--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Preston Nibley collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 19 number: 8 published: 1916-06 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Preston Nibley, "The Character of Brigham Young," *Improvement Era* 19, no. 8 (June 1916): 673–681.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1908unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1908unse start_page: 673 end_page: 681 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1916-06) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1908unse publication_year: 1916 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1916, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Character of Brigham Young The Character of Brigham Young BY PRESTON NIBLEY The recurrence of President Brigham "Young's birthday on the first day of June, naturally leads our thoughts to the great man whose character is so indelibly stamped upon the history of the people he loved and for whom he labored. It might not be amiss to pause in our tasks and contemplate, for a short time, the value of his life and work. He was a shining example of what one man can do who unstintingly gives his talents and his time to the fur- therance of the general good to the establishment of truth and ; righteousness among men. The high estimate in which he is held, and the devotion accorded him, are well deserved rewards for his years of loyal and willing service to the people. President Young was asked, at one time, why he did not write something of his life's history. His answer was that he was too busy making history to bother with writing it. His grand maxim was that of the philosopher, "Activity is the soul of life." Throughout the long course of his years, he waged a constant battle with facts and things, fighting his way through with valor and courage an up-hill fight, too, from the beginning, but which ; led finally to a great and splendid achievement. He who would write of President Young must, therefore, look principally to his deeds. In searching the libraries for books which deal with the life and times of President Young, one finds much written and said both for and against him. His enemies were profuse in their abuse of him. By book and magazine writers who passed through Salt Lake City, he was generally worse than misunder- stood ; or else they deliberately misrepresented him. On the other hand, by those who knew him best, and were, therefore, his friends, he was idolized. Homage and devotion were paid to him such as have seldom been accorded to any other man. His word was law, but it was just law. As law-giver he held his position by the supreme confidence of the people. It was only among his — enemies that he was held in fear and suspicion, those who sought to destroy what he sought to establish. Yet, as the years go by, behold how the tide of abuse is turned to praise, even among his enemies. The mist and the fog of misunderstanding that hid him from the outside world are generally lifting. More and more, he is coming to be regarded by all as the exceptional and remarkable man that he was. College professors of history, ; 674 IMPROVEMENT ERA not inclined to believe anything without abundant proof, will now tell you that his name stands pre-eminent in the history of the de- velopment of the Western states. As time goes on, and as men and events adjust themselves, in the true and proper light of history, Brigham Young will yet be recognized as one of the fore- most characters America has produced. But, to analyze some of those admirable qualities which made President Young stand out as a man among men, made of the rough laboring boy of Port Byron a master statesman, a Prophet of God. It has been said that "Mormonism" made Brigham Young. I think he himself would have been one of the last to deny that in fact he often affirmed it. It found him in Western New York, an unlearned boy, with only "eleven days' schooling," painting wooden buckets, repairing canal boats, and turning his hand to whatever work he could do for a livelihood. Through years of bitter toil, yet most loyal and faithful service on his part, by de- grees, it elevated him to the very pinnacle of honor and fame. One can well conclude that "Mormonism" made Brigham Young; but it must also be borne in mind that he permitted it to make him, and was ever willing and anxious it should do so. "Mormon- ism" made Brigham Young largely through Brigham's own ef- forts. From the very first he labored with his whole heart and soul for it and in it. Of the original twelve apostles, co-workers of the Prophet Joseph, how many of them did "Mormonism" make? Your Church history will tell you that in the midst of trial and heavy opposition some fell away like Autumn leaves. At least half of them were not willing to be "made" at all constantly setting ; up their own judgments against a higher judgment; rendering themselves useless blocking their own way. But there was Brig- ; ham, "being made" by being true, by being willing, faithful, and by rendering devout obedience to the will of God, and loyal ser- vice to his Prophet leader No system can elevate a man to ! greatness, without his being willing and anxious for such eleva- tion. Brigham's missionary service illustrates the kind of a man he was. It may be a rather startling revelation to the young mis- sionary of today to read what follows. It shows the self-sacri- ficing determination of the man. I quote his own words, from a sermon delivered in Salt Lake City, August, 1856: "When the brethren were talking about starting a press in New York, and how it has been upheld, I did wish to relate an incident in my own experience. In company with several of the Twelve, I was sent to England, in 1839. We started from home without purse or scrip, and most of the Twelve were sick; and those who were not sick when they started were sick on the way to Ohio; Brother Taylor PRESIDENT BRIGHAM YOUNG GOVERNOR OF UTAH 1850-1858 Copy of the first daguerrotype taken in Utah, Dec. 12, 1850, by C. W. Carter. 676 IMPROVEMENT ERA was left to die by the road-side by old Father Coltrin, though he did not die. I was not able to walk to the river, not so far as across this block, no, not more than half as far; I had to be helped to the river, in order to get into a boat to cross it. This was about our situation. "I had not even an overcoat. I took a small quilt from the trundle bed, and that served for my overcoat, while I was traveling through the State of New York, when I had a coarse satinet overcoat given to me. Thus we went to England to a strange land to sojourn among strangers. "When we reached England, we designed to start a paper, but we had not the first penny to do it with. I had enough to buy a hat and pay my passage to Preston, for from the time I left home, I had worn an old cap which my wife made out of a pair of old pantaloons; but the most of us were entirely destitute of means to buy even any necessary article." That is the kind of service Brigham Young gave to the Church. That is how "Mormonism" made him. He gave it all he had, and received back his greatness in return. It is highly significant to me, this trip from Nauvoo to England, "entirely destitute of means," wearing "a cap made out of a pair of old pantaloons," that the people of those islands should hear the gos- pel. Another paragraph from the same speech : "I came into this Church in the spring of 1832.Previous to my being baptized, I took a mission to Canada at my own expense; and from the time that I was baptized, until the day of our sorrow and affliction, at the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum, no summer passed over my head but what I was traveling and preaching, and the only thing I ever received from the Church, during over twelve years, and the only means that were ever given me by the Prophet, that I now recollect, was in 1842, when Brother Joseph sent me the half of a small pig that the brethren had brought to him." Twelve years, probably the best years, too, out of the life of a man like Brigham Young! Really it is enough to make some of us of today who talk of our allegiance to the Church humble ourselves to the very dust But he was preparing, and ! the Lord remembered him in after years, both spiritually and with the things of a temporal nature. That Brigham Young was destined to become a great leader is brought out by the fact that he was a great servant, great in what he was able to give! With the possible exception of the Prophet's brother, Hyrum, no one served the cause more loyally, faithfully, intelligently than he. For twelve years, he put his magnificent energy to the wheel, working like a faithful trojan. I fancy Joseph often thanked his Heavenly Father for this loyal, true and willing servant at his side, who was as a strong right arm, with a love between man and man, such as seldom exists. Brigham was the great, true brother friend, warding off enemies, ready to give his life, if need arise; loving his leader more than he loved himself. For example, recall that fateful council held "in the upper : THE CHARACTER OF BRIGHAM YOUNG 677 room" of the Kirtlancl temple, in 1837, at which several of the apostles, the witnesses of the Book of Mormon, and leading elders, were present to depose Joseph. The very heart of the Church, arrayed in foul desertion, bent to destroy the boy Prophet and his work They on the one side Brigham Young on the ! ; other. We are fortunate in having his own words pertaining to his part in the matter: "I rose up and told them, in a plain and forcible manner, that Joseph was a prophet, and I knew it, and that they might rail at and slander him as much as they pleased, they could not destroy the appointment of the Prophet of God, they could only destroy their own authority, cut the thread which bound them to the prophet of God and sink themselves to hell." Those were strong words, but not too strong. As a matter of fact, the "reformers" ran into a stone wall when they tried to divert Brigham Young from his path; a stone wall which almost diverted them in the direction he had foretold they would go. Whither the confusion might spread, and what damage it might have done, had this great friend not thrown his great influence to stem it, cannot be determined. To this principle of intelligent loyalty, more than to any other, I believe can be attributed President Young's rise in the Church. He had the admirable characteristic of persistently standing by what he believed. Naturally, it did not take Joseph long to recognize the value of such a man. The Prophet was harassed, slandered and persecuted by false friends and brethren, as well as by open and avowed enemies. Consider, then, the worth of a friend who was always and forever a friend, who stood as firmly loyal to him in trial and trouble, as in peace and prosperity. At the death of Joseph came the supreme crisis. The founder, the leader, the Prophet, seemingly the very life of the organization, was gone. Dismay was on the faces of the people. The dire news came as a stunning blow. What to do now ? Many asked, and there was no answer! Trembling lips and stunned senses could not speak. But away back in New Hampshire, there was the man who knew what to do. He would speak soon,._and with his God-given wisdom and force would save the day. By clear insight, by untiring labor, and by devout humility and divine guid- ance, he would gather up the scattered forces and build mightily upon a rock, such an edifice as the world before had never seen "The first thing I thought of was whether Joseph had taken the keys of the kingdom with him from the earth. Brother Orson Pratt sat on my right; we were both leaning back in our chairs. Bring- ing my hand down on my knee, " I said, 'The keys of the kingdom are right here with the Church.' And it was so. Brigham was one of the first, if not the first, to comprehend it. 678 IMPROVEMENT ERA Then that eventful day at Nauvoo, when a decision must be reached by all the people.There they were assembled, praying in their heart of hearts that theGod of Joseph would not forsake them. So much they had suffered for this which they had laid to their souls. Was it all to vanish now, and leave them broken- hearted, deceived, facing, as it were, the black night? But, listen! "Brother Brigham" speaks. What is he saying? have spared no pains to learn my lessons of the kingdom, in "I this world and in the eternal worlds; and if it were not so, I could go and live in peace; but for the gospel and for your sakes, I shall stand in my place. Does this Church want it as God organized it? or do you want to clip the power of the Priesthood and let those who have the keys of the Priesthood go and build up the kingdom in all the world, wherever the people will hear them? If there is a spokesman, if he is a king and priest, let him go and build up a kingdom to himself; that is his right, and it is the right of many here, but the Twelve are at the head of it. If ten thousand men rise up and say they have the Prophet Joseph Smith's shoes, I know they are imposters. I tell you, in the name of the Lord, that no man can put another between the Twelve and the Prophet Joseph! Why? Because Joseph was their file leader, and he has committed into their hands the keys of the kingdom in this last dispensation, for all the world; do not put a thread between the Priesthood and God. We have a head, and that head is the Apostleship, .the spirit and power of Joseph, and we can now begin to see the necessity of that Apostleship. The Twelve can manage the affairs of the Church and direct all things aright. Brother Joseph, the Prophet, has laid the foundation for a great work, and we will build upon it; you have never seen the quorums built one upon another. There is an almighty foundation laid, and we can build a kingdom such as there never was in the world." Well, I would put the hour of that speech as the supreme one in the life of Brigham Young. The hour in which he brought order out of confusion giving joy, light and hope to grieved and ; weary souls, shedding a ray of calm sunshine over the whole scene where the storm had raged and wrecked. The hour in which he drew nearest to God, and in which God drew near to him. What he said and did there meant life to those about him, meant joy and peace to you and me, and to countless thousands yet unborn. One can get an idea, too, of his marvelous, prophetic powers from the last sentence quoted in that great speech. "There is an almighty foundation laid, and we can build a kingdom such as there never was in the world." I call upon the reader to witness whether that statement, made nearly seventy-two years ago, is true. It is most remarkable, that in those early, struggling days, there was a man who beheld the purposes and will of God relating to us, even better than many of us know it now. Of the treck across the wilderness, and Brigham's selection of these valleys as a permanent home for the Saints, the princi- pal facts are well known. It is sufficient for our purposes to note THE CHARACTER OF BRIGHAM YOUNG 679 the part he played and the judgment he rendered. In the first place, there is all the daring that was manifested in the move West. But Joseph had foretold that the Saints would go, and so — they went that was all there was to it, as far as Brigham was concerned. What Joseph prophesied that would be fulfilled. To that thought Brigham had long since dedicated his life. When questioned, on the way West, where the caravan would stop, President Young replied that he would know the place when he saw it. Beholding Salt Lake Valley, he readily declared, "This is the place !" Afew weeks previous Samuel Brannan had traveled overland from California to meet the pio- neers, and induce them to settle in Sacramento Valley. Sacre- mento Valley then the very cream of all the agricultural land in ! the West. But President Young stoutly refused to hear of Bran- nan's prposition. Brannan, discouraged and disappointed, could not understand why the barren desert of Salt Lake Valley, should be chosen in preference to the perfumed, fertile plain, and the perpetual sunshine of the Sacramento. There might have been many who could not understand, but Brigham did. To quote from a sermon of his delivered June 7, 1857, "As I have often said, I am thankful to a fulness that the Lord has brought us to these barren valleys, to these sterile mountains, to this desolate waste, where only Saints can or would live, to a region that is not desired by anyone else on the earth." And again he ve- hemently declares, "We have come to this place to rear Saints." I will leave it to another than myself to delineate what would have happened had President Young followed Brannan's advice and led the "Mormon" caravans into Sacramento Valley where, within two years' time, there was witnessed the greatest gold rush ever known, and where, within ten years, 456 million dollars' worth of the shining metal was dug from the sands. Of President Young's long period as guide and leader of the Church in these valleys, covering more than thirty years, much might be said. It was a time of continued anxiety, trouble and difficulty. The powers of the great man were often taxed to the limit, yet he stood steadily by his task, without faltering. There was the safe conducting of emigrants across the plains, the founding of new settlements, the Indian wars, the dealings with bitter-minded, prejudiced men sent here to govern, the building of railroads, the erection of great buildings, the combating of enemies, at home, who were bent to destroy, and the preaching of the gospel abroad. In all his varied career, with its many dif- ficult situations, few are the things in which he was not victo- rious. And throughout, how zealously he labored, the one grand hope of his life being to "do his bit" for the furtherance of the 680 IMPROVEMENT ERA kingdom. It was his all-absorbing ambition. As other men, he had his faults, failings and weaknesses, but how they simmer away when measured up to the mighty efforts he put forth for righteousness ! For thirty years, here in these valleys, he dedi- cated his life "To build up the Church and Kingdom of God." All around and about us are the evidences of his effort. His calling people to form little settlements in near and re- mote parts of the Great Basin, and to establish themselves tempor- ally, reflect greatly to the credit of his judgment and wisdom. By encouraging agriculture, and by discouraging vain and silly pur- suits after wealth, he saw the whole people gradually root them- selves permanently to mother earth where they had chosen to make their home. May he not often have reflected upon that prophecy of his? "There is an almighty foundation laid, and we can build a kingdom such as there never was in the world." Of his preaching, a word might be said. Up to the time President Young joined the Church, the last thing on earth he ever thought himself to become was a preacher. In fact, he once stated publicly, "had it not been that I clearly saw and un- derstood that the Lord Almighty would take the meek things of this earth to confound the mighty, the wise and the talented, there was nothing that could have induced me or persuaded me to have become a public speaker." He was not naturally an orator, but I do claim that he was a great preacher ; one of the greatest, if not greatest, among the Latter-day Saints, during the time he pre- sided over them. One may go through volume after volume of the Journal of Discourses without finding sermons equal to his. There are interesting, instructive and learned discourses in those volumes, but I would say that Brigham's sermons stand out pre- eminently as faith-promoting. The kind of sermon which, when a man comes out of a church where he has heard it, he sets his teeth, clenches his fists, and says to himself, "I must, I will be a better man." Brigham Young could preach that kind of a sermon, though he was not skilled in book-learning nor did he strain after ora- torical effect at all. Faith-inspiring! Out of the great, genuine personality of the man, who had convinced himself to his heart's core, went the convincing influence into the hearts of his listeners. The Germans have a saying which reads, 'Was aus dem Herze kommt, geht zu Herzen" (What comes from the heart, goes to other hearts.) This is what, to my mind, distinguished Brigham as a preacher, and is, after all, really the kind of preaching worth hearing. Another thing that forces itself to one's attention in reading the sermons of President Young is the clear and distinct knowl- edge he had of the doctrines, the objects and purposes, of his religion. His purely doctrinal sermons are models of clearness : ; THE CHARACTER OF BRIGHAM YOUNG 681 and lucidity. He avoided the speculative and the hazy for the clear. "When I first commenced preaching," he once said, "I made up my mind to declare the things that I understood. The kingdom of our God," he said again, "that is set up on the earth, does not require men of many words and flaming orator- ical talents to establish truth and righteousness." (/. D., Vol. 4, page 20). He spoke simply, and of the things he knew : "That the Lord lives, that he has revealed himself in this our day, that he has given us a prophet, and brought forth a new and ever- lasting covenant for the restoration of Israel." To young Latter- day Saints, fruitful and faith-inspiring hours may be enjoyed by reading with studious care the sermons of President Young. How he dealt with material things, and how he regarded them, throws interesting light upon his character. It is well- known that during his youth and early years, he had known and felt the bitter pinch of poverty; and then, in later life, he acquired wealth, and could command almost all that money could buy. But I want to claim for him that the accumulation of great wealth did not make him a happier nor more blessed man, and did not detract from the humility he manifested in the days of his penury. He knew the uses of wealth, and also its uselessness. He did not need it to be a true Latter-day Saint and if God should choose ; to take it away from him, there would be no drooping of counte- nance on his part. I find him publicly declaring in the tabernacle, "Brother Brigham can get along with as little as any man in Israel." In a sermon on April 8, 1862, he said "Riches do not consist, of gold and silver. It may be said that with them we can buy all the comforts we need for the body. That may be so, under certain circumstances; still, gold and silver are merely a convenient means of exchange. The possession of all the gold and silver in the world would not satisfy the cravings of the im- mortal soul of man. The gift of the Holy Spirit of the Lord, alone can produce a good, wholesome, contented mind." There is a glance into the depths of philosophy ! That Brig- ham Young, the shrewd business man, should make such a state- ment, reveals the powers and scope of his mind. Finally, let me say of him, that I regard him in the highest measure, as a great, true Latter-day Saint, and servant of God a chosen man, sent to play his part in the building of a king- dom, "such as there never was in the world." Less than two months after his death, President John Taylor said of him: "Brigham Young needs no fictitious aid to perpetuate his memory; his labors have been exhibited during the last forty-five years. In his preaching, in his writing, in his counsels, in the wisdom and intel- ligence he displayed in our exodus from Nauvoo, in the building of cities throughout the length and breadth of this territory, in his op- position to vice, and his protection to virtue, purity and right."