THE EVIDENCE OF PROPHECY--CONTINUED.
In the journal of William Clayton, under date of May 18th, 1843, is the
following entry, relating a conversation that took place between Joseph
Smith and Stephen A. Douglas, at the house of Sheriff Backenstos,
at Carthage, Illinois: "Dined with Judge Stephen A. Douglas, who is
presiding at court. After dinner Judge Douglas requested President
Joseph to give him a history of the Missouri persecution, which he did
in a very minute manner for about three hours. He also gave a relation
of his journey to Washington City, and his application in behalf of
the Saints to Mr. Van Buren, the President of the United States,
for redress; and Mr. Van Buren's pusillanimous reply--'Gentlemen,
your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you;' and the cold,
unfeeling manner in which he was treated by most of the senators and
representatives in relation to the subject, Clay saying, 'You had
better go to Oregon,' and Calhoun shaking his head solemnly, saying,
'It's a nice question--a critical question; but it will not do to
agitate it.'
"The Judge listened with the greatest attention, and then spoke warmly
in deprecation of Governor Boggs and the authorities in Missouri,
who had taken part in the extermination, and said that any people
that would do as the mobs of Missouri had done ought to be brought to
judgment; they ought to be punished.
"President Smith, in concluding his remarks, said that if the
Government, which receives into its coffers the money of citizens for
its public lands, while its officials are rolling in luxury at the
expense of its public treasury, cannot protect such citizens in their
lives and property, it is an old granny anyhow; and I prophesy in
the name of the Lord God of Israel, unless the United States redress
the wrongs committed upon the Saints in the State of Missouri and
punish the crimes committed by her officers, that in a few years the
Government will be utterly overthrown and wasted, and there will not
be so much as a potsherd left, for their wickedness in permitting the
murder of men, women, and children, and the wholesale plunder and
extermination of thousands of her citizens to go unpunished, thereby
perpetrating a foul and corroding blot upon the fair fame of this great
republic, the very thought of which would have caused the high-minded
and patriotic framers of the Constitution of the United States to hide
their faces with shame. _Judge, you will aspire to the Presidency of
the United States; and if you ever turn your hand against me or the
Latter-day Saints, you will feel the weight of the hand of the Almighty
upon you; and you will live to see and know that I have testified
the truth to you; for the conversation of this day will stick to you
through life._ He appeared very friendly, and acknowledged the truth
and propriety of President Smith's remarks."
This prophecy was first published in Utah, in the _Deseret News_ of
September 24th, 1856; it was afterwards published in England, in the
_Millennial Star,_ February, 1859. [1] In both instances it is found
in the History of Joseph Smith, then being published in sections in
those periodicals. Stephen A. Douglas did aspire to the Presidency of
the United States, and was nominated for that office by the Democratic
Convention, held in Charleston, on the 23rd of June, 1860. When in the
convention he was declared the regular nominee of the Democratic Party,
"The whole body rose to its feet, hats were waved in the air, and many
tossed aloft; shouts, screams, and yells, and every boisterous mode of
expressing approbation and unanimity, were resorted to." [2]
When Mr. Douglas aspired to the Presidency, no man in the history of
American politics had more reason to hope for success. The political
party of which he was the recognized leader, in the preceding
Presidential election had polled 174 electoral votes as against 122
cast by the other two parties which opposed it; and a popular vote of
1,838,169 as against 1,215,798 votes for the two parties opposing.
It is a matter of history, however, that the Democratic party in the
election of 1860 was badly divided; and factions of it put candidates
into the field with the following result: Mr. Abraham Lincoln,
candidate of the Republican party, was triumphantly elected. He
received 180 electoral votes; Mr. Breckinridge received 72 electoral
votes; Mr. Bell 39; and Mr. Douglas 12. "By a plurality count of the
popular vote, Mr. Lincoln carried 18 states; Mr. Breckinridge 11; Mr.
Bell 3; _and Mr. Douglas but I!_" [3] Twenty days less than one year
after his nomination by the Charleston convention, while yet in the
prime of manhood--forty-eight years of age--Mr. Douglas died, at his
home in Chicago, a disappointed, not to say heartbroken, man.
Let us now search out the cause of his failure. Fourteen years after
the interview containing the prophecy with which this chapter opens,
and about one year after the prophecy had been published in the
_Deseret News,_ Mr. Douglas was called upon to deliver a speech in
Springfield, the capital of Illinois. His speech was delivered on
the 12th of June, 1857, and published in the _Missouri Republican_
of June 18th, 1857. It was a time of much excitement throughout the
country concerning the Mormon Church in Utah. Falsehoods upon the
posting winds seemed to have filled the air with the most outrageous
calumny. Crimes the most repulsive--murders, robberies, rebellion,
and high treason--were falsely charged against its leaders. It was
well known that Mr. Douglas had been on terms of intimate friendship
with the Prophet Joseph Smith; and was well acquainted with the other
church leaders. He was therefore looked upon as one competent to speak
upon the "Mormon Question," and was invited to do so in the speech to
which reference is here made. Mr. Douglas responded to the request.
He grouped the charges against the Mormons which were then passing
current, in the following manner:
"First, that nine-tenths of the inhabitants are aliens by birth who
have refused to become naturalized, or to take the oath of allegiance,
or do any other act recognizing the Government of the United States as
the paramount authority in that territory [Utah];
"Second, that the inhabitants, whether native or alien born, known
as Mormons (and they constitute the whole people of the territory)
are bound by horrible oaths, and terrible penalties, to recognize and
maintain the authority of Brigham Young, and the government of which
he is head, as paramount to that of the United States, in civil as
well as in religious affairs; and they will in due time, and under the
direction of their leaders, use all the means in their power to subvert
the government of the United States, and resist its authority.
"Third, that the Mormon government, with Brigham Young at its head,
is now forming alliances with Indian tribes in Utah and adjoining
territories--stimulating the Indians to acts of hostility--and
organizing bands of his own followers under the name of Danites or
destroying angels, to prosecute a system of robbery and murders upon
American citizens who support the authority of the United States, and
denounce the infamous and disgusting practices and institution of the
Mormon government."
Mr. Douglas based his remarks upon these rumors against the Saints, in
the course of which he said: "Let us have these facts in an official
shape before the President and Congress, and the country will soon
learn that, in the performance of the high and solemn duty devolving
upon the executive and Congress, there will be no vacillating or
hesitating policy. It will be as prompt as the peal that follows the
flash--as stern and unyielding as death. Should such a state of things
actually exist as we are led to infer from the reports--and such
information comes in an official shape--_the knife must be applied to
this pestiferous, disgusting cancer which is gnawing into the very
vitals of the body politic. It must be cut out by the roots, and seared
over by the red hot iron of stern and unflinching law._ * * * Should
all efforts fail to bring them [the Mormons] to a sense of their duty,
there is but one remedy left. _Repeal the organic law of the territory,
on the ground that they are alien enemies and outlaws, unfit to be
citizens of a territory, much less ever to become citizens of one of
the free and independent states of this confederacy._ To protect them
further in their treasonable, disgusting and bestial practices would
be a disgrace to the country--a disgrace to humanity--a disgrace to
civilization, and a disgrace to the spirit of the age. Blot it out of
the organized territories of the United States. What then? It will be
regulated by the law of 1790, which has exclusive and sole jurisdiction
over all the territory not incorporated under any organic or special
law. By the provisions of this law, all crimes and misdemeanors,
committed on its soil, can be tried before the legal authorities of
any state or territory to which the offenders shall be first brought
to trial, and punished. Under that law persons have been arrested in
Kansas, Nebraska and other territories, prior to their organization as
territories, and hanged for their crimes. The law of 1790 has sole and
exclusive jurisdiction where no other law of a local character exists,
and by repealing the organic law of Utah, you give to the general
government of the United States the whole and sole jurisdiction over
the territory."
The speech of Mr. Douglas was of great interest and importance to the
people of Utah at that juncture. Mr. Douglas had it in his power to
do them great good. Because of his personal acquaintance with Joseph
Smith and the great body of the Mormon people then in Utah, as well as
their leaders (for he had known both leaders and people in Illinois,
and those whom he had known in Illinois constituted the great bulk of
the people in Utah, when he delivered that Springfield speech), he knew
that the reports carried to the East by vicious and corrupt men were
not true. He knew that these reports in the main were but a rehash of
the old exploded charges made against Joseph Smith and his followers
in Missouri; and he knew them to be false by many evidences furnished
him by Joseph Smith in the interview of the 18th of May, 1843, and by
the Mormon people at sundry times during his association with them at
Nauvoo. He had an opportunity to befriend the innocent; to refute the
calumny cast upon a virtuous community; to speak a word in behalf of
the oppressed; but the demagogue triumphed over the statesman, the
politician, over the humanitarian; and to avoid the popular censure
which he feared befriending the Mormon people would bring to him, he
turned his hand against them with the result that he did not destroy
them but sealed his own doom--in fulfillment of the words of the
prophet, he felt the weight of the hand of the Almighty upon him.
It was impossible for any merely human sagacity to foresee the events
predicted in this prophecy. Stephen A. Douglas was a bright but
comparatively an unknown man at the time of the interview, in May,
1843. There is and can be no question about the prophecy preceding the
event. It was published as before stated in the _Deseret News_ of the
24th of September, 1856, about one year before the Douglas speech at
Springfield, in June, 1857; and about four years before Douglas was
nominated for the Presidency by the Charleston Democratic Convention.
Moreover, a lengthy review of Mr. Douglas' speech was published in the
editorial columns of the _Deseret News_ in the issue of that paper for
September 2nd, 1857, of which the following is the closing paragraph
addressed directly to Mr. Douglas: "In your last paragraph [of the
Springfield speech] you say, 'I have thus presented to you plainly and
fairly my views of the Utah question;' with at least equal plainness
and with far more fairness have your views now been commented upon.
And inasmuch as you were well acquainted with Joseph Smith, and this
people, also with the character of our maligners, and did know their
allegations were false, but must bark with the dogs who were snapping
at our heels, to let them know that you were a dog with them; and
also that you may have a testimony of the truth of the assertion that
you did know Joseph and his people and the character of their enemies
(and neither class have changed, only as the Saints have grown better
and their enemies worse); and also that you may thoroughly understand
that you have voluntarily, knowingly, and of choice sealed your
damnation, and by your own chosen course have closed your chance for
the Presidential chair, through disobeying the counsel of Joseph which
you formerly sought and prospered by following, and that you in common
with us, may testify to all the world that Joseph was a true prophet,
the following extract from the History of Joseph Smith is again printed
for your benefit, and is kindly recommended to your careful perusal and
most candid consideration." Then follows the interview between Joseph
Smith and Mr. Douglas as recorded in the Journal of William Clayton, as
published in the _News_ a year before Mr. Douglas' Springfield speech,
and as now quoted at the beginning of this chapter.
This was boldly accepting the challenge of Mr. Douglas. He raised his
hand against the followers of Joseph Smith despite the warning of the
prophet, and they, in the chief organ of the church, reproduced the
prophecy and told him that he had sealed his damnation and closed his
chance for the Presidential chair through disobeying the counsel of the
prophet. The presidential election of 1860 and the death of Mr. Douglas
in the prime of life the year following tells the rest. [4]
It would be mere conjecture, of course, to say what the result would
have been had Stephen A. Douglas been true to the Saints--the people of
his friend Joseph Smith. But certainly had he been elected in 1860 the
Southern States would have had no such excuse for their great movement
of secession as they at least pretended to have in the election of
Abraham Lincoln. And had Mr. Douglas in the event of his election
followed the counsel given to the government and people of the United
States by Joseph Smith in respect to the question of slavery, that evil
might have been abolished without the effusion of blood, and no place
found in the history of the United States for that horrible conflict
known as the American civil war.
The prophet's counsel here referred to in respect to slavery, was as
follows: "Petition, also, ye goodly inhabitants of the slave states,
your legislators to abolish slavery by the year 1850, or now, and save
the abolitionists from reproach and ruin, and infamy and shame. Pray
congress to pay every man a reasonable price for his slaves out of the
surplus revenue arising from the sale of the public lands, and from the
deduction of pay from the members of congress. Break off the shackles
from the poor black man, and hire him to labor like other human beings;
for an hour of virtuous liberty is worth a whole eternity of bondage."
[5]
The document from which this counsel is quoted was published in
February, 1844. Eleven years later, namely, in 1855, Mr. Ralph Waldo
Emerson declared that the question of slavery should be met in
accordance "with the interests of the South, and with the settled
conscience of the North." "It is not really a great task," said this
eminent writer, "a great feat for this country to accomplish, to buy
that property of the planter as the British nation bought the West
Indian slaves." He also predicted that "the United States will be
brought to give every inch of their public lands for a purpose like
this." This plan suggested by Mr. Emerson in 1855, brought to him no
end of praise as a sage philosopher and wise humanitarian. But what of
Joseph Smith, whose suggestion preceded that of Mr. Emerson by eleven
years? Let another--Josiah Quincy--answer:
"We who can look back upon the terrible cost of the fratricidal war
which put an end to slavery, now say that such a solution of the
difficulty would have been worthy a Christian statesman. But if the
retired scholar [referring to Emerson] was in advance of his time when
he advocated this disposition of the public property in 1855, what
shall I say of the political and religious leader [referring to Joseph
Smith] who had committed himself in print, as well as in conversation,
to the same course in 1844? If the atmosphere of men's opinions was
stirred by such a proposition when war clouds were discernable in the
sky, was it not a statesman-like word eleven years earlier when the
heavens looked tranquil and beneficent?" [6]
By indulging in these reflections based upon the supposition of the
success of Stephen A. Douglas in the election of 1860, I have wandered
from the line of direct argument. I have nothing further to do with
the career of Mr. Douglas than to point out in it the remarkable
fulfillment of a prophecy which demonstrates the divine inspiration of
the man who uttered it.
Footnotes
1. _Mill. Star,_ Vol. xxi, No. 9.
2. See Cooper's American Politics, Bk. I, p. 86.
3. See tables in "American Politics," Bk. vii, pp. 22, 26; also,
History U. S. (by Alexander H. Stephens), p. 559.
4. Shortly after the result of the election of 1860 was known in Utah,
Elder Orson Hyde, one of the Twelve Apostles, then residing in Sanpete
County, Utah, wrote to the _Deseret News_ the following letter:
"Ephraim, Utah Ter., Nov. 27, 1860.
"Will the Judge now acknowledge that Joseph Smith was a true prophet?
If he will not, does he recollect a certain conversation had with Mr.
Smith at the house of Sheriff Backenstos, in Carthage, Illinois, in the
year 1843, in which Mr. Smith said to him: 'You will yet aspire to the
Presidency of the United States. But if you ever raise your hand or
your voice against the Latter-day Saints, you shall never be President
of the United States.'
"Does Judge Douglas recollect that in a public speech delivered by him
in the year 1857, at Springfield, Illinois, of comparing the Mormon
community, then constituting the inhabitants of Utah Territory, to a
'loathsome ulcer on the body politic,' and of recommending the knife to
be applied to cut it out?
"Among other things, the Judge will doubtless recollect that I was
present and heard the conversation between him and Joseph Smith at Mr.
Backenstos' residence in Carthage, before alluded to.
"Now, Judge, what do you think about Joseph Smith and Mormonism?
"ORSON HYDE."
5. Joseph Smith's "Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of
the United States," _Mill. Star,_ Vol. XXII, p. 743.
6. "Figures of the Past--Joseph Smith at Nauvoo," p. 398.