A Sufficient Answer to Josephites

A SUFFICIENT ANSWER TO JOSEPHITES,

BY B. H. ROBERTS.

There is in existence, with headquarters at Lamoni, Iowa, an organization known under the title of "The Re-organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Joseph Smith, the eldest son of the prophet Joseph, is the president of this organization, and it is commonly called the "Josephite Church." The chief characteristic of this organization is its opposition to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the bitterness of its leading officers toward the people of Utah. The cause of this bitterness it would be difficult to point out, unless it is to be accounted for in that hatred which comes into the hearts of men against the truth; and they know not why, and perhaps not whence; but they feel its power, yield to its influence, and so fight against God. The opposition of this ''Josephite" institution to the church may be said to be based upon the following grounds:

First, they hold that Joseph Smith, the president of their organization, of right, should have succeeded to the presidency of the church organized, under God, by his father; and this for two reasons: first, because, as they allege, it is his birth-right; and second, by virtue of an ordination to that position which they affirm he received from his father before the latter's martyrdom: and they hold that Brigham Young and the whole quorum of the Twelve Apostles were guilty of an usurpation when they assumed the presidency of the church after the death of the prophet Joseph, and subsequently organized the First Presidency of the Church and set in order all the affairs thereof;

Second, they hold that the whole church was rejected by

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the Lord, with their dead, because, as they allege, the temple at Nauvoo was not completed within a time specified by revelation;

Third, they allege that in leading the people to the valleys of the Rocky Mountains, and making this far west the gathering place for the church, President Young and his associates set aside and violated the law of God which appointed Jackson County, Missouri, as the gathering place for the church; and that in leading the people to Utah the Twelve led them astray;

Fourth, they affirm that these usurping leaders when once established in Utah taught false doctrines and caused the people to worship false gods, and go into divers sins;

Fifth, they insist that Brigham Young and not the Prophet Joseph gave the law of Celestial Marriage; including the doctrine of a plurality of wives, to the church; and that by introducing that doctrine the presiding authorities in Utah led their people into whoredoms, and such wickedness that they were properly a reproach to the work of God in the earth, and, indeed, no longer God's people. They had become, concerning the faith reprobate; concerning the favor of God, outcasts; concerning the gospel, apostates. From their standpoint the saints are made up of two classes, usurping leaders and a deluded following. The latter they graciously affect to pity, the former they denounce with a vehemence that might be alarming if it were not impotent. In a word the "Josephites" hold the saints to be apostates, and the church rejected of God, and that from the days of Nauvoo.

Technicalities and details aside this is the attidude of the "Josephite" organization towards the saints and the church; and it is to this attitude that this paper is to give a sufficient answer, one that in the judgment of the writer will cover the whole ground of controversy, and be complete. An answer, in fact, that will be God's answer to these calumnies. And though it cannot be hoped that it will close the mouths of those who have schooled themselves even "though vanquished to argue still," it is believed that it will be sufficient to satisfy the honest in heart who believe that Joseph Smith, the prophet, was an inspired servant of God; and it is also

hoped that it will supply the brethren traveling in the ministry, and who occasionally meet with the objections urged by "Josephites," with material to expose the falsity of those things which are charged against the servants of God and the church of Christ.

It is necessary to say that "Josephites" profess a belief in the Prophet Joseph Smith; that is, they profess to believe that he was a prophet and servant of God, divinely inspired to teach the gospel and establish the church of Christ on earth. It is this fact of their profession that will give force to the answer to be made here. It should also be said that the facts to be stated before we reach the point of argument may, at first, seem to have but little bearing on the subject, but a patient reading of them is essential to the force of the argument.

In the journal of William Clayton, under date of May 1 8th, 1843, is the following entry, relating a conversation that took place between Joseph Smith and Stephen A. Douglas, at the house of Sheriff Backenstos, at Carthage, Illinois:

"Dined with Judge Stephen A. Douglas, who is presiding at court. After dinner Judge Douglas requested President Joseph to give him a history of the Missouri persecution, which he did in a very minute manner for about three hours. He also gave a relation of his journey to Washington City, and his application in behalf of the saints to Mr. Van Buren, the president of the United States, for redress; and Mr. Van Buren's pusillanimous reply — 'Gentlemen, your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you;' and the cold, unfeeling manner in which he was treated by most of the senators and representatives in relation to the subject, Clay saying, 'You had better go to Oregon,' and Calhoun shaking his head solemnly, saying, 'It's a nice question — a critical question; but it will not do to agitate it.'

"The judge listened with the greatest attention, and then spoke warmly in depreciation of Governor Boggs and the authorities in Missouri, who had taken part in the extermination, and said that any people that would do as the mobs of Missouri had done ought to be brought to judgment; they ought to be punished.

"President Smith, in concluding his remarks, said that if the government, which receives into its coffers the money of citizens for its public lands, while its officials are rolling in luxury at the expense of its public treasury, cannot protect such citizens in their lives and property, it is an old granny anyhow; and I prophesy in the name of the Lord God of Israel, unless the United States redress the wrongs committed upon the saints in

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the State of Missouri and punish the crimes committed by her officers, that in a few years the government will be utterly overthrown and wasted, and there will not be so much as a potsherd left, for their wickedness in permitting the murder of men, women, and children, and the wholesale plunder and extermination of thousands of her citizens to go unpunished, thereby perpetrating a foul and corroding blot upon the fair fame of this great republic, the very thought of which would have caused the highminded and patriotic framers of the Constitution of the United States to hide their faces with shame. Judge, you zvill aspire to the presidency of the United States; and if you ever turn your hand against me or the Latter-day Saints, you zvill feel the weight of the hand of the Almighty ufon you; and you zvill live to see and knozv that I have testified the truth to you; for the conversation of this day zvill stick to you through life. He appeared very friendly, and acknowledged the truth and propriety of President Smith's remarks."

This prophecy was first published in Utah, in the Deserei News of September 24th, 1856; it was afterwards published in England, in the Millennial Star, February, 1859.* In both instances it is found in the History of Joseph Smith, then being published in sections in those periodicals. Stephen A. Douglas did aspire to the presidency of the United States, and was nominated for that office by the Democratic Convention, held in Charleston, on the 23rd of June, i860. When in the convention he was declared the regular nominee of the Democratic party, "The whole body rose to its feet, hats were waved in the air and many tossed aloft; shouts, screams, and yells and every boisterous mode of expressing approbation and unanimity, were resorted to."t

When Mr. Douglas aspired to the presidency, no man in the history of American politics had more reason to hope for success. The political party of which he was the recognized leader, in the preceding presidential election had polled 174 electoral votes, as against 122 cast by the other two parties which opposed it; and a popular vote of 1,838,169, as against 1,215,798 votes for the two parties opposing. It is a matter of history, however, that the Democratic party in the election of i860 was badly divided; and factions of it put candidates into the field with the following result: Mr. Abraham Lincoln, candidate of the Republican party, was

*Mill. Star, Vol. xxi, No. 9.

fSee Cooper's American Politics, Bk. I, p. 86.

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triumphantly elected. He received 180 electoral votes; Mr. Breckinridge received 72 electoral votes; Mr. Bell 39; and Mr. Douglas 12. "By a plurality count of the popular vote, Mr. Lincoln carried 18 states; Mr. Breckinridge 11; Mr. Bell 3, and Mr. Douglas but 1/"* Twenty days less than one year after his nomination by the Charleston convention, while yet in the prime of manhood — forty-eight years of age — Mr. Douglas died, at his home in Chicago, a disappointed, not to say heartbroken, man.

Let us now search out the cause of his failure. Fourteen years after the interview containing the prophecy here under discussion, and about one year after the prophecy had been published in the Deseret News, Mr. Douglas was called upon to deliver a speech in Springfield, the capital of Illinois. His speech was delivered on the 12th of June, 1857, and published in the Missouri Republican of June 18th, 1857. It was a time of much excitement throughout the country concerning the Mormon Church in Utah. Falsehoods upon the posting winds seemed to have filled the air with the most outrageous calumny. Crimes the most repulsive — murders, robberies, rebellion, and high treason — were falsely charged against its leaders. It was well known that Mr. Douglas had been on terms of intimate friendship with the Prophet Joseph Smith; and was well acquainted with the other church leaders. He was therefore looked upon as one competent to speak upon the "Mormon Question," and was invited to do so in the speech to which reference is here made. Mr. Douglas responded to the request. He grouped the charges against the Mormons which were then passing current, in the following manner:

"First, that nine-tenths of the inhabitants are aliens by birth who have refused to become naturalized, or to take the oath of allegiance, or do any c^her act recognizing the government of the United States as the paramount authority in the territory [Utah].

"Second, that the inhabitants, whether native or alien born, known as Mormons (and they constitute the whole people of the territory) are bound by horrible oaths, and terrible penalties, to recognize and maintain the authority of Brigham Young, and the government of which he is head, as

*See tables in "American Politics," Bk. vii, pp. 22, 26; also, History U. S. (by Alexander H. Stephens), p. 559.

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paramount to that of the United States, in civil as well as in religious affairs; and they will in due time, and under the direction of their leaders, use all the means in their power to subvert the government of the United States and resist its authority.

"Third, that the Mormon government, with Brigham Young at its head, is now forming alliances with Indian tribes in Utah and adjoining territories — stimulating the Indians to acts of hostility — and organizing bands of his own followers under the name of Danites or destroying angels, to prosecute a system of robbery and murders upon American citizens who support the authority of the United States, and denounce the infamous and disgusting practices and institutions of the Mormon government."

Mr. Douglas based his remarks upon these rumors against the saints, in the course of which he said:

"Let us have these facts in an official shape before the president and congress, and the country will soon learn that, in the performance of the high and solemn duty devolving upon the executive and congress, there will beno vacillating or hesitating policy. It will be as prompt as the peal that follows the flash — as stern and unyielding as death. Should such a state of things actually exist as we are led to infer from the reports — and such information comes in an official shape — the knife must be applied to this pestiferous, disgusting cancer which is gnazving into the Tery vitals of the body politic. It must be cut out by the roots, and seared over by the red hot iron of stern and unflinching lazu. * * * Should all efforts fail to bring them [the Mormons] to a sense of their duty, there is but one remedy left. Repeal the organic law of (he territory, on the ground that they are alien enemies and outlazvs, unfit to be citizens of a territory, much less ever to become citizens of one of the free and independent states of this confederacy. To protect them further in their treasonable, disgusting and bestial practices would be a disgrace to the country — a disgrace to humanity — a disgrace to civilization, and a disgrace to the spirit of the age. Blot it out of the organized territories of the United States. What then? It will be regulated by the law of 1790, which has exclusive and sole jurisdiction over all the territory not incorporated under any organic or special law. By the provisions of this law, all crimes and misdemeanors, committed on its soil, can be tried before the legal authorities of any state or territory to which the offenders shall be first brought to trial, and punished. Under that law persons have been arrested in Kansas, Nebraska and other territories, prior to their organization as territories, and hanged for their crimes. The law of 1790 has sole and exclusive jurisdiction where no other law of a local character exists, and by repealing the organic law of Utah, you give to the general government of the United States the whole and sole jurisdiction over the territory. "

The speech of Mr. Douglas was of great interest and importance to the people of Utah at that juncture. Mr.

Douglas had it in his power to do them great good. Because of his personal acquaintance with Joseph Smith and the great body of the Mormon people then in Utah, as well as their leaders (for he had known both leaders and people in Illinois, and those whom he had known in Illinois constituted the great bulk of the people in Utah, when he delivered that Springfield speech), he knew that the reports carried to the east by vicious and corrupt men were not true. He knew that these reports in the main were but a rehash of the old exploded charges made against Joseph Smith and his followers in Missouri; and he knew them to be false by many evidences furnished him by Joseph Smith in the interview of the 18th of May, 1843, and by the Mormon people at sundry times during his association with them at Nauvoo. He had an opportunity to befriend the innocent; to refute the calumnies cast upon a virtuous community; to speak a word in behalf of the oppressed; but the demagogue triumphed over the statesman, the politician, over the humanitarian; and to avoid the popular censure which he feared befriending the Mormon people would bring to him, he turned his hand against them, with the result that he did not destroy them but sealed his own doom — in fulfillment of the words of the prophet, he felt the weight of the hand of the Almighty upon him.

It was impossible for any merely human sagacity to foresee the events predicted in his prophecy. Stephen A. Douglas was a bright but comparatively an unknown man at the time of the interview, in May, 1843. There is and can be no question about the prophecy preceding the event. It v-as published, as before stated, in the Deseret News of the 24th of September, 1856; about one year before the Douglas speech at Springfield, in June, 1857; and about four years before Douglas was nominated for the presidency by the Charleston Democratic Convention.

Moreover, a lengthy review of Mr. Douglas' speech was published in the editorial columns of the Deseret News in the issue of that paper for September 2nd, 1857, of which the following is the closing paragraph, addressed directly to Mr. Douglas:

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' 'In your last paragraph [of the Springfield speech] you say, 'I have thus presented to you plainly and fairly my views of the Utah question;' with at least equal plainness and with far more fairness have your views now been commented upon. And inasmuch as you were well acquainted with Joseph Smith, and his people, also with the character of our maligners, and did know their allegations were false, but must bark with the dogs who were snapping at our heels, to let them know that you were a dog with them; and also that you may have a testimony of the truth of the assertion that you did know Joseph and his people and the character of their enemies (and neither class have changed, only as the saints have grown better and their enemies worse); and also that you may thoroughly understand that you have voluntarily, knowingly, and of choice sealed your damnation, and by your own chosen course have closed your chance for the presidential chair, through disobeying the counsel of Joseph which you formerly sought and prospered by following, and that you in common with us, may testify to all the world that Joseph was a true prophet, the following extract from the history of Joseph Smith is again printed for your benefit, and is kindly recommended to your careful perusal and most candid consideration."

Then follows the interview between Joseph Smith and Mr. Douglas as recorded in the journal of Wm. Clayton, as published in the News a year before Mr. Douglas' Springfield speech, and as now quoted in this paper.

I have been careful to state in full all the circumstances connected with this remarkable prophecy, in order that there might be no question in relation to the prophecy itself, that is, no question as to the prediction preceding the event, and its complete and miraculous fulfillment. And now I have reached the point for the argument.

The prophecy is a fact. Its fulfillment is a fact. God gloriously fulfilled the prediction of his servant Joseph Smith, the prophet. Stephen A. Douglas did aspire to the presidency of the United States. He received the nomination for that high office, from a great political party. But he had raised his hand against the Latter-day Saints, the people of the Prophet Joseph Smith; and as a consequence he did feel the weight of the hand of the Almighty upon him; for his hopes were blasted; he never reached the goal of his ambition; he failed miserably, and died wretchedly, when his life had but reached high noon. Could anything be more clear than that Stephen A. Douglas felt the weight of the hand of the Almighty upon him? But mark you, THESE CALAMITIES

CAME UPON HIM FOR STRIKING AT THE SAINTS OF GOD IN UTAH. IT WAS FOR TURNING HIS HAND AGAINST THEM THAT HE WAS DISAPPOINTED IN HIS HOPES, BLASTED IN HIS EX- PECTATIONS, AND DIED HEARTBROKEN. AND WHEN THE ALMIGHTY THUS VINDICATED THE PREDICTIONS OF HIS PROPHET UPON THE HEAD OF THIS GREAT MAN, HE ALSO DID SOMETHING MORE— HE ACKNOWLEDGED THE SAINTS IN UTAH AS HIS PEOPLE, THE CHURCH IN UTAH AS HIS CHURCH, AND THERE IS NO ESCAPING THE CONCLUSION.

This prophecy was not fulfilled upon the head of Stephen A. Douglas because he raised his hand against the Josephites; that movement had not then taken definite form when Stephen A. Douglas delivered his Springfield speech on the 12th of June, 1857. Joseph Smith who is now the president of that institution had not then given his consent to take the presidency of the "reorganized church," so that "Josephites" can claim no lot nor part in the fulfillment of this remarkable prophecy — the fulfillment of which is such a complete vindication of the Church of Christ from the charges "Josephites" make against it. And, furthermore, it should be remembered that this vindication came at the time when, according to "Josephite" contention, the apostasy of the saints in Utah was at its full height. That is, plural marriage was publicly taught and practiced, and in part it was to this that Mr. Douglas alluded in some portions of his speech; the doctrines which are supposed by "Josephites" to have led the people to follow after false gods were then most taught; and yet, when from the "Josephite" standpoint, the apostasy of the church in Utah is at its height, lo! God gives his people there this splendid vindication — so far acknowledges them as his people that the man who dares to turn his hand against them having been warned by his prophet not to do so, he strikes down with death after disappointing his hopes, humbling his pride, and making him an object at which Time would henceforth point his finger. Would God do this in vindication of a people who had transgressed his law, usurped his authority, aband-

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oned themselves to whoredoms, followed after false gods, and corrupted the priesthood? Such a thought is so revolting to reason that it may be dismissed without further consideration. But on the other hand, what becomes of the charges of apostasy made against the people whom God thus vindicated? As idle tales are they henceforth to those who will weigh the force of the argument contained in the facts here set forth. I contend that there is no need of endless cavilings over technicalities; nor weary discussions over the sophistries of "Josephites." Here is God's answer to all their contentions, and calumnies. He owns his people, he vindicates his church, by visiting judgment upon the head of one of America's foremost statesmen who raised his hand against the people and church of God. I am content with God's answer to "Josephites." It is sufficient.