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SECTION II. PONTIFICATE OF BRIGHAM YOUNG.

CHAPTER IV.

FROM THE ACCESSION OF BRIGHAM YOUNG TO THE ORGANIZATION OF THE TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT

THE CANDIDATES FOR THE PONTIFICATE.—THE LION OF THE LORD. -FRESH PERSECUTIONS.-CIRCULAR OF THE HIGH COUNCIL OF

THE CHURCH.-THE EXODUS RESOLVED ON.-DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE OF NAUVOO. DEPARTURE FOR THE WEST.-SIEGE OF NAUVOO. THE SAINTS IN THE DESERT.-MORMON BATTALION.FOUNDATION OF KANESVILLE.-WINTER AMONG THE INDIANS.EXPLORING THE GREAT BASIN.-BRIGHAM YOUNG ELECTED PROPHET.-THE JOURNEY TO THE SALT LAKE. THE NEW ZION OF THE DESERT.-LOCUSTS AND GULLS.-GOLD DISCOVERED BY THE MORMONS IN CALIFORNIA.-UTAH.-HOSTILITY OF THE INDIANS. -PROVISIONAL STATE OF DESERET.-THE TERRITORY OF UTAH.THE NEW PROPHET APPOINTED GOVERNOR.

THE Prophet was dead; and owing to the absence of the apostles, who were all, with the exception of two, upon missions, the Church appeared left without a guide. However, the influential Mormons who remained in Nauvoo, and

Daniel Spencer, the new mayor, succeeded, by their prudent advice, in repressing the thirst for revenge which, as soon as the dejection caused at first by their grief had passed away, sprang up in every breast, and also, in calming down their brethren to a dignified self-command, alike honourable to the good sense and moral courage of the persecuted sect.

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The 15th of July, 1844, an epistle, signed by four of the principal Mormons, was addressed to all the Saints on the earth it urged them to persevere in the faith, despite the death of the Prophet, to repress all idea of revenge, and to come to the aid of the Saints of Nauvoo, who were reduced to a state bordering on famine, by persecutions and heavy rains.

"As to our country and nation," says the address, "we have more reason to weep for them, than for those they have murdered; for they are destroying themselves and their institutions, and there is no remedy; and as to feelings of revenge, let them not have place for one moment in our bosoms, for God's vengeance will speedily consume to that degree, that we would fain be hid away, and not endure the sight. . . . . Let no vain or foolish plans or imaginations scatter us abroad, and divide us asunder as a people, to seek to save our lives at the expense of truth and principle, but rather let us live or die together, and in the enjoyment of society and union. . . . . None can hinder the rolling on of the eternal purposes of the Great Jehovah. And we have now every reason to believe that the fulfil

ment of His great purposes is much nearer than we had supposed, and that not many years hence we shall see the kingdom of God coming with power and great glory to our deliverance.

Towards the beginning of August, Brigham Young and all the apostles had returned to Nauvoo. The Council of Twelve immediately assumed, as it was authorized to do, the presidency ad interim of the Church, and the 15th of August, Brigham, in the name of the great council of which he was the head, issued a further epistle, whereby he exhorted all the Saints of the earth to remain quiet and to refrain from all excesses, to have confidence in the justice of the laws, to come to Nauvoo to continue the construction of the temple and the extension of the city, to abstain from all intermeddling with political matters, and to concentrate their attention upon the social and religious affairs of their body. The epistle also reminded them that, although dead, Joseph still held the keys of the last dispensation, and would hold them to all eternity.

"Forasmuch as the Saints have been called to suffer deep affliction and persecution, and also to mourn the loss of our beloved Prophet, and also our Patriarch, who have suffered a cruel martyrdom for the testimony of Jesus, having voluntarily yielded themselves to cruel murderers, who had sworn

See the whole of this address in 'The History of the Mormons, or Latter-day Saints; with Memoirs of the Life and Death of Joseph Smith, the American Mahomet,' 1852, p. 190.

to take their lives, and thus, like good shepherds, have laid down their lives for the sheep, therefore it becomes necessary for us to address you at this time on several important subjects. You are now without a prophet present with you in the flesh to guide you; but you are not without apostles, who hold the keys of power to seal on earth that which shall be sealed in heaven, and to preside over all the affairs of the Church in all the world; being still under the direction of the same God, and being dictated by the same Spirit, having the same manifestations of the Holy Ghost to dictate all the affairs of the Church in all the world; to build up the kingdom upon the foundation which the Prophet Joseph has laid.... How vain are the imaginations of the children of men, to presume for a moment that the slaughter of one, two, or a hundred of the leaders of this Church, could destroy an organization so perfect in itself and so harmoniously arranged, that it will stand while one member of it is left alive upon the earth! Brethren, be not alarmed, if the Twelve should be taken away, still there are powers and offices in existence which will bear the kingdom of God triumphantly victorious in all the world."

Without, animosity had somewhat cooled down, and the Mormons enjoyed comparative repose in that respect. But within, tranquillity was put to severe trial, from the ambition of the disputants for the succession of the Prophet. Foremost among the competitors, or rather of the intriguers, who aspired to the place so suddenly left vacant, was S.

Rigdon, a Mormon who had frequently been a backslider, but whom ambition or conviction had constantly brought back to the fold. It cannot be denied, that the high position he had held in the Mormon hierarchy, the immense services he had done the Church, and perhaps also the learning he possessed, perfectly justified his pretensions. To all these grounds, he professed to add another which could not fail to be of great weight in the estimation of the sacred college, that of revelator. God, said he, had commanded him to lead the Saints of Illinois into the State of Pennsylvania, and also to pay a visit to Queen Victoria, and overthrow her if she refused to accept the new gospel. Rigdon was of all the candidates certainly the most formidable; the one, in fact, most feared by Brigham Young. He had moreover a tolerably strong party at his back, and his daring and eloquence supplied him with arms not easily resisted. However, in spite of all these elements of success, the majority of the Mormons refused to support him. They bore in mind that Rigdon had been for some time kept at a distance by the Prophet, that his conduct for the last few years had been equivocal and frequently blamable; add to which, that the doctrine of the spiritual wife, of which he was the originator, had alienated the minds of the majority from him. At the very moment when he believed himself on the point of succeeding to the inheritance left by Joseph, whose powers and functions he already assumed, Rigdon was summoned to answer for his misdeeds before the twelve