Lincoln and the Latter-day Saints

LINCOLN AND THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS. BY PRESTON NIBLEY. There are few people in the United States who did not, sometime during the past month, pronounce the name of Abraham Lincoln. February 12 was the great war President's centenary. A hundred years had passed since the wife of Thomas Lincoln, in a crude backwoods cabin in Kentucky, gave birth to a son whom she named Abraham. It is not my purpose here to trace the life of that son, from his lowly backwoods home to the White House at Washington . That has been ably done by thousands of writers and speakers during the past month, and I presume the main facts of the same are fresh in the minds of every reader of the Era. I wish merely to call attention to a few specific incidents wherein Lincoln directly concerned himself with, or was the concern of, the Latter-day Saints. For it several times happened, in the course of his great and varied career, that occasion to do us a friendly turn was afforded him; and that, after the manner of his kindly heart, he did not disappoint us, history well evidences. The first event of which I have record, dates back to the year 1840, and has its setting in the state of Illinois. Let us glance at the situation. On a pretty bend of the Mississippi, where it winds past Hancock county, is a young and growing city called by the Prophet Joseph Smith and his followers who had settled there, Nauvoo, "The Beautiful." Immigrants are pouring in from every side. It is the Prophet's desire that the machinery of government shall soon be set in order and that the city shall be properly incorporated as ordained by law. Accordingly, when Mr.

884 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Sidney S, Little, senator from Hancock county, sets out for Springfield, in L840, to attend the Pall session of the State Legislature, he carries in his pocket a bill entitled, ' 'An act to incorporate the city of Nauvoo." The third day of the session Mr. Little asks leave to introduce his bill. "Referred to the committee on Judiciary," the old Senate Journal tells us. Then again, that it was returned with an amendment, Decembers; that it was read for third time December '.», "and passed." On the same day, in the afternoon, the "Act to incorporate the city of Nauvoo" was carried to the members of the House. Among the various representatives present, who heard it introduced and read, was a certain lean, long, kindly individual, "Abe" Lincoln, sent up from Sangamon county. Lincoln was at that time in his thirty-first year, "stood six feet four in his stocking feet," was unmarried and very poor, but in politics acknowledged everywhere as the leader of his party in the State. We would give much now to know what he whispered to his friends about the new "Mormon" community; what his opinions were of the young Prophet who had come to settle in the neighboring county. Very fortunately we are not entirely without information on the subject. On page 267 of Vol. II of the Times and Seasons is found a letter written at this time from Springfield, and signed by one "Joab, a General in Israel," stating that the "Act" had passed the legislature. I think I am right in stating that this Joab was that pompous individual, John C. Bennett, whose career is so well known. Undoubtedly he had gone to Springfield to use his influence in favor of the Saints, with whom he was then allied. He writes, "Many members in the House likewise were warmly in our favor, and with only one or two dissenting voices, every representative appeared inclined to extend to us all such powers as they considered us justly entitled to, and voted for the law: and here I should not forget to mention that Lincoln, whose name we erased from the electoral ticket in November (not, however, on account of any dislike to him as a man, but simply because his was the last name on the ticket and we desired to show our friendship to the Democratic party by substituting the name of Ralston for some one of the Whigs) had the magnanimity to vote for our act, and came forward after the final vote to the bar of the House and con-

LINCOLN AND THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS. 335 gratulated me on its passage." In view of what we now know of Lincoln this act of " magnanimity" is very characteristic of him. Does not it express that kindly nature of his: "With malice toward none, with charity for all; with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right." Come now to the year 1856, which saw the birth of the Republican party. The scene of "Mormondom" has changed. Brigham Young and his followers are snugly situated in the valleys of the Rocky mountains, and are free and alone to worship God as they know he requires. But to the East the powers of evil are still active against them. Belated, broken-down politicians, who have been sent out to govern the "Mormons" return with stories of horrible crimes, polygamy, etc. Members of the young Republican party listen. With slavery, against which they are so bitter, they catch up another issue and embody it in their platform, They will abolish from the country ' 'chose twin relics of barbarism, slavery and polygamy." Abraham Lincoln was a member of the Republican party in 1856. His hatred of slavery made him early take the "stump," and he traveled up and down his State dealing it many a crushing blow. But how about polygamy the other "relic" and issue of his party? In all his recorded speeches during this campaign, there is not a word to show that he raised his voice against it. Undoubtedly he accepted that article of our faith which claims the privilege of worshiping God according to the dictates of one's conscience, and allowing the same right to all men. When, in 1860, Lincoln was elected President, someone asked him what he was going to do about the "Mormons." He may have astonished his hearers with his reply: "Let them alone," said he , Then he launched into one of his characteristic stories, which I copy from Whitney's History of Utah. He compared the so-called "Mormon" question "to a knotty green hemlock log on a newly cleared frontier farm. The log, being too heavy to remove, too knotty to split, and too wet to burn, he proposed like a wise farmer to plow around it." Here again he showed the "magnanimity" that had characterized him twenty years before. He intended to let the "Mormons" alone. The event reminds one of another recorded occasion in the history of the world. "Then stood there up one

3.% IMPROVEMENT ERA in the council,: B Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space; and said unto them . . . Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this council or this work be of men, it will come to nought. But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found to even fight against God." Well, the great Civil War broke out in 1861, and from then on until the end of his first term, Lincoln's attention was absorbed in dealing with it. Rut not so with talking Congress. In July, 1862, both houses, having perhaps nothing else to do, passed a law prohibiting polygamy in the territories. President Lincoln signed the law; but that he did anything to vigorously enforce it, evidence is wanting. At any rate, the Saints seem to have considered him a friend, as they supported him at his second election. Bancroft, speaking of March 4th, 1865, as celebrated in Utah, records the following: "All joined in celebrating the second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, and the success of the Union arms. Though his party was strongly opposed to 'Mormonism,' Lincoln had little to say on the so-called 'Mormon' question, and that little was expressed in three words: Let them alone. To be left alone was all the people asked and all that they had struggled for since Utah was first admitted as a territory. The occasion was therefore one of rejoicing, honest and heartfelt, and the pageant more imposing than anything that had yet been witnessed in the city of the Saints. In the center of Main Street a platform was erected, and here, on the morning of the 4th of March, the Federal officers, civil and military, exchanged greetings with the Church dignitaries. Past them filed a precession of tradesmen and workingmen, a mile in length, the sidewalks, the windows and housetops being crowded with an eager and boisterous throng. The buildings were draped with flags, the carriages and sleighs decorated with streamers, the men and women with rosettes, while the bands of the 3rd Infantry and the Nauvoo Legion furnished music, and 'Mormon' banners with their manifold devices appeared side by side with the Stars and Stripes." Following on the heels of this happy celebration came news that President Lincoln had been murdered. All the world was depressed and filled with grief. Humanity knew it had lost a friend.