Monsieur le Maire was all politeness and attention. He first inquired

if Monsieur Taylor had any papers, and upon having placed in his hand

a letter of recommendation from the Governor of Deseret, signed by the

Secretary of State, he expressed himself as satisfied; and informed the

Elder that if he preached in a consecrated church nothing more would

be required; but if he preached in a hall not consecrated, it would be

necessary to address a note to him, specifying his intention and the

doctrines he would preach; naming the hall and his place of residence,

and he would then give him the necessary liberty. Such was the law at

the time, that if this routine was not observed, the person attempting

to hold the public meeting was liable to be imprisoned or banished from

the country.

At first the conversation was carried on by Elder Bolton acting as

interpreter; but the mayor either wishing to display his learning or

accommodate Monsieur Taylor, undertook to make his replies in English.

Elder Taylor observing the mayor's imperfect English, and not to be

outdone in politeness, was soon trying to answer his grace in equally

bad French.

Elder Pack joined the little party in Boulogne on the 26th of June, and

the same evening they walked down on the sea-shore, and as the friendly

shades of night shut them out from the rest of the world, they bowed

down in prayer, in which Elder Taylor was mouth. He thanked the Lord

for preserving them in their travels over mountains, deserts, plains,

oceans and seas; and solemnly dedicated himself and his brethren to

the labors to which they had been called by His own voice through His

servants. He prayed for wisdom, for intelligence--in short, for the

co-operation of God in their efforts to introduce the gospel in that

land.

His next step was to secure a hall for preaching, near the center

of the city, and announce a course of lectures on the principles of

the gospel. He also wrote a number of letters to the editor of the

_Interpreter Anglais et Francais_, in which he explained the object of

his mission, and gave a brief account of the restoration of the gospel,

with an explanation of its leading principles. These letters were

published both in French and English.

The lectures were not very largely attended. The French people are

notoriously indifferent to religion. They are lovers of pleasure more

than lovers of God; are gay, volatile, careless, happy, intelligent.

Anything in fact but religious. Therefore the announcement of these

religious lectures did not create much interest.

There were a number of Protestant ministers in the town and they not

only attended his lectures, but made themselves particularly obnoxious

by their impudence. The evening of his first lecture a Mr. Robertson,

an Independent minister, arose in the meeting and wanted the privilege

of asking a few questions. Fearing, however, that to grant such a

request might lead to disorder, and the mayor under those circumstances

might withdraw his permission for holding the meetings, Elder Taylor

told the reverend gentleman that he would answer as many questions as

he might think proper to ask at his lodgings, or he would call on the

gentleman at his house and answer them there, but could not admit of

anything that might lead to a disturbance. Mr. Robertson pleaded that

it was for the good of the public, and his friends who were there, that

he wished to ask the questions. Elder Taylor replied that he might

bring his friends with him, or he would meet them at his house.

Not satisfied with this, Mr. Robertson followed him out into the street

and being joined by a Baptist minister, began to abuse "Joe Smith,"

calling him an impostor, etc.

"Whom do you speak of," said Elder Taylor, "I was personally acquainted

with Mr. Joseph Smith; he was a gentleman, and would not treat a

stranger as you do me." They still followed him, but he paid no more

attention to them.

A few days after this occurrence, he received a challenge to a public

discussion from the _Revs_. C. W. Cleeve, James Robertson and Philip

Cater. This challenge he enclosed to the mayor, with a note, asking

if there would be any objection to such a meeting. Being informed

there would be no objection, the challenge was accepted, and the

preliminaries arranged.

The questions for discussion were stated as follows: First, the late

Joseph Smith; his public and pretended religious career. Second, the

Book of Mormon; is it a revelation from God? Third, are the ministers

of that people [the Mormons] sent of God by direct appointment? The

fourth article of the agreement stated that "Mr. Taylor will have the

privilege of discussing the validity of the faith and calling of his

opponents."

The discussion began on the evening of the 11th of July, and continued

three nights, from seven until ten, each party having thirty minutes

alternately. The first two nights, and one hour of the third evening

were taken up on the first three questions, leaving Elder Taylor only

an hour in which to enquire into the doctrines and callings of his

opponents; yet, as we shall see, that was sufficient.

In discussing the character of Joseph Smith, Elder Taylor's opponents

introduced the infamous statements of Doctor Bennett, the Rev. Henry

Caswell and others, charging Joseph with a number of crimes and

immoralities. Elder Taylor had no documentary evidence to rebutt

these slanders, but he offered his own testimony to the character of

the Prophet: and as Elders Bolton and Pack both knew him personally,

he called upon them to testify, which they did. Elder Taylor's own

testimony was especially strong. Burning with just indignation at

the slanders against his friend, repeated by these priests of a dead

theology, he said:

"I testify that I was acquainted with Joseph Smith for years. I have

traveled with him; I have been with him in private and in public; I

have associated with him in councils of all kinds; I have listened

hundreds of times to his public teachings, and his advice to his

friends and associates of a more private nature. I have been at

his house and seen his deportment in his family. I have seen him

arraigned before the courts of his country, and seen him honorably

acquitted, and delivered from the pernicious breath of slander, and

the machinations and falsehoods of wicked and corrupt men. I was

with him living, and with him when he died; when he was murdered in

Carthage jail by a ruthless mob with their faces painted, and headed

by a Methodist minister, named Williams--I was there, and was myself

wounded. I, at that time, received four balls in my body. I have seen

him, then, under these various circumstances, and I testify before God,

angels and men, that he was a good, honorable, virtuous man--that his

doctrines were good, scriptural and wholesome--that his percepts were

such as became a man of God--that his private and public character

was unimpeachable--and that he lived and died as a man of God and a

gentleman. This is my testimony; if it is disputed bring me a person

authorized to receive an affidavit, and I will make one to this effect."

In another part of the debate, he remarked on the testimony of himself

and brethren: "We have heard from our opponents about testimony that

would be received in a court. The testimony of three living witnesses

against a criminal, if his crime was murder, would hang him."

Chairman: Oh, no! oh, no!

A gentleman in the audience: (a barrister) "It would."

Elder Taylor: "I say Mr. Chairman, that it would. Let three respectable

men make affidavit before a court, that they had seen one man murder

another, and if their testimony was unimpeached the man would

hang--their testimony would be conclusive."

Replying to his opponents remarks about not coming prepared with

documents to answer their scurrilous charges, and about his testimony

being that of an interested party, or of a particular friend, Elder

Taylor said:

"Mr. Cleeve * * * thinks I ought to bring documents to be accredited,

as if it were necessary for us to bring replies to all the trash

ever published against us! Now, what testimony had St. Paul when he

preached at Athens, at Rome or at Antioch? He said that he had seen

a vision, the people, of course, could believe him or not, as they

thought proper. The wicked Jews were sent after him and his colleagues

to testify evil. How could he rebutt it? Where were his documents? The

Jews could state that he had been found guilty in several places, and

whipped and imprisoned. Could he deny it? Assuredly not. They could

testify that Jesus whom he preached, was crucified, as a blasphemer and

an impostor, by the Jews, his own people. Could he say that this was

not a legal decision? It seems to me that these gentlemen have never

studied their Bibles, or they would have known more about such things;

they must see that they are taking the same stand that the Pharisees

and chief priests did formerly."

He then showed his opponents what position they would be in providing

they were transplanted to a nation that did not believe in Jesus or the

Bible. As the passage is both instructive and amusing, I quote it in

full:--

"Now, I will speak a little about the position of my opponents. I

suppose they are considered gentlemen here; their doctrines are

believed, at least, by their respective flocks, if they have any. The

Bible is believed by all. Suppose we transplant them to Hindostan or

China. What evidence would they have to present before the people? They

present the scriptures, and tell the people they are true. But how are

we to know it, say the people. We tell you so. That is all very well,

but we want some proof. Well, say you, they speak of Jesus coming to

atone for the sins of the world.

"Yes, but the Jews tell us he was an impostor and a wicked man."

"But we believe Him to be a good man, and the son of God."

"Did you ever see Him?"

"No."

"Did you ever see anybody that had seen him?"

"No."

"How do you know anything about Him then?"

"We believe Him to be good."

"Who wrote this book?"

"His apostles."

"_Oh, his particular friends!_"

"Yes."

"Did you ever see them?"

"No."

"Did you ever see anybody that did?"

"No."

"Well, we don't put much confidence in your remarks; but we will read

your book."

Having read it they say:

"Oh, I perceive that certain signs are to follow them that believe--the

sick are to be healed, devils cast out, they are to speak in other

tongues, have the gift of prophecy, etc. Do these signs follow you?

"Oh, no!"

"But you say you are believers, and your Bible says these signs shall

follow them that believe."

"Oh, they are done away with and not necessary."

"But one of your apostles says, 'follow after charity and desire

spiritual gifts.'"

"But they are not needed."

"Strange! Your Apostle St. Paul says, 'the eye cannot cay to the ear,

I have no need of thee; nor the head to the foot, I have no need of

thee.' But shall we not receive these gifts if we believe in Jesus,

repent and are baptized?"

"No."

"Oh, you have a friend here, I see who is also a Christian minister. Do

you believe in the same book, sir?"

"Yes."

"Do you believe in the same doctrine?"

"No."

"But do you get yours from the same book?"

"Yes."

"And does it teach you differently?"

"We believe differently."

"But you have, we perceive, another friend here; is he also a minister?"

"Yes."

"Which of your doctrines does he believe?"

"Neither."

"Do you all believe the Bible?"

"Yes."

"Do you believe it to be true or false?"

"True."

"Does a true book teach three different ways [of salvation]?"

"Those are our opinions."

"Oh, I thought you had come to teach us truth; if opinions are all, we

have plenty of them already and can dispense with your services."

When the discussion turned upon the doctrines and authority of his

opponents, he made short work of it. He proved very clearly that they

were without authority to act in the name of God; that their doctrines

were out of harmony with the scriptures and their religion a mere form

of Godliness without the power thereof. To his statements and arguments

they refused to reply, but still continued harping on the character of

Joseph Smith. Paying no heed to their vain repetition of the slanderous

charges against the Prophet, to which he had once made answer, he

continued to unmercifully bombard their religious citadels, until,

seeing them tumbling about their ears, the reverend gentlemen sought

safety in flight.

The following is, in part, the bombardment before which they finally

fled:

"What about their calling? Are we to have no answer to this subject?

I have positively proved and demonstrated that they have no authority

to preach, and they never attempted to disprove it, but have given us

another rehearsal of the old ditty [the character of Joseph Smith].

Gentlemen, you sit down very quietly under the appellation of false

teachers; of course we must believe that you are such unless you can

prove to the contrary. Mr. Robertson, indeed, honestly says that he has

no authority. Then God has nothing to do with him or his calling. He,

of course, acknowledges that he is administering in the name of one who

never sent him. We shall take him at his word, and set him down as a

teacher whom God has not sent. In France or England they would punish

persons as imposters for committing an act of forgery. But the judgment

of those who administer falsely in the name of Jesus has not yet come;

but the time will come when some will come and say, we have preached

in thy name; and He will answer, depart from me, I never knew you

(confusion). We shall set Mr. Cater on the stool with Mr. Robertson.

Mr. Cleeve will not degrade himself by investigating the matter! Will

he tell me why he, as a gentleman, undertook to discuss a subject, and

published that engagement, which he is now disgusted with? And why he

did not express his feelings of disgust before he heard the argument?

I presume a criminal would express his disgust at an executioner for

being so impolite as to put a noose round a gentleman's neck. But it

is there, and there it will remain, Mr. Cleeve, until it is removed

by you. It needs more formidable weapons than disgust or contempt to

remove it; and we shall still say you have no authority, that you are a

false teacher, and that God has not sent you, unless you can show some

reason to the contrary." (Confusion.)

Elder Taylor, amid considerable confusion, hastily sketched the

outlines of the doctrines of Christ as contained in the New Testament,

the organization of the Church and the gifts and powers that attended

the primitive Saints, all of which was to be perpetuated in the Church.

"Now let us examine how this doctrine agrees with that of these

gentlemen; for be it remembered that St. John says, 'He that

transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrines of Christ hath not God,

but he that abideth in the doctrines of Christ hath both the Father and

the Son.' (II John, 9.) Now, have they apostles? No. They ridicule the

idea of them. Have they prophets? No. They tell us there is to be no

more prophecy. Have they evangelists, pastors and teachers--inspired

men? No. They don't believe in inspiration, and tell us the cause of

inspiration has ceased. Do they speak in tongues? No: you have heard in

turned into ridicule time and again. Do they have prophets among them

who prophesy? This they call a delusion. If any are sick, do they do as

St. James says, 'send for the Elders of the Church that they may pray

for them, and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord?' No. That

they call fanaticism. Do they baptize in the name of the Lord for the

remission of sins? No. Do they lay on hands for the gift of the Holy

Ghost? No. What have they got that in the least resembles the gospel?

They have not even a clumsy counterfeit. How will they stand the test?

'He that abideth not in the doctrines of Christ hath not God.' I will

not, however, call them imposters, that I shall leave, and go on to

examine their doctrines more in detail.

"First, I will commence with Mr. Cleeve. He professes to be a Methodist

minister. I am somewhat acquainted with their doctrines. Their

ministers are not all ordained as Mr. Cleeve is; they have their class

leaders, local preachers, exhorters and itinerant preachers, made

just at random, according to convenience. But I will here take Mr.

Cleeve and Mr. Cater and compare their doctrines. Mr. Cleeve believes

in sprinkling; Mr. Cater in immersion; neither of them believing in

baptism as Peter did, for remission of sins. (Interruption.) But the

Methodists have arranged the matter more conveniently, for according

to the discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, they

have three different modes of baptism--they will baptize either by

sprinkling, pouring or immersion. This is the doctrine of the Episcopal

Methodist Church in America; so that after teaching a person what

they call the plan of salvation, they do not know as teachers how to

baptize, but must apply to the person whom they are teaching. Thus Mr.

Cleeve would--"

Mr. Cleeve.--I am not a Methodist, sir.

Elder Taylor.--I certainly understood you were a Wesleyan Methodist.

Mr. Cleeve.--I have nothing to do with the Wesleyan Methodists, either

directly or indirectly. [1]

Elder Taylor.--Then I must say that I am laboring under a mistake; this

was certainly my understanding. I will therefore turn to Mr. Cater. I

understand that he is a Baptist minister.

Mr. Cater.--I am not a member of the Baptist Association. [2]

Elder Taylor.--I was certainly told and understood until now that

you were, sir. Pray, gentlemen, what are you? (Great laughter and no

answer.)

At this point the Rev. Mr. Long, evidently ashamed of the cowardice

of the ministers that were flying from their colors, arose in the

audience and exclaimed, "I am not ashamed of my profession, sir; I am a

clergyman of the Church of England." (Great laughter.)

Elder Taylor.--I certainly think the gentlemen have taken a strange

position, they seem to be afraid of acknowledging what their profession

is. However, I will proceed. I have three different ministers to do

with of some persuasion, for they all call themselves _Reverends_.

Now, do their doctrines agree with the scriptures? Have they the

organization, ordinances, gifts, prophecy, revelations, visions,

tongues, apostles, prophets? No. This they cannot deny, for they

have all of them opposed these things; yet all of these things were

associated with primitive Christianity. Their offices, their doctrines,

their calling, their teaching, their ordinances are all incorrect, they

are devoid of the blessings, powers, unity, certainty and revelation,

and are left struggling in the mazes of confusion, division, strife,

uncertainty and error. They know not God nor the power of God.

(Interruption.) There is scarcely a principle that these gentlemen have

that is correct, even the doctrine of baptism for the remission of sins

they treat lightly; yet Philip baptized the Ethiopian eunuch--when

he believed, he immersed him in water; John baptized in non because

there was much water there; St. Paul was told to arise and wash away

his sins, and Jesus says that except a man be born of water and of the

spirit, he can in no wise enter the kingdom of God.

Chairman.--(to Elder Taylor) Do you wish to continue, the gentlemen on

the opposite side are satisfied that it rest here?

Elder Taylor.--I certainly did not anticipate this. I expected to

investigate their principles further, according to agreement.

Chairman.--They do not wish to say any more.

Elder Taylor.--If they have no reply to make, of course I must let it

rest.

Here the debate closed, and the Champion of Truth was triumphant.

The chairmen of the meetings, Mr. Luddy, Dr. Townley and Mr. Groves

made some remarks at the close of the debate, and very unfairly, as

Elder Taylor could have no opportunity to reply to them, undertook

to rescue the vanquished ministers. In the published report of the

discussion, however, he wrote out his replies to their strictures, and

very effectually answered them.

There is one item connected with this discussion that should be dealt

with, since it is a matter that the enemies of Elder Taylor have

sought to make much of in casting reproach upon his veracity and moral

courage. In the course of the discussion his opponents rehearsed all

the charges of crime and immorality made in the writings and lectures

of John C. Bennett after he was excommunicated from the Church; and

accused the Saints with practicing the grave immoralities described

by this arch apostate. Among the immoralities charged were those of

promiscuous sexual intercourse, a community of wives, the keeping of

seraglios, polygamy, illicit intercourse by permission of the Prophet,

and the keeping of spiritual wives.

To all this Elder Taylor made a general and emphatic denial, and

read from an article then published in the Appendix of the Doctrine

and Covenants, expressing the belief of the Church on the subject

of marriage; and inasmuch as he knew of and had obeyed the law of

celestial marriage, including as it does a plurality of wives, he has

been accused of falsehood, and of seeking to deceive by denying the

charges then brought against the Church.

The polygamy and gross sensuality charged by Bennett and repeated

by those ministers in France, had no resemblance to celestial or

patriarchal marriage which Elder Taylor knew existed at Nauvoo, and

which he had obeyed. Hence in denying the false charges of Bennett he

did not deny the existence of that system of marriage that God had

revealed; no more than a man would be guilty of denying the legal,

genuine currency of his country, by denying the genuineness and

denouncing what he knew to be a mere counterfeit of it.

Another illustration: Jesus took Peter, James and John into the

mountain and there met with Moses and Elias, and the glory of God shone

about them, and these two angels talked with Jesus, and the voice of

God was heard proclaiming Him to be the Son of God. After the glorious

vision, as Jesus and His companions were descending the mountain, the

former said: "Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of Man be risen

again from the dead." [3] Suppose one of these apostles had turned

from the truth before the Son of Man was risen from the dead; and

under the influence of a wicked, lying spirit should charge that Jesus

and some of His favorite apostles went up into a mountain, and there

met with Moses and Elias,--or some persons pretending to represent

them,--together with a group of voluptuous courtesans with whom they

spent the day in licentious pleasure. If the other apostles denounce

that as an infamous falsehood, would they be untruthful? No; they would

not. Or would they be under any obligations when denying the falsehoods

of the apostate to break the commandment the Lord had given them by

relating just what had happened in the mountain? No; it would have

been a breech of the Master's strict commandment for them to do that.

So with Elder Taylor. While he was perfectly right and truthful in

denying the infamous charges repeated by his opponents, he was under no

obligation and had no right to announce to the world, at that time, the

doctrine of celestial marriage. It was not then the law of the Church,

or even the law to the Priesthood of the Church: the body thereof at

the time knew little or nothing of it, though it had been revealed

to the Prophet and made known to some of his most trusted followers.

But today, now that the revelation on celestial marriage is published

to the world, if the slanderous charges contained in the writings of

John C. Bennett should be repeated, every Elder in the Church could

truthfully and consistently do just what Elder Taylor did in France--he

could deny their existence.

That Elder Taylor neither lacked the courage of his convictions on this

subject, nor the boldness to proclaim them, nor the skill to defend,

was amply proven in subsequent years, when, after the law of celestial

marriage was proclaimed to be the law of the Church, he went to the

city of New York to publish a paper, and there in the metropolis and

center of civilization of America, fearlessly proclaimed that doctrine,

and successfully defended it against all comers.

Footnotes

1. Elder Taylor in a postscript to a letter to the Editor of the

Boulogne _Interpreter_, in which a condensed report of the debate

was published, writes: "Mr. Cleeve denied publicly being a Wesleyan

minister, or being in any way connected with the Wesleyan Society.

What means the following sign over the door of his chapel--'Wesleyan

Chapel?' And also the following notice inside: 'Wesleyan Station at

Boulogne?'"

2. Subsequent to the discussion, when in Bath, Elder Taylor was

informed that Mr. Cater had officiated for ten years in York Street

Chapel, in Bath, as a Baptist minister. Inquiring indirectly about the

matter of a Mr. Cox, a Baptist minister in Bath, he said that Mr. Cater

was a Baptist minister, and was then preaching in Boulogne.

3. Matthew xvii.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE WORK INTRODUCED INTO PARIS--INTERVIEW WITH M. KROLOKOSKI--"WHICH

IS BEST, YOUR PHILOSOPHY OR OUR RELIGION?"--FRENCH PHILOSOPHY OR FRIED

FROTH--TRANSLATION OF THE BOOK OF MORMON INTO FRENCH--CHARACTERISTIC

LETTER--UNSETTLED STATE OF AFFAIRS IN FRANCE--FRENCH LIBERTY--GOSPEL

INTRODUCED INTO GERMANY--TRANSLATION OF THE BOOK OF MORMON INTO THE

GERMAN--ZION'S PANIER--A CONFERENCE UNDER DIFFICULTIES--DEPARTURE FROM

FRANCE--A KNOWING OFFICER AND A TRUE FRIEND.

Shortly after the discussion Elder Taylor left Boulogne for Paris,

where he began studying the French language, and teaching the gospel.

Among the interesting people whom he met there was M. Krolokoski,

a disciple of M. Fourier, the distinguished French socialist. M.

Krolokoski was a gentleman of some standing, being the editor of a

paper published in Paris in support of Fourier's views. Another thing

which makes the visit of this gentleman to Elder Taylor interesting

is the fact that it was the society to which he belonged that sent M.

Cabet to Nauvoo with the French Icarians, to establish a community on

Fourier's principles. At his request Elder Taylor explained to him the

leading principles of the gospel. At the conclusion of that explanation

the following conversation occurred:

M. Krolokoski.--"Mr. Taylor, do you propose no other plan to ameliorate

the condition of mankind than that of baptism for the remission of

sins?"

Elder Taylor.--"This is all I propose about the matter."

M. Krolokoski.--"Well, I wish you every success; but I am afraid you

will not succeed."

Elder Taylor.--"Monsieur Krolokoski, you sent Monsieur Cabet to Nauvoo,

some time ago. He was considered your leader--the most talented man

you had. He went to Nauvoo shortly after we had deserted it. Houses

and lands could be obtained at a mere nominal sum. Rich farms were

deserted, and thousands of us had left our houses and furniture in

them, and almost everything calculated to promote the happiness of

man was there. Never could a person go to a place under more happy

circumstances. Besides all the advantages of having everything made

ready to his hand, M. Cabet had a select company of colonists. He

and his company went to Nauvoo--what is the result? I read in all

your reports from there--published in your own paper here, in Paris,

a continued cry for help. The cry is money, money! We want money to

help us carry out our designs. [1] While your colony in Nauvoo with

all the advantages of our deserted fields and homes--that they had

only to move into--have been dragging out a miserable existence, the

Latter-day Saints, though stripped of their all and banished from

civilized society into the valleys of the Rocky Mountains, to seek

that protection among savages--among the _peau rouges_ as you call our

Indians--which Christian civilization denied us--there our people have

built houses, enclosed lands, cultivated gardens, built school-houses,

and have organized a government and are prospering in all the blessings

of civilized life. Not only this, but they have sent thousands and

thousands of dollars over to Europe to assist the suffering poor to go

to America, where they might find an asylum.

"The society I represent, M. Krolokoski," he continued, "comes with

the fear of God--the worship of the Great Eloheim; we offer the simple

plan ordained of God, viz: repentance, baptism for the remission of

sins, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. Our

people have not been seeking the influence of the world, nor the power

of government, but they have obtained both. Whilst you, with your

philosophy, independent of God, have been seeking to build up a system

of communism and a government which is, according to your own accounts,

the way to introduce the Millennial reign. Now, which is the best, our

religion, or your philosophy?"

M. Krolokoski.--"Well, Mr. Taylor, I can say nothing."

"Philosophy" has always been a passion with the French; but Elder

Taylor seems not to have had a very high regard for what he saw of it

among them. He held it in the same esteem that Paul did the "science"

of the Greeks--he considered it a misnomer--philosophy, falsely so

called.

One day in walking through the splendid grounds of the _Fardin des

Plantes_ with a number of friends, one of the party purchased a curious

kind of cake, so thin and light, that you could blow it away, and eat

all day of it and still not be satisfied. Some one of the company asked

Elder Taylor if he knew the name of it. "No," he replied, "I don't know

the proper name; but in the absence of one, I can give it a name--I

will call it French philosophy, or fried froth, which ever you like."

During his stay in Paris he visited the Palace Vendome, and with a

number of friends ascended Napoleon's Column of Victory. His companions

scratched their names on the column as thousands had done before them.

Seeing that Elder Taylor had not written his name, they asked him to

write it with theirs. "_No_," he replied, _"I will not write my name

there; but I will yet write it in living, imperishable characters !_"

Having baptized a number of people in Paris, he organized a branch of

the Church in that city early in December. During the summer, too,

he had made arrangements for translating the Book of Mormon into the

French language, and publishing a monthly periodical, also in French,

called _Etoile Du Deseret_--The Star of Deseret,--a royal octavo sheet,

the first number of which appeared in May, 1851.

In the work of translating the Book of Mormon he was greatly assisted

by the patient labors of Elder Curtis E. Bolton, Brother Louis Bertrand

and several highly educated gentlemen whom he baptized in Paris, but

whose names unfortunately cannot be obtained.

When he announced his intention of publishing the Book of Mormon in

French, Elder Franklin D. Richards called upon the conferences of the

British Mission to come to his assistance with means; but he made other

arrangements to meet his engagements with the publishing house; and

wrote the following characteristic letter to Elder Richards:

"I feel very much obliged to you for the remarks you made on the

subject of the French mission, a short time ago, wherein you requested

the presiding Elders, of the conferences, to raise means for publishing

the Book of Mormon in French. In noticing, however, the position of

the churches in this country, and the many calls that have been made

upon the brethren, I have been seeking to make other arrangements

without troubling them, which I am very happy to inform you, I have

accomplished, and therefore shall not be necessitated to make any calls

upon the conferences. * * The scriptures say, that, 'it is more blessed

to give than to receive,' and if in making the above move, I may have

deprived some of an anticipated blessing, I hope they will excuse me;

for perhaps there may be an opportunity afforded them of assisting some

of my brethren in another way. If not, the world is large, and there is

ample opportunity to do good."

A few wealthy members of the Church in England had privately furnished

him the means, and he made such arrangements with the publishers that

when copies of the book were sold a certain amount of the proceeds was

put away for printing another edition. "And thus it can be continued

from time to time," writes Elder Taylor, "as necessity shall require,

until 200,000 copies are printed without any additional expense."

The translation is said to be a very correct one, the original

simplicity of the Nephite writers is retained, and it is as literal as

the genius and idiom of the French language will admit.

In addition to these literary labors Elder Taylor applied to the

government authorities for permission for himself and the Elders to

preach throughout France; and the prospects were fair for obtaining it;

but at that juncture, a mob arose against the Saints in Denmark, their

meeting house where they assembled was torn down and much excitement

created. It was this circumstance which doubtless led the French

ministry to prohibit the Elders from preaching altogether, instead of

granting them the liberty for which they asked.

The political situation in France at the time was precarious, and did

much to prevent Elder Taylor and his companions from spreading the

gospel among that people. In 1848 Louis Philippe had been compelled

to abdicate the throne of France by an insurrection of the people;

the provisional government that succeeded was soon supplanted by the

republic which was proclaimed by the voice of the people; of which

Louis Napoleon, the nephew of the great Napoleon, was elected president

for four years, as provided for in the constitution. This term of

office was altogether too brief and too precarious for a Bonaparte, and

the newly elected President soon set on foot secret measures for an

increase of power and an extension of time in office.

Having won over the army to his views, he boldly seized such members

of the National Assembly, and other prominent citizens, who were

opposed to his interests and imprisoned them, suppressed the newspapers

and proclaimed the dissolution of the assembly and council of state.

He hastily sketched a new and more despotic constitution, which was

accepted by the people, and had himself elected president for ten years.

These movements were soon followed by even bolder acts of usurpation.

He secured the passage of a decree by the new senate, making him

hereditary Emperor with the title of Napoleon III. And thus an empire

was erected on the ruins of the fallen republic.

Such were the agitations and revolutions going on in France during

the time that Elder Taylor was there introducing the gospel; and with

such an irreligious and excitable people as the French, it is not to

be expected that they will turn away from excited multitudes shouting

now _vive la Republique_, and then _vive l'empereur_, with the whole

country on the verge of civil war--it is not to be expected, I say,

that a people, and especially the French people, are going to turn from

all this to listen to a stranger preach on the peaceable things of the

kingdom of heaven!

Still, meetings were held in Paris twice a week, and the work spread

into Havre, Calais, Boulogne and other places. In the three cities

named, as well as in Paris, branches of the Church were organized. In

June, 1851, the Channel Islands,--hitherto belonging to the British

mission--in which there were several branches of the Church, were added

to the French mission and of course considerably increased its strength.

In the latter part of July or about the first of August, 1851, Elder

Taylor accompanied by Elder Viet, a German, and a teacher of that

language in France, and Elder George P. Dykes, went to the city of

Hamburg, Germany. Here, with the aid of Elder Viet, a Mr. Charles

Miller, whom he baptized shortly after his arrival there, and George P.

Dykes, he made arrangements for and supervised the translation of the

Book of Mormon into the German language. The work was finally completed

and stereotyped; and the text so arranged that the French and German

would face each other, each page containing the same matter in the same

opening, and thus both could be bound together.

In Hamburg as in Paris, he published a monthly periodical, a royal

octavo sheet, which was called _Zion's Panier_--Zion's Banner. The

first number was issued November 1st, 1851. He also preached the

gospel and raised up a branch of the Church in Hamburg; after which

he returned to Paris, to attend a conference of the French mission

appointed to convene there.

He ran considerable risk in appointing this conference, for the law

prohibited more than twenty persons assembling together, and a number

of times the meetings of the Saints in Paris were entered by the

police, and the number present counted to see if they were violators of

the law. Referring to this cramped situation of affairs Elder Taylor

remarks: "'Liberty,' 'Equality,' 'Fraternity,' were written upon almost

every door. You had liberty to speak, but might be put in prison for

doing so. You had liberty to print, but they might burn what you had

printed, and put you in confinement for it"--such was French liberty!

Elder Taylor arrived in Paris about the 18th or 19th of December.

On the 2nd of the same month Louis Napoleon by his famous _coup

d'etat_ had overthrown the first republic succeeding the government

of Louis Philippe; and in the meantime had sketched the more despotic

constitution which was to succeed it, with himself elected President

for ten years. Paris was in the hands of the soldiers; her streets

had recently been soaked with blood; many of the buildings had

been battered down into shapeless ruins; and about five hundred

prisoners, untried before any tribunal--even that of a drum-head court

martial--had been shipped off to Cayenne.

It happened, too, that the day appointed for the holding of this

conference was the very day on which the people were to vote for

Napoleon for president--it would evidently be a day of excitement; and

altogether the circumstances would have been considered sufficient, by

ordinary men, to have postponed the conference indefinitely. Not so

with Elder Taylor. A French revolution was not to hinder him in his

work. The revolution would give the authorities of Paris something else

to do than to look after him. So the conference was held.

There were about four hundred represented at the conference. A

number of elders, priests and teachers were ordained; a conference

was regularly organized and a presidency appointed over the Church

in France. "At the very time they [the French people] were voting

for their president," Elder Taylor remarks, "we were voting for our

president; and building up the kingdom of God; and I prophesied that

our cause would stand when theirs is crushed to pieces; and the kingdom

of God will roll on and spread from nation to nation, and from kingdom

to kingdom."

It scarcely need be said that the prophecy has been, or is being

fulfilled. The work the French people did that day was undone in less

than a year by the usurping "Prince President" becoming Emperor, and

crushing out the life of the republic by founding a despotism as

absolute as any kingdom of the middle ages; and which in its turn was

violently overthrown, a few years afterwards, by another revolution.

Meantime the kingdom of God goes steadily forward--slowly, perhaps, but

none the less surely on that account. The Almighty is not anxious to

reap results today from promises He laid down yesterday. The oak grows

slowly; but every year adds something to its size; the winds which beat

upon it only fix its mighty roots deeper in the earth and increase the

strength of its fiber; and at last, in spite of slowness of growth, in

spite of howling tempest and the thunder-bolt, the grand oak stands

monarch of the forest. So shall it be with the kingdom of God among the

nations of the earth.

Elder Taylor's mission in France and Germany was now completed; and he

began making his arrangements for returning home. It was the day after

the conference in Paris that he started for England, intending to call

at the Channel Islands _en route_.

It was not more than ten minutes after he had taken the cab and started

to the railway station to take his departure from France, when one

of the high police officials came to inquire for him. The gentleman

with whom he had stayed in Paris, M. Ducloux, was a very affectionate

friend to him, and he, with his sister-in-law, kept the officer in

conversation for two hours, speaking very highly of their late guest,

maintaining that he was a respectable, high-minded gentleman. In turn

the officer told him every place Elder Taylor had been since his

arrival in Paris; when he came to France, what hotel he stayed at; when

he went to England, and how long he remained; when he went to Germany,

and how long he stayed there; what books he had printed, etc. In fact

he gave a most minute account of all his movements, all of which were

recorded in the police records.

Whether an attempt to intercept Elder Taylor was made or not is

unknown. It might have been done by telegraphing their police agents,

which were so numerous as to be ubiquitous, but without any design

on his part to avoid them, for he did not know they were after him,

he turned off the main route to England, to visit a little seashore

town where he remained a week, and thus missed what might have been

something more serious than a mere annoyance.

Footnotes

1. A year or two after this conversation, the Icarian society at Nauvoo

miserably failed. It also failed in France.

CHAPTER XXVI.

BUSTS OF THE MARTYRS--THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD--MANUFACTURING COMPANY

ORGANIZED--FAREWELL TO FRANCE--TO EUROPE--A BIGOTED CAPTAIN--VISIT

TO WASHINGTON--MEETING AN OLD FRIEND--COLONEL KANE--ARRIVAL IN SALT

LAKE--GREETINGS.

Elder Taylor took advantage of his visit to England and Europe, where

skill in the fine arts was more perfect than in the United States,

to get out the busts of his friends and fellow-martyrs, Joseph and

Hyrum Smith. He evidently contemplated this work before leaving home,

since he had with him in England casts taken from the faces of the

martyrs immediately after their death. He also had with him the various

drawings made of them during their lives, to assist the artist in

his work. The modeller, Mr. Gahagan, was one of the first artists of

England, in proof of which it is only necessary to say that he had

taken the busts of the duke of Wellington, Lord Nelson, Sir Robert

Peel, the emperor of Russia and a number of the principal nobility and

gentry of England. The work was done under the personal direction of

Elder Taylor, and he was successful in obtaining for himself and future

generations a correct outline of the heads and features of the two

martys, and as perfect a likeness of them as it was possible to obtain

so long after their death.

It was while he was on this French and German mission, too, that he

wrote his admirable work "The Government of God," [1] a book of some

two hundred pages. The author defines the kingdom of God to be the

government of God, on the earth, or in the heavens; and then in his

first two chapters proceeds to place the magnificence, harmony, beauty

and strength of the government of God, as seen throughout the universe,

in contrast with the meanness, confusion and weakness of the government

of men.

It is a bold picture he draws in each case; one displaying the

intelligence, the light, the glory, the beneficence and power of God;

the other the ignorance, the folly, the littleness and imbecility of

man. The great evils, both national and individual which He depicts

with such vividness, the author maintains are beyond the power of

human agency to correct. "They are diseases," he remarks, "that have

been generating for centuries; that have entered into the vitals of

all institutions, religious and political, that have prostrated the

powers and energies of all bodies politic, and left the world to groan

under them, for they are evils that exist in church and state, at home

and abroad; among Jew and Gentile, Christian, Pagan and Mahometan;

king, prince, courtier and peasant; like the deadly simoon, they have

paralyzed the energies, broken the spirits, damped the enterprise,

corrupted the morals and crushed the hopes of the world. * * * No power

on this side of heaven can correct this evil. It is a world that is

degenerated, and it requires a God to put it right."

The author then rather hurriedly reviews the incompetency of the means

made use of by man to regenerate the world; showing that neither the

Roman Catholic nor Greek churches, though having full sway in some

countries, and backed by national and even international power, have

been able to make happy, prosperous, unselfish and righteous those

countries whose destinies they have directed; and being unable to

accomplish these desirable objects in the nations where their power

has been supreme, the author argues that they would be unsuccessful in

regenerating the world should their dominion be universal.

Nor is our author more hopeful that the reformed churches, the

Protestants, would be any more successful than the Greek and Roman

churches have been. So far Protestantism has but increased division,

and multiplied strife without changing materially the moral and

spiritual condition of the world.

Turning from those who would regenerate the world through the medium

of Christianity--a false, a corrupted Christianity, for such is the

so-called Christian religion of the churches above mentioned--turning

from these to those who would take their destiny into their own hands,

and who, either denying the existence of God or ignoring His right to

direct in the affairs of men, seek by their own wisdom to establish

institutions for the amelioration of mankind, our author remarks:

"If skepticism is to be the basis of the happiness of man, we shall be

in a poor situation to improve the world. It is practical infidelity

that has placed the world in its present condition; how far the

unblushing profession of it will lead to restoration and happiness, I

must leave my readers to judge. It is our departure from God that has

brought upon us all our misery. It is not a very reasonable way to

alleviate it by confirming mankind is skepticism."

Neither has man been able to devise any form of government that is a

panacea for the numerous ills with which the world is cursed. Poverty,

iniquity, crime, injustice, greed, pride, lust, oppression, exist in

republics as well as in kingdoms or empires; in limited monarchies as

well as in those that are absolute. Our author maintains that neither

religion nor philosophy, the church nor the state, nor education nor

all of these combined, as they exist among men, are sufficient to

regenerate the world; "our past failures," he writes, "make it evident

that any future effort, with the same means, would be useless."

The author then proceeds to discuss the questions--What is man? What

his destiny and relationship to God? The object of his existence on the

earth, his relationship thereto; and his accountability to God. To say

that Elder Taylor treats these grave questions with marked ability is

unnecessary.

He then deals with God's course in the moral government of the world;

and then of the question--"Whose right is it to govern the world?"

He clearly proves that it is God's right, basing that right on the

fact that God created it--that it is His; and He, and they to whom He

delegates His power are the only ones who have legitimate authority

to govern it. But men have usurped authority; they have taken the

management of affairs, so far as they have the power into their own

hands; they have rejected God and his counsels; and, as a consequence,

the evils and corruptions of which all nations and peoples are sick

follow.

This leads him to the question: Will man always be permitted to usurp

authority over his fellow-men, and over the works of God? He answers in

the negative. It would be unreasonable, unjust, unscriptural--contrary

to the promises of God--and would frustrate His designs in the creation

of the world. No, the time must come when the moral world, like the

physical universe, shall be under the direction of the Almighty, and

God's will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. The manner in

which this is to be brought about, the peace, prosperity, happiness

and general blessedness which are to follow the establishment of the

government of God on earth, are the subjects of his concluding chapters.

Such, in brief, is an outline of this fine work--Elder Taylor's

masterpiece! A work which is sufficient at once to establish both his

literary ability and his power as a moral philosopher. One can only

regret that in the later years of his life he did not find time to

enlarge it. The flight is splendid, but one wishes he had remained

longer on the wing. He wrote this work, as he tells us in his foot-note

on the first page, to believers in the Bible. I regret that he did

not so add to it that its sublime truths would appeal with equal

force to those who reject the Jewish Scriptures. No writer in the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has yet, in any manner

worth mentioning, undertaken to establish the divinity of the Jewish

Scriptures, or made answer to the indictments brought against the Bible

by infidels; but no one can read the "Government of God" without being

convinced that its author was pre-eminently qualified for such an

undertaking.

While in France Elder Taylor became somewhat acquainted with the

process of manufacturing sugar from the sugar-beet, and being convinced

that both climate and soil in Utah were favorable to the production

of the beets, he organized a company to found that industry in the

distant vales of Deseret. The company was to be known as the "Deseret

Manufacturing Company," and while its purposes were not confined to the

establishment of one industry alone, sugar was to be its first venture.

The company was composed of four partners with equal shares, of which

Elder Taylor was one. The capital stock was put at fifty thousand

pounds sterling, equal to a quarter of a million dollars.

Elder Taylor had the machinery for the intended sugar works made in

Liverpool by Faucett, Preston & Co., at a cost of twelve thousand five

hundred dollars. It was first class machinery, the very best that could

be obtained, and such was its weight that it would require fifty-two

teams to carry it from Council Bluffs to Salt Lake. It was an immense

undertaking.

Having fulfilled his mission and accomplished in addition these

miscellaneous but important labors, Elder Taylor set sail from England

on the 6th of March, 1852, on board the steam-ship _Niagara_. There

were about twenty emigrating Saints who accompanied him.

The first Sunday out the passengers, composed principally of the

English aristocracy, were anxious to have Elder Taylor preach to them

in the cabin; but the law, _alias_ the captain, a narrow-minded,

bigoted man refused to accede to their request.

The _Niagara_ reached Boston harbor on the eighteenth of the same

month, and Elder Taylor proceeded to Philadelphia, where he visited

Colonel Thomas L. Kane, then confined to his bed by sickness. After

preaching to the Saints in that city, he proceeded to Washington,

where he met his old friend, Dr. John M. Bernhisel, Utah's delegate to

Congress. He also met with Senator Stephen A. Douglas and a number of

other senators and members of the lower house.

From Washington he went to St. Louis and there remained a week or more,

awaiting the arrival of the ship _Rockaway_, at New Orleans, having

on board a company of emigrating Saints, and his sugar manufacturing

plant. While waiting the arrival of this vessel he was actively engaged

in preaching the gospel. The _Rockaway_ arrived in port in the latter

part of April; and having made arrangements for the shipment of his

machinery, Elder Taylor again turned his face homeward.

After a tedious journey across the plains, he arrived in Salt Lake City

on the 20th of August, where he was welcomed by his family, and by his

brethren of the priesthood, who heartily approved of all his labors,

blessed him for his faithfulness, his untiring zeal and the energy he

had manifested.

How sweet to the ear! how joyous to the soul! how gratifying to

the heart is that grandest of all salutations--"Well done thou good

and faithful servant!" and when spoken by those holding the holy

priesthood, backed by the warm grasp of the hand, and confirmed by the

countenance lit up with unfeigned brotherly love, it certainly is a

fore-taste of the joy that shall fill the hearts of the faithful who

hear the same salutation from the Master, who will add: "Enter thou

into the joy of thy Lord!"

Footnotes

1. Of this work the historian, Hurbert H. Bancroft says: "As a

dissertation on a general and abstract subject it probably has not its

equal in point of ability within the range of Mormon literature. The

style is lofty and clear, and every page betokens the great learning

of the author. As a student of ancient and modern history, theologian,

and moral philosopher, President Taylor is justly entitled to the front

rank."--_History of Utah, 433--note_.

CHAPTER XXVII.

LABORS AT HOME--CALLED TO PREACH THE GOSPEL IN THE SETTLEMENTS OF THE

SAINTS--A MISSION TO NEW YORK--MORMONISM TO REPRESENT ITSELF--"I CAN

CALL SPIRITS FROM THE VASTY DEEP"--WILL THEY COME?--PUBLISHING A PAPER

WITHOUT PURSE OR SCRIP.

It may well be imagined that after an absence of three years, Elder

Taylor found plenty of employment in looking after his own affairs for

a season, and putting in motion enterprises that would have for their

object the accumulation of wealth. But Elder Taylor's affections were

not given to the wealth of this world that perishes with the using.

Other things than those that please the children of this world had

taken hold of him; and hence it happened that although the state of

his finances on his return from this protracted mission to Europe,

would have induced most men to devote themselves exclusively to the

betterment of their personal affairs, Elder Taylor was to be found

taking part in the councils of the Church, and devoting a considerable

amount of time to preaching the gospel.

The machinery for the manufacturing of sugar arrived in due time and

was put in operation; but owing to a lack of skilled workmen to take

charge of the various branches of the business, the production of

sugar was unsatisfactory, and at the instance of President Young the

enterprise was abandoned.

He took part in the ceremonies connected with laying the corner stones

of the Salt Lake Temple, on the 6th of April, 1853; and during that

conference, with several other members of his quorum and the First

Seven Presidents of Seventies, was called and sustained as a missionary

"to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in the valleys of the mountains."

In fulfilling that mission he visited nearly all the settlements of

Utah, and everywhere was made welcome by the people, who knew so well

his manner of life, his untiring zeal and devotion to the great cause

he had espoused.

The Saints, no less than sinners, have a habit of assessing the value

of pulpit precepts by the test of personal example; and one of the

things which made Elder Taylor a welcome visitor of missionary among

them was the fact that in this matter of personal example he did not

break down. On the contrary, his daily life reflected the precepts he

taught in the pulpit and in private; and hence the people believed in

him and respected his counsels.

The year following he was elected a member of the Territorial

Legislature; but before the Legislature assembled he was again called

upon a mission. This time he was called to preside over the churches

in the eastern states, supervise the emigration and publish a paper

in the interest of the Church. He promptly resigned his position as

a member elect of the Legislature, and in the fall of 1854 started

for New York, accompanied by Elder Jeter Clinton, Nathaniel H. Felt,

Alexander Robbins, Angus M. Cannon, and his son, George J. Taylor. His

being called to publish a paper in New York was but part of a general

movement by which Mormonism and the Saints were to be represented by

their own accredited agents. Orson Pratt was in Washington publishing

the _Seer_; Erastus Snow and Orson Spencer were to publish a paper in

St. Louis; and George Q. Cannon one in San Francisco.

The object in starting these publications was to disabuse the public

mind, then fast being prejudiced against the Church by the tongue of

slander. When the Saints disappeared in the great western wilderness

of America there were a variety of opinions as to what would be their

fate. Few, however, thought they would survive the terrible ordeal

through which they passed in their expulsion from the United States

and the subsequent perils and hardships of the great desert. But when

the miracle of their preservation was forced upon their attention,

and not only their preservation, but the fact, also, that they were

more numerous and in possession of more power than when driven from

Nauvoo--when it was known that they had laid the foundation of a

commonwealth which was soon to be knocking at the gate of the capital

for admission into the Union as a sovereign state--when all this was

known, their enemies, who flattered themselves that they had seen the

last of the hated Mormons, suddenly aroused themselves for a renewal of

the suspended conflict.

Meantime the Church had publicly announced as a principle of its faith

the doctrine of celestial marriage, including as it does, a plurality

of wives.

No sooner was the announcement made than misrepresentation distorted

this doctrine into everything that was vile and impure. The old stories

of licentious practices among the Saints in Nauvoo, fulminated by John

C. Bennett and other apostates--but which had no existence except as

these same apostates and a few other corrupt men practiced them, and

for which they were expelled from the Church--were revived and believed

with avidity by a credulous public, until Utah was looked upon as a

hot-bed of impurity, and the Mormon religion as a veil under which was

hidden all the ungodliness of man's baser and degrading passions.

It was to stem the constantly increasing tide of prejudice, set in

motion by this flood of falsehood, that the movement by the Church to

establish publications in the cities I have named, was made.

It was a difficult task that had been assigned Elder Taylor. Both the

pulpit and the press were against him; and there could be no question

as to what course political parties would take respecting the question.

What the populace condemned, they would condemn. Besides, he found

himself cramped financially for such an enterprise. The Church in Utah

was unable to furnish the necessary means. The people there were having

a severe struggle for existence with the unpropitious elements of the

wilderness, and money there was none, or, at least, very little.

It is true there were many members of the Church in the eastern states

at the time, but they were unorganized, and indifferent to the progress

or defense of the work of God. Elder Taylor called upon the Saints to

come to his assistance in publishing a paper, but it reminded him of a

man, he humorously said, in describing the result to President Young,

who said, "I can call spirits from the vasty deep;" "So can I," shouted

another, "but they won't come." Still there were a few who responded,

and with what they furnished and the money obtained for the teams and

wagons he had brought with him from Utah, and a few hundred dollars

which he and those with him could borrow, a paper was started, the

first number bearing the date of the 17th of February, 1855.

"We commenced our publication," writes Elder Taylor to President Young,

"not because we had means to do it, but because we were determined to

fulfill our mission, and either make a spoon or spoil a horn. * * *

How long we shall be able to continue, I don't know. We are doing as

well as we can, and shall continue to do so; but I find it one thing to

preach the gospel without purse or scrip, and another thing to publish

a paper on the same terms."

CHAPTER XXVIII.

"THE MORMON"--THE FIRST ISSUE--IN THE FRONT OF THE BATTLE--BOLDNESS OF

DEFENSE--CHALLENGES ACCEPTED--THE ACTS OF COWARDS--"THE MORMONS DON'T

NEED YOUR SYMPATHY, NOR CANKERED GOLD"--A TERTULLIAN.

"The Mormon" was the title which Elder Taylor gave his paper. It was

a handsome, well printed, twenty-eight columned weekly. It had a very

striking and significant heading, filling up at least one fourth of the

first page. It represented an immense American eagle with out-stretched

wings poised defiant above a bee-hive, and two American flags. Above

the eagle was an all-seeing eye surrounded by a blaze of glory, and the

words: "Let there be light; and there was light." On the stripes of the

flag on the left was written: "Truth, Intelligence, Virtue and Faith;"

signed, "John Taylor;" upon those on the right; "Truth will prevail;"

signed, "H. C. Kimball;" while in the blue fields of one of the flags,

the star of Utah shone resplendently. Two scrolls on either side of the

eagle bore the following inscriptions: "Mormon creed--mind your own

business," Brigham Young; and "Constitution of the United States, given

by inspiration of God," Joseph Smith.

On the inside, at the head of the editorial column was the American

eagle standing on a bee-hive with an American flag on either side. Upon

the bee-hive, on one side, leaned the Doctrine and Covenants, Book of

Mormon and Bible; on the other a tablet on which was written: "Peace

and good will to man." The eagle held in its break a scroll on which

was written: "Holiness to the Lord."

The Mormon office was situated on the corner of Nassau and Ann streets,

with the offices of the New York _Herald_ on one side, and those of

the _Tribune_ on the other. Elder Taylor was thus in the very heart of

Gotham's newspaper world. Selecting such a stand is evidence enough

that he did not intend to hide his light under a bushel. On the

contrary he had taken a prominent position with a determination to keep

it. He stationed himself in the front rank, unfurled his colors and we

shall see that with the bold, dashing courage of a Henry of Navarre,

how well he held his place.

It was the custom at the time to distribute the first issue of

newspapers free to the news boys, and let them sell them for what they

pleased. Accordingly on the first day of its publication hundreds of

news boys filled the lower offices and thronged the stairway leading

to the upper rooms, clamoring for _The Mormon_. As they were promptly

supplied, the paper with its conspicuous heading was waved in the face

of the public and all through the principal thoroughfares the cry of

"_Mormon,_" "_Mormon_"--"Here's yer _Mormon_," was heard ringing and

echoing on every side.

To say that this first springing of the batteries created a sensation

but feebly expresses the effect produced.

The prospectus of _The Mormon_ announced that it would be devoted to

the cause and interests of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day

Saints; "and will be the advocate of its claims, social, moral,

political and religious; and will also treat upon all subjects which

the editor may deem instructive or edifying to his readers, among which

will be science, literature and the general news of the day. Further

than this he has no pretensions, nor does he propose to be bound to any

particular party or interest."

Subsequently, though in an early number of _The Mormon_, Elder Taylor

made a further announcement of his principles, and what he meant to

sustain, as follows:

"We believe in good, sound, healthy morals, in matter of fact

philosophy, in politics uncorrupted, and that secure the greatest good

to all. We believe in the God of heaven and certainly in religion. We

believe in a religion that will make a man go down to the grave with a

clear conscience, and an unfaltering step, to meet his God as a Father

and a Friend without fear."

During the two years and a half that he continued to edit _The

Mormon_, he kept free from all entangling alliances in party politics,

but criticised all parties and measures with a fearlessness and

intelligence that is truly refreshing at a time when party prejudice or

venality controlled the utterances of the press.

But it is as a defender of the faith and character of the Saints that

Elder Taylor in _The Mormon_ is most conspicuous. He leaped into the

public arena, threw down his gage of battle and dared the traducers

of the Saints of God to take it up. The very name Mormon--which they

had derided and made the synonym for all that was absurd in religion,

impure in social life, or disloyal to government, he took up and made

the title of his paper--wrote it in bold letters and surrounded it

with the symbols of liberty, intelligence and truth, and defied its

slanderers to pluck from it the emblems in which he enshrined it.

"We are Mormon," he writes in the first number, "inside and outside; at

home or abroad, in public and private--everywhere. We are so, however,

from principle. We are such, not because we believe it to be the most

popular, lucrative, or honorable (as the world has it); but because we

believe it to be true, and more reasonable and scriptural, moral and

philosophic; because we conscientiously believe it is more calculated

to promote the happiness and well-being of humanity, in time and

throughout all eternity, than any other system which we have met with."

A short time afterward we have him saying: "We have said before and say

now, that we defy all the editors and writers in the United States to

prove that Mormonism is less moral, scriptural, philosophical; or that

there is less patriotism in Utah than in any other part of the United

States. We call for proof; bring on your reasons, gentlemen, if you

have any; we shrink not from the investigation, and dare you to the

encounter. If you don't do it, and you publish any more of your stuff,

we shall brand you as poor, mean, cowardly liars; as men publishing

falsehoods knowing them to be so, and shrinking from the light of truth

and investigation."

The _New York Mirror_, in calling attention to his presence in the

city and the spread of Mormonism, said: "While our public moralists

and reformers are making war upon the hotels and taverns and private

property of our citizens, a hideous system--an immoral excrescence--is

allowed to spring up and overtop the Constitution itself. Why are there

no public meetings convened in the tabernacle to denounce Mormonism?

The evil has become a notorious fact--its existence cannot be any

longer ignored--and it is not therefore prudent that the eyes of the

public should be closed to its effects."

To this Elder Taylor replied: "We are ready to meet Mr. Fuller in

the tabernacle on this question at any time. We court investigation

and have nothing to hide." Mr. Fuller did not accept the challenge;

and when, some time afterwards, he repeated his abuse, Elder Taylor

taunted him with cowardice and charged him with being guilty of willful

falsehood; but the editor of the _Mirror_ shrank from the investigation

in the tabernacle which he had proposed. His act was truly that of a

blustering coward who had raised the cane over the head of his enemy,

but was afraid to strike the blow. [1]

The New York _Herald_ was as bitter and unfair in its attacks upon

the Saints and Mormonism as the _Mirror_; and Elder Taylor was as

incisive and fearless in his rejoinders to the former as to the

latter. The _Herald_ proposed that a meeting be called in Tammany

Hall and that the ministers of the several churches should make an

expose of the absurdities and wickedness of Mormonism. Elder Taylor

promptly announced his willingness to meet those ministers in such a

gathering and defend the character and doctrine of the Saints. The

meeting was not called. The ministers of the several churches were

not fighting Mormonism that way. Slander, vituperation, denunciation,

falsehood uttered at times and places where no answer could be made,

not discussion open and manly has ever been the methods of Christian

ministers against Mormonism.

The New York _Sun_ was also in the field against Mormonism, and was

behind none of its contemporaries in the bitterness of its attacks. So

bitter, indeed, was the press generally, that the _Woman's Advocate_,

touched with pity for a people so universally denounced, deplored the

lack of charity manifested in the discussion of the Utah question; and

when the famine of 1855 threatened the destruction of the Saints in

Utah, and the press of the east but ill concealed its rejoicing at the

prospect of the solution of the Mormon problem by such a calamity, the

same journal lamented the lack of sympathy manifested toward the Mormon

people in their trying circumstances, In reply the _Sun_ said:

"As to the alleged want of sympathy, it is enough to say that there has

yet been no appeal for help from Utah. If an appeal were made in the

name of humanity, the degrading and disgusting doctrines of Brigham

Young, and others of the priesthood, promulgated as articles of faith,

would not hinder the American people from responding to it."

To which Elder Taylor with some warmth answered:

"The _Sun_ says there has been no appeal from Utah for help. An appeal

for help indeed! They have called for their own, but their rights have

been continually withheld, though your statesmen owned their cause was

just. And shall they now ask charity of those that robbed and despoiled

them of their goods and murdered their best men? We have been robbed of

millions and driven from our own firesides into the cold, wintry blasts

of the desert, to starve by your charitable institutions, and shall

we now crave your paltry sixpences? Talk to us with your hypocritical

cant about charity! Pshaw! it's nauseating to everyone not eaten up

with your corrupt humbuggery and pharisaical egotism. You forgot you

were talking to Americans, born upon the soil of freedom, suckled in

liberty, who have inhaled it from their fathers' lips--their ears

yet tingling with the tales of a nation's birth--sons of fathers who

fought for rights which you, in your bigotry and self-conceit, would

fain wrench from them. Intolerance has thrice driven them from their

homes, but the wild burst of liberty of '76, now reverberates through

the mountain passes of Utah, bidding defiance to mobocracy and its

leaders; and hurling mock charity and pretended patriotism back to the

fount of corruption from which it issues. The Mormons neither need

your sympathy nor your cankered gold. Your malicious slanders only

excite contempt for those base enough to utter them. Your contemptible

falsehoods fail to ruffle a feather in our caps. * * * The God of Jacob

in whom the Mormons trust--He who brought up Israel out of Egypt--He

it is who sustained the Mormons in their tedious journeyings over the

barren deserts and wild mountain passes of this continent. In the dark

hour of trial, amid all their distresses, without friends or home--God

upheld and sustained them; He sustains them still, and will cause them

to shine forth with the bright radiance of eternal truth over the

wide world, long after their malicious slanderers shall have sunk to

oblivion in the filth of their own corruptions."

This boldness in rejoinder to all opponents reminds one of the tone of

Tertullian's defense of the early Christians. Of him it is said: "His

was not the tone of a supplicant pleading for toleration. He demanded

justice." So with Elder Taylor.

Footnotes

1. There were two men named Fuller connected with the Mirror while

Elder Taylor was publishing The Mormon. The first was a very courteous

gentleman. He had visited Utah and spoke very highly in the Mirror of

her people. But shortly after the advent of the Mormon, there arose a

controversy about the ownership of the Mirror, and it fell into the

hands of the second Mr. Fuller, who was as bitter in his feelings

against the Saints as his methods of opposing them were cowardly.

CHAPTER XXIX.

DEFENSE OF CELESTIAL MARRIAGE--BIBLE SOCIETY'S WAR ON MORMONISM--ELDER

TAYLOR'S BIBLE--STRANGE SOLUTION OF THE MORMON PROBLEM--THE ARMY TO THE

RESCUE.

And what of the question of polygamy, which, during the years that _The

Mormon_ was published, was the slogan of the enemies of the people

of Utah--the head and front of Mormon offending? To understand the

amount of bitterness infused into the remarks of the press--discussion

would be too dignified a term for the denunciation and invectives

found in it--the reader must remember that besides being a religious

controversy, Mormon plural marriage was also dragged into the politics

of the country.

The Democratic party at that period took the ground that the

territories were to be free to regulate their domestic institutions in

their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States.

This was the celebrated "Popular Sovereignty" doctrine, which grew up

out of the slavery controversy; and was the manner in which certain

sections of the pro-slavery party proposed to settle the question of

the existence of slavery in the territories--that is by leaving it to

the inhabitants of the Territory to establish or reject it on becoming

states. The Abolition Party promptly took advantage of their opponents

who accepted the "Popular Sovereignty" doctrine, by saying that if the

Territories were to be free to regulate their domestic institutions

in their own way, then Utah had a right to establish polygamy as well

as slavery if she so elected, and thus threw the odium of sustaining

polygamy as well as slavery--which they denominated the "Twin relics of

barbarism"--upon the popular sovereignty division of the pro-slavery

party.

To escape this odium of sustaining a Territory in the right to

establish polygamy, if the inhabitants thereof should so desired,

the pro-slavery party was more vindictive in its denunciations of

Mormon plural marriage than the abolitionists themselves--and thus

all parties, with all the bitterness which characterized political

discussions in those days were arrayed against Mormonism--especially

against plural marriage: and finally, when the Republican Party was

organized, in 1856, and adopted the doctrines of the abolitionists, it

incorporated in its platform the following:

"_Resolved_, That the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign

power over the Territories of the United States for their government,

and that in the exercise of this power it is both the right and the

imperative duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin

relics of barbarism, slavery and polygamy."

In the midst of the agitation and bitterness which led up to such

a conclusion as this, though unaided and alone--sustained only by

his own conviction of the truth of the system of marriage that God

had revealed, and conscious of the support and approval of Almighty

God--Elder Taylor stood unmoved and fearlessly sustained the

rightfulness of Mormon plural marriage against all who opposed it.

In the very first issue of the _Mormon_, under the caption "Polygamy,"

he said:

"Since this doctrine has been promulgated by us as a part of our

religious creed, every variety of opinion has been expressed by men

in all classes of society. It has been talked about by religious and

irreligious, professors and profane. It has been the theme in the

legislative hall, the pulpit, the bar-room and the press. Polygamy

and the Mormons, Mormons and polygamy have resounded everywhere. * *

* In this our first issue it may be expected that something would be

said in relation to this matter. This we undertake as cheerfully as

any other task; for we are not ashamed here in this great metropolis

of America * * * to declare that we are polygamists. We are not

ashamed to proclaim to this great nation, to rulers and people, to the

president, senators, legislators, judges; to high and low, rich and

poor, priests and people, that we are firm, conscientious believers in

polygamy, and that it is part and parcel of our religious creed. We do

this calmly, seriously and understandingly, after due deliberation,

careful examination and close investigation of its principles and

bearings religiously, socially, morally, physically and politically! We

unhesitatingly pronounce our full and implicit faith in the principle

as emanating from God, and that under His direction it would be a

blessing to the human family."

After drawing a vivid picture of the immoral state of the world,

and allowing that some who opposed polygamy did so because they

considered it as a scheme devised to still further plunge humanity into

licentiousness, he continues:

"We are not surprised, then, that men of reflection and virtue, and

having a knowledge of the world should feel indignant at polygamy. They

look upon it as something pandering to the brutal passions of man; and

from the exceedingly low standard of virtue, can scarcely conceive

of anything but lasciviousness associated with the sex. We respect

the conscientious feelings of such men; for we know that with their

ideas of such things, they must be extremely revolting. But we would

respectfully ask such persons if they ever seriously reflected upon

the matter? and further: Is it prejudice, education and the corrupt

state of society that has led them to these conclusions [respecting

plural marriage]; or matters of fact deduced from scripture, reason,

history or precedence? Did they ever think that Abraham, Jacob, David,

Solomon and a host of other good men mentioned in the scriptures were

polygamists? That the Twelve Tribes of Israel, to whom belong the

covenants and promises, descended from four women, the wives of one

man? Did they ever reflect that those men were more virtuous than this

generation; and that for such things that are practiced here every day

with impunity--adultery--a man would be stoned to death by all Israel?

Did they ever reflect that it might be possible for the Lord to be

unchangeable? That He had not learned much from man in a few thousand

years; and that possibly He was not in error then; and if not then, the

same principles might probably be as correct now as they were at that

time? It is well for us not to be too hasty."

Referring again to the sexual corruption everywhere prevalent, and the

vain endeavors of philanthropists, statesmen, kings and presidents to

check it, he concludes by saying: "The Lord's way [plural marriage] as

practiced by ancient men of God--the restitution of which has lately

taken place--we think will stop it among us."

Upon these lines he continued to defend the marriage system which God

revealed; and when the press, for want of better argument, denounced it

as immoral, and pretended to be shocked at Mormon wickedness, because

they believed it right under certain conditions for a man to have

more wives than one; Elder Taylor drew aside the flimsy veil covering

the licentious practices of monogamous "Christian" communities, and

reminded his opponents that the cities and towns and states in which

they themselves lived, were not so immaculate in their purity that

ministers, editors and moralists must needs cross the plains and the

mountains, in order to find impurity to suppress. He reminded them that

the demon of licentiousness stalked abroad unchallenged in their own

midst; that he was to be found in their guilded ball-rooms and opera

houses; met them upon their streets, mingled in their best society and

even sat in their pews.

This was no attempt to justify the practice of one evil by pointing to

the existence of another; but to remind them of the fact that even if

Mormon polygamy was as bad as they represented it to be, there were

evils infinitely worse rotting and festering in their very midst, and

which they sought in vain to ignore, as they met them at every street

corner, flaunted in their public highways, and were disgustingly

placarded on their walls; while the victims thereof filled their poor

houses, shrieked out their madness in their asylums, lay slowly rotting

in their hospitals or sought relief in self-destruction. He referred

to these things to show up the hypocrisy of a generation that could

live in the midst of such social corruption, without an effort to check

its ravages; and at the same time pretend to be horrified at supposed

social evils existing in distant Utah. In this he further resembled

Tertullian, of whom it is said, that being arraigned as a criminal at

the bar, he accused and condemned his judges.

But while he uncovered for an instant the corruptions of monogamous

Christian communities, in order to reprove their hypocrisy, he by no

means regarded that exposure as a defense of plural marriage. His

defense of that doctrine he based upon the sanction which Almighty

God gave to it, as clearly demonstrated in holy writ; upon well known

physiological facts; upon moral and social necessities, and his defense

was unassailable.

While he was in New York a number of plans were suggested for the

overthrow of Mormonism. Among the more humane ones was that of the

American Bible Society, which proposed flooding the settlements of Utah

with Bibles, being under the impression, doubtless, that the Mormon

people did not accept the Bible as the word of God. Hearing of the

project Elder Taylor called at the office of the society and offered

his assistance in the enterprise, urging them to send well bound books,

and gave them the following advice through _The Mormon_:

"Our mountaineers never do things by halves or for appearance; if they

carry Bibles they mean to use them; they'll read them frequently and

thoroughly, too. We have a Bible that has kept us company many years

on our pilgrimage through life; it has dangled in our pockets many a

thousand miles, when, for the gospel's sake, we have visited towns,

cities and hamlets. We have had to patch it together frequently, and

in fact our friend has got so covered over with our own notes and

references, that a white spot is scarcely discernible. We would,

therefore, respectfully suggest to the managers of the American Bible

Society--if they propose doing real good to the inhabitants of Utah in

the Bible line--do it, gentlemen, respectably, for the inhabitants of

that Territory will probably use them as we have ours."

Whether his visit and these remarks dashed the ardor of the Bible

Society in the undertaking or not, or convinced them of its

uselessness, I do not know, but certain it is that the project failed.

Shortly afterwards the _Sun_, seized with a sudden spasm of confidence

that Christianity could overwhelm Mormonisn, called upon the churches

of New York to send out ministers to convert the Mormons from the

error of their ways. Elder Taylor approved of the undertaking, and

gave assurance that they would be well treated and receive respectful

attention; but he at the same time expressed his doubts as to their

going, and referred to the failure of the Bible Society, saying:

"The Bible Society got up a report about two months ago, that they were

going to send a Bible agent to Utah. We then hastened to offer them our

co-operation, but as we advanced to receive the precious gifts, they

vanished into their original element--gas!"

But of all the schemes for the suppression of Mormonism, there was

one suggested by the New York _Herald_, which for vileness, stood

pre-eminent. In August, 1854, Lieutenant-Colonel E. J. Steptoe arrived

in Salt Lake, with a detachment of United States troops _en route_ for

California, but remained in Utah until the following spring. During

their stay, it is said, that members of the command prostituted a

number of squaws and also seduced and betrayed several white women. The

latter, having lost caste among their former associates, followed their

betrayers to California. When this item of news reached the East, the

New York _Herald_ made the following comments and recommendations:

"This is momentous news, and very significant withal. It shows that

the Mormon women are ripe for rebellion, and that a detachment of

the regular army is a greater terror to the patriarchs of the Mormon

Jerusalem than Indians or drouth or grasshoppers. It indicates the

way, too, for the abolishment of the peculiar institution of Utah.

The astonishing results of the expedition of Colonel Steptoe, in this

view, do most distinctly suggest the future policy of the government,

touching this nest of Mormons. It is to send out to the Great Salt

Lake, a fresh detachment of young, good-looking soldiers, and at the

end of two or three months, order them off to California and replace

them by a new detachment at Salt Lake City and so on until those Turks

of the desert are reduced, by female desertions, to the standard

Christian regulation of one wife apiece. Unquestionably, if, with a

taking detachment of the army in a new and showy uniform, the President

were to send out to Utah at this crisis of impending famine, a corps

of regular disciplined woman's rights women, to lay down the law to

their sisters among the Mormons, they would soon compel the patriarchal

authorities of Salt Lake to an exodus to some other region beyond the

reach of our gallant army, and our heroic warriors in petticoats,

who know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain them. * * * The

hint should be appropriated by the administration, for, if under

the doctrine of squatters' sovereignty, we cannot constitutionally

reach this crying evil of polygamy at Salt Lake, we must reach it by

stratagem. We recommend, therefore, to the President and Secretary of

the Interior, the policy of detailing another detachment of troops

for Great Salt Lake City with the auxiliary force of half a dozen

regular woman's rights women whatever the cost; and thus even should

the grasshoppers fail to conquer the Territory in the expulsion of the

Saints, the work may be done by a revolution among the wives of the

apostles." [1]

To this shameless gloating over the downfall of innocence, and still

more infamous recommendation, Elder Taylor remarked:

"Such then is the _modus operandi_ proposed! Gentlemenly debauchee

officers are to be sent out--'good looking ones,' that they may be

the better able to take away from vice the horrid appearance it would

have dressed in another garb. After these shall have performed their

work of misery and death, they are to be recruited by others--fine,

dashing, young, good-looking fellows, who will be quite competent

to deceive and destroy; real Christian gentlemen with 'new, showy

uniforms,' who will be able to corrupt the daughters of Utah, and

introduce Christianity in all its beauty as practiced in the United

States. They are to take with them a number of pals,--'woman's rights

women,' who are to assist in their conversion, and to show them their

rights, that the inhabitants of Utah may have ocular demonstration of

the beautiful workings of monogamous Christianity, and be brought back

to the standard Christian regulation of one wife apiece--and as many

misses or fast young women as suits our convenience, that a deadly

blow may be struck at the virtue of Utah: and that she may be crowded

with voluptuaries, and prostitutes like all other good Christian

states and cities; that debauchery and corruption may run riot, that

we may have our procuresses, pimps, cyprians, hotel accommodations,

and houses of assignation; that virtue, chastity and purity may be

banished from Utah; that our daughters may be prostituted and our

wives debauched; that we may have our _nymphis du pave_, our 'Five

points,' our Randall's Island, [2] our infanticides, our _Maisons

d'accouchment_, our diseases, doctors and hospitals and all the other

appliances of a good Christian community. That when officers, lawyers,

judges, soldiers and Gentiles in general go to Utah they can find the

same conveniences and accommodations that are to be met with everywhere

among the virtuous Gentile monogamous Christians! And all this glory is

to be achieved by the gallant officers and soldiers of our army, under

the auspices and direction of James Gordon Bennett. [3] * * * * * *

"What are we to think of a man who is publishing a popular journal, and

who publicly and unblushingly advocates seduction, and openly proposes

the introduction of debased characters into a Territory for the avowed

purpose of seduction, prostitution and infamy, for the purpose of

corrupting the Mormons and reducing them to our standard previous to

their overthrow?"

Footnotes

1. New York _Herald_, 15th Sept., 1855.

2. Famous in those years for its hospital for the unfortunate victims

of man's licentiousness.

3. Proprietor and manager of the New York _Herald_.

CHAPTER XXX.

"THE MORMON" FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE UNION--THE U.P.

RAILWAY--INTERVIEWS WITH PRESIDENT FRANKLIN PIERCE--U. S.

OFFICIALS--INVASION OF UTAH--DEPARTURE FOR SALT LAKE.

Besides defending the character of the Saints in Utah and their

religion, _The Mormon_ raised its voice for the preservation of the

Union. In those years disunion sentiments were rife and schemes

for splitting up the country into two or more nations were openly

discussed. _The Mormon_ sounded a warning to those engaged in such

discussions, and called upon the degenerate sons of noble sires to

cease such wrangling and preserve the nation bequeathed to them by

their fathers.

_The Mormon_ also urged the construction of a railroad to the Pacific

coast, and, in short, discussed in an intelligent spirit the general

questions then agitating the public mind.

Elder Taylor occasionally visited Washington, and assisted in watching

over the interests of the inchoate state of Deseret. He was introduced

to and had several interviews with Mr. Franklin Pierce, then the

President of the United States. The first of these interviews occurred

in the spring of 1855, when President Pierce, following a mistaken

popular sentiment, rather than acting from any relish he had for the

undertaking, was persuaded to remove Brigham Young from the office of

Governor of Utah. In this interview President Pierce submitted the

proposition to Elder Taylor and spoke very highly of the urbanity, wise

conservatism and honor of Colonel Steptoe, the man he had in his mind

to appoint as Governor Young's successor.

Elder Taylor expressed his pleasure at learning that Colonel Steptoe

was so honorable a gentleman, and took occasion to tell the President

that the people of Utah had been so frequently abused by incompetent

men who seemed determined to make a hobby of the Mormon question

whereon to ride into power, that they began to think their rights

were infringed upon and that they were used as a convenience for

unprincipled political aspirants, who frequently not only interfered

with their political but with their religious rights.

The President assured him that Colonel Steptoe would not resort to such

meanness.

Elder Taylor then referred to the circumstances under which Utah had

been settled, in all of which Brigham Young was their trusted leader;

that if any man had a claim upon that position it was Governor Young.

Besides, accepting the doctrine of popular sovereignty, the people of

Utah considered that their wishes as to who should govern them ought

to be somewhat consulted, and if that were done, Brigham Young would

be the universal choice of the people. Still he assured the President

that he need have no anxiety as to any difficulty arising from his

appointing another man: for while the people would think it an act

going to the extent of his authority, they of course recognized the

authority of the President of the United States, and would submit to

any legal or constitutional enactment.

Colonel Steptoe during his stay in Utah was tendered the governorship

of Utah by the President, but he refused to accept it, and joined in a

petition to President Pierce praying for the re-appointment of Brigham

Young, both as Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Governor

Young was accordingly re-appointed.

In March, 1856, a Constitutional Convention was held in Salt Lake City,

and a constitution, republican in spirit and liberal in its provisions,

was adopted. John Taylor and George A. Smith, appointed delegates to

present Utah's request for admission into the sisterhood of states.

Elder Taylor joined his colleague in Washington during the summer of

1856, and labored among the members of Congress with a view of having

a bill introduced for the admission of Utah. The Republican party,

however, was already in the field with its platform that denominated

polygamy and slavery as "twin relics" of barbarism. This marshaled all

the Republicans against the admission of Utah; and so desirous were the

Democrats to cast off the odium of befriending a polygamous people,

that they were more bitter in their denunciation of the Mormons, if

possible, than the Republicans. Even Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who

had been a professed friend of the Mormon people, and who had been

intimately acquainted with the Prophet Joseph, and in addition to that

was recognized as the champion of the Popular Sovereignty doctrine,

turned against them, and in a speech delivered in Springfield,

Illinois, early in 1856, referred to Mormonism as "the loathsome ulcer

of the body politic." [1]

Under such circumstances it would have been folly to have pushed

the claims of Utah in Congress; it would only have invited defeat,

therefore the delegates decided to withhold any introduction of the

matter at that time.

In addition to all these labors, Elder Taylor rendered considerable

valuable assistance in looking after the emigration business of the

Church, especially in caring for the poor, who, having started from

England, could get no further than New York. These he found employment

for and watched over them with all the interest of a brother and a

friend. He also directed the labors of the brethren who were preaching

the gospel in the east and presided over all the churches. When he

first went to the east to preside, the branches were disorganized,

the Saints were scattered and like sheep without shepherds. But his

assuming control of affairs was the signal for activity everywhere, and

the work of the Lord revived. In reporting the progress of the work,

early in 1856, we have him saying in _The Mormon_:

"It affords me very much pleasure to have to state that since the

arrival of myself and brethren in these eastern states, Mormonism

assumes quite another aspect: we have large and flourishing churches

in different parts of this state, [New York] which are continually

increasing, not only by emigration but by baptisms. The Spirit of the

Lord rests among the assemblies of the Saints; the inquiries after

truth are many; the floods of falsehood with which this country was

deluged before our arrival are being dissipated, and the light of

eternal truth is bursting forth with resplendence and glory."

The spirit of reformation which in those days moved on in such mighty

power among the Saints in Utah, extended its operations among the

Saints in the east, and there was a general awakening to a sense of

duty and responsibility. President Young in a letter to Elder Taylor

under date of October 30th, 1856, urged him to take up the work of

reformation. He said:

"Brother Taylor, we are arousing the people of this Territory to

a sense of their obligations and their duties; great and thorough

reformations are pervading every quorum, every family, neighborhood

and settlement. The power of the Highest is resting down upon us, and

blessing our exertions. We wish to suggest to you that probably a

reformation might transpire in New York among the Saints, and in other

states, and in Europe and other places where there are any Saints. * *

* Arouse you, then, first getting the Holy Ghost, and be ye filled with

it, and pour it out upon the people. Preach evenings, make appointments

in the various branches and fill them. Make the Elders feel the fire in

you, and make them labor."

With many such words did he urge him forward to this work. But long

before the slow mails brought the letter to hand, Elder Taylor had

been seized with the spirit that the words of President Young were

calculated to arouse within him; and the work of reformation was well

advanced on the arrival of the letter. The speed of the Spirit of God

out-ran the tardy mails, and communicated the will of the Lord to His

servant.

Meantime the adversary was not idle. A number of United States

officials that had been sent to Utah turned out to be the vilest of

characters. Vain, ambitious, corrupt, revengeful, hypocritical; and

evidently regarding the Mormons as their legitimate prey--as a people

having no rights which they were under obligations to respect. As

the time-serving, villainous Oswald, in King Lear, looked upon the

eyeless head of the unfortunate, traitor-proclaimed and yet innocent

Gloucester, as being framed to raise his fortunes, so did these

impudent, corrupt officials regard the Mormon people; and hoped by

opposing their unpopular religion, and social customs--with which they

had, of right, nothing to do--to ride into popular favor and good

fortune. Utah was to be a convenient stepping-stone to higher political

preferment.

The outrages of these officials reached a climax in the conduct of

Associate Judge W. W. Drummond; who, having deserted his wife in

Illinois, brought with him a prostitute who sat by him on the judicial

bench in open court; and in various ways insulted the people by

unwarranted assaults upon institutions religious and social which they

held to be most sacred; and even their territorial laws, to which

the government at Washington had taken no exceptions whatever, were

threatened by this gambler and black-leg, upon whose unworthy shoulders

the ermine had been unwisely thrown. To the honor of the Mormon

community, he did not long remain in the Territory to disgrace her

judiciary, but fled in fear from Utah to California, from which place

he wrote his resignation and falsely reported to the Attorney-General

that the Mormons were in open rebellion to the government; that the

records and papers of the supreme court had been destroyed by order of

the Church; that Brigham Young and other leading Church officials were

responsible for the murder of a number of U. S. officials who had died

in the Territory, and others who had been massacred by Indians.

Upon receiving these statements from Judge Drummond, President

Buchanan, without taking the pains to ascertain the truth or falsehood

of them, about the latter part of May, 1857, ordered an army into Utah

to suppress this imaginary rebellion.

Many criticisms were made upon the evident inconsiderate action of

President Buchanan in this affair. Elder Taylor, in a discussion he

had some years later on the "Mormon Question" with Vice-President

Schuyler Colfax, in referring to this action on the part of the

government, says: "Mr. Buchanan had another object in view, [than that

of suppressing the "Mormon Rebellion"] and Mr. J. B. Floyd, Secretary

of War, had also his ax to grind, and the whole combined was considered

a grand _coup d'etat_. It is hardly necessary to inform Mr. Colfax that

this army, under pretense of subjugating the Mormons, was intended

to coerce the people of Kansas to his views, and that they were not

detained, as stated by Mr. Colfax's history, which said: 'The troops

necessarily moving slowly were overtaken by the snows of November and

wintered at Bridger.' I need not inform Mr Colfax that another part

of this grand tableau originated in the desire of Secretary Floyd

to scatter the U. S. forces and arms preparatory to the Confederate

Rebellion. Such is history and such are facts."

John B. Floyd, Secretary of War in Buchanan's cabinet, was from

Virginia, and favored the southern cause, as indeed the whole

administration and the party that elected it did; so that Elder

Taylor's charge respecting the scattering of United States forces,

rests upon the ground of strong probability. Relative to the charge

that under pretence of subjugating Utah the President intended to

coerce the people of Kansas to an acceptance of his views, it is true

that part of the army for Utah left Fort Leavenworth before the last

of July; but Brigadier-General Harney, to whom the command of the

expedition had been given, remained with several squadrons of the

second dragoons in Kansas, until after the elections in that Territory

in October; and President Buchanan was involved in an intrigue to

defeat the popular will in Kansas.

There is, however, another consideration which I doubt not influenced

the action of the administration in sending an army to Utah. The party

that supported the administration was anxious to give proof to the

country that it was no more favorable to the unpopular Mormons than

the Republican party was; and seized upon the false reports of Judge

Drummond as a golden opportunity to out-herod Herod, hoping by that

movement to throw off the odium its opponents had fastened upon it in

charging that its doctrines of popular sovereignty would permit the

people of Utah to establish polygamy as well as slavery if they so

elected.

It was in May, 1857, that Elder Taylor left New York for the west.

Judge William I. Appleby and T. B. H. Stenhouse were left in charge of

_The Mormon_, and continued its publication until September 19th, when

it was discontinued, principally on account of the threatened "Mormon

War."

Footnotes

1. It may be of interest to note in passing that once in conversation

with Senator Douglas, early in the forties--the Senator then being a

judge in one of the judicial districts of Illinois--the Prophet Joseph

said to him in substance: "Judge Douglas, you will yet aspire to the

Presidency of the United States; but if you ever turn against me or

my people, you will fail." When Senator Douglas forgot the warning of

the Prophet and advocated cutting "the loathsome ulcer out of the body

politic," he sounded the death knell to his ambitious hopes.

CHAPTER XXXI.

"THE MORMON" COMMENDED BY BRIGHAM YOUNG--TRYING TIMES--COURAGE--ELDER

TAYLOR IN THE FRONT--"LET THE TRIAL COME"--SPEECH ON THE RIGHTS OF THE

PEOPLE IN THE TERRITORIES.

Elder Taylor arrived in Salt Lake City from his mission to the eastern

states on the 7th of August, 1857. Two days later, in the bowery on

the Temple square, he preached a powerful discourse, in which he

represented what the spirit of the people of the east was in respect to

Mormonism, and dwelt at some length on the grandeur of the mission in

which the Saints had engaged.

He was followed by President Young, who took occasion to commend

the labors of the committee appointed to present Utah's claims for

admission into the Union (Elder Taylor was one of the committee, it

will be remembered), and respecting the individual labors of Elder

Taylor, expressed himself as follows:

"With regard to the labors of Brother Taylor in editing the paper

called _The Mormon_, published in the city of New York, I have heard

many remarks concerning the editorials in that paper, not only from the

Saints, but from those who do not profess to believe the religion we

have embraced; and it is probably one of the strongest edited papers

that is now published. I can say, as to its editorials, that it is

one of the strongest papers ever published, so far as my information

extends; and I have never read one sentence in them but what my heart

could bid success to it, and beat a happy response to every sentence

that I have read or heard read. Brother Taylor, that is for you; and I

believe that these are the feelings and the sentiments of all in this

community who have perused that paper."

It was a critical time in Utah when he returned. For several years the

crops, through excessive drouth and grass-hoppers, had been at least

a partial failure; the isolation of the people from manufacturing

and commercial centers, with very limited and very slow means of

transportation, had left them almost destitute of clothing; an army

was _enroute_ for the Territory, but as to its mission the governor

received no definite information, though there was a general and a

fairly accurate understanding that its mission was not one of intended

peace and good will to the people of Utah. If its mission was to be

judged by the boasts of its officers and men, there was to be a sort

of "Mormon conquest," and Mormon houses, gardens, orchards, vineyards,

fields, and also Mormon wives and daughters were to be the spoils.

The very houses were picked out that certain persons were to inhabit;

farms, property and women were to be distributed. "Beauty and booty"

were their very watchwords.

It had already been determined by Governor Young and his associates

that such an army with such objects in view should not enter the

Territory, even if it had to be prevented by force of arms. It had

further been determined that before their enemies should again revel

in the homes which their industry had builded, they would burn them to

ashes; cut down every fruit-tree and shrub, burn the fences, and leave

the country behind them a ruined, blackened waste, while they fled

again to the wilderness. These were bold measures. The "army of Utah,"

as the invading force was called, marched under the United States flag;

it was commanded by United States officers; it had been ordered to

Utah by the President of the United States; and to resist it might be

construed into rebellion or even treason--that meant hanging, to the

leaders, who opposed it. Yet bold as these measures were, and fraught

with such serious consequences to the leaders who adopted them, they

were fearlessly proclaimed, and would have been as promptly executed on

occasion.

Among that brave band of men who had the courage to thus proclaim their

rights, and dared to maintain them even against the United States,

none were more bold or fearless than John Taylor. In speech and action

he went as far as he who went farthest. In the council chamber and

in the field he was in the front rank; shoulder to shoulder he stood

with President Young and his brethren, and his public discourses in

those times glow with a soul-stirring eloquence that reminds one of

the spirit of the Revolutionary patriots of '76. In the very discourse

delivered two days after his return from the east, he said:

"So far as I am concerned, I say let everything come as God has

ordained it. I do not desire trials; I do not desire affliction; I

would pray to God to leave me not in temptation; * * * but if the

earthquake bellows, the lightnings flash, the thunders roll and the

powers of darkness are let loose, and the spirit of evil is permitted

to rage and an evil influence is brought to bear on the Saints, and my

life with theirs, is put to the test--let it come. * * * I know that

President Young and those associated with him are full of the spirit of

revelation, and they know what they are doing; I feel to acquiesce and

put my shoulder to the work, whatever it is. If it is for peace, let it

be peace; if it is for war, let it be to the hilt."

Speaking again in the latter part of the same month, he stated and

expounded the principles which justified the resistance of the people

of Utah to the proceedings of the administration at Washington. His

speech on that occasion was a sound exposition of the rights of the

people inhabiting the Territories as against the encroachments of the

general government, and should be preserved as a valuable addition to

the political literature extant upon that subject. After disclaiming

any disposition on his own or on the part of his brethren to commit the

act of treason, Elder Taylor said: