Joseph Smith, and the Great West

JOSEPH SMITH, AND THE GREAT WEST How President Buchanan Was Practically Driven From the Presidency Before His Term Expired By I. K. Russell, Author of "Hidden Heroes of the Rockies" XI "You are wasting your time in attempting to prove, in your Improvement Era series, that the 'Mormon' people were essentially loyal to America and did not go into rebellion against it. No leader can send soldiers out against the troops of the United States as Brigham Young did, and still claim not to be in rebellion. The 'Mormons' fled the United States and fought the coming of real American authority." — Statement of a nationally known anti-"Mormon" writer. When the statement quoted above was laid down before me, its author, who is a nationally known historian, thought he had scored a bullseye against a sophomoric intruder into the historical narrative of American growth. And so he was a little shocked when the answer was flung back. The answer was: "Your proposition is fair enough. But maybe there is one alternative, and I'll say there is. Yes, Brigham Young and the 'Mormon' people were disloyal and in rebellion, or else the President of the United States who sent troops against them was disloyal and guilty of treasonable conduct towards his own oath of office and his own America." And then we speedily counted the "Mormon" situation out of it, and went into the discussion of that great slave hierarchy which cen- tered in the office of John C. Calhoun in Richmond, Va., for forty years before the Civil War, and in those forty years made and unmade senators in almost every state of the Union; made and unmade justices of the Supreme Court, and made and unmade presidents at will. My critic charged also, reading from a standard history, that Brigham Young denounced certain presidents of the United States, and said of one that he probably was roasting in the hot place as his reward for a life misspent upon earth. "Very well," was my reply, "but that is part of our case. Show me a president that Brigham Young denounced who was not a mere puppet of Calhoun's Slave Oligarchy, and in the end wasn't chucked overboard by Calhoun as soon as his usefulness was ended. "Just so," I suggested, "Benton, the famous senator of Missouri, was thrown overboard when Calhoun turned against him, and just so Stephen A. Douglas, the brilliant opponent of Lincoln, was thrown overboard. "You mean 'The Little Giant of Illinois?' " said my critic. "Yes, was the reply, "and do you know who gave him that nationally famous name of 'Little Giant'?"

1012 IMPROVEMENT ERA My critic, one of the best-read men of our day, confessed he did not know the source of that nick-name for Douglas, although he de- clared it was universally known. "Well," was my reply, "and now we are getting into the real situation. The literature of the 'Mormon' people has been created by their enemies for the most part. One historian repeats what another wrote. The 'Mormons' struck west. That looked like marching away from America. You do not know your own American story and the zeal that the Illinois frontier, where the 'Mormons' lived, had for twenty years before the Era of Immigration to take the Great West for America. "And you don't know that the author of that phrase, 'The Little Giant' as a cognomen for Douglas was the same identical man who gave to the world the ^Mormon' 'Word of Wisdom' as a rule of life, and who declared as part of the 'Mormon' faith that the Constitution of the United States was written under divine guidance, and that the United States had a great and commanding role to play in the latter days. In other words, it was Joseph Smith who designated Stephen A. Douglas 'The Little Giant,' and who expressed some faith in Douglas when he turned from supporting the Slave Hierarchy in full, to opposing it in those movements which meant disunion and a Civil War." This statement being directly challenged as " 'Mormon' guff," our anti- "Mormon" friend showed thereby that he was one who died hard in his favorite pretenses. We outlined first the rising tide of the Slave Oligarchy's power until it had woven a net over practically all public men of the South and the Middle West, and over much of New York and Pennsylvania politics. We outlined how Joseph Smith came into Missouri with his people at a moment when the Slave Oligarchy was dedicating Missouri to a political and cultural development, which would make the Mason- and-Dixon line one to box "tight little old New England" up in her own little corner, and would not box the slave states up at all, as was the intention. We showed how Joseph Smith spoke out of the great political issues of his day, — and urged the taking of Oregon, and the use of his people for that purpose. And how, after his people were driven first to Illinois, and then out of Illinois, their persecutors, like the presidents Brigham Young spoke out against, were all servants of John C. Calhoun's undisputed seat of pro-slave power. We indicated that it promoted and inflamed the hatreds that brought on the martyrdom and then followed through to Utah with Johnston's army. "But prove to me that Joseph Smith is responsible for naming Douglas 'The Little Giant,' and then we can take up some of your other queer vagaries," was the challenge. "Would you," was suggested, "take the word of a book of source historical documents issued by the Historical Society of the State of

JOSEPH SMITH AND THE GREAT WEST 1013 Illinois, and grant that the 'Mormons' had nothing to do with its compilation?" Our critic agreed. Then we took down a Life of Stephen A. Douglas, and read from that his own claims that the way he handled Joseph Smith, when a prisoner before him with a mob outside the court room threatening to hang him, was one of his own chief claims to greatness. He urged that his saving the life of Joseph Smith by overawing the mob had proved his own fitness for White House consideration. "And now," we suggested, "if Douglas thought Joseph Smith important enough to be used as a presidential argument in his own behalf, would it be strange if he had impressed Joseph Smith enough to be designated 'The Little Giant,' by this 'Mormon' leader?" "But never mind deductions; bring us a documentary proof." Down came a volume entitled Source Documents of Illinois His- tory, published by the Illinois Historical Society. First we read of the break in Illinois against Douglas, when Douglas made a speech defend- ing President Buchanan, just when the Saints in Utah were being made the focusing point of Buchanan's pro-slave moves. Douglas flared back from his Senate seat in Washington at his Illinois hecklers: "They" he flared, "are a group of Danites, led by an ex- 'Mormon' with an unwholesome record." When Douglas thus named "Mormon" Danties as the cause of his troubles, over 15 years had elapsed since Joseph Smith had warned him that if he ever turned against the 'Mormon' people he would live to regret it. It was over 10 years since the 'Mormons' had followed out their long-matured wish to go to the Far West. Buchanan had followed them to Utah with Johnston's Army, and now Douglas was shouting at a rump Democratic convention meeting in Illinois, that they were only "ex- 'Mormons' led by a Danite of unwholesome record." You see, Douglas had a curious stand on the slavery question which made him both friend and enemy of the "Mormon" people. He was for slavery — but he was not for disunion. He wanted any com- munity to vote it out — slave or free, — as is now proposed in nullifi- cation proceedings against the prohibition amendment. But he saw in the 'Mormon' people a group certain, by their New England ancestry, to inflame men of Kentucky, Virginia and Carolina ancestry. So he wished they were off the horizon, and out of the picture. They con- fused his pet theory — that Nebraska and Kansas and Missouri could settle their own affairs as to slavery if left to the ballot and coloniza- tion from the South or North alone. When Douglas voted in accordance with his theory in Wash- ington, the first forerunners of the Abolitionist army, that finally made Lincoln president, met to protest in Chicago. They summoned him home to "defend his votes on the Kansas-Nebraska bill." He came shouting fire and wrath against "ex-'Mormon' Danites," and some

1014 IMPROVEMENT ERA pro-Douglas wag published this poem in the Illinois State Register of September 25, 1858: O won't it be such fun For then he will call To crush the "Little Giant," The masses up to back him. Who conscious of the right Is Saucy and Defiant. But at the midnight hour. In dark and gloomy weather, Why can't he do like us, In some old grave-yard foul, Stoop low for place and plunder? We'll congregate together. Such independence does Excite our wrath, and wonder. And lay a secret plan To stuff with spoils our leanness. Of course in open day, And hunting Douglas down. We never will attack him, Will gratify our meanness. Now, of course, it happens that the great Douglas called — and called — and could not call the people up to back him. The Lincoln- Douglas debates were the final lowing of this leader to his herd. In- stead of backing him up, they backed up Abraham Lincoln, just as the vast majority of the "Mormon" people did, and as Brigham Young did when he organized troops for the service most needed in the West — ■ the protection of the Overland Mail route, from which Lincoln had had to withdraw his regular forces. Now it so happens that when Douglas blamed his troubles on to ex- "Mormon" Danites, eleven years after the "Mormons" had left Illinois, some old-timer, entirely unconscious perhaps of the warning Joseph Smith had issued to Douglas, wrote to the Peoria Transcript this bit of Illinois history. It is picked up and printed by the Illinois Historical Society as an important source document. It was printed September 13, 1858: "It is not generally known how Stephen A. Douglas received the sobriquet of 'Little Giant.' He is indebted to Joe Smith, the 'Mormon' prophet, for the first application of it to him. He was elected (to the Illinois legislature) dur- ing an exciting discussion of the Illinois difficulties in which Douglas cut a conspicuous figure in defense of the Saints. Their great leader, in giving vent to his unbounded admiration for Douglas, called him The Little Giant.' Douglas went on with Joseph Smith's friendship a certain way in life. But he proved too pro-slave for the growing abolitionist movement and too abolitionist for John C. Calhoun, and so was driven down, and plowed under, and died, as did Benton, the Missouri senator of similar leanings, with a broken heart. Our critic subsided after these passages were read to him. He was gaining a new perspective on Utah affairs. Now it happens that all we have to do, to prove from documents with which the 'Mormon' people have nothing to do, that President Buchanan at last became a traitor to the United States in the opinion of so many leaders that he was forced out of the White House before his term expired, while many men with whom he was in close daily confidence were formally indicted for treason, is to carry on with the rise of the abolitionist

JOSEPH SMITH AND THE GREAT WEST 1015 movement until> after downing Douglas in Illinois, it downed Buchanan in Washington and launched its Northern armies at Jeff Davis, the successor to the John C. Calhoun boss-ship. "Mormons" not in Utah figured in these growing hatreds, for Parley P. Pratt quit New York in 1857, five months before his death in Arkansas at the hands of a murderer. He wrote his family of the prevailing dark mood: "The darkness which broods over this country can be felt — it is no place for me. * * * The whole country is being overwhelmed with the most abominable lying, mockery, and hatred of the Saints, and with all man- ner of corruption. The legions of spirits are let loose and are working for a universal overthrow of all human power in this land. I am almost an intruder wherever I go." In this mood he quit New York, sensing the mood in which Johnston's Army was soon to be dispatched. And in a prophetic hymn he penned this verse: How often at evening your halls have resounded With the pure testimony of Jesus so free, While the meek were rejoicing, the proud were confounded, The poor had the gospel; they'll think upon me. When the union is severed and liberty's blessings Withheld from the sons of Columbia, once free, When bloodshed and war and famine . distress them, Remember the warning and think upon me. When Parley P. Pratt thus left New York, President Buchanan was in his worst mood towards the "Mormons" in Utah. A little later Col. Thomas L. Kane was to break his wrath against the "Mormons" and to become the means of pulling Johnston's army out of Utah. This note is essential at this point, Brigham H. Roberts informs me, because one of Buchanan's most intimate personal friends was Col. Kane's father. Old Judge Kane was a notable man in Pennsylvania, and Buchanan rose on Pennsylvania Democratic votes. At the high tide of the pro-slavery aggressions we know our Buchanan. Now let us look at him in the lowering of that tide. It will leave no question as to who was disloyal — Brigham Young or Buchanan. There arose a mood when secession became a certainty to the South. All through the South were American arsenals, where arms were held in readiness for the National needs. But these guns were flint-locks mostly. How could these flint-locks be exchanged for modern rifles? It only took a little order from President Buchanan to bring it about. Buchanan had some men in his cabinet who wanted to wreck the Union. We have told in this series how four of them, including Floyd, secretary of war, who sent Johnston's army to Utah and made the report justifying that course, were afterwards rounded up by Generals Grant and Sherman in their civil war battles. If that was conspiracy to get northern arms into the Far West, to weaken the North in the event of an impending secession, then the

1016 IMPROVEMENT ERA same conspirators would go further. They would deal with Buchanan to trade Southern flint-locks to the North for Northern modern rifles. And behind all this would be the dark shadow of Jeff Davis and secession. Let us see how Buchanan in this hour behaved. It is Dr. Robert H. Browne speaking — Browne who grew up beside Lincoln, was an ardent abolitionist, and wrote a notable biography of Lincoln in two volumes. He thus notes the incoming of Buchanan to office: "On Buchanan's inauguration he formed a cabinet and instituted an administration as fully committed to the service of the slave-power, led and managed, as Pierce's outgoing one had been, by the daring cabal of Southern pro-slavery leaders. Buchanan and his chief man of affairs and reliance, Jere Black, were surely not as zealous pro-slavery men as Jefferson Davis and Alex. Stephens, if they had been untrammeled: but while in office, in every visible way they seemed, as far as their capabilities and willingness permitted, to be as docile and bidable servants of slavery as the latter. "When elected, Buchanan was a soured, disappointed old man who had been neglected and forgotten so long, and sent away so much that, when he gained his ambitious desire, the channels of his blood ran low. As a states- man, metaphorically, he was cold even in July. Black, on the other hand, could fire up to fever heat on an 'abolitionist' any time, even in January." There you have an appraisal of Buchanan — not by a "Mormon" at all. It is by a historian telling how the Civil War came about from the standpoint of a loyal-to-the-Union devotee. Is it any worse than Brigham Young set forth? And we of Utah know that in motive both spoke alike, and both sensed a common enemy, whom both were fighting in another four years, as Brigham Young was fighting even in the time of which Dr. Browne wrote. To let him speak further: "Thad Stephens made both Buchanan and Black his prey, under whose hands they were as green as cheese beneath the paring-knife of the German Burghers. * * * It is still a wonder in the Pennsylvania hills * * * that a state that should hold the treasured memory of William Penn and Benjamin Franklin must shiver and roast and argue over the descent of man from these to Buchanan and Jere Black. "The artful, scheming, life-time servitors and projectors of the slave system, in shrewdness, perseverence and cunning far beyond any political leaders of their time, had loosed the old party of human liberty and equality of all men from its moorings, from the teachings of Jefferson, Madison, Mon- roe, Jackson, Benton, and Douglas, to where Calhoun, Stephens, Benjamin, and Jefferson Davis were sailing the shoreless seas of tyranny, slavery, op- pression and death." Browne writes with deep feeling; he was near to his events, for his life during the Civil War was spent in the midst of the maimed and wounded. You will note that he does not even count Buchanan as one of the guiding spirits of his administration — he leaps right over Buchanan's head to land on that of Jeff Davis as the director. Browne further on speaks of the "treason-breeding administrations of Pierce and Buchanan." Brigham Young has been much denounced for speak- ing against both. Browne, on page 18 of volume II of his history, shows that Brigham Young did not question these men alone:

JOSEPH SMITH AND THE GREAT WEST 1017 "When the plans were made to extend slavery into the Western terri- tories, which were no doubt begun as early as 1820, the slave extenders had no intention of observing the limitations of the Missouri Compromise further than they were compelled to do as their interests changed. "The plans for slavery extention were always a generation 'ahead of the information given to the public." This statement of Brown's is very important to the "Mormon" people, for they have always been written about by historians utterly ignorant of the covert pro-slave strategies of the days in which sur- face persecution of the "Mormons" were alone apparent. This whole series was written to uncover two series of covered actions — the pro- slave strategy to capture Missouri and Utah equally, from 1820 on, and the British strategy to capture Oregon and California, — Oregon then including, in the British mind, all Utah to the South end of the Wasatch range. This covert purpose ran through identically the same years, and Joseph Smith and Brigham Young intruded into the plans, equally, of both, and received the flare-backs of both groups, as they fought for American destiny and their Church's destiny alike. To let Browne picture the situation: "From 1820 on the skilled engineers and pioneers of the army, and an intelligent well-trained body of men in and about the departments at Washing- don, knew very well that the plains, as they were called, west and southwest of the Missouri River, were fertile and productive far beyond any report ever made of them. They had an annual production of 'plants, roots, and grasses that supported buffalo, elk. deer, and numberless other animals, as well as birds by the millions. Also unnumbered thousands of Indians, as healthy and strongly developed as any of their race, lived and thrived over this almost boundless region. "It was in this way that the slave-leaders contrived, not for a system based on contingencies, unexpected happenings, or emergencies, but in a steady, determined progress, with plans that were all that the wits, knowledge and ingenuity of their best informed and most capable men could make them. "During this time Freedom and Free Institutions for the Great Expanse were quieted to sleep under the fascinating delusion that free labor would drive out slave labor in a competition for supremacy. "In the plans of making Missouri a slave state, it was as much a part of them to gain and keep control of the Missouri river, as it had been to acquire and maintain control of the lower Mississippi. Their plans were never small nor hedged in by any kind of avoidable obstacle." It would be interesting to follow Buchanan on through from the nominating convention which chose him as an unknown candidate because "the Northern Democrats were tired of Pierce who wanted renomination, but who had devoted his entire administration to the development of the slavery interests/' to the shabby retreat from the White House, but space forbids. We must skip the period of the rise of Horace Greeley, of John Brown, of Senator Lane, and of Lincoln, and move on to White House affairs at the time of the flint-lock-for- new-rifles conspiracy. Browne approaches this period with this appraisal of the veteran president, Buchanan:

1018 IMPROVEMENT ERA "In the four years under Buchanan disloyalty had grown and fattened until more than half the political, civil, and military offices were filled with men who were actively plotting, and accelerating1 the Nation's) ruin. In these high places thousands of public servants were aiding, to the full extent of their means, the establishment of a slave confederacy." In these words Browne covers the period when Brigham Young fought against Buchanan. Who, now, is to be judged as loyal? Browne goes on: "How could it be otherwise, when this projected slave nation was near its zenith in organization and the Union appeared to be dissolving? "That the great Republic was falling to pieces was suggested by all that the President and his cabinet, with other treason-spreading officials did. In Buchanan's cabinet 'three of the seven were active conspirators, while of assistants, subordinates, and other employees more than half, in every depart- ment, were known to be up to their eyes in hatching treason." But the story of treason is left to no such static condition. Sen- ator Clingman of North Carolina was summoned by Buchanan's Secre- tary of the Interior. This Secretary, Jacob Thompson, stated boldly to Senator Clingman that he, Secretary Thompson, had been appointed a commissioner by the State of Mississippi to get North Carolina to secede. Senator Clingman asked him if he had resigned before starting such an adventure. "No," he replied, "I have not resigned." Cling- man urged that he must surely intend to resign in the morning. "No," he answered, "I do not intend to resign, for President Buchanan wishes us all to hold on and go out with him on the fourth of March." Here is your open treason, as reported to the Senate by one of its members. Clingman went on further to state that he pressed Buchanan's secretary to know if Buchanan really understood on what mission "Mississippi was sending him to North Carolina." Buchanan's cabinet officer replied, "Certainly he knows my object." Being pressed further to return to Buchanan and call the obvious treason to his attention, Thompson replied, "Well I can do so, but I think he fully under- stands it." Later that evening, the Senator from North Carolina met Buchanan's Secretary of the Interior, and the latter came up with a triumphant grin: "I knew I could not be mistaken," he beamed, "I told Mr. Buchanan all you said and he replied that he wished me to go, and hoped I would succeed." "I could not help exclaiming," said Senator Clingman, "was there ever before any potentate who sent out his own Cabinet min- isters to excite insurrection against his Government?" Mr. Thompson did go on that mission, was given a public re- ception by the North Carolina legislature, and returned to the bosom of Buchanan's family, where he was well received. A little later Jefferson Davis was summoned before President Buchanan to read and approve, or amend, a forthcoming message to congress, a rough draft of which was handed to Jefferson Davis for his consideration. (Browne II, 480.) "The weak and trembling president was bowed down and cowed,"

JOSEPH SMITH AND THE GREAT WEST 1019 states Browne in the midst of a three-page denunciation of him as a faithless traitor to his oath. Secretary Cass did all he could to break Buchanan's slavery ties. Failing, he resigned. "Floyd remained after Howell Cobb of Georgia retired to help secession in his state. Floyd remained a few days longer to act as an eavesdropper and informer for the benefit of his fellow conspirators, until he was virtually driven out, leaving a malfeasance of one or more millions . . . which were never accounted for. "The effect of all this was piling up the ruins about President Buchanan. He was deep in consorting and parleying with these treason- bearing commissioners." And then the exit from Washington: "He was weak beyond description, without the spirit of a leader, the courage of a man, or the natural common sense for an occasion: he was in consternation. "In his shaking perplexity he received, on the 30th of December, from Jere Black, then Secretary of State, notice that he and Stanton, then Attorney General, would retire from the Cabinet, following the example of General Cass, if he parleyed with these commissioners. "This brought the President sufficiently to his senses to send for Secre- tary Black, to whom he at once surrendered all that was left of his power and authority. He virtually resigned the management of the Government to his Cabinet." And there you have the end of Buchanan, with a plain Illinois historian writing the facts — no "Mormon" at all. Can anyone, know- ing this situation, refer again to Brigham Young as "disloyal" in opposing Buchanan, any more than his father and grandfather were when they shouldered muskets for America, and helped to fight its major wars of their day? Chicago, lit. M Men Chorus Over hill, over vale, Proud array, day by day, Ever on the upward trail, Swell the ranks of M. I. A. Lo! the M Men are leading along! And the M Men are leading along. On and on, mighty throng, On they press, strain or stress, Zion's youth — ten thousand strong! Every step for mightiness — Lo! the M Men are leading along! Lo! the M Men are leading along! Refrain : Then it's M. I. A. In the vanguard of the fray; M Men of Zion, lift your song. The nations know, Wherever you go, That the M Men are leading along, (Keep them leading) That the M Men are leading along. Mesa. Arizona. BERTHA A. KLEINMAN