CHAPTER XV.
After Smith's Death--Rigdon's Last Days
The People in a Panic--The Mormon Leaders for Peace--The Future Government of the Church-- Brigham Young's Victory--Rigdon's Trial before the High Council-- Verdict Against Him--His Church in Pennsylvania--His Ambition to be the Head of a Distinct Church--A Visit from Heavenly Messengers--His Last Days
THE murder of the Smiths caused a
panic, not among the Mormons, but among the other inhabitants of Hancock
County, who looked for summary vengeance at the hands of the prophet's
followers, with their famous Legion to support them. The state militia having
been disbanded, the people considered themselves without protection, and
Governor Ford shared their apprehension. Carthage was at once almost
depopulated, the people fleeing in wagons, on horseback, and on foot, and most
of the citizens of Warsaw placed the river between them and their enemies.
"I was sensible," says Governor Ford, "that my command was at an
end; that my destruction was meditated as well as the Mormons', and that I
could not reasonably confide longer in one party or the other." The
panic-stricken executive therefore set out at once for Quincy, forty miles from
the scene of the murder.
From that city the governor issued a statement to the
people of the state, reciting the events leading up to the recent tragedy, and,
under date of June 29, ordered the enlistment of as many men as possible in the
militia of Adams, Marquette, Pike, Brown, Schuyler, Morgan, Scott, Cass,
Fulton, and McDonough counties, and the regiments of General Stapp's brigade,
for a twelve days' campaign. The independent companies of all sorts, in the
same counties, were also told to hold themselves in readiness, and the federal
government was asked to station a force of five hundred men from the regular
army in Hancock County. This last request was not complied with. The governor
then sent Colonel Fellows and Captain Jonas to Nauvoo by the first boat, to
find out the intentions of the Mormons as well as those of the people of
Warsaw.
Meanwhile the voice of the Mormon leaders was for
peace. Willard Richards, John Taylor, and Samuel H. Smith united in a letter
(written in the first person singular by Richards), on the night of the
murders, addressed to the prophet's widow, General Deming (commanding at
Carthage), and others, which said: --
"The people of the county are greatly
excited, and fear the Mormons will come out and take vengeance. I have pledged
my word the Mormons will stay at home as soon as they can be informed, and no
violence will be on their part. And say to my brethren in Nauvoo, in the name
of the Lord, be still, be patient; only let such friends as choose come here to
see the bodies. Mr. Taylor's wounds are dressed and not serious. I am
sound."
This quieting advice was heeded without even a protest,
and after the funeral of the victims the Mormons voted unanimously to depend on
the law for retribution.
While things temporal in Nauvoo remained quiet, there
were deep feeling and great uncertainty concerning the future of the church.
The First Presidency had consisted, since the action of the conference at Far
West in 1837, of Joseph and Hyrum Smith and Sidney Rigdon. Two of these were
now dead. Did this leave Rigdon as the natural head, did Smith's son inherit
the successorship, or did the supreme power rest with the Twelve Apostles?
Discussion of this matter brought out many plans, including a general
reorganization of the church, and the appointment of a trustee or a president.
Rigdon had been sent to Pittsburg to build up a church,1 and Brigham
Young was electioneering in New Hampshire for Smith. Accordingly, Phelps,
Richards; and Taylor, on July 1 issued a brief statement to the church at
large, asking all to await the assembling of the Twelve.
1 John Taylor so stated at Rigdon's coming trial. This, perhaps, contradicts the statement in the Cannons' "Life of Brigham Young" that Rigdon had gone there "to escape the turmoils of Nauvoo."
Rigdon arrived in Nauvoo on August 3, and preached
the next day in the grove. He said the Lord had shown him a vision, and that
there must be a "guardian" appointed to "build the church up to
Joseph" as he had begun it. Cannon's account, in the "Juvenile
Instructor," says that at a meeting at John Taylor's the next day Rigdon
declared that the church was in confusion and must have ahead, and he wanted a
special meeting called to choose a "guardian." On the evening of
August 6, Young, H. C. Kimball, Lyman Wight, Orson Pratt, Orson Hyde, and
Wilford Woodruff arrived from the East. A meeting of the Twelve Apostles, the
High Council, and high priests was called for August 7, at 4 P. M., which
Rigdon attended. He declared that in a vision at Pittsburg it had been shown to
him that he had been ordained a spokesman to Joseph, and that he must see that
the church was governed in a proper manner. "I propose," said he,
"to be a guardian of the people. In this I have discharged my duty and
done what God has commanded me, and the people can please themselves, whether
they accept me or not."
A special meeting of the church was held on the morning
of August 8. Rigdon had previously addressed a gathering in the grove, but he
had not been winning adherents. As we have seen, he had alienated himself from
the men who had accepted Smith's new social doctrines, and a plan which he
proposed, that the church should move to Pennsylvania, appealed neither to the
good judgment nor the pecuniary interests of those to whom it was presented.
Young made an address at this meeting which so wrought up his hearers that they
declared that they saw the mantle of Joseph fall upon him. When he asked,
"Do you want a guardian, a prophet, a spokesman, or what do you
want?" not a hand went up. Young then went on to give his own view of the
situation; his argument pointed to a single result -- the demolition of
Rigdon's claim and the establishment of the supreme authority of the Twelve, of
whom Young himself was the head. W. W. Phelps, P. P. Pratt, and others
sustained Young's view. Before a vote wa s taken, according to the minutes
quoted, Rigdon refused to have his name voted on as "spokesman" or
guardian. The meeting then voted unanimously in favor of "supporting the
Twelve in their calling," and also that the Twelve should appoint two
Bishops to act as trustees for the church, and that the completion of the
Temple should be pushed.2
2 For minutes of this church meeting, see Times and Seasons, Vol. V, p. 637. For a full account of the happenings at Nauvoo, from August 3 to 8, see "Historical Record" (Mormon), Vol VIII, pp. 785-800.
On August 15 Young, as president of the Twelve,
issued an epistle to the church in all the world in which he said: --
"Let no man presume for a moment that his
{the Prophet's} place will be filled by another; for, remember he stands in
his own place, and always will, and the Twelve Apostles of this
dispensation stand in their own place, and always will, both in time and
eternity, to minister, preside, and regulate the affairs of the whole
church."
The epistle told the Saints also that "it is
not wisdom for the Saints to have anything to do with politics, voting, or
president-making at present."
Rigdon remained in Nauvoo after the decision of the
church in favor of the Twelve, preaching as of old, declaring that he was with
the brethren heart and soul, and urging the completion of the Temple. But Young
regarded him as a rival, and determined to put their strength to a test.
Accordingly, on Tuesday, September 3, he had a notice printed in the
Neighbor directing Rigdon to appear on the following Sunday for trial
before a High Council presided over by Bishop Whitney. Rigdon did not attend
this trial, not only because he was not well, but because, after a conference
with his friends, he decided that the case against him was made up and that his
presence would do no good.3
3 For the minutes of this High Council, see Times and Seasons, Vol. V, pp. 647-655, 660-667.
When the High Council met, Young expressed a
disbelief in Rigdon's reported illness. He said that, having heard that Rigdon
had ordained men to be prophets, priests, and kings, he and Orson Hyde had
obtained from Rigdon a confession that he had performed the act of ordination,
and that he believed he held authority above any man in the church. That
evening eight of the Twelve had visited him at his house, and, getting
confirmation of his position, had sent a committee to him to demand his
license. This he had refused to surrender, saying, "I did not receive it
from you, neither shall I give it up to you." Then came the order for his
trial.
Orson Hyde presented the case against Rigdon in detail.
He declared that, when they demanded the surrender of his license, Rigdon
threatened to turn traitor, "His own language was, 'Inasmuch as you have
demanded my license, I shall feel it my duty to publish all your secret
meetings, and all the history of the secret works of this church, in the public
journals.'4 He intimated that it would bring a mob upon us."
Parley P. Pratt, the member of Rigdon's old church in Ohio, who, according to
his own account, first called Rigdon's attention to the Mormon Bible, next
spoke against his old friend.
4 Lee thus explains one of these "secret works;" "The same winter {1843} he {Smith} organized what was called 'The Council of Fifty.' This was a confidential organization. This Council was designated as a lawmaking department, but no record was ever kept of its doings, or, if kept, they were burned at the close of each meeting. Whenever anything of importance was on foot, this Council was called to deliberate upon it. The Council was called the 'Living Constitution.' Joseph said that no legislature could enact laws that would meet every case, or attain the ends of justice in all respects." -- "Mormonism Unveiled," p.173.
After Amasa Lyman, John Taylor, and H. C. Kimball
had spoken against Rigdon, Brigham Young took the floor again, and in reply to
the threat that Rigdon would expose the secrets of the church, he denounced him
in the following terms: --
"Brother Sidney says, if we go to opposing
him, he will tell our secrets. But I would say, 'O, don't, brother Sidney!
don't tell our secrets -- O, don't!' But if he tells our secrets, we will tell
his. Tit for tat. He has had long visions in Pittsburg, revealing to him
wonderful iniquity among the Saints. Now, if he knows of so much iniquity, and
has got such wonderful power, why don't he purge it out? He professes to have
the keys of David. Wonderful power and revelations! And he will publish our
iniquity. O, dear brother Sidney, don't publish our iniquity! Now don't! If
Sidney Rigdon undertakes to publish all our secrets, as he says, he will lie
the first jump he takes. If he knew of all our iniquity why did he not publish
it sooner? If there is so much iniquity in the church as you talk of, Elder
Rigdon, and you have known of it so long, you are a black-hearted wretch
because you have not published it sooner. If there is not this iniquity, you
are a black-hearted wretch for endeavo ring to bring a mob upon us, to murder
innocent men, women and children. Any man that says the Twelve are
bogus-makers, or adulterers, or wicked men is a liar; and all who say such
things shall have the fate of liars, where there is weeping and gnashing of
teeth. Who is there who has seen us do such things? No man. The spirit that I
am of tramples such slanderous wickedness under my feet."5
5 William Small, in a letter to the Pittsburg Messenger and Advocate, p. 70, relates that when be met Rigdon on his arrival at St. Louis by boat after this trial, Orson Hyde, who was also a passenger and thought Small was with the Twelve, addressed Small, asking him to intercede with Rigdon not to publish the secret acts of the church, and telling him that if Rigdon would come back and stand equal with the Twelve and counsel with them, he would pledge himself, in behalf of the Twelve, that all they had said against Rigdon would be revoked.
At this point the proceedings had a rather
startling interruption. William Marks, president of the Stake at Nauvoo, and a
member of the High Council (who, as we have seen, had rebelled against the
doctrine of polygamy when it was presented to him) took the floor in Rigdon's
defence. But it was in vain.
W. W. Phelps moved that Rigdon "be cut off from
the church, and delivered over to the buffetings of Satan until he
repents." The vote by the Council in favor of this motion was unanimous,
but when it was offered to the church, some ten members voted against it.
Phelps at once moved that all who had voted to follow Rigdon should be
suspended until they could be tried by the High Council, and this was agreed to
unanimously, with an amendment including the words, "or shall hereafter be
found advocating his principles." After compelling President Marks, by
formal motion, to acknowledge his satisfaction with the action of the church,
the meeting adjourned.
Rigdon's next steps certainly gave substance to his
brother's theory that his mind was unbalanced, the family having noticed his
peculiarities from the time he was thrown from a horse, when a boy.6
He soon returned to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where his first step was to
"resuscitate" the Messenger and Advocate, which had died at
Kirtland. In a signed article in the first number he showed that he then
intended "to contend for the same doctrines, order of government, and
discipline maintained by that paper when first published at Kirtland," in
other words, to uphold the Mormon church as he had known it, with himself at
its head. But his old desire for original leadership got the better of him, and
after a conference of the membership he had gathered around him, held in
Pittsburg in April, 1845, at which he was voted "First President, Prophet,
Seer, Revelator, and Translator," he issued an address to the public in
which he declared that his Church of Christ was neither a branch nor connection
of the church at Nauvoo, and that it received members of the Church of
Latter-Day Saints only after baptism and repentance.7 In an article
in his organ, on July 15, 1845, he made assertions like these: "The Church
of Christ and the Mormons are so widely different in their respective beliefs
that they are of necessity opposed to one another, as far as religion is
concerned.... There is scarcely one point of similarity.... The Church of
Christ has obtained a distinctive character."
6 Baptist Witness, March
1, 1875.
7 Pittsburg Messenger and Advocate,
p. 220.
Rigdon told the April conference that he had one
unceasing desire, namely, to know whether God would accept their work. At the
suggestion of the spirit, he had taken some of the brethren into a room in his
house that morning, and had consecrated them. What there occurred he thus
described: --
"After the washing and anointing, and the
patriarchal seal, as the Lord had directed me, we kneeled and in solemn prayer
asked God to accept the work we had done. During the time of prayer there
appeared over our heads in the room a ray of light forming a hollow square,
inside of which stood a company of heavenly messengers, each with a banner in
his hand, with their eyes looking downward upon us, their countenance
expressive of the deep interest they felt in what was passing on the earth.
There also appeared heavenly messengers on horseback, with crowns upon their
heads, and plumes floating in the air, dressed in glorious attire, until, like
Elisha, we cried in our hearts, 'The chariots of Israel and the horsemen
thereof.' Even my little son of fourteen years of age saw the vision, and gazed
with great astonishment, saying that he thought his imagination was running
away with him. After which we arose and lifted our hands to heaven in holy
convocation to God; at which time was shown an angel in heaven registering the
acceptance of our work, and the decree of the Great God that the kingdom is
ours and we shall prevail."
While the conference was in session, Pittsburg was
visited by a disastrous conflagration. Rigdon prayed for the sufferers by the
fire and asked God to check it. "During the prayer" (this quotation
is from the official report of the conference in the Messenger and
Advocate, p. 186), "an escort of the heavenly messengers that had
hovered around us during the time of this conference were seen leaving the
room; the course of the wind was instantly changed, and the violence of the
flames was stayed."
Rigdon's attempt to build up a new church in the East
was a failure. Urgent appeals in its behalf in his periodical were made in
vain. The people addressed could not be cajoled with his stories of revelations
and miraculous visions, which both the secular and religious press held up to
ridicule, and he had no system of foreign immigration to supply ignorant
recruits. He soon after took up his residence in Friendship, Allegheny County,
New York, where he died at the residence of his son-in-law, Earl Wingate, on
July 14, 1876. In an obituary sketch of him the Standard of that place
said: --
"He was approached by the messengers of
young Joseph Smith of Plano, Ill., but he refused to converse or answer any
communication which in any way would bring him into notice in connection with
the Mormon church of to-day. It was his daily custom to visit the post-office,
get the daily paper, read and converse upon the chief topics of the day. He
often engaged in a friendly dispute with the local ministers, and always came
out first best on New Testament doctrinal matters. Patriarchal in appearance,
and kindly in address, he was often approached by citizens and strangers with a
view to obtaining something of the unrecorded mysteries of his life; but
citizen, stranger and persistent reporter all alike failed in eliciting any
information as to his knowledge of the Mormon imposture, the motives of his
early life, or the religious faith, fears and hopes of his declining years.
Once or twice he spoke excitedly, in terms of scorn, of those who attributed to
him the manufacture of the Mormon Bible; but beyond this, nothing. His library
was small: he left no manuscripts, and refused persistently to have a picture
of himself taken. It can only be said that he was a compound of ability,
versatility, honesty, duplicity, and mystery."
One person succeeded in drawing out from Rigdon in his
later years a few words on his relations with the Mormon church. This was
Charles L. Woodward, a New York bookseller, who some years ago made an
important collection of Mormon literature. While making this collection he sent
an inquiry to Rigdon, and received a reply, dated May 25, 1873. After
apologizing for his handwriting on account of his age and paralysis, the letter
says: --
"We know nothing about the people called
Mormons now.8 The Lord notified us that the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-Day Saints were going to be destroyed, and for us to leave. We did
so, and the Smiths were killed a few days after we started. Since that, I have
had no connection with any of the people who staid and built up to themselves
churches; and chose to themselves leaders such as they chose, and then framed
their own religion.
"The Church of Latter-Day Saints had three books
that they acknowledged as Canonical, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the
Commandments. For the existence of that church there had to be a revelater, one
who received the word of the Lord; a spokesman, one inspired of God to expound
all revelation, so that the church might all be of one faith. Without these two
men the Church of Latter-Day Saints could not exist. This order ceased to exist
being overcome by the violence of armed men, by whom houses were beaten down by
cannon which the assailants had furnished themselves with.
"Thus ended the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints, and it never can move again till the Lord inspires men and
women to believe it. All the societies and assemblies of men collected together
since then is not the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, nor never
can there be such a church till the Lord moves it by his own power, as he did
the first.
"Should you fall in with one who was of the Church
{of} Christ, though now of advanced age, you will find one deep red in the
revelations of heaven. But many of them are dead, and many of them have turned
away, so there are few left.
"I have a manuscript paper in my possession,
written with my own hands while in my 80th. year, but I am to poor to do
anything with it; and therefore it must remain where it {is}. During the great
fight of affliction I have had, I have lost all my property, but I struggle
along in poverty to which I am consigned. I have finished all I feel necessary
to write.
"Respectfully,
"SIDNEY RIGDON."9
8 The statement has been
published that, after Young had established himself in Utah, be received from
Rigdon an intimation that the latter would be willing to join him. I could
obtain no confirmation of this in Salt Lake City. On the contrary, a leading
member of the church informed me that Young invited Rigdon to join the Mormons
is Utah, but that Rigdon did not accept the invitation.
9 The original of this letter is in the
collection of Mormon literature in the New York Public Library. An effort to
learn from Rigdon's descendants something about the manuscript paper referred
to by him has failed.
Rigdon's affirmation of his belief in Smith as a
prophet and the Mormon Bible when he returned to Pennsylvania was proclaimed by
the Mormons as proof that there was no truth in the Spaulding manuscript story,
but it carries no weight as such evidence. Rigdon burned all his old
theological bridges behind him when he entered into partnership with Smith, and
his entire course after his return to Pittsburg only adds to the proof that he
was the originator of the Mormon Bible, and that his object in writing it was
to enable him to be the head of a new church. Surely no one would accept as
proof of the divinity of the Mormon Bible any declaration by the man who told
the story of angel visits in Pittsburg.