CHAPTER VI.
Brigham Young's Despotism
Causes that contributed to its Success--Helplessness of the New-comers from Europe-- Influence of Superstition--Young's Treatment of the Gladdenites-- His Appropriation of Property Laws passed by the Mormon Legislature--Bishops as Ward Magistrates--A Mormon Currency and Alphabet--What Emigrants to California learned about Mormon Justice
THERE is no reason to believe that,
to the date of Joseph Smith's death, Brigham Young had inspired his
fellow-Mormons with an idea of his leadership. This was certified to by one of
the most radical of them, Mayor Jedediah M. Grant of Salt Lake City, in 1852,
in these words: --
"When Joseph Smith lived, a man about
whose real character and pretensions we differ, Joseph was often and almost
invariably imposed upon by those in whom he placed his trust. There was one man
-- only one of his early adherents -- he could always rely upon to stick to him
closer than a brother, steadfast in faith, clear in counsel, and foremost in
fight. He seemed a plain man in those days, of a wonderful talent for business
and hundred horse-power of industry, but least of everything affecting
cleverness or quickness. 'Honest Brigham Young,' or 'hard-working Brigham
Young,' was nearly as much as you would ever hear him called, though he was the
almost universal executor and trustee of men's wills and trusteed estates, and
a confidential manager of our most intricate church affairs."1
1 Grant's pamphlet, "Truth about the Mormons."
When the Saints found themselves in Salt Lake Valley they had learned something from experience. They could not fail to realize that, distant as they now were from outside interference, union among themselves was an essential to success. The body of the church was soon composed of two elements -- those who had constituted the church in the East, and the new members who were pouring in from Europe. Young established his leadership with both of these parties in the early days. There was much to discourage in those days -- a soil to cultivate that required irrigation, houses to build where material was scarce, and starvation to fight year after year. Young encouraged everybody by his talk at the church meetings, shared in the manual labor of building houses and cultivating land, and devised means to entertain and encourage those who were disposed to look on their future darkly. No one ever heard him, whatever others might say, doubt the genuineness of Joseph Smith's inspiration and revelations, and he so established his own position as Smith's successor that he secured the devout allegiance of the old flock, without making such business mistakes as weakened Smith's reputation. "I believed," says John D. Lee, one of the most trusted and prominent of the church members almost to the day of his death, "that Brigham Young spoke by the direction of the God of heaven. I would have suffered death rather than have disobeyed any command of his." Said Young's associate in the First Presidency, Heber C. Kimball, "To me the word comes from Brother Brigham as the word of God," and again, "His word is the word of God to his people."2
2 Journal of Discourses, Vol IV, p. 47.
The new-comers from Europe were simply helpless.
They were, in the first place, religious enthusiasts, who believed, when they
set out on their journey, that they were going to a real Zion. Large numbers of
them were indebted to the church for at least a part of their passage money
from the day of their arrival. Few of those who had paid their own way brought
much cash capital, all depending on the representations about the richness of
the valley which had been held out to them. Once, there, they soon realized
that all must sustain the same policy if the church was to be a success. They
were, too, of that superstitious class which was ready, not only to believe in
modern miracles, "signs," and revelations, but actually hungered for
such manifestations, and, once accepting membership in the church, they
accepted with it the dictation of the head of the church in all things.
Secretary Fuller has told me that, after he ascertained the existence of gold
near Salt Lake City, he said to an intelligent goldsmith there, "Why do
you not look for the gold you need in your business in the mountains?"
"Why," was the reply, "if I went to the mountains and found
gold, and put it into my pouch, the pouch would be empty when I got back to the
city. I know this is so, because Brigham Young has told me so."
The extent of the dictatorship which Young prescribed
and carried out in all matters, spiritual and commercial, might be questioned
if we were not able to follow the various steps taken in establishing his
authority, and to illustrate its scope, by the testimony, not of men who
suffered from it, but by his own words and those of his closest associates.
With a blindness which seems incomprehensible, the sermons, or
"discourses," delivered in the early days in Salt Lake City were
printed under church authority, and are preserved in the Journal of
Discourses. The student of this chapter of the church's history can obtain
what information he wants by reading the volumes of this Journal. The
language used is often coarse, but there is never any difficulty in
understanding the speakers.
Young referred to his own plain speaking in a discourse
on October 6, 1855. He said that he had received advice about bridling his
tongue -- a wheelbarrow load of such letters from the East, especially on the
subject of his attacks on the Gentiles. "Do you know," he asked,
"how I feel when I get such communications? I will tell you. I feel just
like rubbing their noses with them."3
3 Journal of Discourses, Vol. III, p. 48.
In a discourse on February 17, 1856, he vouchsafed this explanation, "If I were preaching abroad in the world, I should feel myself somewhat obliged, through custom, to adhere to the wishes and feelings of the people in regard to pursuing the thread of any given subject; but here I feel as free as air."4
4 Ibid., p. 211.
Mention has already been made of Young's refusal to continue Smith's series of "revelations." In doing this he never admitted for a moment any lack of authority as spokesman for the Almighty. A few illustrations will make clear his position in this matter. Defining his view of his own authority, before the General Conference in Salt Lake City, on April 6, 1850, he said, "It is your privilege and it is mine to receive revelation; and my privilege to dictate to the church."5
5 Millennial Star, VOL XII, p, 273.
When the site of the Temple was consecrated, in 1853, there were many inquiries whether a revelation had been given about its construction. Young said, "If the Lord and all the people want a revelation, I can give one concerning this Temple"; but he did not do so, declaring that a revelation was no more necessary concerning the building of a temple than it was concerning a kitchen or a bedroom.6 We must certainly concede to this man a dictator's daring.
6 Ibid., Vol. XV, p. 391.
An early illustration of Young's policy toward all Mormon offenders was given in the case of the so-called "Gladdenites." There were members of the church even in Utah who were ready to revolt when the open announcement of the "revelation" regarding polygamy was made in 1852, and they found a leader in Gladden Bishop, who had had much experience in apostasy, repentance, and readmission.7 These men held meetings and made considerable headway, but when the time came for Brigham to exercise his authority he did it.
7 "This Gladden gave Joseph much trouble; was cut off from the church and taken back and rebaptized nine times." -- Ferris, "Utah and the Mormons," p. 326.
On Sunday, March 20, 1853, a meeting, orderly in
every respect, which the Gladdenites were holding in front of the Council
House, was dispersed by the city marshal, and another, called for the next
Sunday, was prohibited entirely. Then Alfred Smith, a leading Gladdenite, who
had accused Young of robbing him of his property, was arrested and locked up
until he gave a promise to discontinue his rebellion. On the 27th of March
Young made the Gladdenites the subject of a large part of his discourse in the
Tabernacle. What he said is thus stated in the church report of the address: --
"I say to those persons: You must not
court persecution here, lest you get so much of it you will not know what to do
with it. Do not court persecution. We have known Gladden Bishop for more than
twenty years, and know him to be a poor, dirty curse.... I say again, you
Gladdenites, do not court persecution, or you will get more than you want, and
it will come quicker than you want it. I say to you Bishops, do not allow them
to preach in your wards." (After telling of a dream he had had, in which
he saw two men creep into the bed where one of his wives was lying, whereupon
he took a large bowie knife and cut one of their throats from ear to ear,
saying, "Go to hell across lots," he continued:) "I say, rather
than that apostates should flourish here I will unsheath my bowie knife and
conquer or die." (Great commotion in the congregation, and a simultaneous
burst of feeling, assenting to the declaration.) "Now, you nasty
apostates, clear out, or judgment will be put to the line and righteousness to
the plummet." (Voices generally, "Go it," "go it.")
"If you say it is all right, raise your hand." (All hands up.)
"Let us call upon the Lord to assist us in this and every good work."
8
8 Journal of Discourses, Vol. I, p. 82.
This was the practical end of Gladdenism.
Young's dictatorship was quite as broad and determined
in things temporal as in things spiritual. He made no concealment of the fact
that he was a money-getter, only insisting on his readiness to contribute to
the support of church enterprises. The canons through the mountains which shut
in the valley were the source of wood supply for the city, and their control
was very valuable. Young brought this matter before the Conference of October
9, 1852, speaking on it at length, and finally putting his own view in the form
of a resolution that the canons be placed in the hands of individuals, who
should make good roads through them, and obtain their pay by taking toll at the
entrance. After getting the usual unanimous vote on his proposition, he said:
"Let the Judges of the County of Great Salt Lake take due notice and
govern themselves accordingly.... This is my order for the judges to take due
notice of. It does not come from the Governor, but from the President of the
church. You will not see any proclamation in the paper to this effect, but it
is a mere declaration of the President of the Conference."9 The
"declaration," of course, had all the effect of a law, and Young got
one of the best canons.
9 Journal of Discourses, Vol. I, pp. 217, 218.
Very early in his rule Young defined his views about the property rights of the Saints. "A man," he declared in the Tabernacle on June 5, 1853, "has no right with property which, according to the laws of the land, legally belongs to him, if he does not want to use it.... When we first came into the valley, the question was asked me if men would ever be allowed to come into this church, and remain in it, and hoard up their property. I say, no."10
10 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 340.
Another view of property rights was thus set forth
in his discourse of December 5, 1853: --
"If an Elder has borrowed {a hundred or a
thousand dollars from you}, and you find he is going to apostatize, then you
may tighten the screws on him. But if he is willing to preach the Gospel
without purse or scrip, it is none of your business what he does with the money
he has borrowed from you."11
11 Ibid., Vol. I, pp. 252-253
Addressing the people in the trying business year
of 1856, when his own creditors were pushing him hard, Young said: --
"I wish to give you one text to preach
upon, 'From this time henceforth do not fret thy gizzard.' I will pay you when
I can and not before. Now I hope you will apostatize if you would rather do
it."12
12 Ibid., Vol. III, p. 4.
Kimball, in giving Young's order to some seventy men, who had displeased him, to leave the territory, used these words: "When a man is appointed to take a mission, unless he has a just and honorable reason for not going, if he does not go he will be severed from the church. Why? Because you said you were willing to be passive, and, if you are not passive, that lump of clay must be cut off from the church and laid aside, and a lump put on that will be passive."13
13 Journal of Discourses, Vol. III, p. 242.
With this testimony of men inside the church may be
placed that of Captain Howard Stansbury, of the United Stated Topographical
Engineers, who arrived in the valley in August, 1849, under instructions from
the government to make a survey of the lakes of that region. The Mormons
thought that it was the intention of the government to divide the land into
townships and sections, and to ignore their claim to title by occupation. In
his official report, after mentioning his haste to disabuse Young's mind on
this point, Captain Stansbury says, "I was induced to pursue this
conciliatory course, not only in justice to the government, but also because I
knew, from the peculiar organization of this singular community, that, unless
the 'President' was fully satisfied that no evil was intended to his people, it
would be useless for me to attempt to carry out my instructions." The
choice between abject conciliation or open conflict was that which Brigham
Young extended to nearly every federal offi cer who entered Utah during his
reign.
The Mormons of Utah started in to assert their
independence of the government of the United States in every way. The rejection
of the constitution of Deseret by Congress did not hinder the elected
legislature from meeting and passing laws. The ninth chapter of the
"ordinances," as they were called, passed by this legislature (on
January 19, 1851) was a charter for Great Salt Lake City. This charter provided
for the election of a mayor, four aldermen, nine councillors, and three judges,
the first judges to be chosen viva voce, and their successors by the City
Council. The appointment of eleven subordinate officers was placed in the
Council's hands. The mayor and aldermen were to be the justices of the peace,
with a right of appeal to the municipal court, consisting of the same persons
sitting together, and from that to the probate court. The first mayor,
aldermen, and councillors were appointed by the governor of the State of
Deseret. Similar charters were provided for Ogden, Provo City, and other
settlements.
As soon as Salt Lake City was laid off into wards,
Young had a Bishop placed over each of these, and, always under his direction,
these Bishops practically controlled local affairs to the date of the city
charter. Each Bishop came to be a magistrate of his ward,14 and
under them in all the settlements all public work was carried on and all
revenue collected. The High Council of ten is defined by Tullidge as "a
quorum of judges, in equity for the people, at the head of which is the
President of the state."
14 Brigham Young testified in the Tabernacle as to the kind of justice that was meted out in the Bishops' courts. In his sermon of March 6, 1856, he said: "There are men here by the score who do not know their right hands from their left, so far as the principles of justice are concerned. Does our High Council? No, for they will let men throw dirt in their eyes until you cannot find the one hundred millionth part of an ounce of common sense in them. You may go to the Bishops' courts, and what are they? A set of old grannies. They cannot judge a case pending between two old women, to say nothing of a case between man and man:' Journal of Discourses, Vol. III, p. 225.
These men did not hesitate to attempt a currency of
their own. On the arrival of the Mormons in the valley, they first made their
exchanges through barter. Paper currency was issued in 1849 and some years
later. When gold dust from California appeared in 1849, some of it was coined
in Salt Lake City by means of homemade dies and crucibles. The denominations
were $2.50, $5, $10, and $20. Some of these coins, made without alloy, were
stamped with a bee-hive and eagle on one side, and on the reverse with the
motto, "Holiness to the Lord" in the so-called Deseret alphabet. This
alphabet was invented after their arrival in Salt Lake Valley, to assist in
separating the Mormons from the rest of the nation, its preparation having been
intrusted to a committee of the board of regents in 1853. It contained
thirty-two characters. A primer and two books of the Mormon Bible were printed
in the new characters, the legislature in 1855 having voted $2500 to meet the
expense; but the alphabet was neve r practically used, and no attempt is any
longer made to remember it. Early in 1849 the High Council voted that the
Kirtland bank-bills (of which a supply must have remained unissued) be put out
on a par with gold, and in this they saw a fulfilment of the prophet's
declaration that these notes would some day be as good as gold.
Another early ordinance passed by the Deseret
legislature incorporated "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints," authorizing the appointment of a trustee in trust to hold and
manage all the property of the church, which should be free from tax, and
giving the church complete authority to make its own regulations,
"provided, however, that each and every act or practice so established, or
adopted for law or custom, shall relate to solemnities, sacraments, ceremonies,
consecrations, endowments, tithing, marriages, fellowship, or the religious
duties of man to his Maker, inasmuch as the doctrines, principles, practices,
or performances support virtue and increase morality, and are not inconsistent
with or repugnant to the constitution of the United States or of this State,
and are founded on the revelations of the Lord." Thus early was the ground
taken that the practice of polygamy was a constitutional right. Brigham Young
was chosen as the trustee.
The second ordinance passed by this legislature
incorporated the University of the State of Deseret, at Salt Lake City, to be
governed by a chancellor and twelve regents.
The earliest non-Mormons to experience the effect of
that absolute Mormon rule, the consequences of which the Missourians had
feared, were the emigrants who passed through Salt Lake Valley on their way to
California after the discovery of gold, or on their way to Oregon. The
complaints of the Californians were set forth in a little book, written by one
of them, Nelson Slater, and printed in Colona, California, in 1851, under the
title, "Fruits of Mormonism." The general complaints were set forth
briefly in a petition to Congress containing nearly two hundred and fifty
signatures, dated Colona, June 1, 1851, which asked that the territorial
government be abrogated, and a military government be established in its place.
This petition charged that many emigrants had been murdered by the Mormons when
there was a suspicion that they had taken part in the earlier persecutions;
that when any members of the Mormon community, becoming dissatisfied, tried to
leave, they were pursued and killed; that the Mormons levied a tax of two per
cent on the property of emigrants who were compelled to pass a winter among
them; that it was nearly impossible for emigrants to obtain justice in the
Mormon courts; that the Mormons, high and low, openly expressed treasonable
sentiments against the United States government; and that letters of emigrants
mailed at Salt Lake City were opened, and in many instances destroyed.
Mr. Slater's book furnishes the specifications of these
general charges.