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"The people of the United States are more sensible of the disgrace of Mormonism than of its dangers.... The Mormon Church is probably the most complete organization in the world... and so highly centralized is the power, that all these threads of authority are gathered into one hand, that of the president." -- Josiah Strong.
"The real miracle in Mormonism, then -- the wonderful nature of its success -- is to be sought, not in the fact that it has been able to attract believers in a new prophet, and to find them at this date and in this country, but in its success in establishing and in keeping together in a republic like ours a membership who acknowledge its supreme authority in politics as well as religion, and who form a distinct organization which does not conceal its purpose to rule over the whole nation.
Had Mormonism confined itself to its religious teachings, and been preached only to those who sought its instruction, instead of beating up the world for recruits and bringing them home, the Mormon Church would probably to-day be attracting as little attention as do the Harmonists of Pennsylvania." -- A. W. Linn.
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I
HISTORY OF THE MORMONS
JOSEPH SMITH, JR., the founder of the Mormon Church, was born December 23, 1805, at Sharon, Vermont. He was the fourth of nine children. His parents and relatives were all poor, never-do-well visionaries, guided by dreams, seeking hidden treasures and often in conflict with the officers of the law. Joseph was regarded by his neighbours as the worst of the lot. -- Orson Pratt, his Mormon biographer, says that Smith could write with difficulty and was absolutely ignorant of the branches taught in common schools at that tirne. As Joseph grew older he developed craftiness and assumed an air of mystery. About 1825 he bought a "seeing stone," by which he claimed to locate hidden treasures for which others dug but which they always failed to find. In 1827 he found Emma Hale, whom he persuaded to elope with him because her parents objected to their marriage. He claimed, also, to have found in the same year the Golden Bible. April 6, 1830, he organized the church at Fayette, N. Y., which now bears the official name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
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Almost from the very first the infant church became involved in various troubles with its neighbours.
It was a time of religious frenzy over "Millerism" and other cults, and the preachers of this new religion floated into popularity on the tide of this enthusiasm. In 1831 the Mormons moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where they built their first temple. Here considerable numbers accepted the new faith.
Smith soon received a revelation in which the Lord was reported as saying, "I will consecrate the riches of the Gentiles unto My people" (DC 42). It is said that this was so liberally interpreted by his people that they were soon in disrepute among their neighbours, and in 1832 Smith and his associate, Rigdon, were tarred and feathered by a mob. It may as well be stated at once that all of the "persecutions" suffered by the Mormons were in reality prosecutions which arose not because of their religious views but because they outraged human decency, violated personal and property rights and considered it their privilege to "spoil the Gentiles."
Internal dissensions and financial troubles arose and multiplied; prophecies failed of fruition, promised miracles were not realized, alleged translations by Smith were proven fraudulent and many apostatized. Men within the inner circle hurled the most serious charges of dishonesty
History of the Mormons 19
and immorality at each other; fights occurred in the temple in which knives and pistols had their part. In 1837 it was falsely reported that Smith and Rigdon were to be arrested, and they fled one night, "when no man pursued," to Mormon colonies in Missouri. The Kirtland bubble burst, hundreds losing all they had, and that city ceased to be an important Mormon centre. The old temple is now owned by the Reorganized Church, which has a few followers in that vicinity.
The Missouri colonies had been established in 1831 and had been visited previously by Smith. They had already won the cordial hatred of their neighbours by "consecrating the riches of the Gentiles" to their own uses. A non-Mormon mass meeting had declared, "It is a duty we owe to ourselves, to our wives and children, to the cause of public morals, to remove them from among us." The Mormons were ordered out, their newspaper office was destroyed "with the utmost order," and some of the bishops were tarred and feathered. Finally they agreed to leave but gave no evidence that they meant to keep their promise. After they had agreed to go Smith had a revelation that "Zion could not be moved out of her place" (DC 97). He ordered the Missouri Mormons to build their second temple at Independence and threatened fire and sword upon all who refused to obey. This
20 Mormonism, The Islam of America
aroused the mob spirit and the Mormons were driven from Jackson County into Clay County.
Smith started from Kirtland with an "Army of Zion" which was soon ignominiously broken up by disease which Smith's promised miraculous power failed to cure. Peace lasted for about three years after this removal, but the Mormons kept intimating and then claiming that the land was theirs by inheritance from God, and that their "enemies" would be driven out. Charges of thieving, murder and polygamy were made against the Mormons and mob violence again prevailed. At last the legislature created a new county with Far West as the county seat. As there were none but Mormons in this county, there was peace for a time.
It was at this juncture, January, 1838, that Smith and Rigdon, having fled from Ohio, came to abide in Missouri. The Missouri Mormons had lived in harmony among themselves up to the coming of Smith whose dictatorial policy soon created troubles they had not hitherto known. Many of their prominent leaders were either cut off by Smith or apostatized. Financial difficulties now arose and tithing (from which Smith and Rigdon were exempt) was introduced. The third temple was begun at Far West and at the laying of the corner-stone Rigdon preached an inflammatory sermon declaring that a "war of extermination" would follow any interference
History of the Mormons 21
with their plans. This again created intense excitement and mob law prevailed until the militia came. Smith and others were put into jail on the charge of treason but soon regained their freedom through bribery and fled to Illinois. The Mormons who remained were soon forced to follow. That the Gentiles were not wholly at fault is seen from the statement of the Mormon Star which said, "Our people fare very well and when they are discreet little or no persecution is felt." General Clark, who commanded the militia and who made the final report upon this misfortunate affair, said that the Mormons had as their final object:
Dominion, the ultimate subjection of the state and the Union to the laws of a few men called the presidency.... These people have banded themselves together in societies, the object of which was first to drive from their society such as refused to join them in their unholy purposes, and then to plunder the surrounding country, and ultimately subject the state to their rule.
That this is not an unjust representation appears from the sworn testimony of T. B. Marsh, a president of the Twelve Apostles, in October, 1838
The plan of Smith, the prophet, is to take the state; and he professes to his people to intend taking the whole United States and ultimately
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the whole world. The prophet inculcates the notion, and it is believed by every true Mormon, that Smith's prophecies are superior to the law of the land. I have heard the prophet say that he would yet tread down his enemies and walk over their dead bodies; that if he was not let alone he would be a second Mohammed to this generation
Volumes of similar evidence could be cited to show that this was, and is, the spirit of the Mormon Church. It is not at all strange, then, that the Gentiles of Missouri adopted somewhat drastic measures to rid themselves of such a dangerous crowd.
In 1830 Hancock County, Illinois, had only 483 people. The Mormons colonized here and as it was in a desperate financial condition they were welcomed as settlers. They took possession at Nauvoo and things fairly boomed. All sorts of real estate schemes were launched and public buildings were erected on a grand scale. As all political parties desired the increasing Mormon vote, an extraordinary charter was granted the city of Nauvoo. The mayor was a member of the city council and also of the municipal court which could issue writs of habeas corpus nullifying the actions of all other courts, and its military force was entirely free from state control. Here for the first time the Mormons realized their ambition of a government within a government,
History of the Mormons 23
In 1841 the corner-stone of the Nauvoo Temple was laid with great pomp. The Nauvoo Legion was out in full panoply of war with Smith -- who had fled there from Missouri -- at their head. He was arrayed in the uniform of a lieutenant-general, assuming a rank held by no one since Washington. This temple, said to have cost $1,000,000, was destroyed in 1848 by a fire supposed to be of incendiary origin.
All these things entailed large expense for a new community of poor people, but Smith ruled with a high hand and allowed no interference with his plans. Soon the same troubles arose that had appeared everywhere else. Some of the best Mormons openly charged that Smith was trying to persuade their wives and daughters to become his "spiritual " wives.
With brazen effrontery Smith announced himself as candidate for the presidency of the United States, and wrote abusive letters to Clay and Calhoun. Dr. Bennett, candidate with Smith for the vice-presidency, afterwards said that Smith sent over 2,000 missionaries into various parts of the country in behalf of his candidacy.
The people of Illinois now began to realize what they had on their hands and wished they had granted the repeated demands of Missouri for the extradition of Smith as a fugitive from the law. Open rebellion arose within the church. Smith issued a proclamation warning the lawless
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"not to be precipitate in any interference in our affairs, for as sure as there is a God in Israel we shall ride triumphant over all oppression."
In an address he said:
Before I will bear this unhallowed persecution any longer, before I will be dragged away again among my enemies for trial, I will spill the last drop of blood in my veins and will see all my enemies in hell.... I will fight with gun, sword, cannon, whirlwind, thunder, until they are used up like Kilkenny cats.
This bombastic language is strangely inconsistent with his flights from Ohio and Missouri, and with the fact that he and some of his companions soon after started to fly to the Rocky Mountains, but were detected by Mormon officials and compelled to remain.
Smith's language did not have a soothing effect but it caused many public meetings to be held. At one in Warsaw, the following was adopted:
Resolved, That the time has arrived when the adherents of Smith should be driven into Nauvoo; that the prophet and his miscreant adherents should then be demanded at their hands, and, if not surrendered, a war of extermination should be waged, to the entire destruction... of his adherents.
Military companies were organized on both
History of the Mormons 25
sides and the governor was obliged to take a hand. Smith was arrested for declaring war against the state and he and fourteen others were lodged in Carthage jail and guarded by the Carthage Grays. An order was issued to march on Nauvoo but it was countermanded two hundred of the disbanded Warsaw regiment went to Carthage and attacked the jail, being fired on by the guard with blank cartridges, apparently by prearrangement. The mob rushed the guard, entered the jail and began firing as soon as they saw their victims. Smith's brother, Hyrum, fell at the first fire. Joseph tried to defend himself with a six-barrelled pistol which some one had smuggled to him. Finding it of little avail he rushed for the window, but was shot from within and without the jail, dying instantly, June 27, 1844. While this was murder, pure and simple, it must be borne in mind that Smith was responsible for inflaming public opinion and for his defiance of the authority of the state. The manner of his death gave to it the colour of martyrdom and this idea has been made the most of ever since.
Rigdon wanted to be president, while Smith's family claimed that the mantle of the prophet should fall upon his son and namesake. But there was another man to be reckoned with, Brigham Young. Young was a man of no education but of strong mental traits, shrewd and
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ambitious but, withal, wise. He had been willing to bide his time and had never quarrelled with Smith. As President of the Twelve he quickly succeeded in deposing Rigdon and became chief in authority. His modesty now vanished but he was cautious, for he advised delay in the filling of the vacancies in the First Presidency and he never issued but one written prophecy. He was elected president after reaching Utah.
Smith's death did not bring peace. In January, 1845, the infamous Nauvoo charter was repealed and this made the Mormons defiant. Upon the advice of the governor, Young issued a proclamation the following September announcing that they would remove to some remote place. This movement was begun in February of the next year, being hastened by the finding of grand jury indictments against several of the Mormon apostles for counterfeiting, and they were soon out of the jurisdiction of the Illinois courts. By the following September not less than 12,000 Mormons had left Illinois, most of them spending the winter at winter quarters, near Omaha.
In April, 1847, Young, with one hundred and forty-three men and three women, started West, arriving at what is now Salt Lake City the 24th of the following July. To this day "Pioneer Day" is celebrated with much more enthusiasm
History of the Mormons 27
by the Mormons than is the national holiday twenty days earlier. The next year Young brought all of the Mormons to Utah. It must be remembered that this was then Mexican territory, with the seat of government two thousand miles away, no settlements near and no transportation facilities.
Proselyting in the countries of northern and western Europe was now pushed with vigour. It is said that in fourteen years 50,000 persons were baptized by the Mormons in Europe. Many of these people had their expenses paid to Utah but each was obliged to sign a bond as follows:
We do severally and jointly promise and bind ourselves to continue with and obey the instructions of the agent appointed to superintend our passage thither. And that, on our arrival in Utah, we will hold ourselves, our time and our labour subject to the appropriation of the Perpetual Emigration Fund Company until the full cost of our emigration is paid, with interest if required.
The "agent" (elder) received a commission from the steamship companies for all tickets sold. Similar methods are employed to this day.
In 1848 Utah became part of the territory of the United States but for many years the Mormons controlled everything except a few federal appointments. But even with these they often so managed that Brigham Young, or some one
28 Mormonism, The Islam of America
who was truculent and servile to their demands, was appointed governor. The local offices were filled ex-officio by ecclesiastics. The church granted deeds, gathered taxes and performed all the functions of civil government. There was unquestioned union of church and state. Brigham Young fought the government and the coming of Gentiles with varying success. But the discovery of gold in California caused thousands to pass through Utah and the discovery of gold in Utah made it impossible to keep the Gentiles out.
Young's family multiplied until he had, according to Linn, twenty-five wives and forty-four children. This account is vouched for by his eldest son and seven of his wives. But no one thinks this list is complete for in almost every town in Utah he had women "sealed" to him and no one knows how many children he had.
Young died August 29, 1877. Without doubt he was a master of men but there was a lot of bluff in his make-up, and nothing of the martyr. He was brainy but brutal. The useless cruelty of his dictatorial sway has scarcely been equalled in the history of the world. His achievements have been overestimated. His Cottonwood Canal with its mouth ten feet higher than its source, his beet sugar factory, his Colorado Transportation Company, as well as every distant colony he planted, were absolute failures. His
History of the Mormons 29
audacious defiance of the government came to naught when federal officers with some backbone were found. Had not gold been discovered in California, causing the building of the Pacific Railroad, it is doubtful if his settlements could have lasted. Beadle says that "Young never made a success of anything but managing the Mormons."
When his alleged exploits are carefully studied it is found that the halo of religious hero-worship has coloured the reports of his credulous followers. Note some of his failures: In 1856, in order to cut down expenses, he devised a way to have the emigrants push their belongings in carts across the continent from Iowa City. Five companies attempted the trip in this way with varying degrees of failure. One, under Chislett, started out five hundred strong but only about four hundred left Florence, Nebraska, and on the way their carts gave out, buffalo stampeded their oxen, supplies were not found as promised, the cold weather caught them, and before they reached Utah sixty-seven had died and others were maimed for life. According to his own letters, still extant, Young was directly responsible for this tragedy, but he sought to lay the responsibility on others. The death losses of this overland "trek" were much larger than during similar emigrations to Oregon and California.
Young will long be remembered for his brutalities,
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but his greatest crime was the Mountain Meadow Massacre. In 1857 a party of people from Arkansas started for California by way of Utah. Every unbiased source of testimony says that they conducted themselves with propriety, yet on September 11th of that year they were all treacherously massacred with the exception of a few children. The real reasons were, first, to give force to Young's edict forbidding persons to pass through Utah; second, to take revenge for the killing of Parley P. Pratt by an Arkansan whose wife Pratt had stolen to make his ninth wife; and, third, to secure plunder valued at about $70,000. All the way through Utah the Arkansas people had been harassed by the refusal of the Mormons to sell them food. With their stock almost exhausted, they camped at the Meadows -- a valley about five miles long by one wide and with only one outlet, located about three hundred miles southwest of Salt Lake City.
On September 7th the party was surprised at being attacked by Indians. They defended themselves with such vigour that assault after assault was repulsed. The evident plan of the Mormons was to have the whole thing done by the Indians, but the vigour of the defense made a change of programme necessary On the morning of the 11th a Mormon came to the besieged with a flag of truce. This was the only white man they had seen, and he was hailed with
History of the Mormons 31
delight. He offered them safe conduct to Cedar City. They hesitated but, being nearly out of ammunition, accepted. John D. Lee then carried out the rest of the plot. He told them to put the wounded and small children in wagons, that the women and older children must go on ahead, and that the men must surrender their arms to show their peaceable intent to the Indians. An armed Mormon marched by the side of each Arkansas man to "protect" him. When the women, in the advance, were in the midst of an Indian ambush the agreed-upon signal was given and each Mormon shot his Arkansas companion. The Indians and Mormons then fell upon the women and children and amid unmentionable scenes killed all but seventeen of the smaller children. About a year afterwards these children were hunted up by the government and returned to Arkansas.
The Mormons held a meeting of prayer and thanksgiving because their enemies had been delivered into their hands, swore each other to secrecy, and divided the plunder. No Indians ever committed a more treacherous and indefensible crime accompanied by more cruel and revolting details than this. The Mormon press made no mention of it. Young, though Superintendent of Indian Affairs, forgot (?) to speak of it in his reports. After seventeen years of spineless conduct on the part of the United
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States government officials, the crime was finally traced to its source and Young -- coward that he was -- surrendered John D. Lee as a scapegoat for himself and others. Lee was executed March 23, i877, and all indictments against others were dismissed by the government, apparently by previous agreement.
Young came to Utah with no money; in spite of the cost of maintaining such an immense family he left them an estate of $3,000,000. He had no productive business but the tithes he wrung from his people. The fact that after the probating of his will the church sued for and recovered about one million dollars that he had willed to his family shows how creditable (?) some of his transactions were.
Young was succeeded in the presidency by John Taylor, and he in turn successively by Lorenzo D. Snow, Wilford Woodruff and Joseph F. Smith.
We can pass over this period with mere mention. It was not until the Gentiles became numerous that there was much political trouble. But so high-handed did the political methods of the Mormons become that in the eighties the Gentiles organized the Liberal Party to offset the Mormon People's Party. In the year 1890 the Mormons were defeated at their own political game in Salt Lake City which went into the control of the Liberal Party. They realized that
History of the Mormons 33
they must change their tactics. They held conferences with the political leaders and said: "Some of us are naturally Republicans and some just as naturally Democrats. We all want statehood. We can never have it so long as national party lines are obliterated. Let us live in harmony and divide along national party lines and work together." This was done, and until the American Party won the city a few years later, the Mormons controlled everything as effectively as before the coming of the Gentiles. A Mormon never votes the Republican or the Democratic ticket -- he votes the Mormon ticket. He votes with the party and for the men from whom the church can get the most. For several years the Republican party in Utah and Idaho has been controlled absolutely by the Mormon Church.
After the granting of statehood, Brigham H. Roberts, a Democrat, wanted to run for Congress but was forbidden by his church. After being disciplined he was permitted to run and was elected, but by vote of the national House of Representatives was not allowed to take his seat. Moses Thatcher was an apostle and desired to run for the United States Senate. He was "counselled " not to do so. He insisted that he would do as he pleased. The church defeated him and deposed him from his apostleship and, until his death, he was one of the few leading
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men in the church who held no ecclesiastical office. October, 1896, the church adopted a rule in this case, in part as follows:
Our position is that a man, having accepted the honour and obligations of ecclesiastical office in the church, cannot properly, of his own volition, make these honours subordinate to or even coordinate with new ones of entirely different character.
Against the secret protest of Gentile Republicans, Reed Smoot, an apostle, was foisted upon the Republican party of Utah as its candidate for the national Senate. No one would have thought of him as a senator had not the church thrust him forward. He received his certificate of election in January, 1903. An official protest was signed by nineteen representative citizens of Salt Lake City and backed by thousands of the best citizens of the state, of all churches and parties which were not under the domination of the Mormons. The official 't Protest of Citizens," a pamphlet of sixty-two written pages, elaborates and proves from Mormon sources the following points:
I. The Mormon priesthood... is vested with supreme authority in all things temporal and spiritual.
II. The First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles are supreme in the exercise and transmission and mandates of this authority.
History of the Mormons 35
III. This body has not abandoned... political dictation nor belief in polygamy and polygamous cohabitation,
IV. That this is their attitude ever since the Manifesto of 1890 is evidenced by their teachings since then.
V. These officials, of whom Reed Smoot is one, encourage and practice polygamy and sought to pass a law nullifying enactments against polygamous cohabitation.
VI. The supreme authorities, of whom Reed Smoot is one, protect and honour these violators of the law all of which is contrary:
1. To the public sentiment of the civilized world.
2. To express pledges given to secure amnesty.
3. To conditions upon which escheated property was returned,
4. To the pledges given by church officials in their plea for statehood.
5. To pledges required by Enabling Act and given in State Constitution.
6. To the following portion of the Constitution:
"There shall be no union of church or state nor shall any church dominate the state or interfere with its functions " (Art. I, Sec. 4).
7. To the law.
Every item of this protest was justified by the testimony, covering nearly three years, taken at
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Washington. In spite of a majority report unfavourable to Smoot from the Committee on Privileges and Elections, he was seated by a vote of forty two to twenty-eight, eighteen senators being paired Smoot admitted going through the Endowment House of which scores have testified that every one is required to take an oath like the following:
You and each of you covenant and agree that you will pray and never cease to pray Almighty God to avenge the blood of the prophets on this nation, and that you will teach the same to your children and your children's children unto the third and fourth generation.
One of Smoot's own witnesses, Dougal by name, testified that such was the case.
It was admitted by President Joseph F. Smith, and by Smoot, that the latter could not become a candidate for the Senate without the consent of the Apostolate. If a man cannot be a candidate for an office contrary to the approval of the apostolic body, how can he act in that office contrary to that body ?
The Tribune of Salt Lake has repeatedly made the following charge which has never been replied to by any person or paper:
No bill has ever been passed by the Utah Legislature which has been opposed by the chief hierarchs; no bill has ever failed of passage in
History of the Mormons 37
the Utah Legislature when the chief hierarchs urged its passage; no act has ever been signed which was opposed by the chief hierarchs; no act has ever been vetoed by a governor of Utah whose approval was demanded by the chief hierarchs of the Mormon Church.
We have seen the attitude of the Mormons towards the laws of their own state which they helped to formulate. We will now consider their attitude towards the national government
A Mormon band sailed around the Horn, arriving at San Francisco in 1846. When their leader, Brannan, saw Old Glory floating over the city he exclaimed: "There is that d____ flag again."
Utah came into the control of the United States one year after the Mormons reached the Salt Lake Valley. Without authority from Congress they established the state of Deseret. They applied for its admission to the Union but so patent were their intentions that their application was not taken seriously. Utah was made a territory in 1851 but that did not prevent the Mormons from passing laws to suit themselves. Young in one of his official orders said: "This order does not come from the governor but from the President of the church."
For some years the Mormons issued paper money, coined gold, and placed the bills of the defunct Kirtland Bank on a par with gold. An
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other prophecy fulfilled! They levied duties and taxes upon all persons and goods passing through Utah to the coast.
We now come to the period when the "Danites" flourished and church-inspired murders were common. The Danites, an order of the church, were under the absolute control of President Young, and the awful crimes of which they were guilty defy adequate description. The Borgias and the Inquisition furnish no worse examples of awful cruelty than the punishments meted out to those who offended the church. A military posse was needed to support a marshal when papers were served on one of these men. Judge Cradlebaugh, after several years of judicial experience in Utah, told Congress:
"I am justified in charging that the Mormons are guilty and that the Mormon Church is guilty of the crimes of murder and robbery as taught in their books of faith."
When federal offficials began to be sent to Utah, Young and his followers abused them most shamefully if not subservient to his wishes. When Colonel Steptoe was appointed governor to succeed him,Young declared in the tabernacle, February 18, 1855:
"For a man to come here (as governor) and infringe upon my individual rights and privileges, and upon those of my brethren, will never meet with my sanction and I will scourge such an one
History of the Mormons 39
until he leaves.... Come on with your knives, and your swords, and your fagots of fire and destroy the whole of us rather than we will forsake our religion "
David H. Burr, appointed Surveyor General of Utah in 1855, reported:
"The fact is, these people repudiate the authority of the United States in this country and are in open rebellion against the general government."
When the news reached Young that President Buchanan was sending a military expedition into Utah under Col. Albert Sydney Johnson, he declared to a large gathering:
"You might as well tell me that you could make hell into a powder house as to tell me that they intend to keep an army here and have peace."
On September 15, 1857, Young issued a proclamation forbidding "all armed forces coming into this territory under any pretense whatever." The Nauvoo Legion had been kept up in Utah and Young sent orders to the commander, D. H. Wells, to find the United States troops and proceed "at once to annoy them in every possible way. Stampede their animals, set fire to their trains.... Watch for opportunities to set fire to the grass on their windward, so as, if possible, to envelop their trains.... God bless you and give you success. Your brother in Christ."
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When Colonel Alexander was marching towards Utah, Young wrote him of his great loyalty and advised him to return to the East. When he saw that Alexander could not be bluffed he made no effort to conceal his rage and wrote him:
If you persist in your attempt to locate an army in this territory... with a view to aid the administration in their unhallowed efforts to palm off their corrupt officials upon us and to protect them and the blacklegs...and murderers, you will have to meet a mode of warfare against which your tactics furnish you no information.
Months of parleying followed, at the end of which time Young abjectly surrendered and consented to the coming of the United States troops.
During Lincoln's administration the government was having its troubles and the Mormons, wishing for the downfall of the Union, became more outspoken. Young said on one occasion: "Shame, shame on the rulers of this nation. I feel myself disgraced to hail such men as my countrymen." Fine words to use of Lincoln! In May, 1862, Col. P. E. Connor was sent to Utah to hold their treason in check. All sorts of threats were made against him, but in battle array he marched his few troops through the main streets of the city to the residence of Governor Harding. The governor made an address in which he referred to the situation in
History of the Mormons 41
unmistakable language. The Mormons sent a committee to bulldoze Connor but he said to them:
"Go back to Brigham Young, your master, that embodiment of sin and shame and disgust, and tell him that I neither fear him nor love him nor hate him -- that I utterly despise him."
Brigham Young prayed in the tabernacle that both the North and the South might be destroyed. Dakota with 4,000 population in 1860, and Nevada with less than 7,000, sent troops to the defense of our government under their own state banners (Army Register VII and VIII). Utah had over 40,000 population but not a man in general government service. Young said in 1862:
Let the present administration ask us for a thousand men, or even five hundred, and I would see them damned first and then they could not have them. (Cries of "Good, good" from all over the house.)
But when it became evident that the Union would triumph the Mormons speedily began to make friends with the federal government. No one was deceived and a sturdier class of government officials was sent, and the government finally began to assert itself. The story is too long to be told in full, but in 1874 the Poland Bill against polygamy was the first step in the right direction
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and this did not increase the love of the Mormons for the government. Then came the Edmunds and the Edmunds-Tucker laws and then the Mormons made incendiary speeches to the applause of great multitudes. United States flags were placed at half mast and on one occasion, as late as 1879, publicly trailed in the dust.
In 1877, Wilford Woodruff, afterwards president of the church, in the dedicatory prayer of the St. George Temple used this language:
And we pray Thee, our Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ,... that Thy servant, Brigham, may stand in the flesh to behold the nation which now occupies the land, upon which Thou, Lord, has said that Zion shouldst stand in the latter days; that nation which shed the blood of the prophets and saints; which cry unto God day and night for vengeance; that nation which is making war against God and His Christ; that nation whose sins and wickedness and abominations are ascending up before God and the heavenly host.... Yea, O Lord, that he may live to see that nation, if it will not repent, broken in pieces, like the potter's vessel, and swept from off the face of the earth as with the besom of destruction.
In brief the Mormon Church murdered federal officials, tried others for alleged offenses against Mormons in the East, burned government supplies, robbed the mails, intercepted official communications, and an illegal legislature met and
History of the Mormons 43
did business for ten years after the territorial government had been established by the national government.
Just after statehood had been secured on solemn promises, 1 all of which have been broken, President Smith said at the dedication of a meeting-house in Payson, "Take care of your polygamous wives; we don't care for Uncle Sam now."
This same man when confronted at the Smoot trial with his duplicity and lawlessness said:
I choose, rather than to abandon my children and their mothers, to take the risk before the law. I want to say, too, that it is the law of my state, and the courts of my state have competent jurisdiction to deal with me in my offenses against the law, and the Congress of the United States has no business with my private conduct.
Much credit is justly given to the Utah Battery for its record in the Philippines. It was sometimes called the "Mormon Battery" but this name was resented because there were only 119 professed Mormons to 225 non-Mormons. In one town where the Mormons have ninety-five per cent. of the population eleven men were enlisted, not one a Mormon -- every one of the eleven was educated in a home mission school. Loyal Mormons did not enlist; only the nominal ones, as a rule, were found in that battery.
__________
1 See page 145.
44 Mormonism, The Islam of America
In the Salt Lake Tabernacle, on Sunday, April 24, 1898, Apostle Brigham said:
It is wrong for us to think of sending our young men to Cuba.... The fact that they would go from these lofty mountains into the malarial swamps of the South would make them much more liable to catch fevers and perish than volunteers from almost any other part of the country.
In the Smoot investigation witnesses testified that the church had always appointed a steering committee to tell the legislators what to do.
Shortly after the church had compelled the Republican party to send Smoot to the Senate there was organized the American Party of Utah. This party does not fight Mormonism as a religion but the domination of the state by the church. Some Mormons in good standing supported this party and even became its candidates. They were defeated in the first municipal campaign. Soon after that the Republican state convention voted down a resolution condemning the domination of the state by any church. This gave the American Party new impetus and at the next election they won practically every office in Salt Lake City and remained in power until the election of November, 1911, when other issues became involved and the commission form of government was adopted.
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