The Story of the Mormons:

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The party with aid from the valley had also encountered the
snowstorm, and, not appreciating the desperate condition of the
hand-cart immigrants, had halted to wait for better weather. As
soon as Captain Willie took them the news, they hastened
eastward, and were seen by the starving party at sunset, the
third day after their captain's departure. "Shouts of joy rent
the air," says Chislett. "Strong men wept till tears ran freely
down their furrowed and sunburnt cheeks, and little children
partook of the joy which some of them hardly understood, and
fairly danced around with gladness. Restraint was set aside in
the general rejoicing, and, as the brethren entered our camp, the
sisters fell upon them and deluged them with kisses."

The timely relief saved many lives, but the end of the suffering
had not been reached. A good many of the foot party were so
exhausted by what they had gone through, that even their near
approach to their Zion and their prophet did not stimulate them
to make the effort to complete the journey. Some trudged along,
unable even to pull a cart, and those who were still weaker were
given places in the wagons. It grew colder, too, and frozen hands
and feet became a common experience. Thus each day lessened by a
few who were buried the number that remained.

Then came another snowstorm. What this meant to a weakened party
like this dragging their few possessions in carts can easily be
imagined. One family after another would find that they could not
make further progress, and when a hill was reached the human
teams would have to be doubled up. In this way, by travelling
backward and forward, some progress was made. That day's march
was marked by constant additions to the stragglers who kept
dropping by the way. When the main body had made their camp for
the night, some of the best teams were sent back for those who
had dropped behind, and it was early morning before all of these
were brought in.

The next morning Captain Willie was assigned to take count of the
dead. An examination of the camp showed thirteen corpses, all
stiffly frozen. They were buried in a large square hole, three or
four abreast and three deep. "When they did not fit in," says
Chislett, "we put one or two crosswise at the head or feet of the
others. We covered them with willows and then with the earth."
Two other victims were buried before nightfall. Parties passing
eastward by this place the following summer found that the wolves
had speedily uncovered the corpses, and that their bones were
scattered all over the neighborhood.

Further deaths continued every day until they arrived at South
Pass. There more assistance from the valley met them, the weather
became warmer, and the health of the party improved, so that when
they arrived at Salt Lake City they were in better condition and
spirits. The date of their arrival there was November 9. The
company which set out from Iowa City numbered about 500, of whom
400 set out from Florence across the plains. Of these 400, 67
died on the way, and there were a few deaths after they reached
the end of their journey.

Another company of these hand-cart travellers left Florence still
later than the ones whose sufferings have been described. They
were in charge of an elder named Martin. Like their predecessors,
they were warned against setting out so late as the middle of
August, and many of them tried to give up the trip, but
permission to do so was refused. Their sufferings began soon
after they crossed the Platte, near Fort Laramie, and snow was
encountered sixty miles east of Devil's Gate. When they reached
that landmark, they decided that they could make no further
progress with their hand-carts. They accordingly took possession
of half a dozen dilapidated log houses, the contents of the
wagons were placed in some of these, the hand-carts were left
behind, and as many people as the teams could drag were placed in
the wagons and started forward. One of the survivors of this
party has written: "The track of the emigrants was marked by
graves, and many of the living suffered almost worse than death.
Men may be seen to-day in Salt Lake City, who were boys then,
hobbling around on their club-feet, all their toes having been
frozen off in that fearful march." * Twenty men who were left at
Devil's Gate had a terrible experience, being compelled, before
assistance reached them, to eat even the pieces of hide wrapped
round their cart-wheels, and a piece of buffalo skin that had
been used as a door-mat. Strange to say, all of these men reached
the valley alive.

* "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 337.

We have seen that Brigham Young was the inventor of this
hand-cart immigration scheme. Alarmed by the result of the
experiment, as soon as the wretched remnant of the last two
parties arrived in Salt Lake City, he took steps to place the
responsibility for the disaster on other shoulders. The idea
which he carried out was to shift the blame to F. D. Richards on
the ground that he allowed the immigrants to start too late. In
an address in the Tabernacle, while Captain Willie's party was
approaching the city, he told the returned missionaries from
England that they needed to be careful about eulogizing Richards
and Spencer, lest they should have "the big head." When these men
were in Salt Lake City he cursed them with the curse of the
church. E. W. Tullidge, who was an editor of the Millennial Star
in Liverpool under Richards when the hand-cart emigrants were
collected, proposed, when in later years he was editing the Utah
Magazine, to tell the facts about that matter; but when Young
learned this, he ordered Godbe, the controlling owner of the
magazine, to destroy that issue, after one side of the sheets had
been printed, and he was obeyed.* Fortunately Young was not able
to destroy the files of the Millennial Star.

* "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 342.

There is much that is thoroughly typical of Mormonism in the
history of these expeditions. No converts were ever instilled
with a more confident belief in the divine character of the
ridiculous pretender, Joseph Smith. To no persons were more
flagrant misrepresentations ever made by the heads of the church,
and over none was the dictatorial authority of the church
exercised more remorselessly. Not only was Utah held out to them
as "a land where honest labor and industry meet with a suitable
reward, and where the higher walks of life are open to the
humblest and poorest," * but they were informed that, if they had
not faith enough to undertake the trip to Utah, they had not
"faith sufficient to endure, with the Saints in Zion, the
celestial law which leads to exaltation and eternal life." Young
wrote to Richards privately in October, 1855, "Adhere strictly to
our former suggestion of walking them through across the plains
with hand-carts";** and Richards in an editorial in the Star
thereupon warned the Saints: "The destroying angel is abroad.
Pestilence and gaunt famine will soon increase the terrors of the
scene to an extent as yet without a parallel in the records of
the human race. If the anticipated toils of the journey shake
your faith in the promises of the Lord, it is high time that you
were digging about the foundation of it, and seeing if it be
founded on the root of the Holy Priesthood," etc.

* Thirteenth General Epistle, Millennial Star, Vol. XVIII, p. 49.

** Millennial Star, Vol. XVIII, p, 61.

The direct effect of such teaching is shown in two letters
printed in the Millennial Star of June 14, 1856. In the first of
these, a sister, writing to her brother in Liverpool from
Williamsburg, New York, confesses her surprise on learning that
the journey was to be made with hand-carts, says that their
mother cannot survive such a trip, and that she does not think
the girls can, points out that the limitation regarding baggage
would compel them to sell nearly all their clothes, and proposes
that they wait in New York or St. Louis until they could procure
a wagon. In his reply the brother scorns this advice, says that
he would not stop in New York if he were offered 10,000 pounds
besides his expenses, and adds "Brothers, sisters, fathers or
mothers, when they put a stumbling block in the way of my
salvation, are nothing more to me than Gentiles. As for me and my
house, we will serve the Lord, and when we start we will go right
up to Zion, if we go ragged and barefoot."

Young found himself hard put to meet the church obligations in
1856, notwithstanding the economy of the hand-cart system; and
the Millennial Star of December 27 announced that no assisted
emigrants would be sent out during the following year. Saints
proposing to go through at their own expense were informed,
however, that the church bureau would supply them with teams.
Those proposing to use hand-carts were told of the "indispensable
necessity" of having their whole outfit ready on their arrival at
Iowa City, and the bureau offered to supply this at an estimated
cost of 3 pounds per head, any deficit to be made up on their
arrival there.*

* "The agency of the Mormon emigration at that time was a very
profitable appointment. By arrangement with ship brokers at
Liverpool, a commission of half a guinea per head was allowed the
agent for every adult emigrant that he sent across the Atlantic,
and the railroad companies in New York allowed a percentage on
every emigrant ticket. But a still larger revenue was derived
from the outfitting on the frontiers. The agents purchased all
the cattle, wagons, tents, wagon-covers, flour, cooking utensils,
stoves, and the staple articles for a three months' journey
across the Plains, and from them the Saints supplied
themselves."--" Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 340.

CHAPTER V. Early Political History

We have seen that Joseph Smith's desire was, when he suggested a
possible removal of the church to the Far West, that they should
have, not only an undisturbed place of residence, but a
government of their own. This idea of political independence
Young never lost sight of. Had Utah remained a distant province
of the Mexican government, the Mormons might have been allowed to
dwell there a long time, practically without governmental
control. But when that region passed under the government of the
United States by the proclamation of the Treaty of
Guadalupe-Hidalgo, on July 4, 1848, Brigham Young had to face
anew situation. He then decided that what he wanted was an
independent state government, not territorial rule under the
federal authorities, and he planned accordingly. Every device was
employed to increase the number of the Saints in Utah, to bring
the population up to the figure required for admission as a
state, and he encouraged outlying settlements at every attractive
point. In this way, by 1851, Ogden and Provo had become large
enough to form Stakes, and in a few years the country around Salt
Lake City was dotted with settlements, many of them on lands to
which the "Lamanites," who held so deep a place in Joseph Smith's
heart, asserted in vain their ancestral titles.

The first General Epistle sent out from Great Salt Lake City, in
1849, thus explained the first government set up there, "In
consequence of Indian depredations on our horses, cattle, and
other property, and the wicked conduct of a few base fellows who
came among the Saints, the inhabitants of this valley, as is
common in new countries generally, have organized a temporary
government to exist during its necessity, or until we can obtain
a charter for a territorial government, a petition for which is
already in progress."

On March 4, 1849, a convention, to which were invited all the
inhabitants of upper California east of the Sierra Nevadas, was
held in Great Salt Lake City to frame a system of government. The
outcome was the adoption of a constitution for a state to be
called the State of Deseret, and the election of a full set of
state officers. The boundaries of this state were liberal.
Starting at a point in what is now New Mexico, the line was to
run down to the Mexican border, then west along the border of
lower California to the Pacific, up the coast to 118 degrees 30
minutes west longitude, north to the dividing ridge of the Sierra
Nevadas, and along their summit to the divide between the
Columbia River and the Salt Lake Basin, and thence south to the
place of beginning, "by the dividing range of mountains that
separate the waters flowing into the Gulf of Mexico from the
waters flowing into the Gulf of California." The constitution
adopted followed the general form of such instruments in the
United States. In regard to religion it declared, "All men have a
natural and inalienable right to worship God according to the
dictates of their own consciences; and the General Assembly shall
make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or disturb any person in
his religious worship or sentiments." *

*For text of this constitution and the memorial to Congress, see
Millennial Star, January 15, 1850.

An epistle of the Twelve to Orson Pratt in England, explaining
this subject, said, "We have petitioned the Congress of the
United States for the organization of a territorial government
here. Until this petition is granted, we are under the necessity
of organizing a local government for the time being."* The
territorial government referred to was that of the State of
Deseret. The local government mentioned was organized on March
12, by the election of Brigham Young as governor, H. C. Kimball
as chief justice, John Taylor and N. K. Whitney as associate
justices, and the Bishops of the wards as city magistrates, with
minor positions filled. Six hundred and seventy-four votes were
polled for this ticket.

* Millennial Star, Vol. XI, p. 244.

The General Assembly, chosen later, met on July 2, and adopted a
memorial to Congress setting forth the failure of that body to
provide any form of government for the territory ceded by
Mexico,* declaring that "the revolver and the bowie knife have
been the highest law of the land," and asking for the admission
of the State of Deseret into the Union. That same year the
Californians framed a government for themselves, and a plan was
discussed to consolidate California and Deseret until 1851, when
a separation should take place. The governor of California
condemned this scheme, and the legislature gave it no
countenance.

* "When Congress adjourned on March 4, 1849, all that had been
done toward establishing some form of government for the immense
domain acquired by the treaty with Mexico was to extend over it
the revenue laws and make San Francisco a port of
entry."--Bancroft's "Utah," p. 446.

The Mormons had a confused idea about the government that they
had set up. In the constitution adopted they called their domain
the State of Deseret, but they allowed their legislature to elect
their representative in Congress, sending A. W. Babbitt as their
delegate to Washington, with their memorial asking for the
admission of Deseret, or that they be given "such other form of
civil government as your wisdom and magnanimity may award to the
people of Deseret." The Mormons' old political friend in
Illinois, Stephen A. Douglas, presented this memorial in the
Senate on December 27, 1849, with a statement that it was an
application for admission as a state, but with the alternative of
admission as a territory if Congress should so direct. The
memorial was referred to the Committee on Territories.

On the 31st of December, a counter memorial against the admission
of the Mormon state was presented by Mr. Underwood of Kentucky, a
Whig. This was signed by William Smith, the prophet's brother,
and Isaac Sheen (who called themselves the "legitimate
presidents" of the Mormon church), and by twelve other members.
This memorial alleged that fifteen hundred of the emigrants from
Nauvoo to Salt Lake City, before their departure for Illinois,
took the following oath:--

"You do solemnly swear, in the presence of Almighty God, his holy
angels, and these witnesses, that you will avenge the blood of
Joseph Smith upon this nation; and so teach your children; and
that you will from this day henceforth and forever begin and
carry out hostility against this nation, and keep the same a
profound secret now and ever. So help you God."

This memorial also set forth that the Mormons were practising
polygamy in the Salt Lake Valley; that since their arrival there
they had tried two Indian agents on a charge of participation in
the expulsion of the Mormons from Missouri, and that they were,
by their own assumed authority, imposing duties on all goods
imported into the Salt Lake region from the rest of the United
States. Senator Douglas, in an explanation concerning the latter
charge, admitted that Delegate Babbitt acknowledged the levying
of duties, the excuse being that the Mormons had found it
necessary to set up a government for themselves, pending the
action of Congress, and as a means of revenue they had imposed
duties on all goods brought into and sold within the limits of
Great Salt Lake City, but asserted that goods simply passing
through were not molested. This tax seems to have been
established entirely by the church authorities, the first of the
"ordinances" of the Deseret legislature being dated January 15,
1850.

The constitution of Deseret was presented to the House of
Representatives by Mr. Boyd, a Kentucky Democrat, on January 28,
1850, and referred to the Committee on Territories. On July 25,
John Wentworth, an Illinois Democrat, presented a petition from
citizens of Lee County, in his state, asking Congress to protect
the rights of American citizens passing through the Salt Lake
Valley, and charging on the organizers of the State of Deseret
treason, a desire for a kingly government, murder, robbery, and
polygamy.

The Mormon memorial was taken up in the House of Representatives
on July 18, after the committee had unanimously reported that "it
is inexpedient to admit Almon W. Babbitt, Esq., to a seat in this
body from the alleged State of Deseret." A long debate on the
admission of the delegate from New Mexico had deferred action.
The chairman of the committee, Mr. Strong, a Pennsylvania Whig,
explained that their report was founded on the terms of the
Mormon memorial, which did not ask for Babbitt's reception as a
delegate until some form of government was provided for them. Mr.
McDonald, an Indiana Whig, offered an amendment admitting
Babbitt, and a debate of considerable length followed, in which
the slavery question received some attention. The Committee of
the Whole voted to report to the House the resolution against
seating Babbitt, and then the House, by a vote of 104 yeas to 78
nays, laid the resolution on the table (on motion of its
friends), and tabled a motion for reconsideration. On the 9th of
September following, the law for the admission of Utah as a
territory was signed. The boundaries defined were California on
the west, Oregon on the north, the summit of the Rocky Mountains
on the east, and the 37th parallel of north latitude on the
south.

CHAPTER VI. Brigham Young's Despotism

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."*

* 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."*

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."

* Journal of Discourses, VOL IV, p. 47.

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."* 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." **

* Journal of Discourses, Vol. III, p. 48.

** 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." *