7 The Kingdom Disorganized: The Leadership Crisis, 1838

For Mormon leadership, the Missouri aftermath of Kirtland dissension was a time of sifting. In Kirtland church leaders divided over basic issues central to Smith’s conception of the Mormon kingdom. Discord over these issues and over Joseph Smith’s leadership plagued every recent Kirtland endeavor, finally forcing the Prophet, and leaders like Young who fully supported his views, to leave. Smith began in Kirtland the process of removing those influential dissidents who would not sustain his leadership. That process was incomplete, however, and there remained among the leaders those who opposed Smith’s conceptions and his directions. In Missouri in 1838, those, too, were removed. In addition, tension between the Mormons and neighbors who feared and opposed the Mormon gathering and the emerging kingdom contributed to the apostasy of two apostles and, as tensions erupted into violence, in the death of another.

This sifting had a profound impact on the shape of future Mormon leadership. Leaders had been at odds over the role of religion, God’s hand in daily life, the shape of the proposed new society, and the office of prophet—issues central to the sacral perspective now firmly part of Smith’s world view and of those ^[320] apostles in harmony with his efforts. The Missouri sojourn completed the sifting out of those not committed to the sacral perspective and related vision of the kingdom. The men who replaced them shared, with Young and the remaining original apostles, Smith’s perspective and had already proven their commitment to it.

For the Twelve, this Kirtland-Missouri period proved decisive. By the end of the period only five of the original twelve apostles remained, and one of them, William Smith, could not be relied upon. The four, however, proved themselves capable and loyal to Smith and his vision of a new Zion on earth. Those who here remained firmly attached to Joseph Smith and his ideals remained so afterward. Bound together by shared perspectives and shared experiences, they had a new unity and new sense of purpose. Finally, they were ready for powerful service on behalf of the kingdom. They would form the nucleus of a new Quorum of the Twelve that would eventually carry the Prophet’s ideals to the mountain valleys of the West.

Attending to a sick wife and some personal needs, Young was on the sidelines during much of this period. Nor did the Twelve as a quorum play an important role in Missouri. With two of the apostles in England and four of the Twelve removed from office, the Quorum, had it met, would have had six members at most. In fact, there is no evidence that the Twelve met regularly as a quorum during the period, although individual apostles received assignments and increased in visibility and prominence, Young included. By the end of the period, after the apostasy of two more apostles ^[321] and the imprisonment of the Presidency and other prominent leaders, including one apostle, Mormon leadership responsibility fell on the two senior members of the Twelve: Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball.

Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and Brigham Young had all left Kirtland hastily in winter. Hampered by the snows and cold of the season, the two-month overland journey to Missouri was hazardous and difficult. His family still in Kirtland, Brigham Young traveled as far as Dublin, Indiana, where he stopped with his brother Lorenzo who, with others, had decided to winter there en route to Missouri. Traveling by covered wagon with their families, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon also reached Dublin. There, his means exhausted, Joseph threw himself on the man who had proved his loyalty and effectiveness. “You are one of the Twelve who have charge of the kingdom in all the world,” Joseph told Brigham Young, and “I believe I shall . . . look to you for counsel in this case.” Once certain that Joseph was in earnest, Brigham assured the Prophet that he would have the money to proceed. Young approached a Dublin Mormon whom he knew wished to sell his property and promised him that if he would use some of the proceeds to sustain Joseph he would soon have a good offer. Several days later the Smiths proceeded on their journey with $300, while the good brother had an outfit and money to move his own family.¹

Before Brigham Young could overtake the Rigdon-Smith camp near Quincy, Illinois, the latter had experienced extreme cold and almost perished near Paris, Illinois. Because of rumor and ^[322] prejudice, no one would shelter them until they threatened to force the door of an inn in order to preserve their families. As they departed, a reluctant host apologized for their treatment in Paris and wished them well.² To their mutual satisfaction, Brigham and Joseph traveled together for the nearly two hundred miles of ice and snow, water and mud between Quincy, Illinois, and Far West, Missouri, where they arrived 14 March 1838.³

Several miles from the city an escort received them “with open armes and warm hearts.” For Joseph, the contrast between being “greeted on every hand by the Saints” in Far West and his “long Seven years of Servictude persecution & affliction” in Kirtland was striking. Long anxious for their prophet to live among them, the Missouri Saints determined to care for him in comfort, leaving him nothing to do but “to attend to my Spiritual concerns or the Spiritual affairs of the Church.”⁴

Not all was well in Zion, however. For weeks Oliver Cowdery and other dissenters had corresponded with the Kirtland dissidents and met privately with others in Far West to coordinate opposition to Smith and his directions.⁵ Cowdery’s letters demonstrate that he and others resolutely opposed Joseph Smith’s policies and his leadership, and that their rebellion had much to do with a sense of lost personal freedom implicit in the new directions. Specifically, they opposed the Prophet’s “endeavoring to unite ecclesiasticle with civil authority,” especially his efforts to counsel them in their temporal affairs. For their part, although they had not yet openly announced their separation from Smith and the Church, they intended to find in northern ^[323] Missouri a gathering place of their own and, at the proper time, publicly proclaim their principles and influence others to join them.⁶

Even though most of the dissidents in Missouri had not yet openly broken with Smith, those Missouri leaders faithful to the Prophet were not unaware of the undercurrents. Led by Thomas Marsh, they determined to hold the line against rebellion until Joseph Smith arrived. During their November visit to Far West, the Presidency had firmly taught that the Saints should accept priesthood counsel in temporal as well as spiritual matters. Knowing that Cowdery and the Missouri presidency had sold some of their lands against the counsel of the Church, and that they otherwise refused to be counseled in their affairs, Marsh and others faithful to Smith moved against them. In February the faithful group succeeded, with the support of most of the local church, in removing David Whitmer, W. W. Phelps, and John Whitmer as the local presidency, and in banning Cowdery from signing licenses. They also excommunicated the two counselors. Presidents Marsh and Patten of the Twelve accepted the appointment as presidents pro tempore until the Presidency arrived.⁷

Thomas Marsh was certain that had they not acted, the local members themselves would have rebelled, for they were opposed to the actions of their presidency. With the recalcitrant leaders moved aside, the Missouri Saints were united, Marsh reported to Joseph Smith, and wished “to have the whole law of God lived up to.” Unaware that Joseph Smith had fled Kirtland the month before, but fearing that the discountenanced leaders could ^[324] yet cause great difficulty, Marsh urged the necessity of Joseph coming immediately.

Your presence is absolutely necessary for the salvation of this church. . . . Although these men speak against your proceedings, they are mute when you are present, and the great body is determined to follow you.⁸

The day after Joseph Smith and Brigham Young arrived in Far West, the Prophet presided over a council that considered the February actions taken by Marsh and his associates. In organizing the council, Smith seated Marsh, Patten, and Young as the three senior members. He told the council that he approved of the earlier proceedings. Noting that they had excommunicated the counselors in the Missouri presidency but not President David Whitmer, he explained that he had ordained Whitmer in July 1834 “to be a leader, or a prophet to this Church” only “on condition that he (J. Smith jr) did not live to God himself.” In the meantime, Whitmer had no unusual status except as a president in Missouri. Nonetheless, President Smith chose to take no additional action against Whitmer at that time. In a 29 March letter to the Kirtland presidency, Smith reported that “D Whitmer remains as yet.” The major difficulties of the Missouri church had been adjusted “by a judicious High Council” before his arrival, he wrote, and the Saints appeared “in union & peace & love prevails throughout.”⁹

Clearly, Joseph Smith was not unaware of the underlying problems. His 29 March letter showed awareness, for example, of the ongoing correspondence from Kirtland dissidents to Missouri. Compared with Kirtland, however, Far West seemed secure, and Joseph felt “no uneasiness” yet “about the power of our Enimies ^[325] in this Place to do us harm.”¹⁰ He knew that the enemies were real enough and included men of influence, although it is not known if he understood the extent to which David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery, Lyman Johnson, and Frederick Williams were involved. That Smith understood the issues and the charges made against his leadership is suggested by a political “motto of the Church” that he forwarded to Kirtland with the above letter.

Apparently the sentiments occurred to him as he and several of the brethren walked near Far West within a few days of his arrival. Brigham Young co-signed the document after Smith and the two senior apostles. Almost as if he were answering the repeated charges in Cowdery’s letters, Joseph affirmed in his motto his belief in the liberties of the constitution, in an orderly and peaceful society of “good and wholesome laws,” the “standard of Democracy.” He, too, denounced “tyrants, mobs, aristocracy” and priestcraft—indeed any and all who attempted to harass others “under the pretext and color of law, or office, either religious or political.” He was not a tyrant, a demagogue, an usurper, he seemed to be saying, but one who had long engaged in the thankless struggle against those very evils. Perhaps his juxtaposition of aristarchy and aristocracy best demonstrated his true feelings. The “Parrishites or more properly the Aristocrats or Anarchys[ts]”¹¹ were the true usurpers, setting themselves above the people and trying to dictate their brand of religion over the revealed model that the Church had accepted. Joseph was for “aristarchy,” “a government of good men in power,” men independent and intelligent ^[326] but humble enough to be governed by revelation and the priesthood as well as their own wisdom.¹²

Only two weeks after their arrival in Far West, Smith’s letter to Kirtland mentioned Brigham Young among those who had already located a place to live and were ready to plant and plow.¹³ As Young later rephrased it, “I . . . expended what little means I had left to purchase an inheritance for my family.” Since the Mormons intended to settle a broad region of northern Missouri, it was not necessary that he settle directly in Far West in order that his temporal labors “build up the kingdom.” He immediately began fencing and plowing his “small improvement” on Mill Creek, a tributary of Shoal Creek perhaps four miles nearly east of Far West.¹⁴ On Mill Creek he was close enough to travel to Far West for meetings but he would not be in the mainstream of Far West activities. Most of his energies would go towards his farm and his family.¹⁵

Although the date that Mary Ann Young and the children joined Brigham in Missouri is not known, they also apparently arrived in the spring, probably soon after his own arrival. Somehow she obtained means for river passage and after a short overland trek traveled the Ohio and Missouri Rivers to Richmond, Missouri, where Brigham met her and the children. Only then did he fully realize how greatly Mary Ann had suffered from the harassments in Kirtland, from poor health, from fatigue. She appeared nearly in the grave, he thought, and still so weak and sick “that her life was despaired of for a long time.” For the next season, at least, the first priority would be his family. ^[327] On 17 April 1838, Joseph Smith delivered to Brigham Young a revelation confirming that priority:

Verily thus saith the Lord, let my servant Brigham Young go unto the place which he has bought, on Mill Creek, and there provide for his family until an effectual door is opened for the support of his family, until I command him to go hence, and not leave his family until they are amply provided for.¹⁶

Laboring with the axe and the plow no doubt gave Brigham Young ample time to ponder the months of unprecedented turmoil and upheaval he had just witnessed. Not much more than two years earlier he had heard Joseph warn the Twelve on the need for unity. Even with His presence, Jesus’ apostles anciently had to learn lessons of unity and harmony: to prevail, they must learn the same lessons, warned Joseph. Nonetheless, Joseph had early felt encouraged at the faithfulness of the elders. “When or where has God suffered one of the witnesses or first Elders of this church to fall?” he asked rhetorically. “Never nor nowhere . . . His almighty arm has sustained us, men and devils have raged and spent the[ir] malice in vain.”¹⁷ But now, in the spring of 1838, all of the Three Witnesses, four of Brigham Young’s own quorum, and dozens of other elders had deserted the Prophet and what he stood for, branding as wickedness his labors and his plans. For Brigham Young surely it had been as he later characterized it, a “crisis when earth and hell seemed leagued to overthrow the Prophet and church of God.”¹⁸

Pondering all these things, Young had what he later called a revelation “upon natural principles.” After considering what had occurred and why and also musing about future possibilities, he felt that he could clearly see what the future portended. ^[328]

I saw upon natural principles, that we would be driven from there, but when, I did not know; but still it was plain to me that we would have to leave the State, and that when we did leave it we would not go south, north or west, but east, back to the other states.¹⁹

Young felt that the temporal program of the Church, gathering a strong and united people and creating a unique society, could ultimately be accomplished only in a secure location where that society could mature without interference and opposition. Somewhere, he anticipated, there would have to be a place of refuge where the Saints might gain “a foothold, a strength, power, influence, and ability to walk by themselves and take care of themselves.”²⁰

April, Joseph Smith’s first full month of residence in Missouri in 1838, saw the convening of several important conferences and councils to regulate the affairs of the Missouri Church. On 6 April the members and officers met to commemorate the founding of the Church eight years before and to transact business. The most important business involved the appointment of Thomas B. Marsh as “President pro tempore of the Church in Zion,” and David W. Patten and Brigham Young as his “assistant Presidents.”²¹ The three senior apostles became the stake presidency in place of David Whitmer, W. W. Phelps, and John Whitmer, marking the first time that apostles received an assignment from the Presidency to preside in a stake of Zion.²²

When the conference convened the following day to hold “the first quarterly Conference” of that stake, the clerk noted that “Presidents Joseph Smith jr., Sidney Rigdon, T. B. Marsh, D. W. Patten, and B. Young took the stand; after which the several ^[329] quorums.” For the first time it was not Brigham Young or Elder Young or Brother Young, but “Prest B. Young,” who gave the opening prayer. President Patten reviewed for the conference the activities of each of the Twelve, indicating that he had heard things that concerned him about William Smith’s faith in the work, that he could not recommend at all Elders McLellen, Boynton, Johnson, and Johnson, but that he thought the other apostles to be “men of God, whom he could recommend with cheerful confidence.” In meeting on 8 April, President Smith spoke about the Kirtland bank and the Word of Wisdom—both matters of contention with the dissidents—saying that the health code “should be observed.” President Young gave “a short history of his travels to Massachusetts and New York.”²³

A few days later, after formal charges against them were presented to the high council, Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer were notified to appear for trial. On 12 April, with Brigham Young present but not sitting as an officer, the council organized as a “common council” under the bishop to try a president according to the scriptural pattern. Cowdery, declining to appear, sent instead a letter. Responding to the several charges, he acknowledged that he had indeed sold certain of his lands (the fourth charge) and therefore, as they construed things, he was guilty of the fifth, “virtually denying the faith by declaring that he would not be governed by any ecclesiastical authority nor revelation whatever in his temporal affairs.” He reaffirmed that he would not be governed in temporal affairs contrary to his own judgment, insisting that any effort to control him in those things was a violation of ^[330] his constitutional privileges. Cowdery complained of “an attempt to set up a kind of petty government, controlled and dictated by ecclesiastical influence. . . . a direct attempt to make the secular power su[b]servient to Church dictation.”²⁴ Because of those principles, concluded the letter, he now respectfully withdrew from the Church. The council completed their investigation, and then, agreeable to Oliver’s letter, voted that he no longer be a member of the Church.²⁵

The following day the council heard the case of David Whitmer. Like Cowdery, Whitmer responded by letter and refused to attend. Convinced that the council was illegal and had no right to try him, he wrote, and that they would pursue their unlawful course regardless, he withdrew his fellowship from them, “choosing to seek a place among the meek and humble” where the rights of men are regarded. Seeing no need to try the case, the council dropped David Whitmer from the Church.²⁶

On 13 April a council also convened under Presidents Marsh, Patten, and Young to try the case of Lyman E. Johnson. The numerous charges against the apostle ranged from defending Kirtland dissidents against church authorities to lying about financial dealings with Joseph, not observing the Word of Wisdom, cheating a brother, and beating Phinehas Young. Brigham Young gave testimony that after Johnson beat his brother, Phinehas came “with his head cut the blood running out of his ears; also his stomach was injured.” Apparently, after conviction on the charge in a civil court, Johnson bragged that he would pay $5 for the privilege—and similarly pound anyone else who lied to him—but if the fine ^[331] was larger than that he would appeal outside the county. Johnson, too, wrote a letter rather than attend, and said that in objecting to his threat to change venue on the case, a constitutional right, that the Church was usurping authority, improperly using religious influence, injuring him in his privileges and therefore, he would “withdraw . . . from your society and fellowship.” After investigation sustained the charges, the council decided that Johnson was no longer a member of the Church or an apostle of God and turned him over to the buffetings of Satan until he repented.²⁷

Apparently court actions were held about this time for two other apostles. Although no proceedings of the council in relationship to Luke Johnson have been found, the date for his excommunication is generally given as 13 April 1838—that is, the same time that his brother Lyman was cut off from the Church.²⁸ Less than a month later William E. McLellen was apparently tried “for transgression.” Except for his attendance at November 1837 meetings in Far West, there is virtually no evidence of his involvement with the Church as a church official since the fall of 1836—the time he later insisted he withdrew from the Church. According to later reports, McLellen admitted to the council that he had personally seen nothing “out of the way” in Smith’s conduct, yet he “had no confidence in the heads of the Church, believing they had transgressed, and . . . consequently he quit praying and keeping the commandments of God.”²⁹ Within a few months McLellen had become one of the most active of the apostates working with anti-Mormons against his former co-religionists.^{30 [332]}

The decision of church courts did not end difficulties with the dissenters. Perhaps in part because of the court actions, several of the former members stepped up their harassment of the Saints and their leaders, notably with numerous “vexatious lawsuits.” By June, Sidney Rigdon no doubt expressed the feelings of many when he preached his fiery “Salt Sermon.” Constant abuse from former friends need not be tolerated, he insisted, for “if that salt of the earth lose its savor, behold, it is henceforth good for nothing only to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men.”³¹

This 17 June speech motivated the expulsion from Far West of those dissenters like Oliver Cowdery who had not voluntarily withdrawn. A resolution addressed to Oliver Cowdery, David and John Whitmer, W. W. Phelps, and Lyman Johnson was immediately drawn up and signed by a number of citizens—none of the Twelve signed it—threatening them with forced removal if they did not immediately depart Far West and Caldwell County. Oliver Cowdery, who had not followed through with his expressed intention to leave Far West if Joseph came, now believed his life in danger and joined the others in an unceremonious forced exodus for which they were ill-prepared.³²

After the 17 April revelation permitting him to retire for a season to his farm and his family, Brigham Young seldom participated in Far West council meetings. He was present for a May council, “Brygum Young Presiding,” to hear a case against Lyman Wight, but the case was postponed and he was not present at the several June councils for that or other cases.³³ Though Young may not have been an active participant in Far West affairs, still ^[333] he was no doubt aware of Rigdon’s fiery speeches and of the move against the dissenters. Surely he learned quickly of the revelation announced 26 April 1838, “making known the will of God concerning the build up of Far West.” Far West was to be a consecrated land, built up unto the Lord, with a House of the Lord to grace its borders. The city was to be “built up speedily by the gathering of my Saints,” and the temple by labor and donation, not by debt. The ground for the temple was to be broken on 4 July 1838, and the cornerstone laid on the twenty-sixth of April next, 1839.³⁴

In July came additional revelations that particularly concerned Brigham Young and his future. One announced to the Church the law of tithing, another how it would be administered. A revelation to W. W. Phelps, formerly of the Missouri presidency, and Frederick G. Williams, Joseph Smith’s counselor until the Saints failed to sustain him, confirmed that they had lost their former standing because of transgression, yet admonished them to be ordained elders and preach abroad “if they will be saved.”³⁵

Most important to Brigham Young, in answer to the inquiry, “Shew unto us Thy will O Lord concerning the Twelve,” there came a revelation which he carefully copied into his diary. The Twelve should be organized once again, it announced, with “men . . . appointed to supply the place of those who are fallen.” President Marsh had a role in the printing in Far West; “let [him] . . . remain for a season in the Land of Zion to publish my word.” Once the Quorum was reorganized, the other apostles should again take up their labors and preach ^[334]

from that hour and if they will do this in all lowliness of heart in meekness and pureness and longsuffering I the Lord God give unto them a promise that I will provide for their families and an effectual door shall be opened for them.

Then with uncharacteristic specificity, the Twelve were directed where they should preach and when they should depart: “next spring let them depart to go over the great waters” to preach the fullness of the gospel in Europe, and let them “take leave of my saints in the city [of] Far West on the 26th of April next on the building spot.” They were to depart from the very spot and on the very day that the April revelation had designated for laying the cornerstone of the temple. Finally, Brigham Young was interested to learn that the revelation named John Taylor, John E. Page, Wilford Woodruff, and his own friend and cousin Willard Richards as the new apostles.³⁶

Because of the revelations, five of the apostles in Missouri met the following day in Far West. It was decided to immediately notify the new apostles by letter and to publish the same in the Elders Journal.³⁷ The Church, President Rigdon told the Twelve, would provide for their families while they labored abroad. Rigdon also stressed a favorite theme when he advised the Twelve that once at work abroad they were to “instruct their converts to move without delay to the places of gathering, and there to strictly attend to the law of God.”³⁸

Late in July, Brigham Young had an emotional reunion with Heber Kimball and his family, just arrived in Far West after his mission to England. No doubt Brigham brought Heber up to date about the apostasies and difficulties that had continued to rack ^[335] the Church during his absence. For his part, Heber not only reported on the Saints in Kirtland, where he had just gathered up his family—(“The brethren who yet resided there, although very kind and affectionate, were weak in the faith in consequence of trials and temptations”)—but he also told Young in detail about missionary labor abroad, an assignment they would soon share. As Brigham had done the spring before, Kimball applied his labor to establishing a home and caring for his family. Orson Hyde also arrived in Far West from his English labors. Because he arrived ill, or fell ill soon after his arrival, Joseph Smith took him into his home and cared for him that summer and fall.³⁹

The first violence between Mormons and their northern Missouri neighbors erupted when Mormons attempted to vote at Gallatin on 6 August. By September threats and the maneuvering of armed men became general until October, when large military forces—and finally death and destruction—fell upon Mormon settlements in 2Caldwell and nearby counties. On 2 October, Joseph met several hundred Kirtland emigrants who had traveled together as “Kirtland Camp.” The following day Brigham Young joined them in traveling northward to their place of settlement.⁴⁰ That day and the next mob forces besieging the Mormon settlement of DeWitt, Carroll County, fired on the town. On 5 October, Joseph Smith traveled there to assess their situation and see how they might be helped, leaving Brigham Young to preside over the quarterly conference at Far West. After convening the conference, President Young dismissed it because there were too few officers and members present to conduct business. The following day, 6 October, he and ^[336] President Marsh presided over an enlarged conference that assigned and instructed eight elders who volunteered to preach in the field. By invitation the prospective apostle John Taylor, who had just arrived, addressed the congregation, which then sustained him to fill one of the vacancies in the Twelve.⁴¹ A few days later DeWitt was sacked and the fatigued men and worn inhabitants, stripped of many of their belongings, made their way to other settlements. Depredations continued throughout the month.

Later in the month, a contingent of Mormon militia traveled northward to the Mormon settlement of Adam-Ondi-Ahman in Daviess County, to discourage depredations upon the new settlers. Joseph Smith traveled there at that time, as did Marsh, Patten, Young, Kimball, Parley Pratt, and apostle-designate Taylor of the Twelve. While there the Prophet laid out still another city, including selecting the site for a temple block, which Brigham Young then dedicated.⁴²

As hostilities increased Brigham Young gathered information that helped Smith and others assess the developing situation. Since he had largely remained on his farm without “communication, correspondence or deal with the Missourians,” they did not know Young, permitting him to “learn their acts and feelings unsuspected.” He observed men gather up their families, animals and belongings, prepared to leave the region, and then burn their own houses. Later he saw their names attached to affidavits stating the Mormons had burned them. With understatement, Brigham later recalled that “this was quite effectual in raising prejudice against us.”^{43 [337]}

The causes of the violence were complex as the Saints found both strictly local problems and general difficulties with neighbors wherever they gathered.⁴⁴ It cannot be doubted, however, that along with intemperate Mormon rhetoric and insensitive and overzealous claims by some Mormon faithful, the repeated charges by dissenters and apostates of misuse of power and dangerous tendencies in the Mormon Kingdom added fuel to the smoldering fire. The reality of a secretly organized military band of “Danites” or “Destroying Angels” no doubt spawned many of the rumors and, to those who in fact learned of its existence, tended to confirm every other rumor.⁴⁵ Sampson Avard, a man of influence and talent but without official church position, organized the band to take vengeance on Mormon enemies. According to Young’s brother Lorenzo Young, who was invited to a meeting of the organization, he and Brigham played a role in exposing and ending the Danites:

From the meeting I went directly to Brother Brigham and related the whole history of the affair. He said he had long suspicioned that something wrong was going on but had seen no direct development, He added, “I will go at once to Brother Joseph [Smith], who has suspicioned that some secret wickedness was being carried on by Dr. Avard.” Dr. Avard was at once cited before the authorities of the Church and cut off for his wickedness. He turned a bitter enemy of the Saints.⁴⁶

If the dissenters for two years had found Mormon temporal involvements reason for concern, Missouri citizens, suspicious of Mormon institutions and intentions even without abuses by some members and distortions by dissenters, felt they had even more reasons. Mormon gathering, city building, political and economic programs disturbed dissenters and old citizens alike. That those who ^[338] compiled the History of the Church understood this to some extent—although they gave too much credit to the apostate and too little to the imposing reality of their own nascent but growing institutions—is suggested by their summary,

Our Church organization was converted, by the testimony of the apostates, into a temporal kingdom, which was to fill the whole earth, and subdue all other kingdoms.⁴⁷

As Brigham Young had perceived in the spring, this would not be the time nor northern Missouri the place where Mormon institutions could mature. Mushrooming difficulties would soon cut short every development.

By October, after months of zealous defense of Joseph and his measures, Thomas Marsh lost confidence in both. Some later joked that President Marsh left the kingdom over a pint of cream strippings, but as Young well knew, there was much more to the story than that. As noted, Marsh was a prideful man, concerned that his authority and that of the Twelve be properly recognized. For more than three years he had labored as president of the Twelve without, he thought, due honor and recognition. He did not see the period as one of preparation for greater responsibility, as Young had come to do, but thought their treatment an insult to their great office.⁴⁸ Minutes of the Missouri meetings he presided over before Smith arrived, and of high councils after, indicate Marsh’s oversized concern that all recognize the dignity of his—and other—offices in the priesthood. Such phrases as “insulted the authorities of God” or “speaking against the authorities” abound in minutes of such meetings and seem a characteristic expression of his concern.^{49 [339]}

After years of sensitivity, what Marsh took to be an insult and a public humiliation over an otherwise minor matter marked the beginning of his parting with Joseph Smith and the Church. Marsh’s wife and a neighbor, Sister Lucy Harris, had agreed to exchange milk, including the strippings, so they would have enough for cheese. When Sister Marsh allegedly violated the agreement at the expense of Sister Harris, first the neighborhood teachers, then the bishop, then the high council became involved. According to George A. Smith, because Marsh was president of the Twelve and thought himself a great man in Israel, he was “extremely anxious” to maintain the character of his wife and made a “desperate defense” before the council. When the council confirmed the bishop’s decision against his wife, he appealed to the First Presidency only to be again embarrassed. For Marsh this latest insult, as he saw it, merely salted old wounds, another in a long line of supposed snubs and slights.⁵⁰

When Marsh returned to the Church nearly twenty years later, he attempted to explain his actions. “I have frequently wanted to know how my apostasy began,” he told a congregation, “and I have come to the conclusion that I must have lost the Spirit of the Lord out of my heart.” How? “I became jealous of the Prophet, and then I saw double and overlooked everything that was right, and spent my time looking for evil.” He became resentful of Joseph Smith and felt angered and defiant.⁵¹ By October both Marsh and Young knew that he was wavering in his commitment to the Church. The scenes of former brethren turning violently against the Church had prompted Marsh to say that if ever he ^[340] apostatized, he would go away quietly. Now several approached him, asking if he was going to leave. Marsh tried, sometimes unsuccessfully, to evade the question. When Joseph Smith insistently questioned him, he replied contemptuously, “when you see me leave the church, you will see a good fellow leave it.”

I got mad, and I wanted everybody else to be mad. I talked with Brother Brigham and Brother Heber, and I wanted them to be made like myself; and I saw they were not mad, and I got madder still because they were not. Brother Brigham, with a cautious look, said “Are you the leader of the Church, brother Thomas?” I answered, “no.” “Well then,” said he, “Why do you not let that alone?”⁵²

Sensing that he approached a time of decision, President Marsh retired to the printing office, his place of labor, and, as Kimball reported it, “prayed, and was humble, and God gave him a revelation, and he wrote it.” He met Young and Kimball as he came out of his office and read the message to them. The revelation told him to sustain Joseph and to believe that what he said was true, but pride and stubbornness in the way, Marsh could not. “God saw fit to give him a revelation to forewarn him of the course he would take; and still he took that course.”⁵³

Once committed to leaving, Marsh ostensibly made preparations to settle a few miles away, then quietly departed and never returned. Apparently that same night, probably 18 October, Orson Hyde, who had suffered from violent fever and was not yet fully recovered, followed Marsh in leaving the Saints. Upon learning of their departure, John Taylor proposed to Heber Kimball that they take a wagon and see if they could not overtake them and persuade them to return. “If you knew him [Marsh] as well as I do,” replied Kimball, “you would know that if he had ^[341] made up his mind to go, you could not turn him.”⁵⁴ lt would he nearly two decades before he decided to turn himself and return.⁵⁵

Marsh did not leave as silently as he had thought to or as he later maintained. Although there is no evidence that he participated directly in actions against the Mormons, as some dissenters did, he swore out an affidavit that further inflamed sentiment against the Church, and he wrote a private letter back to Far West in an attempt to turn some from the Prophet. Danites and the “Destruction Company”—sworn to uphold Smith right or wrong and burn settlement for settlement if the Mormons were further molested, said Marsh—figure prominently in his statement.

The plan of said Smith, the Prophet, is to take this state; and he professes to his people to intend taking the United States, and ultimately the whole world. This is the belief of the Church, and my own opinion of the Prophet’s plans and intentions. The Prophet inculcates the notion, and it is believed by every true Mormon that Smith’s prophecies are superior to the laws 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.⁵⁶

Orson Hyde, attesting to Marsh’s affidavit, added: “The most of the statements . . . I know to be true; the remainder I believe to be true.”

A few days after signing the affidavit, Marsh wrote to the Abbotts of Far West

I have left the Mormons [and] Joseph Smith Jr. for conscience sake, and that alone, for I have come to the full conclusion that he is a very wicked man; notwithstanding all my efforts to persuade myself to the Contra[ry]. I also am well convinced that he will not escape the just Judgements of an offended God.

Attributing the alleged operations of the Danites (and several other unexplained acts of violence) to Smith and Rigdon, Marsh ^[342] denounced their disposition “to pillage, rob, plunder assassinate and murder. . . . O my God what principles to be called the religion of Jesus Christ.” Thanking God for his escape, he urged the Abbotts also to flee before they became innocent victims of the outrage certain to fall upon Far West. “I know more about this matter than you. Be advised by your Brother, and escape for your lives, for I verily believe that God will destroy that place.” In a postscript, Orson Hyde added: “I can say with him that I have left the Church . . . for Conscience sake, fully believing that God is not with them, and is not the mover of their schemes and projects.” Hyde, however, was torn. In spite of his loss of confidence, he retained affection for Joseph. Without mentioning his host or others by name, he wrote of the kind assistance and “hospitality I have shared during my sickness. . . . Let them think of me as they will, I can assure them, that they will ever live in the memory of a grateful heart.”⁵⁷

With the departure of Marsh from the Church, David W. Patten became the senior apostle in the Twelve. It was later said that he had asked to Lord to let him die a martyr.⁵⁸ Bold and fearless, he led a group of Mormon militia on a patrol that engaged the mob and on 25 October, the day after Marsh and Hyde signed their affidavits, Captain Patten received a fatal wound in the Battle of Crooked River. As he lay dying, Heber Kimball was among those trying to exercise faith that he might live. Kimball heard him speak “of those who had fallen from their steadfastness,” exclaiming, “O that they were in my situation; for I feel that I have kept the faith; I have finished my course.”^{59 [343]}

Brigham Young and Heber Kimball were now the senior apostles in the places of Thomas Marsh and David Patten. In July four new apostles had been appointed to again make the quorum complete after apostasy. Now, before even those four could be assembled and ordained, apostasy and death brought three more vacancies. If Young presided, it was over a decimated quorum. In late October 1838, besides his friend Kimball, only the Pratt brothers and the unstable William Smith remained of the original Twelve.

On 27 October, Missouri governor Lilburn W. Boggs issued his infamous “Exterminating Order,” legitimizing those who had gathered as a mob to pillage and burn. To the militia commander he ordered,

The Mormons must be treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the state, if necessary for the public good. Their outrages are beyond all description. If you can increase your force, you are authorized to do so, to any extent you may think necessary.⁶⁰

Three days later, a lawless mob massacred men, women and children at Haun’s Mill settlement, 30 October. Brigham Young’s brother Joseph Young was an eyewitness of that tragic scene.⁶¹ Joseph Smith had urged all those residing apart from Mormon strongholds to gather with their brethren for protection, and by this time Brigham Young had moved his family to Far West.

On the morning of 28 October, one hundred and fifty Mormon men rode out under a white flag to survey the countryside and learn if possible the intentions of the government. A late afternoon alarm in Far West that troops approached from the south prompted the thought that their men had returned, until the numbers belied that hope. Were they friendly troops sent for ^[344] protection or a mob to plunder? Young was among the armed men who marched out of Far West to meet the force and find out. Near sundown the two armies approached each other and sent out messengers under white flag. When the Mormon messenger inquired their intentions, the reply was that they wanted three persons out of the city before they massacred the rest, “a very alarming and unexpected answer.”⁶² Impending darkness postponed hostilities. Instead of protection and relief, Young watched as the militia struck hands with the mob—some painted as Indians—that had also gathered.⁶³

Kimball, dictating less than a year later, said that he and Young were “appointed captains of fifty, in a hurry,” as the Mormons rushed to defend themselves. Some men known to be wanted, particularly those of the Mormon Caldwell County militia who had engaged the mob at Crooked River, fled to save their lives. Those remaining spent the night arranging wagons and pulling down houses to use as fortifications. Piles of construction materials also became part of the bulwarks. During the night both sides received reinforcements. Next morning Joseph Smith counseled the defenders and then ordered Young and Kimball with their men to take up a position directly in line with the militia’s advance. The troops approached within rifle shot to examine the defense and then withdrew.⁶⁴

Instead of “the awful tragedy of a bloody massacre” that Heber had anticipated as he watched the approaching troops, negotiations began.⁶⁵ Colonel George M. Hinkle, representing the Caldwell militia, negotiated with militia officers, who pledged their sacred honor that Mormon leaders could pass safely for ^[345] discussion. Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Parley Pratt, Lyman Wight, and George Robinson went into the enemy camp under flag of truce and were immediately seized. When they did not return next morning as agreed, Brigham and Heber and the others knew the awful truth: they had been betrayed.⁶⁶

Apparently Governor Boggs’s exterminating order of the twenty-seventh was not known to the Mormons until the evening of the twenty-ninth. According to Parley Pratt, “determined not to resist any thing in the shape of authority, however tyrannical or unconstitutional,” once they knew that the force was authorized by the governor, the Mormons agreed to submit. His account suggests that Smith’s agreement to meet with the militia leaders in their camp under a flag of truce was to work out terms for surrender. Perhaps more to the point, once Smith and other leaders were in enemy hands, the Mormons could offer no effective defense. With their leaders hostage, they stood helplessly as the superior military force, cannons at the ready, disarmed them, harangued them, mistreated them. Reported Kimball:

When these troops surrounded us, and we were brought into a hollow square, the first persons that I knew, were men who had once professed to be our brethren. They were the men who piloted the mob into our city, namely: William E. McLellen and Lyman E. Johnson, two of the Twelve; John Whitmer and David Whitmer, two of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon; William W. Phelps, and scores of others, “hail fellows, well met.”

Mocking and abusing, McLellen was particularly obnoxious. “Look and see yourself poor, your family stripped and robbed, and your brethren in the same fix. Are you not satisfied with Joseph?” he taunted. Yes, replied Kimball, he was a hundred fold ^[346] more satisfied than before, “for I see you in the very position that he foretold you would be in—a Judas to betray your brethren, if you did not forsake your adultery, fornication, lying and abominations.”⁶⁷

Once the mob-militia had disarmed the Mormons, whatever discipline it had possessed disappeared. Brigham witnessed the depredations as they

commenced their ravages by plundering the citizens of their bedding, clothing, money, wearing apparel, and every thing of value they would lay their hands upon, and also attempting to violate the chastity of women in sight of their husbands and friends, under the pretense of hunting for prisoners and arms.

The soldiers shot Mormon animals and turned horses into fields ready for harvest.⁶⁸ An attempt to have Joseph Smith and several others shot soon after they were seized was foiled by the courageous stand of Colonel Alexander Doniphan, a Missouri officer. Instead of court martial and execution, on 2 November the guards escorted the prisoners to Jackson County (and later elsewhere) for trial and imprisonment. Lawless men terrified Far West several more days. With the city surrounded they attempted to take prisoner every man who seemed to have any influence. Heber afterwards felt certain that he would have been imprisoned had they known him. The fact that he had only been in Missouri a few weeks and that Brigham Young had lived away from the city preserved the two apostles from arrest.⁶⁹ They remained with the Saints to witness the desecration and suffering and administer what comfort they could.

Perhaps some of the faithful needed less comfort than we would suppose. Supposedly to defray the war expenses, the soldiers ^[347] forced all in Far West to “give away their property by executing a deed of trust at the point of a bayonet.” According to Young, some of the brethren kicked up their heels afterward saying they were glad of it, “we have nothing to trouble us now.” Kimball added that their enemies expected them to be downcast and sorrowful as they walked up to sign the deeds of trust,

but I testify as an eye-witness that the brethren rejoiced and praised the Lord and kicked up their heels, and thanked God, taking joyfully the despoiling of their goods. There were judges, magistrates and . . . sectarian priests who stood by and saw all this going on, exulting over us, and it seemed to make them more angry that we bore our misfortunes so cheerfully. Judge Cameron said, with an oath, “See them creatures laugh and kick up their heels! They are whipped but not conquered.”⁷⁰

On 5 November, General John B. Clark ordered the men at Far West into a line, then arrested fifty-six. According to Brigham Young, “open and avowed enemies” such as William McLellen and others had provided the names. Once again, they left without arresting Heber Kimball or Brigham Young. The next day, both men listened as Clark delivered a written statement to his captive audience. Alleging that they and their leaders had entered into a treaty—which included the surrendering of their leaders and the signing over of their property to pay for expenses of the “war”—Clark said it was now time to comply with the remaining portions and leave the state. Whatever their feelings or their innocence, “it is nothing to me,” he told them: he had his orders. He would be merciful and allow those not arrested to gather in some corn, but they must not think of planting and must soon be gone or he would destroy them without mercy. ^[348]

I am sorry, gentlemen, to see so great a number of apparently intelligent men found in the situation that you are; and oh! that I could invoke that Great Spirit, the unknown God, to rest upon you, and make you sufficiently intelligent to break that chain of superstition, and liberate you from those fetters of fanaticism. . . that you no longer worship a man.

They had been the aggressors, Clark concluded, and had brought all their troubles upon themselves. The only way to prevent an occurrence of the same wherever they went was to become as other citizens. “I would advise you to scatter abroad, and never again organize yourselves . . . lest you excite the jealousies of the people, and subject yourselves to the same calamities.”⁷¹

No doubt Brigham and Heber seethed within at the arrogance, at the cold blooded violation of their rights, at the insults offered by this supposed servant of the people. But if Clark had to appeal to the “unknown God,” these men appealed to a God they felt they knew. Both men later testified that they knew in their hearts that part of Clark’s harangue would be proven false for all to see. “As for your leaders,” he told them, “do not once think—do not imagine for a moment—do not let it enter your mind that they will be delivered, or that you will see their faces again, for their fate is fixed—their die is cast—their doom is sealed.”⁷² On this point Brigham Young had the faith of Abraham and he told the brethren “As the Lord God liveth, he shall come out of their hands.”⁷³

The burden of leadership at this time of crisis fell on Brigham Young and Heber Kimball. Disarmed, cornered, their presidency hostage, it was a day for protecting what remained, for surviving, for finding a place of refuge and somehow getting there. ^[349] While there was not yet time to consider the lessons, clearly the events of the fall of 1838 would have a lasting impact. The chief executive of a state had put the force of his office behind a move to exterminate them. They experienced robbery and plunder under the color of law. Disarmed and helpless, they had witnessed violence and rape. Young and his co-religionists had been thoroughly whipped. Later actions suggest that Young emerged from this experience with a fixed determination that if ever it was in his power they would not be so whipped again. The cities of Zion should be free and independent, not mocked and desecrated by lawless enemies of God and man. The Saints would gather again and, if General Clark’s prediction held, they would again face enemies. Next time it would be different. ^[350]