With similar fidelity and unshaken integrity Brigham Young, from the

time of this meeting in Kirtland, cordially sustained the Prophet

Joseph in all his ministrations up to the day of his martyrdom. Many

times during the ensuing twelve years, and especially during the

great defection and apostasy at Kirtland, he had occasion, because

of his devotion to Joseph, to exhibit the decision of character and

moral courage for which he was so distinguished in after life. When

hesitation and doubt were far too common, and many leading men faltered

and fell away, Brigham stood in the midst of the storm of opposition

like a tower of strength. The remark which he made concerning some

of his brother apostles at Nauvoo, after the death of the Prophet

Joseph, when he said "their hands had never trembled and their knees

had never shook in maintaining and defending the principles of

righteousness" applied with peculiar significance to himself and his

own past connection with the work of God. But it was not in Joseph's

lifetime alone that Brigham manifested his admiration for and devotion

to his great friend. During the long period--thirty-three years--which

he outlived the Prophet (when a common man under his circumstances

might have been tempted to criticise the acts or peculiarities of his

predecessor, or to contrast his own management of affairs with that

of Joseph's) no one ever heard a word drop from his lips that was

not worthy of the two men. His own success and great and world-wide

prominence never diminished nor obscured the deep-rooted love and

loyalty he felt towards the man whom God had chosen to hold the keys of

this last dispensation and to be his file-leader in the Priesthood.

It appears that the Prophet must have had something shown to him on

this occasion concerning the future of Brigham Young; for Heber C.

Kimball and Joseph Young, who both accompanied Brigham to Kirtland,

each testified in his lifetime that the Prophet Joseph said to those

who stood around him, "that man," pointing to Brigham Young who was

a little distance off, "will yet preside over this Church." Levi W.

Hancock, also, frequently testified that he heard the Prophet make this

same statement concerning Brigham.

In July Joseph was gratified to receive the first number of _The

Evening and Morning Star_ from Independence. Light was already

beginning to radiate from the land of Zion.

A few weeks later Elders began to come in from their missionary labors

in the Eastern States. Their reports were interesting, as from them

could be gathered the nature of the difficulties to be contended with

in bringing the people to a knowledge of the truth. The importance of

this missionary work was apparent. The message which the Lord had given

to His servants had to be declared to all people. The Prophet sought

for definite instructions concerning this labor. On the 22nd and 23rd

of September, 1832, he received the word of the Lord defining some of

the powers of the Priesthood and giving consolation and strength to

such as should be called to go forth in the ministry.

Let no man among you * * * from this hour take purse or scrip that

goeth forth to proclaim this gospel of the kingdom. * * *

And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before

your face: I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my

Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you to

bear you up. * * *

Search diligently and spare not; and woe unto that house, or

that village or city that rejecteth you, or your words, or your

testimony concerning me.

For I the Almighty have laid my hands upon the nations, to scourge

them for their wickedness:

And plagues shall go forth, and they shall not be taken from the

earth until I have completed my work, which shall be cut short in

righteousness,

Until all shall know me, who remain, even from the least unto the

greatest, and shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, and

shall see eye to eye, and shall lift up their voice, and with the

voice together sing this new song, saying--

The Lord hath brought again Zion,

The Lord hath redeemed his people,

Israel, According to the election of grace,

Which was brought to pass by the faith

And covenant of their fathers.

The Lord hath redeemed his people,

And Satan is bound and time is no longer;

The Lord hath gathered all things in one;

The Lord hath brought down Zion from above.

The Lord hath brought up Zion from beneath.

The earth hath travailed and brought forth her strength;

And truth is established in her bowels;

And the heavens have smiled upon her;

And she is clothed with the glory of her God;

For he stands in the midst of his people;

Glory, and honor, and power, and might,

Be ascribed to our God; for he is full of mercy,

Justice, grace and truth, and peace,

For ever and ever, Amen.

* * * * * *

Go ye forth * * reproving the world in righteousness of all

their unrighteous and ungodly deeds, setting forth clearly and

understandingly the desolation of abomination in the last days;

For, with you, saith the Lord Almighty, I will rend their kingdoms;

I will not only shake the earth, but the starry heavens shall

tremble;

For I, the Lord, have put forth my hand to exert the powers of

heaven; ye cannot see it now, yet a little while and ye shall see

it, and know that I am, and that I will come and reign with my

people.

Early in the month of October the Prophet departed with Bishop Whitney

for the Eastern States, and made hurried visits to the cities of

Albany, New York and Boston, returning to Kirtland on the sixth day of

November, 1832. Three days previous to the latter date, on November

3rd, a son was born to him, whom he named Joseph.

To one not divinely sustained the burden of work now laid upon Joseph

would have been oppressive. The little time he could snatch from

the labors of the ministry was devoted to diligent labor upon the

translation of the Bible; and in addition he was planning for the

further progress of proselyting work and for the upbuilding of Zion, in

Missouri. Upon this latter subject he bestowed much anxious thought.

He communicated with the Elders there by letter, and gave them careful

instruction concerning the distribution of inheritances to the Saints

and the general management of affairs in that land.

On the 25th day of December, 1832, the following revelation and

prophecy were given to Joseph, at Kirtland, Ohio:

Verily, thus saith the Lord, concerning the wars that will shortly

come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which

will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls.

The days will come that war will be poured upon all nations,

beginning at that place;

For behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the

Northern States, and the Southern States will call on other

nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called, and

they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend

themselves against other nations; and then war shall be poured out

upon all nations.

And it shall come to pass, after many days, slaves shall rise up

against their masters, who shall be marshaled and disciplined for

war;

And it shall come to pass also, that the remnants who are left of

the land will marshal themselves, and shall become exceeding angry,

and shall vex the Gentiles with a sore vexation;

And thus, with the sword, and by bloodshed, the inhabitants of the

earth shall mourn; and with famine, and plague, and earthquakes,

and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning also,

shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath, and

indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the

consumption decreed hath made a full end of all the nations; * * *

Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day

of the Lord come; for behold it cometh quickly, saith the Lord.

Amen.

This revelation was made known at that time to the Saints and was a

subject of constant remark in the Church; in 1851 it was published to

the world and obtained a somewhat wide circulation. Nearly twenty-nine

years after its date, its wondrous fulfillment began when the first

gun was fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Since that time wars and

rumors of wars have prevailed throughout the world. Peace has fled, and

in view of all the Lord has said, it is not too much to expect it has

fled no more to return till the reign of righteousness shall begin.

It is strange that the solemn warning uttered by Joseph in 1832 should

have gone unheeded. His prophecy was not without its purpose. The Lord

inspired his mind with visions of the future and with power to view the

paths by which the nation might escape the impending disasters, but

like other parts of His message of salvation to the human race this

warning also was rejected.

CHAPTER XXIII.

ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL OF THE PROPHETS--THE TRANSLATION OF THE

SCRIPTURES--THE WORD OF WISDOM REVEALED--JOSEPH SELECTS COUNSELORS--

THE SAVIOR AND ANGELS APPEAR AFTER THE ORDINATION--LANDS PURCHASED IN

AND AROUND KIRTLAND.

The warnings, of which he had been the chosen proclaimer to the world,

imbued the Prophet with a sense of mankind's physical danger, as he had

formerly been made to understand their spiritual jeopardy; and we find

from all his writings and utterances of this period that he repeated

often and in various ways the message of alarm.

It was a busy winter of 1832-3 for Joseph. He organized a school of

the Prophets, wherein such of the members of the Church as held the

Melchisedek Priesthood and were worthy were permitted to assemble and

receive instruction day by day in the things of God. He continued

his translation of the scriptures; he directed letters to the

Saints in Zion, exhorting them to repentance, to faithfulness and

purification, admonishing them of the punishment in store for workers

of unrighteousness; and he sat in many conferences in which the gifts

of the gospel were made manifest in recognition and blessing of the

humility of the people.

On the 22nd day of January, 1833, there were many manifestations of the

Holy Spirit at a conference at Kirtland. The Prophet and many of his

brethren of the higher Priesthood, together with several other members,

both men and women, spoke in tongues. The restoration of this gift to

man gave great joy to those who received it; but the gift of speaking

in tongues was esteemed by the saints of that early day as a reward

to patient trust and meekness and not as a necessary sign or proof of

truth.

On the second day of February, 1833, the Prophet completed, for

the time being, his inspired translation of the New Testament. No

endeavor was made at that time to print the work. It was sealed up

with the expectation that it would be brought forth at a later day

with other of the scriptures. Joseph did not live to give to the world

an authoritative publication of these translations. [1] But the labor

was its own reward, bringing in the performance a special blessing

of broadened comprehension to the Prophet and a general blessing of

enlightenment to the people through his subsequent teachings.

The Lord revealed His purpose in this matter when He said to Joseph at

a later time:

And, verily I say unto you, that it is my will that you should

hasten to translate my scriptures, and to obtain a knowledge of

history, and of countries, and of kingdoms, of laws of God and man,

and all this for the salvation of Zion. [2]

On the 27th day of February, 1833, the Prophet received the revelation

known as the Word of Wisdom, warning the people to abstain from

impurities and grossness in their food and drink, and promising them

rich blessings of physical strength and protection from the power

of the adversary as a reward for their obedience. The requirement

of bodily pureness, to be gained by clean and wholesome living, was

not more directly made upon the children of Israel anciently than

upon the Latter-day Saints through the Prophet Joseph. This revealed

Word of Wisdom embodies the most advanced principles of science in

the condemnation of unclean or gluttonous appetites; and if it were

implicitly obeyed by the human family, it would be a power to aid

in a physical redemption for the race. Its delivery to Joseph marks

another step in the divine plan for man's eventual elevation to divine

acceptability--a plan which had already proved itself of heavenly

origin by its sublime character.

And now we are brought to the time when the Lord designed that the

authority and power of the presidency of the Church should be shared

by others and should be conferred upon them by Joseph. An intimation

concerning the First Presidency of the Church was given in a revelation

which the Prophet received in March, 1832, in which Frederick G.

Williams was called of the Lord to be a counselor to Joseph. In

previous revelations, also, mention was made by the Lord of the First

Presidency of the Church, and some of the duties which belonged to that

body. But it was not until the 8th day of March, 1833, that the Lord

revealed His further will concerning this organization. At that time

two men were designated to be associates of the Prophet--to be his

counselors and members with him of the First Presidency of the Church.

They were Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams, and on the 18th day

of March, 1833, in the school of the Prophets, at Kirtland, obedient

to the revealed word, Joseph ordained these men to this office, to

take part with him in bearing the burden of the Kingdom of God, and to

assist in the presidency of the High Priesthood. In this way was the

first presiding quorum formed to administer in the Church; and it was

not dissolved during the Prophet's life. But when the frightful deed at

Carthage took place in after years, the Lord had provided an authority,

equal in power to the complete first quorum, to hold the gifts and to

carry the responsibility of the work.

Joseph's glad submission to the will of the Lord respecting the

distribution of authority is sufficient proof of his unselfishness.

And the conception of this plan for the guidance of the Church proves

that the system had its origin beyond and above the petty ambitions of

humanity.

Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams, with the successors of the

latter as counselors, ever received proper consideration from Joseph;

and though often they were a thorn in the flesh, because of their own

ambitions or misdoings, he bore with them patiently, knowing that they

were the chosen of the Lord, and forgave their failings as willingly

and as humbly as he besought forgiveness of his own frailties. The

Prophet was never more watchful of his own ordained prerogatives than

of the power similarly conferred upon his brethren. He showed by his

example to the Saints then and for all time how a man could defer to

proper authority without cringing to his fellow man.

The full beauty of the organization and the means by which the

authority of the Priesthood would be perpetuated in the Church was not

made fully known at that time. It came later, notably when the quorum

of Apostles was organized. But this creation of the First Presidency

was of great moment in demonstrating the exalted nature of his calling,

and the Lord blessed it in the eyes of the assembled Priesthood. On

the occasion when the ordination was solemnized, the sacrament was

administered by the Prophet under the promise that the pure in heart

should see a heavenly vision; and after the bread and wine had been

partaken of in prayer and humility, the Savior appeared before their

eyes, accompanied by concourses of holy angels. It was thus that the

faithful were comforted in their meekness and blessed in their devotion.

While looking forward to the building of Zion in Missouri, it was

still deemed necessary for the Saints to have a resting place for

some time to come in Kirtland. And very soon after the ordination

of Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams, a council of the

Priesthood was called, by which it was decided to purchase lands in

and around Kirtland for the use of the Saints upon which they were

to be established. This plan was not vacillation, however it might

have seemed at that time to an unbeliever. Nor was it without its

accomplishments and great benefits. Hopeful as Joseph and the Saints

were to perform the work of establishing the center stake in Jackson

County, and earnest as they were in their endeavor, the administration

of ordinances, the endowment of the worthy Saints, and the ministration

of heavenly beings, which afterwards took place in the temple at

Kirtland, would necessarily have been delayed if the sole effort had

been to erect a temple in Missouri; because the hatred against the

truth soon became so violent there that the fulfillment of this purpose

was, for the time, impossible.

But while Kirtland was being strengthened and plans were being made

to beautify the city and to enrich it for the benefit of the Saints,

Zion in Missouri was also coming under the good influence. Joseph was

gratified to learn that every dissension among the elders and members

in Jackson County had ceased and that all was peace within that branch

of the Church. There had been no serious difficulties, but so far

removed from his direct guidance, some of the traveling Elders had

exalted their own authority to conflict with that exercised by the

resident presidency in Zion and misunderstandings ensued. This had all

been corrected after Joseph had sent an epistle to the Saints in that

region, and with the opening of April, 1833, there was much joy and

hope at Kirtland, and much union and love in Jackson County.

Later in the spring and in the early summer of 1833, revelations were

received concerning the erection of a temple at Kirtland, and with this

and attendant work the Prophet was constantly engaged.

Footnotes

1. We have heard President Brigham Young state that the Prophet before

his death had spoken to him about going through the translation of the

scriptures again and perfecting it upon points of doctrine which the

Lord had restrained him from giving in plainness and fullness at the

time of which we write.

2. Doctrine and Covenants, Section xciii, verse 54.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THREATS OF A MOB OF THREE HUNDRED AT INDEPENDENCE--PURITY REQUIRED

OF CHURCH MEMBERS--EXCOMMUNICATION OF DR. P. HURLBURT--HIS THREATS

AGAINST THE PROPHET--PIXLEY JOINS THE MOB--HIS MALICIOUS FALSEHOODS--

MEETING OF A BASE ELEMENT--WICKED DETERMINATIONS--DESTRUCTION OF THE

SAINTS' PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT--W. W. PHELPS DRIVEN FROM HOME--BISHOP

PARTRIDGE AND ELDER ALLEN TARRED AND FEATHERED--"YOU MUST LEAVE THE

COUNTRY"--ANOTHER MEETING OF THE ENEMY--THE SAINTS AGREE TO LEAVE

JACKSON COUNTY.

Eighteen hundred years after the crucifixion of our Savior, His Church

in this last dispensation celebrated the third anniversary of its

establishment. The ceremonies took place on the 6th day of April, 1833,

on the banks of the Big Blue River in the western part of Jackson

County, Missouri. Few as were the Saints then gathered in the land

Zion, the event was impressive in its solemn recall of the past, and

sublime in its exalted promise for the future of Christ's people.

Joseph himself was not there; but eighty men who had received the

Priesthood and also many other members of the Church were present to

enjoy this reawakening in modern times of the power of the Son of God.

This was not to be the only reawakening. The spirit of insensate

murder which Jesus had encountered and which had culminated on Calvary

was aroused in all its intensity against these His humble and chosen

followers in the latter days. In the same month which witnessed the

glorious reunion of the Saints, a mob, consisting of three hundred

men, congregated at Independence and swore with much blasphemy to

drive the people of God from their homes in that region and to destroy

that branch of the Church. News of these dreadful threats was brought

to the leading Elders at Independence; and in solemn assemblage they

prayed that God would stay the hand of the wicked. The supplication

was granted for a time; and the drunken rabble became filled with

mutual hatred and distrust, so that they scattered from the meeting and

carousing place, mingling with their maledictions against the Saints

much vile language and many execrations concerning each other.

When the Prophet learned of these manifestations in Jackson County,

he was filled with much concern for his brethren; but his duty as

commanded by the Lord required for a time his presence at Kirtland and

in the East. And at Kirtland, despite the poverty of the people and the

menace made by a wicked world against them, preparations were made to

build the house unto the Lord as required in the revelations.

The spirit of persecution which raged was doubtless permitted, if for

no other reason than that it had the effect to purify the Church, and

the members were also admonished thereby to sweep all unworthiness

from their midst and to exclude from Church membership all wilful and

persistent wrong-doers. Few and poor as were the Saints, it was the

rule that no man, whatever his attainments or wealth, should retain his

fellowship if his conduct proved that his soul was vile. It was not and

is not now the practice of the Latter-day Saints to cover the sins of

their members from the gaze of an unbelieving world, and to harbor the

wrong-doer rather than to subject the entire body to the reproach of

scoffers. With charity such as Christ commanded for all the frailties

of a humanity struggling toward goodness, the Church has ever been an

uncompromising punisher of wilful wickedness. In June, 1833, one Doctor

P. Hurlburt was tried by the council of High Priests upon a charge of

impure conduct with women while acting as a missionary in the East;

and although he contested the case, as he desired for his own selfish

purposes to continue for a time in relation with the Church, his guilt

was fully established, he was cut off and the world was warned against

him as an insidious enemy of female chastity. This man Hurlburt, being

filled with hatred by the exposure of his true nature, showed himself

a vindictive enemy of the Prophet and the Church, and in later times

his name became associated with the notorious Spaulding story, and with

threats and attempts upon Joseph's life.

It was by such men, dishonorable apostates, suborned and aided by a

jealous clergy, that the early falsehoods were propagated and the

early persecutions were incited against the Church which would not

condone their impurities. And it is the wicked untruth, started in

that age and added to by the same class of men in later times, which

is circulated to-day and which deceives the world concerning a people

whose sole desire is to live in purity and in peace with all mankind.

It was then, as it is now, noted that, in many instances, the charges

against Latter-day Saints have varied according to the varied character

of their originators. Men whose profession is divining for money,

whose trade is deceiving human souls to gratify their own avarice,

joined in the cry that Joseph Smith and his fellow Apostles were

selfish seekers after the things of this world. Men whose souls felt no

repugnance to the butchery of defenseless men, pure women and innocent

little children originated the awful lie that murder was practiced and

condoned by this Church. Impure wretches, looking with lustful eyes

upon females, originated the untruth that woman was degraded and her

virtue held in light esteem by the Latter-day Saints; and among the

most prominent persecutors and prosecutors of this people have been

lechers. Dishonest and disreputable men circulated the absurd falsehood

that Joseph Smith and his followers sought to despoil others of their

possessions instead of acquiring homes by the labors of their own

hands. It is one of the most peculiar experiences of the Saints that in

most instances the charge brought against them has been one of which

the originator would himself be glad to be guilty.

So it was at Independence in the summer of 1833.

The first effort of the mob failed. They lacked a leader sufficiently

base to unite them in their plans for robbery and murder. But in July

of that year a man named Pixley, a paid agent of a sectarian Missionary

Society, was dwelling in that region under the pretense of helping the

Indians to the light of Christianity. He defamed the Saints to their

fellow citizens of Missouri and sent malicious lies to the eastern

states to stir up the older communities of the nation to a feeling of

dislike. He misrepresented the Saints to the Indians and to the wilder

white men of the border, with the hope to inflame these ungoverned

and lawless people to attack and destroy the little handful of church

members. The number of the Saints in the center stake of Zion at this

time was twelve hundred. They were law-abiding and industrious. But

they were intent upon the work commanded of the Lord, and they did not

assimilate readily nor join in unworthy pursuits with the surrounding

people, white and red and black. This self-isolation or exclusiveness

constituted their sole offense. It is not surprising that the Saints

should have striven to keep their skirts clean from close contact with

the vicious element abounding there, nor that this same vicious element

should have been easily aroused against a people so singular in their

demeanor, and so unworldly in their lives and aspirations.

Pixley, himself the teacher of a false religion, proclaimed against

Joseph Smith as a false prophet. Pixley, himself the leader of deceived

converts, proclaimed against the Saints as deluded followers. Pixley,

himself a dishonest creature, proclaimed that the purpose of the

Saints was to steal the possessions of other settlers, to steal their

negroes, or to incite them to run away. The Latter-day Saints were

men from the eastern states--Yankees--and consequently open to the

suspicion of being Abolitionists. In upper Missouri in those days

no charge could be made that would arouse more intense hatred and

violence than that of being an Abolitionist. The mere whisper of such

a suspicion was sufficient to inflame anger and arouse a mob. By such

cries, Pixley and others of his kind induced every dissolute idler in

that region to join in an onslaught for plunder. They all hoped to

safely annihilate the Church and to seize the lands of the Saints under

cover of a Pharisaical cry, "False prophets, deluded followers, idle

vagabonds, land thieves!" With this man Pixley were united professed

ministers of the gospel, officers of the law, politicians and many

individuals of less personal importance if not less vindictiveness.

They succeeded in so exciting the public mind that a mass meeting to

devise some unlawful plan against the Saints was held at Independence,

on the 20th day of July, 1833, at which a great horde of five hundred

persons were in attendance. Not only were the scum of that wild region

gathered, but men holding high official positions were also present,

for individuals with political aspirations are often ready to join the

lowest and most depraved in any popular movement. Amazing as it may

seem, Lieutenant-Governor Lilburn W. Boggs, the second officer of the

State of Missouri, was personally cognizant of the proceedings and

aided every movement against the Saints.

Colonel Richard Simpson was chairman of the meeting, and James H.

Flournoy and Colonel Samuel D. Lucas were secretaries. A committee

appointed for the purpose prepared and presented a manifesto, which

was adopted by the meeting. It denounced the Saints for their poverty

and for their peculiar religious belief, but it did not dare to

charge a single specific violation of law against them. It closed

with the declaration that no Latter-day Saint should in future be

permitted to settle in Jackson County; that such as then resided there

should remove; that the _Evening and Morning Star_ should no longer

be published, and the business of printing by the Saints should be

discontinued in that county; and "that those who failed to comply with

this requisition are to refer to those of their brethren who have the

gift of divination and of unknown tongues to inform them of the lot

that awaits them."

Not a single voice was recorded against the adoption of this infamous

edict. It was unanimously accepted; and immediately a committee of

thirteen persons was appointed to see that the decree was enforced. The

space of two hours was allowed by the meeting for the delivery of the

terms of this manifesto to the presiding officers of the Church, for

their answer to this demand, and for the return of the committee to the

meeting. Scant time, indeed, for the expatriation of twelve hundred

law-abiding men, women and children! The Saints asked for delay for a

pitiful ten days, in which to consider the awful decree. The answer

was, "Fifteen minutes are enough."

The mob were terribly, murderously earnest. When the committee returned

to the re-convened meeting after a lapse of that brief two hours, they

reported that the leaders of the Saints and the editor of the paper

had asked time for consultation, not only among themselves but with

their fellow believers and the Presidency of the Church in Ohio. A

yell of hate greeted this announcement, and the meeting instantly and

unanimously resolved to wreak instant vengeance upon the Saints and the

paper. Headed by a red flag to signify their bloody purpose and their

defiance of law, they rushed upon their prey. The house of William W.

Phelps, the editor, containing the printing establishment, was razed

to the ground. His press and type and other materials were seized and

carried away by the mob. The papers and books were destroyed, and the

family and furniture of the editor were cast off the premises. An

infant child of Elder Phelps was dangerously ill in his wife's arms,

but mother and babe were thrust out as brutally as the rest. An attack

was made upon the store for the purpose of plundering it, but the

mob was induced to forego their purpose to engage in more sanguinary

delights. Bishop Edward Partridge and Charles Allen were stripped and

tarred and feathered, because they would not deny the truth nor agree

to leave the county at once. With the tar was mixed some powerful acid

which burned their flesh frightfully. Several of the brethren were

threatened with whipping and even worse. But it was growing dark and

the mob concluded that enough had been done for one time; so the mass

meeting, which this inhuman rabble was called, adjourned for three days

until the 23rd of July, 1833. And Lilburn W. Boggs addressed some of

the Saints saying, "You now know what our Jackson boys can do, and you

must leave the country."

Even a greater number of people assembled on the 23rd of July, as

agreed, to renew the persecution of the poor Saints. A new committee

was appointed to consult again with the presiding officers of the

Church; and, not being entirely dead to humanity, this committee agreed

to give the Saints time--one half until the 1st day of January, 1834,

and the remainder until the 1st day of April, of the same year, in

which to remove themselves from Jackson County. Further, it was settled

that the _Star_ was not to be again published nor a press set up by any

Latter-day Saint in the county, and that any members of the Church then

journeying toward Jackson County should be stopped on the road and only

permitted to have a temporary shelter until such time as all the Saints

could remove from Jackson County to some new gathering place. A solemn

pledge was given by the Committee that, meanwhile, the people should

not be again assailed. The mass meeting, upon receiving this report,

ratified it in a formal manner. Concluding that their great mission--to

which they had devoted "their bodily powers, their lives, fortunes and

sacred honors"--had been accomplished the rabble adjourned _sine die_.

[1]

Oliver Cowdery was at once dispatched to Kirtland with full

information. When the Prophet Joseph heard of this wanton attack upon

the Church and the sad situation of the people at Independence, he

wrote, "Man may torment the body; but God in return will punish the

soul."

Footnotes

1. See NOTE 3., APPENDIX.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE CORNER STONE OF THE KIRTLAND TEMPLE LAID--A PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT

OPENED--THE PROPHET'S MISSION TO CANADA--A MINISTER'S OPPOSITION--

BAPTISMS--PERSECUTIONS AT KIRTLAND--WILFORD WOODRUFF RECEIVES THE

GOSPEL.

No work of murderous mobs or judicial persecution has ever been able to

stay the cause inaugurated under divine direction through Joseph Smith.

At the very hour when the mob, on the 23rd day of July, 1833, were

issuing their mandate of exile to the Saints in Jackson County, the

cornerstone of the Lord's house in Kirtland was being laid according to

the order of the Holy Priesthood of Christ. It was not that the purpose

had shifted, that the center stake was to be removed from Missouri to

Ohio. The command had been given; it will not be annulled. But long

before manifestation of mob violence in Jackson County, the Lord had

directed the building of a temple at Kirtland and the establishment of

a stake of Zion there.

And while the future, to human appearance, seemed to be growing darker

and darker, Joseph received a revelation in which the Lord declared

His immutable covenant that the Saints should be rewarded and blessed

according to His promise, and that their afflictions should eventually

be turned to their everlasting good. And, while the wickedness of the

mobs in Missouri was still agitating the hearts of Joseph and the

Saints and making the weak among the people to tremble and the strong

to feel deep indignation, the Lord commanded His Saints to renounce war

and proclaim peace and to bear afflictions patiently, until the third

time of their being smitten by the wicked. He promised them that whoso

should lay down their life in the cause of Christ should find it again,

even life eternal.

On the 11th day of September, 1833, a council under the presidency

of the Prophet was held in Kirtland, and it was decided that a

printing establishment should be opened there for the publication of

the persecuted _Evening and Morning Star_ and for a new paper to be

called the _Latter-day Saints' Messenger and Advocate_. About the same

time Elders Orson Hyde and John Gould were sent to Jackson County as

messengers from the First Presidency to the Missouri Saints in their

tribulation.

The Prophet felt that the field of souls was white for the harvest and

that it was incumbent upon him to thrust in his sickle and gather the

honest-in-heart. On the 5th day of October, 1833, he departed from

Kirtland upon a missionary journey to Canada, in company with Sidney

Rigdon and Freeman A. Nickerson. At various places on the road, they

stopped and proclaimed the word of the Lord unto the inhabitants. In

some villages they found already members of the Church. In others they

found God-fearing men and women who were praying for light and were

willing to obey when the simple gospel was presented before the eyes

of their understanding. On the 12th day of October they had arrived at

Perrysburg, New York, where they halted for a little time. Here the

Prophet received a revelation in which the Lord instructed him that

Zion must be chastened yet for a season, although she would finally

be redeemed. When they reached Lodi, New York, they preached in the

evening and made a further appointment for the day following at a

Presbyterian meeting house, the use of which had been promised to them.

But when many people had assembled outside the hall to hear Joseph,

they were refused admission by the jealous sectarians in charge, and

the indignant congregation went home in great confusion. On the 17th

day of October the Prophet and his companions reached the home of

Freeman A. Nickerson at Mount Pleasant in Upper Canada; and at this

place and the adjoining town of Brantford and the villages of Colburn

and Waterford they held several meetings which were blessed by a great

outflow of the Spirit of God and by the presence of many honest-hearted

people. Upon one occasion at Colburn they were beset very tumultuously

at one of their meetings by a Wesleyan Methodist, who was determined

that the assembled people should not hear the gospel. But his own

lack of logic and courtesy injured himself rather than the persons

against whom his violent efforts were directed. On the 26th day of

October, after preaching to a large congregation at Mount Pleasant,

Joseph baptized twelve persons, and on each of the two following days

he baptized two persons, all of whom were confirmed as members of the

Church. The Prophet also ordained E. F. Nickerson to be an Elder; and

he gave much instruction to the newly-converted Saints concerning

the truth and the constant necessity for watchfulness and humility.

This labor made a considerable opening in this region for the further

preaching of the truth. It was not, however the first proclamation of

the gospel in Canada, because as early as July 20th of the same year,

1833, Elder Orson Pratt had preached to the people in Patten.

On the 29th day of October the Prophet and his companions departed from

Mount Pleasant for Kirtland; and on Monday, the 4th day of November,

the Prophet reached his home and found his family in peace, as had been

promised in the revelation given to him at Perrysburg.

The inhabitants of Geauga County, Ohio, in which Kirtland was situated,

began now to partake of a persecuting and mobocratic spirit, and

threatened the Saints resident there with similar afflictions to those

which had been visited upon their brethren in Missouri. The Prophet

knew of the hate that was hanging around him, but he calmly viewed the

situation, and in writing to Bishop Partridge at Clay County, Missouri,

under date of December 5th, 1833, he said:

The inhabitants of this county threaten our destruction, and we

know not how soon they may be permitted to follow the examples of

the Missourians; but our trust is in God, and we are determined, by

His grace assisting us, to maintain the cause and hold out faithful

unto the end, that we may be crowned with crowns of celestial

glory, and enter into the rest that is prepared for the children of

God.

On the 16th day of December, 1833, the Lord revealed to Joseph the

divine purpose concerning the Saints in Missouri, saying,

I, the Lord, have suffered the affliction to come upon them,

wherewith they have been afflicted, in consequence of their

transgressions;

Yet I will own them, and they shall be mine in that day when I

shall come to make up my jewels.

Therefore, they must needs be chastened and tried, even as Abraham,

who was commanded to offer up his only son;

For all those who will not endure chastening, but deny me, cannot

be sanctified.

* * * * *

And they that have been scattered shall be gathered;

And all they who have mourned shall be comforted;

And all they who have given their lives for my name shall be

crowned.

Therefore, let your hearts be comforted concerning Zion; for all

flesh is in mine hands; be still and know that I am God.

Zion shall not be moved out of her place, notwithstanding her

children are scattered;

They that remain, and are pure in heart, shall return, and come

to their inheritances, they and their children, with songs of

everlasting joy, to build up the waste places of Zion.

And immediately after the revelation was received the Prophet sent

William Pratt and David W. Patten, as messengers to the scattered

Saints of Missouri to give them words of comfort and instruction.

Early in the month of December, 1833, Bishop Newel K. Whitney and

Oliver Cowdery had brought to Kirtland a new printing press, and on the

18th day of the month a printing office in Kirtland was dedicated to

the Lord and His purposes, and Oliver Cowdery began the publication of

the _Evening and Morning Star_, which had been cast out of Missouri. On

the day that Joseph dedicated the printing establishment to the service

of the Lord, his father, Joseph Smith, Senior, was ordained to be the

Patriarch to the whole Church. On that day Joseph wrote:

And blessed is my father, for the hand of the Lord will be over

him, for he shall see the afflictions of his children pass away;

and when his head is fully ripe, he shall behold himself as an

olive, whose branches are bowed down with much fruit; he shall also

possess a mansion on high.

In view of all that has since occurred, it is a remarkable fact, that

the Prophet recorded in his journal of the 31st of December, 1833, the

fact that "Wilford Woodruff was baptized at Richland, Oswego County,

New York, by Zera Pulsipher." And this was before the Prophet and

the future Apostle and President had ever met in the flesh. This is

not the only mention of Wilford Woodruff in Joseph's dairy prior to

their meeting. In one place the Prophet notices that Wilford had been

ordained a teacher. It was the 25th day of April, 1834, when Wilford

Woodruff visited the Prophet at Kirtland, and from that time on until

Joseph's death they were intimately associated. It was clear that

Joseph felt the staunch worthiness of his young brother, and in relying

on him the Prophet was leaning upon no weak or broken reed, for Wilford

Woodruff had been and had ever shown the fidelity of a Saint and the

integrity and power of an Apostle of Jesus Christ. He was one of the

most faithful of all the men who were gathered near to the Prophet's

person to share his trials and his confidences. Wilford Woodruff never

made any attempt to cultivate showy qualities, and yet he was always

marked among his fellows; his characteristic humility and unswerving

honesty being sufficient to attract the attention of all who had known

him. His is another of the names to be recorded with that of Joseph,

and it is worthy to stand side by side with the names of Brigham Young

and John Taylor, for he was as loyal to them as he and they were to

Joseph, the first Prophet of this dispensation.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE JACKSON COUNTY PERSECUTIONS--APPEAL TO GOVERNOR DUNKLIN--HIS TIMID

REPLY--HEARTLESS DRIVINGS--A BRUTAL MURDER--BOGGS ALLOWS THE MOB TO

ORGANIZE AS A MILITIA--PITCHER PLACED IN COMMAND--CERTAIN MEN TAKEN IN

CUSTODY BY THE MOB--SETTLEMENT IN CLAY COUNTY--COURT OF INQUIRY.

"Be still and know that I am God."

These are the words with which the Almighty answered Joseph when he

importuned Heaven concerning the woes of the Saints in Missouri. And so

he was wont to solace himself and his brethren with the remembrance of

the revealed word that "After much tribulation cometh the blessing."

How many years of the people or days of the Lord must elapse before the

Saints would be planted in power in Zion, the Prophet could not learn;

but this he did know that after her term of affliction and purification

had passed she would be redeemed and beautified, and this is the

promise that he uttered to his brethren in Kirtland and wrote to the

Saints in Missouri.

While Joseph had been traveling in the missionary field, momentous

events took place in the far west. The truce which the mob had made,

the mob had broken. Assaults upon the houses of the Saints were of

constant occurrence. Satan was not satisfied that the people of the

Lord should peacefully migrate with their few possessions into some

other region, and the more turbulent spirits in the rabble began to

threaten the lives of leading men at Independence and to declare that

all of the people--men, women and children,--should be whipped out of

the county. An attempt was made to establish a colony in Van Buren

County, in the south. Some of the Saints settled there and began to

labor diligently in the fields, but the spirit of mobocracy had spread,

and a mob rose in arms, threatening to drive the Saints farther into

exile.

On the 28th day of September, 1883, a petition was addressed to His

Excellency Daniel Dunklin, Governor of the State of Missouri, by

the persecuted people in Jackson County; and it was carried to the

executive office in Jefferson City by Elders Orson Hyde and William W.

Phelps. In this eloquent document a recital was made of the woes to

which the people had been subjected, of the patience with which they

had borne these outrages, of the utter subversion of the principles

of law and humanity, and of the participation in these outrages by

leading men in the state, civil and military officers, politicians and

preachers. The final appeal in this petition was as follows:

Knowing, as we do, that the threats of this mob, in most cases,

have been put into execution, and knowing also that every officer,

civil and military, with a very few exceptions, has pledged his

life and honor to force us from the county, dead or alive; and

believing that civil process cannot be served without the aid of

the Executive; and not wishing to have the blood of our defenseless

women and children to stain the land which has once been stained by

the blood of our fathers to purchase our liberty; we appeal to the

Governor for aid, asking him, by express proclamation or otherwise,

to raise a sufficient number of troops, who, with us, may be

empowered to defend our rights, that we may sue for damages in the

loss of property--for abuse--for defamation, as to ourselves; and

if advisable, try for treason against the government, that the law

of the land may not be defied, nor nullified, but peace be restored

to our country:--And we will ever pray.

Not one word in this petition had been set down in malice; it was

temperate and respectful; and though its utterances were strong, they

were borne out by incorruptible testimony, as well as, mainly, by the

admissions of the mob themselves.

After such an appeal, the Saints were entitled to prompt action and

help. The Governor merely replied that the attorney-general of the

state was absent, and upon his return a response would be prepared and

sent by mail to Independence. The messengers from Zion journeyed back

with empty hands, and awaited, amidst the tide of persecution, which

was rising higher and higher around them, the signal of succor, from

the executive office.

About the 26th of October, 1833, a reply was received from Governor

Dunklin, in which he says:

No citizen, nor number of citizens, have a right to take the

redress of their grievances, whether real or imaginary, into their

own hands. Such conduct strikes at the very existence of society

and subverts the foundation on which it is based. _Not being

willing to persuade myself that any portion of the citizens of

the state of Missouri are so lost to a sense of these truths as

to require the exercise of force, in order to ensure respect for

them,_ after advising with the attorney-general, and exercising my

best judgment, I would advise you to make a trial of the efficacy

of the laws; the judge of your circuit is a conservator of the

peace. If an affidavit is made before him by any of you, that your

lives are threatened and you believe them in danger, it would be

his duty to have the offenders apprehended, and bind them to keep

the peace.

Such was the redress offered by the man whose sworn duty it was to see

that the laws were faithfully executed. The lamb was sent back by the

lion to ask protection from the wolf! It has often happened since in

the history of the Saints, as it was then, that the men who should have

been their vigilant protectors against plunderers and murderers, have

been among the thieves and assassins.

But Governor Dunklin's letter contained a promise that, in the event

of a failure to get proper execution of the law in Jackson County,

he would, upon official notification, take further steps to enforce

its faithful observance. Upon this slight hope, the Saints began to

restore their houses to comfort and to labor in the fields for their

maintenance.

The Saints had engaged four lawyers to aid them in obtaining a redress

of their grievances, and as soon as this fact became known, the event

occurred which Governor Dunklin should have foreseen. With tenfold

intensity the fire of hatred raged against the people. On the night of

October 31st an armed mob attacked a settlement of the Saints west of

Big Blue, tore the roofs from many of the dwelling houses, whipped the

men and drove the women and children screaming into the wilderness. The

profanity of the mob was appalling. None of the Saints were armed, and

the resistance which they might have offered with sticks was forbidden

by their captors under penalty of death. Satiated with brutality, the

mob at length retired, leaving orders that the Saints--men, women and

children--should leave the county. The next day was the first of bleak

November; and when the cold morning dawned, the Saints crept out of

their hiding places whither they had fled for safety, and came back

to their despoiled homes to find their habitations and their gardens

in ruins. The women wept for their scourged and bleeding husbands.

Children sobbed with hunger, cold and fear. How were these plundered

people to find means for journeying to a land of safety? And whither

were they to go? Asylum had already been denied them in the adjoining

county: adequate protection had been practically denied to them by the

civil power of the state; and they had no hope that any section of

Missouri would harbor them.

Such scenes of horror were repeated night after night at Independence,

and every dwelling place of the Saints in that county. At Independence,

on the 1st of November, one of the mob was caught in the very act of

robbing the store of Gilbert & Whitney, and was carried before Samuel

Weston, a justice of the peace; but despite the boast of the Governor,

Mr. Weston refused to issue a warrant or to entertain the case, and

the robber was turned loose to join his fellows in a continuation of

murderous work. Other efforts were made to secure the aid of judicial

power to stop the horrible work of the rabble, but in vain. Such of the

officers of the law as were not allied with the mob dared not assert

their authority. And so the work of rapine went on until it ended in

murder.

The 3rd day of November, 1833, was Sunday, and the Saints hoped for a

cessation of hostilities, but none came. Word went out among the mob

that Monday would be a bloody time. On November the 4th, the day of

Joseph's return to Kirtland from his Canada mission, a large party of

the mob fired upon some of the Saints west of Big Blue. Several of the

Saints were wounded, two desperately. These were young men named Barber

and Dibble, who were thought to have been fatally injured; but Philo

Dibble finally recovered, and at the time of this writing is still

living, a respected citizen of Utah Territory. After lingering in great

agony, Barber died the next day. Three times and more the Saints had

permitted their enemies to smite them, and three times and more they

had submitted patiently. They had appealed to civil and military power

in vain, and now the sight of blood thus wantonly shed aroused in them

a strong spirit of resistance. When the mob continued the massacre they

were greeted by shots from such of the Saints as had guns, and two of

the mob fell dead. One of them, Hugh L. Brazeale, had often boasted: "I

will wade to my knees in blood but that I will drive the Mormons from

Jackson County."

The men who had caught the mobber in the act of plundering Gilbert &

Whitney's store were arrested upon a fictitious charge of assault upon

that wretch. Apparently the mob had no difficulty in obtaining process

of court and securing its service. An effort was made to kill these

prisoners while they were in charge of the officers of the law, and

shots were fired at them, and they had to be placed in jail to protect

their lives.

And now comes the most diabolical feature of all the persecution

in Missouri up to that date. On the 5th day of November, 1833,

Lieutenant-Governor Boggs permitted the mob to organize as a militia,

and placed them under the command of Colonel Thomas Pitcher. While the

Saints showed no intention of resisting, the rabble did not feel the

need of such organization; but when it was found that, driven to the

last extremity, the Saints would fight for their lives, Boggs clothed

the mob with military power, that resistance to them might be charged

against the Saints as insurrection against the legal authorities of the

state of Missouri.

Colonel Pitcher demanded that the Saints should give up their arms;

that certain men who had been engaged in the fight west of Big Blue

should be delivered into his hands to be tried for murder; and that

the people should leave the county forthwith. It was clear that the

alternative was death to the men and outrage to the women and children.

And so the Saints yielded under solemn promise of protection. As soon

as the demand was complied with, the mob rushed like demons in various

directions, bursting violently into houses and threatening the women

and children with massacre. One party of the mob was headed by Rev.

Isaac McCoy, and other preachers joined in the rabble. Men, women and

children fled to the prairie and to the river banks, seeking in the

wilderness, amidst all its terrors, a peace denied them by civilized

men. Husbands and wives and children were separated, and one knew not

whether his beloved kin were dead or alive.

Who can say that a restoration of the Gospel of Peace was not necessary

in such an age?

After a time most of the scattered Saints gathered in Clay County,

where a court of inquiry was ordered by Governor Dunklin, but the

murderers and robbers who slew the Saints and took their substance in

Jackson County, Missouri, went unwhipped of justice. Clay County was

the only section of the state which received the Saints with any degree

of charity. From Van Buren and Lafayette and other counties they were

forced to flee as they were from Jackson.

In Clay County, where many of them had found a haven of rest among

noble-hearted citizens, the Saints prepared and sent up to Governor

Dunklin such piteous appeals as might have melted a heart of adamant.

They had been stripped of all their worldly substance; winter was upon

them; they even lacked food and raiment; and from hour to hour they

were in expectation of further assaults. It was their supplication to

the Governor that he would use the power of the state to restore them

to their lands and possessions, and to give a sufficient guard to a

court of inquiry, which might examine into the whole history of the

outrages made against them. The court of inquiry was held, and Colonel

Pitcher was arraigned and ordered for further trial by court-martial.

But it soon became clear that the Saints could not be restored to

their lands in Jackson County under existing conditions; because the

mob swore that if they returned, there would be a wholesale massacre

of Mormons, and the Governor, it was said, had not the constitutional

right to establish a permanent guard for the persons and property of

the defenseless Saints.

Messengers had gone at various times from the scenes of the outrage in

Missouri to the Prophet at Kirtland, and when he heard the dreadful

news, he burst into tears and sobbed aloud:

"Oh, my brethren, my brethren! would that I had been with you to share

your fate. Almighty God, what shall we do in such a trial as this?"

CHAPTER XXVII.

HURLBURT'S EFFORTS TO DESTROY JOSEPH--HIGH COUNCILS ORGANIZED--THE

CAMP OF ZION--A HARD JOURNEY--RATTLESNAKES IN CAMP--THE PROPHET'S

PHILOSOPHY--ELDER HUMPHREY'S EXPERIENCE.

With the opening of the year 1834, Joseph recorded his prayer that the

Lord would deliver Zion and gather in His scattered people to possess

it in peace, and that, in their dispersion, He would provide for them

that they might not perish of hunger and cold.

At the same time he was pursued by threats against his own life. The

apostate, Doctor P. Hurlburt, was determined to wreak his rage upon

Joseph's person. Hurlburt had circulated vile falsehoods and presented

lying affidavits among the people in the towns surrounding Kirtland, in

the hope of exciting mobocratic violence. If personal considerations

alone had been involved in these attempts of Hurlburt's to destroy

him, the Prophet might have taken no steps to restrain him or to bring

him to justice. But his duty to the Church demanded his preservation,

and by his consent process of court was secured against Hurlburt, and

later, on the 9th of April, 1834, that infamous creature was found

guilty of threatening to kill, and was by a court at Chardon, Ohio,

placed under bonds.

Many high councils exist in the Church at the present time, there

being one in every Stake of Zion. It was on the 17th day of February,

1834, at Kirtland, however, that the Prophet organized the first high

council of the Church. This tribunal consisted of twelve High Priests,

and it was presided over by the Prophet and his two counselors, Sidney

Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams. Its duty was to hear all matters

of dispute between members of the Church who sought equity, and to

decide such issues according to the principles of eternal justice. The

plan of settling disputes and preventing litigation among brethren,

which the Prophet was then inspired to introduce, has grown with the

growth of the Church, and the high council has performed an important

mission in the years which have followed. It has worked without fees;

it has known no coercion; the honesty of its decisions have been beyond

question; and often it has been appealed to by men not of the faith,

that their disputes might be settled with fairness and economy. It has

never usurped the function of the criminal courts; it has never sought

to enforce its judgment by any civil process. It has only decreed

according to clear and unmistakable justice and has left the parties

to accept the judgment, and if not complied with or appealed from, to

have Church fellowship withdrawn from them. The rules which the Prophet

established to control its proceedings under divine guidance were

delivered to it at the time of organization, and they, speaking of all

the high councils which have since been organized, are still governed

by them. To confirm the twelve chosen men in their places the Prophet

laid his hands upon each one's head and blessed him with the gifts and

authority necessary for his calling.

The first act of the high council at Kirtland was to declare Joseph

Smith the President of the Church with Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G.

Williams as the other members of the First Presidency.

All this time the cry of the exiled Saints in Missouri was ascending to

heaven for the redemption of their homes and for their own release from

oppression. In a revelation given to the Prophet February 24, 1834,

the Lord made known that the wicked had been permitted to fill up the

measure of their iniquities that those who are called after His name

might be chastened for a season; because in many things they had not

hearkened unto His commandments. He declared that in His own due time

the punishment of His wrath should be poured out upon the persecutors

of His Saints, and He promised the elect that they should repossess the

goodly land from which they had been driven. The Prophet was commanded

to gather up the strength of the Lord's house to journey to the land

Zion to assist the scattered Saints. Two days later he departed for the

East to obtain assistance for the work of the Lord. Other Elders were

also called to perform similar missions. The Prophet traveled as far

as Geneseo, New York, reaching there on the 15th day of March, 1834.

On the way he preached to many of the congregations of Saints and also

to many assemblages of unbelievers. On the 19th of March he began his

return journey to Kirtland, which place he reached on the 28th. On

the 18th day of April, 1834, while Joseph was journeying in company

with Sidney Rigdon, Oliver Cowdery and Zebedee Coltrin to New Portage

for the purpose of gathering up help for Zion, an effort was made by

a party of men to capture them as they traveled along the road after

darkness had fallen. By driving rapidly they escaped the hands of the

bandits who sent a torrent of curses after the Prophet's party.

It was the 5th day of May, 1834, when Joseph, having gathered clothing

and food for his brethren and sisters in Missouri who had been robbed

and plundered of their effects, departed, with a company of brethren,

from Kirtland to find and succor the distressed Saints. His party

consisted of about one hundred men, nearly all young and nearly all

endowed with the Priesthood. At New Portage they were joined by fifty

men, some of whom had gone in advance of the main body from Kirtland.

A careful and harmonious organization of the company was made that the

progress of this Camp of Zion might be in steadiness and order.

The wagons of the party numbered twenty and were filled with provisions

and clothing, and such arms as the company needed for the securing of

game and for defense. Nearly all of the men were compelled to walk,

and Joseph cheerfully led their journey. They traveled sometimes forty

or fifty miles in a day, resting always on the Sabbath and holding

religious services. Every night they retired to their tents at the

sound of the trumpet, and every man bowed to the Lord in thanksgiving

for the blessings of the day and in supplication for the welfare of

the families they were leaving behind and the poor Saints they were

going to meet. And every morning at the sound of the trumpet every man

arose and fell upon his knees before Heaven, invoking its watchful care

during the day.

The march was necessarily one of great hardship. The men waded rivers,

struggled through marshes and tramped across hard stretches of hill

and sandy plain. Many of them suffered from bruised and bleeding feet.

Often they were harassed by evil men who suspected their mission and

sought to prevent its fulfillment.

A few persons in the Camp had proved unruly, and while they were in

the vicinity of the Illinois River, Joseph was led to utter a solemn

warning against the dissensions of some of his brethren. He exhorted

them to faithfulness and humility, and told them that the Lord had

revealed to him that a scourge must come upon them in consequence of

their disobedience. Still if they would repent and humble themselves

before the Lord, a part of the severity of the scourge might be turned

away.

Joseph and his brethren reached the banks of the Mississippi on the

4th day of June, and encamped at a point where the river was a mile

and half in width. Having but one ferry boat two days were required

in which to make the passage of the entire party from Illinois into

Missouri. Besides, they were delayed, though not prevented, by the

menace of numerous enemies who swore that they should not pass beyond

the Mississippi.

One of the instructions given by the Prophet during this journey was

that his brethren should not kill an animal of any kind, unless it

became absolutely necessary to save themselves from starvation. On one

occasion, while the Prophet's tent was being pitched at camp the men

saw three rattlesnakes and were about to kill them, but Joseph forbade

the act. He asked the Elders how would the serpent ever lose its

venom while the servants of God made war upon it with desire to kill.

He said: "Men themselves must first become harmless before they can

expect the brute creation to be so. When man shall lose his own vicious

disposition and cease to destroy the inferior animals, the lion and

lamb may dwell together and the suckling child play with the serpent

in safety." It was a deep philosophy and contrary to the preconceived

notions and early lessons of his brethren; but they obeyed. And soon

they experienced the truth of his words. One of the members of the

Camp by the name of Solomon Humphrey lay down on the prairie one day

to rest. He fell asleep with his hat in hand. While he slumbered a

large rattlesnake crawled up and coiled between him and his hat, and

when Elder Humphrey awoke he found the serpent's head not a foot from

his own. He did not harm it, and when some of his brethren would have

killed it, he stayed their hands, saying: "No, I will protect him, for

he and I have had a good nap together." Although the rattlesnake was

roused it made no effort to strike.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

VAIN APPEALS OF THE JACKSON COUNTY SAINTS FOR PROTECTION--THE APPROACH

OF ZION'S CAMP--ATTEMPTS TO RAISE AN OPPOSING ARMY--JAMES CAMPBELL'S

PROPHECY AND ITS FULFILLMENT--A PROVIDENTIAL STORM--REMARKABLE RISE OF

FISHING RIVER--JOSEPH STATES THE OBJECT OF ZION'S CAMP--A COMFORTING

REVELATION.

While the Prophet was encountering and overcoming many difficulties to

bring succor to the Saints, the latter were engaged in a vain struggle

to secure their rights. Correspondence passed between their leaders and

the civil officers from the judges up to the President of the United

States. Many of the appeals brought polite replies, but they resulted

in no effective aid. Governor Dunklin sent several communications

recognizing and deploring the wrongs inflicted, but stating he could

not, without transcending his power, order a military force to maintain

the Saints in their Jackson County possessions. The latter sentiment

was also the substance of the reply from the Secretary of War in behalf

of the President of the United States. It is worthy of note that in

all of the correspondence upon this question not a single charge is

made against the Saints. It proves that in all things they were the

sufferers from wrong, and not the doers of wrong; because the men to

whom they appealed would have been quick to offer an excuse for their

failure to extend redress.

Possibly the Governor thought he had done enough when he filled his

correspondence with high-minded and sympathetic sentiments; but of what

avail was it to the Saints for him to say to them as follows?

On the subject of civil injuries, I must refer you to the courts;

such questions rest with them exclusively. The laws are sufficient

to afford a remedy for every injury of this kind, and, whenever you

make out a case, entitling you to damages, there can be no doubt

entertained of their ample award. Justice is sometimes slow in its

progress, but it is not less sure on that account.

This is but a repetition practically of what he had said before without

avail. Was not this almost a mockery of the people's disasters? It

was at least a satire upon the persistent denial of the judicial

officers in Jackson County to do justice. Later a court of inquiry was

convened at Independence, under military guard; but the mob defied all

the authority of law, scoffed at the Governor's order, subdued the

court into a state of terror, and laughed at the troops as they were

withdrawn. A court martial was convened and it found Colonel Pitcher

guilty of calling upon the militia to repress an insurrection where

there was no insurrection, and decided that he had taken arms from

the citizens who were lawfully seeking to defend themselves against

unlawful aggression; but the Governor in vain commanded the officers to

restore the arms to the people from whom they had been stolen. Although

repeated orders were issued by his Excellency those arms never were and

to this day have not been returned.

The assaults of the mob on the scattered Saints and their property

in Jackson County continued. In the latter part of April, 1834, one

hundred and fifty houses were torn to the ground by the rabble.

Joseph and his party found a branch of the Church at Salt River, in

the state of Missouri, where they encamped to spend Sunday, the 8th of

June. Here they were joined by Hyrum Smith and Lyman Wight with another

party which had been gathered in the State of Michigan and surrounding

regions; and the Camp of Zion with this addition now numbered two

hundred and five men and twenty-five wagons well laden. Several days

were devoted to much needed recuperation, for the greater part of this

devoted band of men had traveled nine hundred miles in a little more

than a month's time, the journey being largely made on foot amidst all

the natural hardships of a wild country where constant watchfulness had

to be exercised.

On the 18th of June they pitched their tents within one mile of

Richmond in Ray County. Two days previous to this time a mass meeting

had been held at the court house in Liberty, Clay County, to consider

propositions made by the people of Jackson County to the exiled Saints.

Flaming war speeches were delivered by civil officers and by sectarian

priests from Jackson County, who had hoped to arouse the hospitable

people of Clay against their inoffensive guests, the Saints. Because

General Doniphan and the chairman of the meeting, a Mr. Turnham,

counseled peace and decency, the old spirit of savage violence broke

loose with all its virulence on the part of the representatives from

Independence, and the meeting ended with a stabbing affray between

two members of the former mob, in which one of them was dangerously

wounded. The leading men among the Saints presented an answer in which

they asked for time and in which they deprecated any hostilities upon

either side during the pendency of the negotiation. It was at once

manifest that the proposition of the mobocrats had been but a sham to

cover further violence. The news of the approach of the Prophet and his

brethren in an organized camp had reached the ears of these infuriated

men, and they felt that he was putting himself in their power. They

counted with entire certainty upon the inability of the officers of the

law to prevent their carrying out any fell purpose which they might

adopt against the Latter-day Saints. If there was an official who did

not justify them in their attacks upon the believers in this unpopular

religion, they expected to overawe him; but from the Governor down they

knew they had secret sympathy if not their active aid. With all their

innocence and excellence, therefore, the Latter-day Saints could place

no reliance upon the laws and the safeguards of civilized society to

protect them if these desperadoes chose to attack them.

The sole purpose of Joseph and his brethren was to bring succor to

their suffering friends; but this their inhuman enemies were determined

they should not do. Fifteen of the most violent mobocrats, with Samuel

C. Owens and James Campbell at their head started to raise an army

to meet and overpower the Camp of Zion. James Campbell swore as he

adjusted his pistols in the holsters, "The eagles and turkey buzzards

shall eat my flesh if I do not fix Joe Smith and his army so that their

skins will not hold shucks, before two days are past." That night as

twelve of these mobocrats were attempting to cross the Missouri River

their boat was sunk and seven of them were drowned. Among the lost

was Campbell, whose corpse floated down the river several miles and

lodged upon a pile of driftwood, where ravenous birds did indeed pick

his flesh from his bones, leaving the hideous bare skeleton to be

discovered three weeks later by one Mr. Purtle.

On the night of the 19th, unobserved by a large party of their enemies

who intended to fall upon them and murder them, the members of Zion's

Camp passed through Richmond in the darkness, and pitched their tents

between two branches of Fishing River.

While the members of the Camp were making preparations for the night

five armed desperadoes appeared before them and, with many blasphemies,

said: "You will see hell before morning. Sixty men are coming from

Richmond, and seventy more from Clay County to utterly destroy you."

More than three hundred bloodthirsty men had engaged to concentrate

at this point and attack Joseph. But to the subsequent unbounded

thankfulness of the members of the Camp, the Lord interposed. When

night came a mighty hurricane arose, throwing the plans of these

savages into confusion, scattering them in the utmost disorder, and

melting their courage into abject fright in the presence of the awful

elemental strife. The severity of the storm was not felt to the same

extent where Joseph and the camp had rested, but around them hail fell

like grapeshot, spreading terror among the people and devastation

amidst all the work of human hands.

While the surrounding region was in this state of consternation, Joseph

and his party took refuge in a log meeting house near their camp, being

compelled to enter the building through a window. When the commotion

was over and they emerged from their retreat, the Prophet gave orders

that the parties to whom the house belonged should be visited and

tendered an explanation of the intrusion and remuneration for any

fancied damage. So scrupulous was he not to trespass upon the rights of

others.

When the tornado burst only forty of the mob had been able to cross

Fishing River. They afterwards swore that the little Fishing River rose

thirty feet in thirty minutes, separating them from their companions,

and making them glad to flee back among their lawless friends in

Jackson County. The larger party of the mob, thus foiled in their

purpose to cross the river, also fled. The Big Fishing River had risen

nearly forty feet in one night. One of the mob had been killed by

lightning.

On Saturday, the 21st of June, Colonel Scounce and two other leading

men of Ray County visited Joseph, and begged to know his intentions,

stating: "We see that there is an almighty power that protects this

people." Colonel Scounce confessed that he had been leading a company

of armed men to fall upon the Prophet, but had been driven back by the

storm. The Prophet with all the mildness and dignity which ever sat so

becomingly upon him, and which always impressed his hearers, answered

that he had come to administer to the wants of his afflicted friends

and did not wish to molest or injure anybody. He then made a full and

fair statement of the difficulties as he understood them; and when he

had closed the three ambassadors, melted into compassion, offered their

hands and declared that they would use every endeavor to allay the

excitement.

On the 22nd day of June, 1834, while encamped on Fishing River, Joseph

received a revelation in which the Lord declared that the Elders should

wait for a season for the redemption of Zion; that he did not require

at their hands to fight the battles of Zion, for he would fight their

battles; and this he addressed to the Camp which had come up from

Kirtland and other places into Missouri to do His will and with the

hope that they might contribute to the redemption of His afflicted

people. The Lord rebuked many among the Saints in the branches of the

Church in the different states for their failure to join the Camp of

Zion in response to the call which He had made upon them. The Lord had

required the churches abroad to send up wise men with their moneys to

purchase lands in Missouri, and thus assist in the redemption of Zion;

but they had not hearkened unto His words. After renewing the promise

that the day of redemption should surely come, and promising those

who had hearkened to His words that He had prepared a blessing and an

endowment for them if they would continue faithful, the revelation

concluded:

And inasmuch as they [the Saints] follow the counsel which they

receive, they shall have power after many days to accomplish all

things pertaining to Zion.

And again I say unto you, sue for peace, not only the people that

have smitten you; but also to all people;

And lift up an ensign of peace, and make a proclamation of peace

unto the ends of the earth;

And make proposals for peace unto those who have smitten you,

according to the voice of the Spirit which is in you, and all

things shall work together for your good;

Therefore be faithful, and, behold, and lo, I am with you even unto

the end. Even so. Amen.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE SCOURGE OF ZION'S CAMP--JOSEPH AND HYRUM ATTACKED BY CHOLERA--THEIR

DELIVERANCE--THE CAMP DISBANDED--THREATS AGAINST THE PROPHET--HIS

FEARLESSNESS--JOSEPH RETURNS TO KIRTLAND--SYLVESTER SMITH'S CHARGE OF

IMPURITY--THE PROPHET VINDICATED--VISIT TO MICHIGAN--THE LAW OF TITHING.

The scourge came as had been foretold, and the Camp of Zion felt its

terrible effects. Moanings and lamentations filled the air. In the

divine economy it is not unfrequently the case that the innocent suffer

with the wrong-doers. "The Lord suffereth the righteous to be slain

that His justice and judgment may come upon the wicked." In this attack

some faithful men fell victims under the awful power of this scourge,

and the entire camp suffered more or less. In organized bodies of

Saints experience has proved that it is not always the element which is

guilty of transgression which alone has to endure the consequences, but

the entire body which harbors or permits the impurity has to suffer.

If it were not so, there would not be such imperative reason for a

community to look well to the work of self-cleansing. It is when the

judgment of Heaven falls upon the obedient as well as the careless

and disobedient of any organization that the people are taught to

strive unceasingly, not alone each for his own but all for the general

purification. Some of the men who went down from Kirtland with Joseph

and who had joined him on the road were among the noblest of human

kind. They were of such exalted faith and courage that their righteous

fame stands with that of the greatest disciples of old. They adhered

to the Lord's commandments and to His prophet with all the fidelity of

their souls. But other men--unjust, selfish, rebellious by nature--were

also among the number of Zion's Camp; and as soon as they became

wearied by hardships they betrayed their own lack of innate nobility.

It was this latter class of men which brought affliction upon the Camp.

It was about the 22nd day of June, 1834, when the cholera appeared

in Zion's Camp at Fishing River. During the next week it raged in

the midst of the party. Sixty-eight of the Saints were attacked and

thirteen of them died. Among the fatal cases was that of Algernon

Sidney Gilbert, a man of talent and many good works, though not

always able to subdue self. Just before the destroyer seized him,

the Prophet called him to journey to Kirtland to receive there his

endowments and from there to proclaim the everlasting gospel of

redemption. Elder Gilbert's answer was: "I would rather die than go

forth to preach the gospel to the Gentiles." When he thus answered the

Prophet of God he was full of strength and health; but in a few hours

after the scourge had breathed upon him he was dead. Joseph and Hyrum

administered assiduously to the sick, and soon they were in the grasp

of the cholera. They were together when it seized them; and together

they knelt down and prayed for deliverance. Three times they bowed in

supplication, the third time with a vow that they would not rise until

deliverance from the destroyer was vouchsafed. While they were thus

upon their knees a vision of comfort came to Hyrum. He saw their mother

afar off in Kirtland praying for her absent sons, and he felt that the

Lord was answering her cry. Hyrum told Joseph of the comforting vision

and together they arose, made whole every whit. In ministering to their

other brethren they discovered that to dip an afflicted person in cold

water afforded great relief and this was practiced generally until the

scourge had run its threatened course and had left the Camp.

During the days of the scourge the Prophet had moved his party from

Fishing River. On the 23rd of June, they had reached within five or

six miles of Liberty in Clay County, when General Atchison and several

other persons went out from the town to meet the Prophet. They begged

him not to go to Liberty as the people had become much enraged.

Accepting the advice, Joseph turned from the road to Liberty and

encamped on the banks of Rush Creek.

On the 25th of June the Prophet announced by letter to General Atchison

and party, that he had concluded to disperse his company, in order to

allay the prejudice and fear on the part of citizens of Clay County.

He requested the gentlemen to whom his note was addressed to inform

the Governor of the action thus taken; because the Prophet knew that

Dunklin's ears were being filled with the most malicious rumors

concerning the purpose entertained by Zion's Camp. In execution of

his promise Joseph disbanded his party, and the brethren scattered

themselves among the Saints of that region.

The next day a report was received from one S. C. Owens, a leader of

the Jackson County mob, in which he declared that his people would not

accept the proposition of the Saints--to buy the lands of the men who

objected to the Saints returning to their homes in Jackson County--nor

anything akin to it. He coolly recommended that the Saints "cast their

eye" on a distant and uninhabited spot which he named, "to see if that

was not a county calculated for them."

One appeal after another was being made to the Governor of the state;

but so far as practical help was concerned, all were unanswered. Active

hostilities in a general sense against the Saints had ceased for the

time being, and there was some reason for hoping that they would be

allowed to remain in Clay and surrounding regions. All the honest and

fair-minded settlers in that land were forced to recognize the good

qualities of the exiles from Jackson. The Saints were industrious,

charitable and thrifty. Among them were no drunkenness, brawls nor

crimes which too often gave a bad character to other border communities.

To this prospect of peace the Prophet's personality had greatly

contributed. In all the march through Missouri his magnificent

qualities had impressed themselves upon the people whom he met. His

course had been that of a worthy leader among men. He had shown in all

his intercourse with the inhabitants of Missouri the utmost courage

and generosity. It was his nature to extend consideration and kindness

towards others, and he was as regardful of the rights of his fellow-men

at this time as always before and always after during his lifetime. The

leading men of Clay County who were brought into contact with him felt

that he possessed remarkable power. There was that in his dignified

deportment and in the fearless glance of his blue eyes which warmed

the souls of other men to his own, and they submitted to his charm of

manner, even when they had come to oppose him. And when at last, to

allay the fears of his avowed enemies, he dispersed his party, while

surrounded by vindictive mobs who sought his life and the lives of his

associates, he evinced a courage and a wisdom as grand as they were

rare.

Jackson County was alive with men who had sworn to assassinate him if

he ventured within their reach. What could have been more admirable

than his noble disregard of all their threats! On the 1st of July,

1834, unattended, except by two or three personal friends, he crossed

the Missouri River from Clay into Jackson County, visited Independence

and saw all that goodly land which the Lord had promised as a Zion, but

which now was under the desecration of murder, rapine and a veritable

reign of terror.

He stood among the ruins of once peaceful homes and gazed upon once

fruitful fields which wicked men had laid waste, and his great heart

swelled nigh to bursting. Did any premonition come to him of that

awful hour when he should next look upon these scenes; when in chains

he should be carried through the streets of Independence, as captive

kings of old were dragged at their victor's chariot wheels to make the

populace shout with cruel joy! Well might Joseph, Prophet of God, have

indescribable emotions as he gazed upon this spot, hallowed in his mind

by so many tender recollections and so many promised glories. Mobs had

done their work, Zion was desolate. Joseph himself was free. But the

day was not far distant, when he should, as a captive, be brought to

Independence and his enemies should gloat over the tortured hero and

his pale but undaunted face.

The Prophet had gone to Independence without ostentation, but without

fear. While he prayed there, the eyes of the wicked were blinded,

that they knew him not; and when he returned to his brethren he was

unscathed.

On the 3rd day of July, the Prophet organized a high council near

Liberty, in Clay County, and for several days he was engaged in

imparting instruction to the members of that body, and such others as

desired to listen to his words of wisdom.

An appeal was made and published to the world regarding the grievances

of the Saints, and asking for the restoration of their rights, and for

the privilege to live in peace.

On the 9th day of July, Joseph, in company with his brother Hyrum and

Frederick G. Williams and others, departed for Kirtland. Returning, the

journey was as toilsome as at first. The distance to be traversed was

one thousand miles, and but few of the comforts of civilization existed

for them along the path. Heat, thirst, hunger and pain of body alike

oppressed them and were alike endured with patient fortitude. About the

1st day of August Joseph reached his home.

In leaving the Saints in Missouri the Prophet had hoped that for a

time, at least, they would be blessed with protection from their

enemies, and that the brethren would be accorded the opportunity to

gain a maintenance for their suffering wives and children. Although

before he parted with them many appeals had been made for a restoration

to their possessions in Jackson County, it is not probable that he

entertained any hope that Governor Dunklin would accomplish such a

courageous act. Joseph's subsequent zeal in building up Kirtland seems

to indicate that he had prescience of the continued exile of the Church

from the land of Zion.

Shortly after the Prophet's return to Kirtland, he submitted before

the high council some charges which had been made against himself by

one of the rebellious spirits in Zion's Camp. This man, Sylvester

Smith, had become angered on the march by Joseph's rebukes, which

were only uttered in kindness and to secure proper discipline and

mutual concession and forbearance among the brethren; and in his rage

Sylvester had declared that the Prophet was corrupt in his heart.

The complaint made by Sylvester did not include any specific charge

of impurity, and the Prophet might have passed it by without notice.

But he wanted to teach the brethren that no man was above the law of

God, and he cheerfully and patiently submitted to an investigation. It

was made fairly and fully, with no undue favor to him; and the result

was a complete vindication of the Prophet's character and eventually

a confession by Sylvester Smith of his own injustice, wrong-doing

and evil inspiration. Thus, by his own example, Joseph showed to his

brethren the saintly course for the settlement of difficulties.

Joseph gave another evidence of his devotion to the work and his

personal humility, at this time. Labor upon the house of the Lord

in Kirtland was in progress, but the poverty of the people and the

surrounding difficulties made the advancement very slow. Only thirty

families of Saints were then resident in Kirtland, and the toil and

self-denial of the little handful cannot be described. Joseph gave his

services as foreman in the temple stone quarry, and labored day after

day with his own hands in bringing out the materials for that important

structure. At the same time Hyrum was showing similar evidence of his

industry and meekness. It was he who lifted the first spadeful of earth

for the foundation trench, and he continued from that time on to watch

and work and pray for the success of this sacred undertaking.

Having placed all things in order in Kirtland for the progress of the

Lord's house, Joseph departed on the 16th of October, 1834, with his

brother Hyrum and others to visit the Saints in the state of Michigan.

They went by water, and on board the steamer they met a man who called

himself Elmer. Not knowing who they were, in the course of conversation

he said: "I am personally acquainted with Joe Smith; I have heard him

preach his lies, and now since he is dead I am glad. I heard Joe Smith

preach in Bainbridge, Chenango County, New York, five years ago, and

knew him because he had such a dark complexion." Then he continued

his exultations at the supposed death of the Prophet. This is an

illustration of the malice and ignorance which prevailed at that time.

Joseph was not dead; his complexion was not dark; he had never been

in Bainbridge. Elmer had probably heard the tirade of some sectarian

minister against Joseph Smith and thought he was praising God when

he lied about the Prophet, and that he was doing Christ's service by

exulting in his supposed death.

After preaching to the Michigan Saints for a brief time and giving and

receiving comfort in their society, Joseph and his companions returned

to Kirtland, reaching there about the last of October. During the month

of November with so many labors upon his hands Joseph found every

moment of time occupied. He was able to accomplish prodigious labors,

because he obeyed the rule which he had established over his life and

which he tersely states:

"WHEN THE LORD COMMANDS, DO IT."

His scrupulous regard for the interests of others is shown by a

circumstance which occurred during the last of November, 1834. Some

brethren and sisters representing a branch of the Church in the east

called at Kirtland. They had in their possession means with which to

purchase lands in Zion; but in view of the action of mobs and the

inaction of officials, they could not well proceed to Missouri. The

money was offered to the Church in Kirtland, or to Joseph as its

President; but as this was not the purpose for which the means had been

donated, he would only take it in trust to be paid back with interest

in the ensuing spring; and he gave proper security for the fulfillment

of these conditions. The means thus obtained was not devoted to his

personal use, but was entirely employed in the furtherance of Church

works.

It was with the close of 1834 that a pledge of tithing was first

given, and the custom now in force was begun, the doctrine having been

foreshadowed in previous revelations from the Almighty. The principle

of tithing as now practiced very properly begun with the Prophet. On

the 29th day of November, 1834, Joseph united in prayer with Oliver

Cowdery for a continuation of divine blessings; and being filled with

joy on this occasion, they entered into a covenant with the Lord as

follows:

"That if the Lord will prosper us in our business, and open the way

before us, that we may obtain means to pay our debts, that we be not

troubled nor brought into disrepute before the world, nor His people;

after that, of all that He shall give us, we will give a tenth, to be

bestowed upon the poor in His Church, or as He shall command; and that

we will be faithful over that which He has entrusted to our care, that

we may obtain much; and that our children after us, shall remember to

observe _this sacred and holy covenant_; and that our children and our

children's children may know of the same, we have subscribed our names

with our own hands.

"JOSEPH SMITH,

"OLIVER COWDERY.

"And now, O Father, as thou didst prosper our father Jacob, and bless

him with protection and prosperity wherever he went, from the time he

made a like covenant before and with thee; as thou didst, even the same

night, open the heavens unto him, and manifest great mercy and power,

and give him promises, so wilt thou do with us his sons; and as his

blessings prevailed above his progenitors unto the utmost bounds of the

everlasting hills, even so may our blessings prevail like his; and may

thy servants be preserved from the power and influence of wicked and

unrighteous men; may every weapon formed against us fall upon the head

of him who shall form it; may we be blessed with a name and a place

among the Saints here, and thy sanctified when they shall rest. Amen."

CHAPTER XXX.

THE CALLING OF CHRIST'S APOSTLES IN THE LAST DISPENSATION OF THE

FULLNESS OF TIMES--DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE TWELVE--THEIR LABORS IN THE

WORLD--ORGANIZATION OF THE SEVENTIES.

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world

for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

_St. Matthew_.

But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and

persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into

prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.

And it shall turn to you for a testimony.

* * * * *

And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and

kinsfolks and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put

to death,

And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.

* * * * *

And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift

up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

_St. Luke_.

Our Lord and Master had His twelve special witnesses to the world when

His gospel was offered to all mankind eighteen centuries ago. And so,

in the re-establishment of the Church in this dispensation, Twelve

Apostles were called and ordained to be witnesses of Christ, crucified

and risen, and of Christ's gospel brought forth through the darkness of

ages and now restored to stand forever.

The power, authority and scope of this Apostleship are shown in the

revelation given to the Prophet in Kirtland in the early part of the

year 1835:

The Twelve traveling counselors are called to be the Twelve

Apostles, or special witnesses of the name of Christ in all the

world.

* * * * *

And they form a quorum, equal in authority and power to the three

Presidents [the first presidency].

The Twelve are a traveling presiding High Council to officiate in

the name of the Lord, under the direction of the Presidency of the

Church, agreeable to the institution of heaven; to build up the

Church, and regulate all the affairs of the same in all nations;

* * * * *

The Twelve being sent out, holding the keys, to open the door by

the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ--and first unto the

Gentiles and then unto the Jews.

* * * * *

It is the duty of the Twelve, also, to ordain and set in order all

the other officers of the Church, agreeable to the revelation.

On the Sabbath day, February 8th, 1835, Joseph invited Brigham and

Joseph Young to his home and listened to some of their sweetest hymns.

They were always noted for the excellence of their singing; but on

this occasion with such wondrous power did their voices swell that the

Prophet was lifted up in his soul and felt the Holy Spirit descending

upon them. Joseph had seen in vision the brethren who had died of

cholera in Missouri; and he related the vision to his visitors, saying:

"If I get a mansion as bright as theirs, I shall ask no more." He

wept at the recital, and could not speak again for some moments. When

his composure returned, he told Brigham that he should be one of the

twelve special witnesses, and said to Joseph Young: "The Lord has made

you president of the Seventies." Neither of the Brothers Young fully

understood the Prophet's meaning at that time, but later they learned.

On the 14th day of February, 1835, the Prophet called an assemblage at

Kirtland of all the men who had formed the Camp of Zion. He said to

call this meeting he had been directed by the Almighty. The Elders who

had passed through the trials and sufferings of the journey to Zion

were to be ordained to the ministry to go forth and prune the vineyard

for the last time before the coming of the Lord. Twelve men were to be

chosen as Apostles to bear testimony of the name of the Lord Jesus and

to send it abroad among all nations, kindreds, tongues and people.

Under the hands of the Prophet the three witnesses of the Book of

Mormon, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris were blessed

by the direction of the Holy Spirit to choose the Twelve Apostles of

the Church. The men thus selected were all equal in authority, but in

a later time the Prophet designated the order in which they should sit

in council--that is, according to age the eldest first. And under this

rule the first quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus

Christ in these last days were: Thomas B. Marsh, David W. Patten,

Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, William E. McLellin,

Parley P. Pratt, Luke Johnson, William Smith, Orson Pratt, John F.

Boynton, and Lyman E. Johnson.

The Apostles had their mission of salvation divinely dictated unto

them. How they have fulfilled its requirements, let answer the

thousands from every continent and every isle of the sea who have heard

the message in their native tongues!

It was the work which was great and which conferred greatness upon

those who engaged in it. The world has never understood this. To man

has been attributed the success which has attended the system of

religion which Joseph Smith was the chosen earthly instrument to found.

Joseph himself had a wonderful personality; and it was the custom to

give him credit for the early growth of the Church numerically; and to

ascribe its spread and the devotion of its adherents to his individual

power of attraction. But he did not so esteem himself; and the work

which the apostles have performed is proof that it is the Holy Spirit

which animates and the Holy Spirit which convinces.

To the Twelve it was not only a call to the ministry; for some of them

it was also a call to martyrdom.

Of the disciples chosen then and of those since selected to keep the

quorum complete, not one has escaped the afflictions of time.

With some the pains were too intense to be endured, the burdens too

heavy to be borne; and they dropped aside from the on-marching ranks to

find, as they hoped, repose and safety amidst the cooling shadows of

that world from which they had been chosen to be special witnesses of

the Son of God. Such are no longer His Apostles.

But the others, with unshaken resoluteness, have gone forward in

fulfillment of their high mission, under the scorching heat of fiery

persecution. Joseph is their captain and their fellow soldier in

the cause of Christ. With him and after him many of them have, with

continuous and unyielding zeal, toiled steadily on until worn out in

the performance of the duty assigned them by their Master Jesus; they

have passed to the enjoyment of His promised rest. With Him they and

the other faithful Apostles will stand triumphant when human time shall

be no more, and when the voice of the Eternal shall fill the universe

with the thunder of His judgments. They shall not then be only twelve;

for they who have been called of God to this holy calling and who

endure faithful, though they may lay down their mortality, yet shall

they not lose their Apostleship; for it abideth with them in this world

and in the worlds to come.

To proclaim the truth in all the earth for a witness, requires not only

willingness but also numerical strength. And so the Seventies were

called by divine revelation. They are to preach the gospel and to be

special witnesses unto the Gentiles, and in all the world; they are

to act in the name of the Lord, under the direction of the Twelve, in

building up the Church and regulating all the affairs of the same in

all nations--first unto the Gentiles and then unto the Jews.

And they form a quorum equal in authority to that of the Twelve * * *

Apostles.

On the 28th day of February, 1835, the Church in council assembled

began the calling of the quorum of Seventies from the members of Zion's

Camp, and this devoted organization of the Seventies speedily engaged

in its appointed labors.

Thus was the Prophet blessed with efficient aids selected by the Spirit

of God.

One day when Joseph had assembled the Elders in Kirtland, soon after

the establishment of the quorums of Twelve and Seventy, he said to them

that the test had been made, the purpose of the journey to Missouri was

now clear, and God had chosen his Twelve and Seventy from a body of men

who had offered their lives, and who had made as great a sacrifice as

did Abraham.

CHAPTER XXXI.

JOSEPH AS A RESTORER AS WELL AS A PROPHET--THE BOOK

OF ABRAHAM--JOSEPH'S GROWTH INTO SCHOLARSHIP AND

STATESMANSHIP--DIFFICULTIES WITH WILLIAM SMITH.

Joseph Smith was not only a prophet but a reformer--as able as

Luther, as bold as Zwingli. And he was more than a reformer. He was a

restorer--the greatest in his personality and in the character of his

work since the day of the divine atonement.

Through him even the buried past reaches up to the listening

present, and the distant future bends down to this gazing age. His

work in revealing hidden truths spans the circle of all earthly

time--stretching from the decree by which the world was rolled into

space unto the moment when it shall become a purified and exalted

sphere. This comprehension was the divine gift to the predestined

martyr.

Through him had been revealed the hidden truths concerning prehistoric

America. From the hour when Joseph gave to the world the Book of

Mormon, all ignorance concerning the ancient inhabitants of this land

became wilful. Then his labor of restoration reached another hemisphere

and a remoter time.

Abraham, the friend of God, Abraham who died thirty-six centuries ago,

Abraham who was buried in the cave of Machpelah, spoke through the

modern prophet, his descendant; and the manner of that communication

so manifestly shows the overruling hand of Providence that no one can

doubt the divine direction.

While Joseph had been laboring in Kirtland, journeying to and from

Missouri, teaching his brethren and being taught of God, there were

moving to him from one of the catacombs of Egypt the writings of Father

Abraham and of Joseph who was governor in Egypt.

On the 7th day of June, 1831, a French traveler and explorer penetrated

the depths of a catacomb near the site of ancient Thebes. It had

cost him time and treasure and influence to make the entrance. After

securing the license to make his researches, he employed more than

four hundred men for a period of some months to make the necessary

excavation. When he was able at last to stand within this multiplied

tomb he found several hundred mummies; but only eleven of them were

in such a state that they could be removed. He carried them away, but

died on his voyage to Paris. By his will the mummies were bequeathed

to Michael H. Chandler, his nephew, and in search of this gentleman

they were sent through Ireland and finally across the sea. After two

years of wanderings they found their owner. Hoping to discover some

treasure of precious stones or metals, Mr. Chandler opened the coffins

or embalming cases. Attached to two of the bodies were rolls of linen

preserved with the same care and apparently by the same method as

the bodies. Within the linen coverings were rolls of papyrus bearing

a perfectly preserved record in black and red characters carefully

formed. With other of the bodies were papyrus strips bearing epitaphs

and astronomical calculations. The learned men of Philadelphia and

other places flocked to see these representatives of an ancient time,

and Mr. Chandler solicited their translation of some of the characters.

Even the wisest among them were only able to interpret the meaning

of a few of the signs. From the very moment when he discovered the

rolls, Mr. Chandler had heard that a Prophet lived in the west who

could decipher strange languages and reveal things hidden; and after

failing with all the learned, and having parted with seven of the

mummies and some few strips of papyrus, bearing astronomical figures,

he finally reached Kirtland and presented himself to Joseph with the

four remaining bodies, and with the rolls of manuscript. The Prophet,

under inspiration of the Almighty, interpreted some of the ancient

writings to Mr. Chandler's satisfaction. So far as the learned men of

Philadelphia had been able to translate, Joseph's work coincided with

theirs; but he went much further, and in his delight Mr. Chandler wrote

a letter to the Prophet certifying to this effect.

Later some of the friends of the Prophet purchased the four mummies,

with the writings. Joseph engaged assiduously to interpret from the

rolls and strips of papyrus. The result of his labor was to give the

world a translation of the Book of Abraham. This book was written by

the hand of Abraham while he was in Egypt, and was preserved by the

marvelous dispensation of Providence, through all the mutations of time

and dangers of distance, to reach the hand of God's Prophet in this

last dispensation. By this record the Father of the Faithful makes

known what the Lord Almighty had shown to him concerning the things

that were before the world was; and he declares that he did penetrate

the mysteries of the heavens even unto Kolob, the star which is nearest

the throne of God the Eternal One.

In the record of Joseph who was sold into Egypt is given a prophetic

representation of the judgment, the Savior is shown seated upon His

throne, crowned and holding the sceptres of righteousness and power;

before Him are assembled the Twelve Tribes of Israel and all the

kingdoms of the world; while Michael the Archangel holds the key to the

bottomless pit in which Satan has been chained.

At the time when Joseph, aided by the inspiration of the Almighty, was

enabled to make these translations, he was studying ancient languages

and the grandest sciences, while he was also imparting instruction

in the school of the brethren in Kirtland, that others than himself

might have their minds fitted to grasp the sublimities of truth in

theology and history and the laws governing the universe. Joseph was

now in his thirtieth year and was no longer an unlearned farmer lad.

He was the leader of the people by the command of heaven, and he was

the leader of the people by his growing intellectual greatness. The

Prophet had already become a scholar. He loved learning. He loved

knowledge for its righteous power. Through the tribulations which had

surrounded him from the day when first he made known to a skeptical

world his communion with the heavens, he had been ever advancing in

the acquisition of intelligence. The Lord had commanded him to study,

and he was obeying. Such branches of learning as he knew not, teachers

were employed to communicate. His mind, quickened by the Holy Spirit,

grasped with readiness all true principles, and one by one he mastered

these branches and became in them a teacher.

Joseph Smith was the head of a committee which had been appointed

in September, 1834, to compile the doctrines of the Church for

publication. And in Kirtland, at a general assembly held on the

17th day of August, 1835, that committee reported by presenting the

book of Doctrine and Covenants to the Church for the approval of

the congregation. Solemn testimonies were given of the truth of the

work and of the inspiration by which Joseph Smith had uttered the

revelations from on high. The testimony of the Twelve on this subject

closed as follows:

The Lord has borne record to our souls, through the Holy Ghost shed

forth upon us, that these commandments were given by inspiration of

God, and are profitable for all men, and are verily true. We give this

testimony unto the world, the Lord being our helper: and it is through

the grace of God, the Father, and His Son Jesus Christ, that we are

permitted to have this privilege of bearing this testimony unto the

world, in the which we rejoice exceedingly, praying the Lord always,

that the children of men may be profited thereby.

At the same time there was presented and accepted the tenet of the

Church concerning government and laws in which the following passages

occur, showing that thus early in his career the Prophet's mind was

trained in true statesmanship and social philosophy:

We believe that governments are instituted of God for the benefit

of man, and that he holds men accountable for their acts in

relation to them, both in making laws or administering them, for

the good and safety of society.

* * * * * * *

We believe that no government can exist in peace, except such laws

are framed and held inviolate as will secure to each individual the

free exercise of conscience, the right and control of property, and

the protection of life.

* * * * * * *

We believe that religion is instituted of God, and that men are

answerable to Him, and Him only, for the exercise of it, unless

their religious opinions prompt them to infringe upon the rights

and liberties of others; but we do not believe that human law

has a right to interfere in prescribing rules of worship to bind

the consciences of men, nor dictate forms for public or private

devotion; that the civil magistrate should restrain crime, but

never control conscience; should punish guilt, but never suppress

the freedom of the soul.

* * * * * * *

We believe that rulers, states, and governments have a right, and

are bound to enact laws for the protection of all citizens in the

free exercise of their religious belief; but we do not believe

that they have a right in justice, to deprive citizens of this

privilege, or proscribe them in their opinions, so long as a regard

and reverence is shown to the laws, and such religious opinions do

not justify sedition nor conspiracy.

* * * * * * *

We do not believe it is just to mingle religious influence with

civil government, whereby one religious society is fostered, and

another proscribed in its spiritual privileges, and the individual

rights of its members as citizens denied.

The Prophet was not present at the assembly, as he was visiting Saints

in Michigan; but his hand was manifest in its proceedings, for he had

all the time led in preparing the book for presentation to the Church.

With his staunch advocacy of truth, and his unyielding adherence to

the commandments of God, Joseph was ever merciful to the weak and

the erring. During the summer of 1835, he was laboring in councils

and meetings in Kirtland and vicinity, and was chosen to take part

in the proceedings against several members who were to be tried for

utterances made against the Presidency of the Church. Whether it fell

to his lot to plead the cause of the accused or to prosecute, though he

himself might have been the one who was wronged, he acted with so much

tenderness and justice that he won the love of all.

At this time he labored under serious financial distress. The

performance of the work laid upon him demanded many expenditures,

and often it seemed that he would be involved in inextricable

embarrassment. But the way was constantly opened to him. His brethren

were kind and charitable, many of them presenting him or loaning him

sums sufficient for the performance of his labors and to meet all his

engagements; and all of these he blessed with the gratitude of his

soul, and was especially scrupulous to pay at the time agreed upon.

Joseph was a dutiful son; his strong affection for his parents was ever

a marked feature in his character. In the early part of October, 1835,

his father was ill; and, though the Prophet was performing wearisome

toil in traveling, preaching and other duties--exposed to chilling

storms--he watched and waited on his parent with the utmost humility

and tenderness. On the 10th day of October, the elder Joseph was

failing very fast, so much that his life was despaired of. The Prophet

prayed in secret most earnestly that his father's life might be spared,

and on the morning of Sunday, the 11th of October, while he was still

upon his knees, the Lord said to him:

"MY SERVANT, THY FATHER SHALL LIVE."

That night Father Smith arose and dressed himself and shouted and

praised the Lord for his recovery.

One of the most sorrowful passages in the Prophet's life opens with

the 29th day of October, 1835. Joseph's brother William was a man of

violent temper which he had not then nor ever afterwards subdued.

Though not destitute of qualities, which, if properly used, would have

made him a useful and noble man, he was willful and headstrong, and

so impatient of contradiction and rebuke that he often forgot his own

high station as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, and forgot the

kindness of his brother Joseph and the deference due him as a prophet

of God. On the day mentioned, at a high council meeting, William abused

Joseph in violent terms because of a just ruling made by the Prophet.

The noble and faithful Hyrum, their elder brother, admonished William,

but without avail. He left the building and soon after engaged in

circulating evil reports against the Prophet. Every effort was made

by his friends to correct the wrong and to bring him to a sense of

his position. He made an outward show of humility; but took an early

occasion when the Prophet was a guest at his house to assault him with

such violence that the effects were carried by Joseph to his grave.

Satan was indeed trying the Lord's chosen one. At home or abroad he was

fated to have afflictions showered upon his devoted head. But of all

the woes of his persecuted life, not one could have been more saddening

to him than these attacks by his own brother in the flesh.

The Prophet harbored no malice; but with the humility and the godliness

which permeated all his intercourse with his fellow-men he freely

forgave William. Such effect did the Prophet's kindness have upon

William that he repented and expressed his contrition with great

sincerity and earnestness. A reconciliation took place at which Father

Smith and his brother John, with Hyrum, Joseph and William were

present. The elder Joseph addressed them all in a pathetic manner, so

much so that they wept. They all covenanted at that time to endeavor

to build each other up in righteousness. Happy would it have been for

William if he had then taken the advice of the Prophet and his father;

but he violated his word, despised their counsel, and fell from his

high estate.

Not only did Joseph show tenderness in his dealings with his brother,

but also with others of the Twelve. When Thomas B. Marsh, the president

of the Twelve Apostles, complained that the Prophet in chastening them

for the wrong-doing of some of their number had used harsh language,

the Prophet readily begged their forgiveness if he had pained their

feelings. And by his noble conduct he brought about a restoration of

harmony and fellowship. If his brethren of the Twelve had all been as

mindful of the rule of righteousness as Joseph himself, the dissensions

in that quorum which cost some of its brightest members their standing

would not have occurred.

CHAPTER XXXII.

COMPLETION AND DEDICATION OF THE KIRTLAND TEMPLE--SUBLIME VISIONS TO

THE SAINTS--THE WORDS OF THE DIVINE REDEEMER--JOSEPH'S GRANDMOTHER

VISITS HIM, THEN DIES IN PEACE--HIS MISSION TO THE EAST.