Chapter 19
CHAPTER XIX. BRYGAM YOUNG AT HOME. WE VISIT THE PROPHET AND HIS WIVES. Shortly after our arrival in Salt Lake City, we visited President Young, who received us very graciously and appointed an early day for us to dine with him.
On that occasion, he invited some of the apostles and leading men to meet us at his table, and we passed an exceedingly pleasant evening. The Prophet made himself very affable, talked with us about our missionary life and other subjects of personal and general interest, and expressed a high opinion of the energy and ability which my husband had displayed.
His wives, too, who I found as far as I could judge from such a casual acquaintance, to be amiable and kind-hearted ladies, made every effort to render our visit agreeable. I was much pleased with the manner and appearance of Brigham Young, and felt greatly reassured, for he did not seem to me like a man who would preach and practice such things as I had heard of him while I was in London.
This I was glad to see, for it encouraged me to think that, perhaps, after all, matters might not be as bad as I had anticipated. We were, in fact, very kindly received in Salt Lake City by everyone with whom we came in contact, for having been missionaries for so many years, we were, of course, well known by name, and had a wide circle of acquaintances among the chief elders and emigrants.
Fifteen years have, of course, worked a great change in the appearance of Brigham Young, but though he is nearly seventy-three years of age, he is still a portly, I might almost say, handsome man. His good looks are not of the poetic or romantic kind at all. He is very commonplace and practical in his appearance.
That long and habitual exercise of despotic authority has stamped itself upon his features, and is seen even in the way he carries himself. He might, without any stretch of the imagination, be mistaken for a retired sea captain. When I first knew him in appearance, he was a little over fifty years of age, was of medium height, well built.
And as I just stated, with the air of one accustomed to being obeyed. His hair was light, sandy, I suppose I ought to call it, with eyes to match, and the expression of his countenance was pleasant and manly. I of course regarded him from a woman's standpoint, but there were others who were accustomed to steady physiognomy, and they detected, or thought they detected, in the cold expression
of his eye, and the stern, hard lines of his lips, evidences of cruelty, selfishness, and dogged determination, which, it is only fair to say, I myself never saw. The lines on his face have deepened of late years, as what little gentleness his heart ever knew has died out within him. But still he presents the appearance of a man who would afford a deep study to the observer
of human nature. In early life he had to work hard for a living, and according to his own statement he had a rough time of it. He was by trade a painter and a glazier, and has frequently said in public that in those times he was glad to work for six bits a day, and to keep his hands busy from morning to
night to get even that. Whether or not the privations of early years fostered in him that avaricious and grasping spirit which of late years has been so conspicuous in him, I cannot say, but it is certain that it cropped out very early in his career as a saint. An old Nauvoo missionary, a Mormon of the Mormons once, but alas a vile apostate, as
Brigham would politely call him, once told me that when the prophet Joseph Smith sent the apostle Young on mission a good deal of discontent was shown that the said apostle did not account properly for the collections and tithings which passed through his hands. Brother Joseph, who was then the church, suggested in a pleasant way, for the prophet Smith was a big jovial fellow, six foot two or three inches in height and withal somewhat of a
humorist, that the said apostle Brigham would appear in his eyes a better saint if he displayed a little less love for filthy lucre. Thereupon the apostle, like somebody else who shall be nameless, quoted scripture and reminded the prophet that Moses had said, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn.
Through brother Brigham said Joseph, but Moses did not say the ox was to eat up all the corn. Brother Brigham made no reply, but is said to have sulked for two or three days. I have not the slightest doubt that but for Mormonism the prophet would have remained all his life a journeyman painter and his sweetness, as the poet says, would have been wasted on the desert air.
But he was born just at the right time and he fitted into the right groove and thus, while the original prophet of the new faith, Joseph Smith, a man of ten times the intellect of his successor, a man ignorant and deluded, it is true, but at the same time a man in whom was the material for one of those natural giants who from age to age have left the impressed of their individuality upon the history of the world.
While I say this man's name and doings have ceased to interest any but persons of studious mind, Brigham Young, whose narrow soul could never look beyond the little circle in which he lived, whose selfishness and heartlessness have been only equaled by his cruelty and degrading avarice, has by the force of circumstances alone obtained a place in the recognition of the world to which by nature or by grace he had not the shadow of acclaim.
I have often heard intelligent Gentiles remark, Well, Brigham Young may be a wicked man and an imposter, but there must be a great deal of talent in him to manage those people for so many years. From this opinion I altogether dissent, and those who know Brigham best think with me, though many of them would not dare to say so.
I do not think Brigham Young a wicked man or an imposter in the sense in which those words are ordinarily used, and experience and a careful study of his life and doings have convinced me that he is certainly not a great man or a man of genius in any sense of the word. There can be no doubt that he has been guilty of many and great crimes, but I believe that
in the early part of his career he was so blinded by fanaticism that those crimes appeared to him actually virtues. The force of habit and the daily associations of his life have so completely taken from him all sense of right and wrong, while the devotion of his people has made the idea that he could possibly do the slightest wrong so utterly inconceivable to him and to them
that his perceptions of justice, truth, honor, honesty, and the upright dealing are as utterly stultified as they ever were in the mind of the wildest savage who prowled among the cliffs and canyons of the Rocky Mountains. We'll think that Brigham Young attained to his present position by the exercise of ability, such as has been displayed only on a greater scale, by all those men who, not being born
to power nor having it thrust upon them, have by the force of their genius seized it and held it. Unlawfully it might be, but nevertheless with talent and moral energy. Something could be more untrue. The fact that he was of a certain age, at a certain time, and only that, was the cause
of Brother Brigham's first step up the ladder of ambition. Joseph Smith endeavored, in organizing his newly invented religion, to make it resemble as much as was possible both the old and new dispensations of Christianity. And among other institutions he appointed twelve apostles who were to assist in governing the church.
He associated with himself his elder brother Hyrum, and also Sidney Rigdon, who had so greatly assisted in every way to establish the new faith and define its principles. This Rigdon is the same who has always been suspected of the authorship of the Book of Mormon, though it must be admitted that nothing more than circumstantial evidence can be adduced in support of this statement.
However that might be, the two Smiths, Joseph and Hyrum, and Sidney Rigdon, formed what was called the first presidency. In other words, they were the church. Next, in order to them came the twelve apostles, and after them the seventies, and the other grades of the priesthood, of which I shall say more presently.
The twelve apostles were first appointed according to a plan of Joseph's own. Lyman Johnson was placed first. Brigham Young came next, and the others followed. Not long after, however, Joseph made a new arrangement, and placed the twelve according to their age, and this plan was always followed subsequently.
Thomas B. Marsh now stood first, and next to him came David Patton, and then Brigham Young. I am obliged to give these little details in order that the reader may understand Brigham's position after the death of Joseph Smith. When Joseph was murdered in Carthage jail with his brother Hyrum, Sidney Rigdon alone remained
of the first presidency. At that time Thomas B. Marsh, the first of the apostles, had apostatized. David Patton had been killed in a fight with the mob, and consequently Brigham Young was now president of the twelve, he being the next in age. Thus it will be seen that even had he been, which he was not, the most stupid and least
fitted of all the apostles to preside over the church, his years would nevertheless have given him the leadership. Up to this time there is no evidence that any idea of becoming head of the church had ever entered into Brigham's mind. Indeed it is reported that Joseph on one occasion, reproving him, said ironically that if ever
the church had the misfortune to be led by brother Brigham, he would lead it to, well, a place which is understood to be uncomfortably warm. But Joseph was now dead and Rigdon alone remained between the apostle Young and the headship of the church. Then it was that his eyes appear for the first time to have been fully opened to the advantages
of his position. Now when the ancients took the fox as an emblem of craftiness, it was because they had never known Brigham. Brigham worked cautiously and prudently, for he probably is one of the greatest cowards in existence, both morally and physically, and like all cowards, he was perfectly au
fait in working in the dark. In accomplishing the removal of Rigdon, Rigdon himself was Brigham's best assistant. A man of prudence, or even of common sense, might have safely held his position against all the Brighams in the world, but prudence and common sense were qualities utterly unknown to Rigdon.
He began to have wonderful visions and revelations, announced the immediate ending of the world, and stated that he would forthwith lead out the armies of the Lord to the Battle of Armageddon in Palestine, and then return in triumph, calling by the way, as he said, to pull the nose of Little Vic. Little Vic was the English queen, then a young woman, but how she incurred Rigdon's wrath
I do not know. In addition to all this absurd nonsense, he ordained some of his particular friends to be prophets, priests, and kings, and otherwise showed that he intended to carry matters with a high hand. Brigham watched his chance, and when he considered that matters were ripe for a change by dint
of secret maneuvering, he caused Rigdon to be tried before the High Council at Nauvoo. Rigdon sent word that he was sick and could not come, but the trial went on, and of course it could have but one ending. The result was, as the Mormon papers at the time reported, that Elder Young arose and delivered Sidney Rigdon over to the Buffettings of Satan for a thousand years in the name
of the Lord, and all the people said, Amen. Poor Sidney. He tried to set up a church for himself, and a good many people followed him, but the attempt was a failure. He is now a very old man and cannot live long, but he still believes in the truth of Mormonism
as established by Joseph Smith. Brigham's next step was to declare that the government of the church was now vested in the Twelve, of whom he was the head. Later still he contrived by selecting a time when nearly all of the apostles would be promoted, or in some way gratified by a change in the organization of the church, to get himself
elected President of the church, in the place of Joseph, with the two apostles next to him as his associates, under the name of counselors, and they together formed the first presidency. Thus Brigham became in name, as well as in fact, the head of the Mormon church. Every year Brother Brigham, in common with all the other officers of the church, is duly re-elected.
I need hardly say that the re-election is a matter of course. An opposition candidate would stand but a poor chance of success. Brigham Young is an uneducated man. For that of course he is not deserving of blame, but his opposition to education in others, and to all that is intellectual and elevating, does him little credit.
Only a very few years ago he with his two counselors, Heber C. Kimball and Jedediah M. Grant, who were both spoken of as model saints, held forth in the tabernacle, in the most unmeasured language, against schools and scholastic acquirements of every description. They were all three untaught men, and like all persons of small mind, who have not themselves received any education, they hated and affected to despise those who had.
Thoughtful men, although they may never have enjoyed the advantages of literary culture, never fail to see the great power that it is, either for good or evil, and in most cases they try to secure for their children the blessing of which they themselves have been denied. But the Mormon leaders, while they ridiculed and affected to despise men of education,
were shrewd enough to see that if schools were established, and the children of the saints permitted to attend them, the bonds of superstition would certainly be shaken, and the fabric of Mormonism undermined. They consequently discouraged every attempt at self-improvement, and taught the people to aspire to nothing higher for their children than the rudiments of reading, writing, and
arithmetic for the boys, and a knowledge of household, dairy, and farm work for the girls. Before the Reformation, a few young men anxious to improve their minds organized what they called the Literary and Musical Society. They gave pleasant social entertainments to their friends, at which they gave recitations, read essays, poems, and other literary productions, varying the program with selections of music.
The authorities looked upon the whole proceeding with disfavor, and soon broke up the Society. Not content with this, and in order to show their contempt, they humiliated the members in every possible way, even publicly pointing them out to ridicule, and appointing a good many of them to be doorkeepers in the tabernacle. Brigham Young, who it is said never in his life read a book, could not understand that
they could find any pleasure in intellectual amusements, and accused them of pride, conceit, and even wickedness. Among the church leaders, it is even now common to speak of anyone who has any literary acquirements, as having the big head, and being next door to apostasy. Recently, greater efforts to obtain a good education for their children have been made
by the more intelligent among the saints, and the Gentiles in Utah have established some very excellent schools. A library and reading room have also been opened, and the latter has been well attended by the young men, both Mormons and Gentiles. Brigham himself has, with his usual inconsistency, even gone so far as to give his own children
those advantages which he selfishly denied to his poorer brethren. Of the prophet's moral character, the less said the better. He has been remorseless and cruel in his emnities, and he has connived at, and even suggested, if nothing more, some of the most atrocious crimes that have ever been perpetrated on the face of the earth.
In business matters, in the payment of money, to use a popular phrase, his word is as good as his bond, but in the accumulation of wealth, he has evinced an amount of dishonesty which can scarcely be credited. Brigham always meets his obligations, and pays his debts, and gets a lawful receipt, and the prophetic business could not otherwise be carried on, but the way in which he has
obtained his wealth would put to the blush the most dishonest member of any ring in New York or elsewhere. When he attended his first conference, he says he had to borrow certain masculine garments and a pair of boots before he could put in an appearance. Now it would be difficult to estimate the value of his property.
He has taken up large tracts of land all over the territory. He has the uncontrolled and unquestioned command of all the tithing and contributions of the saints, and from gifts and confiscations and innumerable other sources his revenue pours in. It was once rumored that he had eighteen or twenty million of dollars in the Bank of England,
but Brigham said that the report was not true. The church, he added, had a little money invested abroad. The difference between the church and the individual Brigham Young has yet to be determined. In the year 1852, the prophet of the Lord found that he had borrowed an inconveniently large sum from the funds of the church.
He is trustee in trust and, of course, legally responsible, but he never renders an account of his stewardship, and no one ever asks him for it. His sense of honesty was, however, so strong that he resolved to have his account balanced, and he went down to the tithing office for that purpose. There he found that his indebtedness amounted to two hundred thousand dollars, and he proceeded
to pay it after his own fashion. The clerk was instructed to place to his credit the same amount for services rendered. In 1867 he owed very nearly one million dollars, which he had borrowed from the same fund, and he balanced his account in the same way. His contract for the Pacific Railroad is said to have yielded him a quarter of a million,
and his other contracts and mining speculations, purchases and thefts of lands, houses, and so forth, have been very profitable. The expenses of such a family as Brother Brigham's must be something enormous, but the contributions by which honest and dishonest means he has levied have been so large that he must still be one of the wealthiest men in the states.
Brigham is not a generous man. He has given occasionally, as for instance at the time of the Chicago Fire, when he presented a thousand dollars for the sufferers, but even then his motive was evident. The affairs of Deseret were under discussion in Congress. Without the certainty of a profitable return, Brigham never gave assent.
The story of his sordid avarice and his contemptible meanness in the accumulation of money would fill a volume. Morally and physically the prophet is a great coward. When he and other church leaders were arrested a year or two ago, charged with the very gravest crimes, the effect upon the prophet was most distressing.
He had solemnly sworn in the tabernacle that he would shoot the man who attempted to arrest him, but when Judge McKean opened court and placed him under arrest, he swallowed his threats and played the coward's part. For this the world has seen wretches who were notorious for their cruelty and tyranny, and who were also remarkable for their cowardice.
For many years he has imitated royalty and has had a strong bodyguard to keep watch and ward around his person every night. No man has less cause to apprehend personal violence than Brother Brigham, but the voice of conscience, which, as the poet says, makes cowards of us all, suggests his fears. No one, probably, ever possessed and lost greater opportunities of doing good and leaving
behind him an enviable record than Brother Brigham. In him the saints, from the smallest to the greatest, placed implicit trust, and it was in his power to mold them at his will. The spiritual and temporal welfare of the people was in his hands. The ability to elevate them socially, mentally, and morally was his.
A great trust was committed to his charge. But he has basely betrayed that sacred trust and has not only left undone what he should have performed, but he has been guilty of the most grievous wrongdoing. He has set at naught all morality with his horrible and debasing teachings respecting a blood atonement, in other words the duty of assassination.
He has outraged decency and rivenous under the most sacred social and domestic ties by his shameless introduction of polygamy. He has sacrilegiously defiled the Temple of God by teaching his followers to worship Adam as their divinity, and has robbed Christ of his birthright by proclaiming that men are the only saviors of their wives, and in that respect to women the sacrifice of our
Lord was of no direct avail. In a word, both by his preaching and his practice, he has set an example so bad as to be utterly without parallel in this civilized age. He has been a man of the law, and has been a man of the law in both spiritual and worldly matters, has meddled with the person, the property, and the lives and the liberty of
his dupes, and has at the same time debased and enslaved their souls. But let it not be supposed that I write this hastily or without due consideration. A better people, aside from their religion, than the believing Mormons when they emigrated to Utah, it would be difficult to find. Their fault was in their faith.
They were honest, sober, industrious, and ready to sacrifice everything to what they considered religious duty. I cannot think of them and of the implicit confidence which they placed in Brigham without wondering at his folly in throwing away the noble opportunity which was once within his of establishing a happy and contented people.
Instead of this, he has gathered wealth to himself and family. Out of the poverty of his followers, he has amassed enormous riches, and with the power to leave behind him a name as one of the benefactors of the human race, he has set the worst example which desperate or false prophet ever presented to the world.
