Gleanings by the Way Part 16

CHAPTER x.x.x.

MORMON EMIGRATION TO MISSOURI.

Mission to Missouri--Cause that led to emigration--Settlement at Independence--Change in operations--Gift of tongues--Rule for speaking and interpreting.

Cowdery and those connected with his mission, after having made the converts we have noticed at Kirtland in the autumn of 1830, proceeded on still farther to the west, in order to convert the Indians. They at length set down in the western part of Missouri.

The following extract from the volume already referred to, will explain the cause that led the Mormons to think of emigrating to Missouri.

"The Mormons soon began to a.s.semble in considerable numbers at and about Kirtland, the supposed 'eternal inheritance,' and those who were able, bought land; but the greater part of their dupes had thus far been the poor and needy, and came there with a view of enjoying all things 'in common,'

as such doctrine had gone forth. Many, however, found out their mistake after their arrival; and the revelation appeared to be only that the prophet and some of his relations should be supported by the church. In consequence of their inability to purchase lands adjoining head-quarters, they were scattered about in several towns.h.i.+ps, much exposed to 'wild beasts,' and subject to have their faith shaken by the influence of reason.

Several renounced it. They were daily running to the prophet with queries and doubts which were constantly arising upon their minds. He generally satisfied them by _explaining_; nevertheless, they annoyed him much and the necessity of withdrawing them from the influences which surrounded them became apparent; hence, their removal to Missouri, where they could, in time, purchase all the land which they should need at a low rate, and become a 'distinct people.'

"As before noticed, Cowdery and his companions, proceeded on to the west, with the avowed intention of converting the Indians, under a command of the Lord. On their way they tried their skill on several tribes, but made no proselytes, although their deluded brethren at home could daily see them, in visions, baptising whole tribes. They finally arrived at the western line of the State of Missouri, late in the fall of 1830, with the intention of proceeding into the Indian country, but were stopped by the agents of the general government, under an act of Congress, to prevent the white people from trading or settling among them. They then took up their winter quarters in the village of Independence, about twelve miles from the State line. Here they obtained employment during the winter. In the following spring, one of them returned to Kirtland, with a flattering account of the country about Independence. About the first of June, the prophet a.s.sembled all his followers, for the purpose of a great meeting, at which time it was given out that marvellous events were to take place. Here many new attempts were made by Smith to perform miracles and otherwise to deceive his followers. Previous to this time, it should be remarked, nearly all the Mormonites had arrived from the State of New York, under a revelation, of course, to take possession of the 'promised land.' There were in all about fifty families. At the above mentioned meeting a long revelation was manufactured, commanding all the leading men and Elders to depart forthwith for the western part of Missouri, naming each one separately, informing them that only two should go together, and that every two should take separate roads, preaching by the way. Only about two weeks were allowed them to make preparations for the journey, and most of them left what business they had to be closed by others. Some left large families, with their crops upon the ground, and embarked for a distant land, from which they have not yet returned.

"On arriving at the village of Independence, they proceeded to purchase a lot of land, upon which the prophet directed Rigdon and Cowdery to perform the mock ceremony of laying the corner stone of a city, which he called Zion. Of the future prosperity and magnificence of this city, many marvellous revelations were had by the prophet and many more marvellous conjectures formed by his disciples. Among others, it was said that it would in a few years exceed in splendor every thing known in ancient times.

Its streets were to be paved with gold; all that escaped the general destruction which was soon to take place, would there a.s.semble with all their wealth; the ten lost tribes of Israel had been discovered in their retreat, in the vicinity of the North Pole, where they had for ages been secluded by immense barriers of ice, and became vastly rich: the ice in a few years was to be melted away, when those tribes, with St. John and some of the Nephites, which the Book of Mormon had immortalized, would be seen making their appearance in the new city, loaded with immense quant.i.ties of gold and silver.

"The prophet and his _life-guard_ of Elders, stayed in their city about two weeks. Revelations were had for a part of them to return to Ohio, a part to stay and take charge of the city, and a part to commence preaching 'in the region round about.' Much dissatisfaction was manifested by some as to the selection of the site, and the general appearance of the country. Smith, Rigdon and Cowdery returned to the old head-quarters in Kirtland. Their followers immediately commenced selling their lands, mostly at a great sacrifice, and made preparations for emigrating up the Missouri. All were now anxious to sell, instead of buying more land in Ohio. A special command was given to seventeen families, who had settled in one towns.h.i.+p, some three months previous, to depart forthwith to the promised land, who obeyed orders, leaving their crop to those who owned the land. Besides a great variety of special revelations relating to individuals, and other matters, a general one was given to the proselytes to sell their lands and other property and repair to Missouri as fast as possible, but not in haste.

Accordingly, many went during the year, making sacrifices of property, (those few of them who had any,) in proportion to their faith and their anxiety to be upon their 'eternal inheritance.' In the mean time, thirty or forty 'Elders,' were sent off in various directions in pursuit of proselytes. This year pa.s.sed off with a gradual increase, and considerable wealth was drawn in, so that they began to boast of a capital stock of ten or fifteen thousand dollars.

"Their common stock principles appear to be somewhat similar to those of the Shakers. Each one, however is allowed to 'manage his own affairs in his own way,' until he arrives in Missouri. There the Bishop resides; he has supreme command in all pecuniary matters, according to the revelations given by the prophet.

"The next year commenced with something like a change of operations.

Instead of selling their possessions in Ohio, they again began to buy up improved land, mills and water privileges. It would seem that the Missouri country began to look rather dreary to the prophet and his head men, supposing that they could not enjoy their power there as well as in Ohio.

They could not think of undergoing the hards.h.i.+ps and privations incident to a new country. Besides, the people there were not much disposed to encourage the emigration of such an army of fanatics--and their "Lamanite"

brethren, under Gen. Black Hawk, were about that time commencing a war upon the whites.

"They therefore, continued to extend their impositions by sending abroad every thing that could walk, no matter how ignorant, if they had learnt the tales and vagaries of their leaders. All that were so sent, were dubbed _Elders_ or _High Priests_, and furnished with a commission, purporting to have been dictated by the Lord to the prophet. These requisites being added to their credulity, they were of course inspired with all necessary self-sufficiency, zeal and impudence. They were thus prepared to declare that every thing which they stated or imagined, was absolutely true--for the _Spirit_ had so informed them.

"During the year 1832, considerable progress was made in writing out, and revising the Old and New Testaments, which the prophet pretended to do by inspiration, or by the guidance of the Spirit. In this business, most of his leisure hours were occupied, Rigdon acting as scribe. They say that the Scriptures in their present form, retain but little of their original purity and beauty, having been so often copied and translated by unskilful hands. The whole of the old Bible is now said to be ready for the press, in its amended form, and will be forthcoming, as soon as the state of their finances will permit.

"On the opening of the year 1833, the 'gift of tongues' again made its appearance at head-quarters, and from thence extended to all their branches in different parts. Whether the language now introduced differed materially from those practised two or three years previous, (and p.r.o.nounced to be of the Devil,) we have not been informed. It appears that this last device, was all that was then lacking to make the system perfect. They had long before professed to be fully endowed with the power of healing all manner of diseases, discerning spirits, and casting out devils. But a succession of failures had rendered them rather stale, and given distrust to many of the faithful. A new expedient was therefore indispensably necessary, in order to revive the drooping spirits of the deluded, and at the same time, insure a new crop of converts. The scheme proved eminently successful.

Hundreds were soon convinced of the truth of the whole, by hearing of and seeing the manner in which the 'tongues' were performed, although the trick would seem more susceptible of discovery than any previous one. This gift was not confined to the elders and high priests, who, in other respects, were supposed to have a superabundant share of 'the spirit;' but nearly all the proselytes, both old and young, could show their faith by speaking with 'tongues.'"

One would think from the following account that the Mormons had been taking some hints from the school of Edward Irving.

Mr. Kilby, who was an elder among the Mormons, but afterwards came to his senses and renounced the delusion, relates some very curious facts in relation to their pretended gift of tongues. Two distinguished Mormon preachers, Mr. Cahoon and Patton, gave a rule for speaking in unknown tongues, and also for interpreting what was spoken by others.

"This rule, they said, was perfect--that as long as we followed it we could not err. And so I believe; it was a perfect rule to lead men astray. The rule, as given by Cahoon, is this: rise upon your feet and look and lean on Christ; speak or make some sound; continue to make sounds of some kind, and the Lord will make a correct tongue or language of it. The interpretation was to be given in the same way." Subsequent to this there was a still greater emigration to Missouri. Soon disturbances of various kinds arose.

We had prepared two chapters containing such facts as we were able to collect, to exhibit the history of the Mormons in their residence in Missouri, and the two wars in which they were engaged. But upon looking over the pages which we had prepared we cannot make up our mind to tax the reader with the details of these belligerent operations. The result of their last resort to arms was their expulsion or emigration from Missouri into Illinois, and the founding of their new city at Nauvoo where at present is the princ.i.p.al Mormon settlement. There are some few remaining facts to which we shall call the attention of the reader, in order to ill.u.s.trate still further the folly, and depraved character of some of the prominent actors in this grand imposture.

CHAPTER x.x.xI.

MORMON BANKING.

The prophet's attempt at financiering--Mr. Smalling's letter.

Allusion has been made to the attempts at financiering in which the Mormon prophet and his coadjutors embarked, before leaving Kirtland. The facts connected with this are presented in a clear light by Mr. Smalling, of Kirtland, in a letter addressed to Mr. Lee, of Frankford, Pa. An effort having been made at that village to establish a Mormon society, the Mormon preacher at the close of his lecture invited any one, who chose, to ask questions, or offer remarks. Mr. Lee being present arose, gave his views of the new sect, which were not very complimentary, and among other facts presented before the audience a ten dollar bank note issued by Smith and Rigdon, which he declared was a gross fraud, as they had never obtained a charter for a bank, and did not pretend to redeem their notes. Mr. Lee was quite brow-beaten by the Mormon preacher. To satisfy himself and the public, Mr. Lee wrote to Kirtland, and obtained a letter in reply from Mr.

Smalling, from which we make the following extracts:

_Kirtland, Ohio, March 10th, A. D. 1841._

DEAR SIR:

By request, and the duty I owe to my fellow-man, I consent to answer your letter, and your request as to Joseph Smith, Jr., and the Safety Society Bank of the Latter Day Saints, as they call themselves at the present, or Mormons. The followers of Smith believe him to be a prophet, and he had a revelation that the church must move to the Ohio, which they did, selling their possessions and helping each other as a band of brothers, and they settled in this place. The Smith family were then all poor and the most of the church. I visited them in 1833, they were then building a temple to the Most High G.o.d, who, Smith said, would appear and make his will known to his servants, and endow them with power in their last days that they might go and preach his gospel to all nations, kindred tongues, and people. For this purpose they wrought almost night and day, and scoured the branches in the east for money to enable them to build. The people consecrated freely, as they supposed for that purpose, for they supposed they were to be one in the church of Christ, for so Smith had told them by his revelations, and that they must consecrate all for the poor in Zion. Thus many did until they finished the temple, and in the meantime the building committee built each of them a house, Sidney Rigdon and Joseph Smith, Jr. By this time the leaders of the church, Smith, Rigdon, Carter and Cahoon, I may say, all the heads of the church, got lifted up in pride, and they imagined that G.o.d was about to make them rich, and that they were to suck the milk of the Gentiles, as they call those that do not belong to the church, or do not go hand in hand with them. From this you can see they have a great desire for riches, and to obtain them without earning them. About this time they said that G.o.d had told them, Sidney and Joseph, that they had suffered enough and that they should be rich; and they informed me, that G.o.d told them to buy goods and so they did, to some thirty thousand dollars, on a credit of six months, at Cleveland and Buffalo. In the spring of 1836 this firm was, I believe, Smith, Rigdon & Co. It included the heads of the church. In the fall, they formed other companies of their brethren, and sent to New York as agents for them, Hiram Smith and O.

Cowdery, and they purchased some sixty or seventy thousand dollars worth, all for the church, and the most of them not worth a penny, and no financiers. At this time the first debt became due and not any thing to pay it with, for they had sold to their poor brethren, who were strutting about the streets in the finest broadcloth, and imagining themselves rich, but could pay nothing: and poverty is the mother of invention. They then fixed upon a plan to pay the debt.

It was, to have a bank of their own, as none of the then existing banks would loan to them what they wanted and the most refused them entirely. They sent to Philadelphia and got the plates made for their Safety Society Bank, and got a large quant.i.ty of bills ready for filling and signing; and in the meantime, Smith and others, collected what specie they could, which amounted to some six thousand dollars. The paper came about the first of January, 1837, and they immediately began to issue their paper and to no small amount: but their creditors refused to take it. Then Smith invented another plan, that was to exchange their notes for other notes that would pay their debts, and for that purpose he sent the elders out with it to exchange, and not only the elders, but gave large quant.i.ties of it to others, giving them one half to exchange it, as I am informed by those that peddled for him. Thus Smith was instrumental in sending the worthless stuff abroad, and it soon came in again. There was nothing to redeem it with, as Smith had used the greater part of their precious metals. The inhabitants holding their bills came to inquire into the Safety Society precious metals: the way that Smith contrived to deceive them was this: he had some one or two hundred boxes made, and gathered all the lead and shot that the village had or that part of it that he controlled, and filled the boxes with lead, shot, &c., and marked them, one thousand dollars, each. Then, when they went to examine the vault, he had one box on a table partly filled for them to see, and when they proceeded to the vault, Smith told them that the church had two hundred thousand dollars in specie, and he opened one box and they saw that it was silver, and they hefted a number and Smith told them that they contained specie. They were seemingly satisfied and went away for a few days, until the elders were sent off in every direction to pa.s.s their paper off: among the elders were Brigam Young, that went last, with forty thousand dollars; John F. Boynton, with some twenty thousand dollars; Luke Johnson, south and east, with an unknown quant.i.ty.

I suppose if the money you have was taken of those, it was to Smith's and their profit; and thus they continued to pa.s.s and sell the worthless stuff until they sold it at twelve and a half cents on the dollar, and so eager to put it off at that, that they could not attend meeting on the Sabbath,--but they signed enough at that price to buy one section of land in the Illinois. There was some signed with S. Rigdon, cas.h.i.+er, and J. Smith, Jr. president, for the purpose, as it was then said, that if they should be called upon when they could not well redeem, that they would call them counterfeit, but they had no occasion to call any counterfeit, for they never redeemed but a very few thousand dollars, and there must be now a great many thousands of their bills out. There was some which others signed _pro. tem._ that were genuine too, the name of F. G. Williams, N. K. Whitney, and one Kingsbury, all those are genuine.

The church have not now nor never had any common stock,[6] all that has been consecrated, Smith and the heads of the church have got, and what they get now they keep, for to show this I send you a revelation which is as follows:--Revelation given July 9th, 1837, in far west, Caldwell county, Missouri,--O Lord, show unto us, thy servants, how much thou requirest of the properties of thy people for a tything? Answer: Verily, thus saith the Lord, I require all their surplus properties to be put into the hands of the bishop of my church of Zion, for the building of mine house, and for the laying the foundation of Zion, and for the priesthood, and for the debts of the presidency of my church, and this shall be the beginning of the tything of my people, and after that, those who have been tythed, shall pay one-tenth of all their interest annually, and this shall be a standing law unto them forever, for my holy priesthood saith the Lord: Verily, I say unto you, it shall come to pa.s.s, that all those who gather unto the land of Zion, shall be tythed of their surplus properties, and shall observe this law, or they shall not be found worthy to abide among you; and behold, I say unto you, if my people observe not this law to keep it holy, and by this law sanctify the land of Zion unto me that my statutes and my judgments may be kept thereon, that it may be most holy; behold: Verily I say unto you, it shall not be a land of Zion unto you, and this shall be one example unto all the states of Zion, even so. Amen. They left here in a great hurry, as there was many debts against them, for the princ.i.p.al part that Smith had was borrowed, as also the heads of the church in general, and they had to keep the poor brethren lugging their boxes of silks and fine clothes from place to place, so that they should not be taken to pay their just debts, and mostly borrowed money, until they succeeded in getting them off in the night. They were pursued, but to no effect, they had a train too numerous, so the people could not get their pay, and thus they have brought destruction and misery on a great many respectable families, that are reduced to distress, while they live in splendour and all kinds of extravagance. These statements are well known here, and I presume will not be contradicted there, unless by some fanatic that has no knowledge of things as they do exist, or those deeply interested in the frauds of the saints themselves.

I am yours, &c., CYRUS SMALLING, _of Kirtland, Ohio_.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] Instead of the stock being common, it appears the intention of the ringleaders is to monopolize it, and leave their poor dupes at last to s.h.i.+ft for themselves.

CHAPTER x.x.xII.

THE MORMON PROPHET AND HIS THREE WITNESSES.

An interesting public doc.u.ment--The Danite band--Testimony of Dr. Avard--Paper drafted by Rigdon.

We insert the following communications, published in a most highly respectable religious journal.

From the New York Baptist Advocate.

MORMONISM.

MR. EDITOR:

A rare public doc.u.ment of a most interesting character having fallen into my hands, I propose to furnish you several communications in reference to it, and likewise in relation to the people to whom it relates.

The Mormons have been generally regarded as a harmless sect of deluded fanatics, unworthy of any particular notice; and the common impression seems to be, that they have been wronged and persecuted by the state of Missouri. For my own part, having had occasion to become better acquainted with their principles and history than many others, I have for a long time been endeavouring, as opportunity offered, to open the eyes of the community to their character, and to show that mischief lurks beneath this cover of apparent insignificance, and that there are two sides to the story of the Mormon war in Missouri.