Life and Labors of Sidney Rigdon, VII

THE LIFE AND LABORS OF SIDNEY RIGDON. BY JOHN JAQUES, ASSISTANT CHURCH HISTORIAN.

VII.

The subsequent course of Elder Rigdon, however, was not at all satisfactory, so it was resolved that his case should be taken

into consideration by the High Council. Consequently he was notified to appear in his own defense. At a meeting of The Church, on the meeting ground, Nauvoo, on Sunday, September 8, 1844, there were present, of the Twelve Apostles, President Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, P. P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, Orson Hyde, George A. Smith, John Taylor and Amasa Lyman. "The High Council organized themselves with Bishop Newel K. Whitney at their head, as follows: William Marks, president of the stake, and Charles C. Rich, counselor; Samuel Bent, James Allred, Lewis D. Wilson, Alpheus Cutler, David Fullmer, George W. Harris, Thomas Grover, Aaron Johnson, Henry G. Sherwood; also Reynolds Cahoon, Asahel Smith, and Ezra T. Benson, in the place of three absent members." After the meeting was opened, President Young addressed the people and said the business of the day would result in this —that all those who were for Joseph and Hyrum, the Book of Mormon, book of Doctrine and Covenants, the temple and Joseph's measures, and for the Twelve, they being one party, would be called upon to manifest their principles openly and boldly. Those who were for Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight, James Emmett, etc., could show

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themselves boldly and withdraw without fear. Those who wished to tarry and build up the city and temple, and carry out the measures and revelations of the martyred prophets, could make known who they were. If there should be but ten left, he (Brigham) wanted to be one of that number. He said: "I have traveled these many years in the midst of poverty and tribulation, and that too with blood in my shoes, month after month, to sustain and preach this Gospel and build up this kingdom, and God forbid that I should now turn round and seek to destroy that which I have been laboring to build up. "We have here before us this morning, the High Council and Bishop Whitney at their head, and we will try Sidney Rigdon before this council, and let them take an action on his case this morning, and then we will present it to The Church, and let The Church also take an action upon it. I am willing that you should know that

my feelings for Sidney Rigdon as a man, as a private citizen, are of the best kind. I have loved that man, and always had the very best feelings for him; I have stood in ^defense of his life and his house in Kirtland, and have lain on the floor night after night and week after week, to defend him. There are those who are following Sidney for whom my heart is grieved. I esteem them as good citizens; but when it touches the salvation of the people, I am the man that walks to the line. "I am informed that Elder Rigdon is sick; I am also informed that he and his party have had a council this morning and have concluded not to say anything in their own defense, thinking that would be best for them. I have no idea that Elder Rigdon is any

more sick than I am; anyhow, we have a right to try his case, for he had sufficient notice to prepare himself if he had been disposed. We gave him notice last Tuesday evening, and had it published in the Neighbor, and, was he sick, he could have sent us word to have the case deferred." President Young said that Elder Rigdon, the previous Sunday, poured blessings on the people in an unbounded degree, encouraged the building up of the city and temple, said he was one with them. "I said upon the back of his statements, 'You see that Brother Rigdon is with us. I have not seen that Brother Rigdon

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has been with us since he returned from Pittsburg; I have known that he was not with us in spirit, but I took him at his word.' Having heard that Rigdon had a meeting on Monday evening, 2nd, at which men were ordained to be prophets, priests, and kings, President Young and Elder Orson Hyde went to Rigdon's on the 3rd, and, said President Young, "I looked him right in the face, and asked him if he had a meeting last night, here, in which men were ordained to be prophets, priests and kings. He replied, 'No, we had no meeting here; had we, brother Soby?'" " 'Well, did you have a meeting anywhere, Brother Rigdon,

in which men were ordained to be prophets, priests and kings?' " 'Well, I know; did we have a meeting last night, don't brother Soby? believe there was one last night; wasn't Yes, I

there, Brother Soby, up at your house?' "I saw the disposition of Elder Rigdon to conceal the truth and equivocate, and I determined to know the whole secret. I said to him again, 'Elder Rigdon, did you not ordain those men at that meeting last night?' "He replied, 'Yes, I suppose I did.' "I then asked Brother Rigdon by what authority he ordained prophets, priests and kings. "With a very significant' air, he replied, 'Oh, I know about that!' "I then asked Brother Rigdon, 'Do you not think, really, that you hold the keys and authority above any man, or set of men, in this Church, even the Twelve?' "Says he, 'I never taught any such doctrine, did I, Brother Soby?' "Says I, 'Brother Rigdon, tell me the truth, do you not think so?' "He replied, 'Yes, I dor' In the evening, eight of the Twelve, with Bishop Whitney, after visiting with Elder Rigdon, went to Dr. Richards, when a committee of three was appointed, who went and demanded Eider Rigdon's license, but he refused to give it up, saying, "I did not receive it from you, neither shall I give it up to you." Hence the present trial.

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President Young said the Twelve were to be witnesses, not

judges, before the High Council. Elder Rigdon had not conducted himself like a man of God, nor a prophet of God, nor a counselor to the First President, since he returned to Nauvoo. Elder Orson Hyde said he had written, by counsel of President Brigham Young and others of the Twelve at Boston, to Elder Rigdon at Pittsburg, desiring him and Elder Page to meet them at Nauvoo, and there rest, mourn for the martyrs, and counsel together. But Elder Rigdon had gone direct to Nauvoo, taken steps to call The Church together to appoint a guardian, being anxious to crowd action before the Twelve could get there, as it was necessary that he should return home immediately to his family. But since the Twelve had arrived, and The Church had unanimously chosen to sustain the Twelve, Elder Rigdon was no more anxious to return to Pittsburg. Brother Joseph Smith had said, "If I am taken away, upon you, the Twelve, will rest the responsibility of leading this people, and don't be bluffed off by any man.'

Elder Hyde had invited Elder Rigdon to meet with the Twelve in council, but he said he was sick. Rigdon said he had no jurisdiction over the Twelve, nor the Twelve over him; that there would be many churches built up all over the world, not subject to one common head, at which Elder Hyde replied, "Where there are many heads, there is no head at all, and a thing that has got many heads, must be a hydra — a monster; a house divided against itself cannot stand." Elder Hyde further said that one of Rigdon's party had said to a brother, "If you will not tell it to the Twelve, I will tell you our plans," which were that Elder Rigdon was going to feel the minds of the branches, and then of the people of Nauvoo, and make a party and raise influence to divide the people, and the remainder could follow the Twelve. When Rigdon's license was demanded, and he refused to give it up, he threatened to turn traitor, saying, "Inasmuch as you have demanded my license, I shall find it my duty to publish all your secret meetings and all the history of the secret works of this Church, in the public journals," intimating that it would bring a mob upon The Church, saying, "I know what effect it will have; there is a rod and a scourge awaits this people." Elder Hyde said, "Elder Rigdon, if you want the

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honor of bringing distress upon this people, you may have it; you may have the honor of it here, and you may have the honor of it in eternity, and every effort to bring distress upon this people will recoil back upon your own head." "Elder Young says he can prove that Elder Rigdon made use of the same expressions previous to our visiting him last Tuesday." Elder Hyde said of Elder Rigdon: "Now I don't know of any man in this Church that has gone deeper into matters than he did, in Far West, in his oration on the 4th of July. He was the cause of our troubles in Missouri, and although Brother Joseph tried to restrain him, he would take his own course. "Before I went east on, the 4th of April last, we were in council with Brother Joseph almost every day, for weeks; says Brother Joseph, in one of those councils, 'There is something going to happen; I don't know what it is, but the Lord bids me to hasten and give you your endowment before the temple is finished.' He conducted us through every ordinance of the holy priesthood, and when he had gone through with all the ordinances, he rejoiced very much, and said, 'Now if they kill me, you have got all the keys and all the ordinances, and you can confer them upon others, and the hosts of Satan will not be able to tear down the kingdom as fast as you will be able to build it up, and now,' says he, 'On your shoulders will rest the responsibility of leading this people, for the Lord is going to let me rest awhile.' "Elder Rigdon's name was not mentioned, although he was here all the time, but he did not attend our councils. "When we were coming away last Tuesday evening, Elder Rigdon said, 'You are not led by the Lord, and I have known it for a long time that you were not led by the Lord.' Elder Parley P. Pratt said he was a member of the same Church as Elder Rigdon was, before they heard the Gospel, and had no feelings except in his favor. But the salvation of The Church was of far more importance than anything else. Elder Pratt then spoke of Rigdon's tergiversations, saying one thing at one time and a contrary thing at another time, pledging himself that a certain meeting should only be a prayer meeting and then turning, it into a business meeting, ordaining men to various offices, claiming

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that he had authority and keys over any one else; that he was to "It was for this help to fight a bloody battle with the sword, etc. ordaining men to unheard of offices in an illegal manner, and the proceedings at their secret meetings, that the fellowship of the Twelve was withdrawn from Elder Rigdon." Elder Pratt said he demanded Elder Rigdon's license, but he refused to give it up, saying: "I shall now take the liberty to publish to the world all the secret works of this Church, and stir up the world against you, and I know the result, both on you and The Church and myself. I have sat and laughed in my sleeve at the proceedings of the Twelve this evening, for they have been fulfilling in this last act the vision I had at Pittsburg.knew you would withdraw fellowship from I

me; I knew you would oppose me in all my movements. It was all shown to me in the vision before I left Pittsburg." Elder Pratt said: "Last Sunday, Elder Rigdon said we were a blessed people. Now he says he has known ever since before he left Pittsburg that this same blessed people would cut him off before he left them. Only think of the idea, after blessing the congregation as he did last Sabbath, two days after, he says, 'This people have not been led by the Lord for a long time, and I have known it.' Elder Pratt further said that the things revealed to Sidney Rigdon, touching great battles to be fought somewhere, the secret meetings, the ordination of officers, and the government of the Church, was a revelation of falsehood and delusion, calculated to lead the people astray, and result in open apostasy, and was designed to bring destruction on the Church, unless there was speedy repentance. Elder Amasa Lyman corroborated the testimony given. He asked, "Where has this individual been for these years past? Has he been laboring to support and uphold the man whom God has appointed to bring forth this work? Has he been endeavoring for the last four or five years to build up the principles taught and laid down by the man of God?" This man who has been asleep all the while, when he was not too sick to sleep and smoke his pipe and take his drink, corresponds with John C. Bennett and other

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mean, corrupt men. This is the character of the man on whom shines the light of revelation; this is the man who says the Twelve have gone astray and this Church is not led by the Lord. This man is made generalissimo of all the armies of the Gentiles, I suppose; this is the man who is to fight those wonderful battles till the blood of the slain flows as high as the horses' bridles in the brook Kedron. "For the last four or five years we have never heard of Sidney's getting a revelation, but, as soon as Brother Joseph is out of the way, he manufactures one to allure the people and destroy them. Now, after he has given his testimony to the world, after finding fault with God because he happened to get into jail in Missouri, and because he was poor, yet this is the man that can get such wonderful revelations. Now this is the man who has got the keys of the conquest, the keys of David! keys which the Twelve never heard were to be given to man; who had in a manner cursed God to his face. It may be pleaded that Sidney Rigdon may be mistaken. If he should, it is not the first time he has been mistaken in his revelations." Elder W. W. Phelps spoke, relating chiefly to Elder Marks' connection with Sidney Rigdon. Elder W. Marks said when he gave out the appointment to choose a guardian, at Elder Rigdon's request, he (Marks) did not understand the object of the meeting. Elder 0. Hyde said that a short time before the difficulty, President Joseph Smith, in one of their councils, told them he had given them all the keys and ordinances which had been committed to him. There was a call for the question from many parts of the congregation, whereupon President B. Young submitted the case to Bishop Whitney and the High Council. Bishop Whitney gave the privilege to the High Council to offer remarks, but no one spoke. Bishop Whitney then said: "I was well acquainted with Elder Rigdon a number of years before he came into the Church. I never had any confidence in

Brother Rigdon as a revelator, and why? Because I have so repeatedly heard Brother Joseph rebuke him for speaking, in the name of the Lord, what was not so. He was always either in the bottom of

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the cellar or up in the garret window. At the time his license was taken away in Kirtland, he was more sanguine than he is now. The people were excited very much at that time. Brother Joseph was away, and when he returned and learned what Sidney had been doing, he took him into council, told him to give up his license to the Bishop and divest himself of all the authority he could, for, said he (Joseph), 'The less authority you have, the better it will be for you.' It has been repeatedly the

case, when he has been speaking to the Church, that Joseph has rebuked him for it. "I feel that Brother Rigdon came here with a bad spirit, and has delivered a revelation. If such things as are contained in his revelation have been revealed to him, it is from a source with which we want nothing to do. When he first came here, I thought he was deceived, but since last Tuesday evening, I have been convinced that he is dishonest. He made many evasive replies to the interrogatories of the Twelve, and I think his calculation is to scatter this people, because his theory comes in opposition to President Joseph Smith's revelations. It has been proved that he prophesied that we should not build this temple. I believe he is

an evil designing man. He is dishonest, and he has lied to carry out his theory. He preached one thing one day, and the contrary another. I feel to sustain the Twelve in withdrawing their fellowship, and I think the High Council and the Church ought to sustain the decision of the Twelve." Bishop Whitney called upon the High Council to manifest if

they were satisfied with his decision. The vote was unanimous in the affirmative. Elder 0. Hyde said he was not satisfied with the motion. It was not explicit enough. Elder W. W. Phelps moved "That Elder Sidney Rigdon be cut off* from the Church and delivered over to the buffetings of Satan until he repents." Bishop Whitney presented the motion to the High Council, and the vote was unanimous in the affirmative. Elder W. W. Phelps then offered the same motion to the Church. The vote was unanimous, except a few of Elder Rigdon's party.