1. To seal the testimony of this book and the Book of Mormon, we
announce the Martyrdom of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and Hyrum Smith,
the Patriarch. They were shot in Carthage jail, on the 27th of June,
1844, about five o'clock p.m., by an armed mob, painted black--of from
150 to 200 persons. Hyrum was shot first and fell calmly, exclaiming,
"I am a dead man!" Joseph leaped, from the window, and was shot dead
in the attempt, exclaiming, "O Lord my God!" They were both shot after
they were dead in a brutal manner, and both received four halls.
2. John Taylor, and Willard Richards, two of the Twelve, were the only
persons in the room at the time; the former was wounded in a savage
manner with four balls, but has since recovered; the latter, through
the providence of God, escaped, "without even a hole in his robe."
3. Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more
(save Jesus only,) for the salvation of men in this world, than any
other man that ever lived in it. In the short space of twenty years
he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the
gift and the power of God, and has been the means of publishing it in
two continents; has sent the fullness of the everlasting gospel which
it contained to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth
the revelations and commandments which compose this Book of Doctrine
and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for
the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the
Latter-day Saints, founded a great city; and left a fame and name that
cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God
and his people, and like most of the Lord's anointed in ancient times,
has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood--and so has his
brother Hyrum. In life they were not divided, and in death they were
not separated!
4. When Joseph went to Carthage to deliver himself up to the
pretended requirements of the law, two or three days previous to his
assassination, he said, "I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but
{24} I am calm as a summer's morning; I have a conscience void of
offence towards God, and towards all men. I SHALL DIE INNOCENT, AND
IT SHALL YET BE SAID OF ME--HE WAS MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD." The same
morning, after Hyrum had made ready to go--shall it be said to the
slaughter? Yes, for so it was,--he read the following paragraph, near
the close of the twelfth chapter of Ether, in the Book of Mormon, and
turned down the leaf upon it:--
5. "And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord that he would
give unto the Gentiles grace, that they might have charity. And it
came to pass that the Lord said unto me, if they have not charity, it
mattered not unto you, thou hast been faithful; wherefore thy garments
are clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness, thou shalt be
made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have
prepared in the mansions of my Father. And now I--bid farewell unto the
Gentiles; yea and also unto my brethren whom I love, until we shall
meet before the judgment-seat of Christ, where all men shall know that
my garments are not spotted with your blood." The testators are now
dead, and their testament is in force.
6. Hyrum Smith was 44 years old, February, 1844, and Joseph Smith was
38 in December, 1843; and henceforward their names will be classed
among the martyrs of religion; and the reader in every nation will be
reminded that the "Book of Mormon," and this book of Doctrine and Cov.
of the church, cost the best blood of the nineteenth century to bring
them forth for the salvation of the ruined world: and that if the fire
can scathe a _green tree_ for the glory of God, how easy it will burn
up the "dry trees" to purify the vineyard of corruption. They lived
for glory; they died for glory; and glory is their eternal reward.
From age to age shall their names go down to posterity as gems for the
sanctified.
7. They were innocent of any crime, as they often proved before, and
were only confined in jail by the conspiracy of traitors and wicked
men; and their _innocent blood_ on the floor of Carthage jail, is a
broad seal affixed to "Mormonism" that cannot be rejected by any court
on earth; and their _innocent blood_ on the escutcheon of the State
of Illinois, with the broken faith of the State as pledged by the
Governor, is a witness to the truth of the everlasting gospel, that
all the world cannot impeach; and their _innocent blood_ on the banner
of liberty, and on the _magna charta_ of the United States, is an
ambassador for the religion of Jesus Christ, that will touch the hearts
of honest men among all nations; and their _innocent blood_, with the
innocent blood of all the martyrs under the altar that John saw, will
cry unto the Lord of Hosts, till He avenges that blood on the earth.
Amen.
It was fondly hoped that, by the death of the great Prophet, the work
he had been commissioned to establish would go out of existence. But
it was destined to remain forever. Truth is imperishable. The enemies
of the Church redoubled their efforts, thinking they could complete a
work of demolition they imagined they had begun. But though, by the
machinations of the wicked and the operations of fiendish hate, good
and great men may be swept from the earth, the principles they advance
remain behind. Men are subject to removal {25} from this sphere, it is
true, but truth, eternal truth, is not susceptible to obliteration:
"Truth crushed to earth will rise again." Joseph Smith was martyred,
but another great man had been prepared to take up the link of the
chain, which the wicked fondly hoped had been snapped never more to be
welded. The Twelve Apostles, upon the death of Joseph Smith, were the
highest authority of the Church. Brigham Young was their president,
and recognizing this truth, he was, on December 5th, 1847, selected as
president of the whole Church, and as such directed its affairs down to
the time of his death in August, 1877.
Mob violence did not cease with the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum. The
dogs of war continued to let loose upon the Latter-day Saints until,
finally, they had to enter into a compulsory agreement, or written
compact, to leave the State of Illinois, and betake themselves to the
Western wilds of America, where is was proudly hoped by their enemies,
they would inevitably perish.
The compulsory exodus commenced under the leadership of Brigham Young,
in the depth of the winter of 1846, when the friendless wanderers
passed through hardships and sufferings, in the midst of ice,
snowdrifts and a temperature frequently twenty degrees below zero.
While encamped on the western bank of the Missouri River, the general
government sent an agent, calling for 500 of the ablest men among the
Mormon exiles to aid the United States in the war against Mexico. These
were promptly furnished, showing that accusations of disloyalty made
against this despised people were unfounded. To add to the distress of
the camp, at this juncture they learned that the sick and infirm who
were left behind in Nauvoo, from inability to move with the main body,
had been actually driven out of that city at the mouth of the musket
and cannon by the brutal, inhuman mob.
On the 24th of July, 1847, the pioneers, led by Brigham Young, entered
the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Successive companies followed, and
the cultivation of the soil proceeded. Until the harvest of 1848 many
suffered from hunger, living upon small roots and rawhide.
Mammoth volumes might be filled with narratives of the trials,
vicissitudes, travels, hardships, afflictions and persecutions to
which the Church of Christ has been subjected. We might speak of the
difficulties the Latter-day Saints have had to cope with in their
present beautiful location in the formerly barren but now smiling and
fruitful valleys of the West, beyond the Rocky Mountains; how their
crops have in past years {26} been destroyed by hordes of grasshoppers
and crickets, yet they have plodded on their way, rejoicing and
trusting in the God of Heaven, who, although He has seen fit to try and
prove them, has never deserted them in the hour of need.
Before the advent of Western railroads on the American Continent
the pilgrim Saints, with faces turned toward the pastures of the
Rocky Mountains, had to traverse, mostly afoot, the broad and almost
trackless prairies, over mountains and across rivers and valleys, their
baggage and the more feeble of the people being conveyed by wagons
hauled by oxen. In 1866, the Latter-day Saints in Utah, inspired with
deep solicitude for the pilgrims on their weary way westward, with
a largeness of heart and generosity that has seldom been equalled,
forwarded to the frontiers 500 wagons, with a sufficient number of
cattle and men to transport them 1,100 miles--from the Missouri River
to Salt Lake City.
By the magic hand of industry, under the blessings of the God of
Israel, that Western wilderness has been transformed into a picture
of smiling fruitfulness. Besides the beautiful city of Salt Lake--the
admiration of passing tourists, who flock there by thousands every
year--there are nearly 500 other cities and settlements which "blossom
like the rose."
Temples have been erected in Salt Lake City, St. George, Manti and
Logan, at a cost of over seven millions of dollars, besides hundreds
of tabernacles and churches scattered throughout that region which
represent other millions in money. Thus are the Latter-day Saints
manifesting their solicitude for the welfare of the fathers who have
gone before, by preparing places wherein they can officiate for them,
"That they may be judged according to men in the flesh and live
according to God in the spirit."
Since then thousands of Elders have gone into all parts of the
civilized world, traveling as the Apostles of old did, "without purse
and without script," crying repentance to the nations, and calling on
them to be baptized and escape the "damnation of hell." These Elders
have left the farm, the workshop, the forge, the store, and, all the
comforts of home and loved ones, and gone into Canada, Great Britain,
Germany, Holland, France, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway,
Iceland, East Indies, Cape of Good Hope, Mexico, South America, South
Sea Islands, Sandwich Islands, Jersey Islands, Japan, Turkey and
Jerusalem, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that
dwell on the earth, and to every nation and kindred, and tongue and
people. As a result of their warning voice thousands and tens of
thousands have yielded {27} obedience to the Gospel of the Son of
God, and the Church now has a membership of over 400,000 souls, and
fully that many more have kept the faith and passed beyond the vale,
all during the remarkably short space of seventy-five years. There
have been six presidents in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, as follows: Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford
Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow, and Joseph F. Smith, the present leader of the
Church, who was a member of the Quorum of the Apostles for thirty-eight
years, and who attained his present position through a long life of
faithfulness. At the death of President Lorenzo Snow, his predecessor,
he had become the chief Apostle and was finally chosen by the highest
quorum in the Church to become the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, as was
Brigham Young upon the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith. President
Joseph F. Smith is a son of the Patriarch, Hyrum Smith, who met his
death in Carthage jail, June 27th, 1844.
Efforts have been made to destroy the work of God as instituted through
the instrumentality of Joseph Smith, and all manner of falsehoods have
been circulated against him and his unselfish labors. Especially have
the shafts of the Evil One been directed against the Book of Mormon,
men having invented all manner of theories as to its origin in order
to discredit its divinity. The Solomon Spaulding story is still used
by hireling priests, who "lie in wait to deceive." For fifty years
and more has this been the stock-in-trade of those who object to the
genuineness of this divine record, and notwithstanding these divines
(?) know that the story has long ago been exploded, yet they continue
to blind the eyes of their followers, because their "craft is in
danger" directly the truth dawns on those who are honest in heart.
The Rev. Solomon Spaulding romance is easily told: D.P. Hurlburt, a man
who was once a member of the Church, but who, because of his lascivious
conduct, was excommunicated, was the originator of the fabrication
that the Book of Mormon had its origin in Mr. Spaulding's tale. This
man Hurlburt wrote a bitter assault on the Latter-day Saints in 1836,
entitled "Mormonism Unveiled," which was published in Ohio. During
the time Hurlburt was gathering material for this work, he obtained
from the family of the then deceased clergyman the original of the
"Manuscript Story," as it was called, but discovering that it would,
if published, prove fatal to his assumptions, he suppressed it; and
from that time it was entirely lost sight of until the latter part of
the year 1884, when a Mr. L. L. Rice, residing at Honolulu, Sandwich
Islands, found it {28} among a numerous collection of miscellaneous
papers which he had received from Mr. E. D. Howe, of Painesville,
Ohio, the publisher of Hurlburt's "Mormonism Unveiled," when he, with
his partner, purchased from that gentleman the business and good will
of the Painesville Telegraph. In 1884 President James H. Fairchild,
of Oberlin College, Ohio, was paying a visit to Mr. Rice, and he
suggested that the latter look through his numerous papers, in the
hope of finding amongst them some anti-slavery documents of value. In
his search he discovered a package marked in pencil on the outside,
"Manuscript Story," which, to their surprise, on perusal, proved to be
the veritable, long lost romance of Rev. Dr. Spaulding, to which so
much undeserved importance had been maliciously given. This manuscript
was presented to Oberlin College, but not until an exact copy had been
made by Mr. Rice, which has since been published in pamphlet form,
and can be purchased at the Deseret News Book Store, Salt Lake City,
Utah. Upon comparison it will be found that it does not bear the least
resemblance in any manner to the Book of Mormon, and yet it was said
that Joseph Smith obtained access to this manuscript and from its
scanty pages elaborated this Book of Mormon, which he afterwards palmed
upon the world as a divine record.
{29}