Physical Evidences of the Divine Mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith

PHYSICAL EVIDENCES OF THE DIVINE MISSION OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH. BY DR. SEYMOUR B. YOUNG, OF THE FIRST SEVEN PRESIDENTS OF SEVENTIES.

In 1832, the revelation was given to the Prophet Joseph concerning the war that was to come to pass between the North and the South. He predicted on August 6, 1842, that the Saints would continue to suffer much affliction, and would be driven to the Rocky Mountains, many would lose their lives through persecution and suffering brought upon them by their enemies, but some of them would live to go there and assist in making settlements, and see the Saints become a mighty people. The angel Moroni stated to the Prophet Joseph that his name should be had for good and evil throughout the world. In 1841, parties from Missouri, having a warrant for the Prophet Joseph, arrested him and sought to kidnap him over the line into the State of Missouri, and there take his life. But fortunately the services of Stephen A. Douglas were secured. He gave a hearing of the case on a writ of habeas corpus, procured for the Prophet from Charles A. Warren, Esq. Joseph thus gained a trial in his own state, and was set at liberty. Judge Douglas seemed to have much friendship for the Prophet and became quite familiar and friendly. He told the Prophet of some of his aspirations, in regard to being a senator of the United States from Illinois, etc. The Prophet later said to him, "Mr. Douglas, you will not only aspire to be a senator, but you will

254 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

aspire to the presidency of the United States as well. But if you ever turn your hand against me or against the 'Mormon' people, you will feel the weight of the hand of the Almighty upon you." The question of slavery was always a very vital question between the North and the South, and especially was it brought to bear upon the Latter-day Saints, as they began to settle in the State of Missouri. The settlers of that state claimed that the Saints were abolitionists from the North, and that they should not find a home within the state on account of their abolition sentiments. This feeling continued to grow, and hatred to increase against them, until they were finally driven from the State of Missouri, not for this alone, but for religious bigotry and hatred held against them because they had the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This ill-feeling was more intensely developed in the minds of the religious leaders and teachers than of the common people. The Prophet Joseph seeing this, and realizing the extent of the persecution that would overtake the Saints, said to them, in substance, "Not only will it be persecution from the county, but from the state, and then from state to state, and finally the United States will array themselves against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." In 1859, John Brown captured Harper's Ferry, Virginia, with its arsenal and all the arms and munitions of war contained in that great depository, holding it for several days. His army consisted of twenty-five men besides himself; and yet, notwithstanding the smallness of the invading party, they held the arsenal and kept the officers of the law at bay until the militia and the State guards

were called out under the direction of Governor Henry Alexander Wise, when John Brown and his followers were captured. Seven of them were tried and hanged for rebellion against the State of Virginia, the rest making their escape into other states. This seemed to be an opening wedge, and only served to concentrate the hatred and set on fire the passions of the southern slave owners. In 1860, prominent southerners held a convention in South Carolina, and declared that the union heretofore existing between South Carolina and other states, known as the United States of America, was this day dissolved. Following this came the assembling of the secession army early in 1861 : and on April 12, the

DIVINE MISSION OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH. 255

bombardment of Fort Sumter by G. T. Beauregard, commander of the secession forces, was ordered and continued until the surrender of that fort. The gun which fired upon Fort Sumter was practically the first of the war, and men who were conservative and peace-loving held their breath in wonder and said, "What will be the next move, and what will the South do next to precipitate a rupture between the Northern and Southern States?" Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated March 4, 1861, as president of the United States. Stephen A. Douglas had run as a candidate for election on the ticket of the Northern Democrats, and had stumped the country alongside of Mr. Lincoln, and it was thought that the "Little Giant," as Douglas was termed, though a very short man in stature, was head and shoulders above Lincoln, his tall antagonist, in the race for the presidency. But the prediction of the Prophet Joseph Smith stood in the way of Douglas, who had opposed the Saints, and when the votes were counted, Abraham Lincoln had one hundred and eighty of the electoral college votes, the others being divided among three other candidates, Douglas only securing twelve for his share. Douglas was a member of the Senate in 1847-61, and he stood up in 1854 and said: "Gentlemen, the 'Mormon' question seems to be the question of the hour, and I have this to say of the 'Mormon' people. I consider 'Mormonism' a loathsome ulcer upon the body politic; and had I the power, I would eliminate it with the surgeon's

knife." Whether or not Mr. Douglas realized the fact that he was sealing his own doom and preventing himself from ever attaining to the office of president of the United States, we cannot say, but he had been warned by the Prophet Joseph that should he array himself against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he never would succeed in attaining the presidency. At the firing upon Fort Sumter, the war of the rebellion began, and in the very place where, twenty-nine years before, the Prophet predicted that it would begin. The revelation goes on to say that the Southern States should call upon Great Britain for aid, and in fulfillment of this prediction James Murray Mason and John Slidell were sent as envoys to solicit aid from Great Britain. After being taken by Wilkes on the Trent and imprisoned in Boston for several months, they were finally set at liberty and went as

256 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

directed by the Confederate government, to solicit recognition and belligerent rights; and, as a result of the sympathy elicited in Great Britain for the Southern States, the steam-sloop Alabama, under Captain Semmes, was sent to make predatory warfare on the merchant marine and other ships of the United States, In 1871-2, a tribunal of arbitration from the nations of the United States, Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland and Brazil sat at Geneva, Switzerland, and under their decision England paid fifteen millions and five hundred thousand dollars in gold to the United States for the aid she had given to the Southern States, thus fulfilling another prediction of the Prophet Joseph in regard to this great war. The revelation, continuing, says, "After many days, slaves shall rise up against their masters, who shall be marshalled and disciplined for war." On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued his emancipation proclamation, freeing the slaves in all the states which should be in rebellion on the following January 1, 1863. In that proclamation he makes this suggestion, that the black man, freed from his former master, be allowed to enlist in the United States army and navy, and thus help to maintain his own freedom; and, in consonance with this suggestion, we know that many thousands of them did enlist, for there were eightyseven regular regiments filled by the former slaves of the south, who were "marshalled, and disciplined for war," and who fought heroically against their former masters. "The remnants who are left of the land," continues the revelation, "shall become exceeding angry, and shall vex the Gentiles with a sore vexation." This, I consider, was verified in the Seminole war. Also in the massacre of Custer near the Little Big Horn Iliver,Montana,also in the fearful raids of Geronimo inOld Mexico and Arizona. Also in other raids of Apache chiefs who attained distinction in their massacres of white people, along the plains from Omaha to San Francisco, over the road traveled by the emigrants from the year 1861, to 1876, which was almost a continued scene of massacre of emigrants and robbing of their trains, as they were journeying to Oregon and California. The idea was prevalent in the minds of these savage leaders and chiefs, that they must, for their own welfare and the continuance of their lives and the lives of their people, exterminate the white race entirely. Of course, they

DIVINE MISSION OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH. 257

did not succeed in this, and the Prophet's prediction did not anticipate that they would succeed; but they did become sorely vexed, and they did severely show their vexation in their massacre of thousands and thousands of white people in parts of the United States. The prediction that the Saints would be driven from city to city, and from state to state, and that many should lose their lives, through persecution and through sickness and suffering, and that finally they should go to the Rocky Mountains and there see the Saints become a great people, has been verified to the very letter. The further prediction that the town and the city and the state should declare themselves in opposition to the Latter-day Saints, and that finally the whole United States would array themselves and declare themselves in opposition to The Church, has been literally verified; for, during the last great raid on plural marriage, there were head-lines in all the journals east and west, north and south, in the leading papers of the day, published in glaring letters, as captions of news and telegraphic dispatches, "The Government of the United States vs. the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Other predictions made by the Prophet Joseph Smith that have had their fulfillment we are conversant with; and those predictions which have not yet been fulfilled, will be to the very letter, for the Lord has declared that not one word of his should fall to the ground, nor one jot or tittle fail of fulfillment. An amusing incident may be related here pertaining to the experience of Lincoln and Douglas, while they were stumping the different states prior to the election of 1860. They both met in Cleveland, Ohio, and arrangements were made for them to speak before the same audience, on the same evening. Douglas made the first speech, and, it is said of him, that that was the greatest speech of his life; at its close, the large audience arose, cheered him and shouted until they were seemingly exhausted. It was

whispered among Lincoln's friends that Mr. Lincoln could never reply to the able and eloquent address of Mr. Douglas. After the applause had subsided, and the audience had quieted down, Lincoln arose amid the breathless silence that followed, straightening his long figure, deliberately drew off a linen duster, folded it into a

258 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

compact bundle, and, turning around handed it to a gentleman who sat on the rear of the stage and said: "Here Saul, hold my coat while I stone Stephen." The result was magical, the great auditorium again became a shouting, surging mass, and so great was the ovation that Lincoln was compelled to wait several minutes before he could be heard, but now he, too, had caught the ear of the multitude, and he bent the energies of his gigantic mind to the pleasing task of replying^ to his antagonist. It has been said that Lincoln never made a greater speech in all the campaign, and that from that very night dated his political ascendency over Mr. Douglas, yea, that he stoned him politically to death, for that night's debate seemed to settle the question of defeat for Stephen A. Douglas. The record of Joseph Smith is an inspiration, and shows to what sublime heights a man may attain, who, under the inspiration of the Lord Almighty, follows that inspiration, never swerving, never turning to the right nor to the left, but with the courage of his convictions pressing forward to his high destiny. I testify that

this exalted character Joseph the Prophet, maintained, and as he truly said when bidding his brethren good-by at the foundation of the Nauvoo House, and, indeed, prophetic were his utterances: *1 am going like a lamb to the slaughter, but I have a conscience void of offense toward all men." As a boy, he was studious and thoughtful beyond his years. As a youth, he received and accepted responsibilities that would have overawed baser minds. In the days of his youthful manhood, he became a leader of men. What gave him this influence, this prominence? It was due to the fact that God had chosen him;

also to the fact that he was uncompromising in his devotion to what he conceived to be right. With him, between right and wrong^ there was no middle ground. In him was found, coupled with the unselfish and unequalled zeal of a covenantor, all the chivalry of a knight of the olden time. He was of the material of which martyrs are made. If a sense of duty required, he would have suffered at the stake with John Rogers. Joseph Smith's highest ambition was to know the mind and' will of the Lord, and then to devote himself to complying with it It was never necessary to run the course or measure the distances