CHAPTER XIV.

1844-1845.

BRIGHAM YOUNG SUCCEEDS JOSEPH SMITH-THE MAN FOR THE HOUR-SIDNEY RIGDON REJECTED AND FOLLOWINGS THE PROPHET'S MURDER PROVES AN

AND EXCOMMUNICATED-FACTIONS

IMPETUS TO MORMONISM-THE CRUSADE

MENT THE

RENEWED-THE APOSTLES DRIVEN INTO RETIRE

BOGUS BRIGHAM" ARREST REPEAL OF THE NAUVOO CHARTER-JOSIAH LAMBORN'S OPINION OF THE REPEAL GOVERNOR FORD ADVISES A MORMON EXODUSTHE PROPHET'S MURDERERS ACQUITTED-THE

ANTI-MORMONS CHANGE THEIR TACTICS

THE TORCH OF THE INCENDIARY IN LIEU OF THE WRIT OF ARREST SHERIFF BACKENSTOS-THE MOBOCRATS WORSTED AND PUT TO FLIGHT-GOVERNOR FORD INTERPOSES TO RESTORE HARDIN AND THE COMMISSIONERS-THE MORMONS AGREE ΤΟ LEAVE

ORDER-GENERAL

ILLINOIS.

B

RIGHAM YOUNG succeeded Joseph Smith as leader of the Latter-day Saints. Sidney Rigdon claimed the leadership. It was to secure it that he came from Pittsburg on learning of the Prophet's death. Being his first counselor in the Presidency,though Joseph, distrusting his fidelity, had long since virtually cast him off,-Elder Rigdon believed, or affected to believe, that this entitled him to the succession. A small faction of the Saints felt likewise.

But the hearts of the people, as a rule, were not with Sidney. Though an eloquent orator, he was not a leader, at least not such a leader as the Saints now required; a man to grapple with great emergencies. He had shown too plainly of late years the white feather, to insure him the full confidence of his people at this critical point. in their history. Besides, Sidney's claim, though plausible, was not valid according to Church polity. The First Presidency to which he had belonged was no more. Death had dissolved that council. The Prophet in life had taught that "where he was not there was no First Presidency over the Twelve." Next in order stood the Twelve-the

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Apostles-with Brigham Young as their President. Instinctively the people turned to Brigham, for they loved and trusted him, and by that "right divine," no less than of seniority and succession in the Priesthood, he became their President and spiritual guide.

Sidney Rigdon, after his rejection by the Saints, returned to Pittsburg. Soon afterward he was excommunicated. William Marks, William Smith, James J. Strang and others followed, being severed from the Church, some for immorality, others for refusing like Elder Rigdon to recognize the authority of the Apostles. Each prominent seceder had a limited following. There were Rigdonites, Smithites, Strangites, and later, Cutlerites, Millerites and Josephites. The last-named were followers of the Prophet's son "young Joseph." This sect, which still exists, and calls itself the "Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," did not spring into existence until many years later, and was then organized out of the remnants of the earlier factions. But the main body of the Nauvoo Saints adhered to Brigham and the Twelve.

The chief Apostle was now in his forty-fourth year,-in the full, ripe vigor of his mental and physical powers. Though his life, like those of most of his brethren, had been one of toil and trial, and sickness, resulting from hardship and exposure, had more than once preyed upon his matured and well-knit frame, still he was a man of iron mould, and of no less iron will, whose practical wisdom and temperate habits had perpetuated in him the strength and vitality of youth, and carried forward a reserve fund of energy into his prime. His mind, a master mind, far-sighted, keen, profound, born to direct, to counsel and command, was therefore fittingly enshrined. Nature had made him great. Experience had educated that greatness. Trials and afflictions to which weaker men had succumbed, had but developed this son of destiny and brought him to his plane and place.

He was unquestionably the man for the hour, an hour big with events, whose birth would yet astonish the world. His colleagues, the Apostles, and the Saints in general regarded him as their divinely

appointed leader,-quite as much so as the martyred Joseph before him. The exodus from Missouri, which he personally directed, and his subsequent management of the affairs of the British Mission, had shown something of his capacity and executive ability, but it remained for the exodus of his people to the Rocky Mountains, and the colonization of the great interior Basin, to fully demonstrate his rare genius as a leader and an organizer. A notable character in life's grand tragedy, one bloody scene of which had so lately closed, waiting at the wing he had caught his cue, and the stirring stage of Time was now ready for his advent.

The special meeting of the Saints, at which the claim of the Apostles to lead the Church had been recognized, and that of Elder Rigdon rejected, was held on the 8th of August, 1844. The same month witnessed the election of Brigham Young as LieutenantGeneral of the Nauvoo Legion. Charles C. Rich was chosen MajorGeneral. Amasa M. Lyman, previously ordained an Apostle, was admitted into the council of the Twelve, and that body then addressed an epistle to the Latter-day Saints in all the world, giving such advice and instruction as their situation and the times demanded. Wilford Woodruff was sent to Great Britain to preside over that important mission. With him went Elder Dan Jones, destined to head a very successful missionary movement in Wales. Parley P. Pratt was given charge of Church affairs in the Eastern States, and other Elders, besides many already in the field, were going forth to various parts of the Union. Among those now rising to prominence was Franklin D. Richards, the present Apostle and Church Historian.

Mormonism, its opponents discovered, was not dead, though the Church had sustained a heavy shock in the death of its Prophet and Patriarch. "The blood of the martyrs" is proverbially "the seed of the Church." The present case proved no exception. The murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith undoubtedly gave a strong impetus to Mormonism. Short-sighted indeed the wisdom (?) which thought it would do otherwise.

Immigration continued arriving at Nauvoo, where the Saints,

under the direction of the Apostles, now hurried on the completion of the Temple. The exodus predicted and in a measure prepared for by their Prophet, was foreseen to be imminent, and it was their desire to finish this edifice,-another monument of religious zeal and selfsacrificing industry,-before taking up the cross of another painful pilgrimage and journeying toward the setting sun.

The anti-Mormons, their ranks now augmented by apostates, seemed bent upon compelling an early exodus. To this end they continued their former policy of trumping up charges against the chiefs of the Church. A murder, a theft, or any other crime,—and such things were frequent in that all but frontier region,-committed at or in the vicinity of Nauvoo, was at once laid to the Mormon leaders as principals or accessories, and forthwith the town would be inundated with sheriffs, constables and their posses, armed with writs of arrest, searching for the suspects. That some of these crimes were committed by citizens of Nauvoo is quite probable. But that all the stealing and killing in that region, or even the greater part of it was done by them, cannot be reasonably supposed, in spite of the awful examples set them.

Brigham and his brethren, with the memory of the murdered Joseph and Hyrum ever before them, their Prophet and Patriarch, butchered in cold blood while in prison under the pledged protection of the State of Illinois,-determined not to be similarly ensnared. Instead of surrendering to the officers, therefore, they secreted themselves whenever apprised of their approach, only to reappear when they had departed and all danger was over. The celebrated "bogus Brigham" arrest occurred during this period. The Apostles and other Elders were at the Temple, then nearing completion, when some officers came to the door with a warrant for the arrest of Brigham Young. William Miller, who resembled the President, throwing on Heber C. Kimball's cloak-similar in size and color to Brigham's-crossed the threshold and mutely surrendered to the officers, who, thinking they had secured their man, drove away with him to Carthage. The ruse was not discovered until they reached