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Remarks made in the Weber Stake Tabernacle, Ogden City, March 10, 1907,
by Elder Joseph F. Smith, Jr.
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My beloved brethren and sisters and friends: The great majority of
you who are assembled here today are, without doubt, members of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I suppose that most of
you have a divine testimony of the truth of this latter-day work--the
Gospel of Christ--which we have received. To you who have a testimony,
my remarks shall not be addressed particularly, but if you will bear
with me in what I have to say that I may be led to say something that
will strengthen the faith of those who may be weak, or that will
encourage those who have no faith at all, I will feel amply paid.
I am not here for the purpose of assailing any man for his religion,
for we Latter-day Saints hold that every man is entitled to his
religious views and should have the privilege of worshiping according
to the dictates of his conscience, let him worship, how, where, or what
he may. And we will protect him in this right. But we are opposed to
the custom adopted by certain men who travel through the settlements
of our people abusing the authorities of the Church, distorting our
doctrines and defaming the dead, for the purpose of destroying the
faith and confidence of the Latter-day Saints. Therefore in treating
the subject of the "Reorganized" Church this afternoon, it will be in
the spirit of self-defense.
We will first consider the statement made by the senior senator from
Michigan, Mr. Burrows, in his speech delivered in the United States
Senate on the 11th of last December. After stating that the membership
of the Church at the martyrdom in 1844, was 50,000 adherents, he
continues:
"The death of Joseph Smith in 1844, carried dismay and
demoralization throughout the entire membership of the Mormon
Church, scattering its adherents in divers directions and for the
time being seemed to presage the complete overthrow and dissolution
of the organization. Recovering, however, from the shock, the
scattered bands soon reappeared in various parts of the country
and promulgated their doctrines with increased zeal, and set to
work to reassemble and reorganize their scattered forces, resulting
finally in the formation of what is now known and recognized as
the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with
headquarters at Lamoni, Iowa, and presided over by Joseph Smith, a
son of the prophet."
He continues:
"During this period of disintegration one Brigham Young, who
had identified himself with the 'Mormon Organization' as early
as 1832, a man of indomitable will and undaunted courage, bold
and unscrupulous, seized upon the occasion of the demoralization
incident to the death of the prophet to place himself at the head
of some 5,000 Mormons, and marching over desert and mountain,
established himself with his adherents in the valley of Salt
Lake, July 24, 1847, then Mexican territory, where he undoubtedly
indulged the hope that the new doctrine of polygamy about to be
publicly proclaimed by him might be promulgated with impunity
and practiced and maintained without interference by the United
States."[1]
Now, this is not true. The senior senator from Michigan has here stated
the position of the "Reorganized" Church as capably and clearly as any
member of that sect could possibly have done, and in exactly the same
way that they have stated it for the past forty-seven years. Why he was
led to make such a statement he best may know, but it shows the careful
coaching that he has received by members of the "Reorganized" Church in
their opposition to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In a pamphlet published by that organization in 1864, the following
appears:
"The greater portion of the Church did not follow this Brigham
Young, and in obedience to the revelation in relation to gathering,
remained around about the land of Zion, waiting for the Lord to
again reveal Himself; and today where there is one Saint who was in
the Church in the days of Joseph the martyr, now associated with
Brigham Young, there are ten of those old members standing aloof or
rejoicing under the administration of the word of the Lord through
his son Joseph."