Copyright 1913, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

CHAPTER 11

THE NEW PRIEST-KING

THE death of Joseph was an unspeakable shock to the anxious Mormons at Nauvoo. He was at once their prince and prophet; bearer of the Word and the sceptre of the Most High. His speech had been counsel of disaster, and his rule a kingdom of strife. Toil, hardship, exile, battle, murder, and sudden death had been the lot of his followers, and this lot had now overtaken their chief. The man who claimed to be divinely appointed ruler of the earth had fallen before a mob of lynchers in a back prairie town. But "faith, fanatic faith" was as tenacious in Illinois of the nineteenth century as in Persia of the eleventh; and for the moment, at least, the tragic death of Joseph does not seem to have cost him a disciple.

It was plain that the flock needed a new shepherd; and a shepherd was ready. The foregoing chapters of this history have been useless if it is needful at this time to make any extended presentation of the claims of Brigham Young. He occupied a strong, strategic position as president of the Quorum of Apostles. He occupied a yet stronger position in the public mind of the church because of his known loyalty and tried common sense. Of all prominent Mormons, Brigham had been most steadfast in upholding the prophet's authority, and most practical in guiding his people. He had rallied the church when when Joseph was in prison in Missouri; he was to rally it again now that Joseph was dead.

Brigham Young was in New Hampshire, electioneering in Smith's campaign for the Presidency, when word came of the prophet's death. Shocked but not dismayed, his practical mind leaped at once to the question of the continuance of Joseph's work. Striking his hand on his knee he exclaimed to a fellow Apostle sitting by him: "The keys of the Kingdom are right here with the Church!" The language was accurate, though needlessly theological. The keys of the only kingdom with which he was really concerned were in his own strong right fist, and were to stay there till he followed Joseph across a greater Divide than the one over which he led Joseph's people.

The strong men of the church who had been sent away in furtherance of Smith's political ambition now turned toward Nauvoo. Brigham and most of the Twelve arrived on August 6. Sidney Rigdon, Brigham's only rival, was three days before him. Sidney as the only surviving member of the First Presidency, claimed rulership of the church in Joseph's place. Brigham's partisans answered that the First Presidency had ceased to exist at Joseph's death, and that the next highest body, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, succeeded to control. A special conference of the church was called for the 8th of August. Sidney presented his claims in an eloquent plea which left the people cold. Brigham swept Rigdon and his pretensions aside in a coarse, contemptuous harangue which set the congregation wild with enthusiasm. His rough confidence and overbearing assurance were proof that these masterless men had found their proper chief. When he arose to speak, a miracle of second sight was vouchsafed to hundreds, who saw before them on the platform, not Brigham, but Joseph as he was before the vile mob had pierced his body with lead and spilled his sacred blood on the profane soil of an heretical state. They saw the face of Joseph, heard the voice of Joseph; and they went to their graves believing that on this occasion, the dead prophet was enabled to use the person and voice of the living, and that in some mysterious manner, Brigham and Joseph were melted and mingled until "the twain were as one." By a unanimous vote, the congregation "sustained" the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles with Brigham at their head as high senate and rulers over the desolate church.

Before Young had arrived from the East -- almost before the body of the martyred chief was cold -- the Mormons had voted to abstain from all efforts of vengeance, and leave their wrongs to be righted by the law. There was as much fear as forbearance in this resolution, but it was adhered to even after the first panic had passed; and Brigham not only sanctioned it, but did his best to abolish whatever excuse for hostility might have been afforded by the Mormon community before the catastrophe. The same meeting which made Brigham and the Twelve rulers of the church voted to complete the great temple. Missionaries were sent out as if nothing had happened. Everything showed that the Mormons meant to stay at Nauvoo, and wished to be on as good terms as possible with their more powerful neighbours.

If at this juncture the people of Illinois had been wise enough to proffer peace and friendship to the Mormons, the history of some parts of our country might have been changed. The prophet was dead and with him died his claim to direct and exclusive revelation which was an insurmountable barrier to fellowship with other religious bodies. His successor at first made no claim to prophetic authority; indeed, he then expressly disclaimed it. On August 15, Brigham issued his first letter to the church, warning all good Mormons that the place which Joseph Smith had occupied could never be filled by another, and that the Twelve ruled the church by right of their ordination from Joseph. With peace and friendly social intercourse, the Mormon theocracy would have dissolved before it got out of the gristle. It required persecution, multiplied wrongs, undeserved exile, and, above all, the isolation which exile brought, to harden the Mormon people into a veritable kingdom, and set the church theocracy in a mould which endures to this day.

Brigham issued his letter to the church, despatched some missionaries, organized the work on the temple, and then turned to a task that must have given him heartfelt satisfaction, the task of settling old scores with Sidney Rigdon. On September 8, a High Council was held to try Rigdon for divers churchly crimes and misdemeanours. The accused was not present but the trial went on without him, and ended, of course, in his excommunication. When this verdict was carried to the general conference for confirmation, those who dared to vote in Rigdon's favour were themselves suspended. Brigham "gavelled" through his will with as high a hand as ever was displayed by a political chairman in a "close" convention.

This is one of the many incidents which detract from Brigham's claims to greatness; yet even here, the man's courage is as sharply outlined as his tyrannical temper. Sidney Rigdon had a large part in forming Mormonism. He held a host of secrets of the church, and some of them were dangerous secrets.

He threatened openly to tell all he knew, and bring down the Gentiles in a destroying mob if he were driven from the fold. Brigham picked up the glove on the instant, dared Rigdon to tell whatever he pleased, promised that the Saints had a few tales of their own which Sidney would not care to hear shouted from the housetops; and in the most insulting language he could command, invited his old foe to do his worst. It was scarce ten weeks since the prophet's death, his murderers were still at large, the countryside was ready to spring to new aggressions at far slighter provocation than Sidney Rigdon could furnish. Many of the Apostles were trembling in their boots -- but not Brigham.

It is worthy of note that Rigdon's threat to turn state's evidence was never carried into effect.

The same month which witnessed Brigham's final triumph over his former rival saw him increase his family by two more plural wives. One of these, Emily Partridge, was one of the polygamous widows of Joseph Smith. She was seventh or eighth of Brigham's spiritual and likewise terrestrial partners, and she bore Brigham seven children. In November of the same year, Brigham took another wife; and in February, 1845, he married another of the widows of Joseph Smith. All told, six of Joseph's widows became wives of Brigham.

It is not recorded, however, that he made any advances to the legal widow of Joseph, Emma Hale Smith. Her alliance would have been worth having in an ecclesiastical sense; but Emma was bitterly opposed to polygamy, and, altogether, not the kind of woman Brigham wished to add or could have won to his expanding household.

The fall and winter of 1844-45 passed with little excitement and less good-will between Mormons and Gentiles around Nauvoo. The charter of that city was repealed in January, 1845. In April, the governor wrote to Young urging him to take his people to California. In the same month, Brigham and most of the Twelve as a committee addressed a dignified though somewhat magniloquent appeal to President Polk -- an appeal which was never answered. In reality, events were waiting on the trial of the prophet's murderers. Nine men accused of this crime were put on trial May 19, 1845. The case lasted twelve days. There was not a man nor woman in the county who did not know that these accused persons had participated in killing the Smiths; but that knowledge had nothing to do with the outcome of the case. Throughout the trial, armed friends of the defendants occupied the court-room, browbeat the judge, influenced the jury, and intimidated the witnesses. The defending lawyers made as brazen a plea for mob rule as ever was heard in a meeting of Molly McGuires. The verdict of "Not guilty" was a predestined thing.

That verdict, however, was official notice that it was safe to bait and kill Mormons in Illinois, provided one took along enough friends for aids and witnesses. Friction between the two parties increased steadily through the summer, and on September 10 began a series of outrages still known as the "burnings." Armed bands of Gentiles descended on outlying Mormon farms, drove the occupants into Nauvoo with only the scantiest personal property, anti burned their buildings and grain-stacks. Two weeks of this work sufficed to concentrate the entire Mormon population of Hancock county in Nauvoo; while the Gentiles, fearing reprisals, remained constantly under arms. Only one Gentile seems to have suffered; Lieutenant Worrell of the Carthage Grays was killed very handily by "Port" Rockwell. Finally a committee of four prominent citizens, one of whom was Stephen A. Douglas, was sent by the governor to restore peace in Hancock county.

The committee found the Mormon leaders weary of the struggle, and willing to emigrate. Some arrangements, probably tentative in character, had been made for removal prior to the "burnings." Brigham Young promised, in behalf of the church, that at least a thousand families, numbering between five and six thousand persons, would move the following spring, without regard to whether their property was sold or not; and that the entire community would go if sales could be effected so as to raise the money. The committee transmitted this pledge to the governor and to the militant Gentile party of Hancock county; the governor stationed a militia force at Nauvoo to guard the Saints during their preparations for exile, and preparations for the Great Trek began.