THE RISE AND FALL OF NAUVOO.
BY ELDER B. H. ROBERTS,
AUTHOR OF "OUTLINES OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY," "A NEW WITNESS FOR GOD,"
"THE MISSOURI PERSECUTIONS," "THE GOSPEL," "SUCCESSION
IN THE PRESIDENCY," ETC.
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH:
THE DESERET NEWS, PUBLISHERS.
1900.
PREFACE.
THE RISE AND FALL OF NAUVOO is a companion volume and stands in historical sequence to "The Missouri Persecutions." It was written with the same object in view, viz., "To place in the hands of the youth of the Latter-day Saints a full statement of the persecutions endured by the early members of The Church in this last dispensation; * * * that they may be made acquainted with the sacrifices which their fathers have made for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ." And I indulge the same hope with reference to this book that I did with respect to "The Missouri Persecutions," viz., that by "becoming acquainted with the story of the sufferings of the early Saints, the faith of the Gospel will become all the more dear to the hearts of their immediate posterity, and all the youth of Zion, for many generations to come."[[1]]
THE AUTHOR.
Footnotes
[1]. See Preface to "The Missouri Persecutions."
CONTENTS.
Nauvoo
The Reception of the Exiles in Illinois
Commerce-Land Purchases
"As Flies in the Ointment"
Political Agitation
A Day of God's Power
Departure of the Twelve for England
The "Times and Seasons"
An Appeal to the General Government for Redress of Grievances
Orson Hyde's Mission to Jerusalem
Death's Harvest in Nauvoo—Return of Prodigals
John C. Bennett
Renewal of Hostilities by Missouri
Founding a City
The Nauvoo Legion
Reconstruction of Quorums—the Nauvoo House and the Temple
The Conference of April 6th, 1841
Prophet's Trial at Monmouth
Events of the Summer of 1841
Introduction of the New Marriage System
Camp Followers—Bankruptcy
Suspicions of Treachery
Attempted Assassination of Governor Boggs
The Prophet's Trial at Springfield—Missouri Again Thwarted
Incidents of the Trial and Acquittal
Doctrinal Development at Nauvoo—Interpretation of the Scriptures
Doctrinal Development at Nauvoo—the Kingdom of God and the Resurrection
Doctrinal Development—Prophecies
Doctrinal Development at Nauvoo—of the Being and Nature of God
Doctrinal Development at Nauvoo—Miscellaneous Items
The Prophet Arrested on Missouri's old Charge
Minor Matters in the New Move Against the Prophet
Political Perplexities—Joseph Smith a Candidate for President of the United States
The Projected Movement to the West
The Standard of Peace
"In Peril Among False Brethren"
Compliance with the Demands of Governor Ford
The Martyrdom
Confusion—Choosing a Leader
The Trial of the Murderers
The Exodus—the Fall of Nauvoo
Correspondence Between Joseph Smith and John C. CALHOUN
Clay's Letter to Joseph Smith and the Latter's Reply
Joseph Smith's Views of the Power and Policy of the Government of the United States
An Account of the Martyrdom of Joseph Smith, by President John Taylor
INTRODUCTION.
Once in an ancient city, * * *
Raised aloft on a column, a brazen statue of Justice
Stood in the public square, upholding the scales in its left hand,
And in its right hand a sword, as an emblem that justice presided
Over the laws of the land, and the hearts and the homes of the people.
But in the course of time the laws of the land were corrupted;
Might took the place of right, and the weak were oppressed, and the mighty—
Ruled with an iron rod.—Evangeline.
QUEEN ANNE'S war was brought to a close by the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713. By this treaty the French province, Nova Scotia, was ceded by France to England; and, of course, the inhabitants, nearly exclusively French, and numbering some three thousand, became subjects of Great Britain. Less than half a century later, when the French and Indian war broke out, the French population had increased to eighteen thousand—outnumbering the English three to one. In fact the presence of the English amounted to nothing more than a military occupation of the peninsula. These French peasants, usually called Acadians, had brought under cultivation large tracts of land; owned about sixty thousand head of cattle; had built neat cottage homes, established peaceful hamlets, and lived in a state of plenty, but great simplicity. They were reputed to be a peaceable, industrious, and amiable race; governed mostly by their pastors, who exercised a paternal authority over them.
Thus dwelt together in love these simple Acadian farmers—
Dwelt in the love of God and of man. Alike were they free from
Fear, that reigns with the tyrant, and envy, the vice of republics.
Neither locks had they to their doors, nor bars to their windows;
But their dwellings were open as day, and the hearts of their owners;
There the richest were poor, and the poorest lived in abundance.
When the French and Indian war broke out, these people were quietly cultivating their farms, and manifested no warlike disposition. Still, the deputy governor of the province, Lawrence by name, pretended to fear an insurrection, should the French in Canada attempt an invasion of Acadia. Therefore when General Braddock met in council with the colonial governors at Alexandria, Lawrence urged the assembly to do something to overawe the French, and strengthen the English authority. A plan to humiliate the Acadians was decided upon, and placed in the hands of the infamous deputy governor, Lawrence, and Colonel Monckton to execute.
A fleet of forty vessels with three thousand regular troops on board, left Boston in May, 1755, and after a successful voyage anchored in Chignecto Bay. Landing their troops, they besieged Fort Beau-Sejour, which had been erected by the French, on the isthmus connecting Nova Scotia with New Brunswick. After a feeble resistance the fort capitulated, and in less than a month, with the loss of only twenty men, the English had made themselves masters of the whole country. The inglorious campaign was ended, but the fact still existed that the obnoxious Acadians outnumbered the English; and the question remained as it was before the invasion. The deputy governor convened a council "to consider what disposal of the Acadians the security of the country required." The result of the deliberations was this: The security of the country required the banishment of the entire French population!
Lawrence and his associates soon invented a scheme which furnished an excuse for carrying into effect this infamous order. An oath of allegiance was formulated to which the Acadians as consistent Catholics could not subscribe, without doing violence to their consciences. They refused to take the oath, but declared their loyalty to the English government. This they were told was insufficient. At one fell stroke they were adjudged guilty of treason, and the surrender of their boats and firearms demanded. To these acts of tyranny the Acadians submitted. They even offered to take the oath first required of them, but the deputy governor said the day of grace was past; that once having refused to take it, they must now endure the consequences.
Their lands, houses and cattle were declared forfeited: their peaceful hamlets were laid waste; their houses given to the flames; the fruits of years of honest industry and strict economy were wantonly destroyed, and the people driven to the larger coast towns. In one district two hundred and thirty-six houses were burned to the ground at once. Part of the inhabitants who had escaped to the woods beheld all they possessed wickedly destroyed by bands of marauders, without making any resistance until their place of worship was wantonly set on fire. Exasperated by this unhallowed deed, they rushed from their hiding places, killed about thirty of the incendiaries, and retreated to the woods.
To render this scheme of tyrannical banishment completely effective, further treachery was necessary. In each district the people were commanded to meet at a certain place and day on important business, the nature of which was carefully concealed from them, until they were assembled and surrounded by English troops; then the inhuman edict of banishment was announced to the heart-broken peasants. Very little time was allowed them for preparation. In mournful crowds they were driven to the beach. Women with white faces pressed their babes to their hearts; children dumb with terror clung to their parents; the aged and the infirm as well as the young and strong shared the common fate.
At the large village of Grand Pre, when the moment for embarkation arrived, the young men, who were placed in the front, refused to move; but files of troops with fixed bayonets forced obedience. As soon as they were on board the British shipping, heavy columns of black smoke ascending from Grand Pre announced to the wretched Acadians the destruction of their lovely village.
The embarkation of these peasants, and the burning of Grand Pre is thus described by Longfellow:
Thus to the Gaspereau's mouth moved on that mournful procession.
There disorder prevailed, and the tumult and stir of embarking.
Busily plied the freighted boats; and in the confusion
Wives were torn from their husbands, and mothers, too late, saw their children
Left on the land, extending their arms with wildest entreaties.* * * * * * * * * * *
Suddenly rose from the South a light, as in Autumn the blood red
Moon climbs the crystal walls of heaven, and o'er the horizon
Titan-like, stretches its hundred hands upon mountain and meadow,
Seizing the rocks and the rivers, and piling huge shadows together;
Broader and ever broader it gleamed on the roofs of the village,
Gleamed on the sky and the sea, and the ships that lie in the road stead.
Columns of shining smoke uprose and flashes of flame were
Thrust through their folds and withdrawn, like the quivering hands of a martyr.
Then as the winds seized the gleeds and the burning thatch, and, uplifting,
Whirled them aloft through the air, at once from a hundred housetops
Started the sheeted smoke with flashes of flame intermingled.
These things beheld in dismay the crowd on the shore and on shipboard.
Speechless at first they stood, then cried aloud in their anguish,
"We shall behold no more our homes in the village of Grand Pre."
The property which had before escaped the hands of the spoilers was now laid waste on the plea of discouraging the return of the exiles, who, through their blinding tears, saw the land of their homes and their hopes fade from view.
No preparations had been made for their settlement elsewhere; nor did they receive any compensation for their property from which they were forced, or that had been wickedly destroyed. In a starving and penniless state, they were put ashore in small groups at different points along the coast of New England, where many of them perished through the hardships they endured. A pathetic representation of their wrongs was addressed to the English government, and by reference to solemn treaties made between them and the provincial government, they proved their banishment to be "as faithless as it was cruel." "No attention, however," says Marcus Wilson, "was paid to this document, and so guarded a silence was preserved by the government of Nova Scotia upon the subject of the removal of the Acadians, that the records of the province make no allusion whatever to the event."
After the close of the French and Indian war, France ceded all her possessions in Canada to victorious England. The case of the Acadians was again brought before the English government, but no compensation was ever allowed them for the outrages committed against them. The property of which they were ruthlessly plundered was never restored. They were allowed to return to the province, and, on taking the customary oaths, could receive lands; but of the eighteen thousand that were banished, less than two thousand returned:
Still stands the forest primeval; but under the shade of its branches
Dwells another race, with other customs and language.
Only along the shore of the mournful and misty Atlantic
Linger a few Acadian peasants, whose fathers from exile
Wandered back to their native land to die in its bosom.
For such atrocious acts as these, we find no apologist among our historians. On every hand they meet with execration. Such wanton cruelty—such palpable violations of human rights are stains upon the escutcheon of the nation that permits them to be perpetrated within her borders.
It is quite generally supposed that such atrocious crimes as this against the French peasants of Acadia are only to be met with in former ages or among non-Christian countries. But in writing the history of the Rise and Fall of Nauvoo—strange as it may appear, and almost past believing—it is my task to relate events which have taken place in the nineteenth century, in this age of boasted enlightenment and toleration, that shall make the expulsion of the French peasants from Acadia pale in comparison with them; events which have occurred in the United States, the boasted asylum for the oppressed of all nations; events which would be more in keeping with the intolerance of the dark ages and the cruelty of Spain, during the reign of the inquisition, than in this age and in this nation. What events are these that so thunder in the index? Such deeds as outrage humanity, and well-nigh destroy one's confidence in human governments; mock justice; deride the claims of mercy; and pull down the wrath of an offended God upon the people who perform them, and upon the government which allows them to go unwhipped of justice. Listen to the history of the Rise and Fall of Nauvoo.
THE RISE AND FALL OF NAUVOO.
CHAPTER I.
NAUVOO.
THE history of the Rise and Fall of Nauvoo is worthy the attention of the readers of this book because its story is connected with one of the most important religious movements of this or any other age; and with the life and death of one of the world's greatest and most unique characters, the Prophet Joseph Smith. It is worthy of the reader's attention because the religious institution founded under God by this man—the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—survives him, and presents to the world the greatest religious wonder of the age, a right conception of which cannot be formed without a knowledge of this Nauvoo period of the history of The Church; a period which is essentially a formative one, especially in regard to what may be considered the higher and more complex doctrines of Mormonism. It was in Nauvoo that Joseph Smith reached the summit of his remarkable career. It was in Nauvoo he grew bolder in the proclamation of those doctrines which stamp Mormonism as the great religion of the age. It was in Nauvoo that Joseph Smith's life expanded into that eloquent fullness which gives so much promise of what that man will be in eternity. It was in Nauvoo he contended against a world of opposition; against the power of falsehood and misrepresentation; against priestcraft; against corruption in high places; from here he corresponded with statesman, and rebuked demagogues; from here he went to martyrdom—to seal his testimony with his blood. And after his death, it was from here his people fled to the wilderness in the most remarkable exodus of modern times. The Church fled into the wilderness—not, however to be hidden from the world, but to be lifted up on high as an ensign to the nations, to be as a city sitting upon a hill that cannot be hid, but on the contrary, from its lofty eminence challenges the attention of the world. In Illinois, as in Missouri, the religious toleration guaranteed in the Constitutions of both the State of Illinois and of the United States—religious toleration, at once the boast and pride of Americans, and also the test of true enlightenment and the highest civilization—this vaunted toleration was in Nauvoo put to the test and found wanting. That is, before the exodus of The Church from Nauvoo, it became evident that a people accepting what to their neighbors was a singular faith, and one that was unpopular withal, could not live in peace among their fellow-citizens of other faiths, and hence the exodus, not only from Nauvoo but from the entire State of Illinois and also from the United States. The Latter-day Saints, in a word, were expatriated from the United States,[[1]] and sought an asylum in the wilderness, and among tribes of savages. From whence, after half a century, that same Church emerges, enlarged, prosperous, more firmly rooted in safety and in strength of faith than ever before—a greater enigma to the religious world than when it made its exodus from Illinois.
All these things have a relation to Nauvoo, for The Church had a sort of second birth there, which makes the Rise and Fall of Nauvoo a theme of peculiar interest to those interested in what the world calls Mormonism, and who is not or should not be interested in a religious movement of such proportions, of such pretensions and of such achievements in the face of such opposition as it has met? * * * * * *
Nauvoo, then, its rise and its fall, is to be the subject of my discourse. The word Nauvoo comes from the Hebrew, and signifies beautiful situation; "carrying with it also," says the prophet Joseph Smith, "the idea of rest." And, indeed, the location of the city is beautiful. No sooner does one come in view of it than he exclaims, "It is rightly named!" The city, or at least the marred remains of it, stands on a bold point around which sweeps the placid yet majestic "Father of Waters"—the Mississippi. The city is at least half encircled by that noble stream. From its banks the ground rises gradually for at least a mile where it reaches the common level of the prairie that stretches out to the eastward, farther than the eye can reach, in a beautifully undulating surface, once covered by a luxuriant growth of natural grasses and wild flowers, with here and there patches of timber; but now chequered with meadows, and, at the time of my visit, in 1885, with fields of waving corn.
Opposite Nauvoo, on the west bank of the river, the bluffs rise rather abruptly, almost from the water's edge, and are covered, for the most part, with a fine growth of timber. Nestling at the foot of one of the highest of these bluffs, and immediately on the bank of the river, is the little village of Montrose, to which I shall have occasion to refer in these pages. Back of these bluffs before mentioned, roll off the alternate prairie and woodlands of Iowa. Between Montrose and Nauvoo, and perhaps two thirds of the distance across the river from the Illinois side, is an island, from three-fourths of a mile to a mile in length, and from fifty to one or two hundred yards in width, having its greatest extent north and south.
Nauvoo is situated just at the head of what are usually called the Des Moines Rapids, about one hundred and ninety miles above St. Louis. These rapids were a serious obstacle to the navigation of the Mississippi at this point, in an early day, as in the season of low water they could not be passed by the steamboats plying the river. This difficulty of late, however, has been obviated by the general government building a fine canal, running parallel with the west bank of the river, from Keokuk to Montrose, a distance of twelve or fifteen miles. I was unable to learn the cost of the construction, but judge it must have required at least several millions of dollars.
Such is the location of Nauvoo; such its immediate surroundings. It now remains for me to relate the events which led to the establishment of a thriving city on the site we have briefly described; how it was converted from a sickly wilderness to the most desirable section of the great State of Illinois; and then how, through acts of injustice and treachery, some of its principal founders were murdered and the rest of its inhabitants cruelly driven from the city by mob violence into the wilderness; and how the city sank from its prosperous condition, to become the semi-desolate place it is today; and, what is of more importance, to trace the development of that faith taught by Joseph Smith, which is destined to become, and indeed now is, one of the world's great religions.
Footnotes
[1]. When the Mormon Pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake valley, that whole intermountain region still belonged to the republic of Mexico.
CHAPTER II.
THE RECEPTION OF THE EXILES IN ILLINOIS.
IN what is properly a companion volume to this—"The Missouri Persecutions"—I have told how the Latter-day Saints were driven from Missouri under a threat of extermination from the executive of that State, Lilburn W. Boggs. When fleeing from Missouri, where they had suffered so much from mob violence, and from the State government officials, the Mormon exiles crossed the Mississippi into the State of Illinois, at the point near where the city of Quincy is located—in fact, at the Quincy Ferry. Their destitute condition, together with the injustice they had suffered in Missouri—the spectacle of a people in free America being driven from their homes and exiled from one of the States of the American Union because of religious beliefs—aroused the indignation and excited the sympathy of the people of Quincy and vicinity. A kind reception was given to the exiles by the people of this section of Illinois, one very similar to that given to many of the same people by the inhabitants of Clay County, when a cruel persecution had driven some twelve hundred of them from their homes in Jackson County, Missouri, five years before.[[1]] The Democratic Association of Quincy was especially active in the interests of the exiles. In the month of February a meeting was called by this association to inquire into the situation of the Mormon exiles. At this first meeting all that was done was to pass a resolution, to the effect that the people called Latter-day Saints were in a situation requiring the aid of the people of Quincy. A committee of eight was appointed to call a general meeting of both citizens and Mormons, and to receive a statement from the latter of their condition, with a view to relieving their necessities. The committee was instructed to get the Congregational church in which to hold the next meeting, but the directors having in charge that building would not allow it to be used for that purpose. I speak of this to show the kind of charity existing in the breasts of some pretended followers of Him who taught that charity was the crowning virtue. Failing to secure the church, the second meeting was held in the courthouse.
At this meeting the special committee appointed at the first meeting reported its labors. The committee had received statements from Sidney Rigdon and others in relation to the expulsion of the Mormons from Missouri, and suggested a series of resolutions setting forth that the exiled strangers were entitled to the sympathy and aid of the people of Quincy;
That a numerous committee, composed of individuals from every part of the town, be appointed to allay the prejudices of the misguided citizens of Quincy, and explain that it was not the design of the exiled Saints to lower the wages of the laboring classes, but to secure something to save them from starvation;
That a standing committee be appointed to relieve, so far as in their power, the wants of the destitute and homeless; and to use their utmost endeavors to procure employment for those who were able and willing to labor.
The report closed by saying:—
We recommend to all the citizens of Quincy that in all their intercourse with the strangers, they use and observe a becoming decorum and delicacy, and be particularly careful not to indulge in any conversation or expression calculated to wound their feelings, or in any way to reflect upon those who, by every law of humanity, are entitled to our sympathy and commiseration.
This good work begun by the Democratic Association was continued by them, and substantial assistance was given to the suffering Saints through their exertions. At a subsequent meeting of the association the following resolutions were adopted:
That we regard the right of conscience as natural and inalienable, and the most sacredly guaranteed by the Constitution of our free government;
That we regard the acts of all mobs in violation of law; and those who compose them individually responsible, both to the laws of God and man, for every depredation committed upon the property, rights, or life of any citizen;
That the inhabitants upon the western frontier of the State of Missouri, in their late persecution of the people denominated Mormons, have violated the sacred rights of conscience and every law of justice and humanity;
That the governor of Missouri, in refusing protection to this class of people, when pressed upon by a heartless mob, and turning upon them a band of unprincipled militia, with orders encouraging their extermination, has brought a lasting disgrace upon the State over which he presides.
Thus with expressions of sympathy and material aid did the people of Quincy assist the exiles and bid them hope for better days. Nor was this kindly feeling confined to the people of Quincy and vicinity; it extended throughout the State; and especially was it exhibited by some of the leading men thereof, including Governor Carlin, Stephen A. Douglas, Dr. Isaac Galland and many others.
Footnotes
[1]. Missouri Persecutions, Chapter xiv.
CHAPTER III.
COMMERCE—LAND PURCHASES.
IN the fall of 1838 a brother by the name of Israel Barlow left the State of Missouri under the exterminating order of Governor Boggs. By missing his way, or, what is more likely, directed by the hand of a kind Providence, he did not leave the State by the same route as the great body of his people, but taking a northeasterly course, struck the Des Moines River a short distance above its mouth, in the Territory of Iowa. He was without food and destitute of clothing. Making his wants known to the people living in that locality, they kindly supplied him with food and raiment. To them he related the story of the persecution of the Latter-day Saints in Missouri, and how his people, poor and destitute as himself, were fleeing from the State en masse. His relation of the sufferings of the Saints, and the cruelties heaped upon them by their heartless persecutors, enlisted the sympathies of his hearers, and they gave him letters of introduction to several gentlemen, among which was one to Dr. Isaac Galland, a gentleman of some influence living at Commerce, a small settlement on the banks of the Mississippi, in Illinois, and which afterward became the site of Nauvoo.
Dr. Galland owned considerable land in Commerce, and he wrote the Saints located in Quincy that several farms could doubtless be rented in his locality, and that perhaps some fifty families could be accommodated at Commerce. In addition to this offer of lands made to The Church, another and a previous one had been made of twenty thousand acres, between the Des Moines and the Mississippi rivers. This tract could have been purchased at two dollars per acre, to be paid in twenty annual payments without interest. A conference was convened at Quincy in February, and the advisability of making the purchase and settling the Saints in a body came up for consideration. It was decided by the conference that it was not advisable to locate lands at that time.
Subsequently, however, on the ninth day of March, the Saints having received further offers of land in Illinois and Iowa, called another public meeting and appointed a committee to go and examine the lands offered. In Iowa, the people and officers of the Territory expressed a kindly feeling toward the exiled Saints. The governor of Iowa—Robert Lucas—had known the Saints in Ohio, and testified to Dr. Galland that the Mormon people, when they were in Ohio, were good citizens, and he respected them as such now, and would treat them accordingly, should they, or any part of them, decide to settle in his Territory. The statement is made in answer to a letter of inquiry on the subject of the Mormons settling in Iowa. He wrote to Dr. Isaac Galland as follows:
EXECUTIVE OFFICE, IOWA, BURLINGTON
March, 1839.DEAR SIR—On my return to this city, after a few weeks' absence in the interior of the Territory, I received your letter of the 25th ultimo, in which you give a short account of the sufferings of the people called Mormons, and ask "whether they could be permitted to purchase lands, and settle upon them, in the Territory of Iowa, and there worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences, secure from oppression," etc.
In answer to your inquiry, I would say, that I know of no authority that can constitutionally deprive them of this right. They are citizens of the United States, and are entitled to all the rights and privileges of other citizens. The 2nd section of the 4th Article of the Constitution of the United States (which all are solemnly bound to support), declares that the "citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens of the several States." This privilege extends in full force to the Territories of the United States. The first Amendment to the Constitution of the United States declares that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
The Ordinance of Congress of the 13th July, 1787, for the government of the Territory northwest of the river Ohio, secures to the citizens of said Territory, and the citizens of the States thereafter to be formed therein, certain privileges which were, by the late Act of Congress organizing the Territory of Iowa, extended to the citizens of this Territory.
The first fundamental Article in that Ordinance, which is declared to be forever unalterable, except by common consent, reads as follows, to-wit: "No person demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly manner, shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship, or religious sentiments in said Territory."
These principles, I trust, will ever be adhered to in the Territory of Iowa. They make no distinction between religious sects. They extend equal privileges and protection to all; each must rest upon its own merits, and will prosper in proportion to the purity of its principles, and the fruit of holiness and piety produced thereby.
With regard to the peculiar people mentioned in your letter, I know but little. They had a community in the northern part of Ohio for several years; and I have no recollection of ever having heard in that State of any complaints against them from violating the laws of the country. Their religious opinions, I consider, has nothing to do with our political transactions. They are citizens of the United States, and are entitled to the same political rights and legal protection that other citizens are entitled to.
The foregoing are briefly my views on the subject of your inquiries.
With sincere respect,
I am your obedient servant,
ROBERT LUCAS.To ISAAC GALLAND, Esq., Commerce, Illinois.
This communication Dr. Galland sent to the Quincy Argus, accompanied by the following note:
COMMERCE, ILLINOIS,
April 12, 1839.MESSRS. EDITORS:—Enclosed I send you a communication from Governor Lucas of Iowa Territory. If you think the publication thereof will in any way promote the cause of justice, by vindicating the slandered reputation of the people called Mormons, from the ridiculous falsehoods which the malice, cupidity and envy of their murderers in Missouri have endeavored to heap upon them, you are respectfully solicited to publish it in the Argus. The testimony of Governor Lucas as to the good moral character of these people, I think will have its deserved influence upon the people of Illinois, in encouraging our citizens in their humane and benevolent exertions to relieve this distressed people, who are now wandering in our neighborhoods without comfortable food, raiment, or a shelter from the pelting storm.
I am, gentlemen, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
ISAAC GALLAND.
In conversation with Dr. Galland, Isaac Van Allen, Esq., attorney-general for the same Territory (Iowa), gave him to understand that he would, so far as within his power, protect the Mormon people from insult and injury. It was these assurances of sympathy and protection which led to a reconsideration of the conclusion of the former conference, and the appointment of a committee to examine the lands offered. But little or nothing was ever done by this committee.
On the twenty-second of April, 1839, the Prophet Joseph joined the exiled Saints at Quincy. After a cruel imprisonment of over five months, he had escaped from his persecutors while en route from Liberty prison, Clay County, to Columbia, Boone County, to which he and his companions in prison had taken a change of venue for trial. The guards got drunk and were evidently willing for their prisoners to escape. At any rate, the Prophet, in stating the circumstance in his history, says: "We thought it a favorable opportunity to make our escape; knowing that the only object of our enemies was our destruction; and likewise knowing that a number of our brethren had been massacred by them on Shoal Creek, amongst whom were two children; and they had sought every opportunity to abuse others who were left in the State; and that they were never brought to an account for their barbarous proceedings, but were winked at and encouraged by those in authority. We thought that it was necessary for us, inasmuch as we loved our lives, and did not wish to die by the hand of murderers and assassins; and inasmuch as we loved our families and friends, to deliver ourselves from our enemies." And so the Prophet and his companions escaped and arrived in Quincy as already stated.
I need not stop to undertake a description of the scenes of this exiled people welcoming their youthful Prophet into their midst, after such trials as they had passed through, in which the strength of each man's soul and love for his brethren had been tested. The Saints had seen their Prophet and his fellow prisoners betrayed into the hands of a merciless enemy, and knew that a court-martial of the Missouri State militia had condemned him and his companions to be shot in the public square at Far West. They had seen him and his fellow-prisoners torn away from their parents and families, and their people, under circumstances the most distressing. They had been told by the haughty commander-in-chief of the mob militia forces which invested Far West—General Clark—that the doom of their leaders was sealed, and they need not expect, nor even let it enter into their hearts that they would be permitted to see them again. Many of them had seen him chained like a felon, standing before unjust judges, whose hearts were filled to overflowing with hatred towards him. Contrary to every principle of justice, he had been sent to languish in prison in the midst of his enemies; while they themselves, with bursting hearts and blinding tears, were compelled to sign away their lands and homes at the muzzle of the musket and flee from the Christian State of Missouri, under the exterminating order issued by Governor Boggs. Yet in all these trials, from the dangers of the murderous militia camps, from the malice of corrupt courts, and the injustice of drunken juries, and at last from the prison's gloom, a kind Providence had delivered him, and he was again in their midst, again with them to still their fears and direct their movements.
His presence was the signal for action. He arrived in Quincy on the 22nd of April. The day following he spent in greeting his friends, and receiving visits from the brethren; but on the twenty-fourth he called and presided over a conference, at which, in connection with Bishop Knight and Alanson Ripley, he was appointed to go to Iowa to select a place for the gathering of the exiled Saints. The conference also advised the brethren, who could do so, to go to Commerce and locate in Dr. Galland's neighborhood.
On the first of May the committee purchased a farm of one hundred and thirty-five acres, for which they agreed to pay five thousand dollars; also another and a larger farm of Dr. Galland for nine thousand dollars. The committee desired that these farms should be deeded to Alanson Ripley, but Sidney Rigdon, manifesting a rather sour disposition, said that no committee should control any property that he had anything to do with. So the purchase made of Dr. Galland was deeded to Sidney Rigdon's son-in-law, G. W. Robinson, with the understanding that he should deed it to The Church as soon as it was paid for according to the contract. This was the first purchase of lands made in Commerce. The place is thus described by Joseph: "When I made the purchase of White and Galland, there was one stone house, three frame houses, and two blockhouses, which constituted the whole city of Commerce."
This small collection of houses was immediately on the banks of the river, and scattered between them and what afterwards became the south part of the city of Nauvoo, were one stone and three log houses. It was one of these humble dwellings that Joseph moved into on the tenth of May, 1839. Back some distance from the river, however, were other dwellings scattered over the country, one of which was the home of Daniel H. Wells, a justice of the peace for the district of Commerce, and who afterwards became a prominent Church leader, one of the counselors, in fact, in the First Presidency of The Church.
Later, when referring to the purchase of lands about Commerce, the Prophet Joseph said:
The place was literally a wilderness. The land was mostly covered with trees and bushes, and much of it was so wet that it was with the utmost difficulty that a footman could get through, and totally impossible for teams. Commerce was unhealthy, very few could live there; but believing that it might become a healthy place by the blessing of heaven to the Saints, and no more eligible place presenting itself, I considered it wisdom to make an attempt to build up a city.
Having spoken of the first purchase of lands at Commerce, it may not be amiss here to say that subsequently more extensive purchases were made of Dr. Galland and Messrs. Hubbard, Wells, Hotchkiss and others. Considerable difficulty and embarrassment to Joseph personally and to The Church in general arose over misunderstandings about the Hotchkiss land purchase. Hotchkiss sold to Joseph for The Church upwards of five hundred acres of land in Commerce, for which he was to receive fifty-three thousand five hundred dollars, half to be paid in ten years, and the remainder in twenty years. This amount was secured to Hotchkiss & Company by two notes, one payable in ten years and the other in twenty, signed by Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith and Sidney Rigdon. The difficulty connected with this extensive land purchase arose from some exchanges that were made of property in the east, by some of the Saints, for its equivalent in value in land out of the Hotchkiss purchase in Commerce; the matter, however, was finally amicably settled.
The terms on which Dr. Galland let The Church have lands were extremely advantageous to the Saints. He sold at a reasonable rate, and on long credit, that the people might not be distressed in paying for the inheritance they purchased. In addition to the first purchase, he exchanged lands with the Saints in the vicinity of Commerce for lands in Missouri, to the value of eighty thousand dollars. And he gave them a good title to the same. He is described as a man of literary attainments and extensive information and influence. All of which he used for the good of the exiled Saints in giving them a standing among his friends. Finally he joined The Church, thus casting his lot with the exiled people he had assisted, and from that time until his death, partook of their joys and their sorrows; shared their fortunes and reverses.
In addition to these land purchases, The Church made others; some of them even more extensive than those already mentioned. The village of Nashville, in Lee County, Iowa, and twenty thousand acres of land adjoining, was bought, though upon what terms the purchase was made cannot be learned. Another purchase also in Iowa was made by Bishop Knight, and a settlement was started there called Zarahemla, which was opposite Nauvoo. This place was organized into a stake[[1]] of Zion, but in January, 1842, the stake organization was discontinued; though Zarahemla continued as an organized branch of The Church.
Stakes of Zion in the following year were organized at Lima, in Illinois; also at Quincy, in Adams County, for the benefit of the Saints who continued there. Another stake was organized at Columbus, in Adams County, Illinois, known as Mount Hope stake; besides these stakes, branches of the Church were organized in various parts of Lee County, Iowa, and Adams and Hancock counties, Illinois. But as Nauvoo rose from the swamps and underbrush of Commerce, and, under the industry and enterprise of the Saints, and the blessings of a kindly disposed Providence, developed into a healthy, beautiful and prosperous commercial and manufacturing city, these stake organizations in the surrounding country were discontinued, and Nauvoo became the one great gathering place of the Saints.
Footnotes
[1]. A stake of Zion is a territorial division of The Church that embraces several wards or branches. The stake is presided over by a president, who must be a High Priest, assisted by two counselors, also High Priests. There must also be in each stake of Zion a high council, consisting of twelve High Priests, over which council the presidency of the stake preside. This high council constitutes the judicial power (ecclesiastical) of the stake, to which appeals lie from the bishops' courts.
CHAPTER IV.
"AS FLIES IN THE OINTMENT."
HAVING described the site of Nauvoo, and related the circumstances connected with its establishment as a gathering place of the Saints, it is necessary to return to the consideration of some events which occurred at Quincy during the sojourn of the Saints at that place.
Paul, in his day, told the Hebrews that all were not Israel that were of Israel: so all were not Saints that flocked into Quincy with the exiles from Missouri; many of them were altogether unworthy of the association of the people of God. These preyed upon the hospitality of the people of Quincy to such an extent, that The Church by action of a conference authorized Elder John Taylor, then one of the Twelve Apostles, and who afterwards became President of the Church, to write the following letter, which was printed in the Quincy Argus:
In consequence of so great an influx of strangers, arriving in this place daily, owing to their late expulsion from the State of Missouri, there must of necessity be, and we wish to state to the citizens of Quincy and the vicinity, through the medium of your columns, that there are many individuals among the numbers who have already arrived, as well as among those who are now on their way here, who never did belong to our Church, and others who once did, but who, for various reasons, have been expelled from our fellowship. Among these are some who have contracted habits which are at variance with principles of moral rectitude (such as swearing, dram-drinking, etc.,) which immoralities the Church of Latter-day Saints is liable to be charged with, owing to our amalgamation under our late existing circumstances. And as we as a people do not wish to lay under any such imputation, we would also state, that such individuals do not hold a name or a place amongst us; that we altogether discountenance everything of the kind, that every person once belonging to our community, contracting or persisting in such immoral habits, have hitherto been expelled from our society; and that such as we may hereafter be informed of, we will hold no communion with, but will withdraw our fellowship from them.
We wish further to state, that we feel laid under peculiar obligations to the citizens of this place for the patriotic feelings which have been manifested, and for the hand of liberality and friendship which was extended to us, in our late difficulties; and should feel sorry to see that philanthropy and benevolence abused by the wicked and designing people, who under pretense of poverty and distress, should try to work up the feelings of the charitable and humane, get into their debt without any prospect or intention of paying, and finally, perhaps, we as a people be charged with dishonesty.
We say that we altogether disapprove of such practices, and we warn the citizens of Quincy against such individuals who may pretend to belong to our community.
I have given this letter in extenso, because it bears upon its face the evidence of the honesty of The Church, and its disposition to treat the people of Illinois, who had so nobly and kindly received its members in the days of their distress, with candor. It also tells us of a class even then in The Church, who by the vileness of their lives gave some coloring to the charges subsequently so unjustly made against the whole Church; a class who brought upon The Church reproach; an unrighteous, apostate element, which lingered with The Church for the sake of advantage—the bane of the body religious.
CHAPTER V.
POLITICAL AGITATION.
ABOUT this time, too, the good feeling entertained toward the Saints by the people of Quincy and vicinity was not a little endangered through the unwise course of Lyman Wight. He began the publication of a series of letters in the Quincy Whig, in which he laid the responsibility of the outrages perpetrated against the Saints in Missouri upon the Democratic party, implicating not only the Democrats of Missouri, but indirectly the National Democratic party. This gave much dissatisfaction to members of that party in the vicinity of Quincy, a number of whom had been very active in assisting the Saints; and some of the leading men approached prominent brethren, who still remained in Quincy, and desired to know if The Church sustained the assertions of Lyman Wight. Elder R. B. Thompson wrote a letter to President Joseph Smith on the subject, in which he protested against the course taken by Lyman Wight, because of the influence it was having on many of those who had so nobly befriended the Saints in the day of their distress. Besides, it was altogether unjust, for no particular political party in Missouri was responsible for the cruelty practiced towards the Saints. Those who were in the mobs which robbed them of their homes, burned their houses, ran off their stock, and who whipped, murdered and finally drove the people from the State of Missouri, were made up of individuals of every shade of political faith, and of every religion, and many of no religion whatever. It was unfair, then, under these circumstances, that the responsibility should be laid at the charge of any one party or sect of religion. So that Wight's course was not only doing much mischief, but was also unjust.
To counteract the evil effect of Lyman Wight's communication to the Whig, Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon and Hyrum Smith, then the presiding quorum of the Church, published a letter in the Whig, from which I make the following quotation:
We have not at any time thought there was any political party, as such, chargeable with the Missouri barbarities, neither any religious society, as such. They were committed by a mob, composed of all parties, regardless of difference of opinion, either political or religious.
The determined stand in this State, and by the people of Quincy in particular, made against the lawless outrages of the Missouri mobbers by all parties in politics and religion, have entitled them equally to our thanks and our profoundest regards, and such, gentlemen, we hope they will always receive from us. * * * We wish to say to the public, through your paper, that we disclaim any intention of making a political question of our difficulties with Missouri, believing that we are not justified in so doing.
Lyman Wight was a bold, independent-spirited man; inclined to be self-willed and refractory. No one could control him; and even counsel or advice was usually disregarded—except it was from Joseph Smith. A few years subsequent to the time of which I am now writing, Lyman Wight himself said: "Joseph Smith is the only man who ever did control me; he is the only man who ever shall." But to Joseph's words Lyman Wight gave respectful attention, and bent his own strong will to comply with the wishes of the Prophet. He himself was a master spirit, and could apparently bring himself to acknowledge but one to whom he was willing to yield his own judgment and his own will, and that one was Joseph Smith. It is said by those acquainted with him, that in the Prophet's hands his spirit was as pliable as that of a child.
It was one of Joseph's peculiar characteristics to be able to control men—men, too, who were themselves master spirits; who were themselves naturally leaders; and it is seldom, indeed, that such characters are willing to take a second place. But in the presence of Joseph they seemed naturally to accord him the leadership. He was a leader even among master spirits; a leader of leaders; and it may not be amiss here to briefly inquire into the apparently mysterious influence which the Prophet exerted over the minds of others, by reason of which he controlled them, since this particular instance in which Lyman Wight figures, illustrates it.
In reply to the letter of R. B. Thompson, Joseph admitted that the course of Wight was unfair, and said: The Church was not willing to make of their troubles a political question; but he also said that he considered it to be "the indefeasible right of every free man to hold his own opinion in politics and religion;" and therefore would have it understood that, as an individual, Lyman Wight had the right to entertain and express whatever opinion he pleased in regard to their troubles in Missouri; only intimating that care should be taken not to set forth individual views as the views of The Church. In writing to Lyman Wight on the subject, Joseph did not upbraid him, nor peremptorily order him to discontinue the publication of his letters, or retract them, but he informed him that the matter had been considered in a council of The Church, and that the result was that his course was disapproved. But Joseph took occasion to express his confidence in Wight's good intentions, and said:
Knowing your integrity of principle, and steadfastness in the cause of Christ, I feel not to exercise even the privilege of counsel on the subject, save only to request that you will endeavor to bear in mind the importance of the subject, and how easy it might be to get a misunderstanding with the brethren concerning it; and though last, but not least, that whilst you continue to go upon your own credit, you will steer clear of making The Church appear as either supporting or opposing you in your politics, lest such a course may have a tendency to bring about persecution on The Church, where a little wisdom and caution may avoid it. I do not know that there is any occasion for my thus cautioning you in this thing, but having done so, I hope it will be well taken, and that all things shall eventually be found to work together for the good of the Saints. * * * With every possible feeling of love and friendship for an old fellow-prisoner and brother in the Lord, I remain, sir, your sincere friend.
Throughout this whole affair it will be observed that Joseph starts out with the idea that every individual is absolutely free and independent as to entertaining views and in giving expression to them, both in politics and religion, so long as he makes no one else responsible for them; that in correcting Lyman Wight, he does it by appealing to the man's reason, and by pointing out the possible result of his course, which may be avoided by a little discretion; while the whole communication breathes such a spirit of confidence in the man he is correcting, and love for him as an "old fellow-prisoner," that it was altogether irresistible. And this is the secret of Joseph's power to control his brethren. There was no petty tyranny in his government. He was above that. Every right he claimed for himself, he accorded to others; while his mildness in correcting errors and his unbounded love for his brethren knit them to him in bands stronger than steel. It was ever his method to teach correct principles and allow men to govern themselves.
CHAPTER VI.
A DAY OF GOD'S POWER.
DURING the summer of 1839 the Saints who had been driven from Missouri continued to gather at Nauvoo and settle on the lands which had been purchased by The Church authorities. The violent persecution they had passed through in Missouri had well nigh wrecked the people. They had been stripped of their earthly possessions, until they were reduced to the most abject poverty. And the exposure and hardships endured made them an easy prey to the malaria that infected Nauvoo and vicinity. Another thing which doubtless contributed to make them unable to resist the ravages of disease, was the fact that a period of relaxation was following the intense excitement under which they had lived for more than two years.
The spirit has such power when it is once thoroughly aroused, that for a time it so braces up the body as to make it almost impregnable to disease and unconscious of fatigue. But this cannot continue long. It wears out the body; and as soon as the excitement is removed, then comes the period of relaxation and the body sinks down from sheer exhaustion.
Such was the condition of the exiled Saints who came flocking into Nauvoo, in the summer of 1839. They had reached a haven of rest. The fearful strain on the nervous system under which they had labored during the mobbings in Missouri and their flight from that State was removed; and they fell down in Nauvoo exhausted, to be a prey to the deadly malaria prevalent in that locality. Such was their condition on the morning of the 22nd of July. Joseph's house was crowded with the sick whom he was trying to nurse back to health. In his door-yard were a number of people camped in tents, who had but newly arrived, but upon whom the fever had seized. Joseph himself was prostrate with sickness, and the general distress of the Saints weighed down his spirit with sadness. While still thinking of the trials of his people in the past, and the gloom that then overshadowed them, the purifying influence of God's Spirit rested upon him and he was immediately healed. He arose and began to administer to the sick in his house, all of whom immediately recovered. He then healed those encamped in his door-yard, and from thence went from house to house calling on the sick to arise from their beds of affliction, and they obeyed and were healed.
In company with P.P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, John Taylor, Heber C. Kimball, and John E. Page, he crossed the river to Montrose, and healed the sick there. One case is mentioned by all who have written on the subject as being very remarkable. This was the case of Elijah Fordham. He was almost unconscious and nearly dead. Bending over him, the Prophet asked the dying man if he knew him, and believed him to be a servant of God. In a whisper he replied that he did. Joseph then took him by the hand, and with an energy that would have awoke the dead, he commanded him in the name of Jesus Christ to arise from his bed and walk. Brother Fordham leaped from his bed, removed the bandages and mustard plasters from his feet, dressed himself, ate a bowl of bread and milk, and accompanied the Prophet to other houses on his mission of love.
All day the work continued; and to the Saints who witnessed the remarkable manifestation of God's power in behalf of the sick, the twenty-second day of July, 1839, is remembered with gratitude to Almighty God, who through the demonstration of His power that day, gave an indisputable witness to the world that He was with Joseph Smith, and had authorized him to speak in the name of Jesus Christ. To the Saints it was a testimony that God was with them; for they witnessed a fulfillment of God's ancient promise to His people, viz.—
Is any sick among you? Let him call for the Elders of the Church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil, in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.[[1]]
And again:
These signs shall follow them that believe: In My name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; * * * they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.[[2]]
These ancient promises to God's people had also been renewed to the Latter-day Saints in modern revelations to the Church through the Prophet Joseph himself:
As I said unto mine apostles I say unto you again, that every soul who believeth on your words, and is baptized by water for the remission of sins, shall receive the Holy Ghost; and these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they shall do many wonderful works:
In my name they shall cast out devils;
In my name they shall heal the sick;
In my name they shall open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf; and the tongue of the dumb shall speak; and if any man shall administer poison unto them it shall not hurt them. * * * But a commandment I give unto them, that they shall not boast themselves of these things, neither speak them before the world.[[3]]
Again, I say, to the Saints who witnessed the demonstration of God's power on the 22nd of July, 1839, in the healing of the sick in fulfillment of these promises ancient and modern, it was a witness to them that God was with them and with their Prophet.
Footnotes
[1]. James v: 14, 15.
[2]. Mark xvi: 17.
[3]. Doc. & Cov., Sec. lxxxiv. The revelation was given in September, 1832.
CHAPTER VII.
DEPARTURE OF THE TWELVE FOR ENGLAND.
A REVELATION had been received by the Prophet Joseph on the eighth of July, 1838, in which a commandment was given to fill up the quorum of the Twelve Apostles by ordaining John Taylor, John E. Page, Wilford Woodruff, and Willard Richards to take the places of those who had fallen through apostasy. The following spring "let them depart," said the revelation, "to go over the great waters, and there promulgate my Gospel, the fullness thereof, and bear record of my name. Let them take leave of my Saints in the city of Far West, on the twenty-sixth day of April next, on the building spot of my house." By the twenty-sixth of April, the day set for them to take leave of the Saints to start on their mission, nearly all the members of The Church had been driven from Far West. I have already related, however, in "The Missouri Persecutions" how five of the Apostles and several who were to be ordained returned by different routes to Far West, met with a few of the Saints there and fulfilled the mandates of this revelation, notwithstanding the boasts of the mob that it should fail.[[1]] For some time the Apostles who started from the public square at Far West for England were detained to aid in settling the Saints at Nauvoo, but the latter part of the summer of 1839 found them making every exertion to continue their journey.
Wilford Woodruff and John Taylor were the first of the quorum to leave Nauvoo for England. Elder Woodruff at this time was living at Montrose, and was rowed across the river in a canoe by Brigham Young. On landing, he lay down to rest on a side of sole leather, near the post office. While there Joseph came along and said: "Well, Brother Woodruff, you have started on your mission?"
"Yes, but I feel and look more like a subject for the dissecting room than a missionary," was the reply.
"What did you say that for?" asked Joseph. "Get up and go along, all will be well with you."
Shortly afterwards Elder Woodruff was joined by Elder Taylor, and together they started on their mission. On their way they passed Parley P. Pratt, stripped, bareheaded and barefooted, hewing some logs for a house. He hailed the brethren as they passed and gave them a purse, though he had nothing to put in it. Elder Heber C. Kimball, who was but a short distance away, stripped as Elder Pratt was, came up and said: "As Brother Parley has given you a purse, I have a dollar I will give you to put in it." And mutually blessing each other, they separated to meet again in foreign lands.
On the twenty-ninth of August, Parley P. Pratt and his brother Orson started for England, leaving Nauvoo in their own carriage.
On the fourteenth of the following month Brigham Young left his home at Montrose and started for England. He had been prostrated for some time by sickness, and at the time of starting on his mission was so feeble that he had to be assisted to the ferry, only some thirty rods from his house. All his children were sick, and he left his wife with a babe but ten days old, and in the poorest of circumstances, for the mobs of Missouri had robbed him of all he had. After crossing the river to the Nauvoo side, Israel Barlow took him on a horse behind him and carried him to the house of Elder Heber C. Kimball, where his strength altogether failed him, and he had to remain there for several days, nursed by his wife, who, hearing that he was unable to get farther than Brother Kimball's, had crossed the river from Montrose to care for him.
On the eighteenth of the month, however, Brigham, in company with Heber C. Kimball, made another start. A brother by the name of Charles Hubbard sent a boy with a team to take them a day's journey on their way. Elder Kimball left his wife in bed shaking with ague, and all his children sick. It was only by the assistance of some of the brethren that Heber himself could climb into the wagon. "It seemed to me," he remarked afterwards in relating the circumstance, "as though my very inmost parts would melt within me at the thought of leaving my family in such a condition, as it were, almost in the arms of death. I felt as though I could scarcely endure it."
"Hold up!" said he to the teamster, who had just started. "Brother Brigham, this is pretty tough, but let us rise and give them a cheer." Brigham, with much difficulty, rose to his feet, and joined Elder Kimball in swinging his hat and shouting, "Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah for Israel!" The two sisters hearing the cheer came to the door—Sister Kimball with great difficulty—and waved a farewell; and the two Apostles continued on their journey without purse, without scrip, for England.
The departure of Elders George A. Smith, Reuben Hedlock, and Theodore Turley was but little less remarkable. They were feeble in health, in fact, down with the ague. Before they were out of sight of Nauvoo their wagon upset, and spilled them down the bank of the river. Elders Smith and Turley were unable to get up, not because of any injuries they had received, but because of their illness. Elder Hedlock helped them into their wagon and they resumed their journey. They had not proceeded far when they met some gentlemen who stopped their team and said to the driver: "Mr., what graveyard have you been robbing?" There mark being elicited by the ghostly appearance of the Elders en route for England.
Thus in sickness and poverty, without purse and without scrip, leaving their families destitute of the comforts of life, with nothing but the assurances of the people, who were as poor as themselves, that they should be provided for, the Twelve turned their faces toward Europe, to preach the Gospel to the highly civilized peoples of the world. Shaking with the ague, and then burning up with the fever; now in the homes of the wealthy, then in the hovels of the poor; now derided by the learned and self-styled refined, and now welcomed by the poor of this world who rejoiced in the message they bore—they journeyed on, never looking back, nor complaining of the hardships through which they were called to pass for the Master's sake. They had ringing in their ears the words of Jesus:
"He that loveth father or mother, houses or lands, wives or children more than he loveth me is not worthy of me." And again they had the promise: "There is no man that hath left houses, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting."
With this warning and this promise before them, they made their way by different routes, but at last met in England, where an effectual door was opened for the preaching of the Gospel, and thousands with joy embraced the truth.
These men went out weeping, bearing precious seed; they returned in time bringing their sheaves with them, and had joy in their harvest. And what shall separate these men who endured so much for the Gospel's sake, from the love of God? "Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" "Nay, in all these things they shall be more than conquerors through Him that loved them."
Footnotes
[1]. Missouri Persecutions, Chapter XLVIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE "TIMES AND SEASONS."
THE power of the press in sustaining the work he had begun, was early recognized by Joseph Smith and his associates; and it was this recognition of its powers which led him to establish, as early as possible, a paper that would be under the control of The Church, voice its sentiments and defend its principles. The Church had been organized but eighteen months, and its membership was very small when a conference held in Ohio authorized the purchase of a press, and instructed W.W. Phelps to begin the publication of a paper in Independence, Missouri. In June, 1832, the first number of that paper, the Evening and Morning Star, was published.
The following year the Evening and Morning Star press was broken and the type scattered by the mob, which collected at Independence to drive the Saints from Jackson County. The press and the book-binding property were never again restored to The Church, though the Star afterwards reappeared in Kirtland, edited by Oliver Cowdery.
Another periodical was also published in Kirtland called The Saints' Messenger and Advocate, the first number of which appeared in December, 1833. This periodical was superseded in a few years—1837—by the Elders' Journal. But when Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon had to flee from Kirtland for their lives, in the spring of 1838, the press and type on which the Journal was printed were removed to Far West. Here an effort was made to re-issue the Journal, Sidney Rigdon being appointed editor. But again the assembling of angry mobs hindered the work. And the night that General Lucas' mob-militia force surrounded Far West, this press and type were buried in the dooryard of a brother by the name of Dawson. The form for a number of the Elders' Journal was buried, with the ink on it, in the hurry to get it safely hidden from the enemy. It remained in its grave until taken up by Elias Smith, Hyrum Clark and some others, and taken to Commerce, where, in the fall of 1839, it was set up in a cellar, through which a spring of water was running, and on it was published the Times and Seasons.
This periodical was issued first as a sixteen page monthly, but afterwards became semi-monthly. Its first editor and manager was Don Carlos Smith, the youngest brother of Joseph Smith, who learned the printer's art in the office of Oliver Cowdery, and at the time he took charge of the Times and Seasons was but twenty-four years of age. His associate was Ebenezer Robinson. The paper was first issued in November, 1839.
Don Carlos Smith continued to act as editor of this paper until his death, which occurred on the seventh of August, 1841. Ebenezer Robinson then became the editor and Elder Robert B. Thompson was appointed to assist him. The manner in which the paper was conducted was very unsatisfactory to The Church authorities, and the Twelve Apostles took charge of it with Elders John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff as its managers, and President Joseph Smith as editor-in-chief. It was conducted by these parties for about a year, when the Prophet Joseph resigned the editorial chair, and Elder John Taylor was assigned to the position of chief editor, and kept that place until the discontinuance of the publication, in consequence of the Saints being driven from Nauvoo. It was a valuable means of communication for The Church authorities, as they were enabled to reach the Saints through its columns notwithstanding their scattered condition; and in its pages are collected the principal historical events which occurred in the early days of The Church; which, in connection with the principles and doctrine expounded by its editors, and the communications from the Prophet, make it of inestimable value to the student of Church history or the development of Church doctrine.
CHAPTER IX.
AN APPEAL TO THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT FOR REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES.
IT will be remembered by those who have read "The Missouri Persecutions," that Sidney Rigdon was released from prison in Liberty, Missouri, before Joseph and the other brethren escaped. On his arrival in Quincy, his position as one of the presidents of The Church, his education and eloquence, gave him the attention of the leading citizens of Quincy, and particularly enlisted the sympathy of Governor Carlin, of Illinois. By coming in contact with him, and relating the cruelties practiced against the Saints in Missouri, he conceived the altogether fanciful and utterly impracticable idea of impeaching the charter of Missouri on an item in the Constitution, viz: "that the general government shall give to each State a republican form of government." And it was his point to prove that such a government did not exist in Missouri. His plan was to present the story of the Saints' wrongs to the governors of the respective States, before the assembly of the several legislatures, and induce as many of them as possible to bring the case before the legislatures in their messages. Another part of the plan was to have a man at each State capital armed with affidavits that would give the necessary information to the legislatures. After the action of the State legislatures the case was to be presented to the national Congress for its consideration and action.
To carry out his plans George W. Robinson was appointed to take affidavits and collect general information bearing on the subject, and Sidney Rigdon himself secured letters of introduction to the governors of several States and to the President of the United States from Governor Carlin, of Illinois, and Governor Robert Lucas, of Iowa. On the fifth of May, 1839, however, at a conference of The Church held near Quincy, Joseph Smith presiding, the gigantic and fanciful scheme conceived by Sidney Rigdon was considered and somewhat reduced of its unwieldy proportions by the conference simply resolving:
That this conference send a delegate to the city of Washington to lay our case before the general government; and that President Rigdon be the delegate: and that Colonel Lyman Wight be appointed to receive the affidavits which are to be sent to the city of Washington.
Here the matter rested for a time through the inactivity of President Rigdon, whose ardor in the work of God about this time began to wane.
In consequence of the inactivity and lack of interest manifested by Sidney Rigdon in going to Washington to present the case of the Latter-day Saints vs. the State of Missouri to the President and Congress of the United States, at a High Council meeting, held at Commerce on the twentieth of October, 1839, the Prophet Joseph was appointed to be the delegate to Washington, and a few days later Sidney Rigdon and Elias Higbee were appointed by the same council to assist him in this mission.
As a contrast between the two men, Sidney Rigdon and Joseph Smith, I call attention to the fact that after his appointment to go to Washington to petition the general government for a redress of grievances, in behalf of the Saints, Sidney Rigdon had allowed nearly six months to pass away without doing anything; but the ninth day after Joseph was appointed to this mission he was found leaving Commerce with a two-horse carriage, accompanied by Rigdon, Higbee and Orin P. Rockwell, en route for Washington. The Prophet was always prompt in action. There were no tedious delays in anything he under took; no letting "I dare not wait upon I would, like the old cat 'i the adage." His motto for the commencement of his career had been, "When the Lord commands, do it." And it was pretty much the same thing when a council of the Priesthood, or himself individually, had determined upon any particular course of action, he at once set himself about performing it.
The mission for the city of Washington passed through Springfield, the capital of the State of Illinois, on their journey, and here met with Dr. Robert D. Foster, who afterwards, as we shall see, became prominently connected with events at Nauvoo. Elder Rigdon being ill, Dr. Foster administered medicines to him, journeying with Joseph's party for several days for that purpose. At last, however, Elder Rigdon became so weak that it became necessary to leave him near Columbus, Ohio; and Orin P. Rockwell and Dr. Foster remained with him, while Joseph and Judge Higbee continued their journey to Washington.
It was during this journey, too, that Joseph met another man destined to perform a prominent part in the drama enacted at Nauvoo. This was William Law, whom Joseph's party met at Springfield, Illinois. He was then leading a small company of Saints from Canada to Nauvoo. Joseph's company remained several days at Springfield, and he preached there several times, staying at the home of James Adams, the probate judge of that county. Judge Adams treated the Prophet with the kindness of a father.
An incident occurred as the party approached Washington which borders on the domain of the romantic, or perhaps may be considered to enter directly into it. The coachman stopped his horses in front of one of the many public houses they passed en route, to get his grog, when the horses took fright, and dashed down the road at break-neck speed. The passengers, as might be expected, became terror-stricken, and one woman in her excitement tried to throw her babe out of the window; she was prevented, however, by Joseph, who calmed her fears, and persuaded the rest of the passengers to keep their seats. He then opened the door of the coach and succeeded in climbing up the side of the vehicle, and reaching the driver's seat. Gathering up the reins, he stopped the horses before any accident occurred either to coach or passengers.
It is needless to say that Joseph's heroism drew from his fellow-passengers their warmest expressions of admiration and gratitude. No terms were sufficiently strong to convey their admiration of his daring. Among the passengers were several members of Congress who proposed mentioning the incident to Congress, for they believed that body would reward Joseph's conduct by some public act. With this object in view they asked for his name, and were doubtless dumbfounded to learn that they had been saved from their imminent peril by the courage of the Mormon Prophet. At any rate the profusion of thanks and admiration was stayed, "and," says Joseph, "I heard no more of their praise, gratitude or reward." Need one stop to moralize on the littleness of man when he allows prejudice to dictate his action instead of reason?
It was on the twenty-eighth of November, 1839, that Joseph and Judge Elias Higbee arrived in Washington, and took up their abode at an unpretentious boarding house, on the corner of Missouri and Third Streets. They were very much cramped on account of means, as the people they represented were poor in this world's goods, and unable to supply the means necessary to enable their delegates to indulge in the luxurious style of living usually adopted by those who go to the seat of government on special missions.
The day following his arrival, Joseph obtained an interview with President Martin Van Buren, who had been elected to the presidency by the Democratic party. I give Joseph's own account of this visit to President Van Buren, that our readers may judge of the impression he made upon the Prophet, and what the Prophet thought of Congress generally:
On Friday, the twenty-ninth, we proceeded to the house of the President. We found a very large and splendid palace, surrounded with a splendid enclosure, decorated with all the fineries and elegancies of the world. We went to the door and requested to see the President, when we were immediately introduced into an upper apartment, where we met the President, and were introduced into his parlor, where we presented him with our letters of introduction. As soon as he had read one of them, he looked upon us with a kind of half frown and said: "What can I do? I can do nothing for you! If I do anything, I shall come in contact with the whole State of Missouri."[[1]]
I cannot determine whether it was on the occasion of this visit that President Van Buren made use of the expression, "Your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you," or whether he so expressed himself at some subsequent meeting. But under date of February 6th, 1840, Joseph remarks, in speaking of his mission to Washington:
During my stay I had an interview with Martin Van Buren, the President, who treated me very insolently, and it was with great reluctance he listened to our message, which, when he heard, he said: "Gentlemen, your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you. If I take up for you, I shall lose the vote of Missouri." His whole course went to show that he was an office-seeker, that self-aggrandizement was his ruling passion, and that justice and righteousness were no part of his composition.
As this language is somewhat different to that reported by Joseph on the occasion of his first visit to the President, I am inclined to the opinion that the language attributed to him in the latter quotation was used at some subsequent meeting to the first. I again quote from Joseph's letter to Hyrum:
Now we shall endeavor to express our feelings and views concerning the President, as we have been eye-witness to his majesty. He is a small man, sandy complexion, and ordinary features, with frowning brow, and considerable body, but not well proportioned as to his arms and legs, * * * and in fine, to come directly to the point, he is so much of a fop or a fool (for he judged our cause before he knew it), we could find no place to put truth into him. We do not say the Saints shall not vote for him, but we do say boldly, that we do not intend he shall have our votes.
Joseph speaks very highly of the senators and representatives from Illinois, who rendered him some considerable assistance in getting a hearing before a congressional committee, but he was not favorably impressed with congressmen or their conduct on the whole. He says:
For a general thing there is but little solidity and honorable deportment among those who are sent here to represent the people, but a great deal of pomposity and show. * * * There is such an itching disposition to display their oratory on the most trivial occasions, and so much etiquette, bowing and scraping, twisting and turning, to make a display of their witticism, that it seems to us rather a display of folly and show, more than substance and gravity, such as becomes a great nation like ours. However, there are some exceptions.
After the meeting with the President, a meeting with the Illinois delegation in Congress was arranged, to take into consideration the best means of getting the wrongs of the Saints before Congress. This meeting took place on the sixth of December. A Mr. Robinson of that delegation, whether a member of the House or Senate I do not know, took a stand against the Saints presenting any claims to be liquidated by the United States; but Joseph contended against him, and presented the constitutional rights of the people, and Mr. Robinson promised to reconsider the subject, and at the meeting the next day it was decided that a memorial and petition be drawn in concise form and presented by Judge Young, who had taken a lively interest in the cause of the Saints. At this stage of the proceedings, Joseph and Judge Higbee learned that it was necessary to have more positive testimony on the subject in hand, so that they sent to Nauvoo and a very large number of affidavits were taken and forwarded to Washington to sustain the statements to be presented to Congress.
The petition presented to Congress related the outrages committed against the Saints at considerable length, from the commencement of difficulties in Jackson County, in the autumn of 1833, until their final expulsion from the State in the winter of 1838-9; and made emphatic the infamy of Governor Boggs' exterminating orders, which gave the coloring of authority for the action of the State mob-militia. They said in their statement of wrongs that if given an opportunity they could prove every allegation they made against the State of Missouri. And that "neither the Mormons as a body, nor as individuals of that body, had been guilty of any offense against the laws of Missouri, or of the United States: but their only offense had been their religious opinions."
In conclusion the petition represents that for the wrongs endured—
The Mormons ought to have some redress; yet how and where shall they seek and obtain it?
Your Constitution guarantees to every citizen, even the humblest, the enjoyment of life, liberty and property. It promises to all their religious freedom, the right to worship God beneath their own vine and fig tree, according to their own conscience. It guarantees to all the citizens of the several States the right to become citizens of any one of the States, and to enjoy all the rights and immunities of the citizens of the State of his adoption. Yet of all these rights have the Mormons been deprived. They have, without a cause, without a trial, been deprived of life, liberty and property. They have been persecuted for their religious opinions. They have been driven from the State of Missouri at the point of the bayonet, and prevented from enjoying and exercising the rights of citizens of the State of Missouri. It is the theory of our laws, that for the protection of every legal right, there is a legal remedy. What, then, we would ask, is the remedy for the Mormons? Shall they appeal to the legislature of the State of Missouri for redress? They have done so. They have petitioned, and these petitions have been treated with silence and contempt. Shall they apply to the federal courts? They were, at the time, citizens of the State of Missouri. Shall they apply to the courts of the State of Missouri? Whom shall they sue? The order for their destruction, their extermination, was granted by the executive of the State of Missouri. Is not this a plea of justification for the loss of individuals, done in pursuance of the order? If not, before whom shall the Mormons institute a trial? Shall they summon a jury of the individuals who composed the mob? An appeal to them were in vain. They dare not go to Missouri to institute a suit, their lives would be in danger.
For ourselves we see no redress, unless it be awarded by the Congress of the United States. And we here make our appeal as American citizens, as Christians, and as men—believing the high sense of justice which exists in your honorable bodies, will not allow such oppression to be practiced upon any portion of the citizens of this vast republic with impunity, but that some measure which your wisdom may dictate, may be taken, so that the great body of people who have been thus abused, may have redress for the wrongs which they have suffered.
The statement of wrongs and petition for their redress was introduced into the Senate by Judge Young, and referred to the committee on judiciary of which General Wall was chairman.
At this stage of the proceedings Joseph left Washington and went to Philadelphia, where he labored in the ministry among the Saints; but Judge Elias Higbee was left in Washington to look after the interest of the petitioners before the Senate committee. The subject was held under advisement and discussed occasionally, until the fourth of March, 1840, when the committee reported. That report was of a character to crush forever the hopes of obtaining, at the hands of the general government, any redress for the outrages perpetrated against them in Missouri. The report said that after full examination and consideration, the committee unanimously concurred in the opinion: "That the case presented for their investigation is not such a one as will justify or authorize any interposition of this government."
They stated that the wrongs complained of were not alleged to have been committed by officers of the United States; that the charges were all against the citizens and authorities of the State of Missouri; that the petitioners were citizens or inhabitants of Missouri; that the grievances complained of were committed within the territory of Missouri; and for these reasons the Senate judiciary committee did "not consider themselves justified in inquiring into the truth or falsehood of facts charged in the petition." The committee represented that if the charges were true, then the petitioners must seek redress in the courts of judicature, either of Missouri or of the United States, whichever might have jurisdiction in the case. "Or," said the report, "the petitioners may, if they see proper, apply to the justice and magnanimity of the State of Missouri—an appeal which the committee feel justified in believing will never be made in vain by the injured or oppressed." The report said that it could not be presumed that a State wanted either the power or lacked the disposition to redress the wrongs of its own citizens, committed within its own territory, "whether they proceed from the lawless acts of her officers or any other person."
The report closed by asking the passage of the following resolution:
Resolved, That the committee on the judiciary be discharged from the further consideration of the memorial in this case; and that the memorialists have leave to withdraw the papers which accompany their memorial.
The resolution was passed without dissent, and thus the appeal to Congress for redress of the outrages committed against the Saints by Missouri ended.
At a conference of The Church held in April following, a number of resolutions were adopted, regretting and condemning the action of the Senate judiciary committee, and approving the course pursued by their delegation to Congress, Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon and Elias Higbee, and requesting them to continue their exertions to obtain redress for a suffering people as opportunities became more favorable for such efforts, and if at last all hopes of obtaining satisfaction for the injuries done us be entirely blasted, that they then "appeal our case to the Court of Heaven, believing that the Great Jehovah, who rules over the destiny of nations, and who notices the falling sparrows, will undoubtedly redress our wrongs, and ere long avenge us of our adversaries."
Footnotes
[1]. Letter to Hyrum Smith, Dec. 5, 1839.
CHAPTER X.
ORSON HYDE'S MISSION TO JERUSALEM.
THOSE who have read "The Missouri Persecutions," will remember the disaffection of Orson Hyde at Far West, and the statements he made in connection with Thomas B. Marsh against The Church, in the autumn of 1838—that time when men's hearts were failing them for fear, and death and destruction were rife; when even strong hearts grew faint and brave cheeks were blanched. Well, as stated in the account of his disaffection, like Peter of old, this modern Apostle wept bitterly for his error, returned to The Church, was forgiven; and during the conference held at Commerce in April, 1840, he was called to go on a mission to Jerusalem.
It appears that Elder Hyde in a heavenly vision saw himself on the Mount of Olives blessing the land for the return of the people of Judah, hence, that he might be obedient to the vision, he was appointed to go to that land for the purpose mentioned. In the letter of appointment, which the Prophet gave him, occurs the following passage:
The Jewish nation have been scattered abroad among the Gentiles for a long period; and in our estimation the time of the commencement of their return to the Holy Land has already arrived. * * * It is highly important, in our opinion, that the present views and movements of the Jewish people be sought after, and laid before the American people for their consideration, their profit and their learning.
On the 15th of the same month that Elder Hyde was called, he left his family at Nauvoo and started for Jerusalem without purse or scrip. The next day he met with John E. Page, who subsequently to the conference at which Orson Hyde had been called, was appointed to go with him to the Holy Land.
They traveled through several States together, preaching as they went. In the city of Cincinnati they succeeded in raising up a large and prosperous branch of The Church; and while Elder Page remained in Cincinnati to strengthen the Saints, Elder Hyde made his way to New York.
These labors consumed the summer of 1840, and in January, 1841, the word of the Lord came to the Prophet Joseph saying that he was not well pleased with the long delays of his servants in starting on their mission to Jerusalem, and they were requested to hasten their departure. In the meantime, however, Elder Page had lost the spirit of his appointment and had no disposition to go, but Orson Hyde on the receipt of this reproof set sail at once from New York for England.
It is not our design to follow him through all his meanderings in Europe, or relate his trials or his perils in crossing the mighty seas, and passing through states in which war was raging. He succeeded in reaching the Holy City some time in October, and on the twenty-fourth of that month, 1841, early in the morning, was seated on the Mount of Olives, as he had seen himself in vision; and wrote the prayer he had to offer in behalf of the Jews and their city, which had been for so long a time trodden down of the Gentiles.
In that prayer he referred to the prophecies of God's servants in relation to the Jews and Jerusalem, and asked that all might be fulfilled. He called for the richest blessings of heaven upon the Jews; he blessed, by virtue of his Priesthood, the city, the land, and all the elements, to the end that Judah might be gathered, Jerusalem rebuilt, and become an holy city, that the Lord's name might be glorified in all the earth. At the conclusion of his prayer, he says:
On the top of the Mount of Olives, I erected a pile of stones, as a witness according to ancient custom. On what was anciently called Mount Zion, where the temple stood, I erected another, and used the rod according to the prediction upon my head.
Just what he meant by saying that he had used the rod "according to prediction on his head," I have been unable to learn, except that it was a rod with which he had measured the city.
I have called the attention of my readers to this mission of Elder Hyde's to Jerusalem, because it doubtless has a greater significance than most people would be inclined to give it. The rebuilding of Jerusalem is regarded by Mormonism as of as much importance as the establishment of Zion; the gathering of the dispersed of Judah is as much a part of the great latter-day work as the reassembling of the other tribes of Israel; and the commencement of that work was made by Elder Hyde, when by the authority of his apostleship, he consecrated that land to the return of the house of Judah, to inhabit it, and rebuild their city according to the predictions of their prophets. It may be somewhat beyond the scope of this chapter to call attention to it, but surely it will be of interest to the reader to know that this apostolic mission and blessing upon the Holy Land has not been fruitless, but blessings as a result are flowing unto it, and the Jews are beginning to return to it. At the time of Apostle Hyde's visit and ceremonies on the Mount of Olives, but very few Jews were in the city or in Judea. As late as twenty years ago the consular reports show that there were not more than fifteen or twenty thousand Jews in all Jerusalem. But in a popular magazine for August, 1896, under the editorial caption—"The Plan for a Hebrew Nation"—the magazine said:
A movement of which Americans hear very little, but which may have an important effect upon the history of the coming century, is going forward upon the shores of the Mediterranean. This is the return of the Jews to their ancient home in Palestine—the Zionite movement it is called. For hundreds of years there has been talk of the Jew returning to Jerusalem. Through all his years of oppression and wandering, this vision of his native land has been held before his eyes by certain of his teachers. But it is only in the last twelve years, since the renewal of persecution in Russia, that the idea has taken shape. There are now more than four thousand colonists in Palestine. At Jaffa the schools are Hebrew, the ancient language being spoken altogether, and a Hebrew literature is being developed. The works of the great English, French and German authors are being translated, and writers of their own race are being encouraged.
The Zionite movement is backed by the influence of the Rothschilds and other great Jewish families and societies, and as we see its stirring in every country, we can believe it only requires a great popular leader to make it one of the important movements in history. That it is not purely religious, but racial, is proven by the co-operation of Rabinowitz, the Christian Jew who became so well known here during the World's Fair Congress. There is already one Jewish Christian colony in Palestine. * * * As a Jewish state, Palestine might well become a country that would claim consideration among the family of nations. If the Zionite continues to grow, such a result is almost assured.
During the same month, namely, in its impression of August 11th, 1896, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat published the following:
Only two decades ago there were not more than fifteen or twenty thousand Jews in Jerusalem. At that [time] no houses were to be found outside the walls of the city. Since then many changes have taken place and the Hebrew population—mainly on account of the increase of the Jewish immigration from Russia—now stands at between sixty and seventy thousand. Whole streets of houses have been built outside the walls on the site of the ancient suburban districts, which for hundreds of years have remained deserted. It is not, however, only in Jerusalem itself that the Jews abound, but throughout Palestine they are buying farms and establishing themselves in a surprisingly rapid manner. In Jerusalem they form at present a larger community than either the Christian or the Mohammedan.
CHAPTER XI.
DEATH'S HARVEST IN NAUVOO—RETURN OF PRODIGALS.
DURING the summer of 1840, death reaped a rich harvest in Nauvoo. Before his ruthless stroke fell many worthy Saints who had been connected with The Church from the time it was founded. Among the first to fall was Bishop Edward Partridge. He died on the twenty-seventh of May, in the forty-sixth year of his age. He was the first Bishop in The Church, and in that capacity had presided over the Saints who gathered to Zion, in Jackson County, Missouri, during the years 1831-33. Joseph described him as a "pattern of piety," and the Lord himself declared that he was like Nathaniel of old—his heart was pure before him, and he was without guile. His life was indeed an eventful one. He was called from his merchandising, and became a preacher of righteousness. Much, in fact all, of his riches fell into the hands of the mobs of Jackson County, in the autumn of 1833, and upon his meek and uncovered head fell a double portion of their fury. Five years later, he passed through those trying times experienced by the Saints in their exodus from the State of Missouri, under the exterminating order of the infamous Governor Boggs; and at that time, he again saw the fruits of his industry fall a prey to the rapacity of his relentless enemies. Stripped of his earthly possessions and broken in health, he reached Commerce, but the trials through which he passed had proven too much for his constitution, which was never robust, and he passed away, a victim to the intolerance and religious bigotry of this generation.
In September of the same year Father Joseph Smith, Patriarch to The Church, and father of the Prophet Joseph, was "gathered to his final home," in the sixty-ninth year of his age. He was baptized on the sixth day of April, 1830, and was one of the six who organized The Church on that date. Indeed he was the one who first received the testimony of his son after the angel Moroni visited him on that memorable night of September 21, 1823; and it was he who first exhorted his prophet son to be faithful and diligent to the message he had received. He endured many persecutions on account of the claims made by his son Joseph to being a prophet of God; for Joseph's declarations that he had received heavenly visions and revelations together with a divine commission to preach the Gospel of Christ, not only brought upon himself the wrath of the ungodly, but involved his whole family in the persecutions which followed him throughout his life. Of these things, however, his father never complained, but endured all things patiently, and with true heroism, and ever supported his son in carrying out the counsels of Heaven. He was born on the twelfth of July, 1771, in Topsfield, Massachusetts; and was the second of the seven sons of Asahel and Mary Smith; his forefathers being among those who early came from England to Massachusetts. He was a large man, ordinarily weighing two hundred pounds, was six feet two inches tall, and well proportioned, strong and active; and he stood unbowed beneath the accumulated sorrows and hardships he had experienced during his nearly three score and ten years of sojourn in this life. The exposures, however, that he suffered in the exodus from Missouri brought on him consumption, of which he died. His was an unassuming nature—noted mostly, perhaps, for its sincerity and unwavering integrity. He was a child of nature, and one of nature's noblest; his life had been spent in parts remote from the busy marts, where "wealth accumulates and men decay," and he had passed through his probation on earth without being corrupted by the evil influences of luxury or enervating civilization. He was a type of men, so well described by one of our poets, in the following lines:
Simple their lives—yet theirs the race
When liberty sent forth her cry,
Who crowded conflicts deadliest place,
To fight—to bleed—to die;
Who stood on Bunker's heights of red,
By hope through years were led—
And witnessed Yorktown's sun
Shine on a nation's banner spread,
A nation's freedom won!
Such was the character of the first Patriarch of The Church in this dispensation.
Another circumstance of interest in Nauvoo during this eventful summer of 1840 was the return of a number of prodigals to The Church. I have already stated the case of Orson Hyde. Frederick G. Williams was dropped from his position as counselor to the Prophet in November, 1837, and in March, 1839, was excommunicated at a conference in Quincy, Illinois. At the April conference in 1840, however, he came before the assembled Church and "humbly asked forgiveness, and expressed his determination to do the will of God for the future." He was forgiven by the Saints but was never restored to his former position in the First Presidency.
About the time Thomas B. Marsh and Orson Hyde fell during the trying scenes in Missouri, W. W. Phelps and Oliver Cowdery left The Church. Elder Phelps was a man who had been of great service to The Church and to the Prophet in a literary way, though some of his work in that line was marred by pedantic verbosity, and pretension to a knowledge of ancient languages which was not justified by any extended acquaintance he had of them. Still, he it was who in the early rise of The Church gave the cast to very much of The Church literature, and, as I remarked, he had been useful to The Church and the Prophet in the capacity of an editor and writer.
During the summer of 1840 he began to feel his way back from his apostasy into The Church. He had seen his folly and began to tremble at the gulf which opened at his very feet to devour him. He felt debased and humbled, and most piteously begged to be forgiven and taken back in the confidence of his brethren and the Saints. So interesting are the circumstances connected with his return that I give in extenso the letters which passed between himself and the Prophet.
W. W. PHELPS' LETTER TO JOSEPH SMITH.
DAYTON, OHIO, June 29, 1840.
BROTHER JOSEPH—I am alive, and with the help of God I mean to live still. I am as a prodigal son, though I never doubt or disbelieve the fullness of the Gospel. I have been greatly abused and humbled, and I blessed the God of Israel when I lately read your prophetic blessing on my head, as follows:
"The Lord will chasten him because he taketh honor to himself, and when his soul is greatly humbled he will forsake the evil. Then shall the light of the Lord break upon him as at noonday, and in him shall be no darkness," etc.
I have seen the folly of my way, and I tremble at the gulf I have passed. So it is, and why I know not. I prayed and God answered, but what could I do? Says I, "I will repent and live, and ask my old brethren to forgive me, and though they chasten me to death, yet I will die with them, for their God is my God. The least place with them is enough for me, yea it is bigger and better than all Babylon." Then I dreamed that I was in a large house with many mansions, with you and Hyrum and Sidney, and when it was said, "Supper must be made ready," by one of the cooks, I saw no meat, but you said there was plenty, and showed me much, and as good as I ever saw; and while cutting to cook, your heart and mine beat within us, and we took each other's hand and cried for joy, and I awoke and took courage.
I know my situation, you know it, and God knows it, and I want to be saved if my friends will help me. Like the captain that was cast away on a desert island; when he got off, he went to sea again, and made his fortune the next time—so let my lot be. I have done wrong, and am sorry. The beam is in my own eye. I have not walked with my friends according to my holy anointing. I ask forgiveness in the name of Jesus Christ of all the Saints, for I will do right, God helping me. I want your fellowship; if you cannot grant that, grant me your peace and friendship, for we are brethren, and our communion used to be sweet, and whenever the Lord brings us together again, I will make all the satisfaction on every point that Saints or God can require. Amen.
W.W. PHELPS.
Elders Hyde and Page, en route for the east on their mission to Jerusalem, met with Phelps at Dayton, and at his request these brethren added the following to his communication:
Brother Phelps requests us to write a few lines in his letter, and we cheerfully embrace the opportunity. Brother Phelps says he wants to live; but we do not fell ourselves authorized to act upon his case, but have recommended him to you; but he says his poverty will not allow him to visit you in person at this time, and we think he tells the truth. We therefore advise him to write, which he has done.
He tells us verbally, that he is willing to make any sacrifice to procure your fellowship, life not excepted, yet reposing that confidence in your magnanimity that you will take no advantage of this open letter and frank confession. If he can obtain your fellowship, he wants to come to Commerce as soon as he can. But if he cannot be received into the fellowship of The Church, he must do the best he can in banishment and exile.
Brethren, with you are the keys of the Kingdom; to you is power given to "exert your clemency, or display your vengeance." By the former you will save a soul from death, and hide a multitude of sins: by the latter you will forever discourage a returning prodigal, cause sorrow without benefit, pain without pleasure, ending in wretchedness and despair. But former experience teaches that you are workmen in the art of saving souls; therefore with the greater confidence do we recommend to your clemency and favorable consideration, the author and subject of this communication. "Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." Brother Phelps says he will, and so far as we are concerned, we say he may.
In the bonds of the covenant,
ORSON HYDE,
JOHN E. PAGE.
To this piteous appeal from one who had wandered far from the fold, and who had been torn by the thorns, the Prophet wrote a most worthy reply—a reply which clearly indicates that the spirit of the Master burned brightly in the breast of the servant.
JOSEPH SMITH'S LETTER TO W.W. PHELPS.
NAUVOO, HANCOCK CO., ILLINOIS, July 22, 1840.
DEAR BROTHER PHELPS—I must say that it is with no ordinary feelings I endeavor to write a few lines to you in answer to yours of the 29th ultimo; at the same time I am rejoiced at the privilege granted me.
You may in some measure realize what my feelings, as well as Elder Rigdon's and Brother Hyrum's were, when we read your letter—truly our hearts were melted into tenderness and compassion when we ascertained your resolves, etc. I can assure you I feel a disposition to act on your case in a manner that will meet the approbation of Jehovah, (whose servant I am) and agreeably to the principles of truth and righteousness which have been revealed; and inasmuch as longsuffering, patience and mercy have ever characterized the dealings of our Heavenly Father towards the humble and penitent, I feel disposed to copy the example, cherish the same principles, and by so doing be a savior of my fellow men.
It is true, that we have suffered much in consequence of your behavior—the cup of gall, already full enough for mortals to drink, was indeed filled to overflowing when you turned against us. One with whom we had oft taken sweet counsel together, and enjoyed many refreshing seasons from the Lord—"had it been an enemy, we could have borne it." "In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day when strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Far West, even thou wast as one of them; but thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother, in the day that he became a stranger, neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress."
However, the cup has been drunk, the will of our Father has been done, and we are yet alive, for which we thank the Lord. And having been delivered from the hands of wicked men by the mercy of our God, we say it is your privilege to be delivered from the powers of the adversary, be brought into the liberty of God's dear children, and again take your stand among the Saints of the Most High, and by diligence, humility, and love unfeigned, commend yourself to our God, and your God, and to The Church of Jesus Christ.
Believing your confession to be real, and your repentance genuine, I shall be happy once again to give you the right hand of fellowship, and rejoice over the returning prodigal.
Your letter was read to the Saints last Sunday, and an expression was taken, when it was unanimously—
Resolved, That W.W. Phelps should be received into fellowship.
"Come on, dear brother, since the war is past,
For friends at first are friends again at last."Yours as ever,
JOSEPH SMITH, JR.
"Come on, dear brother, since the war is past,
For friends at first are friends again at last."
Some time after this, when laying out work for the brethren to do, in a sudden burst of kindness he said to his secretary:
Write Oliver Cowdery, and ask him if he has not eaten husks long enough. If he is not almost ready to return, be clothed with robes of righteousness, and go up to Jerusalem. Orson Hyde hath need of him.
A letter was written accordingly, but the Prophet's generous tender of forgiveness and fellowship called forth no response from Oliver Cowdery, once the second Elder of The Church, and the first to make public proclamation of the Gospel to the world. Subsequently, however, he did return, namely in 1848.
It may not be amiss here to call the attention of the reader to a peculiarity of Mormonism, which is illustrated, not only by this case of Phelps, but by a multitude of other cases of the same character; and that is: whenever the religion of the Latter-day Saints—the Gospel of Jesus Christ—takes hold of men, and conviction of its truth has struck deep into the human soul, they may through transgression lose the fellowship of the Saints and of The Church; they may wander out upon the hills and through the deserts, away from the fold, but they can never forget the sweet communion of the Spirit of God, which they enjoyed before their fall; nor can they forget the fact that they once knew that Mormonism was true. The recollection of those things operates upon the mind, and not infrequently leads to a sincere repentance; and it has often happened, in the experience of The Church, that men who through transgression turned away from the truth, after thorns have torn their flesh, and the wild briar stripped them of their covering, they return and humbly beg to be re-admitted into their Father's house. Lucifer-like, they cannot forget the heights from which they fell, they cannot all forget the splendor of that glory and the happiness of that peace they enjoyed in God's Kingdom, and wicked indeed must that heart become, that these recollections will not lead to repentance. May not they have so far transgressed that they cannot repent, and are beyond even the desire for forgiveness? Are they not the sons of perdition? Thank God, their numbers are few!
Again, those who fall away from Mormonism carry with them the evidences of that fall. Unbelievers say to Mormons, "Come out of the darkness of your superstitions into God's sunlight of freedom"—but when one looks upon the fate, the condition and experience of those who have denied the faith, he receives small encouragement to obey the summons. Seldom indeed are they prospered even in the affairs of this world, and the canker-worm gnawing within, writes upon their faces the anguish of heart which their lying lips deny. They smile, but smiling suffer; the heart still beats, but brokenly lives on; and who so blind that he would exchange the peace, the joy, the holy aspirations and assurances which the Gospel brings, for the unrest, the gloom, darkness, uncertainty and fearfulness, which forever haunt the mind of the apostate? Only those who would exchange the glorious light of heaven for the murky blackness of hell.
CHAPTER XII.
JOHN C. BENNETT.
ABOUT this time, there were other characters which had become attracted to The Church, and who became prominent in the events which occurred at Nauvoo. Among them was Dr. John C. Bennett, described as "a man of enterprise, extensive acquirements, and of independent mind, one calculated to be of great benefit to The Church." His attention had been attracted to the Mormon people during their persecutions in Missouri. At that time he was brigadier-general of the "Invincible Dragoons" of Illinois, and wrote to the leaders of The Church in the hours of their deepest distress, proffering to go to their assistance with all the forces he could raise in Illinois, as his bosom swelled with indignation at the treatment the Saints received at the hands of the cruel but cowardly Missourians. That proffered service, however, was not accepted; doubtless because the Saints depended for vindication of their reputation, and redress of their wrongs, upon the officers of the State and Nation, rather than upon adventurers who offered their service to wage war upon their enemies. But after the Saints began gathering at Commerce, he again expressed a desire to connect his fortunes with theirs.
As this man may properly be regarded as the "Benedict Arnold" of The Church at Nauvoo, I shall take the liberty of now noting a few expressions in his first letters to Joseph the Prophet, which, if they fail to adorn a tale, they will at least point a moral.
When he contemplated joining his fortunes with The Church at Commerce, he held the position of quartermaster-general in the militia of the State of Illinois, a position he did not wish to resign. Indeed he expressed a desire to hold the position for a number of years. He was also a physician with an extensive practice, and sent extracts from the Louisville Courier-Journal which gave evidence of high standing in his profession. Writing of these things to Joseph, he said:
I do not expect to resign my office of quartermaster-general of the State of Illinois, in the event of my removal to Commerce, unless you advise otherwise. I shall likewise expect to practice my profession, but at the same time your people shall have all the benefit of my speaking power, and my untiring energies in behalf of the good and holy faith.
In a communication following the one from which I make the above quotation he said: