Copyright 1913, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

CHAPTER 17

THE CHURCH POLITICAL

BRIGHAM was chosen president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, December 5, 1847. Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards were made counsellors to the president, the three constituting the old First Presidency, which had been suspended since the murder of Joseph. Brigham's election was made by the quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It was "sustained" by the congregation December 27. The formal choice merely a fact which had been clear to every one for three years -- that Brigham Young was brain and hand, king, pope, business-manager and chief-of-police to the entire Mormon organization. Why he should have valued so greatly this recognition of an established fact is one of the mysteries of human nature; but he wrote to a friend that the day of his elevation to the seat of Joseph was the happiest day of his life.

He had been moving towards this goal far fifteen years -- ever since he spoke in tongues before the prophet at their first meeting, that summer day in 1832. The earlier stages of his advancement were unconscious and unintentional; he rose because he had qualities that could not be kept down. Later -- the exact moment must have been hidden, even from himself -- he began to covet power; and whatsoever Brigham coveted, that he moved to obtain. His course was straightforward. Sidney Rigdon might scheme and plot; Joseph might vacillate and change; but Brigham went on, doing the work that lay nearest to his hand, and trusting some one, something -- prophet, Providence, or lucky star -- to bring him the reward of his labours. His friendship for Joseph was loyal and sincere. His reverence for Joseph -- strange as this may seem -- never failed, and perhaps never seriously diminished. But though he loved and revered his chosen prophet, and saved him again and again from enemies without and the worse enemy of folly within, Brigham never allowed reverence to become fulsome adulation. He never forfeited his self-respect, and he compelled the respect of his prophet chief. There is no record, we may remark again, that the polygamous fancies of Joseph ever turned toward the family of Brigham Young.

Brigham had ruled the church more than three years as chief of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He had triumphed over Sidney Rigdon, nominally on the ground that the Twelve were second to the president alone, and that the president's counsellors were mere advisers, whose rank ended with the death of the chief who appointed them. But Brigham's first act on being made head of the church was to elevate and consolidate the First Presidency, and by consequence to depress the Twelve. He chose for his counsellors his cousin, Willard Richards, and his adulator, Heber C. Kimball. Both could be relied on for absolute devotion to the interest and even the whims of their chief. Their appointment to this position was reckoned a promotion from the Twelve, and the places thus left vacant in that body were filled by men whose influence was comparatively small. It is the old story of antagonism between the king and the crown prince.

If Brigham's new title had any effect on his energies, it was to spur him to greater activity. He had climbed to the top of the church. If he wished to go higher, he must build his church higher. Two days before Christmas, 1847, and five days before the congregation had formally ratified his new dignity, Brigham addressed a general epistle to the church. Like his lone revelation, this epistle bears marks of having been edited by church scribes after the main outlines were dictated by Brigham. The grandiloquence which was a national vice in that day, and which Joseph Smith had in ten times triple measure, appears to some slight extent in the language of this epistle -- but not in its ideas. Brigham gives an account of his trip to the Salt Lake valley, and of the further emigration which followed on the trail broken by his pioneers. He describes the valley in terms which at least do no injustice to its merits. He urges all Saints to come as soon as possible to the neighborhood of Winter Quarters, where they may be outfitted for the journey across the plains to Salt Lake. He gives a list of things which the Saints should bring with them -- stock, trees, vines, grains, fruits, tools, and weapons. The intention to found a self-sufficing little empire in the mountains is fairly apparent, even in this church letter.

All that winter, Brigham and his aids laboured to make ready for the grand emigration in the spring. In May, 1848, camp was formed on the Elkhorn as in previous movements. The leading company, under direct command of Brigham, moved west from this rendezvous June 5 ; the last of the rearguard started July 5. All told, there were two thousand four hundred and seventeen persons and seven hundred and and ninety-two wagons on the trail. Rather more than half the total -- one thousand two hundred and twenty-nine persons and three hundred and ninety-seven wagons -- were in the leading division under Brigham; six hundred and sixty-two persons and two hundred and twenty-six wagons came in the middle division under Heber Kimball; and five hundred and twenty-six persons with one hundred and sixty-nine wagons formed the rearguard under Willard Richards. The animal census of the companies under Brigham and Heber Kimball was taken by some of their clerks, and reads as follows:

"Oxen, two thousand and twelve; cows, nine hundred and eighty-three; loose cattle, three hundred and thirty-four; horses, one hundred and thirty-two; mules, one hundred and sixteen; sheep, six hundred and fifty-four; pigs, two hundred and thirty-seven; chickens, nine hundred and four; dogs, one hundred and thirty-four; cats, fifty-four; goats, three; geese, ten; ducks, eleven; hives of bees, five; one crow and one squirrel."

The cats were not the least important members of the migration, as the settlers had been troubled with mice. The number of sheep driven across the plains shows that Brigham meant to have business for the carding-machine stowed so carefully in one of his wagons.

The emigrating Mormons were on the road three and one-half months, yet only four of their number died. This is truly a remarkable record, but their trip was not so smooth as to be monotonous. Richards, in particular, fared badly. It was inevitable that the president of the church and his first counsellor should attract around themselves more than a due proportion of the stronger and more successful men of the community; and not even military communism could keep equipment equal where abilities were diverse.

Richards had to yoke every milk cow and nearly every yearling heifer to his carts before the end of the journey. Some of his families, men, women, and children, walked all the way from the Missouri river to the Salt Lake valley. On the Sweetwater -- that misnamed stream of ill omen for the Mormons -- a number of Richards' scanty supply of cattle were poisoned and messengers had to be sent to bring back help from the companies ahead. Yet he did not lose a human being on the trip, and finished with all his command in good health. It is an eloquent testimony to the enduring qualities of the human frame when put to a test.

Brigham reached Salt Lake City with part of his company on September 20, 1848, the other companies following in the order and at about the rate of their departure. There were now nearly five thousand persons in the valley, and the first thought of their practical leader was how this considerable colony would manage to live through the winter. The crop, though saved from utter destruction by the gulls, was still a partial failure, and the incoming immigrants had brought but a fraction of the supplies needed to sustain them until another harvest. The outlook was not encouraging; but Brigham faced it cheerfully, and made careful preparation for the next season. Grounds in the city were distributed to the newcomers by lot. A field of eight thousand acres was fenced, divided into small parcels of five, ten, and forty-acre tracts, and apportioned in the same manner. Work was begun on roads, and a one per cent property tax was levied for bridge building. Schools were opened, and a council house was started. But the chief care of every one was first to get in a crop, and next to provide some sort of shelter for the coming winter.

That winter proved a time of trial worse than any had anticipated. Expecting a repetition of the milk season a year before, the newcomers had failed to provide themselves with fuel from the canons. Many of them had not built houses, expecting to camp the winter through in their prairie schooners or covered wagons. Instead of the gentle weather they expected, there came a series of storms which piled the canons full of snow; and then followed a season of bitter cold that pinched the half-fed settlers like a breath from Siberia. Stock died by hundreds. Food supplies threatened to give out. On February 8, 1849, an inventory was taken, which showed that there was in the valley only three-quarters of a pound of breadstuffs per capita per day if the supply were to last till July 5. It was believed that some persons had concealed stores; but even so, the condition was little short of desperate. A hunting party was organized, but it brought in little game. Several efforts to reach Fort Bridger were baffled by the snow-filled canon. Some of the poorer families were stewing hides for food before the snow melted and all were digging roots as soon as the spring permitted. The iron rule of their leader was all that saved the colony from shipwreck.

In spite of the gnawing pinch of hunger, Brigham's preparations for empire went steadily forward. Printing-press and outfit of type had been carried across the plains in this latest emigration. In most American communities, the first use of this resource of civilization would have been the printing of a newspaper, or perhaps a prospectus of lands or mines. But Brigham's practical mind had already set its impress on the exiled Saints; and the printing-press in Utah was baptized in another manner. It was used for the printing of fifty-cent and dollar bills, to provide a circulating medium in the almost complete absence of "United States money." At the time, this was a just and proper proceeding, though perhaps a bit unconventional. But the historian, taking his place with the exiled Mormons, and looking down the years to the present, when the head of the church is likewise president of nearly a dozen commercial corporations, will find something prophetic in this initial use of a printing-press.

The paper "shin-plasters" issued in this manner were countersigned by Brigham as president of the church, and by Heber C. Kimball as "councilor." A little later, the settlers issued gold coins, made from the dust brought east from the new California mines by returning members of the Mormon battalion. Brigham doubtless usurped authority in this action; but it was usurpation, not robbery. He had too much sense to repeat the follies of the "Kirtland Antibanking Society." The paper money was in reality little more than a sort of negotiable order on the tithing house; and the coins struck were later turned into the United States mints as bullion. They were made of pure gold, mostly in $1 and $5 denominations. There is no record of any loss to any one by reason of Brigham's unauthorized assumption of the right to coin money.

The issuance of money, however, was but one step in Brigham's governmental organization. That organization at first was of a purely ecclesiastical character. Salt Lake City was divided into nineteen wards, with a bishop appointed over each. In reality, the wards were little municipalities, united by the supreme authority of the church head. Later in the spring, the political organization was begun.