8 The Temporary Ascendancy of Brigham Young and the Twelve: Discipleship during Crisis, 1838–1839

The imprisonment of the Presidency left the Missouri Mormons without their customary leaders at a time of severe crisis. If the society was to survive intact—indeed if many now impoverished by plunder yet facing a winter exodus were to survive at all—it would take leadership of a high order to encourage, to give direction, to coordinate resources. It was this task that fell on Brigham Young and Heber Kimball, first because they were there and understood what had to be done, and then by official directive from the Presidency.

Ten weeks into their captivity, 16 January 1839, Joseph Smith and his counselors Sidney Rigdon and Hyrum Smith addressed an important letter to “Bros H C Kimball and B Young.” It began with an answer to the query of Young and Kimball about leaving Missouri: “It is not wisdom for you to go out of Caldwell [County] with your families yet for a little season untill we are out of Prison.” No doubt the Presidency hoped soon to be free, able to join them in their journey to a new home. They must stay also, for with the Presidency in prison, continued the letter, “the management of the affairs of the Church devolves on you[,] that is the Twelve.”^1[360]

Perhaps it had important meaning for the future role of the Twelve that the Presidency did not appoint Brigham Young and Heber Kimball to preside in their absence simply because they thought the two men the most effective priesthood officers on hand. The letter gave no hint of that. Instead, it specifically suggested that because the Presidency were not able, leadership responsibilities naturally devolved “on you[,] that is the Twelve.”² Until the Presidency were released, the responsibility of all the affairs of the Church lay with the Twelve. From the first, the theology of the office had allowed for this, but by assignment the Twelve’s responsibility had been limited. Now, with the other leadership quorums in disarray and the Presidency disabled, everything came under their jurisdiction.

In this exigency, however, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles hardly appeared to be a powerful tool. Because of apostasy, death, and imprisonment, the Quorum of the Twelve was as disorganized as other quorums. The departure of the Johnson brothers, McLellen, and Boynton left four vacancies in the quorum, and before any of those named to fill them had been ordained, the disaffections of Marsh and Hyde created two more. Patten was dead, Parley Pratt in prison and William Smith could not be relied upon. Unless Orson Pratt had recently arrived in Far West from his New York assignment, only Brigham Young and Heber Kimball of the original Twelve could assist the Saints in the ravished Missouri settlements.

Yet it was also a quorum on the way up. In this same January letter of appointment, the Presidency “nominated’’ George A. Smith and Lyman Sherman to fill the vacancies left by the departure ^[361] of Marsh and Hyde, and instructed Young and Kimball “to get the twelve together ordain such as have not ben ordained, or at least such of them as you can get”—some were not in Missouri—and then, as a quorum, “proceed to regulate the Elders as the Lord may give you wisdom.” Before the Presidency penned this letter, two had been ordained, and more ordinations would soon follow. How would the reviving quorum be organized? An important postscript said simply: “Appoint the oldest of the Twelve who were firs[t] appointed, to be the President of your Quorum.” Heber Kimball and Brigham Young, both born in June 1801, had birthdays only a few days apart. It is possible that Joseph Smith did not know that by his postscript Brigham Young became president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.³

Young and Kimball had known most of the new appointees for several years. George A. Smith and Wilford Woodruff had shared with them the experiences of Zion’s Camp and much since. John Taylor they had met in the spring of 1837 when he used his formidable preacher’s skills in defense of the Prophet. Willard Richards, baptized by his cousins Brigham and Heber in December 1836, had lived and traveled with Brigham Young and was presently on a mission in England. They had first met Lyman Sherman in 1832 on their way to Kirtland and knew his integrity. Presumably they had associated with John E. Page at least since his move to Kirtland in the fall of 1835. If Young and Kimball had reservations about any of these men, they went unrecorded. Clearly they welcomed the additional laborers and the opportunity for the Twelve to organize and function again. And clearly they recognized ^[362] kindred spirits in the steadfast, warm and likable Woodruff and Smith, with whom they had already shared so much. In contrast to the men they replaced, these were men of proven loyalty to Joseph Smith and the principles he promoted, men who shared with Young and Kimball a similar perspective of the kingdom.

It was vital that the Twelve agreed on common goals and directions for the Church, for this would be a time of decision. Building the kingdom and creating a Zion society required a gathered people, and that required a gathering place. Now there was none. The January letter to Kimball and Young recognized that the gathering had temporarily stopped. Joseph Smith, however, saw the cessation as a necessity only until a new place could be located and circumstances permitted another effort. Discouraged after repeated disappointments and difficulties occasioned in part by the Saints’ efforts to build tight communities apart from their neighbors, some of the Saints, including several important leaders, were ready to try something different. Why not live their religion scattered, a few here and a few there as other people? To scatter or to gather, a decision with implications for the entire Mormon theocracy, was something that Young and the Twelve must face in the months ahead.

Although the Twelve would, for a time, be responsible for the broader affairs of the Church, the January letter from the Presidency reminded them that their particular assignment of taking the gospel to the world was not suspended, “but under wise management can go on more rapidly than ever.” In spite of the disasters that had befallen the Saints, the July revelation ^[363] appointing the Twelve to a foreign mission still stood. Even if Brigham and Heber moved their families to safety, the letter stressed that they must return to leave for their foreign mission from the Far West temple site on the twenty-sixth of April as the revelation directed. “If we die for the testimony of Jesus we die, but whether we live or die let the work of God go on.” Fear not but be strong in the Lord, counselled the Presidency, and remember that the fiery trials are not strange but are the “afflictions by which [men] are perfected.”⁴

This January letter of appointment and instruction was not required for Young and Kimball to understand their responsibility, nor is there evidence it was used by them to bolster their authority. Already they had labored diligently for more than two months to comfort and assist the Missouri Saints and to maintain all the order and organization within the Church that circumstances permitted. Available records, though sparse, document their involvement in every aspect of church affairs in this troubled period. Mobbings, forced removal, imprisonment, and apostasy had left every quorum disrupted and church organization in disarray. Concluding by December that an early release of the Presidency was unlikely, Elders Young and Kimball led out in reorganizing the remaining Saints. So that they would have a properly constituted council to conduct affairs for the Far West Saints, including disfellowshipping those who had proven unfaithful, Young began with the high council.

Brigham Young and Heber Kimball set 13 December as the day to fill vacancies in the high council and reorganize that ^[364] body. Because disaffection and apostasy accompanied the physical assault upon the Church, Young made careful preparations to insure that those loyal to Joseph Smith prevailed. He first made certain that all the faithful high councilors would be present, along with several other loyal high priests. Then, as he later described the meeting, “I gave the H[igh] P[riests] the wink . . . we then drew up the disaffected & disfellowshipped them.” If all the disaffected ones had been present and united, “they wo[ul]d av whipt us out,” he admitted.⁵

Actually the reorganization and the sifting did not all occur at the same meeting. The minutes for 13 December confirm, however, Young’s concern for testing the feelings and loyalties of the officials present before reorganizing the council—even though he had secured the attendance of the most faithful. In response to the many who had expressed discouragement or disillusionment during the crisis, Young told them that “his faith . . . was the same as ever, and he fellowshipped all such as loved the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in act as well as word.” That, along with Heber Kimball’s affirmation that he felt “as formerly” about Joseph Smith and the work, set the tone for the meeting. Simeon Carter asserted that his faith, too, was “the same as ever.” He thought Joseph had been unwise in some things but he still believed in every revelation that had come through him and did not agree with those who thought him a fallen prophet. Others voiced their opinions that the scourges the Church experienced had been necessary and demonstrated the hand of God. After such expressions demonstrated considerable unity, high priests ^[365] were appointed to fill the vacancies, and the council stood ready for business.⁶

The meeting of the high council the next week proved equally important. On 19 December the council voted that, according to the July revelation, John E. Page and John Taylor be ordained to the apostleship to fill vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve.⁷ Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball then ordained them to the apostleship. This high council, presided over by the apostles, proceeded to give Elder Taylor his first assignment as an apostle—to join Bishop Partridge in petitioning the federal government for assistance. Perhaps it was also in this meeting that Heber Kimball and Alanson Ripley received the assignment to visit the prisoners frequently to cheer them up and coordinate with them.⁸

By the time Elders Young and Kimball received Joseph Smith’s 16 January letter, they had already attended to a number of things that had weighed on Smith and his imprisoned associates. Of course they had also had the benefit of some other communications with the prisoners.⁹ For example, they had a letter to the Saints that Smith had written from Liberty Jail, 16 December 1838. The letter combined strong denunciation of traitorous brethren with pointed exhortation and promise to the faithful. If the Saints remained true and lived worthy of the Lord’s blessing, wrote the Prophet, they had the promise that “Zion shall yet live though she seemeth to be dead.” And for the present, they should fear not for “the very God of peace shall be with you and make a way for your escape . . . we commend you to God.”¹⁰ While Joseph ^[366] Smith promised the blessings of God toward a safe removal of the faithful, the responsibility on earth rested with the apostles.

Since the depredations of November, Missouri Mormons had been leaving their homes and communities as fast as they were able. Although militia commanders had supposedly promised them the “privilege” of staying through the winter if they seeded no crops, armed men rode through the country threatening death to any Mormons they found after February. By January many of those remaining simply had no means to depart. Raiding parties had stolen or destroyed teams and wagons and left little of value to trade for new ones.¹¹

It was at this point that Brigham Young, according to later testimony, approached Bishop Partridge, whose stewardship was the temporal well-being of the Saints—particularly the assistance of the poor—and proposed that he assist the poor in leaving. Wearied, overburdened, without means to materially aid them, he supposedly replied, “The poor may take care of themselves, and I will take care of myself.”¹² Determined that something be done, Brigham Young, probably with the assistance of Heber Kimball, John Taylor, and other men, appointed a meeting to plan how to comply with the governor’s orders “to remove from the State of Missouri immediately.”

On 26 January, John Smith, uncle to the Prophet Joseph and assistant counselor in the Presidency, chaired the meeting. After several expressions of the “seeming impossibility” of removing all the Saints because of the poverty, the meeting appointed a committee of seven, including the three apostles with John Taylor as ^[367] chairman, to determine how many families could not leave without assistance and to appeal to Missouri citizens for aid. Agreeing that it was the duty of those with means to assist those without, the committee also appointed a survey of all the community’s resources. On motion of Brigham Young, the meeting of 29 January went further by agreeing to a covenant

to stand by and assist each other to the utmost of our abilities in removing from this state and . . . never desert the poor who are worthy till they shall be out of the reach of the exterminating order of Gen. Clark acting for and in the name of the state.¹³

Elias Smith, secretary of the meeting, then drew up a formal instrument and thirty-three men bound themselves “to the extent of all our available property . . . for providing means for the removing of the poor and destitute . . . till there shall not be one left who desires to remove from the state.” A committee of seven, soon increased to eleven, was then appointed to superintend removal. None of the Twelve sat on the committee, although Heber C. Kimball continued to work with it through April.¹⁴

At a meeting 1 February, Brigham Young and John Taylor urged “in the most forcible manner” the necessity of union in order to fulfill the covenant and carry out their resolutions.¹⁵ The following day additional copies of the covenant circulated among the Saints. Brigham Young evidently took the lead in enlisting signers, persuading eighty to subscribe to the covenant the first day and three hundred more the second.¹⁶

In late January, soon after the letter informing Young and Kimball of the appointments of George A. Smith and Lyman Sherman to the Twelve, Joseph and Hyrum asked their brother Don Carlos to ^[368] inform George A. of his call. When Hyrum asked him how he thought George A. would like the appointment, Don Carlos replied that traveling on foot was so laborious for George A., a young but large man, that he would dread it. “He must take a horse then,” replied Hyrum. When he learned of the call, George A. requested Don Carlos to tell no one else as he felt unprepared and unequal to the station.

I had felt very timid about conversing or making myself familiar with any of the Twelve, as Lyman E. Johnson, John Boyton and some of the others, who formerly belonged to the Quorum, had treated me rather aristocratically, which, added to the high respect I had for their calling, made me feel embarrassed in their presence.¹⁷

Learning that Brigham and Heber were leaving to visit the prisoners, George A. overcame his reticence, asked to join them, and the three mounted horses for Liberty.

At Liberty Jail the visitors spent supper hour locked up with the prisoners. George A. later remembered that Joseph Smith spent the hour talking with Brigham and Heber, pausing only to ask him how he felt about his call. The young man replied that he was pleased and would do his best to honor it. The next morning the three spent the breakfast hour with the prisoners before returning to Far West. Soon after this Lyman Sherman died of illness, never learning of his appointment as an apostle.¹⁸

Brigham Young had escaped arrest in the fall because of his low profile, but by February he was the one sought after. Though for a time he continued his labors by disguising himself or keeping hidden from those harassing Far West, by mid-February it became necessary for him to flee.¹⁹ Heber Kimball, still less ^[369] well known, agreed to remain behind to finish the removal and if possible aid the prisoners to escape. By April he, too, would be in hiding by day, counseling with the committee only at night. Less well known than Heber, George A. Smith also materially aided the removal efforts.

On 14 February, in the midst of bitter winter cold, Brigham Young, his family, Heber’s family, and others departed Far West. Brigham Young shepherded across northern Missouri at this time more Saints than he had teams and wagons to move. After advancing with one part of the camp as rapidly and as far as possible, he returned with equipment to bring up more, leaving Mary Ann to care for his family. Even with great exertions, it was only with the aid of friendly Missourians that Young’s family escaped severe frostbite and perhaps even death before gaining refuge in Atlas, Pike County, Illinois. Although others of his camp went to the area around Quincy, Illinois, Young and his family spent several weeks in Atlas. Perhaps he knew from previous visits that he would be welcomed there.²⁰

While Young worked his way to a place of refuge, Joseph Smith remained imprisoned in Liberty Jail. No doubt both men had ample time that winter to ponder the events of the preceding season and attempt to draw lessons from them. No contemporary letters reveal Young’s conclusions, but it is likely that he agreed with the sentiments expressed by Smith in lengthy letters from his lonely imprisonment. At the same time Smith’s heart went out to his suffering brethren, he could not forget not yet forgive “the wickedness and corruption of false brethren” that had greatly ^[370] multiplied the sorrows of the Saints. His feelings rebelled at the actions of men who should have been brothers but who turned to meanness and revenge. Among others, Smith mentioned specifically the Three Witnesses, the former counselors in the Missouri presidency, and William McLellen. The last two defectors from the Twelve he singled out for special comment, saying with bitterness that Marsh and Hyde had a cloak of hypocrisy instead of inner strength and integrity to uphold them in the hour of trouble. Although the Savior had said that offenses must come, he also said wo unto those by whom they came: “We confess that we are offended.”²¹

Once Brigham Young had done all he could toward a safe removal from Missouri, the next decision he and the Saints faced had to do with the gathering: should they immediately gather again, and if so where? Joseph Smith had promised in his December letter that Zion would rise again—but only the Lord knew the timetable. No doubt Young and Kimball discussed this with Joseph during their February visit to Liberty Jail, but it is unlikely that Smith had definitive advice to give, other than to reinforce, if that were needed, the idea that the Saints must, indeed, find a new place to gather. A late March letter from prison acknowledged the importance of finding “places for the location of the saints,” but concluded that for the time being other church authorities would have to make the decisions for “we cannot council you in this thing as well as if we were with you.” Later in the same letter the Presidency wrote that they felt strongly that the Church would “do well” to secure certain Iowa lands that had been offered ^[371] them.²² They went on to say, however, that “the saints aught to lay hold of every opening, in order to obtain a foot hold on the earth,” and suggested specifically only the propriety of brethren settling any promising places between Far West and Kirtland “until God shall open out a more effectual door.”²³

With no place appointed for refuge and regrouping, the Saints had scattered, each to whatever places of shelter or opportunity they found available. Just as Brigham Young had foreseen in the spring, practical reasons forced most of them to head east toward Illinois, where Quincy and some other communities gave them assistance and welcome. Bishop Partridge took up residence in the Quincy area, as did Sidney Rigdon when broken health won him a release from prison before Joseph Smith and the others. By the time Brigham Young left Far West inmid-February, Quincy was becoming a de facto temporary headquarters for the Church.

In a letter that Bishop Edward Partridge wrote to Joseph Smith from Quincy 5 March 1839, he noted that Quincy was full of church members, many of whom would no doubt accept the invitation to settle there. Still, it was only one of many places of refuge and the Saints, he wrote, “are scattering off nearly all the while.”²⁴

At a meeting in Quincy a few days later, President Rigdon read a letter from Isaac Galland about lands in nearby Iowa that he would sell on reasonable terms and then led in appointing a committee to investigate the place. When the committee returned from Iowa with a favorable report, the Saints in Quincy held a ^[372] conference to consider “the Expedience of Locating the Church in some place.” Based on the report of the committee, William Marks, who was chosen president of the meeting, came down in favor of the purchase “providing that it was the will of the Lord that we should again gather together.” That, indeed, was the central concern in many minds. If it was right to gather, why had they again been scattered? Marks observed that being driven from other places had almost led him to conclude that it was not wise to gather. He invited all present to express their views. Some spoke in favor of “an immedate gathering.” Others, like Bishop Partridge, shared the fears expressed by Marks and thought it not presently expedient. Rather than to settle together, Partridge thought they should “scatter into different parts and provide for the poor which will be acceptable to God.” After more discussion, the bishop carried the day and it was agreed unanimously that at the present it was not advisable to settle on the Iowa lands as a gathered people.²⁵

Although Sidney Rigdon had urged that the lands be examined and was a member of the committee to examine them, there are indications that he was among those who had serious misgivings about the Saints immediately gathering once again. In 1837–1838 no one had more forcefully and eloquently preached the gathering than had Sidney Rigdon.²⁶ But the Missouri persecutions and his own imprisonment greatly diminished his enthusiasm. John Taylor remembered Rigdon advising the brethren that each should make his own way “for the work seems as though it has come to an end.” Perhaps it was at the same occasion that Brigham Young heard him urge the Saints to scatter, each man doing the best he could for ^[373] himself, for the “work of gathering . . . the Saints we will not accomplish, these Saints will never be gathered again.” Young responded forcefully that although president Rigdon and others thought it impossible, the Saints would, indeed, be gathered again and eventually the Prophet would be among them.²⁷

For his part, Young, too, recognized that the gathering and the related way of life promoted by the Saints had provoked and would continue to provoke hostility among neighbors. There would be no lasting peace and no independent Zion of strength until they could have a refuge apart from others. But there could be no kingdom without a gathered people. The gathering was central and could not be abandoned. Until the way finally opened for them to go to a secure place, they must, once again, make the effort.²⁸

By mid-March Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, and John Taylor had joined the Saints gathering in Quincy. They met in council for several hours the evening of 17 March and again the following day when they agreed to immediately move their own families to Quincy so they could begin meeting and operating as a quorum. If all the Saints could not yet be gathered, at least the Twelve could; Quincy would for the time being serve as headquarters.²⁹

Sunday, 17 March, the three apostles also met in conference with the Saints. “B. Young took the lead of the meeting & gave much important instruction there,”³⁰ wrote Woodruff in his diary. Young described the circumstances of the Saints in Far West and presented a letter from the Far West committee on removal asking for teams and money to move fifty poor families to Quincy. He ^[374] later reported that, as poor as they were, the Saints at Quincy “manifested a spirit of willingness to do their utmost. They were ready to sell their hats coats & shoes to accomplish the object.” After the meeting Young collected $50 and the promise of many teams to go back and bring out the destitute.³¹

Young’s instructions at the important conference included warnings against scattering and the counsel that they should, at least, settle in companies or where they could be organized into churches and “nourished and fed by the shepherds” until a new gathering place was appointed. He urged the Saints to follow those whom God had appointed to counsel and lead them, for there was order in the kingdom of God, “and we must regard that order if we expect to be blessed.”³² George Harris followed Elder Young. He spoke of those who had deserted the Church “in the time of our perils, persecutions and dangers.” By unanimous vote the conference cut off from the Church a number of individuals. With the notable exception of Frederick G. Williams, the list included mainly those whom Joseph Smith had written against in his December letter, including Thomas B. Marsh.³³

It is possible that Brigham Young mistakenly included Frederick G. Williams on this list of those to be voted out. While Williams was clearly a dissenter during the winter of 1837–1838, he rejoined the Church in the summer of 1838 and no evidence of later disloyalty has surfaced. Perhaps it was enough for Young that he had not been visibly present in Far West and acting in defense of the Saints “in the times of our perils.” In the important reorganization meeting on 13 December in Far West, Young ^[375] stressed that he fellowshipped those who loved the Savior and the gospel “in act as well as word.”³⁴ Perhaps in this Quincy conference Young was as prepared to cut off influential members who had failed to aid them as those who did them injury. With neither investigation nor testimony, the Quincy vote merely reflected the feelings of those present. Family tradition suggests that Williams was, in fact, absent on a mission given him by Joseph Smith when the difficulties erupted and that Young interpreted his absence as disloyalty.³⁵ Whatever the reasons, when Willaims was rebaptized a year later, he asked forgiveness for his conduct and expressed determination to do the will of God in the future. Young apparently bore no personal malice. When he learned of Williams’s return, he wrote to his wife that it gave him great comfort and that he longed to hear of more returning.³⁶

If Frederick G. Williams was a notable addition to the list of those cut off on 17 March, there were also two notable absences: Orson Hyde and William Smith. There are indications that the Missouri disasters triggered in Joseph’s volatile younger brother William still another rage. Not only did William fail to visit and support his imprisoned brothers (in contrast to the efforts of Samuel and Don Carlos Smith, for example), but it was later said that he publicly expressed the hope that his brother Joseph would never get out of the hands of his enemies alive, and further, that if it had been up to him, “he would have hung him years before.”³⁷ After leaving Missouri in the fall of 1838, William moved to Plymouth, Illinois, and it is likely that the Quincy apostles did not know his location. It is also likely that they ^[376] were content to postpone William’s case until he was present—and perhaps Joseph and Hyrum Smith, as well.³⁸

It may be that Orson Hyde was not cut off with Thomas Marsh because Brigham Young had already learned of his change of heart and desire to return. Feeling deep sorrow for his actions, Hyde in February had approached Heber Kimball in Far West to seek his council. Kimball admonished him “very strongly” to return to the Church and to accompany the Twelve to England, where he had earlier helped Kimball open the work. Although Hyde feared the brethren would never forgive him, Kimball reassured him he could be forgiven and promised to be his advocate. Hyde told Kimball that fear had influenced him to act as he had. Years later he wrote that he would mention only one cause for having “sinned against God and my brethren” at this time: “that I did not possess the light of the Holy Ghost.”³⁹

In late March, Orson Hyde wrote to Brigham Young, now president of his quorum, mentioning the advice that Heber had given him and promising when they met a full explanation and a full confession. The past winter had been one of torment as he struggled with himself and God, he reported, “so exercised that I would neither work nor sleep, and would frequently find myself weeping.” He could not help but compare that with his feelings a few months before when he returned from his successful mission to England, without guilt and in harmony with God. The Danites had truly been a trial to him, he noted, for he learned about the secrets from several who had been initiated: “But these things do ^[377] not rest upon my mind with that weight which they did at that time.” As to the terms for his return, he was not particular:

the chastening hand of the Lord has don for me that which nothing else would, I think. If the Church will accept me as a minister, or a sol[d]ier, or a door-keeper, they can have me. I need not write to you that I have litterally died and ben rased from the dead. . . . Brigham, will you forgive me: will the Church forgive me: If, so God will forgive me.

Whatever the disposition of his case, the sincere wish of his heart was that “Mount Zion” prosper, wrote Hyde in closing, signing himself “your Younger Brother in a distant land feeding swine.”⁴⁰

If Hyde’s trials had made him low, the trials of the Saints who had remained steadfast had tempered and strengthened them and had united them. Brigham Young and others of the apostles later said that the Church never enjoyed more of the spirit of God than during their worst persecutions. Heber Kimball reflected this in his March 1839 report to England on the state of the Church:

Brethren, I can truly say that I have never seen the Church in a better state since I have been a member of it. What there are left are firm and steadfast, full of love and good works. They have lost all their earthly goods, and are now ready to go and preach the gospel to a dying world.⁴¹

If the Saints had gradually regained their enthusiasm and their optimism, so had their Prophet—in spite of continued imprisonment. Months of close confinement with poor food and forced separation from his family and friends had not broken him. Rather his private meditations had mellowed and matured him. Patience, new understanding and sensitivity, and gradually a renewed spirit of optimism replaced anger and enmity. After more than four months of confinement Smith wrote in March several letters that demonstrate his enthusiasm when contemplating the work ahead.^{42 [378]}

Joseph Smith especially looked with anticipation toward the day he could again teach the Saints. Although he had tried to prepare the Saints in the past to receive new teachings, external adversity, internal division, and impatient Saints who had run before they were sent had interfered. Some of these earlier problems, he had now concluded, were because

many things were introduced among the Saints, before God had signified the time, and notwithstanding the principles and the plans may have been good, yet aspiring men . . . brought trouble, both upon themselves and the saints at large.⁴³

At the proper time those plans and principles would be reintroduced, along with things never taught before. So far, insisted the Prophet, he had “never had the opportunity to give [the Church] the plan that God has revealed to me.” Timing was important—the Saints must be prepared and God must approve. But Joseph was certain that the time was near “when God will signify many things.”⁴⁴ Since first meeting the Prophet in 1832, Young had treasured the opportunities to learn from him. These promises of more to come must have held great interest for the senior apostle.

Joseph Smith further emphasized the expansiveness of Mormon belief, with the suggestion that his future teachings promised more innovation, in another prison letter that March. Providing an overview of Mormon belief for a man he had not met, the Prophet stressed that “Mormonism is truth,” and that those who embraced it felt at liberty to embrace “all truth.” Mormonism ideally, thought Smith, freed men from superstition and ignorance so they could accept all that God revealed, “without being circumscribed or prohibited by the creeds or superstitious notions of men.” ^[379] Indeed, if God does speak to man, man should accept all that is revealed, for “where is the man who is authorized to put his finger on the spot and say, thus far shalt thou go and no farther: there is no man. Therefore let us receive the whole, or none.”⁴⁵ Though innovation, especially things that went against traditionally accepted Christian notions, had already contributed to the difficulties of the Church, more could be expected.

On 17 April 1839, Brigham Young presided over a conference in Quincy at which he presented George A. Smith to be sustained as one of the Twelve. The Saints sustained George A., but not without Reynolds Cahoon’s remarks that “there had been so much apostasy among the Twelve that he hoped the saints would exercise faith to keep this one from flying the track.”⁴⁶ The Twelve then held a council with other church officials about returning to Missouri to fulfill the “revelation & commandment of the Lord” which required them to “take leave of my saints in the city of Far West” on 26 April and begin their mission abroad.⁴⁷ Some present, certain the Lord would take the will for the deed, did not expect the Twelve to fulfill it, reported Young later of the occasion, “but I felt differently and so did the Twelve who were with me.” Brigham no doubt remembered the Presidency’s reminder written in January that they must return and fulfill the revelation. He may also have known that anti-Mormons had boasted that the revelation could not be fulfilled, clear evidence that Joseph Smith was not a prophet. After each of the Twelve separately expressed their feelings, Young announced that “the Lord God had spoken & it was our business to obey, & the Lord would take care ^[380] of us.” All present agreed to go and fulfill the revelation.⁴⁸ The next day Elders Young, Pratt, Taylor, Woodruff, and George A. Smith, accompanied by Alpheus Cutler, named master builder for the Far West Temple, set out for Missouri—unaware that Joseph and Hyrum Smith and other Liberty Jail prisoners had been allowed to escape and were already on their way to Illinois.

Two weeks earlier eight men, including John Whitmer and Captain Bogart, who had led the mob forces in the Battle of Crooked River, confronted Theodore Turley, one of the Far West committee on removal, in his office. Bogart presented Turley with a copy of the revelation directing the Twelve to leave Far West and asked him to read it, saying:

[Joseph] and the Twelve are now scattered all over creation; let them come here if they dare; if they do, they will be murdered. As that revelation cannot be fulfilled, you will now give up your faith.

Turley’s insistence in the name of God that the revelation would be fulfilled brought laughter and scorn.⁴⁹

Pressure on the remaining Far West Saints increased so much that on 14 April Kimball and the committee removed the last thirty-six families to a grove twenty-five miles away.⁵⁰ On the sixteenth the mob rode into Far West to “tantalize the committee on the subject of the revelation” and threaten any Mormons who would not immediately leave the nearly deserted town.⁵¹ On the eighteenth Kimball was abused and threatened as he went to the committee room to notify the committee to leave before they were killed. Right behind him, the rabble commenced breaking up furniture. They injured Turley and raised such an uproar that within an hour the ^[381] committee had all fled for their lives. According to Kimball, the men destroyed many of the accounts and records of the committee and plundered the remaining property that had been assembled to aid the poor in leaving.⁵²

By the time he was forced to leave Far West, Kimball had learned of the escape of the Liberty Jail prisoners. He immediately rode towards Quincy, Illinois, until, satisfied that they had safely left Missouri, he returned and traveled to Richmond with Shadrach Roundy to visit through the bars with Parley Pratt and other prisoners still held there. Because some thought that Kimball and Roundy must have aided the Liberty prisoners to escape and intended to do the same in Richmond, they quickly withdrew. The two men returned to the Far West area on 25 April and secreted themselves, hoping that Brigham Young and others would soon arrive. That night Elders Young, Orson Pratt, Page, Taylor, Woodruff, and Smith of the Twelve, along with a number of Saints, arrived by moonlight and in the early morning rode into the public square of Far West.⁵³

The small conference of twenty-five members and officials first excommunicated by vote nearly three dozen of their former associates who had failed to remain loyal during the difficulties of the fall and winter. They then sang a hymn about the mission of the Twelve and rolled a large stone onto the temple site. After Wilford Woodruff and George A. Smith received their ordinations as apostles and two other men (who had been released from Richmond Jail only two days before) as seventies, Alpheus Cutler directed the placement of the stone to commence the ^[382] foundation of the temple. All seven of the apostles prayed in turn according to their order in the Quorum, then “the twelve took their leave of the Saints agreeable to revelation.”⁵⁴ Before departing, some of the brethren wandered the deserted streets, observing grass once again where only months before foot and wagon traffic packed soils hard. Their enemies, thought Taylor, certain that they would not risk appearing, had not even posted a guard.⁵⁵ Theodore Turley aroused Isaac Russell, one of those just cut off by the meeting, to astonish him with the news that the Twelve had just left Far West.

For Wilford Woodruff the events of this day were worthy of record “for a Revelation of God & commandment” was fulfilled “under trying circumstances which to all human appearance could not have been done.” While the Twelve and the committee traveled to Tenny’s Grove to accompany the last of the faithful from Missouri, their enemies converged on Far West from several points to discover that they had already transacted their business and departed. In addition to gratitude for their own safety, Woodruff expressed in his diary the thankfulness he and his fellow apostles felt in leaving Missouri accompanied by the last of the Saints, according to the covenant they had made to see all the poor removed.⁵⁶

On 3 May the Twelve had a joyous reunion with Joseph and Hyrum Smith—“one of the greatest days of rejoicing in my life,” thought Kimball. Elders Young, Kimball, Taylor, George A. Smith, Woodruff, and probably Orson Pratt traveled together the four miles from Quincy to where Joseph and his family resided. Wrote Woodruff ^[383] in his journal, “Brother Joseph . . . greeted us with great joy . . . was frank open & familiar as usual Sister Emma was truly happy . . . & after spending the day rejoicing together we returned to Quincy.” Young also later noted that seeing Joseph free and again striking hands with him was one of the most joyful scenes in his memory: “Joseph conversed with us like a man who had just escaped from a thousand oppressions, and was now free in the midst of his children.”⁵⁷ Brigham Young was content to be one of those children. Defending Joseph and leading in his absence had brought Young prominence, but now his prophet had returned. Young would retain his role as defender while he resumed his roles as associate and student of Joseph Smith. ^[384]