BRIGHAM YOUNG AT HOME:—WE VISIT THE PROPHET AND HIS WIVES.
Shortly after our arrival in Salt Lake City we visited President Young,
who received us very graciously and appointed an early day for us to dine
with him.
On that occasion he invited some of the Apostles and leading men to meet
us at his table, and we passed an exceedingly pleasant evening. The
Prophet made himself very affable; talked with us about our missionary
life and other subjects of personal and general interest; and expressed
a high opinion of the energy and ability which my husband had displayed.
His wives, too,—whom I found, as far as I could judge from such a casual
acquaintance, to be amiable and kind-hearted ladies,—made every effort to
render our visit agreeable.
I was much pleased with the manner and appearance of Brigham Young, and
felt greatly reassured; for he did not seem to me like a man who would
preach and practise such things as I had heard of him while I was in
London. This I was glad to see, for it encouraged me to think that,
perhaps, after all, matters might not be so bad as I had anticipated.
We were, in fact, very kindly received in Salt Lake City by every one
with whom we came in contact; for having been Missionaries for so many
years, we were, of course, well known by name, and had a wide circle of
acquaintances among the chief Elders and emigrants.
Fifteen years have, of course, worked a great change in the appearance of
Brigham Young; but though he is now nearly seventy-three years of age, he
is still a portly-looking—I might almost say handsome man. His good looks
are not of the poetic or romantic kind at all; he is very common-place
and practical in his appearance, but long and habitual exercise of
despotic authority has stamped itself upon his features, and is seen
even in the way he carries himself: he might without any stretch of the
imagination be mistaken for a retired sea-captain.
When I first knew him, in appearance he was little over fifty years of
age, was of medium height, well built, upright, and, as I just stated,
had the air of one accustomed to be obeyed. His hair was light,—sandy,
I suppose I ought to call it,—with eyes to match; and the expression
of his countenance was pleasant and manly. I, of course, regarded him
from a woman’s stand-point; but there were others who were accustomed to
study physiognomy, and they detected—or thought they detected—in the cold
expression of his eye and the stern, hard lines of his lips, evidences of
cruelty, selfishness, and dogged determination which, it is only fair to
say, I myself never saw.
The lines on his face have deepened of late years, as what little of
gentleness his heart ever knew has died out within him; but still he
presents the appearance of a man who would afford a deep study to the
observer of human nature. In early life he had to work hard for a living,
and according to his own statement he had a rough time of it. He was, by
trade, a painter and glazier, and has frequently said in public that in
those times he was glad to work for “six bits” a day, and to keep his
hands busy from morning to night to get even that. Whether or not the
privations of early years fostered in him that avaricious and grasping
spirit which of late years has been so conspicuous in him, I cannot say,
but it is certain that it cropped out very early in his career as a
Saint. An old Nauvoo Missionary,—a Mormon of the Mormons once, but now,
alas! a “vile apostate” as Brigham would politely call him,—once told me
that when the Prophet Joseph Smith sent the Apostle Young on Mission, a
good deal of discontent was shown that the said Apostle did not account
properly for the collections and tithings which passed through his hands.
Brother Joseph who was _then_ “the Church” suggested in a pleasant
way—for the Prophet Smith was a big, jovial fellow, six feet two or three
inches in height, and withal somewhat of a humorist—that the said Apostle
Brigham would appear in his eyes a better Saint if he displayed a little
less love for filthy lucre. Thereupon the Apostle, like somebody else who
shall be nameless, quoted Scripture, and reminded the Prophet that Moses
had said, “Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out
the corn.” “True, Brother Brigham,” said Joseph, “but Moses did not say
the ox was to eat up _all_ the corn.” Brother Brigham made no reply, but
is said to have “sulked” for two or three days.
I have often heard intelligent Gentiles remark, “Well, Brigham Young may
be a wicked man and an impostor, but there _must_ be a great deal of
talent in him, to manage those people for so many years.”
From this opinion I altogether dissent; and those who know Brigham best,
think with me, though many of them would not dare to say so. I do not
think Brigham Young a wicked man or an impostor in the sense in which
those words are ordinarily used; but experience, and a careful study of
his life and doings, have convinced me that he is certainly not a great
man or a man of genius in _any_ sense of the word. There can be no doubt
that he has been guilty of many and great crimes, but I believe that in
the early part of his career he was so blinded by fanaticism that those
crimes appeared to him actually virtues:—the force of habit and the daily
associations of his life have so completely taken from him all sense of
right and wrong; while the devotion of his people has made the idea that
_he_ could possibly do the slightest wrong so utterly inconceivable to
him and to them, that his perceptions of justice, truth, honour, honesty,
and upright dealing are as utterly stultified as they ever were in the
mind of the wildest savage who prowled among the cliffs and cañons of the
Rocky Mountains.
People think that Brigham Young attained to his present position by the
exercise of ability, such as has been displayed, only on a greater scale,
by all those men who, not being born to power, nor having it thrust upon
them, have by the force of their genius seized it and held it—unlawfully
it might be, but, nevertheless, with talent and moral energy.
Of the Prophet’s moral character, the less said the better. He has been
remorseless and cruel in his enmities, and he has connived at and even
suggested, if nothing more, some of the most atrocious crimes that have
ever been perpetrated on the face of the earth. In business matters,
in the payment of money—to use a popular phrase—his word is as good as
his bond, but in the accumulation of wealth he has evinced an amount
of dishonesty which can scarcely be credited. Brigham always meets his
obligations, and pays his debts, and gets a lawful receipt:—the prophetic
business could not otherwise be carried on; but the way in which he has
obtained his wealth would put to the blush the most dishonest member
of any “ring” in New York, or elsewhere. When he attended his first
Conference, he says he had to borrow certain masculine garments and a
pair of boots before he could put in an appearance. Now it would be
difficult to estimate the value of his property. He has taken up large
tracts of land all over the Territory, he has the uncontrolled and
unquestioned command of all the tithing and contributions of the Saints,
and from gifts and confiscations, and innumerable other sources, his
revenue pours in. It was once rumoured that he had eighteen or twenty
millions of dollars in the Bank of England; but Brigham said that the
report was not true. “The Church,” he added, had a little money invested
abroad. The difference between “The Church” and the individual Brigham
Young has yet to be determined.
In the year 1852 the “Prophet of the Lord” found that he had borrowed an
inconveniently large sum from the funds of the Church. He is “Trustee
in Trust” and, of course, legally responsible; but he never renders an
account of his stewardship, and no one ever asks him for it. His sense
of honesty was, however, so strong that he resolved to have his account
balanced, and he went down to the Tithing-Office for that purpose.
There he found that his indebtedness amounted to two hundred thousand
dollars, and he proceeded to pay it after his own fashion: the clerk
was instructed to place to his credit the same amount “_for services
rendered_.” In 1867, he owed _very nearly one million dollars_, which he
had borrowed from the same fund, and he balanced his account in the same
way. His contract for the Pacific Railroad is said to have yielded him a
quarter of a million, and his other contracts and mining speculations,
purchases _and thefts_ of lands, houses, &c., have been very profitable.
The expenses of such a family as Brother Brigham’s must be something
enormous, but the contributions which by honest and dishonest means he
has levied have been so large that he must still be one of the wealthiest
men in the States.
Brigham is not a generous man. He has given occasionally, as for instance
at the time of the Chicago fire, when he presented a thousand dollars
for the sufferers, but even then his motive was evident—the affairs of
“Deseret” were under discussion in Congress. Without the certainty of a
profitable return, Brigham never gave a cent. The story of his sordid
avarice and his contemptible meanness in the accumulation of money would
fill a volume.
Morally and physically the Prophet is a great coward. When he and other
Church leaders were arrested a year or two ago, charged with the very
gravest crimes, the effect upon the Prophet was most distressing. He
had solemnly sworn in the Tabernacle that he would shoot the man who
attempted to arrest him; but when Judge McKean opened court and placed
him under arrest, he swallowed his threats and played the coward’s part.
Before this the world has seen wretches who were notorious for their
cruelty and tyranny, and who were also remarkable for their cowardice.
For many years he has imitated royalty and has had a strong body-guard to
keep watch and ward around his person every night. No man has less cause
to apprehend personal violence than Brother Brigham, but the voice of
conscience, which, as the poet says, makes cowards of us all, suggests
his fears.