
caped instant death. The attempted crime was im-
mediately fastened upon O. P. Rockwell, a well-known
Mormon, and Smith charged with being the promoter
of the deed — a charge in support of which some very
strong and pertinent evidence has been produced.
The two were promptly indicted in the Missouri
courts, and a requisition for their arrest and convey-
ance to Missouri obtained. When the papers were
served there was an instant resort to habeas corpus.
The writ was granted, and then tried by the munici-
pal court of Nauvoo. Of course the prisoners were
discharged. It is needless to say that the shooting
and the bold act of the Nauvoo court added so much
fuel to the already increasing flame.

An attempt had been made after Smith's return to
the Mormons at Quincy to enlist the national gov-
ernment in their behalf, that they might receive re-
dress for their losses in Missouri. At a church confer-
ence Rigdon and others were commissioned to go to
Washington, and lay their complaints before the Pres-
ident. During the summer of the same year Smith
himself made a like journey, and was allowed to per-
sonally lay his case before Van Buren. He received
no encouragement from that source, and none from

At the High-Tide of Power. 227

Congress, the reply in each case being that as Missouri
was "a sovereign State the matter of her obHgations
to her citizens was no question for the consideration
of the general government. Not yet rebuffed, the
Mormons gravely made out a bill of one and a third
million dollars, which was sent to Washington as a
claim for indemnification, but no response was re-
ceived and the matter was allowed to drop. This
journey East, contact with the life of the capital and
the suggestions it contained, and above all, the free
and frequent proofs of political power he had given
through his control of the solid Mormon vote, had
directed Smith's am.bition into a new channel, and
caused him to make one of the greatest mistakes of his
life. He was gravely announced in 1844 by the news-
paper organ of the church, as a candidate for President
of the United States.

No one can for a moment suppose that he had any
serious hope or expectation of an election, and the
small gain to his personal vanity which was the only
recompense he could secure by this movement, was
nothing when compared with the ridicule brought
upon the church and himself, and the weapon placed
in the hands of those who were preaching the dangers
that must flow from any further satisfaction of the
Prophet's ambition. The announcement of his candi-
dacy was made in the Tijues and Seasons, in the
following language: ''This question arises, whom
shall the Mormons support ?— General Joseph Smith,
a man of sterling worth and integrity, and of en-
larged views; a man who has raised himself from
the humblest walks of life to stand at the head of a
large, intelligent, respectable, and increasing society,

228 Early Days of Mormonism,

that has spread, not only in this land, but in distant
nations ; a man whose talents and genius are of an
exalted nature, aad whose experience has rendered
him every way adequate to the onerous duty. Hon-
orable, fearless, and energetic, he would administer
justice with an impartial hand, and magnify and dig-
nify the office of chief magistrate of this land."

The article from which the above has been extract-
ed, refers, with some sarcastic bitterness of spirit, to
the various charges against the Mormons, long since
floating through the country:

"Gentlemen, we are not going either to * murder
ex-Governor Boggs,' nor a Mormon in this State,
'for not giving us his money'; nor are we going to
* walk on the water '; nor ' drown a woman '; nor ' de-
fraud the poor of their property '; nor * send destroy-
ing angels after General Bennett to kill him*; nor
'marry spiritual wives'; nor commit any other out-
rageous act this election, to help any party with ; you
must get some other person to perform these kind
offices for you in the future. We withdraw."

Smith entered upon his campaign with his usual
earnestness and audacity. He ordered his missiona-
ries and ministers all over the country to advocate his
claims. On February 7th he issued an address, en-
titled ''Views of the powers and policy of the Gov-
ernment of the United States," which opens with
this remarkable piece of bombast : " Born in a land
of liberty, and breathing an air uncorrupted with the
sirocco of barbarous climes, I ever feel a double anx-
iety for the happiness of all men, both in time and in
eternity."

In that document he opposed slavery ; also imprls-

A^ the High-Tide of Power. 229

onment for minor offences, so long as ** the duellist,
the debaucher, and the defaulter for millions, and
other criminals, take the uppermost rooms at feasts,
or, like the bird of passage, find a more congenial
clime by flight." He declared it to be the duty of
public officers to '' ameliorate the condition of all";
quoted from the inaugural addresses of nearly all the
Presidents ; and made use of quotations in a half-
dozen languages, to show the depth of his learning.
He ended the jumble — for no other word describes
it — with the following curious mixture of politics
and religion :

" When the people petitioned for a national bank,
I would use my best endeavors to have their prayers
answered, and establish one on national principles, to
save taxes, and make them the controllers of its ways
and means ; and when the people petitioned to pos-
sess the territory of Oregon or any other contiguous
territory, I would lend the influence of a chief magis-
trate to grant so reasonable a request, that they might
extend the mighty efforts and enterprise of a free
people from the east to the west sea, and make the
wilderness blossom as the rose ; and when a neigh
boring realm petitioned to join the Union of the sons
of liberty, my voice would be, * Come ! * yea, come
Texas, come Mexico, come Canada ; and come all the
world ; let us be brethren, let us be one great family,
and let there be a universal peace. Abolish the cruel
custom of prisons (except certain cases), penitentia-
ries, courts martial for desertion ; and let reason and
friendship reign over the ruins of ignorance and bar-
barity; yea, I would, as the universal friend of man,

230 Early Days of M or monism.

open the prisons, open the eyes, open the ears, and
open the hearts of all people to behold and enjoy
freedom, unadulterated freedom ; and God, who once
cleansed the violence of the earth with a flood, whose
Son laid down His life for the salvation of all His Father
gave Him out of the world, and who has promised
that He will come and purify the world again with
fire in the last days, should be supplicated by me for
the good of all people. — With the highest esteem, I
am a friend of virtue, and of the people,

''Joseph Smith."

The address was printed in the leading newspapers
of the land, and the comments upon it, while various,
ran in a vein of good-natured ridicule, with occasional
serious declarations that Mormonism was becoming
a menace to the people. Other movements on the
part of Smith gave new ground for the feeling of
alarm among his immediate neighbors. He asked
Congress for authority to raise one hundred thousand
volunteer troops for the ostensible purpose of pro-
tecting American citizens on their way to Texas, Or-
egon, and other frontier points ; and even went so far
as to ask for the rank of General in the United States
army. People remembered Aaron Burr, and asked
each other where the ambition of the Mormon
Prophet would end. Meanwhile, he was none the
less bold in his claims of heavenly favor, and we hear
him in the conference of that year (1844) declaring
that ** The Great Jehovah has always been with me,
and the wisdom of God will guide me at the seventh
hour. I feel that I am in more immediate commun-
ion with God, and on a better footing with Him than

At the High-Tide of Pozuer. 231

I have ever been in my life ; and I am happy to ap-
pear among you under these circumstances."

Another needless act of folly on the part of Smith
at this critical juncture was his correspondence with
Henry Clay, and the impudent and unseemly manner
in which he addressed that eminent and venerable
man. In November, 1843, ^^^ had addressed a letter to
the Kentucky statesman, the purport of which was
contained in this question, " What (if elected) will be
your rule relative to us (the Mormons) as a people ?"

Mr. Clay immediately responded in the only strain
proper or even possible to one in his position as the
chosen candidate of a great party. In a letter full of
courtesy, he declared that, while he could make no
pledges, he felt that the Mormons ** in common with
all other religious communities," " ought to enjoy
the security and the protection of the courts and the
laws."

This response did not guarantee such considera-
tion, nor contain such flattering reference to his
power as Smith desired, and after waiting six months,
on May 13, 1844, he addressed another letter to Mr.
Clay, which no gentleman could have written, and
that was insolent, coarse, and too worthless for quo-
tation. The tenor of the whole production may be
guessed from a brief extract, in which he declares Mr.
Clay "a blackleg* in politics, begging for a chance to
shuffle yourself into the Presidential Chair, where
you might deal out the destinies of our beloved
land for a game of brag." To this tirade Mr. Clay, it
is needless to say, made no reply.

* The language of the gambler so plentifully used in the above
was an added insult to Mr. Clay, and doubtless intended as such.

232 Early Days of Mormonism,

The joy of the Mormons over Smith's method of
conducting his presidential campaign was such that
on May 17th they gave him a formal ovation, and
finally in the excess of their enthusiasm he was lifted
upon the shoulders of sturdy men, and carried bodily
through the streets. One month later all that was
left of the man, his follies, his ambitions, and his
claims of spiritual power, was likewise borne aloft
through the streets of Nauvoo, amid the sound of
weeping, and with funeral plumes stirring the silent
air about his murdered form.

XI.

DOWNFALL AND DEATH.

THAT the Mormon Church could long hold peace-
able possession of the land it had purchased and
the city it had built on the eastern bank of the Missis-
sippi, had become impossible at this stage of events,
and the only question to which it could with profit
address itself, was whether it had defense against the
storm that darkened about its horizon. The ene-
mies who had so fruitfully multiplied in recent days
had a purpose that stopped only at expulsion or
extinction, and in their ranks were many who had
abandoned the church and were anxious to advance
all possible measures of revenge. John C. Bennett
did not stand alone in his denunciations and expos-
ures. By his side were William Law, once councilor
to Smith ; Wilson Law, an ex-general of the Nauvoo
Legion ; Dr. R. D. Foster, a man of wealth ; Francis
and Chauncey Higbee, with others of lesser note who
had deserted the church for reasons of their own, or
been cut off and cast out for causes involved in the
carrying out of its policy. This hostile coterie found
ready aid among the people of Hancock and Brown
Counties for any scheme they might inaugurate against
the common enemy at Nauvoo. The selfish policy
of the Mormons in throwing their vote in whatever
direction the gain of the moment suggested, had
produced its natural result, and both Democrat and

(233)

234 Early Days of Mor monism.

Whig bad come to look upon them as uncertain al-
lies and unscrupulous enemies; while many who had
been their outspoken friends two years before had
come to regard them with suspicious fear, if not yet
with open and avowed hostility. The orthodox
churches of Illinois stood in solid phalanx against
the new doctrine that had won such marvelous ad-
vance in a decade; while the moral sense of the com,
munity was shocked by the stories long since afloat of
gross immoralities on the part of the Mormon leaders.*
In short, Nauvoo, in these spring days of 1844, rested
upon a powder,magazine that might at any hour
explode and send it and the church into a ruin be-
yond repair.

The support made secure by these allied forces
gave new boldness to those in the forefront of at-
tack, and a movement was made in June that of
necessity brought affairs to a crisis. Law, Foster,
the Higbees, and other apostate Mormons, decided
upon the establishment of a newspaper organ in the
very stronghold of Mormonism, the avowed purpose
of which was to make war upon the leaders of the
church. f The Nauvoo Expositor was arranged for,

*See Appendix D.

fFrom "History of Hancock County, Illinois," by Th. Gregg,
Chicago, 18S0, page 302 : " In the meantime the seceders were not
idle. Law boldly denounced the Prophet from the stand in the
city ; while the others were busy among the people in and out of the
city. The prospectus for the newspaper was circulated extensively,
and received with much comment. Its title was to be the Nau-
voo Expo. i tor, and its purposes as set forth in the prospectus were
the * Unconditional Repeal of the City Charter.— To correct the
abuses of the Unit Power. — To advocate Disobedience to Political
Revelations,' — in short, to oppose the Prophet Smith, and correct

Downfall and Death. 235

and its first and last number made its appearance on
June 7th. Its motto was, "The Truth, the whole
Truth, and nothing but the Truth "; and while it
boldly attacked Smith and his immediate associates,
it yet professed belief in the divine origin and essen-
tial truth of the Mormon creed.

This solitary issue was indeed a broadside. In ad-
dition to the recapitulation of charges already openly
made in the general newspaper press, it contained the
affidavits of sixteen women who charged Smith with
immoral conduct, or attempts upon their virtue. The
sheet was hardly upon the street before Smith and
his friends were in motion to welcome it with such
vengeance and punishment as his almost absolute
power made possible. The City Council was sum-
moned by fleet messengers, and upon its assem-
bling the offending paper was read, and the course
to be pursued discussed with such calmness as
the feelings of those who had been attacked would
permit.

the abuses of which he was claimed to be the cause. The paper
was issued under date of June 7th. It had for its editor Sylvester
Emmons, and the names of William Law, Wilson Law, Charles
Ivins, Francis H. Higbee, Chauncey L. Higbee, Robert D. Foster,
and Charles A. Foster as its publishers. In a literary point of view,
it exhibited no decided talent. It had evidently been prepared in
hurry and excitement, and with no attempt at artistic arrange-
ment. About half its reading matter was selected. Of its original
contents, five or six columns were occupied with a ' Preamble,
Resolutions, and Affidavits of the seceders from the Church of Nau-
voo,' giving reasons for their action, and making charges against
Smith and his adherents. A number of editorial articles followed,
couched in strong language, but not remarkable for ability or point.
The confessed aim and purpose of this sheet were to expose the
enormities practiced by the Prophet and his followers at Nauvoo."

236 Early Days of Mormonism.

It was indeed a dire dilemma in which the church
found itself. The continuation of the publication
meant open rebellion within the Mormon capital,
exposure of much that might otherwise be hidden,
unpunished contempt and defiance, and a break-
ing down of the centralized spiritual authority by
which the Prophet held so many diverse and incon-
gruous elements together. Bold measures, on the
other hand, meant renewed outcry and added grounds
of attack from the increasing bands of enemies about.

A member of that City Council, the Apostle John
Taylor, has described the situation as judged from
the Mormon point of view : " They felt," he writes,*
*' that they were in a critical position, and that any
move made for the abating of that press would be
looked upon, or at least represented, as a direct attack
upon the liberty of speech, and that, so far from dis-
pleasing our enemies, it would be looked upon by
them as one of the best circumstances that could trans-
pire to assist them in their nefarious and bloody designs.
Being a member of the City Council, I well remem-
ber the feeling of responsibility that^ seemed to rest
upon all present ; nor shall I soon forget the bold,
manly, independent expressions of Joseph Smith on
that occasion in relation to this matter. He exhib-
ited in glowing colors the meanness, corruption, and
ultimate designs of the 'Anti-Mormons'; their des-
picable characters and ungodly influences, especially
of those who were in our midst ; he told of the re-
sponsibility that rested upon us as guardians of the
public interest, to stand up in the defense of the in-

^ "The City of the Saints." By Richard F. Burton, New York,
1862, p. 520.

Dow7ifall and Death. 237

jured and oppressed, to stem the current of corrup-
tion, and, as men and Saints, to put a stop to this
flagrant outrage upon this people's rights.

*' He stated that no man was a stronger advocate for
the Hberty of speech and of the press than himself;
yet, when this noble gift is utterly prostituted and
abused, as in the present instance, it loses all claim to
our respect, and becomes as great an agent for evil as
it can possibly be for good ; and notwithstanding the
apparent advantage we should give our enemies by this
act, yet it behooved us, as men, to act independent of
all secondary influences, to perform the part of men
of enlarged minds, and boldly and fearlessly to dis-
charge the duties devolving upon us by declaring as a
nuisance, and removing this filthy, libellous, and sedi-
tious sheet from our midst. The subject was dis-
cussed in various forms, and after the remarks made
by the mayor every one seemed to be waiting for
some one else to speak. After a considerable pause,
I arose and expressed my feelings frankly, as Joseph
had done, and numbers of others followed in the
same strain ; and I think, but am not certain, that I
made a motion for the removal of that press as a nui-
sance. This motion was finally put and carried by
all but one ; and he conceded that the measure was
just, but abstained through fear."

The measure under which action was to be taken,
as finally decided upon, was as follows : *' Resolved
by the City Council of the city of Nauvoo, that the
printing-office, from whence issues the Nauvoo Ex-
positor, is a public nuisance ; and also all of said Nau-
voo Expositors which may be or exist in said estab-
lishment ; and the mayor is instructed to cause said

238 Early Days of Mormonism,

printing establishment and papers to be removed
without delay, in such manner as he shall direct."

The designated official, in the person of Joseph
Smith, lost no time in seeing the council's order car-
ried out. The papers, the presses, and office fixtures
of the doomed Expositor were carried into the street,
and burned. This result was not attained without
opposition on the part of those whose property was
being destroyed. " The printing-press and the gro-
cery of Higbee & Foster," writes John D. Lee,*
" were declared nuisances, and ordered to be de-
stroyed. The owners refused to comply with the
decision of the city council, and the mayor ordered
the press and type destroyed, which was done. The
owner of the grocery employed John Eagle, a regular
bully, and others, to defend it. As the police en-
tered, or attempted to enter. Eagle stood in the door,
and knocked three of them down. As the third one
fell, the Prophet struck Eagle under the ear, and
brought him sprawling to the ground. He then
crossed Eagle's hands, and ordered them to be tied,
saying that he could not see his men knocked down
while in the line of their duty, without protecting
them."

This bold attack upon free speech, the liberty of
the press, and the rights of private property, was her-
alded throughout the land, and met by an almost
unanimous expression of condemnation from press
and people alike. The anti-Mormon newspapers of
the immediate section made this action of Smith and
his council the basis of repeated and vehement on-

* " Mormonism Unveiled," p. 153.

Downfall and Death, 239

slaughts upon the church, and the feeling of the peo-
ple was soon at a white heat. Meetings of citizens
were called at various points, in which speeches were
made and resolutions adopted,* denouncing the out-
rage of the suppression, in no measured terms. The
crisis of Nauvoo had indeed come, and all its powers
and resources were to be put to an immediate test.

The owners of the Expositor made prompt appeal
to the laws of the State, in the hope that by some
chance enough power had been withheld from the
city council of Nauvoo under its remarkable charter,
to give them redress. On June nth a writ was is-
sued by a justice of the peace of Carthage, ordering
the arrest of several leading Mormons, on the charge
of riot and the destruction of property. Among
those named were Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the
mayor and vice-mayor of Nauvoo, John Taylor, and
W. W. Phelps. As soon as the Carthage constable
had placed the parties named under arrest, a writ of
habeas corpus was sworn out before the municipal
council of Nauvoo, and the prisoners taken from the
constable's custody and set at liberty.

This final defiance of the laws of the State and its
officers could have but one effect. The people of

* The feeling of the people can be judged somewhat from the
following, which was adopted at an immense mass-meeting at War-
saw, and afterward indorsed by a similar gathering in Carthage :

'^Resolved, That the time, in our opinion, has arrived when the
adherents of Smith as a body should be driven from the surrounding
settlements into Nauvoo. That the Prophet and his miscreant ad-
herents should then be demanded at their hands, and if not surren-
dered, a war of extermination should be waged to their entire de-
struction, if necessary for our protection.

^^ Resolved, That every citizen arm himself, to be prepared to
sustain the resolutions herein contained."

240 Early Days of Mormonisrn.

Hancock County, while invoking the aid of the chief
Executive of the State on the one hand, determined
to act for themselves on the other. Armed bands of
men were formed, and an immediate attack upon
Nauvoo threatened. Smith realized his danger, and
calling the officers and men of the Legion about him.,
admonished them of their sworn allegiance to the
church and himself, and declared that the city would
be defended at all hazards.

Compelled by the crisis of affairs to take action of
some character. Governor Ford proceeded to Car-
thage, from whence he sent a message to Smith and
the council, asking an explanation of the troubles
that had arisen.

Confronted thus by the chief executive authority
of the State, and feeling danger in the air all about
them, the leading Mormons decided upon a tempo-
rary absence from Nauvoo, in order that the tempest
might somewhat subside, and a way out of their dif-
ficulties present itself. But this decision was soon
abandoned, and the conclusion reached that all who
were under question of the law, should go to Car-
thage and meet whatever charges had been lodged
against them.*

* If we may accept the testimony of Bishop John D. Lee, Smith
actually left the State, and voluntarily came back into danger :
" Higbee, Foster, and others .... got out writs for the arrest of
Joseph and others, and laid their grievances before the governor.
Joseph, knowing the consequences of such a move, concluded to
leave for the Rocky Mountains, and lay out a country where the
Saints would not be molested. He crossed over into Iowa, with a
few faithful friends with him. These friends begged him to return
and stand his trial ; that the Lord had always delivered him, and
would again. He told them that if he returned he would be killed,

Downfall and Death. 241

At an early hour of the morning, Joseph, Hyrum,
and other members of the council, accompanied by a
party of devoted friends, set out from Nauvoo on
horseback. While en route they were met by an aide-
de-camp of the Governor, who bore a demand from
that ofificial for the immediate surrender of the State
arms then in the hands of the Legion. The whole
party returned to the Mormon capital, the demand
was complied with, and evening had arrived before
Carthage was reached. The small town was filled
with militia under the Governor's command, and
crowds of excited people whom the stirring scenes of
the day had called in from the surrounding country.
Those upon whom accusation rested because of par-
ticipation in the destruction of the Expositor office,
appeared before a local magistrate and gave bail in
the sum of five hundred dollars each, to appear before
the next session of the county court.

The natural expectation of the Mormons that their

but that if he went away he would save his life, and the church
would not be hurt ; that he would look out a new country for them ;
that the governor had also advised him to do so. These old gran-
nies then accused him of cowardice, and told him that Christ had
said He would never leave His brethren in trouble. He then asked
them if Emma (his wife) wished him to return. They answered
' Yes.' He then said it was all light before him, and darkness be-
hind him, but he would return, though he felt like a sheep being
led to the slaughter. The following day he crossed the river again
to Illinois. He kissed his mother in particular, and told her that
his time had come, and that he would seal his testimony with his
blood. He advised his brother Hyrum not to go with him — that he
would be a comfort to the churches when he, the Prophet, should
be gone. Hyrum said, ' No, my brother, I have been with you in
life, and will be with you in death.'" — " Mormonism Unveiled,"
p. 154-

242 Early Days of Mormoriisyn,

voluntary appearance in the stronghold of their foes,
and formal submission to the demands of the law,
would end in their dismissal to their homes for
the present, was rudely dispelled when two men
named Spencer and Norton appeared before a jus-
tice of the peace and swore out warrants for the ar-
rest of Joseph and Hyrum on the charge of treason
against the State — the alleged offense having been
committed on June 19th, when the Legion had been
called together in order to meet any danger that
might arise. They were committed to jail. Their
friends hurriedly communicated with Governor Ford,
who expressed his regret that new troubles had arisen,
but advised them to let the law take its course. On
the following morning, June 26th, in response to a
request from the Smiths, he paid them a visit in jail,
and there was an extended conference, which ended
in nothing. In the afternoon the prisoners were
brought again before the justice, and after some par-
leying as to legal jurisdiction, were granted until noon
on the following day for the securing of witnesses.
They were then remanded to jail, and went straight
from the court-room to the place that on the morrow
was to witness a cruel attack and bloody death.

There have been many accounts written of these
final scenes in the life of the Mormon Prophet and
his brother, and many explanations, arguments, and
apologies advanced by those who had a part therein
or stood so near that some portion of the blame was
laid upon them. With the greater portion of that
literature we have nothing to do. All parties agree
to the main facts of the murder, and with those only
is this narration concerned.

Downfall and Death. 243

Governor Ford has bequeathed us a voluminous
account of his part in the final tragedy,* and the
steps by which it was brought about. *' The force
assembled at Carthage," he writes, '' amounted to
about twelve or thirteen hundred men, and it was
calculated that four or five hundred more were as-
sembled at Warsaw I ordered the troops to

be disbanded, both at Carthage and Warsaw, with
the exception of three companies, two of which were
retained as a guard to the jail, and the other to ac-
company me to Nauvoo Having made these

arrangements, we proceeded on our march, and ar-
rived at Nauvoo about four o'clock of the afternoon
of the 27th of June. As soon as notice could be
given, a crowd of the citizens assembled to hear an

address which I proposed to deliver to them

A short time before sundown we departed on our
return to Carthage. When we had proceeded two
miles, we met two individuals, one of them a Mor-
mon, who informed us that the Smiths had been as-
sassinated in jail, about five or six o'clock of that
day. The intelligence seemed to strike every one

with a kind of dumbness It was many days

after the assassination of the Smiths before the cir-
cumstances of the murder became fully known. It
then appeared that, agreeably to previous orders, the
posse at Warsaw had marched on the morning of the
27th of June in the direction of Golden's Point, with
a view to join the force from Carthage, the whole
body then to be marched into Nauvoo. When
they had gone eight miles, they were met by the

♦ "History of lUinois."

244 Early Days of Monnvnism.

order to disband; and learning, at the same time,
that the Governor was absent at Nauvoo, about two
hundred of these men, many of them disguised by
blacking their faces with powder and mud, hastened
immediately to Carthage. There they encamped at
some distance from the village, and soon learned that
one of the companies left as a guard had disbanded
and returned to their homes; the other company, the
Carthage Grays, was stationed by the Captain in the
public square, a hundred and fifty yards from the
jail, whilst eight men were detailed by him, under
the command of Franklin A. Worrell, to guard the
prisoners. A communication was soon established
between the conspirators and the company; and it
was arranged that the guard should have their guns
charged with blank cartridges, and fire at the assail-
ants when they attempted to enter the jail. General
Deming, who was left in command, being deserted
by some of his troop, and perceiving the arrange-
ment with the others, and having no force upon which
he could rely, for fear of his life retired from the
village. The conspirators came up, jumped the slight
fence around the jail, were fired upon by the guard,
which, according to arrangement, were overpowered
immediately, and the assailants entered the prison,
to the door of the room where the two prisoners
were confined, with two of their friends who volun-
tarily bore them company. An attempt was made to
break open the door; but Joe Smith, being armed
with a six-barrelled pistol, furnished by his friends,
fired several times as the door was bursted open, and
wounded three of the assailants. At the same time
several shots were fired into the room, by some of

Downfall and Death. 245

which John Taylor received four wounds, and Hyrum
Smith was instantly killed. Joe Smith now attempted
to escape by jumping out of the second-story win-
dow; but the fall so stunned him that he was unable
to rise, and, being placed in a sitting posture by the
conspirators below, they dispatched him with four
balls shot through his body."

The actual events at the jail after the farce of over-
powering the guards and taking possession by a show
of force, had been enacted, have been graphically de-
scribed in brief compass by one whose opportunities
for information were excellent, whose fairness cannot
be questioned, and whose ability to distinguish the
true from the false is of the highest order:* "Smith
and his brother had been that day removed from
their cells, and given comparative liberty in a large,
airy room on the first floor above. This afternoon
they were receiving the visits of two Mormon breth-
ren, Richards and Taylor. They heard the row at
the door and the rush on the stairs, and instinctively
barred their door by pressing their weight against it.
The mob fired at the door. Hyrum Smith fell, ex-
claiming, * I'm a dead man.' Taylor crawled under
the bed with a bullet in the calf of his leg. Richards

hid himself behind the door in mortal terror

Joe Smith died bravely. He stood by the jamb of
the door and fired four shots, bringing his man down
every time. He shot an Irishman named Wills, who
was in the affair from his congenital love of a brawl,
in the arm ; Gallagher, a Southerner from the Mis-
sissippi bottom, in the face ; Voorhees, a half-grown

*"The Mormon Prophet's Tragedy." By John \i2iy, Atlantic
Monthly, December, i86g, p. 669.

246 Early Days of Mormonism,

hobbledehoy from Bear Creek, in the shoulder, and

another Smith had two loaded six-barrelled

revolvers in his room The four shots which I

have chronicled, and two which had no billet, ex-
hausted one pistol, and the enemy gave Smith no
time to use the other. Severely wounded as he was,
he ran to the window, which was open to receive the
fresh June air, and half leaped, half fell, into the
jail yard below. With his last dying energies he
gathered himself up, and leaned in a sitting posture
against the rude stone well-curb. His stricken con-
dition, his vague wandering glances, excited no pity
in the mob thirsting for his life. They had not seen
the handsome fight he had made in the jail ; there
was no appeal to the border chivalry— there is chiv-
alry in the borders, as in all semi-barbarous regions.
A squad of Missourians who were standing by the
fence levelled their pieces at him, and, before they
could see him again for the smoke they made, Joe
Smith was dead."

The last few hours of Hfe that were given to the
doomed man, who had travelled so long and devious
a road from the Palmyra log-cabin only to meet grim
death in Carthage jail, were of necessity full of fear
and heaviness. He was utterly in the hands of his
enemies, guarded by men who had themselves threat-
ened his life, and could not for a moment be de-
pended upon to interpose themselves between the
prisoners whom it was their duty to protect, and any
who might seek their lives. In popular opinion, and
in the due process of law, there was small hope of
favor ; and any attempt at violent rescue at the hands
of armed men from Nauvoo, could only end in death

Downfall and Death, 247

to many, and bring on a civil war that would drench
Hancock County in blood, lay the Mormon capital
in ashes, and drive the church an outcast from the
region that only a few years before had opened arms
and given it welcome. There was but one possible
course — to wait with such hope and courage as could
be summoned, for whatever punishment or deliver-
ance fate might already have set upon its way.

Of those closing hours, Apostle John Taylor, who
was present, has written an account,* which may be
taken as true, so far as it relates to matters uncon-
nected with the purposes or actions of the foes out-
side. " I do not remember," he declares, " the names
of all who were with us that night and the next

morning in jail, for several went and came

There was also a great variety of conversation, which
was rather desultory than otherwise, and referred to
circumstances that had transpired ; our former and
present grievances ; the spirit of the troops around
us, and the disposition of the Governor; the devising
of legal and other plans for deliverance ; the nature
of testimony required ; the gathering of proper wit-
nesses ; and a variety of other topics At

another time while conversing about deliverance, I
said, ' Brother Joseph, if you will permit it and say
the word, I will have you out of this prison in five
hours, if the jail has to come down to do it.' My
idea was to go to Nauvoo, and collect a force
sufficient, as I considered the whole affair a legal farce,
and a flagrant outrage upon our liberty and rights.
Brother Joseph refused. Elder Cyrus Wheelock came

* " The Martyrdom of Joseph Smith." By Apostle John Taylor.
This whole story is reprinted in " The City of the Saints," p. 517.

248 Early Days of Mormonism.

in to see us, and when he was about leaving drew a
small pistol, a six-shooter, from his pocket, remarking
at the same time, * Would any of you like to have
this?' Brother Joseph immediately replied, *Yes,
give it to me '; whereupon he took the pistol, and
put it in his pantaloons pocket. .... The report of
the Governor having gone to Nauvoo without taking
the prisoners along with him caused very unpleasant
feelings, as we were apprised that we were left to
the tender mercies of the Carthage Grays, a com-
pany strictly mobocratic, and whom we knew to be

our most deadly enemies Some time after

dinner we sent for some wine. It has been reported
by some that this was taken as a sacrament. It was
no such thing ; our spirits were generally dull and
heavy, and it was sent for to revive us. I believe we
all drank of the wine, and gave some to one or two
of the prison guards. We all of us felt unusually
dull and languid, with a remarkable depression of
spirits. In consonance with those feelings I sang
the following song, that had lately been introduced
into Nauvoo, entitled * A Poor Wayfaring Man of
Grief:

A poor wayfaring man of grief,
Hath often crossed me on my way,

Who sued so humbly for relief
That I could never answer nay.

I had not power to ask his name,
Whither he went, or whence he came ;
Yet there was something in his eye
That won my love, I know not why.

Then in a moment to my view

The stranger started from disguise ;

Doivnfall and Death. 249

The tokens in his hands 1 knew ;
The Saviour stood before mine eyes.

He spake — and my poor name he named —
' Of me thou hast not been ashamed ;

These deeds shall thy memorial be ;
Fear not ; thou didst them unto me.' "

" The song," continues Taylor, " is pathetic, and
the tune quite plaintive, and was very much in
accordance with our feelings at the time, for our
spirits were all depressed, dull, and gloomy, and sur-
charged with indefinite ominous forebodings. After
a lapse of some time. Brother Hyrum requested
me again to sing that song. I replied, ' Brother
Hyrum, I do not feel like singing'; when he re-
marked, ' Oh ! never mind ; commence singing, and
you will get the spirit of it.' At his request I did so.
Soon afterward I was sitting at one of the front
windows of the jail, when I saw a number of men,
with painted faces, coming round the corner of the
jail, and aiming toward the stairs."

The Apostle's description of the attack is vivid,
and does not materially differ from those already
given. As Hyrum fell he cried, " I am a dead man,"
and spoke and moved no more. As he fell Joseph
leaned over him, and in tones of deep and sad sym-
pathy exclaimed, ** Oh ! my poor, dear brother Hy-
rum ! " " While I was engaged in parrying the guns,"
his narration continues, " Brother Joseph said, * That's
right. Brother Taylor ; parry them off as well as you
can.' These were the last words I ever heard him
speak on earth."

Their work of murder completed, the assassins left
the town and made haste to Warsaw and other points

250 Early Days of Mormonism.

from whence they came. The people of Carthage
waited in silent fear for the sudden vengeance they
were sure would befall them from Nauvoo. But it
came not. The blow had fallen with such force that
every emotion except grief and apprehension was
driven from the minds of the Mormons, who pre-
pared to receive their dead with such honors as be-
fitted their rank in the church. The Legion stood
under arms from ten in the morning until three in
the afternoon, when the funeral cortege appeared on
the Carthage road and was escorted to the Mansion
House, amid lamentation and weeping from the
thousands who believed that Joseph had been in truth
a prophet of the Lord, who had now sealed his mis-
sion in his blood. An oration was pronounced by
Dr. Richards, while addresses were delivered by
others who counselled peace, and asked their hearers
to leave vengeance to God alone, and trust that in
His hands justice would at last be done.

Even the lifeless body of the fallen Prophet could
not escape the ambition of the leaders of the church,
nor be safe from the sacrilege of those who had pur-
sued him with such relentless purpose to the death.
** The interment of the mortal remains of the Prophet
and the Patriarch was attended to with proper so-
lemnity," we are told on authority, to which, for many
years, the Mormon records were open,"^ " and a sor-
rowing multitude accompanied the mourners to the
burial-place ; but there was a sequel to the public
services which the people never knew. The bodies
of Joseph and Hyrum were not in that funeral pro-

* " Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 174. Its author, T. B. H. Sten-
house, was for twenty-five years a Mormon Elder and missionary.

Downfall and Death. 251

cession ; they were reserved for private interment.
It was believed that sacred as the tomb is always con-
sidered to be, there were persons capable of rifling
the grave in order to obtain the head of the murdered
Prophet for the purpose of exhibiting it, or placing
it in some phrenological museum — the skull of Joseph
Smith was worth money. This apprehension, in
point of fact, proved true, for the place where the
bodies were supposed to be buried was disturbed
the night after the interment. The coffins had been
filled with stones, etc., to about the weight which the
bodies would have been. The remains of the two
brothers were then secretly buried the same night
by a chosen few, in the vaults beneath the temple.
The ground was then levelled, and pieces of rock and
other debris were scattered carelessly over the spot.
But even this was not considered a sufficient safe-
guard against any violation of the dead, and on the
following night a still more select number exhumed
the remains, and buried them beneath the pathway
behind the Mansion House. The bricks which formed
the pathway were carefully replaced, and the earth
removed was carried away in sacks and thrown into
the Mississippi. If this last statement is true, the
bodies must have been removed a third time, as,
since writing the above, the author has it on un-
questionable authority that they now repose in quite
a different place. Brigham Young has endeavored to
obtain possession of the remains of the Prophet, that
they m'ght be interred beneath the temple at Salt
Lake. It is stated by Brigham, that Joseph, like the
son of Jacob, made the request that the Saints when
they went to the Rocky Mountains should carry his

252 Early Days of Mornionism.

bones with them. The family of Joseph maintain
that the Prophet never expressed any such desire,
but said very much to the contrary. It is affirmed
that previous to Joseph's death, he predicted that
the church would be scattered, and saw that the time
might come when Brigham Young would lead the
church ; and that if he did, he would lead it to per-
dition. He told his wife, Emma, to remain at Nau-
voo, or if she left, to ^o to Kirtland, and not to fol-
low any faction. To have given the bones into Brig-
ham's charge would have been to conprm the Saints
in the Rocky Mountain Zion, to which the Smith
family are decidedly opposed. The remains of the
martyrs are destined for Zion in Missouri."

With the death of Joseph Smith, the initial era of
Mormonism may be said to have come to an end.
The strong hand with which Brigham Young put
aside all claimants for the succession ; relegated the
Prophet's son and brothers to inferior places in the
church ; gave Sidney Rigdon over to excommuni-
cation and the mercy of Satan, and took matters into
his own control and saved the church from disin-
tegration and extinction ; the season of peace that
for a time fell upon Nauvoo ; the yet greater storm
by which it was followed ; the final expulsion ; the
sad and weary pilgrimage across the plains ; and the
undreamed-of power and glory of after-days, — ^
these are moving scenes in this great drama of a false
religious growth, but do not belong to that inceptive
epoch that has been chronicled herein.

Those who sought to destroy Mormonism by the

* Appendix E,

Downfall and Death. 253

cowardly attack on Carthage jail, gave it a far more
powerful ally than Rigdon, or Young, or Smith him-
self could have given it in decades of missionary
preaching. The halo of a martyrdom had descended
upon it ; and of all the works performed by Joseph
Smith for the system of which he was the foundation
and the head, none could reach even a portion of the
power, and influence, and vitalizing force that lay in
the legacy of his bloody death.

XII.

THE SCATTERED FLOCK.

WHEN Sidney Rigdon found himself cast out of
the fold, and given officially over to the buffet-
ings of Satan for a thousand years, that once-power-
ful leader gathered about him such as would heed his
call, and led them eastward to Pennsylvania, where he
made a vain attempt to found a church of which he
should be the spiritual and temporal head ; but they
fell from him one by one, some going into the orthodox
churches, some into infidelity and others back to the
fold of which Young had become shepherd. William
Smith, the Prophet's brother, piloted a few to North-
ern Illinois ; Elder Brewster gathered a group of strag-
glers in Western Iowa ; Bishop Heddrick, a like fol-
lowing in Missouri ; and Bishop Cutler, in Northern
Iowa ; but leadership, opportunity, and money were
wanting, and all came to naught. Lyman Wight was
followed to Texas by a company of some size. The
authority of Young was recognized until the promul-
gation of polygamy, when it was repudiated ; and on
Wight's death the faction went slowly to pieces.

Joseph Smith, the eldest son of the Prophet, re-
mained with his mother at Nauvoo after the exodus
of the main body of the church to the West. In
1 85 1, a number who had scattered through Iowa,
Illinois, and Missouri, gathered in solemn conclave,
and made formal declaration that they had been in-

The Scattered Flock. 255

structed in a revelation from God to refuse the leader-
ship of Young, who was not the ** divinely appointed
and legitimate successor of Joseph Smith, and as
being the promulgator of such false doctrines as
polygamy, Adam-God worship, and the right to shed
the blood of apostates." No special result followed
this gathering, until in i860, when the Joseph Smith
of the third generation became president of the Re-
organized Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day
Saints — the name officially adopted. The old temple
at Kirtland came recently under control of the or-
ganization,* and after repairs and renovation, wit-

* By the courtesy of Harley Barnes, Esq., of Painesville, the seat
of Lake County, in which Kirtland is situated, I am able to furnish
the following brief account of the fortunes of the old temple. The
temple property, consisting of the building and nearly two acres
of land, was conveyed to Joseph Smith, Jr., as president of the
church, on May 5, 1834 ; and again by deed dated January 4, 1837,
the former deed being considered illegal. It was again deeded
April 10, 1837, by Smith to William Marks, and on February 11,
1841, by said Marks, to Smith as sole trustee in trust for the
church. It was next ordered sold by the Probate Court of Lake
County, on application of Henry Holcomb, administrator of Joseph
Smith, then deceased, for the payment of the decedent's debts.
The property was sold under this order to William L. Perkins, on
April 19, 1862. On the same day it was conveyed by Mr. Perkins
to Russel Huntley. On February 17, 1873, Mr. Huntley conveyed
it to Joseph Smith (the president of the Reorganized Church) and
Mark H. Forscutt, both of Piano, Illinois. On August 18, 1879,
an action was commenced in the Lake County Common Pleas
Court by the Reorganized Church, against Lucius Williams, Sarah
F. Videon, Joseph Smith, Mark H. Forscutt, " The Church in Utah
of which John Taylor is president, and commonly known as the
Mormon Church," and "John Taylor, president of said Utah
Church " — a proceeding to quiet title and obtain legal possession of
the temple property. No defense was made ; and on February 23,
1880, Judge L. S. Sherman delivered a decision in which he dc-

256 Early Days of Mormonisin.

nessed, on April 6, 1883, a grand reunion of Mormon
pilgrims, from the West and elsewhere. The organ-
ization and government of the Reorganized Church
are patterned after those of the early days ; while
polygamy is specially condemned as a joint device of
Satan and Brigham Young. " We number," wrote
President Smith, under date of Lamoni, Iowa, De-
cember 15, 1884,* "approximately i8,ooo,t and are
scattered from Maine to New Mexico, Oregon to Flor-
ida ; some in England, Wales, Denmark, and Aus-
tralia, and Society Islands. Our largest numbers are
in Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas, Cali-
fornia, and Utah, respectively. We have maintained

clared that "The Church in Utah, the defendant, of which John
Taylor is president, has materially and largely departed from the
faith, doctrines, laws, ordinances, and usages of said original
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and has incorporated
into its system of faith the doctrines of Celestial Marriage and a
plurality of wives, and the doctrine of Adam-God worship, contrary
to the laws and constitution of said original Church "; and the court
further found that the plaintiff, the Reorganized Church, was " the
true and lawful continuation of and successor to," the said original
church ; and was, in law, entitled to " all its rights and property."
The sale ordered by the Probate Court, above described, was there-
fore declared to have been illegally made, and the title declared to
be "vested in the heirs of said Joseph Smith, in trust for the legal
successor of said original church."

* "A Solution of the Mormon Problem." By John Codman,
New York, 1885, p. 23.

f Mr, H. A. Stebbins, secretary and recorder of the Reorganized
Church, in answer to a request for information on the part of the
author, writes, under date of Lamoni, Iowa, February 21, 1888, that
at this date there are upon the church records the names of between
twenty and twenty-one thousand members, who, with others in
various parts of the country not thus recorded, will bring the mem-
bership up to a total of from twenty-two to twenty-five thousand.

TJic Scattered Flock. 257

a mission in Utah since 1863, with from one to a
dozen men there. We number between 800 and 1,000
in Utah. There are members in Idaho, Montana,
Colorado, and Arizona. We have been persistent to
the extent of our means [to win Mormons from po-
lygamy], and have kept from two to five elders in
the missionary field in Utah for the last five years."

Among those who attempted to wear the mantle
of the Prophet, in the troubled days of 1844, was
James Jesse Strang, whose subsequent " Mormon
Kingdom," on the Beaver Islands of Lake Michigan,
has become one of the strange and unique things of
American history. This remarkable episode of Mor-
monism has been overlooked in the larger and more
important operations of Salt Lake; yet in interest
and romance it cannot be surpassed by any act in
that great drama of ambition and superstition. The
following account * of this bold attempt and early fail-
ure to found a kingdom on American soil, is well
worth reproduction in this connection :

" Far out in the deep blue waters of Lake Michigan,
about forty-five miles from the Straits of Mackinac,
stands Big Beaver Island, the largest of a scattering
group, famous for having been the seat of an heretical
sort of autocracy, styling itself the Kingdom of the
Mormons, ruled over by a potentate designated as
King Strang. Although the rise and progress of this
kingdom, its final downfall and the expulsion of its
people from the island was an eventful and a woeful
chapter in the annals of the polygamous sect, one
might read whole libraries of Mormon literature with-

* " An American Kingdom of Mormons." By F, D. Leslie;
in Magazine of Western History, of Cleveland ; April, 1886, p. 645.

258 Early Days of Mor monism,

out learning that such an institution ever existed.
This discrepancy or omission in Mormon history is
due to an antagonism which sprang up between
Strang and Brigham Young, completely alienating
the one from the other. James Jesse Strang received
his appointment as elder from Joseph Smith, founder
of the faith, March 3, 1844, only one week after his
baptism into the communion of the Mormon Church,
and was, on June 19th following, vested with authority
to establish a branch nucleus at his home in Burling-
ton, Wisconsin. Joseph Smith having been mobbed
and murdered at Carthage jail, June 27th of the same
year, Strang, although less than five months a mem-
ber of the Mormon Church, advanced his claims to the
mantle of the martyred leader and pushed them with
vigor. His principal title was an ambiguous clause
in the letter of Smith clothing him with the powers
referred to, which he readily construed into a decla-
ration nominating himself as the prelate's successor
in case that dignitary should succumb to the ominous

dangers then threatening him According to

the will of God revealed to Joseph Smith, Strang
gathered up his votaries and planted a Stake of Zion
on White River, Wisconsin, naming the place Voree,
now known as Spring Prairie. A Mormon organ, en-
titled the Voree Herald, was started and schools were
established, the community living in common. As
Smith had done before him, the Prophet now pro-
ceeded to fortify himself in his position by publishing
feigned interviews with God and bringing forth tables
from the earth bearing what he claimed to be divinely
inspired inscriptions. Eighteen metallic slabs, curi-
ously carved, which Strang pretended to have di&-

The Scattered Flock. 259

covered in the banks of the White River, he chris-
tened Plates of Laban. It was claimed with the
most positive and solemn assurance that they were
written before the Babylonian captivity. Strang's
divine library consisted of the Bible, recognized as
the supreme authority, the Book of the Law of the
Lord, composed of the Prophet's translations of the
characters on the Plates of Laban ; the Book of Mor-
mon and Smith's Book of Doctrines and Covenants.

" Such was the prosperity of the community that
its founder conceived the idea of permanently estab-
lishing and perpetuating the happiness of the sect by
planting a kingdom on Big Beaver Island, where his
people would be further removed from the * invidious
Gentiles,' and where his acts would not be so openly
visible to the eyes of the authorities. This plan was
carried into execution in 1847. ^"^^ without license,
reason, or excuse, and in open defiance of the law,
Strang proclaimed himself king. The Voree Herald
was issued as the Northern Islander^ under the editor-
ship of the king. A well-equipped printing-house
was established, and for a time a daily edition of the
Islander was published. Having settled his people
on the island, where his policy could be carried out
to better advantage than in the midst of hampering
Gentiles, Strang assiduously directed his entire atten-
tion to the government of his kingdom. His au-
thority was supreme. His commands were not given
as a species of ukase, but were claimed to be absolute
and indefeasible. His subjects were obedient and
quiescent so long as his rule promoted their pros-
perity without being particularly offensive. How
much they respected the compact when the adminis-

26o Early Days of M or monism.

tration of affairs became unsatisfactory will shortly
be seen. The king not only conducted personally
the civil and ecclesiastical business of his realm, but
found time to regulate in a minute and meddlesome
manner its secular concerns. The communistic prin-
ciple was abandoned and individuals were allowed to
hold titles to their lands. The Israelitish tithe of
one-tenth was assessed for the support of Church and
State, no other taxes being levied for Mormon pur-
poses. Some of his enactments respecting temporal
affairs were very stringent, well calculated to preserve
manhood, sobriety, and peace. According to author-
ity, the probity of which there is no reason to ques-
tion, the use of intoxicating liquors, tobacco, tea, and
coffee was prohibited, and gaming and betting were
not permitted. * Prostitution and lewdness were
discountenanced alike in both sexes,' writes one of
Strang's wives, * and it was as necessary for a man to
be careful of his reputation as for a woman.' Pur-
suing she says : ' They were very strict in all that
regulated society, morals, and religious observances,
and absolute obedience was enjoined. The seventh
day was set apart as the Sabbath, and every one phys-
ically able was required to attend church upon that
day. Schools were organized and flourished, and in-
tellectual culture encouraged. The women were re-
quired to wear bloomers.' In a State possessing the
right of autonomy, such a governmental fabric would
look plausible enough.

" But Strang did not enjoy a reign of uninterrupted
peace and prosperity. His kingdom, though insular,
was not removed beyond the power of its enemies to
assail. The islanders and fishermen — a rough, lawle^^s

The Scattered Flock. 261

set, whose ill-will was not a good thing to incur —
were bitterly opposed to the advent of the Mormons,
and did their best to prevent them from obtaining a
foothold. There arose at once a distinction between
Mormon and Gentile, and the inimical tendencies of
the two classes soon ripened into a deadly and im-
placable hatred. A warfare of plunder was constantly
kept up. The odiousness of the despised sect ren-
dered impartial judgment on the part of the general
public impossible. In this condition of affairs, in the
midst of a marauding and unscrupulous class of
itinerant fishermen and skippers, it is highly probable
that both Mormon and Gentile had depredations
charged to them of which they were not guilty. The
buccaneer infesting the lakes at that day could have
had no better opportunity of plundering both saint
and pagan without being likely to bring suspicion
and punishment upon his own head.

'' It is a well-authenticated fact that the crafty king
had the high-handedness to prostitute the power of
civil law to foster Mormonism and wreak vengeance
on his enemies. In the fall of 1852 he became an in-
dependent candidate for the State Legislature, and
was elected by Democratic votes. He filled the po-
sition with ability. During the winter following he
organized the county of Emmet and introduced a
bill to admit it, which was passed. This county em-
braced Beaver Island, and St. James was chosen as
the county-seat. He had now the power of the State
law to serve him in the promulgation of his doctrines.
. . . . The authorities, having for some time kept
Strang and his confederates under distrustful surveil-
lance, determined at length to put an end to his pre-

262 Early Days of Mormonism.

sumptive kingdom. By order of District Attorney
George C. Bates, the United States steamer Michigan
was sent to St. James, and Strang, together with
several of his colleagues, was arrested on a warrant
charging him with trespassing on public lands, steal-
ing timber, counterfeiting, mail robbing, and other
crimes. They surrendered peaceably and were taken
to Detroit. In June, 1851, they were arraigned be-
fore Judge Ross Wilkins, of the United States dis-
trict court, and a jury. In his violation of the law,
Strang had so shrewdly evaded it in technicalities
that the evidence against him was insufficient. But
there were internecine forces at work to accomplish
the downfall of his kingdom. The majority of his
subjects were not Mormons at heart, and did not
hold their institution sacred any more than they re-
garded the king as their valid sovereign. Strang's
first downward step was the introduction of polyg-
amy, which he at first pretended to disfavor to such
an extent as to pronounce a terrible curse upon those
practicing it, and which his votaries, be it said to
their credit, looked upon with aversion and abhor-
rence. Plural marriages were few. Strang, himself,
had only four wives. From the time he publicly
recommended polygamy, the difficulty of insubordi-
nation and disrespect became serious. The ' petticoat
rebellion ' is a somewhat ludicrous example of his
meddlesomeness, and of the instrumentality of the
women in consummating his ruin. As before stated,
Strang had adopted the bloomer style of dress for
the women. Many disgusted females rebelled against
the uncouth pantalets and returned to the interdicted
long skirts. Strang's threats were sufficient to com-

The Scattered Flock. 263

pel acquiescence in the majority of insubordinates,
but a few of the more resolute told him with indig-
nation that they would not submit to his interference
in domestic affairs, and defied him to force the use
of the unfeminine bloomers upon them. The hus-
bands of the rebellious women were, in pursuance of
the ecclesiastical law, excommunicated. Among the
latter were Dr. H. D. McCulloch, of Baltimore, Mary-
land, Thomas Bedford and Alexander Wentworth,
leaders in the conspiracy that undermined the king.
A series of tantalizing lawsuits was instigated against
Bedford, and one against McCulloch, to vex them
and exemplify Strang's power over the subservient
magistrates who were his tools.

"One night Bedford was seized by seven armed
men and fiendishly whipped. For three nights there-
after he watched Strang's house, but found no oppor-
tunity of taking revenge on the author of the out-
rage. Bedford, Wentworth, and McCulloch, the tri-
umvirate of sedition, then agreed upon the murder
of the king, but it was thought advisable to defer
the execution of the design until the arrival of the
United States stQ^imtr Michiga7t. On June 15, 1856,
the Michigan cast anchor in the harbor of St. James,
and while Strang was on his way to interview the
captain, Bedford and Wentworth shot and mortally
wounded him. He was removed to Voree, where
he died July 9th, following. Bedford and Wentworth
were, by the arbitrary intervention of the officers of
the Michigan, taken to Mackinaw on board that
steamer, where they were lionized as heroes who had
rid the world of an hitherto invincible monster. If
they ever received any punishment it was slight.

264 Early Days of Monnonism.

With the assassination of Strang, the Mormon king^
dom collapsed. During the latter part of his reign,
the king's power was so enervated, and his security
rendered so precarious by civil strife, that he enter-
tained few hopes of the institution surviving his de-
mise, and on his death-bed advised the Mormons to
emigrate. There being no ties of cognation, sym-
pathy, or common belief to bind them together, ex-
cept perhaps their hatred of the fishermen, they be-
gan at once to quit the island for various places.
But their enemies would not let slip so rare an op-
portunity of wreaking vengeance on their heads.
Chartering a vessel, a large mob of desperadoes from
the neighboring islands and the mainland sailed for
St. James. With remorseless brutality the remain-
ing Mormons, several hundred in number, mostly
women and children, were driven by force and arms
aboard a propeller bound for Milwaukee, only a few
hours being given them to collect their portable
property, the greater part of which was left behind.
The predatory gang then proceeded to plunder the
effects of the ejected colony, giving as an excuse for
their spoliation that the property was to indemnify
them against losses sustained at the hands of maraud-
ing Mormons. The immunity of these lawless in-
vaders from justice was a matter of course, in a com-
munity so prejudiced against the Mormons, whose
chief offense seems to have been in their inappro-
priate appellation — since Mormonism is now synon-
ymous with polygamy. The miserable outcasts land-
ed in various places, but mostly in Milwaukee."

APPENDIX

SOLOMON SPAULDING.

So long as a mystery hangs over the origin of the Book of Mor-
mon, so long will the name of Solomon Spaulding be associated
with a creed which was formulated years after his death, and with
a church of which he never heard. The claim put forward with
such certainty by some, and denied with equal vigor by others, that
it was upon a heavy and else forgotten romance of his that the
Mormon book was founded, has rescued him from oblivion, and
made him one of the unsolved enigmas of the century. Fate has
indeed reserved him to a unique fame, so different from that to
which his natural aspirations turned. The story may be briefly
told, although volumes have been devoted to it. Mr. Spaulding
was born in Ashford, Conn., in 1761 ; graduated at Dartmouth Col-
lege in 17S5 ; became a minister of the Congregational Church;
preached for a while, and then because of ill-health gave his time to
mercantile pursuits ; failed, and in 1809 removed to Salem — now
Conneaut — Ohio, where he made another business venture that was
no more successful than the first. With enforced leisure upon his
hands, and a strong literary faculty that demanded use, he wrote
much ; taking as his theme the prehistoric inhabitants of America,
and making his imagination furnish that information which the
then discovered facts of Archaeology did not supply. In 1812, in
the hope that a publisher might be found for what he had written,
he removed to Pittsburgh, and took his manuscript to the printing-
office of Rev. Robert Patterson, to see if arrangements could not
be made to that end. As he had no means of his own, and as the
publisher could see no chance of success for the venture, the " His-
torical Romance " upon which his hope had been built, was not given
to the world. Broken in spirit and health, poor in pocket, and with
old age approaching, he removed to Amity, Washington County,

(265)

266 Appendix,

Pennsylvania, where he died within two years. There, recently, a
visitor who felt that life had not dealt altogether fairly with the
poor old man, and that history had not always been considerate
in the use of his name, went into the deserted little g^raveyard,
and under the moss of a crumbling stone, discovered this inscrip-
tion, and rescued it from an early oblivion :

IN MEMORY OF

Solomon Spaulding, who departed this life

October 2oth, a.d. i8i6.

Aged 55 years.

Kind cherubs, guard the sleeping clay,
Until the great decision day.
And saints complete in glory rise
To share the triumphs of the skies.

The claim is put forth, and supported by a great deal of direct if
not conclusive evidence, that the manuscript of the Spaulding book
was left in Patterson's printing-office ; that Sidney Rigdon came
into possession of the original or a copy ; that he was thrown into
connection with Joseph Smith ; and that chance, circumstances,
deep cunning, a keen eye to the main chance, and a public anxious
to be duped by any religious vagary that might present itself, per-
formed the rest. Many witnesses have been placed on record as
deposing that parts of the Book of Mormon are identical with the
romance of Solomon Spaulding, as read to them by the author
during the long leisure of winter, in pioneer days. An analysis of
the testimony pro or con. is foreign to the purpose of this book ;
but those who have the desire to pursue the matter to the limits of
all information now extant, are referred to the following works,
devoted entirely to this phase of Mormon history : The pamphlet
publication, written by the son of the Robert Patterson above re-
ferred to, " Who Wrote The Book of Mormon," by Robert Patter-
son, Pittsburgh, 1882 ; and " New Light on Mormonism," by Mrs.
Ellen E. Dickenson, New York, 1885.

B.

MARTIN HARRIS AND CHARLES ANTHON.
Rev. Mr, Clark, in " Gleanings by the Way," pp. 222 to 238,
lets a flood of light in upon this episode of Mormonism : " It was

Appendix. 267

early in the autumn of 1827 " (quoting Mr. Clark's personal expe-
rience) "that Martin Harris called at my house in Palmyra, one
morning about sunrise. His whole appearance indicated more
than usual excitement, and he had scarcely passed the threshold of
my dwelling before he inquired whether he could see me alone, re-
marking that he had a matter to communicate that he wished to
be strictly confidential. Previous to this I had but very slight ac-
quaintance with Mr. Harris. He had occasionally attended divine

service at our church I invited him to accompany me to

my study, where, after having closed the door, he began to draw a
package out of his pocket with great and manifest caution. Sud-
denly, however, he stopped, and wished to know if there was any
possibility of our being interrupted or overheard. When answered
in the negative, he proceeded to remark that he reposed great con-
fidence in me as a minister of Jesus Christ, and that what he had
now to communicate he wished me to regard as strictly confidential.
He said he verily believed that an important epoch had arrived.
.... The whole thing appeared to me so ludicrous and puerile,
that I could not refrain from telling Mr. Harris that I believed it a
mere hoax, got up to practice upon his credulity, or an artifice to
extort from him money ; for I had already, in the course of the
conversation, learned that he had advanced some twenty-five dol-
lars to Jo Smith as a sort of premium for sharing with him in the

glories and profits of this new revelation My intimations to

him in reference to the possible imposition that was being practiced
upon him, however, were indignantly repelled He then care-
fully unfolded a slip of paper which contained three or four lines of
characters, as unlike letters or hieroglyphics of any sort as well
could be produced were one to shut up his eyes and play off the
most antic movements with his pen upon paper My igno-
rance of the characters in which this pretended ancient record was
written, was to Martin Harris new proof that Smith's whole account
of the divine revelation made to him was entirely to be relied on.
.... He was so much in earnest on this subject, that he imme-
diately started off with some of the manuscripts that Smith fur-
nished him, on a journey to New York and Washington, to consult
some learned men to ascertain the nature of the language in which
this record was engraven The Rev. Dr. Coit, rector of Trin-
ity Church, New Rochelle, Westchester County, N. Y., hearing thai
the Mormons in that place .... were claiming the patronage of
Professor Anthon's name in behalf of their notions, took the liberty

2C)S Appendix.

to state the fact to him, and ask in what possible way they had con-
trived to associate him with themselves. In reply to this inquiry
Professor Anthon wrote the letter above referred to [first published
in The Church Record'\ which we here insert :

" ' New York, April 3, 1841.
•' ' Rev. and dear Sir:— I have often heard that the Mormons
claimed me for an auxiliary, but as no one until the present time
has ever requested from me a statement in writing, I have not
deemed it worth while to say anything publicly on the subject.
What I do know of the sect relates to some of their early move-
ments ; and as the facts may amuse you, while they will furnish a
satisfactory answer to the charge of my being a Mormon proselyte,
I proceed to lay them before you in detail. Many years ago, the
precise date I do not now recollect, a plain-looking countryman
called upon me with a letter from Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, request-
ing me to examine and give my opinion upon a certain paper,
marked with various characters, which the doctor confessed he
could not decipher, and which the bearer of the note was very
anxious to have explained. A very brief examination of the paper
convinced me that it was a mere hoax, and a very clumsy one too.
The characters were arranged in columns like the Chinese mode of
writing, and presented the most singular medley that I ever beheld.
Greek, Hebrew, and all sorts of letters more or less distorted,
either through unskilfulness, or from actual design, were intermin-
gled with sundry delineations of half-moons, stars, and other nat-
ural objects, and the whole ended in a rude representation of the
Mexican zodiac. The conclusion was irresistible that some cunning
fellow had prepared the paper in question, for the purpose of im-
posing upon the countryman who brought it, and I told the man
so, without any hesitation. He then proceeded to give me a his-
tory of the whole affair, which convinced me that he had fallen into
the hands of some sharper, while it left me in great astonishment
at his own simplicity. [Professor Anthon here repeats the story
of the golden plates, as told by Smith and repeated by Harris.]
On my telling the bearer of the paper that an attempt had been
made to impose on him and defraud him of his property, he re-
quested me to give him my opinion in writing about the paper
v^hich he had shown to me. I did so without hesitation, partly for
the man's sake, and partly to let the individual "behind the cur-
tain" see 'that his trick was discovered. The import of what I

Appendix. 269

wrote was, as far as I can now recollect, simply this, that the
marks in the paper appeared to be merely an imitation of various
alphabetical characters, and had, in my opinion, no meaning at all
connected with them. The countryman then took his leave, with
many thanks, and with the express declaration that he would in no
shape part with his farm, or embark in the speculation of printing
the golden book. [Professor Anthon here describes a second call,
at a later date, and his refusal to accept a copy of the newly-pub-
lished Book of Mormon, or have anything to do with it.] That
the Prophet aided me by his inspiration in interpreting the volume,
is only one of the many amusing falsehoods which the Mormonites
utter relative to my participation in their doctrines. Of these doc-
trines I know nothing whatever, nor have I ever heard a single
discourse from any one of their preachers, although I have often
felt a strong curiosity to become an auditor, since my friends tell
me that they frequently name me in their sermons, and even go so
far as to say that I am alluded to in the prophecies of Scripture !
If what I have here written shall prove of any service in opening
the eyes of some of their deluded followers to the real designs of
those who profess to be the apostles of Mormonism, it will afford
me a satisfaction, equalled, I have no doubt, only by that which
you yourself will feel on this subject.

" * I remain very respectfully and truly, your friend,

" ' Charles Anthon.
" ' Rtv. Dr. Coit,

•* ' New Roc he lie, N. V. ' "

c.

THE DANITES.

The dark deeds of the " Danites " belong properly to the days of
Salt Lake, but that the organization already existed in Missouri
and there performed its bloody work, seems to be proved, in spite
of Joseph Smith's emphatic denial. When Thomas B. Marsh, the
chief of the Twelve Apostles, left the Mormon Church, he made an
affidavit, under date of October 24, 183S, before Henry Jacobs, a
justice of the peace for Ray County, Missouri, in which he used
the following words : " They have among them a company, con-
sidered true Mormons, called the Danites, who have taken an oath

2/0 Appendix.

to support the heads of the Church in all things that they say or
do, whether right or wrong." To this Orson Hyde, at that time at
war with the Church, added his testimony, in a like oath, in which
he said : *' The most of the statements in the foregoing disclosure
I know to be true ; the remainder I believe to be true." John
Hyde, also an apostate Mormon, in his " Mormonism," p. 104,
says : " When the citizens of Carroll and Davis Counties, Missouri,
began to threaten the Mormons with expulsion in 1838, a death
society was organized, under the direction of Sidney Rigdon, and
with the sanction of Smith. Its first captain was Captain ' Fearnot '
alias David Patten, an apostle. Its object was the punishment of
the obnoxious. Some time elapsed before finding a suitable name.
They desired one that should seem to combine spiritual authority
with a suitable sound. Micah iv. 13 furnished the first name,
' Arise, and thresh, O daughter of Zion ; for I will make thy horn
iron, and thy hoofs brass ; and thou shalt beat in pieces many peo-
ple : and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their sub-
stance unto the Lord of the whole earth.' This furnished them
with a pretext ; it accurately described their intentions, and they
called themselves the ' Daughters of Zion.' Some ridicule was
made at these bearded and bloody ' daughters,' and the name did
not sit easily. ' Destroying Angels,' came next ; the ' Big Fan '
of the thresher that * should thoroughly purge the floor,' was tried
and dropped. Genesis xlix. 17 furnished the name that they finally
assumed. The verse is quite significant : * Dan shall be a serpent by
the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the heels, so that his
rider shall fall backward.' The ' Sons of Dan ' was the style they
adopted ; and many have been the times that they have been adders
in the path, and many a man has fallen backward, and has been seen
no more. At Salt Lake, among themselves, they ferociously exult
in these things, rather than seek to deny or extenuate them."
Were testimony needed to prove the existence of this body, it
could be produced in abundance. John D. Lee, the Mormon bishop,
in his Confessions, on p. 57, says : " At the same conference (that
of 1838) another organization was perfected, or then first formed —
it was called the Danites. The members of this order were placed
under the most sacred obligations that language could invent. They
were sworn to stand by and sustain each other. Sustain, protect,
defend, and obey, the leaders of the Church under any and all cir-
cumstances unto death ; and to disobey the orders of the leaders of
the Church, or divulge the name of a Danite to an outsider, or to

Appendix. 271

make public any of the secrets of the order of Danites, was to
be punished with death. And I can say of a truth, many have paid
the penalty for failing to keep their covenants." For more light
upon this subject see the little work " Brigham's Destroying Angel;
being the Life, Confessions, and Startling Disclosures of the No-
torious Bill Hickman, the Danite Chief of Utah," written by him-
self, with explanatory notes by J. H. Beadle, New York, 1872.

D.

POLYGAMY

That the plural-wife system had no part in the Mormon doctrine
of early days, is a matter of evidence and record, as it is com-
manded in a revelation that a man shall have only one wife, and
cleave unto her. Polygamy may, therefore, be regarded as an out-
growth of the enlarged powers and opportunities of later days.
When Bennett, the Higbees, and other members of the Mormon
Church apostatized at Nauvoo, and made their furious attacks upon
the whole Mormon scheme, one of their main points of argument
was that the system of spiritual wifehood was already in secret
practice, and that under the guise of celestial marriage, Smith and
other leaders of the Church were living in adultery with scores of
women. Addressing a public ready to believe that Mormonism
was a cloak for the covering of any abomination known to man,
they had no difficulty in securing belief for their charges ; turning
against the Church the whole moral and religious sentiment of the
country. The revelation commanding polygamy was first published
in the Deseret News Extra, of Salt Lake City, on September 14,
1852 ; although given, as the Church claimed, to Joseph Smith at
Nauvoo, on July 12, 1843. The sons of Smith, and the members
of the Reorganized Church of Latter-Day Saints, deny not only the
charges of Bennett et al. as to the Prophet's immoral practices, but
all reputed connection of his with the revelation itself ; claiming
that the latter was a device invented by Young to defend his own
practices, and cunningly given on the authority of Smith that it
might carry greater weight with the Church. " The Mormon his-
tory relates," says Mr. Beadle, in "Life in Utah," p. 337, "that
when the full force of the new covenant was perceived the Prophet
was filled with astonishment and dread. All the traditions of his

2/2 Appendix.

early education were overthrown, and yet he felt that it was the
work of the Lord. In vain he sought to be released from the bur-
den of communicating the new doctrine to the world, and at length
obtained permission to keep it secret, as yet, from all but the
Twelve Apostles, and a few other leading men. As the hour
approached when he was to meet them in council, horror and fear
of what might be the result, overcame him, and he hastily mounted
his horse and fled from the city. But a mighty angel met him on
the road, stood in the way with a drawn sword, and with awful
voice and offended mien, bade him return." Whether the work of
Smith or Young, the revelation was not announced to the Church
until on August 29, 1852, when Brigham made it public, and
preached a sermon commanding obedience to its requirements —
paving the way for others by himself becoming eventually the pos-
sessor of nineteen wives. The effect upon the people of Utah
was not marked, as they only now saw the open doing of what
they had long known in secret, but elsewhere it became an imme-
diate damage to the Church, and the forerunner of many ills in the
future — of which the recently passed Edmunds law, and the prose-
cutions and convictions thereunder are not the least. " In Eng-
land, especially," says Mr. Beadle, in continuation of the above,
"the demoralization was fearful ; hundreds after hundreds aposta-
tized, whole churches and conferences dissolved ; talented knaves
in many instances, finding in this the excuse for going off without
surrendering the money-bags which they held. The missions en-
tirely disappeared in many parts of Europe, and even in America,
thousands of new converts who had not gone to Zion turned away
and joined the Josephites, Gladdenites, Strangites, and other sects
of recusant Mormons." The practical and theological sides of the
system are thus briefly condensed by the same author — who has re-
sided in Salt Lake City for a number of years, and made of Utah
Mormonism a practical study : "Of their theology as it relates to
polygamy, but little need be added. It is so thoroughly grafted
into and interwoven with their whole system, that at no point can
one be touched without attacking the other. Polygamy is not, as
recusant Mormons assert, a mere addition by Brigham Young to
the original faith ; it is a necessary and logical outgrowth of the
system. If Mormonism be true, their polygamy is right ; for 'pre-
existence of the soul,' ' progression of the gods,' and all other
peculiarities of the system, depend by a thousand combinations
and inter-relations upon the plurality system. A man's or worn-

Appendix. 273

an's glory in eternity, is to depend upon the size cf the family
for a woman to remain childless is a sin and calamity, and she
cannot secure * exaltation ' as the vvife of a Gentile or an apostate ;
her husband's rank in eternity must greatly depend upon the num-
ber of his wives, and she will share in that glory whatever it is.
All this points unerringly to polygamy. Hence, also, the last fea-
ture of this complex and unnatural relationship known as ' spiritual
wives,' which is to be understood as follows : Any woman, having
an earthly husband of whose final exaltation she is in doubt, may be
' sealed for eternity ' to some prominent Mormon, who will raise

her and make her a part of his final kingdom By ' marriage

for the dead ' living women are sealed to dead men, and vice versa,

some one standing proxy for the deceased So a man may have

a wife 'for time' who belongs to some man already dead 'for
eternity,' in which case all the children will belong to the latter in
eternity, the living man merely ' raising up seed unto his dead
brother.' To such lengths of vain imaginings may a credulous
people be led by artful impostors."

THE MORMONS OF SALT LAKE.

There were many claimants for the position of prophet and presi-
dent made vacant by the death of Joseph Smith, but, as in many
other cases, he who was wise enough to claim the least, eventually
received the most. William Smith claimed the succession because
he was the prophet's brother ; Sidney Rigdon began to have visions
and dream dreams, and announced himself as the chosen one ;
James Jesse Strang advanced his right, under special commission
from Joseph; while Lyman Wight, Gladden Bishop, John E. Page,
and others, began to feel the spirit of prophecy, and announced
themselves as ready to take the lead. But Brigham Young, ad-
vancing no special plea of spiritual direction, and depending upon
that strong common-sense that aided him in so many emergencies,
came home to Nauvoo as rapidly as possible, took matters into his
own hands, and by his courage and address saved the society and
the Church from going to pieces. He caused the Twelve Apostles,
of whom he was head, to issue on August 15th an " Encyclical let-
ter to all the Saints in the world," and on October 7th a general

2/4 Appendix.

council was held at Nauvoo. Under his advice it was decided that
for the present the government should be in the hands of the
Twelve, which lodged the chief executive power in the strong hands
of Young. Rigdon's claims were derided, while he, and those who
had sided with him, were cut off from the Church and sent forever
adrift. Young addressed himself with energy to the repair of the
shattered fortunes of the Saints, hastened the completion of the
temple, and used his best endeavors to keep peace with the hostile
elements now ranged all about the fold. But the enmity was too
deep and lasting to wear easily away. The politicians of fllinois
had no further hope from the Mormon vote, and accordingly the
General Assembly repealed the charter of Nauvoo. Warned by the
signs of the times, the Mormon leaders decided to emigrate to
some place in the far West. In 1846 a number emigrated to
Council Bluflfs, Iowa ; while those who remained behind were
driven from Nauvoo by force, and compelled, in a large measure,
to abandon their homes and possessions. Meanwhile men had
been sent forward to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, in Utah ;
and as their report was favorable, Young gathered up all who
would trust themselves to his guidance, and led them across the
hills and plains to a place that in those days was far beyond the
confines of even such semi-civilization as that of Missouri and
Iowa. Salt Lake City was founded, and the barren wilderness was
made to blossom as the rose. The weaker brethren who had re-
mained behind, came on in numbers, while great accessions were
received through the labors of missionaries who had been sent
abroad. In March, 1849, a State was organized, under the name
of Deseret, the "land of the honey-bee." A legislature was
chosen and a constitution framed, and an application made to the
General Government for admission to the Union. The plea was
refused, but as a compromise, the country occupied by the Mor-
mons was, in 1850, organized into the Territory of Utah, and Brig-
ham Young appointed Governor. A United States court for the
Territory was organized and judges appointed, but were not al-
lowed to exercise their functions when they arrived at Salt Lake.
Young was suspended, and Colonel Steptoe, of the United Stales
army, appointed in his stead. A conflict between the Government
and Mormons was carried on — in which armed forces on both sides
confronted each other at times — until 1858, when the Mormons sub-
mitted to Federal authority, on condition that all past offenses
against the Government should be pardoned. On the conclusion

Appendix, 275

of the war of the Rebellion a Federal governor was again ap-
pointed, and in 187 1 a law was passed declaring polygamy to be a
criminal offense ; although the statute was for a long time a dead
letter. Young remained the head of the Church, an absolute auto-
crat in matters spiritual and temporal, until his death on August
29, 1S77. He left a fortune of two million dollars, and nineteen
wives and fifty-six children. He was succeeded in office by Elder
John Taylor, who remained at the head of the Church until his
death in the summer of 1887. Since then no formal choice of a
successor has been made. From the time that the newly-formed
Republican party in its first national platform adopted in 1856
referred to " those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slaver}"-,"
to the present, many efforts have been made by the Government
and people to limit the power and influence of the Mormon Church,
and avert the dangers its existence and growth so surely threatened.
An estimate of the strength of the Mormon organization may be
given as follows : The population of Utah, at the last enumeration,
was 147,000, of whom 123,000 are Mormons ; but as adherents of
the Church are scattered all over the world, it is impossible to
arrive at a just idea of their numerical strength. They have of late
years made considerable progress in Idaho, Arizona, Colorado,
Montana, Wyoming, and Washington Territories, and their num-
ber in the United States outside of Utah cannot fall much below
27,000. In Europe they have also many adherents, and their num-
ber the world over cannot be less than 213,000.

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