CELEBRATION OF 24th, 1857.
Words of Brigham Young.--Talk by the Indian Chief,
Aropene.--Assassination of Parley P. Pratt.--Return of Thomas B. Marsh
to the Church.--Celebration of the Twenty-forth in Big Cottonwood
Canyon.--News of the Army's Approach.
The year 1857 made its appearance in the midst of an unusual and
extraordinary snowstorm. The ushering in of the new year in such a
manner was portentous of the stormy and extraordinary experiences
of the Saints. Elder Woodruff records that he passed most of the
day in company with President Young and Franklin D. Richards. They
were actively engaged in compiling Church history. It is remarkable
how completely attached to the leaders of the Church Elder Woodruff
was. His trust in them was both complete and sublime. He never found
occasion to suppose for one moment that these leaders ever proved
unworthy of the trust he imposed in them. In his mind, Brigham Young
was a Prophet of God, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, as truly and
perfectly as was Samuel of old, or Peter, or Paul. His reverence and
respect for the living oracles were as perfect as for the dead. The
words of both Joseph and Brigham, he was always careful to write down
in his journal. In time when the sermons were recorded by reporters of
the Church, he confined his record to sayings that were made when there
was no reporter present.
On the 11th of January, in the Eighteenth ward, President Young
addressed the people and from his sermon Elder Woodruff records among
other things these words: "It is sometimes taught among us that we
should follow Brother Joseph or Brother Brigham, or some other leader,
and do as they say, and that is all that is required. Now this is in
one sense a false doctrine. No man should trust solely the testimony of
another. He should have a direct testimony from God for himself. Then
obedience is intelligent and not blind. I might have listened to Joseph
Smith testify to the truth of the Book of Mormon until I was as old as
Methuselah, and in the end I would have gone away in darkness had I not
{378} received a testimony from God that he was a prophet and that he
knew by revelation whereof he spoke. Men should get the spirit of God
and then live by it."
In those days there was a strong sympathetic interest in the welfare
of the Indians. The better ones among them were feeling constantly
greater confidence in the people and in their leaders. They had a real
friendship for those white men who treated them, not only kindly,
but with high consideration for their rights. The Indian felt that
there were reasons why he should command respect as well as receive
justice. Aropene seems to have been a chief specially favored among the
Indians and respected by the Saints. In the early part of that year,
Elder Woodruff records that this chief delivered a strong discourse to
the Saints in which he exhorted them to respect the counsel of their
leaders and to abstain especially from the use of liquor, and to do
right in all things.
On the 17th of February of this year, Elder Woodruff addressed a
meeting of the bishops and gives in his journal a brief synopsis of
his instructions to them. "No man should boast of the authority and
power of the priesthood, or contend about the comparative greatness of
a seventy or a high priest. Men should not boast of that power until
they have received some manifestation of it, and when they receive
it they will not feel like boasting about it. Its power will create
humility and not pride. It is seldom that I have seen the power of the
priesthood made manifest among the children of men in our day to any
very great degree. There are, however, some instances. One was when the
Prophet Joseph beheld the sick and the dying in his dooryard, and when
they were also strewn along the banks of the river for two miles. He
arose and shook himself like an old lion and commenced at his tent door
and healed all the people who were not dead on both sides of the river,
by the power of God, and his voice was as the voice of God and the
earth almost trembled under his feet as he went along commanding the
sick to arise and be made whole. It was also made manifest by Joseph
while in prison and in chains in Missouri.
"Again, David Patten was taken by an armed mob under a United States
warrant. When he was surrounded by about forty {379} such men who were
acting under the garb of law, and who forbade him to say one word in
his own defense, he arose in the power of God and held them fast to
their seats until he had addressed them for about one-half hour. He
told them that they were cowards, rascals, and villains, and proved it
to them and they had not the power to harm one hair of his head, and
they let him and Warren Parish go free.
"This power was again made manifest by President Brigham Young on the
banks of the Missouri River at Winter Quarters, when the merchants
brought up goods to sell to the brethren who were going to the
mountains. Old Major Miller, the Indian agent, was there, surrounded by
officers. In order to show his great authority, he told the merchants
who owned some alcohol not to roll a barrel off the boat or he would
knock the head of the barrel in and pour the liquor upon the ground.
President Young thereupon stepped up and told the men to roll it out.
Miller and his officers turned pale, and the liquor was rolled out and
nobody was hurt. Other instances might be named where the power of the
priesthood has been strongly manifested. These men never boasted of it,
and they never will."
March 1st brought Elder Woodruff to his 50th birthday. About this
time he recorded in his journal instructions from President Young
upon the importance of keeping a journal. The President quotes from
instructions from the Prophet Joseph on the subject. He shows that the
written testimony of the things of God is quite as important as the
spoken testimony, that the world will be judged by what is written in
the books, and that where it is the duty to record the manifestations
of the spirit of God and men neglect to fulfil that duty, the spirit
will be withdrawn from them. "Were you to be brought before the civil
authorities and accused of a crime or a misdemeanor, you may be
punished if you cannot prove from your journal that you were somewhere
else and are innocent. Your enemies may prevail against you."
These words from the lips of Brigham Young in those early days are
significant because of the position the enemies of the Church sought
to place him in. How often he was subject to accusations which were
laid at his door and which the enemies insisted were true if he could
not prove his innocence. How often {380} that has been the case in the
history of the Latter-day Saints concerning whom, in the minds of their
enemies, there are no presumptions whatever of innocence. The order of
proof with them has been different too often from that followed by the
world in the administration of law and justice. From these admonitions
of the Prophet it may be seen that so far as the Latter-day Saints are
concerned, they may often be compelled to prove their innocence, for
their enemies will not treat them with the fairness with which they
treat one another, and regard men as innocent until they are proven
guilty.
Just before the opening of spring conference, on March 23rd, President
Woodruff officiated in the dedication of the baptismal font which
had been erected by the people of the Fourteen Ward. The semi-annual
conference in those days created a great deal of interest as well as
anxiety because of those whose names were announced for the first time
as missionaries to the nations of the earth. As the list was read
at the close of conference, a profound silence fell upon the entire
congregation, as wives and mothers, as well as fathers and husbands,
never knew when the minute call would come to them or to their
household.
This spring the missionaries adopted the hand-cart method of crossing
the plains. They were an enthusiastic body of men who on the 23rd of
April hitched themselves to their carts and made their way through the
canyons and over the mountains to the Missouri River and other terminal
points, from which they adopted a more convenient method of travel.
Elder Woodruff records in his journal on June 23rd that the "eastern
mail arrived bringing the sad news of the assassination of Elder Parley
P. Pratt, who had been killed near Ft. Smith in Arkansas, by a man
named McLean."
Apostle Woodruff was always careful in his journal to say something
of the lives of men and women whose integrity to God he knew and
esteemed. He rarely failed to record his testimony of those who were
valiant when anything important occurred in their lives, or when they
died. Of a Sister Vose who had just come to the Valleys he said: "She
was seventy-seven years of age and rode 1,200 miles in twenty-three
days, at least one-half the distance by team. She has been a member of
the Church almost {381} from the beginning, and has given thousands
of dollars to build up the Kingdom and to assist the elders in their
ministry."
Just about this time, he records the return of Thomas B. Marsh to the
fold. This man had once been president of the Twelve Apostles. He had
forsaken the Church and in time he was forsaken by his family and
his friends. There still, however, remained within him a lingering
testimony of the spirit that had once led him to a higher and better
life. He appealed by letter to President Young to be restored to
the Church. The request was granted by the President who said: "Let
him be baptized and confirmed and then come to the Valleys." This
brother reached Salt Lake City, and on the 16th of September, 1857,
was presented by President Young to the congregation in their Sabbath
meeting. As they gazed upon him, they saw a wreck--a relic of his
former self. He was now crippled and palsied in body, miserable and
unhappy in his spirit. When he arose, he called the attention of the
Saints to himself as an object of pity and commiseration, and warned
the Saints against apostasy and asked them to forgive him. President
Young put his request to a vote and he was unanimously received into
the fellowship of his brethren and sisters. A few years later he died
in Ogden.
The approach of mid-summer awakened in the hearts and feelings the
patriotic spirit of a devoted body of pioneers, who loved their
religion and who consequently loved their country. The Fourth of July
was celebrated as usual by a "splendid military performance." The
procession disbanded before the Governor's office at noon.
They loved their country and they also loved their religion. Their
advent into the Valleys of the Mountains was a mile-stone in what
to their minds was the greatest historical event of modern times.
That event must not be forgotten. Future generations must hold it in
sacred remembrance, for it was God's history which the world some time
would recognize by appropriate and almost universal observance. The
remembrances of the pioneer journey were green in the memories of all
but the little children. The Twenty-fourth of July recalled the scenes
at one thousand camp firesides on the plains and in the mountains. It
reminded them of suffering, recalled their hopes, and strengthened
their {382} faith. They were witnesses of God's providence in
dispelling fears that human courage could not overcome, and in removing
obstacles that seemed to them insurmountable.
On the 22nd of July, 1857, a great procession of people might have
been seen wending their way along the eastern hillsides of the Salt
Lake Valley on their way to a lake in Big Cottonwood canyon. The
night of that day, they camped at the granite quarry from which the
rock was then already being hewn for the foundation of the Temple. On
the following morning, President Young and the leaders of the Church
led the procession up through the canyon to a place selected for the
celebration. The first arrived at noon and the last came in about
midnight. Of this occasion President Woodruff writes: "This was a great
turnout. The company numbered 2,587 persons, 468 carriages and wagons,
1,028 horses and mules, and 332 oxen and cows. Flags were raised upon
the highest peaks and the stars and stripes were unfurled upon the
highest trees. The surrounding scenes of mountains, valleys, lakes,
woods, and meadows made the sight the most interesting I ever beheld.
We had prayer at night and an address from President Young. There were
five bands in attendance to discourse sweet strains of music."
Next day being the Twenty-fourth, ten years had passed since the
faithful pioneers entered the Valleys of the Mountains. The day was to
be celebrated in an enthusiastic manner. The program consisted of the
firing of cannon, speeches, songs, recitations, and music. They were
also there to render their thanks-giving and praise to God for His care
over them, and above all for the testimony of His spirit, which burned
within them. Some engaged in trout fishing, others roamed over the
hills, and there were social pastimes that promised a great day for the
Saints.
At noon, Bishop Smoot, Judson Stoddard, Judge Elias Smith, and O. P.
Rockwell arrived in camp. The first named two brought the unhappy news
with them from the East that the government had withdrawn the mail
contract, and were sending a new governor, judges, and 2500 troops to
Utah to suppress an insurrection that had never existed. The action of
the government was based upon the falsehoods sent broadcast by Judge
Drummond and other unprincipled men.
{383} President Young met the issue in a spirit of indignation and with
a determination not to submit to another injustice. At day-light, on
the 25th, the company broke up and commenced their homeward journey.
Their joy and enthusiasm had now been turned to wonderment, anxiety,
and sorrow. The approaching army was the theme of their conversation.
Dark clouds hovered over them. A new problem had to be solved. What was
to be done? Where could they go? What was to be the result of another
injustice perpetrated against them? Their faith was again brought to
their service. They exercised it by humiliating themselves in prayer
and fasting. The spirit of joy had been transformed into one of the
greatest solemnity.
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