The Rocky Mountain Saints/Chapter 33

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The Rocky Mountain Saints
by T. B. H. Stenhouse

Chapter XXXIII

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2224020The Rocky Mountain Saints — Chapter XXXIIIT. B. H. Stenhouse

CHAPTER XXXIII.

CHANGES IN THE CHURCH.—Brigham Young assumes Joseph's Authority and Place—The Emigration from Europe re-opened—Migration of the Saints to the New Zion—Brigham invites Presidents, Emperors, Kings, Princes, Nobles, etc., to come to the Help of "the Lord"—The Pioneers en route.

The grand importance and success of the mission of the pioneers to the Rocky Mountains was the beginning of a new era in Mormonism.

Up to this time Israel had been "in bondage among the Gentiles." The laws that govern the citizens of the United States had restrained the Saints from living up to the higher laws of "the kingdom." But from this time they were to have a national existence, and in nearly every public document and in every sermon in the Tabernacle they were henceforth to be spoken of as "this people."

From the death of Joseph and the dis-fellowshipping of Rigdon, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles had had the honour of leading the Saints, and Brigham was its senior member and President. In his opinion, however, the time had now arrived for a change.

At Winter Quarters there was a log-cabin, about fifty feet long, situated near the centre of the settlement. The roof and slanting sides and ends of the structure were covered with turf about two feet thick. It had several small windows in the roof and a door near one end. Into it none could look ; from it nothing could be heard. This was "the Council House." It was here that "the Lord" spoke unto his servants.

It is a general idea with the unsophisticated that when "the Lord" reveals his will concerning the Church, the people listen, comprehend, and obey. It had been understood in Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/297 Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/298 Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/299 Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/300 Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/301 Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/302 Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/303 Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/304 Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/305 Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/306 Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/307 Page:The Rocky Mountain Saints.djvu/308 Excellency Millard Fillmore, President of the United States, appointed, "with the advice and consent of the Senate," Brigham Young, of Deseret, Governor; B. D. Harris, of Vermont, Secretary; Joseph Buffington, of Pennsylvania, Chief Justice ; Perry E. Brocchus, of Alabama, Zerubbabel Snow, of Ohio, Associate Justices; Seth M. Blair, of Deseret, U. S. Attorney; and Joseph L. Heywood, of Deseret, U. S. Marshal.

Mr. Buffington declined serving as chief-justice, and Lemuel G. Brandebury was appointed in his stead.

Snow, Blair, and Heywood were Mormons, and, with Brigham added, it gave the majority of the Federal offices to the Saints, for which the name of President Fillmore is held in high esteem. At once the political capital of Utah a hundred and fifty miles south of Salt Lake City was designated Fillmore, and the county Millard. It is due to this statesman to add, that the charge which has been frequently made against him, of appointing Brigham Young governor "while he knew that he had eight wives," is very unfair. President Fillmore appointed Brigham on the recommendation of Col. Thomas L. Kane, and upon the assurance of that gentleman that the I charges against Brigham Young's Christian morality were unfounded. Col. Kane was long enough among the Mormons, and familiar enough with them on their journey between Nauvoo and Council Bluffs, to have learned that polygamy was a fact in Mormonism, unless the Mormons designedly kept him in ignorance, and deceived him. The larger number of the "eight wives" complained of were sealed to Brigham on the banks of the Missouri. Probably, Col. Kane did not personally know polygamy to be a fact, and certainly neither President Fillmore nor the Senate knew it.^[1]

On the 3rd of February, 1851, Brigham Young took the oath of office, and was formally acknowledged governor of Utah. He preferred Deseret under "the Lord," but with the characteristic instinct of his nature the love of rule rather than see a Gentile appointed governor of Utah, he himself accepted that office under Congress. On the 25th of March he issued a special message to the general assembly of the State of Deseret, notifying them of the action of Congress. On the 5th of April, 1852, Deseret merged into Utah officially, but the State organization was continued and exists to-day as much as ever it did. Nominally, the civil authority is Utah: de facto it is Deseret. The Government pays the Territorial legislators their per diem for making the laws of Utah, and hands them their mileage at the end of the session. On the day succeeding the close, Brigham, as governor of Deseret, convenes them as a State legislation: reads his message to them, and some one proposes that the laws of the legislature, of Utah be adopted by the State of Deseret. In this manner, Brigham is continued governor de facto, and hence the tenacity with which the name of "Deseret" is preserved. To give to the State that succeeds the Territory of Utah any other name than "Deseret" would be to throw discredit upon the inspiration that named the provisional Government in 1849. Let but the Federal Congress name it "Deseret" come when it may into the Union and Brigham and his worshippers will see, through all the tortuous windings of its history for over a score of years, the finger of God, and the dark deeds of the past will be sanctified in their sight. They will believe that "the Lord" has been with Brigham throughout.

The Gentile Federal officers arrived in July of 1851, and very soon after their arrival concluded that Utah was not the most pleasant place in the world for unbelievers. They attended a special conference of the Church held in September, and were honoured with an invitation to sit on the platform with the prophets. On that occasion the proposition was made to send a block of Utah marble or granite as the Territorial contribution to the "Washington monument at the seat of Government. Associate Justice Brocchus made a speech, and before closing it drifted on to polygamy. He spoke irreverently of that institution, going so far as to assure the ladies of its immorality, reproved the leaders for their disrespectful language concerning the Government and their consignment of President Zachary Taylor to the nether regions. This was something new in the Rocky Mountain Zion, and the "Lion of the Lord" was in a moment aroused.

The audience was indignant at Brocchus, and when Brigham let himself loose on to the unfortunate Judge, the people would have torn that Federal functionary into shreds if the Prophet had not restrained them. When Brigham reiterated the situation and locality of the then recently deceased President Taylor, the Judge put in a demurrer, on which "brother Heber" kindly touched his Honour on the shoulder and assured him that he need not doubt the statement, for he would see him when he got there. Heber's witty endorsement of Brigham was anything but reassuring to the Judge.

It was on this occasion that Brigham immortalized the crooking of his little finger. "If," said he, "I had but crooked my little finger, he would have been used up; but I did not bend it. If I had, the sisters alone felt indignant enough to have chopped him in pieces."^[2] Since that memorable day he had, not infrequently warned the troublesome of the danger of crooking that finger, and it was no idle threat when he said: "Apostates, or men who never made any profession of religion, had better be careful how they come here, lest I should bend my little finger."^[3]

Judge Brocchus, failing to humble himself before "the servants of the Lord," thought that retirement from the Territory would be favoured by the Life Insurance Company, and he, accompanied by Chief Justice Brandebury and Secretary Harris, soon after bade a long farewell to Zion. Miss Eliza R. Snow's clever pen satirized the retreating Federals, in popular verse, and assured them and the world when they left the Saints that:

"They only of themselves bereft us."

When Brigham, ten years before, had addressed the pioneers at their first halting-place in the Valley, he spoke to them of the mobs that had driven them from their homes in Missouri and in Illinois, and of the Government that deserved its share of condemnation for affording them no redress. In winding up that speech, he expressed the confidence that he felt in the future, and the assurance that, if the Saints had ten years of peace from that time, "he would ask no odds of Uncle Sam or the devil!"

With a full realization of the weight and importance of the news of which he was the bearer, elder Smoot lost no time on the plains, and, knowing well that the tenth anniversary would be celebrated, he strained every nerve to be present—not to mar the happiness of the occasion, but to afford his chief the best opportunity for instructing the people before they separated to all parts of the Territory.

The weary journey from the States was at length accomplished, and, before the sun had crimsoned the snowy peaks that surrounded the worshipping, rejoicing Saints, Brigham was in possession of the news, and the people were listening with breathless attention to the most stiring, important address that ever their leader had uttered, for upon his decision depended peace or war.

THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE.

Fifteen long years have passed away since that dark tragedy was enacted, and yet the nation slumbers, and the representatives of the Government are deaf to the cries of the slaughtered! How well did Britain, a few years ago, earn the admiration of the world for the proud march of her army into the heart of Abyssinia, to demand from the infatuated Theodorus the release of British subjects! Other nations, too, have disregarded distance, time, and money, when the cries of injured citizens have been heard calling for protection. But here, in the very heart of "the Great Republic," on the highway between the seas, the darkest deed of the nineteenth century is passed by in silence! The cries and prayers of the orphans have been heard in vain in free America!

↑ The Author was so informed by letter from ex-President Fillmore.
↑ "Journal of Discourses," p. 186-7.
↑ Ib., p. 167.

[1] The Author was so informed by letter from ex-President Fillmore.

[2] "Journal of Discourses," p. 186-7.

[3] Ib., p. 167.

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The Rocky Mountain Saints/Chapter 33

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